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The Wait: 37 Minutes of Hell in a Grocery Store

I visited my favorite Italian specialty grocery store the other day. I only needed three items, but I was on a...

Uruguayan Woman Overcomes
Long Odds En Route to Success

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – When Daniela Borba was a young girl, barely surviving with her single mother and four si...

Uruguay’s National Drink is More
Than a Pick-Me-Up; It’s an Obsession

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – One of the first things you notice walking around this capital city of 1.5 million is th...

South America's Best-Kept Secret

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – I’m walking along Sarandi, a pedestrian street in this capital city, with two Uruguayans...

Radio Personality Helps Lead
Ghana’s Feminist Movement

ACCRA, Ghana – I’m sitting with Ghana’s Queen of Evening Radio and feeling pretty good about it. It took me a...

African-American Family
Embraces Move to West Africa

ACCRA, Ghana – He remembers the day he walked out of Accra’s international airport and into a crush of humanit...

Young Visionary Leads New
Age Farming Movement

ACCRA, Ghana – The soil is fertile, the climate ideal. But, somehow, this west African nation of 32 million ca...

Indigenous Slavery: Unspoken Reality, Lingering Impact

ACCRA, Ghana – As an American, you can’t visit Ghana without thinking about slavery because a significant perc...

The Old Man in the Village

WUTE, Ghana – The old man sits on the porch of a village house that once belonged to his mother. In three days...

Complicated Quest for Maiden West Africa Journey

ACCRA, Ghana – I walk out of the airport and into the city where, like many developing world capitals, you ins...

Activist Works Day – and Night – for Social Reform

SKOPJE, North Macedonia – I’m sitting in front of Vegen365Kitchen waiting for an 11 a.m. appointment with its...

Warning! Showing me photos might cause harm to your cell phone

I was invited to a cocktail party the other night at the home of a friend named Bob. He’s also a contractor wh...

Macedonia vs Macedonia: A Dispute with No End

SKOPJE, North Macedonia – In the U.S., we have two Dakotas, two Carolinas and a pair of Virginias. Any issues...

Mayor Leads Village to Surprising Success

DEIR EL GHAZAL, Lebanon – Amid a collapsed banking system, corrupt and ineffective government and resulting na...

Young Albanians, Seeking Independence, Caught Between Old Ways - and the New

TIRANA, Albania – During the few nights I spent in this capital city I noticed the cafes and bars in my neighb...

Albanian Community Service
Activist Leads by Example

KRUJE, Albania – For the past several years I’ve served as a judge for a national service organization that aw...

Film Producer’s Work Helps
Ease Scars from Communist Era

TIRANA, Albania – To truly appreciate and understand freedom you either had to have fought for it or lived und...

Bonding at Breakfast with Tirana Hotelier

TIRANA, Albania – I’m eating breakfast at the City Hotel Tirana. A plain omelet, chunk of feta cheese, tasty l...

Teenaged Asylum-Seeker Returns Home to Forge Previously Unthinkable Career

TIRANA, Albania – In my 17th summer, I was preparing for my final year of high school and thinking about which...

Technology Enhances Travel, Diminishes Adventure

TIRANA, Albania – Last night, the White Sox beat the Yankees in a 9-8 thriller at the Dyersville, Iowa ballfie...