These kinds of posts used to be popular back in the youth of my blog so I will give it a go and see if that is still the case. They are also easier to write because they can be completely incoherent. I'm supposed to now say something like number 8 really surprised me...
Mali on the verge of liberating Africa?
Do I want to wade into these waters? Not really. I have relatively flimsy toubab-in-Mali credentials to be talking about pan-Africanist critiques of the neocolonial order. But maybe someone can help me see something that I'm missing. By now you may have heard the...
Do you believe?
I don't know how to articulate this thing that happened. My original email to the person in question may be enough. Hopefully it's comprehensible: It's pretty insane and probably not believable, but I will tell you what happened. The other day I was thinking about...
Adventure as an art form
"TIA" - this is Africa. Seasoned travelers, country counters and a certain class of expats adore this phrase. I regret to say that I may have used it at one point in my life. Thankfully I have suppressed those memories long enough to not know when that was. You are...
Senegal on shaky ground?
It's not lost on me that we left Mali because of all the question marks around the political and security situation and we are now getting phone calls from friends in Mali asking if we are OK over here in Senegal. We are indeed ok. In the village of Somone, you...
Dakar to Cape Town on two not-so-fast wheels
We have long advertised an ambitious 10-week - now 3-month - trip from Dakar to Cape Town on our website. Matt did the trip himself in 2018 and we were all set to have our first clients in 2020. You know the rest of that story. Since then, we didn't do much to promote...
I found a Malian, ceebu jën, and a cowboy hat in Mbour
What kind of insightful political commentary can a newly arrived toubab offer up on the situation in Senegal? Yes, that is rhetorical question. I barely have the confidence to write anything about Mali these days. I will be listening and observing and keeping my mouth...
Manifesting Monday
It's not Monday and I'm not sure I believe in the law of attraction, but I do believe it would be bad juju to house this short-form content, otherwise well suited for social media, chez Zuckerberg and Elon. So I am putting it on my blog. I am going to Mbour to find...
A typical day for me in Senegal
There is no typical day. We are still trying to figure our lives out over here. But that's not what you came for. We enjoy hearing about other people's routines and "typical days." We can read these with envy but they can also be validating if the person is following...
My favorite father-son activity – widely frowned upon and illegal in some parts
Who knows what you are thinking right now, but hopefully that potentially incriminating clickbaity headline at least got your attention. I am not going to convince you that this is remotely safe. It's not. But it is a reliably joyful activity that has become a...
Scoot West Africa
Want to travel with me in West Africa? A friend and I run scooter trips in the region. scootwestafrica.com.
Things I write about
The Great Jakarta Tour of Far West Africa Part 1: Bamako to Dakar
That time I got married in Mali
Bamako to Abidjan by bus: a chance to get intimate with the hot season
You Bring the Yam, I’ll Bring the Fire
Drawing Camels with 100 Different People in Bamako in 24 Hours
A photo essay: Bamako taxi interiors
A Cocktail Shaker and 10 meters of Fabric in Adjame Market
My sheep, sail boats on the Niger, dance contests and other photos from Mali