Stewickie.com

Category: Travel

  • Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

    Home AgainBack from two weeks in Nashville. A good time spent in the company of my (Vee’s) family. My brothers and I are all direct communicators with a love of debate, competitive personalities and a huge amount of respect for each other. Add a skill for story-telling and just the perfect touch of insanity and those around us are in for some entertaining evenings. We stayed with my Mom and under the tutelage of my Step-father and Mother, Stewart learned the correct mixture of soil needed to grow tasty vegetables and how to fry up a mean mess of fried green tomatoes. We both attempted to eat a bit of meat, but our vegetarian stomachs were not happy with it and our vegetarian taste buds were shocked to realize that the flavor of today’s meat didn’t come close to the memory of meats eaten in bygone days. This experience led to the joint decision that we shall remain vegetarians during our stay in Nepal, unless abstaining from meat-eating causes our host family to be offended in some way. A leg of our flight home was delayed in Denver, resulting in a Sea-Tac arrival time later than the last bus between the airport and our apartment. So, Tues. night/Wed. morning, we had an interesting, very complicated trip through Seattle, by train, shuttle bus, and taxi cab…rubbing shoulders with the ‘night-walkers’ of the city. We got home around 2am. Interesting how…no matter where you’ve been or how long the trip….it is always wonderful to get home.

    We now move on to clearing our lives of material items. By the end of July, everything we still own will be very important to us and also be able to fit in a corner of Daughter Liz and her family’s garage.

    Peace Corps has implemented our Pre-Departure Plan. This week, we have received several e-mails from Washington DC and Nepal containing assignments with due dates. Nepali language skills must show some progress before September.

  • Southland in the Summer

    The soft heat and humid South inundate Mt. Juliet, TN, where Vee’s family lives. Upon arrival, the words coming from my accent-conscientious wife began stretching to meet her mother’s long vowels and soft consonants, stopping just shy of settling into a typical Southern drawl.

    Both of our families’ ancestors passed through this region a number of times. Vee’s family stayed mostly on the Southern side of the state while mine slowly migrated across the Northern half before dropping down South to LA. Both of us have very strong Southern roots.

    The last time we came through we rented a car, driving through the back-country to looking for relatives’ graves. We found many generations, some lying in small back-wood, back yard family plots and some in large community cemeteries, but all of them surrounded by the gentle rolling Tennessee hills and huge oak trees. It is a beautiful land for graveyards, increasingly so from the gravitas lent by dappled sunlight, humidity, and threats of heavy rains.

    This time around, we have stayed close to home, enjoying the company of Vee’s mother Sue, step-father James, brother Michael and his wife, Renee. Next week we will be joined by Vee’s other brothers, completing the pack of siblings, but for now, I’m loving the time we are spending with these great, gentle people.

    Although I would have a difficult time living here, I enjoy this state. Tennessee is a thriving land filled with life. Sue and James live in a rural region filled with stray cats, raccoons, coyotes, and tons of other wildlife. They keep a good sized yard, but the surrounding forest lends the idea that any taming is temporary at best.   Tall trees loom everywhere with many broken branches, shattered or torn from their trunks from strong winds, and scrub and vines line any area of the yard unchecked for very long.

    Cat enjoying life
    One of James’ cats enjoying life

    James provides food and some shelter for some of the local feral cats and kittens, and in return they provide entertainment. We are often pointing out the window at some antic or cuteness being displayed in large quantity, and it has been fun walking around the darting creatures.

    So now I’ve been out a few times, wandering around to inspect James’ garden or the strange limestone bedrock cracking out from the ground. This last time I was out, I picked up a few hitch-hikers. I can’t see them, but I know they’re there. You see, I itch. A lot. I have around 25 welts (now 26) from what we think are chiggers.

    Chiggers are relatives of ticks and mites. They are very small and hard to see, but can cause huge damage for their size. It used to be thought that they burrowed into your skin and lived there, but more recent discoveries show that they ‘just’ inject an enzyme into skin for easier munchings, and then drop soon after. The ‘host’ often doesn’t realize they’ve been eaten until a few hours or days after the insect has gone.

    Wherever they are, here or there, I’m itchy and cannot sleep.