Chapter One

To start with, I would like to say that this is my first post of my first blog. Unfortunately, I havent gotten around to telling my friends and family about this site, but I figure that this will happen in good time. I really started it as an outlet. Living in the middle of the Congo can be a lot of any girl. For starters, there are not many girls doing it, aside of course, from the Congolese ones. I think I am probably one of three civilian western females under 40 in a hundred mile radius. This means that I have yet to pay for a beer, because of the many guys both under and over forty in the 100 mile radius.

And just what am I doing here? I work in the area of international development and humanitarian assistance. Basically, trying to help poor people be less poor, and people affected by conflict to start rebuilding their lives. Sometimes that's not as easy as it sounds. I do this because when I was travelling the world with just my backpack a few years back, it occured to me that i wanted to be contributing, not just experiencing.

so voila, here i am.

in the middle of the congo.