A Meeting Place
A brief reflection on my years in Laikipia. The laga was boggy and damp but grazed down. Two good signs it was safe. The rain has a...
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- Oct 6, 2021
- 6 min
Words & Land & Maybe Magic
Reflections on learning the language of my home as an adult. June 2021. The many varieties of "expatriate" childhood with all their...
- Nov 18, 2020
- 7 min
Hate Up Close (Photo Essay)
Written in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election of the United States. "All art is propaganda and ever must be, despite wailing...
- Aug 14, 2020
- 21 min
Let's Talk About Christian Values
If you are a Christian in America — look long and hard at this image. Look long and hard at the leader you (82% of Evangelicals, 58% of...
- Jul 28, 2020
- 2 min
Protesting In Trump Country (Photo Essay)
I waited a bit to share these photos for a few reasons: first, they’re a little disturbing, and depending on your background, potentially...
- May 6, 2020
- 4 min
Reaching New Heights (Nomad Magazine)
At Lukenya, a golden-copper vista of jumbled granite cliffs that glitters over Mombasa Highway just north of Machakos, Samson Mwangi...
- Sep 9, 2019
- 3 min
"Be Yourself; Help Other People"
“Nothing matters out here except being yourself and helping other people,” he said, in tears; the late afternoon sun cut a slanted light...
- Feb 22, 2019
- 9 min
My Africa Box
The Africa box is grey, brown streaks of mud encrusting the lower half. Our night-guard Patrick sometimes washes them off before my dad...
- Feb 18, 2019
- 3 min
On Bushwhacking
The things I learned bushwhacking in Patagonia: As is consistently the case in the backcountry, there is rarely a single right way to do...
- Feb 15, 2019
- 5 min
Ol'Doinyo'Orok (The Black Mountain)
For anyone growing up under Kilimanjaro, the inimitable snow-capped peak rising from the Kenyan and Tanzanian plains, there is a second...
- Feb 13, 2019
- 5 min
Kilimanjaro
The Great White Mountain. Kilima Njaro. Ol’doinyo’oibor. The Roof of Africa. No mountain captures the imagination quite like Africa’s...
- Feb 12, 2019
- 3 min
Ground Control to Ranger Tom
Ranger Tom, in his camouflage and galoshes, is a native of Meru, the gorgeous green hills east of Mt. Kenya. He has worked for the Kenya...
- Feb 11, 2019
- 6 min
The Man in the Mural
In the West Nashville neighborhood known as the Nations, an abandoned grain silo looms over an area slowly subsumed by a renovating...
- Feb 7, 2019
- 2 min
A Note On Traffic
A quick note on traffic: I’m not sure how it’s possible, but there are both more vehicles and more pedestrians in Nairobi than anywhere...
- Feb 6, 2019
- 2 min
Kirinyaga
I just spent 10 consecutive nights on Mt. Kenya, Kirinyaga, the heart and lifeblood of the country that’s inherited its name. Ascending...
- Feb 5, 2019
- 5 min
That Tennessee Sandstone
[Originally published in Nashville Fit Magazine, Spring 2017] Somewhere deep in the Tennessee woods, budding green with spring life and...
- Feb 3, 2019
- 3 min
Team Tengeneza
They wanted to call themselves Team Simba, but I protested; it was so touristy. So they consented to “Team Tengeneza,” which means to...
- Feb 1, 2019
- 5 min
A Reality with Rounded Edges
Philosophy is a love affair. It is an assignation between an inhabitant and its habitat: a knower in a world of knowledge, a real thing...
- Jan 27, 2019
- 1 min
that Beauty
that beauty shadows on the grass moon; hand; dance come alive, remember you, remembered reborn, we cannot sleep dreams have no answer but...
- Jan 27, 2019
- 1 min
A Secret
The sun someday will be love again. The mountain someday will be sand. The land in the end will begin again, and flowers grow out of its...
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