January 2011
1 post
NYTimes: The Will Not to Power, but to Self-Understanding
http://nyti.ms/g8tzcM
December 2010
7 posts
I love dessert. →
He added slyly, “Now, this is a benefit to the chef, because if I do apple and cinnamon and you don’t like it you think there’s something wrong with me, but if I do apple and asafetida and you don’t like it there’s something wrong with you.” He laughed briefly, professionally. “The development of a pastry chef is not the development of techniques. It is the slow, careful development of a...
So that was it
I should have taken a photo or something. I should have cried through one or two of my hardest goodbyes. I should have had an anxious, restless night and woken long before the anxious pounding of my taxi driver upon my gate. But I did none of these things.
I’ve just been happy. It’s all so beautiful and while there are dozens more descriptive words that one really suffices. I drove...
reading/watching
I’m still trying to catch up on books I should have already read and movies I should have seen. Of course this is a futile and endless pursuit, but while I’ve still the time I press on…
Currently reading this. An interesting transition after finishing This Side of Paradise.
Apparently a big hit in the UK. Cute portrayal of clashing cultures.
One of those hauntingly...
while i still remember
The tapping always starts around 5:30am. The sound is identical to the clanging of my gate’s lock from the outside so it took me a few weeks to get over thinking that someone was knocking to get in. It wouldn’t have taken so long if it hadn’t in fact been someone knocking to get in half the time, but between Tabitha, Happy, and my landlord I get woken up by that clanging gate every few days. The...
November 2010
3 posts
I think I don't want to leave
Walking from The Hot Bread Shop down to the new Union Cafe this morning as I scanned the passersby, acknowledging some with a quick Mambo-Poa-Vipi, I realized I separate wigs from weaved or natural hair without a seconds’ thought. Not what I came here to learn, not exactly, but one of the thousand tiny pieces of this culture now forever a little piece of me.
Yesterday was my last Hash in...
“What would you do if you left college?” asked Monsignor.
...”
– This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald.
Ode to Moshi
I haven’t written anything here in a long time. I’ve been busy and traveling some, but there’s more to it I think. I have a friend in town for a week who diligently journals each day. I’ve tried that many times and even wondered if this blog would be something like that back when I created it, but it’s just not me. For one thing I’m not the diligent type....
October 2010
7 posts
“Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew...”
– Hemingway, “Snows of Kilimanjaro” (appropriate, I know)
one for the books
or at least the blogs.
(This first part was written a week ago. Then I got too tired to finish and couldn’t think about the trip again until today).
It´s 4.57am here in Moshi and I haven´t even considered sleeping tonight. For one thing, my roommate went on a 2-day safari and left her computer and internet stick. For another, I just survived the worst five and a half days of traveling that...
Summer plans →
This is probably a long shot, but I’m throwing out my plans for summer 2011 in case any of you feel inspired to join me.
Bike and Build is an annual cross-country bike trip for 18 to 25 year olds. There are 8 routes and one group of 30 for each route. Each participant has to raise $4000 to cover costs of food, lodging, getting your bike, etc. And some of that money is also donated to...
“It was the students at Duke who convinced me to bring the The Sopranos into the...”
– Tom Ferraro (my favorite professor, advisor, and a giant of a teacher), speaking at a Founder’s Day dinner last night, and basically proving why he just won the school’s most prestigious teaching award. (via bzcohen)
September 2010
3 posts
SPOT →
Every day or so I get an email from ¨no reply¨ with the subject line: SPOT. Surprisingly, perhaps, this has nothing to do with Gossip Girl. I have to admit that, although I faithfully checked these emails for the first few weeks, I slacked off a bit just glancing every now and then until about a month ago. Around that time these SPOTS became more exciting because they were getting closer and...
snapshot
there’s a line here at Red Chillis, backpacker oasis of Kampala. it’s a line that’s forming behind me as i type my musings away into cyberspace. and the great thing is that it doesn’t seem to mind.
i met this soldier on the street today. casually sitting outside a restaurant with his buddy, bedecked in a duke-blue and white camo oufit. “nice color, right?” he...
I'm alive!
While it might appear that I’ve stopped ticking, or my blog at least, the reality of the situation is even worse. My trusty MacBook has stopped ticking. And since Apple is completely unknown in Tanzania, I’m afraid I’ll be very unplugged and out of touch until my return in December.
Nevertheless, things over here remain exciting. Today I’m in Arusha waiting to board a 4pm...
August 2010
18 posts
Coffee! →
A good friend here, Sara, works for a company called Sustainable Harvest, based out of Portland Oregon with offices throughout Latin America and East Africa. They work to try and increase communication (and thus productivity) between all the members of the coffee chain - from farmer to barista. So this week she’s putting on their huge annual conference with about 100 participants from around...
Really, David Brooks? →
For my birthday a few weeks ago my dad gave me the Times 2.0. It was the perfect gift given my limited internet access. Whenever I get a few minutes of the web (every day or two when I pay for wireless on my laptop) the last 7 days of the New York Times downloads to an app on my laptop. It’s incredibly easy to use and looks like something halfway between reading the newspaper on the net and...
Amanda's going to love this
I’m in a state of ecstasy, and yet if feels oddly like I’m betraying myself or trespassing in someone else’s territory. You see, I’ve spent the last two days entranced by science and mathematics. And you have to understand who this is coming from. Look, I’m about as loud an advocate as you’ll find in my generation when it comes to the Liberal Arts education. In...
Keats
So I have this friend Peter and he’s the only person I’ve ever talked poetry with on any consistent basis. He recently ended a chatty email with the casual mention of some Keats and Marianne Moore. One of the many reasons I love him. Well anyways I found a volume of Keats at the Moshi library and read this jewel the other night. This guy’s the real deal, as they’ve been...
And a few shoutouts...
Taylor Doherty - thanks for clearing up the dilemma concerning the plural of Blackberry. And for doing it via Twitter (he sent me this link: http://twitter.com/APStylebook/status/20158446710).
Dad for sending me my first tumblr message. (P.S. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but my dad beat me to the blogosphere by a few years. Back in 2008 he started a blog about the kinds of things he loves...
look at this
Way too much text yesterday - sorry about that. I write my long text posts at night and publish them the next day, so when internet is unavailable for a few days you get blogpost overflow.
To placate you, here are some photos. First up is what you’ve all been waiting for - pictures of African children. I volunteered at a preschool for two weeks and took these pictures there. The kids are...
Ants and burnt cake
The couple sitting next to me is arguing about whether or not they can use the wipes they have with them, which apparently state that they’re for the use of cleaning medical devices. Compared to my ant-infested bar of soap at home, I think they’re ok.
Speaking of ants. Oh let’s speak of ants. How I hate thee, little devils. Remember those times when you left some food in out in the kitchen only...
I quit my job
That’s right friends, family, and all others who have tumblred upon my page. On Friday I met with my boss at KIWAKKUKI to let her know how much I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve seen and learned at KIWAKKUKI this past month, but that I’ve decided to move on. Before saying to what I’m moving on, some reflections on the value of my month at KIWAKKUKI.
Some history:
KIWAKKUKI is locally recognized as one of...
Noticing what I haven't noticed
When you first move to a new place you initially notice the new stuff – the stuff you haven’t seen before. But it takes awhile to notice what’s not there. Here’s my ever-growing list of things I haven’t seen in Moshi (and would have thought I would find here):
1. Helmets
2. Roller Skates
3. Dry Deoderant
4. Marshmallows
5. Cheese
I’ll be adding to this as the others come to me, but...
Why you may have received a 3000 word email from...
My unfaithfulness to my blog this past week is directly proportional to the unfaithfulness of Moshi’s internet gods to me. Regardless, I’ve taken to scripting my posts and emails at night so they’re ready to post whenever those mysterious inter-tubes connect me back home. This has led to some surprising discoveries. First of all, it’s true what they say about multi-tasking being rather...
July 2010
12 posts
Restless?
Today was the rare day that the internet was up and running smoothly at KIWAKKUKI. An important meeting took most of the other people away and left me the director’s computer and no “work” to do. Since I had spent all day Saturday in meetings I didn’t feel bad using this time to catch up on all things web-related that I could. Actually this started about 12pm, since I had spent the first part of...
And a few more photos...
This is Lydia, my house mom (she’s the one one the left, if you’re confused). She likes: beautiful clothes, spanish soap-operas dubbed in english, hip-hop music videos, pictures, learning to use her laptop, entertaining guests of all shapes and sizes. She doesn’t like: when I leave my light on and waste electricity, when i unlock the car door before she has turned the car off,...
"I hope I'm a fat girl someday"
A few cultural anecdotes:
The title of this post comes from something Rehema said to me the other day when I was talking about why Americans are fat (and in the process trying to explain what a drive-thru fast food restaurant is). She was completely serious and said it with the longing look in her eye that usually comes to 20 year old girls when they think about the next Twilight movie. Or...
Hoping this takes you to my Picasa album... →
Pictures from my second week in Moshi.
Some pictures
The general look of Old Stone Town, the most touristy part of Zanzibar - a beautiful, eclectic town full of winding alleys, decaying buildings, and hidden shops.
I took this from our beach resort the second night there. We were at the northernmost point and it was beautiful enough to make any photo look good.
A glance at our beach resort. It cost about $18 to stay there, including a full...