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Outpost TRAVEL FOR REAL
NO.53
Publisher
MATT ROBINSON matt@outpostmagazine.com Editors-at-Large
CHRISTOPHER FREY chris@outpostmagazine.com KEVIN VALLELY kevin@outpostmagazine.com
PHOTO: DON WEBER
Senior Editor, Travel Health DEBORAH SANBORN deborah@outpostmagazine.com
Outpost makes it to the big screen, or at least in front of it. Revelers awaiting Ian Wright's stage appearance. Don't miss our National Tour coming this fall, see page 38.
Senior Editor KEVIN BLACK black@outpostmagazine.com Associate Editors
RYAN MURDOCK, LIONEL MANN, KRISHNA RAU, CALE BAIN Editorial Assistants
TERRI ALDERFER, GRACE FAGIOLI, ANDREA GRZYBOWSKI, PAULINA BARTOSIEWICZ Photographers-at-Large
LORNE BRIDGMAN, JASON GEORGE, DONALD WEBER Art Director
CHRISTINE AGER-SMYTH production@outpostmagazine.com
Paper Praise
Graphic Designer
I was heartened to see your announcement regarding your commitment to use only nonancient forest paper. It was especially meaningful in the context of New Zealand’s Kauri forest, where I had a thoroughly memorable bike adventure during my three-month cycling trip in 1988. Kudos to you! Even more miraculous is that it actually prompted me to get off my chair and send you a letter. Thanks for a magazine I can read cover-to-cover. Sara Stallard, Victoria, BC
JEFF GUSCOTT Map Design
STEVE WILSON Assistant Designer and Illustrators
ALEXANDRA ISHIGAKI, MONA AL-HAKIM Photographers
ANDREA SOGGE, NATALIE BAY Food Editor
Apples and oranges, yams and sweet potatoes
I’ve been enjoying your magazine ever since it started. I did notice a small error, however, in one of your photos. In your July/August issue, under Gourmet du Monde, you have a very good article on sweet potatoes and yams. The author noted that yams and sweet potatoes are commonly mixed up. The photo that you ran to accompany the sweet potato risotto recipe actually featured a yam. I do look forward to trying out the recipe. Blair Acton, Shuswap Lake, BC
Editor’s Note/Correction: You’re absolutely right. This was the editors’ oversight, not the author’s. It’s easiest to differentiate the two by the rougher, bark-like skin of the yam, which, as the tuber of a tropical vine, also shows a greater variance in size.
DON DOULOFF Contributing Editors
ROBERT J. BRODEY, MICHAEL BUCKLEY, CHRIS CHOPIK, DAVID FIELD, ADNAN KHAN, PATTI GOWER, TYLER STIEM, CHAD ULANSKY Book Reviews
KELLY MCMANUS Explorers Club Co-Editor
JOSEPH FREY
Online Manager LIONEL MANN lionel@outpostmagazine.com
Outpost [ISSN: 1203-7125] is published six times a year by: Outpost Incorporated, 425 Queen St. W., Suite 201 Toronto, ON M5V 2A5 Editorial and Business Tel: [416] 972-6635 Advertising Tel: [416] 972-6527 Fax: [416] 972-6645 E-mail: info@outpostmagazine.com Web site: www.outpostmagazine.com Individual Subscriptions Canada: 1 Year [6 Issues] $20 Cdn, 2 years $35 Cdn USA: 1 Year [6 Issues] $30 US, 2 years $50 US Intl: 1 Year [6 Issues] $40 US, 2 years $60 US
Sweet Potato
Yam
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Feedback? Comments? A travel tidbit to share? Outpost welcomes letters to the editor: editor@outpostmagazine.com
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TAN YOUR MIND. TRAVEL FOR REAL.
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Outpost JULY/AUGUST 2006
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Outpost SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006
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Subscriber Services: 416-972-6635. Although we rarely do, we may make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies and organizations whose products may be of interest to our readers. To be excluded from these mailings email us at circ@outpostmagazine.com, or write to the above address. Subscriptions to Outpost are also available through memberships to Hostelling International in British Columbia and Alberta for $35 Cdn. Publications Mail Agreement #0040017920 Postmaster send address changes & undeliverable copies to above address. PAP Registration No. 10626 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Canada Magazine Fund and the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), toward our editorial and mailing costs. Copyright 2006 Outpost Incorporated. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Printed in Canada. Outpost is a member of Magazines Canada.
AFGHANISTAN Now
Working in areas of conflict has always been a challenge for photojournalists. Afghanistan, once the crossroads of Central Asia and a traveller’s Mecca, now lies mostly in ruins. Its slow recovery is under constant threat by Taliban forces. The images that follow provide a glimpse at everyday life in Afghanistan.
photography by richard fitoussi
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TOP: Afghan National Army soldiers on makeshift beds at a security checkpoint outside Camp Julien, Canada’s former ISAF base. MIDDLE: A Canadian communications technician takes a break from his job, relaxing with a haircut and a face massage. BOTTOM: An Afghan National Army soldier stands in a bombed-out suburb of Kabul during an early morning sunrise.
32 Outpost september/october 2006  www.outpostmagazine.com
GLOBAL VOLUNTEER GUIDE PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
Our annual comprehensive guide to global volunteering and making a difference overseas WHETHER WE HAVE TWO WEEKS, two months or two years, more and more Canadians are signing up to teach in classrooms, provide medical aid, build schools and dig ditches around the world than ever before. From raw and eager teens to savvy 75-year-olds, we’re making a global contribution, and it’s a wave that keeps growing. Get inspired with this year’s team of Travellers for Change— 10 Canadians who’ve built their lives around helping others in far-flung corners of the planet. Then discover how you can do it yourself with our comprehensive listing of overseas development and volunteer agencies. We’ve expanded this year’s guide to also include a special section on education experiences—
unique university-level field work and immersion opportunities often with a development component. From archaeology and engineering to nursing and social work, there are a plethora of for-credit options in a global, real world context. And, as though to remind ourselves that sometimes the simplest solutions are the best ones, we examine five low-tech tools and innovations that are making change around the globe, from sugarcane charcoal to a merry-go-round that pumps clean water while children play. Consider this a guide to once-in-a-lifetime experiences—the first step to interacting with the world in a new way. It may just change the way you travel.
This guide was researched and compiled by Andrea Grzybowski, Terri Alderfer and Grace Fagioli.
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travellers for change Building a Place to Learn
Beating “Unlucky 13”
Allan WigooD, 76, Retired – Kitchener, On
Dr. Ronald R. Lett, 54, Medical Surgeon – Vancouver B.C.
The proud owner of a new motor home, Allan Wigood was all set for retirement in 1989 when he took a trip to Central America as a volunteer with the NGO World Accord. “After witnessing the living conditions in Honduras and Guatemala,” he says, “I came home and changed all my plans.” For the past 10 years, Wigood has been leading groups of volunteers from Canada on regular construction expeditions to the region, building schools, homes and training centres in impoverished communities. Wigood has personally raised the funds so that students from certain villages that graduate from high school with an average of 85 percent or better can continue their education. Inspiration: I have fallen in love with the people in the mountain villages and I will be going back as long as my heart will allow. And I must be honest with you—I don’t like Canadian winters any more. Frustration: Learning the Spanish language at 60 years of age. At this age I think your brain shrinks like a prune. Also I was hijacked in Guatemala two years ago. They tied my hands and feet and left me laying on an ant hill. That wasn’t a very nice experience. Rewards: A little girl that started school in the first one we built, in a village that has no road in, will be starting her first year of university next year. I only hope I live long enough to go to her graduation. What’s Next: After building another school in Sigautepeque, Honduras, in November, we plan on building 15 new homes in the area of Guatemala that was destroyed by hurricane Stan.
It was an Alberta student loan that subsidized Dr. Ronald Lett’s first excursion to Africa in 1974, leading the young medical student to spend three years in Sudan. It was the beginning of a lifelong affair. He would return again and again as a practising GP, to Nigeria, then Cameroon, motivated, he says, by “the opportunity to do something in the real world.” After further studies and practising back home, Dr. Lett founded the Canadian Network for International Surgery (CNIS) in 1995, an organization dedicated to the teaching of essential surgical skills— from anaesthesia and life support to orthopaedics and traumatology. Operating predominantly in Africa, CNIS has also established educational centres in the effort to bolster medical infrastructure and spearheaded several injury prevention awareness campaigns. About the “Stop Unlucky 13” campaign: Thirteen percent of African deaths are due to personal injury. One in every 13 women die during child birth. These facts are the basis for my motivation. Inspiration: An Ethiopian girl named Tazita, which means “love song-slow dance,” was only 17years-old when her mother died. She was left to raise and support her eight-year-old brother, 14-yearold sister and run the family business. Frustrations: The Canadian government’s low contribution to foreign aid. Agricultural subsidies to farmers in Europe and the U.S. that undermine Africa’s ability to trade. That health isn’t recognized as a human right. The conventional wisdom that life is cheap in Africa. Rewards: Realizing that things often work out when good will is involved.
Do-It-Yourself Growth With 45 years of experience in commercial banking and financial consulting, Jean-Guy Godbout didn’t take early retirement from the Bank of Montreal just to slow down. Rather, he saw an opportunity to share the lessons of his experience. After a few years working as a hired consultant to enterprises in developing countries, Godbout decided to volunteer his time as an advisor to the Canadian Executive Service Organization, and has fulfilled a staggering 47 assignments since 1998 in Asia, Europe and Africa. He takes great pleasure in identifying potential growth entities and showing that they can develop themselves, often without relying on outside assistance. Motivation: The opportunity to transfer technology to deserving enterprises that don’t have the financial means to hire an international consultant when appropriate local expertise is not available. Frustrations: Convincing small and medium–size enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries that they can develop themselves and attain sustainable and profitable expansion. Also, the lack of follow-up on our efforts. Rewards: There’s a regional bank in the Philippines that’s one of the few in the world which provides financial support to the poor (mostly micro-finance) and they wanted to learn how to do it efficiently and profitably. They are now profitable and have tripled their business volume in three years. What’s Next: Continuing our current program in Senegal, which works with SMEs to provide worker training, technical support and financing through local banks. I was also approached recently to assist an enterprise in Serbia.
40 Outpost september/october 2006 www.outpostmagazine.com
stamp illustrations by mona al-hakim
Jean-Guy Godbout, 63, financial specialist – Laval, QC
burning star:
chernobyl at 20
Two decades on, the legacy of the world’s worst environmental and nuclear disaster remains unclear, subject to myth, gossip and conflicting science. The people who never left struggle to survive, refugees from a future that never happened.
B
Produced by Larry Frolick Story by Christopher Frey / Photography by Donald Weber
“back then, if you were in the military, it was prestigious to be stationed here. Because of how beautiful it was.” Leonid Korolchuk gazes wistfully out the rain-soaked window of our jeep at the dense stand of spruce on both sides of the road in this pocket of Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone. His meaty paws guide the vehicle over a rutted, snow-laden track. “I think it still is.” Even in the grim hold of winter there is ample evidence of nature’s regenerative powers within the limits of this 21st century wasteland. The gabled wooden cottages that have been re-occupied by the “self-settlers” sit cloaked in green patches of pine, ornamented with brambles. Wild horses, once thought extinct in the area, run freely again. As we pull into
the nuclear age Pompeii that is Pripyat, wild dogs emerge from behind the Soviet-era apartment blocks and chase down our vehicle. This abandoned company town, only four kilometres from the nuclear station, was once home to 45,000 people and considered a showpiece. Now, forest creeps indiscriminately, enveloping once stately boulevards and fencing in the dwellings where a lifetime’s possessions were left behind. Even the town’s football pitch has been surrendered; from the stadium bleachers one might watch this slow motion reclamation unfold. It’s in this mixed terrain of woodland and marsh that the civilization of the Eastern Slavs—what would one day grow into the Russian Imperium—first took shape from the eighth century onward. The woods provided protection against the
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warring nomadic tribes of Mongols and Tatars who roamed the open plains to the south. A hundred kilometres from here, on the cusp of this forest and on the banks of the Dnieper River, the first great city of the Slavs, Kiev, would rise up, the golden domes of its churches burnishing the sky. A schoolteacher at the time of the accident, Korolchuk knows the history of these lands well. Now Chief of Security for the Exclusion Zone, he is charged with supervising security at the infamous power plant, catching scavengers and administering basic law and order for the remaining 800 self-settlers and the 4,000 shift workers who still reside in Chernobyl town during the week. Although the last of the reactors was shut down six years ago, the plant’s decommissioning still requires close monitoring. Korolchuk is at ease with his job, even enjoys the prestige and camaraderie. I ask if it’s true that wanted criminals hide out in this poisoned refuge. He takes a sidelong look at his deputy Vasily in the passenger seat and smirks. “Not since I’ve been around,” he says. But work here is rarely dull. Although most anything of value has already been looted, they still apprehend about 10 scavengers a week. “They’re not organized gangs anymore, just poor people.” As for serious crimes, there is the odd case to investigate. Not long after my visit a drunken spat between two plant employees will result in a murder charge—the killing committed allegedly with a ball-point pen. Despite warnings about radioactivity in the soil, self-settlers subsist on their own farming plots and many people from both inside and outside the zone, including Korolchuk, even hunt here. Mostly wild boar.
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“It’s good hunting,” Korolchuk says. “We take what we kill to the lab and if it tests fine we eat it. This meat is better for you than the processed stuff you get in stores. Those have been fed steroids. These animals graze naturally. It’s organic.” Heavy winds buffet the jeep as we pass a row of burial mounds covered with a cake frosting of damp snow. Small radiation warning markers stand upright in the dunes, identifying this as one of the dismantled and steam-rolled settlements where the highest levels of radioactivity were recorded. Korolchuk has memorized the large colour-coded map on the wall of his office that indicates the most and least poisoned areas, a seemingly random geography explained only by the prevailing winds at the time of the accident. A little more than a month from today, on April 26, they will be marking the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl’s infamy. Although official ceremonies are planned to commemorate all that was lost, the locals who remain within the zone, and in the lands just beyond it, show little interest in the calendar’s turn. Life is provisional. Everyone remembers and lives with the consequences. They’re even happy to talk about it with outsiders, if a little surprised at your interest. But first things first: work—whatever work you can find, food on the table, a little nip of homemade vodka. The future is a tricky thing—especially when it feels like you’re walking backwards into it. Twenty years on, you would expect Chernobyl’s legacy to be a matter of historical record, rather than this foggy thing, clouded by myth, rumour, politics and conflicting science. The towns and villages just beyond the plant’s secured 30km perimeter display higher incidences of blood-related cancers,
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