With all that’s been said about Islam lately, I thought I’d take a moment to republish something I wrote after returning from my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. This is a slightly edited version of a talk I gave to local churches and a local rotary club in Tennessee: Act 1. Arrival. […]
Tag: Peace Corps
Autumn on Shelter Island
Shelter Island is brimming with the colors of autumn. The trees are surrendering their leaves eagerly, and gold and crimson paint the landscape against a still-green grass. Needless to say, I am mesmerized by it, caught up in an awe that leaves me wandering around the island – quite literally – as though I’ve been […]
Peace Corps on Shelter Island?
At the risk of sounding like I’m boasting, I’ll avoid any overuse of the words “idyllic” or “bucolic” or “precious” to describe the little island I recently moved to on the East End of Long Island. But it’s hard not to have this strange overwhelming sense of awe when I drive around Shelter Island – […]
God [Bless] You
A week or so ago, on my way to the metro in downtown St. Louis for a ride to the airport, I was stopped by a man who begged me to buy him a meal. I don’t usually say yes, partially because I don’t have anything to offer. Every once in a while, though, I […]
Challenging Assumptions About the Modern Arab Myth: an Exploration of Moroccan Cultures and Traditions
Earlier this month, I gave a lecture to a group of United Methodist Men (and later to a local Rotary Club) about my experience with the Peace Corps. I am publishing that lecture here with only a few edits. I have also spliced in Wikipedia links every here and there. Please don’t regard those links […]
Silence of the Lambs, or what I like to call, Abdelqader Day
“Fouaaad. Fouaaad,” Soufianne chanted my name from his bike as I walked up to the gate of his house. Calling it a ‘gate’ makes it sound like a nice, walled-in community of some such. It’s technically the gate to the local fish market, of which the house is just conveniently connected. I yelled at Soufianne […]
To England and Back Again
There’s a scene in an episode of the Simpsons where Bart & Lisa are in London and walk into a candy store. The store owner warns Bart and Lisa to be careful, saying, “Word to the wise, British candy is a bit sweeter than what you’re used to ‘cross the pond,” but not heeding his warning, the […]
A Few Minor Adjustments
In only a week and a half or so, Ramadan will be over. It’s gotten hotter, unbearably hotter, and I’m always a little hungry, always a little thirsty, and probably more irritable than I’ve ever been. Something tells me I’m not alone in this. I was talking with Caity and Avery about that, about how […]
Freedom to Love, or from Mogador to America with Love
I’ve had a lot of moments lately (and I can’t help but think that several volunteers experience similar moments) where I sit back and think, “What am I doing, really doing, in the Peace Corps?” I mean, I’d say I’ve laid a lot of that out in previous posts, answers to those questions, that is […]
What I do (in a nutshell)
I’ve had a few people ask me now, “So, besides having the time of your life over there, what is it that you actually do?” The technical answer is that I recently began teaching English classes, and much of my time here will be spent doing just that, but teaching English doesn’t begin to encompass […]
