Memoir

The Monks of Vashon
December 2024, Memoir

The Monks of Vashon

By Andy Valencia The Vashon Loop is working with All-Merciful Saviour Monastery to publish excerpts from their documented history. We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about one of the Island’s quietly famous neighbors. All-Merciful Saviour Monastery is indeed a monastery, and it is run by actual monks. They each have their own tiny,…

Report from Aman Omid Village, Part 2
Literary, Memoir, September 2023

Report from Aman Omid Village, Part 2

By Nellie Bly Prologue: This was written over the course of several deployment periods of one to three weeks. Aman Omid Village on Holloman Air Force Base closed at the end of January 2022, having in-processed and placed 16,000 Afghani evacuees. All but eight survived. For the five months it existed, and adjusting for average…

Report from Aman Omid Village, Part 1
August 2023, Literary, Memoir

Report from Aman Omid Village, Part 1

By Nellie Bly Prologue: This was written over the course of several deployment periods of one to three weeks. Aman Omid Village on Holloman Air Force Base closed at the end of January 2022, having in-processed and placed 16,000 Afghani evacuees. All but eight survived. For the five months it existed, and adjusting for average…

CowExist
August 2023, Island Voices, Memoir

CowExist

By Marc J. Elzenbeck Cattle were domesticated from wild aurochs starting about 10,500 years ago. Roughly speaking, an auroch is to a farm cow as a timber wolf is to a cocker spaniel. These were amongst the biggest, baddest land-borne mammals left over from the Pleistocene, so by “domesticated,” what they mean is “captured and…