Hello World

Well, I managed (only narrowly, I might add) to avoid getting head butted by a hippo. I also managed to make it through the entire trip without once succumbing to any kind of intestinal mambo. It appears that the cast iron stomach so carefully honed in the back woods of Kenya many years ago, still serves me well.

I've been suspiciously silent since my return from Zambia.

Part of it is trying to process what was honestly one of the best and most transformative trips I've had in awhile. I guess I've been a little overwhelmed by the thought of writing about it in its entirety.

So some highlights:

1) She liked the dress! Hail to the Biffi. Against all odds, but with the collective gay wisdom of the ages in my favour, the Prom was a success and more tears and fisticuffs were avoided. More than this, she teetered around on her three inch heels for the entire night without complaint.

2) Never underestimate the power of Kraft Dinner to turn you into the favourite house guest of the under 10 crowd.

3) I made a pact with God. Let the last thing I see, before I close my eyes for good, be the big, African night sky with it's incredible wattage of twinkling stars.

4) If you could only see what a simple water pump, along with the skills to fix and maintain it, can do for a village -- from improving children's health, to ensuring that more girls remain in school, to improving the buildings that are constructed in its vicinity -- you would make a gift to your nearest international development agency right now.

5) Everyone should try being the only person of a certain colour for miles around once in their life.

6) Children in other countries consider education the greatest privilege they can be given.

7) In making a point of doing things that scare me, I did a 14 km hike through dense African bush with only a guide, a gun bearer and a tea guy for company. See previous point about narrowly avoiding the head butt.

8) Best cookie name: Eet sum more.

9) Best insecticide name: DOOM.

10) Who's in for a trip to Italy? One of my old NGO pals has bought and lovingly restored a Tuscan farmhouse that will give you a view of the moountains and a Medieval castle, in the Rome-Florence corridor. It sleeps 9 and you can arrange for a cook to come each night. My Zambia pals visited last year and gained 6 pounds in a week. The cook, she's good.