Hello again, from sunny Bamako, where the temperature is going up just as mangos are tumbling from the trees. It’s getting hot here and the temperature is going to keep climbing, till it busts 50 degrees Celsius: that, ladies and gentlemen who are not from the US, is 120 degrees fahrenheit. Hot enough to fry […]
Why Leonard is illuminating the darkness and how to face down facebook with metta
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve survived Christmas and are cruising towards New Year, happy or sad, reinvigorated or bruised by life. This year hasn’t been easy for most of the world – I’m listening to Mr Leonard Cohen wanting it darker right now which has, of course, has set me off on a twilit path of […]
Why Bamako is the new Bangui
Hello again, with greetings from Bamako! I’m now living here, in this busy city filled with life and traffic fumes and poverty and occasional joy and music and peanut sauce and above all, banter. Malians like to joke. So do I, which is why I think we are getting along. Despite the traffic. I moved […]
Paradise….. if you can stand it
Do you ever wonder what actually happens to clothes you donate? Where they end up – and who wears them? Well, I’m in Greece, on the island of Samos working with Samos Volunteers for a month, and can testify about what happens to the donated items we receive here, and who receives them. We are working […]