Travel With Reason

Kids show off their favorite books at The Hope Library, Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya [NAIROBI, Kenya] With a little bit of trepidation I made my fifth visit or so to this city’s Kibera slum – a “city within a city” of an estimated 600,000 to 1 million residents living in very challenging conditions – to [...]

[Lagos, Nigeria] Random observations and thoughts from the first two days in Nigeria: Sofitel hotel … fluffy bed (maybe a little too much – bad back in the morning) … concrete wall shuts out the outside world … impossible wi-fi (how on earth do these people blog?) … amazingly weak orange juice … large in-room [...]

Update  from 10 months later … we’ve done it! The Hope Library is up and running.  Click here to read more, and read below to learn the origins of the project. [Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya] My second visit to Kibera, May 4 (posting this entry after mulling it over for a week). Being taken in [...]

[Nairobi, Kenya] I’ve got a lot more to say on the topic of my latest expedition through Kibera slum, this time a bit deeper into it all including time spent with a family, and yes, photos to post, but one thing that always strikes me, and humbles me, is the contrast between the worries of [...]

Following is a tale of the wildest business trip ever, wherein your intrepid reporter tries freshly slaughtered goat, battles rude monkeys, conducts a formal presentation to his clients in remotest Africa, participates in a tribal hootenanny, boils an egg in hot springs, and visits the client’s mama in the bush! Most links will take you [...]

Only after booking a five-week trip abroad for business (and a little vacation) did I realize I was going to miss my mother’s birthday, April 22. A milestone. Turning 70. Yikes! What to do? How to arrange something special from halfway around the world? For some occasions, ordering FTD just doesn’t cut it. I put [...]

The captain of our hot-air balloon reassuringly announces he is professionally trained and has hundreds of flights under his belt. I’m just hoping he’s not the driver of an Egyptian cab on his days off. I’m surprised the basket of a balloon can (more or less comfortably) hold 20 passengers and several crew. The views [...]

My friend Cathy remarked, when I said I had booked a last-minute Nile River cruise: “I’ve always wanted to do that, but the tour boats always look like refitted barges.” Which is sort of true, they all seem squatty and workmanlike. I guess the Nile isn’t deep enough to handle traditional cruise ships, so you [...]