Never in my life have I been so humiliated as I was on Aug. 10 at the London Gatwick Airport. I had just finished summer classes in Cambridge and was headed back with my father to Dallas, where he lives. For most of the year, I live with my mother in Indianapolis. My parents have been divorced since I was 2, and I've been flying back and forth for 15 years.

Benin Team members Jonathan Asher Gainer, 14 School: Home-schooled junior. In Y-Press: One year. Interests: Politics, economics, international relations. Career goal: President of the United States, CEO of a company. Why he wanted to be on the team: "To help tell a magnificent story that has yet to be told, and to gain a greater understanding of the world in which I live." Zoe Hayes, 18 School: Le

For children in the slums of Benin, daily life in the West African country is full of hardships. Illegal trafficking of youths continues to trouble the country. The average Beninese worker earns $1,100 a year. But free speech, high voter turnout and a commitment to change give many in the infant democracy hope for the future. Y-Press, a local youth news organization, recently traveled to the cradl

Never in my life have I been so humiliated as I was on Aug. 10 at the London Gatwick Airport. I had just finished summer classes in Cambridge and was headed back with my father to Dallas, where he lives. For most of the year, I live with my mother in Indianapolis. My parents have been divorced since I was 2, and I've been flying back and forth for 15 years. On that awful day, airports shifted to h

I instantly became fascinated last spring as I listened to a fellow missionary discuss growing up in India. It made me want to go there, too -- even though I've loved getting to know the people and culture in the African country of Mozambique. When Susan Weil mentioned that she and her husband were going to India in the summer, I jokingly said: "Sign me up!" From that start, I was on my way to Ind

One day this summer, my mom gathered my three siblings and me and gave us the amazing news: "This summer we're going to Orlando for vacation. While we're there, we're going to spend two days at Disney World!" "All right!" we yelled. I quickly became the skeptical one, "How are we going to get there?" "We're driving!" she announced. "How long a drive?" was my next question. "About 18 hours," was my

The experienced fingers of 20 women crochet strands of plastic into one-of-a-kind gifts in a shop in Porto-Novo, Benin's capital. These women, led by Grace Dotou-Aboh, began their business, Qui Dit Mieux?, in 1996. They collect plastic bags littering Benin's streets, clean them and transform them into beautiful purses, bags and dolls. The group has received international recognition for raising en

As the first African country to transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, Benin has been hailed as a "beacon of democracy" by the British Broadcasting Corp. and has attracted admirers worldwide. The Beninese have former President Mathieu Kerekou to thank for that. Kerekou, who assumed power in 1972 and governed for more than 20 years, became a Muslim, a born-again Christian, changed his name

Though unfamiliar to Americans and home to a painful past, the West African nation of Benin quickly is becoming the center of hope in the region. Home to a population of nearly 8 million in a geographical area a bit larger than Indiana, Benin used to be a part of the powerful Dahomey kingdom that extended into present-day Nigeria. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Benin's coast was a prominent p

For most of us, a trip to the magnetic North Pole seems unrealistic. It cannot be found with a compass, a useless tool close to the magnetic pole because of the lack of horizontal magnetic pull. It cannot be pinpointed on a map, either. The sun causes the pole to move in an erratical elliptical path over Canada's Northwest Territories, sometimes moving more than 100 miles in one day. It also

Rain forest: Lots of plants that are all very green. It rains about once a day, and it's just really humid. That definition of a rain forest comes from 13-year-old Kirsten Olson, who recently traveled with a group from Indianapolis to see the Amazon rain forest. Kirsten went with Rick Crosslin, a fourth-grade teacher in Wayne Township, who takes interested students and adults to the rain forest. T

Where can you order a shrimp burger at a two-story McDonald's? In Japan. That was something 20 students from Burris Laboratory School in Muncie discovered last year when they traveled to Japan. In the only exchange program in the United States involving elementary students, the participants prepared for several months for their weeklong stay in Okazaki , near Tokyo, where they lived with host fami

When Ben Allen moved to India a year ago, he left behind his older sister, his grandparents and his friends. But Ben wasn't resentful; he was enthusiastic. "I'm excited, a little nervous, but I think it'll be a great experience for me," said Ben, then 15, before he left Indianapolis in August 2001. Ben's parents were going to India to fulfill their dream to be missionaries. "My mom and dad asked b

"I ran into the stereotype in Europe a lot that Americans never took the time to learn anything else (besides English). And I think it's nice to be able to sort of break through that stereotype," said Amy Laburda, 17. Last summer, Amy spent seven weeks abroad with the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages. Since 1962, the program has sent about 120 students every summer to foreign

Imagine that you are on a Caribbean island. Sunlight streams down your back. You smell the invigorating sea air, lounge on the beach and read a novel you saved for vacation. For many, the Turks and Caicos Islands is a vacation destination -- it reportedly is Justin Timberlake's top choice for a break. But the group of 30 islands, belonging to the United Kingdom, has a tragic side: Many natives are

Jessica and Chelsea Berryman are living in Maputo, Mozambique, with their parents, Glenn and Kris, who are setting up an English as a Second Language program with the help of OMS International, an evangelical, interdenominational faith mission based in Greenwood. In October, the girls shared their first impressions of Mozambique and the adjustments they have made since moving from Greenwood in Aug

Christmas in Mozambique falls in the middle of summer. The temperature can easily top 100 degrees on Christmas Day. So, unlike our winters in Indiana and Oregon, we will not be spending Christmas with sweaters on, and we know for sure it will not be white. It is hard at times to get in the mood for Christmas because of the hot weather, but playing Christmas music definitely helps. As we learn more

In 1956, a movie titled "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" was released in the United States. Although it was a dubbed English version of a Japanese monster movie, it became a smash hit and has spurred 28 sequels, including the 1998 American-made film "Godzilla," starring Matthew Broderick. This has not been the only Japanese influence on American pop culture, however. In more recent years, "Power R