Burkina Faso, formerly known a Upper Volta, is poor and land-locked. It has gold, though, and if you live in a poorer country, that creates attractive employment opportunities. Dreams of Dust is a French-Canadian movie about someone from Niger who comes to Burkina Faso in search of work. Mocktar, our hero, arrives about 20 years… [Read More]
Blog
Spring has sprung.
Spring has come to Chicago, and it is so hard getting any work done.
Ghana: Ghana Must Go
Ghana is a democracy, mostly stable, with a GDP of $3500 per capita. You could do a lot worse than living in Ghana, and too many people are. I found this book on Amazon and was intrigued by the title. I’ve seen references to “Ghana Must Go” bags elsewhere. These are woven plastic plaid bags:… [Read More]
Cote d’Ivoire: Still Wretched
The Africa project has not gone away. I still want to learn something about every country on the continent, but it’s taking a while. It doesn’t help when I select very weighty books, either. Which brings us to Cote D’Ivoire: The Conundrum of A Still Wretched of the Earth, an academic overview of the crisis… [Read More]
Virtual Spring Break: DIY on vacation
Today’s assignment for Kristine Hansen’s Virtual Spring Break travel writing class is to come up with ideas for a travel story around a trend. Well, here’s one: the DIY trend and DIY on vacation. When we travel, we often forget that we can do things that locals are doing, too. When my son was younger,… [Read More]
