Crossing Turkey-Syria BorderRequires Patience of Job – and Luck
BAB EL HAWA, Syria – The red letters read “Welcome to Syria.” They’re painted on a large billboard just off the narrow, bumpy road that connects southeast Turkey and northwest Syria. Over five days, I’ve driven from Paris, across Europe through southwestern Asia on my way to Damascus. It’s twilight. Traffic is light. Surely it […]
Elderly Ex-Pats Call Belizean Jungle Home
GALES POINT, Belize – On the day after his 72nd birthday – April 12 – Bruce Minnick waded bare-bottomed into chilly Quamina Creek. We had just trekked several miles over rugged terrain, deep into the jungle in eastern Belize, to visit his longtime friend, Dorthea Shaw, who was living on his property. The water made […]
The Deaths of Two Women in a War With No End
The first hours of March 11, 1978 were unusually stormy off the South Lebanon coast. Into the teeth of the foul weather, 13 Palestinians launched a small vessel in the dark waters near Sidon. Several miles from shore, they transferred to a pair of rubber dinghies and headed south toward the Israel coast. Along the […]
Chance Meeting with Romanian Teen Alters His Life – Forever
BUCHAREST, Romania – I was on a seven-week reporting trip through Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East in summer, 1990. My mode of transportation was a bug-sized Renault I leased in Paris. The drive from there to Damascus, Syria, and back was a distance of 8,470 challenging, sometimes frightening, but never boring kilometers. I […]
Ex-Pat Author’s Life Matches His Fiction
BUENOS AIRES — Andover. Yale Law School. Wall Street. That was the life scripted for him by his father so many years ago. But Warren Kiefer had other ideas, and they didn’t include pin-striped suits or 9 a.m. board meetings. “It was my anti-father stance,” he says, emitting a raspy, deep-throated chuckle. “I was rebellious.” […]
Paris in Early Summer: A Busy, Intoxicating Place
PARIS – If it’s spring it must be Paris. But this is summer, before the French go on holiday, and the city is crowded and noisy. Young backpackers, on the European circuit, crowd the sidewalks and cafes on the south side of the Seine River, known as the Left Bank. On the chic northside a […]
In Search of Lech, Kielbasa and a bottle of beer
WARSAW – I’m sitting in the big, white palace waiting to meet the president. OK, that’s a stretch. I’m actually waiting to meet Beata Majkowska, who works for the president. You know the guy, Lech Walesa, one of the great men of our time. And you know his story: Poor shipyard electrician from Gdnask organizes […]