last days

A few things, sans pictures from the last several weeks: 8 hour bus ride to kampala, Uganda, rafting the Nile, sushi in Africa (not shabby), Ugandan confusion between Celine Dion and Sarah Jessica Parker, tourism consulting for a local coffee company, beach bocce ball at Lake Kivu, the Brogdon departure, the genocide memorial, "rock" concert in Gisenyi and the nearing end of my long African vacation.

So, as I'm about to leave Rwanda to head back to the other Mile High City, I feel an unspoken blog pressure to do a final chapter of sorts or "moral of the story" or lessons learned or something profound - perhaps it could parallel my first blog to give some rounded closure...but the reality is I don't like that kind of neat closure and I don't really even believe in it, not to mention it sounds difficult. Instead I'll just throw out a few things I'm thinking about as I leave:

poverty - what is poverty? what is the difference between material poverty, intellectual poverty, emotional poverty, spiritual poverty? What can I do to alleviate poverty - and what kind of poverty do I care about?

colonialism vs development - how is development today different than the atrocious colonialism of yesteryear and why do we, as the Western World, think we have it all figured out now? What kind of involvement is appropriate or beneficial or both? What role to NGO's, MFI's, sustainable business development enterprises, relief organizations, mission organizations and influential individuals play? What role do economic and military politics play?

awareness - wherever we are, we choose whether or not to engage with the need around us. I can be just as blind to despair and poverty in Africa as I can in Denver. Of what am I really aware and how do I engage with significance?

tacos - I really love tacos and I am really looking forward to eating some soon, preferably with a margarita...and BBQ, I miss BBQ, but I don't want it with my tacos, maybe the meal after tacos. Chimichangas, I like chimichangas better than tacos.