Reflections on Omaha Beach
Sand. As far as I could see, sand carpeted the expansive, harmless beach. Yet this wasn’t just any beach, and – seventy-one years before I arrived in 2015 – it was anything but harmless. My World...
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A Leopard’s Way
“Sighting of a leopard.” My head snaps up as the static voice crackles over the radio: “5 kilometers away.” I hold my breath and glance over to our tour guide (and terrifying driver) Lucas....
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Breathtaking Burials: Bogus or Believable?
My alarm goes off at 3 AM, and I begrudgingly roll out of bed to go dig up my great-grandfather’s corpse. I find myself tripping down the stairs; I’m not used to the dimly lit hallways because it’s...
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Religion and Revelry in Cuba
A window of opportunity opened last year, and through it I had the chance to travel to Cuba with my family, on a journey to trace my father’s heritage. He and his family fled during the revolution, each...
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Dust Motes
The dust motes. They floated with the ambience of rolling hills. A suspended colloid, only visible with a shaft of early morning sunlight piercing through the window of the electric bus, making those...
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Undressed in Atami
Our loaf-shaped tour bus wove up hilly roads to the New Akao Hotel, located in Atami of Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture. Its snow-white buildings had tucked themselves into leafy pockets on the rocky...
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A Rose in the Desert – Serenity in Damascus
Damascus, Syria, a city at the heart of a bloody war. A city that itself is a juxtaposition where life thrives only kilometers away from heavy conflict and war. After years of waiting, a turbulent flight...
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Setting Foot in a Nation of Faith and Resilience
A blank computer screen… This is the scholarship applicant’s dreaded nightmare, yet at the same time, the cherished dream of countless poverty-stricken Filipino sidewalk dwellers. Gratefully exchanging...
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