In Liberia, splurging on sushi to feel at home – CSMonitor.com – WTF there's sushi in MONROVIA, but not in COTONOU? I AM MOVING. http://icio.us/5JKdux In Liberia, splurging on sushi to feel at home – CSMonitor.com – WTF there's sushi in MONROVIA, but not in COTONOU? I AM MOVING. FT.com / Africa – Cash runs… Read More Good reads for February 20th
Are you looking for a woman working in IT? Someone who’s bright, innovative, and ready to take risks? Someone who’s already trained in the basics and is excited to learn more? Have you talked to a secretary lately? People Online works with a lot of secretaries. It’s all well and good to sell the boss… Read More Concrete steps to make your ICT(4D) projects more gender inclusive and woman-friendly
Last week, I decided that I absolutely needed a hunk of fresh tuna. Never mind that I had no idea how to go about buying tuna. I had to have it. In Cotonou, salt water fish are bought fresh off the boat at the Port of Cotonou. Chaos reigns as fishermen and fish mongers negotiate prices… Read More Shopping for deep sea fish in Cotonou
Allada is famous for its escargot (snails). Every well to do traveler stops there on their way up North. Only an hour outside of Cotonou, it’s an ideal place to buy food for the rest of the trip. Or, if you’re Jean Marc, Helene, Bertrand, and myself, an ideal place to waste an hour drinking… Read More I like snails. Eating them, that is.
Ah, cheese. The one thing every expat in West Africa misses. Luckily, Benin has a local cheese that’s excellent, both as a cheese, fried, and as a tofu subsitute. Known commonly as wagasi, from Dendi, it goes by many names: amo in Fon, wara in Nagot, and gasaru in Bariba. The French simply call it… Read More Cutting the cheese in Benin
Hmmm. The difference between “social entrepreneurship” and “entrepreneurship” can break down quickly. When we’re talking about African students building new web applications to make it easier to send money to families back home, what should we designate that? Entrepreneurship or Social Entrepreneurship? Or does it not matter? Should it perhaps make us wonder if we… Read More What’s the difference between social entrepreneurship and plain old entrepreneurship?
We use WordPress for many of our client sites because it’s dead simple to use and has a fantastic plugin system. The only problem? WordPress is stinkin’ huge. And basic functionality depends on JavaScript. No big deal on fast American and European connections, but it’s a huge impediment here in Benin, where connections are unreliable… Read More Solving the bandwidth problem when updating WordPress sites
I don’t get the hate. If you’ve never been to “Africa” (don’t forget to refer to the continent, never a specific country), you may never have encountered the volunteer pecking order that serves little more purpose than reinforcing guilt and perpetuating stereotypes. Graham North works on the island of Zanzibar, and his disgust for volunteers… Read More In which Theresa is anti-authenticity.