MY LIFE: The Kingdom in the Sky: We Exist

MY LIFE - 50 For My 50th Day 12: "Serengeti Long Walk" by Stewart Copeland and songs that remind what I thought about traveling Africa

For an explanation of "50 For My 50th", go here - http://oldermusicgeek.blogspot.com/2013/08/entertainment-50-for-my-50th-50-days-of.html

I was never actually at The Serengeti Plains, but this song captures some of the thoughts and feelings I had as I hitchhiked through The Kalahari Desert, rode horseback through a national park in Zimbabwe, rode through Namibia, among other places.

See these natural spectacles certainly puts you in a philosophical frame of mind. And these songs reflect that.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vn2SencrSL_0ujzefX_Bfc_j-KJhKJzSUTDJi3CiQs8/edit?usp=sharing



A playlist of songs including "Serengeti Long Walk" that show what was going through my mind as I traveled Africa :

Click the link below to listen to my monstrosity of a playlist, OlderMusicGeek's 50th B-Day, on Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/user/127676752/playlist/1bRKV8LHJIL3JQih1ZSq76

MY LIFE - 50 For My 50th Day 11: "Boy In The Bubble" by Paul Simon and other tunes that remind me of my time in Africa

For an explanation of "50 For My 50th", go here - http://oldermusicgeek.blogspot.com/2013/08/entertainment-50-for-my-50th-50-days-of.html

Well, when I first started this 50 days of music for my 50th birthday, I claimed that these would all be songs that have special meaning to me.

Unfortunately, for this African segment, I'm kinda breaking that rule. I love a lot of African music, but most of it doesn't exactly speak to this white, middle class, midwestern American. Plus, most of it is in languages I don't understand whatsoever. So though I love many African tunes, I can't say they have a "special meaning" to me.

But I did spend 6 1/2 years living in Africa. And it did have a profound effect on me, the way I look at myself as well as the way I look at the world. You have to be pretty self-absorbed not to be affected by living in a completely different culture for so long!

So if these don't exactly speak of my life, they do reflect some of the thoughts, experience, and feelings that my African experience brought me.

I picked Paul Simon's 'Boy In The Bubble" as the first tune for a number of reasons. One, it reflects some of the chaotic feeling that I had living in a strange culture, and one that was next door to apartheid-era South Africa. Two, backing up Paul Simon is a band from the village where I first taught, Tau Ea Matsekha! Three, this album came out just before I left for southern Africa, and was a huge hit and played many times at our Peace Corps parties!

So enjoy a taste of Africa!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vn2SencrSL_0ujzefX_Bfc_j-KJhKJzSUTDJi3CiQs8/edit?usp=sharing



A playlist of tunes that remind me of Africa including "Boy In The Bubble":

Click the link below to listen to my monstrosity of a playlist, OlderMusicGeek's 50th B-Day, on Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/user/127676752/playlist/1bRKV8LHJIL3JQih1ZSq76

ENTERTAINMENT - A music video by Basotho musicians for Lesotho's King Letsie III's 50th birthday!

ENTERTAINMENT - Movie that takes place in my African home of 6 years

Exclusive: Trailer for Acclaimed South African Drama 'The Forgotten Kingdom'
by Vanessa Martinez
April 30, 2013 10:13 PM

Here's a South African film we profiled around two weeks ago, when it won the Audience Narrative award at the Ashland Independent Film Festival.

Helmed by Andrew Mudge, the drama The Forgotten Kingdom has since then done it again, winning Audience awards at the Sarasota Film Festival and the Florida Film Festival. Next up, Kingdom will premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival (New American Cinema competition). It can also be expected to screen at the Durban International, Berkshire, Port Townsend and Woods Hole film festivals.

To recap, the subtitled drama centers on Atang, who leaves Johannesburg for his native land of Lesotho to bury his estranged father. Atang falls in love with childhood friend Dineo, who cares for her HIV-positive sister. Through falling for Dineo, Atang confronts his past in this remote village he grew up in. Conflict arises when Dineo's father wants to relocate their family to escape from the public stigma of Dineo's sister's HIV infection.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/exclusive-trailer-for-acclaimed-south-african-drama-the-forgotten-kingdom

The Forgotten Kingdom (Trailer) from Black Kettle Films on Vimeo.

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Humorous video on how to speak the language of my old African home!

https://vimeo.com/37720616

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Video on an Olympic runner from Lesotho

A video about an Olympic athlete from Lesotho, my old African home!

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Win-a-Trip Diary: Seeing the Power of Foreign Aid

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/win-a-trip-diary-seeing-the-power-of-foreign-aid/

POLITICS: Africa on the rise

An article about how Africa can improve featuring old African home of 6 1/2 years, Lesotho...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/opinion/sunday/africa-on-the-rise.html

MY LIFE: The importance of Paul Simon's "Graceland" to my Peace Corps group

A short little article on the importance of Paul Simon's "Graceland" to my Peace Corps group. It's from the newsletter for Friends Of Lesotho, a group for returned Peace Corps volunteers who worked in Lesotho.

MY LIFE: The village I taught at is on the iPhone weather app!

MY LIFE: Another pic of the school I taught on 20 years ago

http://www.panoramio.com/m/photo/25502687#

MY LIFE: A high school in Africa that I taught at about 20 years ago

http://leribehigh.wetpaint.com/

MY LIFE: A Weird Dream I Had Last Night

In a dream last night, I'm having a sword fight with a masked man.
He says something in Spanish in Antonio Banderas's voice as we fight.
Me: "Sorry, friend, I don't speak any Spanish."
Him: "You should learn to speak a second language."
Me: "I did! Sesotho!"
Him: "A lot of good it does you here!"
Me: "Well, it did me a lot of good in Africa!"
Just then I push him away. He jumps to the window, and before jumping out, says: "Well, señor, you're not in Africa any more!"

Thank you, "Puss In Boots" for giving me weird dreams!

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Question From FormSpring.Me - If you could instantly become fluent in another language, which language would you pick?

If you could instantly become fluent in another language, which language would you pick?

Sesotho - a language spoken in Lesotho and central South Africa, because my daughter is half-Mosotho and I would like to help her know her heritage better!

Ask me anything

ON OLDERMUSICGEEK'S STUPID TESTS AND QUIZZES: "PERSONALITY: The "Let's Dream" Questionnaire" (just click here)

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Holiday Gifts Pave the Way to Self-Sufficiency

This was a Christmas article I found using Netvibes. It got the article from Topix, which got it from Irin. If that doesn't make sense, don't worry about it.

Anyway, the article involves the country in Africa that I lived in for a few years. So I reprinting the parts about the country here. You can click here if you link to the complete article. - OlderMusicGeek

Holiday gifts pave the way to self-sufficiency

TURUPU, 24 December 2007 (IRIN) - When Mamanuel Rampai heard she would receive a free pig for Christmas a few years ago, purchased by an anonymous donor in the US through an aid group's online gift catalogue, she all but dismissed the present.

But the gift, a seven-month-old sow named Pinki, has since made her a role model for other pig farmers in her rural community. "I've learned so much about how to care for them, because they've become a livelihood," Rampai, 43, told IRIN.

Rampai lives in Turupu, one of Lesotho’s many remote mountainous villages and used to survive on the occasional sale of a chicken and during periods of drought was dependent on international food aid. Her life mirrored the economic stagnancy of the other 80 families in her village, hard hit by the combined effects of poverty, food insecurity and HIV/AIDS.

"Life was difficult for my family," she said in front of the cinder-block home she shares with her seven children. "School fees cost 1,300 Maloti (US$194) per child per year. I couldn't pay for all of them to go to school every year."

Rampai's fortunes changed when the international charity World Vision gave her Pinki. In the last 16 months, Pinki's proven to be an income-generating resource, producing 24 piglets, which Rampai has sold at various points of development to earn between 150 Maloti (US$21) and 1,000 Maloti (US$145) each.

"I never expected I could earn this much by raising pigs," Rampai said in front of Pinki's sty.

Funds for Pinki were donated through World Vision's gift catalogue – which allows charitable shoppers to 'buy' symbolic presents for impoverished communities. An individual donor can choose dairy goats in Malawi, alpacas in Ecuador, and in this case – pigs in Lesotho. A charitable online shopper in the US clicked their mouse and paid $195 to cover the cost of the pig, which World Vision then granted to Rampai.

Changing lives
The grants though are not symbolic for beneficiaries such as Rampai. Next year, she expects to have the funds for her 20-year-old daughter to complete high schooling and hopes that her daughter will continue her education at a university in neighbouring South Africa the following year.

She's also sees hope for her own future. "I want to have a highly improved life when I am an old lady, so my life gets easier in old age," said Rampai.

Nine other families in her village were given pigs at about the same time. So far, they've given or sold a number of piglets to needy neighbours, and sold older offspring to the slaughterhouse in the capital, Maseru. In little more than a year, the group has raised 10,000 Maloti (US$1,445). A portion of this is used to support the village's five children orphaned by HIV/AIDS with school uniforms and materials – a condition all recipients agreed to when they received the pigs. The rest of the earnings are divided between them.

Village chief Mathato Leluma told IRIN these were the area's first entrepreneurs. "The way they are regularly feeding the pigs, and even fetching water from far away during the drought. It shows they're determined to make it a success."

However, the grant project has created tensions within the village. "When we see that people are jealous, we encourage them to form the same kind of group," said villager Molulela Ramanyaka, 29. "And we ask them to buy our pigs."

Other members are dreaming big; they see Turupu becoming a key pig farming community in the coming years.

"Right now, we have to go all the way to Maseru to reach a slaughterhouse. That's two hours away," said 38-year-old Makhabela Macheli. "My wish is that in 10 years we'll build our own slaughterhouse to serve this area. And, yes, I want to be the boss."

Sustainable growth
World Vision Lesotho says of all its operations, the small capital investments supported by the gift catalogue are the most life-changing, because they are run by individual families.

"This project is strong on sustainability because it targets the household," said Hape Matli, operations director of World Vision Lesotho. "Everyone takes care of their own projects, compared to when we pool people together."

World Vision still supplies feed for the pigs. Matli says she would like to design a model in the future where beneficiaries take full financial ownership of the project more quickly, which may entail more training in business skills. Matli said group members often do not know the fair market value of their livestock, so they may not earn as much as they deserve.

"If I could talk to the donor in America who made this possible, one thing I'd say is that I'm very thankful for the help they've given us. Because this has improved our lives," Rampai told IRIN.

gw/go/tdm
Theme(s): (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Food Security

A link to the complete article at the Irin website

A link to all my Christmas and holiday posts

Happy Christmas and/or Boxing Day and/or Kwanzaa and/or Hannakah and/or Bodhi Day and/or Sanghamitta Day and/or Shabe Cheleh and/or Makara Sankranti and/or Junkanoo and/or Dong Zhi and/or Toji and/or Soyal and/or Yule and/or Seva Zistane and/or Alban Arthan and/or Long Night and/or Mean Geimrech and/or Brumalia and/or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti and/or Saturnalia and/or Lenaea and/or Wren Day and/or Tekufah Tevet and/or Winter Solstice and/or ChriFSMas and/or any other December or winter solstice holidays i missed!

Oh, and Bah Humbug to those who don't celebrate the holidays! :)