Go Black Stars! Ghana goes bananas! Tranquilo Traveler digs up World Cup 2006 posts

June 13th, 2010 | By Joshua | No Comments »

As Ghana celebrates its first win in the 2010 World Cup, I thought I’d take a look back. Exactly four years ago, my wife and I were living in Accra, a crusty capital on the coast of West Africa, where we were volunteering with Planned Parenthood. The country was deep in World Cup fever for the national team, the Black Stars, which had advanced farther in the tournament than any other African team had ever done in history. Sutay and I watched soccer on TV every day, all over the country, at work, at home, in restaurants, and once during our travels in the rural north, we watched World Cup football under the stars in the chief’s compound.

Here are a few images and stories from that experience:

VIDEO of Ghana youth going nuts over a goal

Accra: sight-free, soccer-insane city by the seaGame On! Ghana vs. USA today…

Jubilation! Ghana 2 - USA 1! Everybody’s Dancin’…

Back from the Bush: Two Weeks in Northeast Ghana

Rest In Peace Professor Khwaja Masud (1922–2010)

March 19th, 2010 | By Joshua | No Comments »

By far, the most commented-upon entry I have ever posted is “Why We Came to Pakistan: Gordon College, Rawalpindi, and our search for Dr. Stewart.”

The comments section is a remarkable tribute to two respected educators, one of whom is my wife’s great grandfather, and the other is Prof. Masud. The writers are mostly Pakistani expats living around the world, all of them former students of R.R. and Professor Masud.
The family has set up a memorium page here.

Obit by Adil Najam: “Earlier this month (on January 17), Prof. Khawaja Masud - teacher, mathematician, philosopher, activist, progressive, and truly an intellectual’s intellectual - died in Islamabad.”

A few years ago, this family took us in and helped nurse my wife when she got sick. We are ever grateful for this and we send the Professor’s family our strength and love.

Cooking Classes in Thailand: Tranquilo mention on Ephemerratic

September 24th, 2009 | By Joshua | No Comments »

The round-the-worlders over at ephemerratic.com are exploring cooking classes in Chiang Mai in their latest post:

“I’ve taken a cooking class here and there on this trip and never regretted it – the market tour helps me identify mysterious street food, and since you usually make more than one meal’s worth of dishes, it’s a kind-to-the-budget activity. Chiang Mai also seems to have as many cooking classes as pimped out golden Buddhas.”

LINK->

Passionate immersive travelers surf cardboard signs through European cities: ExperienceLess and Trourists

September 20th, 2009 | By Joshua | 4 Comments »

Created for those “who travel to live destinations, not visit them,” ExperienceLess is the collaborative effort of a loose group of “trourists” (I know, say it 3 times fast) who, lacking “real experiences at an unfamiliar destination,” sit out with cardboard signs inviting strangers to invite them into their city for the night. To me, their postmodern couchsurfing and shouting about “the difference between visiting a city and living it,”

“HELP!!! I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR MUSEUMS AND I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR STATUES. AND, ABOVE ALL, I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR CITY. I  WANT TO LIVE IT.”

invites a rehash of the tired, old “traveler vs. tourist” debate (I’ve always agreed with Kelsey Timmerman that, ultimately, we’re ALL tourons, get over it). (more…)

Transitions Abroad on “what makes long-term travelers tick”

August 18th, 2009 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

That’s what pro-hobo and travel writer Nora Dunn addresses in “The Motivation for Long-Term Travel,” interviews with six creative and dedicated full-time travelers. Each profilee has a strong web presence as well so if anything, just browsing their blogs will introduce you to a few interesting people and families. Enjoy.

Street art in Spain and Portugal

October 19th, 2008 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Todd and Lauren just posted a slide show of street art they saw in Spain and Portugal. UPDATE: The round-the-world, ephemerratic couple has landed in Delhi and remains Eastward-bound …

Africa Trek—Couple’s 8,700-mile Walking Honeymoon across Africa now Available in the U.S.

September 29th, 2008 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

Alexandre and Sonia Poussin took a three-year honeymoon to walk from the Cape of Good Hope to the Sea of Galilee. Originally published in 2004 in France, the Poussins’ story has become somewhat of a European phenomenon and is now available in the U.S.

“Most people,” says Alexandre, “approach Africa with fear, a lot of organization, and little time. We had faith, confidence, and no prejudice on one side; no organization, tour operator, or back-up team of any kind on the other; and no time limit.” One of the extraordinary goals of the trip was to meet people—normal, everyday Africans, “to better understand them, and understand the issues of their lives…. Our approach was anything but sophisticated: one footstep after another, for almost ever…. And let it be. Let adventure be.”

This is sure to be a phenomenal read and a close-up of introduction to the amazing individuals the Poussins met. I’m hoping it will inspire my own extended-honeymoon storytelling.

The result is a stunning collection of Africa Trek books, as well documentary DVDs which have been featured as a mini-series on the Travel Channel and are coming to a PBS station near you.
[LINK]: Official Africa Trek home page — the video is amazing.

Putumayo Records Releases Round-the-World Sesame Street Disks

September 19th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Putumayo Records has produced some of my favorite world music compilations. Ever. (Their Kids’ division’s recent release, African Dreamland, is particularly amazing and tranquil.) Sesame Street is a global phenomenon that has entertained and educated children in 120 countries and scores of languages. I can’t wait to hear what this collision of goodness brings. I just ordered Sesame Street Playground, a two-disk CD/DVD of Sesame Street productions from Brazil, France, China, India, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Palestine, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, and the U.S. We’re talkin’ “Rubber Ducky” in Chinese and “Galli Galli Sim Sim” in Hindi. I just love that it’s now part of my job to track this stuff down. I’ll let you know how it sounds when it gets here. In the meantime:

[LINK]: Making-of “Sesame Street Playground” video

[LINK]: NYT article on Sesame Street going global

[LINK]: Putumayo Kids

[LINK]: Putumayo Presents Music Videos from Around the World

Daniela Petrova on the Pitfalls of Volunteering Abroad

August 29th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

In her recent article for World Hum, “A Tourist With a Shovel and a Hoe,” writer Daniela Petrova “looked down her nose at tourists there to have a good time. But was her own motivation much different?” She hits on the main conundrum that faces short-term international volunteers—the actual effectiveness of such programs. Having been on a dozen such trips, mostly with American Jewish World Service, I’m well aware of this issue. A group might spend nearly $30,000 to visit a village and help build a school that costs $2,000 for a local non-governmental organization whose entire annual budget might be less than $20,000. What’s the point? (more…)

Über–Tranquilo Travelers Depart on Slow, Ephemerratic Round-the-World Quest: TheArtDontStop and LBoogie are Eastward Bound

July 28th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

The happy departing couple (a.k.a. Todd Berman and Lauren Girardin, a.k.a. my brother and sister-in-law) was last seen in Phillie, hop-skipping across the country before launching overseas for a year. They began in San Francisco with goodbye grafitti on the wall of an old police station in the Mission. They proceeded eastward and have been posting a slow flurry of cheesesteaks and sculpture gardens, warmin’ up the keys of their (momentarily) state-of-the-art microcomputer as they travel through exotic Midwestern cultures.

Their humble Quest?

“… To meet strangers and strange people … To eat wildy and locally. To tell you stories and show you artwork.”

For one year. Todd is mostly a sketch-pad and canvas kind of a guy while Lauren is more of a photog/website ninja. The resulting clash of wanderlusting, creative getupandgo is Ephemerratic.com—which I recommend bookmarking right … about … now.

First stop: Morocco.