Note from a fifteen hour flight

On scheduling, morality and travel, and other random thoughts

I’m writing this on my plane to Uganda, which until a few hours ago I didn’t realize was a fifteen-hour flight. I also didn’t expect about half the other passengers to be Mormon high school kids heading for three weeks of missionary work, but I should have. Africa attracts the well intended, both the genuine and the cynically opportunist, and while I have nothing but admiration for this particular group, the whole issue of charity and sub-Saharan Africa is a moral minefield I’ve addressed before, and I’m sure I’ll address again this trip.

Put simply, a great deal of it, especially the secular non-profit industry and NGOs, does more harm than good and is about enriching the Western elite, both in money and moral cleansing. A rebooted, and more palatable, form of colonialism.

That’s for another time, I want to write a lighter piece now about my future trips and how I approach planning them. It’s both a way to cope with this unexpectedly long flight, but also a solution to my self-imposed ten day posting cycle that would require me writing about Kampala shortly after I arrive there, which I don’t like doing, because it's a recipe for getting it wrong.

This week I booked my flights for the rest of the year, partly because mapping my agenda six months out gives me some sense of stability in an otherwise transient life, but also because I’ve found it’s cheapest to buy airline tickets roughly three to five months in advance.

So here is my schedule for the rest of the year,

• Now until July 12: Kampala, Uganda

• July 12 to July 18: Nairobi, Kenya

• August 1 to August 21: Driving around the US asking people what is the “American Dream.”

• September 4 to 11: Faroe Islands

• September 11 to 16: Reykjavík, Iceland

• October 2 to November 24: Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

• December 9 - 22: Moldova

So why do I choose these places? Deciding where I travel is about a third methodical, and two thirds completely random.

The methodical part I’ve addressed before, especially the big picture, but as I’ve gained experience, and as this newsletters has grown, I’ve evolved.