Greg Laden's Blog

Attack of the Hound of Malembi. Or, "Whose are these people, anyway?"

Category: Missionaries

One day a rabid dog appeared out of nowhere, bit three or four goats, killed my cat, and bit six people.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 11:39 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A Day In the Life (Bathing with the Hippos)

Category: Congo Memoirs

... get in the water and soap up. He would stand up and grunt. ... dunk in the water to rinse. He'd open his jaw and make some noise. ... start putting on shampoo. He'd jump up and down, let out a yowell, and start running right at us. ... dunk in the water to get the shampoo off, and when coming up for air be running towards shore not even looking back, grab the clothes off the beach and keep going into the bush. That's how you bathe with a hippo.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:55 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The Greg Layer

Category: Congo Memoirs

The previous story, about the Volcanic eruption of the Rwenzori Mountains a few kilometers from our camp ("Fire on the Mountain"), actually occurred AFTER the story I'm about to tell. But I'm telling them out of sequence as a matter of character development. (The complexity...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:40 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

How to make an elephant turn invisible

The elephants in the Upper Semliki River Valley in the Eastern Congo at the time our expedition (late 1980s) are especially interesting because at the time it was believed that no elephants lived there. Yet, as part of my research, I discovered that this was inaccurate. A herd of invisible elephants roamed the park. I told almost no one at the time for fear that they would be poached. In fact, this is the first time I've mentioned it in a public forum.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 10:56 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

What do they call this when it is sushi?

Category: Restaurant Review

... I wanted to go to her favorite place, order her favorite thing on the menu (plus or minus) and drink her drink and if she normally ate desert (and thank FSM she did not) try that desert as well. ... sometimes I like to experience the preferences and choices of someone that I care for. It's a quirk of mine.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:44 AM • 29 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Swedish Sexual Health Policy, Money, Growth and Development

Category: Anthropology

One of the earliest preserved and apparently still funcitonal condoms. Liberal (as in liberal philosophy) policies such as family planning and feminism, universal health care, support of and respect for scientific research, universal and high quality education, and the rejection -- even within a...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 9:49 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks