As long as a minibus and as thin as a canoe, curved like a banana and painted a rainbow of hues, the handbuilt wooden pirogue remains the watercraft of choice among half a million people who support the artisanal fishing industry along the coast of Senegal in West Africa. Pirogues were originally designed narrow for easier paddling, and their long, curved keels help them glide into surf and swell, where every morning hundreds of crews cast nets with the hopes of a good day's catch.

We know from their memoirs that, centuries ago Mughal emperors craved mangos, and their patronage of orchards in Goa led to today's global mango agribusiness-but the tastiest mangos of all? Those still come from Goa. say locals, and most would agree.

On a wall overlooking a garden in Marrakesh, Morocco, this 12-pointed star vibrates with strapwork and ornamentation, but its basic geometry can be drawn using only one-eighth of the pattern. That becomes. template that, flipped and inverted seven times, produces the rest of the star.

Over the past two decades, investing, banking and mortgaging guided by Islamic principles have grown 10-fold worldwide. As a sector, Islamic finance experienced lower percentages of losses in the 2008 global financial crisis than most conventional institutions. Proponents point to lower risk profiles and focus on tangible assets, for starters.

One of the world's oldest games, mancala needs only two players, some seeds or beads and shallow pits in the earth. Over more than a millennium and under different names, mancala spread out from East Africa, and now there are almost as many variations as there are cultures that enjoy it.

Nothing had prepared me for the damp, cold winters of Cambridge. I wanted to make this soup not just because it was warming and comforting but because I also got a lot of free pumpkins from the market on my first Halloween in England.

In 2021 a photography project took me 1.900 kilometers down the Tigris River through Turkey. Syria and Iraq. By the time we reached the city of Kut, in central Iraq. I had been camping along the riverbanks for nearly two months, mostly in the company of men, with the occasional night hosted by a local family. Here Kut, at the home of a fisherman's family. I was able to have some precious time with other women. I was also able to join their weekly ritual of washing one another's hair.