Volunteer
Two years living in rural South Africa, where the lucky pulled their water from a bore hole and the unlucky walked miles away to gather theirs from a questionable open source, I began to realize the luxury of potable water. And as my eyes and my habits adjusted to village life, I began to understand […]
They were scattered beneath the sprawling shade of a lone tree reaching for the far-flung gray clouds in a blue sky. When our Toyota pulled up and we all clambered out, no one shifted anything more than a gaze. A child continued to suck from her mother’s breast, another crawled away from his twin, and […]
Change gon’ come… Time is so relative, despite appearances to the contrary. Sixty seconds to 60 minutes to 24 hours…and days turn into months turn into years. Neat. Orderly. The same for everyone. Except it isn’t. For the last five months time has been this slow moving vehicle transporting me through my Liberian experience. And […]
In a throwback to biblical times or movies about India, the training took place on a Leprosy and TB rehabilitation community. The turn off of Ganta highway and down a dusty road passes a series of what appear to be one-room brick duplex homes. Where the doors are left slightly open I catch a glimpse […]
“what are the symptoms of malaria,” he paused here and looked around the classroom, “we are all affected by malaria every day so give me some symptoms.” The trainees began to list off the various symptoms that I’m currently recovering from. I’m a strange bird, I had a perverse sense of inclusion since I now […]
I staggered – literally -to the bathroom with my flashlight in hand. A few hours later I wrapped myself up in the bedsheet against the blazing cold. I say blazing because Ganta is not cold – it is barely even cool at night. Then this morning I found myself lethargic and sleepy and slightly nauseated. […]
I’d been fooled before. Gotten excited and mentally prepared only to be disappointed when the call never came or the whole thing was called off. And so I packed, but I didn’t alter my Wednesday plans. All the more so since I had been calling our counterpart for two days to try and solidify our […]
My sweet little man. That bright-smiled deep-dimpled love of my heart. Elijah. I at once craved and dreaded seeing my little angle. Excited because his smile, his laugh, his breast-fed plumpness and joy brings a smile to my face so easily; dreaded because to see him again means his mother is still sick. And so […]
I’m on a porch in the cool evening. The last orange embers of the cooking coals smolder in the distance – light without illumination – their glow does not penetrate the black. The lightening has subsided. What had been an amazing show of God and nature, flashing streaks of white against purple in the curiously […]
actionable rage
This post isn’t angry. It isn’t poetic. This post is meant to motivate – or at least begin the process of motivation because grief, though necessary, isn’t productive if you never move beyond it. My rage-less sadness that emerged in the face of the Zimmerman verdict does nothing to make circumstances better for anyone. […]
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