I arrived in Nairobi dressed for Moscow. Literally. When I left the States the second time at 21 I had in my pocket an Around-the-World ticket which put me in Russia visiting the family of Eugene Ostashevsky, one of my closest friends, after a brief visit back to Europe. Kenya was the last stop of […]
Some background on Lamu.Lamu is an island located off the coast of Kenya. It is a one of the first Swahili towns in Kenya- dating back to the 1500s, and, because of its placement on Arabian trade routes, it is primarily Muslim. The population when I was there was around 12,000. Lamu Town is a […]
Living in Lamu. I’ll never forget the first words I learned to say in Swahili mostly because I thought them to be the funniest: Saa ngapi? What time is it? All the boys walked around the island wearing oversized American-style watches asking each other “saa ngapi?” “what time is it?” when they met. As if […]
The gendarmerie arrived! In this case, three very large African men dressed in khaki military uniforms- head to toe, boots to hats. They knocked loudly on my door. I crossed the courtyard to open it. “You have been served,” I was told and one thrust a paper into my hand. It seemed my former houseboy, […]