The Debra Kouda Podcast: Recent Episodes
Debra Kouda
Dry season in Benin starts with smoke. The rains stop, Harmattan comes down off the Sahara, and men and boys pick up sticks and walk toward a field that is about to be on fire. Nobody calls anyone, they know what they are doing.
I thought about that on a smoky walk here this week, and then I thought about preparation.
In this one: Part 1 of the three parts of transformative travel, and the half of it that rarely gets talked about, which is the guide's half. What I want to know about you before you ever get on a plane, and what I do with the answers. Reflection as the box the whole thing sits inside rather than a step you tick off.
Plus a confession about how much I hate talking about myself, a podcast that proves I can do it anyway, and an invitation.
ā Read Issue 18 https://tinyurl.com/3ew6jcny
ā Listen to Episode 177 of the Travel Coach Network podcast https://tinyurl.com/5943yhad
ā Join the Founding Circle https://tinyurl.com/2af4xexa
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Episode description
I should have started this journal the moment that I found out that Africa wanted me.
In 2003 I was a senior at Oregon State, newly accepted to an internship at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, and about $7,000 short of being able to go. So I wrote a letter to 85 people, put a return envelope in every one, and asked them to come along.
They said yes. And once I got there, I sent an email home every week for eleven weeks.
My dad recently found the printouts. This is the first one, read aloud, exactly as I wrote it at 21. Typos included. Before it, the story of how I got there, and after it, what all of this eventually turned into.
The Founding Circle is open. Thirty people, $300 for the year. Once a month we meet, and I take you to Benin. Join here
About this publication
Hi! My name is Debra. My husband and I are building Hello West Africa, a transformative immersion experience in Benin, West Africa, for people who want to change how they see Africa and themselves. We have three incredible kids and a piece of land where we're making it real, one day at a time.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Issue No. 17 ā Podcast Show Notes
I've been circling this idea for years, and it took one conversation to say it in plain language. Transformative tourism is so much more than the trip. The experience is only one part of a three part system.
Part 1 is preparation, before anyone gets on a plane. Part 2 is the experience itself, which is where almost everyone puts their attention. Part 3 is integration, when they go home, and it's the part almost nobody builds for. If you don't support somebody there, everything you did before it is at risk of being lost.
I also walk through an example from higher education for each part, because transformative learning theory came out of adult education in the first place. Applying to college, going through college, and then the alumni office, which is where the comparison gets uncomfortable.
Two other things in this one. This newsletter is turning six months old, and I'm merging my two series into a single weekly letter. And a few weeks ago my dad handed me a folder of every email I sent home from Namibia in 2003, when I was interning at the Cheetah Conservation Fund. I'd been doing Part 3 for twenty years without a name for it.
Mentioned in this episode
The 10 Phases of Meaning (earlier issues of this newsletter)
Cheetah Conservation Fund, Namibia
The KabolƩ Research Lab
Cape Verde versus Argentina
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Transformative Travel Can Be Designed. Here Is How PDF ā https://thekoudacompany.com/store/p/transformative-travel-can-be-designed-here-is-how
About two weeks ago, I started getting the newspaper delivered...not for the news, but for the crossword. And it got me thinking about how rarely we put ourselves in front of ideas that challenge us, and what happens when we do.
In this episode, I'm using the World Cup as a lens for transformative learning theory: Cape Verde's thirty-year journey to the round of 32, the African teams shifting assumptions in real time, the US loss to Belgium and what it means for soccer in this country, and the visitors posting videos saying America is nothing as they expected. All of it is transformative learning, happening in public, on a global stage.
From there, I get into the problem the field of transformative tourism hasn't solved yet, why time matters more than anyone is measuring, and the idea that came out of a phone call with a new friend from Dubai.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Issue No. 15 | Building Hello West AfricaA trip in the Wayback Machine to understand why I'm building Hello West Africa
Links mentioned in this episode:
Goals for Peace ā LINKTransformative Travel Can Be Designed, PDF ā LINK
Someone reached out this week after reading one of my LinkedIn posts and told me he could finally put a name to the experiences that had been shaping him. His words brought tears to my eyes and sent me all the way back to the beginning.
In this episode, I'm sharing the origin story of Hello West Africa: growing up in Fairbanks, hosting exchange students from Ecuador and Russia, hearing all the warnings before Namibia, joining the Peace Corps, and eventually landing in Benin. It's the story of how I came to believe, really believe, that people are just people, and why I want others to experience that too.
I'm also talking about the Goals for Peace soccer tournament D'Aquin is organizing this December in the Dassa-ZoumƩ region of Benin, what's been happening with the business, and why the World Cup has me feeling like it really might be time for Africa.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
This week's episode is a shorter one ā because I pulled a muscle in my back. The same muscle I first pulled in the summer of 1999, mopping floors at the local vet clinic while "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls played on the radio.
But a shorter episode doesn't mean nothing to say. This week I share:
The early mornings and late nights in BeninWhat it was like waking up before sunrise in the scholfis ā our little schoolroom and office ā with twinkly lights and a candle, working on my doctoral program while the rest of the house slept. And why lying on a full sack of unshelled peanuts under the night sky, watching for the Southern Cross, is one of the experiences I most want Hello West Africa guests to have.
What's happening with Hello West Africa My first investor conversation is scheduled for next Tuesday. I'm also shifting my language from "investors" to "founding partners"...because Hello West Africa is communal at its core, and the people who help build it should feel that. Plus: the pitch is coming together, two podcasts are on the calendar, and digital nomads are on my radar as a new market.
The World Cup The African teams are showing up. The US team surprised me completely. And I took a drive after the Paraguay game, rolled down the windows, and played Magic in the Air by Magic System. There really was magic in the air that night.
All games are on the Fox One app.
Transformative Travel Can Be Designed. Here Is How. The guide people kept asking for. Seventeen pages, plain language, a framework you can actually use. Find it at the link below!
Get it here!
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Show Notes ā Issue No. 13 | Building Hello West Africa
From a panther enclosure in Florida to believing in myself again
In this episode of Between Here and Benin, I take you back to a zoological conservation center in northern Florida, where I was 24, raking leaves and picking up sticks in a Florida panther enclosure ā and stumbled onto Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on the truck radio.
That job, and what came after it, is the story of how I learned to trust myself. And how, at some point, I stopped. And how I finally got it back.
This episode covers:
Working as a carnivore specialist at a private conservation center in Florida
The move to Pier 55 Starbucks in Seattle
Standing in front of the ferry terminal and hearing a voice that said: take the French class, everything will be okay
The Ted Lasso speech on belief that has been living in my head all week
The first Hello West Africa advisor meeting
The first investor inquiry
The launch of my new guide! Transformative Travel Can Be Designed. Here Is How. Sixteen pages, plain language, and a framework you can actually use.
Get the guide ā HERE
Between Here and Benin is written and hosted by Dr. Debra Kouda, co-founder and CEO of Hello West Africa. New episodes every Tuesday and every other Thursday.
Hello West Africa is currently seeking aligned investors and Founding Supporters. Reply to this episode or reach out directly if you want to be part of building this.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
The Transformative Travel Guide People Kept Asking Me For
In this episode of Between Here and Benin, I share the story behind a guide I finally made after being asked the same question twice, and finding myself with nothing good to send.
Transformative travel is gaining traction in the industry, but the research behind it lives almost entirely in academic journals and doctoral dissertations. This guide brings it out into the open, in accessible language, for the people who are actually building experiences.
What's inside the guide:
The transformative learning theory, clearly explained.
Mezirow's 10 phases of meaning, with real examples
The five conditions that have to be present for transformation to occur
The Transformative Learning Arc: a four-step framework developed from doctoral research
16 pages. Plain language. A framework you can actually use.
Find the guide here ā TAKE ME THERE
Between Here and Benin is written and hosted by Dr. Debra Kouda, co-founder and CEO of Hello West Africa. New episodes every Tuesday and every other Thursday.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
A lot of soccer-related things have happened in the last few days.
Arsenal won the English Premier League title.
Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal for the Champions League Cup.
And then, of course, coming up this summer, the FIFA World Cup comes to Canada, the US, and Mexico.
You might be wondering, why is she talking about all of these soccer things? Well, I used to be one of those people who didnāt understand the pull of the sport, but then I went to Beninā¦and the day my future husband rode up on his motorcycle with his soccer socks around his neck, everything changed.
The First Date
It was either Christmas Day or the day before Christmas in 2007. At CPN les Papillons, the organization I worked with during Peace Corps, we had been doing a Christmas drive, giving out clothes to kids in the village. DāAquin rode up on his motorcycle, soccer socks around his neck, and said, āHey, you want to come watch me play soccer sometime?ā
I said sure, he was cute, and what else did I really have to do on a Sunday afternoon?
My experience with soccer up to that point was watching my sister play recreational games as a kid. I had never wanted to play myself, too much running. (This is funny to me now, because even though it has been a bit, I enjoy running longer distances these days!) I thought, here is this guy asking me to come watch him play. Letās go and see what this game is really all about.
He picked me up a couple of days later on his moto, and off we were to the soccer field behind the Sokpunta high school. I stood on the sidelines with everyone else, and as it turned out, he was pretty amazing at the game (still is!). He had been playing for a long time and was regularly asked by different village teams to come play with them because of his skill. That was my introduction to football, because from that day forward, I would call it football, which is what the rest of the world calls it. (Unless Iām around a lot of people who are used to talking about American football, it's just easier to avoid confusion!)
Not long after, DāAquin took me to watch the African Cup at an elderās house in the village who had a television. Flat screen TVs were not as common then. No Wi-Fi. No iPhones. We sat on wooden benches in a small room packed with people, and we watched football.
I was the only woman in that room, mainly because of who I was in the village and because DāAquin had brought me. (I remember my dad questioning whether it was a good idea that I had gone to the game, being the only woman. The things you recollect!) When things went well, people cheered. When things went badly, there was real frustration. I think the team we were rooting for won, which meant shots of sodabi for all at the end!
From that point on, football became part of my life. I became a Chelsea fan, as DāAquin had been devoted to Chelsea for as long as he could remember. I learned the playersā names. I started to understand the game. And I fell in love with it, just like I fell in love with my husband.
What Football Looks Like in Benin
Watching football is different depending on what league or country you are watching. Premier League football is unlike anything else. The difference between European football and American soccer is enormous. But what I love most about football in Benin is how it belongs to everyone.
You donāt need shin guards or fancy shorts or a water bottle. You donāt need to pay $90 and sign up for a rec league. You just go out and play. Kids as young as three are already out there. They organize themselves. If they have a ball, great. If they donāt, they find something else, an orange, a mango. As long as they can kick it, it works.
(The boys playing in their own game of football while the men play.)
The games in Benin are their own experience entirely. People donāt sit in stands at most village games, they encircle the field. Community members yell at the players throughout the entire game, not just coaches. Friends, family, cousins, neighbors. Everyone has an opinion on how you should be playing. And kids start up their own games on the sidelines. Referees are never hard to find, there are always people who want to officiate. And if a fight breaks out, which sometimes happens, the game can end halfway or three-quarters of the way through. Things usually get resolved afterward, and those who were upset with each other end up getting a beer together. That always makes me laugh.
Going to the games always made me feel like part of the community. I suppose my experience was a little different because my husband was usually one of the players.
When we moved to Fairbanks as newlyweds after Peace Corps, DāAquin played in a menās league. The team he ended up playing with had players from Vanuatu, Greece, India, Denmark, Japan, Turkey, Russia, Honduras, Benin, and Fairbanks. It is so simple, you donāt need to speak the same language. All you need is a ball and your feet, and the whole world can play together.
If you ever travel somewhere and have the chance to go to a local football game, I highly recommend it. You learn something about a culture at its sporting events that you canāt learn anywhere else.
The World Cup This Summer
Benin was very close to qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The system of how they determine who gets complicated, but I know they were closer than they have been in a long time. I am proud of that, even from a distance.
I am excited about the World Cup coming to North America. And I am also a little sad. Tickets to attend a game in Seattle are upward of a thousand dollars, and that is if you are even invited to purchase one. Visa issues are making it difficult for people from many countries to come and watch. That feels wrong for a sport that belongs to the whole world.
So, like many people around the world, Iāll be watching from home. But Iāll pretend like Iām there!
What Really Happened Last Week
A quieter week in some ways, but things kept moving.
I have continued to nurture the relationships that have been developing over the months, all of which started with me talking about my love and interest in transformative learning theory, tourism, and Benin. I suppose the right word for it is ānetworkingā, but that almost seems too cold a word to use. And yet, I guess Iāll stick with the industry standard until a better word pops up!
I started posting regularly again on LinkedIn, as well as commenting on other posts. I find that I can have pretty incredible conversations, or at least the start of them, right in the comments.
Whatās Coming Next
This week is the most call-heavy week I have had in a while, and I honestly didnāt realize how many calls I had until I sat down to make out the schedule.
Tuesday morning, I had two early calls. One with Sonia, a consultant with the Transformative Tourism Council who just finished guiding a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. It was my first time meeting her, and I tell you, it is so wonderful to find people you can talk to about things you are genuinely passionate about. A few hours later, I had a second call with Dr. Suzy Ross. Dr. Ross has done research specifically on the integration part of transformative learning, what happens when you return home and try to weave your experiences back into your regular life. That piece is the most critical and the most overlooked, and I never get tired of talking about it with someone who has studied it as closely as she has.
Thursday afternoon is the first-ever Hello West Africa advisor meeting.
I have been putting together a small agenda, pulling together the threads of where the business is and where it needs to go, and I am so curious to see what comes out of getting everyone in the same virtual room together. These are people who believe in Hello West Africa (and me!) and bring very different perspectives to the table. I will absolutely report back next week.
The Learning Lens also goes out this week. Itās going to be a busy week at the computer!
What Iām Learning
Things take time to develop. I should know this by now. I tell my kids all the time to be patient and that things take time. And living it continues to teach me in a way that just saying it never could.
It takes time to build relationships. It takes time to grow something real. Being patient enough to let those things happen is hard in a society that equates being busy with moving forward. Most of the time, things will not happen on the timeline you want to follow. Better to let go of that control piece sooner rather than later.
In My Free Time
The weather has been windy today, but this morning was beautiful, and we went to the park. Summer feels like it might actually be on its way, maybe.
It was a nice enough evening, so we went to watch the spectacle of the small town circus that visits once a year. Nothing like the big tops of Barnum and Bailey, but it is a pretty neat thing to go and watch on a Tuesday night!
That is what I have for this week. Stay tuned for the advisor meeting report next week.
And if you have the chance to watch any World Cup games this summer, find a way. Watch it with people who love the sport. You will understand something about the world that is hard to explain any other way. Iāll keep you posted on the best viewing options!
Until next week,
P.S. ā Hello West Africa is looking for aligned investors and Founding Supporters. If you want to be part of building this before the doors open, reply to this email and letās talk.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
My parents have been to Benin three times.
The first time was in 2008, mainly out of curiosity about where their daughter was spending twenty-seven months of her life. The second time was in 2009, for my wedding, which they learned about during that first visit when I introduced them to my future husband and my dad gave his blessing. English to French and back again, translated by... well, that is another story for another time. The third time was in 2015, when we surprised them with our fully built house in Kabole. That was such a fantastic trip, the looks on their faces as we kept passing hotels that we were supposed to be staying at, and then driving through a bush cut path and arriving at our house (because at the time, there wasnāt a great road going to our house).
I am so grateful they made the trip each time, even more so that they were able to see it more than once. It gave them context. They could understand what I was talking about when I explained things happening in Benin, see where my husband grew up, meet his family, and, in general, just have a picture in their minds when I say the word Benin.
Last week, I had the opportunity to meet in person one of the participants in my doctoral research. The first thing she said after we hugged was, āI feel like I know you already.ā And all I could do was nod yes, I feel like I know you too.
And what blows my mind is that comment comes after only five weeks of an online tour. Not even an in-person visit. Five weeks of a virtual experience of Benin, and she felt like she already knew me. How incredible is that?!
My dad happened to be sitting nearby and asked her whether she would like to travel to Benin someday. She said, āAbsolutely! Of course! I would love to go there.ā
My dad responded, āWell, itās different.ā
I love that word. He didnāt say it was a third-world country. He didnāt say people are poor there. He didnāt reach for any of the tired connotations that would put it down or flatten it. He simply said it was different. Which is true. It is very different from the United States. And different is exactly the right word.
The Two-Year-Oldās Way of Walking
This morning, my youngest reminded me of something important.
He is two and a half, and when we go for a walk, he does not have a program or an agenda. He is not counting steps or watching the clock. He is just walking, exploring, being curious, and learning. He picks up rocks. He collects snails to carry all the way home. He stops and looks at things that the rest of us walk right past.
I remembered that each of my children has gone through this phase, and that this was, again, for the third time, a reminder for me to slow down. To remember that as humans, we are learning from the very beginning, and that no matter how fast I try to rush them, my little guys are just learning behind me, without a care in the world.
That is the mindset I would love for people to bring when they visit Benin.
Come to learn about a place that is different from where you come from. Donāt arrive with a fixed idea of what it should look like or how it should feel. You will have expectations and filters built in, we all do, we have been around long enough for that, but hold them loosely. Stay curious. Stay slow enough to pick up the rocks and notice the snails.
Because sometimes those moments of slow, curious learning become something more. Sometimes they shift a perspective in a way that stays with you long after you come home. That is transformative learning. And that is what I am designing Hello West Africa around. (Who knew you would end up talking about transformative learning here, LOL.)
Development in Benin
Benin has a new president, and chances are you didnāt hear about it on the evening news.
On May 24th, Romuald Wadagni was inaugurated, making him the countryās first new head of state in a decade. Heās a finance guy, a technocrat who spent years at Deloitte before President Talon brought him in as Minister of Economy and Finance. Ten years of steady growth above 6% later, he now runs the country I call my second home.
The new president has a focus on manufacturing, particularly cotton. Benin is one of the top cotton exporters on the continent, yet it exports raw cotton and imports finished materials to make clothes. There is a real opportunity to change that, to keep the value inside the country rather than sending it out the door. I am watching that with a lot of interest, because Iām so excited to finally see it come to fruition. These are ideas that were talked about when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. When I left Benin in early 2022, they were beginning to build manufacturing facilities north of Cotonou in an area called Calavi.
The region where our property sits, about 140 miles north of the city of Cotonou, is also growing rapidly. The third-largest market in Benin is about three miles from our village in GlazouƩ, and they recently rebuilt it into a large, permanent marketplace where people can sell every day, not just on the major Wednesday market day. More people are coming. More roads. More electricity.
Which brings me to something a little bittersweet.
We are selling our cashew tree farm.
We bought the property about twelve years ago when it was just open farmland, no houses, no roads, just a small path, almost a mile from our house to reach it. We planted cashew trees, peanuts, chickpeas, among other things. The kids used to climb the trees. We used to go just to sit and watch things grow.
Today, roads and electricity poles run through it. Houses and apartments are going up everywhere. There are buvettes (outdoor bars and restaurants) on the corners. The area has developed so much around it that a cashew farm is no longer practical. We canāt really control people coming and going. Funny story about that. My mother-in-law went to the farm one day to check on the trees, and she noticed a man picking the cashew apples. She let him know that this was her farm, and his response was, āThe trees are for everyone, right?ā Maybe not so funny, but culturally, that is just the way it is. So we are letting it go.
We spent ten years nurturing those trees. And development has been nurturing the region too. I should be happy about this, right? This is what everyone in the outside world says should happen ā development. I think I still have mixed feelings about it. But there is still land available elsewhere, so there are other farm ideas in our future. And donāt worry, if you come on tour with us, we will still take you to see some cashew trees!
What Really Happened Last Week
A quieter week, with life things still happening. At times, I wonder if I should talk about those, but then I realize some things need to stay private, need to stay mine. I posted the newsletter, but didnāt spend much time on LinkedIn or Instagram.
But I did notice something that stopped me in my tracks: the Learning Lens issue Can Transformative Travel Be Designed has nearly a thousand podcast downloads!
A thousand. I almost canāt believe it. I refreshed the page a couple of times just to make sure. For a newsletter that is still finding its audience. That tells me something about what people are hungry for, and it confirms the road I need to travel down, outside of building Hello West Africa. I could talk about transformative learning and travel all day. I am so excited about where this is going.
I attended a Women Who Thrive in Travel Zoom conference on Sunday, featuring about 13 speakers, all women, discussing their businesses and the travel trends they are seeing in the industry. It was incredible. This was put on by the Travel Coaching Network, the same community where I have my very first podcast recording scheduled for June 17th. Silently saying Woohoo in my head!
I also emailed the Hello West Africa advisors to get a group Zoom on the calendar. Hopefully, we can make that happen in the next couple of weeks. Everyone in the same virtual room, sharing ideas, seeing where the business is and where it needs to go.
And I have been getting back to the brass tacks of Hello West Africa. Identifying the key tasks. Working on the pitch. Editing the business plan ahead of the advisor meeting.
Whatās Coming Next
I am working on something related to transformative learning that I hope to share with the world next week. A way to help people see that it is possible to design for transformation, and to give them something practical to take away. Stay tuned.
The Learning Lens goes out next week.
And the advisor Zoom, whenever we can get everyone together, is going to be a good one. I will certainly have some good stories to tell after that!
What Iām Learning
Last week, a woman on LinkedIn posted this phrase:
An invitation into something they can only do with you, in this place, right now.
And it was like finding a north star for how I should be talking about Hello West Africa. For a long time, there has been a bit of a haze around that, but now I have that sticky-noted to my bulletin board, and I look at it to center myself when I sit down to write posts, or newsletters, or talk about Hello West Africa. Or even transformative learning.
Which is why I keep coming back to the nearly thousand podcast downloads on one Learning Lens issue.
Not because it is a vanity metric, but because it shows that the conversation around transformative learning and travel is one people are ready to have. The research is young. The field is new. And there is a real gap between the theory and what is actually being practiced in the industry.
I want to help close that gap. And I want to do it by inviting people into something they can only do with me, right here, right now.
Ooh, just writing that makes my eyes twinkle!
In My Free Time
The weather has been beautiful almost every day, except Memorial Day, when we had a barbecue anyway because, well, even when itās raining, a BBQ is a good idea! Cloudy the last couple of days, but sunshine is back now. Not super warm, but I will take it.
Doves are cooing outside right now, which always takes me back to visiting my grandparents in New York. Hot, humid days, where I would wake up to the family sawmill next door coming to life, and walking down to the kitchen to breakfast with Gram and Pop.
Oh, how wonderful life is. Learning more every day.
There is always room for a little more learning.
Until next week,
P.S. ā Hello West Africa is looking for aligned investors and Founding Supporters. If you want to be part of building this before the doors open, reply to this email and letās talk.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
I was standing in the middle of a concrete bunker in Southern Oregon when I first heard it.
For those of you who are unaware, I headed to Oregon State University in the fall of 1999 as a pre-vet major. I was going to be a veterinarian. However, during the summer between my junior and senior year, that all changed.
I was interning at Wildlife Safari, a drive-through zoo similar to the San Diego Zoo, set up in the rolling hills of southern Oregon, where the animals have space to roam and the fences are hard to see. There were about eight of us interns, and we rotated taking care of the different animals. One of my favorite parts of the job was bringing the animals in at night, maybe because that is when I had the opportunity to see them up close. The small pride of lions was one of my favorites to bring in at night (but feeding the black bears was a close second!).
We brought the animals into smaller enclosures at night, and the lionsā area was basically a concrete bunker with chain-link gates and fences that blended into the scenery. To get them inside (because calling here kitty, kitty, kitty just didnāt work!) we would put the lionsā dinner (fresh meat!) in their indoor enclosure, open a guillotine gate, and they would come in, most of the time pretty easily. Each lion had their own separate space, and sometimes getting them in one by one was a bit tricky, but very much like a game. They went for their food immediately, no hesitation, no ceremony. Sometimes pretty vocal. Just lions being lions. We would stay in the bunker and make sure that they all ate.
One night, after the food was wiped clean, I was standing in the hallway of the bunker when the large male started to roar.
I donāt remember his name, but I remember exactly what it felt like. The females joined in. The other male joined in. And there I was, standing in the middle of that cement bunker, completely surrounded by lions and by their sound, and I could feel the vibrations all the way in my soul. I closed my eyes, and I could almost see myself on the plains of Africa.
It was one of the most incredible things I have ever felt in my entire life.
I watched the movie We Bought a Zoo this past week (Matt Damon, if you are curious), and it took me right back to that moment. And then, because my mind works the way it does, it took me to Benin.
Are you surprised?
The Drums
There is a sound in Benin that does the same thing to me.
I canāt remember the first drum circle that I went to. I certainly remember the one where I realized that my husband could dance! My parents were visiting Benin for the first time in June of 2007. As a gift to the village soccer team, my parents, along with donations from their friends in Fairbanks, brought new cleats and soccer balls for all the players. It was an incredible gift to the community. As a thank you, the team hosted a drum circle in honor of my parents. The bottle of sodabi (the local liquor made from distilling palm wine, think moonshine) was passed around, and I was more than surprised when my parents each partook in a glass! They told me that their room wasnāt far away, so why not? When in a small village in Benin! The drums started, and people started dancing, and then, to my surprise, my husband-to-be stood up and started dancing. I was shocked. He was so good! Although I really shouldnāt have beenā¦it was what he grew up doing.
There is something about the drumming, singing, and dancing combined during a drum circle that takes me back to that same moment I had when the lions were roaring. You can feel the rhythms and the beats rumble in your soul. It takes you back to something early and essential, to the core of who we are as human beings.
I certainly donāt have the right words to do this experience justice. Itās just one of those things you have to feel all on your own.
And you will be able to.
The last night of every Hello West Africa flagship tour, we will take guests to a drum circle. I canāt wait to see peopleās reactions. To hear what they reflect on afterward. I am so curious about what that moment will open up in people who have never experienced anything like it.
A Week of Incredible Conversations
If you missed last weekās newsletter, donāt worry, you didnāt miss one! I took a break. It was an emotionally difficult week for me (donāt worry, my family and everyone are just fine). I realized I needed to give my mind and body a break from the day-to-day hustle. And coming back this week, I feel 100% better. It is okay to slow down, and Iām so glad that I did.
Here is what I learnedā¦things for Hello West Africa didnāt stop. Because of the relationships I have been building, things kept moving forward even when I wasnāt actively pushing. That was an incredible lesson, especially so early in this game of creating and operating a small business.
Although I didnāt write a newsletter or post much on social media, I did show up for the calls I'd previously scheduled. And those calls were extraordinary.
Dr. Suzy Ross
Dr. Suzy Ross is among the first to study transformative learning and travel. I heard of her work while finishing up my dissertation, but for some reason, I didnāt come across her research when I was working on my own literature review (my keywords didnāt match any of hers, I guess). If youāve written a literature review, there is a point at which you have to stop looking. Trust me, rabbit trails are so easy to go down! We spent an hour nerding out about transformative learning and what happens specifically during that reintegration piece, what occurs when travelers return home and try to find their footing again in their regular lives.
We also brainstormed some ideas that got me excited. One of them was reaching out to the Peace Corps. My Peace Corps experience was excellent from the beginning. The preparation was strong. The in-country support was strong. Where it dipped, for me and for many others, was the reintegration when we came home. Maybe the Peace Corps would be interested in making that full circle: preparation, reflection, the experience itself, and then genuine support for reintegration back into life. That is a conversation worth having. (If anyone from the Peace Corps happens to be reading this, look out for an email from me in the next couple of weeks, or just reach out! I would love to chat!)
Rebecca Maffeis and the Group
The second call was a morning group call with Rebecca Maffeis and four other women. One who runs the Nautica Collective. One who founded the Travel Coaching Network. One is a creative consultant who provides social media and communications support. And one is a travel agent whose energy was so incredible you could feel it through the screen.
Out of that call, real things happened. I have a podcast episode being recorded on June 17th with Sahara, the founder of the Travel Coaching Network. My first podcast! I am so excited about that. And I am continuing a conversation regarding community and transformative learning with Lucy from Nautica Collective.
What I keep noticing about these calls is that I am just myself. I am not trying to impress anyone. I am genuinely curious about transformative learning and how it connects to travel, and that seems to resonate with people. Further signs that Iām going in the right direction.
Jake Haupert
My third call was with Jake Haupert, co-founder of the Transformative Tourism Council and now an official advisor for Hello West Africa. We had met briefly in Seattle back in March, but this was our first proper Zoom call, a chance to get to know one another better and talk through the vision of Hello West Africa, and of course, transformative tourism.
We talked about Hello West Africa and where I see it in five years. We talked about the Transformative Tourism Councilās certificate program with the University of South Carolina. And then Jake described what it was like to teach in an online, asynchronous program, and so many of the things he mentioned are all too familiar to me.
Of course, I have thoughts about online learning and how it could be structured to create a transformative learning experience. I have a masterās and a doctorate, both received fully online. I think online learning is an incredible way to learn, but the way it is currently done is almost an afterthought. Creating a truly incredible online course is actually harder than in-person instruction, because you have to manufacture the feeling that in-person instruction creates naturally. That takes more energy, more intention, and more design. Not less. But I suppose I should save this rant for the Learning Lens!
I will be meeting Jake later this week in Bellingham to continue our conversation. I canāt wait!
Whatās Coming Next
I want to get all of the Hello West Africa advisors together on a Zoom call, everyone in the same virtual room, meeting each other, sharing ideas, and getting a clear picture of where the business is and where it is going. That is on this week's to-do list.
The Learning Lens goes out this Thursday. A reader sent me a Substack note asking me to recommend a book on transformative learning theory. The best answer I could think of was Joe Pineās The Transformation Economy, released earlier this year. Outside of that, the knowledge lives mostly in research articles and academic journals, which is part of why I write The Learning Lens in the first place. I am putting together something that combines my story with the theory, with resources people can take away. Stay tuned for more on that!
Three goals to take me through the rest of May and into June:
ā Finishing up the homeschool year with my boys. ā Continuing to teach about transformative learning and travel. ā Raising the $300,000 in seed capital for Hello West Africa.
On that last one, I am fully confident that the $300k will be raised. Whether it is six people each putting in $50,000, or one person who believes in what we are building for the country, the community, and the people who will travel with us. Or maybe it is more of a community approach, Iāve thought about that too, maybe something here on Substack. I thought of the community aspect because of Benin and its culture of community. Many thoughts and many possibilities. I am keeping the door open for all of them!
What Iām Learning
Taking a break is not falling behind. It is listening.
I have spent a lot of time over the years trying to push through when my body and mind were telling me to stop. Last week, I didnāt push through, and things kept moving. Relationships kept growing, and opportunities arrived.
I am starting to believe that reflection, real unhurried reflection, is not a pause in the work. It is the work.
In My Free Time
We had friends over and went to dinner at a local Thai restaurant in our little town. The little town we live in has Dutch heritage, and the restaurant is located in a building that recreates the feel of sitting along a canal street in the Netherlands, including a little stream with koi fish (those Iām not sure you would find in a canal in the Netherlands, but they are a nice touch!). A wonderful place to have a meal.
I have been working on my Notion setup, which has gone through many iterations since I started using it for my doctorate. It is the hub where I keep everything running, and I am finally getting it to a place that actually works for me and the growing business. All my thoughts and to-dos have to live somewhere other than in my head.
The Percy Jackson books continue to be a highlight of my week, taking turns with the boys as we read through them. Written for teenagers, yes. But I am learning more about Greek mythology than I ever did in school, and I am not even a little embarrassed about it!
Back to the Lions š¦
I didnāt know it then, but that moment in the cement bunker was planting something. A curiosity about Africa. A hunger for sounds and places that get into you at a level that words canāt quite define.
The drum circle in a Beninese village does that. The lions did that. And I believe that when our first guests stand in that village on their last night with us, something will happen to them that they wonāt fully be able to explain either.
That is what we are building with Hello West Africa.
An experience that doesnāt end when you board the plane home. One that stays with you, gets talked about, reflected on, and shared, long after the drums have gone quiet.
Until next Tuesday,
P.S. ā Hello West Africa is looking for aligned investors and Founding Supporters. If you want to be part of building this before the doors open, reply to this email and letās talk.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Show Notes ā Can Transformative Travel Be Designed?The Learning Lens | Between Here and Benin
I spent an hour watching snails with my two-year-old before writing this episode.
Not because snails have anything to do with transformative tourism. But because that slow, unhurried hour gave me exactly what I needed ā clarity. And it turns out that is the whole point of this episode.
In this episode, I answer the question that guided my doctoral research:
What factors or processes make transformative learning possible for a tourist in a five-week online tour?
I built that tour. I ran it. I studied what happened. And what I found came down to five things:
1. Human connection is the foundation.In a world increasingly enthralled with AI, human-centered experiences are becoming a luxury. And that luxury is critical for transformation to occur.
2. Design shapes everything.The storytelling, the pacing, the flexibility, the sensory details. Transformation happens to people who feel invited in, not passive observers. And listening to your guests and adapting in real time is not a sign of a poorly designed experience. It is the design working exactly as it should.
3. Reflection is the engine.An experience without a structured space for reflection is just an event. As one participant put it: "I realized how many assumptions I had because of the reflection questions."
4. Most tourism experiences are designed for the moment, not the process.The disorienting dilemma is Phase 1 of 10. What comes after is where most experiences go quiet.
5. Transformation requires integration support ā especially after people go home.The later phases happen after travelers return home. And most operators have already moved on by then.
I also share the outcomes of all six participants in my study, and why the fact that every single one had a completely different transformative experience is not a bug. It is the whole point.
Plus: what snails taught me about reflection. And how Hello West Africa is designed around all five factors.
Want to go deeper?
I turned this research into a guide: Transformative Travel Can Be Designed. Here Is How. Seventeen pages, plain language, a framework you can actually use.
Get it here: THE GUIDE
The Ten Phases of Transformative Learning are listed in full at the end of this episode's newsletter. You can find them at the link below.
Between Here and Benin is written and hosted by Dr. Debra Kouda, co-founder and CEO of Hello West Africa. The Learning Lens publishes every other Thursday. Building in Public publishes every Tuesday.
Hello West Africa is currently seeking aligned founding partners and investors. Reply or reach out directly if you want to be part of building this.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
It was almost Christmas 2018, and we were nearing the end of a three-month trip to Benin
My mother-in-law (Ina), grandmother-in-law (whom we call la grandmere), and I had spent the afternoon shelling peanuts under a tree, sitting together for three or four hours, working through a pile of them, getting them ready to roast so we could bring them home. It was the kind of slow, quiet work that doesnāt need much conversation. Just hands and shade and the sound of peanut shells cracking.
At some point in the afternoon, Ina and la grandmere lay out a mat on the ground underneath the guava tree to rest. It really is the best thing to do on a warm afternoon. La grandmere looked up at me coming out of the house and patted the spot next to her.
She wanted me to come lie down beside her.
So I didā¦and I almost cried. I felt like she had finally accepted me.
It sounds simple. But if you understand anything about what it means to be a white woman in Benin, to be the outsider who will always be recognizable as someone not originally from there, you understand why that moment meant everything.
On Being an Insider and an Outsider
When I wrote my doctoral dissertation, I had to include a statement of positionality, a reflection on how my identity and my position within the field might influence my research. I wrote that I am a returned Peace Corps volunteer who has been associated with Benin for almost two decades, that I became a naturalized Beninese citizen four years ago, and that I am very comfortable in and around Beninese culture and community.
And then I wrote something harder: that I will always be a combination of an insider and an outsider. That my white skin means I am easily identifiable as someone not originally from the area, no matter how many years I have lived there, no matter how fluent my French, no matter how well I know the weekly market and the soccer fields, or how I have tried to learn how to cook la pĆ¢te.
This is the reality of going to Benin as someone who looks like me. And I think it is important to talk about, not to make it bigger than it is, but because it will come up if you visit us, and I would rather you know what to expect.
In the villages, especially as you travel north and away from the cities, you become very visible very quickly. Children will call out to you. In the Idaasha region, where I served in the Peace Corps, there is a chant that kids have sung for generationsā¦Oyinbo...Oyinboā¦(white person, white person). It originated with missionaries who used to hand out candy, and the children would call out to get the white person's attention.
When I first arrived, I had a choice about how to receive it. I watched other people get upset, and I understood why. It is jarring, especially when it continues over and over and over again. But I also understood that these children were not being cruel. My husband let me know that they were passing on something that had been passed to them, in a place where someone who looked like me was truly unusual. So I learned to roll with it. To join in the banter. To let it be what it was.
What I was not prepared for was how much I would eventually forget about my skin color, and how quickly I would be reminded of it again.
I remember at some point during the Peace Corps, when I hadnāt traveled to the big city in a while, I stopped thinking about it. It just wasnāt something that came up in my daily life in the village anymore. And then I would go to the market in a bigger town and see another white person and stare. I genuinely stared. Wondering who they were, where they were from, what they were doing there. Which is, of course, exactly what everyone else was thinking when they looked at me.
I started calling it the āoh my God, itās a white personā syndrome. Because, well, I had to call it something!
The Plumber
The other moment I want to tell you about happened a few years later, when DāAquin and I were in Benin during the pandemic and having some plumbing work done at the house.
We had killed a giant rooster that had been terrorizing the neighborhood, the most enormous rooster you can imagine, loud beyond reason, and we cooked it up with the neighbors so everyone could celebrate the quiet of not hearing the rooster anymore. We all sat together in the gazebo, eating.
The plumber walked in, looked around, and said something that loosely translated to: āWhoās this white woman sitting here?ā
My mother-in-law and the neighbor woman didnāt miss a beat.
āThereās no white woman here,ā they said. āThis is Mama Aden.ā
Mama Aden. Mother of Aden. My firstborn son. In Benin, parents are often known by the name of their first child, it is how you become part of a community, part of a lineage. And in that moment, without hesitation, the women who knew me best told the plumber exactly who I was.
Not the white woman. Mama Aden.
The plumber looked surprised. āOh,ā he said. āOkay.ā
That was enough.
Why This Matters for Hello West Africa
I want guests who come on a Hello West Africa tour to experience what it feels like to stand out. To be the person who doesnāt quite fit in because of how they look. To feel, even briefly, what it is like to be identifiable as an outsider in a community that is not one's own.
Not because it is uncomfortable, though it can be. But because of what happens on the other side of that discomfort.
In Mezirowās terms, that feeling is a disorienting dilemma. And it is one of the most powerful things travel can offer. The moment you realize that you are now the minority. That people are looking at you the way you have looked at others your whole life. That you do not blend in, and you cannot make yourself blend in.
And then, if you stay, if you keep going, something shifts. People learn your name. They learn your childrenās names. They invite you to sit beside them under a tree. They tell the plumber who you really are.
That is the journey I want to design for people. Not the ultra-comfortable version, the real one.
What Really Happened Last Week
I made my first Instagram post. Woohoo!
It happened because of a conversation I had on Wednesday with a former content marketer who is now venturing out on her own. We talked through some of the things that had been frustrating me about Instagram, and after our Zoom call, I just did it. No perfect hook. No agonizing over the caption. I just posted.
And then I took a deep breath. That wasnāt so bad.
Thursday morning I was on the 5 AM call (with a 4:30 AM wake-up call, although it did come with a fresh cup of coffee thanks to my husband!), with Rebecca Maffeis and the group she had assembled to talk about transformative tourism. No kids woke up until 5:30, which felt like a small miracle. The conversation was extraordinary. There was a woman running Beyond Dracula tours in Romania. A woman from Greece. A man from England who is starting up tours in China around tea, and is also a travel writer. We ended up talking for an hour and forty-five minutes, and I think we could have gone longer.
What struck me most was this: the research and the concept of transformative tourism is still so new that the conversations themselves are the work. That is where I want to be.
I posted consistently on LinkedIn and made some unexpected connections with people I hadnāt anticipated finding there. That keeps happening, and I keep being grateful for it.
Whatās Coming Next
Next week is full, or at least full in prepping for a busy week of calls the week after.
I have a Zoom call with Dr. Suzy Ross, one of the first people to write about transformative tourism, who approaches it from a different theoretical lens than I do. We are going to nerd out for an hour talking about transformation and tourism, LOL.
I also have my first Zoom call with Jake Haupert, co-founder of the Transformative Tourism Council and Explorers X, who is now officially an advisor for Hello West Africa. Looking forward to catching up after meeting him in Seattle this past March.
And another call with Rebecca Maffeis and her group, this one at 8 AM, which means the kids will definitely be awake. Weāll see how that goes. But I know the conversation will be incredible!
In addition to all of that, I met someone from a local Bellingham newspaper, The Cascadia, at the Home and Garden Show, and she was interested in my story, so Iām going to reach out to her this week. And I spoke with some people in the solar business there as well, relevant because we plan to install solar panels at the property in Benin, and I want to be a little more informed about the solar panel market.
Also, this Thursday I have the 4th post of the Learning Lens, and I'm starting to draft it today.
A Quick Update on What We Are Building
We are currently raising $300,000 in seed funding to get Hello West Africa up and running.
Here is what that investment will make possible:
THE LIST
ā Guest bungalows + renovations ā Solar & infrastructure ā Vehicle + local transport ā Container from US with supplies ā Operations & admin ā Founder salaries (Year 1)
Someone I grew up with connected with me on Instagram and has been helping with the container logistics. She has done a lot of international shipping and has given me incredible insights. I guess that is the other reason I should keep up on Instagram, you never know who is going to reach out!
If you are interested in being part of this, reply to this email. Letās talk.
What Iām Learning
Talking through things with people who know things you donāt is irreplaceable.
The 5 AM call reminded me that there are people all over the world working on the same questions I am working on, how to design travel experiences that actually transform people, not just impress them. That I am not alone in this. And that my particular lens, the academic research combined with seventeen years of lived experience in Benin, is something I can contribute to that conversation. Iām thinking about the best way I can help tour operators move into this transformational economy a bit more easily.
I am also learning that showing up is most of it. The Instagram post. The 5 AM alarm. The email to the newspaper contact. Most of it is just doing the thing you said you would do.
In My Free Time
DāAquin played soccer with the boys this week, which is always a joy to watch. He is an extraordinary player, and that is actually part of how we met. He asked me to come watch him play. But that is a story for another issue.
We visited friends and spent time at their house. A normal week in our world, which is its own kind of wonderful.
I am reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians with my middle son Benjamin, we are on book four and they are incredible. I think they would have been more interesting in high school than The Odyssey and The Iliad (no offense Homer!).
And with my oldest Aden, I am reading the first book in The Mysterious Benedict Society series, which I highly recommend for older kids and adults alike.
I also encourage you to put on an evening jazz playlist while cooking dinner. It somehow elevates the experience without leaving your kitchen!
Alrighty, I have kids calling my name. Time to sign off on this issue!
Until next Tuesday,
P.S. ā Hello West Africa is looking for aligned investors and Founding Supporters. If you want to be part of building this before the doors open, reply to this email and letās talk.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
It has been one year since I defended my dissertation and earned my doctorate.
One year. It went by fast, and also, somehow, it took the whole year.
That might sound contradictory. But if you have been reading The Learning Lens from the beginning, you might already understand what I mean. Because what I have spent this past year doing, without always naming it as such, is working through Phases 9 and 10 of Mezirowās Transformative Learning Theory. Taking what I learned during four years of doctoral work and figuring out how to integrate it into my actual life, into my voice, into Hello West Africa.
It took me most of this year to feel genuinely confident talking about transformative learning in tourism as someone coming from outside the travel and tourism industry. I am excited to be here. I am proud of what the research produced, and I am honest enough to say that it is still a process, and probably always will be.
But I keep wondering: what if there had been more support for those final phases earlier? Right after I graduated, when the silence set in and the identity of āDr. Koudaā still felt new and uncertain, what if someone had been there to help me work through the integration? Would I have found my voice sooner?
I donāt know. But itās the question that keeps shaping how Iām designing Hello West Africa. Because I donāt want the people who travel with us to come home and spend a year quietly wondering the same thing.
Which brings me to something I have been promising since Issue No. 1.
The 10 Phases of Meaning that are the backbone of Mezirowās Transformative Learning Theory. Iām explaining what these are because transformation is not just a marketing phrase, it is a process.
Why the Phases Matter
My doctoral research was guided by one central question: What factors or processes make transformational learning possible for a tourist in a five-week online tour?
Everything I am about to share comes from trying to answer that question.
I have talked a lot about Phases 1, 9, and 10 in these issues. The disorienting dilemma that sparks everything. The reintegration that most experiences fail to support. But there are eight phases in between, and they matter too. You cannot skip them. You cannot rush them. And understanding what they are makes it much easier to recognize where you are when you are in the middle of one.
So here they are, in plain language, with examples from real life, because that is the only way theory actually sticks.
Phase 1: Disorienting Dilemma
An experience that causes confusion or discomfort, leading you to question your assumptions.
This is the spark. The crack in the lens. It is the moment on the plane back from Benin when I watched a man make a scene over a seat assignment and felt, for the first time, ashamed to be American. It is reading The Omnivoreās Dilemma while sitting 100 feet from a cornfield in West Africa. It is arriving in Heathrow at 21 years old and being genuinely amazed that people were just living there, going about their days, the same as anywhere else.
It is necessary. Without it, nothing else begins.
Phase 2: Self-Examination
Reflecting on feelings of anxiety or guilt as a result of the dilemma.
This is the uncomfortable phase that follows the spark. You donāt just notice that something is different, you start to feel it. The shame. The discomfort. The guilt of realizing you held an assumption you didnāt know you had. This phase is where many people want to stop because it doesnāt feel good. But it is essential. You cannot question what you havenāt first felt.
Phase 3: Critical Assessment of Assumptions
Realizing that some of your beliefs or assumptions might be flawed or limiting.
This is where you start to ask the harder questions. Not just āI felt somethingā but āwhy did I think that in the first place?ā Where did this assumption come from? My upbringing? My culture? Something I absorbed without ever being told? This is the phase where the invisible lenses start to become visible.
Phase 4: Recognition of Shared Experience or Discontent
Understanding that others have faced similar challenges or questioned the same assumptions.
This is one of the most quietly powerful phases, and one of the most underrated. The moment you realize you are not alone in your questioning. That other people have stood in this same uncomfortable place and felt the same disorientation. Community matters here. Conversation matters. It is very hard to get through this phase in isolation.
Phase 5: Exploration of New Roles, Relationships, and Actions
Considering new perspectives, behaviors, or ways of thinking.
This is the phase where you start to try things on. Not committing yet, just exploring. What would it look like to see this differently? What would it mean to act from this new understanding? It is tentative, experimental, and essential.
Phase 6: Planning for Change
Developing a course of action.
The exploration starts to solidify into something more concrete. You begin to see not just that things could be different, but how they could be different. What specifically would you do? What would you change? This phase requires honesty about what is actually possible and what you are actually willing to do.
Phase 7: Acquiring Knowledge and Skills
Learning what is needed to implement the new plan or perspective.
You know what you want to do differently. Now you have to figure out how. This is the phase where you seek out information, resources, people, and experiences that can help you actually make the change. It is active and requires effort. Transformation does not happen passively.
Phase 8: Testing New Roles
Trying out new behaviors or ways of thinking in real-life situations.
This is where the theory meets the road. You have planned, you have learned, and now you actually try it. It will not be perfect. It is not supposed to be. The testing is the point. And each time you try, you learn something about whether the new perspective actually fits your life.
Phase 9: Building Competence and Self-Confidence
Gaining confidence as new behaviors or thoughts become more familiar.
This is the phase I have been living in this past year. The new identity, Dr. Kouda, researcher, transformative tourism advocate, founder of Hello West Africa, becoming more familiar with each week that I show up and speak from it. It takes time. It takes repetition. And it takes support, which is the piece I wish I had more of in the beginning.
Phase 10: Reintegration
Adapting the new perspective into your life, making it part of how you think or act regularly.
This is the destination. Not a dramatic arrival, but a quiet settling. The changed perspective is no longer a new thing you are trying on, it is just how you see. The baby sleeping next to you instead of in the crib. The farmersā market instead of the processed food aisle. The tourism company you have been building for seventeen years because Benin changed how you understand what it means to belong somewhere.
This is where transformation lives. In the ordinary. After the experience ends.
Why Hello West Africa Is Designed Around All Ten
Most travel experiences are designed around Phase 1, the disorienting dilemma, the extraordinary moment, the thing that cracks something open.
Hello West Africa is designed around all ten.
The tour begins two to three months before you arrive, with activities designed to help you build your frames of reference. You arrive already curious, already open, already beginning Phase 1 before you even board the plane.
During the tour, we create space for Phases 2 through 8, the reflection, the questioning, the community, the exploration, and the planning. We do not leave this to chance, it is designed for.
And after you leave Benin, we will stay with you. Because Phases 9 and 10 are where everything either lands or fades, and we want it to land.
I know what it feels like when it doesnāt. I spent a year finding out.
What I am also working on is a framework that could help others apply this thinking to their own travel or tourism experiences. Not just Hello West Africa guests, but anyone designing an experience and wanting to make it genuinely transformative. The goal is to take the research and make it practical. Accessible. Something a tour operator, an educator, or a travel designer could actually use. It is not ready yet, but it is coming.
And here is something that makes Hello West Africa different from most tourism companies: the work does not stop when the tour ends. Because I come to this with a research background, I will continue to draw on the literature, study what is happening with our guests, and apply new findings to make each experience better than the last. This is what action research looks like in practice, the same methodology I used in my doctoral work, now applied to real tours with real travelers in real communities. Every tour we run will teach us something, and we will use that to do better.
The online tour I designed for my dissertation was the beginning. The in-person tours in Benin are the next chapter, with the research continually running in the background.
One Thing to Sit With
Look at those ten phases again. Think about something you are in the middle of right now, a change, a transition, a new identity you are still growing into.
Which phase are you in?
Hit reply and let me know.
Also, Iām curious, are you starting to look at the words ātransformative travelā a bit differently now?
Until next Thursday,
P.S. ā One year since the defense. I still have the notes I wrote during the process pinned above my desk. Some days, I look at them and think, I cannot believe I did that. Most days I think, of course I did.
Thanks for reading Between Here and Benin! This post is public so feel free to share it.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
The Learning Lens is a series within Between Here and Benin, published every other Thursday. It's where I think out loud about transformative learning theory ā what it is, why it matters, and how it shapes everything I'm building with Hello West Africa. No PhD required. Just curiosity.
This week, I came across a post from a travel professional I follow on LinkedIn. He was pushing back on the word ātransformativeā in travel, and I appreciated the perspective.
His argument went something like this: most people donāt want a trip that changes their life. They want a break. Time with their family. Something different. And the change that does happen is subtle; it comes from seeing the world from a new angle, from demystifying what felt strange, from realizing there is more that unites us than divides us across the globe.
He described a family he had taken on a two-month trip through Ecuador, the GalƔpagos, and Colombia. Volcanoes, the Amazon, and some of the most spectacular places on the planet. They came home with inside jokes, stories to recount, two months of family time, and horizons that had forever shifted.
A trip of a lifetime, he said. But transformational? Life-changing? Thatās a bit hyperbolic. Their kids went back to school. They went back to work.
He ended with this: āI canāt change lives, but I can certainly enrich them.ā
I read it twice. And I thought, heās right about how subtle the shift can be. But I think he stopped one step short.
How I Got Here
I want to talk a little about how I discovered transformative learning theory and why I started looking into it in the first place.
I wanted to provide people with an experience similar to what I had during my Peace Corps service, where I returned home with a changed perspective. I knew something had shifted in me. I just didnāt have the language for it yet. I had the opportunity to start exploring what this was when I began working on my dissertation proposal for my doctorate.
Learning is often thought of as taking place in a classroom. You can ask your kids, āHey, what did you learn today?ā and theyāll tell you about fractions or the American Revolution. But I have come to believe that learning happens in many more places than just the four walls of a classroom or a specific formal educational experience.
I started diving into the relationship between learning and travel. What I found was that much research on tourism highlights it as an incredible learning experience, often described as informal because it occurs outside the traditional educational environment. However, much of the research primarily focuses on customer satisfaction, financial aspects, and the educational components of tourism. Researchers have encouraged others to look beyond educational tourism specifically and explore how and why tourism facilitates learning more broadly.
Thatās when I came across Jack Mezirow and his transformative learning theory.
For a grounding definition, Van Winkle and Legge describe learning during tourism this way:
Learning during tourism is an engaging process of exploring oneself, relationships, other people, cultures, and places. Reflection on the self, relationships, past experiences, and differences between oneās own experience and the experiences of others forms the basis of a learning experience that allows people to confirm or disconfirm preexisting knowledge by freely engaging in activities with people in spaces outside their usual environment.
Read that slowly. That is travel. That is what travel can doā¦when itās designed correctly.
What Transformative Actually Means
Here is the definition I keep coming back to, from Jack Mezirow:
Transformative learning refers to the process by which we transform our taken-for-granted frames of reference (meaning perspectives, habits of mind, mind-sets) to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change, and reflective so that they may generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justified to guide action.
Let me repeat the key part: our taken-for-granted frames of reference.
Not our entire worldview. Not our personality. Not our lifeās direction. Our frames of reference, the invisible lenses we use to make sense of everything around us, are becoming more open, more reflective, more capable of change.
So what exactly is a frame of reference? Mezirow breaks it into two things: habits of mind and points of view.
A habit of mind is a set of assumptions that acts as a filter, the proverbial glasses you wear to interpret everything that happens to you. These form early, shaped by culture, family, language, religion, and experience. They show up in how you think about social norms, in your moral instincts, in your sense of self, and in your emotional response patterns. Most of the time, you donāt even know theyāre there. Theyāre just how the world looks.
A point of view is how that habit of mind gets expressed in a specific situation. And hereās the interesting part: unlike a habit of mind, you can actually try on someone elseās point of view to see how it fits. Thatās the entry point. Thatās where travel starts to do its work.
So when I talk about frames of reference shifting, thatās what I mean. Not your whole personality. Not your entire belief system. One habit of mind, examined. One point of view, tried on. One assumption, quietly questioned.
That family came home with horizons that had forever shifted. That travel professionalās own words.
Horizons that have forever shifted are frames of reference that have changed.
That IS transformative learning. Not hyperbole. Not fireworks. Subtle, quiet, exactly as he described, and still a transformation.
The distinction matters because if we decide that transformation requires something dramatic, we miss all the ways it is actually happening. We dismiss it. We stop supporting it. And that is where things fall apart.
Because here is what the research shows: the process of transformation does not just occur during the trip. It is what happens after. And without support, it fades. You go back across the bridge you thought you were ready to cross. Much safer back on the other side.
Transformation Is Just Learning
I want to say something that might sound simple, but gets lost in all the breathless language around transformative travel:
Transformation is learning.
Thatās it. Thatās the whole thing.
We tend to compare transformation to a butterfly and its metamorphosis, the coming out of the cocoon as something entirely new. Itās a beautiful image. But hereās the thing about the butterfly: itās just doing what comes naturally. It has no choice in the matter. It doesnāt have to decide to become something new. It doesnāt have to reflect on what itās leaving behind.
Human transformation is different. It is a specific kind of learning, the kind that involves taking your taken-for-granted frames of reference, your habits of mind, your assumptions about how the world works, and revising them in light of something new.
But it is learning. Not magic. Not a mystical event that happens to you on a mountaintop or a beach in West Africa.
And like all learning, it takes time. It happens in ordinary moments. It shows up in the small decisions you make after you get home, not in the grand feelings you have while youāre away.
The Cornfield
Let me give you a real example.
I was in my second year of Peace Corps service in Benin, sitting outside reading The Omnivoreās Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Itās a book about food, specifically about how corn has infiltrated nearly every product we consume in the United States, and how disconnected most Americans are from where their food actually comes from.
I was reading this book, sitting not 100 feet from a cornfield.
The corn had been planted by people in the village of Camate. It would be harvested, ground into flour, and made into la pĆ¢te, a staple food that fed families in the community where I was living. I could see it from where I was sitting.
That was a disorienting dilemma. The first phase of Mezirowās ten phases, the spark, the crack in the lens. In that moment, everything I had assumed about food, about where it comes from, about the gap between American grocery stores and the actual ground, became suddenly, uncomfortably visible.
But the transformation didnāt happen in that moment.
It happened when I came home.
Back in the United States, standing in a supermarket aisle, I started reading labels. I started avoiding processed foods. I sought out farmersā markets. I made different choices, small ones, consistently, because something had shifted in how I understood the relationship between food and the people who grow it.
The disorienting dilemma happened in Benin. The transformation happened in an American grocery store, months later, quietly, far away from the village cornfields.
That is what transformed frames of reference look like in real life. Subtle. Ordinary. And completely real.
The Baby
A second example comes from my time in Benin, where children are everywhere.
Babies are often carried on their mothersā backs during funerals, weddings, and important family events, from morning until night. Even in noisy environments, the babies sleep, close and warm and held. Not only that, but they also sleep with their mother. Not in a crib next to the bed, or in a separate bedroom down the hall. Nestled right in next to the food source and her beating heart.
This was a disorienting dilemma for me. I had always believed that babies should sleep in a separate room, in a crib. Observing this practice every day made me question my assumptions and frames of reference, quietly, without drama, just a slow accumulating question I didnāt quite know what to do with.
So I filed it away. Came home. Moved on.
And then in 2014, five years after my Peace Corps service ended, I had my first child.
I tried the crib. I did what I had always assumed you were supposed to do. And neither of us slept.
And then I remembered Benin. I tried something different.
I put my little guy next to me in bed.
He slept. I slept. No need to get out of bed to nurse him back to sleep. Just a little blip in my dreams.
Five years. Thatās how long it took for a disorienting dilemma experienced in Benin to complete its journey and arrive as a changed behavior in my real life. Thatās not a trip of a lifetime moment. Thatās transformation. Quiet, delayed, ordinary, and real.
And that travel professional was right: it didnāt change my life. It changed one small thing about how I lived it. But that small thing? Thatās a frame of reference that shifted. Thatās transformative learning. Even five years later. Even quietly. Even without anyone calling it that at the time.
The Part Nobody Talks About
Both of those examples have something in common: the transformation happened after. Not during the experience. After.
Mezirowās research is clear on this. The later phases of transformative learning, the ones that determine whether a shift actually lasts, happen when you return to your regular life and try to integrate what you encountered. That family in Ecuador came home with their horizons shifted. What happens next? Do those shifted horizons show up in how they make decisions, how they talk to their kids, and what they prioritize? Or do they slowly fade back into the comfortable familiar?
That depends on whether the shift is supported.
One of the most important tools throughout the entire process is reflection. Journaling, whether in video, voice, or writing, is one of the most critical elements in this process. So are conversations with others: fellow travelers who shared the experience, people who ask the right questions when you get home, a community you can return to when you encounter a barrier or an assumption you donāt know how to work through on your own. It keeps the disorienting dilemma alive long enough for the transformation to complete itself. It creates the space for the shift to land.
What This Means for Hello West Africa
When I say Hello West Africa is designed around transformative learning theory, this is what I mean.
I am not promising that you will have a life-changing moment while you are in Benin. You might. But that is not the point.
The point is that we are designing for what happens after.
The tour begins two to three months before you even arrive, with activities designed to prepare your frames of reference for what you will encounter. We want you to arrive already curious, already questioning, already open to the disorienting dilemma that Benin will inevitably provide.
And then we stay connected after you leave. Because that is where the subtle magic happens. Not in the moment of eating la pĆ¢te for the first time, or hearing a drum circle at night, or walking down to the Port of No Return. In those moments, you are experiencing the disorienting dilemma. The transformation comes later, in the ordinary moments of your regular life, when something you encountered in Benin suddenly makes sense of something you see at home.
We want to be there for that part too.
That travel professional said he canāt change lives, but he can enrich them. I respect that. But I think enrichment and transformation are not as far apart as they seem. When horizons shift forever, even subtly or slowly, frames of reference change.
Thatās transformation. And it deserves support all the way through.
One Thing to Sit With
Think about a time when something you experienced while traveling, or during any significant life change, didnāt fully land until much later. Not the moment of the experience. The moment it changed something small in your daily life.
That quiet moment of change? Thatās transformation. It was always happening. You just didnāt have a name for it yet.
Hit reply and tell me yours, Iām curious!
Until next Thursday,
P.S. ā The Omnivoreās Dilemma is still one of the books I recommend most. If you havenāt read it, add it to your list. Maybe you can read it while you are visiting me in Benin, sitting next to a corn field! The disorienting dilemma hits differently that way.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Last Friday, a conversation on LinkedIn led to this question:
āWhy are you doing this?ā
They meant Hello West Africa. And I thought, I know this answer. Iāve said it a hundred times. But when I sat down to actually write it out, something different happened. The answer didnāt come out as a mission statement or an elevator pitch.
It came out as a list.
I want people to pull peanuts out of the ground.
I want people to feel the rush of humidity when they step off the plane.
I want people to be a part of the din on the bus ride from the airport terminal to the plane, because then you know you are on the right plane headed to Africa.
I want them to taste my mother-in-lawās incredible cooking and eat with their hands.
I want people to rest on a full bag of unshelled peanuts under the stars.
I want people to experience walking through the village and greeting everyone (which can sometimes be over twenty times!).
I want people to feel uncomfortable.
I want people to experience what it is like to not understand the language.
I want people to see children running around, healthy and clean, and yes, also dirty, because children play outside and there is lots of dirt.
I want people to drink an herbal tea made by my mother-in-law that would surely clear any cold they might have.
I want people to hear the sound of sweeping in the early morning.
I want people to buy incredible food for less than a dollar from a stand on the side of the road.
I want people to feel the rhythm of a drum circle at night.
I want people to taste the dry sweetness of cashew apple juice.
I want people to have a shot of sodabi at 9 AM.
I want people to return to where they came from and tell others all about Benin.
I want people to know where it is and show others on a map.
Thatās not a hundred reasons. But I could keep going. Because there are endless experiences I would love for people to have when they are with us in Benin.
A Little Background on Hello West Africa
I realized this week, after that LinkedIn message, that I keep assuming people know what Hello West Africa is. They donāt. And thatās on me to keep explaining.
So. For anyone new here, and for anyone who could use a reminder:
Hello West Africa is a boutique cultural immersion travel company that my husband, DāAquin, and I are building on our property in Benin, West Africa. Not a resort. Not a safari. Not a tour that shows you Africa from a comfortable distance.
Living in a village. Our village. At our home.
The flagship 12-day experience starts in Cotonou, the economic capital, where you acclimate to the heat, feel the humidity, and get your first taste of what it means to be there. From there, we drive two and a half hours north to Kabole, where our house sits and where we will spend most of our time exploring the area. Walking through the village, exploring the third largest open-air market in the country, eating meals prepared by my mother-in-law, and living alongside a community that has been our home for fifteen years.
At the end, we drive south to Ouidah, the birthplace of Vodun and the location of the Port of No Return, one of the most significant sites on the slave route. It is a heavy and important place. We save it for the end, before heading back to Cotonou and the airport.
We want to offer the only professionally guided, fully English-language immersive cultural tour of Benin. Designed for curious travelers who want to understand the world, not just see it.
Thatās Hello West Africa. In a nutshell.
What Really Happened Last Week
Last Tuesday, I drove to Seattle to see Dr. Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, for whom I interned in Namibia in 2003. I wrote about that expected trip last week, but what I didnāt fully capture was what it felt like to be in that room.
It was incredible to see Laurie again. I am amazed at what she has built since 2003 ā the organization has brought cheetahs back to India and now to Somaliland, continues working in Kenya and Namibia, and raises livestock-guarding dogs to give to farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by cheetah conflict. Watching her speak and interact with people reminded me of something important: she was one of the first women I ever watched trying to grow and change something. To make a real difference in this world. For people and the wildlife they cohabitate with.
That must have had more of an impact on me than I realized at the time.
I also met Jake Haupert from the Transformative Tourism Council, whom I learned about while researching transformative tourism for my doctorate. I had been wanting to meet him in person for a long time, and we finally did. His organization, Explorers X, was hosting Laurie for the event. During our conversation, Jake encouraged me to share what I was doing, which gave me the opportunity to tell the Hello West Africa story to people who didnāt know me.
And something shifted.
Someone in that room listened to the story and said: it sounds like a love story.
A love story between DāAquin and me. A love story about a country. A love story about wanting to share that country with others.
I had never thought about it that way. But they were right. It is.
I also met Jungle Jordan, a zookeeper turned wildlife content creator, and we ended up talking about mutual acquaintances from my days working in zoos over 20 years ago. The world is small in the most wonderful ways.
But the thing that stayed with me most was this: standing in that room, telling strangers about Hello West Africa, watching people listen and then ask for more ā it made the whole thing feel real in a way that newsletters and business plans and spreadsheets hadnāt quite managed to do.
It also helped me move past a moment in 2018 when I shared the idea of this tourism company with someone who laughed and said it would never work.
That moment has less power over me now. A little less, every week.
Whatās Coming Next
Today I have a call with a woman who has been in the travel industry for a long time and is part of a group that leads women travel leaders. I met her at the Seattle event. I am curious to see where this conversation takes me!
I am also working on getting more organized this week, building out a system in Notion that I will actually use rather than just explore. I have a tendency to fall in love with the app and forget to use it as a tool. Working on that.
On the side, I do website design, and Iām helping a friend update his website this week. Itās a nice change of pace from business plans and pitch decks, a different kind of building, same attention to detail.
LinkedIn and Instagram posting continues. The Learning Lens goes out this Thursday.
And I am saying this out loud, publicly, so that you can hold me to it:
My goal is to host the first Hello West Africa tour by December 2026. Christmas in Benin.
For that to happen, I need to find people who believe in this dream enough to help make it real. If that is you, or if you know someone it might be, please reach out. Reply to this email, find me on LinkedIn, and find me on Instagram. Letās talk.
What Iām Learning
Building in public is working, but not in the way I expected.
I expected the newsletter to grow my subscriber list. It is, slowly. What I did not expect was that it would make Hello West Africa feel real to me. That standing in a room in Seattle telling the story out loud would feel like a continuation of what Iāve been writing here every Tuesday. That someone would hear the story and call it a love story. That I would come home and sit down and write that list and realize: I know exactly why I am doing this. I have always known.
And it is completely normal to feel frightened and excited about it all. A little throwback to last weekās post.
In My Free Time
It was Easter this past weekend, and I love putting together scavenger hunts for my boys. This year, there were eight clues, including a trip half a block down to the mailbox and out into the yard, places they had never had to go for a clue before. Watching their brains turn as they worked through each one was one of my favorite things I have done all year. My oldest declared it the best scavenger hunt ever. That is all the feedback I need.
Oh, and I made an incredible spring salad!
We also dyed Easter eggs. I didnāt wake up early enough on the day we were to hard-boil the eggs, and my middle son Benjamin decided to do it himself. He looked up how, but the timing was a little off ā the first twelve eggs came out softer than intended in the middle. We made a second batch and got it right. Fail and learn! The eggs turned out to be the most beautiful reds, pinks, and blues. One of my favorite activities.
The weather has turned here in Washington. Spring is actually arriving. I am working on getting back into running. I ran a half-marathon in 2019, and Iām not sure I want to train for that again, but I want to be able to run three miles easily three or four times a week. The beginning is always the hardest. I just have to keep going and remind myself that I can do it. Movement is the medicine I need right now.
The Psychology of Money is almost finished. Highly recommend, especially if you are building something and thinking carefully about what money is actually for. I picked up a few more at the library last week. I can never have enough books.
Thank you so much for being here! Every week you show up and read this, you are part of what makes Hello West Africa feel possible.
Iāll see you Thursday for the Learning Lens. And next Tuesday, for whatever happens between now and then.
Until next Tuesday,
P.S. ā Hello West Africa is looking for aligned investors and Founding Supporters. If you want to be part of building this before the doors open, reply to this email and letās talk.
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It was 2003. I was 21, sitting in my uncleās car on the way to JFK, and Norah Jones was playing.
Come away with me in the nightā¦
I was about to board a plane to Namibia, in Southern Africa, for a three-month internship with the Cheetah Conservation Fund. I had fundraised my way there. My dad had helped me buy the ticket from a travel agency, one you actually had to walk into. I didnāt have a cell phone. The internet existed, but just barely.
I remember standing at a payphone inside JFK, calling my parents before I boarded. I was scared and excited and crying all at once, the way you cry when something is both wonderful and terrifying in equal measure. I didnāt know when I would talk to them next.
As it turned out. Once. In three months.
To this day, every time I hear Norah Jones sing that song, I am back at that payphone. Twenty-one years old, about to go somewhere that would quietly begin to change everything.
Where Hello West Africa Really Comes From
I want to tell you something about Hello West Africa that doesnāt appear in the business plan.
The design of this company, the philosophy behind it, the way itās structured, what it prioritizes and why, didnāt come from a classroom or a textbook. It came from experiences. Specific ones. The kind that leaves a mark so quietly you donāt realize it until years later, when you look back and think: oh. Thatās where that started.
It started in Namibia.
I arrived at the Cheetah Conservation Fund for the first time at night. My job as the passenger was to watch for wildlife crossing the road. At any moment, a giraffe or kudu could have appeared in the headlights. I certainly wasnāt in Kansas anymore, although in Alaska, moose could cross the road. Before going to bed, I looked up and saw the Southern Cross.
The next morning, I saw the place with wide and curious eyes. CCFās headquarters sits on a 142,000-acre reserve adjacent to the Waterberg Plateau Park in central Namibia, a full-scale research and education facility with thatched-roof buildings that caught the morning light in a way I still remember. It is a remarkable operation, built from the ground up by Dr. Laurie Marker, whose words I only recently rediscovered:
āWe always think there is someone else who will do something, that ātheyā will take care of it. I realized early in my work that there is no āthey,ā and so I decided that I would take action.ā
I had no idea how much that sentence would eventually mean to me.
(There were also giant flat spiders on the bathroom walls. Now thatās something I had to get used to...couldnāt scream and run away every time I saw one!)
I worked with cheetahs. I went for runs after work and got warned to watch out for oryx, baboons, and warthogs on the path. I learned from people who had dedicated their lives to conservation. It was everything I had hoped for.
And yet. There was a nagging feeling I couldnāt quite name.
The Namibian staff who worked at CCF lived with their families nearby, but I was never invited over. I wanted to see what a traditional Namibian home looked like. I was curious about their lives and their culture. (One of the young Namibian interns mentioned missing sour milk once, and I found myself thinking, who would want to drink sour milk?) But there was an invisible line between the visitorsā world and theirs, and I didnāt know how to cross it. Iām not even sure, looking back, whether I could have asked.
I filed it away as a nagging feeling I couldnāt name yet. And I moved on.
Then something else happened that planted a second seed.
Two Peace Corps volunteers had recently transferred to CCF from a village posting elsewhere in Namibia. They had spent their service helping build a library for the community. They had poured time, funding, and effort into it. And then the library sat unused. The volunteers couldnāt understand why no one was coming. They felt like none of their work was appreciated. (Iām sure there were other issues. That was over 20 years ago, and memory is imperfect.)
I was 21. I didnāt say anything out loud. But a question formed quietly in the back of my mind:
Did the community even want a library in the first place?
Fast forward four years. The Peace Corps idea had been circling for a while, surfacing when I was working with cheetahs again in White Oak, Florida, and again when I moved to Seattle and was working at Starbucks. I finally submitted my application. They said: Congratulations, youāre going to Benin!
I had to find Benin on the world map.
I took French lessons. I checked the CIA World Factbook. I learned that Benin had two national parks in the north with safari-style wildlife. I thought, given my background, they would surely post me there.
Instead, I was assigned to a small village called Camate-Shakaloke, to work with an organization called CPN les Papillons, ConnaĆ®tre et ProtĆ©ger la Nature āles Papillons.ā Papillon means butterfly in French. I thought maybe I would be working with butterflies.
It was actually a small tourism and education nonprofit, a modest inn and restaurant, eco-tours through the village and up into the hills, and facilities for community meetings. My future husband, Thomas DāAquin Kouda, had helped form it. The wildlife I encountered was chickens, goats, cows, and the occasional snake. Monkeys, rarely.
And I didnāt miss the exotic animals. Not once.
Because Africa, the real Africa, the one that doesnāt make it onto safari brochures, became about something else entirely. The people. The culture. The way communities hold each other. The extraordinary ordinary life of a place the rest of the world had decided wasnāt worth looking at carefully.
I remember one evening, sitting outside DāAquinās family photography studio alongside the main road going north, sharing a glass of sodabi (the local distilled palm wine, something like moonshine) with DāAquin, his father, and a few other men. The conversation had drifted to money, specifically to the various aid organizations that came through, bringing funding, plans, and decisions made somewhere far away by people who had never lived there. One man looked up and said:
āI wish they would just give us the money. We know what to do with it. We donāt need anyone telling us what to do with it.ā
I still think about that conversation.
That nagging feeling from Namibia? It finally had a name.
I didnāt want to observe from a comfortable distance. I wanted to belong, even briefly, to somewhere real.
That instinct, donāt impose, be invited. Observe, understand, then belong is the entire philosophy of Hello West Africa. It didnāt come from my dissertation. It didnāt come from a business book. It came from a payphone at JFK, a Namibian staff member who missed sour milk, a library nobody asked for, a glass of sodabi on a dirt road, and a small tourism and education nonprofit with a butterfly in their name in a village I hadnāt planned to go to.
Every experience shaped the design.
And Dr. Laurie Marker? The woman who decided there was no ātheyā and just did it herself?
I think about her too.
What Really Happened Last Week
I had a list. It was ambitious. Here is what the list said and what actually happened:
Finish the final version of the business plan draft ā done. ā Sending it to my SCORE advisor this week. (And since weāre building in public, I used LivePlan to put the financials together, and it is incredible. Especially for someone who loves watching other people build beautiful Excel sheets but is considerably less confident building them herself.)
Redo the website ā started. Nowhere near finished. The website is currently somewhere between āold versionā and ānew vision,ā which is its own special kind of chaos.
LinkedIn posts ā done. ā
Instagram ā done. ā I have started working with an Instagram coach, which is already incredibly helpful. Social media is a landscape I have observed for a long time without fully participating in. Having someone to ask questions is making a real difference.
Start the pitch deck ā did not happen. It is on this weekās list.
Actually call anyone about investment ā also did not happen. This is the one that requires me to go through it rather than around it. Working up to it. Publicly. Right here.
So. Partial credit. Moving on.
What Iām Learning
Two things this week.
The first: building in public is not a social media invention. Walt Disney set up a time-lapse camera while building Disneyland in the 1950s and shared the footage with people. He wanted them to watch something being created in real time. He also said something I keep coming back to:
āThe park means a lot to me in that, itās something that will never be finished. Something that I can keep developing. A thing I can keep building as long as I can get some money to build it with.ā
Thatās exactly what Hello West Africa is. The impulse to bring people along, to make the building itself part of the story, is not new. Itās human. I find that genuinely comforting.
The second: I always overestimate what I can accomplish in a week, usually because I forget that I am also the CEO of my family. (The title comes with no salary and considerable responsibility.) Iām working on time blocking by starting with tracking where my time actually goes, using the Toggl app. It is both illuminating and occasionally disconcerting. Laura Vanderkam would approve.
I also have a bulletin board now, inspired by someone on Instagram, where I can see everything and physically move things around. Visual, tangible, real. Much better than a list I canāt see.
Whatās Coming Next
This week, the pitch deck gets started; no more avoiding it. The website continues. And I am going to make at least one phone call about an investment. Actually asking the question to give money. One. Thatās the goal. One name, one conversation.
I have been thinking about setting up a time-lapse of my own, of the website being built, or the pitch deck taking shape. Mostly, I stare at a screen, which is less cinematic than Disneyās construction crew. But the spirit is the same.
I also plan to start sharing some of the tools and apps that are making this build easier. I love finding things that work, even if that means occasionally going down a rabbit hole for hours. (Nerdy, I know, but also so much fun. And most of the time, worth it. Usually.)
I canāt wait for the day I get to tell you the capital has been raised and we are heading back to Benin. When that happens, Iāll start sharing whatās happening on the ground at Kabole, the construction updates, the property, and the community. Thatās the part of this story I canāt wait for you to see.
In My Free Time
It rained all week here in Washington. And then on Friday, it flooded. The second time this winter, the first being December. The gray is something I havenāt quite made peace with, but I appreciate the moments when the sun appears. We got out for a couple of walks. We made homemade pizza, dough and all.
The episode of The Pitt was something else. No spoilers.
On the reading list this week:
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Queen Charlotte by Julia Quinn Tales from Another Mother Runner, edited by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea, because I am attempting to get back into running, and reading stories of other mothers running sparks the joy in running that I know is there.
And the daily crossword. Always the daily crossword.
The boys are well. Life between here and Benin continues, even when Benin feels far away.
Until next Tuesday,
P.S. ā The library nobody asked for. I think about that more than you might expect. Itās in the DNA of everything weāre building.
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This time of the year in Benin, where we live, you start praying for rain. Every dark cloud you see sparks another conversation about how itās been so long since it has rained, and that those clouds are certainly holding a wonderful secret. You see, it is nearing the end of the dry season. Water hasnāt fallen from the sky since at least November or early December before.
The dirt roads are so parched that they are cracking. Everything is dull, brown, dry, and dusty. The large cisterns have dried up, and we have to pull out the familiar yellow containers and head to the local water pumps, or, in our case, most of the time, hire someone or get the neighborhood kids to do it.
You waitā¦and waitā¦to hear those first drops of rain on the tin roofs. And then, one day, in late March or early April, the sky darkens, the air chills, and you hear it.
Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter.
Everyone rushes around to pick up anything that shouldnāt get wet. Windows are closed. Any type of bucket or basin you can find is brought outside to catch the rain. No more using the yellow containers! And then you run out on the front porch and breathe in the air heavy with rain, and you feel like you are in one of those CDs that get played while getting a massage, rain hitting the tin roof. A giant smile makes its way to your face, and conversations almost seem to get a bit lighter.
The brown landscape turns green in less than a week. And so begins the planting season.
Rain. So unbelievably happy to see it.
Something Iām sorry to say Iām tired of seeing right now as someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest.
A Little Background
That green, the one that arrives after the first rain, is exactly what I picture when I think about Kabole. Our property. The place where Hello West Africa is being built, piece by piece, from two continents at once.
For those who are new here, Hello West Africa is rooted in a specific place: our property in Benin, a small country nestled between Nigeria and Togo. The village of Kabole, where our house sits, is about 2.5 hours north of Cotonou, between the cities of Dassa and GlazouƩ. We have had this property for about 15 years, and began building our house on it around 2013. We surprised my parents with the build when we all traveled over in 2015. What a fun secret that was to reveal!
DāAquin has been going back and forth to Benin over the last few years while I finished my doctorate and navigated various life things here in Washington State. I havenāt been back to Benin in a while. Thatās a fact I sit with sometimes, the strange experience of building a company in a place you are temporarily far from. But the work has continued. We dug a well two years ago. We added a larger terrace along the side of the house last year. Weāve made it possible to add a second floor, where the Hello West Africa offices will eventually be located when we are in country.
The house currently has four large bedrooms. We want to renovate all of them to include en-suite bathrooms and add three guest bungalows on the property. Solar panels are on the list as well, since the sun is often out and electricity costs in Benin are high. Landscaping. Furnishings. All of it, piece by piece.
It is very much a construction project. DāAquin has done an incredible job of managing various building projects in Benin from here in Washington.
This is what building Hello West Africa actually looks like.
So, hereās what has led to where we are today.
It started last September or October, when I finally believed in myself and got the ball rolling on developing the business plan. I reached out to a friend I had met during COVID in Benin, someone who was working for Peace Corps Benin (and had been a PCV there before) and was familiar with budgeting using local prices. Together, we worked out an initial financial forecast: what it would cost to run a tour, what the construction numbers looked like, and whether any of this was remotely viable. Without that conversation, Iām not sure I would have started.
From there, through a TikTok that my husband mentioned to me, I connected with a Certified Business Advisor at the Washington Small Business Development Center, and began drafting the business plan and financial forecast in earnest. Having someone elseās eyes on it, someone who asked hard questions and didnāt let me be vague about the numbers, was exactly what I needed.
Then December rolled along, and I noticed a trend on Instagram where people were doing various challenges, and I thought, well, why donāt I try to raise $300,000 in 30 days for the startup capital? I was excited about it. And then, well, it was a lot harder than I thought, and it didnāt happen. The momentum stalled, the holidays arrived, and I took a break. I wonāt pretend I wasnāt feeling the weight of that. When you put something close to your heart out into the world, and it doesnāt land the way you hoped, itās hard not to take it personally.
But hereās what happened instead.
I started talking about Benin. I put out posts in different Facebook groups and had the opportunity to speak at five or six events to real people. And something shifted. Talking about Hello West Africa out loud, watching peopleās faces when I described the community and what it means to actually live in a place rather than visit itā¦it made the whole thing more real. The story got sharper every time I told it.
In one of those conversations, I met a returned Peace Corps volunteer who introduced me to a local RPCV group and recommended I reach out to SCORE. Thatās how I found David, my SCORE advisor. Weāve met three times now. The first meeting was humbling; his feedback was hard to hear, and I had a choice about how to receive it. I chose to go back and make a better version. Draft two was significantly stronger. Last week, we moved on to draft three.
Thatās where Hello West Africa stands today. Business plan in progress. Numbers are getting tighter. This newsletter has been launched. The dream is getting more real by the week.
Whatās Coming Next
This week, Iām turning my attention to growing our presence on Instagram and LinkedIn and beginning to draft a pitch for potential investors. That second one is the one that makes my stomach flip a little.
I love talking about Benin and Hello West Africa. I love the conversations it starts. But asking for money, asking someone to believe in a dream enough to put real dollars behind it, is a different kind of vulnerable. Iāve done it before. I know the noās will come, and I know thatās okay. But when something is this close to your heart, you protect it.
Iāll also be updating the Hello West Africa website. I put one together last fall, but things have changed a bit, so I want to make sure everything sounds cohesive.
So this week: Instagram, LinkedIn, the pitch deck (anyone want to be my guinea pig?), version four of the business plan, and the website.
All of it. One thing at a time.
What Iām Learning
Thereās a quote I was reminded of this past week. Itās from Zootopia, of all places, Judy Hopps, during the speech at the Zootopia Police Academy graduation:
āThe more we try to understand each other, the more exceptional each of us will be. But we have to try. And I implore youā¦try. Try to make the world a better place.ā
I know. A Disney bunny. But I think about this more than Iād like to admit. (The boys and I just watched Zootopia 2, which is why it was fresh in my mind.)
Because what Iām learningā¦from the speaking engagements, from the SCORE meetings, from the conversations with people who lean in when I talk about Beninā¦is that Hello West Africa is not just a tourism company. Itās an argument. An argument that understanding each other, really understanding each other, is worth the effort. That the world gets better when curious people go somewhere unfamiliar and come back changed.
Thatās not a business pitch. Thatās a belief Iāve been carrying since 2007.
The other thing Iām learning is best said through the words of a childrenās book by Michael Rosen:
āWeāre going on a bear hunt. Weāre going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day! Iām not scaredā¦Uh ohā¦long wavy grassā¦we canāt go over it, we canāt go under it, weāve got to go through it!ā
Asking people to subscribe to the newsletter was uncomfortable for me. I am not someone who naturally promotes herself. But when I sent those messages, and people responded, when the conversations started, I remembered why I was doing it. Itās like finishing a workout. You have to remember how it feels at the end, not in the middle. Reading Influence Is Your Superpower by Zoe Chance has also been helpful in this moment.
You canāt go around it. Youāve got to go through it.
And Now, Your Turn
When youāve had to ask for something that really mattered to you (support, money, a chance), what helped you actually do it?
Hit reply and tell me. Or answer the poll below. I read everything.
How I spent my free time last weekā¦
Outside of the build, life has been full in the best ways.
I finished At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber, a fantastic, light read that I highly recommend. (It fits in surprisingly well with what Iām doing right now, actually.)
I took the boys to Comic Con in Seattle last week. I grew up watching Star Trek, so walking into a space where people were dressed as their favorite characters, geeking out without apology, was something I wanted my kids to experience. Because there was certainly no way when I was their age that I would have done that. My oldest looked at me at the end of the day and said, āIām so grateful for today. It was so awesome.ā
As a parent, it doesnāt get much better than that.
The weather has been brutal. I grew up in Alaska, so I can handle cold, but the wind here is something else entirely. Iāve been watching The Pitt (I was a devoted ER fan as a high schooler, when my parents let me stay up until 10 pm on Thursdays to watch it). I actually enjoy how streaming shows are releasing once a week rather than all at once. Kind of nice! The boys and I also watched Zootopia 2, which, as you now know, reminded me of Judy Hopps's words.
Until next Tuesday,
P.S. ā If youāre just finding this newsletter, Issue No. 1 is where the story startsā¦in an overcrowded van in Benin in 2007, with a young woman who was absolutely certain she had everything figured out. She did not.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
All she could see were the lights and feel the sweat dripping down her forehead as she sat on the hard floor of the more than full 18-passenger van. She had arrived in the little-known country only a few hours earlier, and all of her expectations were quickly being thrown out the window. Life was happening around her with no qualms about how it might look to an outsider. In the humid air, laughter and joy filled the space, offering such a stark contrast to her life in the US Pacific Northwest. The young woman swore she could almost feel a sense of home.
These people in this small country, which she had only learned about a few months earlier, would undoubtedly benefit from all she could teach them.
Little did she know that this country and its people would teach her and transform her life in more ways than she could imagine.
That night, she wrote in her journal.
I am not here to find a boyfriend. I am here to discover more about who I am.
She was so certain.
That young woman was me. July 2007. My first night in Benin, West Africa, as a newly arrived Peace Corps volunteer, sweaty and wide-eyed and absolutely convinced I had the whole thing figured out.
I did not have the whole thing figured out.
Within two years, I would be fluent enough in French to teach environmental education to over 1,000 students across 18 schools. I would design and execute a community sanitation project from fundraising to completion. I would lead international visitors through villages, farms, and nature sites I had come to love as my own. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, in direct defiance of the journal entry, I would fall in love with a man named Thomas DāAquin Kouda, who was born and raised in the very community I had come to serve.
Dearest Reader, I married him. (Bridgerton fans, you know.)
Benin didnāt need me to teach it anything. It had been waiting to teach me.
That was seventeen years ago. And here is what has been true every single day since:
I have never stopped thinking about going back. Not just to visit, but to build.
The shape of it was already forming while I was still in the Peace Corps, because I thoroughly enjoyed meeting, guiding, and teaching the visitors who came through CPN les Papillons. A tourism company. Real people, curious people, people hungry for more than a resort and a highlight reel, brought into the Benin I had lived in. The Benin of community and ceremony and extraordinary ordinary life.
I turned the dream over in my hands for years. In 2018, I finally put it on paper. A real business plan. And then I made the mistake of asking the wrong person to read it.
What came back wasnāt feedback. It was a verdict. The idea was ridiculous. I shouldnāt have had it in the first place. Thatās how it felt, anyway, like someone had looked at the thing Iād built carefully with both hands and just... knocked it over. And the worst part? Part of me believed them. The $300,000 in startup capital didnāt help, either. The gap between the dream and the doing felt, in that moment, like a canyon I had no bridge for.
So I put the dream away.
Except I couldnāt, not really.
Because here is the thing about a dream that belongs to you: it doesnāt care how many times you set it down. It just keeps finding its way back.
I went back to school. Got a doctorate. And my dissertation, which I told myself would be about changing Benin's entire educational system, turned out to be about transformative learning theory and online education. In fact, a five-week virtual cultural tour of Benin. The dream walked right in through the academic back door and sat down like it owned the place. Because it did.
I finished my EdD in 2025. And somewhere in the exhaustion and the pride and the strange silence after years of relentless work, something became very clear to me.
If I can do that, I can do anything.
The fear didnāt go away. But it stopped being a reason.
And then I looked at my 3 kidsā¦watching everything, absorbing everything, learning from everything I do and everything I donāt do, and I thought: what exactly am I showing them if I stop here?
I didnāt stop.
Between Here and Benin is the story of what happens next.
DāAquin and I are building Hello West Africa, a cultural immersion travel company rooted in the communities of Benin, where we have spent the last seventeen years building relationships, acquiring property, conducting research, and quietly, stubbornly, refusing to let the dream go.
We are not there yet. We are in the middle of it, meeting with advisors, building out the business plan with the help of a SCORE mentor, getting the numbers right, and finding the people who believe in what weāre building. It is exciting and terrifying and real in the way that only things youāve wanted for a very long time can be real.
Iām going to write about all of it. The wins, the stuck moments, and the things I donāt know yet. The business, the country, and the theory behind why I believe that travel, the kind that asks something of you, can actually change a person.
Iām building this in public. And Iād like you to come with me.
You donāt need to know where Benin is. You just need to be curious.
Welcome to Between Here and Benin.
ā Dr. Debra Kouda
New here? Iām Debra ā researcher, educator, entrepreneur, and the woman in that van. My husband Thomas DāAquin and I are co-founders of Hello West Africa, a cultural immersion travel company based in Benin, West Africa. This newsletter is where I build it out loud. Iām glad you found it.
Already a reader from Life with Debra K? You know how I write. Thank you for following me here. The story just got bigger.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Some of you were on the receiving end of email blasts that came from my Dad.
It was 2003. I was a senior at Oregon State, interning at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. The Internet wasn't what it is today, and I had the opportunity to send an email about once a week. Iād send it to my Dad, and he would forward it to the list of people who had helped me get there in the first place, as I had fundraised my way onto the African continent for the first time. It was my first digital newsletter, before I (or anyone else, really) knew what a digital newsletter was. Written from another continent, trying to keep the people I loved close, and on the journey with me. I wanted them to feel like they were there with me.
History has a way of repeating itself.
Four years ago, I started writing to you again. This time from Benin, West Africa, where our family had decided to ride out the pandemic. Substack, a new online platform for writers, had just emerged, and I wanted to try it. I wanted to establish a good writing practice. Keep in touch with people even though we were on another continent. DāAquin and I had traveled through near-empty airports and airplanes to get there, and suddenly we were living a life without masks and climbing death tolls, in a country that most of you had to look up on a map when I first mentioned it.
So did I, by the way, when I found out thatās where I was going to spend my time as a Peace Corps volunteer back in 2007.
Benin. A small, quietly extraordinary country in the western part of Africa. I fell in love with itā¦the people, the culture, the way of life. And even though DāAquin and I returned to the US in 2009, we never fully left. Thatās how we were able to bring our family there during Covid. We had a home waiting for us. A community.
Benin stayed with me. It always does.
And you stayed with me, too.
I know there were gaps. Long ones. And yet, you showed up. You opened the emails when they came. In fact...I was just being me, overthinking and procrastinating putting words on the proverbial page.
We came back to the US at the beginning of 2022, into the second semester of my doctoral program, homeschooling my kids and trying to hold it all together. There were many points during those years when I questioned why I was doing it, especially when I became pregnant and gave birth to our third son at the end of 2023. But I persevered. I pivoted in my research. I produced a dissertation I am extremely proud of.
And my kids watched me go through the whole thing. That part matters most.
Thank you. Sincerely, thank you.
A short update on Mireille.
For those who have been here since last August, Mireille is DāAquinās sister. She has been living with double kidney failure, going for dialysis once, sometimes twice a week, in a country where that kind of sustained medical care is not simple or cheap.
When I shared her story with you, you gave. People who had never met her, never been to Benin, never heard her name before I wrote it in a newsletterā¦you gave. Together, from this little community, we raised nearly $4,000. The family began fundraising in Benin this past January and has now raised $25,000. Mireille is still in treatment. The road is still long. But she is here and persevering.
So. Hereās what I came to tell you.
Life with Debra K is getting a new name. And a new purpose.
Tomorrow, Iām relaunching. New name. New focus. Same honest narrator youāve been reading for four years, but with something more specific to say and somewhere more intentional to go.
The new newsletter is called Between Here and Benin.
Itās the story of building Hello West Africa. A cultural immersion travel company that DāAquin and I have spent seventeen years quietly constructing from the inside of two continents, two languages, two ways of being in the world. Itās a founderās journal. A love letter to a country most people still have to look up on a map. A place where Iāll think out loud about transformative learning, about what it really means to cross cultures, about the business of building something that has never existed before.
The subscribe link is the same. You donāt need to do anything. If youāre reading (or listening) to this, youāre already invited. All you have to do is show up tomorrow.
One last time, and one more time: thank you for being here.
ā Debra
P.S. ā Mireille says thank you too. She doesnāt know all your names, but I do.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
So, I had this realization the other day. I was just sitting at my desk and looked up at the bulletin board I keep above my computer, still full of notes from my doctoral days, and there it was, the ten phases of transformational learning proposed by Jack Mezirow in his Transformative Learning Theory glaring right at me.
And then I had a lightbulb š” moment. Wow, Iām right in the middle of the last two phases:
Phase 9: Building Competence and Confidence ā gaining confidence as new behaviors or thoughts become more familiar.
Phase 10: Reintegration ā adapting the new perspective into oneās life, making it part of how you think or act regularly.
Now, these phases donāt necessarily happen in order, but the research says theyāre the hardest ones to go through. And let me tell you, the research is right, because Iām living it right now.
So I thought, well, maybe I should talk this out. Because thatās what I do. And maybe some of you are in these phases too, in your own way, even if youāve never named them.
For those who donāt know, transformational learning has basically been my life for the last two years. Itās what I studied, itās what I researched, itās what I lived while doing my doctorate. And when I look back, I can actually see myself moving through the phases, not in a straight line, but hitting those different moments that Mezirow and his colleagues outlined. And now? Now Iām stuckā¦or maybe just sittingā¦in reintegration.
Reintegration is where youāre supposed to take all the knowledge, all the perspective shifts, all the growth, and weave it into your actual life. Not your academic papers or your dissertation, but your real, everyday life. The one with kids, with work, with bills, with everything else youāre carrying. And honestly? Easier said than done. It sounds straightforward when you read it in theory: take what youāve learned and apply it.
But living it. Living it is another thing entirely.
And I think thatās where support matters most. In my research, I found this over and over again: you need people. You need community. You need some kind of space to process, because otherwise itās just you, floating around with this big identity shift that you donāt quite know what to do with. And I canāt help but wonder, what if higher ed actually focused on that? Not just delivering knowledge or handing you a diploma, but walking with you through this messy reintegration stage.
When I started my program, my focus was clear, or at least I thought it was. I was going to change the educational system in Benin. That was it. I had a plan. I imagined creating an organization that could support students, teachers, and communities. I thought this degree would give me the skills to make it happen. But as I went through the program, things shifted. My focus shifted. I became more interested in the process itself, in how transformational learning works, because I realized itās not just something that happens in a classroom. It happens in life. It happens when you move to a new country, or when you homeschool your kids, or when you take on a role you never imagined youād have. It happens all the time.
And the funny thing is, most of us donāt even realize it when itās happening. Unless we name it, we canāt see it clearly. But once you do see it, once you say, āOh, thatās what this is,ā it changes everything.
Now, hereās where it gets personal. My doctoral program was completely online. I never set foot in the Mary Lou Fulton School at Arizona State University. I never met my professors in person. I was lucky enough to meet two of my classmates, but I only knew the others through Zoom.
And when it all wrapped up, when I defended my dissertation, made my revisions, submitted the final copyā¦that was it.
Done.
No graduation ceremony for me, by choice. No closure. Justā¦ over.
And frankly? It felt like being dropped off a cliff. One day, I was deep in edits and revisions, living and breathing my dissertation. The next day, silence.
Sure, I got the surveys asking, āWhat did you think of the program? What are you doing now?ā But that was it. No one checked in to ask, āHey, how are you navigating this new identity?ā No one said, āHowās reintegration going?ā It was more like, āCongratulations, Doctor. Good luck out there.ā
And thatās tough. Because, as Dan Butin (2010) explains in The Education Dissertation: A Guide for Practitioner Scholars, which we read in our first semester:
āNow complete, your dissertation process allows you to sail off on a very different kind of journeyā (p. 148).
That journey is one that involves those last two phases of transformational learning, and itās a phrase I certainly did not fully understand until the degree was in my hand and the dissertation was finished.
Now, let me back up for a minute, because there was one thing that made my program doable. And that was community. Around my second semester, January of 2022, I joined what we ended up calling the Goldilocks Community of Practice. This was a little group of us who just found each other, and we decided to meet twice a week. We did homework together, we had real discussions, and we supported each other. We even recorded some of our sessions to submit as assignments. And that community gave me what the official program didnāt.
But hereās the thing. Once we all graduated, the goal was gone. The whole reason we were meeting, to get through the doctorate together, disappeared. And people started trickling away. Some went back to their jobs. Some leaned into the degree for promotions or leadership roles. And that makes senseā¦life keeps moving. But the community lost its center. A few of us still talk, but itās not the same. And the wheels started turning in my head: what if universities created something like that, but official? What if support communities continued after graduation, so reintegration wasnāt something you had to stumble through alone?
Because reintegration is not automatic. Itās emotional. Itās confusing. Some people step into it easily; theyāre ready to claim the āDoctorā title and run with it. Others, like me, wrestle with it.
I still find myself asking:
What do I actually do with this degree?
How do I live into this identity?
Where do I take my ideas so they donāt just sit in a notebook?
And Iāll be honest: it can feel really lonely. I donāt work in a university. I donāt have an academic community around me. I homeschool my kids, I manage a household, and I work on entrepreneurial projects. Iāve been called a thought leader, which is flattering, but also frustrating, because thereās no map. I have ideas that I know could be useful, ideas about education and transformation and community, but finding a place where those ideas can grow? Thatās the part where Iām stuck.
And if Iām being really honest here, online programs donāt help with that. Sometimes they feel like a numbers game. Load up the students, get them through the modules, and hand out the diplomas. In-person programs naturally create connections because youāre in the same room, bumping into people in hallways, and grabbing coffee after class.
Online? None of that happens unless someone builds it on purpose.
And most programs donāt. Most rely on the learning management system, the LMS, to do the work. But an LMS isnāt built for connection, or at least the ones that I have been a part of have not. Itās built to organize content, keep the grades in one place, host the modules, and track the assignments. Thatās it. And yet outside academia, in the world of professional courses and the creator space, communities are popping up everywhere. Itās where people gather, where they stay motivated, where the learning actually sticks. Why hasnāt higher ed caught up?
Through all my time in the online education space, Iāve come to believe that online programs should be harder to design than in-person ones, because connection doesnāt happen naturally online; it has to be created. And yet so many are designed the exact opposite. If universities really cared about transformational learning, theyād invest in that. Theyād make community the centerpiece, not an afterthought.
Without it, you end up with students like me: graduating, sitting in phases nine and ten, feeling a little lost, a little frustrated, and a lot alone.
So maybe thatās where my work is now. Maybe I need to create the kind of community I wish I had. Because transformational learning doesnāt end when you get the diploma. Thatās actually when it begins. Thatās when you have to figure out how to carry those new perspectives, those new ways of seeing the world, into your actual life.
And no one should have to do that alone.
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Ahh presentationsā¦
I absolutely love giving presentations. Everything that is involved in the process of creating an engaging, interesting, and informative presentation.
When did this fascination with presentations begin? I know that I have always enjoyed being in front of a group of people, singing or acting. Okay, I havenāt done that much acting, but a much younger me spent many nights belting out lyrics to Disney movies and Broadway plays (Iām sure that my family could vouch for me!). While it might sound a bit vain, I like to hear my voice, which is one reason I love recording the audio or podcast version of this newsletter. Plus, the more important fact of providing another option for folks to listen to my content.
I suppose if I had to pinpoint when my interest in putting presentations together really began, it would be during my freshman year at Oregon State University in the required communications course. The final project was an oral presentation, no slide decks then, to the small class about a topic you were passionate about. I chose the ever-confrontational issue of banning books. I remember looking at my notes and presenting to the class, moving my hands in the air. I was hooked. From that time forward, I relish every time I have the opportunity to make a presentation.
One of my favorite presentations that I gave was in a job interview to work at Apple. Man, I worked hard on the slides. I watched numerous Apple Keynotes and even designed my own app icon graphics. What a blast it was! Sadly, while my communications skills were top-notch, my technical skills were slightly below what they were looking for. Nonetheless, the experience was awesome!
Maybe you have guessed, but for this weekās edition, I have decided to share my dissertation defense presentation with you. While there are some of you who might be curious about my research, I have yet to finish up a short synopsis to share. The next best thing, and especially because it has pictures, is the presentation that I made for the defense. I have recorded this using Loom, and while my real defense had animations included, this version does not. For those of you listening to the audio, I have included a link to the presentation in the show notes if you happen to be outside of Substack.
Transformative Learning Through Virtual Tourism: Exploring Africa in the Digital Space - Watch Video
So go ahead, pour yourself a cup of coffee, steep a cup of tea, or drink an ice-cold fizzy drink as you settle in for my dissertation defense presentationā¦complete with slides, stories, and plenty of heart.
Thanks for sticking with me and my stories!
Cheersā¦
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Hello Dr. Debra Kouda šš
After 4 years, I finally made it through the process of earning a Doctorate of Education in Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University!
Hooray!
You better believe that when my dissertation was uploaded into ProQuest to be published I felt like this!
One of the major highlights of my research dissertation, Transformative Learning through Virtual Tourism: Exploring West Africa in the Digital Space, was the importance of reflection as a mechanism for change. This is exactly what I have been doing for the last few weeks since finishing this momentous undertaking. Reflecting. And I thought I would share some of those reflections with you - arenāt you lucky!
(Note: this reflection ended up being much longer than I anticipated. But that is what the whole point of reflection is, isnāt it? I wrote about where my thoughts took me. If it seems like a lot to read, I encourage you to push play on the audio version above!)
We might as well start at the beginning. Throughout the four years and even more now, people have been curious as to why I pursued a doctoral degree in the first place.
I can provide this answer to you firsthand with my voice from four years ago when we had to introduce ourselves via a short video in one of the first graduate courses. This was the prompt:
Post a 2- to 3- minute video in the discussion board
Include the following:
-
Give your name, current position and the topic of interest that you have been developing.
-
Tell us one interesting fact about yourself that will help everyone learn about and remember you.
-
Identify one thing you hope to gain in the class. Be specific about areas where you would like to improve your research skills (i.e., strategies for reading, writing, organizing, integrating research.)
And here was my response - it will take 2 minutes of your time:
If you did not feel like watching the video, here is a brief synopsis. My pie-in-the-sky goal was to completely overhaul the education system in Benin, and one of the first milestones I set for myself was to create a center for innovation, research, and practice. However, I realized that I lacked the theory, research, and leadership skills necessary to pull this off in a sustainable way. My initial curiosities were around the indigenous knowledge and history of education in Benin before colonialism. Looking back, I think a lot of this goal centered on wanting to create more jobs and economic development within the region that we call home in Benin. This is something to remember as you keep reading.
Side note here: My intro video intrigued a couple of my classmates in my cohort, and they tried to reach out to learn more. I ignored those initial emails. Did not even respond. However, I eventually realized that was a bit rude, and the single best thing that I did during the last four years was attend a Zoom call at the beginning of my second semester put together by those colleagues whom I had ghosted previously. That first call led to a second and then our little group, known as the Goldilocks Community of Practice, met twice a week for the rest of the four years. This all happened organically. It was not required by the program. But it was with this group of people that I learned more than in any of the courses. We worked on assignments together, had discussions about tough topics, helped each other through amazing and difficult times with our research, and so much more that words just canāt encapsulate. As I wrote in my dissertation acknowledgments, they made me a better person, researcher, leader, and innovator. If you are thinking about doing a doctoral program, especially one that is entirely done online, I could not recommend finding a group of people to go through it with together. It changes absolutely everything.
I also should mention that I am mainly focusing on my dissertation here, but along with this, I took two to three graduate-level courses each semester, including summer, for the last four years.
Within the doctoral program, we went through 3 cycles of action research. The beauty of action research as a methodology is that it is cyclical and involves ongoing iterations to find solutions and address practical problems. Action research is also rooted in its context, which makes it perfect for education. As you will see from my research questions in the first two cycles, I was primarily trying to remain in the vein of the initial purpose of my doctoral studies. Iām sure you would be very interested in seeing the results from the data, however, Iām just going to highlight the RQs.
Cycle 0 (Spring 2022)
Problem of Practice: My problem of practice is concerned with improving education in Benin by drawing upon the Indigenous education frameworks of the 42 ethnic groups who have served as the foundation of The Republic of Benin.
Purpose of the Study:
From the knowledge extracted from a previous set of interviews, I will create a series of virtual professional development workshops for teachers including,
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how to incorporate Indigenous frameworks into their teaching practices;
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how teachers can use reflection to enhance their use of Indigenous teaching frameworks in their classrooms.
Research Questions
The following research questions will guide the conduct of the study.
RQ 1: How and to what extent does implementation of āProject Indigenous Teaching Frameworksā affect teacher participantsā perceptions of their (a) knowledge about and (b) skills for implementing Indigenous teaching practices with their students?
RQ 2: How and to what extent does implementation of āProject Indigenous Teaching Frameworksā affect teacher participantsā perceptions of their (a) attitudes about and (b) self-efficacy for implementing Indigenous teaching practices with their students?
Cycle 1 (Fall 2022)
For this cycle of research, it would have been ideal for me to travel to Benin, however, it was not possible. So I had to make a few changes and look at my questions differently to try and gather some new data that would still have an impact on my problem of practice from Cycle 0.
Research Questions
RQ 1: How does a Participatory Action Research approach during an onboarding process influence the knowledge gathering of indigenous teaching methods?
RQ 2: How does the development of a Community of Practice (CoP) affect the decisions and self-efficacy of the participants to incorporate their indigenous teaching methods to enhance the solutions of community-based problems?
Spring of 2023 brought about our placements into a Learning Scholar Community (LSC), which grouped four or five of us with a professor mentor who would become the chair of our dissertation committee and work with us to get our dissertation finished. Due to some coercing from our little Community of Practice, for the first time in the history of the program, we - as doctoral students - had input into who we wanted to be in an LSC with. I have to say, we were pretty proud of this little achievement. We were a teeny bit rebellious in this group, at least, that is what we thought the rumors might have been around the in-person staff. Anyhow, this is the semester that I was introduced to my mentor and we started working toward putting together my doctoral proposal.
Now, throughout this time, I had been trying to get the educational center, which I had decided to call ĆkodjayĆ© off the ground. There had been a couple of investor pitches that I had made as well as speaking with numerous other folks who had begun non-profits. A colleague of mine in the program set me up to speak with one of his friends who had been an investor for many years, just to see if there were any tips or suggestions that I could glean from his knowledge. I explained to him the purpose of the educational center and my why behind doing it (economic development with our community in Benin), and he asked one very important question which I still have engrained in my memoryā¦When people finish with your educational programs, will they have a job waiting for them?
The question stopped me cold. The answer was no. I had not thought that far. But you know the saying, when one door closesā¦and I started to think of ideas that would include the important element of a job. And then it hit me. Tourism. Although my husband and I started a tourism company in February 2020, it had a tough time getting wings due to the pandemic. What if we were to rebrand and start over? Now the question of how could I incorporate this into my doctoral research began percolating.
Over the years, I have taken trips abroad that have led me to some pretty incredible transformational experiences, working with cheetahs in Namibia and volunteering in Peace Corps to name a few. The hardest part for me always was coming back āhomeā, surrounded by friends and family who did not understand the experience I had just had or why my perspectives and worldviews had changed. I believe this is fairly common with returned Peace Corps volunteers, and after my service was up, I stayed in contact with fellow volunteers just to have the support to return to the ānormalā world. And there was always some part of me that was curious as to how I could help those at āhomeā understand. In a way, it is somewhat selfish, because I wanted to expand my community on who I could talk to about those experiences and for them to have somewhat of an idea about what I was talking about and why my views were the way they were.
In May of 2023, I broached the idea to my mentor that I was seriously thinking about changing my dissertation topic. Not only did my original problem of practice not solve a problem that I was keen on having an impact on, I was having a hard time piecing it together in a way that made sense to me. And this was a big realization. You have to be 100% in on the topic that you are going to be researching because it will be your life for the next few years - so if it was seeming difficult to find the right research questions and intervention for the study now, it meant that a change was necessary. I thought this was going to be hard, but when I explained my thoughts about the new dissertation topic, my mentor said that my eyes lit up when I was talking about it, showing that this really was a good direction to be going in. She asked for a short write-up of what the purpose and possible intervention could be before we made the final decision to do the big switch. After many discussions with my little CoP and research into various topics, the new dissertation thesis all came together.
The change was officially made in July 2023 and I went about putting together my dissertation proposal which would be presented to my committee sometime during the fall semester. This change in topic was a huge shift for me, but I knew that it was the right one. It made for a lot of work, as most of my colleagues were continuing with their research from the first two cycles, I was pretty much starting all over. However, I was excited about diving into all the research to be done into the new ideas. I poured over articles and scoured books putting the proposal together. Although we had written longer papers for the other cycles of research, this proposal felt more like the real deal. It included three chapters which were
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Research Problem and Context
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Review of Scholarly Literature
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Methods
It was also during this time that I was able to select two additional members of my doctoral committee, bringing the total to three, a chair and two committee members. Their role in the doctoral process was to guide me through the dissertation process, ensuring academic rigor and scholarly development through support, feedback, and oversight. My mentor (aka the Chair of the Committee) spoke early on to our LSC group that when she started to see us as colleagues and not students we had gone over the bridge to doctor-hood.
Due to a new addition to the family in December 2023 one day before I was supposed to present my dissertation proposal, I presented my proposal to my committee in January 2024. The purpose of my study was
This study aims to create a transformative learning experience for foreign tourists visiting Benin within a brief travel period. My engagement in various travel experiences throughout the years has inspired ideas that could be integrated to make such a form of tourism viable. To support me in this undertaking, I will draw upon the principles of transformative learning theory and a newly formulated conceptual model of transformative tourism (Kouda, 2024, p. 14) with the following research questions
RQ1: What factors or processes make transformational learning possible for a tourist in a foreign country?
RQ1A: How does prior preparation and post-reflection impact the transformational experience?
RQ1B: How does the incorporation of āknowledge exchangesā impact the transformational experience?
RQ1C: How does the tour coordinator impact the transformational experience? (Kouda, 2024, p. 15)
Now this was a huge undertaking that I had signed up for, to find and give people a live tour in Benin. But I knew that the findings would be rewarding, and they ticked the boxes of providing people with a (hopefully) transformative experience and providing jobs to community members through tourism.
As the spring moved along my study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of ASU the administrative body in existence to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects. Around the same time, after a doctorās visit, I realized that my youngest son would not be able to travel to Benin because he was unable to get the yellow fever vaccine until 9 months of age, which put it in the last scheduled semester of the program.
Once again, I was at a crossroads.
I went into one of our Zoom CoP calls at the end of May somewhat distraught. I told my friends/colleagues that I thought I was going to have to stop my research until travel to Benin was possible. No way, I remember them saying. There has to be a way for you to do your research without delay.
Conversations with my peers left me with a light bulb moment, and then it was another talk with my mentor - about a year after the previous big change. In June 2024 I presented the idea to my mentor that I would take the research out of in-person and deliver a transformational learning experience to participants in an online tour of Benin. She agreed with the caveat that the two other committee members had to sign off on the change.
The next month was a whirlwind. I rewrote my purpose and research questions and laid out what the online tour (my intervention) would look like. Here were the revisions
The purpose of my study remains the same, with a shift in the location of transformative learning. This study now aims to create a transformative learning experience for tourists visiting Benin through a five-week online tour, drawing on transformative learning theory and the conceptual model of transformative tourism.
RQ1: What factors or processes make transformational learning possible for a tourist in a five-week online tour?
RQ1A: How do touristsā prior experiences before the five-week online tour influence transformational learning?
RQ1B: What experiences during the five-week online tour contribute to transformational learning?
RQ1C: How do touristsā reflections throughout the five-week online tour impact their transformational learning? (Kouda, 2024).
My proposed changes were accepted by my committee and the next step was to gain approval from the IRB.
My timeline was tight because I was going to try my hardest to research, analyze, and write up my full dissertation and graduate in December 2024, an awfully lofty goal but I certainly thought that I could pull it off! Wishful thinking is sometimes helpful in these situations.
I received IRB approval in mid-August and started looking for participants right away. The five-week online tour, the crux of my research, was set to begin the first week of September. Everything was falling into place. My husband traveled to Benin and was able to provide me with some new content that I would be able to share during the tour.
I guess I was fairly optimistic at this point that it would be super easy to find 8 participants for the online tour. However, this was not the case. Although I did have a rushed timeline, I was worried after a week that I would not have enough, as I only had 2 weeks to find participants before I had to begin the study. Everything ended up working out (thank goodness!) and I had 7 participants who completed all of their pre-tour interviews before the first official day of the tour. Really though, the pre-tour interviews are a real part of the tour, but in this context, I used them to gather one of my first sets of qualitative data.
By the way, I should have mentioned earlier, that I conducted a qualitative research study, meaning that I used holistic approaches to gather data, focusing on the rich narrative of the experience instead of a more qualitative (numbers-based) approach. One of the main reasons for this choice was that I was trying to understand a human experience, which is easier to understand through interviews and conversations. The data I collected came primarily from pre- and post-tour interviews, reflections from the participants during the online tour, dialogue of participants in the online community chat, and my research journal with notes and observations.
Moving onā¦the online tour was structured in the following way:
2 Zoom calls per week for 5 weeks (Monday and Thursday) - participants were not required to attend the Zoom calls. Replays were available in the online community.
An online community in Mighty Networks (similar to Facebook, but not attached in any way to social media) where I would post various prompts, and participants would submit reflections, and have access to replays of the Zoom calls that they had access to during the entire time of the tour
The first official day of the tour arrived and I was so nervous. I wanted everything to be perfect. And this is where it fell apart. I started the first Zoom call and it was a disaster. My computer setup was not right, I was having technical difficulties, and the kids were crying. There were three participants in that initial call, 2 of whom I did not know, and I just remember apologizing over and over. During one of the times that I said I was trying to fix the technical difficulties and turned off my video in Zoom, I almost started crying. I ended the call earlier than the hour it was supposed to be and just collapsed in tears.
What a mess it had been! My fear had completely taken over. I gave myself a few minutes and then started talking to my colleagues, and through the conversations realized that what had happened needed to occur for me to be successful with the tour. I had to remember that I was the one guiding the tour and that I was the authority on the content. I was certainly not an imposter. There also was the understanding that I had been very vulnerable in the Zoom, showing my participants I was 100% human!
From there, I knew that I was in charge, and decided to have the next Zoom session as the first official session. I put together my content and would you believe it - it was an amazing session there and going forward through the rest of the tour. When the tour was over, I remember commenting to my mentor, Wow! I never knew that research could be so fun! I had a blast giving the tour!
What I soon found out was that gathering the data was indeed the fun part. Up to this point, I had only done minimal data collection and analysis during my previous research cycles and during my masterās program about a million years ago (jk it was only in 2013, but might as well be a million!).
And here is where I ran into another hiccup. While I was conducting the tour, I became aware of the date November 1st. Why was this date important? Well, November 1st was the cut-off date for the graduate school at ASU to have defended your dissertation. A deadline that was hard for me to swallow. Graduation wasnāt until the middle of December, why was the deadline on November 1st?
November 1st. Okay, itās gotta be done I told myself.
I finished the last post-tour interview on October 11th.
The clock was ticking.
October 2024 was stressful, to say the least. I began prepping my collected data for analysis. I decided to use thematic analysis to find the best answers to my research questions. This involved deductive as well as inductive in vivo coding so that I could capture the voices of the participants. Coding, if you have never done it before, is the process of labeling or tagging segments of data with descriptive keywords or phrases to categorize and organize information. It might look easy, but man - it is a skill that must get easier over time. And here, with the coding, is where I got stuck. I felt like had themes developing but I was having a tough time organizing my codes down to the right categories which would then nestle under my themes. At this point, October days just kept passing, and I couldnāt figure out what to do with my coding. I chatted with my mentor about my theme ideas and asked if I was going in the right direction, but all the codes. I had a tough time really seeing how it all fit together.
The November deadline came and went and I set myself up intending to defend my dissertation by the end of the fall semester. Yet, the analysis was still stumping me. Honestly, I felt like a failure and defeated because the majority of my cohort, including those in my Community of Practice, were graduating this semester. It was when we were āscheduledā to graduate according to the outline of the EdD program. But there I was. Stranded in a puddle of codes. Guess I was going to defend and graduate in Spring 2025.
The holidays came and went and I took a break from my data. I would sit down at the computer every once in a while and organize the codes in another manner (different versions of code mapping they call it) so that maybe it would finally click on what I was going to do. But the November 1st deadline and not graduating the previous December had me down. My little CoP, however, was still there for me. And we would chat at least once a week. Keeping the momentum going, even if it was a slow ooze.
At the beginning of February 2025, I received an email from my mentor outlining the new deadlines for the Spring semester.
March 28 - last day to schedule dissertation defense
April 14 - last day to defend and graduate in the spring semester
Deadlines have always been able to help me light the fuse, and this email did just that. I opened up my data and just started working. Putting it together. Figuring out the themes. Developing the categories. Writing.
The dissertation for us in the EdD program at ASU needed to contain 5 chapters.
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Research Problem and Context
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Review of Scholarly Literature
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Methods
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Results
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Discussion
I had already written the first two chapters for my proposal, and they would only need minor adjustments because my study had changed from an in-person to an online intervention. Chapter 3 had a good outline but basically needed to be rewritten to acknowledge the methods that were used during the study (post-tense). And chapters 4 and 5, they were brand new.
I began with rewriting chapter 3 because it was fairly straightforward. As we liked to say, chapter 3 is like a recipe. If someone wants to, they should be able to read your methods chapter and then replicate the study by following the instructions. Looking back, Iām not sure how I even started with Chapters 4 and 5. Within the program, this was the first time that I had written chapters 4 and 5. It was a bit daunting. Who am I kidding, it was as daunting as running a marathon. I did have exemplars of dissertations, but the problem here was every single one of the dissertations was different. There was not one chapter 4 or 5 that looked similar to another one.
I just started writing. A first draft of chapter 4 was sent to my mentor. It was returned with feedback. This went on for a couple of rounds, and in the meantime, I was writing up a first draft of chapter 5. On March 24th, 2025, I received an email from my mentor letting me know that I could go ahead and schedule my dissertation defense for April 14th. It was risky though, because that was the last day to have a defense for graduating in the spring. I rallied my other committee members and the dissertation date was set on the calendar. I had to have a copy of my full dissertation to my committee for them to read and review to prepare for the defense by April 4th. And my mentor had not even seen the first draft of chapter 5 yet. Gulp.
Even as Iām writing this, I honestly have no idea how I did it.
The two weeks that followed were a blur. Every spare moment I had I was sitting at my desk, staring at the words being written on my gorgeous Apple Studio Display (for those that are wondering, yes, this screen is absolutely amazing and totally worth the money). I probably drank way too much coffee, but I was taking regular walking breaks, and every time I would get back to the house, the walk would bring new ideas into my head about how I could write this or that.
Friday, April 4th arrived, and in the early evening, I sent out a copy of my full dissertation via Google Docs to my committee members. Woohoo! But I was not yet done. That night I also had to submit my dissertation through the formatting wizard that would me know if I had the document formatted correctly. This part was almost more frustrating than finishing up my chapters, but with the help of a friend and a last-minute Zoom call, I was able to move my paper from Google Docs to Microsoft Word and upload it to the wizard. This is when I felt one massive layer of stress fall away as my oldest son gave me the biggest hug asking Are you done writing Mom??!!
There might be a few of you reading this who are curious about the results of the study. As this is more of a reflection tale of my doctoral process, I wonāt go through all the details here, but I still would like to share the major findings with you!
Here are the four themes:
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Where Design Meets Discovery: Shaping the Tour Experience
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The Interplay of Prior Experience and Motivation
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Reflection as a Mechanism for Change
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Transformational Learning Happens: Experiences, Reflections, and Mezirowās Ten Phases
I found that transformational learning in an online tour IS possible, and this was done through the incorporation of five key strategies:
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There was flexibility in the learning design
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I used a participant-centered approach
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There were meaningful reflection activities
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I created a sense of cultural immersion through the use of photos, videos, original sound, and storytelling
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I allowed for ongoing feedback from participants and adapted the tour allowing them to guide the content
At some point, I would love to write more about this to a wider audience than just those in the academic sphere who have or know where to find my dissertation. Itās on the list of things to do (a book or article perhaps?).
So, where were we? I finished writing. I now had one week to put together my dissertation defense presentation. I love presenting. Putting together the presentation and speaking in front of a group of people, are two of my favorite things in the world to do.
April 14th dawned a beautiful sunny day. I put on a brightly colored dress and ran through my presentation one more time, making sure that all my ducks were in a row. At ten AM, my dissertation defense began. I was nervous, but also very excited to be presenting the research that I had designed, conducted, analyzed, and written about. Remember that disaster of a first day that I had with the online tour? Without that day, I donāt think I would have been as confident as I was on this glorious day.
I gave my presentation which was around 20 minutes or so, I never looked at the clock, and then it was time for questions from my committee. If anything, answering questions has always been difficult for me, but as it is with most things - the more you practice the better you get at it. I felt that I had improved at answering questions, which made me smile inside. Following the questions, the committee went into another Zoom room and discussed how I had done. This time is truly excruciating because I just thought about all the things that I could have done or answered differently. For the defense, I did have some friends watching, so it was comforting to be able to talk to them while waiting for the committee to return with the resultsā¦Pass or Fail.
After a time, the committee returned and said the words I think will stay in my head for a whileā¦Congratulations Dr. Kouda! You have passed your defense with minor revisions to your dissertation. Wow. Wow. Wow. A huge smile appeared on my face and I really wanted to have a dance party. But I kept my composure, somehow!
I should probably explain the minor revisions to your dissertation part. When you defend, here are the responses that you can be given and their meanings:
Pass with no revisions - meaning that your dissertation is awesome the way it is and the committee members have officially signed off
Pass with minor revisions - the committee has a few minor tweaks they would like you to make before officially signing off
Pass with major revisions - the committee has some concerns and some major tweaks that need to happen before they officially sign off
Fail - I think we all know what this means
At the end of the Zoom for my dissertation defense, my chair (mentor) stayed with me to discuss the minor revisions to be made to my paper. I had less than one week to complete what needed to be rewritten and then be officially approved by my committee, making my deadline Monday, April 21st. Talk about nail biting. With these sorts of things, I always need at least a day to process the feedback and then how I would address it. Once again, somehow I was able to write and have feedback on my new revisions, and the revised dissertation was sent to my committee by the Friday before the deadline.
On the afternoon of Monday, April 21st, I received an email from my chair confirming that my dissertation was officially approved by all of my committee members. I was ecstatic! Pretty sure I did a bit of jumping and dancing - it was a moment to revel in my achievement.
But, I was not yet finished.
The last steps I had to complete were having my dissertation given the okay by the formatting wizards and then uploading it to ProQuest, the platform where all dissertations from ASU are published. Truth be told, I was tired by this point, while at the same time energized that I was almost finished with this process. Microsoft Word has to be my least favorite writing application for a multitude of reasons and I had not used it in years. I downloaded it to my computer just to complete the formatting process of my dissertation. I finally was able to work out all the formatting issues with my dissertation, and on Friday, April 25th, I uploaded my magnificent piece of work to ProQuest.
Iām not sure exactly what I did when I uploaded my document, but Iām sure that I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
I was done. And I was Dr. Debra Kouda. I had achieved the goal of earning a doctorate that I had set out to do four years prior.
As I sit here typing those words I am getting emotional. The transitions from doctoral student to doctoral candidate, to doctor are real, and I am just now starting to embrace the reality of this title that I worked so hard to receive. I was lucky enough to have a mentor who started talking to me about this shift in identity about a year ago - otherwise, this part is not really discussed in any course. But it truly is an identity shift that will take a bit of time, at least for me, to fully own. I most certainly deserve it but I have to constantly remind myself that I am Dr. Debra Kouda, Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation.
And now it is time to put this new identity to work. What are my plans for the future? Iām glad you asked!
Iāll give you a little teaserā¦My mission going forward is to help people incorporate transformational learning into their online courses.
Writing all of this down in this reflective process has been incredibly beneficial for me and I would like to thank you if you made it this far!
If you happen to be pursuing a Doctorate shortly, especially a Doctorate of Education in a fully online program, here are a few pieces of advice I could offer.
Find a group to go through the program with. I dare to say that my experience would not have nearly been as incredible - or maybe would I have even finished - if it had not been for the Community of Practice. Going to school online can be a lonely experience, and even if you think you want to do it alone, trust me, you donāt. Humans are meant to learn together.
Be okay with making adjustments or completing changing your problem of practice or the purpose of your research, even if it means a lot more work for you. You absolutely have to be passionate about what you are researching because your focus is like a needle in a haystack that you will be searching for for quite a while.
The ebbs and flows are a natural part of the doctoral journey. There were certainly moments when I was not sure what in the world I was doing or how I was going to work through a certain situation. However, it is in these moments when innovation can happen. Looking back, if I had not had the conversation with the investor, I would not have had the idea to change my research topic. Had the new addition to my family not happened, I would not have had to innovate and change my research intervention to the online space. What I finally landed on was absolutely perfect for me and my future plans.
When it comes to writing, just write. I heard that over and over again, however, I am a perfectionist when it comes to writing and it was very hard for me (and it still is) to write knowing that it is not perfect the first time around. I had to tell myself time and time again, to just start writing. Get the first draft done. Have the first round of feedback, and then the second, and third, and then you will be done. But you have to start writing first.
Donāt be afraid to be creative. One of the best books that I read during the last 4 years was Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace. In so many ways I feel that higher education is on the straight and narrow with very little wiggle room for creativity. Why do I feel that way, well that is for another newsletter, but when it came to the doctoral process it sometimes felt the more creative my colleagues and I became, the wall put in front of us became bigger and stronger. Education, of all disciplines, should be one of the most creative. We are dealing with human beings and to help each one of them learn we have to pull from every creative bone we have. But, like I said, that is for another newsletter. Just be creative! It might make people ask more questions but that just means that you are moving in the right direction.
I am sure there are things that I will think of in the future that would be helpful, but I suppose one of the biggest things to do isā¦
Persevere.
You know how people choose a word of the year, persevere would be my word for the doctoral process. You just have to keep going, kind of like the Energizer Bunny.
I think we are nearing the end of this reflection piece. Finally, Iām sure you are thinking. So let us go back to the beginning question of why I pursued a doctoral degree.
Here is one reason that I have now, an analogy to sports, which I learned from a friend whom I met during my courses at ASU. When someone is talented or good at basketball, they want to be in the NBA; hockey, the NHL; soccer (aka futbol), the Premier League, and so on. I have always been good and felt comfortable in the academic environment, especially when I reached higher education. And Iām not talking about taking tests well or getting good grades, both of which I honestly deplore, it is the fact that I am challenged by so many people who have different views than I do. It allows me to expand and grow and change, to not be forced or want to hide my intellectual prowess, but to embrace it. I wanted to be in the Premier League. I wanted to be in the NBA - and I made it, in the academic context.
The second and probably the most important is that I figured out what my purpose is. I suppose four years ago I was going through some sort of mid-life crisis, trying to figure out what my purpose was - I mean, I think I have been trying to figure that out since I was about 10. I am a wife, mother, daughter, and sister, but there was something that I was missing - the work part, where I am creating value and being able to see the value that I am creating to serve people (and I will diving into more of this later after Iām finished reading the book Build the Life you Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happy by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey). I am a natural teacher and have been for a long time, but I was never quite sure what I was supposed to teach.
Throughout this dissertation process, I was led to it through leadership and innovation on my part and wound up with transformational learning in online education (formal and informal) being what I love to teach, and feel that it is certainly needed in the online education environment.
And I guess I should clarify what definition of leadership I am referring to in the above paragraph. I had the great honor of working with a colleague over the past four years who clarified and gave sense to what leadership is. His dissertation was all about leadership and innovation, looking at them in completely new ways. Freshly published in ProQuest, here is the definition by Steven Nash (2025) from his dissertation PROMETHEUS FIRE A Study Considering and Enabling Innovative Agency for Canadian Special Operations NCOs,
Leadership is a social dynamic of human interaction and relationships that causes people to engage with a leader and others in the pursuit of a common goal. It is predicated on the subjective emotional trust relationships which tend to be emotional and subjective. It is a naturally occurring dynamic, in that leaders need not be formally named nor appointed to have influence on others (p. 67).
And now, here is Nashās (2025) definition of innovation, where he uses a metaphor for explanation. As I want to be very clear about what the definition is, I am giving it to you in his words. It is rather long and we would be highly discouraged from doing this in our dissertation, I feel that clarity on the topic is important here - and this is not a dissertation I am writing.
I offer another metaphor for my distilled definition of creativity and innovation. As an example, consider a balloon, since it can be filled up with air in a highly predictive manner. This context is merely a common process, and the balloon will tend to remain inert unless the contained air escapes by puncture or other means, initiating some movement according to the effects of physics. However, if we fill the same balloon with helium, it will tend to then come to life in Earthās atmosphere and float or bounce around quite randomly. This helium filled balloon, in my view, is creativity or creative thought, as it is on the move, taking itself to new places in unpredictable, largely meandering ways, but without any specific direction or purpose. If I tie a string to the same balloon and take the string in my hand, I suggest that I have now created innovation, which is creativity with a designated purpose.
Following from this, and related to the upcoming discussion of innovative suppression, if the string is more like a heavy steel bar (perhaps representing the tyranny of bureaucratic process, policy, and procedures), then even the helium (representing creativity in the system) cannot elevate the balloon to anywhere new and interesting. In the converse case, too light a string can snap, perhaps without me knowing, and the balloon/creativity will likely return to randomized and potentially interesting wandering (p.79).
Wow. Chew on those new definitions and let me know what you think.
I am absolutely amazed at how wonderful it has been to write all of this down. Reflection truly is a wonderful mechanism for change.
I will leave you here now, but just know that there will be more newsletters coming as I work on owning my new identity (Dr. Debra Kouda - woohoo!) and living life with my family and friends. As we read in the very first semester - the doctorate is just the arduous first process in this journey of being a practitioner-scholar.
On that note, thank you so much to everyone who has supported me throughout these last 4 years, whether through discussions and words of encouragement or financially through a subscription to this newsletter.
Gratefully yours - Debra Kouda, EdD
References
Kouda, D. (2025). Transformative Learning Through Virtual Tourism: Exploring West Africa in the Digital Space. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.2015445
Nash, S. (2025). PROMETHEUS FIRE A Study Considering and Enabling Innovative Agency for Canadian Special Operations NCOs. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.201243
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Hello, and I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because I feel like I am an executive chef in my private kitchen. The hustle and bustle of timing everything just right to be ready for the determined mealtime is my jam. This year, my Mom and I decided to do a bit of prep work the day before Thanksgiving, and let me tell you, that is the way to go! Thanksgiving this year was relaxed and not rushed - and the bag for the turkey didnāt have a hole burned in it like last year so that was a blessing!
If you are wondering what I mean by ābag for the turkeyā - Reynolds makes these amazing large oven-safe bags that fit everything from a chicken, to a ham, to a 20-pound turkey. All you do is throw in a tablespoon of flour (so the bag doesnāt explode), place in your turkey, close the bag, place a few holes in the top of the bag, and place it in the oven. Just like that. No basting the turkey, just letting it cook until the appropriate temperature. The turkey comes out moist, with all the juices contained so that you can make an amazing turkey gravy!
Has anyone reading this ever used a turkey bag? I tell you, you will never go back once you do!
My evenings were spent working on a variety of different things - mainly on the computer. And while I was working, I observed my 10-year-old make stop-motion videos with his Lego Avengers. He patiently snapped photo after photo, moved each piece, and then we turned it into a mini-movie on Canva. My 7-year-old sat behind me, my little āeditorā I called him. Thought Iād share the first finished video with you here:
A new month also means a new wallpaper for my computer desktop. A sort of goals and vision board for the month. Most of the time it looks like a crowded collage, but this time, I just needed something simple. Also, the last couple of months have had my research questions plastered right on them. Very handy to have those front and center instead of always having to search for them! Although, honestly by now, I probably should know them by heart!
Speaking of my dissertation, that has been taking up a lot of my free time lately. I completed my data collection in the middle of October, and have since then been analyzing the qualitative data. And wow, I underestimated how long it would take to do that. For some reason, I thought that it would be super duper easy. Well, they call it a doctorate for a reason I guess! It has been very interesting, and so far, I am very happy with the results that are turning up. Now it's time to get down to the brass tacks - and get some serious writing done. Well, maybe not too serious. This research has been so much fun for me. I need to carry that feeling into the writing phase!
Although really, when are doctoral dissertations going to be more than a massive chapter-based paper that very few people will read? There were a lot of us going into this doctoral program who wanted to do something āinnovativeā for our dissertations. But somehow, we are all doing the standard five-chapter paper. Tradition? Probably. But I could think of 100 different ways to present the information that would be way more interesting than a paper. Couldnāt you?
And, of course, you know that Iāve launched Collab des Collines, a tour company offering both online and in-person experiences. Over the years, youāve heard me talk about Benin, and now Iād be honored to take you thereāvirtually! On January 6, 2025, Iāll be leading an interactive, four-week online tour of Benin, where weāll explore its rich culture, vibrant history, and daily lifeāall from the comfort of homeā¦without the jet lag! āļøš“
Here are the basics:
šļø Dates: January 6 ā February 1, 2025 (we meet twice a week)
š» Where: Online, so you can join from anywhere!
š° Cost: $297
šļø There are only 7 spots left!
I even have a special offer where you can invite a friend at a reduced priceāperfect for that one person whoās impossible to shop for! Or maybe you just watched the Netflix documentary Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy and are on the hunt for more meaningful gift options?
Anyhow, I am just very excited about my new adventures and that I have people to share the news with! So thank you for continuing to be a part of this community š.
The weather here has Jack Frost visiting the last couple of nights - crisp mornings. I hope that all of you enjoy the beginning of the holiday season!
Stay warm!
Debra
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Hello again!
I hope this message finds you well and as excited as I am! If you read my last email, you know that big changes are underwayāand today, Iām here to talk about the biggest one:
āØ Collab des Collines is officially launching this Black Friday! āØ
Imagine traveling to a country youāve never visited, immersing yourself in its vibrant culture, learning from locals, and discovering traditions that have been passed down for generationsāall from the comfort of your home.
This is not your typical online course or virtual event. Itās a revolutionary four-week online tour of Benin, guided by meāa Beninese American with over 16 years of experience and a deep, personal connection to the country. Iāll be your guide, sharing not just the sights and sounds, but the heart and soul of Benin.
Hereās what you can expect:
š Authentic Expertise: Gain a deeper understanding of Beninās rich culture and history through the eyes of someone who has lived it.š Immersive Cultural Experiences: Virtually visit bustling markets, learn ancient traditions, and peek into the daily lives of locals.š Interactive Learning: Engage with local guides, guest speakers, and a community of curious participants.š§āāļø Personal Growth: Reflect on your journey through thoughtfully designed activities that encourage transformation.š» Convenient & Transformative: All you need is a device connected to the internet to embark on this life-changing adventure!
And hereās the best part:
Spots are limited to ensure an intimate, engaging experienceāand as a subscriber, you have early access to our exclusive 10% discount for Black Friday!
š Use code BLACKFRIDAY10 at checkout and secure your spot on the waitlist.
š The first tour begins the week of January 6, 2025. Why not make this your first adventure of the new year?
Wishing you an enjoyable holiday season!
More soon ā and stay warm!
Debra
Get full access to Between Here and Benin at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Imagine this scenario:
You woke up at the usual early morning time to head to your busy, highly political job in Washington DC. Per weekday habits, you get all of your things together and walk to the metro on the Red Line, looking around and observing the world around you as it is before the times of iPhones and Blackberries.
Your ticket gets sucked through the ticket taker and you make sure to grab it before the big gust of wind you feel sweeps it away.
Arriving on the platform, you wrap your scarf around your neck an extra time so that you donāt freeze before the train arrives. Lucky for you, you are at the end, or the beginning depending on how you look at it, of the Red Line, so you can have the seat of your choosing. You take to your usual place on the train, a seat in between the automatic closing doors, and breathe a sigh of relief, looking forward to closing your eyes for a quick snooze on the way to the city.
As soon as your eyes close, you notice that someone sits down next to you, which is inevitable on this busy metro line. But sometimes you get lucky and have at least one or two stops to yourself. You peek open one eye and notice it is a young lady with a messenger bag and headphones over her ears.
Now, please remember reader, that these are the days before fancy AirPods or high-quality inner-ear headphones. These were the Sony Walkman Stereo headphones with the fluffy soft cover that sits on top of the ears - and no, not Bose or AirPods Max.
These particular āold-schoolā headphones are attached to a portable CD player that is conveniently hidden in the young ladyās bag. Now, here is the deal with these headphones. Unknown to the young lady, who thought that what she could hear on her headphones only went to her ears, if she turned the volume up loud enough, anyone around her nearby would be able to enjoy what she was listening to.
The metro starts moving forward and the young lady settles into her seat, closing her eyes as well, probably relishing the extra twenty minutes she has to sleep just like you. The beauty of living in DC is you never know who you are going to sit next to.
The first few minutes of the ride are quiet and normal as usual, and then you start to hear the faint sound of an orchestra playing. You look over at the young lady sitting next to you and see that she is motioning her hands, if ever so slightly as if she were the conductor of an orchestra. Soon, the sound of the music goes through your ears and you are transported onto the Black Pearl, the ship from the most recent Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom movie.
The music is coming from the young ladyās headphones. The young lady has no idea that anyone can hear what has become her favorite music as of late. She is really into this as you watch her head move to the music, a smile forming on her face. Well, it could be worse you say to yourself. You grin, close your eyes again, and enjoy the music as you head into your busy job. Maybe Iāll get a portable CD player you thinkā¦but with better headphones of course.
If you havenāt guessed already, the young woman in this imaginary scenario is me. And this scene was not imaginary. This happened almost daily while I interned at the National Zoo in Washington DC my first year out of college. I was living with my aunt and uncle at the time near the last stop of the Red Line for the DC Metro. And just as the scenario suggests, I had absolutely no idea that anyone could hear what I was listening to on my portable CD player, the Sony Discman (car ready of course to avoid lots of skips).
I have always loved movie scores, and when Pirates of the Caribbean came out, the score quickly went to the top as one of my favorites. I would turn up the volume of the score, imagining myself conducting the orchestra that made The Pirates of the Caribbean come to life.
A few months ago, I saw someone using a pair of the old-style headphones listening to music, and as I got closer, I realized that I could hear - very clearly I might add - all of the music that the person was listening to. I was immediately taken back to my time in DC riding the metro, and realized, at that moment, that anyone sitting in my general vicinity while I was listening to my music had the opportunity to travel into the movie scores along with me. I just laughed to myself. No one ever said anything to me, but looking back, I hope that what I wrote above is what people thought. Maybe I made one or two people smile on the way to or from work.
Oh, and by the way, I still conduct my own imaginary orchestras while listening to movie scores. My favorite as of late has been Portals by Alan Silvestri from Avengers End Games. Take a listenā¦Iām sure at the end you will feel like a Super Hero. And if you raise your hands to conduct the orchestra - itās okay. Youāre not the only one! š¶
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You know what will always be amazing to me?
Receiving donations to help a cause that you have put together š
A close second is seeing a moose š« or the Northern Lights - never gets old!
This past week we received donations to help Jean and his family. If you missed that story, you can read about it here.
And so, we have started the work on our end.
You would think that after all this time we would have figured out the best way to send money internationally. But let me tell you - it is so difficultā¦and costly. Western Union is reliable, and instead of going digital, we sent it via human interaction and ended up paying an arm and a leg for it. The amount that they take off the top during the exchange of currency is just ridiculous. About a month ago we were scammed while making a transaction through Moneygram and are still working to get our money back. If anyone has any better ideas on how to send money internationally, I am all ears!
Anyhooā¦back to the matter at hand. We have purchased the motorcycle and helmet for the papa to restart his job as a taxi motorcycle driver, and we presented it to him yesterday.
The motorcycle that we purchased is imported from Nigeria, and thanks to higher custom fees, the price of the motos (what we tend to call them in Benin), has gone up as well. Just like gas prices here in the US! Nonetheless, these are fantastic motos, with an extra long seat that is comfortable for any passenger (or passengers!). You canāt resist smiling when you see the joy on his face when the moto was given to him.
We found an apartment for the family to live in and paid six months upfront, as well as the deposit, etc. The space is tiny, but there is an indoor shower, and it is at a price point that they will be able to afford for now. During these next 6 months we will help them get in the habit of saving money so that with time, they can move into a larger apartment. Currently, we are waiting for the landlord to repair the floor. After that, we plan to paint the interior of the apartment before the family moves in.
And, I found out today, that they have already enrolled one of their daughters back into school! All because they know that they will now have the means to pay the school fees with his income as a taxi moto driver.
We are now working on giving the mother funds to restart her fruit commerce business, as well as providing them with some furniture and a small cooking stove.
If you're passionate about making a meaningful difference and want to be a part of transforming this family's life, reach out to me to contribute to this incredible opportunity! I am so happy to be able to share this story with you as it unfolds, and together, we can uplift and support them on their journey to a brighter future.
The Doctorate
On the research/doctorate front, I have started the process of submitting the study to the ASU Institutional Review Board (IRB), the group that makes sure research is conducted ethically.
During the first semester of my doctoral program, we read a book by Dan Butin who had some wonderful ways of understanding the differences between the process and the journey of a Doctorate of Education student. First off, there are three very distinct phases within the process that one must go through to finish. By way of the image below, I am in the Preparation Stage, Step 5 (Submit IRB - upon proposal approval).
The transition into a practitioner scholar is a profound journey. Honestly, this particular aspect hasnāt been addressed much within our program classes - but it includes a huge identity shift - one that comes easy to some and not so easy to others. It's a phase where your relationship with your professors evolves into one of collegiality, shedding the student label. There is a change in how you view the world and approach issues. It becomes about a certain way of thinking about a problem and the steps and research that you will take to try and find a solution. Butin (2019) boldly calls this a ācertain kind of intellectual swaggerā (p. 148), which I can totally get behind. I mean, that line would make a fantastic t-shirt!
We talk a lot about this transition within the little Community of Practice (CoP) that meets twice a week, when we canā¦whatās up to my Goldilocks crew??!! Because while we understand what we have gone through, it is hard to explain it to someone who hasnāt. Which coincidentally is what a part of my dissertation is about.
Now, Iām not sure how many of you have read a doctoral dissertation. I had only read a handful, and most of them were because I was assigned to in class! So, I have decided to share my dissertation proposal with you in chunks starting next week. Remember that I am going for a Doctorate of Education, so my dissertation might look different from a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) dissertation, or other doctoral programs out there.
And, as I have received this question before, even though I will receive a Doctorate of Education, my interests and research do not lie within the K-12 or Higher Education systems. I am looking at education that happens outside of a classroom in non-traditional learning environments.
Bluey
If you have not jumped on the Bluey train - I highly suggest it! Your entire outlook on the day will change after 8 minutes of this wonderful Australian cartoon š
(If it doesnāt change for the better - send me a message!)
Thanks again for all the support and have a wonderful week!
Debra
Alsoā¦FYIā¦Spotify has audiobooks! If you have their premium membership you basically have Audible at your fingertips!
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TODAYāS PICKSā¦what I would share if we were chatting at the water cooler š¦
š READING ā¦The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk & listening to Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
š§ LISTENING ā¦Marketplace Podcastā¦and the Rich Roll Podcast where Rich speaks with Jonathan Haidt On How Social Media is Rewiring Childhood
š¶ MUSIC ā¦the playlist from Bluey, and the latest Justin Timberlake album (his show at the NPR Tiny Desk was awesome!)
ā¶ļø. WATCHING ā¦rewatched Ted Lasso on AppleTV. Be a goldfish my friends. Be a goldfish šā¦and BELIEVE.
Butin, Dan. The Education Dissertation: A Guide for Practitioner Scholars (p. 148). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
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Long time
It has been way too long since I have posted to this newsletter. I am sure that you are all on pins and needles about what is going on in our lives!
Iāll just hit some highlights which I will dive into further in the upcoming weeks.
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I am a doctoral candidate! This means that I am no longer a studentā¦and am ready to complete the research that I proposed in my dissertation proposal defense - which is focused on the topic of transformational tourism.
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This leads me toā¦our tourism business. The Kouda Company is undergoing a major revival. Can you actually call it a revival if it never lifted off the ground in the first place?? Anyhow, it is in the beginning stages of a start-up nowā¦making a pitch for investors, branding, logos, a new website, marketing researchā¦all the things!
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This newsletterā¦It will be a way for me to write, share, communicate, and build community with people about motherhood, homeschooling, entrepreneurship, doctoral studies, research, tourism, and so much more. Sounds like a crazy mix of subjects, but that is my life and I would like to lean into sharing my story with others.
Jeanās Story
Although we have been in the US for a little while now, we remain closely connected to events unfolding in Benin. My husband, D'Aquin, was recently nominated to serve as the president of a new nonprofit organization called Support for Disabled People, dedicated to assisting individuals with disabilities in our region of Benin.
Their mission is to advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities in crucial areas such as health, information access, education, employment, income, and culture.
A few weeks ago, DāAquin headed to Benin to visit family and take care of some business. As he was arriving at his hotel around midnight, a young boy who was sitting close by asked if he could help DāAquin with his bags. Of course, DāAquin said. When the boy stood up, DāAquin saw that the boy was handicapped, his legs caving inwards at the knees. DāAquin was moved by the boyās willingness to help, even though he was disabled.
With his new role as president of Support for Disabled People fresh on his mind, DāAquin wanted to know more about the boy, whose name was Jean (pronounced like āJohnā with a French accent). The following morning the opportunity presented itself, as Jean was sitting in the same place as the night before. The video below is Jeanās story.
After watching the video, you can see that the story goes way beyond Jean. His parents lost their means to make a living and provide housing for their family when they had to pay all the medical bills during Jeanās illness.
D'Aquin has already enrolled Jean in one of the Support for Disabled People programs, which will assist him in locating and financing an apprenticeship to pursue a career as a tailor. Sadly, at this time, the program does not provide support for entire families.
We would like to find a way to get the family back on their feet. This means getting the mother and father working again and renting an apartment that is off the dirt ground. We have thought long and hard about the best way to do this, because we have learned over the years that simply giving them money will not necessarily help them.
Here is our plan:
$725 Motorcycle and helmet for the father, so that he can begin his work as a taxi motorcycle driver again.
$200 Provide the mother with funds to purchase goods to sell, previously she sold fruit (pineapple, coconuts, mango, etc) on the side of the road.
$225 Find them a place to rent that is affordable for them and pay full rent (including water and electricity) for 3 months and partial rent for the following 3 months.
$300 Provide them with furniture and kitchen essentials
After 6 months, we will evaluate and see how the family is doing.
With $1500, we can help lift this family off the ground and reintegrate them into a working economy again. If you feel called to aid us in this endeavor, please send me a message with the button below.
You have reached the end of this weekās newsletterā¦and I would like to thank you so much for your ongoing support. I am so thrilled about this community that we are building and the exciting adventures happening in the future.
Have a wonderful week ahead!
Stay wellā¦and smile often š
Debra
Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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I celebrated a birthday last week - I honestly donāt have a problem telling you my age - but I think it wise to just keep everyone guessing š
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.
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Fun facts!
Since I recently celebrated my birthday, I thought I would share a few fun facts that many of you might not know!
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I enjoy watching āmorning routineā videos on YouTubeā¦and Korean cooking videos
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I sing.
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I am an amazing whistler (if you donāt believe me comment below and I will share an example with you!)ā¦and I often whistle under stress without any knowledge. For example, during the biochem final exam as a senior in college, I started whistling in a quiet auditorium full of students. I had no idea that I was making noise. When I finally realized that I was whistling, I immediately stopped and prayed that no one had heard me!
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My favorite movies are Mary Poppins (the original) and Love Actually, although the Lego Movies are not far behind!
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I ran a half-marathon in 2019.
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I do not enjoy doing the dishes.
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My favorite candle is from a little candle shop in Sugar Loaf, NY where my father grew up.
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I am an Apple fan and almost worked for the famous company.
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My favorite meal is pounded yam and peanut sauce with chicken.
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I am on level 1446 of the Two Dots app.
Reflection āļø
This birthday has brought about a lot of contemplation and reflection. I suppose this happens every year, but for some reason, it has a deeper pull this year, perhaps it is my age??!!
The below questions have been percolating over the last couple of weeksā¦
āAm I where I thought I would be?ā āAm I on a path currently that I want to be on?ā āAm I making the right decisions for my children, my family?ā āAm I doing things because others want me to or because I want to?ā
I have a bucket list of goals I would like to accomplish. What I have realized is that it is FEAR holding me back from really pursuing those goals that seem downright audacious (to most people anyway).
I am constantly reminded by a few of my colleagues in the doctoral program that in the first āget to know who I am videoā assignment, I am now famous for saying that my, āpie in the sky goal is to completely overhaul the education system in Benin.ā
Oftentimes I wonder where that person is or if it was me who made that statement two years ago, and did I actually believe it? It was me, and I have a video to prove it.
But, the FEAR of judgment, failure, and success, have had a serious hold on my mindset these last couple of years.
A rather serious conclusion to arrive at - but I know in my bones that I am the one holding myself back.
One of my favorite motivational speakers is Robin Arzon. She is a VP at Peloton and I have been listening to her for years as an instructor through the Peloton app. During her last appearance on the Rich Roll podcast, she cited three questions that she uses in journaling:
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āWhy not me?ā
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āWhat is my why?ā
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āWhat would I do if I was twice as confident and twice as strong?ā
Here is the YouTube video clip if you want her explain these questions a bit further.
Although my journaling habit is somewhat rusty, these are powerful questions that I have asked myself to help get the ball rolling again.
Final thoughts š
I realize this is not the most upbeat post that I have written - but ladies and gentlemen, this newsletter is all about real life. And as I am learning, there is power in telling your story, even when it is not āsocial mediaā perfect.
This next year is going to be one of many adventures and I am looking forward to sharing them with you.
Feel free to send me your stories as well. There is so much growth and learning that can happen when you are willing to listen to the stories of others.
For nowā¦have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy a cup of coffee. Pick out a pumpkin. Read a good book. Play. Hang out with your families.
As my friend Steve says, stay well and smile often.
Debra
Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this postā¦has anyone ever just had a craving for cookies so you went ahead and made them - even if you hadnāt 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 šŖ.
Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Let me tell you - they turned out just the way I dreamed. Not like the ones in the grocery store but puffy and soft on the inside with the nice crunch of the chocolate chips.
And the aroma. I wish I could bottle it up and send it to you through this newsletter because it was heavenly.
The dissertation
Now, onto the question which I know some of you must have. I have mentioned in previous posts that I am working on my dissertation proposal for my Doctorate of Education (EdD). What I realized this past week is that while I am very familiar with the terminology associated with higher education, many people might not be. So, maybe it would help to explain it.
Now, for those of you who are familiar with the term, you most likely associate dissertation with a PhD, or a Doctorate of Philosophy. Of course, there are many types of doctoral degrees, of which the Doctorate of Education happens to be one.
A simple difference between a PhD of Education and an EdD of Education:
A Doctor of Education (EdD) is a professional degree designed for practitioners pursuing educational leadership roles. A PhD in education, on the other hand, is designed to prepare graduates for research and teaching roles.
Now, I will go ahead and explain the dissertation and how I am completing it based on my program at Arizona State University, as it is what I have the most experience with.
I am a part of a 3-year action research program, where you conduct three cycles of research during your time as a student. In case you have never heard of action research, it is a philosophy and methodology of research that:
ā¦seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research, which are linked together by critical reflection.
As of the writing of this post, I have finished two cycles of research and my dissertation research is the third.
When you reach the 8th semester (we donāt have summer breaks!) it is time for you to defend your dissertation proposal to your selected committee. The dissertation proposal is essentially a contract you are entering into with your committee about the research that you plan to conduct.
The committee consists of three people (normally) - the chair (head of the committee) and two others.
According to the Merriam-Websterās online dictionary, a dissertation (noun) is defined as:
an extended usually written treatment of a subject
specifically: one submitted for a doctorate
In other words, a long formal piece of writing on one particular subject.
The dissertation proposal I am composing consists of three written chapters:
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The introduction and purpose of the study/research - historical, larger, and local context
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The literature review - the theoretical background for your intended research
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The methodology - the recipe you will use to conduct your research
The dissertation proposal defense is a formal event, and in my case will take place online. I will prepare a 20-minute presentation about my research plan, summarizing my written proposal. The committee would have read my proposal beforehand and come to the defense with questions and/or suggestions which they will ask when my presentation is over.
For my program, there is a second part to the dissertation proposal defense, and that is an oral comprehensive examination. I have two options for this part:
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Receive questions one week before the dissertation defense, allowing time to prepare a response orā¦
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Questions are asked on the day of the defense, so you are giving responses on the fly.
Now, once these two parts are over, I am sent out of the space and the committee is given time to discuss and decide if I am going to pass.
After that major hurdle, it is a walk in the park š
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You receive necessary approvals from the Institutional Review Boards (IRB)
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Conduct your research
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Analyze the results of your research
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Update your dissertation to include the results of your research (chapters 4 and 5) or in an alternative dissertation format
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Submit for the dissertation defense
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Graduate!
Okay, so it may be slightly more difficult than a walk in the park. I donāt want to get ahead of myself - lots to do between now and then!
I hope this short overview has helped to shed a little light on a process that might have sounded confusing before.
Above all, I am very lucky to have an amazing chair/mentor and Community of Practice helping me navigate. They have truly made all the difference in the world!
Snails š
As it is fall here the cleaning up of the small little garden is taking place. When the boys were clipping the tomato plants they discovered a family of snails! I tell you, I have never seen a kid as excited to find snails as Benjamin. His energy is contagious!
Thank you so much for reading and/or listening and I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead!
As my friend Steve saysā¦
Stay well and smile often.
Debra
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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.
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At least this sign does for me - as Iām writing this, I realize many people have never seen geese migrate from the north to the south. It is quite a sight to behold, especially when you see flocks of over 100 birds all āvādā up to make the long journey. And they do not go quietly, they certainly are a loud bunch when they fly over rooftops - I often wonder what all of that chatter is about. Iām sure some Canadian geese researchers could tell me more about it.
It has been a busy time since the last newsletter came outā¦
The annual fair took place less than a block away from where we live. So there were 11 days of concerts, rodeos, and the demolition derby. And much more traffic on our somewhat already busy street.
Aden and Ben set up and ran their second annual lemonade stand, taking advantage of the masses of people going to and from the fair. They even concocted a new product this year, which was called the āPurple Shakeā - and was a take-off of āthe Grimaceā shake that McDonaldās had for about a month last June. It was a success and a delicious combination of vanilla ice cream, milk, raspberries, and blueberries that hit the spot on the hot August days. I honestly wasnāt sure how this idea was going to pan out, but we figured out a system, and on the first day they sold more shakes than I thought they could have! Just goes to show that as adults we do not always know the outcomes of what we may think are crazy ideas.
After the fair was over I had about a week left before the fall semester started for my doctorate program. Hard to believe, but I will be defending my dissertation proposal this November and starting up research in the spring. This is somewhat of a daunting task for me as I almost completely changed my dissertation topic last June. Am I worried? Nah. After talking with a couple of my professors this past week, I have realized this is just part of the doctoral process. I have learned and grown so much during these last two years. It is incredible when I look back at what I thought I wanted to do during my first semester and where I am now. Fantastic really if I allow myself time for reflection.
Then the boys and I took a road trip down to Oregon to visit some college friends that I hadnāt seen in years. It was a great drive, and I always enjoy visiting the state where I spent four years after high school. We stayed in my friendās tiny house that they have in their backyard and it was a truly wonderful experience. I have always been intrigued by the tiny living spaces and this did not disappoint! We visited a carousel museum, ate some delicious cupcakes, and even saw a production of Pinocchio. Plus there was plenty of time to play and just catch up with old friends. On the way home, we drove up the Oregon coast and put our feet in the Pacific, which was freezing!
Oh, and how could I forget? My parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary! They have reached the golden years :)
These seasonal transitions also trigger something in me to re-organize and move around furniture. This year was no exception and the boys worked tirelessly with me as we made some major furniture changes. Does anyone else go through this? Iām sure that it canāt just be me!
I am looking forward to enjoying the rest of the fall and all that it has to offer, including some apple picking š!
And for all of you, I hope that you enjoy āfallā wherever you may be.
Stay well and smile oftenā¦
Debra
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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 development plan of ĆkodjayĆ©, the T3 Innovation Hub in Benin.
What I realized after the pitch in the spring has been monumental in how I am approaching this venture, as well as my doctoral dissertation.
(That is rightā¦I will be defending my dissertation proposal this fall!)
I went back to my WHYā¦
In Benin, after you finish your general education (through high school in US terms), you take le Bac, the national test, which determines your eligibility to move on and continue your studies at the University level.
Over the last 5 years, the average passing rate of the 33,000 students who took le Bac in our region was 40%. This means that over the past 5 years, 13,000 students passed, while 20,000 were left without the opportunity to go on and continue their studies at the university level. And this is just in our region of the country.
This is the group that we are wanting to address - to provide hope and opportunities.
The T3 Alliance programs, which I was using on adapting for ĆkodjayĆ©, were developed to exist within a formal education setting.
However, in Benin, we are not working within a formal education setting. And yet, I was trying to take the T3 Alliance program and make it fit within an informal education setting. This was the lightbulb that popped on after the last pitch.
This past year has provided many networking opportunities and has allowed me to have conversations with people that might help me address this issue, including being invited to the Clinton Global Initiative University.
One conversation that brought about different answers to the above dilemma was this question - if the students (and in this case, the students are community members - not students in a formal education environment) go through these different curriculums, do you have a job waiting for them at the end?
No. I donāt.
In the T3 Alliance model, the students move on to the University and finish their education where a job is most likely a reality at the end of their studies (especially within the fields that they are studying).
So the new idea that has developed is this -
I am going to tap into The Kouda Company, the tourism business that my husband and I started just as the pandemic began in 2020.
My dissertation is going to focus on the idea of knowledge sharing in tourism. For example, letās say you are an orthopedic surgeon in the US and you decide to tour Benin. We would put members of the community together so that you could present how orthopedic medicine works in the US (or wherever you happen to be from). In the vein of knowledge sharing, we would then organize a visit for you to see how the traditional bone healers work in the local villages.
This idea of knowledge sharing and experiential learning is very exciting and provides an opportunity for people from different cultures and different parts of the world to share how they handle similar situations. For friendships and networking opportunities to develop.
As you can probably tell, Iām still working on the best way to explain this type of tourism, but I will get there.
The Kouda Company will also form a foundation, at this point, it will probably be called ĆkodjayĆ©, which will be the informal education environment hosting apprenticeships programs. When the student has finished the apprenticeship program, they receive a certificate of completion, in the field of their choice, and we as an organization would have made connections with local and national businesses so that would have a job available to them at the end.
The picture below shows the mind map of the beginnings of this new take on the idea. The Kouda Company would also host AirBnbās for tourists who are just traveling through, as well as a longer-term educational and cultural exchange programs. I participated in something similar when I was a senior in my undergraduate years at Oregon State and spent three months at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia (maybe there are some readers who remember this experience???!!!).
Anyhow, I am so glad that I am finally getting this story out to the world. Now it is time to make it happen!
Debra Kouda Designs
At long last, I have gone back to my creative roots a bit and dived back into website design. It is taking a lot longer than I realized it would find funding for the big goal that I explained above.
I created Debra Kouda Designs to mainly cover the niche of academics, scholars, and researchers who are looking to create their own online presence outside of social media (including LinkedIn!). I have encountered many academics who want to get a personal website up and running but do not know how or where to start.
If you happen to know anyone in this space who seems to fit the bill, please send them my way!
Also, as it is the beginning of the business, if you are in need of a website and ARE NOT an academic or researcher, I would still love to help you out.
Feel free to click on the link (here!) and peruse my new business on the world wide web!
For those of you who know, I enjoy a good cup of coffee. I have been on the lookout for an at-home espresso machine for a while now, and here it is!
Best find at a garage sale - my new (to me) espresso maker!
With this and my Ember mug, I can enjoy a delicious cup of espresso and moreā¦WARMā¦even if I canāt drink it right away! Sometimes it is the small things in life that put a smile on your face āļøš.
I am looking forward to keeping you all up to date on life in the Kouda household!
Donāt forget to subscribe so that you donāt miss any important updates!
Stay well my friends and smile often!
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Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
I know that it has been a hot minute since I graced your inbox, so hereās aā¦
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 ĆkodjayĆ© in Benin.
I very much appreciated all of the feedback this little community provided the last time and am reaching out to see if you would be willing to help me out again!
Here is the Loom video.
Canva - 19 March 2023 - Watch Video
I also have included feedback from the judges of the first round. In general, I have a good idea of the direction I need to go, but at this point, I do not have a Venture Devils mentor so am looking to simply find my own!
Thank you all for your time!
Stay well and smile often š
Debra
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Feedback from judges
A judge:
Did the venture clearly describe the product or service?
Assess on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being no clear identification, 5 being clearly understood with quality descriptions presented.
5 / 5
Did the venture clearly present an understanding of their customer segment/market opportunity (i.e. competitive advantage)?
5 / 5
Did the venture demonstrate a plan for a sustainable business model, and/or a plan to reach necessary milestones to grow and scale their enterprise?
5 / 5
Positive feedback for the pitch/presenters?
Great explanation of the problem. Love the story.
Suggestions to improve the pitch/presentation or other areas related to their venture?
How will you make money (what grants, how will you fundraise, who are you seeking donation from, and how will you obtain those donation). Add details on how you plan to continue to raise money to support the non-profit.
A judge:
Did the venture clearly describe the product or service?
Assess on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being no clear identification, 5 being clearly understood with quality descriptions presented.
3 / 5
Did the venture clearly present an understanding of their customer segment/market opportunity (i.e. competitive advantage)?
3 / 5
Did the venture demonstrate a plan for a sustainable business model, and/or a plan to reach necessary milestones to grow and scale their enterprise?
3 / 5
Positive feedback for the pitch/presenters?
The plan aims for a better place for opportunities in such places where there simply are not enough resources to keep up with 4IR mentioned.
Suggestions to improve the pitch/presentation or other areas related to their venture?
providing additional implementation plans to stand out from competitors such as advertisements might be needed. What are the unit economics? What does the company do uniquely well and what is the cost structure of setting up these centers? What is the profitability?
Feedback
Great description of the problem statement but more detail would be great for how you plan to make this a profitable venture. Or consider non-profit models that will provide sustainability.
A judge:
Did the venture clearly describe the product or service?
Assess on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being no clear identification, 5 being clearly understood with quality descriptions presented.
4 / 5
Did the venture clearly present an understanding of their customer segment/market opportunity (i.e. competitive advantage)?
4 / 5
Did the venture demonstrate a plan for a sustainable business model, and/or a plan to reach necessary milestones to grow and scale their enterprise?
5 / 5
Positive feedback for the pitch/presenters?
Incredibly interesting and well thought out presentation. The fact that you have real experience with the location and live there part of the year shows that you have complete buy in for a venture like this. The story at the beginning and the adage about learning to fish really helped to set the stage for your pitch.
Suggestions to improve the pitch/presentation or other areas related to their venture?
I am curious about the background of the name. It is defined on the first slide, but it may be worth sharing the meaning of the name in your intro since it is used so many times throughout the presentation. It will allow for the judges/audience to constantly make the connection to education being life. Additionally, in the executive summary, under management team, the first paragraph goes from speaking in 3rd person to speaking in 1st person. In order to keep it consistent with the others listed, third person may be best. Lastly, the first few slides have great graphics that help the listener follow along with what you are saying. The last few slides don't have the same graphics. The pictures that caught my attention the most were the real life photos that represented the community this business will be benefiting. I would encourage you to add more pictures of the community!
Feedback
I truly love this and I am very interested in what is to come for you!
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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 me the option of checking it in my luggage, but I didn't have any. So, I had to watch them throw my food in the garbage.
The flight to Seattle was quick and uneventful. Upon arrival at Sea-Tac airport, I was hungry. I took the train to the beautifully renovated N gates, where I found a sweet spot by the window. Many people were in the airport, which amazed me, especially so early in the morning. I wrote last week's newsletter, drank a delicious Americano, and watched the comings and goings of airline traffic.
In our house, we are fans of the Kara and Nate YouTube channel and have been watching them for at least four years. In their videos, they give flight attendants a gift, usually a box of chocolates, whenever they board an airplane. On a whim, I bought a bag of candy treats from an airport store to give to the flight attendants on my upcoming flight. I wrote a little "thank you" message on the bag of goodies with the blue permanent marker I always carry with me.
Boarding had started and I felt a little nervous about giving something to the flight attendants. As I got on the plane, I gave the treats to the flight attendants who were greeting passengers. Almost immediately, they exclaimed, "Wow! Thank you so much! What is your name? What is your seat number?" I overheard them chatting as I walked to my seat, "How nice! These are some of my favorite kinds of candy..."
If I had been feeling down, this experience would have certainly put me in a good mood! So, I recommend bringing a box of chocolates or sweet treats for the flight attendants on your next flight. It will definitely bring a little joy to their day (and yours!).
After finding my window seat, I evaluated my seatmates to see if they were the type to engage in conversation or not. Iām currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's book "Talking to Strangers," and if you haven't guessed by now, I am one of those people who talks to strangers. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I do a brief intake to see if my conversation will be well-received. It turned out that I was sitting next to a couple from Eugene, Oregon, who were traveling to Nashville for business. They were fantastic people to sit next to, even graciously letting me get out to go to the bathroom twice! š
The flight took off smoothly, but during our descent into Nashville, the captain's voice came over the loudspeaker:
In case you haven't noticed, we have climbed back up to cruising altitude. Due to high winds in Nashville, air traffic control has asked us to circle the Nashville airport for 1.5 hours. However, we do not have enough fuel to do that, so we will be diverting to New Orleans to refuel before continuing on to Nashville.
As I sat in my seat, I remained hopeful that I would make it to the opening plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) conference. No worries.
The sun greeted us in New Orleans, which was a welcome change from the dreary, cloudy days of Washington. While looking out my window seat, I observed the fuel truck connecting the hose to the wing. Once the fueling was complete, the pilot informed us that we would have to remain on the ground in New Orleans until we received word from Nashville that a landing spot was available. The delay was due to ongoing tornado warnings and high winds.
Several passengers deplaned to stretch their legs in the jetway.
I decided to remain in my seat and was relieved when the other passengers started returning to theirs. The captain announced that it was time to head to Nashville, and I knew I would make it to the conference in time!
The flight attendants gave another safety briefing, and then we waited patiently for takeoff.
I looked outside and saw someone bring the blocks out and put them in front of the airplane tires.
Then I watched as a baggage cart was wheeled around and the baggage ramp was moved toward the plane.
And then the words no one wants to hear when you are on a flight and have a destination that needs to be reached that dayā¦
This is the captain. The pilots and crew have timed out. The flight to Nashville is cancelled. Please exit the plane and proceed to the gate agent who will be able to help.
BAM. That solidified it. I was going to miss the first night and at least Saturday morning sessions of the conference. Bummer.
Everyone gathered their stuff and people were immediately on their phones calling Alaska Air customer service and wondering what was going to happen now.
I came out of the jetway and saw a long line of passengers waiting to talk with the two gate agents.
Geez. This is going to take a LONG time.
About three minutes later, I heard people saying, check your email.
Sure enough, there was an email from Alaska Airlines, letting us know they were sorry for the change in flight. Included in the email was a link to pick your hotel and meal vouchers. Within seconds the vibe of the section of the airport we were in changed. A little bit of frustration, but for the most part, people were chill. Everything was going to be okay. The flight was to be rescheduled for the next morning at 9 am.
I was so impressed by the way Alaska Airlines handled this situation. Millions of hats off to them for having solutions to issues like this setup and ready to deploy!
Quite a few of us checked in to the airport Hilton, and soon after, overran the hotel restaurant who was obviously not staffed for having so many new customers all at once! I ate dinner with some nice women from the flight who called Nashville home.
Saturday
Saturday was an early, but very relaxing morning, getting to the airport with enough time to use up the meal vouchers that we were given the night before. As a souvenir for being in New Orleans, I purchased a can of Cafe du Monde coffee āļø and some fresh beignets (they have a shop at the airport!).
The plane that we had gotten off of the night before pulled up to the gate and we greeted the same flight attendants (sans a treat this time).
I chose the aisle seat for this short flight and found myself sitting next to two people traveling for work to Nashville. As it turned out, they were from a marketing and branding firm in Seattle, and one of them was a former employee of Starbucks. We talked throughout the flight after I asked them for one piece of advice they would give to someone starting out in their entrepreneurial marketing and branding journey.
We arrived smoothly in Nashville - with most of the passengers clapping as we touched down.
After taking an Uber with a driver who let me know how he felt about politics and politicians (I did not mention that I was going to an event organized by the Clinton Global Initiative!), I arrived late to the conference.
Or maybe, was I right on time? I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. The people I met and the conversations I had during the whole canceled flight ordeal were terrific. They were interested in my projects and wondered how and when they would be able to tour Benin. I received advice and was able to practice my pitch about what we are trying to create.
So here is to taking advantage of those situations that are unexpected, talking to strangers, and to Alaska Airlines for having handled a difficult situation with ease.
None of this would have happened if everything would have gone according to plan.
Stay tuned until next week when I will take a deep dive into CGI U and my experience. Until then, I leave you with a replay of the first session that I attended.
Have a wonderful weekā¦
Stay well and smile often!
Debra
PSā¦Shoutout to one of my readerās for sending me coffee last week!
Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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Iām 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. Itās probably going to be a bit of a bumpy takeoff.
In case you forgot where I am headed, I will kindly remind you š I am headed to Nashville for the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) conference. It will be a whirlwind of a weekend, but I am so excited about the possibilities!
Here is a little clip from the conference website as to what CGI U is all about:
Founded by President Bill Clinton in 2007, the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) is a community of students who are taking action together on pressing challenges facing their campuses, communities, and the world. The 15th CGI U Annual Meeting at Vanderbilt University will bring together aspiring leaders and global experts in business, public service, and social impact to develop innovative solutions to global challenges.
Movie Theaters??
When was the last time you went to the movie theater? I had not been since at least 2016 or 2017 when we still lived in Fairbanks. Well, I ended that drought yesterday when I took my boys and their two cousins to see one of the latest Marvel movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Ant-Man has been a beloved comic book character in our house since its debut film.
The highlight for me was watching the boysā reactions to the filmā¦and the line, āand what do you do? You talk to antsā¦ā If you are a Marvels fan, it is a great film and leaves a nice cliffhanger at the end. Remember to watch through the beginning credits, they always include a sneak peek!
The movie theater experience was the same as it always has been, but the seats have been nicely upgraded, and the cup holders are so convenient (for the Bubbly fizzy waters that we snuck in!). I have to tell you though, there were only 10 of us at the showing. Ten. And I honestly donāt think there were that many more people in any of the other showings. How in the world are movie theaters staying alive?
Regal Cinemas has started a monthly subscription service for $27 (I think) to watch unlimited movies. Will that sort of promo help to get people back to the big screen? I guess time will tell. One big lesson the kids learned is that you canāt pause the movie at the theater to go to the bathroom! One point for watching movies at home!
But the theater did have arcade games and the boys spent a bit of time playing those after the movie was over. Aden went through his change jar and brought all the quarters he could find!
That is it for this week, gotta go catch my flight āļø
Stay tuned next week for a recap of what this weekend brings!
Stay wellā¦and smile often š
Debra
Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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š©š¼āš» 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 advance professional studies in systems, professional, and reimagined change leadership
-
conduct multiple cycles of research throughout the program to learn how to research within your own workplace (or context)
-
be place in a Leader Scholar Communities (LSCs) - a faculty member and 5-7 of your cohort members (starting in the 5th term), where academic and personal support will occur
-
an action-research dissertation
I am in a cohort of 20 that began in the Fall of 2021. During the first semester, a couple of cohort members started regular Zoom sessions and invited other cohort members to show up. I have to admit that I did not regularly attend these in the beginning - because I thought, why should I meet with other people unless the course requires it?
Boy, Iām sure glad that I started participating in what we now call our Community of Practice (CoP) in Spring 2022. There are between 5-7 of us (from Canada and the US) who meet twice a week over Zoom. Attendance is not mandatory, we show up when it fits into our schedules.
We complete discussion assignments and talk about the courses. Still, above all, we have become each otherās support system as we go through this doctoral process (which we all acknowledge we put ourselves in). I canāt describe how much these people mean to me - they are my friends, my colleagues to bounce ideas off of, they are outliers just like I am - and we have finally found each other. It is such a safe space to be in. We talk all the time about how we have learned so much from each other in this CoPā¦maybe more than we have from the courses themselves.
The fall of 2022 brought around the time when the Leader Scholar Communities are formed by the faculty. Our little CoP has somewhat become well-known within the college (we believe) and we rallied to be placed together into an LSC. This decision went all the way to the top. For the most part, members of our cohort were placed with colleagues they would choose to be with, including our little group.
And this is another reason I like the program, the faculty and directors listened, looked at the feedback, and made changes. In fact, the process for putting together the LSCs has now changed. Students can now name which students they would like to be placed within the LSC.
We would like to give our CoP a little pat on the back for pushing for changes to make things better - but isnāt that what we should be doing? After all, we are in a Doctorate of Education for LEADERSHIP and INNOVATION. If we arenāt trying to lead and innovate in our own doctoral program, how are we going to be able to do it in our own contexts?
š§ Dinner Conversations
Earlier this week my Dad started talking about the winner of the billion-dollar lottery ticket, who is supposedly from Maine. Aden immediately latched onto this and started asking each one of us around the tableā¦
āWhat would you do with a million dollars????ā
When was the last time you thought about this?
Immediately, I started thinking of all the grown-up things that I would doā¦pay off debt, buy a house, take an amazing vacationā¦
My Mom said that she would buy a new mattress. And then Ben piped in with, āand some new sheets too!ā
Of course, my Dad brought about the whole idea of taxes, and that probably you would only get between $600 and $700 thousand.
The boys, however, were on a roll.
āIām going to buy a mansion. And hire a butler.ā (Aden)
āIām going to have a dessert room.ā (Ben)
āIām going to have my own airplane.ā (Ben)
āIām going to have my own chef.ā (Aden)
āIām going to have the biggest biggest swimming pool.ā (Ben)
āIām going to have the largest slide in the world in my house - well, maybe not too large, it could be dangerous.ā (Aden)
As adults, we would interject with questions, saying
āWell, to have a personal plane is really expensive because you have to have a pilot, and crew, and pay fees to all the airports you land in.ā
The boys were undeterred. (Aden) would say, āI have my lemonade stand business that will help to cover all the costs that the million doesnāt cover.ā
We went on for almost 1/2 hour talking about his.
When was the last time you thought about the answer to this question from the perspective of a child?
Wouldnāt it be wonderful to be able to imagine answers to questions such as these without the weight of an adult mind?
So, I put the question to youā¦What would you do with a million dollars? š°
š Gotta love Superbowl commercials
I admit it, I sat around and watched the Superbowl this year (and frankly many other years) for the commercials and half-time show.
There were a few good ads this go around, but my favorite was the Budlight commercial with Miles Teller and his wife, Keleigh Sperry. The music was so chill. The dancing was great. Of course, now every time that I am on hold now and have to listen to the hold music, I immediately start thinking of this commercial.
In case you missed it, I have included it here :)
If you watch the commercial and think, man, that music is really familiar - you just might have heard it if you have ever been on hold with Cisco. Apparently, that is their hold music (Opus No.1 by Tim Carleton). However, I hope that you have never been on hold with them, as being on hold for over an hour would almost drive anyone to dance. And I guess that was what Budlight was trying to impress, that you can enjoy every moment, even those that feel āwasted.ā
š² You can find me on Peloton
This last week I had a very special delivery. A Peloton bike was placed in the āgarage gymā. I have been a Peloton user since 2016, including using it to train for the half-marathon I did in 2019, and I 100% believe in the platform. Peloton has a new program where you can rent one of their bikes for a flat delivery fee followed by monthly fees. When you are finished with it, you call them up and they come and pick it up, no charges and no questions asked! Of course, you can also purchase it if you would like. For someone like me who travels between two countries, this is a fantastic option.
If you happen to be a Peloton user, you can find me @debrakouda! See you there!
To learn more about Peloton you can check out their website!
Have a fantastic week everyone!
Stay wellā¦and smile often š
Debra
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š¶ Ooohā¦the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cupā¦
I believe the majority of you reading or listening to this newsletter know this little jingle from Rockapella and Folgers Coffeeā¦
Sorry, you might have that little jingle stuck in your head for the rest of the day nowā¦
Well, contrary to what the jingle is stating, the best part of waking up is actually to wait 90-120 minutes before drinking your delicious morning cup of coffee (or whatever form of caffeine you drink while reading the morning newspaper).
How did I come upon this knowledge you askā¦
A Health Journey
Back in August 2022, I started working with a health and fitness coach. (For all the women reading this, if you happen to be looking for a coach, I highly recommend the ladies at Flexis Fitnessā¦science-backed programs designed specifically for women).
On one of the very first calls that I had with my coach, I mentioned that for the most part, I always felt like I needed more coffee to make it through the afternoon and onto the evenings. She asked if I drank coffee within 20 to 30 minutes of waking up in the morning - of course I said, who doesnāt?
Without hesitation, she said, maybe you should try waiting one and a half to two hours before having the first cup. WHAT??!! I donāt think that I could do that!
She explained the science behind it, which paraphrased went something like thisā¦
When you wake up in the morning, you still have adenosine (the sleepiness factor) in your system. You would think that by drinking caffeine you would eliminate that, but due to the makeup of caffeine, you end up blocking that adenosine.
So, when the caffeine wears off - the adenosine is freed and causes the sleepiness to return.
By waiting for 90-120 minutes, you give adenosine the opportunity to work itself out of your system. A couple of ways to get the adenosine out of your system quickly is to:
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hydrate when you wake up (H2O)
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get bright light in your eyes as soon as you can, ideally from sunlight (but bright artificial lights can also do the trick)ā¦
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And ten minutes of movement (jumping jacks or walking, etc.)
She said for me to think about it, and try it out.
Okay, I said.
Of course, after that call, I headed onto the good āole internet to see if I could find out some more information about it and I stumbled upon the below video podcast by Dr. Andrew Huberman. The science behind it is so fascinatingā¦
If you are wondering how it wentā¦since August, I wait to have the first cup of coffee for at least an hour or longer in the morning. And when I do it in combination with moving and getting sunlight I feel more energized and less groggy in the afternoon. I also donāt feel like I need more coffee to get me through the day unless, of course, I have some heavy theoretical reading to do for school š.
Reflectingā¦
At some point in the last couple of months, it led me to think about how I started off my days in Beninā¦
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Wake up with the sun, not an alarm clock, between 6:30 and 7 amā¦
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Drink some water and brush my teethā¦
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Stand outside on the porch to enjoy the coolness of the morningā¦
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Go back inside, boil water, and make a beautiful French press of coffeeā¦
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Then usually, take a cold shower (too lazy to warm up water for a hot shower in the morning!).
This simple routine is what the majority of people in our community in Benin do in the morning. There are additions to this routine, depending on who you are and your jobs within the household. Most mornings people wake up and sweep the floors of their houses and yards and wash the dishes. It isnāt jumping jacks or push-ups, but it is movement.
It made me wonder if these steps lead to a less stressed, more happy population. Maybe Iāll have to give Dr. Huberman a call to do a study in Benin :)
Ending with a storyā¦
This is a story about a son and his father and a horse.
The father and son were going to visit some family and had a long day of travel ahead. They both started out riding the horse.
They met someone along the road.
The person said, āYou both are riding the horse! Donāt you know that is too much weight for the horse?ā
So, the father got down and started walking, while the son continued to ride the horse.
A little while later, they met another person on the road.
āWhat is going on,ā the person says to the father, āyou are old and your son has more endurance than you, why are you letting him ride the horse?ā
So, the father and son switched places.
They continued on their journey.
They met a third person along the road.
āWhat is wrong with you?ā the person said to the father. āYou are the father and you are riding and you are making your son walk?ā
The father descended and he and his son decided to walk next to the horse.
They were about to arrive at their destination when they met a fourth person.
āAre you not smart?ā the person said to the father and son.
āYou have a horse that you could both be riding to have a faster journey, but you have chosen to walk next to the horse.ā
The father then leaned over and told his son, āWhat you can learn from this is no matter what you do people are going to have their own opinion about it.
This little story, a parable, is one that my husband recently told me. As per usual with parables, there is a lesson to be learned. And if you havenāt figured it out already, here is the one for this little story.
Stick with what you believe in and what you believe is right. Because no matter what you do, you will never be able to please everyone.
By the way, if any of you decide to try and delay your caffeine in the morning - please let me know how it works for you! It has been a game-changer for me, so I thought I would share!
Have a wonderful week aheadā¦
Stay well and smile often š
Debra
TODAYāS PICKSā¦what I would share if we were chatting at the water cooler š¦
š READING ā¦Besides all the articles for school š Strong Mothers, Strong Sons by Meg Meeker, M.D ; The Perfectionistās Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler; Tranquility Tuesdays by Laura Vanderkam
š§ LISTENING ā¦Marketplace Podcastā¦I have been learning about the economy from Kai Rysdal and the crew for over 5 years!
š¶ MUSIC ā¦still Sea Shantyās! All because I watched The Fishermanās Friends š£
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
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 dayās trip, I pulled out all of our passports just to double-check that everything was copasetic (btw this is one of my favorite words!). Looking at Benjaminās I realized his was coming close to being renewed. Children under 16 have to be renewed every 5 years, they change so much in such a short time!
Everything was looking good until I came to my passport. And I readā¦
Expires: 24 JAN 2023
No Way!
It was the 27th the day I was looking. I remember looking at all of our passport expirations sometime last September, but I must have thought that January 2023 was so far off!
To say I was shocked would probably be an understatement. I was a little bit embarrassed, and also just disappointed because the boys and I were looking forward to our little adventures while DāAquin was in class.
Of course, I immediately ran to the internet to see if there was another way that I could get across the border, but short of an enhanced driverās license which I do not have, it really wasnāt worth the risk.
Saturday came and instead of going to Canada, the boys and I walked down to the local Rite Aid for new passport photos. I came home and applied for a new passport online. That is right, the whole process is done completely online. There was a little bit of a wait when I created my account, but after that, it was pretty smooth sailing. No need to go to the local post office. I didnāt even need to have an official passport photo. You have the option to upload a photo taken with your phone. I did not realize this until after I had the passport photo taken.
(FYIā¦for children, you still have to have an official passport photo and go to the post office).
I now am patiently waiting for the passport to arrive.
Besides going to Canada for these little trips it is important for all of our family to keep our passports up to date in case we need to travel to Benin in a hurry.
I just thought I would share this little story with all of you...maybe some of you will go and check your expiration dates!
I now have all of our renewal dates, which they recommend done six months before the passport expires, in my calendar. Oh, the lessons learned on a normal Friday evening!
ĆkodjayĆ©
Back in December 2022, I found out about the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) through the ASU Venture Devils email newsletter:
Students apply to participate in CGI Uās year-round community of learning, leadership, and action ā beginning with a global meeting where participants, topic experts, and high-profile innovators convene to support and learn from each other.
Over the course of the program, rising leaders participate in trainings, modules, and tailored events that help formulate their ideas and provide the necessary resources, feedback, and tools to transform their ideas into action.
Looking at what it entailed, I thought, wow, this looks like it could be beneficial for me as I work to make ĆkodjayĆ© a reality.
So I applied. It was a very carefree, no-stress sort of application. Just answered the questions in under 1500 characters and pushed SUBMIT. I had the opportunity to go in and make some revisions, but I decided against it (which is very unlike me!).
I basically forgot about it as the new semester began and life moved forward in 2023. Last Thursday I received an email informing me that I was selected to join the Clinton Global Initiative University community!
Wow! Cool, I thought. They have an upcoming conference in Nashville, but due to cost, I had not planned on attending.
This past Wednesday I received an email from my college (Mary Lou Fulton Teachersā College at ASU) letting me know that they were going to cover my travel to attend the conference! Apparently, the coordinator of the CGI U program at ASU had contacted them.
Okay - I realized, this must be a bigger deal than I thought. I emailed the coordinator to find out how many students had been accepted into this CGI U community this time around. I thought that she would say 100 at least.
Twelve.
12 people were chosen. And I was one of them.
I am so excited and honored about this opportunity. I suppose what makes this invite even more amazing is that I basically did it on a whim. And it was all stress-free. Isnāt this the way it is supposed to be??!!
So now, I will be enjoying Nashville the first weekend in March in a whirlwind trip to attend the conference which is being held at Vanderbilt University.
If anyone has any tips or good places to eat that they know of in Nashville (not that I will have time!) send them my way! This will be my first time in the music city.
A few other thingsā¦
It has been quite a week, to say the least. As I write this I am listening to gusts of wind blow past the house and my childrenās laughs as they play in the crazy windy weather.
I watched The Fishermanās Friends movies this week, and their music is now on repeat. Take a listen to the list below and you will be singing sea shantyās all weekend long!
Also, the boys and I learned about some incredible sea creatures. Just watch the YouTube videos and the coconut octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) and peacock mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda) will be topics of conversation at your dinner table. So many amazing species exist on this planet!
Why Subscribe??
Iām sure that at one point or another, you have been asked to become a paid subscriber to this newsletter. If you are wondering why you should - here are a few reasonsā¦
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The opportunity to be a part of the community that I am creating. Friends and family, new subscribers, I greatly enjoy sharing my story and journey with you as I navigate many different avenues.
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A way to financially support me and my future goals (Ekodjaye and The Kouda Company...more on those later!) as I go through this doctoral program. Things are slowly moving forward as I look for funding for those larger goals, but right now it is all me.
I hope that you all have a wonderful week ahead!
Stay well and smile often š
TODAYāS PICKSā¦what I would share if we were chatting at the water cooler š¦
š READING ā¦Besides all the articles for school š Strong Mothers, Strong Sons by Meg Meeker, M.D ; Talking to Strangers by Malcom Gladwell ; Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty; just added Tranquility Tuesdays by Laura Vanderkam
š§ LISTENING ā¦Marketplace Podcastā¦I have been learning about the economy from Kai Rysdal and the crew for over 5 years!
š¶ MUSIC ā¦Sea Shantyās! All because I watched The Fishermanās Friends š£
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
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 issue for me writing this newsletter consistently is that I am looking for it to be absolutely perfect when I hit publish. Of course, that will never happen.
As Seth highlighted in the podcast when he was talking about a near-death experience he just had while swimming in the Pacific Oceanā¦
Thereās a difference between drowning off the coast of San Clemente and putting up a blog post that isnāt perfect.
I simply need to get out of my own way and remember that this is a space to share my story, my thoughts and ideas. It is not a dissertation that has to have perfect APA formatting or a manuscript that is being sent for final edits to a publisher.
And then, of course, it comes down to MY WHYā¦
Why did I decide to write this newsletter?
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To write, as that is one of the only ways to become a better writer (academic or not),
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to share my story,
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and finally to have conversations and build community.
The last reason is a fairly new realization. I used to work in an office where community occurred naturally, over at the water cooler or by popping over to your neighbors cube. That really doesnāt exist for me now and it is something I really miss. An avenue to try out new ideas, talk about what happened over the weekend, or what you learned in the latest non-fiction book you just finished. More on this at the bottom of the newsletter.
On to other newsā¦šļø
Some of you might be wondering what happened with the Venture Devils pitch that I spoke about in the last newsletter. I wasnāt funded. But that is OK.
I first have to give a shout out and thank all of those who helped me revise my pitch. It was awesome how many people took time out of their schedules to review and provide feedback on my project. After a night of reflection (seriously the day after the zoom pitch I changed course), I realized that my message and how I was approaching the business needed a reboot. So I am heading in a new direction and I think that it is going to be great! I will share more as I move forward.
The month-long vacation that I had from school was wonderful and certainly needed! It was filled with crazy weather, the tallest Christmas tree I have ever had, watching my sons work for four days to put together the coolest brick build (like Lego - but not the Lego brand) I have ever seen, finishing a fiction novel, and above all sleeping in and spending some quality time with my family.
But all good things usually come to an end with the Spring Semester starting this past Monday. Back into the groove again. The beginning of a semester is always so refreshing. Everything seems do-able and nothing seems overwhelming or complicated. While I would like this feeling to continue throughout the semester, I have learned better than to make that particular expectation! Mindset is powerful thoughā¦I will will it into being!
Dinner Conversations š²
We have some of the most interesting dinner conversations, which I suppose is what happens with a variety of ages sitting at the table. There is so much that is talked about around a dinner table. In my experience, you do not necessarily need to be āsitting at a tableā. It is just a time when everyone is together for a meal (although Iām not sure if breakfast conversations would be as interesting as dinner ones? Something to ponder.) Growing up, dinner time was sacred. We all had our roles in setting the table. There were rules, no music or singing being the one that is the most forward in my mind. And if your fits of contagious laughter could not be controlled you might just end up in the hallway for a little while to calm down.
Do you have memories of dinnertime?
Tonight, our conversation led to the topic of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which Alexa explained begins on January 22 and 2023 is The Year of the Rabbit š. Of course this led down the rabbit hole š of which Animal we all were around the table. Out came the phone and the searching began. At our table, we had one Pig, one Ox, one Horse, and two Roosters. This led to much laughter and now I finally know who were all the guests at the Emperorās party.
The reflections that I had at the top of the newsletter have me leading down a path of revamping this newsletter a bit.
While I am in the planning stages - I just want you to know that I am looking forward to writing this newsletter on a more regular basis in order to get over my fear of perfectionism. As the famous Desmond Tutu quote goesā¦
How does one go about eating an elephant š ? You eat it one bite at a time.
Meaning that I can overcome this fear if I take little steps, have those small wins, see that even if I post something that is not perfect I will still be able to wake up the next day and try again.
Keep an eye out for those changes to be happening soon š
For nowā¦stay well and smile often!
(Iām borrowing this line from a colleague of mine - thanks Steve!)
Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
TODAYāS PICKSā¦what I would share if we were chatting at the water cooler š¦
š READING ā¦Besides all the articles for school š I have three books in progressā¦Strong Mothers, Strong Sons by Meg Meeker, M.D ; Talking to Strangers by Malcom Gladwell ; Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
š§ LISTENING ā¦Marketplace Podcastā¦I have been learning about the economy from Kai Rysdal and the crew for over 5 years!
š¶ MUSIC ā¦my playlist for January is full of chill Afrobeats that will just about get you out of whatever funk you may be in!
ā¶ļø. WATCHING ā¦Seth Godin on the Rich Roll podcast has been on repeat whenever I have a chance (you can also find the audio only version hereā¦)
š° DAILY NEWSā¦The Morning Brew is the only email newsletter I read daily to learn about what is going on the world!
Kouda's News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Iām sure that is what all of you have been asking yourselves lately. She was here one day - gone the nextā¦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. Youāll have to wait until my book comes out. (You canāt order it now, but Iām in the process of looking for editors, in case anyone happens to know one!)
Here is what I have been working on -
ĆkodjayĆ© Video Pitch - Watch Video
If you need a refresher, I am a current student at Arizona State University in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College pursuing a Doctorate of Education (EdD) in Leadership and Innovation.
I tried last spring to be selected to participate in the Venture Devils Demo Day, an investment opportunity at ASU, to pitch real ideas and start-ups in front of people willing to invest in projects.
I was denied. Thatās right. Told āno.ā And man was that hard.
However, as I tell my children, or as I go through this process of receiving a doctorateā¦the first go is just that - the first one, and usually, there is a whole lot that can be learned from one experience, that āfailure.ā
Now about six months later, during the first half of the second year of my doctoral program, I had the opportunity to try again. This time, with the video you watched above, I jumped the hurdle and now have the chance to pitch in front of real people at ASU during the first week of December.
I have received feedback from the judges on what I could do to improve my 5-minute pitch for the real deal. The top items they would like to see include a timeline of events and how the venture will be sustainably funded as we move forward.
Now is where I need some help. Please provide in the comments below (or email me) where you think I could include this information and what I could cut out. Five minutes may seem like a long time, but I assure you, it is not!
On that note, a bit of advice is needed. I do have the option to pitch via Zoom, as I am not located in Arizona. Which one do you think would be better? To pitch in person? Or via Zoom?
I believe I know the right answer to that question, but as a start-up, āfreeā versus āpaying for all travel costsā makes a big difference!
There is much more to come with this newsletter, such as regularity (no FiberOne necessary š¤£). I am excited to share the journey with all of you.
Best wishes as we move forward into the holiday season š¦
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
Holy Cow š!
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 works, but I suppose that might bore some of you to tears??!! Or maybe not??
(Cue transition musicā¦la la la)
Have you ever felt like one bad thing happens and then another and another without a break in between?
Bam
BAm
BAMMMM!
That is how my week has gone. Technically it started last Wednesday, but it continued through the weekend. However, thinking about the difficult situations that have arisen during this past week, I am reminded of a class I spoke to last Friday. One of my doctoral colleagues teaches a Professional and Personal Development college course. During one of our weekly CoP (Communities of Practice) Zoom meetings, he asked his fellow cohort if anyone would like to be a guest speaker in the class. Of course, I thought, why not, and volunteered my name into the pot. Two weeks later, I was preparing a presentation focused on the topics he was covering: self-awareness, understanding team dynamics, and the two key ideas of "ponying up" and "showing up" in life.
The presentation was titled "Life Lessons from Debra Kouda's Existence Thus Far." It covered my life, with each "chapter" highlighting something challenging and the lessons learned from those situations. It was a straightforward presentation with slides full of pictures providing visual context for what I was talking about. However, we didn't practice putting up the slide deck beforehand. Due to technical issues (most certainly not due to user error), I gave the talk without the slides. Upon reflection, I realized that these were difficult times - but they made me work harder and "show up" for myself and those around me.
The presentation really woke me up and in these current times, when everything seems to be falling, reminding me that I need to "show up" and put new plans into action. Projects and ideas sitting on the shelf, collecting dust, waiting for me to take them down. Dust them off. Use them. (Like the little penguin squeaker toy from Toy Story).
So here we go. Idea #1...start a newsletter with a subscription option (yeah!).
And WHY am I creating a subscription? Here are a couple of reasonsā¦
I am starting to realize how important it is to share my story. This starts from the first "newsletter" that I sent out once a week while an intern at the Cheetah Conservation Center in Namibia all those years ago (yes, I am getting older!). People who received it then still have it in their email inboxes today. For the last couple of years, I have felt that my story is not relevant or not so different from anyone else's. However, speaking to the group of college kids last week made me recognize and remember that I have something to contribute. A laugh, a window into a world that will never be explored by someone on their own, etc, etc, etc (What musical is that from?? Answer at the bottom of the page*).
Writing. As obvious and funny as it might be - the best way to become a better writer is to write. This newsletter will provide an outlet to the academic writing world yet allow the practice of writing to take place.
An outlet for me to be creative.
The chance to be in touch with all of you - friends, family, new subscribers. I am not the best at reaching out one-to-one with people (maybe the time has something to do with thatā¦but I don't want to use that as an excuse!).
A way to provide for my family.
A way to financially support me and my future goals (Ekodjaye and The Kouda Company...more on those later!) as I go through this doctoral program. There will be grants and funding opportunities available, but everything is on me right now.
I suppose I could go on and on - but that is a reasonably good list to start out with, don't ya think?
What will you get with a subscription, you ask?
The Free Plan - a newsletter update about life in general...a little bit of everything if you will
The Paid Plan - two weekly newsletters and one monthly question and answer video.
The "free" one
And a second newsletter that does a deep dive into a particular area of my life (doctorate, entrepreneurship, tourism, home-schooling, ex-pat life, etc.).
The video will answer a compilation of questions from the past month.
I am so looking forward to sharing my stories with you on a more regular basis. So please, join me and subscribe. Read (or listen) to the ramblings of a mother, wife, and doctoral student straddling the worlds of West Africa and the United States! You just might learn something...or if anything...get a laugh for the day!
The Musical The King and I*
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
"Winds in the east, mist comin' in,
like somethin' is brewin',
about to begin.
Can't put me finger
on 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 loud "tap, tap, tap" announced the arrival of something we have been waiting for.
On Wednesday night the 10th of March, we jumped out of bed and shouted, "its raining!!"
We quickly went around the house closing all the glass jalousie windows so that the blustery rain wouldn't make its way into the house. As we were doing this the electricity went out. I have to admit that it was kind of chaotic. The boys were running around, and if you have ever been in a rainstorm with a tin roof, you know that you can't talk with a normal voice - you are yelling to hear one another.
We made our way out to the veranda and realized that there were bags of uncovered peanuts outside! We have a peanut shelling machine (I'll do a post about that later), and people bring large gunny sacks of peanuts to be shelled. As we haven't had rain in a long time, we weren't used to being worried about peanuts and the machine getting wet. The machine was already covered, but I ran out in the rain (it was so cold!) and found whatever sort of covering I could find and protected the peanuts the best that I could.
Wow, the rain was really whipping around, and the only light that I had was when the lightning flashed. It was raining so hard that I could barely open my eyes, it was pouring down my face! With that done we ran to the back of the house to check out the cistern.
Because it has been so long since we have had rain and there has been lots of dust - we let the rain wash off the roof before we put the pipe in the cistern to let the water flow in. By the time we made it around, the water coming off the roof was free of any serious dirt so I placed the downspout into the cistern. This of course led to a loud Hurrah! as I could hear the rain filling up our reservoir d'eau that has been nearly empty for so long. FYI we cleaned the cistern a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the rainy season starting.
It was probably around 11pm by this time and the boys were exhausted. They had been sitting with the dogs on the porch, trying to comfort them (although I think it was more to comfort themselves - it has been a long time since they have been in a storm). Our youngest pup, Skyla, had never even seen rain before! The electricity was still off, but we have a wonderful battery-powered nightlight that gives the room just enough light. They cozied up in bed and within 10 minutes were fast asleep. There were a few loud thunderclaps and I thought for sure that they would awaken - but they were out.
Once they were sleeping I went out and stood on the veranda, listening to the rain. I turned the flashlight off on my phone and was in complete darkness. It was wonderful. I realized in that moment just how much of a blessing rain is.
I just breathed it all in.
I know that might sound a little corny, but it has been almost four months since rain has graced us with its presence. I believe that our last rain shower was in the middle of November.
In the morning everything seemed fresher. All of the trees appeared a bit greener after having all the dust and grime of the last four months washed away.
As I am writing this post on Friday evening - there is thunder in the distance and the dark clouds are slowly coming our direction.
(Due to heavy rainfall and panne de courant - another power outage - I am finishing up this post on Saturday.)
The seal really is broken! Two rain showers in three days, I'll take it! Total rain according to our handy dandy weather station:
Wednesday: 49 mm
Friday: 61 mm
As the rain poured down, the boys made a fort on the veranda, bringing out the bluetooth reading light and cozying up under chairs and blankets with the dogs.
And of course, I couldn't help but hear "And I want to wake up with the rain falling on a tin roof..." from the Norah Jones song, Come Away With Me. I wonder if Norah knows that if it is raining hard on a tin roof you can hear pretty much nothing?
This song holds a special place in my memory, as it was the album that was playing when my Uncle Jack took me to the JFK airport in NYC for my flight to Namibia. It was my first time flying internationally and first time going to Africa. I don't think that I would have ever thought at that time Africa would become home. Crazy where life leads us!
There has been a rejuvenation in the neighborhood. Because we now know that the rainy season is upon us, we awoke to people pulling out shovel-like hoes and working the soil. Ina (my mother-in-law) had planted sesame by early afternoon in the space just outside our wall.
The cistern is also full enough that we have pumped it up to the large container and water will flow into the house now! I will do a post later about how we handled the water situation during the dry season. I feel like I can talk about it now that the rains have arrived!
I would like to thank all of you that have done rain dances or sent rainy thoughts our way! It seems like it worked!
Just in case you were wondering about the peanuts š We put them out in the sun the next day and they were shelled by the afternoon. Phew!
If you enjoy these newsletters please subscribe!
How I keep up with US News!
The Morning Brew - "Awesome daily email that delivers the top business news in a way that's informative and entertaining!"
Marketplace - daily podcast "providing context on the economics news of the day" hosted by Kai Ryssdal
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
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 š .
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 loaves of bread and a cake to celebrate International Women's Day, the gas stove putting out the heat to exaggerate the sweat coming from my brow. We make bread and cakes with a dutch oven technique here. Not fancy cast iron, just a big pot with a tomato can on the bottom so that the cake pan doesn't rest directly on the flame.
To all those women out there reading this newsletter, Happy International Women's Day! I honestly didn't know this day existed until I was in Peace Corps. They see it somewhat as a "mother's day" here, at least where I am.
We are celebrating the day, as you could have guessed, with a delicious vanilla cake. Oh, and there is more - la pate rouge, fried fish, eggs, and beer. A Doppel for my grandmother-in-law, mother-in-law (Ina), and me. I just have to say there is nothing more satisfying than a nice cold beer at the end of a very hot day.
It has been a wonderful day. Errands in the morning with the whole family, picking up fish, eggs, butter, and drinks. Then we stopped at a buvette (a bar) to have some cool refreshments.
I just have to say thank you to everyone who has been reading and listening to this newsletter/audio blog. Thank you for your patience as I figure out how this new endeavor is going to unravel itself. I thoroughly have enjoyed putting it together for you, sharing what our life is like in the tiny country of Benin.
This newsletter is short today. I have one request: please send rain this way! It has been over three months since the rain clouds have blessed us with their presence. The ground is starting to crack and the cashew and orange trees need a bit to drink in order to produce a good harvest.
Please remember to send any questions my way!
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And now, time for cake!
Bon appetit!
How I keep up with US News!
The Morning Brew - "Awesome daily email that delivers the top business news in a way that's informative and entertaining!"
Marketplace - daily podcast "providing context on the economics news of the day" hosted by Kai Ryssdal
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
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.
There is good reason for the high price tag and here is how I know.
We are cashew farmers.
About four years ago we purchased land here in Benin and planted cashew trees (Anacardium occidentale) on it. We are now starting to reap the benefits of that endeavor. Flowers starting developing on our little four year old trees in late December, early January, and now we are seeing the fruits of their labor (no pun intended!).
I know you are probably thinking - holdup, cashews grow on trees? Yep, they sure do!
Cashews are found at the bottom of what looks like an upside-down pear, known as the "cashew apple". The "apple" (aka a "false fruit") is edible and you can eat it straight from the tree, sucking the sweet but very dry juice right out of it. But don't get the clear juice on your clothes, it stains!
The juice from the cashew apple can be distilled into a liquor, and I just learned that the fruit itself can be boiled down with cinnamon and vanilla to make a delicious jam.
Harvesting is fairly simple but time consuming. Not all of the cashews are ready at the same time, so we go out to the farm, about a one-mile walk, once a day to check the trees. This involves perusing the trees, searching for the "blueish-grayish" color, as Aden says, signifying their readiness. I have been told that once our trees are a bit older and are producing large quantities, you have to go out twice a day, once in the morning and the other at night, because that 12-hour time difference will be just enough to ripen the nut.
Now, cashews trees are not small once they are fully grown, and cashews grow on the entire tree. How do we reach those cashews that are high? Two options, climb or use a long stick to bat them down. It is very helpful when you have kids with you to do the climbing part!
If we do not go out to the farm often, people will come and steal the cashews. At present we do not have a fence or anything around the farm, so people will walk through it and if they see cashews that are ready they will pluck them for their own.
We bring the cashews back to the house and detach them from the fruit. The nuts, still in the shell, are placed into a sack (gunny or rice bag). Once the bag is full, it is weighed and then either sold right away or stored until the price is right. As with all agricultural products, the price varies from year to year and even day to day. Right now you are able to purchase a kilogram of cashews (in the shell) for 250 CFA, roughly 50 cents.
(For those who don't work in kilograms very often, 1kilo = 2.205 pounds.)
So, that is harvesting. Lots of time and having a keen eye to be able to spot the cashews when they are ready.
And this is where we say goodbye to our cashews. We will sell them and they will travel to a factory where the complicated process begins of extracting the cashew nut or "kernel" from the shell.
Here is a video Peace Corps Volunteers in Ghana at a small cashew processing facility where everything is done by hand.
Please note cashews are surrounded by a membrane that contains a toxin similar to poison ivy, so never stick a cashew nut still in the shell in your mouth! When I was in Peace Corps, another volunteer did just this and she ended up with blisters all over her lips - sometimes you have to learn the lesson the hard way I guess!
The second video a more automated cashew processing factory.
The process to remove the cashew kernel from the shell is as follows:
Steaming
Drying
Cutting
Shelling/Cracking
Drying (Oven)
Peeling
Sorting
You can see that a simple nutcracker won't work for this nut! I hope that you are beginning to see why this delicious nut is so expensive.
And the journey of the cashew is not even finished yet! It may head to a roaster or directly to another factory to be transformed into milk or another product.
D'Aquin and I had the opportunity to visit a nut roasting plant in northern California in 2017. They roast all sorts of nuts from all over the world, but we chose to visit this one because they source cashews from Benin. In fact, the plant we visited supplies Costco with its cashew nuts. I took a photo of a cashew container from Costco before we left - and you can see Benin is actually on there now! Pretty amazing really.
West Africa is becoming one of the largest producers of cashew nuts, with the Ivory Coast producing the most of any region in 2019 (with Vietnam and India close behind).
The dream for our cashews is to sell them directly to consumers one day - or even to sell directly to a company to use in their products. Farm to table if you will. How to make this happen, I am not sure, but we do have time to sort things out as our trees have a bit more growing time needed to really produce quantity amounts. Even starting a small coop would be intriguing. So many ideas!
One strange thing, I have rarely seen people actually eat cashews here. I have purchased them in Cotonou once or twice, but I have yet to eat a "cashew sauce" with la pate. I'm sure there is good reason for this, as cashews are a cash crop, and you can see from the explanation above, difficult to even get to the point where you can eat the actual nut. I would say money beats out time for consumption of this nut here! In a way, it is kind of sad - they should be able to enjoy some of the crop that they produce.
The cashew really is one of the tastiest nuts, in my opinion.
I will also just note here that on the cashew tree farm we also plant peanuts, chickpeas, and sometimes navy beans.
There really is so much more to learn about cashews, so I have placed a link to read more about them (where they originated from, what the byproducts of cashew processing are, etc.). Click here!
Maybe now you will look at a cashew differently when you eat it!
Bon appetit!
Just in case you missed the links to the YouTube videos of the cashew facilitiesā¦
Peace Corps Ghana - Cashew Nut Processing by Hand
Automated Cashew Factory in Ghana
How I keep up with US News!
The Morning Brew - "Awesome daily email that delivers the top business news in a way that's informative and entertaining!"
Marketplace - daily podcast "providing context on the economics news of the day" hosted by Kai Ryssdal
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
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:
āWhat a dreamy space, especially with the mosquito net above the bed. It looks quite idyllic, doesn't it.ā
They might be idyllic in the "Oh my I'm in the middle of the Serengeti and surrounded by giraffes and a picturesque setting" sense - but I can tell you that at three in the morning when your bladder is screaming and you can't untuck the net from the bed you are not thinking, wow - this mosquito net is so idyllic!
Mosquito nets are another layer that you have to worry about, and I can honestly tell you that it has stopped me more than once from getting out of bed to get a drink of water. One more thing blocking the way when all you really want to do is sleep. There have been near misses when one of the boys needs to go pee during the middle of the night and you have to lift up the net, grab the child, tuck the net back in and then hope that you make it to the bathroom on time.
Needless to say, they play a very important role in combatting malaria, a disease which is still quite prevalent in Benin.
As quoted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:
"According to the 2018 World Malaria Report, there were more than 200 million malaria cases in 2017. An estimated 435,000 people died from malaria in 2017, mostly children under age 5, and more than 90 percent of them in Africa." (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/what-we-do/global-health/malaria, accessed February 26, 2021)
Growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska, I was used to mosquitos (without the fear of malaria of course), also known as the state bird due to their large size. I remember nights trying to sleep when one or two would fly around my ears and I would end up giving myself a headache because I kept slapping my head to kill the insistent buzzing. At the time I probably very much would have appreciated a mosquito net!
We sleep with a mosquito net every night here. They are especially important during the rainy season when there is more water around. Since we haven't had a good rain shower since about the middle of November (2020), mosquitos are fairly scarce, although I do see them every now and again. Besides bodies of water, mosquitoes like to hide in folded clothes. For example, all of our clothes are kept on open shelves and when the seasons are right, when you take down a shirt to wear for the day, a swarm of mosquitoes come right along with it. When we see this, we take down all of the clothes and do a thorough spray of insecticide - closing the room off and leaving all the malaria carriers to die.
There are all different shapes of mosquito nets. You have the ones that hang from a circle ring or those that are a large square or rectangle, both of which hang from the ceiling and tuck into the sides of the bed. When we came to Benin in 2017, I purchased some mosquito nets from Amazon that were tent-like with zippered entrances on two sides. These were fantastic because you only had to tuck them in once and then use the zippers to get in and out. Only problem which I am realizing now (3 years later) is that the zippers were not the best quality and they have fallen off all of the nets. We currently have a hybrid system - the tent with a square mosquito net blanketed over the top.
Some mosquito nets even have an insecticide baked into the mesh netting.
For some reason many hotels in the country do not provide mosquito nets. Maybe it is because the windows and doors are closed to the rooms. I'm not quite sure.
You have to keep a close eye on holes in the nets as well. The tiniest hole is the perfect entrance for a mosquito that is searching for its next meal. In the rainy season if there are holes you could wake up to 10 or even 15 mosquitos flying around inside the net. Something you do not want to see!
If there are too many holes, the mosquito nets are repurposed for other tasks: protecting young trees from birds or goats, fencing off your garden, or a new shower loofah. Very few are just thrown away. There is always something else they could be used for.
However, I am grateful for mosquito nets, and how a simple mesh netting can combat a disease that effects young children. I hope that research continues to be done so that hopefully, one day, we will be able to see a mosquito net as "idyllic" and not as a preventative measure for malaria.
(In fact, I learned today that Elieud Kipchoge, the famous Kenyan marathoner, has just joined the UK Leadership Council of Malaria No More, "a globally recognized non-profit organization with the visionary mission to end the worldās oldest, deadliest disease in our lifetime.")
I thought I would leave you going into the weekend with a song that has been on repeat lately, Espoir, by Josey. Translated, espoir means hope, and the song reflects that no matter how hard life may seem, God is watching out for you. Even though it is in French, I hope that you enjoy the vibe and maybe you take a minute and let the music move your feet! Feel free to look up the lyrics - but be careful as translations are not always accurate to the context of the song! (for example, pƩtƩ means "to pass gas or fart" in French, but in the context of this song, it means an explosion - in a good way...languages!).
Feel free to check it out on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube (linked accordingly).
Spotify - Espoir
Apple Music - Espoir
YouTube - Espoir
Mentioned Content
Living Big in a Tiny House - Bryce Langston
"Enchanting Tiny House & Gardens on Generational Family Farm"
How I keep up with US News!
The Morning Brew - "Awesome daily email that delivers the top business news in a way that's informative and entertaining!"
Marketplace - daily podcast "providing context on the economics news of the day" hosted by Kai Ryssdal
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
(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 Moonshine. It is a liquor distilled from palm trees and is a staple in many Beninese households.
And now, the post.)
Death.
It is something I didn't have much experience with growing up. There were a few that I can remember when I was young (under the age of 10) - my maternal grandmother and paternal great-grandmother "nana" - but I didnāt go to my first funeral until I was around 15 or 16.
On the other hand, my husband, who grew up in Benin, helped his photographer father while he was growing up, encountering death at a very young age.
Here in Benin, even before the pandemic, you could easily attend a funeral every weekend if you wanted. In the last couple of months, each weekend there has been a funeral of an extended family member that we could have gone to.
Why am I bringing this subject up?
Yesterday I lost an uncle to Covid. A death. Those feelings that arise when death arrives started to surface and it made me start to think.
Here in Benin, the circle of life is very apparent. It is not something that is hidden or talked about in quiet voices around children. Death is real and you face the reality of that all the time. In fact, my mother-in-law is at a funeral right now.
You see that grief is 100% allowed, and you donāt have to cover your face or cry in silence. Wail if you need to. Dance the grief out if you need to. Drink a shot of sodabi if you need to. Reminisce with family members if you need to. Pray if you need to. Listen to music if you need to. Play the piano if you need to. Write if you need to. Sit by yourself under a mango tree if you need to. Any and all forms of grief are accepted.
I send out my love and condolences to my aunt and cousins who have lost a husband, father, and grandfather. Quiet tears are falling as I write this...as I remember the times that I spent around my uncle...and for the grief that most certainly will encircle my aunt and their daughters.
Tonight I will send out a toast to my uncleās life with a glass of sodabi and imagine him riding his Harley in heaven.
To all those that have lost during this difficult time, my thoughts and prayers are with you. Grieve however you need to. There is no judgement coming from this corner of the world.
How I keep up with US News!
The Morning Brew - "Awesome daily email that delivers the top business news in a way that's informative and entertaining!"
Marketplace - daily podcast "providing context on the economics news of the day" hosted by Kai Ryssdal
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe
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, which in and of itself is very amazing. I found myself spending lots of time scrolling through social media, not at all worried about wracking up huge data fees. Second, a project came up for me (to be explained later) and I really needed to hone in and get it done.
At the time I was reading James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, and he mentioned that when he was working against a deadline he would have his assistant change the password for his social media accounts, and could only let him know what the new passwords were on the weekend. So I tried that - social media (in my case Instagram and Facebook) only on the weekends, except I didn't change the password, I just deleted the app from my phone. And something kind of phenomenal happened. When I went to go scrolling on the weekends, I realized how much I didn't miss it. The timeframe was around the end of November, beginning of December, and one person I follow on Instagram was going away from social media for the month of December, so I thought, why not? Might as well try!
Around the same time I also watched the documentary The Social Dilemma on Netflix. Honestly, there weren't many surprises to me in this film, companies have to make money somehow! Just a stark reality of how social media affects a large group of people when there are no boundaries. Here in Benin, people are just as encompassed in social media, mainly WhatsApp and Facebook. It isn't surprising to see a whole group of people glued to their phones. But, it only fueled the fire to not be on social media for awhile. I have to admit that I did sneak download it a couple of times, but after scrolling through the apps maybe once, I would delete it again.
And then, while I was talking to my Mom one day, she mentioned that people were wondering how we were doing in Benin, that they hadn't seen me on social media platforms for awhile. I explained why I hadn't been posting, and she said that is the way the extended family keeps up with what is going on in our lives. The positive aspect of social media, right? I realized that I never explained to any of my followers that I was taking a break (as so many others do when they leave social media for an extended period of time), and after much consideration, I started posting again.
However, I wanted to be able to connect and share our stories with family and others outside of social media and was stuck onto how to do that. Well, not so much stuck as I didn't want to pay the money to write and email and then pay for a newsletter service to be sent out. And then I was watching Ali Abdaal on YouTube, and he mentioned the platform Substack - which allowed you to have a blog post style site with email newsletter function built in - for free! (Yes, there are paid versions).
So here we are - email newsletters from Substack coming into your inbox so that you can keep up with what we, The Kouda's (from my perspective!), are up to. I have decided to also make these newsletters in audio/podcast form. I have wanted to start a podcast for awhile now, since putting one together for a "fake class" I designed while doing my master's, but was never sure what exactly to talk about. I guess I will just start out narrating my newsletters/blog posts! Give people multiple ways to receive the news of what the Kouda's are up to!
Quick Update
We are still in Benin. It has been almost 3.5 months since the last rainfall, and as someone who lived in western Washington for the last two years, that is a LONG time to go without rain! We have nice breezes most evenings as it is the end of Harmattan, the season where sands from the Sahara blow south. Lots and lots of dust! I cover my desk with a blanket and still find a thin layer of dust in the morning. Dust is everywhere - but the breezes make it totally worth it!
Since arriving in Benin in late June, we have been through two peanut harvests (one good, one bad) and a soybean harvest (fairly good!). Due to the low amount of rainfall this past year (climate change?), daily agricultural goods are in short supply - peanuts, soybeans, corn, rice, cashews. Good if you are able to buy cheap and sell for a profit, but not so good if you are the farmer with little to sell. Such is the way with farming!
The boys (Aden - 6 and Benjamin - 3) have adapted to life quite well here. Aden knows all the secret ways around the village and is always hanging out with the neighbor kids, going to the water pump or playing on the playground equipment at the school. Occasionally his brother tags along. Aden builds new train track designs on the regular and he and Ben build with Lego on a daily basis. I am homeschooling Aden and once again his brother hangs out with us (unless he is taking a nap). The boys keep me busy as only children can. We bake, work in the "schloffice" (school-office room), go for walks, and a host of other activities.
The boys and I have started taking daily walks to our cashew tree farm to check and see if there are any cashew apples/nuts ready to harvest. If you don't check regularly, people come and steal them right from your trees. Our trees are three years old and have started producing - small amounts, but there is great potential! Oh, and our two dogs, Shadow and Sklya, are our constant companions!
D'Aquin stays busy with the different businesses that he is helping out with here. He plays soccer regularly on the weekends, although every once in a while he will say that he is getting too old for the game!
Besides looking out for the boys, I have started working on pursuing my Doctorate of Education from Arizona State University (ASU). At this point, it looks like I will officially start the program in the Fall of 2021, completely online (woohoo!). When I sent my letter of intent to a connection at ASU in late December, he was thrilled by the project that I mentioned wanting to pursue once I had my EdD in hand. After multiple conversations with him, I have decided to pursue that project - creating a Center for Education Research, Innovation, and Practice in Benin - to be done in tandem with my doctorate. I have included the concept paper for the project at the bottom of this update for those that are interested in learning more about it! So, now I'm in the stages of officially applying for the EdD program and expanding the concept paper into a proposal so that I can start to apply for funding.
I am also still working with a class of students in a small village outside of Dassa, about a 40-minute drive from our house.
I'm sure most of you are curious about Covid-19 in Benin, I know I would be! Here is my perspective from living in a rural village in the middle of the country - it seems non-existent. I have a hard time grasping that so many are still under lock and key because of the virus.
Officially, there have been 4,193 positive cases reported with 55 deaths. Surely the actual numbers are higher than this. You are required to wear masks in the streets and on/in all forms of transportation . Stores and restaurants have hand-washing stations and to enter some official buildings your temperature is taken. Honestly, I have found this part to be more common in the bigger cities of Cotonou and Porto Novo, although lots of places around our house have hand-washing stations. Covid tests are required (and you pay!) before you enter and exit the country. When we arrived, it was $200/person/test - we had a test upon arrival and 14 days later. If you have symptoms, the government will treat you free of charge.
*Quick little update here - I happened into a bank in Dassa a couple of days ago and here was my experience: mask required, wash hands before entering, temperature taken at the door - and no talking once inside (just kidding, that is just what I told my kids when they asked what all the infographic signs said!).
But really, where we are, I don't even think about it - except if I call family in the US. We certainly worry about family in the US, especially when there was surge in cases reported. The world is curious as to why this virus hasn't plagued Africa like other countries. I'm not a scientist, but here is what I could offer: people are outside here more often, diabetes and obesity are not (as) common, and I would guess that people's immune systems are on hyperdrive all the time here. From yellow fever, malaria, zika, the flu, the common cold...so many viruses hitting the body all the time.
Food is going to be a big part of these newsletter and to start off I will tell you about my new favorite sauce: sauce grain. WOW. It is so delicious. The sauce originally from Ghana that my mother-in-law (Ina) knows how to make because she spent quite a bit of time there. I asked her why we hadn't eaten it here before and she said it was only recently they started selling the "palm grain" here in Benin that is used to make the sauce. As mentioned, the basis for the sauce is the palm grain, the same which is used to make red palm oil. When the sauce is finished, especially when prepared with fish and meat, it reminds me of a red enchilada sauce. Yummy!
You might be wondering what you eat with this sauce and I will get into that more later - but here this particular sauce is eaten with la pĆ¢te, pounded yam, or even on rice. It is very versatile and as sauces do only tastes better the more time it has for all the flavors to marry together.
I am looking forward to sharing more with you, don't want to give it all away in the first edition!
These newsletters will be hitting your email inbox a couple of times a week...feel free to share and ask questions so that I always have something interesting to write about!
Tout a l'heure! (See you later)
Concept Paper: CREATING A CENTER for EDUCATION RESEARCH, INNOVATION, AND PRACTICE IN BENIN
Project Goal:Establish a Center for Education Research, Innovation, and Practice in Benin as a major new program initiative of Education for Leadership (E4L). The innovative and sustainable educational not-for-profit will have a mission to develop a relevant, accessible, and culturally appropriate higher educational environment. E4L would act in partnership with the Center for Advanced Studies in Global Education at Arizona State University (ASU) and the Arrondissement of Zaffe (Borough of Zaffe) to achieve this goal. The proposed Center will conduct internationally recognized multidisciplinary research on Beninese education as well as to be a resource to transfer research, technology, and best practices from other nations to benefit life-long learning in Benin.
Problem Summary
Benin received independence from France in 1960 after 68 years under their colonial rule. Despite multiple education conferences and donor aid in the millions, a genuine Beninese education system has yet to be developed. The closure of teaching colleges in the 1980s has left a major void within the teaching profession, hampering the production of qualified teachers trained according to a recognized Beninese model. Instead, the teacher education curriculum was adapted from western post-industrial countries and uses a constructivist āput the children firstā approach, a stark contrast to how the teachers were taught. While there has been success in girls attending primary school, there is a severe decline in secondary and university arenas. There is a lack of focus on the growing demand for secondary education and the assurance that education is effective in preparing Benin for long-term development and labor market needs. In order to address these long-term national issues, E4L can encourage investment along these three interrelated but distinct pathways:
Access to higher education opportunities, both in Benin and internationally, for all of Beninās citizens.
Support for teacher education at all levels (includes transformation of teacher education curricula in Beninās universities and national curriculum development)
Enhancing school to work transitions for women
Background of the Problem
Prior to the 1892 colonization by the French, Dahomey (present-day Benin), was made up of several flourishing empires, politically, socially, and culturally, demonstrating successful traditional educational systems. The French colonists arrived and placed a substantial premium on education, limiting access to the wealthy, and working in the interest of the colonial administration. Following liberation in 1960, Benin went through 15 coups dāetats, a major economic crisis, and a switch from Marxism-Leninism (established after independence) to democracy. The 1990s sought to bring educational reforms, including improving the quality of the entire system, but was plagued by financial, institutional, and political constraints. In 2005, the New Study Program (NPE) was developed, a foreign-curriculum based on a constructivist āchild-centered approachā.
Dissatisfaction among teachers continues to be prevelant for the following reasons: growing number of students in the classroom, a more heterogeneous body of students, teaching conditions, and the current NPE curriculum as it is completely different from the highly hierarchical approach that they experienced themselves. Dropout rates continue to be a problem and are responsible for low learning outcomes, the negative perceptions of schools, and low-esteem teaching quality. Foreign/donor aid has been significant in the realm of education since Beninās independence. While certainly necessary, there are worries that the huge role of development partners is turning Benin into a āplaygroundā for donor-led reforms, and letting the government shun its responsibility when it comes to developing and implementing plans in the education space.
Steps of the Organization
Community Center Approach - a multi-arm organization incorporating the community to instill the value of education
Online learning center for connecting Benin students with ASU online programs - focus that they will be able to study at western institutions while living in Benin
Educational Research department
Community outreach and involvement in indigenous/cultural knowledge - storytelling, singing, drumming, dancing, local language writing, local artisans, etc.
English as a Second Language (ESL)
Library
Research Room - legos, puzzles, computers, tablets, 3D printers, technology with regular seminars from local and visiting professionals
Teaching seminars
Media studio to capture oral history and other research-oriented materials
Partnership with ASU
Provide online degree programs in relevant disciplines at the baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral levels for qualified candidates, whether or not those students who have not passed the baccalaureate test āle BACā (similar to a high school exit exam)
Assist in the development of a teachers college
Provide graduate student research opportunities that would be able to work with the Beninese to start the initial research into indigenous knowledge and what the country needs in order to successfully develop
Provide ESL courses, by way of visiting faculty and/or online
Project Methodology
The Center would be a highly innovative, technologically advanced educational facility, with a community-centric approach, in keeping with the communal atmosphere that is sewn into the cultural fabric of Benin. Education is meant to provide the necessary skills to succeed in the world they live in and the Centerās purpose is to enhance and strengthen that cultural fabric.
Apart from the Center would be dormitories and accommodations for students and visiting faculty or educational specialists. Students (men and women) would participate in running of the dorms/accomodations in order to encourage the studentās sense of responsibility for their own education.
Goals/Desired Outcomes
Establish a methodology to identify the indigenous knowledge regarding education before colonialism.
Development of a teaching institution/college
Create a standard of importance for research-based educational programs
Enhance the value of a country-owned education and a decrease in dependency on foreign aid and foreign models for education
Develop a culturally appropriate educational environment, including curriculum, specifically for the Beninese.
Increase the number of girls/women in secondary and higher education
Have 5-10 Beninese graduate with degrees from online programs at ASU per year
How I keep up with US News!
The Morning Brew - "Awesome daily email that delivers the top business news in a way that's informative and entertaining!"
Marketplace - daily podcast "providing context on the economics news of the day" hosted by Kai Ryssdal
Get full access to Kouda's News at debrakouda.substack.com/subscribe