Between Here and Benin

I celebrated a birthday last week - I honestly don’t have a problem telling you my age - but I think it wise to just keep everyone guessing 🙂 My oldest son, Aden, surprised me with the most beautiful gift, my very first Lego set! Oh yes, I have purchased many sets of Lego, but this was the first that was my very own, a bouquet of wildflowers. Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To rec...

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this post…has anyone ever just had a craving for cookies so you went ahead and made them - even if you hadn’t planned to? Well, it happened to me today. One minute I was writing and the next I was googling the best recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Soon after the mixer was whirling 🍪. Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive ne...

Fall holds a special place in my heart, even though I enjoy both of the transition seasons we experience here in the Northwest. About 2 weeks ago, the first flock of Canadian geese flew over - signaling the changing of the tide from summer to fall. Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. At least this si...

First off, I would like to say thank you for all your support during this past year regarding my entrepreneurship ventures. I put together 2 pitches this year asking for $20K through a program, Venture Devils, at ASU. While I received amazing feedback on the pitches, I did not receive any funding. Each time I went back to the drawing board as to where the issue was and how I could change the devel...

I know that it has been a hot minute since I graced your inbox, so here’s a… Short little newsletter and update on this beautiful Wednesday evening! It is almost the end of the spring semester (5 semesters down for my doctorate woohoo!) which means there is another opportunity for me to secure some funding from Venture Devils for the development of Èkodjayé in Benin. I very much appreciated all of...

Friday I knew the travel day wouldn't go as planned as soon as TSA in Bellingham confiscated the overnight oats I had prepped for breakfast. Perhaps it was because they had only been in the fridge for three hours and hadn't fully reached an oatmeal-like consistency, but who knows? I could have gone back out of security and eaten it, but at 4:30 am, I just wasn't ready to eat! Of course, they gave...

I’m writing the newsletter from the N gates at the SeaTac International Airport. I think that I could sit and watch all the movement that happens at airports for hours. The view I have right now is of planes coming into the gate, leaving, taking off, and disappearing into the cloudy skies of Seattle. It’s probably going to be a bit of a bumpy takeoff. In case you forgot where I am headed, I will k...

👩🏼‍💻 Doctorate For those of you who are new to the newsletter or may not be aware, I am currently a student in the Doctorate of Education in Leadership and Innovation program at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. I was drawn to this program for many reasons including: * a 100% online, three-year, cohort-based degree * focus on research in action * the option to ad...

🎶 Oooh…the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup… I believe the majority of you reading or listening to this newsletter know this little jingle from Rockapella and Folgers Coffee… Sorry, you might have that little jingle stuck in your head for the rest of the day now… Well, contrary to what the jingle is stating, the best part of waking up is actually to wait 90-120 minutes before drinkin...

Our family was all excited to go up to Canada for a few Saturdays in February because my husband is taking a course for work. Something different on a Saturday, a chance to go explore our neighboring country which is only about a ten-minute drive from our house. On Friday night, in preparation for the next day’s trip, I pulled out all of our passports just to double-check that everything was copas...

I listened to a phenomenal podcast this past week - Seth Godin chatting with Rich Roll . After watching and listening (you can watch it on YouTube or listen to it on the podcast service of your choice) to this a few more times I will debrief and explain why this was so pertinent to me and the work that I am doing. Although, if you end up watching it, some of you might figure it out yourselves! One...

I’m sure that is what all of you have been asking yourselves lately. She was here one day - gone the next…promised a revamp of her newsletter and nothing. I understand. And one day, I will tell you the story of what happened. But not today. You’ll have to wait until my book comes out. (You can’t order it now, but I’m in the process of looking for editors, in case anyone happens to know one!) Here...

Holy Cow 🐄! I just learned the most fantastic way to keep track of all my references for my doctorate! Hallelujah, hallelujah! LOL. All thanks to Holly Jane , a fellow doctoral student I started following on YouTube. After watching her videos, I want to start speaking with an Irish accent, but I will save you all from that! I could go on and on about how this little integration/piece of code work...

"Winds in the east, mist comin' in, like somethin' is brewin',about to begin. Can't put me fingeron what lies in store. But I feel whats to happen,all happened before." (Bert, "The One-Man Band,"  Mary Poppins ) And just like that the winds changed and the clouds rolled in. The smell of rain filled the air. Lightning illuminated the sky - and while I was reading nighttime stories to the boys the l...

Today it was 109 degrees Fahrenheit at the crest of the afternoon. When I took the picture of the thermometer it was a chill 107 😅. The dogs have found the shadiest spot and stretched out as thin as they could to the ground, panting. The chickens are walking around with their wings away from their bodies, wooing the breeze to cool down them down.  And there I was, in the kitchen, making a couple...

The beautiful golden-colored nut that you can find in 2 1/2 pound tubs at Costco. The nut that you now see transformed into creamy milk and butter. You even find it in dairy-free cheeses that rival their cow-milk cousins. (So I am told, I have yet to try one but hear that  ShriMu  is a fantastic and delicious culinary discovery). A nut so expensive some might even pass it up... The humble cashew....

I was watching  Living Big In A Tiny House  on YouTube recently (yes, I have a slight obsession with tiny houses) and in the episode, Bryce Langston, the host, said the following when walking into the bedroom: “What a dreamy space, especially with the mosquito net above the bed. It looks quite idyllic, doesn't it.” They might be idyllic in the "Oh my I'm in the middle of the Serengeti and surround...

(Preface: I wrote this post on November 28th, 2020 and had wanted to share it on social media but for one reason or another did not. It is a fairly personal post - but one that I felt like sharing after learning this past week that over 500,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the US.  Because it is mentioned in the post,  sodabi  is one of Benin's country drinks, akin to Russian Vodka or US Moon...

I'm sure there are some of you who noticed that one day I was on social media - and the next I wasn't. Well, maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic. For awhile at least I was posting pretty regularly, pictures of the family and short updates about what was going on. And then I just kind of stopped. That happened for a couple of reasons. First off, we were able to get wifi (yes LTE wifi!) at our house...