the birth of a blog

Hello friends and family,
In a few short days, I will be taking flight and landing in Moshi, Tanzania where the next chapter of life awaits me. Filled with gratitude for this wild opportunity, I'm excited to share the experience with those eager to accompany me. While I much prefer personal letter writing and plan to put many an hour into that task, I have come around to this idea of a blog. Here I can share the trials and triumphs of being a rookie high school teacher, here I can post pictures of a new land, and here I can stay connected with you. I'm also embracing the invitation to write. Committing to a blog takes me out of my journal (consisting of taped in trinkets and drawn memories) and forces me to put punctuation to my thoughts. Paulo Freire writes "to exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it. Once named, the world in its turn reappears to the namers as a problem and requires of them a new naming." I hope this blog might act as my first attempt to name our world - to put words to my experience and therefore live it deeply. At the least, perhaps I can provide some laughs back home about the blunders I'm sure to perform in a new profession, in a new country, in a new language. Thank you for coming along the journey with me!