I woke up early this morning thinking about LJ.

So here I am.

Short Update for those who care about those things:

We got back from Tanzania. I was everything and nothing I hoped for and expected. It was perfect and horrible. I think I can speak for both of us when I say we learned an immense amount about another culture, ourselves, our culture, our ( Read more... )

 
The latest posts uploaded are on these dates:
24 May 2008 ( link)
25 May 2008 ( link)
26 May 2008 ( link)
27 May 2008 ( link)
28 May 2008 ( link)

Pictorial Updates:
10 June 2008--Happy birthday and a picture for
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 I have had a number of people ask me, “What exactly is it that you do, now?” or “What are you doing there?” over the past few weeks. I put this together to answer people’s questions. Some key points-CES is not a nonprofit, but does offer affordable rates to nonprofits (without any profit, we couldn’t pay rent). CES is donating time and services to ( Read more... )

Happy Memorial Day
So, I had this realization while here.
There is a huge part of me that is a crunchy granola girl at heart. I mean, I always suspected that I might have this tendency what with my anti-bra experiments in college (that was an unattractive look for me with my DDs-and a lot of uninvited movement going on under my shirts), penchant for ( Read more... )

Today we met with a woman, known as Mama Gift, who so reminded me of myself in my 20’s. We met to talk about her group, Kiviuta (Kikundi cha Vigana na Utamaduni Mwika), which does HIV education around the village in the Lutheran parishes, schools and generally any place that will have them. Part of what we are doing now is helping the NGO go ( Read more... )

I think I love Jamie Cullen.
May I am late on the bandwagon, but I thought I would share.

The hubby thought I might like him and downloaded some of his songs to the cheap mp3 player that I got myself for this safari of ours. Of the 400 some odd songs on here, I find myself going back to his Twentysomething and The Wind Cries Mary one over and over.

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 Yeah, it’s a gross generalization….
This is a hair update.
The locs that I began in October are going strong-YEA! While my hair does not retain the same amount of fullness loc’d as it did as my former fro, it does have a wee bit of volume. I hope that it increases as they continue to mature. Let’s see, on the 15th they will be 7 months old-in the “ ( Read more... )

 Wow…the time has come. We are strategizing and developing a plan to better distinguish our roles as consultants and volunteers for the NGO. We sat down and realized that we have not really had much in the way of time off or personal time since we have been here. Further our roles get really confused for others and us. Looking back at our plan, ( Read more... )

 You will have to excuse the Yentle reference….

Electricity and connectivity has been something of an issue, but I think we have it worked out. Here is a bit from an email to my mother. This is in response to her questions about Tanzania based on her experience in Haiti a few years ago. It gives ya’ll a sense of the basic issues that have stood in ( Read more... )

All I can say today is this: Communication is the key.
We have been here for a brief time, and I clearly see that our help is needed beyond developing programs. We will also provide an educational service and perspective that is the backbone for all that they or any other NGO or nonprofit will provide-communication with community. A community ( Read more... )