Hi there Steemians!
Did you know 
Hi all, my name is Joe. Really! In my continuing quest to be the Most Interesting Man on Steemit, I submit to you my #introduceyourself post. Let's go!
Here I am with my small family in a very small taxi in Kathmandu, Nepal.
, 
, How did I end up in a tiny taxi in Kathmandu? Well, let's go back. Waaaaay back. Back to the beginning. I was born and raised in from California, not a bad place to grow up. Living near the coast, I grew up loving everything to do with the ocean. Here I am about to go bodyboarding at my home surf break in Southern California:
And here I am surfing a little wave in Indonesia:
Believe it or not, you can make a living bodyboarding, so I gave it a shot in my late teens/early 20s. I'd make some finals in some local pro/am contests, but never enough to quit my day job. That's okay, because after a two week trip with my church to South America I soon became hooked on something else: travel mixed with service.
Soon that's all I was doing. After I graduated university with a degree in Education, I promptly stopped teaching and began living and volunteering abroad, mostly in Mexico and Honduras.
After I built up a bit of experience I applied to a small Swiss humanitarian organization. To my delight, they hired me. They sent me around the world responding to disasters in Angola, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sudan, and Haiti.
I became the guy going into war or disaster zones on empty planes, while the planes out were always packed with people fleeing from danger.
In between disasters, I would go back to California to await my next assignment. To pay the bills I would take odd jobs. I was a tutor, a photographer's assistant, and a tour guide for an adventure/camping company. I'd run tours mainly in the American Southwest. I grew up camping with my family every summer, so I loved returning to many of these places as an adult and sharing America's natural beauty with visitors.
My love for the outdoors is deep. One of my favorite things to do is get off the grid and off the beaten path with
Eventually, I was able to find work full time as a humanitarian. I went to grad school on the east coast to study humanitarian assistance, spend a short time in D.C., then moved back abroad. Most recently I've worked on disaster responses in Afghanistan, Syria (from Turkey), the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa, and the Nepal earthquake. I've most recently returned from Bangladesh looking into the Rohingya crisis.
Over fifty countries. A handful of languages. Travel to some of the most wild and untouristed parts of the world doing life saving work. Yawn.
The real adventure began more recently, when I met
And here is us getting married:
And yes, I've convinced
Speaking of family, my sister 
That's me in a nutshell. A humanitarian expat enjoying family life in Thailand.
So, why am I here and what is my approach on Steemit?
Simple. I want to test out the Steemit tagline:
"Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post. If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!"
My approach is to try to contribute to the platform and the community through quality posts.
I've already posted a few times. Here's a taste of what you'll get:
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Cox's Bazar Surf Report and the Father of Bangladeshi Surfing
Photo (Source)
I've even created my very own contest (which very few have entered - hint hint!):
I also am the alter-ego of 
Check out my latest June Recap at the link above if you're into that kind of thing. Spoiler alert: it's not going well.
Before I go, I'd like to give some recognition to the 
I'd also like to mention that this post is kindly supported by 
Who is
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