Spreading panic

Fred­dy will return to Kenya in a while, to con­tin­ue his research. While plan­ning this, we found out that there is a lot of unrest in the coun­try. The day before yes­ter­day there was a bomb attack on a mar­ket in Nairo­bi. In Sep­tem­ber last year, there was the attack on the West­gate Mall that …

Guardians of being

In March we set­tled in Amers­foort, to spend a cou­ple of months in The Nether­lands. April was ded­i­cat­ed to the wed­ding of my sis­ter Eline and brand new broth­­er-in-law Simon. We even went to Israel for this. At home I spend my time star­ing at either the lap­top or the tele­vi­sion — depend­ing on my …

From the dust

I am lack­ing inspi­ra­tion in this week that is ded­i­cat­ed to unpack­ing box­es and fix the paper­work. Luck­i­ly, one of the things that came out of the box­es were our books. Think­ing about the for­mu­la that goes with Ash Wednes­day, I col­lect­ed some excerpts. Har­ry was just think­ing that all he need­ed was for Dumbledore’s …

Far

Our cur­rent stay in Mada­gas­car has almost come to an end. The return jour­ney is planned for Sat­ur­day, but men­tal­ly we already made the biggest step. Last week­end we crossed the “emp­ti­er, dark­er, more ter­ri­fy­ing” dis­tance between Ambo­hit­si­laozana and Tana. Two months in a vil­lage among the rice fields, and now the big city. An …

The Selfless Gene (2)

What is the dif­fi­cul­ty about liv­ing with God and Dar­win? If we ask Dar­win him­self, he gives a clear answer in the quote above: Nat­ur­al selec­tion appears to be a process of waste, cru­el­ty, suf­fer­ing, and destruc­tion of the weak. Ich­neu­monidae are wasps that lay their eggs in the lar­vae of oth­er insects, after which …