The Road Is Life

Off on a New Africa Adventure!!

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:18:06 +0800

After a travel hiatus to do weird things like school and graduation, once more I am jetting off again!

I am extremely fortunate to be leading a microfinance service-learning trip for a student organization I have been involved with throughout my undergraduate career, the Trockman Microfinance Initiative.

We will be going to a town in western Rwanda called Kinigi, and working with the parent-teacher association of Kabwende Primary School on expanding their current microfinance loan system. Aside from a needs assessment, we will be providing a few workshops in business and financial management training.

Aside from being in Kinigi, we get to meet with local microfinance organizations in Kigali, visit markets, cultural centers, and other self-sustaining income initiatives in the area.

I will probably only have Internet access in the capital, but follow for updates and whatnot after I get back! I will be there for about two weeks, from May 10-May 23rd.

Kind of a weird photo because they are so blurred, but look how...

Thu, 02 May 2013 03:59:22 +0800

Kind of a weird photo because they are so blurred, but look how fast they all go! #little500

The oft replicated but never duplicated Indiana University...

Thu, 02 May 2013 03:57:29 +0800

The oft replicated but never duplicated Indiana University Little 500 bike race. 200 laps on a pressed cinder track on Schwinn (sp?) bicycles. (at Indiana University Bloomington)

"I set out alone, finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse, and no party of..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:35:17 +0800

“I set out alone, finding no companion to cheer the way with friendly intercourse, and no party of travellers with whom to associate myself. Swayed by an overmastering impulse within me, and a long-cherished desire to visit those glorious sanctuaries, I resolved to quit all my friends and tear myself away from my home. As my parents were still alive, it weighed grievously upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow.”

- Ibn Battuta, Moroccan and Berber Explorer, 1325

Nice to know that in the 14th century, kids taking weird journeys stressed their parents out too.

anarcho-queer: Strike Day One On Thursday, hundreds of students...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 23:06:36 +0800

anarcho-queer:

Strike Day One

On Thursday, hundreds of students from the University of Indiana walked out of class and joined a march to the ‘School of Education’ where the IU Board of Trustee’s were having a meeting.

The students were protesting low wages for the support staff at IU, high tuition for students, a population of minority students that has not doubled from 4 percent as previously promised by school officials and more.

Follow IUonStrike on Tumblr for updates.

Quick correction - it’s just Indiana University

Outside of Bloomington Beer Fest (at Woolery Mill)

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:27:54 +0800

Outside of Bloomington Beer Fest (at Woolery Mill)

Bloomington Craft Beer Festival was amazing (at Woolery Mill)

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:23:13 +0800

Bloomington Craft Beer Festival was amazing (at Woolery Mill)

"Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your..."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:21:54 +0800

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you- it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you… Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”

- Anthony Bourdain (via ginandbird)

poeticislam: “Never, if possible cover any road a second...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:09:13 +0800

poeticislam:

“Never, if possible cover any road a second time”

-Ibn Battuta

(14th century traveller)

Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan and Berber explorer in the 14th...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:54:26 +0800

Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan and Berber explorer in the 14th century, who went everywhere from China to the Horn of Africa, and published his travels in the Rihla (“Journey”). He even writes about culture shock when visiting non-Muslim countries. He’s considered one of the greatest travelers and explorers.

Photo

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:03:02 +0800

"Thus travel spins us round in two ways at once: It shows us the sights and values and issues that we..."

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:11:00 +0800

“Thus travel spins us round in two ways at once: It shows us the sights and values and issues that we might ordinarily ignore; but it also, and more deeply, shows us all the parts of ourselves that might otherwise grow rusty.”

- Pico Iyer - Why We Travel

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:29:16 +0800

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (via human-voices)

Ain’t that the truth of it all!

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:15:00 +0800

Ain’t that the truth of it all!

In Veraguas, Panama. In March 2011, I took a service trip to a...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:19:47 +0800

Up in the mountains

Getting rice

The small community we were in.

Laying irrigation piping for the corn fields.

Kids in the village school

Our homemade sugar press - stick sugar cane underneath the barbed wire, turn the wheels and you have some cane juice!

This is a pecan fruit! The pecan grows at the end of the fruit. These grow along the trees in Panama, and they're all juice. You have to bite into them like a vampire and suck it all out.

Teaching business classes.

In Veraguas, Panama. In March 2011, I took a service trip to a western part of Panama with Global Business Brigades, which organizes service learning trips for college students to third world countries to work on projects like dental health, public health, engineering and architecture, or business like mine. A group of students from my university went to a small communal farm, and created a series of business workshops for the farmers such as time management and profit/loss analysis. We slept on the floor of one of the classrooms, and cooled off in the mountain river every day…heaven!

Oh yes indeed.

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 01:43:07 +0800

Oh yes indeed.

These are photos of various urban areas and towns I visited in...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:42:00 +0800

Trading street in Mbale, a town close to Mt. Elgon on the Uganda/Kenya border

Overlooking Bugembe, out to Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile River.

Highway running through Bugembe, a small town outside Jinja. This is the area I lived in

In Kampala, the capital of Uganda

House outside of Jinja.

Main street in Jinja, Uganda - the country's second largest city

These are photos of various urban areas and towns I visited in Uganda. I lived in a town outside Jinja called Bugembe (kind of like a suburb). Jinja is situated in the south of the country, on the source of the Nile River around Lake Victoria. It’s actually the second largest city in Uganda, and has pretty good expat/tourist cafes. Kampala is the capital and largest city in the country.

Again, people might be surprised at how green the country is. It’s very tropical, but not at all muggy or steamy.

Sipi Falls, Eastern Uganda. This is a gorgeous collection of...

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:35:31 +0800

A waterfall, from the outside looking in.

Sipi Falls, Eastern Uganda. This is a gorgeous collection of waterfalls, starting from a river cascading from the peak of Mt. Elgon down into a series of falls ending in the valley. We stayed at a campsite on the side of the mountain overlooking the falls from the other side of the valley.

I think people are constantly surprised by how green and lush Africa is, but this is it…Uganda is very fertile. In the south at least, food isn’t scarce at all.

Food in Uganda typically consists of several starchy bases and a...

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:09:29 +0800

Food from Northern Uganda - pumpkin, sweet potatoes, irish potatoes, cassava, millet bread, rice, spinach, chicken in peanut sauce

Passionfruit!!

Matooke - a staple. Smashed plantains that are steamed until its a beautiful, starchy base. Eat it with yo' hands.

NSENENE! Or, deep fried grasshopper. :p

Jackfruit

Food in Uganda typically consists of several starchy bases and a protein in a sauce that’s drizzled over it. You can eat with your hands, and this entree is typically complemented by a green vegetable like spinach. The protein sauces can be beans, chicken, goat, pork, beef, or fish. You can also have g-nut sauce, which is a peanut paste. The starchy base can be sweet or irish potatoes, pumpkin (especially good with g-nut sauce), millet bread, cassava root, rice, posho (fluffy cornmeal), or matooke (steamed, smashed plantain paste). It’ll fill you up!

Snack wise, we always could buy food from street vendors. Because of the Indian influence in Uganda, chapati bread and samosas could be had readily from any street stand. Roasted corn or sausage was popular, but you had to be careful if you ate street meat because you never knew whether it was really dog or maguro stork. The best snack by far was a “rolex,” which is chapati bread and an omelette that was then rolled up and eaten by a breakfast burrito. And of course fresh fruit was everywhere, quite literally - growing on trees.

After dinner, in the English tradition, there was always tea time.

And THAT’S hit the nail on the head.

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:53:25 +0800

And THAT’S hit the nail on the head.