Below are the most recent 4 friends' journal entries.

Sunday, December 27th, 2009
dragonladyflame	12:05a	from the department of "you can't make this shit up" I'll just paste it here, because I doubt that the "Times of Swaziland" is going to get on my case. It's worth glancing at the original for the comments though. This mirror has some good comments too. It's from the Letters to the Editor section: Sir, My name is Willard Windsor a resident of New York, United States of America. I was born in Swaziland in 1964 and I left your beautiful country with my father when I was three years old. My mom stayed on in Swaziland until 1986, and when she came back to the States she told me that if I wanted a happy life I should marry a Swazi woman, as they know how to take care of their husbands. I didn’t listen to her then but I’m willing to listen to her now. I am coming to Africa for the soccer world cup next year and I would like to use that opportunity to visit Swaziland as well, and hopefully meet and marry my new wife. So I am hoping that you will publish my request for women who would like to marry me to send me emails so that I can communicate with them and make a proper choice before coming for the world cup. Briefly about myself; I’m a VP for Acquisitions at an Independent bank in New York City. I am a divorcee and I have a 12 year old daughter. I’m looking for a woman between the ages of 20 to 40, and I’m not too picky; I just want a woman with a good heart to help me raise my daughter and take good care of me. I make good money so my wife will not need to work or worry about finances. So please publish my details in your newspaper and help me meet my future wife. Willard Windsor. willardwindsor@aol.com The editor responds: Windsor, My immediate thought to your request is that I hope it is a genuine interest you have in our women. I also do hope that you are not just looking for someone to keep you busy during the month of the world cup. Having said that, it obviously lies with all the women who will show interest to make sure they know what they are getting themselves into. Otherwise, let’s appreciate what your mother told you, it goes without saying that she is very right. We have beautiful women, who were raised right, and who I am sure, are intelligent enough to see through certain cons. Good luck, and may all those who will be interested tread carefully! Editor. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
mcfires	9:57p	Decompression Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, decompressing from the past weekend. Death is a part of the constant of human existence. Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures the length of the thread, and when the thread has ended, Atropos cuts the thread, ending the life. The myths have passed down through time; we each are born, we live the life that we live, and when the time comes, we pass on into the next world. But it's never easy for those of us who are still on this world. I flew out here for Grandma's services on Thursday. Fortunately the weather cooperated; my plane landed at Sky Harbor Airport on time and I was able to grab my rental car and head on north. It was a pretty quiet wake and service; Grandma lived for so long that by the time she hit 101 years old, few if any of her contemporaries are left. Pretty much the immediate family were there: me, Dad, my aunt and her husband, my uncle and his wife, and all but one of my cousins (she couldn't make the trip now, but made it out to see Grandma before the end.) I think this will be one of the last gatherings of all of us, unfortunately. It's sad. But in a way, the only one of that side of the family I really got to know was Grandma: we didn't see my aunt or uncle on Mom's side nearly as much as we did the family on Dad's side. I stayed long enough to see the gravediggers lower Grandma's casket into the grave beside my grandfather. I was her youngest grandchild, and the only child of her eldest daughter whom she lost seven years before. I know the tears were streaming down my face, and I was barely able to croak out the words that Grandma and I always traded when we ended a phone call or I left from a visit: "I love you, bye bye." I know she was there though, watching over us. Before the graveside service began, someone noticed feathers floating down from a large pine tree above us. Sure enough, there was a hawk up there enjoying a dove for lunch. Grandma was an avid birder, and she would have known in an instant what type of hawk it was. As the priest gave the final benediction, we heard a *thunk* as the hawk took off. Dad said that he thinks that was Grandma leaving us. Though as I walked away, I turned back. I think it was probably a figment of my imagination, but for a moment, I saw three figures: Mom, Grandfather Jekel, and Grandma, each as they appeared in their prime. I know they're together again, and I know I'll be with them again when my time comes. Current Mood: drained (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 14th, 2009
mcfires	4:17p	A long life. Margaret Louise Roark Jekel October 7, 1908-December 14, 2009 My grandmother was a great lady. Current Mood: sad (7 Comments |Comment on this)
dragonladyflame	9:58p	Books For Swaziland! :: An exciting request. BOOKS FOR SWAZILAND! :: An exciting request. A PITCH THAT I SPENT MUCH TOO LONG WRITING. (Cross-posted to: my LiveJournal and related communities, my Facebook profile and related pages, HPK-Mayhem, Bowers House, Moomers Readings, lots of my friends. Please forward!) Hi everyone! My name is Lydia and I am currently volunteering in Swaziland with the U.S. Peace Corps. For several years previous to my departure, I worked in the wonderful bookstore O'Gara & Wilson -- Chicago's oldest bookstore, in fact! (It has a beautiful new website that you can access by clicking here). I am also a nigh-rabid writer, and generally spend much more time reading than out in the healthy fresh air like a normal human. Recently, my friend and fellow volunteer Jason collaborated with an organization called Books For Africa to create Books For Swaziland, a project designed to establish new libraries or enhance existing school library facilities in rural Swazi communities. He then recruited a bunch of us other volunteers to help distribute the books around our communities. If this sounds awesome to you, please donate money to help ship the books by clicking here. But perhaps you have doubts! Read on, my friend. I will settle all your doubts and solve all your problems. Your Doubts! I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: 1) "Wow, it is awfully culturally imperialistic for America to be shoving our books down Swaziland's throat. I am disappointed in Lydia, as I thought she was a more culturally sensitive human than this!" 2) "Book donations are very rarely of good quality or useful subject matter. Doesn't Lydia know that it will not be awesome for Swazis to receive thousands of obscure literary criticism tomes and 1995 computer manuals?" 3) "I feel zero confidence that these books will be properly accessible to the Swazi populace and/or taken care of. For example, how is Lydia ensuring that the books for at her site are not sold, or perhaps destroyed through neglect?" I completely understand! But rest assured that I would not participate in a project that did not address said doubts. Allow me to explain! Solving All Your Problems! 1) "Wow, it is awfully culturally imperialistic for America to be shoving our books down Swaziland's throat. I am disappointed in Lydia, as I thought she was a more culturally sensitive human than this!" While my cultural sensitivity may not be an enormous thing, I like to think that I am relatively perceptive, and I have been living in Swaziland for almost six months now. Swaziland was colonized by the British and attained independence in the middle of last century. SiSwati is the tongue spoken by almost all citizens, but English is rife: it is the official government language, and is for example used at all government meetings. Newspapers are in English, all the books in my local library are in English, and when asking for siSwati books at various Swazi libraries, I've been informed that there aren't any. Most Swazis speak at least some English, and schoolchildren learn all their lessons in English -- in fact, kids are punished for speaking siSwati in school. You may have mixed feelings about how prevalent English already is in Swaziland -- I certainly do -- but the fact remains that it is everywhere, and the books available are already almost entirely in English. So by donating to this project you will be allowing Swaziland to access more and better-quality reading material of the type that it already uses, rather than forcing American reading standards upon uninterested and unappreciative Swazis. Also, this project has been designed such that the collaborating Peace Corps Volunteers and our community partners are fundraising a considerable chunk of the budget (45%). So you may be sure that the communities receiving the books are interested, because they're putting in money! Are you comforted? Donate! 2) "Book donations are very rarely of good quality or useful subject matter. Doesn't Lydia know that it will not be awesome for Swazis to receive thousands of obscure literary criticism tomes and 1995 computer manuals? What about the mildew and water stains?" As a former employee of O'Gara & Wilson (did I mention that the store has a gorgeous new website?), rest assured that I am incredibly familiar with the frequently-terrible quality of book donations. Because I am so familiar, I grilled Jason when he recruited me. "Jason! Are you encouraging me to raise 1500 emalingeni just so my library will receive a thousand odd volumes from the 1962 Encyclopedia Britannica?" Jason has informed me that he carefully checked into this matter before putting together the project. Some of the books are new and donated by the presses who printed them. Others are gathered from donation drives and carefully sorted. But if you don't believe these secondhand assurances about Books For Africa, you can check out their website directly, where an assortment of testimonials may be gathered from countries that already received books. Also, I am pretty sure that it will be easy for these books donations to be better-quality than the books already available. Some of these books are going to places where there are none; some (such as those for my community) are being sent to existing libraries. And let me give you some random samples of books I found while wandering through my library: # AIDS: Your Questions Answered. Copyright 1987. # A book that had been thoroughly investigated by termites. # Six odd volumes from the 1980s science fiction Gor series by John Norman, none of which were the first in the series. Are you comforted? Donate! 3) "I feel zero confidence that these books will be properly accessible to the Swazi populace and/or taken care of. For example, how is Lydia ensuring that the books for at her site are not sold, or perhaps destroyed through neglect?" Each Peace Corps Volunteer involved in Books For Swaziland has personally vetted the area where the books will be stored. In some cases, these are clean, dry rooms in schools; in others (such as my own) the facility is in fact already a library, with some books (and even a librarian) already. Also, the volunteers involved in the project will be given a two-day workshop on setting up a good space for books and taking care of them properly, after which we will return to our communities and teach those skills to anyone who will listen. Although book preservation was never my O'Gara and Wilson specialty (check out their exciting new website), I feel confident that I can ensure at least some value at this workshop, even if it does manage to be terrible, which I'm pretty sure it won't. Are you comforted? Donate! That Is All! Thank you for reading! Even if you are not concerned about the bookless Swazis, I hope you will think about donating in consideration of the mild entertainment that you have gained from this message, being as you made it all the way down to this paragraph. You can do it right here! Take care, all of you. I hope all is well in America. Lydia (3 Comments |Comment on this)