Dear Friends, I got bitten by the travel bug again, after more than eight months of staying put around my home base of Orange County, California. I gave South America some serious consideration, especially now that it is summer in the more southern and chilly parts of the continent. But for various reasons, the most important of which is the chance to meet up with my brother Abdul, I settled on Africa. He is roaming around South Africa now … [Read more...]
Bicycling Baja California
La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico January 06, 2003 Baja 1000 and more Finally!! The Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees north latitude, the start of the tropics) is almost upon us after a twelve hundred mile chase down the spine of Baja California, Mexico. From Orange County, California I joined my German pal Bernhard Koch, whom I had met while cycling in Alaska in 2001, to ride our bicycles down the 'Carreterra Transpeninsular', the Mexican … [Read more...]
The Land of Men with Flaming Orange Beards
As soon as we stepped out of the shiny terminal of Lahore International Airport in Lahore, Pakistan, my uncle Waheed and I were overcome by the smell of kerosene. I thought at first that there must be a spill nearby, because it was so strong. Eventually we found our ride among all the cabbies and rickshaw drivers, who were jostling among themselves for customers. It was a twenty or thirty minute slog to get into the city from the airport. It was … [Read more...]
Where is the Ho Chi Minh Trail?
Saigon, Dec. 14, 2004 Director Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' is a movie about the Vietnam War. Nowadays it is also a swanky bar in the heart of modern Saigon, Vietnam. I have yet to visit it, after having arrived in Saigon today from Hanoi, but I have heard that it enjoys a locally notorious reputation for fast cars, fast drugs, and fast women. It might be wiser to start with the tamer entertainment establishments of this utterly … [Read more...]
Swiftboating the Mekong River
Pnomh Penh, Cambodia Dec. 19, 2004 After a hot and sweaty bus ride south from Saigon, I thought we reached the South China Sea when we first came across this open body of water. Then the driver filled us in that this was the Mekong River, still sixty kilometers inland from the sea. It is a truly massive river, a good deal wider than the Mississippi River down by New Orleans. From its headwaters in Tibet it has traveled about 4300 kilometers … [Read more...]
Smoke the Revolution
Havana, Cuba March 25, 2003 Dear Friends, Greetings from Cuba!! Just a couple of weeks before my departure to Havana, I could not have imagined soaking up the warm and humid trade winds here on this beautiful Caribbean Island. Instead I was entertaining thoughts of attending a Spanish course in Guatemala, when my old pal Jimmy Bentley called out of the blue to tell me he was looking for a nutcase to join him in defying the US embargo of … [Read more...]
Finland has no Fjords
October 17, 2002 The advantage of freezing weather is that foods like milk, cheese, and meats don't go bad when they're stuffed in the panniers (the saddlebags) of a bicycle. It also seems to slow the rotting of fruits and vegetables. And drinking water is always refreshingly cold. The disadvantages, however, are that the bicycle chain seems stiffer and more resistant to pedaling no matter how much lubrication it gets. The camera's film … [Read more...]
My Trip to Moxico and Angolan History (Part I)
Report by Jo Ann von Haff Pictures by Father Ornelas Stay in Lwena, Moxico Province from August 12th to August 22nd 2002 - Lwena (Angola) Monday, August 12th 2002 Day 1 Luanda At 6 AM, I had a glimpse of what my life could become in a couple of years. To wake up at 4 AM and have a 12 kilo bag and to take a plane at 6 AM, when 90% of the population is still sleeping. It was still dark; the air was fresh and windy. Only a few buses … [Read more...]
Loitet
Loitet is the toughest man I ever knew. I love him. He is my hero. A man who knew me before I knew myself. Who has memories of me that I do not. Loitet is black. Jet black, beautiful black. So black that on a dark moonless night he is invisible unless he smiles. And what a smile. Bold gleaming teeth and eyes full of mischief. Loitet tells me that my first language was also his. That a tiny blonde American toddler could speak Turkana before she … [Read more...]
Mohammed And The Crocodile
In 1979 I was 18 years old and living with my family on a mission outpost in Northern Kenya. I was invited to go with a similar organization on a two-week trip to show a film called "The Jesus Film" and meet people in several area communities. There was quite a mix of young people. We had youth from several tribal groups including Maasai, Samburu, Kikuyu, a German, me- an American and an old Somali man named Mohammed. (From my vantage point 20 … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 125
- 126
- 127
- 128
- 129
- …
- 147
- Next Page »