Summertime Gardening On May 17 2023 I had shoulder reconstruction surgery to repair a skydiving injury sustained way back in 1977. My left shoulder would slip out of the socket and not go back. This did not hurt at all, but it was awkward and took a bit of maneuvering to replace so I can … More Gardening for Life – part 4
It was a blank slate, a vast, greenish brown, terribly ordinary space that terrified me. Yet at the same time, it spoke to me, beckoned to me, sprinkling my imagination with limitless possibilities – most of which were thoroughly inappropriate and unrealistic. I was baffled and amused by the similarities between my life and my … More Gardening for Life – Intro
When people ask me about my strangest experience, it is usually my early days in New Zealand that come to mind. It was a very hard story to tell because it is simply too bizarre to be believable. For years I never told anyone because they were sure I was making it up. It is … More Culture Shock New Zealand: a New Yorker does the South Island – 1980
In 1991 I moved to Jogjakarta, on the island of Java, Indonesia, for doctoral research, a lone, female grad student in an entirely different world wanting to learn about entirely different ways of speaking and being. I had to radically recreate myself through a new language, a new way of dressing, a new attitude, to … More Under A Burning Sun
Kay and I arrived in Cape Town toward the end of what to date had been a spectacular time in South Africa. We had done our 4 day safari at Kruger National Park, enjoyed a wonderful, if not occasionally frightening, road trip around the Western Cape including the wine district and up through the Karoo … More Adventures in Cape Town
Laine Berman 