❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
No title available
art blog(derogatory)
if i look back, i am lost
roma★
Sade Olutola
tumblr dot com
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
tannertan36
wallacepolsom
NASA
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Show & Tell
Stranger Things
One Nice Bug Per Day
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
Jules of Nature
macklin celebrini has autism
trying on a metaphor
Fai_Ryy
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from Indonesia
seen from Malaysia
seen from South Africa
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
@garancita
New project
Starting a great new project to facilitate the arrival and integration of people coming to Sweden... check out the www.theNewbieGuide.se
Zambia lives on strongly in my heart, but Sweden is my adopted home country, and it is dear to my heart to help the people that are coming from all places to settle for a few years or for a lifetime in Sweden.
Shopping for bags at chikumbuso woman and orphan project (near foxdale). A social enterprise for widows affected by HIV/aids. The bags are crocheted out of recycled plastic bags and other recycled materials. Most women in the compounds know already how to crochet, so it's an excellent project utilizing readily available skills and polishing them to create revenue generating activities. #social #entrepreneurship #lusaka #zambia #hiv #aids #craft #art #women #empowerment (at Chikumbuso, Ng'ombe, Lusaka, Zambia)
The Anti-Retroviral Man. For 2011 World Aid Day, Art4art, an art group who raises HIV awareness through art, designed and built a 7-meter high statue weighing more than 2 tonnes of an Anti Retroviral superman called Anti Retroviral Man (ARM). Anti Retroviral Man is Zambia’s first superhero who champions Anti Retroviral Treatment. The ARM statue is made out of old hospice beds on which thousands of people have died of AIDS. It is modelled after Winstone Zulu, Zambia’s late AIDs activist. The statue stands in front of the Lusaka national museum. ART drugs are available in Zambia since 2004, however often in discontinued mode. Adult HIV prevalence is 14.3%. For the lusaka district, it is 21%. Only 33 % of young people 15 – 19 years reported to have tested for HIV in the past 12 months and know their status. #aids #hiv #lusaka #zambia #epidemic #gettested #art #drug
Ramayana
I would have never expected to learn about Indian culture and traditions when coming to Zambia. But, as it turns out, this year has been exceeding expectations on so many levels.
My curiosity was spiked when an indian friend mentionned that his family was organising a 36 hours prayer. In practice, this is a big gathering of people who come together to read the Ramayana, one of the two great sanskrit epic poems of Hinduism, the other one being the Mahabharata. While the Mahabharata recounts the struggle for the throne between two families (the kaurava and the pandava), the Ramayana tells about the history of the gods of Hinduism. Ramayana literally means the journey of Rama. Rama is a representation of the god Vishnu. Ramayana tells the story of the fight of Rama to free his wife Sita, who has been abducted by Ravana, the king of Lanka (nowadays Sri Lanka).
These hindu epic poems are very long. The Mahabharata (the longest poem ever written) is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyseey combined. The Ramayana is not as long, just 2 and a half time the combined length of the Iliad and the Oddysey. But it is still an homeric task to read it from cover to cover in one go. Let alone over just 36 hours! ;)
To make it manageable, the participants and the priests who lead the prayer take turns. Books are given with the poem written in "high hindi" (close to sanskrit) from which the participants read. The verses are chanted in a quite monotonous tone, to allow people to join in the prayer at any time. The rythm is quite fast, specially at night, when the crowd is less important, and the priests try to catch up on their reading. Every few verses, a sort of chorus comes back. When key passages of the Ramayana come up, the crowd gets bigger. Because it is written in sanskrit, the participants usually do not understand the meaning of their prayer. The chanting becomes a succession of sounds with unrelated meaning, transforming the reading of the Ramayana into an oral meditation, and it is not uncommon for people to enter trance as they follow the prayer.
It is a huge organisation for the hosting family as over 100 people gathered over the week end to participate in the prayer.
It was a very interesting event to witness. The force of the dedication is impressive. It is of course also, as religious gatherings tend to be in any culture, a social event with food and the usual chatter.
I was just reading about the 7 books, which deal with the major events in the life of Rama.... and passages of the story sounded very familiar. The proganists of the story bear names that i recognise from Yoga : Hanuman (a representation of god Shiva in the form of a monkey) makes me think of hanumanasana (the big split), Bharadvadja makes me think of a twist....
But beyond that, i felt like i had read or heard the story before. The exile of Rama into the forest, the kidnapping of Sita, the alliance of Rama and Hanuman to destroy the monkey people's king Vali, the battle between the monkeys of Rama and the demon armies of Ravana .. and then a light bulb lit up in my mind.... Bali , the hindu island of Indonesia!!! 1 year ago, i was watching a balinese dance spectacle in Ubud, and the choreography was based on ... the ramayana.
The pics from last saturday's dive on the north west coast of Zanzibar. From top to bottom.
1. Mauritius Scorpion fish type I (poisonous)
2. Mauritius Scorpion fish type II (poisonous)
3. School of fishes
4. human fish
5. shrimp (forgot the full name of the shrimp)
6. Clown fish
7. blue spotted ray
8. scorpion fish (or stone fish... en bref, une rascaille) (poisonous)
9. lion fish (poisonous)
10. sea snake (poisonous)
All in all, quite a lot of sea creatures to not step on by mistake...
Eid Mubarak has started today in Zanzibar. The vibe of the city has shifted overnight... People are always smiling here, but today they are even more joyful... I followed people going to the mosque this morning, the men wearing their white gown and the women their most beautiful and colorful dresses, full make up and henna tattoos. People are eating in the streets, men are smoking... Things are back to normal. :)
Finished the yoga retreat on Monday morning with a beautiful sunrise yoga session. It was a great week. Feeling restored and my mind is slightly less restless than at the beginning of the week. I'm gonna take all this good energy and this peaceful stillness, pack it , and take it with me to Sweden.
The weather has been unusual in Zanzibar this year. This is the dry season, but here in Nungwi on the north coast of Zanzibar, it has rained everyday from a few hours. The weather is cloudy from morning to around 14.30… Then we have a few hours of gorgeous sun….until the next day. The rest of Zanzibar seems unaffected by these changes.
Anyway, went diving again yesterday to 2 local dive sites. On the first dive, the visibility was really poor, 5 meters or so. To say the reef was beautiful is a bit of a lie. I could guess the reef was beautiful, but in sandy/muddy waters I couldn’t see much… In fact, I could see so little that at some point I completely lost the group I was diving with. I heard the dive master “calling” by banging a metal stick on his tank. But the noise travels differently under water, and I could not locate where the group was. It had never happened to me before. I knew what to do and followed the procedure, but it’s a bit unnerving to be alone at the bottom of the sea.
The second dive was much better… Better visibility, but also stronger currents. And some beautiful marine life. Mantis shrimp, Moray eels, sea snake, blue spotted sting ray hiding under a rock, huge lion fish, huge scorpion fish, and some rare type of scorpion fish, the Mauritius scorpion fish… All the scorpion fishes are nicely ugly looking things really. I had an underwater camera, so once I’m done with picture processing, I’ll post the pics line. Saw dolphins between the dives too!!
The weather in the evening cleared and gave us a beautiful sunset.
Improvised yoga photoshoot yesterday at evening practice.
Went scuba diving today to Mnemba island, natural marine reserve north east if Zanzibar. Sailing in the dhow, this beautiful boat used by the Persians and the Arabs to sail to Zanzibar 1000 years ago was a peaceful experience, especially when the boat captain turned off the engine and navigated only by the sail…. But it’s quite slow… Beautiful fishes under the surface… Moray eels, lion fish, scorpion fish, nudie branches, anemones and their clown fish (a very defensive clown fish fiercely standing 2 inches from my mask.., cute little thing)… A beautiful day out on the sea. Even saw the back fins of a few dolphins.
Started the yoga classes today. It's gonna be a peaceful week.
More views of Stone Town and it's beautiful Arab fort.... Had a little sunset walk a couple of nights ago, and I was amused by the superpositions of religious rituals. Walked pass a church and heard a beautiful choir singing the mass... Then the call to prayer rose from the minaret, as I was on a rooftop terrace.... And as I walked back at night to the hostel, my steps took me to an Hindu temple from which I could hear the incantations.
Had dinner at the night market. Beautiful stalls full of fresh fish and seafood. Tried tandoori lobster, tandoori octopus, crab, king fish skewers and mahi mahi skewers..: delicious… The lobster wins the race.
And sugar cane, lime, ginger drink is simply awesome.
Got a mopped today to go to Paje on the east coast… It was nice to be on a bike again. I really enjoyed going through the villages on a bike in Asia, and I hadn’t been back on 2 wheels since then, and the feeling of freedom came back to me… Well until I got stopped 4 times at improvised police road blocks, and had to bribe one of the police officer to continue my ride. We are getting close to the end of Ramadan, so the police forces were busy “fund raising”. Corruption is a big problem here, even bigger than in Zambia. The traffic was not too bad. Zanzibar Town rush hour is not as congested as Vientiane rush hour. Finally arrived at the longest beach of the east coast in paje. 16 km of continuous white sand… A sea of turquoise and blue, and an endless horizon. The wind picked up at the end of the day, and the kite surfers started their ballet. I walked in the sea until the seaweed farms. The water were shallow and clear, so although the tide was not on my side today, I still managed to see how seaweed was farmed. Would love to come back at low tide to see the women harvesting and planting. Then I rode my moped back to town, got stopped again by the same policemen who stopped me in the morning. But this time they recognized me and I just joked with them that they just wanted to say hello again to me. :) funny people…
Monkey business!!! I visited jozani forest today on the way to paje, and got to see zanzibar's red Colombus monkeys. The Colombus monkey can only be found in Zanzibar. There are approx 3000 animals spread around the island, with 1000 in jozani forest. They are now a protected specie, after having been hunted by the locals because of the damages they caused in the crop. Their digestive system can not process fruits, so they feed on green leaves and nuts . When they get stomach ache, they eat charcoal to cleanse themselves. They live up to 20 years, and can bear kids from the age of 3. The females usually have just 1 baby. They looked very cute, especially the babies
Felt the whole day like I was in Indonesia yesterday. Maybe it was the book I read, or the conversation and tips about Sulawesi that I gave the night before to a French couple embarking on a world round trip, maybe, Zanzibar feels like a piece of Asia for me… Hence the location confusion. The scooters, the stray cats everywhere, the coconut trees, the women in colorful headscarves, the men in long cream colored gowns with their little hats, the fruits on the market, the call to prayers, the feeling of being on a island … All this reminded me Indonesia. Went to a spice farm yesterday. Beautiful smells and colors. On the first collage (6 pictures) from top left going clockwise: curry tree, clove tree, cinnamon tree, cardamon bush, nutmeg tree and ginger roots . On the second collage ( 7 pics) from top left going clockwise: jack fruit, tanato seeds (tandoori spice) , chilimolla (custard apple/pomme douce), cloves, assortment with carambolas, vanilla, tanato flower.
Prison island in Zanzibar is also a sanctuary for Aldabra tortoises. These giant turtles were never endemic to the islands of east Africa. The first four were offered by the Seychelles government to the governor of Zanzibar in 1922. The tortoises were already endangered, and scientists like Charles Darwin had raised awareness on the importance of protecting this specie and saving it from extinction. On Zanzibar, they narrowly escaped extinction after being poached for their meat and their shells. The government set up this protected area on changgu island, aka prison island, and the population had grown to almost 150 now. They are pretty prehistorical creatures. I was a bit disappointed by seeing almost more tourists than turtles. But they are surviving. The big ones weight over 500 kilos, and live up to 200 years old. They are land turtles, not sea turtles.