• yup – that’s what we did

    It feels like there are frequently times in our lives here where we have to stop and almost double-check if something just happened There is the more surreal: “Did we just drive across…

  • Signs of COVID

    For almost a year various health agencies around the world have struggled to communicate to the public at large, what needs to be done to help reduce the spread of this virus. Of…

  • Team blog updates

    if you don’t regularly read our team blog – — you should. There’s a couple recent posts I wanted to point to Our friend/neighbor/teammate Jess just wrote on the harsh realities of sending…

  • Now for something different

    For a LOT of years now I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and reading, and writing on one topic. Early mornings before others get up is usually when I’m sitting at my…

  • Joy?

    To THIS world? The other day I was listening to something Scotty Smith said – about the ‘weary world rejoicing” in O Holy Night. There is some real truth in there, particularly relevant…

  • what it takes to get home

    Getting our family from Edmonton to rural Burundi is not exactly a straight forward nor a simple task. Really, getting here from most places is not easy, even from most places in Africa.…

  • anxious

    We are anxious to get back to Burundi. We are feeling anxious about getting back to Burundi. There are two distinct implications of that word. One feels like an anticipatory excitement. “I’m so…

  • Thanksgiving

    I am sitting in my mom’s hospital room where she has been sitting up, eating, getting out of bed, having a conversation with me, and was able to walk (with assistance) down the…

  • our kids do stuff….

    The blog has been quiet as of late, as life kind of sideswiped us there for a few weeks (oh 2020, you’re the gift that just keeps on giving). I’ll update that soon,…

  • seven months on

    A lot can happen in seven months. On February 22 the BBC reported that Australia was burning, Megan and Henry (Harry??) were leaving, and the following was written about a strange new virus…

  • Where they’re from…

    My daughter and my fake daughter just posted some poems on their blog that they wrote for school on the topic “Where I”m From.” As Third Culture Kids, the answers are complex and…

  • Nine!

    Well, our youngest turned nine. This birthday marks just the second time she’s been in Canada on the day of her birth. We’ve been in Canada for over 4 months now, meaning this…

  • 14

    So Micah turned 14 yesterday. We were all together. We were in one place. We were not currently packing or unpacking bags. We weren’t getting on a plane, didn’t just get off one,…

  • La Vie en Noir

    {PART OF THE MEA CULPA SERIES OF POSTS _ where I post things I should have written a long time ago… yeah…that’s on me. Apparently I reposted this in Dec 2019 during my…

  • majestic

    There’s a lot of ways to describe the Rocky Mountains, but the one that seems to come the most naturally, and the most frequently, is majestic. We’ve lived in the Alps for years,…

  • Stress Testing Everything

    There is a product design theory that says f you really want to find out if something will do its normal job well, look for how it works when it’s stressed. Sometimes this…

  • twenty-four

    Today marks exactly 24 years since Susan and I got married. Twenty four years! What’s shocking to me is just how much 24 is an ‘old people number.’ I can remember as a…

  • Well, I made it to 46.

    My birthday was last week, and as I often find myself doing at this annual life-marker, I look at what others had done by my age and the ole’ “who died at my…

  • more things we forgot about

    controling the temperature in the house radio leisure activities – all these recreational activities that people have specific equipment for trains pears sparkiling water garages dandilions dish washers people referring to carbonated drinks…

  • Virtually Unprecedented

    In these unprecidented times…. It kind of feels like that is the new way to start an email or newsletter or update of any kind from any institution. Honestly, I’m pretty sure no…

  • There’s a lot of Canada

    One of the things that still strikes us living in Burundi is the population density. Not that it is anywhere like truly densely populated places like Hong Kong or even New York or…

  • some perspective

    here’s a post from my daughter and my fake daughter – reflecting on some of the issues of racial injustice that have finally been brought to the forefront over the past several weeks:

  • For Those Who Can’t Breathe

    I wrote this over a week ago, but have hesitated to post it, not wanting to add more noise to the conversation. But I have come to the conclusion that saying something, as…

  • Community. Education.

    or: “It takes a village to teach a child” NOTE: this was something I wrote back in Kibuye about a month and a half ago – before we even thought we might be…

  • A Day for Mothers

    Saying something supportive and celebratory about mothers seems a bit odd. It’s like celebrating kindness, or an end to war, or ice cream. Of COURSE, we all love, support, celebrate those things. It’s…