The Sacred Fire: Healing a Nation
I remember my auntie Kate. She was just a child when the Canadian authorities took her away to residential school. My father and the older uncles, though, had a different fate—they were given a 'choice.' They told them: 'Go to residential school or join the army and fight in World War II.'
The craftsman of Cairo
The difference between craftmanship today and back in the day is the absence of true skill. Craftsmen today are overly reliant on machines, which is not how I started. The first step before doing any work was always to sharpen the knifes with granite stones by hand […]
The Pharmacist of Tetovo
"Don’t you find it embarrassing that an Albanian girl is better than you?" the teacher told the other students after I had gotten once again the best grade in class. I stood there in the room, listening to every word. I didn't know what to do or say […]
How a boy discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb
“I have been living here since my childhood. I'm a man who never went to any school. Instead I spent my childhood working with archaeological missions […] I was following the footsteps of my father and grandfather.”
Chronicles of Cairo: The Shaikh's Legacy
Exploring the thousand year old city of Cairo has it’s unique thrill. You imagining the stories, laughter and cries the stone walls around you witnessed. The moment you leaving the main roads and get lost in the maze of back alleys, you would think that time has stood still if a phone wouldn’t ring every now and then.
Echoes of Innocence: A Tale from Gaza
He woke up on a tranquil winter morning in Khan Yunis oblivious to what he would witness on the same day. How blissful these moments of ignorance were. The rising sun colored the roofs of the refugee camp he called home after a week of stormy weather.
Relativity and sneakers in the mountains of Nepal
I didn’t have to think twice when my boss walked to my desk on a Thursday afternoon and asked me if I wanted to represent him at a conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, starting the following Monday. The opportunity to visit a region I only knew from National Geographic Magazines, a place that seemed not only far but also unreachable, was intriguing.
About tents, scorpions and mafia bosses
Doing something for the first time always entails a certain thrill, until habit sets in and it becomes just some mundane task. Traveling to Jordan by boat from Egypt is no different. The excitement slowly builds up while driving to the port and seeing the ferry in the distance waiting to take you to new shores.
When dying on a plane
A frail man in a wheelchair, dressed in a white track suit, catches my attention. He is parked next to the line boarding the plane along with his family. Maybe he is waiting for some assistance, I wonder. My thoughts leave him behind and drift to finally returning home after months in strange lands. I find my seat to start and looking for my book…
Five lessons on life from a lifetime of seeking
“Nothing matters in life, only the experience. If you do something ten times and don’t get the experience, it is a waste of time. But if you do it only once and get the experience that is the world […]”
Dracula in the desert
“Let me tell you this” Mohamed started his story “Some things in the desert you can only believe after you see them – otherwise you will laugh and call them old-wives’ tales. This is true.
Tales of the desert road
“Awful” is not enough to describe the desert road to Siwa. Back in the day sand dunes covering the road for dozens of kilometers and potholes large enough to swallow cars were regular sights.
Varosha: The birth of a Ghost City
Nothing symbolizes the Cypriot division better than Varosha. A once popular holiday destination that turned to a ghost city. The exodus of its population was triggered by the Turkish invasion in 1974
The fruit vendors
Roaming through the Alexandrine streets and daydreaming of ancient treasures buried underneath my feet - I spot two fruit vendors, in the late afternoon sun…
How we are all the same - deep inside
If I learned something in North Korea, it is that humans no matter where they are, almost always want the exact same things. People want to be happy about themselves and their lives. In that regard the people there are not very different from us. They want to have, a for them meaningful job and decent living conditions and be able to start a family. That’s what they aspire. So do most of us. But the environment in which they try to achieve this, is very different from ours.
A lesson on horse breeding and human genetics
“So, how did you like North Korea?” The senior guide asked me on my last day.
“I loved it… How can I apply for citizenship?”
“Haha, you can’t, because this would mean you will need a Korean wife.”
“Why?”
“Do you know the horse?”
“Mmm, yes?”
How children’s curiosity almost always wins
Behind this picture lies my favorite story from Korea. While walking around in the Pyongyang Zoo I saw these three girls walking next to each other arm in arm. I thought: "This might be an interesting shot". The moment I pulled my camera out, the two girls on the right turned around to hide. The girl on the left didn’t move and smiled. I took this picture, opened the preview of my camera to show her the pictures and waved at her to come. Hesitantly she came, while her friends’ faces froze…
The red band and how you never know the truth
The red armband this elderly person is wearing means most likely that this is a “Public Security Volunteer". Such volunteers are usually elderly people, who help people in need or the police with "safety inspections". But I am not sure. This image symbolizes for me how difficult it was to really understand what was going on around me.
The Mao Suit and Bond villains
This boy is wearing a so called Zhongshan Suit or “Mao Suit” or as Koreans would call it a “closed collar, Western-style garment”. The legends say that Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the first provisional president of the Republic of China, wanted to create a national dress in the early 1900s. The idea of the design was to project a new, confident China, by combining eastern and western styles.
Seollal on Kim Il Sung Square
This picture was taken on Seollal, the first day of the Korean lunar calendar. In North Korea New Year is celebrated three times: Seollal (Lunar New Year), Gregorian (The one we use in Europe) and the Juche New Year.
On Seollal North Koreans dress in traditional clothes and put flowers in front of the grand bronze statues we saw in an earlier post. Selected people may even visit the Mausoleum of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il