by Charlie Levine
Zipping along a mangrove-lined creek not much wider than his 16-foot homemade skiff, Jewel, Capt. Ansil Saunders cut the engine as we approached a pond-like opening in the lush greenery. The boat coasts to a stop, and the only thing I could hear is the wake of the small vessel sloshing against the [...]

by Taylor Jennings
Reza Shahnan’s entrance one morning during breakfast at the Park Guest Quarters in Kabul the summer of 2003 caused a bit of a stir. He was one of those unusually tall Afghan men and was wearing a finely tailored suit in sharp contrast to the olive drabs, jeans and photographer’s vests worn by [...]

by Craig Stevaux
I had every reason to think I knew Udon Thani. After all, I’d lived in the Northeastern Thai provincial capitol for five years at the height of the Vietnam War. I knew the main roads that spun off the three aligned traffic circles on the highway that ended at the Mekong River, only [...]

by Diana Cohen
Pepe and his pottery yard were both ramshackle and to the casual passerby may have looked dilapidated, even unpleasantly cobwebby. All that is true I suppose, but the eyes that turned away after only a superficial glance would have missed a small, self-contained world, teeming with life and rich with history. The hub [...]

by Jann Huizenga
Signora, reads the message in Italian, we request your presence at Police Headquarters for fingerprinting on February 11. This is great news: I applied for a work permit six months ago, and Roman authorities are finally getting around to making me legal. My eyes skid to a stop at the appointment time. 9:12??? [...]

by Gail Trotin
There she goes again. She stood only 5 foot tall, but she had a way about her that implied a certain strength in that small frame. This intrigued me. Her face, enshrouded by the hood of her black cloak, was deeply carved by a life full of soucis (worries) and yet the [...]

By Craig Wilkins
Rick’s Café (Latin)American
I am a night person. Always have been. I’ve never understood the need for anything to begin early in the day and phrases that purport to educate me in this area — like “Early to bed, early to rise…blah, blah, blah” or “The early bird catches the worm” have only served [...]

By Jeff Vize
Trains were built for China. China was built for trains.
Either way you frame the statement, the Middle Kingdom is undeniably a country for trains. It’s not just because the rail network in this country includes some 50,000 kilometers of track, or because its trains are comfortable and cheap. And it’s not just because [...]

By Pickett Porterfield
Luis doesn’t like Mexicans. He says they’re stupid and lazy. The funny thing is that Luis is Mexican. He owns a coffee shop in downtown Irapuato. Every morning I sit at a table on the balcony sipping his potent secret blend of coffee. I like to watch the city come to life from [...]

By Adrian Cole
The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong, but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land. (Victor Hugo)
When I finally left the United States it was late summer. Gravity forced [...]