Archive for the ‘Vignettes’ Category
The cultural aestethics of being half-naked
Last night, a friend was telling me how foreign the concept of “roommates” is to Rwandans. “No one really believes that men and women can share a house without…” He just smiled. So I think this must mean that anyone who knows my living situation assumes that we are just one big crazy expat orgy. [...]
Murphy’s law meets Occum’s razor
For whatever reason, the cultural differences in dating practices have been coming up in many of my conversations recently. Today, it was Kenya. “So what’s dating like in Kenya?” I asked a new friend. “What’s it like?” she said, taking an incredulous puff of her cigarette. “The men cheat. The women cry.”
Why I love mangoes too much
I do. I love them too much, which is also a favorite English locution, both here and in Sierra Leone, for saying “a lot” or “so much.” They are all soft and sweet and melty on your lips. A perfect fruit. Well, except for one small flaw… “Eating a mango is like going in for [...]
Wildway
19 March 2008, Freetown He is my taxi driver. A friend of a friend gave me two driver’s numbers, and I called this one first, just because of the name. He wears a t-shirt, dark blue jeans with a trendy weave, a red foam visor that’s the cleanest thing I see all day. He says [...]
How to tell an American
It’s a 15-minute walk to my house from the nearest bus stop — or taxi stand, in local parlance — up a cobblestone street, and then down a dirt road. It’s clear I stand out, even though I walk this road most days and I like to think I am becoming a part of the [...]
Do YOU know Doug?
First, you have to imagine the bus. It’s not anything like ours. It’s a small van, like a VW line cast off, with four carpeted seats inside. It’s rickety and dirty and sometimes you wonder if it will hold together all the way to your stop. People are packed in so tightly, though, that I [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [