1. Zambia Reading Together

    This is one of my friends from the village and his young companion.  This young boy took such good care of his blind friend.  They would come over and read to me from his braille Bible.

  2. Ukraine Peace Corps Presentation

        I came to realize that while most people had known about the Peace Corps for years, few really understood what the organization was or why it existed at all. So when my university asked me to put on a presentation for a conference I chose Peace Corps as my topic. The three goals of Peace Corps, the different fields and countries it worked in was pretty much all new information for my audience.  

  3. Ukraine Mummy Maker

      Here my English Club is having a Halloween Party I put together for them. They were at first reluctant to embrace a party like atmosphere while in a classroom, but they enthusiastic wrapped each other up in toilet paper.

  4. Ukraine Ukrainian Marriage Agencies

      When my Ukrainian girlfriend broke up with me I wasn't thrilled, but I wasn't that surprised either, the relationship was stalled and I knew it was going to end eventually. That she broke up with me did come as a surprise to people back in America who seemed convinced that Ukrainian women would want to marry me for a ride back into America.  They didn't.  Girls there wanted the same thing they wanted from me in America, which was friendship.  The somewhat aggravating result was that most o...

  5. Ukraine RPCV Adds a Y

    Piece to go with photo:      “Hello, Ms. Taylor. Our records show that you are filing for a name change. Can you please spell your desired new last name?”             “Yes. B-a-l-t-i-y-s-k-y-y.” “Ok, I’ll put in the records Baltisky is your new last name. Is that Russian?"   “No, it's Ukrainian. My husband's from Ukraine. It’s spelled:   B, as in back home           A, as in, acceptance           L, as in, missing Lviv           T, as in, terrified by traffic           I, as in, irrit...

  6. Nicaragua The Joy of Chickens

    My women's group organized a project to raise chickens, staring with just 12 hens and one rooster. This project brought them better nutrition from eggs and meat, as well as a small business opportunity selling eggs to the local community. This photo was taken when the chickens arrived.

  7. Nicaragua Peace Corps Agricultural Training

    Learning to build terraces - the hard, sweaty way! 

  8. Nicaragua Peace Corps training

    Fellow volunteer Matt August and I teaching a class on forest ecosystems for the first time in Spanish after about 3 weeks of training. 

  9. Mongolia Holy camel

    Bactrian Camels are abundant in the Gobi.  I met this particular camel at a camel polo competition.  He had been recently blessed by a buddhist monk and therefore for the remainder of his life, would not be used for labor, sport, or killed for meat.

  10. Ukraine September 11th Across the Ocean

    The word for terrorist sounds the same in the three languages of my daily life -- English, Russian and Ukrainian. But I didn't want to write about the attacks on America in any language. There has been enough in the news, I wrote to one friend. I am in Ukraine, what do I know, I e-mailed another. The truth? I was scared I couldn't find the right words. Turns out, I didn't have to. A little girl in the fifth form at School Number 37 in Poltava found them for me. As we flipped though a copy o...

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“Sunset at the Railroad” by PCV Nicholas Baylor Hall. Namibia, 2011.