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CURRENT
Amanda Browne (ajbrowne)
Living the Dream, Grassroots style
Age: 24
Hometown: Shamong, NJ
Current location: Honduras
Web presence: Facebook, Blog
Status: Municipal Development Advisor for Peace Corps Honduras
Amanda grew up in Southern New Jersey, the youngest of three children raised on the “American Dream.” Always curious and seeking adventure, she found herself studying in Washington, DC and diving head-first into a student-run international exchange organization called AIESEC. Her experience opened her eyes to a whole new perspective, travelling to Morocco and Turkey for leadership conferences, and spending six months studying and volunteering in Tunisia. Expanding her international network also opened Amanda’s eyes to the realm of possibilities in a world full of problems. Eager to share her passion, she graduated with a degree in International Development and joined the Peace Corps. After a year of working in a coffee shop in DC, she finally received her invitation to serve in Honduras, where she could finally put those Spanish classes to good use. Amanda now finds herself constantly challenged and inspired to help her community seguir adelante and achieve its potential.
Alexa Williams (alexa.williams)
A Flight of Fancy: Chasing volcanoes in Leon, Nicaragua
Hometown: White Salmon, WA
Current location: Leon, Nicaragua
Web presence: Blog
Status: Volunteer trekking guide with SONATI (Sociedad & Naturaleza Internacional)
A native of Washington state, Alexa’s childhood was spent exploring the Columbia River Gorge, primarily on foot and on horseback. In her adult life Alexa has made her love for the outdoors a central focus. In 2008 she completed a long-distance hike of the 2,600 mile Pacific Crest Trail, walking from Mexico to Canada in 5 ½ months. Her life-changing experiences on the trail resulted in heightened wanderlust. She relocated to Taiwan in 2009, to study Mandarin Chinese, in preparation for another trek– this time along the Great Wall of China. In 2010 she spent 3 ½ months in China, hiking a total of 1,000 miles along the Ming Dynasty Wall in Gansu, Ningxia, and Shaanxi provinces. Her current adventure (and first experience in Central America): three months volunteering in Nicaragua as an adventure trekking guide with Sonati, an environmental education nonfprofit organization!
Caitlin McHale (camchale)
Living on faith, esperanza, and love in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Age: 25
Hometown: Winchester, Virginia
Current location: Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Web presence: Facebook, Blog
Status: Co-founder and executive director of Project Esperanza
Backing out on her plans since childhood, Caitlin McHale withdrew her application to Virginia Tech’s vet school as an undergraduate Junior in order to fully focus on the growth of a student organization she and a friend had recently founded. From this point on in 2005, her life was completely absorbed by fundraising, planning volunteer trips to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and soon overseeing several programs that work toward social change in both Puerto Plata and Blacksburg, Virginia where Virginia Tech is located. She was also soon neck deep in all of the responsibilities that an executive director of a nonprofit organization has. Since 2008 she has lived permanently in Puerto Plata and works with the large Haitian immigrant population there – the population found to be in the most need. She is now married and gave birth to a son in August 2009.
Eric Rindal (erindal)
Fake it till you make it
Age: 23
Hometown: Conway, Washington
Current Location: La Paz, Bolivia
Web Presence: Blog, Twitter, Website, Facebook, Tumblr
Status: Kiva Fellows 16th Class
Eric grew up the youngest of five children north of Seattle, Washington. He was always curious to see what life was like beyond his town of 84 people; thus began his quest to California for college, to Ecuador for teaching, and to Sierra Leone for microfinance. Taking great interest in how cultures and economies interact, Eric studied (and barely learned) Spanish and Business (specific to developing countries) at Westmont College. In college he studied in Quito, Ecuador, and stayed on to teach English at Yachana Technical High School. As a teacher he understood that the presence and dedication of a volunteer far surpassed the intentions of volunteering. He has just tied up his first volunteer placement with Kiva.org as a Kiva Fellow from May-August 2011 in Sierra Leone, and is now in Bolivia for his second Fellowship. In no way has Eric ever been prepared or well experienced for traveling in South America, he just fakes it till he makes it and expects great things.
Fran Talavera (frantalavera)
Snapshots from a Development Worker
Age: 27
Hometown: Cambridge, UK
Current location: Peru, (mainly Cuzco)
Web presence: Blog, Blog, Twitter (LAFFCharity)
Status: International Projects Manager with Latin American Foundation for the Future (LAFF)
Fran spent a year volunteering in Peru during her Year Abroad while she studied Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at the University of Manchester. While in Peru in 2005-6 she volunteered with a police-run refuge for street children in Cuzco and was instrumental in setting up Azul Wasi, a home for former street children just outside the city. This experience fired her desire to work in International Development, contributing to making the world a fairer, more equal place. After graduating, Fran worked for just over two years as Training Programme Manager for Engineers Without Borders UK, running a training programme for young people wanting to get into International Development. In 2010, Fran won one of eight places available through the Vodafone Foundation World of Difference International Programme to work as International Projects Manager for Latin American Foundation for the Future (LAFF). She splits her time between Peru, Bolivia and the UK.
Gena Thomas (genalou)
Pursuing a wall-less, box-less calling
Age: 27
Hometown: Concord, North Carolina
Current location: Mexico
Web presence: Facebook, CouchSurfing, Blog
Status: Faith-based coffee shop co-manager with her husband, middle-school ESL teacher; Co-editor of La Vida Idealist
Ready to see God outside of a box, Gena and her husband, Andrew, moved to Mexico in mid-2009 to simply help. The definition of that verb has become less obscure and more defined every new day outside of a normal comfort zone. Gena — a writer, teacher, reader, climber, self-proclaimed photographer, and lover of machine-less arts and crafts — wants so badly to teach men and women to fish and watch them eternally find satisfaction. She and her husband are involved with several projects: a coffee shop, a school library and advancing an English program at a local school system.
Ginny Savage (ginnysavage)
Guat a Wonderful World – finding direction after a year abroad
Age: 23
Hometown: Norfolk, VA
Current Location: Sololá, Guatemala
Web Presence: Facebook, Blog, Blog
Status: Program Director at Manna Project International-Guatemala
Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, Ginny was bitten by the travel bug at a young age. After numerous summers in Europe and a month-long service trip to the Dominican Republic, her passion for travel was complemented by an even greater desire to become involved in international development. She pursued this desire at Vanderbilt University where she received a degree in Medicine, Health, and Society, and then by joining on with Manna Project International to help found a new site in the Mayan town of Chaquijyá, Guatemala. Throughout the past thirteen months, Ginny taught English classes to 6th graders and teachers, led health workshops in the community’s schools, directed a summer camp, and collaborated with her roommates/coworkers to create a mission and vision for the fledging community development site. Her commitment with Manna finishes in August, and she cannot wait to explore more of Guatemala and the organizations working there
Kate Bennett (katembennett)
Exploring the possibilities of development work and how much helado one person can eat
Age: 23
Hometown: Stockton, New Jersey
Current location: Quito, Ecuador
Web presence: LinkedIn
Status: Junior Consultant at Sun Mountain International, Co-editor of La Vida Idealist
Kate can’t get enough of work and play in Latin America. She has had the great joy of bouncing around nine of Latin America’s great nations through a mess of vocations- travelling, WWOOF’ing, teaching science classes, volunteering, eating ice cream, scuba diving, visiting Kiva borrowers, writing, eating more ice cream, and generally dodging the inexorable return to the motherland. Though nearly always struggling to rub two pennies together, suffering intestine aliments of varying severity, and scowling at piropos, Kate’s thirst for adventure and a more meaningful connection with the people and work in her life continues to draw her back to nonprofit work in Latin America. She just finished up at eight month stint as a Kiva Fellow in Ecuador and Peru, and she is still trying to work out a way to do volunteer work for a living. Realistically “volunteer” doesn’t seem to encapsulate how desperately she wants to be doing this. All the time. Forever. (While she mulls this over, however, she’s enjoying the first salary she’s seen in years with Sun Mountain International, an environmental and risk-management consultancy nonprofit based in Quito, Ecuador. What a sell-out.)
Laurel Marshall(laurelmarshall)
Immersion and nonprofit work with a side of mango
Age: 22
Hometown: Akron, Ohio
Current location: El Salvador
Web presence: Facebook, Blog
Status: International Relations and Delegations Coordinator at FUNDAHMER
Laurel grew up in Akron, Ohio and spent the majority of those first eighteen years reading Jerry Spinelli, running errands in tights after dance class, and perfecting her guacamole recipe. While she is still an avid reader, dancer, and avocado enthusiast, Laurel is also a recent graduate of Saint Louis University in Missouri, where she studied Theology and Spanish. Laurel is not much of a traveler – she really just wants to live in one place long enough to plant and harvest a garden – but her passion for corn, women’s stories, and the Central American reality has taken her to Mexico, Nicaragua, and, most recently, El Salvador, where she landed in September of 2011. Laurel is currently volunteering with FUNDAHMER, a non-profit committed to accompanying popular communities of faith, and she is excited to continue to learn from the Salvadoran people and commune with the mango tree in her backyard.
Lauren Deal (laurendeal)
Age: 24
Hometown: Ewing, NJ
Current location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Web presence: Blog, Facebook
Status: former Fulbright Scholar and Program Assistant at Sustainable Horizon, current Argentine Sikuri
Lauren Deal has always been a girl with a plan. In 2007, while studying Anthropology and Linguistics at The George Washington University, she studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she carried out her thesis research on lyric opera singing and quickly became “argentinizada.” She quickly picked up the unique Argentine accent (che boludo, sho no sé de que me hablás), a love for red wine and a plan… to come back to Argentina however she could. As such, she returned to Buenos Aires in March of 2010 on a Fulbright Fellowship to study opera and Argentine identity, upon completion of which she planned to continue on to her get her doctorate in anthropology. However, one fateful may evening she met the sikuris (pan-fluters) of Buenos Aires and the plan went down the tubes. Sixteen months later Lauren continues her life in Buenos Aires, a newly appointed program assistant to Sustainable Horizon and a full-time sikuri (panfluter). Her time pan-fluting has brought her on many adventures throughout the Andes and has given her a new perspective on life, activism and community in Latin America.
Leah Giesler (leahgiesler)
Photography with a Purpose
Age: 24
Hometown: Aston, Pennsylvania
Current location: Bogotá, Colombia
Web presence: Blog, Website, Lightstalkers, Facebook
Status: Traveling across South America as part of the 25twenty-five project
Leah was born in the suburbs of Philadelphia, daughter to an inventor-father and a mother addicted to reading science fiction novels. After a childhood instilled with unfettered imagination and absent boundaries, Leah put herself through art school where she studied photography and discovered anthropology along the way. College began and inspired her ability to travel the world, allowing her to live abroad in Italy and India. But upon graduating, Leah felt an itch to discover the southern hemisphere as well as do something good with her camera. This combination formed the idea for the 25twenty-five project, where she will be traveling across South America to photograph for 25 NGO’s while she is 25 years old. Departing the United States and headed for Bogota, Colombia this Valentine’s Day, Leah can’t wait to help tell all the stories waiting to be told.
Luba Guzei (flowofthedough)
Trying to understand the flow of the dough in South America: investing in communities and ourselves
Age: 22
Hometown: Moscow, Russia
Current location: Lima, Peru
Status: English Teacher with Langrow
Born in Russia, Luba has never lived in a single city for longer than five years. So it came as no surprise when upon completing her degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (with a focus on revolution and transitioning governments in Eastern Europe and Latin America), Luba decided to explore the part of her degree she had no firsthand experience with: Latin America. After traveling for four months, she decided to stay in Lima, Peru. Luba hopes to gain a better understanding of how investment (both business and nonprofit) affects impoverished communities throughout the country, and how the world’s second-fastest growing economy treats citizens of all classes. Rather than opting for a small town, Luba chose a big city because she is interested in working on large-reaching, structural change, but has found that there are few organizations with this objective. She hopes this blog will highlight the difficulty of finding meaningful projects to work on while trying to support yourself in South America.
Mindi Batson (MindiBatson)
Walking in Guatemalan Beauty
Age: 29
Hometown: Luling, Louisiana
Current location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Web presence: Facebook
Status: G22 Green Connect Program Developer, Independent English Teacher, Psychologist, and Yoga Teacher
Intrigued by human development, Mindi spent her childhood pondering the soul journey. After receiving her B.A. in Psychology, she boarded a plane to Denmark, where she had her first international experience as an Au Pair. Backpacking through Europe only increased her appetite for adventure, which ultimately led her to Guatemala. While in Guatemala, she experienced a soul transformation and made a commitment to return. Armed with passion for Guatemala, Mindi embarked on the pursuit of her Master’s in Rehabilitation Psychology in England, where she researched the impact of Tai Chi Qigong and holistic approaches to rehabilitation including yoga. While working in Washington, D.C., she experienced the benefits of a deepened connection with herself and with nature through the practice of yoga and meditation. Currently, she is working with her co-founder on G22, a Guatemalan based organization which is dedicated to environmental education and is still in its development phase. Specifically, Mindi is exploring ways to connect, empower, and inspire people in Guatemala to reach their fullest potential through the development of green, holistic programs for G22.
Mira Pope aka Mira Talbott-Pope (mirapope)
Untiring Retiree
Age: 73
Hometown: Chico, California
Current location: San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala
Web presence: Facebook, Blog
Status: Volunteer with Pedagogia Basica, Estamos Listos, and Ayudame Escribir Mi Futuro
Formerly a teacher, social worker and psychotherapist, Miranda first came to Guatemala on the evening of her 70th birthday and has been living there for nearly three years, first near Antigua and now at Lago Atitlan. Her current house—a rental with the project leader—is in San Pedro la Laguna, a smallish mostly-indigenous town with a long history of foreign influence, as it is one of the most studied areas of Guatemala. Thus it has an interesting mix of elements: traditional (clothing and cultural events) and modern (internet shops, restaurants and hotels, some cable TV.) Miranda is by constitution a writer. She has just published her first novel, set in Guatemala, which was an opportunity to write about her discoveries of the country’s history and culture. Her current interests are developing more interactive education in the schools, helping to preserve Guatemalan culture through murals and stories for children, and dancing salsa.
Natalie Southwick (Natalie.Southwick)
Trading words for experiences, one country at a time
Age: 23
Hometown: Arlington, MA
Current Location: Bogotá, Colombia
Web presence: blog, Facebook, Twitter
Status: Volunteer English teacher with WorldTeach
A proud Bostonian, Natalie has been drawn to Latin America since she first traveled to Costa Rica at age 14. In 2009, she spent a semester in Buenos Aires, where she interned at a civil rights organization and tried to understand the porteño accent. After graduating from Northwestern University with a journalism degree and Spanish minor, she stubbornly ignored the advice of many well-meaning adults and pursued work in both journalism and the non-profit sector. Last year, while serving as an AmeriCorps member in Boston, she was overwhelmed by the desire to flee the country once again — so flee she did. On January 4th, Natalie arrived in Colombia to begin a year as a volunteer English teacher. Though she’s still in the midst of plotting how to make a living by combining the notoriously high-paying fields of journalism and international volunteerism, she’s mostly just thrilled to be living in Latin America again, and has vowed that this WILL be the year she finally learns to roll her r’s, even if it takes the whole year.
Nereida Heller (nerelaprofe)
From 45° South to 8° North
Age: 26
Hometown: Cranford, New Jersey
Current location: Santiago de Veraguas, Panama
Web presence: Facebook, LinkedIn, CouchSurfing, blog
Status: Field Director, WorldTeach Panama; Co-editor of La Vida Idealist
After spending the majority of her childhood playing the piano, and attending the Oberlin Conservatory as a piano major, Nereida realized that education and social service were her true passions. Since then, she has worked as a teacher in various capacities: a TA at Oberlin, an English profesora at a community college in Santiago, Chile, and as the supervisor of a small after-school program in the Harlem Children’s Zone. Her latest gig was at an elementary school in snow-covered Coyhaique, Chile. Now, Nereida is living in Santiago, Panama, training new teachers and volunteers, and marveling at how hot it gets eight degrees north of the equator.
Philip Dixon (philzone81)
Exploring the transcendental benefits of two wheeled transportation and literature
Age: 29
Hometown:Unionville, Pennsylvania
Current location: Quito, Ecuador
Web presence: Blog, Facebook, Shutterfly
Status: English Literature Teacher
Philip arrived in Guayaquil, Ecuador to a full teaching load of whining, demanding, privileged middle school students. For better or worse, almost three years later, he finds himself in the same city, absorbed by the Ecuadorian and Latin culture. Although international fame and fortune as a professional mountain biker has eluded him, he continues to enter regional and national downhill and cross country mountain bike races. Also, he pursues biking as a way to make friends and explore the Andes. As a literature teacher, Philip is constantly planning and preparing to create meaningful learning experiences for his students. Ecuador, although small, is extremely diverse in geography and culture, and Philip enjoys peeling the layers of complexity by getting to know the people and places of each region.
Turner Savard (turner.savard)
One pair of itchy feet
Age: 30
Hometown: Middletown, CT
Current location: Leon, Nicaragua
Web presence: Blog
Status: Volunteer trekking guide with SONATI (Sociedad & Naturaleza Internacional)
Turner has spent a lot of his life moving from one end of somewhere to the other. He started out working on a game reserve in Zimbabwe. Then he hiked the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. He’s volunteered as a guide in Guatemala, and worked on a vineyard in Western Australia. He went to Taiwan to teach English while studying Chinese, so that he could hike the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. He loves speaking languages other than English, so an opportunity to volunteer, hike volcanoes, and bone up on his Spanish in Nicaragua was irresistible.
