Thailand

Thailand

For Eric and Jared and I, it was good to now visit a place we’re familiar with. We lived in Chiang Mai 15 years ago, and both the girls were born here, although they were very young when we left. We celebrated Gianna’s 17th birthday with a nice dinner and longtime friends. It was a …

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

After leaving Tajikistan, we spent one day and one night in Uzbekistan and went to Magic City. It was pretty cool. It was a big outdoor shopping mall, but all the streets and buildings were themed after different places in the world (kind of like Disneyland). We went in an upside-down room and a maze …

Tajikistan

Tajikistan

My mom, Jessica, Jared, and I spent most of our time here sharing in the English school classrooms. A lot of the people are trilingual or at least bilingual, usually being able to speak Tajik, Uzbek, and Russian. At the English school, we helped organize 600+ of their books according to the different reading levels. …

France

France

We drove into France one day to visit a town that is said to have inspired the set for the Beauty and the Beast movie. And we could see why! Walking into Riquewihr, this old walled city from the 13th century, was certainly like walking onto a beautiful movie set, with a central fountain, brick …

South Africa

South Africa

In each country we visit, the first phrases I try to learn are a greeting, and how to say thank you. Afrikaans, the language of South Africa, has the easiest “thank you” for me to remember. Everywhere we went we told people to “buy a donkey”, because that’s how you say “thank you” in Afrikaans! …

Rwanda

Rwanda

What an extraordinary country this is! We began our stay with a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which our friends highly recommended. It’s difficult to put into words the horrific history that is portrayed here, where the ruling Hutus brutally massacred the Tutsis in 1994. It’s incredibly sobering to see humanity at its absolute …