ain’t america grand

Man, those two weeks at home just flew by. We’re back in Oki already after a stellar few weeks of family, friends, and the familiar good life we left behind in Virginia just over a year ago. I highly recommend going on vacation in your hometown. It’s all the fun and ease of a place you love without the myriad responsibilities that come with normal life.

We packed it in while we were there – family dinners, grilling out, swimming in the river, hiking, playing with old friends, and a few special celebrations to boot: uniting all four of our good parents and two-thirds of our siblings, baptizing our godson Jed, and being a part of Maggie and Matt’s wedding. I smiled for twelve days straight.

Here’s some pics of the fun we had:

Good to be back with my fam. Check out my dad´s shirt. El es un cocalero, pues!

Cat, look so good with them new grillz.

tom caught a fishy!

Congrats Maggie and Matt!!
for a bunch of hippies, we clean up pretty good.

Tom and Talley, always staying classy.

Oh my god, my friends are having babies!

doin some kayakin on the river


Yes, Lio is better than the rest of us.

Makin some bloody marys on a sunday morn.

Graeme and Lio, hanging by the river.

Baptizing our godson Jed. What a cool little dude.

my godson working on a beer. But it´s cool, cause it was well after noon.

my favorite place.

The good life on the farm at mom and dad´s.

Got to go to our friend Isabelle´s art opening. So beautiful.


mmmm. beer.

Hanging in the cabin where we stayed with Tom´s parents. Super rad.

Kirbo and Ryan at the cabin. Check out all that good homebrew on the table!
holy crap.

the new porch my parents put up. it´s gorgeous!

Waking up at hotel Leah ´n Joe´s. What good peeps my sister and bro are.

Kirby and Mary Claire drove from KANSAS to hang out with us for two days!! And Kirbo flew from Nebraska to see us. Amazing. I miss them.

The cabin where we stayed. Such a beautiful place.


Tyler, hard at work. ?.

Christoph and his bike. He´s about to go into the Peace Corps in Benin. Is he crazy or something? Good luck bro! It´s gonna be awesome!!

Jessie by the pond at the cabin.


Ryan and friends, catchin some live bluegrass down by the river.

should i be shocked?

I thought going back to the states would bring on a wave of culture shock, a feeling of being out of place, maybe even a sense of disgust at american culture. But none of that came. It was pure bliss to be around our families and friends, to be in the midst of such gorgeous country, to be underwater in my favorite swimming hole. The way I figure, I was already aware of the ills of the usa before we left for Bolivia. I already knew about our terrible waste of energy and fossil fuels, the excess of trash and packaging, the lack of recycling, the dependence on cars and disdain for public transportation, the overwhelming consumerism, the fast food and unhealthy lifestyles. I suppose that’s part of why we wanted to get away for a while in the first place. Coming back, those things came as no surprise, and I did not feel upset as I noticed each. Just that there is a lot of work to do to when we return.

But I also noticed the word green everywhere. Seems green is the new black! I was stoked to see the word –the modus operandi rather- plastered on magazine covers, book titles, and billboards. It seems as though a new conscientiousness about the environment and our impact on it is on the rise. It’s in style to buy CFLs, drive a hybrid, carry an aluminum water bottle, buy local, invest in carbon offsets, bring your own bag to the grocery store, go organic, take a local vacation (whoops), work from home, use cloth diapers, and even *gasp* walk 10 blocks to get to the store. Too cool. I’m excited to be a part of this growing movement –both in the following year here in South America, and when we return home.

home, which home?

It’s the day we leave Virginia to come back to Bolivia, and I know I haven’t gotten my fill. I wish for another week, maybe a month, maybe forever, of home. I don’t know how I’ll feel coming back to Okinawa –the heat, the poverty, the español, the loud and dusty street we live on- they seem like a downer compared to the ease of life, the manicured landscapes, the ties of family and friendship, the cleanliness of home. But of course we’ll go –our work and our home and our life are there. So we board the plane, stop in Miami for one last Guinness, and land in Santa Cruz in the morning.



Miracle of miracles, it’s windy and cool out. And, though Santa Cruz is one of my least favorite cities in the world (up there with Marmot, WV), we know just how to get around, find what we need, and get out quickly. We are back in Oki by midday, and walking into our home it feels like we’d only been away a night or two. Our pink hut is welcoming and familiar. Friends call and stop by to see that we’ve made it back safely. We hang the hammock and jump back into our Bolivian life.



Now, the distraction of fantasizing about a trip home out of the way, we’ve got our work ahead of us, friends to play with, dust to sweep up, a marathon to train for, and our simple, comfortable life to live. It’s good to be back. And it’s good to know that I have a home in two places.