CURRENT MISSION

Visited 42 countries, want to visit 42 more

ABOUT ME

I live in Nairobi and have a pretty fine existence. I enjoy meeting people and cooking dinner for guests. IF you want a couch near town with great internet - contact me.My reply rate was low because couchsurfing had my location wrong for a while. Fixed now.Sceintist and Writer. Work for an NGO.Please do chat us up about hanging out, playing ultimate, seeing the sites, cooking, or a board games party!

PHILOSOPHY

Pack half as much clothing, twice as many books

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I organized a Unitarian Universalist church service around the couchsurfing v2.0 manifesto. It was a good thing to talk about how CS changes the world through the "willful engagement of strangers all over the world for the common good of everyone."

Now I work at GlobalGiving.Com and am spearheading an idea to match CouchSurfers traveling in remote places with nearby development/non-governmental projects that would be an interesting cross cultural experience for them to visit. If CouchSurfers (couchservers?) could report back to us with some eyewitness accounts of the good projects going on world wide, other mom&pop philanthrophists would be able to pick projects they want to support with a better perspective...

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Atlanta (DragonCon), Toronto (AIDS conference), maybe elsewhere? We hosted 1 or 2 in PA, about a dozen in NOLA. We even let a pet shelter couchsurf their stray cats with us! I've also used the CS network to locate child soldiers in Sierra Leone (research for a novel). It is a limitless resource of global connectness!

Interests

2011: started a mostly Kenyan ultimate team in Nairobi, and monthly board game meetups with the university students here. They love TICKET TO RIDE now.2010: hosted THE PARTY TO KEEP FEAR ALIVE which brought together hundreds of CouchSurfers under one roof for a ruckous party on the eve of the eponymous march. 2007-2008-2009-2010-2011 I completed nanowrimo. Still struggling to publish books though.Summer of 2008: I PULPITeered with muppets! Lookup "Muppet mysticism" or "Muppets Save Darfur" on youtube to see Elmo explain Universal life principles and the brain and heart muppets illustrate the struggle for hearts and minds... it's about the way we communicate, using Jim Henson's theology as a starting point. CSers would find it exciting!Other interests: Writing, Creating music, traveling, community organizing, Peace Corps, volunteering, NO-TV except NFL and Daily Show.I especially have been working to create and maintain healthy writers' fiction critique groups.

• pets
• cats
• writing
• books
• cooking
• partying
• clothing
• technology
• board games
• tv
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• christian
• buddhist
• divinity
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

My own creations. Other perennial favorites include:
The Tao of Pooh
Youth in Revolt: The Diaries of Nick Twisp
The Alchemist
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stephen King - On Writing
whatever is streaming on Internet Radio (RadioParadise, LoungeRadio, Swiss Groove, SoloPianoRadio, Radio de la Mer, Idobi, ioAcoustic)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Peace Corps Gambia 1999-2001
Fulbright (Gambia, Ghana, Senegal) 2003-2004
Ph.D. from Penn State in Integrated Biosciences (2001-2007)
Lay Minister (6+ sermons/services done so far on aspects of Buddhism, Christianity, Dialogue, Muppet Mysticism, AIDS, and the great Nothing...)

Teach, Learn, Share

Computers, international development, molecular neuroscsience, neuroendocrinology, organizing and public speaking/speech writing, former expert on "technology in developing nations" until the world changed overnight and everyone had a cell phone in the Gambia.

Countries I’ve Visited

Andorra, Ghana, Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Sweden, Thailand

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Gambia, Ghana, United States

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