“When I was 26, I traveled to the African continent for the first time. Since then, I have lived, studied, and worked in different African countries for varying amounts of time and though I have spent time on many continents, it is the only place I consider a second “home” outside of Appalachia. My first time, I landed in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which was a place I loved for many different reasons, though the evidence of recent conflict was palpable and heartbreakingly visible in the shattered infrastructure of the city. As someone who lives in a country where “wars” have not been fought on our soil for many generations, I had to keep reminding myself that almost every person in the country had lived through conflict because it was just that recent… All of the travel books at the time said that women traveling to Sierra Leone should bring tampons with them since they were not readily available and, when available, were very expensive. So, I had stuffed a bunch of tampons into my suitcase. …