Showing results for "Stories" in Africa

In 2001, Sharon Pincott traded her privileged life as a high-flying corporate executive to start a new one with the Presidential Elephants of Zimbabwe. She was unpaid, untrained, self-funded, and arrived with the starry-eyed idealism of most foreigners during early encounters with Africa. For 13 years - the worst in Zimbabwe's volatile history - this intrepid Australian woman lived in the Hwange bush fighting for the lives of these elephants, forming an extraordinary and life-changing bond with them.

In All Things Must Fight to Live, Bryan Mealer takes listeners on a harrowing 2000 mile journey through Congo, where gun-toting militia still rape and kill with impunity. Amidst burnt-out battlefields where armies still wrestle for control, into the dark corners of the forests, and along the high savanna, where thousands have been slaughtered and quickly forgotten, Mealer searches for signs that Africa's most troubled state will soon rise from ruin.

When R.A. Dalkey travels cheap, he thinks bigger than hostel dorms, overnight trains and pasta with tomato sauce for every meal. He’ll roll out his sleeping bag in Madrid’s red light district, nap on the streets of Monaco and furtively string up his hammock on Swiss farms. He’ll spontaneously teach English in Laos in exchange for rice. He’ll thumb rides anywhere from Timor to the Orange Free State. He’ll try smiling a lot, and see where it takes him. Most of the time it's somewhere good. As this collection of stories will reveal, it doesn’t always go smoothly.

Sue Tidwell lived in awe of Africa’s extraordinary wildlife. After years spent appreciating the animals in her imagination, the tenderhearted American hated the idea of joining her husband on a big game hunting safari. And getting attacked by blood-sucking tsetse flies the moment she stepped off the plane gave no hint of the mind-blowing change of perspective in her future. With her initial animosity turning into curiosity as they breathlessly tracked dangerous beasts, Sue formed a surprising bond with their young female government-assigned game scout.

An improbable world beckons. We think we know Madagascar, but it's too big, too eccentric and too impenetrable to be truly understood. If it was stretched out across Europe, the islands would reach from London to Algiers, and yet its road network is barely bigger than tiny Jamaica's. There is no evidence of any human life until about 10,000 years ago, and, when eventually people settled, it was migrants from Borneo - 3,700 miles away - who came out on top.

When Matthew had to renew his European visa, his point of exit was obvious: he was going to Morocco. Memories of his previous trip filled him with anxiety. What was he thinking? After everything that had happened, did he really want to go back? Scams. Altercations. Mishaps. But also humor and beauty. His curiosity overcoming his fears, his second trip would prove as unforgettable as the first.

Gracias a su trabajo como reportera, Lola Hierro ha conocido la esperanza de igualdad de las mujeres en Etiopía; ha dormido junto a hipopótamos en Kenia; ha admirado el trabajo de las campesinas del mar en Tanzania; ha saboreado el café preparado a la manera tradicional en Uganda; ha sido alumna de la maestra Doussou Fané en Malí; ha sido testigo de las duras condiciones de vida de los refugiados en Níger; ha comprobado la resistencia de los bosquimanos en Botsuana; ha abrazado el mar y el desierto en Namibia, y ha sobrevivido a las indómitas aguas del río Zambeze en Zimbabue.

Marcus Slater decides to forgo the cold, wet, wintry weather of England to join a walking party in the sunny climes of Morocco. There, against a backdrop of the curious, ancient towns of southern Morocco he meets the enigmatic Sylvia and finds himself embroiled in a game he cannot possibly afford to lose.