2013 in review: 23 March

On a visit to Belgium, a friend took me to visit one of Brussels iconic monuments, the Atomium. Its sight jolted my memory - I have been here before!

It wasn't my first visit to Brussels, as I thought earlier. I passed through Brussels in 1980 while traveling to Amsterdam.

What is this blog about?

In the sixth year of this blog I think I finally have the answer.

There’s a maxim from Blogging 101 that says if you blog about anything and everything you will drive visitors away. If you read through some of my posts, you might notice the very opposite; I write on a wide range of topics, but a common – though not consistent – thread is that I conclude my posts with an opinion about some issue. And I would say that some of my favourite posts are those in which I have an opinion about some issue.

Since launching this blog in 2008 I have avoided describing (in the header) what this blog is about for a good reason: I had no idea where it was heading and did not want to limit myself to a description on which direction it should take.

Although I have followed advice, again from Blogging 101, of limiting the number of topics on this blog to a manageable number (I even launched a new blog dedicated to my Mt. Kilimanjaro climbing experiences), the tags I am using still leave latitude to explore the universe and its diversity although I might be stretching the boundaries rather wide if I promise that you will read a post on Europa here.

Perhaps the title of this blog says it all: From Butiama and Beyond. I am blogging from Butiama, but I also blog an whatever topic of interest that I encounter beyond Butiama.

2013 in review: March 13

In Dar es Salaam, I woke up early to catch the early morning flight on budget airline Fastjet to

Mwanza. We boarded the aircraft just before sunrise.

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with musician and activist Vitali Maembe

Early last month I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, accompanied by musician/activist Vitali Maembe who works and lives in Bagamoyo.

It was interesting climb, as he carried along his guitar, and attracted considerable attention not only from other climbers but also from the hundreds of guides and porters who are on Mt. Kilimanjaro at any one time.

Vitali Maembe takes a rest on the way to Shira Cave camp.

I have begun to post the details of that climb in my Blog Kilimanjaro, which has exclusive posts on my Mt. Kilimanjaro climbs. You can follow the adventure as it unfolds here.