About the radio silence … We reached Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania a few days ago and lost all ability to write to you. Mostly because our Mac charger was left at the Ngorongoro Crater about 700 miles away in the middle of Tanzania. Ah well. In the intervening time, God Girl and Crime Boy celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on a teeny, tiny island called Chapwani (off the coast of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, etc.) that... Read more
CHISOMO Blantyre, MALAWI — Chisomo is the reason we came to Africa. We first considered making the journey more than two years ago after a friend in London told us about this extraordinary group in tiny Malawi. And after spending three days with the boys of Chisomo, an organization that works with street children in Blantyre, the second largest city in Malawi, I’m utterly shattered. The boys were powerfully moving. They made me laugh and, although I know tears don’t... Read more
Blantyre, MALAWI — Unbelievably moving few days here in Malawi with the kids at Chisomo Children’s Trust. We’re about to watch England battle Australia in the rugby finals from Paris while dinner’s being prepared. The service at Living Waters (the pentecostal church affiliated with Chisomo) starts at 7 a.m. tomorrow. SEVEN. A.M.! Holy Moses. So we’re off to bed early … But seeing as how we can’t seem to get photos loaded from here, we thought we’d give you something... Read more
ASEMBO BAY, Kenya — “You can still smell it,” Millicent said in Swahili. The only odor I could detect was the earthy combination of eucalyptus trees and freshly turned African soil. “What can you smell?” I asked. “The hippo,” Millicent answered, pointing to a swath of crushed vegetation a few feet in front of us. “It ate all of my sweet potatoes.” Ah, yes. I hate when that happens. The hippopotamus had made its way to a tract of land... Read more
OK, God, now you’re just showing off Look at the intricately painted zebra. Or the ridiculously ugly (and yet somehow endearing) water buffalo, or the simply silly warthog. And then there’s simba, kings of the jungle. Here are a few more of the beautiful creatures we encountered at Lake Nakuru in Kenya last week. Read more
SOUL MATES Before we left for East Africa, both God Girl and Crime Boy agreed that beyond anything else — the scenery, the wildlife, the music, the food, the culture shock, etc. — we were looking forward to the friends we knew we would make with then-strangers waiting for us 10,000 miles away. We’re so happy to report that we have made many new friends. The two dearest to us ßare two men with whom we’d trust our lives. (In... Read more
Baboonapalooza OK, so these are a few days old, but we think they’re too fabulous not to share. They’re from our two-day game drive at Lake Nakuru, Kenya. We’ve got a zillion photos of zebras (they’re so common they’re almost like squirrels), lions, warthogs,, water buffalo, giraffes, baby giraffes, hundreds of impala, enormous rhinos, millions (literally) of flamingos, and at least a dozen other animals so totally not native to Chicago. Our eyes were HUGE. All the beautiful creatures! Reminds... Read more
Jambo from Tanzania We’re in Arusha after a 5+ hour jangly, jmpy ride on the not-so-aptly named Impala Shuttle. (Impalas are far more graceful.)Watching the topography change from green lush Kenya outside Nairobi to the arid almost-moonscapes of southern Kenya and the Masai land north of Arusha was so fascinating. And the Masai people, tall and regal with ebony skin, swathed in their traditional reds and purple wraps (lesos?), were perhaps the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever laid eyes... Read more
Warning: Mzungus “Dancing” After lunch the other day with the Mamas of Asembo Bay, they danced for us. Which was lovely. And then the asked – nay, insisted – that we dance with them. The results were both artistically tragic and terribly funny. Enjoy. Karibu,God Girl & Crime Boy Read more
The Mamas of Asembo Bay Asembo Bay, KENYA — Here in a small village on th shores of Lake Victoria, about an hour’s drive from Kisumu (not far from where Barack Obama’s Luo grandmother lives) is a most remarkable group of women: The Asembo Bay Women’s Cooperative. They are 26 in number, nearly all of them widows, and they care for about 70 children (more than a few of whom are orphans). In this part of the world, when a... Read more
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