By Maxine Rose Schur I raised the expectation, You shook your head sadly. Like fish in water and fowl in the air It’s not easy to meet… I saw you off on your way And felt hundreds of jumbled feelings. —Nguyen Binh (1918-1966) For years I had loved the words “Perfume River.” I imagined sailing […]

By Amber Paulen Stories from the old can change the direction of life for the young. Someone called my name and a figure came toward me—a shadow against the yellow lamplight of the road, and beyond that, of Atrani. It surprised me that someone knew me. I had been in the small town for only […]

by Justine Hanson “Please can you help?” One woman tries to make sense of her response to people begging on the streets of Nicaragua and Cambodia. “Soy Churequero. Trabajo en La Chureca,”he said. La Chureca is Managua’s giant city dump, where hundreds of people live and work as freelance garbage pickers, amidst acres of smoldering, […]

by James Dorsey My pen pal,the African King While in Africa, I met a king. Africa has many kings, some self proclaimed, while others are hereditary, and they run the gamut from despot to enlightened ruler. I have met more than a few in my travels, but had never before sought one out. The oral […]

by Lisa Alpine We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms […]

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 […]

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 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, […]

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 […]

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. […]