Month: July 2014
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leave or die.
Maria and I with her grandparents at the school she left before her seventh grade year to come to the U.S. July 29, 2014 @ 7:45 p.m. “They said that they would kill either me or someone in my family.” Hilda, the grandmother of my student Maria haunt me. After finishing my bowl of the […]
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the ones who stay
Abuela Aminta looks out of her front door in El Amate. July 26, 2014 @ 10a OK, so I know I said I’d post something the day after my previous post. That ain’t happen. Here’s what I’ve promised on the other side of today. In both El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, family is a […]
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what compels the journey?
Image Source: U.S. Border Patrol Statistics July 18 @ 1p In the U.S., headlines about a rapidly increasing number of teens and children from Central American countries have been the stuff of news talk, but for my students and their families this is old news. This year, the U.S. government estimates that more than 90,000 children […]
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El Amate observations
July 9 @ 7 a.m. 1. When I am home, whether it is in Washington DC or Georgia, I always have something to do and a very immediate deadline to get it done within. Here, the only deadlines involve what a body tells itself to do. Sleep, eat, play, use the bathroom. To act that […]
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women’s work
July 8, 2014 @ 2 p.m. Today, two of the biggest scorpions I have ever jumped from the ceiling. OK, maybe they didn’t jump, but I have never seen a body so long, a tail so set on murdering whatever is in its path or little legs move so fast across a floor. No centipede […]
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my food, my run, but not at night
July 4, 2014 @ 11:03 p.m. On a day when most Americans are celebrating Independence Day, the highlight of my day meant engaging in a universal pastime. Oh yes, eating. Today was all about food and love. In the morning, while Kevin, his girlfriend Andrea and the rest of the family ate cookies and sipped […]
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day one.
July 3, 2014 @ 10:47 p.m. For the past month, people who knew about my El Salvador-Dominican Republic-Haiti-Georgia-Vermont travel plans have asked me, “Are you excited?” Not exactly. Expectant felt more right and, in a way, I still am. I expect nothing to happen other than conversations, laughter, good food, stories and poems, but I […]
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a beginning
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ― Augustine of Hippo Moving, putting the things I believe I cannot live without in storage, preparing for next school year, getting my car registration renewed, seeing friends, sending letters, selling furniture, still booking tickets for the last leg of […]
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