arm chair travel

It's been a busy few weeks, with no let up in sight. I long for the days when I have a few hours to read, reflect, meditate and chant. And am counting the days til Larry and I head for the Cape for a few days of much needed R&R.
In the mean time, I've been fortunate to be transported and transformed via my inbox where I've received emails from far away places, reminders of how fortunate we are to live the lives we do, to have the luxury of wanting to learn about other cultures, and the ability to impact lives around the world.
The first is a letter from Kate Dahlstedt who works with Sanctuary International along with her husband, Ed Tick. I met them both a number of years ago at a dream healing workshop I took at The Center for Symbolic Studies.
Here's Kate's letter from Africa:

Dear friends,

Sabon. That's "hello" in Zulu. It's all I know so far. It is a
difficult language and so far I have not met whites who speak it. The
Hospice staff here is divided into groups by language, which means,
of course, that whites mostly work with white patients and blacks
with blacks. Two very different experiences. But it hasn't really
been very long that it has even been legal for the two races to
intermix.

I had an interesting talk with the wife of one of the administrators.
She was raised here but said that the separation of blacks and whites
was so complete (by design) that she really didn't know how bad off
things were. Now she says she suffers a great guilt that never
leaves her because there were some things she did see that just
didn't register as abnormal. It would be fascinating to study the
psychology of "not seeing" abuse.

Tomorrow I will go out in the field again. But there is some
confusion about who with or where. I spoke with a social worker today
who said that much of what she does is process paperwork to access
what little social welfare there is. She implied that there is
usually family to care for orphans but that the problem is that their
are so many of them in each family.

A caregiver told me a story about a mother who had no food to feed
her hungry children, so she put a pot of water on the fire and told
them that she was cooking some meat that would take a long time. She
kept telling them this when they cried and finally they fell asleep.
The next morning they asked her again and she told them they had
fallen asleep and missed it!

Interestingly, the staff tend to eat a lot! We are constantly being
offered food and it is impolite to say no! And I am staying in a very
nice home, kind of rambling, with a European feel. My hosts have very
thick British accents. We are planning to get up early to watch the
sunrise. Since it's winter it gets dark early. It feels quite
disorienting.

As you can see, my African experience is coming along somewhat
slowly. It is dominated by white South African thinking and
experience. I can really feel the divide. It is spooky.

There are so many things we do not see or know. I am honored to
share these peeks with you.

Love to all,
Kate

Kate Dahlstedt, MACP
SANCTUARY INTERNATIONAL
18 Van Schoick Ave.
Albany, NY 12208
(518)463-0588
www.mentorthesoul.com

This next communique is from Lori Flammer who I had the good fortune to meet at Omega earlier this summer (when it was still winter here in New York!). Lori was the resident yogi, and I enjoyed her morning yoga classes so much that I swore I would dedicate myself to a more consistent practice once back in New York. Alas that has not materialized, but I have managed to try a few new yoga studios over the last month, and continue to pine for more yoga in my life, knowing that my practice of karate right now takes precedent, and with yoga in my heart, it will come to my body at all the right times.

Here are some excerpts from her letters:

Hello from India!

I have been attending a ten day Ayurvedic Massage course. Our teacher, Sibi - is an interesting fellow who comes from a special Brahmin caste in Kerala called the Namboorithiri - they make up only .0002% of families in Kerala and have specialized in Ayurveda for 7,000 years. They were vaidyas and the palace doctors- always very wealthy and never needing to charge for their medicines until recent years as some ways become extinct. So, what I'm learning is actually "Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine" as opposed to Modern academic Therapies which really only evolved and became accessible in colleges in the 50's in India (according to Sibi) There are 22,000 types of Ayurvedic Medicine, 94 therapies and 15 different massages.

another:

My friend Om is actually a native of Dharamsala- his family were sheep
herders in the mountains. Om is a yogi too who is my age. He is very
easy going and has a good heart. I ask him about the area and how he feels
about all the tourists. He's OK with it.He works in a cafe called Cloud Nine
and chats regularly with folks from all over the world. He also teaches
yoga. He's the first generation who is no longer sheep herding because there
is no longer a need for it. I observed with him today that there are more
foreigners in this area than there are natives! There are so many ways
of life in India as well - here I feel that I'm exposed to more than what I
expected. This is a modern merge - a blending of people, ways,
teachings, influences. It is kinetic, energetic and beautiful.

and a beautiful line from a poem she sent:

Tickle me with rain drops,
massage me with monsoons.

Lori teaches at Yoga Vermont in Burlington. Wah! will be there at the end of August.

As for me, deadlines loom, so it is back to the computer with hopes for a lunch time karate class, and possibly a visit to the Whitney later this afternoon to see the Smithson exhibition, which I keep having to postpone. But it's up til October, so thankfully I have some time. Which is the one thing I don't seem to have enough of these days.