Enlarge Walking in my ancestors' footsteps.

Posted: July 7th, 2010 Rhiannon Bowman

Travel, whether to another city, another region, or another country, often provides insight into other cultures and our own. This is an occasional series on what we can learn when we go somewhere else.

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For as long as I can remember, my grandmother has told tales about her father's life in Germany and his quest to live the American dream. She details how he literally carved his first American home, a sod house, out of the Nebraska prairie, how their family struggled to survive, and how he always cheerfully helped his neighbors whenever he could.

By the time he died, she tells me, he was a successful man. He managed to piece together a 15,000-acre cattle ranch, had a lovely and loving wife and fathered 10 children, three of whom he outlived. And, Grandma says, he spoke with a thick German accent every day of his life.

As I child, I read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series and imagined my great-grandparents living similar lives. But I never could picture what my great-grandfather's life may have been like in Germany.

Not until recently anyway.

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Posted: July 6th, 2010 Meaghan Clark

Stories that caught our eye in the last week:

1. Good news for Charlotte, considering our current air quality: The Environmental Protection Agency says it wants to get tough on coal-fired power plants, such as those in the Carolinas.

2. Local coach Michael Lawson is going global. The N.C. Central track and field coach will lead the U.S. team at an international competition in 2011.

3. Some folks are taking the Lynx Blue Line for a ride. Despite riders who avoid paying, the Charlotte Area Transit System says it won't install equipment to ensure payment.

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Posted: July 2nd, 2010 Greg Lacour

On Sunday, most of us were grilling out and setting off fireworks, or watching other people set them off.

But that day, six students in The Echo Foundation’s Student Ambassador program boarded a plane bound for a country as removed from national celebration and affluence as you can imagine: Rwanda.

It’ll be the second foundation-sponsored trip to the east-central African nation, one that’s recovered astoundingly well from a 1994 genocide that left an estimated 800,000 people dead. Since then, the nation has made tremendous strides in government, infrastructure, economic growth and education.

It’s the last category that the student ambassadors will tackle; the country is far from a full recovery. For two weeks, the six students will help complete a children’s library at the Nkondo 1 Primary School in Rwinkwavu, a village near the Tanzanian border, and deliver books and other supplies to the school.

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Posted: July 1st, 2010 Jarvis Holliday

Seat someone from south Charlotte at a table with someone from west Charlotte, allow them to engage in conversations, and they’ll likely realize that they have the same aspirations for their neighborhoods and that they’re facing many of the same issues where they live.

About 20 residents from more than a dozen Charlotte neighborhoods attended “A Conversation with Neighborhood Leaders and Community Connectors,” a Crossroads Charlotte-sponsored event, Tuesday (June 29) at Covenant Presbyterian Church. Crossroads organizers wanted the attendees to learn more about the organization and to get to know each other.

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