Barely two weeks after two churches were bombed in the city of Kaduna, Kaduna state, the postings for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was released and I was posted to Kaduna state. Naturally, I didn’t want to go there and proposed to defer my service as I told a friend who encouraged me to … Continued
Inspiration in Progress… I once read something long ago that has stuck with me until this day: “Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” I hear it on repeat inside my head anytime I want to be lazy about my studies or anytime I think that I cannot achieve a goal. I … Continued
Whim Tripper By Ray Beard She stood on the clean white sand in her pink bikinis under a brilliant blue sky. A few surfers were catching four feet waves gently rolling in on an otherwise smooth sea. It was all round a picture perfect scene, albeit if she had not been in the frame I … Continued
The Last Long Day Day fourteen of trekking in Nepal. We’ve just arrived in Gokyo where an enormous frozen lake dominates the landscape. My husband Tom, our long-time friend Marcus, and I hope to complete the Three Passes Trek, circumnavigating the valley where Mount Everest reigns supreme. We’re in the company of a wonderful … Continued
Prepare yourself for a long fly through time, across the cities and the countries, so you could go in one beautiful day, which will give you a nice Ukrainian city Lviv. Overcoming all the distance using magic intervention, you become the hero of my story. After all, that is you in this city who gives … Continued
I met Mariana in the Spanish class, which were I attended last year in summer at the University of Mumbai. She was from Portugal. We both enrolled late for the course and often had to work together after the lectures to cope up with the class. It was shear serendipity. We hit it off quite … Continued
A lifetime ago I fell in love with whitewater kayaking. I discovered the sport during college. I met a man who claimed to share my passion. For a year we kayaked the St. Francis in Missouri when the water levels allowed, the Arkansas River in Colorado, then the Chattooga in Georgia and the Ocoee of … Continued
Windows were rolled down to breathe in the healing mountain air, as we commented to each other, as we always did, on how fresh and alive the mountain seemed. After the 10-hour drive, sitting in a line of cars waiting to go through the Mont-Blanc tunnel seemed easier this time. The twins waited patiently for … Continued
All week the sun has been as fierce as it gets in the Yorkshire Dales. It forms rising ripples in the air that act as a distorting mirror to the landscape. The lower flanks of the far hills, Wild Boar and Baugh Fell, appear to have moveable bases, as if set in jelly. Tractors … Continued
Looking around the table, listening to the stories of Borneo, gorillas in Rwanda and other exotic spots, I felt a bit out of place. This was ironic. While I grew up in California, I work in International Development which had taken me to Peshwar, Jalalabad, Bogota, Banda Aceh, Tegucigalpa….just to name a few distant outposts. … Continued