Reporters on the Job
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Walking the Past: Correspondent Monica Campbell notes that when she flies into Mexico City, it's hard to miss some interesting topography from the air - assuming the smog level isn't too high. "The city is set in a valley, and you have all these mounds around, and huge volcanoes in the background," she says. So she was fascinated to listen to archaeologist Jésus Sánchez as he walked her around a mound that contained a 1,500-year-old pyramid
(see story). "I'm looking at volcanic rocks, then other rocks - and suddenly you see this pyramid emerge, and you can envision it. It gave me goose bumps," she says.
Monica says that people in the area were a little blasé - a result, she thinks, of the abundant heritage around them. "But it was great to listen to one of the top archeologists in Latin America as he did a 360 for me from this hill, pointing out all these projects his colleagues were working on. It was fascinating that all this research is going on."
Monica says that there was a suspicion for many years that there was a structure under this mound. "But people didn't realize how big it might be until an aerial photo showed what appeared to be man-made levels in the shape of a pyramid," she says. "Research is underfunded, and since there are so many sites, competition is fierce to get the green light from the government."
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Walking With Arms: Correspondent Josh Mitnick says that in reporting his story on militants in Gaza
(see story), he decided for the first time to use an armed bodyguard at the insistence of his interpreter. But Josh says he isn't sure what was the greater threat: kidnapping or the risk of being too close to the artillery shells that are heard throughout Gaza several times an hour. "This is our music," an acquaintance told Josh as artillery shells landed with thuds in between Israeli and Palestinian military positions at the Erez checkpoint.
Amelia Newcomb
Deputy world editor
Cultural snapshot
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PAINTED AUTHORITY:
Thais covered the face of a policeman in Prachinburi Province, east of Bangkok, as they celebrated Songkran festival, the Thai new year, Thursday.
WASANT WANICHAKORN/AP
More cultural snapshots
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