Day 7

I'm still typing these updates on My iPhone as i haven't had the time to find coMputer access but when I think about it the technology is amazing.  I mean, I'm updating my blog on the Internet from my cell phone in Peru!

It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone-arts camp for the kids is already gone. We had our finale tonight.  A mass concert with probably 100 kids singing, dancing, and beating buckets and trash cans with drumsticks.  Even though I was shooting pictures I was moved by the force of joy with which they worshipped.

Ask me if it is worth coming down to this place to instruct kids in the arts, and the use of the arts in worship, and I will tell you yes, without a doubt.  It's not just about having enough supplies to be able to express themselves through art - it's about forever impacting these lives through the power of relationship.  Ultimately materials don't impact people.  People impact people.  This is one small way of doing just that.  All of the supplies used were brought down by our team, and for this week we've spent our days pouring our knowledge, passion, and love into these young lives.  At the concert there were several hundred people-family and friends of the students who were able to see the power of artistic expression in their childrens' lives.  In Peru many people look down on art as a legitimate job or career.  Espcially on the expression of art in spiritual contexts.  The president of the national endowment for the arts has said that the greatest challenge of this century is to reconnect the arts with the expression of faith.  This task is evident in Peru as well, and is what we have been striving to help accomplish.

The film experience

I have been struck by the number of times we were thanked by the people we have filmed for coming to visit them.  As I've seen before, so many of these people feel so honored by our presence.  They feel as though someone in the world knows they exist and cares enough to come.  It is a humbling experience and always hard to leave each person or family we  have visited.

This week we've run ragged filming.  Monday was scout day.  We drove to each of the locations to scope them out for lighting and angles and ambience. We wanted each place to tell the best story possible.  Along the way I shot over 600 images.  The next day we filmed the daily process of the feeding program three of the churches have in their communities. Altogether they serve over 250 children breakfast or lunch every day.  They are up to Start breakfast at 4:30 a.m. every day.  Then the kids come, answering the call from the man with the portable bullhorn running through the hills announcing breakfast.  They come out of their homes with dirt floors, particle board walls and plastic or tin roofs.  And for a moment in their day, they find warm hugs and happy faces.

At one house, I introduce myself to a neighbor watching our interview.  I stand on one side of a tall particle board wall and she on the other with her little 9 month old girl.  Her baby is more bold than she is, leaning over the fence while her mother hides behind her.  I find out her name is Juana and her baby is Estefanie Valeria.  I comment on how much I like the green color of her fence and she says the fence would be ugly without it.  As it is, it's one of the few green things in the area, a splash of much needed color in a dreary brown world.

Julia, the lady we are interviewing, is very pregnant, and when we ask her the due date she says today...uh maybe she shouldn't be sitting on that small stool...she asks everyone their names and seems to decide that Benji's is the one she wants to use for her own child.  Influence is strong here.

At another house, the last one for the day, we interview a mom who has been involved with the feeding program for some time.  She cooks meals for the children, her own eating there as well.  In their meager home there live four families, all related.  The grandma, who is 83, thanks us for coming.  I thank her for allowing us into her home.  I am acutely aware of their vulnerability as they open their lives to us.  They allow us to come in with our cameras and film pictures of everything.  I wonder how I would respond if a film crew came into my house and asked to film in my bedroom and everywhere else.  But they are all glad we've come to be with them.

Grandma has a daughter who has four beautiful daughters.  One of them, Lindsey, is about to turn 15.  On October 16, she will have her quinceria.  It is the celebration for all girls becoming young women.  While we are conversing and filming she watches intently everything we do.  As I shoot I let she and her younger sisters see the photos in my camera screen.  As we stand there she tells me she is turning 15 and asks if I will be her Padrino - I think I know what she is asking but I ask Ramiro to be sure and yes, I am right.  She wants me to be her godfather.  This is a great honor, and usually is reserved for a man in the family or a close family friend, but she has asked me.  I've only known her for two hours.

The fact is that we have no idea how much hope and life we bring to these people.  For us to boil down such trips to a matter of money is to have missed the heart of the matter.  We can send money and things to people all day long, but there is no substitute for being with people in the flesh.  This is what brings encouragement and hope.

As web are about to leave, Lindsey says, "so you can't be my godfather because you're not going to be here on my birthday?" I tell her that that is correct and tell her I am sorry but that I am honored she has asked me.  I am embarrassed to have been asked to fill such a role - I don't really deserve to be asked that.  It makes me realize again the impact we have on people here in these circumstances.

As we drive away I am sad again and sit quietly for awhile lost in thought.  I realize how permanent these circumstances are for so many people and feel the weight of that.  I have to remind myself that I can't change everything but I can just relate to people and be with them.  That is what I can do.          

Day 3

It's 11pm and the steady um puh umbpuh of bass under high electronic riffs pushes in through the open windows. If I had been taken here blindfolded I would swear I was somewhere in Asia based on the anime-esque sound. But I'm not.  I'm in Peru.    Under a warm alpaca blanket on the second floor of a house in Comas.

 Today we spent getting aclimated to our surroundings. We hiked up the hill to the cross overlook through the poorest parts of Comas.  Two years ago when I came everything was new, but now I feel like I'm visiting an old friend.  Others are here for the first time and I am reminded of the continual flow of life from new to old. I see it in the faces around me, young children with the aged. Nothing seems different here since I left but I know I've changed.  Loyda comments that my Spanish has improved. There's a change!

After the hill we plan for the documEntary.  When we have a rough schedule nailed down we take a short break then eat dinner.  It's already 9pm.  We celebrate gigi's birthday away from home then taxi it back to the house.  The music pumps through the window phnctuated by distant fireworks, lulling me to sleep.  So flows the river. Welcome to Peru.

Peru, Land of the Inca

Hello to everyone. Just a quick update to let you know I am headed to Peru in the next couple of days. I'll be working with a group of artists outside of Lima to mentor people in the arts (singing, dance, photography, etc.), to pick up some skills from them, and to do some documentary photography and video work.

The second week, I will be researching for a clothing project that is underway along with making some great images of Peru and it's people.

Stay tuned to keep up with the action as it unfolds!

The Bitter End Has Arrived...

Hey, guys! In case you haven't heard by now, the bitter end has arrived. The die has been cast, Tourism Queensland has spoken, and they've chosen Ben Southall from the UK to live in the Blue Pearl Villa on Hamilton Island for the next six months...playing in the sun...with the dolphins, and sea cows, and pretty coral, sipping exotic drinks with little umbrellas to keep the ice from melting in them - I'm not jealous, no not me! I've got much better things to do in Nashville. Uh, I'll let you know when I think of them.

Really, it's not bitterness, I just have a melancholy personality, you know Eyeore - a dark cloud behind every silver lining. Why do you think I was researching poisonous creatures in the Great Barrier Reef? Eyeore Complex. NOTHING can be that paradisical (new word), not even the GBR. I don't even really have the heart to tell you about the rest of those VPC's that I promised. The best I can do is give you a link to them HERE.

So, Ben, congratulations! I'm sure you'll be a much more cheerful caretaker than I would have been. My approach wasn't working - how do you attract people to a place by telling them all the ways they could die or contribute to medical research? No, you're the man Ben! Just wear your nylons and watch out for those tiny little invisible floaties waiting to send you to the Hereafter...

I Can Finally Tell the Truth...

The truth is, I knew two days ago I wasn't gonna be in the top 50. But I felt like I should wait til it was "official"...and, now it is. Check out www.islandreefjob.com for the top 50, and if you want, follow them to the bitter end!!!

And to all you who have been reading this blog, or at least visiting from time to time, thank you so much for stopping by!!! I intend to keep blogging, now that I've started, and the topics for this blog will be based around my travel and visual arts pursuits. I will, however, be finishing my blogs up about the TEN MOST POISONOUS CREATURES on the reef before leaving the the reef behind as a major topic.

It has been a fascinating and fun journey since I started this thing a month ago (it's only been a month??) In regard to my video, as soon as I turned it in and slept for a few hours, I saw things I really wish I had changed, but alas there was no time left! As it turns out, those things would have been very helpful, but most of what we do in life is a matter of learning by trial and error.

Life is like an iceberg. Most of the successes that people see above the surface are undergirded by a far greater number of "failures" beneath the surface. They aren't failures, really, just opportunities for reassessment, adjustment, and refinement of the way we live and the things we do. There will be another time.

In the meanwhile, I'll still be writing, and shooting, and traveling, and learning, and sharing! There's too much to do just to sit around and wish I'd been the one snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef for $100 grand...(isn't there??) =)

And to all the applicants who applied, and those who are still kicking, congratulations on making the effort. I can see the icebergs rising!

Finding Nemo Finds a Home

Hey, folks. Just thought I'd let ya know that the DVD Finding Nemo is making it's way to Colorado24, the winner of stage 1's drawing!! Hope Nemo likes it over there!

Tomorrow, I will officially announce the results of Stage 2 thus far...

Wishing a wonderful evening to all.

Ice Cream Cone + Gastropod = Our Next VPC

Hi, y'all. I've been checking out our latest VPC (Very Poisonous Creature) for a couple of days. Aside from getting sidetracked on YouTube watching videos of the Loch Ness monster for a couple of hours, I have learned some very interesting things about this ocean gastropod, known as the Cone Shell.photo: wickipedia.org Textile Cone

The snail is so named because the shell resembles an ice cream cone - except that's not ice cream in there. It's a big, muscular foot, and a big siphon tube mouth, and a couple of stalk eyes - oh yeah, and some nasty harpoon teeth.

Doot-De-Doo, hohum, hohum, along slides the snail, beautiful and harmless looking, with that proboscis sticking out, smelling the water. For what? For dinner. Then along comes a hapless little fish, or human hand or foot (curiosity killed the FILL IN THE BLANK), and chemicals secreted by the curious victims enter the proboscis of the snail.

It does a little searching with that long, skinny mouth/nose, and then...BAM!!! BAM, BAM!!! Dinner is served. Or in the case of the human hand, that little harpoon tooth has just delivered the goods. Which, of course, isn't really good at all, even if you've got a hold of such a pretty shell...

The story of the monkey who stuck his fist in the jar and then got beat over the head comes to mind...



Cone shells are very common. There are over 1000 species of cone shells, which have varying diets. They may eat other mollusks, sea worms, crustaceans, or small fish. Mostly, they are from 2 to 4 inches long, but the ones that eat fish grow up to 10 inches long. These fish-eating cone shells are the most dangerous to humans. Fortunately, there are only a few of these types - among them, the Textile Cone and Geography Cone. When their harpoon teeth are injected into the victim, they inject a milky venom which is a neurotoxin.

This venom will cause fish to be paralyzed in a few seconds, and to get a free slidey ride down a snail gullet. In humans, it causes blurred vision, slurred speech, numbness, and difficulty breathing (sounds like a few too many beers). If it is severe enough, it will cause respiratory failure in a few hours, and sometimes death.

There is no antivenin for the venom, so the only cure is life support and time, which allows the toxins to finally be dissipated by the body. Some say that about 20% of all cone shell stings result in death, more than the percentage for the cobra snake.

Although the bigger cones can be deadly, only fifteen deaths can be confidently attributed worldwide to the cone shell in the record books. The smaller ones (the vast majority of the cone species), produce a sting no more painful than that of a bee.

In spite of the downside to the venom of the cone shells, there is a great upside. The venom is very promising in serving as a basis for some very powerful and beneficial drugs. At the moment, there is research being conducted on its use as a cure for Alzheimer's disease, as well as a pain killer 1000 times more powerful than morphine, but without any side effects.

So on your next visit to the Great Barrier Reef, where there are 18 species of cone shells, a good rule of thumb is to keep your thumbs off of them. This will save you from a painful trip to the ER and being another guinea pig in cone shell venom research!!

Happy Snorkeling!