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(Dana) It feels like Christmas morning. I have wanted to trek to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda for years. It’s finally here. Will we find them? Will our interaction meet expectations? Will it have been worth the effort to find some of the last 800 of these animals on earth? The process that leads to […]

(Dana) Walking for hours through the African bush with the hopes of coming across an elephant, giraffe or buffalo is something man has been doing for thousands of years. In Ruaha National Park in central Tanzania, we are privileged to walk in those same footsteps. Ruaha is approximately the size of New Jersey and receives […]

(Dana) A group of ladies from the Akha Ghepia hill tribe are gathered to make a headdress for their friend who will marry this week. One bends bamboo into the hat frame. Another stretches the hand-spun, hand-woven, indigo-dyed cotton fabric over the frame. Several other women sew coins onto ribbon pieces, thread colored beads and […]

(Dana) In 2014, hundreds of thousands of visitors to Myanmar followed the standard tourist loop, including the stunning sites of Bagan, Mandalay, Inle Lake and Yangon. As I learned in 2014, the former Burma is a fantastic country filled with lovely people and perched on the brink of a tourist explosion. In 2015, I wanted […]

(Dana) The Arctic. A place where the sun never sets in the summer…literally. Where the only metropolis boasts 1,800 inhabitants. That has no recorded history before the early 1500’s. Where it’s 40-degrees F during the hottest month of July. Where glaciers drop building-size icebergs into the clear water. Where it’s so sparse you can go […]

(Dana) In January, Cambodian Living Arts annual board meeting took me half-way around the world. To justify the expense and travel time, I opted for a second week away and detoured to Myanmar. Where? Myanmar…the country formerly known as Burma. Like many Americans, I had the impression that Myanmar was still romantically undiscovered. After all, […]

(Dana) Admittedly, we all have a natural fascination with spotting predators – lions, leopards, wild dogs.  But elephants are the animals the 6 of us have grown to love during our time in Africa. We relish the times when they have come near to observe them up-close. Most Americans have seen an elephant in a […]

(Dana) In many cultures, there is a rite of passage – an event that marks the transition into adulthood.  At home, some teens become a bar/bat mitzvah; others are confirmed.  In the Hamar tribe in Southern Ethiopia, girls of marrying age (14/15) are circumcised.  Boys of ~18-21 prove their maturity through bull jumping. When a […]

The Medina (ancient walled city) of Marrakech is known for its Souks (markets) and for good reason.  Winding kilometers of narrow streets are packed with shops and stalls selling a wide variety of the same stuff: colorful babouche (handmade slippers), polished wood boxes, metal lanterns, vibrant scarves, chunky silver jewelry, aromatic spices, woven reed bags […]

Naya sala mubaraka ho! Feliz Año Nuevo! furaha ya mwaka mpya! Hamingjusamur Nytt Ar! Stastny Novy Rok! Happy New Year!   Which photo do we use for our holiday card? When will the cards get back from the printer? Are all of our addresses up-to-date? Did we buy enough international stamps? This holiday, we decided […]