When I committed to joining Peace Corps Morocco in June of 2014, I received a packing list that included, among other things, the DivaCup.

I had used similar products in the past but was never very pleased with the results. Often, I had trouble with leaking or had to empty and clean the item several times a day. I knew that tampons would be difficult to come by in Morocco, so before I left, I purchased the DivaCup and hoped for the best.

Since that time, I’ve traveled the world and am so happy to have the DivaCup.

During my time in Morocco, I worked at a women’s center teaching aerobics, English, world culture and cooking classes. More than 30 women attended these daily classes, learning things like how to prepare healthy meals, the English lyrics to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” or how to salsa dance. Over the course of my 30 months of service in Morocco, my students and I developed wonderful relationship and shared our cultures, recipes, and music with each other.

Frequently, however, my students would bow out of attending aerobics or dance classes because they were on their periods. In Morocco, this means a week or more of using pads because tampons are completely unavailable. Many of the rural women I worked with would rip the absorptive pads out of diapers and use those, because they were far cheaper than the name-brand pads available at stores.

While my students had to creatively negotiate running, playing basketball or doing fitness classes while menstruating, I was able to keep teaching week after week, thanks to the DivaCup.

Diary of a Diva Peace Corps

The DivaCup also made travel incredibly easy. I vacationed in Europe during my time of service, spending two weeks in Greece, Spain and Italy, and the DivaCup made those journeys so much easier (and cheaper!) than if I’d had to rely on tampons. Even traveling throughout Morocco – when I often had to spend 12+ hours on a bus to get from my home town to the south for work – I was able to rely on the DivaCup.

After my position ended in Morocco, I immediately came to volunteer with a project protecting loggerhead sea turtles in Cabo Verde, a small island nation in west Africa.

Conservation is the name of the game here: we flush the toilets with sea water, as the only fresh water on the island is desalinated and very expensive. We reuse everything, from rope found on the shore (we use it to separate nests in the hatchery) to peanut butter jars (used to hold clothes pins, flipper tags, and so much more).

The DivaCup is especially important to me here, because not only are tampons very expensive, but the small island of Sal has limited landfill facilities, and I would hate to be filling it up with bleached cotton and cardboard applicators.

Thanks to the DivaCup, I am able to live an eco-conscious lifestyle while helping to protect an incredible, endangered species.

Victoria A.