My parents, family and friends flipped the f__ out when I told them I was going to Iraq. First they didn’t believe me, then they panicked, then they pleaded with me not to go. But the truth is, Iraq, like so many other places in the world–including the USA–is not just what you see on…
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Who Does That? Who goes to Somalia???!!! This guy! When your life mission is to see all 193 countries on the planet, you don’t get any passes to skip over the dangerous ones. And frankly, after getting through places like Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and Venezuela unscathed, I must say nothing much else scares me…
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Wait, Where? Probably my favorite country name to “say,” Djibouti is pronounced “Jih-Booty.” If you say it fast, it’s almost like, “Ya booty!,” which makes the six-year-old in me giggle. Djibouti (I’m still giggling) is situated in the horn of Africa, under Ertirea and above Somalia. I don’t know why, but I had a feeling…
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A City Lost In Time As I walked down the side streets of Cidade Baixa, it was hard not to get lost in the curves and sleek lines that was the crumbling hodgepodge of Art Deco buildings all around me. With their faded pastel colors fading in the sun before my very eyes, I wondered…
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If there was one underlying and unofficial “theme” of this July trip of twelve African nations, it would simply be the reminder and reenforcement that country-to-country, this continent is just so different. Different languages, customs, appearances, economics, and even different stress-levels. Just days ago, I was in Nigeria, and although I loved visiting Lagos, the…
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Straight Outta Compton “I want to visit Compton,” exclaimed Motz, as we barreled down the highway listening to Bruno Mars. Never in my travels had I met anyone who told me they wanted to see Compton, but it made sense: Motz was infatuated with American hip-hop and R&B, especially the gangsta rap by artists from…
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Womp-womp-womp. That’s the “sad trombone” sound effect. I’ve failed you on South Africa. I got nothin.’ I had one night in Johannesburg. The locals call it Joburg. I checked into my hotel, had dinner with some radio peeps and went to bed. The next morning I had breakfast in the hotel and then headed over…
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The one thing I quickly learned about Africa, on my first trip, was just how astonishingly different the various countries in this continent can be from each other. So very vastly distinct, and nothing would remind me of this more than traveling from Nigeria to Namibia: nations living on the same continent, but that might…
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