Saving My Neck

Another long absence and I can't use poor connectivity as an excuse this time. I think I had gotten acclimated to such a slow internet connection because even the 36 MBS at my parents' house seems like lightning.

Have basically been catching up on what I use to call life. Being away from bills and paperwork and the general speed of things in the US only makes it that much harder to be a part of it all again. Not really much in the way of culture shock though, except Glenn Beck on CNN - are the serious with that shit?

Wanted to take this opportunity to thank a lot of people who helped me on my trip though. Without many of them and the nights in their homes they provided me, I would probably have been broke before I reached Ethiopia. More importantly, without all of their advice and assistance and friendship I would be a worse human being and probably a lot less content with the trip:

Charlie in Johannesburg
Jeannie in Johannesburg
Sagie and his family in Johannesburg
Franzi in Port Elizabeth
Pat and her entire family in Siteki
Kele and Asante in Gaborone
Luke in Gaborone
Simon, Seretse, Isang, and Gabriel in Gaborone
Douglas in Gaborone
Sumitro in Gaborone
Kaya in Francistown
Mr. Dube and his daughter Lindwe in Bulawayo
Terri (and Pat by proxy) in Gweru and Harare
The Kabade's in Harare
Justine in Daresalam
Derek in Daresalam
Ganga, Steve, Jess, and Anna in Arusha
Vincent in Kampala
Jonathan and Michael in Kampala
Johnathan in Kabale
Tom and Maria in Mbarrara
Pete, Nelly, and Shubha in Eldoret
Rick and his family in Addis
Wubet in Addis
Dani and Marion in Addis


All of these people went out of their way to help me in one way or another and I am eternally grateful. And if you happen to be a traveler, or are in a jam, or just happen to be homeless, now's probably a good time to hit-me-up becuase I'm anxious to repay the above samaritans.

When I was completely exhausted from having to be on-guard against thieves; every time I was frustrated by a bureaucratic, technological, or transport-related mishap; and once the constant feeling of being an outsider was about to conquer my own good will, I thought of everything these and other amazing people did for me and it more than got me through those times.

Ok, there will be more reflection to come on this blog, but nothing as sappy as those two paragraphs. Seriously, I love you all. I plan to write a little more about the trip and some of my overall impressions and I want to continue to analyze more State-side media outlets and how they're interpreting events in Africa and how this may or may not jive with what I was seeing on the ground. I'm especially interested in a certain violent border conflict for which the international community seems to have zero desire to forge a cease-fire. No, not Lebanon, that's getting plenty of attention: if you hadn't heard, Ethiopia is about to invade Somalia. However, the parallels with the conflicts surrounding Israel are quite astonishing - as is the lack of media attention.

So, I guess this blog will continue to look at crookedneck phenomena related to Africa, despite the fact that I'm now residing on what sometimes seems to be a much darker continent. But maybe that's just culture-shock.