TEXT BY DONNA FORD
PHOTOS BY SARAH CONNER
Donna Ford lets us come with her to revisit a poignant season in her life that continues to resound nearly two decades later. We’re happy that through the photography of Sarah Conner, who is currently in the Guatemalan community that was so formative for Donna, we’re given extra glimpses into the scenes of this place.
STORY BY HEATHER M. SURLS, WITH TRANSLATION HELP BY MARADI AYED ALHAWARI
PHOTOS BY HALA MAHMOUD
Our resident correspondent in Amman has been working on this story for ages. As she ran into road block after road block, we thought we might have a mysterious mini-series on our hands, complete with legends, cracked-open doorways, and classical Arabic to decipher. But our intrepid writer persisted and now brings you a delicious story of the power of a multi-generational love affair with books.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY TOBI AMOSUN
Physician Tobi Amosun takes us along on her recent trip to Florence, where her science knowledge helps us better understand just how magnificent an accomplishment Michelangelo’s David is.
I had dreamed for years of going to Italy with friends for my 40th birthday.
This past summer, that dream trip happened.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MEGAN FINCK AND MIKE PLUNKETT
La caminata de Megan Finck y Mike Plunkett a una finca de café en Colombia nos sumerge en la historia de las alianzas que han ayudado a una comunidad a transformar su pasado sórdido en un presente floreciente que marca un futuro lleno de esperanza.
Megan Finck and Mike Plunkett’s hike to a Colombian coffee farm plunges us into a story of the partnerships that have helped a community transform its sordid past into a flourishing present that marks out a hopeful future.
STORY BY SCOTT J. WILL
Physician assistant Scott Will recently spent a month providing medical care to Rohingya people from Myanmar living in a large refugee camp outside Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. This journal-style article from him offers a behind-the-scenes view of aid worker life as well as offering a small introduction to the Rohingya people. He previously wrote for Culture Keeper about the family he gained while living in South Sudan for five years.
PHOTOS AND TEXT BY AMBER KIDNER
What do you think of when you imagine life in one of the world’s largest, pulsing cities? What markers of light and distinctiveness would you find there? Our contributor Amber Kidner describes what she’s come to love about her home du jour in Delhi, India. You’ll find her other From India with Love and Fire posts here.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY ARMON A. MEANS
It was the colors that surprised me the most. Color is wrapped into the essence of this place. Chiang Mai’s vibrancy is translated in hues of such intensity, often unlike anything I’ve come to know in the States. These colors were formed into surface and texture, adapting pattern and creating form across textiles such as scarves of hand-woven cashmere, and across silk dyed with such delicate precision that it seemed as if nature organically created the object itself.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MEGAN FINCK AND MIKE PLUNKETT
During a long-anticipated sabbatical in Medellín, Colombia, that took them deeper into this foreign-to-them culture than life as a tourist allows for, experienced travelers Mike and Megan discovered the secret crevices where the triggers of culture shock hide in plain sight. And then they had a choice to make.
PHOTOS AND TEXT BY AMBER KIDNER
Says our resident contributor based in India, “Delhi is a stressful city to live in. Most people say so and that is my experience as well. I’m often drained of words and empathy and playful impulses. Author Lydia Davis and her very short stories guide me once again in attempting to apply words and images to some of our family’s encounters these past few months.”
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOEL CARILLET
Joel Carillet's 2017 travels have included stretches of time in a country that regularly dominates the world's news cycles. In this photo essay for Culture Keeper, he introduces us to people and stories that don't make the headlines, but that are just as instructive in creating a true portrait of Iraq as are all the other stories we hear.
Last week we depended on words to recount a story of travel to Iona, Scotland. In today's article the voyage is recounted solely through the images captured by a group of photographers who traveled together to the legendary island.
STORY BY DEVON ANNE FARMER
PHOTOS BY JC JOHNSON
This week our Culture Keeper passports take us to the famed but tiny Scottish island of Iona for a fleeting moment of reflection, as recounted by our newest Culture Keeper contributor.
In A.D. 563 after being banished from his native Ireland, St. Columba landed on Iona in the Southern Hebrides with the intention of bringing Celtic monasticism and Christianity to Scotland as penance. The island happened to be the first spot he reached from which he could no longer see the outline of his beloved Ireland in the distance.
