"Novedades?"—What news? A common greeting in Mozambique, and one to which I rarely have a good answer. I hesitate to share news of my own life, if only because on a day to day basis nothing really happens. It's only looking back over weeks or months that I notice how much has changed. I've been…Read more News
Volunteers
A Taste of Things to Come
Integration. The process of becoming a part of a new community through introductions, interactions, and involvement in new things. A buzzword in the Peace Corps, usually said with a capital I.These last three weeks I have spent in my home-to-be for the next two years, taking the first baby steps in this process of integration. I've been…Read more A Taste of Things to Come
Next to Godliness
Or the fine art of the bucket bath Mozambicans are very clean people. It is not uncommon to take two baths per day, when the water situation allows. I enjoy the new bathing schedule: a brisk bucket of cold water first thing in the morning wakes a person right up, and few things are…Read more Next to Godliness
Pictures and Ponders
All of my recent attempts at writing have come out ponderous, introverted, and, quite frankly, rather dull to read. So in lieu of boring you, I will instead post pictures. * * * * * As of yesterday, I have exactly three weeks left in South Africa. Strangely enough, I'm nervous about returning to the…Read more Pictures and Ponders
Proofs of a Small World
The world is sometimes a very small place.When I first arrived in the Drakensberg (already more than three weeks ago; the time does fly!), I could not believe my eyes. The landscape of rolling hills, dry grasses accented with the lushness of Spring and agriculture, the fences along the road to keep out the cattle……Read more Proofs of a Small World
The “Yes Man” philosophy and other things
I have no pictures today, only a lot of words. And a link to a map. Perhaps you have heard of the "Yes Man" philosophy, a practice of unhesitatingly saying "yes" to whatever comes your way. The term, named from the book and movie adaptation Yes Man, was not one I had heard until recently,…Read more The “Yes Man” philosophy and other things
