Flame Tree study

FlyBoy and little gecko

We half expect the boys to sprout gills or wings. (above, O needs both, plus a good insurance plan)

Here is a welcome November surprise -- baby geckos! They are everywhere inside and out and the littlest ones will sit tight like a little logo on your shirt... or in a welcome (and wet) hand. (that's Owen's hand -- this is one of the smallest we have seen)

Advent-tureland

What is this monstrosity? An early Christmas gift from SantaMere.  In the kids advent calendar today there was a pile of sand and a note from the me+big guy in the red suit:  "Can you dig it? Yes, you can!"

Somehow we managed to construct this monstrously large sandbox without the kids really registering what it was.  "Wouldn't it be cool if mom wasn't really building a patio??! It would be and awesome sandbox!"  Uh, yes, duh.

While we were away this weekend, it was (mostly) finished and the kids got to see it before heading out for escuela.  We came home from school today at 1:30pm, changed out of school uniforms (tho they both put on orange shirts and blue shorts. how very odd) and it's 6pm...they are still out there.  there was one minor complaint, one angry shout and a heated discussion that lasted about 4 minutes but otherwise, I was able to work this whole time undisturbed....it's already paid for itself.

We still need more sand, must plaster the pool wall, tidy up the construction mess and plant some flowers or something to make it look a little more garden and a little less WT-Industrial.  The sandbox is our answer to missing the beach so much.  It's a poor substitute to be sure, but it's all we can do for the time being and it will surely be enjoyed by many friends and be home to many battles between plastic dinosaurs, kitties and various other critters. We have some sand from zanzibar here to add and will start adding in shells collected from all over, some stones that somehow came from Lincoln Park and Cannon Beach, etc.  Bring a pocketful of sand next time you come over, will ya?!


(Egads!  I missed posting anything in November!  For what it's good for, November was too busy with living to get around to much blogging, so I can't feel too badly. )

Bottlecaps

When we first moved here friends of ours had a wrought iron table and chairs cafe/bistro set made for their patio.  The table top was bottlecaps wired together and covered with glass, the seats and seat backs of the chairs were wired-together bottlecaps.  They are so very cool, hand made, recycled, and as a bonus, decently comfortable.  (they are not cheap, however).  I wanted one, but...for what ever OCD reason I decided from the get-go that if we bought a set it had to be from bottle caps that came from bottles we consumed.  I wanted a diet coke chair for me and a mosi chair for todd and fanta chairs for the kids.  (Not that we would ever in a million years allow them to drink THAT MUCH FANTA.)  Fast forward three years and hundreds of bottles later.  The guys who do bottlecap furniture are long-gone, the bottlecap collection was growing out of control and we happened to have had a visitor with an idea....Catherine?  are you owning up to this one?

We had two prime candidates for a bottlecap countertop project.  they were built by someone with minimal direction and zero supervision while we were in Seattle this summer.  they are functional, flanking the Super BBQ on the Super Q Patio -- one for prep and one for serving.  They are also Super U.G.L.Y.

The first task/obstacle was getting materials.  DYI has not really caught on here.  Why get your hands dirty when someone will do it for next to nothing.  The real cost of building or doing projects here is in the materials.  And the fact that you have to un-do someone else's work  9/10 and re-do it yourself (or do it twice, three times more to get it how you want it).   Well, we set out to the hardware stores with a vague idea of what we might need...thinset, grout and sealant.  What we came home with was...supafix, supafill  and slago dressing.  (Everything has a new and different name and it is usually in Afrikaans or has a trade name which is a total mystery to me.  It happens everywhere i.e. at the fabric store I wanted white heavy duty canvas?  Drill. Drill?  Yes, drill.) The guys at the hardware store thought I needed 3 bags of supafix when we needed 1/3, two boxes of supfil but we used maybe 1/8 of one box.  The slago dressing we have other uses for so the excess will not be wasted.

The project went in fits and starts.  Three years of enjoying diet coke out of an ice cold glass bottle was NOT ENOUGH TIME to collect enough bottle caps.  The coke factory here is making Coke Zero which I don't like and recently, they ran out of the normal bottle caps and everything is being printed on YELLOW bottlecaps.  Yellow? Not part of the "I-don't-really-have-a-plan" plan.

In the end the caps were procured from far and wide -- friends, cafes, bars, etc.  and the countrop was finished.  It was finished in the most dramatic fashion.  The fix was mixed and curing, dinner was on the table, we had BenAnna on hand to help, the kids were staying up late.... and it was starting to RAIN!  And not just sprinkle.  The night it was finished we had the storm to end all storms.  Thunder, lightning, down power lines arcing behind our house, the entire neighborhood flickering for an hour before finally blacking out. And instead of abandoning the project we foolishly finished it.  It is not a thing of beauty but it is memorable, meaningful and for as long as we're here it's mine.

The "holy-crap-I may actually be struck by lightening" pattern.  you like?  FREE FORM and frantic with six sets of hands pressing caps into soggy supafil.

There are funny little things about it I love.  The Lion lager cap that came back from Zimbabwe as part of a 6 pack from our friends' trip see Uncle Bob, the yellow caps from the Blue Moon, the Peroni from Italy (which a waiter once told me was "baloney" b/c of whole r/L plus ESL thing), the 'blanks' from Henry's yummy home brewing experiments, the gold ones which aren't stamped but we know are negra modello from the commesary, a few Fat Tires, and a few Coronas scattered in along with all the Mosi and Castle.  The kids know where 'their' grape fanta caps are.  They got them as a special treat the day before in hopes that a few more caps would push us over the top and we'd have enough.

After three+ years of bottlecap hoarding it's a tough habit to break, so maybe before too long we'll have enough to tile the other hideously ugly countertop. (above, supafixed but not supafilled or sealed)

The best surprise is that the countertop makes the absolute best sound when it's raining!

Gruesome Twosome

Halloween is for many reasons not celebrated here. Americans try to keep this fond childhood memory alive by having 'trunk or treat' at the American School (with american sweets, this reason alone is one that justifies attendance!) and by having private parties of their own.  One family we know has a big birthday bash with a halloween theme.  This was the very first time the kids dressed up in scary costumes.  (As opposed to....tree, kiwi, fireboat captain (and kitty), bird, bat, etc) The result was effective but I must admit that it's not nice to see my sweet, cute boys made up like zombies. They did the costumes themselves and we used a minimal dusting of face-paints b/c not only it is uncomfortable when it dries in the 35 degree dry neat, but the Halloween party ends with all the kids in the pool. (at one point there were 23 kids in the pool -- with many parents keeping track, not to worry)

 FPFJ got into his role and demanded photos and many viewings of MJ's "Thriller."

FPFJ surprised us the most with his willingness to dress up.  Usually his idea of going crazy with his clothes is pushing one of his socks down a little bit...oooooohhhhhhh scaaaaaarrrrryyyyyyY!  He took baby steps to get to his final costume, reluctant all the way.  Doing the work himself (cutting, ripping, painting, putting the clothes in the grill ashes, etc) I think was the only way he would do it.  Next year I'm voting for a not-gruesome twosome.    (In fact, I'm insisting on it.)

Viv's team (with O) won the 'toilet paper mummy wrapping competition'  three dozen toilet paper rolls then went flying and the place looked more like 'homecoming night' than halloween!

In case you were wondering what zombies wear for swimming......

What's for dinner?

When it's too hot to cook inside or when we have a bunch of folks over, we fire up the big grill.  (It is risky to ask 10 people to come over and then to find the power's out and you've got nothing to feed anyone -- the grill is the safest bet!) It's a beautiful thing made from a barrel and cleverly outfitted (thanks to some awesome customizing by our friends who sold us the grill when they moved away -- and then moved right back, but we got to keep the grill thank goodness.)  It doubles as a smoker and has an extra 'arm' that holds a shallow wok or pizza pan.  For ages meat never touched the metal. I simply don't know how to cook meat, or buy meat for that matter.  We perfected our grilled pizzas, roasted veggies and were happy to have this metal monster, even not knowing how to use it for smoking or other carnivorous pursuits.

Meat here is plentiful, fresh, and delicious -- when you know what you are doing.  With much help, we're venturing into meats and enjoying the results.  On the menu recently?  T-bone steaks! O grabbed the biggest one last night and finished the whole thing by himself.  yikes.

For lazy nights or when it's too hot we fall back on breakfast for dinner.  I keep making 'oeufs en couchette' but I keep over cooking them.  it makes a pretty plate.  The kids may give me one more try to get it right, otherwise they are on oeufs-strike.  (I can't blame them).

And then there was the hours-long pasta dinner.....pasta in America is a quick and easy dinner.  Not at 23 b.  We made an ugly but delicious batch of genuine ragu and hand rolled pasta last week.  Everyone participated and it took FOREVER.  It was delicious and we'll do it again, I love home made pasta.  BUT WE ARE NOT MAKING THIS SHAPE AGAIN.  EVER.  They ended up being 8 inch long hollow tubes.  each one made one at a time starting with folding a blob of dough around a wooden skewer and rolling it out then TRYING to get it thin enough and then trying to get it off the skewer.  never. ever. again.

 Casper the friendly pasta.  (who did this one do you think?) O went for a new shape altogether.  nice!

By the time dinner was done we were too tired to clear and set the table so had a picnic on the living room floor.

Tanked

Our water problems continue here.  The problem, however is a moving target.  One day it's the fact that 'low voltage' tripped the switch for the submersible pump (we have a series of pumps to get the water from the well to the tank and then to the house, another bunch of pumps for the pool, but all connected - it's a formidable setup), another day it's the booster pump that is out (for any number of reasons), or the hot water heater (geyser) which sits on top of the roof is not working or, or, or, or.... What ever it is, it is rare that we have hot water, water pressure, clean water and enough water all at the same time. By 'rare' I mean never in the time we have been here.

 First step was draining the tank.  clearly it's dirty, so the guys were satisfied with the fact that this project was necessary.  up they went.  The one not in the coveralls is the new supervisor.  He agrees to all my suggestions and then does not do them.  (In his defense this is how the way everything goes here, and he also has a supervisor to answer to and it's his mercedes-driving-smooth-talkin supervisor that is in charge of the checkbook.)

One huge, gigantic problem is that we have a tall house and two upstairs bathrooms. It's a long way up. Getting the water up three stories from an underground source at the end of the dry season is the first challenge -- distributing it is the next problem.  In this house, once you open the hot water tap in the kitchen (the lowest water point in the house) it pretty much drains the hot water heater (on the roof), so you can forget having a shower, filling the tub, etc until the evening or the next day.

We try to keep the property management company on top of maintenance...but it is a challenge to get them to spend money to fix actual problems and an even bigger challenge to ask them to put money into the house for things that may become problem.  Some projects they get excited about.  For whatever reason when I brought up the idea of CLEANING the water tank they were all over that.  Maybe b/c it's just a matter of labour and zero expense.  A few people we know have had their water tested and were more than a bit horrified at the results.  Others discovered ant or rat or other infestations in their tanks.  The workers has suggested that there could be frogs.  It's gross enough to think about that I couldn't STOP thinking about it, so when they agreed, I was right there with them....literally.  (They saw I was nervous and asked if I was afraid of heights -- I said I was but I was more afraid of falling.)

There was  a thunderstorm rumbling...the light was amazing but I was a bit concerned about them being up there.  This picture is taken from the top story bathroom window.  There is a little porthole that a person just barely can fit into, this guy (below) clearly drew the short straw and spent an hour in there scooping mud 1/2 liter at a time and handing it out.

It took a few hours to sort out the tank-cleaning logistics -- they  went up to assess the problem, drew straws, entertained my company up top for a bit, and in the end scooped out of foot of muck and mud.  They scrubbed the tank best they could and refilled it, we flushed it and put in a bottle of Clorin for good measure.

The guys, led by our fearless maintenance man, Gesham (l) (above, our roof behind them, you can just see the hot water heater) and below, the view of the marsh behind our house.  The marsh is soon going to be completely full of houses, a real shame for the natural water filtration that it provides to those downstream (there are 2 streams that run thru here).  It's pretty green and productive despite that we are at the tail end of the dry season, no rain since....February but for a freak downpour in April.

The only obvious result of the tank-cleaning project is that I feel a bit better about the water.  It's dirty as before -- it ran clear and actually smelled clean for about 24 hours - but at least I have assurances that there is nothing macro living up there...micro I'm certain of but we don't drink the water at all so I'm not too worried about that.  The laundry is back to being dingy again -- we had clean white sheets and shirts there for a second -- but it's a little peace of mind we were really after and that we got.  Still no water pressure, still not enough water, still no hot water, etc. sigh.  48 h after the tank-cleaning....back to brown. Sigh. What?  You aren't excited about having a bath??

hot

we had to cancel our camping/fishing weekend escape but just learned where we were headed (lower zambezi about 2 hours drive from home) it is 47 degrees.

that is hot.

real hot.

it's warm in Lusaka but it's not 47 degrees.

Magic Key Birthday Adventure!

The boy-wonder is officially SIX years old!

For the occasion....sleepover, ice cream sandwiches at school, a weekend of non-stop partying, finny-dictated dinner menu, a BAKED ALASKA (topped with candles and 6 skiing kitties, as promised), and ..... a special book was produced. For those not in the know, it's based on a series used for the kids early-reading/literacy studies -- the characters are familiar to all the kids here....and the for better or worse, also the parents!)

The book was started and finished in the 24 hours before it needed to be at school in time for his classroom party so....please don't pass judgement on the artwork....the biggest challenge was to make Finn look different from Kipper.  He kind-of IS Kipper.  Please note that the for the last picture, I swapped out Floppy for Siku!

a little vermicelli on top

Do you want to know the best bring-to-school summer birthday treats EVER?

Chocolate cookie and vanilla ice cream sandwiches with.....chocolate sprinkles.  Easy peasy, cheap and mighty delicious despite that the store-bought ingredients separately are really not at all delicious. not in the least.  But put them together and there is some crazy alchemy of flavors and crunch and cold goodness.

But this distracts us from the "chocolate sprinkles" lexiconographic discussion:

Jimmies?  East coast US (Boston origin circa 1940s). I am not from the eastern seaboard and will wholesale refuse the term "jimmies."  They incidentally call rainbow sprinkles "Rainbox Sprinkles"  which makes a lot of sense. Why not "chocolate sprinkles?"  Does that not make perfect sense?

Some people argue, and I'm NOT sayin' who (but it's the same people who say "kah" instead of CAR with an "R" sound), that big fat chocolate sprinkles are "Chocolate Sprinkles" where the normal small ones are still "jimmies."

Oh really.

Here in Zambia?  They are vermicelli. come on. Apparently it's the "industry" terminology.  Last I checked, Vermicelli are a traditional Italian pasta...round and a bit thicker than spaghetti (which is too thick already).

Please, people. Chocolate Sprinkles.

Chocolate.
Sprinkles.

Dear Liza, Dear Liza

April Chorus: 

There are bees in the roof, Dear Liza, Dear Liza!
There are bees in the roof, Dear Liza, some BEES!

So get them out, Dear Henry, Dear Henry!
Get them out Dear Henry, go get them, the BEES!

There's a hole in the roof, Dear Liza, Dear Liza!
There's a hole in the roof, Dear Liza, a HOLE!

So patch it, Dear Henry, Dear Henry
So Patch it, Dear Henry, patch up the HOLE!

But it's raining, Dear Liza, Dear Liza!
It's raining Dear Liza, it's raining real hard!

September Refrain:

There's still a HOLE in the ROOF, Dear Henry, Dear Henry....
and now there are rats in there, Henry, Dear Henry!
There are rats in there Henry, rats in the roof.

October Chorus:
And now it's really really, really raining hard! really hard!
And the bees moved in to the tree in the front yard! in the front yard!
Be on your guard, Dear Henry, Dear Henry! Be on your guard!

I'll be there, Dear Liza, Dear Liza!
I promise Dear Liza, Dear Liza!
I promise, I will!

On Monday. Oh, sorry.
On Tuesday.  I swear....What? You say the rain short circuited the water pump? and you have no water?.... and the voltage for the house is coming in at 30 volts instead of 240?
On Wednesday. I will come.  At 14h Really, I will.
On Thursday.  But it's already 17 o'clock.

On Friday, Dear Liza, I promise to come.

Really?  To have a look to see the hole in the roof AGAIN?

Oh really? Dear Henry, Dear Henry?
Oh really? Dear Henry, Dear Henry... we'll see.
Will you fix it, Dear Henry, Dear Henry?
Will you fix it? HIGHLY- UNLIKELY!

making history and not making the evening news

Well, the world was not exactly watching Zambia this week (Zambia?  What’s zambia? oh -- WHERE is Zambia -- its “ZAM-bEE- AH,” is it??)  but it’s been a doozy of a week for us -- monday was a school holiday and tuesday was off for elections.  For a small african country with such a short history of independence (since 1964), it started OK. The run-up was an insane battle of personalities and exactly zero politicing.  All I really know about the  two main parties are from the three text messages that I got this week.  Policies?  Positions?  nothin.  One calling for more of the same great leadership, the other asking for change.  

PHOTOS:  PF supporters (Patriotic Front, not Peter Finch) at the swearing in.  Supporting the new President apparently requires a green foam Incredible Hulk fist. .... and a Kuamboka boat.  One of Sata's campaign 'slogans' was "Don't Kubeba" which roughly means, "Don't tell."  and the photo is of Sata 'shhhhushing.'  It basically was telling his supporters -- sure, collect all the free things that the ruling party is handing out, wear your free chitenge and your new MMD hat -- but when you come to vote, vote with your heart, vote PF. Photo credits go to Simon, who was invited to the swearing-in with his diplomatic passport ink still drying.  What a guy to remember to bring his camera. The first photo is from the podium where he was for the speeches, overlooking the crowd in front of the High Court.

There were a few problems in the lead up to the elections -- “political management” of the state owned electricity supply during a big opposition party rally in Lusak (which backfired b/c everyone was bored and came out to the rally -- including a guy who crowd-surfed HIGH above everyone's heads  in....a bathtub), scattered reports of rioting and violence, the extreme and never-explained delay of ballot-paper-printing in South Africa, a bus load of ballot papers that fell into the zambezi river on the way from the polls, relatively little.  Polls opened at 6am on tuesday in most areas -- for some it was delayed simply b/c it was difficult to get the papers to hard-to-access parts of the country. Or, opening was just delayed without explanation or apology (in these places, things got a bit hairy-scary).  People starting queue up as early as 2am.  The EU had 120 election observers, one of whom was on an hour-long call in show and actually stopped to laugh at one point to remark how he had never before heard the term “free and fair elections” spoken by so many people in such a short time. Clearly, people were aware of what they wanted.  Free and fair.  There were some 40 African (SADC) observers and all kinds of party observers and local observers.  Everyone was watching everyone else watch everyone else.  Somehow 2 million-plus voters turned out. (Zambia's 13 million population has some 5 million eligible voters, 80% were registered for this election with an almost equal male to female ratio).  

By Wednesday the Electioral Commission website had been hacked (maybe?), there were rumors of violence (never confirmed) and rumors of foul play, rumors -- but we never fully knew what was going on.  The Election Results Centre is just a few km from our house and nearby to school, so the kids’ school week was....wednesday. The work day was cut short most places as people headed home b/c of the uncertainty of what was happening -- or more importantly, what would happen.  Students at University of Zambia (UNZA) are famous for exercising their rights to free speech (here called “rioting”) and they did apparently but not with much gusto.  So, we steered clear.  A trip out for some groceries was eerily quiet.  gone were the crowds, the kids, the traffic, the vendors, etc.  There were no hints of what was to come. 

Trading was closed -- except the little grocery store “Melissa” which is run by a bunch of crazy Lebonese guy who were likely making money hand over fist. (good for them!) The police presence was visible -- paramilitary out ( but they are usually out, strolling around the shopping mall in their uniforms and carrying ancient automatic weapons), new police horses roaming from the elections results center to the polo ground stables. newly enlisted officers -- walking around uncomfortably in newly purchased bullet proof vests (even tho the police are pretty much the only ones with guns). The power (and now I mean electricity) came and went, the internet was working and not working, the higher court had injunctions against the three private media house and were banned from  publishing any results or early returns. All we had were text messages.  But as my friend pointed out, the “Arab Spring” and the politial revolution of north Africa had better internet.  

It really was a close race between the political party that has been in power for the last 20 years.  Zambia has only had 4 presidents:  Kenneth Kaunda (still alive, in his 80’s who was president from 1964 to 1991), Frederick Chiluba (who died just a few months ago), Patrick Levy Mwanawasa (who died in office in 2009), and the latest to take the office, Rupiah Banda.  There were a dozen presidential hopefuls but three main parties and two ‘real’ contenders -- the sitting president and Michael Chilufya Sata (whose nickname, by the way, is “King Cobra”) who has by now run for the office 4 times.  

It’s unclear exactly what people expected but events unfolded predictably at first.  As the initial results from urban areas came in the opposition party was in the lead.  Folks expected that over the next 48 hours, however, that the rural vote would come in for the ruling party, and with these votes would come the allegations (true or not) of rigging and corruption.  But the rural votes came in and the opposition lead remained.  80 constituancies, 100, 120.... (there are 150 voting districts).  The state owned media was running boring movies and bad music videos while they waited for the calm voice of the electoral commision head.  They promised and update at 6pm, at 8pm. at 10 pm.  at midnight.  FINALLY at 1230, an update but with the caveat that there were 7 constituencies remaining and the race was so close.  finally at 145 in the morning, they felt comfortable announcing...the opposition party won -- the new president would be inaugurated that day...pick up your invitations at the Parliament Hotel.  

Almost miraculously, the sitting president ceded, an act for which he will have earned his place in history.  All have said, an african president has every reason to fight, every resource to resist a change of power, every expection to NOT give up the post.  

At 1:46AM the city erupted -- people hopped out of their beds and hit the streets -- in their PJs in their...underdrawers? however they were -- they left their homes and headed to Plot 1 (state house, zambia’s 1600 Penny Ave/10 Downing Street), hooting and hollering and dancing.  shooting fireworks, beating drums, blowing horns, going absolutely mad.  I think Zambias are themselves surprised. They know the historical significance of a democratically held (and upheld) election.  They know that by NOT making the international news, they made history.

Yeah for Zambia!

 The news from Zambia:  http://www.zambia-weekly.com/index.htm
(and the bathtub crowd surfing yoot photo)

Hair Ambassador turns 9

The big O turned 9 this week.  NINE.  Amazing, right? Finn is 6 in another few weeks.  How did that happen?

Owen’s birthday fell the Saturday of a four-day weekend (one that in fact turned into 9 days off of school) so it would have been a great weekend to take the boys out tiger-fishing at the Lower Zambezi River-- how we celebrated last year.  Unfortunately, the bwana was traveling and wouldn’t be back until Saturday afternoon....and school was closed b/c of uncertain about how the elections would go.  Would their be rioting? Violence? Trouble in outlying areas?  We had to stay put.

He carefully crafted a small list of boys whom we invited after school on friday --would they get along with eachother?  would they like to come over and goof around with science experiments? Can they come? One of his closest friends is Muslim and leaves school early every day to get to mosque -- his mom briefly considered bringing him over after but they live on the other side of town and like many people, were reluctant to be out and about if there was any risk of getting caught in a riot or demonstration.

So, this left him with 5 friends plus finny.... they had four big bottles of vinegar, three bottles of coke and a few packets of mints, two boxes of baking soda, balloons, and anything else they ‘needed’ to blow stuff up or make mad science concoctions (ooblek, anyone?).  The boys mixed their own sodas to drink, experimented with rasperry jello, swam and generally mucked about all afternoon. They made ice cream sundaes and munched on chips and ate fruit.   It was really fun and mellow.

The next day was the ‘family’ party.  Family here includes our friends and perhaps a bit embarassingly to him, a GIRL from his grade, two in fact.  I suspect that we needed two  b/c there was no way he could invite THOSE BOYS and THOSE GIRLS and have it turn out OK.

I’m quite happy with the fact that he continues to have girl friends.  Not “girlfriends” of course, b/c the kid is only just turned 9.  Unlike some of his classmates he doesn’t flinch when the teachers pair him up for projects with a girl.  And, equally wonderful is that the girls don’t get all goofy and squirmy when they get paired up with O.  It’s nice.

Maybe it’s the hair.  He’s like a boy ambassador with those golden locks.

mike wang

something funny happened this summer.  it’s actually not funny at all.  something strange.  something truly horrible.  a friend of ours was killed in a hit-and-run, bicycle vs. SUV accident a few blocks from his office...from our office.  he covers hundreds of miles on his bike each month, commuting to work, heading home to his wife, his son, his daughter. he was the sole provider for the family.  he was a good guy.  a great guy.

he was also an amazing photographer.  he was a mentor to me.

so.  every time I pick up my camera.  i can’t take a photo.  i can’t bear the thought.

i think the best way to honor him would be, in fact, to take photos.  to take them with abandon.  to tell the world about mike wang, about his work, about his family.

I can’t just yet.

---------------

A memorial fund has been established at BECU credit union. Donations in Mike’s memory can be made to: 

Mike Wang Family
c/o BECU
PO Box 34044
Seattle, WA 98124-1044

Donations also can be dropped off at any BECU branch location. To donate online, please contact info@path.org for instructions.

With any luck we will also be able to purchase Mike's documentary portrait photography, the copyrights for which have been generously transferred to his family.

Kyla's Awesome Summer Adventure Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger