I served as a Secondary Education Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Rwanda, a small country in Central Africa. I learned about the impact that education can have on developing rural communities and decided that I wanted to keep teaching English in overlooked corners of the world. I also learned that compared to backpacking or simple tourism, living and working in a foreign community is leagues more fulfilling. I met my former partner, Mitsu, in Rwanda and after six months back in the United States we decided to move to our new home in Kalar.
February 2018 – Inclines
“The boys laughed at us both, and we covered a lot of ground very quickly, gaining velocity as the valley in front of us bloomed in to existence.”
April 2018 – Soil
“It was strange – in our minds, the tranquility of the scene seemed to betray our preconceptions of the violence and chaos that characterizes the American imagination of Rwanda and the DRC, and as we looked more intently, we realized that our imaginations had committed the betrayal.”
May 2018 – Discipline
“When I feel my hands pressing in to the soil, it is as if I am giving an offering to something better, to something healthier and more gutturally real than what is now.”
June 2018 – Departures
When I returned to my humble little village in the country side, I was relieved to continue living with the familiar contradictions of my home and put some distance between myself and the contradictions of another time and place.
July 2018 – Impressions, I
Concurrent motion: men in formless brown rags wheel dirt and waste between areas of activity with bare feet landing on rusted nails and broken glass, unflinching.
September 2018 – Anniversary
Even us mzungu are occasionally gifted with the curious, hesitant brush of fingers on arm hair while trying to recover from a weekend with a nap in the sun. Back in America, that kind of thing would have freaked me out. In Rwanda, I’ve learned to love it.
October 2018 – Reposition
Spit in palm, the men grab their metal poles and jam them in the minuscule gap between boulder and earthy floor with extreme precision.
November 2018 – Positivity
I stop reaching and turn to face her. Rarely does life electrocute you through the iris, does it place something so good and real within your grasp. I don’t need to reach anymore. What I want is in front of me. The hair on my neck stands up in a salute.
certification 