About Us

Submitted by Allen and Brita on December 18, 2007 - 10:30am.

What we're up to

After our wedding in 2005, we knew we had an intense period of house construction ahead of us - so we decided to work toward an extended honeymoon/sabbatical. In summer of 2007, we stopped construction on the house, wrapped up our professional involvements, put our belongings in storage, rented the house, and left our home in Portland, Oregon to see new places and meet new people. For about 10 months, we'll be taking time off from our work, and time out from our regular lives, to explore the world and ourselves.

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Who we are

Brita says:

I grew up in the Midwest of the United States, moving West to Portland, OR after graduating from university. I tend to be introspective and sometimes quiet, but I also love to meet people, hear stories (and tell some of my own), try new things and gather ideas for creative projects of all kinds.

My interests have always clustered around people and how they live, and around language and ways of understanding. Traveling in Europe and North America, and living abroad for brief periods in France, Mexico and Romania, has helped me to develop those interests and understandings. In my professional and volunteer work, I've focused on using communication, advocacy and promotion to help people change their own lives and the shapes of their communities. Since 1997, I've enjoyed working with non-profits in Portland as volunteer coordinator, communications director, program director and sometimes-consultant.

Apart from my professional work, I take delight in handcrafts and aesthetics, and in staying active. Here are some of the interests and involvements that keep me busy:

Communication & social involvement

Communications, PR, volunteer coordination & organizational development
Language: English, French, Spanish, Romanian, Norwegian
Social work & human well-being
Education for children and adults
Politics and action for change: environmental action, democracy-promotion and peace-building
Green (environmentally-friendly) living & green-building techniques

Creative interests

Paper arts
Design, print-making
Photography, photo transfer
Textile arts: knitting, quilt design, textiles for home
Jewelry-making
Food research & cooking
Gardening for food & beauty
Music-making & music appreciation

Keeping active

Hiking and walking, urban and wild
Camping and backpacking
Bicycling for transportation & pleasure
Social dance: Argentine tango, East Coast swing, contradance
Nordic skiing
Swimming for fitness & for play
Home maintenance and improvement

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Allen says:

Raised in a New England WASP tradition tinged by recent Swedish and German ancestry, I went to public schools and participated in a Quaker church.

I'm on the quiet side but sociable, curious, and adventuresome. I left home at 17, moving to the Pacific Northwest. Portland has remained my home ever since, although I took some time to live and work in Romania, Sweden, and Portugal, and I've traveled as often as possible. Since I met Brita in 2002, we've enjoyed exploring life together... and I look forward to starting a family with her soon!

My aptitudes are evenly divided between intellectual and kinesthetic, and I have wide ranging interests, so I've always been a generalist. Since 1999, I've been self-employed as a consultant to NGOs: I help my clients organize and systematize their use of information. Here are some of my hobbies/interests/skills, (organized somewhat arbitrarily!):

Handcraft & creativity