cLiCk! and like magic you're already there
Christina lives in Africa.
She's having a party, and you've already arrived!
Isn't technology cool?!
now...
Get ready to dAncE!
Get ready for AdvEntURe!
Get ready to LaUgH!
Get ready to crY
Brace yourself for christinaswwworld chALLEnGeS!
Enjoy yourself with global GAmEs 4 GoOd!
There will be ThiNkiNg and LeArNiNg
yUmMy TrEaTs galore, and fits of gLoBaL fAsHioN
Expect lots of DrAMa
Let's ToASt to HOPE for turbulent times
wwwelcome!
...and thanks so much for responding to the party invitation link! I hope you'll stay a while to explore the venue (ie, this blog), and subscribe or visit often between now and Christmas. The links above offer a sampling of what kind of content you can expect. Another excellent place to start exploring is the archive of everything posted so far, which appears somewhere on the right of your screen.
The pArtY @ christinaswwworld is an experiment, during which I am going to try to blast the ordinary blog out of it's box as a versatile tool for creating cross-cultural community content online. I've never actually done this in this format before, but my main aim is to engage the global community of my friends (and their friends, and maybe total strangers) in daring to dream, think globally, and see HOPE in the crazy world we all live in. I'm also trying out some ways to generate income with this blog, that I can donate most of to my favorite cause.
If there'd been blogging technology when I started writing online 10 years ago, what I'm planning to do here is probably what the first LifeInAfrica.com would have looked like. Only this time I haven't just arrived to discover, wonder at and share my unseasoned version of what it's like to live in Uganda. Instead, I'm winding down after 10 dramatically full years to say goodbye (with my life still intact - well, mostly.)
In that context of personal transition, this online party experiment offers personal conveniences - there are many dozens of you from times and places in my life before Africa, with whom I have reconnected virtually over the past year. I am soooo happy to have found you in my wwworld, and find that (though I'm terrible at keeping in touch) I have old friends from my lives in CA, Brussels, Geneva and Finland in mind as I sit to put thoughts on the screen about what this past 10 years of my life in Africa has been. It would be so very cool to take the time to chat, or to get y'all together with some of the friends I've met in the intervening years... so (ever the organizer of wigged out social events) I'm inviting all of you here and we'll see what can happen.
What only some of you who got this link from me know, is that during my decade of community work in Africa I've also developed what some have called an actual career in innovating with online content to create social impact. During a planned working sabbatical in the US this year (which unfortunately fell through - I'm still in Kampala), one of my main plans was to visit and strengthen relationships with some of the amazing people I've had the privilege of collaborating with professionally. While I won't be sharing the face to face time I'd hoped to with some of you Better World Building colleagues in 2008, I do want to honor some of you in my humble way, by toasting to you and telling other guests here at the party about the hope you have inspired through your works, in me and so many others.
Finally, to my family and close friends who've been urging me to start writing again, here's a 3 month commitment on my part to give it a whole-hearted effort. Thank you so much for your encouragement over the years, and for your recent support in my decision to head back out into the great global unknown after December.
So what are you supposed to do at an online party?
Have fun! Relax! Explore the links above or in the archive, and then go on with your life today refreshed. Don't feel obliged to read every word posted here between now and Christmas, but do subscribe or stop by often to keep tabs on what's happening, and do me the personal favor of responding now and again.
When you find something that interests or delights you, pulls at your heartstrings or sparks a related story worth sharing, please use the comments to chat (you can see the comments, or at least a link to them) at the bottom of each post. I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you, and this technology makes it so easy to have web-wide conversations (you'll have to have a blogger ID to comment).
Be on the look out for other folks you know, and feel comfortable in the comment space to respond to what others have said, should you be so inspired. Off topic comments will be allowed as long as you are in polite conversation with each other. (Spam, harrassment, or any comment resembling any kind of abuse will be deleted and the perpetrator banned from posting. Sorry, it had to be said. Guests, please alert me if you see anything needing my delete button's attention.)
Last but not least, listen up for fun ways you can participate in some global party games. For starters, be sure to leave a comment at the webbed wwworld game to let me know you've dropped by, and greet the other guests. I'm inviting everyone I know from way back when who I can reach through online connections, and if there's anyone else you'd like to invite, feel free to do so. Just have them click on over to http://christinaswwworld.com, or send them the link to any specific post here - the more the merrier!
I sincerely hope you'll find your participation in my social experiment here a unique and enriching global experience. Hugs to you all for stopping by. Thanks for being a part of my wwworld and my life's very interesting real world journey so far.
I'm really glad you clicked.
Christina (Tina) Jordan
Kampala, Uganda