A Chinese Sonnet
Walk down a street. “Ni hao! Ni hao!” they scream First it bothered me but it’s now a game Before, I would sulk, just filling with steam Now, I get “chinois!” just it’s all the same I am not the only one, often my Italian friend is call Chinese too he tells them otherwise, they […]
Letting Go
I spent most of my year at the South Bronx Health Center settling in. Immersed in a continuous learning process, I was always refining my routine and developing an attack plan for assignments that fell outside my comfort zone. Despite inevitable moments of frustration, this experience was usually exciting. I was challenged to innovate and […]
Warmth, solidarity and hospitality far from home
My mom visited me in rural Burundi last month, and we took a rough bus ride to Kigoma, Tanzania to visit the NGO founded by our dear friend, Yared. We had talked about making this trip from the US for over ten years, and it was a lucky coincidence to find a Global Health Corps […]
Animal Farm
Eggs are never on my shopping list in Rwanda. But they’re almost always on the breakfast plate. This is because living far from the cramped confines of a typical New York City apartment, I’ve become a bit of a chicken farmer. It began with the two turkeys, both female, that my co-fellow Oda and I […]
I Did It!
Like several other GHC fellows, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Eric Bing, Senior Fellow and Director of Global Health at the George W. Bush Institute and a good friend of GHC. Together with a small group of 2012-2013 GHC fellows, we worked through Eric’s 4-week “I did It!” program and I wanted to […]
Identifying bright spots
In Kyangwali Refugee settlement, there is a weekly market which used to operate every Sunday. At the beginning of this year, for reasons I do not know, the market was shifted to Tuesdays. We had no idea what effects this would have on our work in the settlement. On a typical Tuesday, the majority of […]
Glimpses of Malawi – Me No Minibus
There is nothing as wonderful as finding adventure and amusement in the mundane, in this case, my daily commute to work. Every morning I walk down to the main road and stand in a shady spot next to the Sunbird Hotel. The morning traffic whizzes by, interspersed with the occasional cyclist often accompanied by a […]
The Hike–A perfect end to a perfect year.
Almost one year ago, I sat down and wrote my goals for the fellowship year alongside my co-fellow, Rehema. Our co-fellow goals ranged from reducing our salt intake (which was excessive) to learning how to dance (well) to challenging one another in our work and our worldviews. At the end of our list, we haphazardly […]
No words, just punches
I don’t speak a lick of Swahili or Kirundi. And the other Burundian boxers hardly speak French or English, but we still communicate; not through talking, but through sport. Regardless of whether or not I can verbally speak to them, sweating and sharing punches with one another forms a bond between us. It is an […]
Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve…
“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I consider myself to be a […]