Ubuntu ...
Ubuntu: I am what I am because of who we all are.
Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee
These days seem to be full of lessons about community and communication and there is a concept I remember reading of once, so I searched out the quote and found a photograph in my archives.
The concept is Ubuntu, is a Nguni Bantu term roughly translating to "human kindness." It is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally "human-ness," and is often translated as "humanity towards others," but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity."
On the image below I used the note I made in one of my journals back in 2011, despite wikipedia presenting it more clearly.
Note: there are many different, and not always compatible, definitions of what ubuntu is...
Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes, One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.
As for the photograph ... I was out on Flanders Fields back in October 2007, covering the Passchendaele commemorations. The London New Zealand Rugby Club was over playing a French side, and a delightful group of veterans had flown in from New Zealand.
I was fortunate enough to capture a traditional Hongi, or Maori greeting, between a rugby player and a veteran. It seemed like an appropriate image for this idea that seems so very important in these times.
I Am A Reader ...
There's not much that gives me more pleasure than finding a really good book.
I have two 'suppliers' here in the Flemish city of Antwerp. The first is De Slegte aan de Wapper, just a couple of doors away from Rubens House. The second is more of a secret. It's the place where I find quietly superb books for .25 cents to 1euro.
We hired a city car for a few hours today. Jess had an appointment with the dental surgeon and we delivered her to the hospital. Then the Belgian bloke who is on holiday, and I, slipped away to the secret book supply shop and voila, treasure was found.
We found 4 beautiful hardcover Roald Dahl books for Miss 10, printed in Nederlands. Then I discovered Dinner with Persephone by Patricia Storage (.50 cents), Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali (.75 cents), and The Colour of the Moon by Alkyoni Papadaki (1euro).
I love the randomness of secondhand bookshops. I find so much treasure in them. I just finished Tim Parks novel, Dreams of Rivers and Seas tonight. I had loved his 'ethnographical' book titled A Season with Verona. This fiction was something else. Someone else's treasure, now my secondhand treasure.
But really, the reading is done on the trams mostly. I was back on that early morning school run this morning. Jess had her dental surgeon appointment today but turns out she can't have her wisdom teeth out until Thursday as there is an abscess which, combined with the pain of her teeth, is knocking her around something fierce.
We were quite traumatised by our 5am ER visit and by the time she had been treated we didn't even dare ask which painkiller they'd IVed in to her, much less insist they might be wrong and that there was an abscess involved.
We actually laughed as we walked out into Saturday morning afterwards ... that stunned ohmygoddidthatreallyhappen kind of laughter. But today was an experience so opposite as to be surreal. It was very healing and I confess, we were very very relieved.
So there is work to do and family to work around ... Gert has his appointment with a shoulder specialist on Thursday. We're hoping he doesn't need surgery but it's not looking good. He's been in much pain for 2 months now.
My football team played a brilliant game in Italy last night. I was glad not to be here. The tension ... missed chances and the fact that they lost in the final minutes. All this against one of the top teams. It might be an exciting season this season based on the exciting squad they've put together.
I was wandering out on Flanders Fields one frosty morning, with a small group that included then New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark. I noticed these trees and stopped for a few moments, wanting to capture something of the light.
The quote. Justine Musk ... I enjoy her writing.
Homelands ...
Listening to Avicii. That Wake Me Up When It's All Over song, the one that somehow got under my skin and into my head earlier this year. Miss 10 just asked me to 'play it again' and so there I was, trying to work out font colour for the photograph below, listening to that music.
Miss 10 heads back to school tomorrow, after the last week of school holidays where it seemed Autumn had arrived. As traditionally happens ... 26 celsius is predicted for next week.
Ms 28 and I rushed off to ER early on Saturday morning, 5am actually. We were mostly the only ones there but that didn't help. Turns out you're not meant to race off to ER, you're meant to go to the after hour-doctors however ... we were both concerned about abscessed wisdom teeth and the possibility of blood poisoning. She had never had pain like it and I found her pressing a plastic ice pack directly onto her face.
They loaded her up with an IV painkiller and anti-nausea meds. We walked out there sometime around 8am I think. The IV dose worked for quite some time but there's no real way of avoiding pain when you have wisdom teeth actually pushing your real teeth out of their socket.
Turns out she needs 6 teeth, in total, removed. She's looking into that tomorrow ...it can't be too soon I suspect.
Yesterday was full of 'things that had to be done'. Two trips to the emergency pharmacy on the bike, the supermarket too. Cleaning the house in preparation for another lovely guest ... Inge, the Belgian living in New Zealand. She's back home for a visit and had a 24 hour window of time just for us.
And there was the pavlova to cook for the BBQ at 1.30pm and then ... once there, Fiona committed to filling my glass while we caught up with Ruth and Lucy. Marc, Charlie and Benoit too. And Tom, the lovely Belgian doctor, just home after some years spent living in NZ.
It was a day full of the most marvelous folk really.
I was running on 3 hours sleep and crashed out of this world sometime after 10pm. Feeling so tired that I felt ill.
Today has been a new day. Gert, Miss 10, and I spent the morning spent talking with Inge and Elise. Then I had a few more hours of sleep after our guests had returned to the Westhoek - home for Inge when she's in Belgium. Elise starts school in the morning too.
As so often happens here in my world, it's been a magical, difficult, exhausting, quietly superb couple of days. Inge and I spent quite some time comparing our experiences in each other's countries. Same same but different would best sum them up.
I would love to write of the good, the bad and the ugly of the immigrant thing but perhaps that's for another day, when I'm less tired than tonight finds me.
I noted the following quote in one of my journals. It's a favourite, by Susana Fortes, and I found it in her interesting book Waiting for Robert Capa.
And the photograph ... it was taken at Herculaneum, in Naples. I spent some hours wandering there one hot summer's day.
Mojave 3, Most Days
Liking the music embedded here tonight. New music for me.
The Belgian bloke and I have spent the entire day moving our desks and creating a new office space. Yes he has a swollen tendon in his shoulder, one that no longer moves through the bone without pain but he was careful, and I was helpful ... or tried to be.
I love our new space. I haven't moved much but he did and the result is quite drastic ... to us.
Photographs to follow in the days ahead, if I work out how to capture it all.
Walker Creek, Fiordland
Welcome to Walker Creek, Fiordland. My favourite place when I lived in Te Anau.
Technically, the last image isn't the creek, it was actually taken further into the national park, at Mirror Lakes but I added it because it gives you a sense of the same kind of mountains just beyond 'my' creek.
On arriving there, I would make a small seat for myself in the long grass while my dog, Sandie, made herself at home in the creek. We could spend hours there, dreaming the day away.
When I returned, back in 2012, I was so intent on breathing in both the air and the scene that I didn't take any photographs of this creek. These images all belong to the Belgian bloke who made a beautiful job of capturing those places I loved to well while I wandered off into dream-mode again.
I yearn for that particular air, the peace of the place and the overwhelming sense of Nature pressing down on me but ... I have also become accustomed to Italy, France and to being here in the centre of the world.
I am divided in these days, unsure of which place is more for me. Loving Genova, and loving the memories of home. Perhaps it's best that I wander a bit longer.