Right after I returned from twenty-seven months of Peace Corps service, the next three years were absolute mental hell. I had actually returned by boat, leaving from Barcelona and landing in Fort Lauderdale, and maybe it’s because of the sea legs I couldn’t shake for nearly a month, but I began to believe in the […]
Tag: travel
Story Collecting from New Orleans to Denver and Beyond
I’ve been out in Denver for work. Before that I was in New Orleans. I work in fundraising, and my job mostly consists of meeting people and hearing their stories. I don’t think it was ever intentional, but these last several years collecting and cherishing the most heartfelt human stories from the people I’ve met […]
The Smells and Changes of Hurricane Ridge
I don’t think it’s commonplace for us to regard nature as an olfactory experience. We tend to spend a lot of time out in the world viewing things, and maybe it’s just that I’m from a part of the country where freshly mowed grass is the closest you come to any sort of overwhelming smells […]
Between the Canopy and the Dirt
Work brought me to Oregon. Its beautiful scenery kept me there a little longer. I’m fortunate enough to have an old friend who runs a summer camp out on the edge of the Oregon coast, and it’s always nice to know someone from an area you’re visiting because they’ll know all the best go-tos. In […]
Sister
They say your brother or sister is generally the person you will know longer than any other human being. My sister and I started that off on the right foot. Four years apart, I’m pretty sure the first dozen or so of my life, all we did was bicker. There was the time she pushed […]
Transient Paths of All the Creatures of the Field
There’s a family of groundhogs that have been hanging around my house lately. They are joined, strangely enough, by the sudden return of deer who avoided the island like the plague when the summer crowds first arrived on Memorial Day. Some have been brave enough to get within a few feet or so. And driving […]
Hicham and the Paradox of Cultures
A few weeks ago, I was on a train for Rabat, and I met this guy named Hicham. Hicham was dressed to the hilt in religious garb, all black, and his beard would have put Sam Beam to shame. To be honest, I had no desire to talk to Hicham; I was tired and not […]
Some thoughts on a rainy afternoon on a train from Oujda
It’s not very often that I get to just write out the mundane things, but the mundane things are sometimes the best memories I want to hold onto, just for me. I’m sitting on a train in Oujda waiting to leave, and there’s pellets of rain slapping the windshield pretty viciously. Thought I’d kill some […]
Happy Thanksgiving!
First things first, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. You might not have known that I wasn’t before now, heh. But, read this for details. Otherwise, I’ll keep this relatively short. Mostly, I just wanted to say that I’m thankful I safely made it to my site in the desert (after ten hours of […]
