On a recent trip to Paris, I had the good fortune to visit the Fondation Louis Vuitton (FLV), which describes itself as “a private cultural initiative”. In essence, it is a private museum housed in a dynamic and formidable Frank Gehry construction apparently inspired by an ice glacier. (Mission accomplished!) FLV is currently hosting an awe-inspiring exhibition of contemporary African art titled Art/Afrique, Le Nouvel Atelier or Art/Africa, The New Atelier. This exhibit is a destination point affair; in other words, Read More…

My friend Mary called to invite me to a dinner party yesterday. The purpose was to introduce a Maasai warrior she befriended to people she thought would appreciate him and his ongoing project: to eliminate preventable deaths from malaria in his village and surrounding areas; to eradicate female circumcision from his culture; and to make male circumcision medically safe. With his own meager means, he had studied to become a licensed rural Health Practitioner, then he opened his health clinic, Read More…

As you know from my last (and first) post on this site, Pascal was dispatched to the Amazon (or he decided to go, depending on which one of us you ask).  On our way to the airport, I made him promise to stay in touch with me every three days to let me know he was alive and well.  In the month he was away, he managed to call me a total of three times—when it exists, technology is downright Read More…

Why my husband went to the Amazon…and why I didn’t!