I'm Back

I just finished Greg Mortenson's STONES INTO SCHOOLS which I found exceedingly inspiring. It's a sequel to THREE CUPS OF TEA which should be read first. It is very current with the last entries in Oct. 2009. Much of the focus is on the work in Afghanistan which has much current significance with American Military presence there. I hope many people read it. THREE CUPS OF TEA has become required reading for American troops in Afghanistan.
On Feb. 3, I return to Thailand to teach English in the same elementary school where I taught last year. I will resume daily blogging to share my experiences.

Mai-Evy at Christmas

I'd call it a "must read"!

I've not been very faithful with my blog lately. I leave for Asia on Feb. 3, and then I'll blog regularly.
Just finished a book that knocked my socks off! METHLAND: THE DEATH AND LIFE OF AN AMERICAN SMALL TOWN, by Nick Reding uses Oelwein, IA as a case in point to describe the effects of the methamphetamine epidemic. Reding ties the rise of meth to the large economic issues of rural America such as agri-business. The book is full of data but reads like a novel because he includes empathetic stories of the people who have been touched by meth in one way or another.
He writes "For me, a true chronicle of the height of the meth years from 2005 to 2008 must begin with a town and all its people. If meth alone were to define Oelwein--and through it, the entire small town United States--the truth would be hopelessly obscured. And the truth is, Clay and Major, Nathan and Roland, Murphy and Lori and the people in the Do Drop Inn--these people are us." p. 93
I came away from the book realizing how my life is complicit in the conditions that lead to drug abuse. He points out in the book that America is a psychological nation not a sociological one. By that he mean we always place primary emphasis on the role of the individual without considering the social forces surrounding that individual
It further convinced me that, once again, prohibition is not working.

Now I understand........

While I was in SD I read HALF BROKE HORSES by Jeannette Walls, the author of THE GLASS CASTLE. It is a good read and helps make some sense of the mother in GLASS CASTLE. HALF BROKE HORSES is the story of the grandmother, i.e., the mother of the mother, in THE GLASS CASTLE. If you've read CASTLE then I think you will particularly enjoy HALF BROKE, though it would be good on its own.
So many good books, so little time.

Back and gone again.

I've been absent the blog for a bit, what with caring for Joanne, and keeping up the care site www.caringbridge.org/visit/jnegstad

Tomorrow I leave for a week in SD and thus will be away from the computer for a week. However, I just read such a powerful book that I did not want to delay mentioning it. It is THE LATEHOMECOMER: A HMONG FAMILY MEMOIR by Kao Kalia Yang, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis.
While it tells the story of a particular Hmong family it is, in many ways, the story of all immigrants. The author attended Harding High School in St. Paul and in response to a teacher's question "Is the story of Romeo & Juliet a story of love or lust." She wrote "Love is the reason why my mother and father stick together in a hard life when they each might have an easier time apart; love is the reason why you choose a life with someone, and you don't tun back although your hear cries sometimes and your children see you cry and you wish out loud that things were easier. Love is getting up each day and fighting the same fight only to sleep that night in the same bed beside the same person because long ago, when you were younger and you did not see clearly, you had chosen them." p. 199
Buy it or borrow it and you'll be glad you read it!

Back and gone again.

Mai-Evy, some new pics