My New Home Hello from Bologna, home of the red (la rossa), the learned (la dotta), and the fat (la grassa). And the 196 students from the Johns Hopkins graduate program in advanced international studies. How has my new home been so far? Well, it’s made me homesick for my real home, especially since there is no fall better than a New York fall. It’s made me very Italian in how I greet passersby on motorbikes that decide they have right of way on the sidewalk: “Vaffanculo!!!!” It’s made me really miss the technology of the modern world considering they are still keeping records via carbon paper and typewriters to get a residence permit. It’s made me become part of the I-hate-really-big-scary-dogs-that-attack-you-on-the-street-and-crap-on-the-street-just-so-you-can-step-in-it fan club. The lack of a river or ocean in the vicinity is making ... read more

Mishaps Abound It started the first day I arrived in Peru. Tracie and I had a joyful reunion at the airport where we promptly got ripped off by our overly aggressive taxi driver. After some confusion as to when Pam was supposed to meet us, we decided she would be arriving at midnight to our hotel, and we would have a long awaited reunion and go gallavanting into piranha and anaconda infested waters the next day in the Amazon to commence our Peruvian adventure. Alas, it's about 2am, and we hear the elevator door open onto our floor. Tracie jumps out of bed and runs to the door to greet Pam, but unfortunately the footsteps go right past our door. Now it's 3am, and we are extremely worried. Our hotel is not in such a great ... read more

A Caveat Before You Read Apologies for the delay in posting my latest blog entry, but getting access to affordable internet was a bit difficult once I reached South Africa. But don’t worry, reflections on my experience in Ghana have only been heightened by the experiences I’ve had in the few weeks since then. As you read this, keep in mind that these are my personal opinions and do not in any shape or form represent the views of the NGO I worked for, and that I’ve only had a few months’ time working “in the field” and have a lot more to learn; these are just my preliminary thoughts. Don’t Try to Change Africa Without Letting It First Change You I started out this whole Africa “experiment” to make sure that I wasn’t throwing tons ... read more

Greetings From Buswa The Parrot So in my first entry I mentioned the host of characters we have in the backyard and their supposed identity crises. Well I’m happy to report that at this moment they’ve all resumed their roles as proper parrot, goat and dog. Buswa, the parrot, can now speak more languages than I can. He speaks a mix of Fante, English (American and British mind you!), Dutch, and hopefully will be speaking some Korean by the time I leave! Every morning he greets us with a “Hellooooo! Bek houuuuuuuuuuuuuuden!” (which means “Shut Up” in Dutch). I am just trying to get him to finish his lovely morning salutation with a loud “Hah ji maaaaaaa” (which means “Stop it” in Korean). If he succeeds, I think his greeting will be just perfect. Cabbage Is ... read more

Mid-Project Break! This past week I took leave from work for my mid-project break, and traveled to the eastern central part of Ghana with my roommate Sarah. For those of you who sent me emails wondering if I had fallen off the face of the earth or had gotten lost amidst all the refugees coming through from Togo, I wanted to say thanks for your concern, and all is well over here! And here are the highlights from the past week… Cruising Lake Volta at 10 Miles an Hour We kicked off our journey with a ferry ride (read: cargo vessel with some tables and benches) up the Volta Lake, hailed as the largest artificial lake in West Africa. We originally decided to go for the awesome views of the Volta, but what we got was ... read more