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Alece Ronzino
July 30, 2009
Life in Africa

my africa

Alece Ronzino
July 30, 2009
Life in Africa

I painted a portrait of my beautiful Africa. Want to meet her?

Newer Postfour-minute friday: am i just lazy?
Older Postcoffee talk: safety
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“Faith isn’t an epidural. It’s a midwife who stands next to me, saying, “Push. It’s supposed to hurt.” ”
— Brené Brown

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instas

Always thankful for this privilege — and this responsibility.
T W E N T Y • Y E A R S - Twenty years ago today, I moved to South Africa with a couple of overweight suitcases, $200 in my pocket, and a heart-cocktail of naïvety, faith, passion, and foolishness. I was only 19. - Thirteen years later, I moved back Stateside with even heavier baggage (both literal and proverbial), more debt than cash, and a heart-cocktail that had been diluted by life and loss and longing. - Even with all the complicated layers and conflicting emotions, Africa will always be my first love. I met her when I was just 15, and, in that way that only she can do, she swept me off my feet and stole my heart. She was my high school sweetheart, and she holds both the bests and the worsts of my life in the years we spent together. - Twenty years. How is that even possible? Two decades seem to have slipped through my fingers like the Kalahari sand... - My present life looks so different than the one I lived on African soil. It confounds me, really. Many who know me now didn’t know me then, which only widens the chasm I often feel exists between my former and current lives. And yet, I know, it’s all one. One life. One incongruently interconnected and magnificent life. It confounds me, really. - No matter how long I’ve lived Stateside, this day still feels beautifully and painfully significant to me. And so I stop to honor it. To embrace it. To celebrate and grieve it. - Happy Africaversary, love. Twenty years is worth dancing and crying over. So let’s do a little of both, shall we?
He walked toward me with his finger pointed at my face. “You’re gonna burn in hell, Jezebel.” If standing up for common sense gun laws and legislation that would help protect students makes me a Jezebel, so be it. - I am grateful for this student-led #MarchForOurLives movement taking place across the nation today. And I am unbelievably proud to stand with and for these brave young people. - Hold my earrings. This Jezebel ain’t backing down. - #GunReformNow #NeverAgain #MarchforOurLivesNashville #March4OLNash #GunReform #Enough #EveryTown #RockTheVote #GoodTrouble #KidsTheseDays
And just like that — at least for the briefest of seconds — I feel like I’m back in South Africa... - My feel-good moment of the year, brought to you by #TennesseeSafariPark.
H O P E
Because women’s rights are human rights. Because immigrants make America great. Because black lives matter. Because love is love. Because climate change is real. Because kindness needs to make a comeback. #WhyIMarch . #womensmarch #womensmarch2018 #womensmarchnashville #powertogethertn #eastnastywoman #goodtrouble #metoo #timesup #lovetrumpshate #nashvillewomensmarch #nevertheless #neverthelessshepersisted #resisterhood #persisterhood #fightlikeagirl

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  • Life in Africa 351
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