Italy: The Real Deal with Ionian Jewel Tours
It helps when the tour guide is your sister-in-law, Nancy Howard but either way Ionian Jewel Tourshttps://www.facebook.com/IonianJewelTours?fref=ts will customize your trip to Italy so that you will feel like you are traveling with a friend, not on a tour.Nancy grew up spending half of every year in her mother's village, Montepone in the hills of Calabria above Soverato in the Catanzarro region of Italy. She is fluent in Italian and knows all the unique restaurants, inns, and out of the way spots you might never experience. Best of all she shares colorful stories of [...]
Desert Garden Frustrations
The only thing that seems to grow abundantly in the garden here are weeds. Pernicious weeds...goat heads like five headed spikes everywhere. Add to that no rain, lots of wind and dust and HOT sun. Even the Navajo gardeners are frustrated. We try to be creative with various water systems, soaker hoses and timers. And olas the age old Spanish way. I thought my vegetables all died because of too much sun so I sheltered them with the popular shade cover. Dead again. Silly me it was the wind and dust that whipped [...]
Searching for Spring on the Mesa
Too much dust and too little rain make Spring hard to find in the high desert. Or maybe it is my unpracticed eye. I have to look hard to find the rebirth here. Long walks on the mesa over time provide pleasure and surprise. And maybe I am learning the seasons. Still one has to be observant to find even the tiniest hope.Desert gifts can be guarded with thorns,the beauty may be subtle.Or it might be a burst of joy when least expected.On the mesa it rains in Spring but it always [...]
Stuff I collect: Bells
Not just any bells...animal bells, old bells, bells with a certain patina, a history, a story.Check out this yak bell a friend trekked all the way home from Nepal for me...friends know what friends like.It hangs neatly next to my sheep bell, the one I stuffed in my luggage when I was in Portugal. I am still looking for a sheep bell here in Chinle. But for now I have this cow bell. A treasured find at the local swap meet.Each one has a distinct sound and shape and size.Just imagine what I [...]
AFS: Touch a Life, Connect with the World
Thea was a foreign exchange student from Norway. She lived with us for a year, ten years ago. She shared her culture, language and poetry, literature and food. Her smile, her successes and fears, her strength and her good humor, her enthusiasm for life. For a year she was part of our family, sister, daughter and friend.In a recent note she wrote:Right now I am sitting in a brownstone building in Brooklyn, eating a granola bar and drinking a cup of coffee. I arrived yesterday and I am staying in NYC until the 28th [...]
Where I Was 30 Years Ago Part Two: A Poem in Memory
In my last post I noted that I was in the Peace Corps in Malawi 30 years ago. I was a teacher. Recently a student found me on the Internet and sent me a letter. I included excerpts from that letter. Since then I have had a few more emails from my student. He listed ten students from my class who have died of aids since I was last in Malawi.When we were there Steve would come home from the operating room covered in blood to his underwear. It ran off his body [...]