Jon Arensen, PhD Oxford University, is professor of cultural anthropology at Houghton College in New York. He is the director of Houghton’s Tanzania Semester. Jon lives with his wife Barb in...New Old Africa blogger!
Hey Friends,
After 15 years I am retiring from my teaching post here a Houghton College. It has been a great job and I have enjoyed the hundreds of students who have patiently listened to my anthropological stores about Africa. I have especially enjoyed the spring semesters abroad, taking students to Tanzania and introducing them to Africa.
Many people have asked me what I plan to do in my retirement. I am not the sort of person who wants to just play golf and watch TV. Barb and I will continue to travel and I will give lectures, do some consulting and continue to take photos of wildlife. A number of people have asked me to write a blog. At first I resisted since I am a bit late in coming to terms with modern technology. But after some serious thought I have decided to give it a try. I am going to start by writing a blog every 2 weeks. I will not write about my daily life and state that I ate eggs and bacon for breakfast. Instead I will focus these blogs on stories from my life in Africa. Some of these stories will be adaptations of stories from my memoir “Drinking the Wind” and other books I have written. Others will be new stories or illustrations from my anthropological lectures. I will start with short stories, but perhaps later I will post some longer papers that are more philosophical, political or Christian in nature.
So plan to check my Blog every 2 weeks. And give me some feedback so I know what you think.
Jon Arensen
