Christmas Day. The doorbell rings and my eldest brother Chris rushes in juggling a pile of presents. ‘Do you have any wrapping paper left?’ he whispers as I open the door. ‘Every year!’ I smile. ‘Every year! What’s the point of wrapping Christmas presents here when we can all see what they are before … Continued
We drove into Kansas during a thunderstorm, but it isn’t the thunder that I remember. It’s the lightning, almost purple, and the wind. “In the days of the Frontier,” my host mom told me, “people were driven mad by these winds. They could already see the Rockies in the distance, but it took days until … Continued
THE MARCH OF THE LIVING We drove an hour from Cracow to Auschwitz where we had toured yesterday, but this time we were joined by 15,000 Jews from 46 countries. We lined up for the March just inside the Auschwitz gate. First in line was the delegation from Israel, which included many students and a … Continued
Getting Busy: Manny Mota and Los Campos de Sueños The dirt streets of El Tamarindo are dusty with walkers. El Tamarindo is a village that was blown here sixteen years ago by Hurricane Georges. Tens of thousands on Hispaniola lost everything. Many ended up in this barrio. We are dusty, too, with walking. … Continued
It is the garden within the concrete jungle. You find yourself walking toward this not so secret garden. Suddenly the grey concrete disappears, and you are hit with bursts of green. Time begins to slow and you allow yourself to take the first full breath you’ve taken all day, all week, all month. Walking around … Continued
There is powerful, freeing beauty in this world that transcends any travel show or guidebook if we open to it and are ready. Mexico is full of that for me. Well before the violent troubles of the last decade, I first camped on beaches near Ensenada with my parents, all of us sleeping in a … Continued
After months of planning, the trip was finally happening. I was thirteen years old and excited to be traveling outside the U.S. for the first time. Things did not exactly go as expected. Our first destination in eastern Europe was Estonia. We had friends who invited us to their little countryside village, and would pick … Continued
Embracing the Madness in Morocco by Andrea Duty Sometime between being caked with black soap and having my boobs scrubbed with what I can only assume was steel wool, I got the giggles. I should have clued in to the oddities to come within the hammam when I was handed a white paper thong … Continued
A curtain was pulled back and figures emerged from darkness in a shaft of light—a half dozen cloaked musicians with medieval instruments. They arranged themselves on rugs, the light faded out, and the sounds of reeds, drums and unfamiliar string instruments filled the dark confined space. It was surprising how these primitive devices … Continued
Learning, the hard way “Where are you right now?” his mother asked on the phone. The connection crackled. “In Tucupita,” he responded. “Ah, Tucupita.” – as if it was New York City or London. The young man grinned. His parents were from a small town in Germany and had never traveled much. The … Continued