It's a Schmahl World

Trying our Hand at Tejo, Colombia’s National Sport

On our first morning in Colombia, we did a walking tour of Bogota’s Candelaria district seeing the Plaza de Bolivar, the Botero Museum and the Gold Museum. After a busy morning exploring the streets of Bogota, we took a much-needed break at a local bar. We relaxed, drank some local beer and played a traditional Colombian…

Visiting the World of Chocolate Museum and Café

Situated in a tiny strip in Orlando, Florida, the World of Chocolate Museum and Café is much bigger than it appears from the outside. Walking through the door you immediately spot a display filled with delicious looking chocolates and candies! While you could just hang out in the café, we decided to tour the chocolate…

Model School & Site Announcement

After a few weeks of lessons at the training center about teaching strategies and classroom management, we had our first chance to try them out in the classroom! For 3 weeks, we taught in the Peace Corps Model School, where middle and high schoolers from around the community voluntarily come to take extra classes, held…

Step Right Up to the Ringling Museum

A week before the Ringling Bros Circus performed their last show, we made a visit to the Ringling in Sarasota, Florida! The Ringling estate is made up of three main sections, the Circus Museum, Ca d’Zan and the Museum of Art. The last living Ringling brother, John Ringling and his wife Mable owned the entire…

Weekend Trip to Monrovia, Liberia

A few weeks ago, our training group took our first trip to Liberia’s capital city, Monrovia! Here our some highlights from our three days there… The Ducor Hotel – on our first day in Monrovia, we visited the Ducor Hotel. Once one of West Africa’s finest luxury hotels, it had been abandoned during Liberia’s civil war….

First Weekend with my Liberian Host Family

The first couple days with my host family, I had training during the day, so I was only home for breakfast and in the evening. In the mornings, my ma would fix my breakfast – one day it was scrambled eggs with onions on bread and another was spaghetti (in Liberia, spaghetti is a breakfast…

Adoption Ceremony – Meeting my Liberian Family

When we returned from the site visit in Grand Cape Mount County, we just barely had time to eat a quick lunch, re-pack our bags (of our two suitcases, one will go in storage for the rest of PST) and change into something presentable for the Adoption Ceremony! This was when we would meet the…

Site Visit in Grand Cape Mount County

The first few days at the training center felt almost like being at summer camp because we had days full of activities and slept in bunk beds in the dorms. We got our first taste of what life will really be like in Liberia when we left to visit currently serving volunteers. I was in…

First Days in Liberia – the Start of PST

After landing in Liberia, our group, LR-7, piled into a couple of buses and headed to the training center in Margibi county. The Peace Corps training center is a compound with dorms, a dining hall, classrooms, a small medical building, a volleyball net and several palava huts. This is where we spent our first few…

Staging in Washington D.C. & Off to Liberia!

I made it to Liberia! I’ve been here almost two weeks, I’m working on catching up on blog posts about everything here, but first I want to start from the beginning! Armed with two checked bags each 50 pounds or less (after some last minute shuffling at the airport) and my back pack and day…