Pre-Departure Journal
Oh my… it’s finally happening!!!!! By the grace of God, the day I leave the country and finally embark on this adventure is approaching so fast. I have to say, I have a mixed bag of emotions flooding my system…
Category Stories
Jambo kutoka Kenya! (Hello from Kenya!)
There is something surreal about preparing for a journey that has lived in your imagination for months. For me, that preparation looked like endless checklists, doctor appointments, grant paperwork, packing cubes scattered across my bedroom floor, and repeatedly asking myself,…
Kenya in the Cultural Context
I think I am finally getting comfortable. Not comfortable in the sense that everything feels familiar, because trust me, I am still learning something new almost every day, but comfortable enough that I am beginning to find a rhythm here.…
Getting Oriented
Getting Oriented The past week has been one of wild adjustment and wonder. As I embarked on my journey half way across the world, I left behind much of what I know to be familiar, ready to embrace a new…
Final Travel Reflection
It is crazy to think I have been home for two months. As the initial excitements and joys of returning home have started to fade and I have settled back into a sense of normalcy in the states, I find…
Final Traveler Reflection
It’s officially been two months since I returned home from Argentina & I’m still filled with all of the feelings and emotions I shared about when leaving in my last post. But, now more than ever, I am filled with…
This Time, I Get to Stay
Hello, Lumos community! My name is Ella Quincy, and very soon, I will be leaving for Antigua, Guatemala. After graduating from Belmont in May, I finished two additional prerequisite classes for medical school, packed up my apartment in Nashville, and…
What You Need to Know
Bombs. Bombs. War. Natural disaster. Tear gas. Bombs. Natural disaster. Giant flaming building. Rocket ship. Protests. Luigi Mangione. Celebrities. Celebrities. TikTok. All of this and more is conveyed to me in fourteen seconds of flashbanging, better known as an advertisement,…
Learning the Lay of the Land
On my first official day, I once again bumped into the inner workings of the Māori and Pākehā’s interwoven culture. Upon arriving at my first staff meeting -bright-eyed and bushy-tailed- on Monday morning, I was greeted with a Māori chant…