khmer life skills 101

Do you want to understand us, asked a Khmer girl. 

Yes.

Ok. Here's a story every child sees, hears, smells, and eats in school. It says everything.

     Once upon a time there was a hungry rabbit.

     It saw a woman coming with a basket of bananas on her head.

     The rabbit thought, I will play dead and see what happens.

     The woman stopped when she saw the rabbit.

     She said, “A dead rabbit. Meat. We will eat good tonight.”

      She picked up the rabbit, put it her basket and continued walking.

     The rabbit ate all the bananas and ran away.

     What a clever rabbit.

She gets home. Her family is happy to have food.

"I found a rabbit. We'll eat good tonight."

She put the basket down. "O my."

Lesson? Don't put all your bananas in one basket.

dancing weaver

My name is Gratitude. I am a weaver on Lombok. See the mountain hiding in clouds? It's Rinjani.

My village is at the bottom. Walk past the village co-op sellling cloth and sarongs. Turn right and go down the alley. Keep going.

You will pass women working. They wash cotton, hanging it to dry. Others are dying colors.

You will hear the sound of woman singing and looms clacking.  We are a community of women weavers. We do what we love. You can follow me on FACEHAPPY.

Hello July

The wet, rainy season is a lie layered with truth. 

Rain is a wild and crazy lost midnight rambler. Looking for love. Chasing illusions is aggravation in the whirlpool.

Rain returns to a room under night cover. Mystery is out. 

A sprite of 25 wore the silver flower ring with 7 petals. Consternation in Rain's heart felt the sense of loss forever. Petals transformed tears into hope.

Under a weak light money mama smiled through crooked teeth.

Flower was beautiful in an immature petulant passive way. Her lack of confidence met betrayal.

Rain blossomed her fragrance with instinctual objectivity.

Branch Out

My Planet is asking for images of trees.

Explore a floating mangrove forest. Before 9 July. 

I will never see
A poem as lovely 
As a tree.

memory 5, 2

this is memory 5. let's see what we don't know through a turkish lens. light and angle. a woman waiting at sophia for someone she's dreamed of in a future arranged marriage, a boy at a sewing machine, an old man walking, a shaft of light on a carpet, yellow pipes and a white cloud at a metro stop, a door surrounded by stone, arches, a halloween ghost. 

this is memory 2. a mudanya baker with his art, a fisherman repairing a net, empty oilve cans, shoes and yellow wall, pans waiting for burnishing, farm tools. life is simple in turkey.