Hey everyone!! Well this is going to be my blog website so that I don't have to post two separate ones for myspace and facebook. I'll probably start writing in it around the 16th so keep checking and keep posting me updates!! Thanks! [View Full Entry]

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Just days before departing for this incredible journey, I thought it would be beneficial to think about what I expect for Egypt, and what I hope to gain from this experience. But first, I should explain a little more about the program itself, for those of you reading who are less familiar with the Dialogues. The Dialogues of Civilization program at Northeastern began several years ago with the goal of promoting cross-cultural understanding and exposing Northeastern students to new societies and cultures. The Dialogue to Egypt is the oldest one, but it changes every year. This year, our group will be [View Full Entry]

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I just took off my nametag for the last time. Unwound its black cotton strap, and lifted off from around my neck the laminated slip of paper making me official here on the farm. Kids won’t have to know my name anymore. Pastors, teachers, parents and scout leaders won’t ask for me, ask of me, or commend me. Of course, it was my final school group this morning that gave me more frustration than any other. Perhaps it was their late arrival, the head teacher’s uppity attitude, the kids’ lack of manners, or the fact that we had to squeeze 3.5 [View Full Entry]

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I've expanded my vobaulary quite a bit these past 2 months. Not to mention picking up some strange accents. Proudly, mine was deemed - indetectable - until I bust out about coffee, or talking, or walking...or my declination of my favorite 4-letter word... 1) draft previously: visions of drunk frat boys dance in my head currently: any animal used as muscle, to move goods or till land 2) skirt previously: article used to capitalize on female powers currently: to pound out any large, dirty debris from a fleece after it’s shorn 3) quarters previously: small coins useful for parking and payphones [View Full Entry]

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He sidled towards us, literally. That old, old man body, but sturdy. Farmer jeans fitted over boots, John Deere bronze belt clenching the denims just under the potbelly. His posture was locked, bent knees inwards, and locked, forward bent torso at the hips. But this man gives no clue to his caving body. His name is Bill, and he’s the one that donated all 270 acres of this farm to make it what it is. We asked him how he first met the founder here, and he said, “Well, it was just so. I knew this man was doin’ good, so [View Full Entry]

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What a day. I’ve done more new things today than in the last 12 months combined, including chasing escapees, milking goats, watching a bovine lull through labor and pushing my vegetarian self. Below you’ll get only the stories on the edge of life and death. Details of the other escapades coming soon… Part I I really had paid no attention to Nicole until this morning. Everyone else goes on and on about her, waiting for her impending labor. Right before chores this morning, though, I stopped and admired her. A Jersey cow of mixed light browns and blacks, and just about [View Full Entry]

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It was a frantic flapping of struggle as a broiler chicken’s wings slammed against a white plastic bucket. It was having its jugular cut. Being “processed”. I didn’t think I’d even make it though the demonstration, but I wanted to try. The team of us volunteers, all hands on, were to finish off all the broilers on the farm today. Let me cut the suspense up-front and tell you, there’s no blood on my hands, but I wasn’t completely innocent. The process goes pretty much like this: You drag the chickens over to the designated area, mostly out of the visitors’ [View Full Entry]

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I have to say, it’s the one thing I’ve been squeamish about since the second day here on the farm. They failed to mention in the job description: handling machinery. Intimidating, rusty, unreliable, putt-putt gas-guzzling machinery. I certainly wasn’t up first this time. I let some chic about 30 lbs lighter and 13 years younger get up on that beast. I let one more volunteer go, then mustered up the courage. And up until the moment I was in that torn leather seat, was thinking No Way. Nuh-Uh. Then, feeling the brakes jump a bit under my foot and rear [View Full Entry]

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I have become an addict. And can now understand coffee drinkers. For the day is unembraceable until my morning romp through the forest, with a stop to plant a kiss on the snout of my delicious desert mirage, Abu Dhabi. Without those uberpleasant 45 minutes of hiking, watch out world. But this morning, my soothing routine got monkey-wrenched. Luckily, my partner-in-chore roommate, Ariel, had unroutinely gotten up this morning before 7am and was pulled into the mayhem with me. She had stumbled into the common room, interrupting my morning stretch, stumbling towards the coffee-containing kitchen, when we heard a crackled [View Full Entry]

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This morning, I woke even before the rooster. I couldn’t stop myself from involuntarily recycling the images and events of 2001. When training started at 8am, I had two things to put on the safe, nurturing table we have here: 1) could we nix the unsustainable tractor hayrides? and 2) could we have a moment of silence around our Peace Pole? I got shot down on the tractor request, comes from the top that the information-hungry, self-improving day-visitor groups only want to face their sustainability so much, and gosh darn, they want that tractor hayride. The second request was met without [View Full Entry]

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