Category: Travel
-
Running in my blood
Niina MajaniemiPirkanmaa, Finland Some people are drawn to dancing, others to traveling or baking cakes. My passion is to torture myself by running for twenty-six miles, usually in very hot weather. Why? I could give you countless reasons. The thrill. The sense of achievement. Pushing boundaries. The blood pumping in my veins so strongly that…
-
A column of volcanic sand
David GulletteBoston, Massachusetts, United States Why shouldn’t a retired English professor devote himself to Public Health? I fell hard for Nicaragua in the 1980s, organizing Boston academics against Contra aid, visiting the country in 1986 with Father Steve Chinlund, meeting the famous poet/priest and Minister of Culture Ernesto Cardenal, and beginning to work on a…
-
Behind the green partition
James SmithUnited Kingdom Author’s note Any attempt to truly understand the impact of humanitarian crises on individual lives, particularly when perpetuated over the course of many years, may feel like an ever-receding ambition for those invested in humanitarian response. This is further complicated by sectoral advocacy strategies and programmes that speak of aggregate populations, and…
-
A visit to New York: A wonderful town
George DuneaChicago, IL Originally published in the British Medical Journal, December 8, 1979 New York remains exciting, vast, wonderfully alive. On Fifth Avenue, elegant ladies promenade in the sun, ride in horse carriages, spend their money at Gucci’s and Tiffany’s, or cast wistful eyes at the window where Empress Josephine’s tiara and the emerald-studded crown…
-
Beyond negativity
Lynn SadlerPittsboro, North Carolina, United States My husband Emory and I have traveled to China five times since participating in the (Eisenhower) People to People’s Citizen Ambassador Program from May 21 through June 2, 1995. Then we were members of a “Biofeedback Delegation to the People’s Republic of China” and visited educational and medical facilities and tourist…
-
Doctor on an expedition to the Antarctic
Bryan WalpoleHobart, Tasmania It is 0330, half an hour before change of watch. The sun low in the southeast glares painfully onto the bridge. Here at sixty-two degrees south icebergs abound, radar looks like a polka dot quilt, and a continuous layer of pancake ice with nasty growlers on the surface and a two meter…
-
Taking note from nature: The wild heart of Panama
Rachel KowalczykChicago, Illinois, United States It is a curious country, Panama, one-third protected wilderness and nearly 60% forested, best known for its canal, a colossal feat of human engineering. Having acquired a second hand experience of the country by editing a blog dedicated to travel in Central America, I availed myself of the opportunity to…
-
Body heat: September 1944
Winona WendthLancaster, Massachusetts, United States I traveled up to Terezin against my will. My writing instructor had made the assignment. “Just write down what you see,” he said at nine in the morning while we squeezed into the aisle of a public bus headed out from Prague. The vehicle was packed with dozens of laborers…
-
Travels with Genghis
Robert SchenckChicago, Illinois, United States At age 80 retired Rush University hand surgeon Robert R. Schenck, MD, seized the challenge of his life by driving an ambulance 10,000 miles from London to Mongolia for charity. He wrote a book, Travels with Genghis, to recount his many challenges, successes and cultural experiences in traversing 16 countries…