A simpler calling card
by Anton Zuiker on March 31, 2018
When I was newly returned from my service in Vanuatu, I asked my sister-in-law, Katherine, to design a business card for me. I used and updated that design — vertical, green, featuring the letters of a keyboard — for some seven years.
Then, to reflect my blogging at mistersugar.com, I designed a new card — horizontal, front and back, white, my pig icon on one side and a short version of my story on the reverse. That seemed to be an effective way to explain my name, my blog, the pig, and Peace Corps.
It’s been a few years since I stepped back from using mistersugar as my moniker. I figured it was time to update my personal calling card to reflect the simpler, humbler person I’ve been trying to be, so I ordered minimal, beautiful letterpress cards from Hoban Cards — the Agent design, just my name, my email address, and a phone number.
More Voices
by Anton Zuiker on March 7, 2018
Update on my earlier post, Voices and stories — the Voices of Medicine storytelling show on the evening of February 28 was a success; and, that morning, I was informed that my Voices of Duke Health listening booth and podcast project was funded. So, a good day, and momentum for our narrative medicine focus this year. More to come, surely.
Going back to Vanuatu
by Anton Zuiker on March 7, 2018
Famili blong yumi (Liro, Paama, October 1999)
“Dad, will there be a hurricane when we visit?” Oliver asked this morning while we waited for his school bus.
“No,” I said.
“Why not?”
“It won’t be hurricane season any more.”
We were talking about hurricanes because Cyclone Hola had just spun across the middle of the Vanuatu archipelago, including Paama Island, where Erin and I had served as U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers. (The South Pacific tropical cyclone season runs from November to April.) Oliver was asking about hurricanes and Paama because we are taking a family trip to the Republic of Vanuatu this summer, nearly 20 years since Erin and I arrived to learn the language (Bislama), to be introduced to the culture (Melanesian), to live and work in a welcoming community, and to be a representative of the United States of America.
The archives of my mistersugar.com blog, which I started writing in early 2000, are filled with posts about our experience in Liro Village. If you don’t know, it was fabulous: nearly every day, amid the blue ocean and green palm trees and blue skies, I would turn to Erin and say, “We are Peace Corps Volunteers in the South Pacific.”
And in the 18 years since we departed Vanuatu, Erin and I have talked often about our memories of Paama (and the other islands we visited, including Malekula, Maewo, Espiritu Santo, Ambrym, Epi, and Lopevi). As our own children arrived and have grown, we’ve shared stories and photos of the extended family on Liro, pictured above, who made our time there so memorable. We’ve been saving up ever since, and now we get to return to Liro with our children—we’ve purchased our tickets, and we are super excited.
We’ll fly to Sydney, Australia, and spend a few days walking that city and riding the ferries in the famous harbor. Then it’s on to Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu; a smaller plane to Paama to reconnect with our Liro family; an overnight trip to Tanna Island to see Yasur volcano; and back through Sydney en route to our home in North Carolina.
It’ll be a two-week trip — a whirlwind after all.
Date night at the home depot
by Anton Zuiker on March 3, 2018
In the master bedroom, bigger windows and a door to a new deck.
Another Saturday night, another date night with Erin. First dinner — tonight at Babalu for lobster tacos — and then to Lowe’s (other nights it’s The Home Depot) to review options for our house remodeling. We reviewed kitchen faucets, vanity mirrors, and carpeting tonight. Tomorrow we have to make decisions on the rainfall shower head for the master bathroom. On Monday, we’ll have to sign off on the kitchen layout and cabinets.
It’s been a while since I posted about the house that we bought last June. We’re a few months into a full-bore remodeling project. We hired a contractor, the house was gutted, the old oil-heating unit was hauled out from the basement, the carport was framed in to make a new office space for Erin and a side entrance/mudroom/laundry, the living room and master bedroom will have new doors out onto a new deck, and all the windows are being replaced. In less than two months, the project should be done.
I’ve been up to the house every few days over the last months. I walk through the rooms, checking on the progress and envisioning the project finished and the structure our home. Some days I’ll spend an hour or two raking leaves or digging out shrubs or gathering up fallen tree limbs and branches. And nearly every time I’m up at the house, I walk out into the back acres. I love to just wander back there among the tall oak trees. A couple of times, I’ve put up a couple of hammocks, and the children and I take turns gently swinging with view up to the Carolina blue sky.
Today, out there on the back slope by myself, I was filled with joy, happy for my family, and deeply in love with Erin, a perfect partner for this long-sought project. Our decision list is long yet, which means more date nights on the horizon.
Voices and stories
by Anton Zuiker on February 9, 2018
I never heard his voice, but the words of Dean Allen were an early inspiration to my blogging. Dean wrote at Textism.com, and then created Textpattern, the content management system that I use to run my blogs. When he started the hosting service Textdrive, I became one of the original subscribers (I was #20 on the original VC200). Dean sent me a t-shirt, and one of his Textism calling cards, with a short note written on the back. Dean eventually disappeared from the Web, and I sensed he was living his life in the best way he could, as difficult as it could be. Dean died last month. I’m sorry I will never get to speak with him, but I’m inspired anew to put pattern to my own words and speak up. Thank you, Dean.
At Duke, my proposal for a Voices of Duke Health listening booth, patterned after StoryCorps, is gaining steam. I was one of 18 finalists invited to present my idea, in just 5 minutes, to the health system leadership for pilot grant funding through the Duke Institute for Health Innovation. The plan is for our listening booth to provide material for a podcast similar to Ear Hustle. (Update — Voices of Duke Health has been funded!)
In the Department of Medicine, we’re planning another Voices of Medicine storytelling show for February 28, with a theme of humility. This show is part of a year-long Duke Narrative Medicine Colloquium I’m leading to connect all those at Duke with an interest in writing, storytelling, and other activities.
And at home, Anna worked for months on a family history project for school. That included interviewing her grandparents. Anna inspired me to rebuild the online genealogy, which I’d let lapse many years ago. It’s back up, at tree.zuiker.com. I’m hoping to include some of the audio interviews Anna and I have done recently.