Jan 15, 2023
MEZUZOTH OF DJERBAN JEWS IN THE HOUMT SOUK JEWISH DISTRICT
A mezuzah ( Hebrew : מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: מְזוּזוֹת mezuzot ) is a piece of parchment , known as a klaf , contained in a decorative case and inscribed…
Stories
Field notes from the road
Medicine, culture, travel, food, healing, and human stories from my archive. Start with a trail, search for a memory, or move by year.
Roads, meals, clinics, and human encounters.Archive into inquiry
These field notes are not only memory. They are the ground from which my new field inquiries begin.
The current inquiry follows one trail through the archive: food culture, metabolic health, Indigenous knowledge, and Suriname.
Jan 15, 2023
JEWISH LIFE IN THE HOUMT SOUK TOWN IN THE ISLAND OF DJERBA TUNISIA
One gets the feeling that the life has not changed very much in this jewish neighbourhood of Houmt Souk for many years. The trading significance of Houmt Souk has been…
Dec 15, 2022
YALDA THE LONGEST NIGHT . LET LIGHT TRIUMPH OVER DARKNESS, IN IRAN AND IN AFGHANISTAN ..INDONESIA ..THE LIST IS LONG
Tonight is 21 december .. it is the night of Yalda .. It is the longest night, full of darkness and this morning when young women went to their universities…
Dec 15, 2022
AN ANTHROPOLOGIST MOURNS PELE: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM GRIEF, AS INDIANS WOULD TEACH US
The watch on the wrist makes a ping noise, BBC notification: The football great PELE has died, aged 82 and the Israelite Hospital Albert Einstein in Sao Paolo, Brasil. Most…
Dec 15, 2022
HALCYON. MEMORABLE TIMES BUT THIS MORNING THINKING OF MAQROLL OF COLOMBIAN WRITER ALVARO MUTIS
Alvaro Mutis was a Colombian writer of prose and poetry and a good friend of Gabo, a contemporary from Bogota, who also lived in Mexico as an exile during the…
Dec 15, 2022
IF WE APPRECIATE AND BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT WE HAVE, OUR HAPPINESS WILL MAKE OTHERS HAPPY
My UmonHon Indian teacher, Pierre said to me, appropriately after I had hurried to the Clinic of the tribe, without much attention to the blue skies, and an eagle following…
Oct 15, 2022
EACH DAY IS A CHANCE TO BE REBORN. … CORTADITO AT A CAFE IN MIAMI AND THINKING OF IRAN
Thoughts while drinking Cortadito at Ricky’s Bakery in Miami, after a conversation with a friend in Vila Verde in Brasil Even if you have property (house, car and other intangibles)…
Oct 15, 2022
THE LAST OF THE BUKHARAN JEWS TONIGHT BEGINS THE JEWISH HOLIDAY OF SUKKOTH
I always had an interest in knowing the history of ancient jewish communities which for various reasons disappear over the course of time. Since the establishment of the Jewish State…
Sep 15, 2022
WAITING FOR IAN. HURRICANE IAN ON THIS SECOND DAY OF TISHREI 5783 IN MIAMI . A CONGLOMERATION OF EMOTIONS
I left Havana a couple of days ago, now i am told that many parts of that city are flooded, adding to the misery of survival in these times of…
Sep 15, 2022
AS AMERICAN INDIANS SAY WE ARE NOT CLEVER ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND WHEN THINGS HAPPEN. SHANAH TOVA 5783
An alarm was raised about a possible Hurricane approaching Cuba, so I decided to leave for Miami. There I was sitting at the noisy International Departure terminal of Jose Marti…
Sep 15, 2022
WE NEED TO THINK OF QUALITY OF LIFE WHEN YOU THINK OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE OUR COMFORT ZONE LIVES IN THE WEST
I have had a wonderful trip to France, Israel, Morocco and Tunisia; two developed and two developing areas of the world. I have been lucky enough to visit Marrakech often…
Aug 15, 2022
EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE RAPID CHANGES OCCURRING IN THE PLANET SOCIETY
The temperature outside is a pleasant 20 C, much cooler than the 34 C, in this presqu'île de Quiberon, Brittany. A very good article arrived from The New York Times,…
Aug 15, 2022
DO NOT SEARCH FOR PEOPLE TO MEET, THOSE WHO YOU NEED TO MEET WILL COME YOUR WAY, SAID MY MESKWAKIA TEACHER
My introduction to the world of Native American people propitiously began with the traditional tribe of MESKWAKIA and I have to be grateful to them, as I ended up dedicating…
Aug 15, 2022
SHABBAT SHALOM ESPECIALLY TO MY FRIENDS IN IRAN, MALAYSIA AND THE TURTLE ISLAND AS THE INDIANS CALL THEIR OCCUPIED COUNTRY
I was eager to light the candles tonight, as the sun sunk over a gorgeous horizon lit by the candle that is the Sun being passed over to the other…
Aug 15, 2022
THE BARBER OF MARRAKECH ..I MAY HAVE TO HOP ACROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN FOR MY NEXT HAIR CUT
Ishmael (are we not brothers? he of ishamael and I of Israel?) suggested this haircuttery very close to Riad58Blu within walking distance of Djema al Fina. It turned out to…
Jun 15, 2022
AN ARCHAIC FORM OF EXCHANGE.. BUT IN THE NEW WORLD ON VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION
I have a certain fascination with the language that I call my own, even though millions of people speak it, with various adeptness around the world. Some wit had remarked…
May 15, 2022
IT IS THAT LOVELY TIME OF THE DAY .. SUNSET. PÔR DE SOL PUESTA DE SOL LE COUCHER DE SOLEIL LOVE TO MY FRIENDS ALL OVER THE WORLD
In the last one month, I have been in France (Nantes, Quiberon) and in Madrid and then in Cochin and took the longest flight, Singapore to New York (18 hours…
May 15, 2022
HOTEL SARATOGA IN HAVANA. THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING . SUCH A SYMBOLIC TRAGEDY OF ELEGANCE OF HAVANA
PS PLEASE DO NOT MAKE UP YOUR MIND ABOUT CUBANS LIVING IN THE ISLAND BY YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH CUBAN EXPATRIATES IN MIAMI. Cubans (I always mean the Cubans who live…