the family that plays together...

...stays together.

chris and i have been having fun playing together lately. not that we've not played together in the past. but it seems like we don't have much free time anymore so we try to do fun stuff more often and take advantage of time together. you know.

last week we did face masks!



this sunday we took a 6.6 mile walk in congaree swamp.




and tonight we purchased bikes so we can have more adventures together!



we're not the only ones to have recently bought bikes though.

cheese and hummus

For the past year or so every couple of months I get together with a group of women friends and acquaintances to hang out, watch a movie, and mostly eat good food. Last night we watched the lake house at brook’s new home. In my opinion it was a pretty bad movie, like many of the movies we watch. But when you watch it together with a bunch of women it somehow turned a bad movie into a good one. I mean, the concept is totally preposterous and it’s totally cheesy, but yet somehow if you willingly suspend your disbelief you can get wrapped up in it and find yourself rooting for Alex and Kate to get together. And I guess that’s what they want you to do. So it was fun. Both the movie and the gathering of women.

this change was hard

i had my first driving lesson today, as i mentioned previously that i would. halima and i headed out with me driving toward a cemetary at a few minutes before 7:00 this evening to catch as much driving time as we could before sunset. we pulled in just as it started to rain and halima commented that the rain was "no good for driving." but we shrugged it off and swapped spots in the car. she reversed out of the parking spot. turned around and started to head down the road. not 25 feet i noticed a weird rumble. "hold on. stop the car," i said to halima. opened my door and...a flat tire. that's right! totally bald. so instead of a driving lesson halima got a tire-changing lesson. we did really well too, except the bolts were too tight and we couldn't get them off. i called chris to come get us but in the meantime a nice stranger who just happened to be in the cemetary at dark got the bolts off and finished the change.

next lesson, saturday evening.

2 posts in 2 days! i'm back y'all

rundown of the day.

i'm sitting in the library/chris's work using their fabulous wi-fi. though for some reason i can't get on my remote server. so that limits the amount of work i can do, which i'm trying to think is a good thing.

it was a fairly good day. i only cried once. but it was in the office of my big boss and our HR person. i think they really felt for me and the struggles i've been having and they hopefully are going to step in on my behalf to ensure that things get a little better. that's all i'll say about that.

yea, today was a good day. cry at the start, not at the end. and no upset stomach.

who needs addictions?

those of you who know me well know that every morning i have a cup of coffee. not only do i have a cup of coffee every morning, but i religiously have a cup of coffee each morning. i set everything up the night before so that all i have to do is push a button in the morning and viola! instant awakeness.

well, for the past few weeks i've been having an upset stomach every morning. i thought maybe it was anxiety. but i decided this weekend to do without the coffee. so for 2 days i went caffeine-free! for the first time in probably 10 years. and i did okay. i think i might make a habit of it. i did have 1/2 a cup this morning just to put a little pep in my step. but i'm really thinking of just doing without it. for reals.

absence

man, i blogged more when i was in africa than i do now. it's not from lack of thinking about it. i'm just either working or brain dead and really haven't been in the mood to blog. thought about giving it up all together but then i feel like once i start something i should see it through.

so i'm back. with a picture from africa. as the title states, a store front in dodoma.

things of note lately? i'm going to be teaching a somali woman how to drive next week. that should be fun. or an adventure at least.

advice from a 10 year-old vet

"Well that is how cats are.You have to be strict when she is bad,and
you have to play with her and spend time with her.Try and set some
rules,like no shredding papers.If she doesn't listen,then hold her up
to the papers or whatever and say no! Bad cat! It might sound mean
but it works and it doesn't harm her."

*this was an email in response to a message i sent my 10 year-old niece telling her about how our cat is so cute but she's a terror. i thought it was particularly good advice. points well-taken, doc.

metros are some of my favorite places

Got at b3co.com!

thanks for the link, fuzzy. i've been on more metros than i actually thought i would've. too bad the city i now live in doesn't have one.

phooey

i'm sick for the long weekend. suckeroo.

i guess that's my body saying, "hey girl, get some rest!"

and the cat's going, "yea! it's cuddle time."

i guess i can deal with that.

what we came home with

despite me not really wanting a kitten, chris and i came home with one yesterday afternoon. project pet had no cats over 12 weeks at this petsmart. and i was taken with this tortoise-shelled one.



we renamed her moki (from fraggle rock). and pretty much all she's done is hide under the couch and meow (a lot).



in other news, i finally got up the nerve (or got fed up enough) to cut my hair off again. it's not been short since before we lived in columbia. i am pretty pleased with it.

i'm so lame

i've totally pulled a queen d and not posted in, like, forever. i hope this isn't going to set the tone for the next few months but i have the feeling that it will be pretty lame on this blog for a while.

to give a quick update:

i took a break from working last weekend and went to charleston to meet theresa and zoltan, who were in hilton head on vacation. theresa blogged about it here. we had a great time seeing them, as always. good folks.

work work work this week.

good-bye party for g last night. he leaves for seminary on wednesday. not an overly sappy party, but the sentiment was definitely there that he will be missed.

today, chris and i are heading out to cut my hair and get a cat. in both cases, i don't know what we'll come back with.

it's a major award!

first day of program? check!

back when i was in college in ny i worked for a settlement house called grand street. one summer i was a counselor with a summer camp and i remember my first day with the kids as one of the most chaotic days of my life. i went home after that first day, layed on my bed and staired at the wall for close to an hour, too exhausted to sleep and too jittery to think.

this is how i thought it'd feel after our first day of program yesterday. but much to my delight it was nothing like that first day at grand street's summer camp. my staff was amazing! they kept the kids having fun and under control. the kids had a great time and even did their homework voluntarily. now i know not all days will be like this, but this is a great start!

now, if we could just get our technology up and running! that's where the bottleneck is.

beauty academy of kabul

my new-ish friend, angela, sent an email this week inviting some of the ladies out to see this movie at the nick. i put it in my head that i wanted to see it ever since i heard a report about it on NPR. plus, it's the night before the big day, as i just stated, so i thought it'd do me some good to get out.

this was a really interesting movie, especially as someone who has aspirations of moving and working abroad. i'd definitely recommend it. the typically-opinionated american chauvenism is well-stated and should remind us all that our ways and views are not always the ways and views of others, nor are they always the best. however, the documentary is also a reminder that even the smallest things that people do to help others can create real and lasting change. both should be lessons for us all.

program starts tomorrow

i've been fairly vacant from my blog lately because i've been just been working pretty much all the time. and the few precious minutes a day that i'm not working i've wanted nothing to do with a computer. plus, there's really not too much to talk about other than the hum-drum of work. it's been fairly boring. well, not boring to me, but the retelling would be boring.

but at 2:35 PM tomorrow our club's doors open and we'll have about 100 11-14 year olds wanting to be "entertained" for the after-school hours. i think we're ready. as ready as we can be. so here's to a few weeks more of chaos!

happy holidays

i got a card through interoffice mail today at work. it was a christmas card. strange.

or maybe i just needed a little holiday cheer.

or something

my brother (well actually his company) won some award from mac. that's about all i can say about it because it's all over my head, and when i looked for a link to provide on this post (and to illucidate his dumb sister) my brother had so many hits i just didn't feel like sorting through them all.

but let's just say that last night it was announced that he won an award from apple for the best workflow design in a certain catergory. perhaps he can give more info on a comment??

erica and fuzzy wedding pictures

can be found here. you might want to read chris's blurb about his thoughts and events on the wedding. he pretty much said it all.

thanks, new job for the fun outing!

from the city that gives you the the gamecocks and cocky, meet the blowfish. this is blowie. (i wouldn't make this stuff up!)

the WEDDING

we're in chicago for erica and fuzzy's wedding. they got hitched yesterday without a hitch. erica was beautiful. fuzzy was dapper. and despite the record heat both inside the loft and outside on the street, all went well and a good time was had.

we'll post pictures when we return and i'm sure fuzzy will post some too soon. check out his flickr pictures of the rehearsal and dinner at their place.

amsterdam heeft 't

for those of you who didn't know. we got a bonus country into our trip abroad last month. we got about 5 whole hours in amsterdam during the bright and early time of 5:30 AM to 10:30 AM. once we figured out how to buy a train ticket and got on the right train going in the right direction, it turned out to be a really good time to see the city because it was "rush hour" and we could see how folks commute--via bike! it was so quiet and peaceful. dads and kids and stylish young women in cowboy boots rode through the city on bikes with little baskets on the front. plus i got a cappuccino and it was really good.

all in all we only spent about an hour walking around. but i'm glad to have seen it. here are just a few of our pictures.

blast from the past

i went to charleston yesterday to see my high school friend, flo. we hadn't seen or spoken to each other in probably over 8 years. but we reconnected again and had a great time catching up on our lives. i won't say it was like old times again because, well simply put, the old times were a little crazy. but i will say it was like no time had passed. it's amazing how we've missed so much of each other's lives yet i still get the feeling that she's an instrumental part of my life.

oh, and i look a little strung out in this photo because i was trying to explain to an 8 year old how to work the camera so he could take our picture. not a bad shot, though, given it was taken by a child whose hands were almost too small to hold the camera.

day 3-ish on the new job

folkses been asking how works going. so i thought i'd let you all know that...well...it's going. and going. and going. i gave my resignation and 2 weeks notice at the old place and they agreed to "release" me before those 2 weeks so long as i completed a few tasks. of course those tasks are time consuming and i'm freaked out about how to get it all done. but in any event, i've been working the 2 jobs this week and probably will again next week and i'm kind of running around trying to do all things for all people. but rest assured that soon, very soon, my friends, i will be down to one job. and that one job, as far as i can see, is absolutely fabulous. i love it already and am so happy to have made this choice.

africa story 2 - greetings

one of the things that i really liked about tanzania was the formal greetings that they all had with each other and the level of respect that seems to still be there between elders and people of...well...high respect. i sound like an old rambling grumpy when i say this. "kids have no respect these days." but that's not really what i mean. in east africa (and, again, in many other parts of the world too) there is a protocall for greeting certain people. and it's just really cool to see this play out in society.

on our first day in east africa, while we were touring the "suburbs" of dar es salaam ("dar") with our friend jackie, we would pass by kids and they would genuflect just a little and say "chicamo." and we were supposed to respond "madahaba." it's a greeting that one gives to their elders or anyone of respect. it was just so cool to have someone sort of show that respect so openly and to greet people they didn't know in such an open manner. additionally, when we were staying with a family in mwanza, there was a 100 year old grandfather who resided in the house. he spoke no english at all (in fact he really didn't speak that much in general) and i spoke very little swahili. but i knew that every time i walked into the house i could say "chicamo" to him and he would say "madahaba." it felt good that eventhough we really couldn't communicate, i could still show that respect to him for being my elder and i could humble myself that way.

the above picture was taken during said tour of dar. it is of a classroom of preschool/day care students. when we walked in jackie explained who we were and asked the teacher if we could visit for a minute. when we walked in the room the children immediately stood up and said in unison "good morning, uncle" (to chris), awaited a response, sat down, stood back up again and said to me "good morning, auntie.' it was nearly one of the most adorable things i've ever seen.

clear as mud

i guess i can make it public now that the bosses have been told and the job's been verbally accepted. as of monday (or 2 weeks from monday) i'll have a new job. i think i'll unofficially start monday but i told my current employer i'd give them 2 weeks if they needed it. so technically i'll be doing both for 2 weeks.

this new job is a big deal for me, a huge step up in responsibility. i'll be the director of an afterschool program and will be responsible for all the components of the program which will see over 100 students 5 days a week. plus i'll coordinate some other pieces of the grant, like an adult literacy component and some other "stuff." you know how that goes.

moms's be bloggin'

chris's mom that is.

welcome!

first things first

so in typical me-fashion, i'll start with the crapper.



this is a picture chris didn't post on his picture stream of photos because he felt it was crude to have a toilet in your album. but i think it's interesting. so here it is, a typical african low toilet. not unlike toilets in many other countries. even if you've never seen or used one of these, you can probably figure out how one would use such a thing. this particular home had no running water so the yellow bucket was filled with water. you took the blue cup, filled it with water from the bucket and then slushed it into the toilet. amazingly, it worked! and guess what? very little water waste, unlike our american toilets!

it was surprisingly not hard and not gross (unless, of course, you're riding in a train and there is simply a hole in the ground leading to the train tracks and feces and such spread all over the compartment because of the rocking of the train.). for the most part these "swahili toilets" were the kinds that were in people's homes and in public places. however, wherever westerners frequented (i.e. missionary homes, fancier restaurants, hotels) they had our "normal" high toilets.

time for a change

i'm not very good with big changes. so i've only changed my blog's cloths a little bit. i think i like the subtle difference though.

and, no offense to fuzzy but i took him off as contributor for now. i wanted my profile picture back. i think it's cute. we can add you again, buddy, the next time around.

i've also added our pictures from africa in the toolbar to the right. most of you have probably already seen these on chris's blog (if not, check out his post). if you've seen them then you'll know that these are not all of them. to see all 375+ photos and to get the complete, personal story, you'll have to contact me to schedule a visit.

vacation #2

i just got back last night from a second, shorter vacation. my brother and his family were in the outer banks of nc for a week and invited me to come up for a few days since it was so close to columbia (or so i thought!). once i realized i'd be half way home, i decided to drive another 5 hours to visit my mom and step-dad in nj. another quick visit there with an appearance by my sister, but it was worth it.

i'm home now and have no other vacations planned...well at least not until the wedding of the year which is in less than 3 weeks! the bonus, though, is i still have 1 more week until i have to go back to work! woohoo! so i'll be home this week catching up on all the things that i neglected for the past 4 weeks. this'll make me want to go back to work come next monday.

where have i been?

well, since you asked, i'm in new jersey. yes, i know i just returned from africa. but now i'm in nj and before this i was in north carolina. and before that i was sick. and i'm still a little sick. at least i still have a sore throat. but the sore throat has not kept me from blogging; the traveling has. so that's where i've been.

picts and stories

chris posted a few snipets of stories and a couple of pictures of our trip here. i'm still planning on saying a few more things but just haven't had time yet. i originally thought i'd recooperated really well from jet-lag. but then yesterday i came down with some bug and have been down for the count until this afternoon. i'm on the road again tomorrow to the NC coast to visit some family and then, since i'll be a good chunck of the way there, i'll head up to NJ to my mom's. travelin' fool!

community development

when we left for our trip 3 weeks ago the other apartment in our duplex was not rented. it had already been vacant for a few months so i figured we'd come home to new neighbors and i prayed they'd be nice folks, since we share front and back stoops as well as a wall.

so when we pulled into the driveway last night and found a new car parkec next door a little pit formed in my stomach. i hope these people are nice and respectful. then, at 10:30ish this morning we get a knock on our door and it's our new neighbors, kendra and her sons caleb and judah, stopping by to say welcome back. they're friends of ours from our old apt who we told about the place! not only that but they had a home made breakfast for us because they figured (correctly) that we had no food!

i think this'll work out just fine.

back home

after approximately 30 hours of traveling, we made it back to columbia last night at about 8:30 PM. needless to say, we were exhausted. yesterday morning we were in amsterdam; the morning before that we were in nairobi. and we didn't get much sleep in between. we had a full day in nairobi on monday because our flight didn't leave until 10:00 PM. and then we flew overnight to amsterdam. we had a 5 hour lay over there so we left the airport and took the train into the center of town. we got on the wrong train though, so by the time we got into town we only had about 1 hour to walk around, but that's okay because we were so tired and our feet hurt already from our walking in nairobi. so we saw a few streets, got a cappuccino and a pastry (yum!) and then headed back to the airport. turned out our flight was delayed about an hour though. so we ended up getting into atlanta late and missing our connecting into columbia. and can i just state for the record that atlanta's airport sucks! but they did get us onto the next flight out, which was technically only an hour later. but it too was delayed so we left about 1 hour 45 minutes later than originally anticipated which isn't too bad. but when you've been traveling that long and you're so tired it seemed like a lifetime.

thanks to margaret who was waiting for us patiently at the airport to drive us home.

i'm feeling pretty rested today, but chris is still dragging. but we're slowly going through out pictures and will post them somehow on the respective blogs. we're thinking we'll post them all as an album in one location and then i would like to write up accounts and stories about some individual pictures at my site. so anyways, you all have that to look forward to. :)

Saturday, 6/24

From Waldie's World in Africa:

Well, it is our second to last full day in Africa and probably the last time we'll be able to check email. So I thought I'd send another quick message.

So far our visit to Nairobi has been really good. Chris and I were a bit nervous about our stay in this city because of the stories we've heard of pick pocketting and the ill-fated moniker "Nairobbery." Now, we've only been here just over 24 hours, but we've had no problems at all so far. It's really just like any huge city, full of hustle and bustle. Nairobi is by far the biggest city we've been in and the most developed. All of the streets in the city center are paved. There are many many high-rises. Almost everyone dresses Western, with jeans and tank tops and such. And there are the most white people in this city than in any other one we've been in. Now once you get out of the center of town, I'm sure this all changes. But it's been interesting to compare this city with Dar es Salaam, which is still developing and has less Western influence.

After our email yesterday, Chris and I walked to the Kenya National Museum only to find that it was closed for renovations (much needed we were told). The nice man at the museum with whom we spoke told us they had a temporary exhibit at the Nairobi Gallery. So we walked over to that. The exhibit there was about traditional practices of well-being and ways of art and it was very interesting. However, about halfway through I started to feel ill (probably just from being overly tired and then walking around) so I sat outside while Chris speed-walked through the rest. Then we took a cab home and ate at our guest house and stayed in for the night. How boring. But the rest was much desired!

This morning I woke up refreshed for a breakfast of cereal with milk (it was delicious!! Glorious milk!) But Chris was a little sleepy head and missed breakfast. After taking a long time to actually get moving, we walked yet again through town. This time we headed to the railway museum. This documented the development of the railway system through East Africa by the English and Germans. It was a very interesting museum (Jim I think you would've liked it) because the railroad was so influential in spreading Western culture and development across this part of the continent. It was a tremendous feat due to weather, natural environments, and man-eating animals!

After the musuem we were starving, so we walked into the city center again and stumbled upon a fairly nice restaurant. We gave in to our Western temptations and got some familiar foods (pizza and spaghetti and ice cream!). Then we just wandered around the center of town looking into shops and trying (unsuccessfully) to make it in time to the Masai market. We decided, however, to go into a tour place and booked a safari for tomorrow. The Nairobi National Park is just on the outskirts of the city and has all the native animals (except elephants) roaming freely. The price was really reasonable and we'll have an individual driver to take us around for a few hours. We figured this would be a great way to spend our last full day in Africa.

We're, obviously, at the internet cafe now in the same place we visited yesterday. We plan to eat dinner here and walk around a bit and then head home for the evening.

Tomorrow we'll go to church in the am and then the safari. And Monday we'll look at the school that Chris is interested in and then meet up with his teacher, Fabian, again and have dinner before we get on our 10:00 pm train.

It's been a fabulous trip and we're remiss to leave. But we do look forward to being in our own space and not living out of suitcases. This'll probably be the last time we write while here but it will definitely not be the last time you hear about this trip as we'll post more and more photos and stories when we return. Thanks everyone for your posts and comments. We have gotten them and appreciate everyone's support of our trip and prayers while we're gone.

Love, Waldie and Chris

Friday, 6/23/06

From Waldie's World in Africa:

Hello All,

Well, sorry again for the lack of communcation for so long. We made it to Nairobi this morning. We took an overnight bus yesterday afternoon from Mwanza, Tanzania and arrived in Nairobi around 6:00 AM this morning. The ride was fine, though a bit cramped and we got very little sleep. We are staying in a guest house called Mayfield Guest House. It is run by the Africa In Mission (AIM) missionaries and it's a great place. Our room is really nice and the people there are all very knowlegeable about Africa and Nairobi. So while we waited in the lobby this AM (for 5 hours!) for our room to clear out we talked to a really nice older couple who've spent a lot of time around all of Africa, especially Nairobi and got a lot of pointers about where to go and what to do here.

So we've not done much since we've gotten here. We took (HOT!) showers and rested a minute and then headed out to grab a bit to eat, check email and go to a museum.

Our time in Mwanza (well, the village of Nassa actually) was very nice. We were treated extremely well and were given the best of everything. We made some nice friends there and were sad to go. But as we move closer to the end of our trip (4 days I can't believe it) we're more and more excited to get our picts developed and share with all.

All for now. :)
Waldie and Chris

Monday, 6/19/06

From Waldie in Africa:

Hey All,

Sorry for the lack of email contact for a while. We've been away from computers. Chris and I are doing fine but this will be a short message because we don't have much computer time and Chris still wants to check and we're trying to book our hotels for Nairobi. We are currently in Mwanza, toward the central north of the country on Lake Victoria. We arrived here after taking a train from Dodoma on Wednesday/Thursday. We arrived here very late on Thursday and our friend, Fabian, picked us up and took us to a hotel. The next morning we woke up, ran a few errands and then were taken to his in-laws house about an hour drive into the country. We've been staying there ever since. The Mashikus are very nice and they have been very hospitable to us. We have made a trip into town today to do some errands aand things. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will help around the school in which the Mashikus work. I think I'll be helping an American mission group teach cake decorating (random?). And I think Chris will be doing some construction or something.

Thursday night we will take a bus to Nairobi and arrive early in the morning. We will stay there until we leave the continent on Monday night. I'm hoping we'll have more email contact when we get to Nairobi. But until then know that we are having fun, are still in good health and are VERY well taken care of. More stories to come.

Waldie and Chris

Sunday

From Waldie's World in Africa:

Sorry for such a short and abruptly-ended email last time. I thought I could get more info into it but in the end it was pretty worthless.

Anyways, I'll try to briefly catch you all up on what we've basically been doing for the past couple of days. I think we last wrote about going to Bagamoyo and seeing the bus stop at the evening. That evening (Friday) we went to a cultural center for African dancing. I think it was supposed to be traditional dance but it really seemed more like something to entertain the wazungu (white people). but we enjoyed it a lot, whether it was traditional or not, though we were very tired (and Chris fell asleep for a minute during it). He also got some audio tape of the singing. We'll share when we return.

Saturday we spent resting around Dar. I slept in! And we caught up on errands and such. Perhaps that's when I last emailed? I can't remember what else we did this day. Oh! we saw the fish market in Dar. It was an interesting site (and smelly).

Sunday we went to church at St. Joseph's, a large cathedral-like church right by the water front. They have many masses in English and Swahili so we attended the English mass. It was fairly normal as far as Catholic masses go, nothing too different. Sunday at noon, our friends with whom we spent the first night in Dar came to pick us up to have lunch at their place and pick up the luggage we had stored at their home for the week. We walked in the pouring rain! to the bus stop, waited 45 minutes for the bus, took an hour bus ride and then walked another 25 minutes to get to their home. This was the commute. Can you imagine doing that every day to get home from work! Unbelievable. Oh, and the walk was through mud and rain water. One way was flooded so we had to walk through another whole pile of water apparently to avoid the other pile of water. It wasn't too bad, though I know we walked through some sewage. Poor Jackie, our friend, had a broken shoe by this point so we weren't feeling too sorry for ourselves.

At their house their generocity continued unabaited. They had much much much food for us, as well as sodas and wine. And they gave me (Waldie) 2 scarves and Chris a tshirt. It was very nice.

Today we woke up, checked out of our hotel and took a 7 hour bus ride to Dodoma, Tanzania's capital. We've just ridden through town one time but it seems extremely small for the capital though. We were picked up at the station by Dr. Dixon Chilangani, a friend of our friend (Chris's professor) in the United States. Dr. Chilangani is the dean of Msalato Bible College on the outskirts of town and offered to put us up for 2 nights until our train leaves for Mwanza.

This place is beautiful! It's a little compound for the college with houses for the faculty, as well as a chapel and some office buildings. The house they gave us has 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, big living room, kitchen, and another extra room. It has running water and electricity and a stove and fridge. It's unbelievable. Chris and I walked in and were like "yea, we could live here for a while!" but anyways, they also have been extremely generous. Dr Chilangani and his wife fed us dinner this evening, though they cooked meat and we couldn't out of respect say we didn't eat meat. So yes, folks, we had meat. We made it through the meal ok and feel alright but i have to be honest and say i think we'll stick with vegetarianism!

Anyways, we're here on the campus and I'm not sure how often we'll be able to check emial because we're using the Dr's office. But I wanted to give you the update. We are still doing really well, have had no sickness at all, have seen some BEAUTIFUL countryside, and some cute children on our journey thus far.

We'll keep you posted as we know more.

Love, Waldie and Chris

Saturday update

Do I need to keep saying that it's Fuzzy just posting emails from Waldie from Africa?

Hey guys, this going to be a quick one because we have less than 3 minutes left on the computer. But I wanted to let you know what we've been up to. Yesterday (Friday) we went to a small fishing village called Bagamoyo, about an hour outside of Dar. It was a pretty easy ride but we took public transport which was an adventure, especially on the way home because we got dropped of at a different spot and couldn't find our ride home. When we finally found him he had a flat tire so we sat around with him until after dark in the bus station. Usually it's not safe for whites to be out after dark (because of muggings) but because we were with an African it was totally safe and really cool to see the station in the dark. Plus it had rained all day
yesterday so we got the experience of the African mud. It was crazy! and it's not even the rainy season.

OK, 1 minute left. Gotta send. More later :)
Waldie and Chris

Greetings from Afrika Ya Mashariki!

Fuzzy, again, with another message from Waldie's World and Chris in Africa:

Hello from Dar es Salaam friends and family,

It is the end of day 2 of Chris and my visit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We are having such a wonderful trip so far, I cannot explain it all now. But I wanted to send a quick note out to you all to say hello, we are here, and to give you some highlights.

After spending 21 hours in transit on Monday/Tuesday, we arrived in Dar very tired but very happy to be still. We spent the night with the family of a friend of a friend in Dar who live in the "suburbs" of the city. Predi, Rosemary and their family were very welcoming to us, having dinner ready and giving up a bedroom for us to stay.

Yesterday, after waking and having a great home-cooked breakfast, Chris and I were given the tour of the neighborhood along with a local primary government school (with almost 2,000 children!) and a nursery school. Then we took a taxi into the city center and obtained a hotel. That and a few good meals at local restaurants and a much-needed nap, was about all we
could fit in for the day.

Today we awoke to the sounds of the muezzin from the mosque down the street calling the Muslims to prayer (at 5:00 AM). Some of us got out of bed around this time (CHRIS!) and some of us slept another 2 hours till a more reasonable hour. We breakfasted in the hotel and then set out to see some museums and shops around town. We had a really lovely day as the weather has been mild (though slightly rainy) and the people are just so nice.

Tomorrow we plan to take a bus to a small fishing town about an hour away. That should prove to be quite an adventure so we'll have more stories to come.

I hope all is well with you all in the states. We are taking lots of pictures and look forward to sharing our stories with you all when we return.

For now, kwa herini,
Waldie and Chris

Habari from Africa!

Hey, Waldie'ssoon-to-be-in-law Fuzzy here -- Waldie is sending emails back from Africa and I'll be posting them here. Enjoy! Waldie starts... now:

Hey Folks!

As you can see from this [post], Chris and I made it to Tanzania! We are in Africa y'all! We still can't believe it. But the sights, sounds and smells around us can't deny it. This is Africa.

So the long and short of it is this. Our flights were fine. Long but uneventful. And long. Did I mention the flights were long? Oy! We were ready to be out of moving transport when we arrived last night. But our friend's friend, Predi, picked us up at the airport when we arrived and drove us to her sister's house. The house was about a 45 minute drive (through a maze)
into the "suburbs" of Dar. Her house was very nice though and they really gave us the royal treatment. They had cooked us dinner and bought us soft drinks and gave up one of their rooms for us. We ate and talked a little, had a "shower" (poured cold water over ourselves) and went to bed. The house had electricity (and a TV and computer) but no running water, though ironically it did have all the accoutrements for it (faucets and such). For a toilet we went in essentially a hole in the floor and poured water down it. You'll see picts.

This AM we awoke to the sounds of women singing, men selling their wares on the road, birds chirping and a rooster. We were pretty tired this AM but got up and had a really nice breakfast, though Chris was feeling a little ill (from the travel I think). Another sister, Jacki, took us around the burbs to see the school in which she taught and to show us the "neighbors." This was a really nice introduction to Tanzania and a nice welcome. The streets in the area are all unpaved and the houses ranged from hovels with barely a roof, to really nice brick enclosures with whole compounds. We were quite a site, apparently. The little kids were saying to us Mzungu (white person) and Shikamoo (a greeting of respect).

We are in the City center of Dar now in a hotel (the Safari Inn) which looks almost like a hole in the wall but is quite sufficient. There is a restaurant attached. We have a double bed and a private bathroom. And there are a bunch of westerners staying here too. The lobby also has a TV and computers, where Chris and I are typing this. We plan to rest the remainder of the day (it's almost 6:00 PM here) and eat at the hotel to rest up for tomorrow when we'll probably do some exploring.

Ok, I'll sign off now so Chris can check his email. We will write again in a few more days to give another update. We love you all and can't wait to get home to share our pictures and our stories in person with you all.

Kwa Herini,
Waldie and Chris

see ya'll on the flip side

this is was the best we could do to clean out the fridge as much as possible before our trip. if anyone needs capers, jalapenos and 1 egg in the next three weeks, you know where to come.

although we're certain to find plenty of internet cafes during our trip, i am not sure if i will update the blog while gone. it'll depend on the price and how reliable the connection is. for sure, though, i will be sending a few group emails out and most of you who check this regulary are probably on my "africa" group list and will most likely get a message at some point during our trip. but if you're worried you won't get one and you want to get a message while we're gone, send me a note and i'll include you in my group email.

so for now, i'm off. we'll be back on-line for sure around the last week on june. oh, and when you see us next, rest assured that we'll now be african. at least that's what i'm told.

getting down to the wire

well folks, it's getting close. 2 more days until we leave the states. by the way, if you haven't already, you should check out chris's post with our itinerary on it. it will give you more of an idea of what we think our trip will look like.

we're pretty much packed and all ready to go. spent the day doing laundry and packing up. tomorrow we'll do a few things around the house and make adjustments. but otherwise, we'll all set. i think we'll go see x-men to keep us busy for a little while. then, monday morning, at the bright and early time of 10 AM we'll set off for columbia airport with our chauffeur, margaret. (of course, we have a 4 hour lay over in atlanta before we take off out of the country. but it's all good).

my boy be's smart, part...whatever

worry not, friends. with a little tooling around on the internet, my hubs "fixed" my palm pilot, or rather figured out how to get it working again.

blasted technology!

i think technology has a great capacity to really help us humans stay organized, streamline our work and do more with less time. but on the other hand, what i think technology is really doing is that it gives you the illussion of all this. and then when you really need it, it punks out and leaves you in the lurch.

you may remember that chris gave me a palm pilot z22 for my birthday. i love(d) it. it's just 2 months old and today it crapped out. just won't turn on. i called chris to tell him this and he said "oh yea. some of the reviews said this about the device. but all the rest of the reviews were really good." so it's all just a crap-shoot?

well, crap.

3 day weekends rock!

this has been a great weekend!



friday night and saturday chris and i went to visit cheryl in greenville, south carolina. sean came over too and we all had a really great time. the picture above is of the suspension bridge which is in reedy river falls park, an awesome park that was in the downtown part of town. i'm sure chris will post some of our pictures so i'll let him do that. but, man, greenville is a happenin' place. we really enjoyed everything about our 18 hour-long visit, but most especially i enjoyed the company.



we got back home to cola in time to rest a minute and then hop in the car to go to the big mo with dogwood and ingrid. no, we did not see the king and i, the prince of egypt or titanic. we saw over the hedge and mission impossible iii. both movies were very enjoyable, as was the entire evening.

yesterday was spent running around picking up gifts and such for our trip to africa and then last night we went out to hear irish music and enjoy the good company of a few more close friends.

today is just chill, chill, chill. except that it's really hot outside so i may just chill, chill, chill in the house where it's cool.

kiswahili...

or whatever. i'm just sitting here waiting for my husband to finish translating an email that was written to him in swahili. we're about to leave to go to greenville for the night. ya!

a long weekend and 4 more days of work to go before my big break. yippee! i'm starting to get that mixed nervous/anxious feeling about the trip. one minute i feel like we're totally prepared and then the next i'm certain it's going to be a disaster, which i know it's not. but what i'm really dreading is the plane ride. i keep thinking abou the fact that 2 of the 3 flights (seperately) will last longer than 1 work day. yikes!

ok, i'll stop rambling because chris is ready to go. sean and cheryl, here we come!

the autobiography of malcolm x

i just finished reading this book (as told to alex haley). my friend anthony gave it to me back in april sayng it was his favorite non-fiction book and a "must read" for everyone. took me a while to trudge through it. i think i just wanted him to move on from white-hating and get to the facts of his life. "the white man's the devil;" yea, yea, i get it. but now that i'm finished and have read the thoughts and comments of alex haley himself at the back of the book, i really enjoyed the read and can completely understand anthony's opinion that everyone in america should read it.

if i sit back and think about the image that came to my mind about malcolm x before i read the book, it was of a villain, someone to be afraid of. completely opposite of martin luther king, jr. MLK = good guy. MX = bad guy. why is that? i didn't even know anything about him (sorry, i missed the movie). but that's what society did to him. he started out bigoted and seperatist (justifyably so in my opinion). but he came around to see the larger issues of culture, class and race. now that i've read the book i have a lot more respect for the man. i still don't agree with all he said, but i don't think of him in negative terms anymore. i now see him as a good guy, a martyr.

so, yea, even if you don't agree with me, or my new friend malcolm, read the book.

what am i going to read in africa?

any suggestions anyone?

gotta be:
- easy enough to transport
-but lengthy enough to last 54 hours of transport (at least)
-and not about genocide or ethnic violence (not the place, folks)

my boy be's smart #3

check check it out!

jelly bean!

Happy Birthday, oh sister of mine! i hope you get to have ice cream and cake today. and perhaps, just perhaps, get 7 bunches of flowers.

this is my busiest 2 weeks of the semester

or at least that's what i've been saying to almost every person who asks "how's it going?" the state standardized tests start on monday so everyone is crazy, teachers and students alike, and all of my programs come crashing to an end at one time. so i have graduations to run, work parties to facilitate, end of the year reports, all that kind of stuff that i don't mind doing, but not all at once. so tuesday i had the end to my biggest program, FAST. and now that that graduation is over with, i think i can sail through the next few days okay. but i sure can’t wait for it all to be over (for this year).

on the home front things are pretty hectic too. i’ve not even really seen chris for a few days. well, that’s not entirely true because he did come to help out at FAST graduation from 4:30-10:00 PM. he has his homeskillet visiting while he participats in some bike races around the state. the reids set off from MS this afternoon, so I hear, and should arrive sometime tomorrow. then saturday is chris’s big graduation (congrats ol’ boy!) and our shin-dig saturday night. if you didn’t get an invitation, drop me an email and i’ll give you the specifics.

so that’s the 4-1-1. i do have the night “off” tonight so i think i’ll check out the laundromat down the street. being in a new place, I gotta check out the new hotspots.

itinerary

itinerary,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

here it is, folks. it's official. we're going to africa! this is our itinerary, not that you can read it. but tis for real.

i even got my vaccines on thursday. four shots at one time didn't hurt as much as i anticipated. but i think my body has been mad at me because i've had a low fever for the past 24 hours. but after sleeping all afternoon, i'm feeling a lot better.

my 4 heroes

we went to hamido and hawa's apartment tonight for our regular wednesday night english class. tonight hamido learned to read and spell these words: write, read, say, copy, draw, color, number and name. and she really did learn and recognize these words where at the beginning of the night she did not. cool.

signed, sealed, delivered

mom sent this photo since i couldn't find one.

3 years

tomorrow will be my and chris's wedding anniversary. (and dogwood and ingrid's, too. happy anniversary, guys!) i went looking on snapfish for old stored photos of our wedding and i couldn't find any. suspicious. i thought we had some online. but alas. that was before our digital camera as well so i guess we don't have any on computer files. use your imagination. or stop by and see the pictures and movie we have at home. anyone? anyone?

anyway, back to our anniversary. so, yea. 3 years. good stuff. i got a great guy. to give you all an example of how great he is, i'll share a story. while the 2 of us sat on the couch tonight, chris caught a fly with his hand. one hand. that's skillz.

so here's to a great guy, a great marriage and 3 wonderful years. happy anniversary, scoobs.

my boy be's smart, part 2

chris was awarded the outstanding senior in sociology award today at usc. it was a long, but nice ceremony in the horseshoe and once i moved to the shade i enjoyed being outside for a few hours. afterward we got to go inside the university president's house for a reception. swanky place. anyways, we didn't take the camera into the president's home so we have no pictures of that. but if you want to see a few more of chris and his award, click on the picture above.

pardon our mess. we're under construction

click on the picture to see a set of picts of our new place. it's pretty unimpressive with no pictures on the wall and things just randomly strewn about. but it'll give you an idea. while you're there, check out picts of our trip to charleston during my parent's visit. or you can click here to see them.

our new pad

okay, okay, i said i'd post pictures like 2 days ago and i've still not done it. i'm hoping to take some this morning but just in case i thought i'd write the post first then do the pictures, that way if i don't get to the pictures, well, you all would still know what's up.

so we officially moved saturday, though we spent a good part of the week prior pre-moving-bringing boxes over, cleaning, etc. saturday went well, thanks to several generous friends who lent vehicles and/or time. by the afternoon we had everything moved in and chris and i were arranging and rearranging everything to make it work. by now we have most things unpacked but a lot of that is just sitting around on the floor waiting to find a home, as i'm sure you'll see in the pictures to come.

the place is cute, though. it has a few quirks-leaky fridge and 2-prong outlets only (!!)- but otherwise it's a sweet deal. we've already decided we're having a housewarming/graduation party on may 6th to show the place off. come on over if you're around!

HOLY SMOKES!

we're officially going to africa! for 3 weeks on june. we booked our tickets yesterday. it's the most money we've ever spent in one shot but it'll be totally worth it and, as my sister-in-law said today, we just need to get there.

so we fly out of columbia, into atlanta and then layover in amsterdam and into dar es salam. then we'll travel through tanzania, staying for a few days in mwanza, the 2nd largest town in the country, on the coast of lake victoria. chris's teacher is from this town and he's promised us some friends to stay with and, hopefully, some non-profit organizations to volunteer with or to see. then we'll go to nairobi, kenya and will leave the continent from there.

i'm typing this on our new-to-us computer!

mom and jim have been here since friday night. we've been bus-bus-busy. but not too rushy-rush-rush, which is nice. saturday we trampsed around columbia, going to some our our favorite haunts. sunday was charleston and mepkin abbey. yesterday, though, i came down with some sort of cold. slept all morning while mom and jim revisited our favorite columbia spots to make more purchases. then i drug myself up to go to the congaree national park. i bailed on a work function i was supposed to go to last night because i didn't feel up to it, but opted to go to the movies with everyone to see neil young, a heart of gold at the nickelodeon. it was good but i got sleepy in the end. don't know what's in store today, but this afternoon we finally (and hopefully) sign our lease! woohoo! and we'll take advantage of $.55 slice night at pizza man for a last evening of fun before mom and jim hit the road early early wednesday morning. pictures of the visit to come.

i think i might have a "neatball" sandwich for dinner

well, chris pretty much updated you on our week already. so i don't want to feel redundant. but a few things of note.

we think we've found an apartment to move into. for reals this time. not the places chris mentioned. we looked at 2 on tuesday. apt 1 was just a little too shabby for what we wanted. and apt 2 was just a little too big for what we wanted. but we looked at a place wednesday that seemed just right. so we submitted an application last night and we're the only people to have seen it so i can't really see why we wouldn't get it. hopefully we'll hear from the property manager tomorrow. but here's a brief description to feed your palate just a little bit. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, central heat and air, hardwood floors, little green space out back and "woody-ish" behind, 1 block from a big park. woohoo! ya park!

timero, the grandmom bantu, can now write her name perfectly without looking at another copy of it for guidance. we have 5 woman this week (plus a screaming infant). i'm appreciative that nicole is now helping out, and that chris is taking the noisy (albeit cute) kids outside.

mom and jim come tomorrow. yippee! and they’re bringing a newer computer for us. with os 10! out of the dark ages we come! fun things me might do during the visit: pick strawberries, mepkin abbey and charleston, $.55 slice night at pizza man, oh yea, and move.

thanks for the well-wishes

as most of you who read this know, yesterday was my 28th birthday. it was a lovely day spent mostly with my husband. but i received lost of phone calls, birthday cards and well-wishes. so thanks, everybody for thinking of me!

if you're curious what we did...well, friday night i got together with "the ladies" to watch i robot. enjoyed the movie, but the company was much better. they even made a cake for me and sang happy birthday. then saturday chris and i drove up and down the streets of select neighborhoods looking for houses to rent. it was such a treat to just meander and hang out with my guy. then we went to the columbia international festival, had an awsome lunch (from india, the carribbian, and turkey) and watched the entertainment. then last night we went up to the lake to have a cookout with some friends. all-in-all, a very laid back and relaxed day. perfect!

something cool to check out

mom sent me this link the other day. i don't normally pass along this kind of stuff, but this was actually really cool. plus, it's to a beetle's song, so you can't go wrong.

and...this is not something "cool to check out" but rather something i just checked out myself in the mirror so it's on my mind. well, on my head actually. grey hair that is! it must be my fast-approaching birthday (it's saturday! hint, hint.) but i just noticed a spot in my hair that has WAY more grey hair then it used to! how distinguished. or something.

today i saw something i had never before seen

while stopped at a red light i saw a man in one car successfully sell a pair of shoes to a woman in another car.* gives the words "door-to-door salesman" a new meaning.

*okay, i actually didn't see the transaction completed. but the guy showed the woman some shoes (without either of them leaving their cars) and then when the light proceeded to turn red he motioned for her to follow him into the burger king parking lot where, i presume a transaction was perhaps completed. but still, that's savvy.

check it out

i don't really know what it was about fuzzy's post that made me want to read one day in the life of ivan denisovich. it's probably my on-again, off-again eternal search for things that put my life in perspective. but in any event, i got it from the library last week and finished it off this weekend.

excellent book. and it didn't depress me. just like watching fight club will make me feel better about the world, this made me feel better about people. i guess that was the author's intention so i'm fairly unoriginal in this. but it just all made sense to me. under such inhuman and abject conditions i felt that the characters behaved in very human way. well, i won't go into it here. but check it out.

i'm beginning to think i like russian literature. first the master and the margarita, then anna karenina, now the life of ivan denisovich. that can't be all the russian literature i've read though can it? hmmm.

humbling

one of my jobs at work is to bring various speakers into the school or an individual classroom. today i brought in the operation get smart team. they were 3 guys and 2 girls talking about the choices they made in life which led to the various crimes that they committed which eventually landed them in jail. these folks are serving time anywhere from six years to life for some really hard crimes.

i feel really fortunate to have met these individuals and to have heard their stories. certainly they have committed some heinious acts and that should not be forgotten. but they bear their souls every day, earnestly pouring out their faults and foibles for the betterment of the young people in our community, so that they don't make the same mistakes. i have not seen any better form of rehabilitation. and in the process it made me realize what a truly blessed life i live.

catching up on old photos

here's a few pictures from last weekend which we spent in georgia, if you remember.

this is what we spent most of our time doing, though. puzzles.

techno-rific weekend

even for the techno-idiots.

friday i got an early birthday present! thanks scoobs (with the guidance of fuzzy i hear). i've spent a lot of this weekend entering all my oh-so-important dates and my contacts' addresses and stuff. yaaa!

then, yesterday we realized office max was going out of buisiness (or at least the 2 stores in columbia that i went to are). so we bought a new phone (our old one was not liking to dial 3's and 6's, which had become a hassle). and we bought a new printer (our old one stopped working a few weeks ago and found out we could fix it but it would cost more than the worth of the machine). of course, in typical waldie and chris fashion we got home and the printer was not compatable with our operating system. boooo!

so today we've gotten an offer to be given another computer, a better one. for free. thanks bo. yaaaa!

the heat is off

i think.

for those of you who were worried that we would die of heat stroke in our apartment. i'm not 100% sure if they did anything or not though. it got cold last night so we opened the windows and it was managable in here. but it's fairly warm again today and the apartment is still cool-ish. at least cool enough to walk in the back room. so hopefully it'll stay this way.

also i had my 3rd or 4th visit with the somalis. i really like them and am so excited to be getting involved in their community. today i came over and there was a somali woman named halima there. she speaks english fluently (she's been in the us, it seems, for a while). so she was able to give me a little more information and i could tell her about myself. she was very sweet. she reminded me of sister thomasmari (for those who know her) who was always gentle in telling you what she thought you should be doing and how you should do it. so now all of a sudden i've realized that i've changed my times for tutoring in order that i can help another mom who was always working when i came over in the afternoons. but also i'm now trying to find someone to go with me to help the kids while i help the moms. don't really know how that happened but i guess i feel flattered that she was comfortable enough to pressure me into the change. i really don't mind.

africa to our apartment?

i'm in the worst mood ever and as such, i probably shouldn't be blogging. i've purposely not really talked to anyone today because i know i will just not be a nice person. i'm not exactly sure why i'm in a bad mood, though much of it, i guess, stems from the fact that our apartment is 90 degrees, despite running the AC full blast all day. how is that possible, you may ask. well, friends, for those who don't know, we live above the boiler room. so in winter when the heat is turned on, our floors are heated. normally not a big deal when it's like 40 degrees out. but it's been in the 80's for the past 2 days. but the heat is still on in our place. so i've been sweating all day and spitting nails. poor chris. my anger is doubled because we wanted to move out and they won't let us. so urgh to usc graduate and family housing!

we spent friday and saturday at my grandparents' house in rural georgia again. this time we didn't pick pecans, but we did pick turnips. i have, no joke, like 10 pounds of turnips (thanks chris!). if anyone in the columbia area wants some, please let me know. one can only eat so much turnips. anyways, the weekend was good, even though there were way too many people in a way too small house. my uncle, his daughter, her roommate, my 2 grandparents, 2 HUGE dogs and 3 cats were all there (plus me and chris of course). the house is only 4 rooms so it was tight. but it was good to see everyone and as always we had great (albeit way too much) food. plus we got legal advice and a recipe for the almost-famous oat balls from my uncle sammy. so yea, that was my weekend.

now i'll go back to wallowing in my ill mood.

four things

because fuzzy asked so nicely...

Four jobs I’ve had
Cheese Cutter
Trail Blazer
Program Implementer
Site Coordinator

Four movies I can watch over and over
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Little Women
13 Going On Thirty
Fight Club

Four TV shows I love to watch
I don’t have any TV reception so I don’t watch TV. However, we do have the following on DVD:
Fraggle Rock
Will and Grace
Dave Chappelle
Looney Toons


Four places I’ve been on vacation
Bermuda (May 1996)
Egypt (May 2000)
Monti Cristi, Dominican Republic (March 2004)
Okefenokee Swamp, Florida (April 2005)

Four favorite dishes
Ice Cream (my favorite flavor changes with my mood)
Pasta Bella’s (now non-existent) olive oil spread
Pretty much anything mom makes
Veggies and dill dip

Four websites I visit daily (I’m going to change this to weekly because the only thing I have time to visit daily is the GNC (data entry site for work)
CNN
Waldie Family Photos
Bill check
My blog (yes, I really do check it. I usually can’t remember what I last wrote.)

Four places I’d rather be
Sleeping late with Scoobs
Outside on a walk
Africa
At mom’s sitting down to dinner (or having hors d’oeuvres & cocktails

Four bloggers I’m tagging
Rachel (blog already would ya!)
Ben (because I want to read something other than complaining and politics on your blog)
Bo (it’s all in the family)
Theresa (because I never comment on your blog)

what does good friends, yummy food and a 10 year-old waitress have in common?

answer: greenwood, sc .

thanks, sean and cheryl for a fun saturday. you helped pull us out of our slump!

(*and i'm not kidding about the 10 year old waitress. she waited on us at tw boon's. she was the only server in the whole place and undoubtedly was the most precocious child i've ever met.)

my boy be's smart

he just was picked to be awarded the outstanding senior award in the sociology deparment at usc. smarty-pants!

happy birthday, waldie's world!

it all started a year ago today. wow, does time fly.

life plans, or something like that

i figured since i’ve been on this computer way too long trying (unsuccessfully) to get my printer to work, that i should at least maybe post a quick update.

it’s been a tough week in this reid household. but it looks like we’ve at least decided that we’re going to stay in columbia for the year. we’re going to start looking for apartments because we have to be out of ours by may 10th. chris will get a job and we’ll try out the 2 breadwinners thing for a little while as he looks at grad schools and such for fall 2007. oh, and we’re getting a dog. because i want one.

africa to columbia

i just spent my first afternoon with the somali mothers to whom i will be teaching english every wednesday until who knows when. it's a long story how i stumbled upon this opportunity. but let's just say they need help and i'm happy to provide it.... except, yikes! how does one go about teaching reading, writing and speaking of english to people who speak no english? i should mention for those who don't know it already, i don't speak mai mai (their language) either! so this will be quite an intersting process and i certainly will be learning just as much (if not more) from them as they will be learning from me.

i have a few (very few) thoughts on how i think i might approach this task. but i realize that my friends and family are all highly intelligent people with brilliant ideas and lots of unique experiences. i'd be open to any and all constructive suggestions anyone might have as to how i could help these women learn english. post any thoughts here. seriously, dudes. ideas. i need them.

friends are good distracters

i thought i'd follow up the previous sad post with a bit more upbeat post.



thanks, melissa, for visiting over the weekend, especially given that essentially you paid a lot of money to put up with 2 cranky and depressed friends.

this picture was taken at congaree national park, where we beat the rain and took a nice little hike on saturday. we also ate good food, played games with more friends and drove around charlotte.

updates

i know chris has emailed and/or called most of his close friends and, for the most part, the word is out. so i thought i'd just go ahead and put it out here as well to get the prayers going. chris's dad, david, had his regular two-month check-up on thursday and they found some not so good news. the nodes are larger and more numerous in his lungs and it has metastasized again to his liver. obviously this is bad news and, in fact, is worse "bad news" than we really thought we'd get. the good news is that (other than the cancer) david is in excellent health. tricia keeps him pumped up on vitamins, he's eating healthier, goes to work, and is continuing to live his life like normal. he's going to go on 2 more chemos (4 total i think) and will keep going every other week to get his treatments.

that's pretty much all the news we have at this point but we'll update more as we know more. thanks, all, for your continued support and prayers for david and the family.

my cousins rock

literally.



last night chris and i went out to augusta, georgia to soul bar to hear my counsin's band, a fir ju well play. as always, the show was excellent and i am always immensely impressed by their level of skill and talent.

an added bonus was seeing fellow atlanta-based performer anna kramer.


anna was also an excellent performer and i really enjoyed her music. a fir ju well played backup for a bunch of her tunes and was impressed (yet again) by their level of skill on someone else's music.

both bands will be touring up the east coast and then a fir ju well will head west. check out both of a fir ju well's websites for dates and locations.

we took a bunch of pictures. click here to see the set.

just in case you doubted us

you may remember our stories about our peace corps recruiter being kind of flaky and always just repeating the same story to us.

well, we just got another round of emails from her today. thought i'd share, you know, so you all would be as up to date as we are.


Original Message from recruiter:

>From: "Lorenzo, Bernadette"
>To: 'waldie', chris reid
>Subject: Peace Corps
>Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:22:33 -0500
>
>February 10, 2006
>
>Hi Waldie and Chris:
>
>I just wanted to let you know that I submitted your biodata to
Placement.
>I
>will let you know when I hear something. Thanks for your patience.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Bernadette Zayas Lorenzo


Chris's Response:

From: Christopher Reid
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 2:40 PM
To: Bernadette Lorenzo
Subject: RE: Peace Corps

Thanks so much. We look forward to seeing where the next steps take us.

Chris


Bernadette's Response to Chris's Response:

February 10, 2006

Hi Chris and Waldie:

Thanks for your patience. It is a longer and tougher process for
couples.

I'll let you know when I hear anything.

Thanks,

Bernadette
(404) 562-nnnn


...so, uh, there you go.

sean asked

"why does the organic milk i just bought have a "sell by" date of march
25th? if anything, i would have thought that things without weird
chemicals in them would have gone bad faster."

and i responded pretty much like: "i don't know. i've noticed that one too. i'll do a little digging to see what i can find."

so, sean and others, here's what i've found.

there's no straight answer, (when is there ever, right?) not even with organic (sigh). apparently, sean, we're not the only ones to notice this. when i googled "organic milk expiration date" a lot of good hits came up. there's all ends of the spectrum in this debate, ranging from these guys, who make some valid points but are a little too pro-business/conspiracy thinking for my palate, to this group of concerned parents, who explain that it's because organic milk is ultra-pasteurized (see the link to know more about what that means), which removes the microorganisms and spores that cause spoilage.

i just got up to see what brand of organic milk i bought this week (i vary depending on where i shop). i have organic valley, which is certainly one of the larger businesses selling organic foods. the expiration date is march 17th and it looks like the milk was shipped out of wisconsin, though i can't quite tell because it says on the box that it's processed and packaged at a plant stamped above but i think that info is in code.

this raises an important point, of which i am constantly amazed that i have to remind my nieve self--buyer beware (even with organic). even though you think you’re doing good by buying organic, sometimes you could still do better. i think the pro-business guys are right that you should really pay attention to where in the US your dairy products (and all products) are being shipped from because we all know that local is better in so many ways (and there’s no argument against that!).

so thanks, sean, for asking the question and forcing me to do some research. when i go to rosewood this weekend i’ll be sure to pick up all the milk boxes and take a closer look.

help save americorps nccc

most of you all know that in 2001 chris and i met while volunteering with americorps national civilian community corps. if you've ever spoken to either one of us about our year of service you'll know that it was one of the most rewarding, life-altering experiences we've ever had the prilige of having (an not just because we met each other;).

well, in an effort to cut down the federal budget, president bush is threatening to completely shut down the nccc program. it really doesn't look good, judging from the comments today by the chairman of the board and the ceo of the corporation for national service. they just basically said that they'd like enough money to shut down the programs properly.

in my opinion (and the opinion of countless others) that's just simply not good enough. please sign a petition to help save the nccc program. even better, send a personal letter to your senator or congress person.

here were my comments about why i think americorps nccc is worth saving:
AmeriCorps*NCCC is a program with a rich history steeped in dedicated, quality service toward the American public. Stemming from the Civilian Conservation Corps, which provided valuable jobs to needy & able Americans in the 30’s & 40’s as well as laying down the foundation for much of our nation’s valuable natural infrastructures, the NCCC has lived up to its legacy by providing a myriad of invaluable services to Americans in every corner of our country. NCCC members have provided services that range from disaster relief in 2001 to victims of the attacks on NY and DC and in 2005 to victims of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, to helping build houses for the needy, to assisting low-income children achieve greater academic success. I implore you to maintain the funding of AmeriCorps*NCCC and allow future generations to continue delivering this valuable service to our fellow countrymen in need.

strike one

sorry, folks, for being MIA lately. i've just been swamped both at home and at work and have either not had the time or the brain power to put anything down here. it's not really going to let up until next month, too! yikes!

but we did have a little bit of new news today. we heard from catholic relief services, our thus far #1 choice for international service. and it was el negativo. chris spoke with the guy, a very nice gentlemen. and i was afraid we failed our personality tests. but that's not true. they just couldn't find a place to put us, a couple. so alas, that one's down. but it's good to know and we'll move on to other options. can't say i'm not bummed but we knew this going in. it's hard to find slots for married couples in the smaller programs. so it just wasn't meant to be and we'll look into putting more effort into the other 4 programs we're applying for.

blasted technology

here's a little fact about me. in some cases i'm really particular about details and making everything "just right," i.e. stuff at work. then, in other cases i couldn't care less about perfection, i.e. stuff with technology.

you may have noticed i've added a few links to the right of my blog. but my blog does some funny thing (it may have bothered you in the past) where it likes to just randomly add extra lines with bullets wherever it likes (eventhough the code is the same on each line). it now seems to want to be really obnoxious (look to your right now). if it bothers you you can either A) tell me how to fix it or B) suck it up.

i really don't care that much about it so i'm opting to B) suck it up (at least for tonight).

the trio is complete

check out my sister here. i can't promise it'll be grammatically correct, but she's a hoot!

weekend on

i wouldn't necessarily say we had a whole weekend on. but saturday chris and i spent 12 hours and 9 hours respectively roofing a house. we were volunteering with homeworks, a non-profit organization that does repairs on homes (kind of like habitat). it's always fun to get back into the saddle again, as they say. unless you end up like this:





and this is just the sunburn. you can't imagine how our arms, legs, hands, toes, EVERYTHING feels today. ouch! but good work was done. we should do it more often (once we recuperate).

eye of the tiger plays here

this is a little belated.



but contrats to kaiser for being a bad-ass! here's a marathon runner if i've ever seen one! that's 26.2 miles of pure running, for those not in the know. all for a good cause.

way to go, dude!

trip to the country

chris's nutz,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

chris and i went to south georgia this weekend to visit my grandparents who spend their winters down there. my parents were also visiting, so it was a double bonus.

it was good to be out in the quiet of the country and hear nothing but birds chirping (and dogs barking). we picked pecans! now we just have to find a place to get the cracked (anyone in columbia know of a place??). and we picked fresh turnips. i cooked them tonight at home. delicious!

i can't repost it

so i just sat here for like an hour and drafted this long post about chris's drug-induced recovery from his colonoscopy and how upsetting it was to see my husband so vulnerable. but before i could actually publish the post netscape crashed and i lost the whole post. it was really emotional for me to write and i just can't write it again.

i'll just leave it at this: i love my husband. it was heartwrenching for me to see his mind so altered. the image will be permanently engraved in my mind. i hope that we never have to deal with that permanently. life is delicate.

mom and bo, one night only!

as chris referenced, he and i made the treck to good ol' "hot-lanta" in the cold season to visit the parents.



mom helps out some friends with their wholesale business once a year at the americasmart. this place was crazy! the picture, of course, doesn't do it justice. this was just one of the buildings and the floors just go up and up.



one highlight, among many, was visiting with our favorite band (and cousins) a-fir-ju-well, redubbed for the weekend el-fir-ju-well.

a small rant

chris and i were all jazzed up to go to the georgia aquarium this weekend in atlanta. that is, until we realized it would be close to 50 bucks for us both to get in! that's right. $23 per ticket! that's crazy. so, needless to say, we won't be seeing the whale shark this weekend, not because he's not worth it, but because we can't afford it. :(

Don't think I forgot

Happy Birthday, Chirper!