Hi, friends. My name is Kelsey Grae – Oklahoma at heart and New Hampshire-ite by choice. I am a registered dietitian now living and working in Taos, NM. I served as a Community Health Education Volunteer for the Peace Corps in Cambodia from 2016 to 2018.
I was lucky enough to grow up right across the street from my grandparents. The grandest-parents, I daresay. We have stayed a close family, despite divorce, the passing of my grandmother, and our geographic challenges. 
When I told my Cambodian friends and family about my experience growing up in multigenerational family situation, they remarked that it sounded similar to the way most Cambodian families stay closely-knit. I tried to explain that my luck in living in a multi-generational family situation was not necessarily typical in America, that to have had a big family who taught me all the most important things in life has paved the way for my chief successes and joys in life. Like a grandpa who could dig up a helluva potato and a grandmother with a healthy wanderlust. 
The early posts of this blog were written in free-form to describe my travels for anyone interested. Since I arrived at my permanent Peace Corps post – i.e. my homestay village where I lived for my two years of service – I began addressing my posts to that potato-grandad in Oklahoma. He’s been my pal for all these years in spite of the initial tensions that come with sharing a first love – gramma Char. 
For those who know of grampa’s kind nature (“sweet as pie,” some have said), it may come as a shock to know that one day long ago when he was driving about with gramma, he stole her necklace from her neck and threw it out the window. In his defense, the necklace was engraved with both her name and the name of a former beau. Feeling remorseful, and grandma likely having blown a gasket, he replaced the necklace – though the new one now had his name and hers. I long ago absconded with said necklace and wore it every day in Cambodia. 
Through this site, I hoped to share words and glimpses of everything that I and the gleaming eye of the amulet witnessed together. For it is a family principle to disallow the span of an ocean to pose as an obstacle for keeping in touch. That and I imagine it must have served as a source of amusement for grampa to witness me gallivant about sporting gramma’s sass.
vim, vigor, vinegar 