Dads on Safari

Here is one of Jessica's favorite places to stay.  She wrote about how you can see elephants bathing and hear lion's roaring when you stay in these rooms. This is very fitting because last year around this time we both had taken safari trips.  Jessica took a trip here for her dad's birthday, and spent cool mornings searching out game and evenings watching girafes. One of the places I stayed with my dad on safari was a permanent tented camp.  A favorite photo from our trip is my dad sitting on the porch of his tent looking very happy and very much like some sort of Victorian explorer.  Its funny to me that both Jessica's dad and mine both turn into big kids when it comes to wildlife!  Maybe I will try to do a sketch of that photo as my next card.

Tanzania

After starting her summer with daily running, lounging and movies, my pal joined me in Africa last July. Being in Tanzania, however, she was on the continent's back rather than in its armpit. So close, yet so far away. While usually I am the one whipping off African themed cards, this time Lynn tried to lure me to join her on an East African safari. Oh, how I would have loved to meet her.

Not as good, but fun nevertheless, I got to hear her reflect on her first trip to my most beloved continent. Next time Lynn, we need to coordinate better!

Three-oh!

Last year, I turned the big 3-0! Wow! Jessica drew this card, one of many handmade birthday cards I have gotten from her over the years.  On the back, she writes about how milestone birthdays drive people to ask you philosophical questions.  For me 30 was a much easier birthday than 25.  What about you, what age was your trickiest birthday??

p.s. my pal also added the sentiment that she hoped we could chat our way through the next 30, 60, or even 90 years.  Me too pal, me too!

Wanderlust

Being that this is a card, rather than a postcard, it is technically too 'big' for this blog. Lynn asked jokingly if this meant I would kick her out of our project. Think again, friend. More likely, you should kick me out - based off of my recent lapse in timely blogging and mailing. A transatlantic move has me off kilter. Thankfully, things are starting to settle down, I am settling in and we will be able to catch up in person soon. 


This card - inspired by the cover for The Beekeeper's Bible by Richard A. Jones and Sharon Sweeney-Lynch - celebrates wanderlust.  A term, Lynn tells me, that the dictionary defines as to get out the 'wild oats'. Although fitting at the time, this theme is a bit ironic now since Lynn and I are both nesting (well relatively) rather than setting off an a spectacular journey. Nonetheless, let's be honest, my itch for discovering new places is never far (as is Lynn's usually) and this book inspired card makes me dream of travel-inspired stories to come. 

Illustrator

It's not a postcard but its some art I've been working on recently.  I used a brush and ink to make several illustrations for a book cover. So, now I'm officially an illustrator ;-) You can see how it came together here. I made several versions of each and really enjoyed that medium, I hadn't worked with it since college.

Letters from everywhere

Lynn, and I have been sending each other letters since undergrad, long before we started this postcard challenge. Posted to and from all over the world, amazingly, our letters have yet to be lost (or so I think!).

I am constantly curious about the journey our mail takes.  Lynn's first June drawing captures mailboxes she dropped letters into over the years. Her drawing provides a glimpse to the start of letter's journey, but it fills my curiosity only partially. What path did letters take when she sent them from Egypt to Samoa? What adventures? It is a journey I'd like to trace.
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Although the front of this card is a tale in itself, on its underbelly, Lynn wrote to me about the closing of school for the summer. The start of summer break is always sweet, but last year she also felt relieved to put distance on discussions of financial woes facing the public education system in Michigan. It can be a tiring, heated debate and is one that I listened to a lot growing up with a teacher as a mother. Although each day she would get up and work her heart out for her kids, her compensation, just as with most government jobs, depended on public policy and revenue rather than her effort or success. No rewards for hard work and no security if someone is relatively new or teaching elective classes.

It is the same in Ghana. Not only does a lack of incentives hinder teacher morale and performance, the budget is tight. In Ghana, nearly all of the education budget - which makes up a third of the government's total budget - goes to teacher salaries. This leaves the government with little money to build schools, develop materials, provide professional training - in short, to do anything other than pay teachers. Teachers deserve to be paid well, but each time I hear this debate, I always hope it will focus first on how to pay them rather than on blanket budget revisions. My two cents before school is out for the summer.

Flying

Jessica went paragliding the day after drawing this card- she had flight on the brain! This is such a gorgeous bird she drew, I really love all the natural and realistic details.  I remember seeing pictures of her paragliding with the instructor and seeing a smile of pure joy on her face.  Reminded me of when I went on zip lines in Costa Rica.  I would love to try paragliding!!  Jessica saw forest and villages and enjoyed the peacefulness of being suspended up above.  Such a fun memory.