About Crystal
From the mountain passes of Southeast Asia to the steamy jungles of Africa, one girl braves pygmy warriors, crackhouses, angry hippopotami and the six-armed man to seek out the world’s greatest adventures. It’s Crystal, daughter of a South Vietnamese freedom fighter and a one-man band from Montana. There is little left on the planet that she hasn’t already eaten and nothing she won’t try. When it comes to dining, she lives by one simple rule alone - “When in doubt, spit it out!” She holds a record for hosting the largest variety of parasites in her bowels at one time while she was in the Peace Corps. She has sweated and hallucinated through many feverish nights, marveling at the mysterious organism we call the virus — and that so many remain uncatalogued by modern science! Crystal works in family planning and reproductive health research utilization to increase access to contraceptives for women in developing countries. She is also a small business owner and in her spare time trains as an endurance athlete. She lives on the beautiful Eno River in Durham with two dogs, two cats, and her husband, Clinton.