By Haifa Mahabir
21 Hours in Rwanda
Between April and June of 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days. Most of the dead were Tutsis—and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus. The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his […]
By Marianne Rogoff
The lights have come on, the night is falling, life changes its face.
One way or another I have to keep on living.
My soul burns like a hand, physically.
I’m on the road of all men and they bump against me.
~ Fernando Pessoa
***
My hotel is as I pictured it, simple with all the comforts: nice […]
By Juliette de Campos
In a final act of desperation I went to the Guatemalan countryside to consult a witchdoctor. It’s my habit during times of turmoil to go straight to the source. Forget the psychotherapist offering opportunities to find the answers within. I prefer to skip over trial and error and get my empiricism the […]
By Tom Cheche
***
Shade kept us from seeing the sign. The narrow country lane, devoid of traffic, meandered through farmland of the Cotinten bathed in glorious autumn sun, highlighting roadside fields of squat, manicured apple trees but intensifying darkness in the occasional stretch through a palisade of looming shade trees. It was a rough board nailed […]
By Catherine Watson
I was in Ecuador, on my way to a folklore performance, sharing a ride with two other tourists – a middle-aged Canadian woman and a young computer guy from California. They started comparing notes on their Latin American travels. I didn’t join in. I’d seen the continent edge to edge over the previous […]
By Ginny Horton
I have been Maria Von Trapp on many a mountainside. Isak Denisen eating on fine china
in Kenya by day. Ernest Hemingway smoking cigars and drinking warm scotch around the campfire by night. I have yet to be diagnosed as schizophrenic but have undergone distinct personality changes while traveling. It begins with the accent, […]
By Elizabeth Galewski
My alarm went off and I shot out of the hard bed in my dingy Delhi hotel room, every cell in my body charged and eager. I was going to fly to London that day. I was going to pack up my bags, go to the airport, and fly to London. I was […]
By Rebecca L. Dougher
Shane beckons me from the opposite bank of the stream, arms outstretched.
“You can do it,” he shouts over the noise of the rapids. “Just try to land on this rock.”
“You’re out of your mind!” A hard second look at the slippery moss-covered stone isn’t reassuring. Still, it’s the only way: either jump, […]
By Tom Bentley
Dogs. Man’s best friend, perhaps. Man-on-bicycle’s best friend? I don’t think so. All bicyclists face the occasional pursuing dog, and when an actual chase occurs, it’s easy to give in to blind fear, rather than employ any rational technique to disperse the dogs or the fear. But what if you lived in a […]
By Jennifer Williams
At low tide, the white sands of Mombasa’s northern beaches stretch nearly half a mile out to sea. The shore is framed by palm trees, run-down hotel buildings, and wooden stalls selling fried cassava chips and cold Coca-Cola; in the distance, the vivid blue of the Indian Ocean is flecked with the faded […]
