Language Lessons I
I have been taking Kinyarwanda lessons for almost three weeks now. Thank God I studied Swahili for a year; I can remember almost none…
Read MoreAid-ing the poor
It doesn’t take all that much time in a place like Rwanda to start wondering if aid works, or how it might work better….
Read MoreGreetings, or “What am I supposed to do with your hand?”
Anyone who’s ever left the States–hell, anyone who’s left a small hometown for a big city, or vice versa–knows that awkward squishy feeling of…
Read MoreTo learn how to party, come to Kigali
3 kegs of Mutzig, a DJ with speakers that throbbed like a dance club, and a goat on a spit. That’s right. A goat…
Read MoreMore pressure than dating
Last week I was at a party–or, rather, a graduation celebration for a typing course. That’s right. Huge stereo speakers, a DJ, brouchettes everywhere,…
Read MoreThe camera pans east… A story from India
My friend Anna Ruddock of Britain is traveling India (alone!) for three months, and she’s got a story that I just love so much,…
Read MoreHow to stand out in Rwanda even more than you already do when you’re white
There are lots of great images and interesting language in Chimanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, so I don’t know what it…
Read MoreDecoding the news
Here’s an article from Agence France Press, which is like the A.P. or Reuters–those big news organizations that cover the world in “traditional journalism…
Read MoreFashion in Africa, where the Indians won the Series
Here’s an interesting piece by Canadian journalist Sarah Petrescu, whom I bumped into in Kigali while she was here. It was the strangest of…
Read MoreCitizen diplomacy
This isn’t a Rwanda post, but I can’t help myself. Two guys, one from Israel, the other from Gaza, met at a youth dialogue…
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