intended consequences.

Intended Consequences by Jonathan Torgovnik

An estimated 20,000 children were born from rapes committed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Intended Consequences chronicles the lives of these women. Their narratives are embodied in portrait photographs, interviews and oral reflections about the daily challenges they face today. See the project at http://mediastorm.org/0024.htm.

New U2 tour. 

i wanna go just a little bit. 

epic.

no line on the horizon...

I'm a traffic cop, rue du Marais

The sirens are wailing but it's met that wants to get away...

No, no line on the horizon.

Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain. The lights shimmering out in the distance and below as we sat in silence, watching, waiting, hoping. 

Spring. Days in the 70s. Clear blue skies.

Papers, midterms, tests, applications, grant proposals. The conspiracy theory of colleges everywhere not to give students any sleep so we don't complain about how much it costs to go to school. Or something. Calculus... die. 

I'm leaving for Haiti tonight at 11pm. While I'm gone, you can check updates from the trip at Sewanee's Twitter site.

I'm so excited to have a break. Haven't slept for more than 4 hours in the past week. Exhausted, and my last test ended at 11:30am this morning. Which means I haven't packed. Sigh. 

But all of today the releasing excitement of the prospect of being back in the tropics, back in a culture with an African connection, back in the developing world has been building.building. I'm most excited about the smells. The good and the bad. And the stars. And this pack of letters I've got. 

I'm going to Haiti for 10 days with the Outreach Office here at school. It's primarily a relief trip (as opposed to development), which is good because we'll only be there a week. We'll be doing a dental and medical clinic as well as working on a house for someone. I don't really know any details because I came in late (trip mostly paid for for me!) and have had a lot to do. Lot is the understatement of the century. But it's slowly sinking in that I'm going and there will soon be one less page on my visa pages in my passport. Which means I only have five left, I think. 

The best part... the part I'm most excited about, is that I'll get to do a lot of photography on the trip. Woohooo. And be silent. And still. And read. 

Reading list: 

1) Poisonwood Bible

2) Pathologies of Power-Paul Farmer

3) Mountains Beyond Mountains-Tracy Kidder

4) Witness in our Time- Ken Light.

Uh-oh, I'm about to get really excited about life. 

"Every road is a ray of light

It goes on

Time can only lead you on

Still it's such a beautiful night...

Oh LOVE don't let me go,

Won't you take me where the streetlights glow

I can hear it coming

Like a serenade of sound

Now my feet won't touch the ground

And gravity release me."

"I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life."

-Tolstoy Family Happiness

"It should not be denied... that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppressors and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom."

- Wallace Stegner

The American West as Living Space

Oh, here we go...

today, i received in the mail the following things...

Inside my massive, extremely heavy package from home were these things:

1) two sdhc memory cards and a card reader. 

2) 3!!!! lbs of trail mix

3) campbell's soup for my microwave-less dorm room with the caption (in case you get sick)

4) 3!!!! packages of gatorade "powder packs"

5) beef jerky

6) brownies

7) chocolate chip cookies

8) musical stickers???

9) sunscreen

10) 30!!! 2 bar packages of granola bars

11) crackers crackers and more crackers

12) water purifier

13) a bookmark from japan??? hmmmm?

14) 3 cheap button downs to give away in haiti

15)  A LIGHT UP BOW TIE!!!! complete with four leaf clovers that light up as well as gold leaf four leaf clovers... with the caption, "to wear when you drive the vomit comet. :-)"

16) and the most important... bubble wrap! 

WE CAN USE ALL THESE THINGS!

i love my mom. 

burn

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...

-Jack Kerouac