Category Archives: travel

i’m off…

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I know I didn’t write much this week, which is a bit unusual for me. I think I was working so hard on this that I didn’t have any more in me.

Hopefully, this weekend will help. I’m off to the beautiful Bay Area for some much need R and R with my fabulous sister (she needs the R and R much more than I do). Our plans? We are spending tomorrow here after which we will be dining here. Oh, and I will get to eat (if it’s only dessert, do you still say “eat?”) here tonight.

When it comes to siblings, I have been incredibly blessed!!!

where in the world? and a gift

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I will be going to the Democratic Republic of Congo in less than two months. And now I’m going to tell you why.

I volunteer for an organization called Sowers of Hope. It’s an NGO that helps to support a grassroots organization (also called Sowers of Hope) in DR Congo started by Bernard Balibuno and Emmanuel Mufla, two of the area’s own.

I got involved with the organization about five months ago, after meeting Alicia Vial in one of my French classes here in Provo. She met Bernard during her undergrad, and helped to support the beginning of what Sowers of Hope – Bukavu is today. The organization in Bukavu supports an elementary school that currently employs five teachers to teach 158 students.

It is an amazing organization. What I love about it is that we support their organization. We are not going in to “Westernize” them, but to help them in their own efforts. The other thing I love is that our goal is to help them become self-sustaining, rather than supporting them for the rest of forever. This will allow them to become economically viable, while educating children and keeping those children out of the armies, and it will allow us to then move on and help additional grassroots organizations.

Currently, we are supplying (or will be shortly) funds to support their elementary school, as well as to purchase and install a mill, which will supply the school with both food and a form of regular income. (There are a number of other projects we are working on that we will be posting to the website soon and I will also be writing on our blog.) I could go on and on about why I love Sowers and what we are doing.

So, why am I going over there? I will be training the teachers and administrators in general office and computer skills. A daunting task no matter what, but I also get to do it in French.

In addition to telling you all about my trip*, I really want to do my part to raise awareness, as well as contribute to our fund raising efforts in these early stages. And in my thoughts of how to best do this, I thought of my family, my friends, and my readers. So, here’s what I am asking (and yes, I’m totally using my blog to promote this organization); I would love it if all of you would check out the website (which is still undergoing construction) and, if you feel so inclined after reading about what we are doing, donate** something.

I would also love it if you would post about this on your blogs. You could post a link to my post, or to the website itself. I would love it so much, that provided all works out and I do make a trip to Africa, I will pick one of you (meaning you need to leave a comment or email me letting me know that you posted it on your blog…please include your blog URL in your comment/email) at random, and bring something back for you from Africa. And this is open to anyone.

In addition to volunteering my time for the organization, I will be donating $10 a month*** to the school. It may not sound like a lot, but if even 9 of you are willing to do the same, we will have supported a teacher for an entire year. That’s right. $100 a month will support one teacher. And we think our teachers are poorly paid. And none of your donations are going to support my trip over there. You can visit this page to read about the school and our funding goals.

I am extremely excited to be a part of an organization**** that I really believe in and that is making a difference. These children are incredible, and the people in the Congo who have sacrificed so much in order to ensure that these kids are getting an education just amaze me.

If you have any questions about the organization or would like to know other ways to get involved (we are looking for two laptops to take over when we go), please email me at: chloe@sowersofhope.org

You can also purchase this uber-cool t-shirt (all proceeds go to sowers, you have a cool t-shirt, people see our name) here.

*None of your donations will be going to support my trip (our anyone else’s) over to Congo. All donations go directly to Sowers in Bukavu, Congo.
**Donations of $100 or less are tax deductible without any documentation. We are currently working on our 501(c)3 application, and once we are approved, larger donations will be eligible. Please contact your tax advisor for any questions about charitable donations.
***Currently, donations are taken through PayPal. We will soon have the ability to set up a recurring payment, so the money is automatically withdrawn from your account each month.
****I do have a soul…who knew?
*****Sorry the pictures aren’t bigger. They are straight from Emmanuel and are relatively small files.

good things to come

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Today, I spent an hour at the Utah County Health Department; an hour full of discussions about scary diseases and different types of vaccinations…and then came the five injections (my poor shoulders…but you have to love the sparkly band-aid).

Sadly, that was not the end of it. I have three more shots and some excellent pills to come. At the end of it all, I will be protected from Hepatitis A and B, Polio, Tetanus, Typhoid, Malaria, Meningitis, Rabies, and Yellow Fever. And all of this begs the question:

where am I going and why?

Some of you know. The rest of you will find out on Monday. Due to everything I have to do, in preparation for the great reveal, I will not be posting anything between now and then. Oh…the anticipation!

I hope you will all come back on Monday to find out…and if you already know, I hope you will come back because you will get to see what I have been working on (along with a team of incredibly talented people who have been doing this for quite a bit longer than I) for the last few months. I am so excited to share this with all of you!

in the mail

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This week, the mail has been my friend. Normally, it brings bills and information about any number of business schools that I won’t be applying to, but this week was different. Sure, it helped that I ordered a few things online, but I was so surprised how quickly they all arrived.

So, here they are (and remember, we all choose to spend our money in different ways…don’t judge me).

  1. A letter from the IRS stating that I will be getting an additional $600 back from Uncle Sam.

  2. Cute, white shoes (not the easiest find in March) for working in my church’s temple. I spend five hours there one evening a week, and I’m on my feet a good portion of the time, so I felt it was worth a little investment to get shoes that were comfortable. They are amazing. Seriously amazing. I actually ended up ordering another pair (in a different style and color) because they are cute (okay, maybe not the latest trend…but still cute) and comfortable. Not the norm for me, I know.

  3. A nutrition scale. I actually used to have one (probably still do buried in the depths of my storage unit), but after spending five hours looking for it one Saturday, I decided that maybe it didn’t want to be found. I was just going to order the same one, but as with all things technology, some advancements have been made since I purchased my original one, so I ordered this one instead. It arrived on Monday. I am in love. (Is that possible?) It is amazing. I can add multiple ingredients and it keeps track of everything and will store it. No more guessing when I’m trying to calculate points. No more asking, “Is that 1.5 cups of whole strawberries? Sliced strawberries?” I can just put things on the scale and know immediately. Yes, yes, I think I really am in love.

  4. My new passport. My old one was going to expire in April and with a possible trip out of the country in May (I will be posting all about it soon), I really needed to get the new one before the old one expired. Not to mention the fact that I was taught by my mother that you should always have a current passport as you never know when you might need to leave the country unexpectedly. Ha ha ha. As in, sometimes there are deals on air travel that you just can’t pass up. It’s interesting. I haven’t been out of the country in seven years (which is a long time for me), and yet I think if I didn’t have a passport, I’d feel trapped. I mean, I love my country, but there’s something comforting about knowing I can leave it at any time.

chicago

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So…here it is, finally. My recap of Chicago, or at least the sites I saw and places I ate. I left out the play-by-play of my shopping. You can thank me for that later. And in case it wasn’t evident before (which I’m sure it was) I am a total foodie. Good times.

Friday evening, after picking me up at the airport (thank you) Kelly and Kevin took me to their favorite place to take visitors for dinner, Ballo. It was great. I have never been a huge meatball fan, but I’m a believer in being open-minded, so I didn’t say anything when they ordered some…and I was right to keep my mouth shut. They were absolutely delicious, as was everything else we ordered.

Lunch on Saturday was at The Signature Room. This is obviously not a picture of the food, but the view of Navy Pier from the restaurant, on the 95th floor, which is really why the restaurant is such a big deal. Amazing!


The Art Institute of Chicago. I went here twice. On Saturday, we saw a very thought provoking photography exhibit (and warmed up). It was all about adolescence in women. I could have spent hours in that one room alone (except that the museum was closing, so we got kicked out). The next day, Kelly and I went to see the impressionists (my favorite art period) and it was incredible to see some of my favorite paintings in person; some of Monet’s Water Lilies, Renoir’s Woman at the Piano, Van Gogh’s The Bedroom, and Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.

This is one of the reasons I love big cities: street performers. These guys were outside of the Art Institute and they played so well.

At the recommendation of Jenny (and Oprah…apparently), I also picked up a bag of The Mix at Garrett Popcorn; a combination of cheese popcorn and caramel popcorn that is their specialty (and I’m all about specialties). It was surprisingly good, although next time I might have to try the Macadamia CaramelCrisp. Doesn’t that just sound delicious?

We went to Giordano’s for dinner on Saturday and this is where I had my first experience with Chicago deep dish pizza. It really is so much better than regular pizza and totally different than real Italian pizza. I am a fan.
As is my true nature, I needed a little something sweet, so Kelly and I stopped at Potbelly’s for shakes. So. Good.

I had the good fortune to visit Chicago during its Restaurant Week (I also had this luck on my D.C. trip last summer). Kelly made reservations for us at the Pump Room. It was so delicious. Honestly, I probably would have been happy with just the croissants (the best I’ve ever had on American soil), but the rest of it was worth the calories, too.


I was luck enough to make two visits to Millennium Park. This is the giant bean. Strange? Yes. Fascinating? Absolutely. Entertaining? Completely.


On our way back to Kelly’s to pick up my luggage and head to the airport, I wanted to stop at Paper Source. We had just enough time, so we got off the train and headed in (where I proceeded to spend a small fortune on…yes, paper.

But then, Kelly mentioned a chocolate shop that was just down the street. So, rather than be practical and head back to the apartment so I wouldn’t be late for my flight, we went to Vosges Chocolates. I had actually seen this place on-line before my trip and wanted to go there, but had completely forgotten about it. I think I might have had the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted (it might be a tie with Max Brenner) and I also purchased some truffles that were absolutely divine. I felt a little daring with the strange flavor combinations; coconut and curry, and various chilies, but they ended up being absolutely delightful (once I was able to taste them…as they were in my luggage that didn’t make it on the plane because I was late to the airport because I stopped to purchase them).


As you can see, I had an absolutely delightful time (well, minus the interview that I didn’t manage to get to on time).