One of the potholes of unknown size on the runway at Kumasi which lead to the closure of the airport. An obruni turns to an obibini in the men’s room and says, “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice…” No, wait! Wrong joke. Okay. So the Kumasi airport was shut down with no warning [...] Laurens van der Post with Praying Mantis Last night I finished re-reading “A Far-Off Place” Laurens van der Posts’ 1974 sequel to “A Story Like the Wind.” I felt it appropriate to read both novels in preparation for our own journey to Africa, given our recent move to Africa. Set in Africa, both stories [...] I’m watching from our ringside seats on the sixth floor of the Aloft Hotel as the human parade fades from the sidewalks outside the AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9. The New York skyline is rendered in peach and baby blue. A siren screams. A woman in bright fabric catches my eye. She is surrounded by [...] Christmas, 1975 – Bob tries on a new hat at the Accra market Well, here’s the big news: Bob and I are moving to Ghana, Africa for one year and will be leaving the United States in June! Columbia University is handling a grant-funded pilot program aimed at figuring out a process for turning [...] Bob and I have just returned from a wonderful trip north to see family and friends in Virginia, Washington DC, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Here are some statistics from our trip: 1640 miles driven 42 gallons of fuel burned (approximately one barrel of crude oil) 36 relatives and 6 friends visited 24 bars of lavender [...] Anytown, USA I don’t mind admitting that our recent move to Anytown, USA has me spooked. I woke to solid proof the other morning when I realized I had just dreamed about corpses two nights in a row. In both dreams, I was circumstantially forced to look at the unburied dead. Although I did [...] On the surface, it appears that Bob and I are low impact guests on planet Earth. For years we have lived in 500 square feet or less, meticulously processing our garbage, baking our own bread, transporting ourselves without using fossil fuel, avoiding animal products and wearing the same clothes. We have even gone so far [...] How many times did you hear your grandparents say, “The world is going to hell in a handbasket?” If you are a baby boomer like me, you probably heard this phrase at least once. At the time I heard these words, I attributed it to the cynical world view of the elderly. As far as [...] On a recent trip through the Managua and Miami Airports we were confounded by a strange sight. Shrink-wrapped luggage? What will they think of next? Our first reaction to the latest phenomenon in airport security was disbelief. It seemed like a mistake at first. Standing in the check in line at the Managua Airport we [...] We’ve been wondering about this for years: “Where does all the hotel art come from?” It must come from wholesale art clearinghouses, which specialize in non-specific, un-obtrusive and inexpensive art. And what about the artists? When an artist creates something worthy of reproduction in the hundreds, it must be like a recording artist getting an [...] |
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