Foreign Correspondent Margot Kiser
Letters to Annie from Kaftanistan
As a primer for my impending trip to Somalia, my friend, an attorney, picked me at Muthaiga club this Sunday to stroll the “streets” of Eastleigh, an ad hoc city within Nairobi that first sprouted as a refugee camp of sorts after wore broke out in Somalia in the early 90’s. It has since mushroomed […]
Artists at work outside in the elements are often – correctly – labeled “street artists”, and pass their time sketching kitsch for tourists in big cities. But nothing could be farther from how Herbert Menzer, a wild and wacky German visionary/ real estate developer/accidental politician/friend to all, envisioned the first annual Lamu Painters Festival. Menzer’s […]
Most Sundays I join friends for “prayers” at the local fabled watering hole that feels more like a club both in decor and exclusivity. This Equatorial club must endure the odd out of sorts tourist who flushes through, their khakis and Tevas and dazed expressions are evidence that they flew in straight from a safari […]
Tarzan was never keen on celebrating Xmas, Thxgiving, Easter (huh?), birthdays, etc., so. If I weren’t having lunch with a friend at the Norfolk hotel that day, I’d have never remembered “Turkey day”. The formal dining room was empty when smiling hotel staff wearing tall white chef hats served up the perfunctory holiday fare. I […]
Seems only fitting that an ancient Muslim tradition was celebrated today with a race between ancient Arab fishing dhows. This part of Eid is less about fasting (Ramadan, a word that reminds me of Papadam) than it is about the journey to Mecca in November. Who goes to Mecca anyway? A successful, middle-aged acquaintance, Hamid, […]
The “burial-at-sea” took place at 5 pm. About two dozen close friends, acquaintances, Italian compatriots, neighbors, and a few curious souls arrived around 4:45 in a motorcade of small taxi boats. The sun was still high and everyone wore sun-glasses in defense against the striking Equatorial sun. Some wore black, some white, as if in […]
I have two aging yellow Labs, the off-spring of Zoe, the Lab I brought to Tanzania from Montana in ’94. Katy and Ginger grew up in a pack with Zoe, of course, and later, Joe, the Ridgeback, and a male ridgeless Ridgeback/Lab mix with a ridge. Technically a “back”. His name was Fred, but Fred […]
Oppressive gray blanket of cloud finally lifted and with it my spirits. Most days are now sunny and cheerful. This weekend took long walk along Mbagathi ridge, past Kazuri beads, w C and the dogs – a happy, panting black Lab and Ginger, a small terrier. The kind friends I stay with are Danish and […]
My Lamu hippo piece ran in the East African last week. Read it online here.
