In a small Amazon settlement yesterday, a young boy walked up to Gladys Gonzales during a game and tugged on her arm to announce his dad had died. He cried, and she hugged him until he cried no more. Kids in peril, she says, need love. She meets…
Eleven years ago, Dutch visitors took a boat out to Cristina and Victor's home on a manmade island in Lake Titicaca. They stayed nearly two weeks in their house on their manmade floating island, on the world's highest navigatable lake in t…
Martin the German is a six-foot-five elementary teacher... who was my roomie in the hostel for most of my extra five days. We watched World Cup and yelled at the sleeping German team that one game... and it wasn't until the last day when fate…
THE POET. Sitting in the Plaza de Armas and people watching is my favorite pastime in Arequipa. Soon after I arrived, a guy walked by selling something, passed me, paused, walked a few steps back and said hello. Luis Fernando Aspajo Pozo is a poe…
On this journey around the world promoting the idea of do-it-yourself change, and highlighting others who are making a difference, I come across some interesting characters. People who are on their own pilgrimages ... to celebrate anniversaries, t…
Here's the artisan who made my one souvenir I'm bringing home from El Sauce: A leather belt, black of course, with a big silver belt buckle like the "vaceros" (va-care-ohs) wear up in Las Minitas and, as I'm told, during festi…
When I bought my one-way ticket to Limerick, the train cashier in Dublin was baffled that I would go live in "Stab City." It's not the most exciting city in Ireland but I liked it quite much and it still has a bad rep. Warring famili…
My final trip up to Las Minitas, to hang out with the kids in the new preschool. Marisela was helping them with creativity and, likely, some control, because they needed some help tracing their hands to make pictures. she's awesome with the kid…
It's my final day in El Sauce before I take off for Peru and Bolivia, and I think EVERY friend of mine from Las Minitas from the cofee and tourism cooperatives is in town. Even the ones I never see. Alcides and Nicholas, and then Emiliano and…
