Paul Merrill
Life is getting overwhelming. I’m headed to Austin for South by Southwest Interactive conference. After that, I have a huge freelance job that will keep me crazy-busy for my non-daytime hours. Meanwhile, wander over to my right sidebar. Notice the little “ARCHIVES” panel. Dig into there and you should be able to find some pleasure …
In the UK, addresses are more vertical than in the USA. (This was from a fax that came through to the office I worked at in England from 1995-1998.) In Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, where Heather and I lived for five years, there are no street addresses. And that’s a city of 3-4 million people. There …
I get emails from Gilt. It’s fun to see what luxury deals are out there. Most of the time, the bargains are so far out of my world that I don’t even think about them. But it’s occasionally fun to imagine a vacation in Aruba, particularly when it’s -17 degrees (-27 C) outside my window. …
I have a story for you. When Heather and I first went to Africa (1991), we were part of a 3-month-long training program that was designed to help us love Africa. And adjust to living there. Part of our training involved living with a family in rural Kenya for two weeks. It was a stretching …
Nando’s is a great chain of restaurants. Nairobi, Kenya has them. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has them. But there aren’t any in LA or New York. Or Denver. (Washington, DC has the only Nando’s in the USA.) One of the problems with having lived in another country is that you will forever be running into things …
When you think about how the American (and world) economy is in bad shape, here’s a small note of cheer… The US Government’s postal service is losing money – but they still can afford to make big and beautiful stamps. (For scale, I’ve shown coins from America, England and Kenya.)
“Wananchi” is the Swahili word for “people”. We lived in Kenya for five years. I heard “wananchi” a lot. (Generally, in African cultures, the whole is more important than the individual – the opposite of in Europe and America. Again – generally speaking.) So whenever I see “Wanchai”, my brain converts it to “wananchi”. Our …
Today is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. I took this shot off our front porch yesterday evening at 8:35. (Hand-held, point-and-shoot.) When we lived in the south of England, I always made a big deal of the longest day – because it was long! (Inevitably, the evening was cloudy, so …
This lovely shopping bag was crafted by a friend of ours in rural Kenya. She gave it to us as a gift. You will note that the strap is made from a necktie. The brightly-colored stripes are from plastic shopping bags that were tightly wrapped around natural sisal fiber, found close to her home. And …
Jeepneys are the main way people get around in the Philippines. In East Africa, people ride in Matatus. I liked them so much I featured them a fair amount when I lived in Nairobi. So I came across this photo of a Jeepney in a missionary magazine* – and I was struck by how the …