Reading: Bill Bryson's African Diary

In one of our many early morning video conferences to plan this trip, Laurel and I discussed her knowledge of Africa gleaned from several trips to the southern part of the continent and lots of reading. So I asked, what should I read? And what should we recommend to our fellow travelers? Her response: "Start with Bill Bryson's African Diary."

And so I did. The book records Bryson's observations during a one-week trip to Kenya primarily to visit a CARE project at a Somalian refugee camp in the north. In just 69 pages, Bryson gives the reader a taste of the uncertainty of traveling in a third world country, the profound poverty he witnesses, and the wide variety in the natural environment in different parts of the country. He accomplishes this with his usual slightly self-deprecating humor, making the read both easy and deeply thought provoking. A good start.

Claudia Daggett