jenns.world

In November of 2015 I found myself volunteering in Nepal for a couple of weeks. During that time, I ended up falling in love with the country and extended my stay an extra week to get to know the people I had come to know better and enjoy more of what Pokhara and Nepal had to offer. One evening a conversation came up about paragliding, which is one of the more popular activities to do while in Pokhara. The Hidden Paradise Hotel and Guest House is a popular spot for these high flying thrill seekers. I, being more of a grounded person, couldn’t quite get excited about the dangerous activity of jumping off of a cliff in hopes that a wing would keep them from plummeting to their death. I was coerced and questioned as to why I wouldn’t want to ever try it, when I finally said “It’s just not my thing.” I added “I ride horses, I have for over 30 years, and I enjoy the connection and the thrill that horseback riding and the horses themselves bring. That is m...

Upon arriving at the site where we were to begin building a chicken coop that Orphans to Ambassadors donated to Rural Life Development Society in Biswanathpur, Odisha India we were greeted by the local men and women. The local village women were dressed on traditional sarees that were brightly colored with floral patterns and traditional Indian designs. The men were dressed in jeans and nice collared shirts. The men handed us flowers they had picked from the surrounding plants and the women placed flower lays they had made. They then began yelling a high pitched holar that was broken up with their tongue moving back and forth making a sort of tribal call. Samuel, the head of RLDS and the one hosting us, said that they are “receiving” myself and the 3 women I am traveling with (Katherine, Kara and Barb). We were then led to a shelter the locals had built out of large sticks as supports and smaller sticks interwoven with palm and tree branches covered with a blue tarp. They ha...

We all have our  ups and downs in life. Some years are good, and some go pretty badly. Myself, I have been through a lot, though, I know that no matter what life throws at me, there is always someone going through a worse time than me. It has been exactly one year and a few months since I went through a job lay off, my Husband Divorcing me , my Father in-Law (someone I had grown to care for) passing away and not being able to see him as a result of the Divorce, my Daughter having to live with her Dad and not speaking to me, moving back to Seattle from San Francisco and losing more than half of my belongings to an incompetent moving company all in a matter of a few months. No matter what life throws at me I always seem to get through it. One of the adventures I had enjoyed while married was the opportunity to build a school in Nicaragua with my Husband several years ago, and with the divorce, I have been upset that I wouldn’t get a chance to keep doing good now that he and I were not ...

As Sandra walked into the kitchen the morning of our last day on trek wearing her backpack strutting proudly that’s when it hit me. We weren’t there just to see how other people live, or to experience another country, but to build a school so that Sandra and Maria can get the education that most of us Americans take for granted. The Community of Las Mercedes The community we visited is roughly a 2 hour drive from Managua, Nicaragua and is nestled among the coffee plantation of Las Mercedes. The coffee grown there is sold to roasters and distributors around the world.  The community is made up mostly of the workers on the plantation and their families. In addition to the workers, a local farm and small coffee grower nestled within the larger plantation lives there along with his extended family. The farmer and his family welcomed most of our group into their homes while one of the workers provided food and shelter to my Husband and myself for the few nights we were there. The...