Welcome to Scattered Crumbs and Tangled Tales

An Anthropologist’s Fieldnotes from Everyday Life in Europe and Africa

Hi, my name is Liza (rhymes with visa). Since August 2024, I’ve been writing a Substack called Sharing Secrets (and Other Useful Stuff), where I share coaching tips and ideas rooted in personal experience. But here, in this new space, I’m excited to explore something different—stories from my life as a social anthropologist, researcher, and language enthusiast, woven together with the places I’ve lived, the foods I’ve eaten, books I have read, and the people I’ve met.

I love fish, but I am not one (Photo: Liza Debevec)

A bit about me: I grew up in Slovenia and have lived in some fascinating and lesser-known parts of the world, including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and now Lisbon, Portugal. I completed my PhD in Social Anthropology in 2005, focusing on food practices in urban Burkina Faso, and have spent two decades researching religious practices, gender equality, and migration. Along the way, I’ve also studied in 13 languages—two of which are African languages, Jula and Amharic. I can communicate, at different levels of fluency, in 11 of them. (The two I failed at are stories for another time!)

My former home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Photo: Liza Debevec)

This new publication, Scattered Crumbs and Tangled Tales: An Anthropologist’s Fieldnotes from Everyday Life in Europe and Africa, is my way of sharing the non-fiction accounts on people, things and events that have impacted me. Here’s a glimpse of the topics I plan to write about:

• My Favourite Dishes From the Countries I’ve Lived in and Traveled Through

• The Two Books That Changed My Life

• Everyday Life and Sounds in Addis Ababa

• What Frustrates Me About Non-Expert Posts on Africa

• Exploring the Lesser-Known Aspects of Ethiopian Cuisine

• How I Almost Drowned in the Mangrove Swamps of Northern Mozambique

• An Embarrassing Incident at a Japanese Spa in Stockholm

• Traveling Through West Africa With My Best Friend From Burkina Faso

• The Story Behind My African Name

My goal is to publish one longer piece per month, along with occasional shorter vignettes. While I’m not the most organized person, I thrive on external accountability—something I’ve learned from both my coaching practice and my lifelong curiosity about human behavior. Joining challenges like

Claire Venus (she/her) ✨

’s 12 Chapters Club (and having readers like you!) helps me stay on track.

Food from my favourite Yemeni restaurant in Addis Ababa (Photo: Liza Debevec)

If any of this resonates with you, I’d love for you to join me on this adventure. Subscribe to stay updated, and feel free to share what piques your curiosity or what you'd like to read more about.

Thanks for being here!