Career Break

Melons. People just kept bringing more melons. They carried them in plaid plastic bags or under their arms and stuffed them wherever they could find room – in storage bins, under tables or on top of bunks. What were they going to do with all these melons? And then when night fell, wherever there weren’t

I was lounging comfortably in my air conditioned hotel room in Aktau, Kazakhstan, resting after a 24 hour train journey from Uzbekistan when it suddenly occurred to me to check the opening hours for the migration police office. In Kazakhstan, all visitors staying in the country more than five days must register with the migration

It didn’t hit me at first. As I rode down a bumpy, sandy road through the Kazakhstan steppe, I didn’t really realize where I was. I was riding over land that was once covered with water. I was heading toward what is known as the “ship cemetery” – the rusty remains of three ships that

I had almost completely drifted off to sleep, my eyes tightly shut, my head propped up against the side of the Soviet era minivan as it raced through the Kazakhstan desert in the dark of night. Then suddenly, THUD! The jarring impact followed by the shrieks of my fellow passengers jolted me wide awake. As