GoodTimes

DONE

I am depleted. I don’t know how to address the next room or meal or shower or person or bus or price. I am tired. Of my hairy legs and bug bites and greasy hair. Of dust. Of crazy drivers. Of the children at the window. Of rearranging my backpack. Of conserving toothpaste and treating [...]

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Africa Just Is

The soft spongey skin beneath my nails are rimmed with blue paint and there is a spot above my breast, too. It’s from today. We painted a pit latrine at a school for orphans as volunteers for SoftPower Education. It will not be the last bit of blue to stain my body. I felt brighter. [...]

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Top This

The water is angry and swirling from the splash of the sky, the shoebills are out for a bath, the monkeys are minding the forest and Africans are whooping and squawking along the ruddy, muddy shores while 50-50’s edge grows ever closer. I scoop the waves with futility. . paddle left, paddle right, hold on, [...]

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Donna, Steve & Stella

Of course, we still managed to have a good time in Egypt. Especially once my parents, Steve and Donna, arrived. Me a Mom at the Dahab Hostel. . . Yes, the Dahab. But we snagged an especially sweet spot with the retro-church-hall-charming kind of just-barely-above-ground bar culture which saves Egypt from itself, letting American University [...]

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The first days of Egypt. . .

Every day in Dahab seemed a lot like the one before. Every morning brought flies, breezes, heat and cats. Michael went running. I read or did yoga. Every day, Shepl would deliver our meals. Every day, Mustafa and Waleed would wash another section of rugs, positioning the pillows like crayons in a box before late-rising [...]

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A Little Like Homer

Back in Turkey, many falafels ago, we learned that the Turkish word for “one” was “beer”. Nice and easy to remember. In fact, we learned the numbers 1-5 by inventing a bar conversation: 1.Beer? 2/Eke (yuck) 3.Ooch (ouch! don’t insult my drink) 4.Dirt (it tastes like dirt) 5.Besha (that’s bullshit) The word for ‘beer’ in [...]

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Red (Wadi) Rum

Michael just loves to take everything in one trip. . . I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you what we were looking at. Climbing the Rum dunes. . .

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Oh Little Town of Bethlehem in the West Bank

It all started with the Danes–Anders and Frederick. And Eric, too. It was definitely his fault. Somehow, in this land of criss-crossed (get it??) confusion, they’d both bumped into Tony, a gay, eccentric, Christian Palestinian hairdresser who loved to host foreigners. So the day after late-night Guinness glasses to celebrate St. Pats (see here) . [...]

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Jerusalem Smiles & Skies

Old City Hostel (Photo by Michael) St. Patrick’s Day in the New City (must party before Holy Week begins!) Us with friar-to-be-friend, Erik. He was our personal religious tutor that week. Moon rising on Jerusalem. From the balcony, where we could watch the zealots with glee.

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The Cliff Hotel

The other day we realized that we’d hit hotel bottom here in Amman. Besides the piles of decade-old dirt in the corners, the obscene toilet, and the smelly blankets, its usually about 50 degrees in our room. To combat the cold, we’ve been sleeping together, in one very small bed to keep warm. Which would [...]

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