Africa
(All Africa Entries)
The Maasai of Kenya
June 24, 2009 ·
I was setting up my tent behind the park office in Amboseli NP and didn’t notice a local teenager approaching. His earlobes hung down to his shoulders weighed down by special little copper-colored weights, the rest of the earlobe wrapped in beaded tubes. On his right hip was a sheathed knife, and on his left was a cellphone. “Do you maybe want to visit a Maasai village?” he asked.
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Finding the Mandrills in Gabon, Africa
June 23, 2009 ·
I ground my teeth but kept on going. Gently securing the camera on my back, and making sure more dirt doesn’t get in, I plowed through the swamp and cursed under my breath when sharp serrated grass blades cut me deep enough to draw blood. By now, I looked like I’ve been whipped. “Think about it as of an exfoliating treatment,” said my husband walking behind me. I could hear him smile. I turned around, a cynical grimace on my face, and he was quick to sweep me off my feet and steal a kiss.
People Watching in Axum, Ethiopia
June 22, 2009 ·
Ethiopia’s people walk the dusty streets of Axum like characters from sun-bleached pages of a biblical picture book. I catch them in mid-stride, fetching water, going to church and carrying wood. The town is big, but almost everybody is traditionally dressed. Dignified elders sit on street benches and swat flies with horse-hair brushes, their respectable heads wrapped in white turbans. Most women have exactly the same hairstyle, regardless of age, and that is what mostly makes them look like old illustrations.