Many people I know might describe money as the annoying relative they can’t live without. That defines my relationship with it. Growing up in my small polite family, if there were relatives I couldn’t handle—those who talked too loudly or…
For six months out of the year, the US Peace Corps descends upon a regional town to the east of Kigali. Its district (kind of analogous to a county) encompasses large swaths of farmland and sometimes even paved roads of…
Living at my host family’s house in Rwanda in some ways reminds me of staying in my Granny’s house when I was growing up. This was my dad’s mother (1909-1993). My aunt still lives in that house, but things have…
At midday on Saturday, we rode a chartered bus to the town of the Peace Corps training hub: Rwamagana. (It sounds like Ramadan; just add an extra “ah” syllable at the end.) The ride gave us a beautiful view of…
Counting weeks, then days, till I embark on an adventure to teach English in Rwanda for Peace Corps, I’ve already said good-bye to my sons. They are back at their respective schools and, though we touch base most every day,…
There’s enough sand in Southern California, we can all find a few grains to suit our personalities. But because the water is so shockingly cold compared to the bathwater-hot waves of my youth in North Carolina, it took me awhile…
Today, she is soft and gray and not the fiery beast I describe in Part 1. Visitors to Los Angeles are often disappointed with May and June. Where’s this eternal sunshine? But Angelenos know to get out and hike during…
I am not an alcoholic, but that is thanks in part to the cost of a drink in a bar in LA. I could’ve always had one more if my pocketbook were deeper. There was a period of time between…
From summer 1988 to the end of 1989, I was a volunteer with the California Condor Recovery Team. Still in college and freshly returned from rural Veracruz with the School for Field Studies, I was the kind of volunteer the…
Summer, 1987. My flat tire rescue by a passing mechanic made me fall in love with the city. One night my then-husband and I were driving home from our friends’ house where we’d all partied till we fell asleep. It…