I arrived in Kenya last night after a two hour flight delay to the sun setting over the nature reserve that surrounds the airport. I gazed down over the beautiful terrain with so much excitement and anticipation, and entered the airport without any feelings of hesitation. It wasn’t until after leaving the airport and hopping … More Reality Check: Beginning Kenya
Well, my last full day in Addis has come to an end and the feelings are bittersweet. I wished off a big group of country directors and coworkers this evening, and genuinely was sad to see them go. I’ve officially been invited to visit Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Congo with the promise of … More A Sweet, Caffeinated End to Ethiopia
Overwhelmingly good. That’s the short version of what I’ve been telling people when they ask how my day was. The truth is, the short version is bland and shares nothing. We got an early start this morning, meeting to leave at 8am, and made the 2 hour trek to Adama (also known as Nazaret) where … More Short Stories Are for the Unmoved
As the day comes to a end, I sit on the edge of my bed writing this and counting my blessings. In the short time that I’ve been here, I know I’ve already begun to be molded and shaped by the people I’ve been surrounded by. Coming to this conference has been one of the … More Lessons Learned
The power of a person’s story is one of the most greatly underrated tools for understanding in the entire world. We have formulas and theories and philosophies galore that try to explain the human condition. However, for some reason the general weight of words and the meaning they carry often is so easily cast aside … More The Power of Listening: A Story of South Sudan
I was running a little late this morning (whoops), and rushed into the lobby to a room full of country directors. The bus pulled up right as I did, so Bill (my boss) had me lead the group out to get onboard and head over to the conference center. I remembered Emily telling me a … More African Leadership Summit Conference: Day One
Today was another whirlwind adventure of trying new things and meeting incredible people. If there’s one thing I took away from the past two days, it’s the knowledge that I couldn’t be happier to have come on this trip with my African Leadership crew. The people I’ve met here as a result of joining the … More Ethiopia Opens My Eyes: The Day of Stories
After the longest flight of my life (literally the longest I’ve sat in one seat in my life), I finally made it to Africa. Of course I started making friends as soon as possible, and sat next to two extremely friendly Ethiopian men (now living in America) on the plane who told me the ins … More The Adventure Begins: Ethiopia
I’ve made some pretty big promises about my intent to blog about my trip to Africa the past couple of weeks, and today’s technically my first day of travel (I flew to DC today and have a layover here until tomorrow), so this is the part where I follow through. I’ve had an incredible roller coaster of a week and … More Africa: The Background Story
I have a hard time explaining the feeling I get before I travel somewhere, whether I’ve visited before or not. I get this little knot of excitement somewhere deep inside my stomach that almost makes it impossible to sleep the night before I’m set to leave. As I get closer to my destination, the little … More A World Too Big for Small Minds: The Beauty in Travel
The Transition Artist 