Archive for Category: "africa"
The Golden Hour…and the Gilded Age in Morocco
Walking home from the bus stop was my favorite part of my day. It was Ramadan, and I usually arrived home with less than an hour left before iftar, the breaking of the fast. The sun was setting over the Atlantic, and from my neighborhood in the hills on the northeastern boundary of Rabat, the whole city was enveloped in a golden haze
The Tanzanian Help
The first time I stumbled into my homestay in the northern city of Arusha, Tanzania I felt like I’d stepped into a 1970s American living room – and I heaved a (guilty) sigh of relief. No mud hut in sight here
Moroccan (Un)standard Time
I should have known at customs. There was no shortage of officials and no unusually large crowd of travelers, but still it took me nearly three hours to get to the other side. The baggage carousel was dark and quiet. My train had long since left without me.
Reflections from My Namibian Homestay Mother
A rural homestay in the middle of nowhere Namibia? Now that was an experience just too rare to pass up. Riding in the kombi on the bumpy “roads” from Windhoek to Khorixas made my nerves more and more apparent.
Marrakech: The Most Honest City in the World
“Comme ca, like this.” The old Moroccan rug salesman placed his thumb on the rim of the small painted tea glass, and his pointer finger on the bottom – the proper form for sipping mint tea. A friend and I sat in the upstairs loft of the family store in Marrakech, enjoying the tea and hospitality of the store’s owner
