A bundle of toys was flung on his back

 Greetings, 

Once again, I hope this warm, engaging 19th edition of my holiday form letter finds you well and deftly eludes the clutches of your overzealous spam filter. I realize this year’s edition is a bit behind schedule and I assure you the entire editorial team has been handed a severe dressing-down. With the traditional apologies out of the way, let’s get to the updates.

In April, I relocated from Cambridge, MA to North Carolina. (Thanks for the send off from the best bar in the world, Parlor Sports!) 

Getting on the board is one of this year’s proudest accomplishments.

Cal, me and one of the top 4 bartenders in the world, Nikki, taking a spin on the other side of the bar.

Dimagi sendoff gathering in Central Square.

I put all my stuff in storage and flew down to stay with my sister Lynn and brother-in-law Robbie for a little while, ‘just until I get my own place’. I have landed in their recently empty nest and they are taking great care of me. As such I am in no rush and am still freeloading, erm ‘house sitting’ for them at their place in Oak Island and the home they share with their cats, Cosmo and Venus, in Raleigh.

New Mailing Address:

CMFK

1421 Princess Anne Rd

Raleigh, NC 27607

It’s fun to be closer to family. My niece Kate is teaching dance in all venues from public elementary schools to the America Dance Festival. Baby Niece Lindy is a Junior at NC State, a regular on the dean’s list and the Wolfpack’s biggest fan.

Working remotely is the new normal long term for me. I am still working at Dimagi and we are very excited to have celebrated our 20th anniversary this year. I am still challenged and energized by working on public health programs in low resource settings all over the world.

 

If there wasn’t much work travel to report in 2020 and 2021, this year I made up for it with 3 separate trips to Cape Town (June, August and October), a trip to Senegal, and a trip to Ghana. (Extra special thanks to my dear colleagues Abdoul, Ismaïla, Adjo (and Adjo’s cousin!) who took extra special wonderful care of me when I had COVID in Senegal this October.)

Here’s me, Molly, Mary and Anita in Stellenbosch in June. 

Here’s the West Africa team in October.

Here’s some of the team enjoying a sunset harbor cruise in Cape Town.

I also was fortunate to have time off for an extended break in August and a Safari and beach trip with friends in Zanzibar. Holly, Steve, Jen, Emily & I saw the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro crater and spent a week at the best beach in the world in Paje Zanzibar. I was here last in 2013 and it was still just as beautiful. I think maybe the best tide pools in the world.

On Prisoner Island near Stone Town Zanzibar with Jen, Emily, Steve, & Holly. 

Jen, me, Steve, Emily & Holly on a vista over the Serengheti. We saw lions, elephants, hippos, zebras, warthogs, giraffes and everything else. It was staggeringly beautiful.

We covered a lot of dusty kilometers in this extended land rover with our driver and cook.

Me on the beach in Paje, Zanzibar. This is my happy place.

I visited my mom several times this year in Louisville, KY, and did a few side quests including a fun bourbon tour and some river kayaking:

Adam, Sharon, Kerry, Erin and me at the Willet at the end of a 2nd tour. We’re holding up incredibly well under the circumstances.

On the way to kayak

Same group cleaned up for brunch in downtown Louisville.

Mom & Me in July.

In fact, my most recent trip to Louisville ended earlier today. As a last minute edition as we go to press: I was able to join my mom and huge extended family for their annual Christmas Eve gathering hosted by my cousins Matt & Mary Randolph:

Aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and friends gathered on Christmas Eve

(Sure you received other Christmas letters, but did they include this year’s Christmas? And if not, can they even really call themselves Christmas letters at all???)

(I didn’t run much this year due to a foot injury so no race pics. Sorry, sweat fetishists.)

2023 is already shaping up to be a busy one. I have my travel visas for trips to Mozambique and Ethiopia already filed and that’s just for January. I also may eventually get my own place to live. Until then, you should come visit me at my sister’s beach house in Oak Island, NC. Wishing you health and purpose in 2023.

 Peace on earth,

~Courtney

@CourtneyMFK 

Outside of Cape Town in wine country in October

 

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On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!

I hope my charming, warm, annual bulk email finds you well. 2019 was a blur and was largely comprised by a busy year of work at Dimagi. I spent much of the first half of 2019 in Delhi working on a large project there.

While most of the time in India was heads down in our office in Delhi, I did get away to spend a weekend sightseeing Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, a large state in India near Delhi. The whole city is filled with beautiful, amazing architecture. Here’s the entryway for my hotel:


In April, I was delighted to have Caitlin and Keri up from Philly to visit for a fun weekend. Here’s a photo of us hiking in the Blue Hills Reservation on the boardwalk in Ponkapoag pond. The hike is listed as ‘easy’ level of difficulty but that is not my recollection of the rolling and pitching boards.


In May, I was honored to be invited to attend Claude’s graduation from the University of Rochester. Claude was a student who I had the opportunity to work with while I was a fellow at ASYV. It was fun to go back to visit the city of Rochester, not having been there since 1997 or so when my parents lived near there in Victor, NY. The ceremony was beautiful and Claude has a lot of accomplishments to be proud of. After graduation he moved to NYC for a software development job for now. I’m still looking forward to working for him someday.


I spent a big chunk of the month of July in my sister Lynn’s beach house on Oak Island, NC. Thanks so much to Lynn, Robbie, Lindy and Kate for hosting me and taking such good care of me! My nieces Lindy and Kate are now seniors in High School and College respectively and we are all so proud of them and curious to see what comes next. Kate has already started student teaching and is still very active in dance and choreography. Lindy has been accepted to several schools so tune in to next year’s holiday letter for the big reveal.

In August, I was invited to the beautiful wedding of my cousin David to Hannah. We’re lucky to welcome Hannah to our large, and sometimes boisterous, family and it was fabulous to see all of my Louisville family at the celebration. Here’s me and Lynn enjoying the reception out on the Ohio riverbank:


I’m still running a bit and trying to keep active. I’m playing some pickup ultimate on Sundays with good weather and in a BUDA Grand Masters league a few weeks a year. I also ran a couple of road races this year and recently found a wonderful club that meets on Tuesdays and Sundays to run around Cambridge. When I realized how close the group meets to my home (very) I decided the universe was trying to tell me something so I decided to check it out and I’ve had a blast meeting tons of friendly new people. Here’s me and my friend Julie in September at the Salem 10K after party:

In October, I had a great series of internal meetings in our Cape Town office and had the time to hike up Lion’s Head with a few colleagues. Cape Town is a beautiful city and I’m always energized by spending time with the team.

Wishing you and yours peace and health in 2020. Please let me know if you come through Boston and I’ll unfold the futon in my sneaker room for you.


~Courtney

@CourtneyMFK
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So up to the house-top the coursers they flew

Greetings all,

I hope this charming annual bulk email finds you happy and healthy.

2018 was a momentous year for me.

First and foremost the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl!!!

I’ve been waiting for this since I was 7. It was especially satisfying to be in a bar in Boston
for the big game, enjoying a spirited dialogue with local Patriots fans about the team’s
respective qualities.

#FlyEaglesFly.

Next up in the life milestones: I always said I would never do it, but now I’m a homeowner.
When the apartment I was renting was sold to be torn down for condos,
I couldn’t find anything else to rent within a walk to work, so I bought instead.
Now I have a 2bdr Condo in Inman Square in Cambridge.
The whole mortgage process was a terrifying, tear-filled disaster, but it’s over now.
Eternal thanks to lawyer and real estate expert Cousin Matthew for saving my bacon.
I moved in the new place in March. It looks like this:

New address for annual photos of your kids for my fridge:

394 Norfolk St. Unit 2

Cambridge MA, 02139

(Sorry if this news is coming a little out of order. If you already sent me this year’s
fridge photos of your kids to the old address, know that I loved the silly pics and your
kids are adorable.)

Family update: Nieces Kate and Lindy are full blown humans now, so I guess you should
just subscribe to their Instagram if you want to know what they are up to:
Kate is pursuing a BFA in Modern Dance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
and had a great time studying abroad for a semester in New Zealand.
Lindy runs Cary High School like my new MacBook runs Mojave and receives awards for
tennis and good grades in AP classes despite an unmatched Netflix binging endurance.
Lynn is working for NC State in the Student Counseling Center and
Robbie is the principal of Mary Phillips High School in Raleigh.
I spent a week at their beach house in Oak Island NC in the summer and it was a blast.

Mom is enjoying living in Louisville, KY near her sisters, brother, nieces and nephews. She
has some sharp words for whoever’s running the NCAA (see Louisville Basketball FBI investigation) so I guess she’s doing just fine. I spent a week with her and her dogs over Thanksgiving and my cousins took me to Churchill Downs for our annual Thanksgambling adventure:

My cousin's daughters & me: Claire, Hayley, Elise, Me, Gracie and Lauren

Work update: I had a busy year of travel for work, spending time in Dakar, Senegal,
Cape Town, South Africa and Delhi, India.

The Dakar office does high intensity interval training on the roof after the work day.
I had so much fun almost transferred there permanently:

I also did a first scuba dive in Dakar and really enjoyed it.

Here’s me with the western-most tip of Africa behind me:

Work continues to be quite busy. Dimagi’s CommCare platform is in use for hundreds of projects worldwide, including the largest scale mHealth project in the world. Our software tracks 1 out of every 200 births worldwide. Working at this scale is forging new paths and that is both challenging and rewarding.

Air quality is Delhi is pretty bad. Here’s the mask I wear while I walk to work:

Visitors: Thanks to Keri & Caitlin (and soon after Amy) for breaking the seal
on houseguests in the new place. (Keri went straight to work hanging my blinds.)
Amy, I hope there’s another conference here soon, next time bring Dusty and
stay for a Celtics game!

Also wonderful to sync up with my cousin David and his family,
who vacationed this summer on the Cape and invited me out for a beautiful day on the
4th of July.
We also spent a fun day in Boston together on the Freedom Trail and took
a look around Harvard. (Lauren (10) registered for a few classes, but I can really
see her more at MIT.)

My primary non-work interests remain the NBA and following cute (all) dogs on Twitter.
Looking ahead to 2019, I have a spare bedroom now, so come through (although,
I expect to be in Delhi much of Q1).

Wishing you peace in 2019. Happy New Year!

~Courtney

@CourtneyMFK

I got a new headshot for work! (Same blazer as the one from 2014, though…)

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Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash

Oh man. 2017. Whew! I hope this annual holiday letter finds you happy, healthy and well.

Colleagues Lucina, Me and Xian at the 2017 Dimagi Boston Office Holiday Party

2017 was another busy year. I spent most of the year busy at work for Dimagi. I traveled again this year to Delhi and Cape Town for work. I am lucky to have amazing colleagues in both locations and it is always hard to say goodbye when it is time to return home.

In Cape Town, for fun, I went snorkeling with seals. It was a truly amazing experience. They can swim so fast, and swim right up to you and then at the last minute dart around you. They were gorgeous and curious and reminded me of ocean dogs.

In April, I visited my mom in her new home in Louisville, Kentucky for her 70th birthday. It was a great party! (Apparently I had so much fun at the party I didn’t stop to snap a single photo, so you’ll just have to trust me that mom looked great!) Mom has settled right in to her new home and is enjoying spending time with nearby family. I’ll be in Louisville with her and the dogs visiting aunts, uncles and cousins for Christmas.

Summers in New England are beautiful and I did a little exploring of New Hampshire hiking this year:

Here’s me and Keri atop Mt. Moosilauke in July.

This summer I worked for ten days from beautiful Sayulita, Mexico, where I visited one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Next time you see me, ask me to tell you about my return trip saga, but probably best for not while you are eating. Here’s me and some colleagues on a boat tour of the Marieta Islands:

And here’s me at one of the great taco stands in town drinking a Michelada bigger than my head for 25 pesos.

I also spent five days in August with the whole team together for our annual summit at a beautiful beach house in Cohasset, MA. This is a rare treat as we typically have teammates working in far flung places such as in Haiti, Uganda, and Guatemala so that even selecting a time zone for a group call is a struggle. It was really wonderful to all be in the same room. We had some training sessions on topics like optimizing data for reporting and project scoping, and also ate like kings and queens (Xian’s dumpling night!) and told ghost stories. It was a blast.

The team on the beach at Cohasset.

In August I also went up on the roof (like a genius) with some colleagues to look at the eclipse. In Boston, you really couldn’t see too much. It was still a fun break in the day.

This fall, I was invited by USAID to participate in a panel on Tuberculosis. I learned a number of things from this conference, among them never to trust them when they say they tested the AV, and that one’s bio cannot be too short.

Outside of work, I played BUDA league ultimate in Boston this spring and fall and ran a couple half marathons (slowly). I have determined that by not training for the race, I can save myself many hours, but only lose about fifteen minutes on race day.

I am enjoying watching the NBA this season and have been to a couple hometown Celtics games. They are a fun team to watch.

I had a wonderful visit in October this year from the four Stouts. It was great to see tiny Lucia and get to spend some time with Viviana. (Their parents, Jen and Brian, are still pretty cool too.) I also had a quick visit from the newlyweds Julie Sussman and Dan Bush in December. If you are passing through Boston, please do let me know. I am always delighted to have guests. I promise to offer you something to drink and tell you where we can go to get something to eat.

I visited my sister Lynn, brother-in-law Robbie and my nieces in Raleigh in July and again for Thanksgiving. Kate is a sophomore in college about to study abroad next semester in New Zealand. Lindy is a sophmore in highschool taking AP classes and dancing and playing for the tennis team. She has her learner’s permit now so probably best to stay off the roads in the Raleigh area. My nieces are bigger now, but still very adorable:

Perfect capture of big sister face and little sister face.

Next year, I am looking forward to trips to Delhi and Senegal, playing some ultimate and spending time with family and friends.

Wishing you peace in 2018. Happy New Year!

~Courtney

@CourtneyMFK

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