melting in Zambia. Hard to remember what snow feels like.

Work is good, if stressful. We are developing an amazing project reaching adolescent girls, and as part of the development have been meeting with groups of these girls in these very very rural villages and they're just very fun and funny and I'm happy to be part of it.

Lots of meetings. We went to the palace and met the king's representative to get permission to develop the project. Had to wear traditional clothes, and followed a very complicated protocol of kneeling and bowing and clapping, multiple times, in a particular sequence. As my version of traditional clothes was essentially a cotton sarong tied over my skirt, I was terrified that I was going to trip on it, or leave it on the ground at some point when I arose from the kneeling.

After the greeting, we sat very correctly in the middle of a room full of chiefs and answered their questions about the project. I can't capture it in words, and of course there was no picture taking. The area is super rural, and very poor. So the palace was pretty much a concrete bunker, and the chiefs wore interesting combinations of the clothes that goodwill ships to Africa. But then juxtapose those visuals with old and intricate traditions and a monarchy that is still a ruling power.

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also, ugh. BT. Could you not just manage to write your girlfriend one email in 10 days when she's half a world away. seriously?

9:09 p.m. - 2014-02-03