5.26.18 NUENHEERSE, GERMANY — Today I went to the small town of Neuenheerse to meet my host mother, Doris Dressel, and two sisters, Melanie and Tamara. 30 years ago, sometime in August, I packed a year's worth of clothes in 2 bags and said farew…
Hey, remember when we raised $5,200 for materials and built a school with farmers of Las Minitas? I wrote about what it's like to do so and to find a second home along the way. Read it here [http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/rochester-…
In Zambia, Bemba families have followed the same tradition for as long as anyone can remember. A man will demonstrate his commitment and his ability to have a family by paying a dowry to the bride’s parents, and there are several integral events su…
She can’t remember just what it was about Savior, but Comfort fell in love with him quickly after meeting him. She was 20. Five months later, Savior asked her to marry him. She said yes and he gave her parents 200 kwacha for the engagement. The am…
Hardley Songole Sinjaa met Busu only a year ago. He was doing some plumbing work and needed extra help with the digging. Hardley’s right-hand man brought young Busu around. He was young but knew how to work and was not expensive. “I wondered how s…
I may be gone from Mahanga village, but it will always be with me. Hardley and Lydiah's family were so welcoming and really made me feel like a part of theirs. When you are somewhere new, and discovering, your own backyard is a vacation, a to…
Dear Mom: Remember when you had to have open-heart surgery and while we hoped, there was a fear in the back of our minds, and surely in yours, that you would not make it out the other side? They remove your heart, put it on a table, and then set…
I spent the last 12 days in rural western Kenya with these guys, as I did something I have always dreamed of: I helped to document the changing culture and language of a tribal community. Linguists Michael Marlo and Michael Diercks, both professo…
My Uncle Skip drove giant tractor-trailers cross country for a living when I was a kid, and Uncle Skip was cool. He loved snakes and spiders and rode motocross and his van was painted in a fantasy mural and my brother and I always wanted to go on…
