new a-rep stuff from the show

checkout the new pieces in the a-representational section

Art Show: Things on the Ground and what Works

Nov 20th thru Dec 20th a new collection of new mixed Media works by myself will be up at 3 layers (1602 Walnut Street Jacksonville, FL). The opening reception is set for Nov 20th at 6:30pm . Come and enjoy.

Not to mention there will also be some great musical entertainment on the 20th as well! The Duo “You knew me when” will be playing thru out the night. Come on out to enjoy some tunes and great artwork.

More at:
http://www.reverbnation.com/youknewmewhen
http://www.myspace.com/youknewmewhen
http://www.facebook.com/youknewmewhen

Back in jax gonna be back in school and i got a new haircut me me me

oh look there all sideways

Tanya Kimberly Orme

5/21/85 – 6/21/09

 

She was an amazing person, unbelievably amazing and she will be missed and loved. She did more than most will do in the entirety of their lives and touched me deeper than I could have ever thought.  You can find a link to her blog on the links page which her mother continues to update. heres a poetry piece by her

80 years tick, blank hands, packing
day and night, black hands, packing.
lines going by
boxes more boxes
black hands stacking
boxes into train cars, 80 train cars a day.
just crushed shells remain, packed upon paths
like running on crunchy snow
  the wind blows at my ankles
annd i run becasue the day left me lazy enough
to break history into fragments
under my soles.
an industry destroyed
poverty lingers for 80 years.
back then, pale hands lit cigars
  with hundred dollar bills
now, dark eyes shift steadily surveying
  streets for change.
……….

it had become unjust for anyone to write about happiness anymore
with the worthy sons, the last world war was
twitching and nervous.
the paradigm of paradise was on its way out the door
the monks began to sob.
natures artifacts, skeletons of trees, the pottery of leaves
were wicked alien things, purportedly planted by the government, the worlds blank bank
they told of a time
untold.
to communicate: so many just mumbled
  and spat on blank pages.

no fall was coming.
no pink petals to flurry down with the breezes
there were no garden patches to turn brown
no winters warmed by glowing fires
no springs pronounced by sprouts or introspective rebirthing
no summer
no summer
no summer
no summer
no sooner had the masses hearts caved in decay
no rain would fall for 10000 days

all was quiet
except for the shouts of martyrs
when one drove his sword into the last standing life form
(other than he)
then shuddered and looked around
to see if hed won
tall and proud he breathed
as eons on blood seeped into raw earth
he grew old alone, by no means lonely for
the faint moon still seemed to agree
 that to follow his drive of power over all
was no lesser a vision than peace for humanity
when he died,
no smile had his face been for 100 years.
the earth exhaled when she felt his body drop
the oceans abounded and with no mind
seemed to say
here we go again.
….

Ought Implies can.

Well, where to start. A lot has happened since my last post. First I left Nakuru and went to Mtwapa (Fishing Village on the Indian Ocean). There I simply relaxed for a few days. Went snorkeling and got invited into a few of the fisherman’s homes for food and what nots. Afterward I went back to Nairobi to extend my Visa, and with that done I was ready to take my friend’s (Kelly) invitation to join her and her work in Uganda.

Immediately on my arrival we were to attend a traditional “function” (engagement party). It was nice, i got to dress up in traditional garm and witness some formal but relaxed events. Deo my local host translated most of the the dialgoue and I was quite glad that it was interwoven with numerous jokes and then followed by food (which we ate with our hands of course). My new roommate would be Fred Odingo, a step son to Deo. Funny Funny Funny guy, he often raises his voice a few octaves and squeals like a bird, i guess you would have to be here to understand.. but it kinda of catches you off gaurd it some strange double take way. We live at the DataGrid office in Entebbe, right on Lake Victoria, its beautiful and i often find myself taking nice walks down to the lakeside and on some of them i find myself paddling a fisherman’s canoe..

Teaching at Kikaaya Voactional School was my first real endeavor
since arriving in Uganda, and it turned out to be better than i could
have ever expected. Immediately I was welcomed and giving a tour of
the school with great enthusiasm. Afterward I got to meet the students
I would be teaching. What would I be teaching? What else besides my
favorite subject; Psychology. Well a form of Psychology. Child
Development to be exact, and I would be teaching to soon to be Nursery
Teachers or what we would soon label as “Early Childhood
Professionals”. Initially I had to feel out the situation, as in
finding out backgrounds and ways to teach effectively in a different
culture. It seemed that they were great note takers but I found it
difficult at first to get them to interact and discuss the topics. I
am not sure if it was because I was an outsider/white person, if it
just wasn’t customary in their teaching/learning methods, or if they
were just shy. But I expressed myself bluntly on the importance of
interacting and asking questions in class and soon they started to
open up. Maybe my corny jokes or maybe my bad dancing helped, I am not
too sure, but they did finally open up.
Before myself they had had no experienced teacher in the field and
not only that they had no one who could comprehend a few of their text
books and topics properly. So I felt decently important and
impactfull, and was not only able to teach them the subject of child
development but also about teaching/learning methods, including what i
said before with interacting and also on such issues as making
portfolios and giving assessments on individual students and the
class, conflict resolution strategies, and forms of educational
psychology.
Overall, though only a week, I felt like it went great and both
parties shared in the benefits. And of course I gave out my email but
when doing this they told me that others had done the same and
somewhat abandoned the students messages by not responding (sad). But
I sincerely hope that I can establish some lasting relationships with
the students were we can mentor each other over the internet, send
over more teachers/students (a teacher is a student for life), and
maybe one day meet again.

Now I am about to embarke on a several week project at Kansas College, ill let you know how its going soon.

And And And. I have booked a flight. yes, back to the states, home bitter sweet home. July 16th I flyout of Nairobi transfer in Istanbul and then land in NY. I hear their having a parade for me. google it. But yeah anyways I am in the process of attempting to set up a few fund raisers upon my return. I’ll post the ones that are definate and welcome anyone who would be interested in hosting one. We will be selling Ugandian goods, some from the kids aome from Refugees, an assorment of crafts and what nots. All the money is coming back to Uganda, hopefully it will be a good bit, you can find out more about these projects through www.directdevelopmentinternationl.org check it!

I didnt photo shop any of these or any before. I didnt know i was suppose to so maybe ill make them glow later…enjoy..

Things on the ground and What Works

Planing my departure from Nakuru. The kids at the orphanage have been on hoilday so things have gotten a little slow. I still go there but we just play around, a little futbol, a little dancing, and recenty a little photography. Just got a camera by mail (since the old one was stolen(Thanks Baba n Moma) and the kids love it. Their constantly saying me me me, take picture take picture. It works out. And on top of the kids being on holiday and the extra time its given me, the Hospital decided to beef up security and restrict visiting hours, even for the Mazungus (White people, who usually get royal treatment). Bah. its pretty lame considering it will cut Joe and Molly’s time there in half, and they have helped a lot of folks that they didnt even know and just met during visiting hours. Bah. and I dont know what those folks would have done without JOe and Molly’s intervention and what the a lot of the people will without it. Its a difficult situation that brings up a few questions.

So my Departure will probably be next week sometime, I am going to go with the Bails down to Nairobi on thursday, get my passport extended and checkout the slum their and some work being done.  After that I think ill go take a swim in Lake Biringo, document the Kakuma refugee camp up north ( i just made a friend with one of their residents yesterday), and then Head over into Uganda where my plans are still slightly undeveloped. 

It was surprising here. I dont know what I was expecting, if anything. At first it didnt quite feel like anything too new or different, which it might not be,  but then the landscape started to settle into itself and the cultures started to reveal themselves and I felt some sort of change in perspective. I mean some things are still like they can be in the states where you develop routines and remember peoples names and what topics to talk about with them, but a lot is different, all the walker, herders, and the easy hellos with bright smiles and quick laughter. The sky, plants, and animals. There is the darker side too, where things seem quite primitive with heavy sexism, ignorance, and corruption. And I’m finding that these things can’t be healed by outsiders. Often i think outsiders can make it worst with their temporary band-aides and in that they often help develop a sense of dependency in the people. I think the poor are their own solution and we need to give them a little space, they do have great natural resources and people with a a desire for education. I am not saying we should ignore them but instead to engage in a more complex and involved interaction that isn’t just a piggy back ride for the privileged African.  Often international aid is distorted, especially in the large and unsupervised contributions. The African politicians are some of the richest in the world, often they keep it in the family or tribe, and often they take what is suppose to be free and then sell it off cheap to friends, family, or tribe who will sell it off again. In this too they also get votes from these specific groups.  And they get away with doing very little and keeping a lot because a lot of their jobs are done by international aid so they aren’t held accountable for a lack of schools or food, they just don’t need to worry about it, they just direct the people over to the soup kitchens supplied by international aid. This in turn takes away from a lot of jobs; the cloths sent over means not as many people will be making clothes here, the food means not as much food, and the money means what? And then these tribal favors and votes create rifts in the nation which end up being a lot more violent than our democrat/republician debates. Just check out what happen during the last election in Kenya. Its a difficult situation. Some of the more personally directed aid work does good but does that mean they are doing the governments job? and if they leave will the government step in? or will people perish? or will people perish then an uprising? or what? Its hard to say, but what we all seems to say is that something needs to change with Africa as it continues to be the home of the worst humanitarian crises. So lets not just continue to throw money at it, thats the cheap way out, we have to do more. My trip has been to find this out, to meet the people and document the situations, so that from over in the worldly renounced USA, i can help out over here. I see a lot of folks come here for a week or two to “help” often i think its more about them getting the experience themselves, and regretfully i sometimes think of how some of them will use it to justify how its hopeless or dumb, saying that “yeah i have been there” to concrete their statements, or how i might,  but I am not trying to give up any hope that would lessen our interaction or concrete any ideas. Though i have a few ideas of my own, as you can see ,they are only followed by more questions which i am sure will change soon enough. Even with these questions i thinks its good that we still get involved and that we don’t become paralyzed by all these questions in making plans, and by acting previously we have found out what works and what doesn’t, sure we have made a few new problems but thats what we do as we work to make things a little better bit by bit.

The scary skinny guy is Stephen he was brought to the hospital by his cousin who abandoned him there, and inturn so did the hospital. Joe and Daniel found him face down on the ground in the middle of the hallway where they lifted him up and found him a bed. The hospital gave up on him and put a curtain around his bed, but we took care of him. He passed away after 2weeks their from TB and AIDS.

The little peeing boy! Sammy, Sammy is awesome, he is like red with blonde hair, crazy, no one knows why, but what i do know is that he is one of the most affectionate kids around or i should say person, every time i walk into the orphanage he comes a running with outstretched arms. He is quite smart as well. 

Simon is the one with the shirt over his head with me next to him hidden by my kieffa (i think its called). He was a street kid that Joe and Molly now take care of, and during the post election conflicts he saved a woman from being hacked up by a machete and in turn he got hit on the head with it. He is okay now with only a scar, but a lot of folks didnt make it through the post-election violence.

a Dirty Foot and the Chronological Alphabets

Nakuru, Kenya. Here with the Bails still. Still thinking of what I could say, what could be expressed and how… knees bigger than thighs, traditions of abuse, sexism,  and pedophiles. Definite corruption. And I think  being one of the most extreme forms of an outsider (with little resources at the moment),  there isn’t too much influence i can have on the subject, besides being a band-aid and teaching those who have been, for better or worst, abandoned by there parents. Though i believe this is better than negligence in the context of personal advocacy and i am happy that I have been able to do that and witness this, but we must be careful with the greater aid we see, the broad aid as revealed in this speech by mwenda……..http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/andrew_mwenda_takes_a_new_look_at_africa.html

The rewards of teaching have helped me keep my head on.So the teaching is going well. (Math, English, a little science and geography, and now an art class during our free time). They love the “art class”, constantly saying me next me next as they are drawn and get drawn. And I finally got everyones names down and with that stories, personalities and everything that goes with that. I can’t help but wonder what will happen in the future but i know i cant have that answer now.

 

I hope everyones keeping there head above water and seeing whats going on around you, and not just what is in arms length.What we do, buy, sell, and say effects everyone…. Sudan, Congo, Gaza, Zimbabwe, Iran, N.Korea, Russia, France. China, Sri Lanka….. 

On a lighter note. I get to see lake Nakuru everyday, I have befriended many a many of people here and we have helped each other, and at night, I befriend bugs. Sometimes I get to go on little hikes up on top of the crater here, its nice and a little different. I get to cook for the Bails and sometimes they cook for me except joe he usually does the dishes, i prefer to cook anyways. Molly made pizza tonight, an experiment, i thought it turned out well, just a little different, but i dont think joe or molly liked it, i think victor and mary are about to try it here in a second.  

 I used molly’s camera for the pictures, theres me with a few of the kids in the class, molly, joe, their son elijah and a maasai. a kid at the dump village, two kids at the dump village, ill spare everyone some of the more graphic things i am sure you can google it or maybe see it on one of those commercials if their still running…

 

“What was happening was only the workin-out of a process that had started years ago. The first step had been a secret, involuntary thought; the second had been the opening of a diary. He had moved from thoughts to words and now from words to actions. The last step was something that would happen in the Ministry of Love. He had accepted it. The end was contained in the beginning. But it was frightening; or more exactly, it was like a foretaste of death.” -Eric Blair AKA George Orwell from 1984,

The Bunny Rabbit Experiments

Hey yo, a big moth just landed on my screen. A good bit has happened but right now I am in Nakuru, Kenya staying with the beautiful Bails whom have tons of projects and giant hearts ( You can find out more about them and a few of there many missions here www.springsofhopekenya.com). I am excited, tomorrow i believe i will start volunteering at the Moi Orphanage, sounds like ill be doing a lot of different things, one that they mentioned specfically, since I have such a “beautiful” degree,  is acting as a case manager for specfic children and “street kids” who are out on the streets facing tons of issues that even your imagination couldnt guess at, i might also teach and i am just really ready to help anyway I can, the power just went out, guess that happens here. 

Since last time i spoke on here, to the masses, haha, i had left dahab, egypt  (awesome place awesome people, goto camp sinbad) and headed south to sharm el sheik to catch a boat that took me to “mainland” egypt (hargadha) . Well, I had to stay the night in sharm, sharm is gross, really touristy and expensive, basically everything is twice the price or more, so i crashed on the roof of a nice abandoned instead of paying way o much and turns out that i forgot to put some of my valuables in my sleeping bag and some of em just happened to be missing when i woke (my camera) so you wont be getting any pictures for a little bit but hopefully ill work some sort of substitte out here soon. took the boat across then took a bus to luxor (thebes) stayed a couple nights, saw this saw that, went on a little sail boat thing, really wanted to sail up from there to cairo but i guess they dont do that, would have been cool but yeah, after a couple days i caught the train up to cairo, saved a couple bucks, went onto third class without a ticket then snuck up to 1st and just hide in the bathroom when they collected tickets, kind of easy but i think i had a little luck on my side, 

Cairo, smoggy, big, and i got sick! Salmanella, Happened after my first night there, went out with some new friends, actually one of the places we went too was the US embassy, my first time ever going and it was for a party, kinda funny, we also ended up going to a little house party too, real cool got to talk with a bunch of locals and internationals who were studying there. Well it was a good night but the next day, after trying to stickout a hangover out on the city, i got sick, real sick, so sick i wont describe any details, weak! Well thankfully the people staying at the hostel were awesome, they helped nurse me along. Funny, not Funny for my entire week of being sick, my week of cairo, i was taking the wrong meds that didnt do anything, haha, yeah, took a flight to kenya saw a doctor got my meds, got healed, thank God.  Its been really good though, it  was hard being sick here the smiles are so big that they stretch to your own face without you knowing it, really playful, and i love to play. Of course lots of personal contemplations, but i am just trying to work on my patience, and as so many others have said, live out the questions and perhaps one day, without noticing it, ill come upon an answer, and just for now to love the questions, and i see a lot more questions coming ahead.  Thanks to everyone i have meet along the way, the whole way, you people are amazing and i love what you do (for the most part)

For he who pees in the bushes is the poor mans only hope.

Dehab, Egypt- Is quite nice here. Stayed in the Sinbad camp, its in the quiet part of town right on the water. The whole place is run by “honesty”, as in you keep up with your own tab and everything else like that, and right out front is an amazing living reef.

Went through Damascus Syria, and since there Gov. isnt too fond of americans, they made me wait for 5 hours at the border, but personally everyone was really nice. Stayed right outside the old city and got to meet a few travelers and some locals. Found out tha theres like 17 different sects and they all, for the most part, get along. The Prez is prety liberal too. Even though his father took over by filling a vacancy using the military hierarchy and even though all the elections seems to be 99 to 0, it still seems like they are heading in a good direction. They have also volunteered to mediate between the U.S. and Iran, but its hard to say how serious that can be considering the recent events and relations between the U.s. and Syria and perhaps North Korea (which might just be speculation).

Left Syria with an AUssie couple to Jordan they went south and i went west to Jerusalem where I met a few journalist who where also interested in the Israel/Palestine conflict. It was quite discouraging. Often the Palestinians put on shows with kids to invoke violence from the Israeli army  purely for the photo journalist,  and it seems like Israel just wants to wait out the Palestinians till they all leave. Its hard to say and it seems like it would be hard to make a difference from a ground force such as the International Solidarity Movement. So I left, but the city was very interesting all the history and little tunnel streets, I defiantly recommend that you try to find a way up to the roof tops where you can run around like Aladdin did. Walked the paths of Jesus and Mohammed many times and saw all types of people converging. And now I am here in Dehab where I debate my next step. hope everyone is doing well. peace.

Through the Narrow Gate.

Over the ocean now.  Took a flıght from Prague to Athens and then took a boat to the greek ısland of Chıos, whıch ıs rıght off the coast of turkey. The water ıs amazıng, ıts hard to belıeve theres any salt ın ıt. Ended up gettıng delayed, stayed there for a couple days, and eventually the boat worked out and I got on the move to Turkey. Now Antatlya, Turkey, ıts been nıce, lots of tıme to myself sınce hardly anyone speaks englısh and I seem to have strayed from the tourıst path. I thınk I spent four days wıthout a conversatıon.  Tonight or tomorrow mornıng I should end up ın Syrıa or Beırut. From there to Israel where I plan to meet up wıth some old frıends I traveled wıth ın South Amerıca and I thınk ıll also be meetıng wıth the Internatıonal Solıdarıty Movement out of the West Bank. These plans are stıll kınd of ındefınate but they seem probable.

Heres a couple pıctures. none of whıch are from athens or prague, I fıgure theres plenty of those on the ınternet.

1. Chıos Cat 2. My Free Hotel room ın Antalya