I have been back in the U.S. for about six months after working/volunteering abroad for the two years before that. I taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as a volunteer in a government secondary school in southern Tanzania. After that, I taught English literature, writing, and EFL for a year at a non-profit boarding school in Hargeisa, Somaliland. After those two years of traveling and basically volunteering, I needed to make a little money and pay down some debt, so I took a serving job here in Fargo, ND. I enjoy teaching and kids but it's not something I want to do long-term-- it was more a way to get experience and be useful in developing countries. My long-term career interests are in prevention/resolution of armed conflict and genocide, global health, and poverty alleviation. I hope to head back to Africa around February to work or volunteer in something related to those areas of interest (short-list countries of interest include the Congo, Rwanda, S. Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, and W. Africa in general).
I get out dancing whenever I can (to live music whenever possible, freestyle but mostly influenced by latin dancing and ballet that I used to do in another life). I also recently started long-distance running and ran my first two halves in October and November 2016. Update: ran my first full January 2017 in Phoenix and now want to run another one faster! Lol.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love to travel and meet new people, but don't have much money (I'm saving all that I can so I can get back to the African continent). While Fargo has far exceeded my expectations in terms of a live music/dance/downtown scene, the dance scene is still somewhat limited and I love travelling to Minneapolis to get my latin dance fix in. So I'm looking for a host I might stay with in the Twin Cities-- if that host is into either running or dancing and would like to join me for either of these things, all the better!
Unfortunately, my housing/roommate situation here in Fargo doesn't really allow me to host couchsurfers at the moment, but I'd be happy to take people out dancing/show them the local downtown scene here in Fargo (or feel free to join me for a run!).

Interests

• dancing
• salsa dancing
• swing dancing
• yoga
• marathon
• running
• languages
• language exchange
• africa
• zouk
• latin dancing
• tanzania
• swahili
• east africa
• freestyle partnered dancing

Music, Movies, and Books

*Love latin music-- especially kizomba and bachata. Swing music. Lots of other things.
*Loved Inception, Inglorious Bastards (minus the gratuitous violence)
*Books-- Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel and Nomad, enjoyed Any Rand's Atlast Shrugged (haven't quite finished it yet)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Traveling by bus around Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia.
Running in the dessert-like landscape in Somaliland.

Teach, Learn, Share

Can teach/share dance-- latin dance (salsa, bachata, merenge, cha-cha, etc), some swing. Freestyle!
Can teach/share Swahili (fluent), some Somali.
Love learning languages-- working on Somali and French right now.

What I Can Share with Hosts

If you want someone to go out dancing with or even to show/teach you some dance, I'm your person! Or if you're a musician and would like some dance action at your gig/show, that's a possibility.
If you want someone to go for a run with, that's me! (Especially long-distance, but also shorter.)
Can share/teach Swahili (fluent), some Somali. I can share travel stories/advice if you're interested in going to Eastern Africa.

Countries I’ve Visited

Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, United Arab Emirates

Countries I’ve Lived In

Somalia, Tanzania, United States