Durga Puja: Praying to the Demon Slayer
Fiercest of all Goddesses, consort of Shiva the Destroyer & Source of the Universe, Durga is the most revered deity in all of West…
Emergency in El Salvador
Right after posting my entry on AJWS, the spirit of tikkun olam (healing the world), and the inspiration of Jose “Chencho” Alas, I received…
We are very far from the earthquake in Pakistan!
In fact, I didn’t even find out about the earthquake until I went to check my email and saw half a dozen “Are you…
Traveling with American Jewish World Service
Our work on the “labor lines,†as the palm-lined neighborhoods of plantation-provided row houses are called, begins at four in the afternoon, when the…
Outstanding Article about the Indian Tea Crisis
“A Machete, A Uterus, and Indian Tea,†by Charles Norman Todd, is an excellent breakdown that explains why the workers are starving.
Bengali Winter: The North Winds are A-Blowin’
We said goodbye to Sarmishtha and Debasish on the first day of winter. Or close to it, anyway. It was raining and fifteen degrees…
The Man Who Sells Me My Toilet Paper
Note the tee-shirt-resting-on-the-belly method of keeping cool, an extremely popular practice in both Nicaragua and West Virginia.
Map: Birpara Town, Jalpaiguri District, North Bengal
When I showed my map of Birpara to Tay, and asked her if I’d missed anything, I was startled when she immediately declared “Yes! 
Palm Reading: Of Mystery and Marriage
The first time I had my palm read on this round-the-world trip was by a man named Manzoor in the back of a Pakistani…
Quote of the week…
“The profoundest satisfaction in travel is a sense of discovery, the private thrill of seeing something new or seeing it in a new way….