What a Difference a Year Makes!

13 months ago I found myself laying in a quiet sterile hospital room, a stark contrast from the vibrant, boisterous, (dirty) environment that I had called home over the previous 27months.   My first time back in the US after 27 months of living the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in my brash village, having carved out my own little niche in the Central African country of Cameroon.  The once intimidating, aggressive challenging life of surviving as an outsider in an African village had transformed itself into my home, a home that I suddenly felt torn away from.  Back a world away, what had once been the only life I had known in a comfortable all-American community, I now lay exhausted uncertain and anxious in my state of the art hospital room(complete with visiting clowns and all). 

The clowns came to cheer me up but I just felt like crying...where the heck am I??

One of the beautiful Mud Mosques in Dogon Country, Mali

It is a commonly held belief that for Peace Corps Volunteers, no matter how difficult our transition into life within our host country, the transition upon return to the US as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers(RPCVs) is often found to be more overwhelming.  I however, wasn’t even given the chance to navigate the complicated line all RPCVs walk in re-integrating within their own society, I found myself literally unable to walk.  Just a week after arriving stateside, my body that I had trusted, one that had carried me through bouts with Malaria, Typhoid and Amoebas over my 27 months in Africa was now attacking me stateside.  Flashback days before, I was on the end leg of my overland journey across West Africa.   Hiking in Dogon Country, a remote area of eastern Mali, I stepped across a stagnant stream that meandered across my route walking one from one village to the next.  At that point I had a small cut on my foot and soon after it quickly became infected.  Who is to say that all this came from a quiet stream in a forgotten part of our world?  I will never know, what I do know is that soon after small open wounds started showing up on my other foot looking infected as well.  I did my best to keep them clean and thought to myself, this is no big deal, I have had much worse to worry about let me just make it back to the ever so sterile and clean American environment and this problem will just disappear.

We aren't the only one's walking from one village to the next in Dogon

Flash-forward again to the hospital room where I now found myself, welcome back to America Ashley!  The infection sent red lines sprinting up my leg in the direction of my heart, and the orthopedic surgeon decided to quickly go in for surgery and take out as much of the infection as possible.  While still uncertain as to what was attacking my body and what exactly I had picked up half-way across the world, the doctors and nurses mandated my visitors to gown themselves before coming in to visit me.  Talk about a strange change from my previous settings where when I would visit my hospital in village the chickens would run in and out of the hospital rooms at their own free will, no one seemed to worry about what sort of germs and bacteria could be introduced by their presence.  Now, I was suddenly the one possibly introducing some new bacteria.  After the surgery one would think that the signs of infection would have begun to recede, yet my leg continued to swell and redden from my ankle all the way up to my hip, no longer was this seemingly any localized infection.   Finally, on the 5^th day one of the many types of antibiotics the doctors had tried to introduce finally began to relieve some of the effects of the infection.  After a week of complete uncertainty as to what I was facing I was able to return back to my parents house where I would spend the next 4 weeks receiving IV antibiotics and immobilized with a deep hole in the side of my knee. 

Embrace the uncertainty of life, find peace within, not allowing the anxiety of tomorrow overwhelm today and have Patience with oneself, these were the lessons that carried me through my life in Cameroon and carried me through the difficult transition back in the US. 

Fully healed and feeling right at home again on the slopes

And I must say a year after such a remarkable event I am proud of how far I have come.  In the past year I have become a Professional Ski Instructor, skiing 110 days in a season that began just a week after I was able to walk again, I climbed three 14,000foot peaks, and am now playing professional basketball with a top level women’s team in Cyprus where I landed a position with an organization I had long dreamed of working with: PeacePlayers International.  So I am once again reminded as I reflect and look back upon this last year that life can surprise us at any moment, but we must be ready to tackle such challenges head on in order to come out stronger on the other end, this is what makes the story of human resiliency beautiful. 

Beginning the Journey

“The Journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”

It’s hard to think back to what that first step would have been as I find myself sitting on a LOT (Polish Airline) flight from Warsaw to Larnaca, Cyprus. I am standing at the doorstep of a new chapter in my journey of life. Was the first step walking into the airport yesterday in Denver, saying goodbye to my parents once again? Or maybe it could be traced much further back to the day I first stepped on a basketball court years ago.

Well, wherever that first step was taken it is currently leading me to Nicosia, Cyprus where I will be spending the next 2 years as a Fellow with PeacePlayers International. An International Non-Government Organization (NGO) whose mission is to educate, unite and inspire youth from divided communities. In Cyprus these communities are the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriot communities.

I don’t have many expectations as I prepare to arrive shortly in Cyprus but what I do have is an open mind, a passion for the mission of the organization, and a desire to leave a noticeably positive difference in the lives of these kids as well as the organization of Peace Players.


This is an exert from my journal entry while I was in transit from America to Cyprus. I am beginning this blog as a response to the many inquisitions of friends and family as to my work and personal life at this current stage in my journey of life. After finishing my service of 27 months as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon(see my past blog Ashleysadventuresinafrica), the desire and dedication to serving and lead in the setting of development work still captures my heart. Specifically, the idea of using sports (my passion) as a tool for community development and social change resonates so deeply within me. Two of my favorite secondary projects as a PCV were my experiences working with my young girls’ sports club and my mamas’ sports club I created in my village of Manjo, Cameroon. Identifying as an athlete my entire life, I was familiar with the incredible life lessons that sports have taught me. Beyond these life lessons sports allowed me a vehicle to connect with my community, forming deep and meaningful relationships with individuals that I would have otherwise had little in common with. So I take these experiences that have greatly shaped my life and my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer to a new region of the world and begin as an International Fellow with PeacePlayers International. Check out our website at www.peaceplayersintl.org. We keep a weekly blog on our website highlighting our local programming activities. Follow us at: http://blog.peaceplayersintl.org/ If you want more personal updates you are welcome to follow my personal blog here: http://journeysandgems.blogspot.com/ 

Thanks for all of your love, support and encouragement as I follow my heart and my passions in this new line of work!