Peace Corps Swaziland

My friend Erik Connell recently posted a great account of his 13 months working for the Peace Corps in Swaziland on Facebook. With his permission, I've re-posted his amazing piece on The Melon for your reading pleasure:

Sanibonani bekunene,

That means hello everyone in SiSwati, the local language in Swaziland. Technically it means hello people of the right hand, but hey, that’s how they greet there.

I’m back home now, after spending 13 months there. I resigned due to health concerns combined with the fact that I was not doing as much as I had hoped in the program. It was a tough decision, but I think it was for the best.

Mercury Rising

As a resident of West Seattle, I was alarmed at the recent study that reported that nearby plants are spewing mercury into the air. Two of the companies are cement plants, Ash Grove and Lafarge North, whose towering gray smokestacks, cylinders and globe, for me at least, represent the industrial Duwamish.

Apparently, some fuel sources cement kilns rely on to “cook” rocks, like coal, and the materials used in the rock conglomerate, like limestone, contain high amounts of mercury. Yet it wasn’t until recently that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) even bothered to measure how much mercury the cement industry contributed to the atmosphere, land, and water.