marched against going to war today

had gotten emails about the protest, but only coincidentally showed up to get some pizza for lunch before heading to work. very large crowd, peaceably shut down franklin street for a short while, walking, shouting, chanting, beating drums, waving signs…

what is a third place?

so there is this coffee shop in raleigh called ‘third place’. i subconsciously associated it with baseball, thinking ‘third base’, but having been there once, i can tell you that there’s no baseball motif. it’s just a small coffeeshop, with…

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

[written 1AM Sunday March 9th] i read about half of “the razor’s edge” by maugham on the way over here. i think i like it very much. very character driven, great stories told about people’s lives and interactions in a…

sunburnt in africa

[written 10pm Sunday Mar9] so i woke up and it turns out my room looks out over the indian ocean. now i’m beginning to understand “sea-cliff”. i didn’t sleep long, maybe 5 hours, woke at 7am, showered again, and found…

the embassy

[written 9pm Monday March 10th] the US embassy in tanzania was bombed in 1998 by friends of osama bin laden. catherine, my database partner, was in dar at usaid when it happened. as a result, a new embassy, also housing…

peeling in africa

[written 6pm Wednesday March 12] i just got home from work. or maybe i should say i just got back to the resort from the embassy. yesterday we were told that all incoming travel to the mission has been cancelled…

war

[written 6pm Thursday March 13] going out with amy (from the mission) and her family which means i can finally get out of this musty hotel. since we’ll be leaving in a bit, i’m dashing this off as i think…

universality of coca cola

[written 11pm Thursday March 13] when i went walking along the coast on my first day in dar, i noticed very large droppings by the side the road. they must have been pretty moist upon hitting the ground, as they…

day the last

[written 1pm Saturday March 15] the people at the mission only work a half day on fridays, so we were pushing to get everything done before noon. of course that didn’t happen. i had some lingering reports to complete and…

First trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

I traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in March 2003 to do some database work for the USAID mission there (just as I’ve done in Kazakhstan and Cambodia). i wake up on the first morning and look out my window…

levity

mostly i just want to push all that icky war stuff down below the fold. has it ever occurred to you that the word we pronounce “apolstry” is spelled “upholstery”. why is that? Etymology: Middle English upholdester upholsterer, from upholden…

car diary: a laundromat story

so far… i’ve been to the mall, bought a few tshirts, ate at the food court with jackie. i’ve driven to katie’s house in glen lennox to watch movies and eat pizza with her and melanie. i’ve driven to marianne’s…