1. Ecuador PC Map Making

    When I visited schools surrounding my site, I was surprised to discover that few of them had maps. (I LOVE geography!) So, we ended up painting them on all the buildings in the parroquia. As a young cartographer though, I am embarrassed to say that I wasn’t always PC. On this particular map of Ecuador for example, I gave back the territory taken by Peru in 1941. I would point out that Ecuador didn’t official recognize Peru’s sovereignty until long after my Peace Corps stint.       

  2. Ukraine Host Mom Dynamo

    My best memory of my host-mom is how hard-working and industrious she was. She would be up every morning at dawn or earlier to cook the family breakfast. She had to send her daughter and me off with coffee and a very good meal. After that, she busied herself in her very productive garden for most of the day. She turned the soil, planted, weeded, watered and coaxed an abundance out of her garden. There was nothing she wouldn't tackle.  In the evening, dinner was a delicious meal. Many times th...

  3. Mozambique Nao e tudo bom...

    This photo is of a boy sleeping in front of a cellphone ad for Vodacom, one of two cell phone companies in Mozambique.  The irony is their motto: Tudo bom means "everything's great".  This photo clearly showed everything was not great.  The photo was taken a day after a popular music festival celebrating the timbila, the original xylophone. 

  4. Mozambique After hours and still working!

    Some evenings, especially during my first year of the Peace Corps, I would help serve in the school cafeteria where I was a teacher.  The students always got a kick out of me helping prepare the food, serve it, and especially clean up at the end of the meal.  I learned that when you have mess hall duty, you have to shovel your own plate down as fast as you can to get right back to work behind the serving counter.  I always had a great time speaking English with students who were not mine and ...

  5. Mozambique Sisterly Love

    I was viviting my husband's family and enjoying a nice Fanta, probably Fanta Laranja-Orange, on a hot summer day.  His cousins were playing in the yard for awhile when Celia decided she wanted to play "mommy" to Lisa who promptly fell asleep.

  6. Brazil What Price, Wisdom?

          The Peace Corps dentist in Salvador ---a large, modern Brazilian city ---informed me I had to have my wisdom teeth pulled. He gave me the name of a local dental surgeon.   I had nightmarish visions of a dentist, who wasn’t really a dentist ---just like the one at my Peace Corps site in Glória ---pulling my teeth with pliers, without benefit of an anesthetic. I have no idea what his real name was, but in Glória, everyone called him Zé Dentista.   I arrived at the real dentist’s office, ...

  7. Philippines Peeping Filipino kids

    During a stay on Camigan Island off the coast of Midanao, these kids hung around our hut the better part of a day, periodically peeping around the gate.

  8. Philippines Filipinas travel by Jeepney

    During training in Cebu (Philippines), I caught this shot of three of our language instructors traveling into town.

  9. Mozambique Colors and Flags

    Education PCV Drew Garland shares his country's colors, culture and creativity at a local primary school.

  10. Mozambique Newly elected Pres. Obama!

    Travelling home via Zanzibar Island, after my service, I got a glimpse into another countries reaction to President Obama being elected.  In Mozambique they were fast printing fabric with his face on hit that the woman wrap around themselves like skirts. 

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