Blogs from Africa

“There, ahead, all he could see, as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro. And then he knew that there was where he was going” – Ernest Hemingway: The Snows Of Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro has been one of those trips Dennis and I have always wanted to do since we were both teens, the highest free standing mountain in the world. Mom and I had talked about climbing it “one day” during the peak of our frequent Appalachian trail hiking trips in her younger years before the start of her pulmonary issues, but it just never came to pass. I finally bought our tickets in January long before Covid was a worry, when I saw fares finally just too good to be true and impossible to ... read more

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” - Bertrand Russell Covid-19 is now off the front pages and the media is not nearly as fixated with this pesky virus as was the case in recent months. Lock-downs are on hold, South Africa is on Level 1 and there is this far more relaxed mode and mind set suggesting the worst is done and dusted. The key word defining our current human view on Covid-19 is undoubtedly, complacency. How wrong could we possibly be and what will be the upshot of the increasingly “relaxed” outlook on Covid-19? The compulsion to write further blogs has waned and this edition follows a 3-week break. This suggests it has slipped to back of ... read more

“Myth is an attempt to narrate a whole human experience, of which the purpose is too deep, going too deep in the blood and soul, for mental explanation or description.” – D.H.Lawrence Interesting times to say the least! Here we are in early Spring still trying to figure out how a virus could possibly have hijacked this year’s late summer, winter and then autumn seasons. Spring is a month of renewal when plant life recaptures it’s calibrated growth DNA and the animal kingdom looks to the urgent task of reproduction to ensure the survival of each particular species. Homo sapiens, on the other hand, has endured months of a rampaging pandemic which to date has recorded 27.9 million infections and caused 905,426 deaths. Bizarrely, the daily updates and incessant chatter on TV networks about Covid-19 have ... read more

“Every human has four endowments; self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom…. the power to choose, to respond, to change.” - Stephen Covey Someone once said “Every sunset is an opportunity to reset” and if there is one critical step, we all need to take in these repetitive, exhausting Covid-19 times, it is the need to “reset.” Our minds have numbed as we struggle to remember when, why and how this unprecedented intrusion on our lives all started. 2020 is now almost at the three-quarter mark and most of us talk about writing off this year noting it as one of very little by way of personal achievement. Many dreams, plans, activities, adventures have simply vaporised and disappeared into the mists of time. Against this backdrop, the past week ... read more

“Man, do not pride yourselves on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you…and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us!” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russian novelist and philosopher in the 1820’s) There is a classic saying one hears from time to time; “don’t mess with Mother nature”, and it sort of resonates for a short while before our minds leap forward not really wanting to confront what we have done to our planet and sadly, continue to do. The scorecard in terms of our impact on the physical environment is mind boggling and includes; overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels and deforestation all of which in their own unique way have triggered ... read more