“Injustice must be confronted”

One of the most talked about parts of WHERE AM I EATING? is when I freed a slave in Ivory Coast. This was the subject of an editorial in James Hallmark’s recent column in the Amarillo Globe-News titled Injustice must be confronted.

James writes:

“We have made helping easy in America, perhaps too easy. When a tornado strikes Oklahoma, we text “Red Cross” to 90999 and we have “helped.” We are asked to “like” a Facebook page and told doing so will help free little girls from sex trafficking. These small actions may indeed help and even be essential, but someone has to get their hands dirty to free slaves, liberate little girls from prostitution, or clean up a tornado’s damage.”

James says that my decision to hatch a plan to free…

Read More >
 
1 comment

Texas State Students produce “Where Am I Wearing?” documentaries

In 2012 Texas State freshmen read WEARING as part of their Common Experience — A Global Odyssey: Exploring Our Connections to the Changing World.

Dr. Salwa Khan with the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, had her students produce WEARING-themed segments. The segments explore if students think about where their clothes are made, how Texas State sources their athletic uniforms, feature University of Texas students who fought to get their university to sign on with the Worker Rights Consortium, and feature an interview with local clothing designer.

What I really enjoyed about each segment is that they took this global issue and talked about how it impacted their lives as locals.

Here are the the titles and credits for…

Read More >
 
2 comments

A reminder that whatever in the world you do, be awesome!

I spent the previous night in the guest room of a gold miner who employed 15-year-old workers. The bus that was supposed to take me all the way to Ghana, had ended at a flooded road in Burkina Faso. We then took a dugout canoe across the road to a brakeless taxi to a city without a hotel.

The next morning I had to take the taxi back to the flooded road, which I crossed again in a dugout canoe to a bus that would take me to Ghana. That bus dropped me off in Pa, Burkina Faso, where I waited for a bus to Hamile, Ghana, that may or not show up.

I waited hours.

The entire time I waited a man…

Read More >
 
Add a comment

A recap of traveling with Winthrop U students in Guatemala

In May of 2012 I traveled with 7 students from Winthrop University to Guatemala on a trip arranged and led by The Village Experience.   Here was our itinerary.

I wanted a place to compile all that was said about the trip. This is that place.

Jennifer Sandler, Winthrop’s study abroad coordinator, as quoted on the Winthrop University website: The students were exposed to so many new experiences, ideas, situations and people, and they were nothing but engaged and enthusiastic the entire program. We were all sad to leave Guatemala, but I firmly believe that the students’ fire for travel and international experiences has been stoked, hopefully never to be extinguished.

My post 7 things I learned traveling with 7 college…

Read More >
 
5 comments

The Bootsnall Interview

I had a blast talking about travel, food, and WHERE AM I EATING with Sean Keener of Bootsnall Travel yesterday.

Sean is a busy guy with three kids three and under. In fact, in the video he confessed that his kids and work keep him so busy that, “Sometimes I have to wait hours to take a dump!” I so appreciate him taking 55 minutes of prime pooping time to ask some great questions and getting pretty deep into EATING.

Read More >
 
3 comments

Hang out with me today at 3:30

In 2007, Bootsall Travel (one of the coolest travel communities online) named me as one of their rogue travelers, making them the first endorsement (other than my mom) of my idea to go all of the places my clothes were made to meet the people who made them.  They hosted my blog. They shared my stories, and in doing so, became a part of my story.

Sean Keener, the co-founder and CEO of Bootsnall, is hosting a Google Hangout with me today at 3:30.  Sign up to attend or just drop in.  We’ll be talking about around the world travel, bananas, underwear (note to self: don’t use bananas…

Read More >
 
3 comments
Read More >
 
2 comments

“Travel is…the best education.” – Kelly Campbell of The Village Experience

Kelly Campbell and the lovely young ladies from Winthrop U I traveled with in Guatemala.People assume since I’ve traveled a lot, I must be good at it. I’m not exactly sure what makes a good traveler, perhaps it’s the ability to sit a very, very long time as the world passes by out the window, or to go with the flow when plans derail. I have no problem going with the flow because I often travel with no plan, just a to/from plane ticket and a vague idea of where I’ll go in between. If being a good traveler involves being a good…

Read More >
 
3 comments

Moore Community Mightier Than the Storm

In the age of social media, many of us feel like we need to publicly address disasters and tragedies, as if we’re the President and PR department wrapped into one online presence. I don’t normally address such tragedies unless I have some connection to it or something to add, which I do, regarding the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma…

The tornado was expected. Maybe not the day or the location, but everyone knew it was coming, and that more will come.

I drove right through Moore last month on my way to speak at the University of Oklahoma in Norman (10 miles south of Moore). There are three things that folks love in the area: the Oklahoma Sooners, The Thunder (the NBA basketball team), and watching the weather. …

Read More >
 
Add a comment

Winthrop U Student looks at #FirstWorldProblems differently after trip

Lauren in Guatemala.

This guest post is brought to you by Lauren Miller, a sophomore at Winthrop University and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. I’m not sure Lauren ever stops smiling. She studies biology and is interested in environmental science, so she was our resident Jack Hannah.

By Lauren Miller

#firstworldproblems are just getting out of hand it would seem. We have it so hard. Our chargers are never where we need them, there is never good food in the pantry, and our houses are so big we need two wireless routers.

Now if we look at #thirdworldproblems we will see that we are a spoiled…

Read More >
 
1 comment