Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Roasted Squid and Other Adventures in Korea

April 6, 2008 by Steve Peifer

Rift Valley Academy, the school where I am the college counselor, has a Korean population that is 15% of our student body. I’m probably like most Americans; I knew there was a war in Korea during the 50’s that killed many people, but besides that, I had never thought about the country much. But when an invitation came to speak at a university because of CNN (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451a94jO5I4), it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
With 80 Korean students,...

10/5

March 3, 2008 by Steve Peifer

In my continuous quest to be hip, I actually have a recording of someone YODELING the William Tell Overture. I get to do the music for skate night, and I played it, and it is the FIRST time that someone actually REQUESTED Neil Diamond.
There is an uneasy peace in Kenya right now which seems to threaten to break out into something heinous every few days. When I was in technology, there seem to be a fair amount of people who...

Showdown

February 1, 2008 by Steve Peifer

During a time of crisis, you look to someone who can raise morale. Who better than me? But it would take even more than my male model looks; it would take the ultimate.
One of my best friends, Ray, gave me an iPod, and I had bought a little docking station so I could play it while I was working.
Inspiration struck. I loaded 1.2 GIGS of nothing but Neil Diamond and told the staff they could come to my office and...

I Never Gave Up Hope

January 21, 2008 by Steve Peifer

I know you are thinking that now that I am a world famous celebrity who got ALMOST one hundred hits on my website that I must get some pretty cool email. Not to brag, but this came in which I know will impress you:
The reason I’m contacting you is a bit out of the ordinary; well I have to admit it’s really kind of out of the ordinary, however I feel compelled to start somewhere. ...

The Price You Pay

January 1, 2008 by Steve Peifer

We knew leaving would be hard this time, and packing up for 2.5 years is such a pain that the only words that adequately describe it are not in the vocabulary of this holy missionary, so I was forced to grunt often. Packing is hard because you have to make choices: watching Katie try not to cry because she found one of her drawings in the trash was just a rough thing.
It got worse when JT...

Don’t Stand on the Supermodel’s Dress/ Lessons from CNN Heroes

December 23, 2007 by Steve Peifer

We found out we had won our category several days before the live show. The alleged purpose of this was to give us time to work on our acceptance speech in front of an international audience estimated to be over ten million. The real purpose was that someone had informed CNN that my flop sweat was valuable, and giving advance notice would allow them to collect several additional buckets of it.
I’ve had the thought for years that I should drop...

A Shockingly Unexpected Empathy for Supermodels/ Five Days in Kenya

November 25, 2007 by Steve Peifer

I was on my way to Jared’s funeral who had fought leukemia bravely for several years when we got the call: CNN wanted us to fly over to Kenya to film a segment for a show. It was Wednesday, and they wanted me to leave on Monday. Nancy was going to a convention for foreign language teachers, and so we had to scramble to get coverage for the kids. I would leave Monday and get back Friday.
I flew out on...

Sowing, Failures, CNN/Yale and Deep Fried Latte: Four Months in America

November 1, 2007 by Steve Peifer

We have BABOONS on our front steps in Kenya, but what REALLY makes an impression on Ben and Kate are, I kid you not, squirrels. Whenever they see a squirrel, they yell as loudly as you might if you saw a baboon. If we see EIGHT squirrels, the volume doesn’t diminish, which can make for interesting car rides.
The other part that makes driving memorable with the twins is that we can eat a meal at McDonalds, but as we leave,...

Stories from the Field

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