Our bridge is only a few hundred hauled-stones away from completion when I wander up the hill following a rumor that the men of the Quelqanqa are constructing a traditional “earth oven” or pachamanca in…
Browsing Category culture
getting to the period
getting to the period Africa is a guru, of whom any and every encounter provides another opportunity to master grace in the practice of patience. And just as my lids close down and wipe clean…
if it be the will
if it be the will “Just pulled into Tamba. Don’t worry about me okay?” I type in and send the text message to Mbouille on the cell phone that he insisted I buy. By…
reading and misreading the languages between
…continued bush taxi adventure in Senegal A “sept place” taxi is called, “seven places” for the most obvious reason: it has seven seats for passengers; two rows in the back seating three to each and…
naked white
a brave minority I climb off his motorbike at the taxi station and Mbouille shows me the palm of his hand; “Stay here. If they see a white person, they will raise the price.”…
bush taxi, part i: pride in a name
(Playing Part in the Diallo Family) Portland, Oregon The fact that our food is thirty minutes tardy is hardly given a wink of conscious thought; our mouths full, with the gossip that spans the…
un-tethered time
You know that sometimes my only clues to an ongoing holiday are the icons that dance around the Yahoo and Google front pages? The funny thing about holidays, which I think is only taken into…
sacred ego stomping
The Sacred Lake Namtso (For more stories from Tibet, visit the archives for April, 2005. For more pictures from Tibet, visit the Tibet Photogallery.) I’m in the mood for a story. And this one is…
city funhouse
Oh. He’s looking at me funny. Yep. He’s cocking his head and scrunching up his nose. It’s definitely coming. Uh huh…here he goes! “Did that hurt?” I play dumb. I know exactly what he’s referencing…
a day in the life
Sometime in the last few months I picked up a new personal meal-prompted ritual. And it only slightly (and admittedly irrationally) bothers me that onlookers might presume I’m Christian (which I, although a fan of…