[Thread] As a Brown woman from a working class background (lower middle class in my folks’ final working days),I acknowledge my incredible privilege + opportunities in the last 13 yrs of my career to travel widely &engage with the world.We took one cross country trip as a family

This is the longest I’ve been in one space but every day I’m thankful to have a comfortable home, wonderful people living with me & we can take care of each other. I miss the field:
1. tea plantation, Azores. 2.Interview in Alice, SA 3. interview Qunu; 4. interview Clarens, SA

As an unimpressed toddler (see 4) my world comprised my paternal grandfolks in Merebank, prayers, rituals, the scent of spices, my mother’s sense of duty.
1. Ultra Orthodox community in Bnei Brak 2. Interview Kakheti, Georgia 3. Machu Picchu (the 2nd time ) 4. Little Moi

Anyway, from the top of canyons, to glaciers and savannas, the most fascinating has always been the people I’ve met, and when lucky, those who granted me access to their worlds
1. Sledding in Greenland 2. Southern Tunisia 3. Copper Canyon, Mexico 4. northern lights Ilulissat

I’ll be adding to this thread randomly, if anything as a reminder to myself of my existence in a broader world & stories I’m yet to write
1. Uxmal ruins, Yucatan. 2. Seal suit in spite of fur allergies, Greenland
-40 deg C 3. Sete Cidades, Azores 4. Buskers, Escadaria Selarón

People ask why food? And expect the “great unifier”. Lucky that I have a good appetite, but it’s just an entry point into larger conversation about history, class, politics
1. Outside Stone Town 2. Rarámuri woman, Copper Canyon 3. Bedouin cameleers, Sahara, Tunisia 4. Malta

If I look at the quality of experiences and access I gained by paying local guides, interpreters and going off-path, I should volunteer myself to write a travel-based food memoir. But you know who will backpack for a year in Asia and write a SE Asian cookbook. Publishers?

The intention is not to post brag shots. I’m the one behind the screen or note book most of the time. As I take a moment to give thanks for what’s been an incredible life in travel so far, I want to put it to the universe that more BIPOC working class kids get to work as I do too

* above
1. Snow shoeing in a blizzard in Rhône Alps 2. Husky sledding Rovaniemi, Finland 3. Hiking Cape Town 4. Panorama route, Mpumalanga, SA