by phil | Jul 5, 2012 | Mali
Mariam is the oldest sister in a Tamashek family from Timbuktu. I have written about Mariam’s family before. I stayed with them in early January, when Timbuktu was a different place. We slept at the base of a dune, a 5 minute walk from a round the clock...
by phil | Jun 28, 2012 | thoughts
Helping to prepare Christmas dinner in Abidjan with a camel shaved into my head God willing, this blog will turn two years old tomorrow, June 29th. It started as many travel blogs do — as a public journal for a trip of definite length. After two years, the trip...
by phil | Jun 19, 2012 | Biz, Cote D'Ivoire
Restaurant and catering biz? If you want to get caught up, see these posts: 1. What it’s like to Start a Restaurant and Catering Business in Abidjan 2. Early Successes and Failures of Running a Business in Abidjan 3. Our Fight for Power and a Look at the Informal...
by phil | Jun 14, 2012 | Europe
It’s been a long time since I’ve been bewildered and alone in an unfamiliar place. I was able to find this exhilarating brand of confusion in Lisbon. I’m really good at walking around like an idiot, and being clueless is more fun than you think. When...
by phil | Jun 7, 2012 | Stories
In Timbuktu with a piece of camel cheese in my mouth “Home” is difficult for me to define. For the moment, I consider “home” to be places where people know my name. Thinking about that today, I realized that not only do I have more than one...
