When I look back at the time I spent volunteering in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil in 2006, it seems so natural, so inevitable that I would end up in there at some point in my life. I often forget about what drew me to it in the first place: Banda Didá, an all female drumming ensemble that is based there. Before learning about that group, I hadn’t even heard of Salvador, an Afro-Brazilian city in the northeastern part of the country.

Music as it pertains to social movements or social justice has always been a topic of interest for me. When I came across a documentary called Girl Beat: Power of the Drum, I was automatically drawn by the synopsis. It highlighted the Banda Didá organization and the work it did to empower females of African descent in Salvador.

Banda Didá was powerful. I couldn’t believe this group of women whose hands and arms pounded out the rage of the remnants of European enslavement to the beats of West Africa. At the same time, their bodies moved fluidly and rhythmically and their faces beamed with pride in their heritage.

The documentary revealed another world, one that I had not yet been privy to, but in which I felt I likely belonged: Afro-Latin culture. In mainstream grade school education in the United States, the fact that Africans were enslaved in many other parts of the Americas is often ignored. The vivacious modern cultures of Latin America and the African influence on many of them is often overlooked. At that point in my life, I was vaguely aware of Afro-Latin America, but that was the first time I’d seen it so tangibly.

As the daughter of immigrants from a small West African country, I’d grown up on the periphery of belonging. I’d accepted that position at that point. But Salvador da Bahia seemed like a place where the distinct mix of cultures that went into my creation was very much the norm in a very visible way. And sure enough, it was.

There’s a bit of drumming at the beginning of this, but skip to 1:00 for the good stuff. Those drums are heavy, and these women make dancing with one attached to your hips look easy.

I saw Banda Didá for the first time in person just a few days after I arrived in Brazil. Every Tuesday night from August until Carnival, they have a big party in Pelourinho, Salvador’s historic center. They call it a “rehearsal” for Carnival and it’s an insanely fun night of government sanctioned partying. There are concerts, street food and drinks, and baterias (drumming ensembles) marching down the cobblestone streets.

A drum circle with an intrinsic sense of spirit and all kinds of soul.

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

Earlier this week, I was flipping through the San Francisco Chronicle on my lunch break when an obituary caught my eye. Why am I talking about death in the week when I’m celebrating my birth? Well, hear me out.

This woman who’d died exactly a week after her 95th birthday was described as a “lifelong progressive, feminist and world traveler” — she sounded like a person I could’ve been friends with and a person who’d lived her life with purpose. Intrigued, I continued reading.

The obituary went on to say that after 40 years of homemaking and after her husband passed away, she started to fulfill her lifelong dream to travel the world. “At age 72, she she began a series of adventures around the globe, visiting 17 European countries, Mexico, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and both poles, and nearly two dozen states in 19 years.”

While I personally take a “travel while you’re young” approach, I love to hear about and know women who are a testament to the fact that age doesn’t have to prevent you from doing what you want to do.

My own mother is one of those women. At the age of 56, she has very recently begun a Peace Corps assignment in Namibia. A few people I talked to about it assumed that the Peace Corps was only for straight out of college young people. It’s not. To me, in a time when people haphazardly sign up to volunteer abroad, she is an ideal candidate — someone who had a Peace Corps teacher as a child, someone who grew up in an African country, and most importantly, someone who has lived.

A couple days ago, I entered the last year of my twenties. Amongst females I know who are around the same age, there seems to be a bit of a divide between those who’ve hit the 30 mark and those for whom it is rapidly approaching. Those who’ve reached 30 and beyond have told me they’ve realized it’s not as bad as they feared it would be and in a few cases, it turned out to be exactly the transition that they needed. With a few exceptions, the women I know who are under 30 are fearful about entering their next decade.

It’s such a big part of female culture in the United States to look at age beyond the 20s as just an ending rather than a transition that contains both endings and beginnings. And those beginnings and endings can be both good and bad. Sure, as we age, unwelcome changes begin to happen to our appearances. But also with living, truly living, you can acquire the perspective and self assurance that is required to feel good about yourself despite what you think others think about you.

And that is a major gift of living fully and getting older — the increased ability to know yourself and grow into yourself and love yourself as you are. This gift is available to everyone, but not everyone receives it. In order to receive it, you have to be open to it, be aware of it, want it, take the initiative to find it.

I’d like to end this post with a video I came across the other day about some fearlessly fashionable older women in New York who display their personalities and creativity through their outfits:

“Young women, you’re going to be an old woman some day. Don’t worry about it. Don’t sweat it. Don’t worry about getting older. Every era… it builds character.”

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

Traveling solo now feels normal to me, but there are those rare occasions when loneliness consumes me on the road. The day I arrived in Oaxaca which I wrote about in my previous entry is one example. I sometimes fight the solitude rather than reveling in it and understanding that it’s only temporary. Sometimes I forget about all the people I’ll meet and the observations I am able to make because of the openness and quietness being alone provides.

My friend shared this video with me yesterday about learning how to be alone and making the best of solitude. It mostly refers to one’s regular environment, but it can all apply to traveling solo as well. If I’d had this video when I arrived in Oaxaca, it would’ve been the perfect antidote to the way I felt then. Of course, time and a change of attitude had the same effect. But I’m sure it won’t be last time I feel that way on a trip, looking back at the comfort and fun times of a group rather than looking forward to possibilities that await. When those times come, hopefully I’ll remember some of the words in this video, especially the most simple ones at the beginning of it, “be patient.”

Maybe this poem doesn’t really qualify as a song, but it’s close enough and it’s a beautiful little video:

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

This post is a month and a day late, something I intended to write on June 20th, but couldn’t because I was caught up in travel moments and in coming and going. June 20th is an anniversary that passes without fanfare, but holds much meaning for me internally and externally.

I can’t remember why I chose that day in 2007. The idea had been 9 months in the making and on that day, it must have felt right. Either that, or inspiration had come and I’d wanted to do it while I had the courage.

For some women, hair is something that is simply to be dealt with. For others, it is something that can be played with—chopped, dyed, maneuvered into a symbol of self-expression. But for most women I know, hair is a symbol of beauty. And for many black women who grow up feeling substandard next to an unattainable standard of Western beauty, hair is a huge albatross.

Written in every relaxed strand, in the glue and stitches of every weave, in the coils of every afro, in the braids of every extension, in the matting of every dreadlock of any black woman in America and many elsewhere is a story of a lack of self-acceptance… sometimes sustained, sometimes overcome, sometimes wavering between the two.

In September 2006, right before I left to volunteer in Brazil, I relaxed my hair for the last time. It was the usual—the tingle, then the burn, then the running into the shower to rinse my hair of the white cream that made my scalp feel like it was on fire.

I’d already known for over a year that I didn’t want to do it anymore. But that day, my heart and mind told me that really had to be the last time.

Brazil aided me in finalizing that decision. I was in Salvador da Bahia, a place where African origin is embraced. Where mothers fashion their daughters’ hair into elaborate arrangements of afro puffs. Where women’s afros bob as they bang drums to rhythms brought over by slaves hundreds of years ago. Where women with a darker skin tone than me lay out on the beach to get sun and get darker.

After experiencing Bahia, I knew that regardless of where I was, I would always know that places where African beauty is embraced do exist. That there were places where African appearance is not seen as something that needs to be lightened or straightened out. Getting to know one of these places helped me.

So in the wee hours of the morning on June 20, I brought the scissors up to my hair to disconnect the straightened strands from the small afro that had begun to sprout from my scalp.  Aside from my earliest years when I was too young to remember, it was the first time I’d ever seen my hair in its natural state. Imagine that.

My relaxed strands were in the trash, but still, my ideas of beauty did not go with them. My tightly coiled nappy as can be hair was not the stuff afro dreams are made of. And my hair was shorter than it had ever been. I wondered if I looked like a boy. I didn’t want to leave the house.

I know this all may sound terribly vain and superficial, but there’s no denying that even when you try to deny the magnitude of outer appearance, it will creep up on you in one way or another. It can take years for a woman of any race to walk proudly with herself as she is knowing that she encompasses and defines her own beauty. Many never get there.

Now three years after the Big Chop, the  tightly curled mass on my head has become normal to me. I have accepted it, but I have yet to fully own it. There are times when I don’t see the beauty in it in, especially when I am surrounded by long flowy hair that looks the length it is and has more options.

Wearing my hair this way means that I will be asked assumptive questions about why I don’t want long hair which will be followed by my wondering whether or not I should take the time to explain my hair story to someone who doesn’t fucking get it. It means that when I see articles for “great summer hairdos” and such, I know that they will be written without even a hint of consideration for my hair type. It means that when I see people in afro wigs, I wonder if I should take it personally that people think the style of hair I was born with is a funny costume.

But this is not a story about me hating my hair. There are days when I love that my hair grows in a circle, in the same shape of the flowers I often clip to it. I love the complexity of it and how a close examination of the twist and turns of each strand of my hair shows a bit of my personality. I love that it compliments and lets me fully display the crazy assortment of earrings I’ve picked up on my travels. I love that when I travel, people who have never seen hair like mine often show the most admiration, their minds open to different possibilities.

While I don’t always stand up strongly with my afro, I stick steadfastly to the idea that I will let my hair grow out of my scalp as it meant to and not rush to flatten it into submission. Something tells me that it will be this way until I’ve reached a point of full acceptance. And so the hair journey continues. But while the scale still wavers between self-acceptance gained and lost, three years later, the gains side is far ahead.

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

Oh, the places you can go. It can be overwhelming to think about how much world there is to explore.

If you are lucky enough to be in a position where you have time and funds set aside for travel, it can be tricky to figure out how and where you should use them. And then once you’ve decided where to go, beginning the planning process can be a challenge, especially if you’re doing it yourself.

Last summer, having the opportunity to coordinate a month of independent travel helped me figure out how to go about that process in a way that allowed me to keep my anxiety level to a minimum. Here are some tips:

» Deciding Where to Go

Weather

Weather may seem like a no-brainer, but I am amazed at how often people overlook things like seasons being reversed on the other side of the equator. If you have to travel during a set period of time, consider potential natural disasters or the affect weather might have on your ability to move around the country you visit. If a place is likely to get flooded or have roads wash out during heavy rain, you don’t want to travel there during the height of their monsoon/hurricane season. Some weather situations can be tolerable, even if uncomfortable, but it doesn’t make sense to travel to a place at a time when predictable extreme weather can lead to natural disasters.

Find out if there are any serious travel warnings.

New Zealand has one of the more user-friendly and less fear-mongering travel advisory websites. It breaks down the countries in to Extreme Risk, High Risk and Some Risk and has the most recent important news on its front page. For each country, it also provides links to the travel advisory sites of Britain, U.S.A., Canada and Australia.

Figure out your travel style.

Know what kind of activities you want to partake in and the level of comfort you want in order to narrow down your potential destination list. Do you want to do adventure sports? Check out some nature and wildlife? Be a beach bum? Observe a unique culture? Which culture’s food, music, art, religion or history appeal to you the most? Are you willing to rough it or do you have higher travel standards?

How much time do you have?

If you pick a spot you want to visit, think about whether or not there is somewhere nearby you’d really like to visit as well.  If you’re itching to see a lot of places in a relatively small area (South East Asia, for example), you may want to visit when you have a large chunk of time. If you have a short amount of time, you’ll probably want to limit the amount of places to see. No matter what your travel style, jam-packing your trip can make travel stressful and take away from your overall experience.

Watch travel TV and documentaries and read travel memoirs.

I tend to get a lot of ideas about where I want to go this way. Shows and books can take you beyond the limitations of what you learned in school and beyond the well-known destinations to find out about interesting cultures, subcultures and landscapes you’ve probably never heard of.

Remember that pictures only tell part of the story.

It’s easy to look at a wonderful photo of a location and say, “I am dying to go there!” Popular destinations can often be photogenic but are not always as impressive or worth the money and effort when you see them in person. Reading recent travel blogs and articles about someone’s actual experience is great way to go instead of relying solely on pictures.

» Taking the First Steps Towards Planning Your Trip

Buy a guidebook.

I’ve started to buy guidebooks before I book trips because it helps me get acquainted with possible itineraries and get a sense of more specific locations I want to visit. Guidebooks are also great for figuring out how to get from one destination to another and finding out if the route you are planning is feasible. I spend a lot of time flipping through the “how to get there” sections and pay attention to whether or not a bus goes by where I want to go, how long it takes to get from place to place, etc.

Talk to people who have been to where you’re going.

Talking to people who know the destination has been the most helpful thing I’ve done before booking a trip. It’s even better if it’s a person who knows you well and/or someone who has a similar travel style to you. Talking to these people can be the best way to get a sense of which places to go, which places to skip, and how much time you should stay in a certain place. And both parties benefit because people are happy to help like-minded people discover the places they’ve enjoyed and they love having a chance to relive some of the moments they had there.

Keep in mind that you can’t see it all.

When I start to get a sense of all of the places I can visit in a destination, my first instinct is to start cramming my schedule. But that is not a fun way to travel, and trying to stick to a concrete schedule with limited time can drive you crazy when you’re abroad. I recommend coming up with a list of the places you’re super pumped to see and the places that you’ll logistically need to visit for flights or stopovers. Organize your schedule accordingly, leaving room for error and for visiting other places that sound interesting to you. Then leave the rest to the wind…

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

I think America’s views about getting older are pretty messed up. An obsession with living longer added to an obsession with being eternally young (in appearance, at least) isn’t a cohesive combination.

I’ve been exposed to both American and Ghanaian attitudes towards aging. I’ve seen women who can barely shape their lips into a smile adorn their 50-something bodies with clothes that look like they’ve been taken from a teenager’s closet. I’ve also seen my little wrinkled octogenarian Ghanaian grandmother singlehandedly get the dance floor started. It seems to me that while Americans attempt to defy age physically, Ghanaians try to do it with their attitude towards living life. I like the Ghanaian aging mentality more. But living in America, it’s hard to not be influenced by the messages I’m surrounded with.

Like other women, I’m constantly exposed to harsh noise that tells me I need to do certain things before I become a washed up old hag. The noise tries to dictate what I’m allowed to do and be at each age in my life. But as one of my friends would say: Fuck that noise.

I’ve come across a few women who may not be doing newsworthy things, but in their own small ways, have said that phrase with their actions. Women who’ve shown me that as long as you’re living and able-bodied, there is no age where true living has to stop and dreams and adventure are tossed aside…

» 30s

In Chiang Mai, Thailand, a strange series of events led me up to a bar where I spotted another solo female traveler. I asked if I could join her, and spent the rest of the night conversing with a kindred spirit. She had many tales of her adventures in South East Asia, venturing off the farang trail and into tiny villages that constantly challenged her views on the way things should be. She also shared stories of her life back home and told me that in order to travel to Asia, she’d walked away from a successful business she’d started. She said that people around her thought she was crazy and to this, she shrugged casually. Running the business wasn’t for her, and more than other people’s ideas of “success”, she was interested in her own well-being and happiness.

» 40s

When I was planning to go to Peru, I did what most budget travelers tell you not to and booked a two day Machu Picchu tour in advance. I didn’t know who I would be on the tour or if there’d be anyone on the tour at all. I lucked out with the one tour mate I had, a journalist from England who lived and worked in Dubai. After several hours on a train, I’d learned a great deal about her life and her experiences with traveling and living abroad. What struck me about her was that even though she’d seen so much, she was not at all jaded. She was obviously a strong and independent woman, yet she spoke with youthful enthusiasm about the possibilities of both her personal life and what she had left to see of the world. Age was a non-issue for her, and she’d found away to make it so that adventure was incorporated into her everyday life.

» 50s

I think my mom has now gotten used to my need to be on the move (even though she still hates the idea of me traveling solo). Whether or not she’d actually admit it, she is directly responsible for my wanderlust. Growing up, my family always actively enjoyed our free time with summer trips and day trips and road trips. And my mom always had a knack for finding humor in the blunders of travel. She still always point out that the most annoying things that happen on trips tend to be the most entertaining moments to look back at later. Now she is in her mid 50s, and life hasn’t gone as planned. But she has explored different opportunities and is making things happen. So at the moment, she is getting ready to retire early, taking classes in child development and applying for the Peace Corps.

» 60s

When I volunteered in Salvador, Brazil, in a sea of recent college and high school graduates, one of the most active volunteers was almost 60. She came up with great lesson ideas that others borrowed from. She had the best accessories when we went out at night and she was the biggest advocate for taking advantage of free time. She often rounded people up for day trips or Brazilian dance classes. After spending a good amount of time in Salvador, she volunteered in several other locations in Central America and Africa followed by Spanish language classes in both Spain and Mexico. Over the course of several years of travel, she’s maintained friendships with people she’s met along the way and brings the many travelers she’s met together. Being divorced for quite sometime, finding a special person to share her life with was always something she desired. She eventually decided to settle in Northern California and recently gotten engaged. While she has slowed down a lot since her days of volunteering, she continues to travel, go to school and sing in her future husband’s band.

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

I remember the beginning of my first squat toilet experience vividly. I was 17 and visiting Ghana for the first time in 15 years. Ghanaians love formalities, and because we’d been away for so long as a family, there were many welcome home rituals to take care of. A trip to my mom’s home village was in order. So one day, after hours of driving down pothole laden roads in heavy tropical rain, we reached the village. The constant bouncing and sounds of water combined with lack of facilities along the way meant I really had to go when we arrived. I asked to use the toilet, totally naive about what I would find. I opened the door and inside what appeared to be the bathroom was a hole in the ground. “Where’s the toilet?” I thought as I carefully examined the entire bathroom and the surrounding areas. My teenage heart sank as I realized the hole was my only option. Whatever happened after that has been erased from my memory.

I’ve now squatted many times and in many places, even unexpected locations like France. Asia was the number one squatting skills development location. My month in South East Asia was like a senior year course in sucking it up when it comes to toilets. It’s inevitable that every adventurous female traveler accustomed to sit down toilets will face these dreaded holes at some point. Once you accept them, they become a lot easier to deal with. Especially when you consider that if you avoid them, the health risks (dehydration, etc.) can be much worse than the few minutes you’ll spend strengthening your thighs as you relieve yourself. For women who are afraid of squat toilets, and I know many are, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned about how to deal with them during my travels:

Leave Your Stuff in the Vehicle

Don’t expect to have a place to hang your belongings. And because squat toileting requires balance and concentration, you want to make sure your hands are free. If you’re in a situation where you can’t leave your stuff unattended, make sure you’re carrying a backpack or messenger bag that doesn’t need to be held on to.

Wear a Skirt or a Dress

For once, fashion equals function. Weather permitting, it’s a great idea to wear a skirt for long road trips where you’ll likely have to use a bathroom in the middle of nowhere. It’s much easier to lift a skirt and get it out of the way than it is to get pants or shorts out of the way. Enough said.

Bring Your Own Toilet Paper or Tissues

Where there’s a squat toilet, there’s likely to be a lack of toilet paper. Or sometimes you may find yourself scrambling for change to buy some unearthly colored or scented toilet paper. So make sure to have your own stash.

Wash the Toilet When You’re Done

If there’s a bucket of water and a container to scoop it out with next to the toilet, it probably means you’ll need to wash the toilet down after your done. Do this to be courteous to the next squatter and know that if  you walk into a wet toilet, it’s likely that it’s just water (if the water looks relatively clear) and not whatever you were imagining it to be.

Have Hand Sanitizer Ready

I like the spray kind. If the toilet stall seems to be particularly gross, I will spray it on my feet as well.

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

I know there is no shortage of travel song playlists out there, but the bulk of them are comprised of rock music by men. So I’ve come up with a list of a songs by women that can inspire you for every part of traveling, from the first sparks of a trip idea to the ups and downs of a journey. Here they are:

» Beautiful by India.Arie

Play this song when: You’re planning a trip someone in your life may not approve of and the time has come to tell them about it.

» Let The Wind Carry Me by Joni Mitchell

Play this song when: You’re coming to terms with your nomadic ways and want to feel like someone to relates to you.

» I’ll Take You There by The Staple Singers

Play this song when: You’re trying to convince someone to come along with you on a trip. Or when you’re just trying to get soulful and shake your groove thang.

» Get Out the Map by Indigo Girls

Play this song when: You’re taking the ultimate road trip. This song oozes with joyful independence.

» Nostalgie Amoureuse by Zap Mama

Play this song when: You’re uneasy about the conditions you see people living in. I can’t say the lyrics of this song completely make sense to me, but it seems to me that she is describing a situation where happens upon squalor and begins to form an opinion on it. Then, someone living in the squalor surprises her by teaching her about his life, and life in general.

» Ain’t Got No/I Got Life by Nina Simone

Play this when: You’re down and out on a trip. This a great song to help you remember what you do have.

» Beautiful People by Melanie

Play this when: You’re experiencing a moment of hippie travel bliss. When everything’s like totally connected, peaceful and hopeful, man.

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

The air is getting chilly and the rainy season has begun. My typical urge to fly south for the winter has kicked in. Unfortunately, travel is not an option for me at the moment, so I will hibernate instead. To me, that means curling up with a hot beverage and a travel memoir so I can live vicariously through someone else’s adventures.

I’m partial to travel memoirs written by women rather than men because I can usually relate to both their outward and inner journeys more. I have found a few good options beyond the ubiquitous Eat, Pray, Love. Here are some suggestions:

Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
by Rita Golden Gelman

During an impending divorce, Rita Golden Gelman made her first solo journey to Mexico. This trip transforms her and she makes the decision to give up everything to become a global nomad. It’s encouraging to see the author evolve from a timid traveler to a confident adventurer ready to take on the world.

Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for Women Who Are Changing the World
by Holly Morris

In this memoir, Holly Morris shares the details of the creation of the “Adventure Divas” PBS television series. It highlights powerful and unconventional women in several countries who are doing amazing things for their communities. It will inspire you to travel and make positive changes in the world.

Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure
by Sarah MacDonald

After Sarah MacDonald first traveled to India in her early 20s, she vowed to never return again. Several years later, her boyfriend takes a job in India and she decides to join him. This is a hilarious and insightful account of the two years she spent in India dabbling in various aspects of the culture and learning to accept the country as it is.

Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik: One Woman’s Solo Misadventures Across Africa
by Marie Javins

In this travel memoir, Marie Javins goes boldly where few travelers have gone before. While it was not the most poetic read, the author still managed to draw me in with tales of her exciting off the beat path adventures in Southern and Eastern Africa.

Kite Strings of the Southern Cross: A Woman’s Travel Odessy
by Laurie Gough

Maybe it’s wrong to recommend this book as I haven’t finished reading it yet. But so far I’ve found it to be a wonderfully descriptive and passionate account of traveling in the South Pacific and South East Asia, and I’m excited to continue reading it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

They say it’s an El Nino year, so it looks like it’s going to be a long, wet winter. I may be doing quite a bit of armchair travel in the next few months. Suggestions for other travel memoirs are welcome!

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.

A money belt can be important to wear when you’re visiting a place where tourists are often the victims of theft. While it may not help you in extreme situations, it is handy to have for the more common pickpocketing and grab-and-runs that travelers encounter. It can give you peace of mind that your passport, credit cards, and cash stash are safe if your bag gets stolen.

The first time I tried out a money belt was for a high school choir tour (I know, I know) to Italy. I wore it for a day or two before relegating it to the bottom of my suitcase. While I was in Italy, I witnessed a ballsy purse snatching at an open air restaurant and heard tales of fellow tour members being distracted by one gypsy while another stole a bag from them. But I still never wore my money belt. It was bulky, sweaty in the humid Italian summer, and totally indiscreet with its big flap and loud velcro closure. Which is another thing– when you wear a money belt, you don’t want to announce to everyone around you that there are important things to be found under your clothing.

While preparing to go to Southeast Asia last year I knew I couldn’t pull off my usual “keep my mouth shut and pretend to be a local” thing. I heard that tourists in Southeast Asia were prone to pickpocketing and guesthouse staff rummaging through their luggage (true, mostly in Cambodia). I decided I needed to get a money belt I would actually use.

I found a money belt designed specifically for women, the Body Pocket by Design Go. This is about as close to a perfect money belt for women as you can get. It’s made out of thin lightweight lingerie material and it breathes which makes it great for humid climates and being active. You can easily fit a passport, cash, and card in it without it looking bulky on the outside of your clothing. The strap that goes around your waist is basically a bra strap which is adjustable and stays put. It has a zipper on the top which makes it easy to access things when you need to (not so much if you’re wearing a dress though). There were times when I pulled it out and people asked me why I was pulling my underwear above my pants– it’s pretty inconspicuous! I wore it just about every day and even slept with it on during overnight train journeys with sketchy doors and locks. Carrying important things right above your crotch is never fun, but this is the best and comfortable option for women!

©2012 Girl, Unstoppable. All Rights Reserved.