Ida
I'm going to do a series someday on "found lighting." and "MacGuyver lighting." I don't carry a tripod and I don't use lights. I love it when Mom Nature or Dad Manmade helps out and I can see something in a new way.…
One question: A near miss.
I had an 8-hour bus ride today from rural western Kenya into Nairobi, and I'm tired. And need to do some uploading and real writing. The door opens to the guest house and the guy who is staying here also, who the keeper said was here, walks in.…
Everyday people: Terror in the Congo
There is a lot of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is a lot of jungle. It’s there where Joseph Kony has been hiding out with his Lord’s Resistance Army [http://www.hrw.org/topic/international-justice/joseph-kony-lra], after getting…
I dub thee, Monkeys World
Lydiah, Wesley and the rest of the Songoli/Jiveti household gave me the honor and responsibility of naming their farm cat — a sort of cranky-faced-looking feline who was super friendly and will eat anything and I mean anything like bread and avocad…
I was well taken care of!
I spent the last 12 days in rural western Kenya with these guys, as I did something I have always dreamed of: I helped to document the changing culture and language of a tribal community. Linguists Michael Marlo and Michael Diercks, both professo…
Sunday afternoon at my house
Playing soccer with a ball made of tightly wound nets, outside Lydiah and Hardley's house. — Cheptulu, Kenya [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cheptulu,+Kenya/@0.1276141,34.8612232,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x178012acc1065825:0x584c7f5135d2…
The freedom fighter
I ended the day interviewing a freedom fighter who was instrumental in the fight for independence in the sixties, and jailed, but was passed over in the new government. He preserves his MARAGOLI history but cannot contain his rejection, or his disa…
Ugali cooking lesson
Unless you’ve eaten ugali, you have not eaten. This, Lydia says, is what most Kenyans feel when it comes to their staple of maize flour cooked with boiling water into a thick cake. Lydia teaching me: Most times, that means a portion sliced into…
Backyard goldmining: A portrait
Two people died from cave-ins at backyard gold mines in Makuche and Mahanga in two months. STill, Cedric is not worried. It is the work. He's 18 and has been mining since he was 12.…