I’ve fallen in Love with california. surf boarding. farmers markets. the pch. ocean waves. coffee. friends. flip flops. perfect weather
2 years ago, I traveled with Toms Shoes and documented their South Africa shoe drop. It was still then that only a handful of people knew what Toms were. These days, it seems I can’t go anywhere without seeing someone wearing them. This past weekend, we had a shoe drop reunion. Everyone whose traveled on a trip with Toms to put shoes on kids was invited to join in. Several of our group from South Africa flew in from all over.. Alejo even came from Argentina! It was so much fun to catch up and hear stories about the past few years. Here’s a few photos from the weekend. btw.. i’m so jealous of those living in L.A – how amazing would it be to wake up everyday to the Ocean! 
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Finally, some updates. I went to Israel with my sister and her family in late July/early August. It was the most lovely trip. We stayed in the city of Ashkelon and traveled all over by car everday. I got my feet wet with driving in a foreign country when I was in Iraq and I was completely confident that I could drive the Israeli roads….but I must say.. never have I seen such crazy drivers in my life! I think i said the word CRAZY about every 3 seconds as I drove around. My favorite moment was driving the highway into the old city of Jerusalem… and just realizing that I was “driving into Jerusalem”. My oldest sister, Jennifer, use to live in Israel as an archelogist and had many excavations she dug on. One of her favorites was in Megiddo ( also known as Armageddon). It was so cool to see the sites that she dug up and she has a history lesson to teach me at each one. I can’t wait to go back again … one of these days. It was definitely one of my favorite places in the entire world.
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Awesome story on Toms Shoes on Good Morning America today. They used a some of my images from the South Africa Shoe Drop. I love that they are still using them these days.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8480316
Here is a handful of shots from 2007 http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=toms%20shoes&w=61402345%40N00
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http://mycharitywater.org/EstherHavens
This past year i’ve had the privilege of capturing photos and stories of charity: water projects in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Central African Republic. The gift of water to these neighbors of ours across the world can hardly be described in words. It’s as if a miracle happened in the middle of their village. I will never forget a particular community in Uganda where the women surrounded our car with flowers waving in their hands, dancing and singing. They were full of life and joy. They showed me their old water source and it was nothing more than a hole about 2 feet wide in the ground. I dipped a cup in the hole because I wanted to see what the water looked like. The smell that came from that water didn’t leave my hands the entire day. There were worms, snails and many living creatures floating in it. No person on the planet should EVER have to drink something so terrible as that. It was in this village that I met a little girl named Rebecca and she showed me the pure clean water pumping from the new charity water well. She learned to wash her hands for the first time and was bathing regularly. The health of the whole community was improving because they were drinking this clean water that was sitting right below them.
Photo of Rebecca
charity: water has made it so easy for us to impact the lives of so many by providing clean water. They have partnered with incredible organizations drilling wells in villages around the world. When you donate to them, your money doesn’t disappear – 100% of all donations go directly to direct water projects costs, and each donation is “proved” and tracked to the village it helped when projects are complete.
Imagine if you woke up everyday to walk 8 hours and collect dirty water for your family to drink, because you want to survive. Clean water in a village means everything to these people. Time. Health. Education. Sanitation. I could tell you countless stories of the people i’ve met and how their lives have changed because of clean water in their village. And if that’s what you need for me to convince you then email me and I will tell you all. 
So this 26th Birthday of mine, I ask that you give $26 dollars. If you can’t do that, even just a small amount will help. Let’s Build a Well !
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