“Don’t collude with evil through our own apathy.” J.K. Rowling. http://vimeo.com/1711302
My initial reason for creating this site was to document my trip with my family to Tanzania beginning January 26, 2015. Since that initial idea, this site has developed in my imagination to being so much more. The original name, “Let’s Go To Tanzania,” has evolved into, “A Writer’s Space.” I write about everything so why limit my site to only this single adventure? With this in mind, I found a tutor to help me create this space. Thank you Matt, http://wp180.com/, for getting this off the ground and getting me over my fear of WordPress, blogging and just general technical computer stuff.
So what do I want this site to be? A place to publish my writing — and maybe yours too. I have created a title and pages that can encompass essays or posts that reflect changing times, opinions, travels and pictorial views of the world we live in.
My first posts are essays published in the recent past at my writers’ workshops. One is “Reflections on Ferguson, Missouri” and the other, “Where I am From.” I invite you to read these pieces first as an entree to understanding who I am, where I come from and what is important to me.
My second order of business is our upcoming trip to Tanzania at the end of this month. The trip is my answer to J.K Rowling’s directive to graduates at Harvard University — “Don’t collude with evil through our own apathy.” For me, this tells me it’s time to get going, get doing — that is the opposite of apathy. Going connotes doing and doing means participating. Participating in life. For my family — husband, Alex, daughters, Anna 13 and Layla, 9, this means travel. Not vacation. Not just observing the world but diving in, experiencing new cultures, peoples, wildlife.
People ask Why Tanzania? I travelled to Tanzania in 1998 with my best friend. We went on safari in the Serengeti, Ngorogoro Crater, Manyara, Lake Eyasi and climbed to the peak of Mt. Kiliminjaro. Upon return, I promised myself that I would take my future family there to share with them the awe-someness of Tanzania, its people, its teeming wildlife, and most of all the feeling I had when I was there — that Tanzania is where Man first walked — the Garden of Eden.
It was not difficult convincing my family to embark on this journey with me. In the summer of 2013, Alex’s mom, Judy, hosted us on safari in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The experience was eye popping on so many different levels (perhaps I will write about this trip some day), that we all cried at the airport, sad to be leaving the African continent so soon. I told my family, we’ll be back. And next time for much longer. We are coming back to live, to grow, to change, to contribute. January 26th, 2015, we are on our way.
Botswana 2013