Observations
these days i am contrary to what i have most often been. so much so that i made up a word for it. unopinionated. ask me what i want to do and i’ll most likely shrug my shoulders. ask me what i want to eat and the most i can generally muster is what i […]
It doesn’t fall to the earth so much as it caresses it. Slightly heavier than fog but almost as inconsequential. I wake up to wet pavement and a car washed almost clean…almost. And it is a strange thing to miss. Rain. Real rain. The kind that thunders on rooftops and drenches the earth definitively. Not […]
I don’t believe America has to be perfect before we can reach out to help other nations any more than i believe i must be perfect before i can reach out to help another person. Hinging help on perfection will leave us all lost. Still, the reaction to Trayvon Martin’s murder reminds me of how […]
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I can’t seem to find the words to make people understand – really understand – that the accepted fear of a man, not in particular clothing but in particular skin, is how we got to a bullet in the chest. Listening to NPR today, a panel began a meandering discussion which at one point had […]
I wanted it to be worthy of him. As if anything would have been worthy of him. As if anything could say to the world, this was my friend. Magnificent. Brilliant. Generous. I wanted it to be worthy of him and found myself angered when the cell phones rang during the service, when the camera […]
Iganga Town, Uganda September 25, 2010 They smiled at me through my open window, me splayed out in the bed watching a movie on my laptop. I’d just pulled my earplugs out because I…I guess I heard them coming. Our guard grinned down at me as I waved them all in the direction of the […]
September 19, 2010 Iganga Town, Uganda The music meandered from marvin gaye’s sexual healing with a techno beat dropped in, it to shakira’s world cup African anthem. Bubbles O’Leary, one of Kampala’s busiest night spots, was equally diverse. I spent most of the evening trying not to stare as people mingled inexplicably. I say inexplicably […]
September 4, 2010 Iganga Town (en route to Jinja), Ugnada Mutatus are exercises in patience, tolerance, and humor. Every president, general, and potential saint should have to ride in one for at least a three-hour journey. The mutatu, a minivan divided into four rows of seats that could comfortably (if you ignore your knees) seat […]
September 4, 2010 Iganga Town, Uganda I was fuming. My mind working out possible solutions to a work problem. The sun glaring down on me, perspiration filming salty and shiny on my top lip. The ground, uneven and muddy, passed unnoticed beneath my feet. . “Mzungo goodbye,” somehow penetrated the roar in my head and […]
they can’t be just girls
they can’t be just girls. not simply middle or high school students on summer break, loving the feel of an unseasonably hot summer sun on their bare legs. they can’t be just girls like the sirens can’t be just falls, or heart attacks. they can’t be false alarms where indigestion is assumed but…”just to be […]
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