CURRENT MISSION

promote peace & love

ABOUT ME

I am 30 years old, and was born and raised in Monroe Township, New Jersey. I have two brothers, one older and one younger.

Upon graduating from university in 2008, I began pursuing a bunch of volunteer opportunities. Initially, I went and worked in Haiti for a month and visited a few potential organizations to work longer term with, but upon my return I was accepted to serve with Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa as a Water & Sanitation volunteer. In Mali, I lived in a mud hut for two years in a village of 200 people, with no electricity, no running water, no phone access, but was surrounded by some of the most amazing people I’ve met in my life; the experience was nothing short of life changing.

After spending two years in Mali, I was invited to work with a construction/engineering firm on a large-scale waste management and sewer infrastructure project in Ghana’s capital, Accra. I happily took the opportunity, and spent the following 1 year and 8 months living and working in Ghana.

After spending just under 4 years in West Africa, I moved back to New Jersey to spend some time with family, friends, and pursue graduate school. So here I am!

PHILOSOPHY

My personal philosophy? Love.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and will all your strength. -Deuteronomy 6:5

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I joined the couchsurfing community many moons ago, have met some really wonderful people, and have been incredibly pleased with my experiences. Thus far, I have couchsurfed a total of 10 weeks of my life between two different trips. First was a 1 month trip to Ireland, and second was a 6 week cross-country trip across the USA on motorcycle. I love people, I love to travel, and I love helping others, so I’m looking forward to host some surfers in the future.

Interests

I am the kind of person that is interested in most everything. I love to learn, so if there's an opportunity to learn something...I'm all for it.

As far as my specific interests go...I love culture, family, reading, writing, hiking, canoeing, camping, travelling, snowboarding, surfing, scuba diving, swimming, drumming, and music in general. I like to meet people and I don't like money. I'm glad it doesn't cost money to meet people :).

• culture
• writing
• running
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• drums
• hiking
• canoeing
• camping
• surfing
• scuba diving
• snowboarding
• swimming
• engineering
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: I like movies. I'm not a big fan of the scary stuff, but I'll watch just about anything.

Music: I've been drumming for about 20 years now. When I studied drums as a kid my drum teacher made a point of producing a well-rounded drummer by studying rock, jazz, latin, afro-cuban, big band, etc...so I think that's rubbed off on me in my music interests in that I listen to just about everything. I've started playing some guitar and harmonica, and have gotten into quite a bit of hand percussion as a result of the time spent in West Africa. I'm not a huge rap fan, but I like all of the above music in addition to classical and anything else that comes by way of my ears.

Books: I love to read. My favorite author’s name is Pat Conroy who wrote: Beach Music, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, The Water is Wide, and a many others. I would highly recommend all of them :).

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: Juggling, bird call with hands, drums/guitar/harmonica, how to ride a unicycle.

Learn: How to play piano, how to play bridge (cards), and I like to hear/learn new jokes!

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bahamas, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Gambia, Germany, Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Russian Federation, Senegal, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ghana, Mali, United States

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