(photo courtesy of yosoyjolito, Flickr photos)

Definitely a more sobering place to visit, but my Senegalese friend tells me that the beaches in the area are amazing, and that there are many treasures in Senegal to enjoy.  I hope to do just that (learn and enjoy and explore) within the coming year.

 (photo thanks to Jon Baker, Flickr photos)

Do you know the history of Goree Island?  Everyone should (my opinion).

 (photo thanks to Manuele Zunelli, Flickr photos)

If you are reading this blog and you’ve ever attended the Menton Lemon Festival in Menton, France, please reply and tell us a detail or two! (en francais ou en anglais).  I hope to see it someday.  The photo above shows a sculpture created from CITRUS fruit!!  I love it! 

http://www.feteducitron.com/menton-french-riviera-lemon-festival-uk.html

http://www.menton.com/uk/lemons/index.htm

Sounds like great fun to me!

holly

I so often wish that we could spare/find/make the time and money to take an extended travel trip across the USA — there’s so much to see — in and between and near the more well-known places.

I love exploring small towns and chancing upon community events — they make for such great people-watching and language study!

Not much time to post tonight — just thought I’d share a bit of dreaming and of places mentioned this week by myself and/or others…

We’re not sure we will even take a vacation this year — [unless you count our upcoming three day trip to NJ to pick blueberries with Dad -- to visit with my Mom and Dad] — but I do miss our daughter so (she’s in San Diego, haven’t seen her since the December holiday season).

more soon — happy dreams to all

Anyway, this past week my husband and I watched Kandahar.  Here’s a write-up found on the web:

<<Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf presents this partially fictionalized documentary that illustrates the suffering of Afghan women under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the year 2000. The quiet, stark, powerful film follows an Afghan native, Nafas (the stunningly beautiful Noulifar Pazira), who left Afghanistan years back and got a journalism degree in Canada, upon which she built a career reporting the plight of women in oppressive nations. When she receives a letter from her sister, who is still in Afghanistan and who has decided that she will kill herself on the night of the next eclipse, Nafas decides to sneak back inside the border to rescue her. Traveling in a Red Cross helicopter to Pakistan, where she is lead on a treacherous all-night trek across an icy river and over deadly mountains, Nafas finally crosses over the border. But from there she must get to Kandahar, with only three days left before the eclipse. As a woman in Afghanistan she cannot speak out loud, travel without a husband, or show her face, elements which make her journey nearly impossible. Disguised in a heavy head-to-toe burka (the mandatory dress for women), she begins a Kafkaesque journey across the barren land, encountering obstacles both threatening and mesmerizing along the way. >> [above copied from this URL: http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=5603736]

I found this movie disquieting; my husband used the word disturbing.  Certainly I’d agree it is an effective portrayal of the landscape and some of the universal ’sames’ and stark differences in day-to-day lives of different cultures.  It is a movie that haunts me; at various odd times of day or eve since I viewed it, particular scenes pop into my mind. 

Feeling privileged to count a few refugees from Afghanistan among my current circle of friends, I’m forever awed by the adjustments they’ve made and resiliency they’ve exhibited. 

…the art of being human…

On a perhaps odd note, one surprise for me in the film was the use of three-wheeled vehicles!  One tire in the front, and two in the back — tiny little cabs up front and open or canvas/cloth-covered flatbeds in the back.  Adorable!  I want one!  I tried a quick Google search (web and images) but haven’t seen a photo or illustration of anything similar to what was used in the film.  Those little cars/trucks really intrigue me.

more another time…

thoughts, reactions, comments — anyone?