The ruminations of an artist on art & life...art quilts, beading, knitting, drawing, painting, printmaking, bookmaking are all my passions, I love to explore creating....
Ah! see this beach behind us? nice clean waves? I can't help but think of the Gulf Of Mexico on the East Coast...and how it was once as lovely and pristine...
Thank Goddess the California Gov'ner has now declared off shore drilling of California to be off limits...it seems our country has had its environmental wake up call--are you listening Congress??
so here we are on our "road trip"--we drove up the Northern California coast and then up the Oregon Coast. The last day it was very rainly with hardly any visibility--so we headed inland to Portland earlier than we had planned....but all-in-all it was a great trip.
I'm still on-the-road...so more later!.....check back....
Been a great time here in my home state...but the fall air reminds me that winter is soon coming..
so...
I'm out of here....
I will be on-the-road for awhile, so check back in early September, when I should be settled once again....
On our last day in Ghana we visited the US Embassy in Accra and met the US Ambassador Donald Teitelbaum, who spent quite a bit of time talking with the kids. One of the questions he asked the kids was: what impressed you most about Ghana? Three of the kids said in response, "I am impressed by how hard everyone here works to feed, cloth and take care of themselves."
I pondered this question for awhile --- what has impressed me most? and eventually my answer came to me : watching these 10 young people --ages 9-14--take in all the sights, sounds, smells and impressions of a new country and seeing this experience transform them and expand their worldview was what impressed me most on this trip.
the students from the Anchorage Home Based After School Program on the beach in Ghana
The first service learning project we did on our trip was to visit an orphanage in Kumasi. After a tour of the facility, I wanted to go back to the bus and cry. Why? I guess my American sensibility was in a bit of a culture shock because the even though the facility was adequate---the simple rather bare bones quarters for the children made me very sad. I went with the girls to the girl children's unit--so sorry I do not have any photos of the boys interacting with the children.
The Homebase girls, however, immediatley wanted to hold the babies we saw layng in cribs, and so asked permission to pick them up. The "Auntie" in charge nodded ok--and soon each girl was holding an infant!
One of the infants was so tiny and thin--I asked why ? and the answer was--she was a preemie. When it was time to feed the babies and toddlers--Shirley Mae gently fed this tiny baby girl with a cup--there were no bottles.
We also held and played with the toddlers and older children for several hours---we had brought some health and other practical supplies for the orphanage, but one of the girls had also brought some shiny metal bracelets and a whole lot of valentine stickers to give to the children. We passed these out, and once the older children saw that the sheets of images were stickers--they excitedly peeled them off and happily stuck them all over themselves!
The young woman in the photo with me is a volunteer from the Netherlands---there were several young woman volunteering at the orphanage--from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
This toddler was a real sweetheart....
The "Homebase kids" returned to the orphanage on another day and visited the orphanage day school (a preschool) and read to the children or colored with them--- we had also brought some coloring books and colored pencils and books for the orphanage---I wasn't along with the kids that day--but several of them told me they had a "really fun time" with the children at the Kumasi Orphanage that day. I refrained from telling them that when you give freely from your heart (as they so clearly did) you generally were rewarded by a "good time."
In few days I am off for a 3 week trip to Ghana. We are staying our first stop---Accra--- in the Hotel Treasureland, which I must say looks quite deluxe! Just in case you might be wondering, dear reader, how and why I am on this trip--it is all because of my long-time friend Shirley Mae Springer Staten. Shirley is an international keynoter, singer and workshop facilitator--who--like no one else I know--can magically weave words and music to empower her audience for change.
Shirley called me awhile ago from her home in Anchorage, Alaska and asked me if I wanted to go to Africa with her? Since I was unemployed I told her I would think about the trip, but it didn't take me long to decide. Shirley is taking a group of young people from the Anchorage from the program she coordinates--the Anchorage Home Based After School Program. Two years ago, the students in this program asked Shirley if she would take them to Africa--she said, "Yes, if you raise the money." Well, these young people proceeded to raise half of the money and Shirley--in typical Shirley Mae fashion--- wrote and obtained grants for the rest of the money. Then she asked several adult friends to accompany the group, and I was one of the lucky ones she asked. The students are aged 10 to 14 years, and in their program they have recently written, illustrated and published a book, MAGICAL MASKS, to take and share with students from Ghana.
This is the third group trip to a far away country I have taken with Shirley Mae--always great adventures---so I know this trip will prove to be stimulating and educational. We are visiting schools, the University of Ghana, an orphanage/school, trekking in Mole National Park, and much more--quite a full itinerary. I am hoping to find the time and a computer to post a few blog posts here--so do check back to follow our trip.
Dear Blog Readers,
Please Note:
I will be offline for about a week and half due to feasts, giving thanks, family, and physically moving all my household goods 695 miles from Oakland, California to Portland, Oregon. Pacific Northwest here I come!!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
I published this true Thanksgiving story a few years ago here--however, since it is my very favorite Thanksgiving story --- I have decided to repeat it this year for all my new blog readers....
An ALASKAN HALIBUT THANKSGIVING
One year in the small Alaskan fishing town where I lived the turkeys and trimmings failed to arrive. Since we lacked a grocery store that sold meat of any kind (except canned) everyone in town had placed their Thanksgiving dinner order with the grocery store in the next larger town (Sitka) to arrive the Tuesday before Thanksgiving on the mailplane. That year a thick fog came up which lasted for days, preventing the mailplane--a small floatplane that navigated by sight---from arriving and delivering everyone's Thanksgiving dinner orders. Needless to say, this turn of events caused much disappointment around town--but you can't argue with Mother Nature who controlled the weather (and thus much of the time our lives.)
What were we to do? Everyone busily checked their pantries and hauled out the home canned salmon and some of the more enterprising folks went out hunting for deer ( but had no luck).
Later that day, an announcement came over the CB's (we all had CB radios in our homes--tuned to the same channel for inter-town communication, since we had no telephones at all)---"I just landed a 180 pound halibut--so just come on down to the dock and get your portion for your Thanksgiving dinner." Everyone in town converged on the dock--where the fisherman was cutting up huge chunks of fresh caught halibut to share with everyone; soon a bottle of rum appeared, then some beer, then some local smoked salmon and homemade bread and other food and we proceeded to have an impromptu before-Thanksgiving-day party on the dock as the fish was passed out. We toasted the fisherman, the ocean which provided our dinner, and each other.
So on that Thanksgiving day everyone in town sat down to a scrumptious halibut dinner and all gave proper thanks to the sea which provided our livelihood and our food, to the fisherman who caught our dinner, and to all our family and neighbors with whom we were sharing this meal in our community hall. After eating, we moved aside the tables, the musicians began to play some lively music and we had a Thanksgiving dance....then the party lasted until the wee hours.
Two days later the mailplane finally arrived and everyone cooked their turkey and trimmings and sat down to another Thanksgiving dinner---but the whole town agreed that the previous Halibut Thanksgiving was the best one the town ever had.
Quote for the Day:
[I give thanks....]
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
we all need some rest & relaxation...so I'm off for a few days to Mt. Hood (ski area) in Oregon with the whole family... for some playing in the snow, cooking family dinners, night time board or card games, hot tubs and swimming in the heated pool and a whole lot of knitting....
Check back here next Weds--March 4th! for new post all about Mt. Hood.
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