On to the next

Back home, cozied up in bed, which has been worth every cent. Waking up to the golf course outside the window, driving through the green hills to get home...there are definitely worse places to be stranded with a flat tire.

The last few days in Guate were rough, trying to wrap things up for the nutrition program, keeping my emotions in check, losing my appetite. Big mess. But I read a lot, talked a lot, drank crazy and mysterious teas. "The Road of Lost Innocence" by Somaly Mam helped me put things in perspective. The true story of this Cambodian woman who was sold multiple times into the sex trade, how she escaped, and how she's helped many others to do the same. Definitely worth the read, however upsetting. Also finished Mandela's autobiography. Another worthwhile, if not chunky, read. Picked out a few lines I particularly liked:

• "It was not lack of ability that limited my people, but lack of opportunity."

• "I always remember the regent's axiom: a leader, he said, is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind."
• "...but I have never owned a suit I was prouder to wear than my father's cut-off pants"
• "In love, unlike politics, caution is not usually a virtue."
• "Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savor their songs. I again realized that we were not different people with separate languages; we were one people, with different tongues."

Now, it's on to the next book--not sure what that'll be, but I've started "Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives." Maybe I'll pick up a new Dickens too. On to the next...part of my life, post-manfriend and all. And on to the next trip. I'm thinkin Kenya and (fingers crossed) the DRC. I'll keep you posted.

Whoever did this deserves some kind of awful pain.