"When I want a breath of fresh air in the winter, I head out of my city, the Macedonian capital of Skopje, and up to the surrounding hills," writes Robert Atanasovski, a photographer based in the city.

"It used to be that I would see nothing but a blanket of pollution-choked clouds. But now that a few skyscrapers are going up, you get a sense that there is a city hidden underneath."

"When Zimbabwe won its independence from Britain in 1980, I was just 14 and going to school in a small town west of Harare," writes Susan Njanji, a correspondent based in South Africa. "I don’t remember the euphoria that swept the country and didn’t know who revolutionary leader Robert Mugabe was. But I'll never forget the days that he was removed from power 37 years later."