(This is an excerpt—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
 

When Iron Leaves the Land: Walking the Rail Corridor

I never saw much point in exercising. While I appreciated the general logic for exercise and the evidence to date, there was always something else more pressing or, frankly, more enjoyable to attend to. I solved Randi Zuckerberg's "dilemma"—to pick three priorities from friends, enterprise, family, fitness, and sleep—by dumping the last two and adding books, with some computer gaming on the side.

Ping Yi Yee
 

From a Privileged Civil Servant to a Volunteer Teacher in a Taxi So I Would Not Puke

I held my breath at the beautiful view of Durban by night that lay in front of me. Reflectively, I tried to focus on the bigger picture. The infamous hotel was located in a bustling neighborhood: buses honking their vuvuzela-like horns, a beach down the road, a local ladies' salon with Kiswahili-speaking Maasai men as hairdressers, and an unmistakable pidgin accent was heard in the lobby. A four-star hotel would not have given me this authentic taste of Africa.

Gloria D. Gonsalves