they used to tie you up...it's a living

First of all….Happy Birthday Trixie! I was thinking about you today and how I would love to walk down the alley to your place and bring you a brownie with a single candle…just like the first time we met. Mmm, brownie…I could go for one of those right now! Baked goods just aren’t the same out here. Today I will have a treat for you…not a brownie, but something sweet and of the edible quality none-the-less and as I eat it I will think of you. Plus I am listening to the RENT soundtrack and I had this memory of you and Hailey singing the ‘Light My Candle’ sound to me in your respective parts…maybe just Hailey was…I can’t remember anymore.

There’s something about “buzzwords”. Having spent the better part of my last four years at The King’s, I’ve absorbed the classic TKUC buzzwords into my own vocabulary. Without knowing it I find King’s-coined* phrases flying out of my mouth and leaving the people around me needing clarification and explanation. Which makes for a difficult position for me….I am used to those I am entering into dialogue with intrinsically understanding the whole comprehensive meaning of my buzz words and the baggage attached to them.
What is just as difficult is entering into a new social culture that already has its own buzzwords and phrases. The most used buzz word here is “capacity”. There is capacity building, capacity indicators, capacity assessments, etc. Now, capacity – like the TKUC version of “worldview” – means just what you would think it means…but oh so much more. It carries with it all the complexities and connotations of this particular social culture (also like the TKUC “worldview”). As if learning bits and pieces of an entirely new and foreign language wasn’t enough, I am struggling to get used to the particular vocabulary of this place, but it peaks my curiosity and I enjoy wading my way though it.

*I quite apologize to my esteemed English professors who have once taught me the correct way in which to use the term “coined” and I fear I may have terribly misused it in this instance!