by Mohezin Tejani
I am on an eighteen-month overland trip from California to Argentina. The year is 1977. The thoughts that run through my head are considerably different from those that I’ve had before the short jaunts I have taken during summer breaks and holidays. When the open road turns into a long-term lifestyle, the obstacles [...]

by April Orcutt
“Please!  Please!” the Tibetan woman pleaded, her young son trailing behind her.  She approached me in the ancient market of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, holding an orange beaded necklace that hung around her neck, smiling sweetly as she implored me to buy it.

But I didn’t want orange beads.  I was on [...]

by Tim Leffel
Out of the corner of my right eye I saw movement, something rushing toward me. A few milliseconds later there was a brutal thud as something ran headfirst into my car.
Instinctively I hit the brakes and turned my head toward the point of impact. There was a smear on the window, but nothing [...]

by Robert Robeson
(Nearly four decades have come and gone, yet one moment in time continues to play back through my mind at regular intervals. It’s like the music of a beloved love song from one’s early dating years. Unique. Inspiring. Unforgettable.)
May 9, 1970. Another oppressively hot and humid Asian afternoon was drawing to a close [...]

by Sandy Sims
Helping someone in another country can sometimes mean a slip between cultural cracks. At least that’s what I felt late one afternoon in Paris.
I guess my out-of-place feeling began at Les Deux Magots cafe, Hemingway’s old hangout. Instead of the Bohemian coffeehouse I’d expected, the cafe seemed more like a gathering place for [...]

by Bill Zarchy
Ten of us arrive, unannounced, at the restaurant on the terrace, hoping for an outside table.
The staff seats us quickly, then waters, breads, menus, wines, serves, desserts, and espressos us in style. The service is seamless, though during the meal I notice one of our waitresses hurrying by, looking harried. But we gab [...]

By Tracy Barnett
“Tell me, where does it hurt?”
“Dime, ¿donde te duele?”
The flood of words that followed was overwhelming at first, both for Colorado pediatrician Joni Weiss and for me. It was our first venture into the world of the medical mission, and we both had much to learn.
My role was to serve as the bridge [...]

by Cecilia Worth
Friday evening and the Safeway in Homer, Alaska is half empty. No end-of-week-thank-God-it’s-time-to-party festivities going on in this supermarket. On the other side of the continent, my family and friends sat down to dinner hours ago, and my east-coast upbringing frowns on a woman dropping in to a local bar for conversation. Maybe [...]

By Eliot Stein
There exists an inherent sorrow in the Italian culture—the kind that drives you towards theatrical hand motions, delicate flicks of the tongue, and designer fashion instead of prescription drugs. It is grief channeled in its most artistic form. Were it not for Italians’ emotional fragility, there would have been no Renaissance, opera, or [...]

by Cindy Rasicot
Beep-beep-beep, an alarm clock rings, softly. I open my eyes to darkness.
“Turn the light on,” a voice says.
The alarm goes off ten minutes late. We’re all wrestling to get out of our sleeping bags, confused, sleepy and anxious. Even though I know the routine, it’s hard to wake up so early. Why do [...]