In the heart of Nairobi’s second largest slum, St. Lazarus School rises from the rubbish strewn streets. We begin our steep and bumpy ascent into Kibera. It’s rush hour and people by the hundreds stream toward downtown Nairobi on foot. Vendors along the road set out their wares, mostly fried bean cakes and vegetables, to sell to the commuters.

MODERN MEETS MALNOURISHED
A woman and child sleeping alongside the road wake and begin to stir. Behind them an advertisement asks, “How are your stocks doing?” It’s the contrast that strikes you, the juxtaposition of Wall Street, the Ying-Yang Twins, cell phone companies, churches, mortuaries and malnourishment. The air is muggy and thick. Heavy clouds loom with the promise of much-needed rain. As we crest the hill, you can see the vastness of the slum. It’s overwhelming. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s easy to have values when times are good. It’s when times are tough that people demonstrate their true natures. Enter Sweet traveler Crista Luedtke (yeah, call her Crista).

Among other things, Crista is a mortgage broker. While the whole mortgage market is collapsing, Crista’s business is growing. Why? She’s got the key ingredient to weathering any storm: Integrity.

She believes that you should “do something you love, do it differently, have fun and give back.” The other day Crista called me with an idea: Partner with Sweet to help the projects we’re working on all over the world. Of course, I said YES! Read the rest of this entry »

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

On the eve of the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday and in the midst of a trial to overturn Proposition 8 in California, I was fortunate to attend a Marriage Equality USA fundraiser hosted by the San Francisco cast of Broadway’s “Wicked” (one of my favorite musicals). Read the rest of this entry »

When I first met Cathy outside the Monteleone before our pre-cruise party in New Orleans, she looked excited and terrified, but in a tough New Jersey kinda way (a dash of Snooki). I wanted to share her coming home and coming out story with you. Here it is in her own words:

This journey was golden for me, literally from start to finish. Meeting you that first night and the way you welcomed me, set the tone for everything to follow. It was golden. You are golden. I had never taken a trip alone in my life. I was scared to death, but from the moment you started chatting with me as we walked to the first party in New Orleans, I never felt alone. Read the rest of this entry »

After an exhilarating morning painting and donating computers to the Roatan E-Learning Center, we grilled our local guide Wilbur about the state of LGBT rights in Honduras. We’d all heard horrible things about civil rights abuses.

We listened with rapt attention as our charming and eloquent guide told us that things on the mainland weren’t so nice for gays and lesbians, but in Roatan (the tiny island off the coast of Honduras where we spent the day) he assured us, “Things were cool as Kool-Aid.”

Unfortunately, no man is an island. This past month, LGBT civil rights rabble-rouser Walter Trochez, 27, became the 17th LGBT person killed for his sexual orientation on the Honduran mainland since last summer’s military coup. Walter was working feverishly to draw attention to the renewed violence against the LGBT community when he was killed.

Walter’s death underscores the work still to be done in building bridges of understanding all over the world. As American tourists, we have the privilege of traveling to these countries in relative safety, like when 1,200 of us invaded Roatan armed with smiles and good intentions. It is these kinds of interactions and the coverage of our good works (like the local news coverage of Sweet in Belize) that lays the foundation for these bridges.

Read more about Walter and the state of the LGBT community in Honduras.