I like photos that tell a story. Taking some friends from MSF out to Lake Tengrela yesterday I had the chance to really play with the overcast diffuse morning light on my Canon EOS 1000D. I learned photography on an old Fujifilm SLR and I can remember spending whole days — and I mean 12 solid [...]

Warren Buffet was quoted on BBC yesterday as saying to CNBC that “[the US economy] has just fallen off a cliff.” There is plenty of pessimism about the state of global affairs, economic, environmental, and political. But I’ve been increasingly inclined to listen to more voices that speak about the opportunities right now. While trying [...]

Our school librarian has lent me a copy of Balzac’s Le Père Goriot. On Thursday I was sitting across the football pitch under a tree near the railroad track in the heat of the day when I began to read. It occurred to me how off or uncertain my French pronunciation sounds to me. I [...]

Finally a chance to sit down and write. After returning from holiday in Dakar and Bamako, I spent the week in Ouaga with the other volunteers from my training group. On December 19th, Vincent, Robert and I met in Bobo Dioulasso to make the voyage to Dakar for Christmas and New Years. The plan was to [...]

Okay, it took all night but it’s finally uploaded. Here’s the stillframe Vincent and I pulled from the video in Koudougou. It’s the last sixtieth of a second of Brian’s 12-meter “rapid descent” down a rock outside Sindou. From my original Thanksgiving post below you  can see Brian and Paul gazing up at the two routes that were  [...]

My feet dangle from the train as we roar through central Burkina Faso. The air that rushes over them is hot but feels cooling. In the distance grass burns. The fires are set by farmers to clear the fields for planting I am told. By day they’ll catch your glance; passed at night they inspire [...]

So this weekend a group of us decided to spend turkey day at the foot of some of the only “big rocks” in the country. In the extreme southwest (even more west than me) lies the Peaks of Sindou (Nick, if you’re reading this you must appreciate the lord-of-the-ringsesque names down here. I live in [...]

…Even to Banfora it seems!! Shipping was $18 for two books on the Congo! Only took 6 weeks — practically Warp 9 by Burkinabe standards.       

The International Space Station turned ten today. This really makes me pause and reflect. I can remember watching the launch of the first module, Zarya, on old slow web video in the 8th grade with a dialup connection. The schools were just getting Internet connectivity in the labs. I had designed and put up my [...]

As the schedule has fallen, I have a packed day on friday with seven classes. I feel good, but it was draining. Seven hours teaching is probably too long to be 100% effective at the end of the day but it’s that or drop some of the classes I’ve already started teaching. It is incredibly [...]

Scheduling conflicts have meant that my classes have either showed up late or not at all today. I spoke with the Censeur this afternoon and he was able to make some changes that will ensure that my students do not have other classes scheduled at the same time. He wanted to have my quatriemmes swapped [...]

I’ve been up all night. Seems like an appropriate time to start a blog. Barack Obama was elected to the Presidency a few hours ago. I felt so incredibly proud to be an American this morning. The sun has risen now over Africa. Across the Atlantic, as a country prepares to go to bed knowing [...]