Welcome to Tui Snider's Cemetery News: 

Greetings, fellow tombstone tourists! If you're new here, welcome, and if you're not, great to see you again. 

Where am I now? Since my last newsletter, Larry and I have crossed the Atlantic... twice! First we sailed from Africa to Brazil, and now we are heading north back to England, where our lengthy sea voyage will finally end. 

Meeting a reader in Portugal! Tomorrow, we land in Lisbon, where I will meet newsletter reader, Gisela, in person. Not only that, but she's going to show me around a historic cemetery. Isn't that exciting?

In this issue - I'll give a full report after I meet up with Gisela, but here's what I've got for you today:

1) Reader Comments and Questions 
2) Join me in Italy!
3) Maldives Cemetery

4) Is this creepy or what?

1) Reader Comments and Questions:  Every time I get an email from you guys it makes my day! After all, without the magic of the Internet, I'd just be a lone weirdo, roaming cemeteries by myself. Isn't it wonderful how we can connect and share our passion for historic cemeteries?

Here are a few emails I recently received. 

From Jenny in Texas: As for cemeteries, I enjoy finding unique names, inscriptions, tombstone styles, different fonts, decorations... so very interesting! I try to pick up trash and upright fallen flowers and flags. I photograph and keep them in my "electronic" scrapbook. 

Find-A-Grave is my weakness (I love it so much that I usually go down the "rabbit hole" looking for "nearby" cemeteries then "nearby" cemeteries to those... ha ha)... Nice to meet you btw and thank you for the e-book!! 

[My remarks: I bet a lot of us can relate to Jenny, can you? Find-A-Grave can certainly be rabbit hole, can't it?]

2) Tour Italy's Cemeteries With Me!

This is the tour Chris is asking about. For the record, the tour is open to everyone. You do not have to be an artist. (I certainly can't draw, but I'll take lots of photos.)  

What's the deal? In case you're new here, my exciting news is that I’ve been invited to be a cemetery tour guide through Italy’s monumental cemeteries, which are known for incredible statues and gorgeous funerary monuments.

Along the way, we will also explore ancient Etruscan tombs, a chapel decorated with skulls and bones, and other historic hotspots. (And, of course, we will enjoy tasty Italian food everywhere we go!)

If this sounds fun to you, check out the details at Lisa’s Gryphon Art Tours. (And don’t delay, because space is limited and folks have started signing up. So far, it's all women, but men are certainly encouraged to join us.):

I'm super excited about this tour. It's going to be so much fun!

3) Maldives Cemetery   
Larry and I recently visited the island city of Male, Maldives. Right smack dab in the middle of its hectic downtown lies a historic burial ground dating back to 1656! (And that's where I'm standing in the photo at the top of this newsletter.)

The Muslim cemetery at Old Friday Mosque is so old, in fact, that its graves follow an old tradition: rather than face Mecca, they face west.

Inside, the pattern on the carpeting is placed at an angle so that modern-day folks can face Mecca while they pray. (

The cemetery grounds, meanwhile, feature a handful of mausoleums in which sultans and their wives have been laid to rest.

And while I can’t read any of the script on the headstones, I do know that the rounded ones are for women, and the pointed ones are for men.

4) Is this creepy or what?

While visiting South Africa, a couple tour guides mentioned a drug called "kush" that is causing a lot of problems. One guide said it makes people act like zombies, while another called it, "the African version of meth."

Curious, I Googled it, and what I found is truly nightmarish. Apparently, some addicts have the crazy idea that grinding up skeletons and adding that to the drug will make it more potent. Because of this, some cemeteries now require armed guards:

"And the spike in kush use has seen Freetown's main cemeteries request police security to protect themselves from young men digging up skeletons - ground-up human bone is one of the many ingredients used to make kush, although it is not clear why." 

Here's a link to a BBC article about the problem: Sierra Leone declares emergency over drug kush - made from human bones

Unfortunately, kush is so rampant in Sierra Leone that the president recently declared a state of emergency. Isn't that creepy?

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This is a friendly group where cemetery enthusiasts can share links, photos, articles, questions, experiences, and other related info while having conversations and making friends. Even though I'm traveling, I still pop in as much as I can. (Which hasn't been much lately, but I am trying!)