PeaceCorps

I Quit

I’ve always been one of those annoying people who follow through. I call people back. I complete the course. I finish my taxes on time. In fact, discovering that the world was full of people who tended to flake was incredibly annoying. But as I learned in my business, it also meant I got credit, [...]

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Running Home

About nine months ago, I rediscovered the satisfaction of catching a ball. We were at the final Peace Corps retreat up in the mountains. I was playing a little catch with a couple volunteers after a glorious run up the switchbacks. My stubby fingers fit neatly inside the leather, like so many hands before me. I [...]

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Part Two: A Developing Country CAT Scan

After my MRI appeared with a mucus coating due to my cold, making it impossible to determine if my lungs were looking normal (required for TB testing), Peace Corps told me that they’d schedule a CT scan. I really thought little of this, assuming it was an advanced X-ray. A staffer would meet me at [...]

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Roasted Peppers & Personal Revolutions

Fall has fell. I realize it when I paw through my pinks and pool-blues in search of earth tones, and find that I sent home all my winter clothes already. When I smell roasted red peppers in the hallway every evening. When I see the green apples emerge in the grocery boxes. When the smell [...]

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The Sounds of Sofia

My own audio reality show. . . Screech, stop, start, peel, grind, stall, gun Motor in. . . What IS your price for (flight) living above a busy city street? Scrape of a metal hitting a tree Bang of a wheel denting a van Echo of a rolling street divider The bus along side the [...]

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MEME: Blog Interview

So I’ve been hearing about Blogs and “memes” lately. Apparently they’re meant to be together. Like Peace Corps and Chacos. Pauly Shore and meaningless movies. Peanut butter and lettuce. (Just ask my childhood friend, Andrea Ashdown). The short definition, courtesy of Quixtar Blog, is: “A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or [...]

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Poetry Thursday: Orange peel patterns

I’m at the roof door. Sweating hours before. But a chill has touched down. It doesn’t belong. “What are you doing here?” I ask. But the wind is whistling to his own invisible Ipod. No one answers me. But I know. I know what comes when extremely hot weather patterns mix with extremely cold weather [...]

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From the hands of the disadvantaged. . .

Last week, Traditzia held an event to unveil the results of their MATRA Project, an initiative funded by the Dutch Embassy. The project, “Spreading Ideas, Creating Capabilities, Improving Lives,” has increased the capacity of 12 social NGOs through trainings on project design, budget development, skill-development and operational management for more marketable crafts. Basically, (a word [...]

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Catching up with the EU

Traditzia, with partner Foundation for Cultural and Economic Development, EU expert Olga Borrisova and non-profit consultant, Nancy Sasser, will train 10 NGOs on funding, advocacy, management and public-private partnerships. Techniques will include interactive sessions and simulated grant-writing exercises. These organizations all support socially disabled individuals–orphans, the mentally challenged, or physically disabled–from communities in the Southwest [...]

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Problem Solving. . .

So I have this friend, Toni. She’s a swell girl, a ranchgirl, in fact, from South Dakota, with a love for movie theater candy, a fierce loyalty to friends and terrific baking skills (must have been all that bonding with Caroline Ingalls on the Dakota prairie—thanks Juliliquoy). Also, Toni’s family goes on float trips, which [...]

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