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US foreign assistance, infectious disease epidemiology, & a more perfect union 🫠 Bonus Texas/books/backpacking
I am both exhausted and a little sad to conclude my time as a machine that turns cheese into leg muscle
All of the Dolomites felt like a Miyazaki film and I haven't even seen Porco Rosso (that's an airstrip behind the pie). Insane place.
Seeing the Gorillaz live was a somewhat comforting reminder that 2006 also felt bad. Included a good short speech on democracy in Eastern Europe which I am a sucker for. Dudes have been on the right side of politics, including Palestine, going on 25 years now
[Robert Caro talking about limestone for 30 pages voice] Were it not for the altitude, as a Central Texan I would be absolutely lapping people on this terrain
~20mi into lugging this 3lb book around the Dolomites partly for the bit and I am having Regrets
Meanwhile my boyfriend learned to crossstitch and is in the process of becoming the local yarn store's newsletter darling
I haven't been to anything other than PWR (which I know drifted off into the sea for a bit) but this one in March was a blast
Devil's Tower is very possibly the most astounding and bewildering place I've been in America.
This is a peak Bluesky post but I am really struck by the stark contrast in language and practice re: land, risk, and sacrifice between Cold War era nuclear infrastructure and modern natsec-adjacent AI/tech infrastructure
Hello from a gas station in rural South Dakota where I laughed so hard at this hat that I caused a scene (duh we bought it) (may it rise from the ashes)
All my aid worker friends have been posting things like this on social all week. When the humanitarian meme accounts come back we'll really be in business
Every spring I get invited to judge a global health engineering design competition hosted by my alma mater, and let me tell you, nothing deflates that "some cultures are regressive" nonsense more quickly
Unlock Aid sponsoring the Ben Franklin Fellows makes SO much sense. Should get them blacklisted from the entire development sector when we regain power and begin to rebuild. ktb2025.substack.com/p/the-frankl...
No Kings Bedias TX (bee-dice), pop. 361, made me take a photo in front of their welcome sign in exchange for pineapple cake
No Kings in Coldspring, Texas was bumping and there's a restaurant owned by former republicans giving out free margaritas to all protesters afterwards
Boss knew I was salty about being pulled from my technical field so I got to surge support health offices whenever any needed coverage. Best by far was measles/anthrax stuff in the Kyrgyz Republic (partly bc it was during eid so I just drove around the entire country for four days)
Anyway my original job was no longer needed by the time it came through, but I needed a job, so I wound up working a bunch of Administrator trips & other random stuff until the guy on the Sri Lanka/Maldives desk quit to join the foreign service