Thursday, March 22, 2007
Brooke and Brian‘s Wedding
The wedding was in a park over looking Austin. The entire eveing was really, really beautiful.
Pre-wedding preparations
Brooke and I went to Norstrom’s to have our make-up done. Afterwards, we met Brooke’s mother and grandmother and we all had our hair done.
Going to Texas
Greg and I went to Austin, Texas for the wedding of our very, very good friends Brooke and Brian. We ate a lot of of Tex-Mex and a little BBQ.
A cowboy and a man in the kilt we saw while eating breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe.
Brooke and my mom. My mom took 4 flights over from the Bahamas to come to the wedding.
The happy bride the day before the wedding in her and Brian's backyard.
Lobo!
Puck!
Brooke and Brian at their rehersal dinner.
A cowboy and a man in the kilt we saw while eating breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe.
Brooke and my mom. My mom took 4 flights over from the Bahamas to come to the wedding.
The happy bride the day before the wedding in her and Brian's backyard.
Lobo!
Puck!
Brooke and Brian at their rehersal dinner.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Visting Budapest
A couple of weeks ago, Greg and I went to visit Budapest, one of our new favorite cities. It is such a lovely city. We stayed with our good friend Gabor and Antonia (who we’d been hearing all these amazing things about but had never met). Gabor’s awesome sister, Judit gave us our own professional and personal tour of the city. She knew everything about every site and was very interesting. Between the excellent Hungarian food and drink, fascinating conversations, and very warm welcome, we couldn’t have had a better trip.
We also saw the Hungarian riot police!
We also saw the Hungarian riot police!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Sharon Visited Paris
Sharon, my college roommate and good friend, came to visit us last week. It was her first time in Paris and she stayed with us for a week. We walked up to the Sacre Coeur the second night she was here. Its only about a 15min walk from our apartment and I took some photos of Sharon, Paris and the church.
More from Liberia
(Greg returned from Liberia two weeks ago but some how I forgot to post his last entry. He has to go back in March and I will try to keep the posts updated.)
Here are a few more pictures of Monrovia. I've been running around the city and have had a chance to see nearly all of it, as it is small. There are many black rock outcrops everywhere, which gives the landscape a rough edge. One of the suprising things here is the richness and diversity of available food and local cuisine. I've eaten crab and several kinds of fish, and even potato greens: the leaves of potatoes cooked like spinash. The chicken also very tasty, since it grows up eating trash and a varied diet, rather than cow flour in giant, stinky warehouses as in the west. I am surprised because my experience in Ghana was not very satisfying from my stomach's point of view, and Uganda's cuisine was not great either.
Here are a few more pictures of Monrovia. I've been running around the city and have had a chance to see nearly all of it, as it is small. There are many black rock outcrops everywhere, which gives the landscape a rough edge. One of the suprising things here is the richness and diversity of available food and local cuisine. I've eaten crab and several kinds of fish, and even potato greens: the leaves of potatoes cooked like spinash. The chicken also very tasty, since it grows up eating trash and a varied diet, rather than cow flour in giant, stinky warehouses as in the west. I am surprised because my experience in Ghana was not very satisfying from my stomach's point of view, and Uganda's cuisine was not great either.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Working in Liberia
(I'm posting for Greg while he's on mission in Monrovia, Liberia for work. He is flying home on Saturday.)
I went to Liberia for work, fully expecting to find a bombed out country. I was not disappointed. My company has a team on the ground to help fix some emergency water problems. Think 1.5 million people with barely enough water for 20% of them, all served by a single, 40 year old, diesel-powered pump.
So far, Liberians have been very friendly, and nobody (except for some small kids) has asked for money in the street. Everybody seems busy with some work, and the streets are crowded with vendors, water sellers, people sweeping garbage, security guards, etc…
The president seems very popular, and those I’ve spoken to seem to want to give her time. Because people speak English, albeit with a strong accent, you can easily exchange ideas with them. In this way, it’s very much like Uganda . That’s where the comparisons end (besides the slight smell of burning plastic that hangs in the air) because Kampala is a first world country compared to here. I will take some pictures to show the devastation, but I’ll try to be fair and not pick sights that are particularly bad or good.
There is a weird thing about Liberia, is the non-African African-Americans, who are called “ Congo ” here, because they don’t belong to any particular local ethnic group, and are typically lighter skinned than the locals. The 13 other groups were barred (officially or not, I don’t know) from office and political responsibility for nearly all of the history of the country (since the mid 1850s, I think). They’ve recently regained some power. This all seems very complicated and would probably take years of study to understand.
Street in Monrovia
Another Street
Venders
View from Greg's Office
Massonic Temple
Main Street
More Photos from Liberia
I went to Liberia for work, fully expecting to find a bombed out country. I was not disappointed. My company has a team on the ground to help fix some emergency water problems. Think 1.5 million people with barely enough water for 20% of them, all served by a single, 40 year old, diesel-powered pump.
So far, Liberians have been very friendly, and nobody (except for some small kids) has asked for money in the street. Everybody seems busy with some work, and the streets are crowded with vendors, water sellers, people sweeping garbage, security guards, etc…
The president seems very popular, and those I’ve spoken to seem to want to give her time. Because people speak English, albeit with a strong accent, you can easily exchange ideas with them. In this way, it’s very much like Uganda . That’s where the comparisons end (besides the slight smell of burning plastic that hangs in the air) because Kampala is a first world country compared to here. I will take some pictures to show the devastation, but I’ll try to be fair and not pick sights that are particularly bad or good.
There is a weird thing about Liberia, is the non-African African-Americans, who are called “ Congo ” here, because they don’t belong to any particular local ethnic group, and are typically lighter skinned than the locals. The 13 other groups were barred (officially or not, I don’t know) from office and political responsibility for nearly all of the history of the country (since the mid 1850s, I think). They’ve recently regained some power. This all seems very complicated and would probably take years of study to understand.
Street in Monrovia
Another Street
Venders
View from Greg's Office
Massonic Temple
Main Street
More Photos from Liberia
Sunday, January 07, 2007
We Moved
We moved into the apartment! There are still some little things to finish but the works are mostly done. We’ve unpacked all but three boxes and will recycle the cardboard on Monday. The kitchen is wonderful. We’ve spent the afternoon trying to understand how to work the microwave/oven combo. It crisps, broils, and can even microwave and cook at the same time. We just haven’t figured out yet why we would need to do this.
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