CHEPTULU,KENYA — Cosmos Alusiola needs the right kind of clay for this traditional Tiriki pottery and the earth near Cheptulu town isn’t. When he needs it, someone packs sacks of the special clay and soil from his hometown of Masingo and he pays f…
At 77, Brian Champion has lived in two worlds. Until he was 7 or 8, he lived with his parents — Kaprun people on Kaprun land. Their ancestors lived in their country (land) for ages. Not too long ago, DNA from a single lock of hair confirmed that…
Saeed has been in Kalgoorlie seeking a professional mining job for a week. He's got two cooking jobs in the meantime, after looking for work in 50 shops. I showed him his profile on this blog. "I was not aware of my effort until I read ab…
Like every one of the hundreds of hostels I've been to in my life, there's a mish mash of people in them, from all walks of life, doing all sorts of things. That's what I love about hostels. It's like a huge centrifuge: You don'…
Hardley Songole Sinjaa met Busu only a year ago. He was doing some plumbing work and needed extra help with the digging. Hardley’s right-hand man brought young Busu around. He was young but knew how to work and was not expensive. “I wondered how s…
Portrait of Vincent, a worker in a backyard gold mine in Makuche, Kenya, in the western rural area. The colonial British gold mined here and the tunnels and pits are still there. The new miners are individuals and they dig holes in their yards and…
Sunde is a Masai warrior. He was also a lion hunter for his tribe before he became a Lion Guardian, tracking lions and helping to prevent loss of livestock from kills in the community. This guy, at 23, clearly has some guts. Hunters go to kill lio…
It is a tough life, to learn about Masai traditional culture and life, in the village of one of your guides. Very tough. — in Selenkay Conservancy of the Masai Mara, near Amboseli National Park, Kenya [https://www.google.co.ke/maps/place/Amboseli+N…
Hardley Singola Sinjaa bought his truck back in 2003 to carry his wife and kids and goods for their home in the village of Mahanga, Kenya. It’s very rural and few people then, and now, have vehicles. Fewer have trucks. In desperate situations, peo…
