Currently in: Naivasha, Kenya

Friday, September 14, 2012

Adventures in the Americas


So, due to constant nagging of lots of people to write book or at least keep my blog updated, I've decided the latter is a much easier compromise. Ergo, I am going to attempt a quick update of what i have been up to since my last update (january, oh goodness, this is going to be hard) and then prob, well maybe, go back and write longer versions of my fav stories.

January:

  • Started off the New Years watching the worlds LONGEST fire works display in old chilean beach town Valparaiso. Absolutely incredible street party that lasted until 10am when the riot police cleared us out. 
  • was working hard to prove our solar toilet could kill off all harmful pathogens in only an afternoon. Lots of time in the lab
  • Got to live in a slum outside of Santiago and build a complete solar bathroom along side the community member there and NGO: Un Techo Para Chile. 
February
  • Participated in my last Chilean rugby tournament: it was on the beach. a beautiful white sand beach, i won MVP of the tournament and had a blast with my team.
  • I attempted to go and tour the Asyen Region of Chile (just north of Patagonia) with Book selling friend Michelle Miller. We got caught in a city wide protests and were barricaded in the city for a week. Its ok, we met some people from a mountain guide training school and still had a blast of a week. 
March

  • Spent most of my March in Colombia where my good friend Hope and my brother Doug got to come adventure with me. There was dancing, canyoneering, para gliding, camping on beaches, mountain biking, caving, scuba diving, and meeting incredible people from around the world.




  • Oh ya, and I got really sick and had to go to the Bogota Emergency room. I have to send out MAD MAJOR props to Diego and Maria Vivas. I met Diego while traveling in Chile and he invited me to stay with him and his sister in Colombia. They took such good care of us, and when I got sick I have no idea what i would do with out them.
April
  • April had me back in Chile finishing up work stuff, moving out of our apt and saying my last goodbyes. 
  • My very last night was a full moom and me and 10 of my good friends form all over the world hitch hiked up into the Andes Mountains for a rock climbing by moonlight event. It was incredible. Huge fires, dance parties, rock climbing all with my fav people down in Chile. 
  • Then I went home. I visited Texas and my family for a bit. So good to see them. Doug was randomly home from med-school so the whole family got to hang out for a week in Houston. So rare with my fam. 
  • I got to go out to LA, california where my old roommates decided to have a roomie reunion. LOVED LA. went surfing, caught up with an old rugby friend KP, toured Hollywood, played in a beer-lympics (won a gold medal), and cooked with my old roommates. it was lovely. 


May:
  • Saw me back in atlanta catching up with all my old friend there. Some great friends (Mercedes and Lara) through me a great welcome back party and so many people that I love got to come. it was great.
  • Then I hopped a bus up to knoxville, visited my fav UT gals there. Hope gave me a ride over to Jacksonville where I got to visit with my old best friend from High School days Peter Boedeker.
  • Then I was in Nashville for sales school with my old summer intership of selling books. Yes i was off to sell books in Mich-again for 4 weeks. 
June
  • Things turned interesting up there when I found out my 3rd day on the bookfield that my company's proposal to the gates foundation had been accepted to the final round, and therefore a FULL length proposal had to be submitted 2 weeks later. 
  • Literally the day we turned that in, we found out our USAID grant had also made it to the final round and had a bunch of followup questions for them too. 
  • needless to say book selling was broken up by proposal writting, but as God tends to do, things worked out. I got some great proposals written, sold some books,  meet a bunch of incredible people, and learned some very important life lessons on plans and commitments. so thats cool.
July
  • Since i was in a holding period of waiting to hear back form these grants, I decided to go travel the states. There were things that needed to be done with Sanivation, but all could be done via computer and therefore where i was wasn't a problem.
  • I went to Las Vegas with my brother Doug. We decided we HAD to go to the Amazing Race additions out there, so we did. Had a blast together doing vegas the cheap way (you know pretending to be married to get good deals on show tickets, talking our way into fancy casino pools, ya know -the norm)

  • I visited Ohio: old friend who graduated from GT with me Michael Lennard in Cleveland. Visted a rugby buddy from Chile who goes to school at Denison University outside of Colombus. Funny story there; they day i arrived was the day a HUGE storm came through and knocked out all power. So we were without power on her campus for the 5 days i was there. It felt like camp, by day we filled up the baby pool, drove around golf cartst, by night we had big fires and ran through the forrest in complete darkness. 
  • I even got to go to Cedar Point, finally!
  • Then off to Erie, Pennsylvania for Emily Pinto and Josh Taylor's wedding. Can not begin to say how great that week was. So many amazing old friends from WAY back, it was refreshing to my soul. The wedding was so beautiful, and loved getting to know all their families. Wonderful people.
  • From Erie I hopped a bus to Bringhampton, NY. There i got the lovely privileged of staying with 2 old friends that I knew from my time on board my ship, Logos Hope. Bryan and Nikki met on the ship, fell in love, got married, had twins 18 months ago and have another on the way now. I got to go to church with them at this lovely country small church, with a pot luck lunch afterwards, and then went blue berry picking with the whole family. So much fun.
  • Then I headed to Hartfield, Connecticut to visit my old roommate Caroline Rhode. With a quick stop over in NYC i got a week of just hanging out with Caroline. It was lovely. She had just moved there and was kinda sick, so I got to cook for her, take her to work, and just hang out. I played some rugby while I was up there and, like always, adventures with ruggers ensued (feel free to ask me for that great story: involving loss keys, new friends, and making a tub into a shower).  We even made it down to New Haven to visit a old friend who was in school with me back at Tech- Drew Hess. New haven was beautiful, we went long boarding, went to a beach, a farmers market and of course had pizza. 
  • Then off to DC to visit another girl I met on the ship, Jen Robertson. Jen is one of those people who I initially met for only a week, but we just clicked. Since meeting in Croatia we have had reunions in Germany, Scotland, Houston and now DC - what a great friend ship!
  • From D.C. i caught good old mega bus down to Knoxville. Met a girl from Denmark on the bus, invited her to hang out with me and my friends in Knoxville and we tried our best to show her what REAL America is like: Crispy cream donuts, walmart, goodwill, then a front parch bbq complete with fireworks and a few ppl playing the fiddle and the banjo. It was great.
  • Then I took off the Knoville rugby girls to Pitch-A-Tent, a famous rugby tournament during the end of July where ruggers from all over come to the middle of no where TN and camp during the rugby tournament. I have always heard about it, but have never been able to go before because of work but let me tell you - it was more awesome than any thing i could have dreamed about. So many of my fav ppl from all over together, out in nature, add in rugby, then a 18-wheeler of beer, a slip-in-slide, costumes, a swimming hole, a dance floor, and bunch a rain just to turn everything to mud, and BAM that was pitch-a-tent. 

August:

  • Then it was down to ATL for a bit. Had to do some work stuff with my co-founder and visit everyone in atlanta. It was lots of pool time and random sports every night. 
  • Then, for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary they rented a beach house down on surfside beach  and the WHOLE family got to go for a week and just spend time with each other. Fishing, surfing, drinking on the beach, playing card games, didn't matter what we were doing it was so great to just be with my whole family for a week. 
  • Houston for a week after that. Catching up with old friends, country dancing, and lots of time at the pool playing beach volleyball - just like old times
  • Then I hopped a plane to San Fransisco because we got the opportunity to build our solar toilets at BURNING MAN! For those of you who don't know Burning man is a week long out-door art and music festival in the middle of the desert in Nevada. It is based on 10 principles which basically entail leaving no trace (EVERYTHING you bring into the desert your take out), no transfer of payment for anything only gift giving (buying, selling, trading are ILLEGAL in the "city"), art, self expression, and inclusion for anyone and everyone into the community. For those of you who dont know- ITS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! I had such an awesome time. I went up a week early to build so i got to be around incredible people, doing incredible things, in the middle of the desert for 2 weeks. It was like being in the rabbit hole at times, almost always sensory overload, and ALWAYS incredible people to talk to. i can not wait to go back again. longer post about BM to come soon. 
September

  • i found a free ride from Burning Man up to Salem, Oregon with an older couple I met. So with their invitation I decided to come explore the NW coast, part of the country I had never seen before. Nancy (my new friend who gave me the ride) let me barrow her convertible mini-coop while i went and explored BEAUTIFUL mountains, waterfalls, and kayaking down rivers. Together we did wine tasting and listened to live jazz, cooked a lot, and worked in her garden. i fell in love with oregon.
  • Portland. a few days full of more incredible hiking, mountain biking and sampling local made beer and wines. fell in love with Portland, could really see living there for an extended period of time. 
  • Seattle. hopped a bus to come see Seattle and surrounding areas while visiting an old rugby buddy of mine, Tia. And that is where i am now. I toured Pikes Market, climbed a mountain in the cascades and plan on sailing later today. The weather up here is perfect this time of year and I am loving it. 
Future plans ideas
  • Im going to fly back to Texas later this week. Be home in Houston for a couple weeks; visiting, playing rugby and packing for africa.
  • In October I am presenting at the World Fecal Sludge Management conference in Durban, South Africa.
  • Then I will be living in Kenya working for Water and Sanitation for Urban Poor (WSUP) as a latrine design and implementation consultant. Its a 3 month job that will open me up to so many opportunities, I am very excited about this, finally taking off to Africa to do what I always wanted. Can not thank God enough for every thing he puts in front of me. 

so this is really long, sorry. If you made this far, even just skimming, i give you mad props. I am going to TRY to keep this more updated. Especially as I head over to Africa and am farther out of contact than ever before. Let the adventures continue~!