The Briquette Project

There is (obviously) no central heating in Afghanistan, so every room has one of these wood-burning stoves for heating. This is the stove in the room I shared with my three fabulous roommates at the guesthouse. They pretty much all look like this.


Wood is becoming scarce in Afghanistan, not to mention expensive in a country where the average yearly wage is something like $300. So someone, somewhere came up with the idea and formula for briquettes. Briquettes are round blocks that burn hotter and longer in stoves than anything else. They're cheap and easy to make and the best part is, they're made of waste products and garbage like shells, leaves, plastic, mud, sawdust, etc. Paper is used as a binding agent so it is always a vital ingredient, but everything else varies according to what is available. The organization that runs the guesthouse we stayed at runs a project that not only makes briquettes, which are then sold and are actually the number one source of income for the organization, but also teaches women how to make them and then provides them with the necessary machinery to do it themselves. That way women can make a living for themselves--and a pretty good living for Afghanistan, at that. The guesthouse therefore always had them available and we used them for our stoves at night. As soon as the fire got going with briquettes it would instantly make the room toasty warm and comfy.

When we visited the girls' school, we also visited their briquette vocational training project they run at the school and got to see how the briquettes are made.

A Girl's Life

The very first place we went on our first full day (the day after we arrived; March 2) was a girl's school. That was also, if not my favorite then one of my favorite things we did. Those girls were adorable and it was great seeing them pursuing an education, because I firmly believe that schools will single-handedly do more to solve all the many problems facing Afghanistan today than any other possible solution.

One thing that really struck me about the classes was how varied the ages were. There would be young girls sitting next to middle-aged women in first, second, third grade classrooms. Just another example of how women were denied education under the Taliban and everything during the civil war.

In case you couldn't tell, the second to last picture is a shot of several of the people on the trip standing at the front of one of the classrooms, along with Najib, our fixer/translator/tour guide. He would introduce us to each class in Dari and then start asking the girls question, like what they want to be when they grow up. Then whichever girl volunteered to answer would stand up and answer in English, always prefacing her statement with "In the name of Allah".

A Mountain Keeps An Echo Deep Inside

In Silence There is Eloquence

It's official: I'm going to Afghanistan!

I just can't believe that in less than a month, I'll be in Kabul. It doesn't seem real to me yet. Maybe because the whole thing came about so quickly, with very little time to plan once the decision was made.

After days of agonizing deliberation over whether I should go or not, I finally decided to throw caution to the winds and sign up for Global Exchange's Reality Tour to Afghanistan. This decision marks a change for me, a split from my usual path of pragmatism and logic. Logically speaking, I should NOT be going on this trip. Partly because of the danger, but mostly because of the money. I knew from the get-go that this would be expensive and I would have to blow both my meager savings and also my expected income tax rebate--leaving me with NO safety nest whatsoever and therefore living paycheck to paycheck again for the foreseeable future, or at least until I head off to grad school next fall--but it actually is turning out to be MUCH more expensive than I had anticipated. So instead of merely spending all my money, I will be spending all my money and going several thousand dollars in debt. So far I've spent $360 on vaccinations alone, $240 on travel insurance that doesn't even cover half my flights, $1500 on airfare, and $1750 on the program fee itself. Although I applied for an internal scholarship within the organization I'm going with, so hopefully that last number will be lower.

Any philanthropically-minded readers out there with some spare cash who would like to donate to my cause? I promise, it's not a purely selfish one. Yes, this is to send me to another country, but it's an educational trip meant to promote connections with Afghanistan and show Americans that there is much more to that country than terrorists and women in blue burqas. You see, the only thing that could make me abandon my cautious nature like this is belief. I truly believe in what Global Exchange is trying to accomplish with their Reality Tours, particularly with this one. Call me a bleeding-heart do-gooder liberal if you must, but I think that this accomplishes much more than guns and bombs and shows of force.

The only news we hear back here about Afghanistan usually involves American soldiers and the war, which is important and should be reported. But there is so much more to the story! There's a whole country full of innocent people just trying to live their lives, and often working to make them better! Never mind that your average American is probably just full of incorrect and insulting stereotypes about Afghanistan. I firmly believe that trips like these are important to correct these errors and educate the people here about the people there. We need to see the human side for something to matter, and that is exactly what this trip will do. I can't wait to come back here and write an article to publish in the paper that I write for, along with my photographs, and to tell all my co-workers about the people I met and the work that they do.

This trip is called Women Making Change, and is all about what women are doing to empower themselves and receive the rights that we take so for granted in this country. They have been through so much, and still work so hard for such little reward. Their strength humbles me. I think that this trip will be eye-opening in so many ways, and not only for me but for anyone I am able to share it with upon my return.

Light a Candle For Me

More photos from St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC. I'm not Catholic, so I'm not sure of the entire significance of these candles near the entrance of every cathedral I've ever visited, but they're beautiful and I love the idea of lighting a candle for someone.





I really love this close-up. I like the way the flames reflect off of the glass holders in addition to showing from within them.



Or how about black and white?

A Cottage Full of Books

"I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read."

-Thomas B. Macaulay

My Holiday Wish List

I realize that not only is today already Christmas Day, but that the day is almost over. However, since my family isn't actually having our Christmas celebration until my siblings and I all converge on my parents' place at New Year's, this list isn't late after all. In this case, I've decided to bring you my top 5 holiday wish list, counting down to the one thing I want more than anything else for Christmas. So here's hoping....


5.) Northanger Abbey

This is one of my favorite Jane Austen novels, and the 2007 Masterpiece Theater movie version is one of the best film adaptations of an Austen novel that I've seen. Northanger Abbey is less epic than Pride & Prejudice but has its' own brand of romantic sweetness. It's really a spoof of the gothic novel craze at the time, and tends to come off more like a teenager's P & P, I think. I yearn to own this DVD, so I can watch Catherine's silly adolescent daydreams over and over again. She's a girl after my own heart: adorable, imaginative, and completely deserving of her very own happily-ever-after with Mr. Tilney.



4.) Harm None thumb ring

I love this ring from Pyramid Collections. I've always liked thumb rings, and "Harm None" is a motto I can live by.



3.) Gloria Jean's flavored coffees

Usually I try to buy only fair trade organic coffee, but I have a weakness for Gloria Jean's yummy flavored coffees. I think my personal favorite was chocolate caramel, but they're all good. Plus, Gloria Jean's isn't entirely evil, as they are partnered with the Rainforest Alliance in an attempt to improve the lives of coffee growers and conserve the fragile ecosystems where coffee is grown.



2.) Kiva.

I love the idea of Kiva. Random people giving microloans to finance entrepreneurial small-business owners in the third world? How brilliant is that? Microloans are a vital part of stimulating the economies of developing countries, and also help individual, ordinary people at the same time. Sheer genius.



1.) Reality Tour to Afghanistan--courtesy of Global Exchange.

I discovered Global Exchange and their reality tours sometime last year, and became an instant fan. I love to travel, but I've always hated the idea of being a typical "tourist"where you go to a country, see the sights, and then leave without learning anything about the people or what life in that country is really like. I like this idea of "responsible tourism;" where you learn about a major issue affecting a country, region, and/or culture. I've always been the type of traveler that visits museums instead of bars (sadly, unlike most Americans of my age); and I firmly believe that the best way to learn about a place is firsthand from the regular people that live there, instead of tour guides.

Out of all the places they offer tours to, the yearly trip to Afghanistan piqued my interest the most because for most Americans, the only context they have is war, terrorists, and women in bright blue burqas. I like to know things, so I tend to deeply pursue topics that interest me--and even some that don't. I've done a lot of research into Afghanistan and learned enough to know that there is far more to that country and the people that live there than can be summed up in the war/terrorist label. I'm also somewhat fascinated by the culture and the history, and all of the struggles currently taking place there, the least important of which is the one between NATO and the Taliban.

However, as I currently work for minimum wage I only earn about $12,000 a year, and this trip costs about a fourth of my annual income at nearly $3,000 (the program fee plus airfare), it doesn't look like I'll be heading to Afghanistan come March.

Merry Christmas To All, And To All a Good Night!

Happy holidays, everyone! Here are a few timeless and classic Christmas quotes for your holiday cheer. Enjoy!


"Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive."

-Robert Lynd


"Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete."

-Charles Dickens


"Christmas is a time when you get homesick -- even when you're home."

-Carol Nelson


And of course, no compilation of Christmas-themed quotes is complete without the well-known and oft-quoted...


Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897. [See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9.]

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

'Tis the Season, After All

Christmas at the Radio City Music Hall in NYC.

Christmas is such a great excuse. You can use it to justify all sorts of impulse buys beyond your price range, as I have found out over the past two Christmases.

I bought myself my Christmas present today. I really shouldn't have, as I definitely can't afford it right now, but I couldn't help myself. How often do you run across precisely what you have spent several years been looking for--and it's on sale?

It was meant to be.

I've been trying to find a good weekender bag for quite a while now, even going so far as buying a poor imitation all the while knowing that it wasn't what I wanted just because it was close enough, and I was desperate. Then I was reading one of my new favorite blogs today, La Dolce Vita, and she had a great gift guide posted, including several really cute things from the online store Cerulean. I'd never heard of it before, so I went to the website and it immediately became one of my favorite places to shop, if only from the tagline alone:

"Cerulean--A World of Style Delivered to Your Door."

How great is that? Not to mention that the merchandise is fabulous. Being my usual broke self, I went straight to the "Sale" section and the first thing I saw was this amazing weekender.



The best part is, it's on sale for $93 instead of its usual $124. How can a girl pass that up? This bag appears to be everything I've been scouring the internet and luggage stores for, it's absolutely adorable, and on sale to boot! I had to get it.

So I did. All I can say is: Thank goodness for credit cards :)

Monochrome Monday

Here is my weekly monochromatic offering. It's (big surprise) another image from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

See more posts by fellow monochrome maniacs here.

The Light In the Dark

More St. Patrick's from NYC.

I'm not at all a religious person--if anything I'm either agnostic or atheist, I haven't quite decided yet. But I love cathedrals. I love the beauty, the peace, and feeling of calm they evoke in me.

There And Back Again

Today's picture is also from New York; it's an amalgam of several billboards up in Times Square.

Today has been an EXTREMELY eventful day! In the midst of this terrible snowstorm that has been menacing the Midwest, but which fortunately mostly missed us here (or the snow, at least did), one of my friends and I had to drive to to a larger city about 45 minutes away to take the GRE this morning. We opted to take my SUV because it has four-wheel-drive and we were worried about the bad weather, so I got stuck driving. Lucky me.

I was already terrified about the test itself; having to worry about whether I was even going to make it there, much less back again, didn't really help. Fortunately we made it safely, took the test, I got decent (if average) scores, and we made it back. All of this despite the fact that when we left here this morning I was driving through whiteout conditions and for the first 15 or 20 minutes couldn't see 5 feet in front of my car. Fun.

And then when we had finally arrived in the city and assumed that we were home free, I somehow managed to hit the one section of ice on a fairly busy street just as I was accelerating and suddenly my car was sliding all over the road. It turned one way, then slid another, we hit and bounced off the curb fairly hard, and then suddenly I was in control again. Whew! That could have been really bad. If there had been a car in the lane next to me we would have collided, because I was definitely turned sideways and sliding down both lanes at a point early in the skid. Then we slid the other way, hit the curb, slid back the first way again, and then were finally straight. It's fortunate I was able to regain control before we hit something more vital than the curb, or or hit it harder and were forced up onto it. Those were a really scary few moments and I was definitely shaking with adrenaline for the next 20 minutes or so.

I've never come so close to having an actual accident before. I mean, I grew up in Iowa--which means that I grew up driving in bad weather and on snow-covered roads--so as a result, fishtailing is not a new experience to me. But that was in a small town with sleepy, quiet roads and it had never been that uncontrolled before. Usually I just slide a little bit and easily correct for it. Here I had absolutely no control, at least for most of it. It didn't help that I had just been accelerating so I was probably going about 40 mph and I was sliding towards an intersection and waiting red light waaaay too fast for my comfort. You know how you're not supposed to touch either of the pedals when you're sliding? Well, I had to use the brakes because we were going too fast and for a second there I had been afraid that we might tip over, so luckily tapping the brakes helped instead of making it worse. That's part of what helped me get my behemoth back under control again; otherwise we might have kept sliding.

Once that little adventure was over we made it safely to the test center. Again, we were extremely lucky because we knew we weren't going to make the 8:30 start time for the test, so we had called to tell them about the bad road conditions and ask what would happen if we didn't make it. Luckily they were nice and were willing to let us start the test late, i.e. whenever we got there, instead of just saying, "too bad, you weren't here on time, you can't take the test so your money is gone," which they could have done. If we hadn't been able to make it today then the fee we paid, a whopping $150 dollars (that neither of us can really afford) would have been gone and we would have had to pay it again to take the test some other day. It's a ridiculous policy and one that led us to risk our lives, or at least my car, by venturing out into today's nasty weather.

I was so worried about the GRE, and then it turned out be a lot easier than I expected. Not easy, certainly; but easi-ER. I did okay on the Verbal section: 660. I had hoped for something a little bit higher, say around 700, mostly to compensate for the abysmal Quantitative score I was anticipating, but I did better on that then I expected with a 370. Still far, far from good or even average, but better than I was expecting and higher than the minimum (300) required for most of the schools I'm interested in. I also beat the minimum for Verbal (600), but not by much--which does have me a little worried. Minimum just isn't good enough with all the competition out there for these spots.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings.”

Arches and Lights

St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, NY.

Rowing Through the Very Heart of It

Amazingly enough, I took this photo in the heart of New York City -- Central Park. It's probably one of my favorite images from the trip, mostly due to the incongruity that lies at the heart of the image as well as the city itself. New York is unlike anywhere I've ever been before.

As my friend who visited with me told me on arrival,

"This is New York. Anything goes."

That is very true, and as a result, contradictions flourish everywhere. And I love contradictions.

Probably because I am one.

The Center of the Universe

Otherwise known as Times Square, NYC.

Sunset in NYC

New York, New York!

Here is my first image of the trip. It must be said: I think I'm in love! New York City is definitely the best city in the world. RENT said it best --

New York City: center of the universe!

I took more than 800 shots during less than four days; so it's going to take me a while to get them all sorted through and put in order.

Stay tuned!

Hamlet and the Big Apple

On Friday I'm leaving for New York City!

I've never been there before, so I'm really excited. Unfortunately, I'm coming back on Monday, so it's going to be a really short trip. One of my friends is going to meet me there, though, so we'll have a lot of fun.

The reason it is such a short trip is because the main reason I'm going is to see a play. Just in case you've missed all the Shakespeare-themed entries in the past, I'll let you in on a little not-s0-secret fact about me: I'm a HUGE Shakespeare nut. I love Shakespeare in all forms. LOVE it. Especially Hamlet. Hamlet is my all-time favorite. It's my favorite book, my favorite play, my favorite, period. Have I gotten it across that I love Hamlet?

Well, early this fall I started to hear/read about this new production of Hamlet that started out in London and then moved to New York in September or October, I can't remember exactly when. It has Jude Law playing the titular lead, and all the reviews have been really good (see here and here). Now, that's a little unusual because, as the fabulous Canadian TV show Slings and Arrows satirizes so well, movie stars doing serious theater often get bad reviews simply because they're movie stars doing serious theater. And all of these reviews have been raving over Jude. Plus, I've seen a few clips and they were phenomenal, which explains the positive reviews. So I really really really wanted to see it, but knew that I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. However, I did post the reviews on facebook, and as I had just recently become facebook friends with my mother (it's something I had sworn I would never do and then did; long story), she saw my posts, then apparently saw a review on The Today Show, decided it must be good if The Today Show likes it, and asked if I would like it if she and I went to New York for a weekend to see it.

Anyway, long story short, my parents decided to send me to see this amazing play for my Christmas present, so they're paying for my flight, hotel room, and the Hamlet tickets. Everything else is on me, though, so it's also going to be a cheap vacation, because I work a minimum wage job and am therefore perpetually broke.

And any of you intrepid readers might have noticed a contradiction in my story, as I mentioned above that I was meeting a friend there but also mentioned that my mom had planned for the two of us to go. Well, that had been the plan (which I wasn't too thrilled about because my mother and I aren't that close, but it would have been more than worth it to see that play), until my mom called and said that since she's got all these health problems and hasn't been feeling that well lately, maybe it would be better if I called my good friend who lives in DC to see if she would want to meet me in NYC instead.

I'll admit, I liked this plan better, so I called my friend and she got really excited so I'm meeting her in New York. Needless to say, I can't wait! We've been planning everything we want to see and do, which means we're going to try to cram a lot into two days. Luckily, she's been there before so she somewhat knows her way around--which is really good because with my abysmal sense of direction I'd never be able to get us anywhere we were trying to go. Usually when I go somewhere new it falls on whomever I'm with to get us around, because I get completely, hopelessly lost.

On a slightly different note, I just blew $200 (that I maybe don't have) on a zoom lens for my camera, because that is something I've lusted after for years and am absolutely tickled pink to finally have. I'm definitely taking it and my DSLR to NYC, so if all goes well I'll have tons of new, hopefully fantastic pictures to post up here upon my return.

See you on the other side!

The Mousetrap

"...the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."

Sunny Days

I think it snowed today.

Unfortunately those sunny days seem to drawing to their annual close. Of course, I realize that the sun still shines in the winter, but it just isn't the same. It's cold, and dreary, and slushy. Even those bright clear days when the sun shines are still cold, and often freezing. Besides, all the leaves are gone and the grass is buried beneath snow, so the absence of color makes the sunshine seem paler, less substantial.

Don't get me wrong--I love winter. For about a month. Then the wonder of the first snowfall starts to fade, and the beauty of a snow-covered lawn becomes smothering, and the bleakness sets in.

That is why I am a firm believer in winter vacations to tropic locales. Unfortunately there are no actual vacations in the stars for me this winter, but I will be making a short trip to Georgia to visit my parents in early January. It'll just be a brief respite from miserable Midwestern winters, and then back to the cold and the wind.

The Pale Cast of Thought

Right now I feel like I'm teetering at the edge of an abyss. I have to make a decision about next year; I can't keep going in this limbo where I currently linger. I graduated from college more than two years ago and I still have yet to find a "real" job. I know that most people, especially in this economy, would tell me that any job, much less one that pays most if not all of my bills, qualifies as a "real" job. My parents are not those people. As they never hesitate to remind me, they dropped a quite large amount of money on my education and as a result would like for me to actually use that education. Working in a kitchen, or even catering, does not qualify. Most of the time I don't mind my job, although sometimes I'll admit I would like to wash my hands of that place (and that's a bad pun, for those of you who might not be aware that working in a kitchen necessitates washing your hands constantly).

A few months ago I finally decided that my next step would be graduate school, and after much soul-searching I settled on journalism for my degree program. However, I've since reconsidered.

I managed to get an internship writing for a small local independent newspaper, which even pays, but after doing my first story I started to wonder if journalism was for me. I'm not sure that I have the personality for it. My first interview, which was face-t0-face with the two co-managers at Wal-Mart (I know, I know--I hate Wal-Mart too) pretty much scared the crap out of me. I've never been good with people, and talking to strangers scares me. I practically ran out of the store without bothering to talk to some customers, get some background, like I should have. My next interview went much more smoothly, mostly because it was a phone interview which is much less intimidating. Also, I can't write that quickly so phone interviews allow me to use my computer and type my notes instead of scrawling them as fast as I can and still missing half of what they say.

But even putting all of that aside, my two biggest problems are that:

1.) When interviewing, I get so nervous that my brain shuts down and completely empties of anything. Basically, I stop thinking and then can't come up with any more questions or anything I might have decided earlier to ask about. It all just flies away and I'm stuck with blankness. It's not just when I interview people, it also happens at work when I'm under pressure and have to decide something or fix a problem. My brain just freezes, and I don't know how to make that stop. I've been dealing with it for more than a year now and it still happens.

2.) I have this sort of, complex I guess you could call it, about people not liking me. I can't ask the tough questions, I don't like to make people mad. I live in the real world, I know that reporters generally piss people off and as a result most people hate them. I'm not sure if I could deal with people hating me and--worst of all--active hostility. I hate confrontations and I quail under scrutiny.

Can I get past these mindsets? I guess that's the million-dollar question. I'm sure going to try, though.

I went to talk to my former journalism professor again today, and again she tried to bolster my confidence. Talking to her makes me feel better, but honestly, she doesn't know me well enough for me to really take it seriously. Case in point: today she told me that she hadn't realized I was shy, that it surprised her to hear that. Ha! Anyone who knows me knows that I'm shy. I'm a follower, not a leader. She also told me that interviewing will get easier as I get more used to it, and that eventually I'll be able to write quickly and coherently without even looking at the pad. I appreciate her encouragement, I just wish that I could really believe it.

However, I do still strongly believe the same things that led me to decide on journalism in the first place. Honestly, that's the only reason that I haven't completely dropped the idea yet.

Are the strength of my ideals enough to carry me through?

I guess I'll find out.

Hope Cemetery

The irony in that phrase appeals to me--especially right now as I'm in a somewhat morbid frame of mind.

Hope + Cemetery.

The two seem like an oxymoron, so linking them together, especially in this particular case, seems a bit naive. I guess this is living proof (haha, sorry, pardon the pun) that hope really does spring eternal. Those settlers back in 1836 must have had buckets of hope and probably not a whole lot more.

I guess if your choice is between nothing and hope, most people would choose hope. If only for their own sanity. And while hope can make you crazy, losing hope definitely will make you crazy.

I would think that most people probably hope that they don't end up in Hope Cemetery anytime soon, though.