I was in Mexico the week that Covid-19 was turning life as we know it completely on its head. It was early days there, with fewer than ten reported cases in the country at the time. Watching events unfold in the UK, I was by then a master of hand washing with a mask in… Read More Rumours and remedies in Mexico City
I had my first out-of-body experience in July, watching myself click ‘submit’ on a university application. Now, two months into my Master’s, I find myself reflecting on what it was that brought me here. I suppose it started after I experienced the euphoria of doing the things that really mattered to me, followed by the… Read More The scenic route
In March 2019 I visited Laredo Detention Facility (prison) at the Texas-Mexico border, as a volunteer interpreter helping to prepare one of JFON’s clients from West Africa for their asylum hearing. We were escorted to a private interview room, after an hour of waiting followed by security and a briefing. No open-toed shoes. Paper and… Read More Trying to be heard
In April 2018, the Trump administration launched a zero-tolerance immigration policy that subjects everyone who crosses the US border without prior authorization to detention and possible criminal prosecution. This policy applies even to those who exercise their legal right to enter in pursuit of asylum. People who have requested asylum in the US and are awaiting their… Read More Private prisons welcome you to the United States of America
Stop wasting money on expensive travel. Here’s how! I will start by saying that Norwegian Air is my LIFELINE at the moment. I’ve flown from London, UK to Austin, Texas *DIRECT* for £130 ($160). And I just saw a flight on their website from London to San Francisco direct for £84. Don’t ask, just book.… Read More 10 tips for cheap flights (not sponsored by Norwegian Air, but should be … )
Source: The Gift of Death By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 11th December 2012 Pathological consumption has become so normalised that we scarcely notice it. There’s nothing they need, nothing they don’t own already, nothing they even want. So you buy them a solar-powered waving queen; a belly button brush; a silver-plated ice cream… Read More Festival of Junk
From February to June 2018 I was based in Dominica in response to Hurricane Maria, which completely devastated this beautiful island nation. Dominica is coming back fighting and laughing. This post is intentionally not about Maria, because sometimes we need to talk about something else! 1. Dominica is just Dominica. Don’t compare it to anywhere… Read More Dominica: How to dance sexy, and 5 other things
I haven’t written for a whole bloody year! I now officially blog less often than I file my tax return, see my family and clean my belly button. It would have been an excellent year to write about, and I probably would have, had it not been for Narcos* and well, the god damn bagels.… Read More Another year of this nonsense: Peru to the Caribbean
After the project closed, I was asked to stay on in Ecuador in search of opportunities and funding that would allow the organization to continue to help. It was a weird and wonderful time, working in a large part alone for a cause that no one seemed to care about any more and networking with… Read More Ecuador: bamboo, blagging and Buddhists
I wept for a man I never knew today, whilst standing on the site where he once lived and was crushed to death. I stood and sobbed uncontrollably in the rain. I was thinking of his daughter, who had desperately reached out to the NGO I work for, asking if we could find out anything,… Read More I wept for a man I never knew
Lily left London 