“Are you going to Africa?” the driver asked as I sat down in my taxi to the Seattle airport. Were my REI conversion pants were a giveaway? “Yes,” I told him, “I’m headed to Tanzania.” “I knew it! When you got in the cab I was immediately happy,” he shouted. As a college student in …
This is how you know you are in Africa—when the houses, roads, the tires on your car, and even the soles of your feet become stained red-orange from the iron-rich soil that covers so much of this great continent. Wearing sunglasses heightens the red color so that the land just seems to glow like a …
I don’t post link roundups anymore, I use Facebook for sharing and I rarely hand over what is, to me, prime real estate, for other people’s stories. I am, as you know, a terrible snob about what people call “content.” I actually hate the word “content” because in my mind it equates with “filler” and …
Eli has a smile that would shame the noon day sun. It breaks through the morning darkness, I recognize him before I recognize anyone else at the early camp fire. “Good morning, Eli,” I say, and he says the same thing, always, “Are you ready? Good to go?” sweetly, in his Tanzanian accented English. We …
Can’t see the pictures? Try this link. My travels to East Africa were sponsored by Intrepid Travel as part of their “classic journeys” campaign.” Most – but not all – of my expenses were paid for by Intrepid Travel.