View From Here

The Dutch Transplant Who Is Flourishing Among Jordan’s Bedouin

STORY AND PHOTOS BY HEATHER M. SURLS

As a child, one wish always topped Brenda van den Brink’s birthday list: a dog. Little-girl Brenda was smitten with animals. Growing up in Friesland, a Dutch province known for its unique language, Brenda took every chance she got to spend time with them. She lived near an elderly farmer who owned sheep, cows, horses, and chickens. From a young age, she’d gather eggs to save his creaky joints. Once, when he was ill in the hospital, Brenda cared for his larger animals. Though she was never gifted a dog, her family eventually kept birds and she adopted a cat.

My First Florida Big Day: The Beginning of a Birding Obsession (Part Two)

STORY & PHOTOS BY MAX WEAKLEY

Pulling into the Scrub Ridge Trail at 10:50 AM, my only goal was to finally find the Florida scrub-jay. I had played recordings of their rough, scratchy calls the night before and brought them back into mind as I parked. Then I grabbed my camera and headed to the south loop trail to search for the jays.
After just shy of half a mile, I heard a call I recognized. Slowly working my way through the mangrove knees, trying to keep silent and not slip in the slick muck, I found my way into an opening where I could clearly see the calling bird. Clinging to the top of a scraggly bush on the other side of a shallow, brackish lagoon, an eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna) sang his heart out.

My First Florida Big Day: The Beginning of a Birding Obsession (Part One)

SSTORY & PHOTOS BY MAX WEAKLEY

A few years ago, when I was just starting to get serious about birding, I devised a plan for the Monday after my 24th birthday. The weather in central Florida was forecasted to be partly cloudy, with a high of 80 Fahrenheit and a low of 70, so I knew I wanted to be outside. I pulled out my laptop and logged onto eBird.org.

French Cooking School Teaches Those in Need

STORY BY BILL DIEM

Accounts of people “lifting themselves up by their bootstraps” have been around for more than a century, since the phrase took on its current meaning. Critics say that hard work is not enough, but true stories of success from unlikely starts abound.

Thierry Marx, French chef of the year in 2006, is one of those stories. He was a poor student from a bad neighborhood. His grades weren’t good enough to get into hotel school, and he dropped out of a school for building trades. “I was furious…,” he told The Figaro, a French newspaper. “I messed around, got into fights. I ran away, I escaped to Paris … Champigny-sur-Marne, the city where I lived, was a ghost town, a wasteland.”

Where the Ukrainian Family Stays

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JC JOHNSON

I’m a city person. I love the pace, the noise, the endless barrage of things to look at. I love to study the skyline, the museums, the lights at night, the people. Typically, I’m not too fond of the countryside. But there’s something about Scotland, especially the Scottish Highlands..

(Not) Climbing Djibouti’s Devil’s Island

STORY AND PHOTOS BY RACHEL PIEH JONES

Devil’s Island is a bulbous, volcanic island at the innermost part of the Gulf of Tadjourah, an area called the Ghoubet, in Djibouti. Everyone who drives the snaking coastal road from Djibouti’s capital city to Tadjourah passes the bay and comments on the black hill rising up out of the sea. It is tantalizingly close to shore, yet out of reasonable reach due to strong winds and waves.

Beirut’s Memories Are Written on Its Walls

WORDS & IMAGES BY CALLIE RADKE STEVENS

The thing everyone kept saying at the school in Beirut was that people there feel like a family. And while in other circumstances that might carry a whiff of hyperbole, at this school in the Lebanese capital, I believed it. The students and teachers had already been through a lot together—war and civil war, economic chaos, the devastating Beirut port blast in 2020. They knew how to hold each other up.

In this family, I was an awkward dinner guest: welcomed warmly, but from the outside.

MicroView: Running Around Bethlehem

STORY AND PHOTO BY JOY BORKHOLDER

“Freedom of movement” wasn’t really on my mind as I trained at home in Seattle to run my first 10K in Bethlehem, a shorter race within the Palestine Marathon.
This 10K wasn’t the real goal of my fourth visit to the region. Instead, I went to help a friend with a book project, see other friends, and visit some holy sites, with a bit of excellent falafel and a 10K on the side.
The marathon organizers hope to build a running culture in Palestine, foster cultural exchange among residents and visitors, and highlight the lack of freedom of movement Palestinians experience.

The Surprising Instrument of World Peace

STORY AND PHOTOS BY DAN GLEASON

“It’s a dangerous business—going out your door,” someone once said to me. But maybe that person didn’t have a ukulele like I do.

I named my uke “Strad” (diminutive of Stradivarius), thanks to a totally unscripted interaction in Vienna when I insisted upon its gentle handling while declaring that I had an appointment with the Vienna Philharmonic that evening. Strad has gotten me through doors in countries as diverse as Kenya, Tajikistan, the Republic of Georgia, and so many others.

Delighted by Norway: Seven Facts About My Ancestral Homeland

ARTICLE BY MAGGIE WALLEM ROWE
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MAGGIE WALLEM ROWE

Earlier this year, my husband and I left our home in North Carolina to spend 10 weeks volunteering in Stavanger, Norway. Stavanger is the fourth largest city in Norway, and its location on a peninsula on the southwestern coast with proximity to the North Sea has made it the center for Norway’s prosperous offshore oil industry.

This was our second visit to Norway—our first extended visit lasted 12 weeks in 2019. Although my paternal grandparents, Sigurd and Bertha Nygaard Wallem, grew up in southwest Norway, they immigrated to the United States in the early part of the 20th century, and until that 2019 visit, I had never had an opportunity to visit the land whose culture shaped my American family. After interacting deeply with Norwegians and experiencing their culture for six months split between these two extended stays, I’ve found myself surprised and delighted by many aspects of this beautiful Scandinavian country. Here are seven characteristics I especially appreciate about my ancestral homeland.