November 5, 2010 - a story from the road As told by a Romanian engineer--- I was kidnapped once. You see I was working in Nigeria building bridges in remote areas and found myself in-between two sides of an ongoing feud. The river, impassible at the time of my arrival, stood as a barrier between two warring tribes. I didn't know this when I took to job, but found it as just one more hurdle to working in a developing country. The people I was working with wante...

8 June 2010 Culture Matters: I was speaking with my neighbor's husband, who has just recently returned to the village from work in Nkhata Bay. A group of women came up the path and he jumped in my house asking to be hidden from them. I was confused, but as he cowered behind my wall he explained the culture behind it. A man is not allowed to be seen by his mother in-law (or her sisters as aunt's are actually mothers as well). The same goes for his wife as she ...

17 May 2010- A Spiritual Reflection When one lives close to nature an understanding between you and the flora/fauna which surrounds you is crucial to survival. We must learn to coexist or overcome that which surrounds us, in the case of ants and scorpions I have chosen the later of those two options; while lizards and I are working on a mutual understanding and cooperative lifestyle. All the same, living out here you learn which plants to nurture because they'...

17 May 2010- A Spiritual Reflection When one lives close to nature an understanding between you and the flora/fauna which surrounds you is crucial to survival. We must learn to coexist or overcome that which surrounds us, in the case of ants and scorpions I have chosen the later of those two options; while lizards and I are working on a mutual understanding and cooperative lifestyle. All the same, living out here you learn which plants to nurture because they'...

19 April 2010 (youth training) About a month ago I had the local Youth Area Development Coordinator come to me with a bit of a problem. It seems that the district youth workers have done nothing to help in the coordinating of the groups in our area. Thus, we have tons of clubs which are not functioning, unsustainable, losing members, and unorganized. He wanted a solution… so we started from the beginning. I got about 100 USD to have an one day training wi...