Filed under: Photos
so it’s time to connect myself to the greater world again … i write this with a glass of wine in hand and some olives on order, with the smell and sight of the mediterranean waves crashing on the shore beside
so i’m in crete right now … arrived yesterday and will stay for … well long enough for it to feel homely anyway. and this is the fab thing about a camping ground in greece. there are loads of huge extended greek families making up excessive amounts of moussaka, tzakiki, greek salad and dishing up bowls of home marinated olives, and pouring glasses of wine from the family vineyards … and these are moments when being on your own is not too bad, because the invites abound! you know people often ask me if i’m not too lonely wandering the wonderful places of the world solo, and my answer is well of course! … but only rarely, and only when you allow yourself the luxury of considering it … but if you keep moving, and seeing and soaking and smelling and just living really, the people and smells and sights … from the bite of a fresh olive, to the sea breeze after a run down the mountain, to the smile of an old man tending his tomatoes, to the genorisity and sharing of communities from friends that are met along the way, to the enlivening crispness of seaspray for a morning wakeup session, to a warm coffee on a chilly morning made with love from special people … these things invigorate and bring warmth. and when you consider the fortunate world that i and the worlds of most of the people that can read this upload live in, i truly believe that we don’t have the right to feel sad, or lonely, or hard done by, or … any of those sorts of things. and even if those moments are true for a moment, well we don’t have the right to sit and dwell on them. because the very fact that we have the gift of a moment to sit and reflect on them means we are in a small percentage of the world that is lucky … super lucky. and it is our duty to recognise that and to embrace the world that we have and to take advantage and use every second of it … and if it doesn’t bring joy, then we need to change it. because how lucky are we that we have the possibility of changing and choosing and reflecting and considering and actually having options in what we do have.
well those words came out of nowhere and no doubt i am preaching to myself a bit there and for that, i’m glad the words were found
so the quick overview … and if you want to know more you can ask, or you already have asked
the month of may was spent in athens, working on some projects, ideas, creativity, international connections etc with a film production company in greece … olyvon … all people i met at the olympus marathon last year. the month was amazing … i learnt heaps, my mind opened to a realm of new interesting artistic possibilities, the people welcomed me amazingly and were completely gorgeous … and you know it was just fun operating a western existence for a bit. i really found great joy in jumping on the metro every morning, am coffee in hand from my local, ipod in hand while smiling at some of the regulars, lunch in the sun with the busyness of the world around … yeah that was nice. and then athens was amazing. the place i stayed was fab … only 2kms from the acropolis and so many amazing unexpected hills, ancient ancient sites, views, parks, places to run (these were truly my favourite moments) and natasha, the girl i shared with was gorgeous at sharing some night venues and friends which was so enjoyable, and the local markets and the olives and nuts and wine and fetta … all so delightful. and the greek people … so much joy and over expression of emotion constantly … but coming from a culture of under expression of emotion, i truly soaked it up.
the last couple of weeks saw me in berlin … there was a conference on the conflict between politics and religion in the context of women’s rights which was totally interesting and wonderful to have opportunity to discuss with a whole realm of people … from the spanish catholic nun in favour of abortion and homosexuality to the pakistani lady running a women’s rights group in pakistan to a polish women’s rights author … to a thousand people in between. was really inspiring interesting brain broadening on so many levels … and brought so many new angles to the study i am currently doing. had a few assignments due in the last week which saw me having several large days and nights … but fortunately i was staying with some lovely pals i met while in thailand earlier this year and they looked after me fabulously and ensured there was always tasty espressos and amazing cuisine on offer at every moment. and once again they shared their community and world which was equally as joyful as athens and was wonderful to feel the warmth that comes with that. unfortunately the sun decided not to show itself fairly much the whole time i was there, so i had to make a move to a warmer part of the world again! so i found the cheapest flight on offer out of berlin … which has landed me in crete. and i know i am a truly lucky girl and so i am living breathing smelling soaking and smiling at it all, which lets face it, is just not that difficult in a place such as this.
and you know i haven’t taken a single photo since in europe. why you ask? because my constantly moving changing existence at the moment is my reality and home and when you’re home you don’t run around collecting pictures of every second. you live and breathe and let life happen and store wonderful memories of people and moments in time … and that’s what i need to do at the moment … and it’s nice this way for the time being. oh and let’s not forget the acdc bogan olympic stadium fabulous moment in athens and the depeche mode time in berlin … both absolutely stand out moments on such different scales!
well that was a whole lot of conscious and unconscious thought speaking there … scan the bits that speak to you and skip the rest. but grab hold of the sentiment behind it.
kisses to all kdec x
sooooooo then … even though i know some of you think that i’ve just been ambling my way around the place for the last few years i do believe i pumped out enough reports, interviews, assignments, bibliographies, analyses blah blah blah in the last month to last me another year … really … ok well i sense the majority of you have little care factor so i will order myself a wine and continue !
so the last month has been back in laos and doing some really interesting surveys etc on the influencing factors behind effective community development through the village committees in the project’s target areas. so this took me far wide high and low in the mountains of luang nam tha and had me eating and seeing an equal variety of entities. you know up and until this trip, i had always struggled a little with the whole notion of bringing “development” to the masses. don’t get me wrong … i absolutely believe 100% in everyone’s right to education and the freedom that can come with that … but i did sometimes feel like we were potentially upsetting the equilibrium in some communities … ones that had operated fairly happily in their remote mountain top existences for hundreds of generations. i guess i used to think that through creating knowledge you create desire and if one would never have the opportunity to fulfil desires and wants then isn’t that the definition of frustration?
but then i met Saryoh in a village called lakkam mai … an akha and hmong village between luang nam tha and muang sing. there were three of them but Saryoh had the most beautiful, intelligent, mischievious, curious eyes and they burned into my soul i would have to say. Saryoh is 15, married, about to have a child and was made to leave school in grade two. she’ll never go back and will never study non formal education because she’s married … and that’s the way it works with akha girls. and to be honest, saryoh is one of the lucky ones … at least she had two years.
she’s the one on the right …
and now i don’t have any more answers than before but … i do believe in upsetting the equilibrium now … with obvious measure to guide and support the way … but it needs to be upset …
now i am back at the same fabulous place i was in thailand before, for five days of uni writing craziness (with of course a few cheeky swim and singha island moments thrown in!), before heading to athens on sunday. and there for about 4 weeks with the film peoples from the marathon last year … to try and work on my own creativeness in that area and see if we can’t put some combined projects together. apparently the first project is working on a promo film for some mediterrarean yachting company …. oh yeah, i’m definitely up for that one!
so if you’re a european resident you’ll be hearing from me soon to track down a local beverage sharing moment … or come find me in greece!
some pics from the last month, until the next time …
three girls from nam khone … fabulously confident and giggly … and these girls get to go to school
the water pipage system at ban pakha … you can see the lady at the end doing her washing, waiting ever so patiently for those drips of water to come through
a village meeting in one of the most remote field visit venues … you can find me crouched in the corner near the door trying to be friendly but then not to the two teachers who were a just little over excited at a single woman being in “town”!
a little discotheque outing in lnt with davan … this girl is a special one … she rolls around every couple of days with a bag of fried river weed or tofu or papaya salad or other such tasty treats being the fab girl that she is … and as you can see they do rather like the beauty of a white white face!
all akha villages have a place like this right at the highest point in the village, just near the school, upon entry generally … from what i can tell, the area under the triangular structure is like a meeting ground for parties etc and the timber structure up the back is for phou bao & phou sao to go and hang out and chat! aka the unmarrieds!
so during this visit we went around to 14 different villages and as a component of it, held a meeting with the local village committee. so in this pic the village committee are the seated people and the rest are the fascinated ones! not too many visitors round these parts. nb the fancy headpiece of the girl in the bottom lh corner
… a bit of ad lib karoake … the masses wanted to hear an australian song so this is me belting out waltzing matilda with a chopstick sticky rice fashioned microphone
… from namsa … and yes they wear these amazing headpieces doing the garden on the side of a mountain in the mud!
so … in akha villages you can find stacks of these little huts which are about the length of a body and not much wider … and this is where boys go to check out which girls work for them. so if i’m a boy and see a girl i fancy, i make a little date for later that evening … we spend a few hours together in the hut … and then we sneak back to our homes before morning. and we keep doing it til she’s pregnant … and then we get married. or alternatively i get sick of her and try out a few other girls
Filed under: Updates
so the prof photo people from the marathon last year in greece finally sent me some pics from the race, so i uploaded a couple for you … such painful but good good memories … the brain forgot the pain enough to make me register again … hmmmm
in laos and about to head out to some rather remote 8 hr from the nearest road on the side of the mountain type villages for the next couple of weeks … will be a combination of super beautiful super confronting super inspiring super interesting super empowering super reflective super everything time …
and then next steps … to athens for may to do some learning and work with the film doco people from the marathon … www.olyvon.com and then … we’ll see …
so i am now in aus for 10 days, but have just spent a completely sparkling delightful month in thailand studying, writing, swimming, seafooding, singhaing, mountaining and having all round lovely times … so easy to study overlooking the ocean with a fresh pineapple shake in hand!
back to laos this weekend for a month
enjoy the pics …
