by Richard | Jan 5, 2012 | Africa, Democ. Rep. of Congo, Podcast, Travel
Up at 04h30. In Entebbe airport by 06h00. On a plane by 08h30 and starting the long trek home. It’s all so managed. So clean. In your seat. Eat your meal. Listen to music or fall asleep for distraction. I feel awry in the whitespace. My clothes are filthy, and probably smell a little.
by Richard | Dec 22, 2011 | Africa, Democ. Rep. of Congo, Reflections, Travel
It’s undeveloped, and it has crap roads – these things are true. But it is also full of really friendly people, to whom we have not had to pay a single bribe, who have really gone out of their way to show us a great time.
by Richard | Dec 15, 2011 | Africa, Journalism, Photography, Travel, Uganda, Uncategorized
There are twenty four minutes left on this laptop battery. Power to the plugs in ‘hotel’ Tropikana (don’t ask) has failed, though the lights work absolutely fine. Outside is a little dark, and slightly infused with the smell of burnt trash and...
by Richard | Dec 10, 2011 | Africa, Travel, Uganda, Uncategorized
This post should have gone up two days ago. But packing can be such a demanding mistress. Have I put in too little? Too much? Do I really need an extra bandage in the first aid section? (yes) Have the extra batteries for the camcorder arrived? (No). And so it has...
by Richard | Oct 29, 2011 | Africa, Democ. Rep. of Congo, Journalism, Travel
I’ve been holding my breath a lot the last fortnight or so. Catching myself needing to stop, unclench and breathe a little easier, over and over again. The invitation letter I need for my visa came through today. The fixer is confirmed. A thousand ephemeral...
by Richard | Oct 1, 2011 | Africa, Democ. Rep. of Congo, Travel, Uganda
Two years and some some change ago, on a dark rooftop in Addis Ababa, I recall having my thousandth Ethiopian espresso with Jonathan, a friend and adventuresome soul who had come to join me for my days in the country on my slow road north to Cairo. I can’t...
by Richard | Sep 7, 2011 | Uganda
Come morning, I sleep in until I can’t possibly anymore. Claw my pillow until every inch of tiredness has been attended to. Then brushing teeth in the damp, green cupboard of a communal bathroom, sitting on a top-loading washing machine that abuts the shower. Then...
by Richard | Aug 12, 2011 | Creative Writing
Miles and miles lost to ourselves in sideways glances from bouncing buses. Good years of good lives spent watching and smiling beyond our greasy half-reflections. I’ve been bored, I’ve felt profound. I’ve been a dozen different doppelgängers in a...
by Richard | Aug 3, 2011 | Published
This has been rather a long time in coming, but all the technical jiggery pokery-programmery is finally in place for a WTRG newsletter. It has been polished until iridescent, and will lend an air of exotic sophistication to the inbox of even the most staid of...
by Richard | Jul 26, 2011 | Africa, Travel, Uganda
[Taken from the Ugandan Journals] It’s a hot morning in Kitgum, some three hours’ journey in a bus from Gulu, Uganda. I wake reluctantly under a clinging mosquito net inside the steel and painted-concrete guesthouse. It’s the final days of my trip...
by Richard | Jul 14, 2011 | Photography
Once a year, like an artistic atom bomb, the National Arts Festival – or Fest to its friends -comes to Grahamstown. Artists of all stripes and skills descend upon what is otherwise a small and difficult to reach settlement in the already-pretty-remote Eastern...
