Earthquake All Earthquakes and disasters are warnings; there’s too much corruption in the world – Aristotle As travellers, we seem to have spent quite a bit of time in earthquake zones. My first earthquake was in New Zealand. I was working in Wellington and sharing a house… Read More »Travel
Born Free ‘Keep wildlife in the wild’ Like so many, as a child I loved animals. After watching International Velvet I skipped around, pretending that, just like Tatum O Neil, I was riding a champion horse. My beautiful, patient German Shepherd dog, Heidi, indulged my fantasy and… Read More »Travel
Disrupted lives, disrupted spaces We live to travel. And we have enjoyed our many international moves to different countries. But what if moving to another country was not a choice. What if you had to go? It’s not something that most of us can really imagine. Refugees… Read More »Travel
I dreamed of Africa too Many years ago, a colleague left me a farewell letter and a book in my mail box at our NGO’s head office. I started reading I dreamed of Africa that night in Lusaka. I continued reading it in the Copperbelt, where… Read More »Travel
Loadshedding It’s better to light a candle, than curse the darkness – African proverb We learned to deal with power cuts living in Zambia. They were frequent. We had a constant supply of candles and a charcoal brazier that we could cook on. Do you get… Read More »SLOW
What do you cook, when a chief comes to dinner? A man of power may be right or wrong, but he is always right – Bambara of Mali We had been living in Zambia for about a year. We were working as lecturers at a… Read More »Food
Beer If you do not have patience, you cannot make beer – African proverb Beer has a lot of nicknames; a cold one, brewskie, cerveza, Homer Juice, rocket-sauce, silly seltzer, brew dog, giggle water and liquid courage to name a few. What’s it called where you… Read More »DRINK
Going nowhere slowly One does not cross a river without getting wet ~ Zululand We don’t make New Years resolutions. But last year we did pledge to start travelling differently. After years of living in different countries and travelling extensively, long haul travel has largely… Read More »Travel
Zanzibar The spice island A few years ago, we travelled to Zanzibar for my birthday celebration. The island might just be my favourite East African coastal destination. What’s yours? We flew from Nairobi and arrived in this small, Indian Ocean paradise. Our first few days were at… Read More »Travel
Dolce far niente On this New Year’s Day, we have a pigeon nesting in our roof. She has two small eggs. I’ve been talking to her every day, gently reassuring her that she has a safe place for now. We moved our braai which was beneath her,… Read More »SLOW