Posts

Hotel Rwanda

 I could not believe I was not in the America's,  what the hell had I done ? We stayed our first night in a guest house,  no central A/C, very dimly lit rooms, any circulation came from the outdoors. The "vents" were little cut outs in the walls that let outside air as well as insects and  reptiles into your living space. "Is that a lizard on the wall I ask myself as we eat our first dinner in a foreign land." 😭 we see our bedrooms have white nets around them, it's to "keep the mosquitos out and you wont catch malaria." So you mean the $500 worth of international vaccines won't help? We were warmed ahead of time to take our malaria prophylactic treatment. The next few days I would meet my colleagues who came from all walks of life, many who were "experienced" global health workers. Oh so this is a lifestyle? I'd never heard of this and stumbled across it. I immediately felt like an imposter. But I'm not a quitter, so let'...

Living Abroad

 2014... what a year that was! I was working at Houston Community College on a 10 month contract (summers off) when I stumbled accidentally upon an opportunity to live and work in Rwanda *(yes like Hotel Rwanda). The job application was for a Clinical Nurse Educator which was my "dream job." The bottom of the application asks "if I'd be WILLING to live in Rwanda for 12 months." I thought to myself.... well I guess I'm willing, but wtf does that even mean.... submit! A lady named Dr. Benedict asks me for some identifying info, RN License etc. She calls me up one day and is like hey come see me. I dress in my traditional interview attire- all Black lol. Dr. Benedict literally hands me a green binder and says "you're moving to Rwanda!" I'm like "hold up wait a minute you not gonna ask me no interview questions or check my references first?!" Shes like "oh what do you wanna know?" I'm like this has got to be a joke 🤣🤣....

Inspired

I went on this group trip in 2014 to Turks and Caicos, the host of the trip somehow inspired, no wait- told me I needed to start a travel blog. I'm like huh, who me? Is he serious? I'm not even good with words, or esthetics or tech savvy even... what would I write about? Then as I started writing this I thought hmm... perhaps I could write about how a certain place makes me feel....maybe I can write about how traveling has become part of my identity....I'm not even into getting the most perfectly angled, best lit photos. As I'm writing I'm starting to creatively think of how I can describe the sights, vibes, and what i loved about each country I've been to. I think it's about almost 30 of them now....I think I'll start with my experience living abroad in East Africa... we shall see...maybe this will be a better hobby than binge watching Vanderpump Rules.