Crazy? I was crazy once! They took me to a home for it. They locked me in a little white room and threw away the key. I died there. Then the bugs came. Bugs? I hate bugs! They drive me CRAZY! Crazy? I was crazy once... Ya OK I'll stop there... But really! How many times haven't you actually felt like this. Locked away. Alone. A little white room with only a mirror where your own messed up face is staring back at you. A reflection of what you definitely do not want to be. The

"my hometown is heaven... i've left parts of my heart all over the place..." -Rachel Ella I grew up in a land of tall pines and crickets and frogs singing all night long... hot, humid days with barely a whisper of a breeze to make the pine trees sing. I was raised where people truly do have a southern drawl and call you sweetie in Walmart; and you're taught to mind your manners and say "yes ma'am" and "no sir." And let me tell you about my neighbors. First of all there's a lo

At first glance, teaching at a small mission school in a third world country can seem like a lot of division and subtraction. You know, dividing your time and attention between a bunch of different grades. A hundred times a day, you go from... "What color do I make the bunny wabbit?" to teaching algebra and having long philosophical discussions with a bookworm sixth grader about historical characters. Then throw in some third graders who think long division is the most compli

The streets of Port-au-Prince are full of tap-taps. Many Haitians use them every day as their only way to get from point A to point B. They are usually a Toyota or Isuzu pickup, often '90's models or early 2000's, with a raised metal frame on the sides of the bed, then a camper top Then there are the wooden benches that hold 7 people on each side. Lots of drivers paint their pickups bright red, with pictures of things like singers or soccer players, sometimes religious saying