Merry Xmas all!

Merry Xmas 2006 everyone from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (well, the airport internet cafe anyway)!

pictures tell a thousand words (plus I am too lazy to type)

Got up a bit early today, some highlights from yesterdays trip to kigutu

On a street corner in bujumbura, one of my fav pics from yesterday

Deo’s bro and I @ Village Health Works !

Outside looking in

Laughing with the fam!

Hanging out in Burundi!

Amahoro (peace)

a quick entry from burundi

I am so tired having just spent 4hrs on a car going back and forth from kigutu and then coming back. I am also getting a bit queasy, I think I ate some bad juice the other day. Other than that though had a really good day. got to meet Deo’s parents and brothers and also got to see his home. Its a small brick building made of concrete with no running water or electricity, no rugs on the floors, only a couple of pictures on the wall, one of deo at his graduation etc and several gaudy pictures of plastic fruit. Dinner was being prepared while i was there. Casava, a low nutrient tuber/root that is ground into white powder and then mixed with water into a gruel like mealy substance and then eaten with beans and maybe some banana or rice. Deos parents look like they are in their eighties but are really 20 years younger than that. Despite all this, they offered to us what they had, hugged us all like their own children and wished us well on our journey. Its really quite amazing how human beings can exist in such disparate circumstances.

another interesting thing, one notices how developed often times by the language that is used for greeting. when i talked to Deos dad, the first thing he asked was, is everyone in your family well? an allusion I believe to wartime and the uncertainty of fleeing for ones life without being able to account for all of ones family members. anyway just some rambling thoughts which i will organize and tell you more about with pictures when i get back

Feeling at home

Long ride home. Two hours with Prachie and Rachel to Boston, 6am trip to Logan, 2hr flight to Detroit, 4 hour layover, 14 hour flight to Osaka, 1 hr layover, 2.5 hours to Taipei and an hour trip back from the airport. Its funny how much I like the experience of long cross pacific flights. Its usually a tiring prelude before long flights, a tough semester at school, a long week of work, a long time away from home and these flights are my time to take some time for myself not having anything else to do or that I CAN do on the flight besides read, watch, sleep and eat. After all of the stress of checking in, lugging around bags, getting through security I love being able to find your seat, sit down, kick off the shoes, reflect, read, write, watch movies. The anticipation of seeing a loved one, visiting someplace new is always good but I really do enjoy the serenity of being on a plane.

So that 24 hours to Burundi tomorrow is gonna be a piece of cake!