In recent months Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon bombed each other only a few miles from my Lebanese family. At this moment there is a ceasefire agreement. This is a Christmas Story that happened in December 2022 during a peaceful time in Lebanon with its struggling economy. I found a safe window of travel to…Read more »
Category: Pink Flamingos
2024 Holiday Book Special
In Search of Pink Flamingos was published over four years ago and its reception is still going strong. Over 30 book clubs have hosted my book and I attended most of these as the guest author, in person or virtually, with no fee. I offer a slideshow with videos from Liberia followed by a robust…Read more »
Maternal Mortality Among Black American Women
I recently read some alarming statistics and want to share them with you. After my Peace Corps assignment as a health education volunteer during the early 70s in Liberia, West Africa the topic of Maternal and Child Health became near and dear to my heart. The maternal mortality in the country at that time was…Read more »
Healing Generational Trauma: Insight, Coping, and Recovery
Here in the USA, we are fortunate. In many of the 50 countries I have lived or traveled to, the recent history of war is part of their human fabric. Either people can recall the wartimes, have a family or friend killed or maimed, or the remnants of past bombings dot the landscape today. Yes,…Read more »
In Search of Pink Flamingos: My Father Remembered
Today, I want to honor my deceased father. He passed away nearly 30 years ago. As a young child and his only daughter, my dad was everything to me. He was a skilled farmer by trade, but he was also a WWII veteran, a hero, a mechanic, an electrician, a builder, an inventor, a veterinarian,…Read more »
‘Pink Flamingos’ Now an eBook
My blog has readers and followers in over 75 countries, and now they can access my award winning memoir, In Search of Pink Flamingos, more easily. For my international readers, download the link below for the list of 43 different eBook distributors around the world who have it available. You can locate it by searching…Read more »
Africa 50 Years Later: Part II, Zimbabwe, Zambia, & Botswana
(I am reposting this blog from 2 days ago because the earlier slideshow link did not connect. So Sorry.) The last time I was on an African safari was over 50 years ago in 1973. As a 20-year-old farmer’s daughter, I was gobsmacked, of course. So many animals in the plains of Tanzania and Kenya…Read more »
Malarial Game Changer
I contracted malaria 4 times during the 4 years I lived and worked in Africa (Liberia & Cameroon) in the 70s and 80s. Not because I was noncompliant with my antimalarial medication, but instead, the malarial parasite mutated causing the medication to become ineffective and drug resisitant. During that period, 60% of the Liberian children…Read more »
A Lesson in Genocide
To be honest, I went back to Africa in 2023 for one main reason. I wanted to trek to see the gorillas in the wild in Rwanda before my body failed me. However, the trip was so much more than the gorillas, as you will read in the following paragraphs. I traveled with a great…Read more »
Hidden Volcano Abyss
On May 9th 2023, NOVA on PBS broadcasted a documentary, entitled “Hidden Volcano Abyss,” about the largest volcanic explosion documented in our lifetime in the Kingdom of Tonga. The Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha’apai explosion occurred on January 15, 2022. The documentary explains the geologic and human impact this explosion had on this tiny nation.…Read more »