Essays

Aug 306 min read

A Meeting Place

A brief reflection on my years in Laikipia. The laga was boggy and damp but grazed down. Two good signs it was safe. The rain has a...

Oct 6, 20216 min read

Words & Land & Maybe Magic

Reflections on learning the language of my home as an adult. June 2021. The many varieties of "expatriate" childhood with all their...

Nov 18, 20207 min read

Hate Up Close (Photo Essay)

Written in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election of the United States. "All art is propaganda and ever must be, despite wailing...

Aug 14, 202021 min read

Let's Talk About Christian Values

If you are a Christian in America — look long and hard at this image. Look long and hard at the leader you (82% of Evangelicals, 58% of...

Jul 28, 20202 min read

Protesting In Trump Country (Photo Essay)

I waited a bit to share these photos for a few reasons: first, they’re a little disturbing, and depending on your background, potentially...

May 6, 20204 min read

Reaching New Heights (Nomad Magazine)

At Lukenya, a golden-copper vista of jumbled granite cliffs that glitters over Mombasa Highway just north of Machakos, Samson Mwangi...

Sep 9, 20193 min read

"Be Yourself; Help Other People"

“Nothing matters out here except being yourself and helping other people,” he said, in tears; the late afternoon sun cut a slanted light...

Feb 22, 20199 min read

My Africa Box

The Africa box is grey, brown streaks of mud encrusting the lower half. Our night-guard Patrick sometimes washes them off before my dad...

Feb 18, 20193 min read

On Bushwhacking

The things I learned bushwhacking in Patagonia: As is consistently the case in the backcountry, there is rarely a single right way to do...

Feb 15, 20195 min read

Ol'Doinyo'Orok (The Black Mountain)

For anyone growing up under Kilimanjaro, the inimitable snow-capped peak rising from the Kenyan and Tanzanian plains, there is a second...

Feb 13, 20195 min read

Kilimanjaro

The Great White Mountain. Kilima Njaro. Ol’doinyo’oibor. The Roof of Africa. No mountain captures the imagination quite like Africa’s...

Feb 12, 20193 min read

Ground Control to Ranger Tom

Ranger Tom, in his camouflage and galoshes, is a native of Meru, the gorgeous green hills east of Mt. Kenya. He has worked for the Kenya...

Feb 11, 20196 min read

The Man in the Mural

In the West Nashville neighborhood known as the Nations, an abandoned grain silo looms over an area slowly subsumed by a renovating...

Feb 7, 20192 min read

A Note On Traffic

A quick note on traffic: I’m not sure how it’s possible, but there are both more vehicles and more pedestrians in Nairobi than anywhere...

Feb 6, 20192 min read

Kirinyaga

I just spent 10 consecutive nights on Mt. Kenya, Kirinyaga, the heart and lifeblood of the country that’s inherited its name. Ascending...

Feb 5, 20195 min read

That Tennessee Sandstone

[Originally published in Nashville Fit Magazine, Spring 2017] Somewhere deep in the Tennessee woods, budding green with spring life and...

Feb 3, 20193 min read

Team Tengeneza

They wanted to call themselves Team Simba, but I protested; it was so touristy. So they consented to “Team Tengeneza,” which means to...

Feb 1, 20195 min read

A Reality with Rounded Edges

Philosophy is a love affair. It is an assignation between an inhabitant and its habitat: a knower in a world of knowledge, a real thing...