Recent Columns

The other day we — the Froese 5 — were driving down the highway, on holidays, eating chips and playing Safari cards and having a general good time while listening to a very funny part of John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, a part I knew they’d like, where poor little Owen pees his pants […]

My Bride is in Tanzania with some Save the Mother work so I’ve been Single Daddin’ It for a couple of days which is nothing, really, compared to an American friend who is doing the same for an entire month as his wife is back in The States for some important things there. So my friend […]

(The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, October 18, 2014) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ It’s hard to know what it means to be human some days, let alone a saint, but there are clues here and there, like in this novel, The Plague, by Albert Camus, where two atheists – one a doctor, one a journalist – have a brief conversation. They’re in Africa fighting a devastating plague when one says to the other, “It comes down to this. What interests me is learning to become a saint.” There’s a mystery to the whole thing, a hunger, a longing ...

She’s  hardly a perfect girl, but there is one thing about our adopted daughter, Hannah, she can say things from time to time that show just how profoundly thankful she is to be in our family. Even at her young age — she’s just 8 — she knows enough about her own story. On the […]

KAMPALA, UGANDA✦It’s the children who in the end will be given the keys to the Kingdom. This is what Jesus said on the matter. Be a kid again. The way up is down. If you want even half a shot at eternal life, as if it were somehow possible, go and grow young.

The Pilgrims landed on the shores of North America, not Africa, which is one reason we’re having chicken and lasagna for our Thanksgiving dinner in Uganda this evening. No, there is no Thanksgiving in this country, except for Canadian expatriates who make due with what happens to be available. In this case, regardless of what […]

Rex Murphy called the other day. Then he interviewed My Bride for CBC’s Cross Country Check-Up. Wanted her on-air from Africa to talk about something called Ebola. Hmm. If you missed it, here’s the show. + When Rex said bye, he also made the remark, on-air as far as I could tell, that Jean practices what she preaches. That’s true. […]

(The UCU Standard - Monday, September 29, 2014) MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ The problem with university life is that it can bypass your heart and feed your mind directly with foolish notions about the work world, namely that some grand career will make you a personally large being. “Hey, look at me! I have this job now. It’s who I am!” And maybe you’ll win much of that war that’s so well-known around the world, that is the war to get ahead.

Before My Babe came into my picture I had a dating life and, of course, she had also dated some guys before I sort of tripped into her world. (In fact sometime after the fact, My Babe told me that the wedding she had asked me to attend with her, the key date that changed […]

(The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, September 27, 2014) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Back in Africa, I’m not overly worried about Ebola on the other side of the continent or even al-Shabab terror cells like the one just busted in a slum here in Uganda’s capital – 19 Somalian suspects were arrested. I’m worried more about my underwear. They could soon all be taken by my daughter and her cats.

Liz continues to do her best to teach her cats how to do new tricks … and take my underwear in the process. If you missed it in the Hamilton Spectator the other day, here’s the news on all this here or below. + PDF Version (The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 27, 2014) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Back in […]

It was ‘good-bye mommy!’ and ‘good-bye daddy!’ this morning with all the waves and smiles while bus after bus rolled out of the school parking lot. Hundreds of kids went one place or another, this direction and that into the Ugandan countryside – it can be strikingly beautiful – on several class trips. Our own three […]

I don’t know. All this talk about sex and my manhood. It started when this post simply shared our updated family photo and the news that while the Family Dog is now in our annual shot, our family won’t get larger because I’ve had the snip-snip, that is a vasectomy. My Obstetrician Babe gave her […]

We’re around the breakfast table and the kids are bragging about how old they are, that is how mature and experienced and all that. Liz makes the point she’s in Year 7 now, which, in their international school in Uganda actually means high school. The other two aren’t far behind. Which brings the table conversation […]

Finally, to add to what started with this one and complete this trilogy of posts this week on the news that 19 Somalis were just arrested in Kampala for allegedly plotting to blow some unknown place to Kingdom Come, the only other note to add is that one hopes that jails in Uganda are more secure than jails in Yemen. Yemen, of course, is […]