Travel Archives - Page 2 of 4

She Embraced The Sea For The First Time by Doha, Palestine

Author: By Doha, Palestine
Published: November 13, 2018
Categories: in Conflict & Peacebuilding, English, Human Rights, Identity, Israel-Palestine, Palestine, Travel
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Frankly, I did not like the sea. Even though I had never visited, I had only seen it on television and it did not draw my eye. But many sang of the sea and many took notice. I also knew that the sea was connected to feelings and that people love to go there and […]

Hush Little Baby by Nir Cafri, Israel

Author: By Nir Cafri, Israel
Published: November 11, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, English, Identity, Israel, Life Style, Religion, Travel
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Tags: India, meditation, Travel

Two hundred and forty hours, fourteen thousand and four hundred minutes of pure silence, not one word said by any human being I interacted with, not one word said by me, in the ten days of the Vipassana course. Vipassana, in the Indian language Pali “to see clearly”, is a guide to life, a set […]

Tales of Imilchil by Youba D, Morocco

Author: By Youba D, Morocco
Published: October 29, 2018
Categories: in Civil Activism, Culture and Heritage, Development, Education, English, Human Rights, Identity, Morocco, Travel
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Tags: #Maghreb, #thinkactyala, Amazigh, discovertheregion, Inspiration, MENALeadersforChange, morocco, poverty, tourism, traveling

I am called Youba, a name given to me by my father, who was deeply in love with the Amazigh culture of North Africa. I Discovered the meaning of my name when his fingertips traced the papers of a history book that told the story of the great Amazighi King Youba. A Moroccan, of Tafraout, […]

Down The Rabbit Hole by Hedva Haymov, Israel

Author: By Hedva Haymov, Israel
Published: October 23, 2018
Categories: in Conflict & Peacebuilding, Culture and Heritage, English, Identity, Israel, Life Style, Tolerance, Travel
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Tags: crosscultural, crossculturalexperience

My name is Alice. Well, it’s not my real name. It’s my experience. Because I fell. I was born into a secular Jewish family in the West. No thoughts of God in my family. No prayer, no synagogue, no holy water. Not even a mention of Israel, funny enough, for 364 days a year. That […]

“We Neighbors, We Are Friends” by Adina Arbel, Israel

Author: By Adina Arbel, Israel
Published: October 7, 2018
Categories: in Conflict & Peacebuilding, English, Friendship, Identity, Israel, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Tolerance, Travel
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Tags: MiddleEast, neighbor, taxi

I had just arrived in Amman, Jordan, and my boss sent me off on a mission. Catch a taxi to the hotel she had stayed in and pick up 10,000 USD in cash from the hotel safe that she had forgotten. It was 2007, I was 20 years old, and I just got out of […]

Photo Essay | Traditional Tunis by Imen, Tunisia

Author: By Imen, Tunisia
Published: September 9, 2018
Categories: in Art, Culture and Heritage, English, Photo Essays, Travel, Tunisia
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: #Maghreb, artisan, entrepreneurship, handmade, home, Media, traditions, Travel, tunisia, tunisiantraditions

By Imen, Tunisia

Photo Essay | Chaos & Faith by Paula, Brazil-Israel

Author: By Paula, Brazil-Israel
Published: September 7, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, Identity, Language, Photo Essays, Travel
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Tags: Al-Quds, conflict, holycity, holyland, jerusalem, peace, photography, religion, YaLa Photo Essay

By Paula

Photo Essay | Buildings by Youba Darif, Morocco

Author: By Youba Darif, Morocco
Published: August 30, 2018
Categories: in Art, Culture and Heritage, English, Morocco, Photo Essays, Travel
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: #Maghreb, discovertheregion, Inspiration, morocco, tourism, traveling

Buildings also can speak and tell people’s stories, history, lifestyle, visions, struggles, hopes, and aspirations. During my recent travels in my country, Morocco, I discovered the essence of my magnificent culture and civilization by looking at the small details in buildings which witness a tremendous history. Each building in the following photos has so many […]

Riding the Donkey Backwards by Asil Ibrahim-Khalil, Palestine

Author: By Asil Ibrahim-Khalil, Palestine
Published: August 22, 2018
Categories: in Conflict & Peacebuilding, Culture and Heritage, Education, English, Human Rights, Identity, Israel-Palestine, Life Style, Palestine, Tolerance, Travel
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Tags: #thinkactyala

It was a hot, sunny July day in Phoenix, Arizona. It was amazing seeing the long green cacti on my way to visit ASU, Arizona State University, with a group of eight Birzeit University students. I remember wearing light blue jeans, a beige top, a scarf and, of course, my light sneakers. We were excited […]

The Box By Khaled K, Syria

Author: By Khaled K, Syria
Published: August 2, 2018
Categories: in Civil Activism, Conflict & Peacebuilding, Education, English, Human Rights, Media, Syria, Travel
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: #endviolence, activism, Humanity, Inspiration, life, politics, storytelling, syria, SyrianCivilWar, syrianyouth

Five years ago, I was living in a box. Not literally a box, but an extremely small room. When I lived inside this box, I lived like an animal in a cage. My life was controlled by other people. There were eighty people in this small box, all so close together that we were almost one. […]

Count Your Blessings by Bracha Rapaport, Israel

Author: By Bracha Rapaport, Israel
Published: July 24, 2018
Categories: in Civil Activism, Culture and Heritage, Development, English, Identity, Israel, Life Style, Travel
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Tags: discovertheregion

Sometimes I have those moments where I feel so lucky to be alive, I feel blessed to be a part of something greater than myself. That is what it was like for me to volunteer in Africa, a place truly impoverished and underdeveloped in relation to my country, Israel. Ever since 9th grade I had […]

Photo Essay | My City by Ben Ruttenberg, Israel

Author: By Ben Ruttenberg, Israel
Published: July 16, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, English, Identity, Israel, Photo Essays, Travel
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For the past week, I’ve tried to notice the little and interesting things about living in my city. Situations that I would maybe miss otherwise if I weren’t tuned to the ”look for a photo” state of mind. I think these little moments can help me share a few things about what it’s like living […]

Photo-essay | Jordanian Gold by Ibrahem Khatib, Israel\Palestine

Author: By Ibrahem Khatib, Israel\Palestine
Published: July 3, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, English, Identity, Israel, Israel-Palestine, Palestine, Photo Essays, Travel
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: #thinkactyala

This was the first time I planned a proper surprise for someone I love and admire. Her name is Hila, and she is an amazing young woman. We traveled by plane from Tel-Aviv to Eilat, crossed the border to Jordan. At the Jordanian side, we met Yousuf, a handsome young man at the age of […]

Chad by Meriem, Algeria (photo-essay)

Published: July 2, 2018
Categories: in Algeria, Art, Identity, Photo Essays, Travel
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Tags: #thinkactyala, discovertheregion, yala, YaLa Africa, YaLa Photo Essay, yala young leaders

Recently, I was lucky enough to be a part of the International Slam Festival in Tchad called N’Djam “s’enflamme en Slam’. It was a very unique experience in which I discovered the REAL AFRICA! I am also African, and the clichés about Africa being a poor, 3rd world country was not apparent to me in […]

The Journey of Identity by Aziza Douma, Tunisia

Author: By Aziza Douma, Tunisia
Published: June 6, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, Education, English, Human Rights, Identity, Israel-Palestine, Travel, Tunisia
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: #IDENTITY #THINKACTYALA

It was 1972 in southern Tunisia, in a little village called Old Zraoua. I woke up at 5 AM to the sounds of the rooster, like any normal day. It was dawn, and I could still see the stars shining in the sky as the sun rises on the horizon. The temperature would rise very […]

The Spark by Alon Nutkevitch, Israel

Published: May 1, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, Friendship, Identity, Travel
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: #crossculturalXchange

The flames cheerfully surrounded the dry Eucalyptus logs, which made a soothing crackling noises. Dozens of monkeys encircled us, playing between the trees, their screams drawing our attention to the miraculous nature around us in its never ending shades of green, all colored in this late hour with unified black. Even the too warm beer, […]

Photo Essay | Gazan Jewels by Belal, Palestine

Author: By Belal, Palestine
Published: April 3, 2018
Categories: in Art, Culture and Heritage, Identity, Palestine, Photo Essays, Travel
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Gaza is one of the oldest cities in the world. Its architecture denotes unique eras of variant civilizations: Ottoman, Roman, and Greek. It is a fertile land of religious monuments. I had always wanted to explore my city and see its details in depth until the beginning of last April when I decided to go […]

My First Christmas by Tamar Schechtman, Israel

Author: By Tamar Schechtman, Israel
Published: March 28, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, Education, English, Friendship, Hebrew, Identity, Israel, Tolerance, Travel
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: christmas, home, learning, life, religion, Travel

I was born and raised in a quiet little town by the sea, far from borders and conflict and also far from cultural diversity. Other than a short exchange program in Germany during high school, I never actually met anyone who wasn’t Jewish. I knew nothing else. Though I was supposedly privileged, I felt deprived […]

My Indian Guru by Adam, Israel

Author: By Adam, Israel
Published: March 22, 2018
Categories: in Culture and Heritage, English, Identity, Israel, Travel
Comments: 0 Comments
Tags: #crossculturalXchange, #thinkactyala, India

Jorge, an excitable, lanky teenager from Venezuela, volunteered in a slum on the outskirts of Delhi, India. Sometimes he would come with his friends to stay at our hostel in the city. Before his final weekend, he wanted to visit an acquaintance he had made. He told me about an ascetic at a temple in […]

Welcome to America by Ibrahem Khatib, Israel\Palestine

Published: March 14, 2018
Categories: in Civil Activism, Conflict & Peacebuilding, Education, English, Identity, Israel, Israel-Palestine, Lebanon, Palestine, Travel
Comments: 0 Comments

It was the summer of 2006 and the war just broke out between Hezbollah and the Israeli Forces. I was very lucky because that summer I was accepted to “YES”, a youth exchange program. I was expecting to go to the US for my senior year of high school and I was thrilled that I […]

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