CURRENT MISSION

5 months home after 2 years in the mountains of rural Panama: trying to soak up all that home has to offer. See music with my brother, cook local produce for my parents, watch found-space theater, celebrate shabbat, eat lots of berries. . .

ABOUT ME

For the last 4 years I have been living the life of the wanderer, working for a health clinic in New Orleans, USA; running a community health program in a rural, indigenous part of Panama; working on my friends' blueberry farm in Mississippi, USA; working as a human rights observer in Guatemala. . . I've lived in communal houses in cities, in a one-room bamboo house with a family of 12, and alone in a cabin in the mountains where I cooked over a fire and walked a few hours to the nearest road. I hope to settle down at some point but never to lose the beauty of the diversity and hospitality I have encountered in my wanderings. I care deeply about the world, have Science Daily as my browser homepage, grew up reading books about dragons and unicorns, and love having my hands in the earth and making plants grow.

PHILOSOPHY

We make the path by walking it.

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm just beginning to use the couchsurfing network, after hearing about it both from friends in the states and friends in Panama, but have independently opened my home to unknown visitors and slept on the couches and even floors of friendly strangers many times over the last few years.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've surfed many-a-couch, and leant couches as well, on my own through the years. From staying with other students during conferences to staying with friend-of-a-friend-of-friends in Panama, I've fallen in love with the connections born out of trusting and opening up to new people. Sometimes you just need a place to stay, and that's alright, but other times you come away with new friends and family, sharing meals, music, hobbies, and swapping ways of seeing the world. Some of my best friends in Panama are people that I met when I needed a place to stay. I think hotels are terribly lonely.

Interessen

Learning from the people around me, creating community, cooking, eating, growing food, making music with people (even if it isn't very good), board games and books on rainy afternoons, walking in the woods, playing frisbee and soccer

• culture
• books
• theater
• beauty
• human rights
• dining
• cooking
• running
• walking
• board games
• reading
• music
• piano
• cycling
• soccer
• agriculture
• languages
• science
• mountains

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

Sitting on the old stone steps of Machu Picchu, losing myself beneath a star-studded sky in a Namibian desert, and walking the crest of a dune system that crashes into the ocean on the coast of Namibia.

Lehren, lernen, teilen

Collector of random knowledge, from pruning blueberries or roasting cocoa beans to discussions on systemic racism and the social factors of health. . . or perhaps piano 101. Curious about native languages, culture, or agriculture in Panama?

Hoping one day to learn car and bike repair.