so on the 08th of december i will arrive in buenos aires … for a plentiful bounty of art culture music spanish wine tango mountains parks and all such delightful things. as said, i am actually staying somewhere nice in supposedly the green parky wearhousy area of buenos aires … so this is a good time to come and visit if you felt a traveling holiday urge. please do! book in a xmas or new years visit perhaps. or anytime. hasta pronto xxx
What Katie Did Next …
trying to find 365 days of all things summer … always
the last happy few and the next anticipated few
i see i haven’t updated this for quite a while now, so i will do a little rundown now. since my last update, i took a 3 month gig in east timor, working with an environmental NGO and the Ministry of Edn on an environmental edn project. is an interesting place timor … they’ve had a bit of a shocking history with far more than one country’s reasonable share of unfair unjust and grossly damaging history. the result is a country still struggling to get its head above water and a community of people that, from my experience anyway, are often quite wary of strangers and foreigners. and rightfully so. the schools are in a shocking state, with an avg class size of about 75, and barely a single resource to speak of. as has been my continual experience over the last number of years, however, an amazing resilience abounds, and i’m sure i heard barely a complaint. i have to admit to finding it the toughest place i’ve lived in a while, due to the edginess that i felt on the streets, and the random boob grabs while running and various other slightly unpleasant things. anything that impedes my feeling of independence spells tough for me! i joined a running group over there which was fab … lots of runs out and about in the hills and along lone beaches, always followed up by some rounds of cold beer refreshment which is always a pleasure in the sweaty temperatures that were there.
running through and around some villages in timor with my little running group
the local afternoon fish market
a super school that we used for the photography in the final teacher training manual. these little boys won my heart with their earnestness
we spent a number of hours with this school, putting together a variety of photos for the final publication. this is my attempt at keeping small children buoyed up and entertained! and yes i think that is the ticket from my undies hanging out. so culturally sensitive of me!
a proud moment accepting a medal in the “first lady’s cup” from the prime minister’s wife in timor! this is kirsty sword gusmão … a fab lady … an australian in fact. do some research on her. she’s one to be admired. ps my additional prize was a case of orange soft drink!
a little treat weekend on a beach in thailand on my way back through to Australia, with a good mate from Laos
my original semi plan when leaving brazil was to actually head back to aus to get started on my deferred phd in 2012 … and given the proximity of timor to australia, i/we ended up deciding to sell the cafe and to head back there. but in the end, my nervousness of living in canberra soil and a life with my head in a computer and book ended with me (upon the wonderful advice of my phd research brother) deciding against that path. at least for now 
i do seem to have a habit of going around in circles on this one!
i am currently in australia for 6 weeks, covering the long service leave of a good mate of mine in my old school on the gold coast. she is the art coordinator, so i spend joyful days with paint, clay, dark rooms and all manner of inspiring creative things. quite a pleasure for this short time really! after here ie 07 december, i am heading to buenos aires, argentina, and making there a base for a little bit. no doubt i will pop out for some jobs here and there, but i will try my hand at living there for a bit. since the portuguese is more or less under the belt, i’d like to sort the spanish out, which should hopefully come relatively easily, as well as giving some more time to all things musical and creative … perhaps my only small regret of things that haven’t been paid much attention over the last few years. there will of course be tango and red wine thrown in there plentifully as well 
so … if you have any argentina thoughts … you have a place to stay with me! for the first time in a long time, i have actually committed to a rental contract, in a rather super arty loft right in the centre of buenos aires, so you will stay comfortably and well if you come
from samba to crocodiles
well … i am writing this still w the scent and bliss of lovely sea breezes … but this time w the addition of wood smoke & trill of wooden pipes in my ears … as opposed to a samba beat. why? bc i am in my little wooden bungalow in east timor. i am here working with an environmental education based ngo “live and learn” … livelearn.org – who do fab work in a number of countries around this globe, supporting community understanding and lifestyle change to mitigate environmental degradation. i am specifically here to write a whole lot of support material for primary school teachers, to develop their understanding and encourage their use of classroom materials and teaching that aids a greater insight to protecting and understanding the local environment that surrounds. super! here for 3 months. i’ve only been here for a couple of nights so far, and haven’t pieced through any real reflections other than i like the portuguese history wine influence, the smiles are gorgeous, the sun is hot, the fish are yummy, the water is crystal … but it’s the most stand outish blonde white skinned expat feeling i’ve felt in a long time. which isn’t the greatest feeling.
anyway … there’s said to be some of the world’s best diving around these parts, so if you feel like a little hol in the next 3 months, look me up (ps only $100 to arrive in bali from here, so if you’re a bali lover, a dili stopover is a serious option for you!)
until the next reflection xxx
des-cansar.com
many things of a very decisive nature have taken place in the last few months! one … i bought a house about an hour by bus north of the centre of rio de j in a cute little beach village called itaipuaçu. the stars sparkle, the grass is green green green, the air is fresh and various horses pop in from time to time to “mow” my grass for me. i first bought it with the intention of doing a quick reno job and then holding onto it for a bit or selling it, but i fell in love with this place and the super friendly fab community that surrounds! NB photo of the beach closest to me … www.maricasa.com.br/fotos-marica-itaipuacu.htm and across the road from my cafe as described below!!
it’s how i imagine brunswick heads was before they installed bitumen roads. in short, i started trying to track down ways i could stay here longer and well … i have opened a beachy cafe/bar here about 30 metres from the smell and spray of the ocean (of which there is about 20kms of white white sand and clear blue water all for me!) We have a organico, vegie, local produce sort of vibe and there are hammocks, books and loads of yummy treats. the place next door has live samba on a regular basis which also helps me along! A funny story … a an old man stopped by for lunch today. He asked me what I had and I said feijao (google), rice, toasted ricotta fingers, salad and soja with a pumpkin/wine sauce .. and then he asked me what meat I had, and I explained to him that we didn’t serve meat and explained the “health, vegetariano, organico focus of the cafe” and he nearly fell over and said no no that wouldn’t be good enough, but I managed to convince him that he should try a plate with many different things for cheap (did a special price for him ) and if he didn’t like it, he didn’t have to come back. Well he ended up sitting (and enjoyed his free peanuts with his cold beer that he had while waiting … and the paper) … and loved it!!!!
so the invite is out to all of you to come and hang here in itaipuaçu, eat and drink to your heart’s delight in my cafe ie “des-cansar” which means “to rest” in portuguese and head across to the beach at any sunny moment or jump on a bus and be in the centre of rio in 1 hour! start making plans people. NB some photos below and keep your eye on this site www.des-cansar.com which will be launched soon and updated regularly!!
beijos xxx
carnaval … praias … jelly … cachaça :)
Well it has been nearly two months since I have been in Brazil which is quite amazing really. I am staying in a great place pretty much smack in the centre of Rio, in an area called Lapa … near St Teresa. It is perfect … 5 minutes walk to work, 5 minutes run to the beach, 5 minutes walk to music, bars, parks, galleries … 5 minutes to everywhere really Living with two guys (NB picture below) … one a cinematographer and the other a web designer.
If you know Brisbane, the area is kind of like the Valley was about 10-15 years ago. Very artsy, bohemian and on the other side, full of people who have no where to sleep but the streets as well. Rio is a strange and uncomfortable place like this. There are so many places I’ve been where the distance between the richest and the poorest is a matter of metres … including where I live. Here’s a pic about 50 metres from my place.
My three main reasons for coming here were to (1) Get more in the realm of fluent w my Portuguese (2) Start getting an insight into the key issues/problems affecting women and general social/economic development (3) Have some work experience in the region … and all these things are rolling well. The place where I’m working – Instituto Promundo (www.promundo.org.br/en) does some great programs and research in the realm of combating violence against women … fabulous happy wonderful people as well, so this time has been and continues to be great. The world of issues is about as opposite as you can get from my Laos/Asia world … so this is keeping my brain and instincts ticking well. I was actually in a pharmacy buying something in about my first week here, when two men rolled in on a motorbike for an armed hold up! They took all the money from the tills and then patted us all down. Not very smart robbers I would say though, bc I had $R10 waving in my hand above my head that no one seemed to see and left me with it!
What else … oh yes … the guy who owns the apartment where I am living, is a cinematographer, and needed to make some extra cash to buy some equipment to finish his film. Carnaval occurred about two weeks ago, so he took to the streets and sold “sacoletes” ie frozen alcoholic fruit iceblocks essentially! He got me thinking, and I decided to make jelly shots (with the brazilian cane sugar rum – cachaça) to 50% entertain me and 50% assist my volunteering ways! And it was a hit! NB pic below from a very happy group that purchased about 15!
A great way to be out and about amongst the Carnaval festive times as well!
I’ve also decided to cook up a big pot of rice and feijão (brazilian beans … yummmmmmy) a couple of times a week and deal out to the people living on the streets around me … 50% bc you can’t walk past “your neighbours” like that every day and do nothing and 50% to enable conversations to help my brain go a little deeper with some of the key issues occurring here. I was speaking to a guy the other day who told me that he mainly only slept on the street bc it was too dangerous to go home to his favela (NB photo of a typical Rio favela below).
Why? Bc of the constant gunfights between the police and druglords. He also mentioned that a new drug had just recently arrived in Brazil and until now is only in a couple of favelas (slums) but is spreading. He (and I feel bad that I can’t remember “his” name) said that it is worse than crack cocaine … in that it is cheaper, more addictive and the overall debilitating effect onsets much more quickly. Drugs here are ridiculously cheap … ie you can get your hands on crack cocaine for about $R2 or 3 a pop ie AUD $1.50 or so. And one beer in any random bar (ie not special) is $R4. You can quickly see why drugs are a problem. And it’s clear I haven’t even begun to get my head around any of this yet.
On a brighter note, the sun, energy and general joy for life of this country is quite infectious. The beaches are hilarious with the very verrrrry small bikinis that are going around. Interestingly enough, it is actually against the law to sunbake topless … but seriously the size of bikinis that the majority of women are flaunting around are no more than a couple of cm’s over the important parts of the breast! Here is one of my favourite running routes … through Botafogo, Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon.
Well … that’s it from me for now. Heading off to my first samba class Beijos xxx
brazilian movements
Well since my last writings, I have arrived again in the land of samba, salsa, caiprinhas, açai and general ongoing energia and allegri. Very happy to have a sun, beaches and the feeling of warmth on my skin again! Am staying with some friends and various families of friends in the south for a bit in an effort to get more on top of language (and soak Brazilian culture and life of course!) and later this month will head to Recife (Northern coastal Brazil) and start some work with Instituto Papai – www.papai.org.br – an NGO that does lots of programs to stop violence against women and general advocacy work in this realm. They only speak Portuguese so it is testing my brain to the nth degree, but the Brazilian slang, accent and manner of speaking is much easier for me than in Portugal, so all is rolling well. Will spend a couple of months minimum with them and see where it takes me. They will also have a stall at Carnaval (Recife is one of the main places apart from Rio, Sao Paulo and Salvador) as well which I will go help out on too …
So that’s a quick wrap on me for now. Beijos and abraços xxx
NB below for a couple of photos of my new upcoming home!
2011 and and
Sok dii bpii mai! Feliz ano novo!
Just had a quick little look at my last words and see that the little schedule I posted is in fact not reality anymore! Things have taken a little change for a variety of reasons … and I am in fact at the moment still in Portugal, not in Australia as first planned. Made a decision to postpone the PhD and am staying here in Portugal til the end of my European visa to soak up as much of this language as my brain will allow. And is allowing quite a bit at the moment which is a good thing! The Portuguese I was using when I first arrived was of the Brazilian variety and though is in fact pretty much the same language, many people were getting a little snobby about wanting to talk in Portuguese w me bc of this! Anyway, things are coming together much more on this front now, my tenses have improved, my vocab increased, my accent slightly better altho def too Australian still and I am wholeheartedly more confident. A lot of this is due to the fab little town I have been staying in and the wonderful people that surround me here. Castelo Branco … about mid way in Portugal and near the Spanish border … with gorgeous countryside, goats, fragrant orchards, mountains and general loveliness. I stumbled across a great bunch of people and they are all wonderfully accommodating of me and my ability or not! to speak … it is a wonderful little community I am enjoying being welcomed to and being a part of. While here, I have been searching out options in some other Portuguese speaking lands ie Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola … to go and get some experience post here … most likely of the volunteer variety for a while … necessary due to my lack of experience in these regions and more basic language skills. Am having conversations w a few different organisations, so am looking forward to seeing what direction this will head in.
Christmas and New Year’s was colddddd but fab. Spent Christmas (or Christmas Eve really which is more when the celebs happen as per a lot of European countries it seems to me) at the family’s house of one of the girls I am living with. I have never been in a house w more christmas trinkets, bells, plates, decorations, lights, thousands of different xmas sweets, nuts, lollies and and and and! Dinner was bacalhau (which I think about 99% of Portuguese people have for xmas dinner … in addition to a 1000 different ways at normal times of the year) … which is salted cod, pretty much quite plain … steamed … and then loads of vegies. Dessert was of about a 1000 different varieties … all sorts of custardy, and caramel custard type things, poached pears, soaked bread in milk and cinnamon, custard eclairs and and and! This was followed up by karoake and then just before midnight we went to a big bonfire in the middle of the city. As it turns out, it seems tradition for all Portuguese cities/towns/villages to put on a big bonfire in the middle of the city. Castelo Branco had about 5 different ones … was massive and kept burning until New Years.
Then around 2am (ie the early hours of actual Xmas day), we went to another little little verging on ghost town village about 15kms from here, where another friend came from. More standing around the fire, drinks, dancing etc there. They were very small town farming types and a couple of them in particular were in ridiculous amounts of disbelief that an Australian and Brazilian (one of the other people I am living with) were there in their town for Xmas!! So amazed to the point that one guy rang about 8 different people and kept shoving the phone in my hand so I would talk to them and say something about kangaroos just to prove the point! He even had me sign a serviette for him! I think he and some of these people were more incredulous at the sight of a foreign person than many tiny villages I have been in, in Asia! Then at around 5am, tradition has it, that everyone (ie all the young people of the town) walk around the streets singing christmas songs to wake everyone up for christmas morning! Most people ended up coming out and then gave us massive vats of homemade wine, port or olives or something of the sort!
After all this, we went to the great aunty/uncle’s house of the guy that we knew from that village, for breakfast. This house and these people were something from a story book from the early 1900s. The oldest, most weatherboarded old lined faces … but only due to laughing and working hard in the sun all their days I would say. They had and did everything at the house … ie old stone oven out the back yard … a donkey, a cow, hens for all the necessary things, pigs … a big vegie garden. Dried meat drying outside the house, fresh bread from the oven, fresh cheese etc etc … so we had a breakfast of big chunks of fresh white bread, fresh cheese, freshly marinated olives, oranges, tamarilos and coffee! Then, by about 10.00 xmas morning we arrived home! Xmas actual day was pretty much spent sleeping! I went for a run about 4 in the afternoon and Castelo Branco was like a ghost town … ie I think bc as said, everyone was sleeping!
Big hugs and kisses to all … and look forward to my inbox being filled w photos from all your christmas celebrations xxx
And the answer was …
… yes! The delightful ANU decided to accept me for the PhD next year which is truly fab. Hence … I’m using the final few weeks of freedom to spend time with Lao family and friends and then to Portugal to dust off the Portuguese and actually make an effort of getting my tenses right! So if you are in either of those regions, these are my dates …
* Nov 09 – 15ish … Thailand
* Nov 16ish – 24 … Laos
* Nov 25 – Dec 18 … Portugal
* Dec 19 – 31 … Thailand/Laos
* First week of Jan … GC/Brisvegas
* Then to Canberra
So if you are in Laos, you’ll be hearing from me. Plan to go to LNT, thru LPB and then to VTE. If you’re a BKK person, I’ll probably catch you at the end of Dec. If you’re an EU person, come track me down in Portugal! I came across a marathon in Lisbon on 05 December, but it has a half marathon and 6km option as well. So perhaps even set that as a little goal and come head on down! The run can clearly be followed up with tasty Portuguese seafood and plenty of yummy Douro vino … 
Here’s the link … http://www.lisbon-marathon.com/en/lis_01_en.htm
Can’t wait to catch many of you xxx
australia dot points
- the current plan is this …
- i am here til mid november bc
- mum’s treatment is doing well and
- i finish up my little work contract here by then
- heading for Laos and Thailand time middle 2 weeks of November
- then for cycling around Portugal time thru december in an effort to keep a fingertip grasp on the portuguese
- xmas somewhere snowy and lovely in europe
- then it’s a 50 50 …
- either canberra for 2011 to start phd or other options if this doesn’t get through all the approval stages
- the last few weeks have been full of
- happy rotations of all those different gatherings that people have (a) before (b) during or (c) after you either get married, have a baby, have a 2nd baby, get engaged, move house etc
- happy rotations of sleep overs and breakfast and paddling and swimming & morning wakeups from inquisitive little munchkins at many delightful pal’s houses thhhhhankyou
- falling in love w my new bike … a roadie … that has me speeding the streets of the gold coast in a zippier way then ever before
- soaking beach sand, salt and air activities as often as possible
- sipping tasty australian pinots and rediscovering an appreciation for the simple xxxx flavour
- tapping my toes to some good homegrown live tunes
- if you are in laos or thailand i will see you soon
- if you are in europe and own a bike, set aside some december time to come pedaling
- if you are in europe tell me your xmas plans as i may do a surprise turn up the day before, of, or after
- if you are in australia i will see you today tomorrow or next week
- ps … if you thought i went off my soapbox and joined facebook … it’s true i did
- for the old excuse of wanting to see some mate’s photos
- but i lasted less than 24 hours before unsubscribing
- bc the whole experience of crazy amts of all things facebook made me feel more stressed and intruded than i have felt in years!
- so now i have disappeared from the wondrous world of facebook
- and to finish, a big kiss … and my only australian photo
aus 2010
… to brighten the post
an australian return
since my last upload a lot has happened which includes me now being back in australia … on the gold coast. a few weeks back my mum found out she had some serious sort of health issues and i decided i should be home for a while. despite the unpleasantness of the situation, it has actually been v nice family time. mum is in the midst of doctors and appointments and treatment decisions at the moment, but treatment plans seem to be starting to come together, with a reasonable sort of outlook.
doing some big thinking about things from here … the next few months i have committed myself to being by family here on the gold coast. my talents now involve streak free window cleaning, quiches and immaculate dusting technique. my old school is throwing me a few days here and there of work which is keeping things ticking and is wonderfully stress free, which is always a good thing. a good percentage of those days so far have been spent at sports carnivals, playing touch football, reffing touch football, and discussing formal dress options w year 12′s. so that combined w being in the presence of a lot of good old friends is really quite ok for this bit of time here.
as for 2011 + … i have been tentatively accepted to do a PhD through the ANU in Canberra, and am refining research proposals etc etc now. Feeling very happy about this and the opportunity to get very gritty and follow through on some instinctual growing convictions that have been developing over the last few years. this will require a fair amt of field work back os as well. so we will see.
so that’s me for now …
from caiprinhas to vinhos
well it’s time for a little update … and this update will be photo free unfortunately. why? bc one highly annoying person was overwhelmed by the startlylingly fluroscent pink shades of my bag and decided to steal it w camera, laptop, every name of id, card and and that is/was the possession of katie dec …
anyway … i am actually now back in greece, working w the same film production company in athens. helping them on some of their projects, getting on the trail of some international development related film projects, andddd getting on the trail of making myself indispensable to some delightful greek philanthropists, associated w this company … who give loads of money away to various ngos, projects, countries in need … but in a clueless way … so i am on the path of making myself wonderfully available to them to assist the pathway of them becoming clued. that’s the plan anyway.
i arrived here about a week ago and prior to that had a couple of weeks in venezuela transitioning btw brazil and here. venezuela is a rather bizarre kind of destination … very caribbean, very meat eating, very oil loving (petrol is about 10c/litre … yes!!) … and hence very big fab old mustang petrol sucking car loving, salsa loving, baseball crazy, fried everything loving, happy place. no such thing as a camping ground over there, which means you can camp anywhere on any deserted beach OR on the beach in front of fancy resorts (when you want to sneak into their bathrooms after a couple of days w a lack of) … a lovely time … prob wouldn’t rush back … but wonderful nonetheless
and brazil … well this was indeed a special 4 months, and the things i am happiest about is that i can make one very fine and tasty caiprinha now, can speak portuguese in an okish fashion, and my hips can move just a little more fluidly to a samba beat than they could before. and clearly these are important things for life. in many ways i wanted to keep staying, but it was clear for now that it was time to move … and i am very happy to be back here in greece. this culture has a wonderful blend of all the things i love in life, and well really, summer in greece is nothing short of fabulous. sunlight hours are long, the scent of wild mountain thyme is everywhere, outdoor parks and cafes abound, endless realms of sparkling mediterranean sea surrounds, olives and fetta are the cheapest items in the supermarket, vibrancy is everywhere. and i have some wonderful and completely delightful friends here from last time that are family really. and oh wow … every time i run in and around the acropolis and numerous other ridiculously old and hence very cool old ruins, i tear up. i tear up on nearly every single run i take … not sure why, but it is just so overwhelming being in the presence of such history and to stand in the footsteps of remarkable people gone by.
kisses to all xxx
Serra Grande
a fairly ultimate camping spot in a super cute little town … Serra Grande … btw Ilheus and Itacare
a wedding
ahhhh … the flower throwing bit
chapata diamantina
and yes … the place is every bit as gorgeous as the name. just recently back from a week of cycling around this area which is full of quaint little village towns w cobblestone streets, numerous waterfalls, gorges, canyons, caves, mountains, rocky slopes, grassy hills and and and
the pictures below tell the story …
realisation moment
after an afternoon of riding fairly much uphill on steep rocky roads and realising that we weren’t in fact 5 km’s from destination aka Capo, but in fact 30km, after an unfortunate wrong turn! not to worry, the night was spent camping in an old school and many enjoyable rounds of pool in a little local bar that i think hadn’t seen a customer for a good many weeks. dinner? beer, tinned beans, fresh giant avocados and local cachaca … what else do you need after a sweaty day of riding?!
