Welcome to the Jungle!
“Welcome to Jamaica! We got fun and games!” bellowed my fellow team members as we bumped down a dirt road. I only paid half my attention to their Guns ‘N Roses parody, for...
Read More 2 min read
My Life Changing Experience
Fall 2009, I was chosen to be on the leadership team at my high school. I was put in charge of a Christmas shoebox drive for Haiti. I was excited to help collect shoeboxes...
Read More 3 min read
Nicaragua’s Next Top Model: The Real Deal
I take my first step into a world that, until a few years ago, I never would have conceived knowing. The humidity shocks me, giving my straight, smooth hair a new, un-appealing...
Read More 3 min read
The Greatest Gift
They came from all over by the thousands. They traveled for miles. Some of them even came from neighboring countries. They walked, rode motorcycles, piled into the...
Read More 3 min read
.jpg)
A Requiem for Hope in a Forlorn Nation
A thick blanket of humidity and heat surrounded my mother and me. We had arrived to the rendezvous point where our Haiti Medical Mission Team would assemble before departing for...
Read More 3 min read
The Land of Melancholy
In but a few hours, I had managed culture shock of the highest degree: I had traveled from the wintry Milwaukee airport, full of businessmen typing on laptops, college students...
Read More 3 min read
Sin Cuenta
Our group of high school juniors and seniors stayed up until midnight at Las Tortugas, a turtle reserve in Limón, Costa Rica. The night before, we patrolled for four...
Read More 3 min read
The Other Side of Costa Rica
I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel all over the country. By age sixteen, I had visited New York, Hawaii, Florida, and many other states. However, I had never...
Read More 2 min read
Names and Faces
I reach to my collarbone and touch the small gold coin hanging on a worn leather strap. I look at the crested crane and the words “Bank of Uganda” and memories flood my mind. I hear their voices...
Read More 3 min read
A-Da-Ne-Di: My Trip to the Cherokee Nation
As I stepped into the van, my heart was racing, and I was about to overflow with excitement. People laughed and talked all around me, and I could sense that they too felt the...
Read More 3 min read
Emotionally Changed
Traveling doesn’t necessarily mean going thousands of miles away from home; it can be as little as five minutes. Traveling to an adoption home about a half hour away was one...
Read More 3 min read
Ayoba Time
Africa: not a Serengeti wonderland of lions and elephants, but a barren landscape of high grass and termite hills. Sawdust careened into my face, guided by petulant gusts of filthy air. Women walked down...
Read More 2 min read
My trip to Puerto Rico
I spent seven days this summer in Lares, Puerto Rico, building an altar for the International Bible Baptist church — a trip sponsored by my church in Warminster, Pennsylvania....
Read More 3 min read
Bienvenue En Haiti
In February of 2009, I learned several things about my life, through a trip to Haiti. First and foremost, Haiti is a poor country. Over 80% of the people are unemployed, and have...
Read More 2 min read
Haiti
I take a big breath in, and the smells of burning trash fill my lungs. Though it is an unpleasant first wiff it makes my heart smile and all I can think is, "it's good to be back."...
Read More 2 min read
The African Field of Dreams
Throughout the canoe ride across Lake Bunyonyi, all I could think about was building my soccer field. We had come to Uganda, East Africa from the U.S. through Brussels to work with Juna...
Read More 3 min read
A Trip For Someone Else: Puerto Peñasco
I knew what Mexico looked like. It was beautiful, rich with culture, and flowing with a language that made the soul dance. I also knew that a fun time could be developed by everyday accessories. I knew...
Read More 2 min read
Costa Rica
It was Costa Rica, a vision of crowded, colorful houses and flat tin roofs caked in flaky, thick rust, and hillocks of kaleidoscopic litter cascading down the dirty streets. It was the sun, the blistering...
Read More 2 min read
My Jamaican Heart
On February 21, 2008, I boarded a plane for Montego Bay, Jamaica, excited for what God had in story for me. Little did I know that I would leave part of my heart in Jamaica. During the eleven days that...
Read More 2 min read
Why College? Cause I Would Die as a Roofer
It's the middle of a hot summer's day. Ninety-six on the ground, one hundred-fifteen on the roof. The humidity is hovering just over ninety-eight percent, as I'm told it always does in southern Louisiana...
Read More 3 min read
