Sunday, March 17, 2013

My Holy Discontent

Photo credit: Nick Brandt

Today is the first day of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church. I was planning to write about my experiences with Great Lent and how Orthodox Christians view, meditate on, and eventually celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

But an issue has been making my heart sore, and today it came full swing. I often try to care about things, but often my real motive in that is to be significant and tell myself that I'm doing significant things. I sit here in Japan, but I have painful tears running down my face for what's happening to wildlife in East Africa. Surprisingly, poaching is at an all-time high, and at least one African elephant is being killed per day. Hunting elephants and rhinoceroses is illegal by international law, yet these invaluable animals are being killed for the immense rewards of their tusks and horns. They are being sent to East and Southeast Asia, to the part of the world I live in myself, for the sake of medicinal myth and pursuit of good health and fortune. We could feasibly lose the African Forest Elephant altogether - poof, gone - for the sake of a false belief.

Photo credit: Nick Brandt

I can't help but fall silent. And somewhat frozen.

In 2008, I was introduced to the work of photographer Nick Brandt. I fell in love with his style and his photographs captivated me repeatedly. The photos at the top of this post are the ones I originally saw that year. To revisit them and to learn that the vast majority of these elephants have been killed (bottom and top left in 2009, top right in 2010) is more than heart-breaking.

What do you do? Just what is the thing that you should do when you feel so much for something? What do you do when things are so dire? And for the love, what are we doing?

Please peruse the organization that Nick Brandt has founded in response to what he's seen. The Big Life Foundation has employed about 280 rangers to defend over 2 million acres of land within Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks. Trust me, I've been to both of these places, and losing elephants there would, of course, change the nature of the whole ecosystem. But I think, and maybe even more importantly, we'd be losing a creature so valuable and beautiful to our world.

Come on safari with me someday. I'll show you elephants.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Sawa Sawa

Photo credit: Jackie Jeffery

People just blow my preconceived and long-maintained notions out of the water. I've often been intimated by any sort of professor I've had. They're just such brilliant people that (seem to) have it all together. I think no matter what a university faculty member teaches, they're bound to have an interesting story of research or time spent abroad or entire dissertations that they've struggled through. I think professors are either true to the professor facade - wearing sweater vests to the core and being unintentionally too brilliant for the rest of us to even comprehend ... OR they're essentially hippies who wear clothes they can get dirty, have wonky hair, and are passionate not just about the subject at hand, but also about teaching and creating future researchers and enthusiasts.

Such is true for the faculty I had in Tanzania and Kenya. We had John Mwamhanga, a man as serious about teaching us life lessons as the socioeconomic issues of East Africa. He even went as far as to give me marriage advice when he learned I was close to engagement. It got a little awkward when he started talking about "going at it again" in the bedroom. We had Bernard Kissui, who works with lions in Tarangire National Park and whose voice would hit high pitches and even squeak when he was talking about something he was really passionate about. We had Shem Mwasi, who named himself Chui Kubwa (Big Leopard) and told students to kindly shut up when they were talking too much. Then there was John Kioko, who made us hold elephant dung to understand the texture and taught us about trees whose nuts looked ... well, like nuts. He called them by their nickname, Testicle Trees. He also saved us from experiencing an elephant charge a mere 4 days after arriving in the country.

These people are still blowing me away, and I'm not even their student anymore. I've been seeking their advice for how on earth to get back to Africa. I have received only support and constructive ideas from them. Mwamhanga even told me that I need to continue to believe in myself, and identify myself as a safari guide! "You need to say 'I am a safari guide!'" Kioko offered to help us get a business transferred over to Tanzania. They all want updates as I progress.

When your faculty are this supportive and approachable, it is a blessing beyond many others. Hallelujah.

 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Erp?

I gotta admit. Today, I got nothing. There are times I stare at this blank screen, and nothing comes out of my mind. I'm just blank. Inexpressive. A little mundane even, at times. You know that feeling when your husband is across the world from you, and you just want to leave him alone because he's in transit, and you're in a sea of Japanese people?

Oh, sorry. Haha. Probably not.

I actually appreciate this sea of Japanese people right now. And at most times, actually. I don't know what it is, but it's sometimes less lonely to me than being in a sea of Americans. Because with Americans, there's more to be done, socially. I should be making conversation, making some new friends. There's opportunity here, take advantage! So if I chicken out, I just end up lonely AND guilty. Phew. Not fun. But in this wonderful sea of Japanese folk, we're hanging out and there's nothing more. I'm literally 24 inches from a young woman with pretty pink shoes shuffling around her iPhone. And you know, that will be the extent of our interaction. Or maybe she'll say, "Sumimasen" as she passes. But really, that'll be it. Ah, no obligation. Yet I feel like I'm with her and with that woman over there in the heart earrings, and that old man who's doing absolutely nothing but enjoying a cup of joe on a Saturday evening. And even though I have ear buds in and I'm listening to blues (maybe that's my problem), we're just together. Thanks for keeping me company, guys. ;)

My current remedy for my melodrama while my husband is away (besides friends, of course; they are primary): personal goals. Learn to sew. Crochet more. Consolidate my cookbook (seriously, am I a housewife or what?). Volunteer more at the zoo, and expound on my work there. Work towards Africa, make more friends there, research my options. Learn Japanese, for crying out loud! And maybe French.

Phew. Welp, it seems like I did have something afterall. Boom.