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a headline in today’s online nytimes - “power failures outrage south africa.”
this may make international news for south africa - the “europe of africa” - but it’s commonplace in uganda. load-shedding? we don’t have it for just a few hours in the afternoon, that would be luxury. no, load-shedding in uganda tends […]

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there’s been lots o’ news coverage (local ugandan, and local minnesotan) of what i do in uganda lately. i’ve been remiss in giving a good picture on the ab.com/blog of what it is i do actually do, so sorry ’bout that…but i’m making up for it by pointing you to these links…
“it takes two […]

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today was a first. first time flying a domestic ugandan airline. uganda recently launched its national airline, air uganda. it got cleared just before chogm for flights in/out of nairboi and had its first commercial flight sometime close to that. i considered air uganda for our tickets to zanzibar for christmas […]

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if you’ve been reading the news coming out of east africa these days, you’d think the region was in chaos. since early december: ebola outbreak in uganda (also outbreaks of cholera, plague, and yellow fever), usaid worker killed in sudan, riots in kenya. but, the important thing to remember is that only the […]

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if you know me, you know i’m not much of a cook and i’m super happy i married a guy who is. i made chili for dinner last night, though, and it was good. i was proud.
i searched allrecipes.com for a chili recipe forgetting that there are whole cooking contests dedicated to chili, so i […]

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the uganda telecommunications system is hamstrung, clogged, ineffectual (should i go on?) since the three dominant cellphone companies – mtn, celtel, uganda telecom – started their 50% extra airtime campaigns simultaneously two months ago. the headache has caused enough national fervor that the uganda communications commission is intervening. today’s front-page headlines from the […]

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i spend roughly 75% of my time in uganda in kampala. kampala is the environment and culture i know best in uganda, so tropical fish: tales from entebbe, a novel set mostly in kampala and some in entebbe and los angeles (i still don’t get why the sub-title is : tales from entebbe), gives […]

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labor day weekend, the quintessential end-of-summer last hurrah at the lake…normally fox lake (andersons) or lake superior (bowens), but this year lake victoria (anderson bowens). reeling from a week of nastily coinciding work and personal issues, i desperately needed a getaway just me and phil. with just 2+ days and not much money, […]

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when i travel, i like to read novels set in that country or region, preferably ones written by locals. it’s my way of learning local history, customs, nuances as told by those who live it. i looked all over for thailand reading recommendations, but surprisingly, i found very few. maybe i just […]

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…but malaria didn’t kill me. after a year of living in the world’s malaria epicenter (a.k.a. sub-saharan africa), i finally got malaria. the catch is i had to go to thailand to get it. i went to bed late friday night with a fever and complaining that my whole body hurt. […]

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