This photo was taken in November 2009 in the village of Semaga, Burkina Faso. 2009 was a year of major floods in Burkina Faso and the photo shows a Burkinabe woman, Kiyambwe, tending to the millet beer amongst a dilapidated and flood-wrecked house.
In Senegal, men dress up as lions and parade around neighborhoods roaring and baring their teeth as children shriek with both joy and fear. Community associations rent out these lions for the weekend to raise money for community projects. When the...
While in Djenne, Mali, I came across this bracelet vendor during the town’s market day. She was more than happy to have her photograph taken! Taken August 1, 2011.
As a small business development Volunteer in a rural village in Morocco, I helped develop the local weaving association. One of my projects was re-introducing high quality traditional materials through skill building workshops for the artisans. My...
I was visiting Mongolian friends at Tsgaan Sar, the celebration of the lunar new year. Everyone gets dressed up in their best--and these two boys were no exception. The expressions on their faces are so clear--confidence on the face of the boy on...
This couple in traditional Mongolian garb are relatives of my host family and we have just been visiting them during Tsgaan Sar in February 2009. Tsgaan Sar means white month celebrating Buddhist lunar new year.
On June 29, 2011, the US Embassy of Cameroon celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps with a gathering of over 1,000 Cameroonians and Americans. Here, current PCVs wear their American-styled traditional clothing (“pagne”) in front of...
This picture was taken by my host sister in my village of Dinguiraye, Haute Guinea on the last day of Ramadan in 2008. It shows my host mom, "Mama Kadi" in her finest celebration clothes, and myself wearing a "bazin complet" dress and a veil that...
This picture was taken at Toufestelt village near Ain Leuh in the middle Atlas mountain of Morocco. I was working with a group of 12 Lakeside high school students from Seatle, Washington who were there on service training in July, 2011. The...
A Nyau dancer of the Chewa tribe looks through the mouth of a mask as he performs at a local cultural ceremony.
This photo was taken August 8, 2011 in Zambia. I booked the local village dancers to come for the first site visit I was hosting.
As a small business development Volunteer, I worked with carpet weavers in developing their organization. I also worked with cave dwelling nomads that lived in the hills surrounding the village. This is Zahra, one of the nomads who is a weaver,...
I took this picture during a wedding in Moldova on 7/22/2010. In the picture is a young man and two ladies dressed in Moldovan traditional dresses. Most weddings in Moldova will have professional traditional dancers dressed in traditional dresses...
I took this photo in Toufestelt village near my site in Ain Leuh, Ifrane Province, Morocco during the July 4, 2011 celebration that I shared with them. I was working with a group of 12 lakeside high school students from Seatle, Wa. who were there...
In Herero tradition, weddings are week-long (or longer) events. Throughout the duration of the festivities, the bride is kept hidden inside a house on the homestead, her face hidden beneath a veil. On the last day of the celebration, the female...
In April 2007 I traveled to Poltava Oblast in the center of Ukraine to visit a fellow Volunteer. I took this picture in Reshetylivka, her town, on the anniversary of the town's founding. These women are babusiyas (grandmothers) and they're...
At a funeral in a rural village in Namibia, four women from the Herero tribe show their sympathy by gathering outside the home of the person who has passed away. The women are wearing traditional Herero dress (derived from the Victorian dresses of...
The traditional rulers from Tatum/Nkum area appreciated greatly my efforts during my Peace Corps service and in 1999 gave a traditional title Ngwang with a beautiful dress, a cap, a handmade necklace and a country bag. To them I was a peacemaker...