Some New Zealand Memories

New Zealand, My First Stop in Jan 2009, approximately $500 o-w from LAX

Hundreds of shimmering dolphin bodies swimming in the blue vastness of the ocean.

The buzzing sound of bees as I assisted Beekeeper Keith in smoking them stoned while he took the honey.

Watching the swift rhythmic moves of poi dancing and being in the area where the dancing is believed to have originated.

Little girls happily wading in Lake Rotorua to pick out the trash just because.

The Maori wedding I had the pleasure of attending and the beautiful singing that rang up from the back of the crowd and seemed to seep into the air and my soul.

A seemingly endless herd of cows looking at me suspiciously with those big brown eyes on a Dairy Farm...and the surprisingly delicious taste of their milk.

Watching all the beautiful faces while serving up food at a community meeting in Te Teko.

The envious life of seals in Abel Tasmen Park and that luminous emerald water.

Getting chills from the powerful voices of Maori women performers singing at Womad and Te Matatini

The symbols of Maori culture that dot the landscape from small roads and highways to schools and city buildings, the fact that many schools offer Maori language to study, the indigenous prayer that usually precedes any big event or opening, the often lucrative Maori community trusts that are set up; the USA (and many other countries!)should learn many lessons from New Zealand, because so many in the US seem to forget about the history of our country, we likely need more visual symbols (and more mention in the history books and other policies!!!) reminding us of our indigenous, enslaved and immigrant histories.

New Zealand is a place where I never saw one (obviously) homeless person in my entire 3 months. I remember the safety I felt as i traveled alone around the country. It is a place I would consider living!! Beautiful land and a good social system. I was offered 3 jobs while there and would seriously consider going back.

Thank you!!!! The friends and families that that traveled by my side and/or took me in with such warmth, generosity and openness. Being that I am a very social person, I met people in various ways but SERVAS, WWOOF, and BBH Backpackers also helped.
Kia Ora....

Khalas (Arabic for "done")...but with every ending there is a beginning

The Photos: My cousin's babies, 777 planes have TVs in Coach!, ever present cats on dumpsters in dahab, children and the Sea, Me in a snowy Atlanta, Momma picked me up from the airport, the lovely healing Red Sea, hurtling piece of tin.

I write this from a hospital in Atlanta where my mother is visiting her boyfriend. He is thankfully feeling better and is due home soon, and "home" well home is the "Active Senior Retirement Community" where my mother also lives, where I am staying now. Yes that is right, I am basically in a retirement home...and let me tell ya, it is very similiar to a college dorm, just more laid back. I have been in Atlanta for about 10 days and her (super chill and sweet) man has been in the hospital the entire time...and while I watch them cuddle and talk about future plans and past adventures I think about life, love and especially time.

Time can be a beautiful thing, my last year was exceptional, a true gift and blessing...infact I have felt that about much of my life. When feeling fear or anxiety I try to remember just how lucky I have been....especially when in a hurtling piece of tin flying through the air at 500 miles per hour...yes I have an irrational fear of flying, and yet fly all the time (27 flights in the last year)I really don't know what my point is, maybe that though I have this fear I still strap myself into those narrow seats willingly and attempt to realize my dream of discovery, curiousity and making those treasured links to places and people near and far away...because it all comes back to time for me, my cousin told me once "life is short but wide" it is a quote on refrigerator magnets, she has one on hers...and well, it is simple but so fitting. The infinite width of life is something I have especially come to treasure lately(and being back with family makes me treasure it all even more...that and the fact that so many friends and family have had babies this year!). Truth be told, I am still in a bit of shock that I am back :)so... I will let everthing marinate for a while, and will likely keep the blog going a bit longer I will also have a Travel Tips post soon, cause I realize that... well, a bit of help never hurts so if anyone has questions or suggestions, email me.

My Nile Cruise...and Living in Dahab...again

Elephantine Island in Aswan:
From my hotel in Aswan, I took a ferry for about 3 minutes (costing about 20 cents) across the Nile to the lush land of Elephantine Island. Though I did not set up a tour and was alone, I was warmly greeted by an older man who was Nubian and spoke about 4 languages. He offered to show me around the little island he calls home. And instantly I felt at peace, seriously, Egypt can get pretty intense and no matter where you are especially if you are a woman alone, you will be hassled to some degree. Now don't get me wrong, I love it here (obviously seeing as I have remained in Egypt the longest of the countries I have been to) but, it is a very challenging place for me (on many levels)...and maybe that is why I have stayed. But on Elephantine Island I felt the most comfortable, maybe because some of the women looked like family and gave me warm smiles, maybe it was the kids laughing and testing out their English skills, maybe it was the lushness of it and the self sustainability of the island, or was it the colorful doorways and the cafe filled with baby crocodiles...who knows, but I loved it and was beyond happy that I decided to step onto that ferry that morning.

Cruisin:
A day later I would find myself on a 2 day cruise (huge ship with only 20 passengers!!! crazy and wasteful...and to think there were about 40 boats like this cruising up the Nile...also the boat's captain has 4 wives...all under 25 and he is about 60, there is a picture of him in the light blue galabeya standing on small bridge) up the Nile to Luxor, where I would stay at Bob Marley Hotel once again and meet up with Joshua (another Bonderman Fellowship winner and a friend from Seattle) Oh it was so nice to see someone that I actually have know in my life before these travels :)But I would only stay there a night, I missed Dahab and well, so here I sit in a non smokey internet cafe in Dahab Egypt.

The Power of the Earth...and us:
I have been here for about one month this latest time but really I have been here about 3 months. The Red Sea just keeps pulling me back here...the people, the sea, the cheapness of it all doesn't hurt either! I now live in a house (behind the hotel I used to live in)with a great roommate Erik (an actual Swedish Masseuse:)and next door to my friend Zel and her dog Eartha! I celebrated New Years in a wadi (Bedouin camp land) in the desert hills above the Red Sea!!! I was actually a bartender with Zel for the party...it was a magical and interesting night. Three weeks ago I celebrated my birthday at my friends restaurant while a lightning storm thundered in the background and electric bolts lit up the Red Sea. Though the night was beautiful there was major flooding and damage to Sinai... families were flooded off of their land and supposedly all the government gave them were blankets and a check for 100 pounds...at least that is what I have heard.

Makes me think of the natural disasters that have hit the world recently and all those people, losing everything and being given ..what really? I mean have the victims of Hurricane Katrina received land, homes, checks? ...some have I would guess, but really how about the rest....and were unemployed locals involved in the re-construction of new homes or did they sit and watch construction take place while begging for employment....and did new hotels or other businesses spring up quickly or are plans being laid out now for all the new profitable business to come...I donno....but wondering... I think of Naomi Klein's book Shock Doctrine and wonder what new private company will spread it's tentacles into the present disasters and the ones to come....and will the people that have suffered the most be given anything...and if they are given something...what will it be and will it even compare to the profits that the private companies will make. ....and on a really simple level, how many cars does one person really need? how many hand bags, how many homes, how many? And, me, I am not immune nor innocent to this either....anyway got a bit off track but well, my mind can wander. ...so, here I sit in Dahab feeling rather lucky and fortunate and thinking about what to do...about ...everything...