My Summer Job....

So folks have been asking me what am I doing now that I am home from my world travels.   Well I came back to Sanford, NC to start my summer internship.                                  

This is for Kelley,  This is our favorite restaurant in Sanford

This job is not your typical summer internship.


 So a major part of my grad program is the summer internship.  I spent all Fall semester trying to figure out what type of internship I wanted, I even applied for some, but I just was not super excited about doing an internship.  Over Christmas I thought about why I didn't want to do an internship, and I realized I didn't want to have "more work experience"  I had that, I wanted to have a really meaningful experience this summer.    So I thought about that some more.

By the end of January I had determined what I wanted to do this summer was to try to start my own business, I have always thought it would be a fun thing to do, but am a bit too risk adverse to really take the plunge.  But the summer between my two years at grad school seemed like the perfect time to try.  I mean if it failed I had the safety net of another year at grad school to regroup and figure things out.

So in February I flew home and pitched the idea to my parents.  Would they let me hang out at their house over the summer, while I tried to start a business.  They agreed, and I jokingly told everyone my internship was Development Director for the Barrow Foundation.

So in June I started my "internship"  (The last two weeks of May were filled with family events, before we all scattered again.)

So what is my business?  I am trying to start a social venture that will help minorities in China have an opportunity to get equal access to employment.

What is a social venture? It is basically a for profit business whose mission is to solve a social problem.
Here is a video that explains the concept:

I have loved learning about social entrepreneurship while in school this past year.  It really feels like a good fit for me.

This summer has been a learning experience so far.  I am teaching myself the ins and outs of Chinese law, and learning about shipping, and factory relations.   I don't know if I have made amazing progress this past month, but it has been an interesting experience.    I have learned other things this summer, that I will blog about later.  But so far my summer job is going well.

I went to Great Britain Too!!!

So after Ghana some friends and I arranged to have a seven day layover in London on our way home from Ghana.  It was so much fun.  Why? you ask well because first of all it is England!!! and I kept having these little literary moments when I thought oh my goodness this place I read about in books my whole life really does exist.  And it happened all the time, from the moment we got off the plane, took the Heathrow express and where did we end up?  Paddington Station!, and guess who was there?

Paddington Bear of course, I did not have any marmalade for him :(

 Then on our way to Scotland, our train left from Kings Cross Station.  You all know what that means, We took a little detour on the Hogwarts Express!

I always knew I was magical.

 When we were wandering the streets of London we came across Drury Lane, unfortunately we could not find a muffin man, I had ice cream from a French pastry shop instead.

But my favorite moment was in the British Museum.

This is Oliver in front of the British Museum 

 I walked into one room and it was set up like library from the 1700's and I felt like I was inside a Jane Austin book.  I couldn't help but smile.

 I liked going to England and Scotland, it felt like coming home, not just because of all of the familiar literary references, but I just felt like these are my people.  I also liked it because it was cool, I could wear my jeans again, and even needed a jacket.  How refreshing after Ghana.   But the reason I loved England and Scotland was because I went there with the two best travel companions I could possibly think of.  Oliver and Matthias.

Everyone should take a trip with Matthias and Oliver.   Here are the top ten reason why.

10.    They are guys so they always insist on caring your luggage for you.  It was very nice.

9.     Oliver arranged for us to stay with his mission companion who lives outside of London.  It was         awesome having a home base for our week of wandering.  (Unfortunately I did not take a single picture of them, but they were an awesome family, one of my favorite parts of the trip actually.)

8.     Matthias is super organized, and helped us keep track of all of our papers, tickets ect.  

7.     They are willing to work with Ghanaian airport employees at 1:30 in the morning who won't let you get on the plane because they cannot read your electronic ticket.  Oliver manged to get us onto the plane.  But there was a brief moment when I thought.  I am going to be stuck in Ghana for ever!!!!

6.     They will protect you from all of the dangers you find in Scotland and England

5.   They are excellent tour guides every morning they had an agenda laid out with places to see and the most efficient way to see them.  It was great.

4.    Oliver has mad map reading skills, and can get us about most anywhere.  There were moments when I thought we are completely lost, then we would turn the corner and be right where we were suppose to be.

3.     They go see Les Mis with you, and even seem kind of excited about it.

2.   They make you soup when you are sick in bed.  ( I came down with a cold my last day in Ghana, I felt awful on the plane on the way to London (there was one moment when I thought I might have malaria, but it wasn't it was just a cold, and no sleep), anyway by the time we were in Scotland it became bronchitis and it hurt so much to breath that I spent a day in bed, while they went to Stirling. They took very good care of me.)

1.    They make you hike up Arthur's seat even though you spent the whole day in bed, it hurt to breath, and you were going up the ancient volcano at a snails pace.  It was totally worth it when I made it to the top, and it was something I really wanted to do.  I am glad they came and got me out of bed and made me do it.

The sun setting from Arthur's Seat.

Thanks for the great trip guys!

So....For those who didn't know... I went to Africa!!! (Ghana)

So in 10th grade I had a French teacher, Mrs. Wilson, who had been an exchange teacher in Senegal.  She taught us all about West Africa.   I fell in love with Africa, and I wanted to go.  So I kept learning French, I hated French.    I went to college and kept learning French, hated it the entire time, but I knew you needed French if you wanted to be useful in Africa.  My final year of college, I went down to BYU, my major had an African study abroad in Zimbabwe.  I wanted to go really bad, but the $3000 to go seemed to high of a price to pay especially since I planed on going on a mission that summer.    I wasn't too worried, the chances of getting called to Africa on a mission were pretty good, I mean I had a minor in French!   Those of you who know the rest of my story can all laugh mercilessly at me right now. Those of you who don't know my story...I did not go to Africa, I went somewhere that absolutely was not Africa or French speaking.   So I figured my chance to go to Africa was gone.   Fast forward ten years.  I am in grad school and they have an Africa study abroad program, and I went.  

Six of us rushed through our final exams,  and went to Ghana a little early to go live on an African Island.

 This is my island Pediatokope.  

 I lived with a family,

 slept in a hut

 and carried water for my shower on my head! (I don't have a picture of that but here I am with palm nuts)

 I was adopted by my family I have the family bracelet, and my name is Ohwee.(I don't know if that is spelled right)  It means first born daughter, because I am their first white daughter.

This island did not have running water or electricity, and there were deadly malaria mosquitoes, cobras, black mambas, and crocodiles on the island.   So here is my bed that protected me at night.   And my water and flashlight.

The water was really important, because it was very very hot on the Island, but I loved it.  Here I am singing an African song with my family at night.

We were sitting under a solar powered light that is the only light in the village once the sun goes down at 6pm every night.

It was an awesome experience, but I was excited to go back to Accra and stay in hotels with running water, and air conditioning for the rest of my stay in Ghana.

Our first day in Accra with the entire study abroad group our bus was robbed, and I lost my backpack with my iphone.  So I got to visit a Ghanaian jail.  (and I wish I had taken a picture of the jail, because it looked like a cell from Andy Griffith, with a criminal sitting in the little cell, who waved very happily at us from his cell.) But here I am in front of the jail, with everyone else who lost stuff.

While I was in Ghana we worked on two consulting projects one for the Perpetual Education fund for the LDS church, the other was a market analysis for IDE.  I was on the market team, so I learned a whole lot about okra.   It was fun to go to Ghana, here are some highlights.

We swam under a waterfall, awesome experience!

I pet a crocodile...not entirely sure why I did this.

But the best part of the trip, was I got to spend three weeks with some of my favorite people.  I love everyone in the MPA program.  

The most surprising thing about Africa, was I found out I enjoy Asia more than I do Africa.  It was a little sad, to realize this, but also confirming, that I am going in the right direction.   Loved my African experience, but I think the only way I am going back is if I can go on a safari and white water rafting down the Nile, and I want to go to Egypt, but as far as saving the world....well Asia here I come!

After Africa  I went to London.  The next post will be about the adventures on the British Isles!!! spoiler alert,  it was fun.    If you want to see more pictures, visit me on facebook.  That is where all of the Ghana pictures are posted. Also if you want a day by day blow of what I did in Ghana.  I will refer you to this blog  Andrew is a great story teller, takes great pictures, and unlike me, blogged every day.