Inhaltsverzeichnis für November/December 2021 in AFAR

SUMIT DAYAL Photographer Sumit Dayal, a photographer based in New Delhi and Kashmir, first fell in love with shooting in 2004, when he interned with the American photographer Thomas Kelly in Kathmandu. Since then, he’s staked a career documenting disappearing traditions and the quickly shifting cultural landscapes of South Asia. For Good vs. Evil (p.60), he traveled to Tiruchendur in southern India to capture the country’s Dussehra festival. As a native of northern India, Dayal was entranced by the different customs for celebrating the Hindu festival in the south. “I was intrigued by Dussehra in Tiruchendur because of the vibrant fanfare, costumes, and drama,” he says. See more of his work in Time, the Wall Street Journal, and GQ. Find him on Instagram @sumitdayal. HOLLY TUPPEN Writer After circumnavigating the…

FOOD CAN CROSS boundaries and cultures. It can bridge gaps in understanding, forge bonds, spark friendships. It’s magic. Even if it’s just your standard morning glory muffin. That’s what changed everything for Kerry Brodie—a muffin. In 2015, she was living in Washington, D.C., working as a press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign and volunteering at a homeless shelter. She would often talk to the residents about food, chatting about things they ate growing up and that still resonated with them. She remembers one conversation about the muffins the shelter would hand out. “I never really knew what a morning glory muffin was,” she recalls with a laugh. “We’d have these conversations about like, what do we think is in this muffin? And what do we think is the optimal…

Orbis Expeditions MALAWI Traditional voluntourism often revolves around a handout mentality that can do more harm than good by creating dependency and taking away jobs. However, Orbis Expeditions’ Women’s Partnership Challenge trip to Malawi carefully matches visitor skills with female entrepreneurs to foster exchange and connection that leaves a lasting impression on both. A highlight of the 11-day trip, which includes hiking on Mount Mulanje, a tea plantation stay, and a night spent on a Lake Malawi island: the Entrepreneurs Business Workshops in Blantyre where a dozen or so travelers and locals share their skill sets—accounting, marketing, and more. Trinitas Kunashe is one woman who benefited from the experience. She’s the CEO and founder of Tina Pads, which makes and provides reusable cloth menstrual pads to schoolgirls who would otherwise…

WILDFIRES. HURRICANES. DROUGHTS. As climate disasters increase in intensity everywhere on the planet, how do we navigate as caring, conscientious travelers? Obviously, showing up in the days after a disaster and expecting to be waited on would be worse than insensitive, almost imperialistic, but what about in the months and years afterward? How can you not merely avoid being an inconvenient burden as a tourist but actually have a positive impact as a traveler in the aftermath of disasters? “Generally it’s really positive to go, because most places that need to get back on their feet depend on the part of their economy that draws tourists in,” says Saket Soni, executive director of Resilience Force, an organization that supports essential workers in disaster response and recovery. Still, how do you…

Taste Makers November 2021, W.W. Norton & Company Mayukh Sen set out to write about immigration through the lens of food and wound up chronicling seven immigrant women who changed the way people in the United States eat—and were, in some cases, all but lost to history. Meet Chao Yang Buwei, who wrote the first American guide to Chinese cooking and popularized terms like “stir fry”; Elena Zelayeta, who deftly fused the flavors of her home country, Mexico, with those of her adopted state, California; and the progressive French chef Madeleine Kamman, whom the food media pitted against Julia Child. Exploring their legacies, you can’t help but ask yourself, as Sen does: Whose trailblazing stories are valued in America, and whose are overlooked—and why? Flavors of the Sun September 2021,…

Never before has travel felt like such a privilege—and such a complicated proposition. Should we be visiting new places during a pandemic? Should we fly during a climate emergency? Or should we all just stay home? At AFAR, we emphatically believe that travel can contribute to the greater good in myriad ways. With the right approach we can continue to feed our wanderlust by traveling sustainably. Travel as a force for good has been part of AFAR’s DNA since our inception, and the concept is particularly important as we close out 2021. Read on for ways to make your travel count each time you step out your front door.…

CHINA In an arid, history-filled landscape about 700 miles southwest of Beijing, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region sits along the ancient Silk Road and is filled with lively markets, as well as mosques that serve the area’s sizeable population of Hui Muslims. Today, an emerging wine scene in the province has slowly been putting the destination on the travel map. An itinerary with tour operator WildChina allows visitors to explore and support the nascent wine industry and provides glimpses of the area’s culture-rich heritage, including a visit to the imperial tombs of the Tangut people dating back to 1038 C.E. KYRGYZSTAN Before the pandemic, the combination of untouched mountain landscapes, centuries-old nomadic culture, and visa-free travel had begun to lure more travelers off the beaten path to Kyrgyzstan. However, even…

The roads that lead out of Brazil’s Mata Atlântica, the rain forest region called simply the Atlantic Forest, are winding and shrouded in green. As my driver negotiated the curves, towering tropical trees ticked by and I silently chronicled what I’d seen and done in the past 10 days. I had molded balls of rodent bait, a mealy mush of banana, powdered peanut candy, and oatmeal that felt and smelled how you’d expect such a concoction to feel and smell. I had collected seeds, planted seeds, replanted seeds, watered seeds, and done other things to seeds that I now cannot recall but at the time felt meaningful. I sweated more than I’d ever sweated in my life, even though I showered more than I’d ever showered. I had shared a habitat…