33 – Sixty US Left
As Allan’s secretary closed the door behind her, Allan and I shook hands and switched to first names, a mid-Atlantic nod to my unfortunate Americanness.
32 – “My fiancée,” I lied.
This is where Swimming in Air begins. March 1988. I reached to the other side of the bed for Vivian, but felt only cold, empty
31 – Leaving
We arrived in Lilongwe expecting a bustling capital like Nairobi or Lusaka, but instead found a quiet, approachable town with fewer than 250,000 residents. Following
30 – Arrested for Writing in a Diary
Five days after leaving Bujumbura, we arrived at Mpulungu, the Zambian port city at the southern tip of Lake Tanganyika. Over breakfast, a backpacker at
29 – The Liemba
The next day our planned escape from Zaire began with a passenger ferry down Lake Kivu to Bukavu at its southern end. From there, we
28 – The Spirits of the Jungle
The next morning as we packed, our conversation was limited to practical matters. We flagged down a truck headed past the Rumangabo park headquarters sixty
27 – The Eruption
After two days at the Catholic Mission being poverty tourists and arguing with each other, we were desperate for something else to occupy us during
26 – The Ugandan Student
This isn’t in the book, not because it’s uninteresting or didn’t happen, but because you can’t include everything. I hope you appreciate this outtake. The
25 – Poverty Tourists
After ten days backpacking through northwestern Uganda, we were in the town of Kabale in the southwest. Vivian was exhausted and said she wanted to
24 – Waiting For Moses
It had been four days since we left Kampala, much of it standing on the backs of trucks or crammed into crowded cars, only to
23 – My Two Other Wives Have Children
The “long rains” in Uganda, which normally start in March, arrived a month early that year. With the main roads in poor condition even during
22 – The Lakwena
Back at Mrs. Roche’s, we decided it was time to move on from Nairobi and put our next destination up for a non-binding vote among
21 – Fine Gossip
After nearly two weeks at Mrs. Roche’s, Vivian and I had become porch dwellers. Sitting on the veranda steps, I was reading an old Newsweek
20 – Misunderstanding Lions
“How is Dahab these days? I remember it well.” The speaker was an imposing six-foot-four man with dark brown hair, a friendly smile, and an
19 – Mrs. Roche’s
I woke to the captain’s announcement that we would shortly be landing at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Vivian was sound asleep and using my
18 – In Ägypten
Vivian wrote this in German on Christmas Eve, on the flight between Cairo and Nairobi. Ameen was a Nubian of Cairo who became our mentor
17 – Why the First Deities Were Sun Gods
What follows is a scene that didn’t make it through editing — not because it isn’t true, but because you can’t tell everything. If it’s
16 – Living the Dream
We were jolted awake by a loud, mournful wail from just outside our window. Vivian sat upright, wide-eyed. “What’s that?” “I think it’s the first
15 – Cairo
Backpacking on a budget, you often have no clear idea where you will end up or how long it will take you to get there,
14 – The Difficulty of Doing Nothing
What follows is a scene that didn’t make it through editing — not because it isn’t true, but because it’s full of details about preparing
13 – Fired
In midsummer of 1987, I was fired. A British firm acquired ExaSoft’s home office and decided to merge my Munich operation into its London office.
12 – Tomas
In May, Vivian’s mother, Astrid, called from Buenos Aires. “Good news!” Vivian exclaimed with a smile after she hung up. “Mutti’s coming to visit at
11 – The Problem is When I’m That Person I’m Happy
Vivian rented a room from an East German refugee named Ansgar. In early November, Ansgar’s girlfriend unexpectedly returned from an overseas assignment and found him
10 – I Guess I Still Have Work to Do
TW: Sexual Assault “I was eighteen, nearly finished with high school, riding the bus home from the Goethe Schule. Four years earlier, I was proud
9 – Shut The Engine Off
As summer gave way to the chilly German fall, I stopped by Vivian’s apartment one Friday to pick her up for a date and found
8 – I’ve Never Seen a Proton Either
A week later, Vivian and I walked to the small Kleinhesseloher See at the north end of the Englischer Garten, rented a paddle boat, and
7 – Men Just Seem to Wander
One late-summer Munich morning in 1986, Vivian and I were walking to the Alte Pinakothek art museum, and I made the mistake of questioning her
6 – Now I Live to Live
In early summer, Vivian took me to a tearoom called the Friesische Teestube, the Frisian tea café. Tucked into a quiet corner of Schwabing, not
5 – Like an Argentine Tango
Our Chianti had barely arrived when Vivian said, “You know, I’m not interested in anything serious.” I half expected the topic to come up that
4 -My Mind Is German, But My Heart Is Argentine
Swimming in Air: Week 4 Weeks later, Ms. Falkenberg and I met at a café in the city center. I had missed my regular lesson,
3 – The Indispensable Colleague
An attractive young woman stood in the doorway of my office. She wore little makeup and was dressed strictly for business. “Falkenberg. Sprechen wir Englisch
2 – Munich. 1986.
As I checked into the residential hotel where I would spend my first month in Munich, I asked the receptionist whether it was safe to
1 – This is Air
There’s a story about two young fish swimming along when they meet an older fish going the other way. “Morning, boys,” he says. “How’s the