Notional zebras and the big red bus: stories from an evaluation

Notional zebras and the big red bus: stories from an evaluation

Kilimanjaro from the air Two months in Nairobi, though it seemed like more. It’s bad form to say so… but driving around Nairobi never put anyone in a good mood. Mostly it puts you at a standstill. And how come I was always on the side of the car with the...
Things you learn (or remember) in East Africa

Things you learn (or remember) in East Africa

Kampollyball I love volleyball. I haven’t played for a long while, but I had occasion to play in Kampala again after a years-long break. Volleyball is my jam, despite the obvious hiccup that I am not very good at it. That fact is completely in character:...
Moving the goals post

Moving the goals post

Featured pic from Mitchell Lawler on Unsplash Goalposts – goals – get it? The start of a year is an appropriate, if imperfect, time for looking at your goals and urging yourself forward. I think goals should be realistic but ambitious – after all,...
Do what you like

Do what you like

Do what you like When I told my parents I wanted a job where I could do what I like, as a young college graduate with a sociology degree (!), you’d have thought I said I wanted to juggle babies for a living. But they came around, about the time I  found a job I...
Writer in exile: 101st blog post

Writer in exile: 101st blog post

“‘A writer is always in exile,’ she said, this is what pushes him or her to write. ‘It doesn’t have to be geographical.’” From Journalist Olivia Snaije’s interview with three Syrian and Iraqi women writers living in exile: Samar Yazbek, Inaam Kachachi, and Rosa Yassin...
Marshmallows and other metaphors

Marshmallows and other metaphors

I’m swimming in work but treading water as best I can. I can’t wait to leave for Madrid but in the meantime I’m going to pump out seven reports and annexes, probably 1500 pages of hard-hitting sociological analysis! BOOM! But I’m telling the...