Hurricanes and Speaking engagements.

Holy Cow!

I survived the weakest hurricane of all time! (hannah)

Cat and I traveled to North Carolina this weekend to give some presentations to 2nd & 3rd graders about our experiences in Niger, but the trip was mainly for meeting up with some of Cathys friends somewhere in Northern NC for two days then off to Raleigh for a night.

Northern NC was quite beautiful, the place we stayed was nestled in some dense forest and we went hiking there during the hurricane, it was awesome, but I must add it was no stronger than a Nigerien sprinkle for what we expected. Our presentations went overwhelmingly well, we gave two different presentations to about 100 elementary age students. With the backdrop of a photo presentation we talked of our experiences and what life is like in NIger.

We highlighted life for children in Niger and drove home the importance of education and striving to understand different cultures. We talked about our work, and summed up typical life for Nigeriens. The kids were totally captivated, and asked endless questions after and during our 1 hour and 15 minute presentation. Then we finished up with pizza and ice cream with a class then worked off the food afterwards with some very intense games of tag.

I was reminded that though my body is 30, my spirit is about 8, it was so refreshing to be mixing it up and attempting to make a positive impact on students and hopefully plant the seed to think independently and if you have a dream to catch, run after it and never allow limitations to slow you down.

Life to this point is proving that the only thing that can limit us is a lack of imagination and years to pursue our dreams.

take care, Nazifi

p.s. there are winds blowing about possible work, I'm heading out to California Thursday to partake in the farmer veteran coalition fundraiser and then heading out to boston to represent the organization at this years Farm Aid.

Some crazy things are going to be blowing in over the next two weeks so keep checking in.