Momma's Boy

I was helping my mom move stuff around that she needs to get rid of and I forced Eric to take a picture of me with her. It turned out so well I had to put it on my blog!

For the Love of Palta

And on we go. No more Africa (for a while at least) and no more Iowa. Ahora, estoy en Santiago de Chile. I arrived in the country last Wednesday (08/24/10). Santiago is gorgeous!!!! I have to say that is probably one of the prettier cities I have lived in. Besides the smog and the mullets Santiago has got it going on. Plus, with the lack of crime, I can actually take my camera with me places and take pictures. Suck on that Durban (you know I love you). I will be living in these parts for the next year. That means that the quality of my blog is probably going to drop off. Think of someone who releases a sophomore album directly after they spent an entire young life creating material for the rookie release. It is game time I guess, I gotta show that my photography is a skill and not just years of dumb luck!

A nice view of the Presidential Palace in el Centro de Santiago. Santiago has a ton of stray dogs roaming everywhere. I went to the Catedral Nacional and in the room of patron Mother of Chile and a dog just ran in I was able to get a unique picture.

Something other than Blue Skies

No more Africa, I promise. I noticed way too many of my pictures included blue skies. I thought I would try to find some vibrant pictures of things without it being a sunny day. All these pictures come from the last academic year. So I am back to using the Nikon D-60.

I am fully aware that I already lied, this one obviously has blue sky. Since most of the sky is covered by a vibrant green, I cheated a little. Also the contrast of the green, blue, and gray I think really brings out Mr. Squirrel. His firey red belly and graying brown top stick out distinctly. Also his dark brown nose gives a focal point.

I am sure that poor freezing Mbali didn't think that she would be featured in a blog when we stopped in whatever dinky small Northern Illinois town this old Walmart was in. At the same time, I have never met someone so eager to have their picture taken at a Walmart. The gray sky in this picture and the tan of the building really bring out Mbali's complexion. While the lights in the background bring a nice horizontal pattern to the picture, making Mbali almost look superimposed onto the surface. I would rate this picture as a 9 on the facebook profile picture scale.

The framing on this picture is odd. I don't know if I care for it. The concentric circles of the different levels of the Iowa Capitol Building give this picture its uniqueness. Also each level is a different color. Thank the lord I didn't drop my camera while leaning over to get this shot!

I really could have called this blog post "a study of shape and pattern". Or maybe I could have called "owning a Nikon D-60 makes any doofus a good photographer". Probably it should have been called "cheap easy 'art' makes schmuck look cultured".

They Dance Like Isaiah Shembe

I did research in Inanda, South Africa on the Nazareth Baptist Church, otherwise more commonly known at Shembe. I lived in the Nazaretha Holy City of Ebuhleni during the Holy Month of July. It was during this time that I made a lot of discoveries about myself by completely immersing myself in another culture. I spent my days stressing about if I had enough interviews with the right people, while bitching at Zahkona to make sure she was actually working.

A lot happens at Ebuhleni in July. From the weekly dance ceremonies, girls' puberty ceremony, bringing of the ancestors, boys circumcision ceremony, baptism, and weekly Sabbath. My favorite thing to witness though was the was the girls' puberty ceremony. I took a zillion pictures, but one I took of some girls' before the ceremony sticks out to me.

Dancing is the thing the Shembe is most well known for. It is the part of the church that many people come to watch, and that much of the youth of the church enjoy. It is believed that dancing is done to show ones honor for Jehovah. While most of the outfits are similar to those from the traditional Zulu dancing, the ones the young boys wear are similar to Scottish Military Outfits. The reason for this is because the Prophet said that boys must wear these because someday white people would come to the church and they would need a dance outfit culturally relevant to them.

Overall I had an amazing experience. I got to spend a lot of time around my host-family and got really close to them. I felt like this picture truly shows the relationship I built with my host family (as well as how much of a hobo I looked like).

Sunscreen and an Insulated Jacket

I wish I would have enjoyed Namibia. I don't think it was anything Namibia did in particular, but rather a mixture of two important things that made me miserable. When I reached Swakopmund, I became so sick I could barely move. Although I never saw a doctor, I believe I was suffering from malaria because of the situation that I had lived in Ebuhleni and the fact that the last week there it had rained more. With people coming there from Malaria infested areas, I think Ebuhleni became a small hot bed of Malaria. The other major problem with Namibia is an issue of population. It is hard and expensive to be a single traveler in Namibia and the public transport there sucks.

For all my dislike of my time in Namibia, I cannot refute how beautiful it was. I loved the landscape. The winter desert had two different extremes, cold in the shade and hot in the sun. I remember burning my nose one day when I went into the desert. The whole time I was in the desert all i could remember thinking was that I felt like I was going to freeze to death.

The Atlantic Coast and the Namib Desert make Namibia an explorable beauty. Yet, I couldn't help but notice in Namibia the strange influence the country had. It seems like the people of Namibia have long been a toy of outside influences. The country, seen as a waste land by colonizers, was infested by different groups always nominally interested in its people. The Namib people themselves have a long rich tradition. It was interesting to see the heavy Christian grasp on the country as well as the Afrikaans, English, and German influences.

Iowa: At Least You Cannot Claim the Weather is Boring

Did you know that Iowa is the state of the union that has the largest difference from its average hottest day to its average coldest day? Needless to say we have quite the defined 4 seasons. So here is a little snap shot of Iowa!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Recollections

If you have read my blog, every place I have ever been I loved. Not true; as you will soon find out I long from love Namibia and Swaziland. In fact, I have already posted on El Salvador, which I found dreadful for many reasons. Botswana, is not the case. I LOVED Botswana. I went for a little more then a week with my besties Matt. I wish I could take this trip a hundred times again. I had never felt more alive then when I went to Botswana. The picture I have with the blog I took at the Hippo Pool Backpackers outside of Maun (pronounced my-oon). I loved this backpackers. I remember watching the EuroCup freezing my ass off because of how cold it got in the Kalahari in the winter time. I was bored while Matt search for chemical enjoyment, so I snapped night time pictures from my Olympus point and shoot. The bar was full of local white Botswanas (there is such a thing). I remember never feeling the racial separation of the world more then when I sat at this bar.

Regardless of how terrible I have felt for being born a Gringo to this day, I was able to capture a truely amazing picture. This picture remains to this day my favorite picture that I have ever taken. Unlike most of the night time pictures I have taken in my life, this one was first time thing. I didn't have to spend several shots to insure that I had a steady hand before taking a still half blurry picture. Some how in my state, I was able to set the camera on the picnic table and capture the Catina built right into the desert. And the edge of the flood waters from the Okavango River fill the desert with a life source. The interior Okavango River Delta is one of those place on Earth like no other. Maybe it was because it was the last thing I did before I returned to the U.S. but it stuck in my mind and somehow that is how I picture freedom to be.

Nkosi Sikelél' iAfrika

"Call oh small boy, with the long tremulous cry that echoes over the hills. Dance oh small boy, with the first slow step of the dance that is for yourself. Call and dance, Innocence, call and dance while you may. For this is a prelude, it is only a beginning. Strange things will be woven into it, by men you have never heard of, in places you have never seen. It is life you are going into, you are afraid because you do not know. Call and dance, call and dance. Now, while you may."

- Alan Paton: Cry, The Beloved Country

Maluti: The Kingdom in the Sky

I love Lesotho. The country is unique to say the least. They have a love of mountains; which makes sense because they are the country in the world with the highest low point. The Sesotho word for mountains Maluti. It is also the name of the currency, the national symbol, and the beer. The Mountains themselves have a myth, the Basotho people claim it is the mountains that saved them from the ravishing hordes of the armies of the great Zulu king Shaka. They were able to defend themselves on the cliffs that separate modern day Lesotho and South Africa. The hero of the Basotho is their first king Moshoeshoe: his mythology claims that he defended the Basotho people against the expansion of the Zulu Kingdom, established the first Kingdom of Lesotho, and most importantly established a peace treaty with the British that established the Protectorate/Nation of Lesotho.

Both times I went to Lesotho I entered the country through the Sani Pass. It is the only road that connects the country with KwaZulu-Natal. The travel up the Sani Pass itself is an adventure. South Africa completely surrounds Lesotho, but at the entrance to the country at the Sani Pass, there is a section of 7km in between the two where one finds them self in neither country. The Sani Pass is about a 2000 meter climb from the South African border to the Lesotho one. The second time I went I reached the top and entered the country only to find myself in a blizzard.

As You can see from the Picture about, the snow settles on the plateau, and the drifts down the side. The difference between Lesotho and South Africa is easy to see in the picture. If one imagines the countries meeting at a 90 degree angle, the cliff face is South Africa and the plateau top is Lesotho. This picture taken from the patio of the Sani Top Pub (the self proclaimed highest pub in Africa) shows exactly where the two countries touch.

A Travel Jewel in the Rough

I went to Mozambique during my "Spring Break" from attending class at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. One of the most memorable parts of Mozambique were the busy rides and roads, which were rough to say the least. In between when I was sweating from the sweltering heat or sitting next to a man with a box full of delightful smelling shrimp I took several action shots of the land scape we were passing. I loved the way the clouds were just hanging in the air that day. The tropical Mozambican countryside seemed to be encouraging me to run through the fields. The sun peeped through the clouds giving the day a sleepy feeling were I can remember that despite my physical discomfort on the bus gave me a pleasant complete feeling.

A lot of backpackers skip Mozambique during the famous Cairo to Cape Town tour, normally opting for a Botswana - Zambia - Malawi - Tanzania trip instead. I have heard all kinds of reasons: "i don't need anymore beach culture" "the roads are too bad" "i don't speak Portuguese" or my personal favorite "aren't they still at war?" I think this is too bad, I believe Mozambique has a lot of unique features to offer the traveler, a type of land scape and culture that doesn't exist in the rest of Africa. My biggest desire for a return trip to Southern Africa would be to spend more time in Mozambique and go from the far north of the country to the South so that I can see the ruins of the ancient sea trading culture as well as the old Portuguese forts. Plus the beaches are beautiful!

Landmarks

To take a little bit of a break from Africa, I thought I would do a photoblog of pictures I have taken of landmarks. While I think it could easily be argued that these pictures are over-played, I think sometimes landmark pictures can have a unique view if you are able to capture them as a place where people live rather then a place where tourist go to marvel.