Hola y feliz Acción de Gracias! 

This year was the first time I have ever been away from home for a holiday and, to be honest, there was a big part of me that was dreading it. Especially because I’m living in a country where the holiday doesn’t even exist. Knowing that my family would all be together, having traditions that I wouldn’t be able to participate in this time, made me feel homesick in a way that I haven’t felt yet since being here. It was hard to anticipate these things happening knowing that I wouldn’t be able to be there with them. Waking up on Thursday morning, I was already ready for the day to be over. 

But, that feeling quickly changed. I walked to work like a normal morning, because that’s what it was for everyone else. It was a weird feeling knowing today was an important day miles away, but it was like a secret that I was holding in. When I got to work, I got to my desk and opened my computer to work, and started talking to a coworker who asked me about Thanksgiving. We started chatting about what today meant to me, how I usually spend the day, and what my family is probably doing right now. Another one of my coworkers decided to order pastries (chipas, yum!) for everyone that felt like our own little Thanksgiving celebration. It was a small action that really meant the world to me. 

Then, some of my friends planned a friendsgiving for me and invited some of their friends to come and celebrate with us too. We cooked together that afternoon and made a traditional dish from Argentina (Pastel de Papa) that really just reminded me of an American Thanksgiving Casserole. We enjoyed a meal together, talked about all of my Thanksgiving traditions, all shared what we are thankful for, played games, and ate a lot of desert! It felt exactly how you would expect an international Thanksgiving celebration to feel: sentimental, nostalgic, but with a little different twist and lots of laughter. It was so special to experience this day in a new way with new people, and also be able to share an American tradition with all of my friends here, since usually it’s the other way around! 

Sitting around that table truly brought me so much thankfulness, and made me feel all of the Thanksgiving love, even from thousands of miles away. Sitting around a table with people I barely knew three months ago and some that I hadn’t even met yet, with people celebrating a holiday that doesn’t exist where they’re from, with people who intentionally took time to help me feel seen and loved, with people who never fail to bring a smile to my face even when I have a heavy heart, truly redefined the meaning of Thanksgiving for me. I truly am so thankful for the opportunity to be here, for all of the people who helped make it possible for me to be here, and for everyone who has welcomed me here with open arms. Estoy tan agradecida! 

With love, Sarah

Yassas and happy thanksgiving friends! As I am writing this my contribution to the little “friendsgiving” I am attending is simmering on the stove. Me and the one other American friend I have here are hosting a thanksgiving dinner for all of our international friends.

It doesn’t quite feel like a holiday, however. This is the first major holiday I have spent away from home. Even last year, when I was on my exchange program in Australia, I flew home the day before Thanksgiving and ate dinner with my family while so jet lagged I could barely keep my eyes open.

That being said, even though it doesn’t feel like a holiday, there are still many things I am grateful for. I am grateful for the Lumos Grant and the opportunity to be here. I am grateful for the beautiful community that surrounds me every day.  I am grateful for my health, that I can hike and climb and travel with ease. I am grateful to have a family that I dearly miss on this holiday.  And I am grateful for the friends I have here that are making sure Ella and I have a proper Thanksgiving even though they don’t normally celebrate.

Now that my holiday reflections are over... lets talk about what I’ve been up to these past couple of weeks.

Christmas Preparation

Screen prints

On December 5th, my NGO will be hosting a Christmas Bazaar, so the past two weeks have been filled with lots of preparation for the festivities. This includes screen printing dozens of bags, promoting on social media and in the NGO circle on Lesvos, and lots of fun workshops making the gifts.

In addition to this, we had a cute little Christmas tree decorating party at Safe Passage (and they made ornaments with everyone’s face on it).

Additionally, on the day of the Bazaar I will be leading a screen printing workshop, which I am nervous-excited for.

12 Mile Hike – Oh my!

Some of the hiking views

On Sunday I signed up for an 8am hike thinking it would be a nice morning walk. Plot twist... it was not. My nice morning walk turned out to be a 12-mile hike, mostly uphill, that spanned over 6 hours... yes I am not kidding.

Nevertheless, the views were beautiful, the company was beautiful, and I had some good laughs (and forced everyone to listen to The Climb by Miley Cyrus… oops).

Birthday Celebrations

In addition to this, my roommate celebrated her birthday this week, so the crew from Safe Passage took her to a taverna for dinner. We ordered wayyyyy too much food (as you do at a taverna) but it was a night of lovely conversation, lovely company, and incredible food.

And of course… here is the playlist

Nostalgia’s Lie by Sam Fender

Beep by Flipturn

Home Sweet Home by the Favors

Hello again! Another exciting couple of weeks have passed for me here in Nairobi. I feel like time is passing so quickly; sometimes it’s hard to believe that I have been here for nearly 4 months already!

On Friday of this past week, I had a slight break from the routine of the clinic and helped run health screenings for students at a local school. With the help of a community health specialist, some of the clinic staff and I did medical, dental, and vision checks on nearly 70 4–10-year-old students. I worked in our “triage” taking vitals and collecting basic information, like age, weight, and any medical complaints they may have had, on the students. This task certainly tested my ability to speak basic Swahili because a lot of the students, particularly the younger ones, were not fluent in English. Even though I was having the same basic conversation with all of them, asking questions pertaining to their name, age, and complaints, it was still a test of the Swahili medical and anatomical terminology I have picked up while being here. For example, remembering that if a kid said they had pain in their “tumbo” they meant their stomach or in their “kichwa” they were speaking of having a headache. Even though it was a challenge, I was grateful for it because I have had very few opportunities to practice my language acquisition over the past few months as, most adults know English and will switch to English when speaking directly to me. After going through triage with me, the kids were sent to the dentist for a basic dental exam, then the optometrist for a vision test, and finally to the doctor for a physical exam and to receive any vitamins or medication they may have needed. All in all, it took us around 4 hours to see all of the students and afterwards we shared a wonderful lunch of ugali and chicken prepared by the school cooks.

Otherwise, I also had the opportunity recently to visit a UCESCO project that I had never been to before, a cosmetology and technical school for young women in the community. The school teaches both the trade and business skills to empower these women to start their own small businesses after completion of the program. I got to visit on a day when they were learning how to crochet and knit and sat in on their lesson with them. I even got to join in on the lesson and flex my minimal crochet skills I picked up from my grandmother throughout my childhood. This was a good break from the routine, and I hope to visit the school again in my remaining time here.

While my free time activities have been a little limited over the past couple of weeks due to my first (and hopefully only, knock-on-wood) bout of illness, I have continued to explore both familiar and new parts of the city. In recent weeks, I went to a standup comedy show, took an official walking tour of the downtown business/government district, and went to Kenya’s railway museum. While the CBD (central business district) has become quite familiar to me and I have taken advantage of the cross-country rail system, I enjoyed learning about the history of each, particularly how colonization influenced the fairly recent development of Kenya’s government and the creation of Kenyan rail.

I am looking forward to much more excitement to come!

Triage at the school health screening day

Old trains at the Railway Museum

View of Nairobi from an observation deck in the CBD

During the past couple of weeks I have volunteered with the local  shelter and nursing home as part of an extension to the hospital and further connecting with the community.

Mary Open Doors is a shelter located in San Ignacio, Belize that specifically focuses on women and children affected by domestic violence. I was able to meet Mrs. Medina who manages the non-profit organization to have a conversation about what the biggest needs in the community are and how the shelter does outreach to people to supply those needs. Apart from providing temporary housing to families, Mary Open Doors also has a needs list for families in the Cayo district who are in need. The families who are included on the needs list range from elderly to illness to single mothers. When enough supplies are donated, the shelter also hosts a food bank for the community.

This week I was able to volunteer alongside Mrs. Medina and visit homes to deliver donations which included clothing, food, hygiene, and medication. With the income in Belize being equivalent to $2.50 USD an hour, food insecurity is at an all time high due to the low-income and high-cost of living because of inflation.  Clothing is difficult to find in countries as Belize as there are few stores that supply clothing and have limited selections. Many Belizeans have to travel outside the country to Mexico or Guatemala to find clothing that fits, there are also second- hand “American” clothing stands at the local markets which are imported in barrels overseas from the USA. Hygiene and medication are often times overlooked in Belize as not being necessary due to the high cost of food, priorities tend to overcome others. Given this, when delivering basic necessities, the families were extremely grateful to receive medications and supplies they would’ve otherwise not had.

We visited a single mother with 5 children that had previously had housing at Mary Open Doors but are now currently in housing sourced by the organization. The eldest daughter is pursuing welding and hopes to make it her lifelong career.

We visited an elderly woman who has become blind and whose husband has been struggling with cancer. When given the supplies she continued to thank God for knowing that she had a need.

We visited an elderly woman taking care of her 5 grandchildren after her daughter abandoned her children. They live in a house made of scrap metal and to my knowledge, the grandma is unemployed.

We also delivered supplies to the daughter of an ill elderly couple as she has began to act as a caretaker for them.

I also began volunteering at Octavia Waight which is a nursing home or “help age” as it is known in Belize. This center has 35 residents with many diagnoses, from Alzheimer’s, strokes, dementia, Parkinson’s, and many other neurological disorders. This week, I was able to meet the staff and discuss the needs of the facility. A few of the areas I let them know I could help in is bringing in home made deserts for snack time, organizing the thrift store they have for funding, and creating community with the residents as well as helping care for residents. Many of the residents’ family members live far away from Belize and are unable to visit them, so having people to look forward to seeing is essential at a center like this. The residents at this facility are mostly handicapped and need others facilitating them throughout the center as they are no longer able to, so helping do so would be a big help as well.

I can’t believe I am just a week away from marking three months of living in San Pedro. So much has been happening that sometimes it feels impossible to keep up. Ever since November, Christmas lights and decorations have filled the streets. It reminds me of home. Since Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here in the DR, November feels like the official start to the holiday season, an invitation to prepare. The holidays aren’t here yet, but they’re approaching quickly, and it truly feels that way.

Work at Mercy has picked up significantly. I recently finished interviewing the women we serve and have now moved on to interviewing the leadership team—and I have even been interviewed myself. Having the opportunity to lead Mercy toward growth and accountability is something I never would have foreseen, yet I’m extremely grateful to have been trusted with such responsibility.

Last week, I revamped the workshop intake form due to the possibility of receiving a new woman.  Normally, Mercy doesn’t use intake forms, but when outreach was more frequent, the team would simply invite women on the street to church, and if they came, they were offered a day of work and paid a day’s wage. I felt strongly that structure and uniformity are necessary in professional spaces, and the intake form gives us essential insight before welcoming anyone in.

Outside of work, I made the intentional decision to make November a slower month for myself. I took a break from the gym and from coming home, only to jump right back into work. Instead, I’ve implemented moments of silence to recenter and regulate my nervous system after long days. It has been incredibly beneficial.

This past weekend I celebrated my coworker’s birthday in Bayahibe, about an hour from San Pedro, and we stayed at a resort. Being in a different environment gave me a sense of peace I didn’t realize I was missing in the busyness of city life. I never knew how much I valued spaces of quiet and tranquility until I no longer had them. Sitting by the pool, chatting with coworkers, sipping piña coladas, and watching the waves hit the shore was exactly what I needed.

I also went to the mall in the capital for the first time. My boss took me to the movies, and apparently, cinemas in the DR don’t play English versions until 9 p.m., so we watched Regretting You by Colleen Hoover in Spanish—and I was proud to be able to keep up confidently. Before the movie, we walked around the mall and grabbed  Starbucks drinks. We ended up being the only two people in the theatre, laughing loudly and making jokes throughout the film. It was simple, but it was special.

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5: 22-23

Breathtaking view of the beach.

“if you like piña coladas”

friends turned family

anytime we go out of San Pedro, stopping for Starbucks is a MUST

Matcha cheesecake...this was so yum

the birthday girl ! Jen 🙂

Hola! 

I’m not going to lie, sitting here staring at a blank screen that soon needs to be filled with 500 words feels really daunting this week. The past couple weeks have been full of the big and little moments that come with living abroad. So, today I’m going to try something new. Back when I used to bring groups of volunteers to Mexico, it was really important to be able to share with each other the things we were experiencing, some people for the first time, and be able to connect as a team in those moments. Because of that, we would end every day by going around and answering three questions: What was a highlight? What was a low point? Who is someone that you want to give a shoutout to? It really is a great way to summarize how you experienced your day and be able to reflect on the good, while still acknowledging the hard or challenging things. So today, I’m going to share my high, low, and shoutout with you all from the last two weeks. 

What was a highlight? 

This week I was able to go and celebrate some of my friends here graduating from University and I had the best time! I learned that graduations here are celebrated a lot differently here than they are at home. Rather than having a formal graduation ceremony (walking across the stage, wearing a cap and gown, receiving a diploma) the University hosts all of the graduates and their families for a formal dinner and then they have a party afterwards for students and their friends. So, when they asked me to come and celebrate with them, it was an immediate “yes”! But, to be honest, once I got more details on exactly what this entailed, I wanted to look for every reason why I couldn’t go anymore. Turns out, these parties start at midnight, end at five o’clock in the morning, and take place on a weeknight. Needless to say, as someone who doesn’t usually enjoy leaving the house past 9pm, this was something that made me nervous, especially considering I had to work the next morning. But, even though it scared me, I chose to embrace this “you only live once” moment (& the late-night Argentinian culture) and go to support and celebrate my friends. Obviously, it turned out incredible and I had so much fun. So, it was a good reminder that, even if something scares me or I’m not sure how it’s going to all turn out (like going to work after not sleeping at all), it usually means I’m going to experience something amazing that I will remember forever. This was definitely one of those moments. 

What was a low point?

Somewhere between the changing seasons and a lot of business of life catching up with me, I caught the flu, which meant I spent almost all of last week in bed alone in my apartment. As someone who already doesn’t like being sick and unable to do anything, it was ten times worse to be sick 5,000 miles away from home. It made me feel homesick in a way I hadn’t experienced yet, which made it feel like a very long week. 

Who is someone that you want to give a shoutout to?

Truly, I can’t choose just one person, because I want to shout out every single person here who has made life abroad a little bit easier and a lot less lonely. The ones who come to check up on me with medicine and soup when I’m sick and can’t get out of bed, the coworkers who bring me a variety of pastries and make me try every single one of them so I can taste all of the traditional Argentine flavors, the friends of friends who barely know me but drive 25 minutes out of their way to make sure I get back home safe. As cheesy as it is, it really takes a village, and I am so thankful for mine. 

With love, Sarah

Moin!!!! Which is how you say hello in Northern Germany 🙂 My internship gave me a week off to visit some friends of mine from my exchange semester. A very needed week off, the past month I found that I put too much on my plate (interning full time, volunteering part time, and doing event photography pretty much every week) and could feel burn out creeping in. However, after this trip I am feeling refreshed, grateful, and excited to return to beautiful little Lesvos.

The trip was about 7 days total, with 4 days in the UK and 3 days in Germany. First stop, in the UK I went to Birmingham to visit my lovely friend Esme.  Here, she took me on the UK food tour, including my personal favorite, a classic fish and chips.  We also visited some lovely art museums and geology museums where I learned a lot about Anglo-Saxon history (the rock museum was my favorite though... featured below is my favorite rock). And, because I was travelling in November, I got to experience the UK culture... rain. (Not included in these photos is me joining the University of Birmingham jazz choir for a day.)

Me at the rock museum (I love rocks)

A proper fish and chips

Then it was off to Hamburg to visit Luisa!! On the agenda we had seeing the Old City of Hamburg, trying traditional German food, a Christmas market, and lots of long catch up chats while walking around the beautiful city (Hamburg is an incredibly underrated travel destination).

Some cute pictures from beautiful Hamburg... including a proper German Christmas Market!!!!

Me and Luisa in old city Hamburg

Sitting at the airport reflecting on the lovely past couple of days I’ve had, I feel so fulfilled. Not only to have such close friendships that span across the globe, but to have been able to see these friends again. I said goodbye to them nearly one year ago today, not knowing if or when I would see them. And one year later I finally got to visit their hometowns 🙂

Now, it is back to Lesvos. I am feeling rested and ready to get back to work. On the agenda this week we have: sending pitches to European universities to create a volunteer network, scheduling and capturing social media content for the next two weeks, collaborating with a photographer to refresh the website, organizing the timeline of the digital archive for my NGO, editing photos for a fundraising event I photographed recently, and, if I have time, screen printing hundreds of labels for the bags. Yes, I have a busy week ahead. But thank goodness it is work I enjoy!

Helllllooo friends! I’m saying hello in English today because, guess what, I went to an English speaking country! This post was written immediately before my flight (however... time got away from me so I am posting it now).

I was given a week off to visit some friends from my exchange semester, which is very needed because I’ve been feeling a bit burnt out as of late. However, as I’m sitting here at the airport waiting for my flight, I’m feeling emotional about leaving Lesvos, even if it is just for a week. Although I am very excited to see my friends (who I said goodbye to almost exactly one year ago) and get a break from the island, I’ve fallen so in love with Lesvos that it is hard to part with her.

Sitting in the taxi on the way to the airport, I was thinking about how anxious I was upon arriving on the island. I was anxious to hail a cab, anxious about making friends, and unsure of what my accommodation would look like. And here I am, 3 months later, easily grabbing a cab (and speaking a little Greek in the process!!!) after having a lovely lunch with my friends and saying goodbye to my incredible housemates (and my adorable little room with the most beautiful view).

There’s so many things I’ve grown to love about this place (although I feel that I am becoming repetitive in saying that). It’s crazy to me that I am currently living in a place where I can go for an evening swim anytime I am feeling stressed, walk up the hill and see the craziest view of all of Mytilene, and sit and enjoy my coffee under jasmine trees in the morning.

And of course, the people. One of my old housemates said it best, Lesvos is the only place where you can sit down to have a coffee at a cafe by yourself and by the time you leave 6 people will have pulled up a chair to sit there with you. I’ve found myself sitting at tables I never could’ve imagined myself at a year ago, where every person is from a different generation, religion, ethnicity, and walk of life.

On the plane ride to the UK I am listening to an album recommended to me by a retired couple from Wales that lived in the volunteer house with me for a month (they were absolutely lovely!!!). As a parting gift, they left a list of albums for me to listen to that they felt fit my music taste, so this is the soundtrack for my plane ride...

This Could Be Texas by English Teacher

The Surfing Magazines by The Surfing Magazines

Giggles with Tilly and Char at the hot springs

May have been my most gorgeous evening swim

The garden at Parea, a community center for refugees

The garden part 2

Hello again! My life since last updating you all has been a mix of consistency in my daily work and having some fun adventures in my free time.

My everyday work at the clinic has fallen back into normalcy after the medical camp and the doctor I work with being away for a few weeks. While most of our patients continue to be run-of-the-mill cases of infections and chronic illness, we have had quite a few more complicated cases over the past few weeks. As I become more comfortable in this community and have formed relationships with some of our regular patients, these difficult cases have become more poignant examples of the struggles faced by people living in Kibera. I am only becoming more aware of how certain socioeconomic and environmental barriers present here affect the daily lives and healthcare access of the people we treat in the clinic. Every day we treat people with H. pylori who will take their antibiotics as directed only to be reinfected in a few short weeks or are not helped by them regardless due to antibiotic resistance. Or we see children with asthma and chronic respiratory infections whose lungs cannot heal because of the poor air quality. Then, of course, there are also thousands of people in Kibera living with noncommunicable “lifestyle” diseases who have no access to make the lifestyle changes necessary to adequately control and prevent such illnesses. The list could go on but, all this to say the impact of these society-level issues has become all the more evident to me as I put them in the context of the people that have been so kind, welcoming, and friendly to me over these past few months.

With all this being said, seeing patients every day and having those relationships with them and getting to see them improve from the care we provide continues to be so fulfilling. A patient who first came in nearly a month ago for an infected c-section incision came back this week to finally have her stitches removed and will recover well. The young man with fatty liver disease and rheumatic heart disease has been coming back for regular check-ups and has recovered exponentially since we first saw him in September. We had a female patient who needed an EKG and felt uncomfortable getting undressed in front of the male doctor, so she asked me to run the test instead of him. While I know that any woman would have been a comfort to her in that moment, I can’t describe how fulfilling it was to know that I was a comfort and safe space to her when she was feeling a lot of stress over having the test. I could go on and on.

In my free time these past few weeks, I have had the joy of spending time exploring the city and surrounding area with a fellow volunteer, Brigitte. I have shown her the places I have come to love about Nairobi and we have discovered a few new favorites as well. She enjoys being in nature and taking walks nearly as much as I do and it’s so refreshing to have someone here who I have that in common with. We have taken walks around the Nairobi Arboretum and took a day trip to visit Hell’s Gate and Lake Naivasha. Hell’s Gate is the inspiration for the landscape in The Lion King and is considered “Kenya’s Grand Canyon.” We saw the rock that inspired Pride Rock in the movie and took a long walk through the gorge of the canyon. On a boat safari around Lake Naivasha we were able to see many hippos and other animals living on the island in the lake that is nearly untouched by humans. Today, we visited a coffee farm. Coffee is one of the largest exports in Kenya and it was so cool to see the process behind the beverage I enjoy each day, from seedling to cup. All in all, after taking a few weeks off from enjoying the more touristy parts of the city, I have enjoyed taking these adventures and having someone here to do them with.

Enjoy these few photos from the past few weeks!

Up close and personal with a giraffe

Great Rift Valley

Pride Rock

In Hell’s Gate canyon

Hippo family

For today’s blog, I wanted to take a different route. A friend recently asked me what I’ve been learning since I arrived here, and after some reflection, I thought it would be nice to share a few lessons from my time so far.

1. Give Yourself Grace

What most people don’t know is that since coming here, I’ve been sick three times in just two months, and it really took a toll on my mental health. Every time I thought things were finally going well, I’d end up sick again. I felt discouraged, hopeless, and confused. Eventually, I realized that my body was simply having a hard time adjusting to the new climate and that it can sometimes take up to a year to fully acclimate to a new environment. Learning this helped me shift my mindset. This journey isn’t a race for the swiftest, but for those who endure. Being kind to myself has been one of the hardest but most necessary lessons as I build a new life in a completely different country.

quick selfie before church 🙂

2. Prioritize Rest

It’s so easy to get caught up in the busyness of my project that I sometimes forget to pause and breathe. I would jump from one task to another without realizing how drained I was until the weekend hit. I’ve learned that rest isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of discipline. Taking time to recharge and acknowledging when you need a break is vital if you want to produce meaningful work and show up fully for others. Rest also communicates trust, a reminder that it’s okay to let go and allow the One above to work things out.

Rest doesn’t always mean taking a nap. Sometimes it’s simply being intentional about doing things that bring peace after a long day of meaningful work.

Book I read for October

3. The World Is a Bigger Classroom

Living in the Dominican Republic has taught me invaluable lessons – ones no classroom could ever offer. This experience has shown me that the world itself is a vast and beautiful classroom, full of wisdom waiting to be discovered. Approaching this journey as a student has made me more curious, empathetic, and open-hearted. It’s deepened my love for people and sparked a hunger to see and understand more of the world God created.

This was my first time going to the beach since I’ve been here.

4. We were created for community

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve battled with loneliness since being here. In some ways, I tried to convince myself that isolation was what I needed in this season, but deep down, I knew that wasn’t true. Leaning into community, both near and far, has allowed me to land softly in spaces that make me feel seen, loved, heard, and safe. Community will carry you when you can’t carry yourself. It will speak life into you when your own words fall short. I truly believe that I am where I am today because of the people who have surrounded me. Their presence reminds me that I don’t have to do this alone. It’s because of the community that I’ve been able to endure the harder moments of this journey and even find beauty in them.

Some doctors and nurses visited the workshop and hosted a medical clinic for the women.

5. Remember your why

We hear this one often, but there’s something powerful about being in moments that feel impossible when the only thing keeping you grounded is remembering why you’re here. Holding on to my why has made me a better leader, friend, student, and person. I’ve been given the privilege of impacting lives, even if only for a short span of six months, and that is something I never want to take for granted. The women I work with deserve to know me when my cup is full. Remembering my why helps me refill it to challenge my own beliefs, get back up when I fall, and humbly admit that I don’t have it all figured out.

Teaching Math to our youngest rescue.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Phillippians 4:6-7