October 2025 Newsletter Khadija and I plunged into new territory earlier this month by traveling to Mali and then to Guinea. West Africa has many countries and we are slowly but surely visiting them all to learn about their amazing cultures and histories. I’ve been thinking about traveling to Mali for two decades, starting back in the day when the Festival of the Desert was happening from 2001 to 2012. Finally, I made it, UN country #155 even though Khadija had been there previously while...

September 2025 Newsletter Khadija and I have done something unusual, we haven't traveled internationally in the last two and half months. However, we made it to Chicago to see our daughter Ayan. She showed us many exciting places in the "City of Big Shoulders", including “The Bean” in Millennium Park, where people, green spaces and high-rise buildings reflect off its shiny surface. We’ve been to Chicago many times but it's been a while, last in 2006, the year The Bean was unveiled and not yet...

August 2025 Newsletter Khadija and I recently made an unforgettable visit to Papua New Guinea as part of a six-week trip where we circumnavigated the globe. Tribes in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea wear cultural heritage attire for ceremonies and festivals. These elaborate costumes often featured vibrant colors, body paint, headdresses, animal parts & traditional weaponry. The Enguwal Tribe performs for various events such as marriages, funerals, wars, births, and celebrations of good...