Watch the Walk

My neighborhood cleaned up their trash pile What do you do about your trash? Did that question make you pause for a minute? Is trash something that you think about on a regular basis? Or maybe you pride yourself for recycling? Or compost-- what a great option! But some places the "options" are a little more complicated. I've probably complained about the trash-covered beaches here in the past, but maybe the real problem has been less than clear. See, we have no landfill here. Between the steep mountains and private property, they've never found a good location for a landfill. We also have a fairly large amount of imported goods. And since buying in bulk requires having a larger amount of money at a time, many people buy in single-serving packages that that average 30 cents apiece. And you can imagine the plastic and metal involved in the packaging for all of that. Then there's the organic waste. Some of it, goats and chickens will eat. But not everyone has goats o...

We were sitting, killing time while waiting for an English teacher meeting to start, and a young islander teacher decided to quiz the group on their English. "What's the meaning of 'Facebooking?'" he asked. The room was silent. Someone replied, "I know Facebook. It has something to do with that?" "Let me give an example," the first teacher responded, "for example, my Facebooking is for romantic purposes." The room laughed uncomfortably, especially knowing that particular teacher's reputation. He's already got two wives... is he looking for more romance than that? But it got me thinking. See, islander Facebook is rather fascinating in a disturbing way. Like a boys' locker room crossed with random political activists, crossed with girls who take selfies or self-portaits in front of every green plant or white person on the island. I think it's easier to see the unappealing side when it's not your own culture using the...

Cutting up a little jackfruit Do you ever wish for alone time? In the African cultures I've encountered, being alone seems not to be a value in the slightest. I've been in Uganda to renew my passport at the American embassy there. Due to my passport not arriving before my return flight date, I ended up rearranging schedules and being in Uganda longer than I'd told my islander friends here. So we'd already said goodbyes, but I was still in country. I got a message from one of them who'd heard from someone back in the islands that I was still in Uganda. He wanted to know-- why didn't you tell me you're still around??? Well, we'd already said goodbye, but he  wanted to meet up again. So we agreed to meet up on my last day, when I would be in his city before my midnight flight. We arranged for him to come find me around noon. Since he and his roommate had cooked last time, I figured I should buy them a meal this time. Taking pictures everywhere Eight AM roll...

A picture I shared before my phone was stolen There's something embarrassing about being robbed. Especially when you're not aware until a couple minutes later. And after being warned by others about the frequency of pick-pocketing and purse snatching. Seriously, shouldn't I be impervious to the common thief? Aren't my protocols and hyper-awareness sufficient to protect me? Obviously not. Yesterday I was catching a bus from one city in Uganda to another with some friends. We started discussing the price of our transport and, at the end of the conversation I realized that my phone and headphones had been lifted from my purse. Within a couple of minutes the phone had been turned off (no longer ringing) and it was obviously not just misplaced somewhere. A police report and some time later I continued on my journey, frustrated and sad about the lost pictures from my phone, the difficulty of finding the same quality phone for a reasonable price, and... being a victim of theft...

Chestnuts delivered by visitors (from Asia) Jack the cat nipping at your nose Yuletide carols being sung by English students And folks dressed up in cotton clothes... Okay, so that's not quite how the song goes, but that's the reality of this Christmas season on the island. I've been busy since returning from my visit to the US, so blogging has gone by the wayside, but for those of you who are interested, here's a bit of what Christmas here tends to look like: -- Palm trees, fans, and fruit: it's the biggest fruit season on the island now. Lychees are in season, along with pineapples, mangoes, jackfruit, soursop, and more. It's hot and sweaty. But at least the rainy season rains have come early, so we get some relief from the heat during the rainstorms! -- English club celebrations: although Christmas isn't celebrated by many local people (in fact, you can have lots of fun asking people what day Christmas is), we like to make a big deal about it with our En...

A one-l-lama, that's a priest A two-l-llama, that's a beast But I will bet a silk pajama that you won't find a three-l-lllama. Alright, the poem doesn't really have anything to do with this post, other than to clarify that this is a two-l-llama we're talking about. The beast. See, I remember when my neighbors down the road had a bunch of sheep. Sheep are a little stupid and vulnerable to a lot of things, including dogs and coyotes. But the neighbors heard that a llama can protect a herd of sheep. So they bought a llama. Well, due to circumstances with the folks they bought the llama from, they ended up with more than one llama. But unfortunately, while one llama will protect a herd of sheep, two llamas form their own herd and leave the sheep to defend themselves. One llama? Runs with the sheep. Two or more llamas? New herd. And people do the same thing. On our own, we hang out people who are different from us, but give us someone similar and we gravitate towards the...

The view over Greenland As I've written before, travel between islands is often a stressful and unpredictable undertaking. But I haven't really mentioned the international airport in detail. Actually, I won't discuss its details even in this post... but instead I'll talk about a particular aspect of it that I find crazy-making. You know how, in American airports, you go through security? At security you take off anything metal, remove your baggy of liquids for screening, along with shoes, electronics, and coats. It's a pain, right? Then you get to the other side of security and are thirsty, but you don't want to spend $2-4 for a bottle of water. So if you're like me, you take an empty bottle, or drink the water in your bottle and carry the empty through to fill up on the other side. Do you do that too? Well, you'd better not try doing that here at our islands' international airport. Not allowed. Bringing an empty water bottle through? Not allowed. Th...