The Casco Viejo neighborhood of Panama City is lovely. It's still in the process of being renovated - passing one or two or three beautifully restored buildings, the next one is still a shell, with palm trees growing inside. But the restored ones are fantastic. ...
I couldn't stop thinking of M*A*S*H and all the helicopters buzzing around that show. I don't know if I ever imagined being in one. WIthout doors, you're only sort of partly "in" it - there's always this sense of being outside of it at the same time. My photos are...
This week has been absolutely tremendous. I'm serious. I know from big scary mountainloads of work, and this week qualifies. I am responsible for three evaluations starting all at once. For the third one, I head to the field tomorrow to collect data in El Cauca, a...
Ooooh, if good wishes made a difference... and it turns out they do. I got GREAT advice from friends far and wide on my "Boohoo, I'm homesick" post last week. Amazing folks with great council and some of it very targeted while other recommendations were slightly...
I'm not on the move anymore - my home is here in Bogota. I don't know if I can convey how weird that is. In point of fact, I'm not sure I'm entirely in favor! How do people do this, all over the world, all the time, but for me I feel like a fish out of water? Now I...
Facatativa, or Faca, is where I went last weekend. The lady who gave me a facial has a sister-in-law who is really into bicycling and they invited me up for the day. It's an hour outside Bogota. There were six of us in the group - the sister-in-law, a guy who owns a...
A lot has happened in the past three weeks, since last I posted. I flew to DC, and saw Kyna before she headed to an out-of-town conference. She wanted my help in thinking about her work! It was cool. It's as if I were evaluating something related to health, and needed...
I got the apartment I wanted in Bogota. It's so lovely. It's light and airy like being in a plane or on a boat, navigating the city from the seventeenth floor. This is the view toward the mountains. The apartment hasn't been lived in recently, and when I moved in...
My first week in Bogota ended last Sunday with a spin through the city - on Sundays, the city closes down many major avenues and they fill up with people on bikes, people on rollerblades, people with dogs, people in wheelchairs, looky-loo tourists, police officers in...
Head out to the store and buy some "washing-up powder." Enjoy this step. It is cutesy in that English-accented way. It is also the last step that will be at all straightforward. Read the manual for the new machine, all white and shiny, sitting on your balcony. In...