by phil | Jul 11, 2011 | thoughts
NY Times writer Nick Kristof recently returned from a jaunt through North and West Africa. He had a teacher and a medical student in tow, winners of his yearly trip-to-Africa contest. He took some flack for his chosen itinerary, which disproportionately featured the...
by phil | Jul 6, 2011 | Stories
A certain Pigeon Eater nominated me to reflect on my writings as part of the 7 Links Project. The idea: dig around in the attic of your blog and dust off a few posts that deserve a second look. Or a first look, as the case may be for many of my earlier posts, written...
by phil | Jun 29, 2011 | Stories
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...
by phil | Jun 20, 2011 | Mali, Music
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...
by phil | Jun 9, 2011 | Camels, Mali
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,...
