jealousy too bad about all the people who either a) just dont get it or b) feel the need to vent their jealousy at the experience you are having by sending you useless obnoxious emails.
i will choose to vent my jealousy by cursing christian bale and his blasted good looks! any chance of getting to see you again in London after you're done with Africa?
Well done Amy to have gone so far. It seems that this will be more of a music cultural place. I follow your blog with great attention and still enjoy every single line I read.
Thank you! Amy, you bring the most stunning gift to your readers. It's a rare gem called reality. America is ready for it now. You are taking this trip as a photo journalist would, not just a tourist. (sorry about losing the Nikon) For those who do not get it, shut up and book a cruise! Anderson Cooper would be proud of you! Enjoy your vacation, and then get back to work! Can't wait for more of the real world.
You're still a hardass Dude, shake those haters off. I don't know many other CLHS grads with the balls to dive head first into a war zone. Just come home safe.
Jeez Amy, am so glad you're ok and you made it back to civilisation, your last unfinished post was very worrying!
Have a well deserved relaxing time in Zanzibar and spoil yourself rotten, sounds like you could do with it!
Keep chin up, we are all so inspired by what you are doing and even your low points are good to hear about, while we fester in front of our computer screens!
I'm sure you don't need to hear it (again!) but I just want to say that I recognize so much of what you're writing about. I was in Peru last year volunteering at a health clinic in a very poor area, but after a while I realized that they sure as hell didn't need me there - they just needed my money... So I must be nuts, but I'm trying it again! This time in Uganda and with a title (public health professional). I'll have to see if that makes any difference...
Anyway, keep writing: I might learn something new :)
RE: Amen to this. You are saying it like it is. It's a real eye opener, but what gets even more frustrating is when you meet these "wonderful" people back at home sounding like mother Teresas' trainees, saying the same carbon-copy stories about orphans and AIDS. I don't believe in a few weeks or even a few months volunteers. It cannot possibly be enough to understand the complexities of the problems, let alone to be of any use solving them. Even organizations like Peace Corps have major downfalls with its short terms, lack of training, and lack of accountability. So thank you for writing it like it is. There are a lot of money in international aid. So much, that it is overwhelming to think about it. Yet, the "development" is going at a snail pace. But that's another story for another place. I just wanted to second your opinion and hope that those who are considering "vacation volunteering" internationally can rethink that idea and focus their short-term energy into establishing and committing themselves to a long-term solution instead. OR just go on vacation, enjoy yourself, take a safari, overpay for your trip, and just boast of the animals, not the orphans. The end.
Dont eat the chicken! Ahh yes, the chicken in Rwanda is known to be horrible. My advice would be to stick to the lamb, goat or beef, those are usually solid bets!
Hello Amy,
I have followed this section of your blog to see what your thoughts were of SA, Mozambique etc. and I find of your comments pretty fair and well considered. It’s interesting to see how we are perceived, as it helps me to get perspective on where and how I am living compared to other people. It often takes the perspectives of others to highlight one's blind spots and prejudices.
One thing I do know about living here in South Africa, is that it is not boring. I am challenged on a daily basis by my own racial views; the need to keep safe while still trying to be free; trying to be assimilated into the nation as the white African I am (not an expat, but a 17th century settler); trying not to resort to stereotypes; trying not to get caught up in negativity and endless tales of robberies and house invasions (after all, everyone has a crime story, and people now compete to recount the most vicious of them); trying to make sense of the incredible poverty/wealth gap I have seen EVERY day for my whole life, and above all trying to find a way around the self hatred and guilt that is the inevitable by-product of being hated for being white, a coloniser, the colour of Apartheid, monied, having a car.
So while it's certainly not boring, the challenge of living here makes me tired. The simmering rage, the racial remarks made around the braai after a couple of drinks have loosened the tongue. Parents spewing vile racial filth in their houses and their children lapping it up to perpetuate another generation of haters.
It's a very weird reality to live in.
When I went to London for the first time I could not believe that the rubbish removal men were white. To be white in South Africa meant, and probably still does mean, that there is a level below which you will not go. Below that, those are "jobs that blacks do". I realised that even as a University educated person from a liberal family I had been bent out of shape. I was warped. It was then that I realised that South Africans (all of them) suffer from a terrible twisted malaise which is difficult to cure because it has been forged in such a perverse furnace.
Anyway, thanks for your observations. I suppose I am always a little disappointed when someone does not rave about our country but you've seen a good cross section of what it's really like here beyond the fantasy, and you've been honest enough to voice your reservations.
Respect!
Greg
schoolboy error! This is the problem with excess testosterone - it clouds the faculties. To actually place one's bank card in the hands of someone you don't know, beggars belief. Must be good weed.
sorry to hear that... amy, really sorry to hear that....but please try not to stress too much. you will work out everything soon enough. see you in hk soon!
Worst Luck wow - what a shame to have experienced that, sadly your 2nd to last line puts travelling in this part of the world into reality. Best of luck getting everything back in order.
Feel sorry for you, but as you said, at least you haven't been hurt...
CU in Hong Kong and try to enjoy the end of your trip...
Gros bisous my goldfish!!!!!
Dancer Video I thought you were going to post the video of the dancer. Happiest of Birthdays! Can't wait to see you in London. Notting Hill Carnival is going to be sweet.
Happy Birthday!!!! hey babes!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
i know you are not too happy about this "aging" thing...but just be happy that you're getting this amazing chance to see the world!!
i am 10 yrs older than you and i never got to do it... :(
let me know whe you swing by asia. miss you!
xxx aki
LOL I loved reading this! I busted out laughing because I am American and my boyfriend is Jordian. He all the time takes,well drags me, to the perfume/cologne section in a store and sprays himself all over!!! I couldn't understand why and now I do so thank you! I finally got him to realize that I don't need to smell all that all over him because his smell is wonderful to me and clean. Now he doesn't do that but it took me forever to retrain him!!! LMAO...thank you for the laugh!
Encouragement Amy, you are, flat out, one of the most talented writers! No, not just a fine writer, but an ever fascinating, out front, too cool, top notch representative of, historically flamboyant, unbridled American womanhood. Keep it up and you will be a major discovery. You can do anything you want...books, films, tv...all of it. Thanks for the sparkling entertainment. Best, s
After two years of the expat finance bubble in Hong Kong, I am ready to explore the world outside of Bloomberg and AmEx cards and mix things up a bit.
I hope to meet some extraordinary people, have some ridiculous adventures, learn some new languages, and basically to be pretty confused every other day.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain
... full info
Flynn
non-member comment
jealousy
too bad about all the people who either a) just dont get it or b) feel the need to vent their jealousy at the experience you are having by sending you useless obnoxious emails. i will choose to vent my jealousy by cursing christian bale and his blasted good looks! any chance of getting to see you again in London after you're done with Africa?