Month: December 2011

  • Empowerment – learning to love yourself

    Mwapoleni mukwai bonse! Mwacibuka shani? Ishina lyandi nine David Kapya, ndi kaipeela mu peace corps. Ndi kafundisha Pafya ubumi uusuma, imilile iisuma, na ukucingilila abalwele. Ndafwilisha abantu mu Mishi pa ubuyantanshi. Whew that’s a mouth full isn’t it? That’s my basic one breath introduction speech. It’s how I start every meeting. We’re always in an…

  • God – the big bad questions

    You know there are several questions Zambians ask when they meet you in the bush. This is going to sound bad, but I’m serious. The first is, “Who are you?” (meaning what’s your name, where do you stay, and what do you do); “Muzungu!” You’re a foreigner! Muzungu literally translates as wanderer/foreigner. It’s also become…

  • Sucker punched by kindness

    Well damn! It’s been a week short of six months. I’ve been point-adapting and haven’t succumbed to home sickness. Until about two hours ago. Some of my loyal readers and good friends know I love dancing, and that Alex and I danced as often as three or four times a week back in the states.…

  • Communication

    What is communication? What does it mean? Is communication talking? Acting? Exploring? Is communication a way to categorize, standardize and understand our world? Or is it a process of expression, one that can be measured, understood and predicted. Is communication so uniform that it provides commonality between all peoples, races and places? Perhaps communication is…

  • Riding This Roller Coaster Called Life

    Life is a river, well hell, life is an awful lot of things. But as y’all know from my previous posts life is more than that, life is everything we choose to make it. On a smaller scale life is a series of failures and successes. It’s learning, changing, and suffering. My PCVL -Peace Corps…

  • Rural Life

    I don’t know how often y’all get a chance to sit back and take stock of a day’s events but let me share my revelations from today. Don’t work outside in the African sun for 4+ hours. Ever. It’s a terrible idea. Five liters of water drunk and I’m still feeling the heat effects. What…

  • Change Is In The Air

    I’m resting on my porch, sitting and enjoying the sweet smell of rains on the air. Flowers are blooming, the land is growing, and harvest edges closer every day. I’d returned last night to a land that I didn’t recognize. My home is different. I was startled. Caught off guard. In awe. The rains had…

  • Homeward Bound

    What a crazy two days! I just made it home to my wonderful hut of awesomeness after two long exhausting days of travel. Let’s get some narrative goin’ here shall we? Sooooo, Sunday night, I receive medical clearance, pack my bags, and finish the last of my file sorting. Not shabby right? I felt ready…

  • What is Development?

    What is development? How do you perceive development? Is it possible to quantify development? It seems like the global community believes it is, but working on the ground, hand in hand with those who are “developing”, I sometimes find myself lost as to where to start. That said, here are some questions and maybe then…