Friday, December 30, 2005

Katie's African adventures continued...

The day after Christmas I chased down a large, open-backed truck headed in my direction, climbed aboard, perched myself precariously on my back pack and set off for a 50 mile journey west to the paved road. With the wind in my hair, dust in my eyes, a sheep's horns poking at my sides, its wet nose nuzzling my arm, I watched the axles spinning through the loose boards on which I sat, breathed in through the bandanna covering my mouth, and thought, 'Ah, This is Africa.'
Why am I still here? Sometimes I think I really love it here. But only sometimes.
Greetings from adventure in progress. I am having a wonderful time, full of exhaustion, fascination, frustration, learning and understanding, and moments of freedom and happiness I'm so afraid of loosing once I return to the US.
In the past 5 weeks I have made a circle through south-eastern West Africa (does that make sense), I dodged mopeds in Ouagadougou, got sick in Fada, recovered in Natitingou, explored ruined palaces and voodoo shrines in Abomey, roamed streets of crumbling Portuguese buildings in Porto Novo, analyzed life after peace corps with my Fulbright scholar/RPCV friend Natalie in Cotonou, enjoyed a giant, beautiful stretch of beach and unswimmable ocean in Ouidah, walked in a circle around Lome, chased butterflies and waterfalls in Kpalimé, hiked up mountains, found waterfalls, played with monkeys and dodged snakes in Ho, restocked my book supply in Accra, wandered through the slave holds of European trading forts and tried to understand more about the legacy of the slave trade in Cape Coast, wobbled 30 meters above the forest floor on the only canopy walk in Africa in the rain forest of Kakum, immersed myself in urban Ghanaian life and Ashanti history in Kumasi, tracked elephants, baboons, antelopes, and warthogs on Christmas in Mole, spied hippos in Wechiau, and endured an endless day of transport to arrive here, where I am now, in Bobo Dialoasso, Burkina Faso. You still with me?
Just now, after about an hour in the cyber cafe, I got up to go to the bathroom, and for the first time, really forgot where I was.
I have had an amazing time. I\'m learning so much about the world right next door to Senegal and it\'s helping put the past 2 years in a broader context. I\'ve realized how much Peace Corps and Senegal has come to define who I am, at least right now, in my life. I live in Senegal still, and can\'t yet bring myself to call America home. Senegal is comfort and familiarity, and I have never felt more Senegalese than when I try to relate to people in these other countries. There was not a day that passed in the past 2 years where I did not feel American, but in the past 5 weeks, each day I see a bit of Senegal in me. I read recently a line that hit very close to home: "It is a bittersweet thing, knowing to cultures. It\'s a curse\n to love two countries." This trip and all its journeys, is giving me the time I need to reflect and understand the past 2 years. So, I love Bobo Dialasso and Burkina Faso. After 3 weeks in the anglophone, christian, green jungle, mountainous world of Ghana, I was happy to return to the francophone, Muslim, flat, dry, Savannah landscape I\'ve come to feel at home in. I\'m relaxing for a few days and enjoying this laid back, easy town before I head north to Mali to meet my friend Marielsie and trek through Dogon country. I\'m so excited! I\'m wishing everyone a very wonderful and happy new year. I\'m sending lots of love and to all corners of the world for 2006. May you all be safe where you are. I\'ll finally land in Washington, DC on Jan. 22nd and hope to see as many many people as possible. I may be afraid to leave the house for a few days, for fear of\n freezing to death . . . bear with me. I have dreams of hot showers and watching movies on a couch while eating pizza and Chinese food that has been delivered to my door. Oh, and I really need to find a job! I have no phone (my 21st century mother seems to be against fixed line telephones these days, so I need a cell phone. but first, see above . . . I need a job), so email, email, email and I\'ll try to steal my mother\'s phone to call you back :)",1]
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I have had an amazing time. I'm learning so much about the world right next door to Senegal and it's helping put the past 2 years in a broader context. I've realized how much Peace Corps and Senegal has come to define who I am, at least right now, in my life. I live in Senegal still, and can't yet bring myself to call America home. Senegal is comfort and familiarity, and I have never felt more Senegalese than when I try to relate to people in these other countries. There was not a day that passed in the past 2 years where I did not feel American, but in the past 5 weeks, each day I see a bit of Senegal in me. I read recently a line that hit very close to home: "It is a bittersweet thing, knowing to cultures. It's a curse to love two countries."
This trip and all its journeys, is giving me the time I need to reflect and understand the past 2 years.

So, I love Bobo Dialasso and Burkina Faso. After 3 weeks in the anglophone, christian, green jungle, mountainous world of Ghana, I was happy to return to the francophone, Muslim, flat, dry, Savannah landscape I've come to feel at home in. I'm relaxing for a few days and enjoying this laid back, easy town before I head north to Mali to meet my friend Marielsie and trek through Dogon country. I'm so excited!

I'm wishing everyone a very wonderful and happy new year. I'm sending lots of love and to all corners of the world for 2006. May you all be safe where you are.

I'll finally land in Washington, DC on Jan. 22nd and hope to see as many many people as possible. I may be afraid to leave the house for a few days, for fear of freezing to death . . . bear with me. I have dreams of hot showers and watching movies on a couch while eating pizza and Chinese food that has been delivered to my door.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Cassettes 2 CDs in Seattle saved my memories

Thank you, Cassettes 2 CDs! I sent about 30 cassette and VHS tapes to a little company in Seattle, and they worked their magic and sent back all the originals along with CDs and DVDs. As I type, I am listening to the CD of the tape that was the impetus for this project: an interview I did in 1997 with my grandparents about WWII. It's pretty amazing to hear my grandfather's voice again 4 years after he died, and to know that this CD will last much longer than the cassette.

My Grampy was a very very smart man; a math degree and a PhD in psychology. He wrote IQ tests for the army that could be administered to illiterate enlistees. But, as I think most grandchildren would say of their grandparents, I didn't know much about them, and still don't know as much as I'd like, but the things I learned in this interview (as narrow as it was subject-wise) blew me away. My Grampy worked in the army in NYC writing his tests, and commuted in from NJ. The picture I have of my grandparents is either in Oxford, MS, or Valley Forge, PA, doing their parental/grandparental thing. It's also interesting to hear the interaction between my Grammy and Grampy, and to compare that to the way my Grammy acts now. She depended on him to complete all of her missing memories: cities, dates, names. Now her memory is worse and he's not around to help. I think each of those factors exacerbates the other.

Other tapes and videos I had converted: old tapes I recorded at parties, some performances in sound booths at amusement parks, my brother's wedding video, the compilation of all of my college videos... and now I'm listening to the CD made from the recordings I did of myself playing the piano. Good foresight, seeing as I don't know if I'll ever have such a repertoire ever again. I can still play bits and pieces of the songs, but I bet I'd need to take lessons again to whip myself back into shape. Moonlight Sonata, Reverie, Maple Leaf Rag... I must say, I wasn't horrible. Not great, but not bad either. I had my moments and enjoyed it toward the end. After 10 years of lessons I actually started to enjoy playing! Maybe I never considered quitting because my grandmother (not the one mentioned above) was a pianist and I felt like she was watching me.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Chicken found her Rooster


And I will be her best hen. I know, we're silly for continuing to call each other chicken, but that's beside the point... Lindy got engaged! She called around 7ish last night to ask me to be her maid... no, matron of honor. I am, of course, honored. So, after all of the weddings I've been in, this will be my first spotlight performance as maid of honor. Whoo hoo! Oh, and I think Lindy and Dave are really great together. There was "old Dave," who somehow disappeared and became Awesome Dave who does all sorts of wonderful things for my chicken, like make her breakfast in bed. And he asked her parents' permission to propose to her, and basically did everything she said she "would want if he were to ever propose." Here's a photo of them on their trip to Disney last week (note the left hand, naked for the last time...). Congratulations, Lindy and Dave! (See "Hebonics" response to engagement in post below... does not apply here!)

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Hebonics

Another forward from my best friend's dad:

The New York City Public Schools have officially declared Jewish English-- now dubbed Hebonics -- as a second language. Backers of the move say the city schools are the first in the nation to recognize Hebonics as a valid language and a significant attribute of American culture. According to Howard Schollman, linguistics professor at Brooklyn College and renowned Hebonics scholar, the sentence structure of Hebonics derives from middle and eastern European language patterns, as well as Yiddish.

Prof. Schollman explains, "In Hebonics, the response to any question is usually another question -- plus a complaint that is implied or stated. Thus 'How are you?' may be answered, 'How should I be.... with my bad feet?'"

Schollman says that Hebonics is a superb linguistic vehicle for expressing sarcasm or skepticism. An example is the repetition of a word with "sh" or "shm" at the beginning: "Mountains, shmountains. Stay away. You want a nosebleed?"

Another Hebonics pattern is moving the subject of a sentence to the end, with its pronoun at the beginning: "It's beautiful, that dress."Schollman says one also sees the Hebonics verb moved to the end of the sentence. Thus the response to a remark such as "He's slow as a turtle," could be: "Turtle, shmurtle! Like a fly in Vaseline he walks."

Schollman provided the following examples from his best-selling textbook, Switched-On Hebonics.

Question: "What time is it?"
English answer: "Sorry, I don't know."
Hebonic response: "What am I, a clock?"

Remark: "I hope things turn out okay."
English answer: "Thanks."
Hebonic response: "I should be so lucky!"

Remark: "Hurry up. Dinner's ready."
English answer: "Be right there."
Hebonic response: "Alright already, I'm coming. What's with the 'hurry' business? Is there a fire?"

Remark: "I like the tie you gave me; I wear it all the time."
English answer: "Glad you like it."
Hebonic response: "So what's the matter; you don't like the other ties I gave you?"

Remark: "Sarah and I are engaged."
English answer: "Congratulations!"
Hebonic response: "She could stand to lose a few pounds."

Question: "Would you like to go riding with us?"
English answer: "Just say when."
Hebonic response: "Riding, shmiding! Do I look like a cowboy?"

To the guest of honor at a birthday party:
English answer: "Happy birthday."
Hebonic response: "A year smarter you should become."

Remark: "A beautiful day."
English answer: "Sure is."
Hebonic response: "So the sun is out; what else is new?"

Answering a phone call from a son:
English answer:"It's been a while since you called."
Hebonic response: "You didn't wonder if I'm dead yet?"

Ghananian roadside sign

This came from Katie today and REALLY made me laugh:

Seen today from the roadside:
HIP POP BODY WEAR
With GOD All Things Are Possible
Below:Pictures of white women lounging in their underwear

Pieces of me all over the world

EBAY. Not only has it supplemented my income significantly, but it has also been fun to think about all of the things that used to be ours that are now flung across the globe. Shoes, clothes, books, any old junk we can scrounge from the closets or storage space. I've sent things to Germany, France, the Virgin Islands, and all over the states. Whenever I find something that I didn't know I had, I sell it; I obviously had no need for it. Even if it's "cute" or I "might use it someday" I sell it. I'm sick of junk and things. Not that I've ever really had an overabundance of junk and things (I suppose that's subjective), but still, I don't like owning things that I have no use for. It makes me feel burdened. I think about moving in the future and am terrified about the amount of stuff we'll have to pack up. I want to minimize!!! If you want to see what I'm selling... enter jen.rudolph in the search by seller page on Ebay.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Down with Chrismukkah!

Christmas and Hanukah are two distinct holidays. You don't see people lobbying for, oh, I don't know, Rammukkah? Or Yom Rammadan? Easstover? No. These are all their own holiday, with histories of their own and I don't have any gripes with celebrating all of them, but I do have issues with blending them all together. I guess that's the beef I have with universalist churches. A coworker goes to one and explained to me that they had seder at her church. Though, I guess it's better than calling it the universalist church jewish meal or something. I got a funny forward from my father-in-law about Christmas and Hanukah:

1 Christmas is one day, same day every year, December 25. Jews also love December 25th. It's another paid day off work. We go to movies and out for Chinese food and Israeli dancing. Chanukah is 8 days. It starts the evening of the 24th of Kislev, whenever that falls. No one is ever sure. Jews never know until a non-Jewish friend asks when Chanukah starts*, forcing us to consult a calendar so we don't look like idiots. We all have the same calendar, provided free with a donation from the World Jewish Congress, the kosher butcher, or the local Sinai Memorial Chapel (especially in Florida) or other Jewish funeral home.

2. Christmas is a major holiday. Chanukah is a minor holiday with the same theme as most Jewish holidays. They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat.

3. Christians get wonderful presents such as jewelry, perfume, stereos... Jews get practical presents such as underwear, socks, or the collected works of the Rambam, which looks impressive on the bookshelf.

4. There is only one way to spell Christmas. No one can decide how to spell Chanukah, Chanukkah, Chanukka, Channukah, Hanukah, Hannukah, etc. [Personal sidebar: Jen spells this word with as few letters as possible, to satisfy her editing bent!]

5. Christmas is a time of great pressure for husbands and boyfriends. Their partners expect special gifts. Jewish men are relieved of that burden. [This is subjective.] No one expects a diamond ring on Chanukah. [Also subjective.]

6. Christmas brings enormous electric bills. Candles are used for Chanukah. Not only are we spared enormous electric bills, but we get to feel good about not contributing to the energy crisis.

7. Christmas carols are beautiful... Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful.... Chanukah songs are about dreidels made from clay or having a party and dancing the hora. Of course, we are secretly pleased that many of the beautiful carols were composed and written by our tribal brethren. And don't Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond sing them beautifully?

8. A home preparing for Christmas smells wonderful--the sweet smell of cookies and cakes baking. Happy people are gathered around in festive moods. A home preparing for Chanukah smells of oil, potatoes, and onions. The home, as always, is full of loud people all talking at once.

9. Christian women have fun baking Christmas cookies. Jewish women burn their eyes and cut their hands grating potatoes and onions for latkas on Chanukah. Another reminder of our suffering through the ages.

10. Parents deliver to their children during Christmas. Jewish parents have no qualms about withholding a gift on any of the eight nights. [They don't??]

11. The players in the Christmas story have easy to pronounce names such as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The players in the Chanukah story are Antiochus, Judah Maccabee, and Matta whatever. No one can spell it or pronounce it. On the plus side, we can tell our friends anything and they believe we are wonderfully versed in our history.

12. Many Christians believe in the virgin birth. Jews think, "Yossela, Bubela, snap out of it. Your woman is pregnant, you didn't sleep with her, and now you want to blame G-d? Here's the number of my shrink."

13. In recent years, Christmas has become more and more commercialized. This makes sense. How could we market a major holiday such as Yom Kippur? "Forget celebrating. Think observing. Come to synagogue, starve yourself for 27 hours, become one with your dehydrated soul, beat your chest, confess your sins, a guaranteed good time for you and your family. Tickets a mere $200 per person." Better stick with Chanukah!

Baby shower!


Here's a photo from the baby shower I co-hosted at the Henley Park hotel. We had "Royal Tea" and it was lovely!

Katie in Ghana

The most recent email from Katie about her travels (travails?) in Africa. Katie, I'm sorry to say it, but there's a distinct chance I will have to give you English lessons when you get back.

Sorry to hear you were sick. I remember that 'winter-type' cold/sickness that never seemed to go away. Dry and scratchy-ness and always blowing my nose. ugh, not looking forward to that part of winter in america. It's hot in Ghana, way hotter than Senegal at this time of year . . . I wan't expecting it and I'm pissed that I'm lugging around 3 pairs of pants when all I wear are my capri pants and 2 skirts. I know i'll need warm clothes in Mali, but that seems so far away. and three pairs of pants was just excessive. damb. and i thought i did such a good job of packing for 2 months. Doing laundry has become the bane of my traveling existance. A lot of the hotels i stay in don't even have sinks in the rooms and i don't always stay places for 2 nights (the amount of time i usually think merits a load of laundry). today I spent over an hour trying to was clothes in a sink that didn't have a drain plug (i tried to use a plastic bag), wringing out my clothes, and then going back and forth between my room and the bathroom to hang them up on the make-shift clothes line i hung under the ceiling fan. I don't know if my clothes are any cleaner . . . but maybe they'll
smell a bit better. reminds me, i need more laundry soap . . . i was using my shower soap this moning. ah, such is life. sorry for that little rant there.
I'm in Cape Coast, Ghana, once a major British and Dutch slave trading center. They built these giant fort/castels to house their merchants, goods, and slaves before the ships came in (about every 6 weeks) to take them accross the atlantic. It's been as interesting as it is disturbing. I'm learning a lot that I always thought I knew but never really understood about the slave trade. I have a lot of new questions and i'm anxious to try to read up on things more when i get home (to the land of bookstores, can't wait for that). The coast lines here are beautiful, but the water is too unsafe to swim in. Seems fitting, based the the past these towns carry.
Also, Ghana is intensly christian, signs of god and jesus everywhere. churches everywhere. it's disturbing, i'm so used to islam and for some reason christianity hitting me in the face like this is wierder. But i wonder how people feel about the fact that they adpoted the religeon of the same people that captured and sold them like goods for trade. How can they feel that that religeon is just and right?
But I do get to hear American christmas carols everywhere I go. Feels just like home :)
ah, I'm rambling. Tomorrow i'm going to try to go to a rainforest with a
canopy walk 300m about the ground. I'm excited, and hopefully I can get a guided
walk through the forest for a bit as well. Oh, the crocodile post is being drained at the moment and the lush, tropical resort I was so excited to stay at looks more like a construction sight. but there is a pool :)
I'm off,
time is up.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Chrismukkah

Now, I know that Hanumas doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, in fact, it makes me think of Havana and the Bahamas, but anyway, I don't know that I love Chrismukkah so much, either. However, it seems that Chrismukkah is here to stay. There is even a chrismukkah.com. And on said site, there's a Chrismukkah blog. Someone commented and sort of hit on the head the nail that has been poking me: Chrismukkah, and apparently also the cookbook put out by the chrismukkah.com people, sort of bastardizes both holidays.

The name itself bothers me in that it retains most of "Christmas" and very little of "Hanukah." Like, "here's the Christian holiday we're pretending to include Jews in." But who exactly is including who in what? Do Jews want to be included in Christmas? I think a lot of Jews spend the "Christmas season" trying desperately to avoid Christmas. Now there are Blitzen Blintzes? Do Christians feel left out of Hanukah? Is this an attempt for Christians to "play Hanukah," using the excuse that it's all one holiday now?

I don't have any insight into what it's like for a Jewish family with small children to deal with Christmas. I fortunately didn't have to ask my parents why Santa wasn't coming to give ME presents. I unfortunately will have to explain this to MY children, which will be sad. But maybe it won't be so bad for them, since I sort of expect there to be presents under my parents' tree for my kids. Santa comes to Gramma and Grandpa's house, but our house is strictly Hanukah Harry only. Or whatever.

So, maybe this blending thing started because Jewish parents feel bad for their children and just don't care about Judaism enough to make the distinction for them. Or, they're really bitter about their own experiences with Christmas and don't want their kids to be bitter, in an attempt to appease them about being Jewish so they don't abandon Judaism.

OR, it's an attempt by Christians to either include the poor Jews who can't have Santa, or to do the sort of taboo Jewish things that I know I was sort of jealous of as a kid, the menorah and the eight days of gifts.

Who the hell knows. It's just a little disturbing. But... maybe Blitzen Blintzes are just too good to put down...

Monday, December 12, 2005

Word of the Day: tmesis

From dictionary.com:

tmesis \TMEE-sis\, noun:In grammar and rhetoric, the separation of the parts of a compound word, now generally done for humorous effect; for example, "what place soever" instead of "whatsoever place," or "abso-bloody-lutely."

If on the first, how heinous e'er it be,To win thy after-love I pardon thee. --Shakespeare, Richard II

His income-tax return, he remarked, was the "most rigged-up marole" he'd ever seen. --Frederic Packard

In two words, im possible. --Samuel Goldwyn

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

AP Style is the bane of my existence


I really hate AP style. For those of you who don't have the misfortune of knowing about it, it's the Associated Press Stylebook guidelines for journalists and most media publications (unless they have their own in-house guide, like NYT and The New Yorker, among others). Why do I need to use AP style for research documents? Good question. A question I have asked myself many times and not found an answer to. My biggest annoyance with AP is the "serial comma" rule. We had a Halloween event at work and I made headstones for the various style guides, and was particularly proud of this one here. Other things annoy me about AP, like their random use of numerals and spelled-out numbers. At least in APA it's a pretty easy distinction. I ended up having to look up articles containing the words "age four" and such on the AP site, because the entry was so vague in the guide. Also, the book is oddly organized. There's an alphabetical section of guidelines where you can look up spelling of certain words, and then there are completely separate sections on sports and business. Oh, and a punctuation guide at the end. They put spaces before and after dashes, which I don't like. And those damn serial commas! The rule for that is very vague, as well. Don't use a serial comma for a "simple series of three items" but use one for a more "complex" series. Complex meaning each item has several words? Or there are different grammatical structures in each item? I have to make my best judgements based on the oh-so-helpful paragraph stuck in the lower corner of the page. Page 328, to be exact.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005


Clare, 7 weeks from due date! She looks awesome! Posted by Picasa

Stewie Griffin on Grammar

This is a video clip from Family Guy. Not for the faint of heart. Ben and I are big fans of Family Guy. I find myself laughing at this more than I do at the Simpsons or South Park (it's along those lines). Stewie is the baby of the family and speaks in a proper British accent (though none of the adults understand him). He's a key character.

Monday, December 05, 2005

More on Katie in Africa

I get my dear and wonderful Katie back on January 22. Here's the latest from her travels:

So, i am in lome, togo . . . a very unexciting city that i wasn't planning on visiting. But, i do get free internet at the peace corps office here. So that's exciting. I could be here all night. But i'm starting to get hungry, and real volunteers might be waiting to use the computer... I'm thinking chinese food for dinner, since i am in a real city, i might as well live it up. Tomorrow i head north into hill country, where I'm expecting the same lack of restaurants i found in every city (except the capital) i visited in Benin. They have bars, just no restaurants. So I eat a lot of street food. Which can be anything from fruit to peanuts and plantain chips to bowls of rice or spagetti and sauce. Women walk around, or set up little stands on street corners, selling everything and anything you could want all for less than $1.50. but, it gets tiring after a while, and sometimes i just want to sit in a restaurant, read my book and have someone bring me a drink and my food over the course of say half an hour to an hour. Street food must always be eaten on the go.


I'm really looking forward to having her back. I'm also looking out for future employment for her in DC. I get emails like this but I still have trouble picturing what it's really like there.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Fun with pictures

This site pokes some good fun at poorly designed pictorial warnings or instructions.

Lenticular

I learned today what a lenticular photo is. I've seen them but didn't know what they were called. It's a photo on a 3D surface that shows two separate pictures based on which angle you look at it from. My in-laws have one.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Absent today

I started feeling sick yesterday. I think I got sick because I was so pleased with myself for not getting sick while everyone else around me was. But that's just me being superstitious. I have been duly punished for this, as last night I tried to go to sleep around 10:30 (a little early) and slept for an hour until Ben came to bed, then woke up every 10 minutes until about 6am. I got up to appease the thoughts bothering me (emails to send) around 5am. So I decided to take my first "sick day" since I started at my current job in February. I am listening to my current audio book (Memoirs of a Geisha) and doing laundry, and painting my toenails in the hopes that I will feel better by Saturday when we're supposed to go to our holiday gala, which is supposedly a huge affair and is held in a museum. It will be the first black-tie event I've been to that wasn't a wedding.

Deserted mushroom island

This mushroom was one of many in the front yard at our place in Michigan in September. I liked how it sprouted to looked like a palm tree on a little island of moss.