I'll be leaving this view after 30 years for many new views and people and experiences and hopefully contributions as a new Fellow to Dakar Senegal.

Laos is known as The Land of a Million Elephants, but today most of these beautiful creatures are domesticated or in elephant preservation sites like the one in this photo. There are approximately 200 wild elephants roaming the jungles of northern Laos. This one lives at MandaLao Elephant Conservstion. Fun fact: Did you know that elephants can detect scents from miles away? They use their trunks to sample the air for potential dangers and threats.

My name is Kevin. I am a renewing Fellow in Sri Lanka.

One of my main concerns going into my first year was secondary duties. It felt like a lot of pressure to come up with the perfect project. In the end, the worry was for nothing because people pretty much told me what they wanted as soon as I got there. There was a major need for speaking practice to help reticent students come out of their shells. Even though many students are proficient, many lack the confidence to communicate ideas, opinions, and emotions through oral communication. Running workshops to tackle that issue in particular ended up being the bulk of my secondary duties. So, please feel free to ask about speaking, secondary duties, or anything else you may be curious about. Thanks!

My name is Magdalena, but I go by my nickname Maddie for short. I am a renewing fellow in Indonesia. One of my favorite past times in both Indonesia and other places I live is getting outdoors and hiking. If you have any questions about how to do this in your new host country, or are wondering about some great spots in EAP, I'd love to chat :)

My name is Dr. Nicole Stephens. Please call me Nikki. I was born and live in NJ now. I am assigned to Libreville, Gabon. I will be leaving the US to travel there in September. Please ask me about how I feel about my journey there. I love to dance, read, travel, QiGong and Salsa and have fun. I speak French and Spanish fluently. I teach dances from all over the world. I teach dances from Ghana, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South African, Nigeria, and of course the United States. I am a certified Yoga and trained QiGong and Tai Chi Instructor. I also studied two years of Karate. Pilates and Kung Fu are my next movements to tackle. I cannot wait to meet the children and young people of Gabon. I am so excited about this part of my journey that I can't stop dancing.

Originally from North Carolina.

Along with teaching ESL, I spent the last 10+ years traveling internationally as a dance teacher.

Ask me about the context of this photo.

Oh! I am a professional merman contracted with one of the top mermaid performing groups worldwide! (Watch "Merpeople" on Netflix!)

On July 1, 2025 I retired from 34 years of teaching/ coaching- a job I dearly loved, but I'm not ready to ride off into the sunset. I'm so excited to embark on this journey of English Language Fellowship in the Philippines.

I am excited to meet you all, and please reach out to me with any questions you might have about the Fellowship or being a Fellow with dependents.

I found out that Latin American salsa is not similar to slot-style salsa that I was learning at home. Kizomba class was more urban kiz than kizomba so I learned to be very confused with a smile and a laugh. West Coast Swing meant music I could understand because it was in English but the lessons were not which gave me hilarious cognitive dissonance.

I had so much fun -- a great experience for connecting with others! Now to find a dance school in San Salvador, El Salvador!

Feel free to reach out and ask me about the journey to earning a doctorate in Education. I’d love to connect and learn with all of you!

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• Halal moose meat (grilled) and goose

Again:

- Smothered camel over biryani

-Chinese aged duck eggs

-Saudi hareesh (kind of pulled chicken in pounded rice with olive oil.

-Wild turkey & goose eggs (loads of protein)

Miss:

-My mother's fried fish nuggets & collard greens.

-Halal South African biltong (dried meat)

-Tonga nut butter stew from Zimbabwe

-Halal dried yak meat from Tibet via Foshan

-Crab stew from Busan, S. Korea.

-Senegalese Dibi (grilled meat in lemon/mustard gravy), Yasa (lemon/mustard chicken), Mafe (nut butter stew with tomatoes & meat), & Supa-konja (pounded okra w/ palm oil, tomatoes, and goat meat).

-Nigerian Egusi stew, and, and, and, ...lol

-Indigenous dried Alaskan smoked-salmon strips !!!!! - herring eggs, tundra berries (got me through the pandemic).

Something I’d love to have again is grape leaves — I can never get enough of the rich and comforting taste of this dish.

But what I know I’ll miss the most from my hometown is my mother’s Kabsah, a traditional spiced rice. Nothing beats the love and flavor she puts into this dish ❤️

Rocoto Rellenos (Stuffed Peppers), which remind me of the stuffed peppers my mom made when I was growing up.

Aji de Gallina (Chicken Stew), which reminds me of yellow curry, something that I love.

And of course, Ceviche, the national dish of raw white fish, chili peppers and salt, marinated in fresh lime juice.

I will miss my sister's award-winning chili; I'm hoping she will make it for me a couple of times before I leave for Perú in February.

Something I want to have again... the street falafel sandwich I had in Palestine or the Varenyky dumplings I had in Ukraine.

Something I'll miss from my hometown... I consider Budapest, Hungary to be hometown since I have lived here for 7 years, and the one thing I will miss the most will be sertéspörkölt.

What I'll miss?

From Chicago, I'll miss deep dish pizza. (You're welcome to say it's only for tourists, but I have to disagree!) And Portillo's veggie Chicago dogs.

From Louisiana, my family home, I'll miss...so much...grits, greens, crawfish, gumbo...

"Misaotra": mee-SOW-tra - Thank you

An essential word to know when interacting with locals. Can also use French - Merci beaucoup!

"Chicken feathers and garlic skins" =

Trivial or insignificant matters that are not worth worrying about or arguing over

The idiom is rooted in a story about two neighbors who took their petty dispute about chicken feathers and garlic skins to court, highlighting the judge's frustration at having his time wasted on such insignificant matters. This story popularized the phrase as a way to describe unimportant issues.

This idiom really speaks to me. When I think about it, so much of life is wasted focusing on "feathers and garlic skin", right?

As of 2023, 97% of the world's total ilish supply originates in Bangladesh.^{[5] Wikipedia}

"Bạn đa ăn chưa?"

Food and well-being are so tied together in Vietnamese culture that they don't even say "How are you?". They just ask if you've had a meal yet.

I haven't been back to the US in a couple of years and I am ashamed to say the foods I miss most are fast foods. I miss the hamburgers from In-N-Out and Carl's Jr.

What will I miss from the U.S.? Hmm, the same thing I miss from the Pacific Northwest here in the Midwest -- maple bars. There is nothing finer, to me, than to have a sweet maple bar with my coffee in the morning.

Tapioca functions like a crepe and my favorite kind has fried banana, tucumã (a somewhat bitter fruit from the Amazon region), and coalho - a specific cheese from the region also

I also want to give mini shout outs to all of my NEA group new and old! I look forward to seeing you guys at the midterm! Inchallah!