Acadia National Park
I’m just home from teaching with my pal David Middleton in Maine. The guy just keeps plugging along – heart attacks and horse kicks won’t keep him from his teaching duties or his dark chocolate. It was a fun workshop, with a great group of people. One of the highlights for me of this location is wandering the beautiful carriage trails of Acadia National Park. This year the fall weather was a bit unpredictable, but when is weather anything but? We had rain and wind for a few days but nevertheless, we had some nice color on the trees, and even better color on the paths and trails. This photo was taken along the path to Duck Pond on a rainy afternoon. I’m hoping it makes you want to step into the frame and talk a walk! If you ever get the chance to head to Maine be sure to visit Acadia, it’s well worth it in any weather.
Back to Maine
In just a few weeks I’ll be heading back to my other favorite coast – the Maine Coast. Having spent a lot of time there over the past couple of years working on my recently published book, The Lobstering Life, I am thrilled to be going back. This time I will be teaching a workshop with my co- author and frequent collaborator David Middleton. If you have any desire to explore quiet harbors or wander Acadia National Park – arguably one of the prettiest of all the national parks – then this is the workshop for you! It will be a small group and David and I promise to take you to all of our favorite spots and introduce you to some of our favorite characters – like Sternman Phil !
For a change of pace David is promising to pass out chocolate rather than collect it. We will see about that, huh?
The Workshop runs October 19 – 23rd as is being offered by Santa Fe Workshops. You can sign up by calling Santa Fe or going to: www.santafeworkshops.com, or send me a note here and I’ll get you sorted out.
Real Live Cowgirl
I am starting a new project showcasing “team roping”. Team roping is a rodeo sport where two riders chase down a steer and one rider ropes the head of the steer and the other ropes the hind feet. With luck this all happens in a matter of 5 or 6 seconds. It’s a tough competitive sport full of tough competitive cowboys and a few cowgirls. I’m going to be spending the next year following a pair of team ropers who are hoping to live the dream of competitive team ropers. Come by here to follow the success, heartbreaks and struggles of Jason and Miranda.
Here are a few photos from last week when I was in Montana and caught up with them and some friends practicing their skills.
Enjoy!
Real Live Cowgirl
I am starting a new project showcasing “team roping”. Team roping is a rodeo sport where two riders chase down a steer and one rider ropes the head of the steer and the other ropes the hind feet. With luck this all happens in a matter of 5 or 6 seconds. It’s a tough competitive sport full of tough competitive cowboys and a few cowgirls. I’m going to be spending the next year following a pair of team ropers who are hoping to live the dream of competitive team ropers. Come by here to follow the success, heartbreaks and struggles of Jason and Miranda.
Here are a few photos from last week when I was in Montana and caught up with them and some friends practicing their skills.
Enjoy!
She Matters
Now that my kids have been back to school for a few weeks life is developing a rhythm. Get the kids out the door, make a latte, procrastinate reading emails- then finally settle down to some work. By late afternoon I am eager to see my kids and curious about their day. Today in a quiet moment I had time to wonder about a little girl named Tatu I met this summer in Tanzania,. I wonder if she’s attending school and wonder if anyone is there to greet her as I greet my children at the end of the day.
As some of you know I was in Tanzania this summer taking photos for a nonprofit called New Course (www.anewcourse.org). I was lucky enough to be able to travel to several remote villages in the Usambara Mountains where New Course is launching a new program. My job was to tell the story of life in the villages in images. In the process of doing so and while trying to get acclimated to working in a very foreign environment I noticed Tatu.
Tatu is probably about six years old, shy but naturally curious – and once I started to notice her she seemed to be everywhere – peeking out from a doorway, or around the laundry hanging out to dry. Once she captured my attention, my heart followed quickly behind, and I found myself seeking her out, looking for her as I wandered the red dirt road of her village, hoping not to be disappointed, hoping she wouldn’t tire of our game and wander off. She didn’t – becoming increasingly less shy she skipped and hid and ran, but always reappeared just as I feared that this time she wouldn’t. In a laughing group of kids she would be in the back – questioning me with liquid brown eyes, ever alert and always engaging. Tatu seemed as curious about me as I was about her.
The village where Tatu lives in Tanzania is called Kazita. It is several days walk on a dirt road to the nearest town and it is miles, days, and centuries away from the modern world. The villagers of Kazita are primarily subsistence farmers – scraping a living from the hard land. There is no running water, no electricity, no plumbing, no cable tv, no doctor or dentist. What there is, is a landscape of incredible beauty, lush forests, diverse plant and animal life. What there is, is worth saving.
For the girls and women of Kazita, like rural women in developing countries worldwide, most hours of the day, every single day, are spent collecting water and firewood, farming, and preparing food – ensuring the survival of their families. Nevertheless, with life as hard as it is, there is joy and laughter and the same desire for the things in life that we desire for ourselves, and our children. What is lacking is the opportunity for girls like Tatu to live life to their full potential.
So, th
at is what I was doing in Tanzania this summer. Using my camera to take photographs, to share stories, so that maybe there will be a face for you to attach to the news coming to you from so far away. Maybe this September, like me, you put your own kids on the bus to school, and you know what it is like to desperately want the very best for a child and to hope and dream their dreams along with them.
Tatu doesn’t have parents to send her off to school on the bus. She doesn’t have a mother waiting for her at the end of the day, or a father waving her down the road. She has a grandmother doing the very best she can to keep food on the table for her grandkids while mourning the loss of her own daughter. Tatu doesn’t have a lunch box, new back to school clothes, or a Hello Kitty backpack. If she has a book to read at the end of the day she reads by the dim light of a small kerosene lantern.
The village of Kazita does have a school, and I’m working with New Course to see that girls like Tatu can stay in school, so they can get an education, postpone marriage and childbirth, and increase their choices in life. I am working with New Course so that girls like Tatu will remain healthy enough to raise their own children to adulthood; so that families will have a choice as too how many, if and when to have children, and be better able to provide for those they do have.
Because what Tatu has, like all little girls everywhere, is a dream for her life. I know I can’t simply make that dream come true, but I can share her story and let her know that her dream matters. And that is what I was doing so far off the beaten path this summer in the Eastern Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, letting a six year old girl named Tatu know, that to me, she matters.