Preface: How many of us have traveled to storied places, like the Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Colosseum, and crossed them off our bucket list, without knowing a lot about their historical or current context? I must admit to some of that when I went to Ephesus in Turkey. Even without much … More Persian Heroes of the Past: Cyrus the Great and His Wannabees
Note: This second post about my two week trip to Iran is about my impressions of special rules for women under Islamic law in Iran. I make no claims to be expert in these matters, but since I am female and subject to most of these rules as a tourist, I paid special attention. At … More Gender in Iran
Note: This is the first of several blog posts covering a trip to Iran for two weeks in November of 2019. When my husband ran into old friends at a park restaurant in mid-summer, he learned that the man, Jeremy Iggers, was planning to lead a trip to Iran in the fall. He had led … More Eating Birthday Cake in Iran
We live in a townhome complex in Minneapolis where NOONE comes trick or treating on Halloween! At first it was sad, but now it has freed us to pierce the veil between life and and the underworld, and commune with the dead our own way. Three years ago we started inviting our friends to celebrate … More Visiting the Underworld When the Veil is Thin
Many years ago we took our daughter out of public middle school and sent her to a local evangelical Lutheran private school. It was the least expensive of the several private schools in the area and was well-regarded. Seventh grade had been scary year, as middle school years often are. The last straw was when … More Voluntourism Done Right (and Wrong)
In mid-summer of 2016 my daughter and her partners held a 14 day permaculture design course on a small ranch above Bozeman, Montana. My daughter recruited me and my husband to cook for the 30-some participants for the first three days, using the detailed menus she had created and sourced. We had a history of preparing … More Food Truck Cook in the High Plains
Helena is the Capital of the state, but only has 35,000 residents (There are only 1 million in the whole giant state!) As a result it has many of the features of a small western town in the U.S., but also features you would expect in a larger cosmopolitan area. I visit frequently from Minneapolis, … More Ten Things Helena, Montana has that my Hometown Doesn’t
Ed note: This itinerary is taken from a 10 day, four city trip in the Netherlands led by myself, half Dutch, and a friend, 100% Dutch, in mid-October, 2015. Just a warning about the timing: By mid-October you are in shoulder season, when the prices are lower. It can be rainy then, and we experienced … More Three non-traditional days around Amsterdam, on your way to somewhere else
The past few weeks I have been reading historian John M. Barry’s book about the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918, where an estimated 50-100 million people died over a two year period. This story of massive public health failure is told from the American context. That context was the entry of the U.S. into the … More Public Health Work Requires Cultural Immersion
My first career was in early childhood education. It was an exciting time when preschool childcare centers meant that women could continue careers, enter graduate programs, and work without worrying about how their children were getting along during the day. After moving to Minneapolis in 1974, I found myself working in a parent coop with … More Visiting Theo World
Other states, other lives, other souls 