I’ve been back almost four months. Still, somethings still shock me. For example when I read about how a movie like 2012 made 65 million during it’s opening weekend in USA and Canada and an additional 160 million worldwide. That is shocking. I can only imagine what I can do with 65 million dollars in [...]

This afternoon I have been listening to the House of Representatives debate on Health Care. I want to be prepared to debate the issue if it comes to that. I realize that there’s a divide. The House democrats and republicans have been repeating catch phrases at each other stating their opinions. On the republican side they [...]

This past week I spent time with the other Conservation Corps Iowa crew. One of the team members, Meghan, is really interested in tree’s. She spent the week pointing out tree’s to me and helping me learn how to identify them. The only issue with that is that because it’s getting colder, the leaves are [...]

Pakistan has always been a target for suicide bombers. The Taliban has made an effort to make a stand against foreign humanitarian aid by recently bombing the United Nations World Food Program. I feel that with this attack the Taliban have reached a low point. The Taliban recently promised revenge against the US done attack against [...]

So, I was reading the Star Tribune today. Normally, I just head to NYTimes but I thought I’d check to see what the Twins were up to. I decided a local paper would be a better biased source of information. Upon finishing that, I checked the international news and was surprised to come across this article [...]

It seems that the Peace Corps volunteers are thankfully all accounted for. They were my West African neighbor during my 13 month service in Mauritania and are now experiencing horrors that were above and beyond anything that I ever thought I’d be close to. Peace Corps has instructed them to carry remain in their cities [...]

I know the feelings and the emotions that new Peace Corps Trainees feel. The excitement keeps you up at night.  It makes you pack, unpack, and repack your bag. How do you choose from a crazy list of 100+ things? What happens when something you might not need doesn’t fit in your bag? Oh the [...]

Imagine using the sun to power your cars. No need for gasoline. No need to fight wars in the middle east. No need to raise tax on gas. No need for the USA to use all it’s corn as ethanol. It would be genius and the idea came along before any car company did anything [...]

Human kind is changing history again. Our ideas are being turned onto a ‘new leaf’ as my mother says. And apparently, it’s an electronic one–with videos. It’s strange that people are producing electronic things when people in many countries don’t even own an electronic devices. Now let me clarify a few things. I’m talking about vooks. [...]

Date: Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 Event 1: 8.0 Magnitude Underground Earthquake resulting in a tsunami Location: Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga Death Tole: 154 people Date:  Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 Event 2: 7.6 Magnitude Earthquake Location: Sumatra, Indonesia Date: Thursday, October 1st, 2009 Even 3: 6.6 Magnitude Earthquake Location:  Sumatra, Indonesia Death Tole of events 2 and 3: 529 people ______________________________________________________________________________ Four countries recover today. The earth shook [...]

I now work amongst oak and locus. I walk among drop seed and switch grass–the grasses that are beautiful even in the fall when the prairie looses it’s color. They remind me of the scenes in movies when the characters run through fields. I tangle myself in webs of old vines that lay upon creek declines. They [...]

Today, while picking seed from an old prairie remnent called Harkers Prairie I realized what time of the day it was based on the possition of the sun. I acquired a nack for this skill while living and workign outside in Mauritania and am thrilled I still possess the tallent. I am glad something that [...]

It’s so weird. Today it thunderstormed. The sky was this deep blue. I could feel the cold rain, but I didn’t touch it or sleep under it. I knew not to expect a sand storm afterwords but I kept anticipating one anyway.

I’ve been here almost a week: Delano, MN. It’s been over a year since I’ve slept within the walls of this old remodeled farm house.  I can still feel Mauritania. The feeling that bamboo beds make after sleeping on them.  I can still taste Mauritania. The remains of the last glass of tea still linger [...]

I am going to miss the flapping of fabric in the wind. The way it calms you down during storms. The quieter it is, the closer you are to the storms end. I am going to miss the chickens jumping in through the holes in the limbar. There were so many mornings I woke up to [...]

I’m homeward bound. The ticket has been bought. My bags are packed. The goodbye’s said. The tear’s cried. I leave the mulafa’s attached to the barbed wire fences. The seed’s germinating in the soil. Now, I start my life after Peace Corps. 12 months premature. I wonder if I’ll miss the donkey cart’s The tea. Prayer call. The site of dead carcasses on the side of the [...]

My home has speckled ceilings A rosewood dinning table Granite kitchen counter tops A gargoyle Remodeled to the 21st century, but built back in the day. We have willow, oak, maple, and pine trees Grass that we don’t mow in zig zag patterns A bobcat; a tractor A tabby named Elvis We’ve upgraded to automatic watering systems We’ve moved onward to electric fencing Our basement doesn’t [...]

A pair of blue frames lies just before me The glass isn’t visible What poor child is disabled because he or she can’t see? How many children around the world don’t have access to an eye doctor? These children are burdened instead with enduring a life close to blindness. All because of circumstance All because they weren’t lucky enough to be [...]

The hot chocolate’s cemented to my tin cup. A ring, like those in the Grand Canyon, yet insignificant And then nothing, but silver steel It plummets down into flies. The disease lingers there, invisible. I wonder if even I clean it would the flies stay away? Where is my fly swatter now? Retired, sitting in a cabinet where it can’t be of [...]

A few years ago, when I was still in high school, I traveled to Europe. It was the summer after September 11th, I was 15. The trip spread out across Eurpoe: England, France, Italy, and Greece. It was perhaps my first time traveling by myself and even though I’d been through the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport [...]

So, a few weeks ago there was a witch hunt. Surprising right? Kind of shocking. I’m a bit aw struck (not in a good way). When I heard about it I couldn’t imagine it was true. The Gambia is so close. The Senegal/Mauritania boarder is only about 1 hour away (the Senegal River). The simple [...]

A shadow comes over the horizon. Spreading, breaching through the night’s fog. It light’s up the sky, even though it’s dark. It’s the only light for miles Its beam, like the sun’s, rises. But unlike the sun, it won’t shine for long. It has faded already moving steadily towards town. The blessing of a lone automobile in a deserted countryside The huge flashlight [...]

I’m left in the dark Literally My companions are cockroaches And I can’t even remember my last crazy Friday night. I’m left all alone Literally A stick in my hand A plate of peanuts at my feet My fingers are numb. But not from the cold, like one would think My molars ache. For I have already had 9 shots Only three more to go, Don’t worry though They’re [...]

So recently I had an epiphany. They don’t come to me very often so I always welcome them when they do. It all started when I got a text from my friend Marta Grabowski. She’s about to celebrate her birthday and was coming through Aleg on the way to Boghe. I was excited because usually, [...]

So yesterday, I came to water my tree nursery. I planted it in a new cooperative that I haven’t worked a lot with recently. They’re in a different part of town, but were really excited when I said that I would plant tree’s for them. I planted 200 Moringa tree’s in little tiny black tree [...]

So, here I am looking out through the window of my hotel and outside is rubble, you might think that we’d've been bombed. But, that’s mauritania for you. Anyway, there was a crowd of marchers protesting a few streets away. They’re upset about what’s going on in Gaza. My friends and I were okay, we [...]

So, I have been writing Christmas letters. All this writing is making me homesick. I keep thinking that I’ll be fine here in Mauritania. My friends will fill in the gap that’s left behind. Yet I miss the Christmas cheer. Claire and Mya have arrived at home this last weekend and I am not there [...]

There is a ton of sand covered in maneur, covered with beatles, covered with bits of trash. Okay lets correct that. It’s covered in a lot of trash. The wind blows the trash around. Most notable are the tinted plastic bags that people use to carry their vegetables in. Even my yard is covered with [...]

Life here in Mauritania is hardly what we call a piece of cake (they can’t even make cake for birthday parties because most people here don’t have electricity). And I still have to figure out what they do to celebrate birthday’s. I’m not expecting them to have the same rituals that we do. The goodies [...]

So I was just aout to call my host mother in PK 10 when I hear somebody say my American name. Not many people in Taiba know it, so I was curios as to who was in my town. It turns out that Sean came and got me via donkey cart in the midle of [...]

<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} So, today I was reading Three Cups of [...]

Last night there was a lot of wind. I woke up with a lot of sand all over my CD player and blankets. I was actually cold if you can believe it although, the sand wasn’t that comfortable to sleep with. It was like little dust devils blowing over you all the time really quickly. [...]

You would think that after four months of living in this country, I wouldn’t get choked up over a miss communication. Yet, it shows that I came here without any Hasseneyan background and very little French. You know those movies where there is a foreign exchange student and the host parents think that they will [...]