The Senegal River at sunset, Saint-Louis, Senegal 2013

All stories have a beginning...The Book of Journeys began in Madison, WI, a reaction to the long, dark months of a Midwestern winter. And from that simple beginning a tale was born which has travelled to the shores of West Africa and the mountains of the Middle East. It is a tale of travels and of fate. 

It was supposed to be an orderly work, a thing of chapters, of specific purpose. To make sense of things which perplexed us. But, like all good journeys, it found its own way. Chapters sprawled beyond their borders, roads were taken which led nowhere. Ultimately, it became as much about our own journey as those we sought to chronicle. Metaphorical as much physical. And, again like so many journeys, it is - currently - endless. We continue to explore the nature of migration, of the ceaseless spirit of the human soul. 

These explorations take the form of narratives. The first chapter: Where the earth first touched my skin explored economic migration using the work of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battutah as a conceptual framework. The second began by examining the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, but we soon realised that the situation was far more complex than we could truly comprehend. It opened our eyes to the limitations that our own cultural baggage places upon us. The third chapter is in process; life in a multicultural Spanish city and the opportunities in a post pandemic world.