.اللهم احسن الاوضاع في مصر

Hesham and I were sitting on a bench in Sharm El-Sheikh overlooking the choppy waves of the Red Sea.  The sun had just set and dusk was underway.  After a long day seeking a hospital that would administer a malaria test, both of us needed a quiet moment to replenish our energy reserves.

Enjoying the cool sea breeze on our face, we discussed our respective futures, our dreams and hopes, and Hesham asked me whether I believed in destiny.  I replied that I only believed in a destiny that I shaped myself.

"Do you know what we Muslims believe?" he asked.  I shook my head.

"We believe that your fate is written on your forehead, not anywhere else, but right here."  He gently drew a line above my brow with his finger.  "It's already there when you're born, chosen for you."

I believe that, if his fate was indeed written, then the popular uprising is only a means towards the destiny that has always been invisibly inscribed on the foreheads of the Egyptian people for fairness, security and prosperity.  I wish them strength in their struggle and offer my solidarity in creating the future they deserve.

But Raoof, the human rights activist, said that many people with different perspectives were banding together around a common goal.


"There is no political group leading the people. There is no one leading the people. People are going in a very organic way ... people are just doing it," he said.

Kwenda mzuri, my friends. 

My thoughts are with you.

Mosi-o-Tunya

The Zambezi river basin is home to a consider amount of flora, fauna, and magic... 

holding on, breaking out

Victoria Falls, Zambia

Windhoek, Namibia

Feel Free

Second to the love and concern for well-being that I feel for 

friends, family and those who are not yet friends,

nothing matters more to me than feeling free.  

No matter the time, no matter the place, 

the money, material items and circumstances 

don't matter much to me--

As long as I can roam freely and explore.

It's what I live for. 

It goes deeper than that.

There are very few places where I feel free to 

truly be myself, whether in the way I treat others,

the way I express myself or my means of doing things.

I often feel trapped in other peoples' paradigms,

compelled to conform to their standards, however unconsciously.

In these last few weeks, I have revisited some of the places 

where I simultaneously feel most free and at home  

-- I suppose those two words 

ultimately mean the same thing to me --

having honest and spontaneous interactions

with the most lovely companions.

I had the opportunity to connect a deep longing inside of me 

with its ephemeral water source.

In the desert, this is of course rare,

But that's what makes the desert beautiful.

I understand that I cannot stay forever.

Although my time there was much too short,

I keep it with me as I return to rules and lonely boxes;

I know that I'll return.

Korea: King of "Cute"

As painful as it was to step off the plane from gentle, tropical weather to the frigid air mass that greeted me at the terminal in Incheon, at least one thing made me smile and that is how damned cute everything in Korea is.  Really.  Everything from bunny-ear uniforms to bear paw-shaped gloves to cupcakes transformed into cute, furry animals.  Korea truly is the King of Cute.

West with the Night

I have learned that if you must leave
a place that you have lived in and loved
and where all your yesterdays
are buried deep...

Leave it any way except a slow way,
leave it the fastest way you can.
never turn back,
and never believe that an hour
you remember is a better hour,
because it is dead.

Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones,
while the future lives in a cloud,
formidable from a distance.

The cloud clears as you enter it.

I have learned this, but like everyone,
I learned it late.

— Beryl Markham, ‘West With The Night,’ 1942