For the first time in her life, S played a competitive game of five-on-five basketball. In Chiang Mai, Thailand. Go,...

The border between Thailand and Burma is just a few miles from this cafe table in Mae Sot, Thailand. Part of today’s discussion around that table was the explosive power of WORDS and NAMES. The folks in the photo are struggling with what to call the various ethnic groups along the...

Two men recently explained their life’s calling during separate conversations here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Khem described his birthplace among the country’s poor and persecuted ethnic minority, where his parents — both farmers — sacraficed a great deal to send him and...

On a bike ride this afternoon — up off my seat, slowly climbing an especially steep incline — I noticed a few motor bike treads that had been discarded down a hillside off the road. That’s what had come of a thousand turns for those worn-out treads: a trash heap in a quiet...

Largely because of our boys’ fascination with lacrosse and all the associated gear, they have developed an intense fondness for anything with an Under Armour logo. Truly, anything: stickers, shirts, shorts, socks, shoes, and on and on and on. You’ll recall that we were robbed last...

We’ve heard some precious stories about life with this precious threesome from our current hosts, M and Mel, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The children are M’s siblings … and the photo is over fifty years old. M grew up with his sister and brothers in an apartment above their...

This was the scene last night after a championship high school basketball game in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Tigers — our new team — had just defeated their rivals, the Eagles, in a nail-biter. (The son of our current hosts is a Tiger guard.) In the photo, the Tigers were just...

I’ve been trying to walk the boys through some Easter-related conversations during Lent. We sat down for yesterday’s conversation about MERCY in a perfect setting: each of us oceanside on a reclining chair, the late afternoon sun drooping towards the horizon, water from the...

At this late hour, a group of Japanese fellow tourists are swimming together in the darkness. A lot of laughing is coming from that direction. They may or may not be naked. So it is as we’re enjoying a healthy dose of goofy in our current location, a seaside resort off the western coast...

So I think it’s right that your view of the stars depends on where you are in our world. That would mean that the night sky in Virginia, say, is different than the night sky in Malaysia. If true, it would explain why Orion’s Belt is directly above us … when it’s...

    One of our sons lost a particularly special memento today, a blue bracelet with home memories that he picked up just before we left the USA last summer. It’s been on his wrist ever since. I don’t want to treat his loss lightly. He is devastated. We realized it was...

My first friend was — is — Charles. An early memory: he and I are walking up a hill in our neighborhood, and we’re spitting every few steps. It was a cool habit we’d picked up very intentionally from another friend at elementary school named Scott. “Soon,”...

My Wife Is Awesome … … for lots of reasons, including this excerpt from today’s World School...

A familiar flower blooming in the yard. S wrangling boys at World School table. A car drives by house, blaring music and message of a candidate for Kenya’s election. Said goodbye to young men yesterday. They are new friends who are taking strong steps in hard places. Sting of goodbye...

The woman in this photo was once on the verge of closing a profitable real estate deal in Nairobi’s Kangemi slum neighborhood. Her mind was changed, however … and the deal never happened. Instead, the property became the home for — and she became the Founder of — Akiba...

Alex, Chi Chi, Christine, Pascaline, Fabian, Kizito, Queen, Mohiedin, George, Festo, Wadhaika, Jackson, Rebecca, Ezekiel, Purity, Dave, and I have been talking about STORYTELLING. Each of these mostly twenty-somethings are drawn in powerful ways to telling stories with words, in sound, or in...

The US Embassy has gathered US citizens this morning at the Ambassador’s residence in Nairobi to talk through possible violence in Kenya’s upcoming election. It’s an information session to answer questions and talk through rumors, expectations, and plans. We’ve had...

E started learning about TESSELLATION today in World School. I’m not sure how that fits in to 3rd grade mathematics … but, for you English majors like me, tessellation is the process of repeating geometric shapes seamlessly across a page. S dreamed up a family project this evening...

Some new friends competed in a raucous 9-on-9 soccer tournament over the weekend — playing for pride against friends and neighbors in a Kenyan election spectacle organized to promote a candidate running for a seat in parliament. Four of the men in this team photo are involved with...

I know it’s been many weeks since we were on safari … but we want to share this giant audio journey of our time with lions, elephants, hippos, vultures, hyenas, cheetahs, leopards, wildebeest, zebras, and the rest of Creation. It’s a quick-moving yet ponderous 15-minute epic...