Looking and listening during Lent 2013. Laundry day for boarding students at Sonrise School in Musanze,...

Geoffrey says: “Today is a hard day.” I’m thinking he could mean any of a dozen things — hard because he lives in a Nairobi slum, hard because he supports himself, hard because it’s hot today, hard because we’re raking brush and debris and cut grass from a...

This was my view of E’s brief walk with a young man named Geoffrey this afternoon. Scenes like this have led to some great writing the boys have been producing in World School. I’ve given them some fairly broad topics to tackle about our recent experiences in Rwanda and Kenya...

  Our first meal in Nairobi, Kenya was in a living room inside a prison. Our host for the evening, J.M.A.N., works for Kenya’s corrections system … and lives with his family — along with most other families of prison staff — in a house inside prison...

Get out of bed, Jerusalem! Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight. These were the words I happened to read this morning from Isaiah, as we woke up to brilliant sunshine today in Musanze, Rwanda. Adding to the morning glory, the daughter of our current hosts was reciting this poem to the...

My first soccer practice was at E. Rivers Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977. I jumped out of my mom’s car and then ran pell mell down a steep, tree-lined hillside to the soccer field below. It’s a vivid memory still. The number on my jersey that year was number 8...

We’re told that the Rwandan genocide essentially touched EVERY Rwandan in some way. S and I struggle with how it’s to touch us. Above, is a photograph taken from The Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. Those long cement rectangles are mass graves for the remains of hundreds and...

I tried to explain the Rwandan genocide to our boys in a few minutes this morning. They really tracked with the information — from colonial rule, to the creation of Tutsi and Hutu labels, to civil war, to mass murder … but they stopped me when I started talking about...

  A shot from this morning’s Super Bowl viewing party in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Wake up call was 2:15AM … and the boys haven’t yet gone to sleep …. We watched the game in a State Department home, thanks to American Forces Network … which meant no...

I previously posted about meeting Pastor John Komanya and some of the ministries his church community supports. (Unbroken, Unmoved.) Yesterday, we drove outside Dar es Salaam to worship with that church community — at the Cathedral of Joy. Much of the experience was unfamiliar …...

48266 is the number once used by local operators to dial my father’s home in Shelby, Ohio. Dad shared that detail with me recently while on safari. We were standing next to each other one afternoon as our safari jeep rumbled along, with our heads poking through its roof windows. We...

It was thrilling to find this twilight scene in Zanzibar. Scores of young men were lined up along Stonetown’s water front … waiting for their turn to launch themselves in to the Indian Ocean. Some did flips. Others soared. A few belly flopped. One young man barely cleared the...

Some friends passed along this poem from Sir Francis Drake for our journey: Disturb us Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true Because we dreamed too little, Because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things...

(NOTE: That’s not an inappropriate finger thing going on. It’s the FOURTH finger, the ring finger, celebrating Eugene and Elaine’s engagement. They’re the fourth and fifth folks from the right.) Earlier this week, I was listening to a long-term missionary who’s...

As I write, some close friends are working with a team somewhere in America — in the dark — to bring light and help to people who need it. Also as I write, our small Zanzibar guest house is without power – in the dark. Minutes ago, I was expressing my disappointment to the front...

We visited a cave today in Zanzibar once used by Arab slave traders. Years ago, as British troops and ships started to enforce the end of legal slavery in east Africa, traders tried to conceal their slaves in secret places until high tides and darkness made their export business easier. So,...

Two reasons why safaris aren’t just about seeing the Big Five — lions, leopards, rhinos, Cape buffalo, and the African elephant. We met a couple from Wisconsin during our safari. They’d come to celebrate fifty years of marriage, having been on safari in Botswana years before...

A wonderful, global moment this afternoon in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: A water slide. A handful of boys — from England, the US, Bolivia, and Malawi. Mud. Bathing suits. A hose. A new friend — a parent — who happens to know a former NPR colleague from college and time spent in...

We read the Creation story before embarking on the first game drive of our recent safari. I’d forgotten some of the details: we don’t read about LAND until verse 9, CREATURES and MAN come much later. Creation begins with LIGHT and the SEPARATION between Heaven and earth …...

  We were so grateful to spend time with — and go on safari with — Papa and Janet. Joyous hearts for the hello — and tears for the goodbye. What an incredible experience to...