Ahead of the walk: Ask Paul a question
Journalist Paul Salopek is preparing ready to leave on a journey that will take seven years and span 39 countries—and he is doing it all on foot. Post your question now.
As Paul Salopek journeys around the world on foot, he will follow the migration pathways of our ancestors who walked out of Africa 50,000 years ago.
Grantee
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Paul Salopek was born in California, USA, and raised in Mexico. As a foreign correspondent, he has worked in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Latin America. His...
Featured responses
you indicated your water needs will be satisfied with a filter. what about your food needs? do you anticipate sharing food with locals? and how will you "pay your way"?
From Paul Salopek, December 13, 2012
Sharing food is one of the most important ways of bonding with people along the trail--a fundamentally human act. Besides offering the opportunity to experience new tastes, it will tell me something about nutrition in different cultures. I plan to pay my way and more--leaving behind more than I take, and not just in monetary terms, but hopelly in the pleasure of sharing stories over meals, too.
What physical and emotional challenges do you anticipate experiencing on your journey and how will you prepare for them?
From Paul Salopek, December 13, 2012
There will many--including some I don't even know about, and thus can't plan for. On the physical side, just staying healthy will be a challenge: eating and drinking enough to not wear down my system over time, taking breaks, carrying a small but useful med kit. On the psychological end, the task will be balancing periods of loneliness with occasions when I may feel overwhelmed by being the object of local curiosity. from previous travels, taking 'time outs' to recoup in private settings, whether in nature or a bungalow somewhere.
What precautions did you take to protect yourself from foreign diseases?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
Standard med kit and a portable water filter. What I always use on assignment.
What place are you most excited to visit?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
In the first year, the Afar Depression of Ethiopia and Djibouti is a beuutiful if austere pace where semi-nomadic pastoralism is still a strong way of life. The eastern or western shorelines of the Red Sea offer great environmental and cultural stories. There are archeological and anthropological sites with great resonance to modern life in the Middle East: for instance, the cave sites at Mt. Carmel are, in the words of one scientist, a "bus station" of ancient human migration: old and new forms of humans and pre-humans are buried atop each other--intriguing evidence of coexistence? The fact that it's located in one of the modern world's perennial zones of turmoil. Maybe a few lessons to be gleaned.
What do you plan to do after your seven years are up? Will you simply return back home?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
It's hard enough to plan ahead the next month much less seven years. Honest answer is, I don't know. I suspect I may find a place to write a book.
What do you hope to learn from this experience? What do you hope others will learn?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
My interests are in the journalism and, more largely, in storytelling. So I hope to see if my own work will change and hopefully improve by parsing the events of our day one step at time. So there is a creative question behind this. For readers, I hope to not just find new narratives in out-of-the-way places, but also interact--I'd like my readers to be fellow journalists, pointing me to better stories along the way. I'll have to go offline for periods of time--silences are built into this journey--but I look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions and feedback. And maybe, you'll take a narrative walk of your own--even in your neighborhood.
What will you carry in your backpack and why?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
About 20 pounds of communications gear: a micro-lite laptop, satphone and cellphone, a digital camcorder/camera and maybe a digital audio recorder. Fortunately this stuff is getting smaller and lighter all the time. Not so my notebooks--I'll have to ship those back once I fill them.
What do you think will be your biggest challenge while travelling?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
Privacy. A personal sense of space. I'll have to take break to be alone, because this is by no means a solitary journey; I'll be accompanied the vast majority of the time.
How does your family feel about your trip?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
I'd like to keep this a bit private, if you don't mind. They are supportive, of course. I'll be in regular touch.
How do you communicate with other people without speaking their language?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
Until I pick up enough of a vocabulary--one side benefit of moving slowly through stories--mostly through interpreters, just as I do when I'm reporting abroad more conventionally. Only on this assignment, they'll have to walk with me.
Will you be traveling through any war zones?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
I hope not. I'll be gauging those hurdles as I go, and trying to circumvent them if at all possible.
Where do you consider home, and where have you lived before?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
I was born in California, raised in Mexico and have lived all over the place--from South Africa to Iraq. Home is wherever I can write.
Why do you want to focus on the “little stories,” the stories that move too slow to be heard?
From Paul Salopek, October 26, 2012
Because if there is a quiet space on Earth, it doesn't mean that nothing is happening there--it may mean that we're simply not listening. And why retell all the loud stories that you've heard before. This is about finshing new stories that may be just as important--but untold.