yourpassions.tk

Do you remember how you celebrated Memorial Day when you were a child? And what difference does it make to know? Traditionally, for me, Memorial Day marked the end of the school year. It was the official beginning of Summer Vacation, and worthy of celebration for that reason alone, especially since, rather amazingly, none of the many veterans in our family lost their lives while serving their country. This question arose just just now as I wrote about my high school graduation in my journal. I graduated from high school on May 28, and the next day I went home with my grandparents to spend the several days between graduation and the first day of my summer job. My parents came to pick me up ... when? Memorial Day weekend? That didn’t seem possible. There isn’t time for Memorial Day weekend if I graduated on May 28. My compulsive need for accurate details kicked in. I set my journal aside, reached for my nearby laptop, and googled over to a perpetual calendar to refresh my memory regard...

Namibian village woman, photo by SL I began writing this post at the beginning of an eighteen-hour plane trip home from a whirlwind tour of Southern Africa. I'm full of fresh memories backed up in a journal full of observations and experiences, thousands of photos, a few dozen video clips, and over a gigabyte of sound recordings of various things. Then there are the brochures, maps and other paper my husband accrued. No trip I've ever been on has been more thoroughly documented. I have enough material to keep me writing for weeks or months on end. The adventure began with a sixteen-hour flight from Dulles International to Johannesburg, broken by a refueling stop in Dakar, Senegal half-way through the flight. We spent more than half our time in South Africa, visiting Pretoria, Soweto (where we visited Nelson Mandela 's historical home , just down the block from Desmond Tutu 's residence — the only street in the world with homes of two Nobel Peace Prize recipients), Cape ...

I'm off on an adventure. Back soon. Stay tuned.