Unique Family Winery Tackles Challenges in Uncertain Climate
SAN JOSE, Uruguay – When siblings Tamara and Alejandro Rovere assumed control of the family winery in 2013 upon the death of their father, the word among their neighbors and friends was: “They’ll be out of business in two years.” Ten years later I was sitting with them on a newly constructed, elevated platform deck […]
Old-School Gaucho Develops New-Age Career
KIYU, Uruguay – Where there are cattle – lots of them – there has to be cowboys. That was the assumption I had after learning that tiny Uruguay leads the world in cattle per capita. An easier way to explain it: There are 3.5 million people living here. They are joined by 12 million cattle. […]
Uruguayan Woman OvercomesLong Odds En Route to Success
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – When Daniela Borba was a young girl, barely surviving with her single mother and four siblings in single-room shanty, she used to walk through a glitzy suburb of this capital city called Carrasco. She imagined owning a business there one day. And, truthfully, a fantasy was all it possibly could be. Although […]
Uruguay’s National Drink is MoreThan a Pick-Me-Up; It’s an Obsession
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – One of the first things you notice walking around this capital city of 1.5 million is that seemingly half the adults carry a thermos jammed into one of their armpits. On the opposite side, in their hand, they hold a mug with a metal straw protruding from the top. This was my […]
South America’s Best-Kept Secret
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – I’m walking along Sarandi, a pedestrian street in this capital city, with two Uruguayans, Alejandro Nowinski and Dario Queirolo. I’ve known them less than an hour. Already we’re fast friends. The best way to experience an unfamiliar country is hanging with locals. In this case, I’m in excellent company. Dario is a […]
Radio Personality Helps LeadGhana’s Feminist Movement
ACCRA, Ghana – I’m sitting with Ghana’s Queen of Evening Radio and feeling pretty good about it. It took me a week to track down Nana Akosua Hanson. We’re in her office at a French school – Alliance Francaise Accra – where she directs the culture department. It’s 5 p.m., the end of a long […]
African-American FamilyEmbraces Move to West Africa
ACCRA, Ghana – He remembers the day he walked out of Accra’s international airport and into a crush of humanity. All of them had a single thing in common. They were black. Like him. “It was,” says American Tony Jones, “the first time in my life I did not feel like a Black man. No […]
Young Visionary Leads NewAge Farming Movement
ACCRA, Ghana – The soil is fertile, the climate ideal. But, somehow, this west African nation of 32 million cannot feed itself. This dilemma is what motivated Desmond Koney to find a way to flip the script. It’s early on a Tuesday morning at Complete Farmer, the company Desmond founded and leads. The previous day […]
Indigenous Slavery: Unspoken Reality, Lingering Impact
ACCRA, Ghana – As an American, you can’t visit Ghana without thinking about slavery because a significant percentage of African Americans trace their lineage to this West African country. This I knew. But I was unaware the majority of slaves who ended up in the U.S., Caribbean and South America were already possessed property, owned […]