And so it begins...talking about how it began

As our 4th year anniversary of returning to the USA approaches from our 16 years in southern Africa, I have been feeling a bit lost in my place in the world and have found myself becoming more and more disenchanted. It has brought up feelings of hopelessness. So I decided to start blogging to remember the 16 years in southern Africa, that took me at that time, a 24 year old, naive, privileged, and immature young women and developed me into the woman I am today, a 43 year old mature woman, with an understanding and fierce belief in our common humanity, a staunch liberal and a strong believer (and hopefully strong advocate) for social justice. I wanted to go back to the places in my mind that helped me become the woman I am today and help me get in touch with those feelings of hope and enchantment with the world and help me restore them in my current life.

On November 7th, 1990, my husband Ned and I (we had been married 5 months) set off from JFK to fly to Johannesburg, South Africa. Ned had been accepted at a University there to do a Masters in Political Studies. "It will be only two years" he said and I naively believed him. Love is blind, but also deaf and dumb. You see Ned had spent a semester in Kenya where he got bitten by the development bug. Grad school was just a vehicle to get back on the African continent and eventually get a job. How I did not seem that at the time is beyond me. I never at that time understood his passion for the Continent and his passion to be involved in development work.

We flew from New York to Lusaka, Zambia where we caught another flight to Johannesburg. Two big backpacks on our backs and a trunk full of books-mostly poly-sci books and books on South Africa which we were sure would be confiscated at the airport. Nelson Mandela had been released from Robben Island prison but the Apartheid system was still in tact.

The trip was a blur-but I remember looking out the plane window in Lusaka and watching a baggage handler putting our bags on and noticing he had bare feet....I don't know why, but I'll never forget that...he was working in bare feet. I suddenly realized, I didn't have a clue what I was going to experience and how little I knew about the world beyond the USA.

We landed in Johannesburg, I missed my mother dearly..........it was my birthday, everything felt strange,....I missed my mother dearly....and what I didn't realize that it was just the beginning...a beginning of a time of incredible experiences, meeting wonderful people, being challenged, feeling like an ass, developing as a professional, having children, battling malaria, learning new languages, and building a life.