.

See films in a different way

2008-09-08T02:40:00.000-07:00

african painters

2008-09-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

http://africanpainters.blogspot.com/

Tanzania

2008-08-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Interesting thought from Rebecca in this post: here.

We were in class making clocks. Okay, so you need a circle to make a clock, no probs, there are compasses for such things, well that is if you are in a school in the West. We don’t have compasses so I found round things for the student teachers to trace around. They weren’t really big enough but I thought we could make do.

Well to save myself some embarrassment I really should have asked the students for their ideas first because after I had handed out the things for them to trace and given a detailed explanation of the problem they set to work – completely ignoring everything I had said.

I watched as they were folding paper. Hummm, I didn’t remember talking about using folded paper, but then I saw it. Did you know that if you fold a piece of paper several times, put a hole in either end and then use one pencil as the centre point of the circle in one hole and the other pencil to draw in the other hole you can move the folded paper and make a perfect circle? Well I didn’t. I was quite impressed though and told them so, to which they all laughed, not being able to believe I didn’t know that.

To make it worse I came home and told Patrick all about what I learned today. Well he listened patiently and then laughed. I asked why he was laughing and he answered by telling me about another 5 ways one could draw a circle with no compass or model to trace.

It is quite a clever little trick, really.
It kind of talks to what I mentioned after Christmas:

It's so interesting, living here in Africa for a short time to see the good and bad effects of westernism. In some ways it is fantastic to see an attempt to advance the education system of Tanz, and a goal to push the millions of students to a high level of education, and to increase the number of children able to attend High-school (a tiny amount at the moment). But, of course, it is also a danger as we will probably (unknowingly) impart some unhelpful parts of our culture onto them if we aren't not careful. - Dec 26

Its a great privilege to still be doing some work for The Joshua Foundation via the internet while here in New Zealand, as well. I have been working on some sponsorship cards for them, and doing other little graphic design bits.

Ascapapa

2008-08-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time at all on my hands these past few weeks. I am heading in towards the end of my Bachelor of Graphic Design, so the pressure is really on, plus the fact that I have had major issues with my computer the last week to keep me very busy.

A friend and I were talking about escapism the other day. He is interested in escapism in the area of computer games. He was thinking that because people in the world aren't happy, they use certain computer games to escape this world and enter another, where you can be whomever you want, and forget about this life for a moment. He knows people who literally work eat and play computer games. That is their life. He himself finds escapism through computer games an important part of his life, which help him maintain his sanity.
I heard someone say once, in an old recording somewhere online, (it was possibly Billy Graham) that escapism isn't a bad thing. In fact it seems to be a important part of the lives of all humans. We watch movies, read books, listen to music, play computer games, to take our minds off reality, amongst other thing. It can become a negative thing, especially when taken to the extreme. And what does escapism tell us about ourselves? This is a fundamental question which, I believe, points us towards the eternal.

Interesting thought

2008-08-05T02:04:00.000-07:00

‘Why don’t you change these stones into bread. Because if you change these stones into bread the whole world will follow you.’

Satan makes a fallacious assumption. The fallacious assumption he makes is that if God would be our constant miracle maker materially, and satisfy all our intellectual needs, the whole world would turn and follow him. Time and Time again in history we learn that some of the most vile indecencies and criminal acts have not come from men and women whose stomachs were empty, but men and women whose stomachs were full. Learning and understanding, does not amount to goodness. See: Germany and the Holocaust.

Hobart Mauer
Prof at Harvard
‘For several decades we psychologists have looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus, and acclaimed our liberation from sin as epoch making, but at length have discovered that to be free from sin- that is to have the excuse of being sick, rather than sinful- is to court the danger of also becoming lost. This danger, I believe, is betoken by the wide spread interest in existentialism which we are presently witnessing. In becoming amoral, ethically neutral and free, we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and identity, and with, neurotics themselves, find ourselves asking who am I, what is my deepest destiny, and what does living really mean.’

2008-07-16T03:29:00.001-07:00

Read these after the sequence posted below this one

2008-07-16T03:24:00.000-07:00

2008-07-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent drawings I've been doing. I am planning/working towards my end of year exhibition at AUT for the finale of my degree, so I want to do the best work I can. These are basically explorations of technique and medium. They are mirrored on my online sketchbook at Conceptart

Movies

2008-06-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

I receive a newletter which reviews recently released movies from a Christian perspective called Christianity Today Movies. It offers a good and contrasting perspective from most other critics and allows readers to decide if watching a particular movie is a) worth their time, b) worth their money, c) morally decent and a good movie to take your kids to.

They recently reviewed the movie Sex in the City and, predictably, received much enmity as a result for daring to review such a movie. Here is the gist of the responses and the editor’s response:

"How can any Christian who takes the Bible seriously want to watch (or review) Sex and the City?"

"Anyone who could actually find something redeeming in [Sex and the City] is too awfully familiar with the world."

"Sex and the City is a pornographic film. You should either abandon your stated Christian aims and mission statement, or stop condoning pornography."

"Is this really Christianity Today??? Are you guys really serious about Jesus, the Bible, holiness, and biblical truth?"

And so went some of the letters we received in response to last week's review of Sex and the City. (There were a bunch of positive letters too, so please check them out as well.)

We totally understand why many people would have no desire to see Sex and the City, choosing to avoid it because of its portrayals of pre- and extra-marital sex and rampant materialism. I myself have no desire to see it, mostly for those reasons.

But to slam us for reviewing the film makes no sense. Our mission statement is to help readers make discerning choices about movies—not to make the choices for people. Our review clearly warned readers of the sinful behavior in the movie, while also noting some of its redeeming factors—like the universal longing for love and companionship, what it means to be a true friend, and more.

But some folks believe that when it comes to a movie like Sex and the City, there should be no choice—they've decided that no one should see it, period ... at least no one who calls themselves a Christian. They think we should essentially have a three-word review: "Don't watch it!" But that's not what we're about. We trust our readers to make their own decisions; we won't make those decisions for anyone.

But here's another reason for reviewing SATC and other uncomfortable films: It's good to sometimes enter into the minds and worldviews of others, even of those we completely disagree with. Occasionally, it can even be helpful to see what the world looks like through the eyes of the depraved.

Do those words make you uncomfortable? Or angry? Don't blame me, then. Blame C.S. Lewis, because they're essentially his words.

In his book, An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis writes, "We therefore delight to enter into other men's beliefs ... even though we think them untrue. And into their passions, though we think them depraved ... And also into their imaginations, though they lack all realism of content."

Lewis is writing mostly in the context of reading books and poetry, but his thoughts on criticism apply just as well to film—or any art form, for that matter. He continues: "This must not be understood as if I were making the literature of power once more into a department which existed to gratify our rational curiosity about other people's psychology. It is not a question of knowing (in that sense) at all. It is connaître not savoir; it is erleben; we become these other selves. Not only nor chiefly in order to see what they are like but in order to see what they see, to occupy, for a while, their seat in the great theatre, to use their spectacles and be made free of whatever insights, joys, terrors, wonders, or merriment those spectacles reveal ...

"This, so far as I can see, is the specific value or good of literature considered as Logos; it admits us to experiences other than our own. ... Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors." (Or, I might add, movie directors.) "We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less of a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through the eyes of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented. ... In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do."

That, dear readers, is why we review "objectionable" movies. Because our eyes "are not enough for me." We will "see through the eyes of others" and yet "remain" ourselves. It's our own "experiment in criticism." If that kind of thinking is good enough for C.S. Lewis, it's certainly good enough for us.

I find the Editor, Mark Moring, makes a good point- backed up with Lewis’ words, a great point.

Thus said, I am aware we need to be aware of what we feed our eyes. The visual has become almost all powerful- it can overpower our reason and beliefs with out us noticing. Lewis is writing about a different medium, which has lost a lot of power in popular culture in the last fifty years, but is still significant.

book list

2008-06-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

Reading list of 2008 as of today.

1. The Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
2. Collected stories by Katherine Mansfield
3. Empire of the sun by J G Ballard
4. Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
5. Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene
6. Waking the dead by John Elderedge
7. Beasts by Carol Joyce Oats
8. War fever by J G Ballard
9. The Orchid Keeper by Cormac McCarthy
10. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carol
11. The New Weird edited by Jeff Vandermeer
12. All the pretty horses by Cormac McCarthy
13. The Club of Queer Trades by G K Chesterton
14. Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb
15. The Nigger and the Narcissus by Joseph Conrad
16. The book of the New Sun: Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
17. Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks
18. Excession by Iain M Banks
19. Screwtape proposes a toast by C S Lewis
20. Sons of Heaven by Lawrence Chen
21. Atonement by Iain McEwan
22. A House for Mr. Biswas by V S Naipaul

~22 books in aprox 6 months.....pretty good ones as well, most of them anyway. Some, like Beasts by Oats, Excession by Banks, were possibly not worth the time, but otherwise, all the books are quite recommended.

2008-06-09T01:04:00.000-07:00

Oh, wow, I've had 100 posts on this blog as of today. I never thought I would keep this up for so long, but it has become a pool for thoughts and things I thought people might appreciate me sharing. Just a note for Kathleen, to get to my few pages of posts while in Africa, here is the link:
here

Here's A picture I found amusing, seeming some friends of mine in Tanzania said they once saw a pet Hyena as a guard for a snake zoo, of all places.... Crazy Africa.

Anyway, I'm completely bogged down with a few big assignments, but one of them which is an illustration project I will be uploading onto this blog- in about a week most likely, as I have not time to do any scanning until then.

Until then, here's something I've been thinking about:

If life is simple, why is life simple?
If life is complicated, why is life complicated?

Online comic trial

2008-06-03T04:28:00.001-07:00

Larger trialSmaller trial

Dogs and Zombies

2008-06-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

I love Dogs.
When I came back from Africa Max was so happy to see me. He bounded around the yard, his long cocker spaniel ears flapping, ecstatic. He's getting on in his years, is old max, and is almost eleven now, which is quite old for cocker's, but he showed a huge amount of physical enthusiasm, including sleeping outside my door instead of in his bead, for a week. One thing I have to say is that he is a very very faithful friend, and unchanging in his attitude towards me. His eyesight is fading, and sometimes I wake him up as I come in from town. Typically he won't recognize me, and bark, but when he hears my voice he will look very very embarrassed, his eyes and ears will drop, and he'll slink back to his bed in shame. It is a great fallacy for a Dog to turn on his friend/boss.
I watched a movie called I am legend the other night.
I was really expecting to be bored by a typical, if well done, zombie movie, but had been recommended the film by a few friends, so watched. I found it, unlike some people I've talked to, quite deeply moving. Now I won't give away any plot details (as I am notorious for doing), but the story began very simply about a man alone as the only human in Manhattan, and New York for that matter, who hadn't been infected by a terrible virus. Alone that is except for his faithful dog. The two spend their time together, and he, of course, is trying to crack the virus in a lab under his house. It is basically about a man who gives up his family, his friends, all his life to find s cure, and his absolute humanness- he almost gives up many times, but in the end stays true to his cause. There is a surprising number of acknowledgments of God or as Will Smith (the main character) says 'The God', about how God could ever let a thing like that terrible virus exist which virtually wiped out the human race. He ends up saying, rather powerfully I think, 'God didn't do this, We did this.'
Anyway, the relationship between Will Smith and his Dog is the most moving aspect of the movie for me. She is a German Shepard, and obviously a very intelligent dog. I spent quite a bit of time with German Shepard's in Tanzania, some puppies and some guard dogs, and they are now my favorite dog. After max of course.

My 21st Birthday was awesome to all those who came, thanks!

Thin Red Line

2008-05-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

Have you watched The Thin Red Line directed by Terrance Malick?
I really like it, its my favourite movie in fact, and a major reason for this is the narrator's philosophical exploration of war with a monologue which runs throughout the whole movie, and sometimes merges into other men's voices.

There is something very deep and searching in the few seconds of this video clip, and propels me to want to know more of God, who he is, how he continues to overwhelm me in wonder. As a Christian, will there ever be a time when I don't feel like there is so much more to him that I have barely begun to know who he is, although I've named myself his follower for most of my life.

Square

2008-05-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading a book called Sons of heaven by Terrence Chang, which is about Tienanmen square, and the massacre there in 1989.

These videos speak for themselves.

William Faulkner's nobel speach

2008-04-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

In the middle of the 20th century William Faulkner recieved the Nobel Prize for literature. In his speach upon recieving the reward he said the following:

It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure; that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his own puny inexhaustible voice. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he along among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilage to help man endure by lifting up his heart, by reminding him of the courage and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

I think Faulkner, here, is saying something significant which is in constant jeopardy in our time . I very much agree with him that there are elements of our Humanness which are significant and lasting, somethings that cannot die. The history of our courage against the odds, for example, is something unique to humankind. Yet will we prevail, merely out of the power of this soul, this spirit within us? I acknowledge that we each contain this immortal thing, this power of life, this soul and spirit, but will it prevail? I think not.

And if it is there, where did it come from? Is it another habit of chance, a game of randomness? Who will account for it's presence in us? Why do we have it? There must be answers to these questions. In the airport in Bangkok a few thoughts came to me. Why haven't ants developed their system of Monarchy into democracy? Why don't monkey's build cities? Why don't dogs launch organized attacks against the kingdom of cats?

Faulkner is right. There is something powerful in us, something everlasting. But will it last? The dichotomy of good and evil is definitive, so if we are to account for our actions, what will become of our souls? Will all our good deeds (courage and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice) make up for our bad deeds (violence, hatred, lust, impurity)? I think not.

In Faulkner's reference to a writer's & poet's responsibility, I agree that there is something that needs to be held up, to be remembered in this age. How long is it since I heard someone use the word courage in a casual conversation, or the word purity, chastity, honour, compassion. I believe when we as a society forget these ideals, we are in danger of forgetting/loosing our souls. And the soul is dangerously forgotten.

Online Sketchbooks

2008-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is a long overdue post which links you (whomever that may be) to my online sketchbooks. The first, older one I started quite a while ago, while the new one I've only just started a week ago.

The main-course sketchbook (new SB)

The entree sketchbook (older SB- now no longer being updated)

please enjoy and keep an eye on the new one if you wish, as I will be updating it regularly this year.

My latest project for my degree

2008-04-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is a little 9sec video about me. It is a combination of flash animation and hand-drawn stop animation. The content should be self-explanitary after a few watches, but it's basically about creativity. It was a long process and I had to say a lot in 9 seconds, which is hard work let me tell you. But great, great fun, in the end.

Mad TV- crazy crazy date

2008-04-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

Only in Asia

2008-04-16T04:08:00.001-07:00

History

2008-04-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how disconnected our contemporary 1st world culture/post-modern culture is from history in a knowledgeable sense, yet is still linked back in to history through stories, narrative, books. For many of us a history book is a closed book, while novels (and movies, the like) are open accepted, so long as they connect with us right 'Now'.

At a time when history still made its way slowly, the few events were easily remembered and woven into a backdrop, known to everyone, before which private life unfolded the gripping show of its adventures. Nowadays, time moves forward at a rapid pace. Forgotten overnight, a historic event glistens the next day like the morning dew and thus is no longer the backdrop to a narrator's tale but rather an amazing adventure enacted against the background of the overfamiliar banality of private life.

Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting -

Quote taken from http://ofblog.blogspot.com/

Borges

2008-04-11T00:08:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Jorge Luis Borges.
Have you heard of him? He is a deceased Spanish author who sets many of his writings in Buenes Aires.

He is concerned with mirrors, labyrinths, mysteries and books, with repetitions in reality, in remakes and renaming.

He only wrote short fiction, never a novel. But each short piece seems to contain world's of it's own, stories of it's own, a history of it's own. When I read them on a sleepy, sunny afternoon, as I drift to sleep his stories enter my dreams, and suddenly I am the writer or these labyrinthine glimpses of infinite imaginations.

Highly recommended.

addictive tv - great stuff

2008-04-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

Just watch how they use simple cut and paste techniques to build up to something original and rather fun. As soon as it starts to get boring they add more layers.

The stars

2008-03-26T01:36:00.000-07:00

One constant position of awe I hold is for the wonder of the stars. Its good, sometimes, to remember just how small we are in comparison to the rest of the universe.

I think my love for science fiction comes from my paternal granddad. I didn't realise it until last year that he was a lover of science fiction, with the dune books by Frank Herbert, the Foundation series omnibus by Isaac Asimov, and H. G. Well's complete stories sitting on dusty shelves amongst a few others. To be sure most of his books are more of the action/adventures of novels his time, with authors such as James Clavell and Leon Uris scattered about. Its sad that his eye sight is fading, and it becomes painful for him to read for more than a few hours a day. But it reminds me how temporary this life is compared to the stars, the galaxies, and compared to the wonder of eternity.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Topsy the Elephant

2008-03-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

I know this is a little sick, but....
This is a very old recording, one of the earliest recordings onto film by Thomas Edison, of the Execution of Topsy the elephant.
Typical of the Victorian era, Topsy was publically sentenced to death for the murder of three trainers. here trainer had tried to feed her a burning cigarette, of course, but that didn't seem to be of any help for poor Topsy's case.
First they tried to poison her, but it didn't work. Then they decided to hang her. Can you believe it?
But Thomas Edison convinced them to electrocute her, which was actually a good thing as it only took a few seconds for her to die.
We watched this film in class a while back, and there's no blood or anything, but don't watch it if you are a bit sensitive to animal execution.

The BEST

2008-03-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

In my class 'Who are You', which sounds like a self-discovery course, but is actually a self promotion class, we have been challenged by our teacher to promote our selves, if its the last thing we do. He gave us the common talk on how we are going out into the real world, where jobs are outnumbered by graduates from all over NZ, and theres no way we could all get graphic design jobs. he talked about money money money for a while, then about what makes a employer choose you over someone else (specifically mentioning that married people have a harder time, and married females even more so. Was his message don't get married? I haven't worked that out yet).
Anyway, some people may have found it motivating, but I found it off putting. In many ways I still see my drawings and work as art, as opposed to a commercial commodity.

A few days later I presented a mood board for the concept we were going to use in a self-promo video, and failed miserably. I had it all in my head, but when we were going around and critiquing other classmate's boards I realized how pragmatic he was in the critiques. There was no interest in subtle messages, or a meaning or message, but a whole lot on what it blatantly said about you. While I was trying to discuss place and mood, he was more interested in something that made you unique, such as the way you like graffiti and do in the summer beekeeping.

Ok, Maybe I missed the point, but this way of looking at the world seems so lifeless to me. Absolute pragmatism gets on my nerves, as does an obsession about being the best at making good money in whatever niche you're in. I believe you should aim to be the best at what you do, but that this desire should not revolve around money.

What do you think?

Post-script: I have just upped another book review, this time for Cormac McCarthy's All the pretty horses. check it out here on my other blog.

Two more reviews

2008-03-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

Two more book reviews are up on my book review blog, check em out.

Illustration Project

2008-03-04T01:52:00.000-08:00

Its been raining on and off.
I'm probably starting a project at university on the character Rupert the Bear, has anyone heard of him? He is a 1950's children's book character:

As you can probably see the line work is superb and I am lucky enough to have a few old annuls of my mothers, albeit that they are falling to pieces and often have pages missing, and looking on the net I see I could make a few hundred dollars out of them if I were to put them up for collector's items- though I never would. This interesting bear spend his days on strange mythical adventures with mermaids, or in cities underground, and the authors use descriptive text and poetic descriptions to explain what exactly is going on in the pictures.

Another option is to do the character of Jesus as illustrated by Brian Wildsmith in the book The Bible story. He is also very well illustrated and uses many powerful and the bright colours of the late sixties, and the beautiful lines which are fluid but simple. Click on the image to see what I mean.

My final option is Tintin, a fantastic character, very close to my heart, and hugely influential in many areas of illustration and narrative but possibly an overdone subject.

end.

Book reviews

2008-02-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

I have put a new book review up on my other blog on the book Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks. Also there is a few thoughts about C. S. Lewis' Narnia books. Check it out.

a very strange and haunting true story

2008-02-17T21:56:00.000-08:00

This is

http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2008/02/17/new-weird-contest-winner-divers-hands-the-pied-piper-of-the-parking-garage/

Something you should check out.
It piqued my imagination anyway...

Back from Africa

2008-02-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

After a long bus ride, a flight to Thailand, a wait in the Bangkok airport for seven hours, another plane trip for over twelve hours, through customs and the NZ biological security check in Auckland airport, I arrived back in NZ. After I have written this post I'm going to read over my blog for the last three months, and I'm sure its going to be interesting to look back on all that I noted.
Its lovely to get back to the New Zealand summer, with its cool winds, occasional showers, cicadas, swimming at pools, having dinner on the veranda and even mum's many chickens clucking around the yard. The afternoons are sleepy, and at last I'm having my summer holiday sleep-ins. Mind you, although Africa was a little full on in some ways, it was definitely more relaxed on the whole, and as PC says in Kituo, "it's back to the rat race".

Anyways, I will be showing a sideshow some time soon, once I have my films developed, and have organized them a little. But here are some pictures I thought I might put up.

This is Patrick, a Congolese pastor married to an Australian lady who live together as newly-weds on the Joshua base, and I having a good go at mixing Ugali. Hard work actually!

We have a shredded tire on my second trip to Magugu to finish off the sponsorship photos (as you can see if you zoom in a little on the tire), and it was a bit of a mission to work out how to set the jack up as it was too small to lift the car high enough to replace the kaput wheel. A new experience in the Pit Stop for me :)

This is the whole en-gedi team while I was there, click on the image to get a better view.

A few friends I made.

Sunset on the beach of Zanzibar, a beautiful place. I'll put more photos up later of this exotic location

Yep, I held a snake at the Mezerani snake park!

These are some dear little girls from the Joshua pre-school with their mothers during 'music hour'.

Kenya on the 28th of Jan

2008-02-08T21:26:00.000-08:00

finale finale

2008-01-30T03:46:00.000-08:00

Well, in the middle of a final week, the time seems to fly. Last night I had my last team dinner, which we have every week on tuesday nights. Everyone from all the different houses on the base get together at on families house, so its a full on feed, lots of kai from different countries etc.
It was nice because the team gave me some gifts (a Massai blanke, a kikoi, some african tea, and an nice African shirt) and said some kind things bout me and finally prayed for me and my future. Then we had desert as a bit of a finale'

Tomorrow I'm going to Magugu with Lynda, Patrick who is a Congolese pastor and his wife Rebbecca who is Australian. Its going to be great to have a last taste of Africa before bundling everything up, catching a bus, two planes, and (I guess) a van ride back to 13 Watea rd, Mt. Albert, Auckland, South Pacific, Southern hemisphere, the world, sitting in Gods hand.

This weekend I am going for a walk with Josh out to the village to visit Eframe (whom dad will remember). I will be getting up early Saturday morning to cook French toast for the Carstensens. By the way I have picked up a few African recipes which I will be trying out back home. Then after the morning at the base on Sunday, I will be catching the Impala bus up to Nairobi.

um, yup, so I don't think I will be updating my blog again unless I'm really bored, that is until I am back on Ateorua soil.

So, thanks for journeying with me, I'm sorry if the last few post have been a bit droll, thanks a million to those who posted comments and connected me with home etc.

-_- :D *) 8) (-_-")

saturday's a lazy day

2008-01-25T22:05:00.001-08:00

Weelll,
I am totally over my stomach problems, and the sun is heating upi the atmoshpere here in Arusha. It was hot yesterday and it is proving to be hot today.
I've been giving guitar lessons, designing advertisements, working out new worship songs for the 'song book', spending time with my family over here, and reading.
I've been reading Katherine Mansfield's short stories and they are just fantastic, I highly recommend.

I have also been invited to go down to Magugu again at the end of next week(thursday and friday), which will be great. I will be finishing off the photos we didn't have time to complete last week, and it will really be the last thing I'll do before I leave.

Africa is such a huge place, but its easy to forget, because everyone is so local, and communal. When I look over the balchony in the evenings it seems such a normal landscape compared to the sight it seemed when I first arrived. I guess everything will look a bit different when I get back hoome, too.

Inescts, Africa, and only two weeks left!

2008-01-20T10:15:00.001-08:00

Two weeks and I will be on a plane on the way home to NZ, God willing of course.
I'm really trying to make the most of my time here, especially spending time with the people here, like the Carstensens (who I live and eat with) and the Mooses (who live in the same house) and all the others. The training teachers are back to begin study tomorrow morning, and I can't wait to spend some more time with my African Brothers and Sisters. Hamisi, who I teach guitar to, has already organised a lesson for tomorrow via text message.
I saw a snake yesterday morning, the first I've seen in the wild here in Africa, although I've seen them before (in the wild) in China. It was just slipping into a rabbit hole as I saw it, brown and probably a harmless garden snake. I'm going to miss the lovely weather here I think, and the wild life, and the amazing smell after rain. But, before I get too sentimental, I better remind myself I have a whole two weeks left.

I am on antibiotics for this stomache problem, the doctor reckened it is bad bacteria. This is my third cycle of antibiotics since I have been here; One for every month!

The insects here are amazing. I was just sitting under a tree yesterday, reading The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, and I began to notice the interesting insect life all arround me. The red earth was covered with browns crickets about half a fingers length in size, and they clicked their wings as the made huge leaps here and there. When they landed they often burrowed in the soft ground, or sat rubbing their legs together, looking constipated. I noticed a small bug that looked like a crayfish with no tail and it was perfectly camoflaged in the dirt but walking in my direction. I poked him with a stick and he immediately played dead, and stayed dead no matter what I did to him. I looked away for a minute and couldn't find him again as he looked so much like a piece of dirt. A centipede like insect with yellow stripes, and as small as a twinky fingernail, climbed up on a tiny clover and looked at me for five minutes. He was just building up the confidence to introduce himself when nature called me away. Pole sana

quick post

2008-01-18T07:50:00.000-08:00

Hey, I have Only a quick chance to post today - Im going to dinner in a minute
i've been feeling decidedly sick today, and took the day off the work I'm doing.I'm going in to the medical center tomorrow...
Its really good to hear from Toni and Roger, I replied in the comments.
Ann and Grant Maxwell arrived at En Gedi today, whom some of you will know. I'm looking forward to meeting them again.
A black snake was seen and chased off yesterday, close to where I work everyday, possibly and spitting Cobra...nice huh?
Tensions and riots have increased in Kenya! Check out the NYtimes...
Ok, I'm off to eat some fried bannanas now, yum!

Back form Magugu

2008-01-16T06:41:00.000-08:00

I've been away from Arusha for the last two days. I went on a trip to the school connected with the Joshua Foundation started by Lynda Steevenson, but run by Tanzanian teachers in the town of Magugu called The Joshua Primary and Secondary School. It takes about 3 hours drive to get there, and a lot of it on a gravel road. Magugu is a hot little town, filled with people and cockroaches. The school is a pre-school, primary and secondary school, with form 2 being introduced this year. I went down with Lynda and a girl called Justine, the main reason being to take photos of every student there to send back to their sponsers (just like world vision does every year). We didn't finish the job, but got through a huge hunk. Its was HOT down there, nothing like this rather temperate Arusha which gets the rains coming down off Mt. Meru.

So it was a couple of days of pure African meals, and the accomodation Ngorongoru Hotel was typical of an outback guesthouse, with cockroaches which hiss at you when you go to use the log drop, not running water, and is a little notorious for theives. I enjoyed it though. The best part of the trip was just to spend time with all the kids, and practice a lot of swahili, especially saying 'Cheka' which means 'smile'. The kids really knew how to smile, too. They kind of exploded with huge cheesy grins. The kids struck me as being so unaware and naive, very amazed at the sight of Wazungu (Foreigners), especially if they were just new to the school, as the little kids might never have seen a white person before.

One of my friends, Immanuel, who I made at En Gedi, who is training to be a teacher, lives very close to the school and he came over and invited Justine and I to go to his house. Before we knew it we were being fed a full on dinner, with Ugali, chicken, and all. Justine, who was quite aprehensive of the whole thing was doing very well considering, until Immanuel seemed to expect us to eat some of the little fish called Telapia his sister had cooked. I wasn't feeling hungry after eating the chicken's neck, but he was obviously expecting us to eat a fish at least, so I suggested to Justine we split it. She said ok, and I cut it in half with my spoon, and gave here the top half, which was mostly head. She looked at me with a fixed grin and wide eyes, as if to say 'what are you doing', but I paid no attention and just did my part of eating the bottom half. Immanuel had no idea that we were struggling silently, and the whole situation was so funny I just about burst out laughing.

Anyway, there were many more interesting situations from the trip which I won't bother posting up here because I'm not feeling that well today, and have a tummy ache. I've had the Runs again, and although I'm gulping down the Charchol tablets which often do a good job of corking you up, I haven't had much fun the last three days. I think I have a cold as well, which is strange because it's definitely not cold.

Oh, yeah, we saw a dead Hyena on the road on the way back home. We though it was a pig, but as we drove past it was obviously a not a pig. Hyenas are huge and when they hunt in packs are more effective at bringing down prey than a pride of Lions, mostly due to their reliance on endurance and their extremely powerful jaws. I was surprised to hear from Lynda that they used to get Hyenas on the base a recently as two years ago! They used to wander up from the stream, walk up the path and get into the rubbish. Man!

Another thing to note is that the minnimum wage has gone up 300 percent since the beginning of Janurary which is crazy. Actually Engedi was already paying staff that and a little more, but the over all effect will thing in shops and food etc becoming more expensive in general the the very poor who earn less than 1$ a day will have an even harder time at buying things, or at least much more limited. It may not seem so bad, but its sure to have significant effect.

Democracy by other means

2008-01-11T04:42:00.000-08:00

Just read an interesting column by Aidan Hartley, of whom I read a great book called The Zanzibar Chest.. He gives a clearer perspective than most commentators, maybe because he has spent most of his life reporting all over the continent of Africa, here.

life goes on

2008-01-10T21:38:00.000-08:00

Check out this funny blog post from the Owens family who have recently moved here to en Gedi from Canada here under the post Wednesday, 19th of Jan. The roundabouts here are called keplefti...keep lefti? They also say 'I say' when they are making an exclamation in Swahili, but don't understand they probably got it from the British.

I've been going for runs with some of the guys on the base, and it is really challenging as we are 1000 feet above sea level, and the higher altitude is harder on your lungs. but at last i am getting used to it, and its just great to run through the farms and villages around and greet the people, pumping away on the red dirt and dust and dodging cattle and overloaded trucks on the road.

pity I can't post any photos, but the server won't allow me to :(

(if you leave a comment I will reply, Just check the comments section on the bottom of the post upon which you commented. Confusing?)

Kenya - pray

2008-01-09T06:15:00.001-08:00

On anther note from my previous post, please pray for Kenya. It really is getting pretty intense over there and it is effecting things here in Tanzania, as they are our neighbors. just check out this article from today:

here

Nairobi is literally two to three hours away from Arusha, where I am at the moment. We are their closest city outside Kenya, and there is a bit of a fuel shortage here in East Africa because of the violence. My ticket actually leaves from Nairobi airport, so there might be a problem with my flight home, I hope not though! The government is not being smart, and i was surprised to find that the Kenyan politicians are among the highest paid in the world! No wonder there someone is trying to hog he presidential seat. Needless to say the government is acting terribly, but there is a whole lot of cultural tension coming to the surface. Like people keep saying over here, we just "hope it isn't another Rawanda". We met some people who had been on a safari in Kenya and had to return through the streets amidst the gunshots, fires and angry mobs.

§ Zanzibar §

2008-01-09T05:45:00.000-08:00

Ah, its good to be back at En Gedi again, and have the internet working. I would have liked to post a lot more over the past week and a half, but the net wasn't working and then i went to Zanzibar and now, as happens, I have forgotten what I want to say. I find things come together in you head when you have time to ponder, but if you aren't quick to engrave them in your memory, or paper, they warp, slip this way and that and eventually escape the fingers of my mind. So...

Zanzibar! what an experience. It is a small tropical Island off the coast of Tanzania, which is on the east of the continent. The beaches are exquisite. White coral sand, blue and green water, tropical fish, snorkeling on the various reefs, sunbathing (and getting burnt), reading, eating quite a lot, sleeping quite a lot, swimming as much as possible due to intense heat, playing cards and talking with good company, all pretty much sum up the first five days at the norther end of the Island. I went with Jeremy (the leader of the Joshua foundation's son), Kendra (his girlfriend, and Joanna (one of the head teachers at the college). I am browner than i have ever been, although i don't think the tan will last until I get back, hheheh.

The fifth day day we went to a new hotel in Stone Town where we stayed for a day and a night. With it's white washed walls,winding alleyways, ancient, hand carved doors in Arabian style, beautiful mosques and cathedral, palaces, late night markets where you can fill up on a lot of fish for a cheap price, Stone Town has character. It has been around the block a few times, or maybe the block has been around it. It is also filled with tourists, but that can be positive because it means it is quite safe to walk the alleyways and basically get lost with no problems at all. I sat and drank some fresh coconut for amount 50 cents and had a good old chat with the locals, visited the site of the old slave market which was demolished and covered by a Anglican cathedral. It was just fun. I took lots of photos as well, although i wish i didn't have to and could just take photos with my eyes, because you never know how photos are going to turn out exactly.

Its good to hear home from family
-Hannah, I'm sorry to hear the bad news, but remeber i failed my restricted 3 time! Write me another email, I like the last one.
-Geoff, glad you are killing those cockroaches for me. I'm gonna bring home a mosquito net for sure :) Miss ya bro
-sorawit, are youi in Australia yet? How are ya man? whats been happening?
-Mum, good to hear from you, and to get some photos from the beach from aunti Toni, just to see you guys. Love and miss you.
-Dad, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!(sorry Im late)
-andy, good to her from you, thanks for reading. Hope you and family had a great Xmas. Thanks for prayers.
-theo, How are ya bro? Heard you got a new bike? awesome. I still haven't had a chance to dirt-bike. ~hope you plans for Japan are underway and going well :)

boxing days day

2007-12-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

At LAST! The internet has been really slow....
Well, Christmas in Africa was fun, and I was so full I didn't have dinner last night or breakfast this morning...We had a large meal on Christmas eve, waffles for christmas breakfast and a buffet lunch for christmas lunch.
Its strange celebrating christmas away from family, but not really sad. I think I missed home more in the days preceding christmas than on the actual day :)possibly because I was living with the Russells who are a family family.
I got some interesting presents including an awesome African Injambe drum from Owen and Lois here at En Gedi.
Just over a week and I'll be off to Zanzibar and snorkelling + wimming for six days! Can't wait. I've used my spare time reading a lot and spending time with the other missionaries here. Missionaries are so cool

On another note, I thought I might post up these quotes which are creating a lot of thinking for me about my heritage from the West. Please don't get me wrong, I love NZ in many ways but I think we really don't understand or can be bothered understanding what is going on outside the 1st world, and heve very little patience for understanding other cultures unless we are that way academically inclined. I see this in myself as well as others, and we are totally ignorant of our ignorance.
For one thing, we think the rest of the world is so different, but really it is quite the contrary, conpared to the rest of the world we in the West are the strange ones.

Look at our 'tolerance' ideals we expect the rest of the world to have, like us:

Openness-and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings-is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought that they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all

-Allan Bloom

(Now in the previous post I quoted a book who tried to show that this is how we are today, politically, and in a way I believe he made a good point, looking on from an aitheistic veiw point. But in a way we should also strive to correct wrongs, because there is a right way to run a government. We often have to support the lesser of two evils in a world of grey. What do you think?)

Citing a terrorist attack, Meic Pearse wrote

Too many westerners take refuge in simplistic explanations: fanaticism, extremism, 'fundamentalism', insanity. Such dismissals advance the task of comprehension not one jot; they reveal more about the speaker than about the things, or persons, described. They indicate not so much an understanding as a refusal to understand. All these epithets indicate, in practice if not quite in theory, a mental banishment: "these things are so far distant from my own feelings or judgements that I shall make no attempt to understand why these people, in their own estimation, act or think as they do." And thus we are condemned...

It is a choice not to take anothers culture seriously.

its so interesting, living here in Africa for a short time to see the good and bad effects of westernism (whatever that is these days). In some ways it is fantastic to see an attampt to advance the education system of Tanz, and a goal to push the millions of students to a high level of education, and to increase the number of children able to attend High-school (a tiny ammount at the moment). But, of course, it is also a danger as we will probably (unknowingly) impart some unhelpful parts of our culture onto them if we aren't not careful. Tanz is still a pretty poor country, although hugely rich in natrual resources. It is the raping of Tanz by other countries which adds hugely to the problems here, as well as the underlying corruption.

Anyway, my thoughts aren't that clear at the moment...but do you get my drift?
There are awesome things happening and great advancement going on due to missionaries in Tanz, and I'm excited to be a part of it. But, if you find it in your heart, please pray us westies would be sensitive, carefull and watchfull in this interesting culture.

society

2007-12-24T05:45:00.002-08:00

Society is, always has been and always will be a structure for the exploitation and oppression of the majority through systems of political force dictated by an élite, enforced by thugs, uniformed or not, and upheld by a willful ignorance and stupidity on the part of the very majority whom the system oppresses. - Thirteen by Richard k. Morgan

Society in the hands of a fail able human that is.

Woot. Christmas. Thoughts

2007-12-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is here! Pretty much.
It was good to sing carols again at church and I have one more day of work before 2 days break for Christmas. And I'm going to Zanzibar in less than 2 weeks! woot.

Here are a few thoughts from the last few days (I've had some time to think).

-

I've been reading a book called 'Why the rest hates the West' and it really does have some great insights. The author is a christian, but is quite academically minded and has clear thoughts which are relevant to both believers and non-believers alike. The West is becoming less and less unified, he says. 'A 4th century Japanese, a 14th century English peasant, an 18th century Maori will all have more in common both materially and in their assumptions about the world, than any would have with a 3rd-millennium American, Brit or German...''...for these people, most of human history and culture is a closed book to them.'
And I must admit, coming from such a culture, the gap in our thinking is widening hugely, and we in the west assume so meany things we would think people would see as 'common sense' when it is really something very particular to our own culture. I'm only just through the introduction, but it should be a good read!

-

The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee;
Gave thee life and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight;
Softest clothing, wolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee;
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee;
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himslef a Lamb.
He is meek and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name
Little Lamb, God bless thee;
Little Lamb, God bless you;

William Blake

-

Tanzania is a country with a beautiful heart;
But on its face I often seen pain
And in it's eyes I often see fear.

-

Well, love to you all,
And Word to the Father!
Have a good Xmas!!!

merry merry ...merry..

2007-12-21T01:59:00.000-08:00

hey eveyone, thanks for your replies and comments. Jay, good to hear from you and from your mum. Hope you guys have a great christmas, and keep safe, thanks for the hug :) Hye Isaac, I hope you guys have a good one too.
Mum, its good to hear from you and get an ear into whats been happening arround the home. Its great Sorawti and Richard are going camping..when do you guys leave? will you be at home to skype on christmas?

Well, I am moving house again tomorrow, back to sally and PC's house. They are a very nice kiwi family with two kids, and I will be having Christmas with them and the couple from NC, America who are also staying there and also are very nice people. Everyone is nice here!
I had a few moments while sitting in the Russell's house and listening to carols in the background when I really did miss home. But its great that I'm going to have christmas with my extended family over here too.

We are going to a Christmas carol night tonight, after we have a carol practice for sunday at vineyard this afternoon. Confusing? Well, I think I'm going to be carol'ed out pretty soon -_- but not yet!

I've been working on this curriculum all week with a pastor who is also training here at Joshua, but is an artist and even used to work for a news paper company in Dar Es Salam a few years ago as a comic artist. Hes really good and its been fun just working together. I couldn't believe he hadn't watched Lord of the Rings which I think is compulsory for any artist to watch, or any creative person, so we watched a bit yesterday. He really liked it, but I had to pause a lot and explain what was going on. Having never come into contact with something so allegoric and complex in film I totally understand why it would be such a challenge. The people of Tanzania are educated strongly in non-fictional things, but not very much in non-fictional things, like poetry, short stories, film and novels. In some ways that reminds me of China.

I might get another post up before Christmas, but its going to be a busy few days, so no promises. Marry Christmas!

fun

2007-12-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a Christmas carol service which was really fun. Quite a few people from arround Arusha came and the families from joshua each led a few carols. It was a great night and awesome just to sing together in joy, you know?

I saw a little snake today! I was walking alone up frem the offices and something whiched looked like a big gecko skidded out in front of me. I tried to get a better look at it but it dissapeared under the grass. It was brown and a little green, and moved really fast for it's size.

well, gotta go!

Ants, but not in my pants

2007-12-14T05:25:00.000-08:00

Did I mention there are lots of termite mounds all over the place? They are strange little things, a lot like ants and churn the ground to produce a hard pillar of dirt and hardened by some means I'm not to sure on. But they help enrich the ground as there are no earth worms over here. They, like ants, have a queen who burrows a metre or so below the ground, and is quite a big insect, long and skinny with a bulging head. The termintes are about twice as big as ants in NZ. PC, the Eng Gedi supervisor often has the job of digging the queen out.

I've also seen some really big ants, and occasionally a rhino beetle flying through the air. Because it has been raining on and off some species of ants grow wings and fly arround in the evenings and nights. The Russells' say they catch one species of ant while they fly and eat them. Apparently the taste like bacon....?
Last night I was out in the dark with a torch and saw hundreds of red ants flying around and crawling on the ground, not the ones that stings, some other species. There was a toad hopping around happily eating them one by one. The ants didn't seem to mind.
I saw another toad as well, but one of the guard dogs, a lovely German Shepard called Mocha bounded up and promptly sat down on it, totally unaware that she did so. I saw the toads face squash and distort to the side of its head as her weight came down on it. When she got up the toad just calmly hopped away. Neither of the two animals seemed to mind at all...

Man I need to carry my camera around with me more!

I'll be back, keep me up to date on your lives too :)

what day is it? thursday?

2007-12-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

So the fast finished last night, and it was a very good thing. It was good to get back into some American cooking, as the family I'm staying with are American.

Its been raining hard here in Arusha which is good for the farmers as the land has been very dry, there was even hail on Friday. The weather has been cool and there are often dark clouds in the sky.The pups are awesome, but often covered with mud due to the rains.

I don't know if I wrote about this already, but one night last week when it was just myself and a few others in the house, the Russells were on holiday, we heard the puppies crying really loudly. After a moment I went to check out what was wrong, but when i got to their kennel they were frantic, and biting at the cage mesh. They were covered in something wet and when i touched their coats my hands were stung by what felt like acid. I immediately thought 'spitting cobra!' because they are quite common arround and spit acid which can blind if not dealt with. I though the pups were covered with acid. I ran across the base to the Iscaries (guards) stay and they went running over with their spears and bow/arrows, then I ran and got the couple who were responsible for the pups while the Russells were away. But when we got back, I had left someone to wash the pups out we found out what the real problem was. Red ants.
They were covred with red ants who have a painful acidic bite. they can be quite dangerous an even kill small animals like puppies and even infant children. We washed them away with boiling water and the pups are fine now. Karibu Tanzania.

I'm going to have a jam on the guitars with skyler this afternoon, and lessons for the student teachers has stopped as they have exams next week :(....

I don't have much more to say, its good to here from y'all, but it doesn't really feel like christmas :)

wellllllll.......Lion King will do Pom

2007-12-10T22:05:00.000-08:00

Thanks for putting up those photos Sorawit! I can't wait to see how the film photos turned out as well, has Graham developed them yet?? The photos of Shinyanga and Mwanza will be great to get up on the blog.

We are on a three day fast started yesterday to pray for the coming year here in Tanzania and work out strategies etc as a team, and although Im only here for a while I think God wants me to pray with them. There is many very sad things in Africa, and just as much so in the church as outside it. If you could, pray against ignorance, because there is a whole lot of it here. Pray that the eyes of the people would be opened.

I'm still working on illustrations and things, and when I scan them in to the computer I will try and put some up here. I love that rhino picture. There is a tiny amount of rhinos left in the wild, about 2,500, so they are VERY rare to see up that close. She was one of two we saw, and she came to check us out. we saw here at Ngorongoro crater.

I'm going to be working with an African chap today who is a very good artist. I had a headache last night which was quote painful, then had a dream of a good friend of mine, Rueben, showing me his new artwork and being very impressed...prophetic?

Well, hope NZ is still floating below that long white cloud... :D

National Geographic Magazine

2007-12-10T01:19:00.000-08:00

The Crocodile

2007-12-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

HOW doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheefully he seems to grin!
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

Lewis Carroll

saturday..again!

2007-12-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

Its already the eighth of December, and I've been here over a month :) time sure does just fly...but its amazing how we barely have time to notice we're flying along with it. The Russells who I'm staying with will be back on tuesday which will be great, although they will start moving into their new house when they get back...
I haven't got a lot done this week, I've beem dealing with stomach problems..ugh. But I did design the Joshua schools report for Lynda, which was a bit of work. I've been helping prepare resources for the Maths curicullum as well, and that involved a whole lot of cutting and laminating and cutting again.

I caught a Daladala with Collin yesterday whcih is like a van which acts as a bus and fills with as many people as possible and is about thirty cents for a ride into town. I'm going to be playing guitar with the worship team at Vineyard this sunday and we went to a practice. Theres only four of us, Collin on the bongos whoo is really good, Nadine singing and her brother Jeremy on the piano. These guys are great musicians and I'm going to learn a lot of them..wohoo can't wait till Sunday!

Hope all is well in NZ, keep me updated :0
I tried calling home today but nobody picked up, tried calling Sorawit and the same thing happened, must be a busy saturday night...I sent a lteer home anyway.

The sunsets over here still amaze me, I'm going to pull my camera out more often I think...Oh, yeah and I went to a snake park on monday, and quickly found myself with a snake arround my neck. He was very friendly though, and didn't bite me.

saturday

2007-11-30T22:17:00.000-08:00

Well, its the weekend and it feels good to have so much done this week. Many of the peopel who work here at Engdi, the forigners, are leaving the base over christmas shortly, so its going to be a bit empty by the feels of things. I'm still plodding away with my music lessons with the training teachers, but it seems hard to find time to meet with them as they are coming up to exam time. I will try and find them this morning. It was fun last night, we went to the cinemas in Arusha and watched daddy day-camp. Although the movie was a very predictable it was funny.

heres an insane little poem by Lewis Carroll called :

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"

"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?

"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"

"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

The Walrus and the Carpenter

bungalo ungalo

2007-11-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Hey, sorry no update for quite a while
My cup runneth over, yet time runneth short.
Its so good to hear from you all, Mum, The Burrens co, Roger, Paula and others. Its nice to be in touch with you so far away. Hey please don't bother signing up for blogger, just use the anonymous button at the bottom of the text box when writing a post and put you name a tthe end of you message so I know who it is.
Im really enjoying my time here though, even over here on the horizon and equator. I've just started working with Sue Dow doing Illustrations for the new science ciricullum she's writing, illustrating bible stories and images to use in the health section at the moment. There seems to be a abundance of work here for a huge range of skilled people, so if you think you have something to offer you should think about coming and helping out. It looks like I'm gonna be busy for the next month illustrating...AWESOME!
The Safari was great, and I have asked Sorawit to put the photos up which dad has on his laptop. We even saw two rhino and a cheetah. yup....
The music lessons are going well and the guys who I'm teaching are really enthusiastic and improving fast. Theres quite a few keen artists around all of a sudden.
I've moved accomodation to this great family called the Russells. They have four kids and have lived with the Massai for many years. Skyler is the oldest at 17 and wae've been jamming on the guitar for quite a number of hours now. Chase I went to the Gorge and drew with for a few hours which was fun. The other two are twins, a boy and a girl. They also have four really cute pups...they're awesome, and even sing a long to skyler on his Harmonica. Hes quite good and Im gonna try and learn off him, cause its very hard to learn by myself. And in two weeks I will be moving out of that house as well because they are moving...ahhhh, the only thing certain is change huh?

Well its good to hear home, and that the family liked the bracelets from the massai market, and that deb might be an ambassador, that Isaac liked his club, that geoff and Vas' and going to aussie soon and will have a great trip, that my friends have helped mum out (you guys are awesome), that the simmons' are all doing well and busy, and that I better go now. heheh, well God bless you guys....

Mwanza!!

2007-11-21T05:14:00.000-08:00

Well, its been a great trip to Mwanza. We went on a small airline called Costal Air on a small plane There were only six people excluding us on the flight to Mwanza, but the 12 seat plane was full on the was back. We can say we’ve been to the Serengeti now! We stopped on every runway they have anyway and saw quite a few animals, including zebra, a Hippo and Gazelle from an aerial view. Oh and some giraffe…

Mwanza is a big city, with some 2.5 million people living there. Its crowded even at night when we arrived, with the streets full of people and crazy drivers. There were a lot of kids on the streets which was sad to see. They have these huge birds as well, giant Malabu, with big stringy necks like old sagging skin.

The trip to Shikomo, Nkoma, was amazing. It was a long ride to the village, but when we got there we were warmly welcomed by our sponsor boy’s whole family, including grandmas, uncles, and neighbours. The kids were very curious of us, and apparently had never seen white people (Wazungu) before. Musa, the boy we were visiting was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and all the attention he was suddenly receiving coming from a family of well over ten. His father had two wives…
We were formally welcomed, and it was a bit awkward for a while, but they quickly got used to us. We went to visit the school Musa goes to, a primary school of 1075 students, and about 100 pupils per class! World Vision are definitely doing a great job there, and it shows. The kids were great, and we took heaps of photos, I’ll get some on the blog soon…Its funny, but when I got out my camera they all backed away like it was a gun, probably because it was so big.
In the end I think Musa felt very special, and hopefully our visit encourages him to do well in school and prompts his father to send him to secondary school. Not many people get that opportunity in Tanzania, unfortunately.

We are going on a Safari for the next two days, keep in touch!

the weekend

2007-11-18T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

its been good to go out to church in the villages of Arusha today. The building looked small from the outside, but inside was packed. It was a rickety old thing with an alluminium roof, but next to it there was the foundations of a bigger building. We, of course, had to sit at the front, and the singing was powerful. I don't no what it is called but the choir seemed to be hitting every note in every harmony avliable and probably a few that weren't. Their lungs are so powerful they definitely don't need a sound system. Its was amazing to sing with them and play a song as well.
We also met with Caroline of Harbour Vineyard's cousin and her husband and son which was nice. They were very friendly and generous, and I think I will be spending a bit of time with them over the summer.
We are leaving for the visit to our sponser child tomorrow, so I won't be blogging next week I suspect, but if you're reading this leave a comment. Its pretty silent arround here...and I would love to hear some voices from back home...

Small Mererani

2007-11-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

Vtech

2007-11-14T05:06:00.000-08:00

Hey,
just a quick note. This is a great article on the Virginia Tech shootings by Ravi.

http://www.rzim.org/resources/essay_arttext.php?id=21

enjoy

Nimelala fofofo

2007-11-13T05:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and Today I've had a stomach ache and sunburn which have made life uncomfortable, strange bowel movements etc...ugh. But its been great to spend some time with the training teachers here, Im teachning some guys the guitar. They are quitre musically quick, quicker than anyone i've ever taught anyway. They probably have just never really had the chance to try out any instruments, although some of them have.
Life is so casual in Africa it seems, but it is also very harsh. The plants are strong and wiry, the insects huge and tough, and of course the mammals have a hard time too. The women do a lot of the work here, much more than at home, they are often out in the fields farming while the men sit and talk. The men get a lot of part time work. The kids get it pretty hard, with lots dieing of sickness and disease. Education is hard because there are too many kids and the government doesn't support the teachers enough, with like 60 children per teacher. You hear about lots of corruption of aid from overseas by government officials and politions who expect bribes.....
Nimelala fofofo. I slept like a rock in Swahili. Its been good sleep here, its really warm at nights so you don't need many blankets.....
Its really good to meet some people who are walking with god here, and to worship with them.

Mererani

2007-11-12T05:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to church in Mererani. PC, the father of the household dad and I are staying at called it the wild west of Tanzania, and it really is. Its definitely the roughest town I have been at yet, kids all over the streets, gangs, and apparently lots of killings. It’s a mining town and 5-6 years ago it was a peaceful town, but then some South African companies bought up some mines and caused trouble so Im told. These mines are the only place in the world you can get the stone Tanzanite, so it’s a tight market.
The church we went to visit there was only small a few years ago, but it now has over 800 people who are their members. Dad spoke at their church and they enjoyed it so much they asked him back that evening, and I also played a song on an electric guitar there which was fun. I got to met a lot of the people there and some dudes who were both my age called Tumaini and Haneyst, who both have a heart for the young people there. It’s a rough town, and Haynest and his sister are orphans, while Tumaini’s father left his family at a young age, but they both have compassionate hearts to see the place changed for good. Pray for them, OK?
African roads are dodgy as, but we survived with the keen skills of PC, who actually used to be a cop in NZ. He showed us this notorious bridge which has people drive off it all the time, and the huge gashes in the protective barriers which are proof. The bridge is about 50-100 metres high!
Its been an interesting weekend to say the least, but to, Monday, I have an upset stomach, ugh….

Beautiful People

2007-11-10T23:38:00.000-08:00

The Flight

2007-11-10T23:31:00.000-08:00

2007-11-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

WATSAP?
Ive had a greta few days getting to know the students of the college here in EN Gedi. There is a Leaders school and a teachers training school, each of which have about thirty or forty students. They are very friendly and were very interested in the photos from NZ. They are very commited to God and the worship in the mornings is powerful. They dont need a sound system at all, their voices are so loud you can hear the music well from our room which is quite a distance from us. The first moring, yesterday, the music brought tears to my eyes even though I couldn't understand it. It was just so powerful and sincere.
I also went for a run yesterday afternoon with PC who we're staying with. It was very hot, but a great oportunity to see the area. They are quite a few Massai people living arround us and lots of farmers etc. There are some people at the end of the road who break rocks. Thats what they do. Just break these big boulders all day. They get about 1 to 1.50 US a day. The run was great though and my sneakers were red from the dust by the time we were back.

Kenya and Tanzania

2007-11-08T03:25:00.000-08:00

The horizons in Africa are amazing because its so flat with sporadic hills, it gets hazy and the sunsets are singularly fantastic...wow, Im in awe. The hills futher in the background become bluer and bluer until they almost blend rught into the sky.
So we arrived in Arusha on Tues afternoon, its a lovely place, but poor and very dusty. Apparently they are awaiting the short rains which come after the dry season which we are at the tail end of now.
Arusha is quite tropical really, lots of green all around which is different to the part of Tanzania we saw on the road down from Kenya. On that journey we saw lots of Massai people looking after their cattles or just walking seemingly aimlessly along the road. There we some very young kids farming the cattle and just sitting round the road, walking alone or in twos, all in their traditional dress. In NZ the Maori people don't often dress in their traditional clothes which is totally understandable, but the Massia wear it quite casually, walking with other ragularly dressed friends.

Dad gave his first lectures today, and had a few very hard questions. I think the class of pastors and leaders were just trying to suss him out, and he did well answering I guess. They are nice people though, very friendly and engaged in everything that is said. The class is in english so it must be hard for soem of them.

Africa is not as strange as I thought is might be, its just some other peoples home. Underdeveloped? Well, technologically and economically, yes, and surely health wise. But they still see the world in the same way we would see it in their situation.
Well, I can't seem to be able to upload photos at the moment, I have no idea whats going on with it but its just not working. I might email them to a friend to put up.

Caio

To Tanzania

2007-11-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

Im sorry, but I really havent had much time to use the computer because Dad has been using it to suss out his notes, but here is some of my journal of the journey to Tanzania:
The Kenyan flight was crazy. The plane had come from Hong Kong and was packed, the overhead luggage compartments to the pint of explosion if touched.We were awoken in the morning at 4:30 for breakfast and the dawn over Kenya was amazing. We just caught the sunrise before landing in Nairobi and the colours were beautiful. We were sitting on the west side of the plane, so could only see the sun’s effect on the clouds, but that was enough. The clouds were like solid objects and seemed to be sitting absolutely still in the air, totally different from the clouds of NZ which are always on the move. Mt. Kenya was sticking out of the clouds, it’s a huge mountain as tall as Mt.Cook in NZ.
The air was clear and cool at the Nairobi airport at 6:20 in the morning. It was a walk from the plane to the actual airport building, but the sun was just coming up. The were quite a few army planes at the air field as well. I noticed the luggage machine driver txting on his cellphone.

We got on the bus from Kenya to`Tanzania, Nairobi to Arusha. The main road right the way through East Africa is badly riddled with pot holes, which makes for an interesting journey as your driver is move concerned about avoiding them than swerving in front of other vehicles. In the first few minutes of our bus trip we saw three giraffe which was amazing. We also saw some Gazelle, Ostrich, and Camels, as well as cows and goats (but no sheep). It was an amazing trip, there were massaii people on the road everywhere in their blight colours against very dark skin, they are beautiful people. The landscape of Kenya is like nothing I've ever seen before.

2007-11-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, after a long two flights all in all 25 hours, first with Thai which was good, although a bit squashed, and then with kenya airways which was an old plane and quite uncomfortable, not to mention the overfilled lugage compartments which spilled out wheneve opened and scored me a bump on my head in the middle of the night when someone opened the compartment just above me, my father and I made it to Africa!

will update more, and with some photos when I get the chance to scale down the images to a reasonable size....thanks for you comment sorawit.

JuneBug song “Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling” by Will Thompson.

2007-11-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful hymn taken from an interesting movie called Junebug, a sad and pensive film. This character has been away from home for many years and married, when he turns up to his old home town with his wife. His wife had no idea he used to sing in the church choir.

I love the song, its something like which we seldom hear these days, tender and moving with a soprano, alto and bass vocals each working together in harmony. The lyrics are amazing too.

Cookie Jar

2007-10-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

This song is relevant to sorting out our culture, I think.

2007-10-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

This is a lizard.....

will upload more paintings later.

2007-10-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

Im gonna try and get this blog up an running again. Why you may ask, it already died?
Well, Im gonna use it to update on my trip to Africa, Tanzania, whats happening, what Im doing and think. And anyone can comment, so you don't need to sign up to contact me.

So , if you're wondering 'whats Simon up to, come and check here for the next 3 months.

So I'm leaving for Tanzania in about two weeks from now, I'm just pressing to get all my uni work done and have some time left to pack etc. Im a bit our of action at the moment as I have just had a wisdom tooth out, which is feeling rather nasty at the moment.

Im very excited about my trip, but Im pretty stressed at the moment with work, so keep me in your thoughts and prayers if you will, the latter is of more importance of course...

As a friend of mine likes to say:

In his grip.

2007-10-08T02:36:00.000-07:00

This is funny, take from it what you will ... :)

2007-07-31T23:42:00.001-07:00

Here is a quick water colour I did with Richard, a boy I tutor, on saturday. Was very nerve racking, but satisfying.

Hillsong - For who you are

2007-07-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

Thumbs up to all those hand models. Love the song though, for some reason. wooo

Uni, Rowling and Africa

2007-07-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

Here are my thoughts from tha last few days/weeks (in a very raw form, ok!)

Uni

Its always been about balance for me while studying at AUT...How much time should I give to what, how to make sure I'm in the right place, doing the right thing and at the right time. I have been putting a lot of time into church, Youth group and AUT Christian Fellowship this year (and last). But as Africa approaches I think Im gonna have to lean back in the service side of things...maybe. Vineyard Youth Camp was great, it was a get together of many youth groups from the north Island and it was just good to see God moving in young peoples lives. Was also encouraging as I got to fellowship with some other ppl my age who are a part of leading a youth group. Was great to pray with this one dude who was going through a hard time and spend a few hours talking to this guy. Bless God.
But balancing Uni work is getting more demanding and I must admit Im not really giving it the time it needs to get done -_-

Rowling

Don't read this unless you have read the last book of harry potter, or don't care if you kill the story for yourself as you will never read it.

I finnished the last Harry Potter book on thursday, read it in four days, and I was quite affected by it. J.K.Rowling, the writer, planned the books very well from the very first book. It was always intended to be a series of stories with a climax and a whole lot of closure in the seventh book. Rowling took a lot of inspiration from C. S. Lewis' Narnia books, also seven, and she uses a heap of images and ideas from his books. Tolkien was also an influence, amoung others.
Now I have come against lots of christians who don't think highly of The HP books at all, and it is true in some ways it has encouraged witchcraft (though this was in no way Rowling's intention in the books.) She herself said "I believe in God, not Magic". She is also a member of the church of Scotland, attends church, and a believer. If you are interested in this point I suggest you read this interesting article:

here

It was written BEFORE the seventh book was written and is remarkably predictive. Now I don't agree with a few things in the article, especially that HP is the son of God. No of course he isn't and Rowling doesn't make him out to be, BUT he is a type (an archetype if you like) of Christ. He is like Jonah, an image in someways of Christ as the article goes into, yet decidedly not him. HP had flaws: He has anger problems, he makes bad desicions which hurt others, he can be stubborn and ignorant. He is obviously is not the son of God, but in some ways he is like him. He lays his life down for his friends, he can't help to love others unto death, as revealed in the last book. "No greater love is there that a man should lay down his life for his friends."
Rowling makes this especially obvious in the final book, bluntly obvious. She quotes the verses such as "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Matthew 6:21 and " the last enemy to be defeated is death" 1 Corinthians 15:26.
read it and tell me what you think, if you wanna.
___edit:
I've been thinking, and I may have been wrong in these words above. In many ways, if Rowling was truly for God's kingdom above all else, she would have taken a very different approach to her books, but especially how she communicates with the media. She is in the spotlight of the world, and in being so she needs to glorify God. Which she hasn't done. So I could be wrong in my assumptions.

Africa is looming over me, Im excited and nervous, but not very consciously. I don't notice it until I think about it. I can't wait!

adieus

Hey ---

2007-07-18T01:06:00.000-07:00

Life is a struggle isn't it?
Every step is an effort, every word is painful. I always think what an effort it would be to go through this hard, homeless world and not to have a destination, not to have a goal of a home after death. God has promised a home to me, a land of peace. When life is hrad I look to that. I find it hard to comprehend the lives of those who live without a non-temporal hope. Its no wonder that a third of western civilisation is depressed...you'd have to be a robot not to be at sometime in your life, without hope.

Its good to look back and see whats been happening in your life. In fact its important. Where have I been? Where am I going? Who has joined my path and is walking beside me now? who has left? Who am I giving my time to? Why?

As a christian I ask myself 'who are you that you would serve a mighty god'? That the bright and morning star would shine a light on my path when I lose sight of the path set before me?

Its amazing how humbled I am in just a few moments considering the greatness of God.

Look at the Universe; the stars are so far away, the universe so huge, and for all we know this galaxy we are a part of could just be one of many such galaxies. Then change the lens and focous on a leaf, on an insect, on a human cell. The hugeness creation is just mindblowing!
Now I don't know about evolution, I don't really understand it. Im not going to make a judgement on whether its reight or wrong. But I cannot believe in aetheistic evolution anyway.
Do you balieve your brain is a product of time+matter+chance?
And what is chance anyway?
I don't beieve in chance..think about it...do you?

The sun sets
the starts fade
the moon slides away
yet the spirit goes on.
Yet the uncreated
remains unchanging
remains forever
who he says he is.

-----

travels

2007-05-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy few weeks since I last posted....

I really need to get back into some painting...!

And to go visit the rest home, Chris here is from a rest home I visit. Shes amazing.

For those who don't know I am going to Africa in November this year for up to 3 months. I will be staying in Tanzania for at least 1 and a half months, but don't know how long elsewhere...Please pray for me all you christians!

Well gtg

A tribute to all kiwis

2007-04-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

It make a brotha proud to be kiwi...we sure are persevering, aren't we

longing for peace

2007-04-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Listen to the poem of a leading atheist thinker Bertrand Russell:

Through the long years
I sought peace,
I found ecstacy, I found anguish,
I found madness,
I found loneliness.
I found the solitary pain
that knaws the heart,
But peace I did not find.

-a poem to Edith.

Listen to these words:

Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.

2007-04-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

wouldn't want to come face to face with this mumma

killer fungi

2007-04-24T16:53:00.002-07:00

Strange...

2007-04-24T16:53:00.001-07:00

Sharing faith

2007-04-24T02:13:00.000-07:00

Thinking back over the few times I have walked up to strangers and shared my faith with them (that is the power of Jesus to save us in a perishing world) and I've had varying results. If you scoot down my blog you will see a video with a skit about excuses of why christians don't share they're faith. Its funny and quite true in some ways but I was talking to a friend and he said that the main reason Christians in our modern society don't share their faith is that they don't know Jesus sincerely expects us to. Matt 28:19. Its unclusive to all christians to... go and make more christian babys. In fact I think its essential to a believers growth in their faith-to be share it.

YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN - Howard Zinn

Mr.Zinn is a peace activist.
Think about that all you christians, cause if we stand still on this train of a secular world we will be flying a hundred miles away from the truth. We need to be active!

Falling back to my original thought, that being about the varying results of sharing my faith with strangers, I think its important to speak the truth even if no one listens.
One night me and some friends went out to Queen street and talked to people for hours about Jesus and I was amazed at how open people were. The whole night was amazing, I had so many conversations with people who were just hanging round with nothing to do and they were so open to God's truth and my testimony. We didn't get back home till 4 am or so which was crazy, but God did some great things in people's hearts that night. Other times I've shared and people have been totally closed.
At AUT we were doing an easter thing giving out eggs and I was invited to play Scum with these girls in the common room. I managed to mumble out a few words about the gospel but it just felt so wrong, like 'I shouldn't be here'. I left feeling like a bully after beating them all 3 rounds in a row.

But looking back, I know its God who changes people's hearts not me. So if I speak it out and nobody listens its not my responsibility. And if people do and respond its God who does the work not my many mumblings.

if your interested there are some fantastic talks by Ravi Zacherias you should listen to:

http://rzim.org/radio/archives.php?p=LMPT&v=detail&id=259
http://rzim.org/radio/archives.php?p=LMPT&v=detail&id=258

Its about being active in your faith, in your life and being proactive about what you believe in.

Sketchbook

2007-03-26T02:40:00.000-07:00

I've just updated my Sketch book if anyone is interested in veiwing it :

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1264314#post1264314

This is a rather sarcastic creed by the english journalist Steve Turner - very funny

2007-03-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

Creed
by Steve Turner

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin

We believe everything is OK

as long as you don't hurt anyone

to the best of your definition of hurt,

and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and

after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin.

We believe that adultery is fun.

We believe that sodomy’s OK.

We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better

despite evidence to the contrary.

The evidence must be investigated

And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes

UFO's and bent spoons.

Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,

Mohammed, and ourselves.

He was a good moral teacher though we think

His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same-

at least the one that we read was.

They all believe in love and goodness.

They only differ on matters of creation,

sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing

Because when you ask the dead what happens

they say nothing.

If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then its

compulsory heaven for all

excepting perhaps

Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn

We believe in Masters and Johnson

What's selected is average.

What's average is normal.

What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.

We believe there are direct links between warfare and

bloodshed.

Americans should beat their guns into tractors .

And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.

It's only his behavior that lets him down.

This is the fault of society.

Society is the fault of conditions.

Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that

is right for him.

Reality will adapt accordingly.

The universe will readjust.

History will alter.

We believe that there is no absolute truth

excepting the truth

that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,

And the flowering of individual thought.

If chance be

the Father of all flesh,

disaster is his rainbow in the sky

and when you hear:

State of Emergency!

Sniper Kills Ten!

Troops on Rampage!

Whites go Looting!

Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man

worshipping his maker.

Steve Turner, (English journalist), "Creed," his satirical poem on the modern mind. Taken from Ravi Zacharias’ book Can Man live Without God? Pages 42-44

Pursuits

2007-03-07T01:50:00.000-08:00

I havent updated this for ages, but I now will...at last.
To whom ever is reading this ... hi.

Listen to this:

Happiness (fragment)

Ever again to breath pure happiness,
The happiness our mother gave us, boys?
To smile at nothings, needing no cares?
Have we not laughed too often since with joy?

-war poet Wilfred Owen

How far will we chase the happiness of this world, how far shall we leave that simple happiness we had as children?
The more we seek selfishly and soley after the happiness the world offers, that happiness of simply being happy no matter the consequence, the futher down the road we go towards ultimate selfishness as a society.

We can chase happiness all our lives, but what this world will never give us (although it tries) is meaning. And meaning is what this rough reality demands of our souls.

One thing I have learned- there is no meaning to be found within me, or within you. Humans are NOT the answer to the worlds problems. Yes we have our liberal solutions, but look carefully at these and very often they will produce a greater problem to the one it tried to solve.

...there is no such thing as absolute freedom, its a contradiction in terms, just as there is no such thing as free love. It is the nature of Love to bind itself.
... "I do." = love. Love = commitment.

Ravi Zacherias.

Be carefull in what you pursue of life, be carefull you don't take things for granted with out examining its roots, and it's fruits.

ciao

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

2007-02-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

The study of the stem cell is a major excitement for the scientist of our day. My father is himself a micro-biologist, and although he deals primarily with sea food, he admits that the discovery of the power of stem cells is huge.

Now all over the world stem cells are being developed and researched to assist us, the human race, in the healing and in regenrative process. The cells contain enough information to become any cell in our body, thus allowing the potential recovery from desiase, injuries ec cetera.

But at what cost will we subscribe to this healing power being made avaliable to us?
There are as of now three ways of getting stem cells:
1. From the umbilical corn of new borm babies. These cords are normally disposed of, but it turns out they contain stem cells. The stem cells are only likely to help people within the babys family and bloodline. The futher the recipitent is geneticly from the child, the less likely the stems cells will be accepted by the body. But otherwise they are amazing.
2. From bone marrow. This is a good source of stem cells, albeit it seems that it causes alot of pain to the donor. But the pain may be the price someone is willing to pay for the healing of a loved one.
3. The most controversal source of stem cells is from embryos. Scientist all over the world are declaring that by using the original nuclei of a newly concepted embryo is the best and most powerful source of stem cells. The only problem, ethically, is that the extraction of the stem cell from a embryo imediatly terminates the life of that child. Of course it isn't considered human by modern day moralists, and according to many is of no concequence. I plead otherwise. We each, everyone of us was once an embryo, or a pre-embryo as they are now deeming the embryos they are experiementing on as a means to side-step the moral issue at stake here: ARE WE AS A HUMAN RACE WILLING TO SACRIFICE OUR CHILDREN FOR THE SAKE OF POSSIBLE HEALING AND FOR THE SAKE OF SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT. For THAT is a serious mistake.

These children, now being cut-off from the gift of life internationally every moment, have no voice. But when the next life comes, or is it the next death for some, they will be a voice to be reckoned with: "I was being killed and no one came to be my voice."

Will you act today?
Or will you stand by as the lives of so many are flushed down the disposial tubes of hospitals, science labs and abortion clinics.

The world is rocking back and forth

2007-01-31T21:09:00.000-08:00

When you spend two days sailing on the Auckland harbour, it gives you the feeling of being a priveliged citizen of our world. Our world, where if you own a computer you are in the top one perecent of the human race, in terms of wealth at least.Some would say in other things also. I would not. Would you?

Think back to 1st century AD, when the mountain of Vesuvius, covering and cementing the city of Pompeii in ash within seconds. Almost all the citezens seemed to have ignored any warning of impending doom, if there was any. We see the solid remains of people sitting at a table together playing dice, cards or eating and talking together perfectly preseved in human shape statue. Some figures are standing, some sitting, some lying. All are frozen in time, presented to us as a memorial of those who died two thousand years ago and a caution to those living. Pompeii had a water stuply system more advanced than that of New York in 1987, not only watering Pompeii but also the surroundung cities. And in one day it was gone, left to us, the surviving world, as a warning. To be ready.

He will come like a thief in the night.

blogging

2007-01-24T22:13:00.000-08:00

So things have been happening in my life, been away on holiday, camping. We left just the day after the herald screamed from the front page "cyclone warning". Didn't stop the Fletchers. Not us. Lets just say it was rather wet though.

So, not letting that put a hole in my head, heres some thoughts:

Do you agree that often when we run away from God he seems to step back from the picture. Maybe for weeks we have been on the verge of rebelling, aching to go off the path we know is right...then bang, we leave, run, run and at last stop. And THAT is where we find him. Why do I find him in the places I try to hide from Him? Maybe he knows me that well...

I was talking to this man on Queen street, in Auckland at 1:30ish in the morning and I mentioned it to him. He was with this Maori guy who was wacking away at his guitar and singing christian song in Maori, accompanonied by his friends. He said he hung out with that group not because he was a christian, but because he had nothing else to do and 'it was a bit of light fun'. Anyhow he said right away he agreed with me about God finding us in the times when we run. He told me about such an experience and told me how he had been in prison, the lowest point of his life, and then his room mate gave him this book to read. It was called the Bible Code. It seems to have had a profound effect in his life, and now he obviously believes that God is real, although he doesn't seem to have made any concrete discisions.

Stuff over the last two weeks thats been through my head

2007-01-07T16:21:00.000-08:00

Im just back from camp at Mototapu Island (which is connected to Rangitoto Island) and recoveing from overtiredness, injuries and heaps of fun. I was a leader at this Scripture Union camp, my role was the ADJ - the MC and camp rules guy, a very new experience for me, but I adapted well, to my suprise. It was an Intermediate level camp, campers aged 10-13, and it was great to see some desicions from the kids to turn to God.

Anyway heres some tnings which have been running round my head the last few days and I've dabbed down on paper:

The First of a year
The first day of a year often recollects our vision of life, the stranded thoughts of a just past Eve come together to conform with the reality and conginuity of life,
thnough our Dreams still lead us on.

Recent Readings
The reading of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has inspired for me an intrest in the power of the beauty of words, and the author's ability to dictate the mood and tone of his or her peice of art.

The Power of One and Tandia have revealed the strength behind a strong and livable, though tragic storyline. Very good reading.

The Sea
The water lapped at the shore, shrinking out and falling forward again and again and again. It is much like a broken rhythm or a lazy off beat of Nature's sympathy for us, the wicked mankind.

After all the Sea is Nature's strong example of it's long lived endurance, destroying rocky shores and leaving them as soft sand. The sea is always moving, alsways stretching futher and futher towards our land founded homes, an ancient and much forgotten threat. The rising and falling dynasty of the tides give the world a warning of its savage power by presenting us with it's sickly soft sand, or as we say 'our beaches'. These are the fruit of her endless work. Ah the savage power, the savage sea.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan:
The proper study of mankind is man,
ALEXANDER POPE

Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

Sense over Sensuality

2006-12-31T23:27:00.000-08:00

Im just beck from holiday, and am leaving again tomorrow. I have to say new years was great this year, and non alcoholic. I have to say you can have LOTS of fun without alcohol.
Its not that I dont drink, I do but I do know drunkeness leads to many many bad desicions, and it aint worth it in comparison to 'how good it feels'. Whne people say 'I don't remeber what happened last night' we all know (those of us who have been drunk) that we know what happened, at least in general terms, and are just too ashamed to admit it.
So everyone, lets let our SENSE rule our sensuality.

merry christ mass

2006-12-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had or is having a good christmas.

taken from:
T. S. Elliot, (1888–1965). Prufrock and Other Observations. 1917.

...

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;	25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;	30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go	35
Talking of Michelangelo.

...

remember, theres always time.
Or is there?

Darwin's Heroes

2006-12-21T17:23:00.000-08:00

Well the world keeps spinning even when we forget, at a hundred miles an hour.
I've been watching a TV series on the computer called Heroes.
It is quite good. The story line is actually complex, sophisticated and almost...almost... believable which is unlike most TV shows. Its only been showing for ten weeks in the US and is probably not going to show in NZ for a while, but you can watch it on NBC: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/episodes/season1/111/

It's good, could be seen as an Xmen copy or mutation, but is not. I like it.

But I have one problem with it, a big problem:
The Heroes, seemingly random men, women and children who are each discovering their own power from flying to painting the future, according to the Narrator are merely experiencing the natrual movement of Evolution, eg these powers are a product of humans moving to the next stage in Evolution. Apparently this goes according to the great evolutionist Darwin's theory.
Now know that I am against the Evolution theory, but here is some questions, why is this all happening now, I mean present day?
I was under the impression that a species would only evolve when in danger, and then only over long periods of time. According to the show the heroes are all starting ot discover their powers quite quickly and almost sunddenly. Hasn't the human race been in more danger more often in the past than now, than in urban America and various other places that would be considered 'safe' in the world, as the show proclaims?
This theory seems to me to be an existentialist's attempt at explaining the supernatrual eg. dreams telling the future, levitating, superhuman strength, hearing others thoughts, which has been a part of human history in the ancient past just as much as it is in the present day. We, humans, are something more than physical no matter what we do in our short lives.

We are who we are, and who we are defines what we do.

We are more than merely physical, and the show 'Heroes' agrees on this, although Darwin wouldn't. How can science explain the existence of a soul, of the spirit, of the supernatrual?

And thats my problem with Heroes! Otherwise it's great!

sOMW mORE PAINTING,

2006-12-14T15:02:00.000-08:00

whoops that title was done in caps...but i will leave it. its more... organic. and kiwi's need vegetation....bwahaha.

anyway I been working on some more paining and drawing....but my scanenrs not workin so well. heres a muck round with oils.

What does it mean? It's a study on the Gaze of the individual.He is not an imposing character, yet he is focoused surely on wnat he needs to do. And what is that you may ask? That is something you can only decide for yourself..
lame....

Also, this is a GREAT video which I stole from my friend Sarah's blog. its great. watch....

I been'a painting

2006-12-11T22:38:00.000-08:00

been painting with a friend today: Sorawit. Its on a huge canvas given to me by my mother, and we're doing a kind of collaboration on the imagery of Revelation (a very interesting book for christians and non-christians alike).

the photos were not so good. The first photo is my stuff, the last one Sorawit's. the other two show the combination.

2006-12-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

I had a Best friend's wedding on Saturday, He is my first close friend to get married.
It was an amazing time, and very dream like. I was doing the filming of the ceremony, and one thing I especially noted was the stunning weather.

Auckland, New Zealand gets some interesting weather, particullaly moody weather to say the least. What happens after two days of rain in Auckland?Monday, or so the joke goes.
Anyway, on the way other to South Auckland the air was excessivly humid, but the sky was darkly overcast. It rained on and off before the Bride arrived at the wedding, which was in a garden. Just before she arrived there were two huge cracks of lightning, so loud it left my ears ringing. Leaving the wedding the sky was cloudcast with colour, amazing pinks, blues and yellows. I have never in my life seen such an emotional sky.

So- (I'm having big problems with the template! it won't keep the original format of the poem! it reverts to a left flush aligment of text with no spacing!)I wrote this poem:

The Weather, the Times

2006-12-10T22:52:00.000-08:00

The Colours of High Places

At first in small and then large

Thunder cracked the buzzing air, it was

Followed by a drowning silence.

Slowly, carefully, the rain

Leaked through the Crack in sky

Above the anxious congregation

Waiting for the Bride. Was the weather a

Warning?

But She came, still,

And we forgot the weather.

I, returning, considered the moody sky.

To the East, a crackling golden

Hue, nature’s first green.

To the North, foreboding blue, to South

A healthy pink, to West

Shades of dying grey.

And I ask, Why am I leaving

North? And to which direction

will you leave, Friend?

So this is Blog

2006-12-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

I figured I wanted to start a Blog, and plant a garden with the internet as my back yard.

I'm a Kiwi, Kiwi's need vegetation.

Basically this Blog will just contain some of my art, opinions, stories, life goings on, poems, struggle, or thats what I'm intending.

(Kiwi=New Zealander) Publish

2006-12-10T21:48:00.001-08:00