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The Blog
Soweto is overcrowded, dirty and noisy. It's also one of the most fascinating, joyful, high-spirited places I've ever visited.
The sophistication of these suites and the standard of the cuisine are as crucial to the experience as the quality of the wildlife-viewing.
Even if you're not a big drinker, sampling a unique local beverage can be a fun way to spice up your travels and learn something about the culture at the same time.
Slowly, the other elephants moved away with the baby. Off to the right, up on a hill, a magnificent male lion, his mane golden in the morning sun, sat watching the entire spectacle, having eaten his fill already.
I was convinced Kenya couldn't offer a genuine wilderness experience. I was so wrong!
Wazungu, white people, are not commonly seen here. Even though I've explained to everyone that we're looking for t-shirts, I keep hearing the same question: "What about jeans?"
The location is stunning, white-sand beaches on the banks of the world's most powerful river where elephants, hippos and crocs bask in their natural habitat.
It's never nice to lose an elephant, but it was ironically comforting to finally see one passing away from something other than a poacher's bullet.
In West Africa, I confronted the "toubab" version of myself, a self previously foreign to me that was lethargic, cynical and at home with failure.
So many of the once secret paradises of the world are overrun with resorts and tourist dollars that it is easy to appreciate this uninterrupted view of the wild.
I had been describing to the shopkeepers I saw that I really wanted a Moroccan rug in shades not of orange, yellow, cream and red, but of purple, green, black and pink.
It was an epic battle that pitted the power house of an ancient dynasty against a smaller, more agile opponent.
Egypt's landscape varies widely. Cairo is as densely populated and as modern as any city most in the US whereas villages in the lush Nile Valley have changed little in thousands of years.
"In Tanzania, I felt connected in a way that I have never felt anywhere else. It was like coming home."
Would the community we built endure the ravaging thunderstorms and the rains that would likely beat down for 90 days straight? Would the local team look after our newly built community? Would the earth-domes be flooded?
I recently tried to explain to a friend why Africa had so much war from a combination of domestic and international pressures. The domestic African causes of war are obvious; however, it was difficult to explain the international roots.
