At the end of June I received a link to a job from my ex-boss and a question - would I be interested? The job was perfectly tailored for me - constructing and operation a sludge to biogas and biodiesel pilot in Ghana. It not only connected two of the technologies that I am most familiar with, it also was related to development in third world ( Read more... )

You can't go home again - Tom Wolfe ( Read more... )

I'm sitting at my Uncle's place in Thailand, marveling at the persistent heat and humidity while reports of cool weather come in from Israel ( Read more... )

Tel Aviv has an eggplant infestation. Some graffiti artist has been covering the buildings and walls with variously shaped and coloured versions of the fruit ( Read more... )

The evening has settled down snuggly around the local bar (Nola Socks) that is just starting to fill up with World Cup spectators. Michelle idly looks over the team information sheet that the bar has kindly laminated for every table. "Who's playing?" She asks without real interest. "Argentina vs. Greece" I say as the game flickers onto the screen. ( Read more... )

At the end of the day I close up my office, take the elevator to the 3rd floor, and begin the small climb up to my dorm. Its a beautiful day, one of the last before Israel turns into one large sauna with a humidity that makes your flesh feel continuously oiled ( Read more... )

After this week of madness I was in near ecstasy to enter Tel Aviv for the weekend. All week long I felt mired down by work and angry political views that just made the entire body tense up. Walking around Tel Aviv, with all its European/Middle Eastern charm, looking at pretty hipsters and eating Sabich was like heaven. We went to see a movie and ( Read more... )

The fear of uncontrollable escalation is what bothers me. I am trying to just not think about it and get about my everyday work but this convoy of ships has been pressing in on my thoughts almost as surely as they are pressing in on the sea borders of Israel ( Read more... )

(still writing as it comes and not really editing ( Read more... )

On our last night out together Zach tells me the story from his first stay in Israel. He had a friend in the states and their method of correspondence was via tapes. They would decide on a theme for their tape and then one person would add a song, send the tape to the other, who would add the next song, and so on and so forth till they had a full ( Read more... )