without title

Hello everybody. I´m allready back in Barcelona ans slowly slowly i find my rythms. I had allready my depresive week in european land. Barcelona did whatever it could to animate me (5 days of live free concerts with great weather and lots lots of people) but as someone said

it doesn´t matter where you are, but how you are .

I wanted to feel nice and enjoy all this street festival but something inside me didn´t feel like this. It was still out there thinking of all these images,all these emotions but as el maestro Drexler says

si todo empieza y todo tiene un final, hay que pensar que la tristeza tambien (if everything starts and everything has an end, think that the sadness also)...

I went to some concerts but in most of them i left after 30 minutes (only once when i got drunk i managed to stay the whole night :-))...Life doesn´t stop after a very nice trip or after a very bad incident..nothing is lost only transformed and with that feeling i shall start again my barcelones life and being positive and smiling...There are new ideas, there are new chalenges, there are new people and i hope the rest of the time to be as good and as beautiful as the last 3 months...I don´t think i will write anything more to this blog cause tasuli ya no esta en Africa so i would like to thank all of you who kept me company during my trip there. I shall continue the comunication with my kenyan family and i will continue contributing as i can for the kenyan asociation that i worked for.

Muchas gracias a tod@s

countdown....

Hello everybody.....hope you are smiling and creative...I'm having my last 3 days in Kenya so no more words, only images...take care everybody and more news when i'm back to my lovely barcelona

ethiopia 2001

Hello everybody...last days in ethiopia and finally i managed to enter mi blog ... Today is new years eve. in ethiopia. They will enter in 2002...after 4 weeks and more than 3000 kilometres by buses in the motherland, is time for me to take the long way back...
...i'm not feeling sad (at least not yet)and i know that time is limited and this experience should finish at one moment...I'm very happy and satisfied and who knows..maybe i come back one day(or night) :-)... but even if i'm not, no one can take this from me...
I saw crocodiles, monkeys, hippos, waterfalls, gorges...i saw happiness, i saw poverty, i saw richness...i saw what they call the 8th miracle of the world (lalibela churches)...in few words i saw another reality and i had experiences that maybe i will never have the change to live again, and i'm very grateful about that....soon i will try to write more details about everything and about some interesting stories tha happened...for the moment i wish you a happy new year 2002 and i send you lots of love...

ithaka...

Once you set out on your way to Ithaca,
wish that it should be a long road
full of adventures, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon do not fear,
for such as them on your path you will not find,
if your thought remains superior, if a refined
sentiment your spirit and your body touches.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the ferocious Poseidon you will not encounter,
if you do not carry them inside your soul,
if your soul does not stand them up in front of you.
Wish that it should be a long road
That many the summer mornings will be,
that with such pleasure, with such joy
you will be entering ports never seen before
be stopping over at Phoenician market places,
and the fine merchandise you will come to posses
mother-of-pearl and corals, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of every kind,
as many sensual perfumes as you possibly can,
to pay a visit to many Egyptian cities,
to learn and to learn from the educated.

Always keep Ithaca on your mind.
The arrival there is your destination.
But do not rush the voyage at all.
It is better that is should last for many years.
and as an old man to throw anchor at the island
rich with everything that you have gained on the way,
not expecting riches to be given you by Ithaca.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would not have gone out on the road.
She has no more things to give you.
And if poor you find her, Ithaca has not deceived you.
As wise as you have become, with such experience,
by now you must have realized what Ithacas mean.
................................................................

Σαν βγεις στο πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη,
να εύχεσαι να 'ναι μακρύς ο δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι,
τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δε θα βρεις,
αν μεν η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή
συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις,
αν δεν τους κουβαλείς μες στην ψυχή σου,
αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εμπρός σου.
Να εύχεσαι να 'ναι μακρύς ο δρόμος.
Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωινά να είναι
που με τι ευχαρίστησι, με τι χαρά
θα μπαίνεις σε λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους
να σταματήσεις σ' εμπορεια Φοινικικά,
και τες καλές πραγματείες ν' αποκτήσεις,
σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κι έβενους,
και ηδονικά μυρωδικά κάθε λογής,
όσο μπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά μυρωδικά,
σε πόλεις Αιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας,
να μάθεις και να μάθεις απ' τους σπουδασμένους.

Πάντα στο νου σου να 'χεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί ειν'ο προορισμός σου.
Αλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει.
και γέρος πια ν' αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στο δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη.

Η Ιθάκη σ' έδωσε τ' ωραίο ταξείδι.
χωρίς αυτήν δε θα 'βγαινες στο δρόμο.
αλλά δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια.
Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δε σε γέλασε.
έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα,
ήδη θα το κατάλαβες οι Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν.

bye bye Rusinga....

whatever comes up, must go down whatever goes down must go up...after 30 days on the magic island of Rusinga the time has come to take me towards new experiences...Yesterday i took the ferry and now in Kisumu (the 3rd biggest city of Kenya) waiting for the train to Nairobi (2nd class ticket bedding, dinner in Victorian china and spotless linen-according to the guide book), take the Ethiopian visa and start the long way towards motherland...I can assure you that i feel happy, emotional, grateful and thirsty for new experiences...I had a call more than five years ago that was telling me you should go to Ethiopia and i'm lucky enough to be able to fulfill this desire in a few days time...
Kenya is a big and diverse country and his people also...I have met all kinds of personalities here and from each of them i took something (i hope they took something from me also). I shall write more stuff about the Kenyan experience as a whole soon...
Thank you very much to all of you for all the support you have given me till now...and dont forget to be good to your neighborhood... :-)

so don't look back in anger....

Its nice when you remember some people and some frases that they have told you and its even nicer when you really realize the meaning and the deepness of the frases…Hace pocos dias estaba de mal humor, las cosas no funcionaban bien, la gente iba confuse, muchas situaciones me parecian negativas, me quejaba de mis companyeros pensado que no me entienden…Todo eso me hacia sentir que no es mi dia, que es un dia malo….Luego me fui a visitor un lugar de investigaciones sobre los insectos que hay en el pueblo al lado y poco a poco me deje disfrutar del momento…El sitio es super bien equipado y de verdad es un sitio muy agradable…Tome una cerveza, fume un cigarillo y empeze a escuchar los sonidos, a mirar los pajaros, los arboles, el lago…Me di cuenta que me sentia mal por mis expectativas, por mis exigencies, por no estar abierto a la vida…Mirando un arbol y todas sus ramificaciones he visto la vida y sus infinitas posibilidades y senti agradecido….Luego me recorde la frase que Elisa solia decirme a menudo….Tassos, hay dias buenos y dias que aprendes....

Un saludo a tothom

d-day

Yesterday on my way to Badilisha I saw a donkey lying on the ground and when I asked a person that was passing by why is he lying he replied ‘he is dying’ and he continued his way. I also continued my way and 4 hours later when I was going back I saw the donkey dead. When I arrived at home they told me that one dog of the house (the friendliest one) died this morning. I felt sad and i thought that today is a d day (death, donkey, dog). I started thinking about endings, deaths, beginnings…I started thinking that my time here is also finishing and another one will start. Very soon my experience on the island will finish and as we use to say with the other volunteers the first season of LOST on the magic island is finishing but soon there will be another season with new episodes…(we also have our Jacob, our Hurley, our Jack, our Ben, our Kate, our strange animals, etc. jejeje)…
All the experiences I'm having here they will stay with me and they will give me energy and good feelings whenever I recall them. Some, I realized them the moment they happened, some later on and some still haven’t realized them but in the future I hope I will…Sometimes you have to go back in order to move forward, sometimes you have to go forward in order to understand the past and sometimes you stand still and just be…everything counts!

changes

The other day a song came to my mind and it was a long time that I hadn’t heard it…The artist is Ben Harper and what he says is ‘ I can change the world with my own two hands’ and I support this to the fullness. When you change your own world you also change THE world because the world is you and you are the world. The only one who can change your world is you with the help of what we call luck…Luck is all around or Luck is in the air and what happens is that when we are open, when we are perceptive, when we smile, luck finds more place to function, more possibilities to become real and not just a concept…
Recently Michael told us a frase that a professor in the university used to tell them: Change, before changes change you and that brought in my mind another song from Mercedes Sosa that says Cambia, todo cambia and I also support it to the fullness…You are not the same as a month ago (for better or for worst), I’m not the same as a month ago (for better or for worst). During this period something I found, something I lost and I’m quite sure that some things that I found I will lose again and some things that I lost I will find them again…Its part of the everlasting movement of the universe and as we are part of this, inevitably we are moving-changing also…

the missing link

This Wednesday my alarm sound at 06:00, I had to go to Badilisha site at 07:00 to open the door for the builders to enter. I opened my eyes, I snoozed the alarm and I closed my eyes again. I didn’t manage to sleep the eight minutes that snooze gives so I just stayed with my eyes closed, hearing the wind that at that time of the day is always strong. Something was different though, but I couldn´t figure out what…The alarm sound again, I got up, went to the toilet, said good morning to Molly (Michael’s daughter) that was preparing the breakfast and I started to prepare my coffee. I ate my two slices of bread with butter and cherry jam and went out to finish my coffee and smoke a cigarette. Still something was different and still couldn’t find out what…I finished the cigarette and started getting ready. On my way out I saw that the door of the chicken house was still close and, as normally at that time the chickens are out, I opened the door for them…At the very same moment I found out what was different this morning…I hadn’t heard the cock singing during the morning...I waited till all the chicken came out, but no cock appeared. I asked Molly about that…
-Yeahhh, he got killed during the night…
-Whattttttttt? How?
-Well you see, I forgot to lock the chicken house door so probably a cat or something like this came in the night and killed him…I found him this morning dead. Propably he tried to protect his chickens and got killed by the cat...

Many times I was just watching him going around his chickens, stealing food from them, getting in fights with the neighbors cock and every morning he was the sound of waking up…The time that I started liking him it was the second day on the island. We had just had lunch and Inga took her I pod, put her earphones and laid down on the grass to have a nap, me I went down a tree to continue reading my book that by the way is a very nice book (the steppe wolf by Herman Esse). Inga hadn’t seen me but I could see her clearly. Few moments later the cock appears walking slowly slowly, he stops 5 meters from her and start his song…No reaction from her. The cock walks a bit more towards her and again sings. She moved a bit but no major reaction. Again the cock singing.. She lifted her head and gave him a look like she was saying get the fuck out of here and let me sleep, and went back to the ground. The cock did some steps more, he sang again and started running away…It was a very funny thing to see from the beginning till the end. From that moment I appreciated a lot his humor and i developed a nice relation with him and started observing him more, so now that life has finished for him, I would like to make a tribute to the cock. I don’t know if his chicken will miss him but I will….