Hi there ( Read more... )

This song makes me feel joyful.

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foxfour (by email): I had a dream last night, in which you sheepishly admitted that you were behind all yeti and sasquatch myths, and showed us your extensive collection of cryptid costumes. Hope you're well!

me: That is now my favorite dream ever, and I didn't even have it myself.

kit: And you don't deny the truth ( Read more... )

For ages, I've been meaning to post about traditional healers (the politically incorrect, early-1900s anthropologist term would be "witch doctors"). They're completely fascinating -- I just hope that I don't make them uninteresting by talking overmuch about vocabulary. You guys will let me know if this entry is confusing, right ( Read more... )

Some of my fellow Peace Corps Swaziland Volunteers have made a new Welcome Video, which is what we send incoming volunteers to prepare them for this madness. My friend Kris has uploaded it to his YouTube account, and you can view it by clicking here. They thoughtfully separated the video into many separate themed pieces, so you can easily skip ( Read more... )

My ownership of shataina.com lapsed while I've been here, and Godaddy.com is being very unsympathetic and probably won't let me have it back (I guess someone else bought it?). So, if any of you fine people have links to it anywhere (I can't imagine why you would), those links should be updated to point to: Leave a comment  4 

It's interesting how ritualized siSwati is. (Perhaps English is too and I'm merely accustomed?) When one passes another in the road, one always, always greets. Most of the time, even if you don't know the other person at all, you greet. "Sawubona," to one person, "Sani bonani," to more than one (or a particularly respectable one). They answer ( Read more... )

I'll just paste it here, because I doubt that the "Times of Swaziland" is going to get on my case. It's worth glancing at the original for the comments though. This mirror has some good comments too. Keep in mind that the contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the US Government or the Peace Corps ( Read more... )

BOOKS FOR SWAZILAND! :: An exciting request.A PITCH THAT I SPENT MUCH TOO LONG WRITING ( Read more... )

All the Peace Corps Volunteers in Swaziland recently attended a big all-volunteer conference in which we showed up at the biggest city, Manzini, and endured a metric ton of workshops. One day at lunch, I had a conversation with a few others about potential methods for educating vampires about HIV risk. We had just finished when Mr. Rob* appeared ( Read more... )

Sudden Poll!

1. What are our responsibilities to people we love?
2. What are our responsibilities to people who love us?
3. Why?
4. Where do these responsibilities overlap?
5. What kind of love did you default to while answering this poll?