Journals

Yesterday – August 19th – was Independence Day in Afghanistan. It marks Afghanistan’s liberation from Britain in 1919, following the third British-Afghan war. The Afghan people have fought back so many invaders, it seems they could celebrate it every day.
According to the International Herald Tribune:
Karzai delivered his Independence Day address in a stadium that was […]

This morning Carrie and I both woke up incredibly early- because we couldn’t sleep we went down to he hotel restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast was a combination of Japanese and “American” food- eggs, cereal, yogurt, pancakes – and then there was also some sort of smoked fish, Japanese eggs, miso soup and many other […]

Today I left for Japan- and I am so excited! Of course I didn’t pack until today, so I was a little stressed because of the time - but I got to the airport on time and met up with Carrie, Dominic and Joel. Our flight was overbooked, so it was packed. […]

We arrived in Kabul on Tuesday and all is well. Joel and I had a great visit here last winter and things have picked up where they left off. Local folks have been wonderful and gracious to us despite what continues to be one of the toughest spots on earth to make a life.
The security […]

I think we had quite possibly the strangest interview scenario of my life today. We decided to take a drive out of Kabul today and head into the countryside to get a sense of things out of the big city. About an hour out of town we spotted a huge field full of red flags. […]

Today is my last day in South Africa - my flight leaves at 11:20 pm. These two weeks have gone by too quickly and again - I am sad to leave. I hope to return to both Tanzania and South Africa someday!
We were up very early this morning and headed to Khayelitsha. We planned […]

Today our first appointment/interview was with Linda-Gail Bekker - a South African doctor who works in a clinic under the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation. This clinic is Noordhoek, a suburb of Cape Town- about 10-15 miles from Haut Bay (where we stay). The clinic is actually in the black township of Masiphumelele - […]

Wow, the week is almost over! I’ll be coming home on Sunday- my flight leaves on Sat night, but I won’t be back in MN until Sunday. It’s all gone by too fast!
Today we went out to Khayelitsha. We were up by 5:45 - ugh! But, we wanted to met up with Mavis […]

Today we had an appointment to meet with Thembeka Majali. She is the TAC coordinator for the Western Cape office. TAC = Treatment Action Campaign. TAC was formed in 1998 and its mission is to make sure people have “greater access to HIV treatment by raising public awareness and understanding about issues surrounding the […]

Today we were able to sleep in, as our first meeting/interview was not until later in the day. We walked over to the “strip mall” for breakfast - now, it’s a strip mall, but has the feel of being on 50th and France - very oola la! We had breakfast at this little […]