November 2016

November 29, 2016April 7, 2019

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Gifts that Give Back: b.a.r.e soaps

I am always looking for inspiring social good enterprises to feature on my blog. This past month, I had the opportunity to speak with Jessie Yoh, Co-Founder and CEO of b.a.r.e. soaps, an all natural, socially conscious soap and candle company that helps women and children in Uganda and India. b.a.r.e. stands for “bringing antiseptic resources to everyone” and was built on the idea that something as simple as a bar of soap can effectively help prevent the spread of diseases and illnesses while improving overall health and hygiene.

b.a.r.e soaps was inspired by Jessie’s friend Clare Li’s mission trips to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Uganda where she witnessed the desperate need for basic health necessities. After every mission trip, Clare returned energized to make a difference but was never sure how. The idea behind b.a.r.e. soaps didn’t arise until August 2012 when Clare was in Uganda, and brainstormed an idea to make her own soap and use proceeds to invest in developing communities that lacked basic sanitation.

b.a.r.e. soaps

After Clare returned to the US, she pitched her good friend Jessie her idea. Jessie, a business major, hopped on board immediately. Upon further research, the pair realized that there was a problem also at home. The soap we typically buy from our local grocer or drugstore isn’t really soap. In actuality, it’s made with synthetic and artificial compounds. Thus, a two-fold mission for b.a.r.e. soaps began: First, to educate and provide an all-natural product for those at home, and second to create a sustainable sanitation program for the children in Kaberamaido, Uganda. While working full-time, the pair launched the business in September 2013 and have been changing lives ever since.

Jessie pumps a well located within the Carepoint grounds. This well is shared amongst the community, and there is always a steady stream of women and children pumping water from ti

Empty Jerry cans await to be filled at the Carepoint well.

Clare conducts a soapmaking trial run during a trip in 2014. The women were interested in learning how to make soap to sell to others. Unfortunately, lye, a crucial ingredient in soap making, is hard to find in Kaberamaido, which makes this endeavor a huge challenge.

Children from the Carepoint show off their coloring after Clare conducts a handwashing 101 workshop

Here is their inspiring story.

b.a.r.e. soaps

Gifts that Give Back SOCIAL GOOD

November 27, 2016

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A Return to Boliva

“Life is not measure by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away”. – unknown

I have this quote next to my computer in my office. It happens to be one of my favorite quotes as it reminds me what life is all about: Beauty, love, gratitude, joy, adventure, and peace. The day I walked down the aisle with my dad on one side and my grandfather on the other to greet the love of my life. The first time my child looked into my eyes. My son’s first steps. My daughter’s first words. Crossing the finish line after 26.2 miles. Reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro. Climbing to the top of the Bolivian Andes with my dad. Capturing the sunset beneath my favorite urban lake after another glorious day. Those moments that forever will be instilled within my heart.

With the good of course also comes the bad. Those difficult challenges, the times that are painful, and hurt. The dark times that despite how insurmountable the challenge may be, it somehow ends up making you stronger.

Two years ago, in lieu of a Thanksgiving dinner I was climbing up to the top of the sky in Bolivia with my father. It was a very special journey for us as a year before my father was battling cancer, a dark memory that we try to forget. Yet with the bad came the good. The closeness of our family. The resilience and strength to overcome the hardship and heal. The immense love. The realization that you have one precious life so make the best of it all.

My dad and I climbing to the peak in the Bolivian Andes. November 2014

For all these moments that make up the long and winding journey of life, I am grateful. The holiday season reminds me to never stop being grateful for the wonderful things that make me complete and bring me joy. My love for my family, for the earth, for being outside and being alive. Despite all the heartbreak in the world, I must never forget to be grateful.

No photos demonstrate my utter gratitude better than the ones from this magical trip to Bolivia two years ago. The photos remind me that despite the darkness of the world there lies beauty and hope and love.

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude”.- Denis Waitley

November 22, 2016April 9, 2018

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On Assignment with National Geographic Photographer Catherine Karnow

“I have been in a love affair with photography from day one, back in high school. Everything I know about photography has been from my own personal experience. I live and breathe photography. It is a beautiful way to see the world and connect with people. Discovering how much I love to teach is an extension of that joy. It is my job as a teacher to help my students express what is inside them, to help them express the beauty they see and feel.” – Catherine Karnow, professional photographer

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in the shoes of a National Geographic photographer on assignment? If you are someone who is passionate about photography and seeing the world, there is no doubt that being an acclaimed photojournalist tops high on your list of dream jobs. Like most children of the early 80s, I grew up reading National Geographic and was mesmerized by the photos of cultures and places so incredibly different from my own. Some of these images have remained forever engrained within my heart such as Steve McCurry’s iconic photograph of the beautiful haunting green-eyed Afghan girl who graced the cover of National Geographic in 1985 and has captivated the world ever since.

Catherine Karnow, Chinatown, San Francisco. ©Gary Draluck

The power of photography is life-changing and transformative. Photographs have a way of touching us in surprisingly emotional ways. Perhaps this is why so many people love photography. It is an art like no other that involves both technical and creative skills, as well as an eye for seeing something magical. An element of photography that is often overlooked is the actual experience of it. A conversation with professional photographer, Catherine Karnow, whose impressive career has spanned over 40 years and whose work has appeared in National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian and other major international publications, enlightened me on the reasons why the experience of photography is so very special.

Catherine had an enchanting childhood. She was born and raised in Hong Kong by exceptional parents. Her father was the renowned journalist Stanley Karnow; and her mother Annette was a gifted artist who infused creativity into every aspect of her life. Annette’s eye for beauty and her passion for art was a strong influence on Catherine. From her father she learned a strong work ethic and the skill to be a story-teller. Her parents allowed her a great measure of independence and freedom, and as a young child she wandered around alone among the back streets of the Chinese fishing village where she grew up.

Catherine Karnow with Stanley Karnow, 1960s, Hong Kong.

Catherine Karnow with her first camera, a Kodak Brownie, Hong Kong, 1960s. Photo courtesy of Catherine Karnow

Annette Karnow in her garden, Potomac, Maryland.

Stanley Karnow in his office at home, Potomac, Maryland.

Catherine took her first photo class in high school and under the tutelage of an excellent teacher, she fell in love with photography. She graduated with honors from Brown University with degrees in Comparative Literature and Semiotics. After a brief career as a filmmaker, Catherine’s passion for photography drew her to Paris where she landed her first assignment 1986 and has been shooting professionally ever since.

One of the highlights of Catherine’s forty-year career is her special focus on Vietnam. Catherine’s fascination with Vietnam began in 1990, when her father interviewed General Giap for the New York Times. Although Catherine was not the photographer on that assignment, she found an opportunity to go to Vietnam on her own a few months later and had excellent access to not only General Giap, but also to many of Vietnam’s living heroes at that time. Catherine’s friendship with General Giap and his family opened the doors to twenty-six years of photography in Vietnam, a country that Catherine calls her spiritual home.

CULTURE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

November 18, 2016November 29, 2016

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One women’s courageous fight with Mesothelioma

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along”.- Eleanor Roosevelt

Every so often I get that one email that truly touches my heart and moves me to action. It came about a month ago from a fellow Minnesota mom named Heather Von St. James. Heather is a 10-year survivor of a rare cancer called mesothelioma, who against all odds beat the disease, and is a prominent advocate for mesothelioma awareness and an outspoken proponent of banning asbestos. Her beautiful blog “Beating the Odds – My Decade of Mesothelioma Survivorship” and advocacy work for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance continues to spread awareness of the disease, give hope to those fighting the battle and seek justice to stop the use of asbestos in the United States. Here is a brief part of Heather’s story that drew me in.

Heather, her husband Cameron and daughter Lily

“A diagnosis that would change my life” written by Heather Von St. James

I remember the waiting. From the cold patient waiting rooms, on hospital beds waiting for the CT machine and biopsy to start and especially the long, to angst filled days at home waiting for results. After all the testing, the poking, prodding and questions to try to figure out my breathlessness, sallow skin and all-consuming exhaustion…my husband, Cameron and I were left to wait for the answers.

These things happened to other people, not to me. That’s all I could think, how surreal all of this was. I had just given birth to my daughter, Lily, how could I be back in the hospital hearing the words CT scan, thoracentesis and “there’s a mass in your lower left lung.” After the years I spent working in a salon and farther back to when I had smoked, I was trying to block out the million thoughts racing through my mind, the heaviest and most terrifying of all – cancer.

Finally, on November 21, 2005, the answer came. It was malignant pleural mesothelioma. Cancer had overtaken the lining of my left lung. Cams and I sat in my doctor’s office too stunned to speak. When Dr. Flink asked me if a family member had worked around asbestos, the image of my father’s dusty work jacket I wore each day as a child to do my chores came flooding back to me.

It was his next words that rocked me back to life, “If you don’t do anything, you have about 15 months to live.” With chemo and radiation I could get up to five years. Five years. Maybe.

SOCIAL GOOD

November 15, 2016

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A light in the dark days ahead

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”. – Edgar Allan Poe

There I stood. Looking at the dark, painful world in despair. Not knowing how I would rise out of bed each and every day with the roar of ugliness that has suddenly filled my heart.

How would I look into those young innocent eyes of my children without sadness and despair?

How would I continue to walk this earth with gratefulness and love when it no longer was there?

Yet alas I’m a fighter. I cannot let it win. I must not let my voice be quieted, I must stand up and speak out loud and clear and let my voice sing.

I am a fighter. I will always fight for my beliefs and will be a voice for the voiceless.

I will not let hate bring me down.

I will not let tyranny rule my life.

No.

I will stand up,

be tall,

use my voice,

and proudly wear those pants.

I will never ever let myself fall so low.

Never.

I will let light

and the promise of hope

for a better future for our children

fulfill my days with gratitude,

beauty and grace.

I will never ever give up.

Never.

“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” – Carl Jung

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”. – Desmond Tutu

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness”. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars”. – Og Mandino

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning”. – Albert Einstein

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own”. – Michelle Obama

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek”. – Barack Obama

“People are like stained – glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within”.- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

“Now, as a nation, we don’t promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That’s an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up”. – Barack Obama

We shall overcome. Peace.

SOCIAL GOOD

November 15, 2016April 6, 2019

— 22 Comments

Sea Kayaking in the Mangroves off the Florida Keys

From Miami to Key West, U.S. Route 1 leapfrogs key to key for 113 miles and across 42 overseas bridges in a rather amazing feat of engineering. Known as the Overseas Highway, U.S. Route 1 runs through the heart and soul of the Florida Keys passing by an endless supply of souvenir shops, strip malls and fast food joints directly parallel to the third largest barrier reef in the world.

Despite being one of the most touristy spots in the nation, welcoming cruise ships, bohemians, bikers, margherita drinkers, fisherman and boaters, the Florida Keys is also home to one of the most unique ecosystems in the United States. Off the tip of Florida, curving southwest for 126 miles, lies an archipelago of 1,700 islands which are part of a massive coral reef known as the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Covering 9,600 square kilometers, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is the closest federally protected coral reef in the continental United States and the third largest coral reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia and the reefs off of Belize.

Without the barrier reefs, the entire ecological and environmental make-up of the Florida Keys would be different. Instead of the gentle, calm, nurturing warm waters that provide an essential protected habitat for fish and organisms, there would be rough waves and sandy beaches replacing the mangroves and sea grass that are the trees of life in the Keys.

Mangroves line more than 1,800 miles of shoreline within Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. In the Florida Keys, the red mangrove, black mangrove, and white mangrove tend to dominate wetland areas.

Although I have visited the Florida Keys numerous times over the past twenty years, I had no idea that that the Keys represent such an amazing ecological treasure until I spent a morning sea kayaking in the backwaters of Stock Island Key. During a fantastic two-hour ecotour with Blue Planet Kayaks, my family and I set off into the warm, shallow crystal clear waters and entered the magical canopies of mangroves where we learned all about the magnificent ecosystem of the Florida Keys.

Florida SOCIAL GOOD Sustainable Travel and Travel Resources TRAVEL TRAVEL BY REGION United States

November 6, 2016April 9, 2018

— 43 Comments

The Turbulence and Chaos of the US Election

“Americans may cringe watching their own election at close range. But the world’s reaction has been even more poignant and foreboding. People in small and distant countries who count on the U.S. to stand up for democratic values have been astonished to see the essential components – a free press, the rule of law, respect for the outcome of elections – trammeled. Long-standing allies have been left to wonder whether the essential American character has changed, and whether the United States can be relied on when it counts”. – Washington Post, “World Watches, Winces”.

If you are like me, then you are probably sick and tired of even thinking about the horrendous United States Presidential Election. Never before have we experienced such a chaotic, turbulent election fit only for a trashy reality tv show. It is darn right deplorable and I have done my best to not discuss it on my blog which has been very difficult for me since my blog is all about using my voice.

We are sadly at a time when you must be extremely careful using your voice and even mentioning politics. A time where people go after you if you view things differently. Where journalists on “the other side” are targeted with hostility, hate and death threats if they speak up. What on earth has happened to our so-called democracy? What has happened to the founding belief in freedom, liberty and justice for all? We have made a laughingstock of ourselves and our beliefs. We live in fear where the media plays on us to make more money by sputtering nonsense. We can’t even put up a political lawn sign or comment on Facebook for fears that we will be mocked, targeted and trolled. This is not the America I’ve always believed in. This is not the America I want my children to be raised in.

I am so utterly disgusted, saddened and heartbroken by what has become of our country. At times I feel so hopeless, I just want to give up. Pack our bags and leave. But sadly it is not only America that is threatened. Europe too is feeling strained and stretched with an ever growing refugee crisis and a rise themselves in the extreme right and nationalistic sentiments. Scary things are happening there too. Hatred, intolerance and disrespect for humankind is growing other places besides the backwaters of the United States.

So I ask where is the utopia?

There are a few places that may fit the bill but we all know that utopia does not truly exist. Certainly the devil’s advocate and my inner traveling voice tell me that there are so many places that are so much worse. Think of all the places where people are dying every single day and have no hope. Think of other countries where you can’t even speak up against authority in threat of imprisionment or death. Yes it could be so much worse. Yet I still am truly frightened for our future, no matter who wins. I am terrified of what we have become and what my children will inherit.

I have always been an optimistic dreamer. Let’s hope that we will be able to mend ourselves after all the damage that has been done and somehow move forward as a nation. Let’s hope.

This post was inspired by the Weekly Photo Challenge: Chaos.

CULTURE SOCIAL GOOD TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY Weekly Photo Challenges

November 2, 2016October 29, 2019

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A Drive along Romania’s Stunning Transfăgărășan Highway

I fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) tend to be that traveler who has to try to see it all no matter what. I think half of my obsession with seeing and doing it all is that I normally don’t have a lot of time in a given place. Usually my trips last under ten days and in the case of Romania, I was literally on the ground for only five full days before I had to begin the long day and a half journey back home.

Despite only having five short days in Romania, I felt that I truly got to see quite a bit of this magical place. I had a full day in Bucharest, several days in Brasov, saw the Bran Castle and the Rasnov Fortress, went hiking in the Carparthians and on the last day took a crazy adventurous drive back from Brasov to Bucharest via the world famous Transfăgărășan Highway.

It may have been a little bit crazy but deciding to take the Transfăgărășan Highway on our last day in Romania ended up being the highlight of our trip. This says a lot for someone who hates car trips and gets carsick on windy roads. But the drive along the Transfăgărășan Highway was one of the most stunning drives I’ve taken in years and it gave me a wonderful glimpse into Romania’s majestic countryside. A place of sheep herders, men in horse drawn wagons, and women clothed in traditional long dresses. Old churches, stone walls and terra cotta rooftops awash in greenery and flowers were just as I had imagined it would be in the nostalgic Romanian countryside.

“Also labeled “the Road to the Sky”, “the Road to the Clouds”, “the Best Driving Road in the World” and even “A spectacular Monument to Earth-Moving Megalomania” the Transfăgărășan climbs, twists and descends right through Moldoveanu and Negoiu – the highest peaks in Fagaras Mountains and in Romania. This is no pass through a gap but a frontal assault, a stark and spectacular reminder of unchecked power stamping itself on an obstreperous landscape”. – Romanian Tourism

The Transfăgărășan Highway (DN7C) is the second highest paved road in Romania, after the Transalpina further west, which travels for 56 miles/90 km through the southern section of the Carpathian Mountain across the Făgăraş Mountains. The road twists and turns up to the altitude of 2,042 metres (6,699 ft) with enough hairpin curves to make your stomach leap and adrenalin rush with excitement.

Constructed from 1970-1974 during Ceaușescu’s iron-fist rule for presumably military reasons, this amazing feat of engineering required lots of money, manpower and dynamite making people question the true reasoning behind its very existence. At the time, there were plenty of other high mountain passes that could be used for strategic reasons yet Ceaușescu instead that the Transfăgărășan Highway be built.

Today the Transfăgărășan Highway is one of the most touristic drives in Romania and driving enthusiasts, bikers, hikers, tourists and locals alike flock to this spectacular road making it one of the top scenic drives in the country.

Adventure Travel Romania TRAVEL TRAVEL BY REGION

Thirdeyemom

Traveling the World and Doing Good

Month: November 2016

A Return to Boliva

On Assignment with National Geographic Photographer Catherine Karnow

A Drive along Romania’s Stunning Transfăgărășan Highway