Africaniversary (500 Words)

I can't believe it's been three years since my first volunteer trip to Kenya, Africa. I'm feeling nostalgic so here are a few of my favorite pictures and excerpts from the original tumblr that I managed during our trip. I can't wait to return here and explore other parts of this beautiful culture and continent. 

Day 1: Yep, it’s 4 AM in the morning and I haven’t been able to sleep all night. Partially because I am so excited/anxious and partially because there’s a few things I still need to wrap up before I leave. I am unfortunately quite the “packrastinator.” My whole life it’s been nearly impossible for me to pack more than a day in advance. I wonder if my fellow WFM team members are nestled, all snug in their beds, while visions of the Serengeti dance in their heads...

Day 3: Today...We got to visit a village benefitting from the One Acre Fund micro loans. They were so friendly and we were all touched by their hospitality. We learned about their work and culture and also participated in harvesting millet and planting trees...  

Day 7: Thursday, our fantastic host/tourguide Ruby Ruth showed us around Maai Mahui and introduced us to CTC and the Malakai Moms that expertly craft and sew the lifeline products we sell in our stores. We learned all about CTC’s mission and multiple initiatives including Community, Environment, Education, Health and Economy. And the kids there were adorable, of course!

Day 8-9: Friday and Saturday were spent exploring the Ol Pejeta Conservancy near Mount Kenya. Truly a once in a lifetime experience where we got to see elephants, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs and even ultra endangered white and black rhinos…

We are all still in awe of Africa - everything we’ve seen and experienced, everyone we’ve met and the memories we’ve created.

Day 12: Tuesday, we laced up our shoes, put on our gloves and went to work transplanting trees… [and] painting the bakery floor bright blue…. and built a berm to help block the bakery from the evening wind, (Maai Mahiu can get very windy!)...

Day 14: I can’t believe this incredible journey has come to an end. And what a memorable end it was! … We took a bumpy road out to one of the Massai villages where we met and mingled with the kids and were so graciously invited into the home of one of the grandmothers. This was personally one of the most memorable a experiences of the trip.

Day 15: Friday morning, we all headed to the CTC bakery for a lovely breakfast… [and] got ... Cafe Ubuntu painted on the wall before having to head back to ... the Nairobi airport.
It was hard to say goodbye as we all felt like we had become a family the past two weeks. We all created lasting friendships, gained valuable insight and created amazing memories that we can’t wait to share with our teams, families and friends back home!
Asante Sana!
Love, Team Rafiki

If you've been to Africa, what are some of your favorite memories? If you haven't been yet, where would you like to go?

Review of Foreign Volunteering and Meditation at Thabarwa Center in Thanlyin near Yangon, Myanmar (325 Words)

Thabarwa Center (actually a whole village) was founded by Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Ottamasara hosts foreign volunteers who want to do good deeds and/or meditate. I did plenty of both. 

Try to arrive Sunday/Wednesday morning; informational meetings held at noon these days. 

It's April, so I was perpetually sweaty, dirty and a little stinky until that glorious cold shower in the evening before bed. But so is everyone else. Between 5-20 other volunteers each day I was there. 

One of my typical days at Thabarwa. 

4:30 Wake up

5:00-6:30 Yoga (in my room by myself but most others participate in morning meditation)

6:30 - 7:00 Breakfast (rice + stuff)

7:00 - 8:00 Alms Rounds with monks or sweeping/cleaning/work

8:00 - 11:00 Continue chores or socialize with other volunteers 

11:00 Lunch (rice + different stuff)

12:00 - 16:00 Read in Library (the only place with air con) or meditation or do special projects

16:00 - 17:00 Walking with patients in wheelchairs

17:00 - 18:00 Walking meditation around stupas

18:00 Dinner (Vit-C drink mix for me since I'm observing 8 precepts but rice + stuff for everyone else) 

19:00 Basic Buddhism class

20:00 Glorious cold shower followed by a load of sink laundry 

21:30 Lights out, eye mask on, earplugs in

Just relax and go with the flow. You can do as much or as little volunteering and/or meditation as you want. Longer term volunteers can teach English to monks and nuns. I even did a couple graphic design projects for the center. 

Shared accommodation and meals are basic but free. However, I recommend making at least a small donation before you depart like $5 (5,000 kyat) per day. 

Free, filtered water throughout the center. 

Cats and dogs everywhere. 

Keep shoulders, knees & everything in between covered. 

Things to bring: mosquito repellent, dietary/digestive supplement, hand fan, reusable water bottle, hat, handkerchief, nuts & dried fruit (sealed to keep out ants). 

Much Love,

Life in Suburban Kathmandu, Nepal

I had an adventure on a public bus from Changu Narayan to Kathmandu. It was blaring Nepali (or Hindi?) techno music and people were stuffed inside like sardines and kids were even riding on the roof. 

I got off at the last stop and got a taxi to take me the rest of the way to my home stay location. It was literally in the shadow of Swayumbhunath, the Monkey Temple that I had visited once before. The house was four stories high with marble floors and steps. My room was located on the third floor but wasn't ready yet so I had lunch and tea and the fourth floor balcony and was warmly welcomed by a small army of pugs.

It's a pretty full house. The house is owned by Janak and his wife Pushpa and they have a daughter. There are at least half a dozen village boys that live on the second floor in order to go to school in town. During the day, the first floor functions as a daycare for another six or so special needs kids and two older ladies manage that group. Two sisters named Sonita and Anita from a village do all the cooking and cleaning. Then there are three bedrooms devoted to volunteers like myself and there were three others when I arrived. 

Then there are the dogs. Based on the workaway profile, I thought they would all be strays, but it turns out they were quite the opposite. My job was to walk them in the mornings and evenings. 

Rambo is a big, strong, somewhat intimidating German Shepard but his bark is bigger than his bite. I always had to keep him from eating other dogs poop on the road. Goldie and Whitie are two Retrievers named after their coat colors. Amy was a Boxer with way too much energy who took me for walks for the first two days but then was adopted by another family. Cherry is a cocker spaniel who had puppies a couple days after I arrived. There were three pugs: Puggy, the youngest, Abby, Puggy's mother and Sweetie, who was very pregnant (or maybe PUGnant - dog pun!). Then lastly there was a black German Shepard puppy who was yet to be named. Oh and Cinderella the street dog who just kind of hung around outside the house. 

I don't personally support dog (or cat) breeding of any kind, especially when there are so many neglected on the streets, but at least I know the dogs here are well taken care of.

I think they had a generator because not once do I remember experiencing a power cut. The Internet was great and I had my room all to myself for most of the time. French toast was served daily for breakfast and Dal bhat with rice and veggies for lunch and dinner. The main food staples in Nepal seem to be bread, eggs, rice, potatoes and lentils (main ingredient in dal bhat.) And there was always a hot thermos of tea waiting in the kitchen. (I think more Westerners should adopt this practice instead of using single serve k-cups on demand.) 

I really enjoyed my stay and felt like part of the family. It felt so much more authentic and personal. Pushpa even whipped out the steam machine and some cumin tea when I started getting the sniffles. That definitely wouldn't happen at a hotel. 

Time just flew by and my week there was soon over. I am definitely staying again should I ever return to Kathmandu. 

Rural Life in Changu Narayan, Nepal

After the trek, my next destination in Nepal was a home stay in a village outside Kathmandu called Changu Narayan that I found on Workaway. I wasn't given an address or phone number but I had pictures of the host and his house from the workaway website so the driver was able to get me where I needed to go by pulling over and letting me show said pictures to locals, who pointed us in the right direction. The only option was the long and windy way uphill and we drove until we ran of road and I had get out and walk the remaining few hundred meters with my bags.

I was surprised to find several other workawayers at the home when I arrived, and even more surprised that the majority were from the US. There was also a couple of gap year kids from England, a girl from China and a guy from France. Add to that the other four girls from the States, which brings the total number of guests to nine. A few people were ill, one guy so much so that I didn't see him emerge from his room until 3 days later. 

The house had a lovely facade but was quite modest on the inside. My room on the second floor had two mattresses on the floor each with a  blanket and pillow and a glass coffee table. Standing on the balcony outside, I got a pretty good view of the surrounding hills and Kathmandu city in the valley below. 

I claimed the mattress closest to the window and was thrilled that there was enough space for me to roll out my yoga mat next to it in the morning. Across from me were two rooms, each with actual beds and mattresses and a bit more furniture. We had a rather large balcony and a semi-functional bathroom which became non-functional the next day. 

Cooking on the wood stove

The menu and meal schedule was the same each and every day. A hard-boiled egg and two chapati for breakfast around 7:30, then first dal bhat with rice and potatoes around 10:30 then second dal bhat with rice, potatoes and maybe eggplant or zucchini around 7 pm. I bought some bananas in town to supplement the standard fare. 

Lunch time or First Dahl Baat

On the menu: dal bhat, rice and potatoes

I know it's rural Nepal and I'm not expecting to have all the comforts of home but I would at least like the toilet and shower that are advertised to work. The water pump was broken so the toilet could only flush after a bucket of water was poured down the bowl. And if you wanted to bathe, it was out of the same bucket. In both cases, you would have to take the bucket down to one of the community wells where water trickled out of a spout at a snail's pace. It could take at least 45 minutes to fill said bucket and you'd have to stand there to make sure no one moved your bucket off to the side so they could get water. I also filled my water bottle here and treated it with purification drops. Even though the water appeared fresh and clean and cold, I wasn't taking any chances. 

One of many trickle wells in the area.

But back to the bucket. After filling it up, you have to lug it back to the house and and use the water for flushing or bathing. So you can conclude that the toilet doesn't get flushed all that often since it's such a process - maybe once a day. And my room happened to be adjacent to the bathroom so the stench of everyone's accumulated waste gently wafts into your room all night. 

Power cuts are pretty standard in Nepal but they were the worst here. We were lucky if we got 2-5 hours of power per day, but it was enough to charge my phone and I was glad there was occasional wifi. 

Hoping the tree doesn't fall on the house

Then came the work. Instead of the gardening or helping around the house or village like that was suggested on workaway, the host expected us to cut down huge mother flippin' trees. The first day, we walked precariously through a field to a site far away to fell a tree. We all had to pull the tree down via rope so that it didn't fall on a nearby house. Then there was only a single saw with handles on each side so we would take turns sawing off branches and sawing the tree into sections. Turns out, I really don't like cutting down perfectly good trees in their prime, physically or emotionally. 

Then, they decided they wanted to cut down another tree, this time surrounded by a jumble of power lines. By this time the sun was getting close to setting so if we stayed much longer, the arduous walk home would be in the dark. Three of us decided not to take any more risks and walked home while it was still light. 

The next day, we returned to the spot and it started raining soon after we arrived. And not just rain, there was thunder and lightning too and the temperature dropped while our host expected us to continue using the metal saw. I gave up on the saw because I was not about to become a lightning rod but we soon went inside a nearby house to wait for the storm to pass. The family there was very kind and made us tea and gave us cookies and fresh peas from the garden. Then, our host and another guy popped cigarettes into their mouths and just as they were about to light up, I asked if they could please wait and smoke outside later because I am allergic to the smoke. (Seriously, I get a painful, throaty cough when in the presence of cigarette smoke.) They lit up anyways so those burning cigarettes might as well have been a couple of middle fingers. I walked outside and sat by myself under a makeshift tool shed.

The reason we were cutting down trees in the first place was so that the host could turn it into lumber and build an addition on to his house to accommodate more people. But I think he could barely handle the amount of people he already had. I understand how after losing his previous guest house to the earthquake last year, he was kind of desperate for money so I think he was taking as many people as he could get but the more people you have, the harder it is to keep everyone happy. He and his wife were sleeping in the kitchen and two guests were in their bed. The kitchen leaked in several places when it rained. The second floor bathroom didn't work properly and the house was not cleaned regularly, which is extra troublesome when you have so many people getting sick.  

I think there should have been a bit more concern for health and safety. The family here no doubt has good intentions and all the other guests were friendly but overall I did not enjoy this experience. And that's ok. Not every day of traveling is going to be sunshine and butterflies. It does make further appreciate things like eating a variety of meals and functional indoor plumbing. 

These are just some snapshots of rural life in and around the fields near the house that I liked and wanted to share: 

Turtle Tales and Rip Tides

Last weekend I got a henna tattoo. I designed and drew a lotus out on paper first and would have liked to draw the henna design on myself, but obviously I can’t really reach the spot in the upper middle of my back. The tattooer took a few liberties with my design that I didn’t realize were happening until they were already done. And by then it was too late. I'm sure no one else noticed the edits and general sloppiness that I did, but I can become pretty perfectionist when it comes to my designs. Sigh. Once an art director, always an art director, lol. Here’s the original design compared with what ended up on my back. 

However, I’m still grateful for that and every other experience I’ve had here. 

This was week two working with the turtles. More feeding, more shell scrubbing and more tank cleaning and sand transferring. Thursday was a particularly long day as we cleaned the 11 tanks in one morning then carried bucket loads of fresh sand from the beach and into the nesting area. Nesting season doesn’t really start until September, but Isuru said since we were such a strong group, he wanted us to rotate and refill the sand now. Shoveling and carrying sand is literally the worst job we do here and we had to do it three times this week. 

The Jetty

A bit of drama unfolded on Thursday while I was practicing handstands on the beach. Captain (our lead coordinator in Ambalangoda) had warned everyone not to swim in the ocean this time of year because the water and rip currents and very rough and unpredictable. After getting covered in sweat and sand, everyone wanted to jump into the ocean to cool off. Two girls got caught in a rip and swifty carried several more meters away from the shore. The first girl managed to get out, but was overpowered by a wave that knocked her into a rock formation that jutted out of the water. She came up onto the beach, coughing and bleeding from several wounds on her legs. She sat and started crying - mostly from shock, I think - and other volunteers comforted her poured fresh water on the wounds to wash out the sand. 

Meanwhile, the smaller girl was still stranded in the water, so Isuru jumped off the rock jetty Hasselhoff-style with a flotation device in tow and swam in her direction. He got to her in just a minute or two then helped her swim parallel to the beach until they were out of the rip and could swim to shore. By this time, all the volunteers and several locals were gathered on the beach to watch what happened. One impulsive local guy with good but misguided intentions dramatically dove into the water with all his clothes on as if he was going to save the day, but swam in the complete wrong direction. Isuru and the little Belgian girl were back on the beach before the local guy was. She was completely fine and had stayed calm the entire time. 

That night, Captain called an emergency meeting at the house to determine “who had the problems with the sea.” The two girls reluctantly raised their hands and then he repeated his lecture about the dangers of the ocean this time of year for everyone’s benefit. It turns out, the unruly sea season also prevents us from releasing a few of the healthier turtles still at the compound. They could also get smashed against the rocks and are more vulnerable to being captured, killed and eaten by fisherman due to the lack of fish in the turbulent waters.

On Friday morning, we arrived at the turtle compound as usual, ready to cut up fresh fish for the turtles’ third weekly meal. We meandered around the tanks, and one volunteer alerted us to Tank 1 “I think this turtle is dead.” It was a new arrival (an Olive Ridley) that had been brought to the center the previous weekend with missing fins and several shell injuries; some old and scarred over along with some fresh wounds. It’s eyes were closed and it wasn’t moving so Isuru came and checked it’s pulse and confirmed that it had none. It must have died sometime during the night beacuse we had just seen it alive and cleaned its shell the previous day. In my completely non-medically-trained opinion, it must have had some internal problems as well because it physically didn’t look any worse off than the rest of the injured turtles. 

Turtle Death

We buried the turtle in a hole about waist deep on the beach. Isuru placed a old, tattered shirt at the bottom of the pit before placing the turtle on top of it. I asked why and he said it’s “good for next life.” I wanted to find a small rock or something to serve as a gravestone, but was unsuccessful.

It just so happens that a nest of dozens of Olive Ridley eggs and turned them in to the Turtle Project. They are almost the exact size, color and shape of ping pong balls, but are a bit heavier. Isuru dug a deep hole and buried them on site in the nesting area that we had just spent several days re-sanding. They’ll have a much better chance of hatching here than on the beach since like I mentioned earlier, it’s not currently nesting season. 

Turtle Life

Although we were sad one of the turtles died, it seemed serendipitously appropriate and balanced that we also had a nest of eggs that would bring forth new life. We witnessed the circle of life in one morning (cue Lion King music.)

I’m determined to name all the turtles before I leave. When I arrived, only one particularly aggressive loggerhead was named Mafia. Since then, I’ve named a few others: Nugget, Rocket, Lefty, Stevie, Grandma, Fountain, Teeny and Casper. Who knows if the names will stick after I leave, though. 

Our famous Albino turtle, who I call Casper. 

Thursday night, a group of us went to Hikkadua for dinner, since it was several peoples’ last night in Sri Lanka. We got caught in a heavy rainstorm and dashed into the nearest restaurant that promised Pizza on the sign out front, once it let up a bit. I ordered a veggie pizza slightly bigger than my head and it was a welcomed respite from the bland noodles and rice and watery curry that we eat all week at the house.

After we all gorged on pizza and pasta, most went back to Ambalangoda but a handful of us stayed to head to a bar and meet up with Isuru and the Swedish boys. We socialized and had one drink before heading home, ourselves via tuk tuk. We arrived at the house to find the gate locked, even though we had gotten permission to stay out past curfew. I climbed over it to go find someone with a key, but by the time I returned, everyone has managed to pry the gate open just enough to squeeze through. 

Group Photo: Easy, Isuru, Ellen, Me, Lianne, Coffy, Elodie, Kirsty, Kirsten, Theo and Hanne

Throwback Thursday: Kenya Memories

Most of my friends and family will remember my volunteer trip to Kenya in July 2013. But if you're not familiar with it, this has been my most memorable and impactful trip to date, as well as a stepping stone towards my upcoming trip. I was part of a group sponsored and hosted by the Whole Foods Market Team Member Volunteer Program, the Whole Planet Foundation and CTC International.  

I had to pay for my vaccines and plane ticket and the company covered pretty much all the costs for two weeks in Kenya. Fundraising was encouraged, so I invented a Mirandathon in which I ran 26.2 miles barefoot on the beach over the course of a month and asked people to pledge money per mile or just make a donation. Honestly it wasn't terribly successful from a financial standpoint, but I was in great shape by the time I left for the trip. If I were to do it over, I would have something tangible in exchange for donations like vegan cupcakes or postcards made from photos from the trip. 

Our group totaled 10 WFM employees from throughout the US ("And Canada!" - Lindsay) and I was a designated blogger and photographer for the trip. You can read the complete tumblr blog that I kept during the trip - which was a challenge because we rarely had internet access - and my favorite photos from Africa in the Pics section of my website. 

To sum it up, we spent time meeting and interacting with microcredit clients throughout the country, visited other businesses making a positive impact in Kenya, had a short Safari which included interacting with protected rhinos in the park, met the Malaika mums who sew LIFE line products to support education for their disabled children, met a group of Massai artisan women and we spent the majority of the time working towards finishing Cafe Ubuntu, a bakery and coffee stop that would bring more money and jobs to the community. My fondest memories included seeing a trio of Cheetah brothers during our Safari, receiving a special gift to bless my home from one of the Maasai ladies and freehanding/painting the logo about 4 feet tall on the back wall of the bakery with nothing but a pencil and some oversized paint brushes. 

Today, Cafe Ubuntu is thriving and expanding into a whole host of other projects and programs that are benefitting this little village in the Rift Valley. However, there are several more ways to support CTC & their mission closer to home by:
• becoming a donating Tribe Member
• buying a #loveisproject LOVE bracelet at American Eagle or LIFE line products
• and/or buying Allegro's Cafe Ubuntu coffee at your nearest Whole Foods Market.

It's a great cause to support because I can tell you firsthand that money is going directly into Maai Mahiu, whereas something like the (red) project is really nebulous and you're not sure how much money actually gets to Africa.