Stories include train tales from our travels, concrete thoughts from reflections on our experiences, and frames from our encounters (mixing photography, creative writing and sounds).
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Elona wrote this piece for Open Democracy ‘Transformation’ project series on care, 29 October 2019 – with thanks to the editors for the invitation to contribute, you can see the original publication on their website. In a re-converted industrial building in East London, a regular session of ‘Community Massage’ is taking place. A friend tells…
Read More Learning to care as a feminist
Human transport, Cambodia, September 2016
On the road from Sihanoukville, 21 September 2016 It is nearly 6pm as we drive northbound. Emerging from in-between Chuŏr Phnum Dâmrei, the Elephant Mountains, we enter the flood plains of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. In the distance, dark clouds are slowly creeping up from behind the mountains, taking the place of the setting sun.…
Read More Highway 4
Shanghai Qindaofu tricycle collector
Read the English version here El portero apila las cajas de cartón en el carro de su triciclo de una manera casi científica. Lo observo callado mientras él, meticulosamente, agarra las cajas una tras otra, les saca esa cinta adhesiva marrón que las hace caja, y las transforma en cartones que al toque aplana apretándo…
Read More Manos sucias, calles limpias. Qīngdàofū de Shanghai Shanghai Qindaofu tricycle collector
Lee la versión en español acá I watch in silence as the caretaker piles up cardboard on his three-wheeled bicycle cart. Methodically, one after another, he rips the tape off the boxes and flattens them against his chest with his bare hands. Guō Tāo is 50 years old, but looks much older. Perhaps it’s the…
Read More Dirty hands, clean streets: Shanghai’s qīngdàofū
Grullas de papel. Monumento a la Paz de los Niños, Hiroshima
これはぼくらの叫びです Kore wa bokura no sakebi desu, これは私たちの祈りです koreha wa watashitachi no inoridesu 世界に平和をきずくための Sekai ni heiwa o kizuku tame no. Este es nuestro llanto, esta es nuestra plegaria: Para construir paz en el mundo. El primer grupo de chicos se pone de pie y camina hasta donde está la estatua. Son unos quince y,…
Read More 600 metros y mil grullas de papel
Ulaanbaatar, June 2015
A traveller’s insights into the challenges of urbanization in Ulaanbaatar and Mongolia’s political economy. We are sat at Chuka’s desk while she adds up numbers on a large notebook: we are investigating options for a short tour during our second week in Mongolia, now that we have our visas for China. ‘It depends how far…
Read More Hybrid cards, coal trains and big belliesLee la versión española Thursday 4 June, past midday. Leaving Omsk Alla, without an accent, is not a grammatical mistake in Spanish but Liza’s mom our host. Upon entering, she asks us to take off our shoes and put on the two pairs of carefully prepared slippers. After settling into our room, we make our…
Read More Trans-Mongolian. Stage 2: Siberia
Welcome to Mongolia, our tracks
Monday 15 June, 5 AM. Black birds. Small black birds swooping in and out of holes in the walls, through antennas, cables and metal structures that extend from the buildings. Below, dirt streets, potholes, overflowing bins, cars squeezed into the limited space. I raise my eyes and look at the compound; a calm and central…
Read More Gers, slow tracks, smiley faces and dustRead the English version Jueves 4 de junio, pasado el mediodía. Saliendo de Omsk Alla sin acento, no es un error de ortografía en castellano sino la mamá de Liza, nuestra anfitriona. La vieja nos pide que nos saquemos las zapatillas y nos pongamos las pantuflas que están en la entrada. Después de ver nuestro…
Read More Trans-Mongoliano. Etapa 2: SiberiaLee la versión española Wednesday 3 June. Past Perm, on the way to Yekaterinburg Arms resting on the frame of the corridor window, I see it pass. Bright, gigantic sphere, it shines through the branches. In vain, porous clouds try to conceal its splendour but its light seeps through their cloak, bathing the forest in…
Read More Trans-Mongolian. Stage 1: Anticlimax