Hiroshima of the Caucasus

When traveling in a disputed Armenia-Azerbaijan region, Brother and I chance upon the ruins of an abandoned city.

White Christmas: Dinner with Dealers

When a dusty campground Christmas Eve in the Argentinian Patagonia takes a turn for the worse, we turn to the worst decade of pop culture for asylum. Or: the Calamitous Consequences of Watching Madagascar Penguins: A Christmas Caper

Dates in the Desert

To get fruits out of the skies A cunning plan must be devised.

Middle-Eastern Middle-Aged Cross-Examination

Upon concluding I'd done nothing of interest—legal or otherwise—the Qatari police began to ask me questions about my dating life.

Honesty, Honestly

Police control checkpoints in Congo are rich in wasted time, cash, and irony.

Kentucky-Fried Questin’

When a local KFC reopens, an attempt to win a year of free chicken begins.

The First Cut is the Deepest – Meeting the Bayaka People of the Congolese Rainforest

Late one evening in the library, my brother Shawn scrolled through satellite images on Google Earth. The first-year medical student probably spent a little too much time looking at images of exotic locales, daydreaming of what he might find there. This particular evening he was scrutinizing a remote region of the Congolese rainforest when he…

The International Perky Destruction Society

The death of a cantankerous family pet unexpectedly evokes grief, sadness, and a chance to look back on an international society once created to ensure the bird's demise.

Mercenary of Knowledge: More Conversations of a Substitute Teacher

Working as a substitute teacher: the pay is bad, The flexibility is nice, the absurd conversations are worth remembering.

Will Trade for Peanuts: Four Days in Los Nevados NP

A high-altitude backpacking trip to Colombia's Los Nevados NP is improved considerably by a chance friendship... and a hot spring pool made of the wreckage of a downed plane.