Even though we’d put our house on the market, life in Umbria went on as usual, with the fun and challenges of changing seasons, local day trips and a longer visit across the Mediterranean. But life also has a way of reminding us never to take today’s normalcy for granted. Here are edited excerpts from …
For all our lives, spur-of-the-moment trips have been normal, and they’ve often worked out like magic. Even when something didn’t go as expected, the results were almost always happy surprises. Now, in our ninth decade, that’s still our favorite way to travel. We just get in the car and go, often not really knowing where …
Good thing our two weeks in Morocco ended with relaxing days in Essaouira. The next months in Italy were about to ask a lot of us. Here are edited excerpts from letters sent to the family. February We started the month traveling to Rome with local friends to attend a Chopin recital and returned another …
When an unexpected IRS refund arrived, we decided to spend at least part of it on a mid-winter trip to Morocco. A country we’d wanted to visit for decades, it offered not only unique sights and sounds but, just as important, insights into ourselves as travelers. Here’s an edited account of our adventures sent to …
As we neared the end of 2009, one thing after another arrived to challenge us. But we managed to pull through and gain a bit of wisdom along the way, not to mention an unexpected reward. Here are edited excerpts from letters to the family. July Last May, when I was rushing to get ready …
Toward the end of December, 2008, we began to focus on the complex process of moving from Umbria to California. We met with our lawyers in Rome for a briefing on legal and tax obligations involved in selling our Italian property. We identified Italian and international realtors whom we’d interview to find the best firms …
Kismet…fate…whatever we call it, sometimes deals us a bunch of challenges. That’s what happened in the last six months of 2008 — the loss of another dear Amelia friend, myriad problems for and with my Aunt Ethel, the hard physical labor of an abundant olive harvest. Happily, the year ended with the joys of the …
Living overseas, as opposed to visiting, offers the opportunity to become part of another way of life with all that brings, both happy and sad. Our days in Italy brought both, enriching our lives far beyond what we could have imagined. January We’re about to vote in the first-ever Global Primary. Six million Americans live …
On the home front: an injured cat, our first grapes, annual parties with three generations of local friends’ families. Around the world: helping an aunt, celebrating our anniversary in Sardinia, attending a wedding in Sri Lanka. I look back on 2007 now and ask myself how we managed to pack so much into a year. …
Traveling in Europe when you live there is as easy as traveling from state to state in America. Excellent trains and freeways make for pleasant trips from point to point. An example was my journey to Scotland to share in the celebration of a friend winning a prize for her novel. I caught a train …
Living in Italy for so many years made it possible for us not to rush seeing famous sites. Spread out over time, such visits helped us avoid the customary tourist schedule of one day here, one day there. Back home, when not attending local open-air operas and village festivals, we hosted guests from all over …
Good news/bad news must have been the theme of our first six months of 2006. Part of Amelia’s ancient wall collapsed, we finally got the upstairs renovation done after years of thinking about it, we lost two dear ones but spent quality time with another, Zack was attacked by a viper, and I had serial …
The last six months of 2005 found us busy with all sorts of at-home chores, events and entertaining, plus a wedding-anniversary visit to Italy’s Maratea Coast. We were also challenged to cope with floods and landslides. Then in December, we were rewarded with a pre-Christmas excursion to the glories of Prague. Here are edited excerpts …
The three months leading into the summer of 2005 were filled to the brim — the unexpected loss of a dear friend, Zack sending Russell to the hospital, attending the Winchester, UK Writers Conference (where we both got encouraging news), watching vipers dance and balloons soar. Here are edited excerpts from letters to family and …
As I read over letters sent to family and friends about our first months of 2005, our lives then seem bustling. Yet I don’t recall them that way. Twenty years bring distance and dimming memories. Yet, here they are, the days of our lives in those faraway places. Leaving Sri Lanka, returning to Amelia — …
One of the great things about living in Italy was all the folks from our past who came to visit. Another was the joys of the changing seasons, as handyman Graziano and I worked together through each one. A scar and a star marked the autumn of 2004, but Russell and I could never have …
Last month, when I was writing about our trip to Dubai, I kept envisioning photos I’d taken. But I couldn’t find them…’til now. Here are a couple, showing Dubai’s love affair with the modern and avant-guard contrasted with a bit of the history that remains — the former palace of the Emir. Now, let’s move …
2004 was such a busy year that I find I have to divide it into three, rather than two, posts just to fit in all the highlights. Here’s the first installment, recalling adventures at home and abroad. [From now on, if any of the posts take place at our house near Amelia, Italy, I’ll no …
The last six months of 2003 were filled with trips (Budapest, Venice and Sri Lanka), plus back-home challenges with hunters and a landslide almost hitting our propane tank. Here are edited excerpts from letters home to family and friends. (As always, you can click on photos to enlarge them.) Source: Nations Online Project July Stepsister …
During our first year of running two households — Russell in Sri Lanka, me in Italy — we began to learn how to make separation work, staying in touch via emails and getting together every quarter. Meanwhile, my life went on — marketing my book, overseeing another renovation, organizing a sorority reunion and contemplating war …
As Russell was finishing his first, four-month consulting assignment in Sri Lanka and about to start a two-year-long extension to help implement the recommendations from the initial project, we thought it would be a good idea for me to come out for a couple weeks to get a feeling for what the life of a …
The last half of 2002 took us on lots of trips — to the States for medical checkups at Johns Hopkins and visiting family and friends, Russell back and forth to Sri Lanka, we two celebrating our 30th anniversary at Lake Como. Then we learned that Russell was going to be in Sri Lanka for …
While traveling here, there and everywhere during the first half of 2002, we also managed to make it through being snowed in, the “second wave” of foreigners buying up local property, Africa’s scirocco coating everything in red dust, another interior renovation, plus lots more. Here are excerpts from monthly letters to family. As always, you …
Early in 2001, we were both accepted as participants in July’s Iowa Summer Writing Festival, Russell for workshops on memoir, me for the novel. We were honored to be invited to march in Amelia’s August Corteo, feeling we were now really Amerini. September brought 9/11; October, a Zack attack; November, the challenges of olive harvest …
The first half of 2001 found us starting the new millennium with lots of outdoor projects — a fence, a pond and terraced flower gardens. In between, we managed to continue writing while fighting off serious respiratory infections, entertaining guests and touring Sicily with old friends. Here are excerpts from letters to family and friends. …
The previous post chronicled our year-long effort to renovate the south side of our old farmhouse. But that wasn’t all that happened in 2000. When we weren’t working with the artisans making our renovation dream come true, we were dealing with the bureaucracy, I was participating in a writer’s workshop at UCLA, R was crafting …
The best laid plans… We’d hoped to start renovations on the south side of our Italian house in the autumn of 1999, but various trials accumulated until it was too late in the year for such a project. (See post #44 for details.) Our design got approved by the authorities, but the actual work didn’t …
The last months of 1999 challenged us with more of everything — more guests, more renovation planning, more of Russell working overseas while I managed the home front. When we bought our Italian house, we decided not to do all the renovations at once. Live it in for a while, we were advised, and that …
After my Dad’s passing during the 1998 holiday season, I stayed in the States longer than I’d anticipated due to unforeseen events. When I returned to Italy in 1999, the first half of the year was filled with the joys of homecoming plus more unexpected challenges. Here are excerpts from family letters. [As always, you …
The year 1998 brought expected and unexpected challenges. The renovations of our old farmhouse continued. Guests arrived almost every month, and my Dad returned for his third visit. He was ever an enthusiastic traveller, from his days in post-war Japan, through countless Elder Hostel trips to time spent with us in faraway places. If there …
The final months of our first year in Italy were filled with travel, loss and near-loss, visits from friends and the pleasures of Christmas in our own home. [As always, you can click on photos to enlarge them.] August 28 Earlier in the month, we spent a delightful couple of days in Ravenna on the …
The town of Amelia, our town, was called Ameria in ancient days, said to be named for its Umbrian founder, King Ameroe. All this is lost in the sands of time, yet the citizens of Amelia are still termed Amerini. Here are excerpts from letters to family about our first summer in our new home. …
In the previous post, I wrote about so many changes to our Italian house that there wasn’t room to add enough photos to visualize all that was accomplished in the first four months. So here are some pix from those early days. At last, after years of wandering, we were able to bring all our …
Early on, during my days alone at our new house, I bought a bottle of pro secco, stood on the south terrace, sipped a glass and tipped the rest onto the earth below — a libation to whatever gods watched over our farm that we might live long and happy in their land. My petition …
Leaving Almaty was much like leaving every other place in our overseas lives — attending goodbye parties, winding down professional projects, helping our office and home staff find jobs, selling the stuff we wouldn’t take with us. But this time, we had the added challenges of moving into our new home far from both the …
As always when overseas, we had the opportunity to enjoy tourist excursions while living in Central Asia. Not only the trip along the Silk Road as chronicled in Post #32, but lesser known sights like the Ili River and Charan Canyon. [Click on photos to enlarge.] Ili River June 27 We’ve had a wonderful visit …
Almaty Challenges: Painting the Zal, Plus Climate, Cars and Cats Living overseas always presents challenges and the fulfillment of meeting them. Here are a few we wrote home about while living in Almaty. [Click on photos to enlarge.] 1995: Painting the Zal October 18We’re hoping to repaint the living room (zal in Russian) in …
If you read last month’s “preview,” you know I promised two weddings and a picnic, plus floating down the Ili River. When I got further into reviewing my family letters, I discovered there were three weddings reflecting the cultural changes coming to Central Asia. The old Soviet system was lingering, but religious rebirth was rising. …
During our first year in Kazakhstan, Russell and I had a visit from that intrepid traveler, my Dad, Leonard C. Swing. We not only toured Almaty, its nearby mountains and steppes, we also journeyed to Tashkent, Samarkand and Bokhara on the Silk Road. In those days, modern tourist facilities in Central Asia had not really …
By the time October rolled around, we were pretty much settled in our renovated “dacha” in Almaty. We’d survived a couple health challenges, got work projects off the ground and started having some fun, including a visit from my 85 year-old Dad, touring the wonders of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bokhara. These adventures filled the second …
As summer turned to fall, friends began asking for an update on how we were doing in Central Asia. Here’s the good news and the bad news, edited from the first section of my response. [Click on photos to enlarge.] THE SUNSHINE-SWING CHRONICLESor How to Live in Central Asia and Learn to Love It …
Moving is said to be one of the most stressful experiences in life — second only to losing a spouse. People who work in international development may move every two years, across great distances, to wildly different climates. Edited from letters to the family, here’s our story of moving from Honolulu, Hawaii to Almaty, Kazakhstan. …
All our lives, we’ve preferred to journey on our own, organizing travel and accommodations, making it up when things go wrong. Getting there is as much a part of the trip as the ultimate destination. We thrive on the challenge and the adventure. Here are some more trips we wrote home about while living in …
Living in Laos made it easy to get to other countries in the region. Often I would tag along, at our expense, on study tours that Russell was leading for his Lao Investment team, or we would go early for a few days’ vacation before they arrived. This travel allowed me to make observations and …
Living and working overseas is very different from being there as a tourist. However, living and working overseas means you also get to be a tourist. Traveling to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Saigon, Singapore or other destinations from Vientiane usually involved short flying times. Here, as described in letters home, are some of the places …
Time to share some more stories from others who’ve lived and worked abroad. The peripatetic life means you get to meet a lot of special folks. Here are a few, each one a jewel in my memory. [You can click on the map below in order to enlarge it for a clearer view of where …
As we did everywhere, we shared our lives with other creatures in a garden that someone else had already started. Laos was a little different in that some of the creatures were not your basic pets, and the garden was already overflowing with abundance. 1991 March 16 Our family has been expanded by one. Exactly …
For years, I’d been operating with the philosophy that, as a consultant, I could focus on the beneficiaries of a project, working around the politics of bureaucracy and the challenge of team mates who were some combination of poorly prepared, racist and/or not focused on empowering participants to be effective in their own milieux. But …
The 1990s brought big changes to my life overseas. Before we explore that transition, I thought it might be interesting to hear from others who’ve lived and worked abroad. Not counting the military, 8.7 million Americans currently live in over 160 countries. If they all lived in one U.S. state, it would be the 12th …
Let’s return to the Guyana story for a bumpy road to a happy ending. Map courtesy of Nations Online Project August 13Workshop field trip delayed by driving rainstorm, but we managed to leave by 8:15. Up Timehri Road to Linden Hwy, then on dirt/sand track through dense second-growth bush (former timber land) to Mrs. …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture contacted me about conducting the agricultural communications workshop in Guyana. Because I didn’t speak Spanish, I’d never worked in Central or South America, so this English-speaking country offered an intriguing opportunity. A former British colony, Guyana had a distinctively mixed population with descendants of Amerindians, British colonials, Hindu and Muslim …
A year after my first Somali sojourn, I was asked to return and conduct a series of one-week agricultural communication workshops for extension agents in three locations: Janale, Jowhar and Baidoa (Baydhabo on the map). I was keen to go not only because of my love for the country and many friends there, but also …
The 1980 project in Somalia was the first of multiple short-term assignments in developing countries during that decade. I went a second time to Somalia, at least five times to Pakistan and once each to Jamaica, The Philippines, Guyana, Egypt and Kenya. Pakistan Unfortunately, all the journals from my various projects in Pakistan are …
People often ask me what’s my favorite country. Surely one of them is Somalia. These people who have had to endure so many trials are tough and yet gentle, hardened and yet gracious. My days among them were blessed with support and lessons in how to face life’s demands. Let’s continue the story of that …
We returned to the States as 1975 turned to ’76, discovering that some of our elders were not in good health. More long-term overseas projects didn’t make sense, we thought and decided to stay Stateside until the situations became clearer. Russell took a short-term consulting assignment advising Indonesian Government lawyers at U.C. Berkeley Law School, …
Our final months in East Africa were as full as the first — safaris with guests, my ELCT film work, one last Little Theatre performance (as the leads in “Butterflies are Free”), plus the complicated and red-tape-full preparations for leaving any overseas post. All interspersed with the sadness of saying goodbye, in more ways than …
My work on the documentary film for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania proceeded throughout 1975. I travelled here and there, visiting sites where ELCT was engaged in health, support for women and youth, education and other projects. The plan was to write a script in English, from which the team could film and which …
While I was working on the ELCT film, I’d typically be away from home for 3-7 days, then back for days or even weeks, depending on the availability of hosts for my scouting visits, as well as an ELCT driver to take me to potential film sites if I couldn’t get there by rural bus. …
Let me turn, in this post, from our domestic to my professional life in East Africa. My participation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania film project entailed a lot of red tape with both ELCT and the Tanzanian government. One example of the latter was that any entity hiring a foreign national had to …
I was working for CBS in Los Angeles and sharing an apartment with WVU chum Bettina Altizer when the phone rang one day. Recent calls from men who wanted to inquire if I liked to “swing” had made us cautious. Bettina answered, listened for a few moments, put her hand over the receiver and said, …
That first experience of culture shock during Asian Seminar 1964 pretty much inoculated me for the rest of my life. By the time I applied for Peace Corps training after obtaining my Masters in Television Production at Boston University, I knew what to expect and had some ability to deal with the discombobulation of entering …
Let’s start with an excerpt from my first journal, about a girl from small-town West Virginia who almost bit off more than she could chew. During my Junior year at West Virginia University, I felt a strong need to do something useful. A psych-soc major, I wanted real experience, not more lectures. And I wanted the challenge of trying this somewhere else in the world. I was president of the student YWCA at the time and asked the director, Harriet Shetler, to help me identify some summer programs with those opportunities. She came up with …