Silently we waited for night to fall.   Nestled in dunes of chocolate-brown volcanic sand, the I could hear the waves rushing and spilling along the shoreline.  I imagined that they too were waiting, invisible, just beyond the water’s edge, paddling through the waves in anticipation of the rising the tide that would bring them into…Read more »

As I look out my window at the red brick walls that separate me from the world, the first being the wall between my house and the one behind it, the next being the wall surrounding the main house, behind which my and my neighbor’s houses are located, the last being the wall surrounding the…Read more »

“I think the invitation can go out as it is, you will simply have to replace ‘..a unique opportunity’ by ‘….another opportunity’ because the faculty had other opportunities previously and they will even get others to advance in their profession”. I looked at the sentence in question in the invitation.  It was harmless enough, and…Read more »

“I agree with Mr. Njabo.  I don’t think we should be treating Africa as a continent in perpetual need of handouts.  I think we should do as he says and find our own solutions.” “Yes, I agree, in the long run, but other countries outside of Africa have skills that we do not yet have,…Read more »

“Do you have large ones like these?”  I say, pointing to a small paper clip.  I had already forgotten the rather long and complicated word for paper clip in Kinyarwanda.    “Do you know Lingala?   You should know Lingala.  It’s the language spoken in the Congo, where I am from?   Do you have a husband?  You…Read more »

My final 2500 character entry for the World Nomads travel-writing competition…. I gaze at the massive spire of Christ Church Cathedral on Unguja Island, Zanzibar, as it reaches apologetically towards cotton candy-like clouds that climb hopefully into the brilliant azure sky. “Is it trying to escape the traumatic history from which it rises in elegant…Read more »

So, some of you may wonder why I have been so silent lately.  Well, actually I have been quite chatty, I just haven’t been talking to you.   That is because I have been busying myself  with other audiences:   planning a workshop for my new job at the University of Rwanda, writing about my profession…Read more »

Forty-two years ago in Tanzania, I experienced my one and only ever in my life meltdown in public.  It was in a bank in Dar-Es-Salaam.  I don’t remember what the transaction was, probably the cashing of a traveler’s check.  I know it was not a complicated transaction, like a wire transfer, heaven forbid.  No, it…Read more »

As it turns out, there are species other than watalii  (tourists) and waswahili (Swahili people) to observe on the island of Zanzibar.   A 30″ boat ride took me to the island of Changuu, home to over 100 endangered Aldabra giant tortoises, so named for their original habitat on Aldabra island.   Aldabra is the largest…Read more »

I set out on my first morning from my hotel in the middle of “Stone Town”, so named because most of the buildings in the town are made from coral stone, determined to remember my route of departure.   This was not as simple to achieve as one might think at first blush. Geographically, Stone Town…Read more »