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In the early morning of this day ten years ago, I slept in blissful ignorance. When my dad woke me up, I opened my eyes to see his, red, but dry. My blissful ignorance vanished as he spoke. I can count on my two hands the days that have passed in the past ten years … Keep reading →

It has been twenty-three months since my last post. Because of the internet and telephones, most of you aren’t wondering what happened next. You aren’t wondering if my dad is still sick (he’s not). You aren’t wondering where I live or what I’m doing (Lubbock, working for a non-profit). Lately, I’ve been thinking about how … Keep reading →

Well so I have discovered blogging is not my forte huh? I have abandoned you. It has been 4 months since I wrote last. Those months have been relatively boring, which is my poor excuse for the lack of entries. But the last two months have taken quite a different tone. Here is my inept [...]

19 September 2009 This day last year I was on a bus from Philadelphia to New York to board a plane that would take me to a country I had never been seen on a continent I had only read about.  Now that place feels a bit like home.  There are so many things that I [...]

I have mentioned in the past blogs a distinction between expectation and reality.  The gap between what I pictured “Africa” to be before I came and the life I experience here now.  There are times when that expectation of the past comes strongly with an emotional voice that screams “ I am in Africa!”  That [...]

I am sitting in an internet cafe waiting on a file to download. I left the case in Maroua to begin this task at 7 this morning; it is now 9:01 and there seems to be no end in sight. I have been quite neglectful of the blog lately and I apologize. I [...]

19 May 2009 It feels like its been a long time since I have written anything, probably because it has.  But also I have been gone a lot and so the time has gone by really fast.  A couple of weeks I went to the South for a little vacation to the beach.  It took 2 [...]

21 April 2009 In the last blog, I talked about getting into a routine. It occurred to me that routine includes some things I would have thought pretty bizarre just a few months ago, 7 to be exact. The List • Sweating constantly, day and night • Wearing the same clothes for a week • Hours of free time everyday • Washing my hair [...]

5 April 2009 This is a good day. Yesterday the sky looked dark. I asked if it might rain and a man told me no, its not time yet. This afternoon the sky looked even darker. My counterpart told me the first rain of last year was on April 5th. As [...]

29 March 2009 It seems I have been a bit neglectful eh? I finally found some sort of routine, but it didn’t seem to include internet. I guess I can try to give an update on life au village. One might think that 3 weeks of being busy would be difficult to write about in [...]

3 March 2009 Finally the internet! It’s been a while since I was able to get online. And still I am sitting in the office typing hoping the internet will actually start working, as of right now there is nothing. Things are going really well. I had two meetings last Sunday. [...]

19 Feb 2009 Dear Captive Audience, Up until now I have been relatively healthy.  I know that must be disappointing for some of you, who are reading this blog patiently waiting for something actually interesting.  Like parasites, worms, elephant stampedes, or a tough disease shot from the tiny gun of a mosquito’s mouth. Well wait no more.  Last [...]

Just starting my second month at post and I finally had a meeting, two in one day, in fact.  The first one was in Gazad and the second in Moudawa.  They went really well and made me really excited about the next two years.  I woke up at 5:30 on Sunday morning to be ready to [...]

Last weekend, my friend’s little brother died.  I had never met him because he lives in another village, I don’t even know what he was sick with.  This is the third sibling of my friend’s to die; she is 17.  When she told me, her voice was softer than usual, but her eyes were clear. [...]

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago.  Actually I think it was New Year’s Day.  Better than listing what I did today! This is a story that is not about carrots.  It will seem like it might be, so pay attention.  Right now, about 12 inches to my left, there are two small carrots.  They [...]

I guess maybe most of you are wondering when I will start talking about work. Trees, plants, meetings, anything that might be a signal that I am actually doing something besides eating and reading.  Sadly I have precious little to give you.  My counterpart has been in the hospital for most of the time [...]

I made it through the holidays and all is well.  New years morning, I awoke to about 200 people singing at my door.  It was annoying and beautiful.  I will write more later but I did want to say that facebook hasn’t been working very well lately and I would really like to just use [...]

Hey I have a new address! B.P. 131 Maroua, Cameroon if its a package (an exellent idea!) send it to the same one as before. B.P. 215 Yaounde, Cameroon it might take longer to get to me, but it’s more secure. Will update soon! Happy New Year! Now you have no excuse not to write!       

I am embarrassed to put these up, but they are requested from my sister-in-law and this is the fastest way to send them!       

        I finally made it!  I am a Peace Corps volunteer and I have been living in Moudawa for a week now.  I will live there and work in Mouda and Gazal.  Moudawa is a small village, about 850 people.  Its mostly the Guiziga people that live there and that is also the language most people [...]

That’s the title to our technical sessions next week.  Bridge to Post.  Last Friday I had my last language test, and I made level, so I am allowed to be a volunteer.  My level is intermediate high, go me.  This past week I gave a presentation on live fencing/la haie vive completely en Francais.  Then [...]

1. Romeo and Juliette in the concession, they actually were dancing and I caught them in a pose.  But they are always smiling like that. 2. The part of the house I live in, my door is the one on the left.  My aunt stays in the room next to me. 3. The part of the house [...]

This week I stayed with a Canadian VSO volunteer in a village called Mouda.  I will be living in a village close by called Moudawa and I will work in a few villages around the area.  Its in the Extreme North and its only about a 45 min trip to Maroua, the provincial capital.  My [...]

Today I am at the Catholic mission instead of the other place.  Too many Nassaras at the other one.  The past two weeks have been really good.  I made a pepèniere, or a small tree nursery. Hopefully my acacia senegal trees will grow, but I am not that confident.  I think the dirt has too much [...]

This is a first.  The meter still has an hour and 20 minutes left and I already did everything else online.  So I can actually write without pressure. I am sure there are tons of things people want to know, or maybe not. But it is really difficult think of what to say.  I live in [...]

I finally made it to an internet cafe!  I live in a town called Nassarao with a really great family.  My host mother is named Katerine and she has been so much help with the language and everything else.  She has two kids, Romeo and Juliette.  Romeo is 6 and Juliette is 4.  It is [...]

Since Sunday, we have been in the capital of the country for our orientation.  I have had three shots here besides the one I had in Philly.  My arm is sore but my immune system is kicking. We just got out of our first agro-forestry meeting.  Dr. Injiti and Tiki are great.  They are super dynamic [...]