Threshing Grass, Playing Volleyball, and Worshiping God: Part 3/3 of my...
This is the last in a three-part series about my African village school. Next week, we dive into the village itself. *** Just before dinnertime, I opened the squeaky metal gate to leave the teacher’s...
View ArticleThe Village
What’s an African village like? You’re about to find out. On the dirt path at the edge of my school’s property lies a large log. This barrier designates the start of the village, Magulilwa . Unlike...
View ArticleInterviewing a Special Woman in the “Real” Village
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about life here in my village, Magulilwa. Soon after, I got an email of my school founder, and native Magulilwan, Evaristo Sanga. You wrote about the new part of...
View ArticleNational Geographic Photo Contest: Will You Help Me Choose Which Picture to...
National Geographic Traveler Magazine is holding their annual photo contest. Anyone (for a fee of $15) can submit a shot for a shot at some prizes. Given all the pictures I’ve taken since coming to...
View ArticleOn the Shores of a Huge African Lake
What do you say we plan a day at the lake? Sounds nice, right? Since I was a boy, I’ve loved going to the lake—to swim, to fish, to picnic, all of it done with the water, the waves, the shore, the...
View ArticleGone Fishin’ (the Tanzanian vs. the Minnesota way)
When I was 12, my brothers and I would go fishing using our grandfather’s pale green, 14-foot aluminum boat. We’d haul it in the back to our father’s tiny S10 Chevy pickup. When we got to our northern...
View ArticleGoodbye, East African Village School
As a boy in northern Minnesota, we’d drive down to “the cities” on special occasions. On the way, we’d often stop halfway at a city called Brainerd. Back then, you had to drive through the city because...
View ArticleThe Naturally Adapted Hmong of Chiang Mai, Thailand
The song “One Night is Bangkok” may be one thing that most of us know about Thailand. (Well, that and perhaps the food.) I can remember in my 20s confusing this country in Southeast Asia with the...
View ArticleVisiting our Sister School in the Hills of Thailand
On the morning of May 7, we awoke in our half-star hotel in Thoeng to fulfill the core purpose for our school’s travel to Thailand: meeting our sister school in the rural north. As we had done the...
View ArticleThe Hmong Mountain Village in Thailand
We walked past one-room houses of bamboo stick walls, straw roofs, and dirt floors. Chickens scampered and clucked about. Children played barefoot and parents in flip-flops tended to the babies,...
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