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Kenya Day 2
Lady cooking dinner under election postersThis time I got to ride over from Nairobi to Lake Victoria instead of having to take the plane. In the end, it takes just as much time and is fraught with...
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Kenya Day 3: Malaria Journal
Girl with a motorcycle, Homa Bay, KenyaAs part of our research in Kenya, we have hired a couple of local people to keep journals on malaria. Basically, we give them a notebook, they observe people in...
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Kenya Day 6: Internet Service, Cel Phones and Money Transfer
SafariCom USB 3G StickIt might seem pretty absurd to be complaining about internet service in an area where most people are pretty happy just feeding themselves, but if you got out here, you would,...
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Kenya Day 8: A Plague of Witches
Witchcraft?Yesterday, while out searching for mosquito breeding sites, we came across a couple of… well, I’m not sure what to call them. Folks here would say that they are left by witches. My tolerant...
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Kenya Day??: What day is it anyway?
No posts recently, too busy doing interesting things such as: 1) cleaning data 2) cleaning data 3) cleaning data Soon the data will be so clean that we won’t have to worry about pesky random error....
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Small Business in Kenya
Actually, I should title this “Business in Africa” because outside of large mining operations, just about all business in Africa is small. I just walked with my friend Gabriel out to Rusinga island. He...
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Kenya: Land of Heat, Land of Beef
Kids at the JunctionDuring the day it’s easy to come up with a million brilliant things to write about, but once I return home, there’s nothing but data waiting and exhaustion after that. We went...
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Ruma National Park
ImpalaI took a few hours off today and visited Ruma National Park, home of the last of the roan antelope, along with zebras, black and white rhinos, leopards and a number of other animal species. The...
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A Visit to the Local Witch Doctor
The Healer holding a diarrhea medication and wearing a medicinal herb which alleviates joint pain.I’ve seen survey after survey which show that a large percentage of Africans rely on traditional...
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Sensationalist Reporting on the Kenyan Election
NYT headline, Feb 22, 2013Generally speaking, in the context of large American media outlets, the NYT shys away from sensationalist reporting. Today’s headline on the upcoming Kenyan election is a...
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Kenya (Again)
I’m not completely over my jetlag from Japan and now I’m fighting it in Kenya…. so I thought I’d finally post again for the first time in nearly a month (!). This will be a short one, but… What I’ve...
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Kenyan Cyclists Protest, I Get a Face Full of Tear Gas
When in Nairobi, we usually park in the lot of the Catholic Basilica (it’s cheap) which requires crossing between Nairobi’s City Hall and the Parliament Building. Today, we noticed that there were more...
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Steve Irwin’s Daughter and the “Threat” of Overpopulation
A few days ago, a friend posted a link to an article about a thought piece written by 14 year old Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late television personality Steve Irwin. Bindi was tasked with writing on...
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Brucellosis: My New Bacterial Tenant
Brucellosis hotspot?Though the tests aren’t back yet, I am certain that I have been infected with one (or more) species of a bacteria in the genus Brucella. In humans, Brucella is usually transmitted...
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Assault at Westgate Mall, Nairobi, Kenya
Today I’m reading the new reports on yesterday’s gun assault on Westgate Mall in Nairobi. The numbers killed and injured keep rising. Last I checked, there’s around 50 dead and nearly 200 injured. This...
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More Reflections on the Nairobi Massacre
Westgate parking garage following the attack. Note baby strollers on the left…This one just hit far too close to home. It’s not known precisely, but there might be close to 70 people dead, and nearly...
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Nairobi for a day (I think I will spend more time on a plane)
I’m back in Nairobi for a day. I think that I will have spent more time on airplanes that in Nairobi on this trip. It’s a pretty silly way to do business, but I wanted to be back home in time for...
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Completely Obvious yet Wholly Unanswered Questions about the Westgate Mall...
A friend just passed me this, but I figured I’d share it here because it borders on the absurd. For those who don’t know, or have forgotten, the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, a weekend destination for...
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Apparently, “the Aid Debate is Over.” We Can All Go Home Now.
I was just checking out Bill Easterly’s (author of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good) article in the January issue of Reason, “The...
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Does Development Work? Observations on Gates’ Annual Letter
Infant mortality is down worldwideAsking a question like “does development work” is like asking “does policy work”: it depends. I seem to be fielding questions about development with increasing...
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