“Living abroad offers so many opportunities to learn, travel, grow, experience the world, and become part of a truly global community of people. With a constructive outlook and a positive viewpoint many are able to bridge the divide between their own roots and their newfound cultural experiences. Absorbing and assimilating life experiences as they play out, getting actively involved with the locals, the language and national culture can be rewarding. The sooner you embrace a global attitude, meet new people, make friends the faster your transition becomes a fabric of adventure stories and emotional moments you will remember forever.”
Elizabeth Kruempelmann, "The Global Citizen: A Guide to Creating an International Life and Career"
Inspirational Member Stories…
International transitions can be demanding. They bring new challenges for trailing spouses and third culture kids who have lots of views, hopes, dreams, and duties.
Relocation can oftentimes become trying and daunting, especially when you are the trailing spouse of a staff who moves frequently around the globe.
Meet some of our members who have survived transition obstacles to pursue their passion and get involved in activities that have brought them happiness. Read their stories and be inspired to follow your passions too wherever in the world you find yourself!
Art Enables—a unique art program in the District!
Yoga in Spanish? Why not give it a try?
Moving Again? Now what do I do?
MD Parents and Tots—making parenting easy!
A colorful palette with no borders
Spouse Design! Creating distinctive textile handiwork!
“You were amazing!!! Secretary Albright was trying to eat a sandwich in a waiting room upstairs. She had just finished meeting with the 
World Bank President and had been on the go all day. I told her to relax, that she had time to eat before giving her keynote speech. When you started playing, she jumped out of her seat and said, ‘I am ready!’ She did not want to miss a minute of your performance.”
This is the way Elizabeth Legrain, Domestic Abuse Prevention Coordinator at the World Bank, shared her enthusiasm with me about our all-woman percussion band Batala, after we performed at the Preston Auditorium in October 2008 for the event which launched Domestic Abuse Awareness Month!
Batala Washington is the latest branch of a worldwide family of drummers formed eleven years ago by Brazilian composer Giba Gonçalves in Paris. Today, Batala is present in several cities in France, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, Angola and Brazil. Batala Washington is the only Chapter in North America.
Batala was brought to DC by one of our members, Bank spouse Solange Amorelli, in June 2007. When she started talking about Batala with a few friends, mainly Brazilian women, we all thought it was a nice idea but that she was probably a dreamer… Yet, she started bringing in equipment part after part, very strange shapes, big, small, thin, round, etc. It was hard to imagine how these bits and pieces could become anything related to music. But she did it! And after a few weeks, we were about 20 very excited women making a lot of noise and visiting almost all the DC area parks from where we were regularly expulsed by the police until we finally obtained a license to rehearse at Farragut Square! With one or two exceptions, none of the “Batalettes” have had any previous musical experience, or at least no percussion/drum experience. We just learnt! Unbelievable! Then, a little fairy called Mariana came from Brazil and spent six months with us, teaching us everything from instrument assembly and tune up to the Batala songs we were supposed to play, including choreography, because, yes, indeed, we dance as we are playing!
Batala’s unique sound, diverse composition and infectious energy give us mass appeal, and we are at home in an eclectic mix of spaces all around the DC area, from street festivals to black-tie affairs. We have played several times at DC United soccer games, and we set the stage again in 2009 for the event that launched Domestic Abuse Awareness Month at the Bank, this time with keynote speaker Melanne Verveer. After our performance at the 2008 Marine Corps Marathon, a runner wrote to us, “If you can make me smile at mile 20, you are something special.” So we performed again for the 2009 Marathon! We were also present at the Inaugural Ball for the African Diaspora last year. Last but not least, we participate in various programs in schools and communities in the DC area.
What makes Batala so special? So many reasons for me that it makes it difficult to decide what to start with! It is about being part of a group of around 60 women, from 13 countries on five continents, ages ranging from 21 to 60-plus. We include women who work and those who stay at home, students, singles, mothers and grandmothers. It is also about the charitable program that is behind Batala’s activities worldwide: all our instruments and clothing are manufactured in Salvador/Bahia, in Brazil, by low-income families, single-moms, and street children . And, it is about music, obviously. We play a rhythm called samba-reggae, a funky, Afro-Brazilian beat, with four types of drums. Samba-reggae was an outgrowth of Brazil’s black pride movement, born in Salvador/Bahia in the 1970s. As it is typically played by men, Batala Washington’s multicultural all-woman composition represents an innovation in the genre. As someone once anonymously wrote to us, “When I began drumming years ago women would dance in the center of our circle, but few would play the drum. It is so good to see you standing proud and tall, powerful and beautiful.”
Every Saturday morning, I wake up happy because I am going to meet my “BataSisters” and have at least three or four hours of anti-stress/relaxing musical exercise.
For more information:
Catherine Mathieu
Being Dutch, it goes almost without saying that I bike to work each day, except on days 
when we have freezing rain. The bike gives me freedom, a sense of independence that is hard to match, especially when all the cars are snarled in traffic; I tremendously enjoy riding freely and having a much more accurate idea of when I will be home than is ever possible when driving a car or using public transport. I still remember the commentary I got when I parked my bike in front of Whole Foods: “Welcome to first class parking!” And that’s exactly what it is; I never have to search for a parking place, nor coins, when I ride my bike. Even better, I do not have to worry about feeding the meters. From the World Bank it’s a 10 minute ride to the National Gallery of Art, I sneak in for half an hour, and I am back sooner than you could ever dream of doing by car. And then, in the spring, the bike is perfect to catch a glimpse of the cherry blossoms, be it at Kensington (really the best place for blossom watching!) or at the Mall. I have two bikes—one is an old fashioned heavy grandmother model with only seven gears and two big bags for daily commuting and shopping; the other is a light speedy one with 24 gears for longer weekend tours.
The DC area significantly differs from the flat Dutch landscape with its innumerable bike lanes: the few bike lanes that exist here are heavily trafficked on weekends (I heard the term “Champs Elysees” for the Capital Crescent trail to Bethesda), and you will need at the minimum seven gears to negotiate the steep hills, preferably even more. But the DC area has a lot to offer; nature inundates you with its beauty, as soon as you leave the roads accessible to cars. Once or twice a year I try to organize a bike tour for WBFN members. We start at a metro station and search our route through secluded valleys, along happy streams, stopping halfway to snack on our own brown bag lunches. The next tour will be announced for the spring of 2010. On our last tour, a spouse joined us with a very old bike, and she had a hard time getting to the end of the tour. But guess what? Instead of being demotivated, she became so enthused that she decided to buy a multi-geared brand new sports bike. Another person had discovered the joys of biking! Hope to see many of you on our next tour! Also, please do not hesitate to offer any suggestions or questions you may have regarding bike tours.
To contact Maaike: maaike.legrand@gmail.com.
Maaike le Grand
Art Enables—a unique art program in the District!
It was on impulse that I decided to take a look at Art Enables, an art program in the District about which I knew very little except that they were looking for Board members with financial expertise (a fact I’d learned at a meeting of 
World Bank spouses back when I was new to DC). Today, six years later, I can testify that it’s been a great ride. I’ve been Board member, Board Chair, enthusiast, promoter and advocate of the work by this DC-based arts-entrepreneurial program for adults with mental and developmental disabilities. Along the way, my association with them inspired me to complete a specialized program in Nonprofit Management at Georgetown University, AND it led me to reconsider my own career focus and decide to transition from corporate banking to community and social development.
Most of the thirty artists working at Art Enables have serious barriers to verbal communication, coping as they do with a range of disabilities including but not limited to Down syndrome, autism, traumatic brain injury and bipolar disorder. What they have in common is an interest in painting and drawing and the discipline to work toward becoming professional artists. The opportunity that Art Enables offers them to tell their stories in visual images is tremendously empowering.
Artwork produced in the studio is marketed and sold in shows at the studio and in guest venues around the region and via the program website Artists receive 60% of the revenue from sales of their work. That income represents spending power, but it also stands as proof that they have found an audience and succeeded in the public arena. Art Enables envisions a future in which its artists are welcomed as professionals in their own right and without hesitation by mainstream curators and the art-buying public.
I chose to join their Board six years ago because I believed in the mission and saw a passion of purpose thriving amongst the team and the participants. I also shared their prime interest, creating art. As Board member/Chairperson I helped build and expand its networks for resource mobilization, finding new outlets for showcasing the art and helping to expand their marketing activities. I participated in the overall strategic planning for the program and created opportunities for WBFN colleagues like Oxana Holtmann, who created an award-winning video about the artists at Art Enables. Art Enables has received generous support from the Community Connections Campaign program of the World Bank.
I would urge all those who are willing to devote their time and skills to an ambitious and intriguing cause to join Art Enables as a Board member or volunteer and to help us take the program to the next level. We are always on the lookout for persons skilled in communications, marketing, finance and business and/or events planning. The Board meets once a month, eleven months a year (no August) in the evening at the studio. As a Board member, I also attended and helped at special events and in fundraising.
To contact Radhika: radhikaminocha1@gmail.com
Art Enables: visit
All WBFN members are invited to the 8th Birthday Show of Art Enables: February 27, 2009 from 3pm-5pm at the studio.
Radhika S. Minocha
Yoga in Spanish? Why not give it a try?
I began practicing yoga back in 2000 when I found myself stuck indoors because of the 
harsh upstate New York winter. I realized I needed to exercise my body in a way that didn’t require me to be outdoors. At that time I had taken some yoga classes but nothing formal. I decided to buy a yoga book with large pictures. I began to practice at home every day with my husband. We practiced very early in the morning, before our little kids woke up. It was a very rewarding experience for both of us. Soon after that, some friends began to ask me for yoga classes. Even though I explained to them my lack of experience and training, they insisted. I began to teach them using my old yoga book as a guide.
Since I realized I needed more formal training, I decided to enroll in yoga classes at Cornell University and also in a yoga Studio in downtown Ithaca. I felt that yoga helped me to cope with the winter blues replenishing my energy. At that moment, I realized I had found something very profound for me. Yoga helped me to find a place of peace and joy within. My body began to feel more flexible and healthy. I decided to go ahead and get a formal certification. I really wanted to share this with as many people as I could. At the same time, I also felt that I had found the path I had been looking for.
After I received my certification in yoga, I have moved to different places: Venezuela, Mexico and finally to Maryland. Even though I have moved several times, I kept sharing my passion for yoga through teaching. I moved to Maryland because my husband had accepted a job offer from the World Bank. I realized I needed to take a break from teaching in order to settle down. I restarted teaching again when my new friends began to ask me for classes. Since most of my new friends are Spanish speakers, it became natural to teach them in my first language. I also realized that we have in common that our husbands work at the World Bank Group. After teaching for almost a year, I realized that the class is a great opportunity for most of us to make new friends, to feel connected, and also to exercise our bodies and relax our minds.
To contact Corina: corinafreije@hotmail.com
Corina Freije
Moving Again? Now what do I do?
I like traveling, seeing new places, learning about different cultures and meeting new people, but when my husband told me that we would move again, I wasn’t happy at all: Washington is my 6th destination in 17 years. I was sad; the simple idea of packing our stuff made me feel tired; I was afraid. But I had no choice, because I never wanted to let him go abroad and wait at home with our two sons. So here we are, in Washington, DC.
The beginning is more or less the same everywhere: looking for a house, registering the children at school, finding the places for shopping. And then? I had always lived in smaller towns, where meeting people is easy and finding a job or at least something to do is a matter of talking with a few people and discovering almost everything there is to do. Not here. I felt lost.
Then, something strange happened: my husband brought home a big file full of information I hadn’t even asked for. Wow, someone—the WBFN—wanted to help me without even knowing me. I had never experienced that before, and it was a very good new feeling. So, I started attending all the workshops offered by the WBFN, and I found them very useful. They deal with all the aspects of living in DC, and they can make your life here much easier.
But the big change for me arrived with the workshops organized by Global Mobility. I always had in mind the “American Dream”, but how could I find a way of doing what I like if I didn’t even know what I wanted to do? I’m a teacher of French and English, and before coming to DC that had been my job, but now I wanted to take my chance and do something new, but what? I met many spouses who felt the same, everyone with his or her own experiences, questions, worries and dreams. This gave me a kind of sense of community. I wasn’t alone.
I was also lucky. Thanks to these workshops, I managed to find a way, my way. Before my first move to Africa, I had started doing Biodanza®. This is a group activity where you dance, express your feelings and discover aspects of life that are often hidden or forgotten because of stress, lack of time, children and many other reasons. I love Biodanza® so much that during the four years we were in Italy, I attended the Biodanza® school in Milan to become a teacher, and I started teaching this activity in all the countries where we lived afterward.
So this is my “American Dream”: teaching Biodanza® in this international community. I am happy to help everyone who wants to spend a wonderful and fun hour that makes them feel extremely well, discover all their potentialities and make new friends.
Coming to WBFN I received a lot, and I want to thank all the people who directly and indirectly helped me be strong enough to start my life and my activity here.
To contact Paola: paolabolzan@hotmail.com
Paola Bolzan
MD Parents and Tots—making parenting easy!
Parenthood comes in different ways, shapes and sizes. I thought having previous experience working with children and having been living in DC for a couple years would make parenting in the U.S. an easy task for me.
That was not entirely true. A newborn baby of my own would give me new challenges and many things to look forward to. Finding friends with babies was my new goal. Soon enough, I found myself meeting other moms from my neighborhood once a week. The idea of sharing conversation about parenthood was good but after a month or so of meeting new moms, I still felt a stranger. I felt myself misplaced in a group of local moms who would not have much in common with me, a foreign mom raising a baby in three different cultures (Irish, Brazilian and American).
With the arrival of our second daughter, the suburbs of Maryland became our new home. And once again, I found myself seeking friendly company. Reading about the MD Parents and Tots group in Mosaic sounded a great opportunity to make friends locally with others going through experiences similar to my own.
This time around, I was right. Our second daughter had just left the neonatal intensive care unit in George Washington University Hospital after 6 weeks there, and she was not quite ready for a playdate yet. I was only able to meet the MD-based moms during a night out. And let me tell you, it was the best mom’s night out I had ever had, especially with the hectic happenings at that time in our lives. All the ladies were very welcoming, and I could finally see a group of moms I could relate with.
A few weeks later, we were finally able to go to our first playdate, joining the parents and their children. Tuesday morning is still the highlight of the week for us. My nearly 2-year-old daughter loves playing with her new mates, trying new toys and talking to them in their own mysterious toddler language. I especially enjoy sipping my cup of tea while telling or listening to some fun cross-cultural stories.
We take turns hosting the gathering at each others’ houses, and once in a while, we try to go to different places such as an indoor playground or a park. We also try to go for a night-out once every two months. I cannot say enough good things about the “therapeutic” effects of those night-outs for a stay-at-home parent.
Katja Vinha has been an outstanding moderator for the group. She maintains a database in our online Yahoo group with helpful links for newbies in the area and regularly provides great suggestions of places to go and activities for the children. On top of all that, she managed to organize a family get-together after the holidays last year!
The group is also a great source of information, support and advice for stay-at-home parents in the area. We are always happy to welcome a new member and enjoy introducing new playmates to our little ones.
To contact the MD Parents and Tots:
Adriana Ferreira
A colorful palette with no borders
An artist’s world is limitless. It is not hindered by time or place!
For someone who never learnt painting or sculpting, Nathalie does a stunning job. After seeing her exhibition at the WBFN Gallery no one would imagine that the paintings and sculptures displayed there were done by an amateur artist. Nathalie is gifted, she possesses a talent that brings to life people and things she sees around her, be it through her paintings or her sculpture. She says, “I am creative but also very active and painting and 
sculpture affords me the same experience of feeling and sensing with all my faculties even when I am indoors.”
Travelling and living in many places helped Nathalie find her true passion—ART! As she moved from place to place Nathalie found the landscapes, people and experiences in France, England, Slovakia and China to be in stark contrast with each other. In all cases, art became a fantastic means of expression—translating cultures, ways of life, and thinking using a universal language. When I asked Nathalie if she had always wanted to be a painter, she immediately said, “NO.” She had always been inspired to sketch, but never seriously thought about taking art classes. Today, she is a self-made artist whose artwork has been selected for exhibitions in galleries and private events as well as the World Bank, the French Embassy and the IMF, thanks to her wisdom in following her passion.
What began as an interest in sketching and watercolors took Nathalie step by step into the world of experimentation with various mediums and forms of art. From watercolors she plunged into oil paints, acrylic, pastels and then sculpture. Although travel afforded her new experiences it also prevented her from being in one place and taking up classes to further her passion. However, Nathalie did not consider this a hindrance, she pushed herself to buy and read art books to learn more about artists and their methods. She dug and delved unceasingly into the world of artists to know how differently each perceived beauty. Finally, when in China, a place teeming with life and movement, Nathalie realized that art was not limited to the studio but was out there in the real world. It was here that she honed her skills in painting and become totally involved in sculpture. Indeed, as often the achievement of a dream is due to a seized opportunity, it is precisely thanks to her meeting with a couple of famous Chinese sculptors (Xiang Jing and Qu Guangci) that the “sculpture” adventure began for Nathalie. They helped her push the boundaries of her creativity; they showed her how to move beyond copying masters to formulate her own style.
Nathalie’s advice to all who want to follow their passion wherever they might be is, “Feel, listen, watch, work, share, love…so many basic states which give sense to life’s dynamics, a perpetual move towards eternal becoming…”
To contact Nathalie: contact@punanli.com or visit:
Nathalie Pouliquen
(By Vidya Rangan)
Spouse Design! Creating distinctive textile handiwork!
October 2004: I finally said “au revoir” to my job at Tissages de Gravigny, a reputed company in France where I had been designing high-end furnishing fabrics that were commercialized by world-renowned clients in the U.S., Europe and Japan.I decided to follow my husband to his new job in the World Bank, along with our 2-year-old daughter. Soon, I was volunteering as area coordinator for WBFN, making new friends and remodeling our house in Washington, DC.
June 2006: The dust was settling. I had promised myself that I would completely redesign our home in a record year-and-a-half’s time in order to get back to my career. Now came the daunting task of actually beginning the “job search” to distill the essence of my almost 15 years of experience as a professional textile designer, acquired mostly in France and India.
But, then, I wondered what I wanted to do after all!
A unique opportunity offered by the Global Mobility team came up. I joined a group of spouses to understand our personality types and to consciously match our personalities with our job searches. Now I knew how to listen to myself. I began by volunteering with Aid to Artisans, a US-based non-profit organization working with artisans all over the world, and advising other non-profit clients on textile design, development and marketing. Then, the IFC recruited me as a short-term consultant to go to Cambodia for a month. This was a turning point in my life. In August 2007, I went to Cambodia and worked intensely with disabled and disadvantaged artisans, designing new products for the export market.
April 2008: One morning, I went down to the DCRA (Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs) determined to set up my own company. They asked me what I wanted to name the company. “Designers and Artisans,” I replied. A couple of hours later, my fair trade company was set up to offer children and their moms unique clothing and accessories that I design and are then handmade in India and Cambodia using traditional textile techniques.
I am passionate about promoting, nurturing and sustaining high-quality, sophisticated handmade traditional textiles, designing products that are environmentally conscious and socially responsible, so I continue to share my knowledge of design and textiles as a regular adjunct professor at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. Being a firm believer in the benefits of arts and crafts for brain development, I also teach weaving and textile techniques to children at schools and workshops in my spare time.
This is just the beginning. I have a long way to go…
To contact Karthika: karthika@designersandartisans.com
Karthika Audinet