Butterfly (ip) Wednesday, May 3 Dear Family, Back at school after four days at Ukiruguru, an agricultural training center on the other side of town. About twenty teachers gathered to learn techniques for teaching field biology. For our first exercise we caught giant grasshoppers, abundant on the grounds, then killed them with chloroform and mounted […]

Valhalla On a bright November day Robert, my husband, gripped the tiller of our 25 foot sloop, Valhalla, struggling to squeeze every mile out of each northerly tack. I hunched over the navigational chart in the tiny cabin, my finger on a point of land south of San Diego. “Punta Banda. We’re almost there!” I […]

I’m the go-fer. I fetch the tools when my husband, Robert, does the motor maintenance and refitting of our 65′ schooner. I do the painting and varnishing. I get a thrill out of painting the top of the mast. At 60′ above the deck, hanging in my boswain’s chair, I twirl out and away from […]

Valhalla After terminating our bicycle trip in Mexico for safety reasons, we retrieved our VW bug from Portland for another try. In San Diego, the sailboat filled bay called to us. After a few sailing lessons, to call of the sea was irresistable. Our first boat, the Valhalla, was a twenty-five foot fiberglass boat built […]

By October, the cyclone season on the west coast of Mexico is almost over and it is safe to sail again. Robert and I didn’t know the storm that would hit Mazatlan in October would be an exception. After spending the summer on our sailboat, Valhalla, anchored in Mazatlan harbor, we were looking forward to […]

After entering Mexico at the Tecate crossing, my husband, Robert, and I pedaled along Highway 2. We carried gear for an indeterminate length of time toward a vague destination. In preparation for the trip, Robert had mounted our metal-framed hiking packs over the rear wheels making the loads high and unbalanced, but panniers were not […]

I usually keep my hair short because I’d rather not have to think about it, but I did have long hair years ago. I was having an identity crisis. Not that I didn’t know who I was, but other people seemed unable to discern my gender. For most of my life, I have endured the […]

Chapters: Meeting Damiana | Going Fishing … or Not | Exploring | Camp Life | Trips to Town | Looking Back Alejandro, Damiana and Jorge My favorite picture of Damiana was taken after we had been camped next to the family’s palm-roofed palapa for a few days. She and Alejandro were grandparents to the many […]

Dr. Hastings Banda July, 1964 Kamuzu! Kamuzu! Elated cries filled the hot, humid air. The dark convertible occupied by Dr. Hastings Banda, called Kamuzu, Savior, edged its way through the mass of black bodies held back by green-shirted Young Pioneers. Dressed in his dapper western-style suit, Dr. Banda stood in the open car and flicked […]

Airletter This has been updated and printed as a book. To order online please visit www.createspace.com/4563113. When the Peace Corps invited me to teach in Tanzania, I was delighted. I had passed through East Africa on my way home from Malawi two years before while I was in college. I joined Crossroads Africa for the […]

From Loitokitok, Kenya Fifteen hours out of Mwanza, the rattling bus made its final turn into Arusha, Tanzania, and a solitary snow-capped peak swung into view. My heart flipped. I was on my way to join the Outward Bound Mountain School (OBMS) and to climb the legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro that loomed enormous in the sky […]

Pooped, on Top of Kilimanjaro I left school early to get to Loitokitok, Kenya for the start of the Outward Bound Mountain School. It’s a tough course, and usually it’s for policemen and other leader-types. This was the only course for young women that year. Most of the male instructors went to the coast for […]

Almost back to the school after the climb. The day after coming off the mountain, we began another set of challenges, the low ropes initiatives. Summit or not, it was time to test the girls’ skills and newly-acquired confidence. These ropes, close to the ground, were designed to force the teams to problem solve various […]

After days of physical conditioning and orienteering classes, practicing with maps and compasses to find their way, it was time to test the students’ abilities. Our next challenge was in the bush:  a flat landscape flanked by Tsavo and Amboseli Game Reserves.  Cape Buffalo Recently, one of the school employees had speared a lion near […]