The Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos fiesta is underway in Mexico and the Mexican diaspora. Imbued with many rituals and ceremonies, it’s a fiesta to celebrate life not death, and the lives of long-gone beloved ancestors. For those of us in other parts of the world, it’s as good an excuse … Read more
“This is the graveyard of a young woman, eight months pregnant, who was killed by an elephant,” 55-year old Jane Mwamburi of Msorongo Village, Kenya, tells us through our guide and interpreter, Oliver. There are actually two graveyards, because the Taita people do not believe in burying a pregnant woman with her baby, Oliver reveals, … Read more
If these guys get any closer to my camera they’re going to be smack up against my lens, I think as I desperately try to keep the image in focus. We’re on a cultural visit to a Maasai village close to the Sarova Mara in the Masai Mara and I’m filming the Maasai warriors, resplendent in … Read more
Each day Desak and Kuman, the cook and housekeeper at our villa at Tumbak Bayuh, consult the Balinese calendar hanging on the kitchen wall. When Kiki, the villa manager, suggests we try to see a traditional ceremony while we’re on Bali, she heads inside to check the complicated almanac. While we naturally have difficulty deciphering … Read more