As 2015 draws to a close recurrent flashbacks plague me. It’s a very pleasant affliction. Six weeks back at work and I remain well and truly in a chilled out frame of mind. Eventually the memories and mood will fade, but in the meantime I continue to soak up the constant flashes of spontaneous memories … More The Year That Was
For almost four of the seven years between 2007 – 2013 I was a long term foster Mum to three separate children over four separate periods. It started with a 12yo boy called Mathew at the end of 2006, through a series of often shocking events which I could never have predicted in my wildest … More Global Fortunes
The English word charity has a long and ambiguous history, depending on the source you refer to. It stems from the 4th century when St Jerome translated the Christian bible from Greek to Latin. He used “caritas” in place of “agape” which is referenced over 300 times in the Greek version and is said to … More Speaking of Charity
This morning the southern hemisphere woke to news of another terror attack in Paris. Multiple attacks have taken place across the city. A state of emergency has been declared and the country’s borders have closed. A hundred people are currently being held hostage at a concert hall, fifteen are already dead at this one site, … More Universal Values and the Attention of Terror
Paula was discharged from hospital late last week. She remains in the US to be near the care she needs and because the surgeons don’t want to send her home to a place without running water until her wound, which may need further surgical intervention, is healed. But she is healing and becoming stronger by … More Keeping Up With The Chamericans
I’ve avoided speaking much at all about this case because when I did initially mention it online, an internet troll accused me of siding with a criminal. I have also been very aware of the victim’s family and did not want to add to their anguish in any way, nor the anguish that I saw … More My Version of Someone Else’s Story
Twickenham Stadium in London is the home of Rugby England. In the early hours of this morning (Australian time), 82,000 spectators watched from the stands at Twickenham as New Zealand’s All Blacks thrashed Australia’s Wallabies, 34 points to 17 in the Rugby World Cup. According to my research, the cheapest tickets to this game sold … More Hello From The Other Side
It’s my last day in Cambodia after a whirlwind final week. By the time I returned from the US last weekend, Chom hadn’t seen his family, including his new baby, for five weeks. We made arrangements for an overnight visit to them a few days later. We traveled almost three hours upstream on the western … More Until We Meet Again
I had been in Cambodia about a week when one of the MSF expats announced excitedly that on a bicycle ride that day, she’d cycled through an Islamic village with a mosque and many people dressed in Islamic attire. Islamic people in Cambodia seemed a curious thing to our uninformed minds. Since then I’ve learned … More A Cross Cultural Islamic Experience
Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream ~ Anatole France These words could have been written specifically for Paula. After developing severe, chronic abdominal pain during pregnancy in 2011, her interim years have been a living hell. We met on one of her most wretched days, approximately 16 months ago. She had … More Cambodia In America
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