Meet Nicholai, our guardian. Yes, we had a guardian who watched our house and kept an eye on things. He was a great guy, and I eventually traded my bike to him for some work around the house. We used to spend many afternoons talking about the issues of the day, democracy, currency devaluation, life in the States, and the economy.

In the photo, Nicholai is mixing up some gozo (cassava) the staple crop in the CAR. I can not even begin to describe the taste of gozo, but many Central Africans feel like they have not eaten until they have had gozo.

My favorite memory of Nicholai was on the day of the first presidential election. The former ruler, General Kolingba, had agreed to hold elections and democracy was returning to the CAR. I talked to Nicholai early in the morning and he told me that a replacement guardian would be coming at noontime so that he could vote. I said fine and asked him if he would be back later in the afternoon. 'Oh no,' he said, 'voting takes a while. I have to go home, get cleaned up, change my clothes, have something to eat, then go to the polls.' He took it seriously, he wanted to make sure that he had on his best clothes so that he could go and cast a ballot. Anyway, the replacement never came so I went outside and he gave me his baton so that I could guard the house. It was the least I could do in support of a man who passionately believed that democracy would lead to a better life for his family.