More rapid than eagles his coursers they came

Happy Holidays to all! I hope you had a wonderful 2016. I know what John Oliver had to say about it, but for me 2016 was an all time great. For me, 2016 was filled with amazing experiences in India, Turkey, Rwanda and Central Square, Cambridge. I’ve enjoyed being settled in Cambridge and exploring Boston a bit. Regular readers will note that this, the 13th annual edition of my holiday letter is one of the latest editions ever (Dec. 24!) and that is just one more data point that this whole year really raced ahead of me. All through 2016 work was beyond busy, but I continue to love the colleagues and the content and I’ve never done more interesting work with a more talented team.

This year for Dimagi I continued to work with my Cambridge-based Global Services team who is delivering a wide range of projects in Haiti, Nepal, Seattle, Ghana and many places in between. I also spent a fair bit of time working on my own project, a large comprehensive app to streamline treatment of Tuberculosis patients in India. That project team is huge, committed and inspiring and I’m lucky to be a part of the effort. 2016 had 2 more trips to Delhi (and I finally made it to Mumbai, thanks Anushree!). On a trip in July, I attended a fabulous wedding of a colleague and got Mehndi decorations done on my hand:

Erin's amazing wedding in Delhi

I spent a week working in Cape Town in April and it was great to climb Table Mountain again. I also attended some fascinating conferences this year, one on Innovation held in the main assembly hall in the UN in NYC (yes, used the cool translating headset) and also joined the World Humanitarian Summit in Turkey. Istanbul was a great city and I hope to visit again with a bit more time. Our team had a fun off-site retreat in New Hampshire in September and I’d like to go back there for a longer spell as well. Add it to the list!

Me on the floor in the assembly hall in the UN

...and me in Istanbul at the World Humanitarian Summit

While busy with work, (did I mention work??) I also had a really fun year. Working from a Tiny House for a week in Vermont made a particularly busy time at work more pleasant, and now I know where I want to retire. Thanks to Keri for driving up from Philly to cap off the trip with a birthday celebration!

Now for the time warp: In March, I visited Raleigh to see Kate’s senior dance with the Rainbow Dance Company. It was beautiful and Lindy was great in her dances as well. Kate is loving being a freshman at UNC Greensboro (Deans List!) and Lindy is a freshman at Cary High and the second tallest member of the family! (Fine, a low bar but still... She is the baby!) I also got to see the nieces at the beach in August, over Thanksgiving and I’m writing this right now from my sister Lynn’s house in Raleigh for a few days near Christmas.

Lindy, Mom and Kate at Kate's Senior Rainbow show

This year I went to Yellowstone National Park for the first time. It was so cool and I can’t believe I waited this long. The Grand Tetons, really are grand. Old Faithful really is faithful. It was a beautiful trip. If you haven't been, go. If you have, go again!

Me at the big Yellow Stone

In October, I took an amazing journey back to the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village to see the young ladies of Eleanor Roosevelt family graduate from High School. It was wonderful to be back in such an amazing place and I’d forgotten how much I love it there. Ornella was the valedictorian and gave a rousing, inspiring speech. I am so proud of her. The sky is just the beginning!

Back in ASYV for Eleanor Roosevelt Family's Graduation!

I also took a quick side trip to nearby DRC to hike up the Virunga volcano. Without being too dramatic, I'm pretty sure it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Thanks to Avi for singing me down the mountain on the hike back down when my fear of heights kicked in. If you can think of an excuse to get there, it’s an amazing view.

Atop the Virunga Volcano in the DRC

Looking ahead to 2017, I’ll be back to Delhi and Cape Town at least and I expect another trip or two will pop-up. If you’re swinging through Boston try to give me some warning and I'll try to be there as well!

Wishing you Peace on Earth and Happy New Year!

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Home on the Range

Happy Thanksgiving. Sorry it's been a while. Things have been busy with work.

Minneapolis is really cold, as expected. I like living in the Sheraton, watching cable and eating room service. As always, my hotel room us much larger than my home, so it seems pretty plush. I fly home on Thursday nights and the trip into LGA is always delayed and fills me with rage, but that's part of the deal, I guess.

Nationals at the end of October was great. Ambush lost most of our games but we still had a great time. There's no scrubs at nationals so any win is respectable. We came in the 16th seed and left in 14th place so, we did better than expected. We're fired up about next season. We were there over Halloween and I spent a fair amount of time in my costume, but so far no photos of that have surfaced. (If someone sends me one I'll post it here.)

I'm at my parents house in rural Maryland for the Thanksgiving Holiday. (I only narrowly escaped being at the Magic Kingdom with my sister and nieces.) We had a huge Thanksgiving feast (turkey, stuffing, asparagus, oyster casserole, mashed potatoes, grapefruit salad, and cranberry sauce) for just the three of us.

My parents have added to their domestic 'ark' which previously had 2 female golden retrievers, 2 female house cats and 2 male horses. We now also have 2 female mini-horses. Mini-horses are like big dogs that live in a barn and don't fetch.

Some great things of late:

• I've been playing some Little Big Planet. I think it is pretty rad.



• I watch this puppy cam about 6 hours a day. It is the best thing ever.



• My friend Gideon is a talented artist and his blog has some very interesting sketches

I guess it's time to give up on the Eagles. Not sure yet who my playoffs team will be. Maybe the Jets?

In other sports news, I'm excited about the Iverson/Pistons trade, but not that he's wearing #1 now so that Rodney Stuckey can keep the 3. This makes no sense to me. The Hoyas look pretty good so far this season as well, so we'll see how that goes.

Finally, congrats to Tim and Alex who've welcomed newest Rogers baby Rafa to the family. In a surprising turn of events, he's a real cutie.