June 2011

The One Year Anniversary of this Blog and my Flip Flops

by phil June 29, 2011 Travel Stories
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June 29th 2010: I left Washington, DC with a one way ticket to Ghana. I arrived in Accra with one foot in a flip flop and the other in a smelly, disintegrating protective “boot,” which was strapped to my foot after I inadvertently kicked a tree stump some three weeks prior. I say inadvertently because [...]

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The Live Music Capital of West Africa

by phil June 20, 2011 Mali

Where I’m from, tomorrow is the longest day of the year. The sun will crawl to the horizon and some people will enjoy a light-filled evening of pleasant temperatures, cocktails, crickets, frogs. Others will hide from tornadoes and many may actually try to put their heads inside of an air conditioner. Here, the sun falls [...]

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Teaching a Malian Village of 25,000 People how to Draw Camels

by phil June 9, 2011 Camel Drawing
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I introduced the village of Fana in my previous post. This is part II. Sitting under a tree. A breeze laced with mid-day Sahelian heat. Drinking a sachet of bissap juice, partially frozen, with bite sized sugary ice floes. From a cell phone speaker, Oumou Sangare, singing about her beloved. Sitting, talking, laughing. Laughing because [...]

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If you Need Nobody, Nobody Needs you

by phil June 6, 2011 Mali
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This post involves the village of Fana, camel drawing, the German board game Settlers of Catan and many beautiful aspects of Malian culture. It could also be considered a de facto part II of my favorite photos from West Africa. Fana is 120 km east of Bamako, on the major east/west road to Segou and [...]

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