My name is Phil Paoletta. This page was updated on May 9th, 2023 and is most likely out of date.
Formerly a middle school teacher in Washington, DC, I am now a semi-nomad based in West Africa.
I originally traveled to Ghana, where I studied abroad as a sophomore in college, because I liked highlife music. Once I got there, I found other things — groundnut stew, Twi, mapouka (both the dance and the alcohol), orange-headed lizards — that I also liked. In 2010, I quit my job to return to Ghana and to visit other countries in the region.
These days, I am one part of The Sleeping Camel hotel and restaurant in Bamako, Mali. You can also find me riding scooters around West Africa and collaborating with former tourist guides in Timbuktu. As of April 2023, my family and I are experimenting with life in Senegal. Here is a post explaining that. And here is a post talking about this blog’s second life.
Other — very dated — things: I make music (rarely anymore), like this, and art (almost never), like this. Not so dated: I have come to enjoy birds. Kapoks are my favorite trees. I enjoy dabbling in West African languages. I am fascinated and often frustrated by West African Post Offices.
In 2015, I got married and in 2016, I became a father. And then again in 2020.
If you enjoy the site, you can join my email list, which I update less frequently then the blog but possibly with more juicy content that I wouldn’t dare share in public.
You can find me on twitter at philinthe_ and on instagram at the same handle.