A tape recorder is a magical thing

NPR: Out of Hiding, Into the World: Thembi's AIDS Diary

Ngubane was 19 when she first met radio producer Joe Richman in Khayelitsha, outside Cape Town. She was among a group of South African teenagers he interviewed about AIDS in 2004. He gave her a tape recorder, and for a year, she recorded an intimate audio diary that brings listeners into her home, among her family, to witness her daily struggles and triumphs.

Amazing piece. Uplifting, somehow. Ngubane and her boyfriend manage to look at her impending death and laugh. I don't know how to do this, but I learned things listening.

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On a less somber note, I'm interviewing the students here on the question: "Why Colombia?" It's the question I am asked the most - by Colombians and by friends back home. So I want to find out what other people's answer is. I have an inkling it has something to do with US policy, the conflict, our (sometimes unknowing) complicity with what's going on here. But we'll see!

Today I'm also supposed to transcribe an interview FOR conducted with a woman from Cali - I don't know what it contains yet, but the book they are writing is about women's experiences in the conflict: children disappeared, homes destroyed, the urban wanderings of country people. In Bogota, it's a sunny day, and I feel lucky to be alive and well.

The world gets smaller every second, and a tape recorder is a magical thing.