created & maintained by Chris Biles
Hiking, swimming, luxury tent, wildlife watching, rain and sun, storms and blue skies, camping food, a place of significant scientific history, and of course chimpanzees / sokwemtu – 48 hours felt like a full week! Leaving Kigoma, I had beautiful weather – sunny but still cool. The ride was gorgeous, breezy, and calm. When I …
Continue reading "Glorious Gombe, A Few Goodbyes – 8 April 2018"
“You can’t stop time. You can’t capture light. You can only turn your face up and let it rain down.” – Kim Edwards (The Memory Keeper’s Daughter) Things have been busy, and my mind as of late has been in a million places at once. That’s the joy of being at pre-service training, of being …
Continue reading "Words, Quotes, Sentences, and Mystery – 5 March 2018"
This world is a big place, and it is full of both beauty and darkness; love and hatred; peace and violence. I believe if there is a benevolent balance of light and dark we’re doing okay. I also believe the Ubuntu principle that people are only people through other people. We would not be who …
Continue reading "Contemplating the Yin and the Yang – 18 February 2018"
The holidays have come and gone, and somehow it’s nearing the end of January already – 2018. Kumbe. The office prior to the holidays was wonderfully calm and peaceful, and I was able to get a good amount of work done. People slowly filtered out for their own vacations, and then I too had my …
I wrote a letter to a few friends today and realized that it’s getting to be the holiday season, though it doesn’t feel like it here in hot and sweaty Dar es Salaam. But while the weather won’t bring the sentiments of the season, time with my close friends/Peace Corps family certainly will. I’ll spend …
Continue reading "Life talks, mountain hikes, and alligator pears: ‘tis the season – 21 Nov 2017"
Calm and peaceful, black rock white sand, bananas/cassava/bread fruit/soursop, big ol’ bats, bonjour/ca va, Swahili!, warm ocean waters, tiny nation, HOT, houses of painted cement/warn cement/wood/iron sheets, kebabs with spicy chili sauce, electricity, running water, narrow but paved roads, community libraries, spiced fish, mosques, calls to prayer, trash trash trash, slow goin… I recently had …
I’ve been living the life of the nomad these past few weeks! While it’s been tiring, it has also been great fun. I certainly feel my most useful as a PCVL when interacting with other PCVs, and two plus weeks of technical assistance site visits have given me a sense of fulfillment. I was able …
Tides flow in, pull out People come and people go Still, the sun will rise Time again to say farewell… In Peace Corps people really do come and go. There is the opportunity to make so many connections, some deeper than you’ve ever experienced before, but so often the people you connect with are gone …
Sitting in the early morning on my friend’s balcony, looking up at the glowing yellow clouds: illuminated from the side by the soft light of the rising sun, surrounded by the subdued splendor of a sleepy sky adjusting to wakefulness – like me. Sipping coffee, appreciative that the hour of my awakening coincides with the …
I had the pleasure of leading some of the new education class around the city yesterday (Dar) to see the sights, learn the essentials, tell some stories, share some (what may seem like) wisdom. It brought me back to the very beginning of my service – week zero as it’s known, the week of arrival, …
marks in the sand 