Africa on the Map

I love this Interactive Map of Africa (from the Katine: It Starts With A Village Project in Uganda) particularly because of it's gorgeous references of Flickr photography for each country on the continent. Enjoy.

The Katine Project is a beautiful thing that Amref and Farm Africa are working on, together with the Guardian, in the village of Katine,Uganda. They're investing themselves into developing Katine in it's education, health, water, governance and livelihoods, which is great because it will eventually "offer a unique insight into the world of international development".

And yummers! I love that you can take a Virtual Village Tour of Katine and the region, which is just wonderful.. AND 'Katine on Film' has a whole heap of fantastic footage of it's development, even: how they brought cinema to Katine.

Jon Foreman: Goodness precedes Greatness

I write songs for a living, which is to say that writing songs helps me to live. The song becomes a place where melody and tempo can cover some truly volatile topics. God, women, politics, sex, hatred, disillusionment- a song or a story can be a deeper vessel and more forgiving than most conversations. Poetry can get under the skin without your permission..

>> continue reading article by Jon Foreman of Switchfoot,

for The Huffington Post, 15 Oct 2009.

Sometimes you just need to get out.

Even, out of your own issues,

and just step outside [of it all] for a bit.

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Take some time out to feel what I mean.

Picture from '4058' by Jesús Olmo - watch on Vimeo.

I love this. And oh how I love seeing those giving back some love to our homeland with their photography.

This is a photograph taken near to Bulshoek Dam, a place I am very unfamiliar with, in the very far away lands of the Western Cape. It's now on my to-do list.

by South African Photographer 'Drublic'.

The William Kamkwamba Story:

"We have enough wind in Malawi,

and I was thinking.."

Before you read further, watch this:

The William Kamkwamba Story

Also see his talk at the TED Conference:

William Kamkwamba: How I Harnessed The Wind

A few books, a handful of hope and people like William is the change that our Africa is so thirsty for.

At 14 years old he went to a library, picked up a book and in two months, changed his family's lives. He built a windmill. From scraps.

Then he changed his village.

Then came a news article, an invitation to the new African Leadership Academy, a flight to America, and then an invitation to speak at the Ted Conference. Then came a book, a documentary.. and the story became a movement. So inspiring!

More at Moving Windmills.

A Lovely Day

I'm not a JM fan,

but this is just wonderful: It's A Lovely Day.

From La Blogotheque.

We're All In This Together

See the trailer: We're All In This Together

+ The I Heart Revolution

Hope Project

Wesley's Hope Project. Durban, South Africa.

I was just listening to Newton Faulkner + came across this beautiful image.. and so I thought I'd get my design on and add a little pzazz to it with a typeface* or two. [Other earth-tilting designs at ryanwynncreative. Pah ha.]

It's exactly where I'm at.. this song.

And I really don't mind any more. Phew.

* typeface = 'font' but we hate this word. Grr.

Onward & forward

So glad we've moved on.

South Africa, 1956.

Brooke

- Brooke Fraser

Clean and easy to navigate.

Release Me

- Oh Laura.

I like the black & white version too.

Voyage

My friend Warwick [the Great] sent me this.

It really does give you a good feeling.

Next..

Landing > London > 13 July 2009.

Release me

I went out side tonight, and saw the most beautiful thing. Between the stars were these gorgeous glowing moons just drifting gently through the sky. At a closer look I realised that they were Sky Lanterns or 'Paper Moons'. People here are releasing them into the sky because of the 'Festa Junina' (June Festival) which is based on the festivities that the Portuguese introduced in the Colonial period.

I will have no way of understanding what the Brazilians feel for this festival and what significance it holds for them, but one of my first thoughts was, maybe it's a tribute to those who have gone away, those who have passed. This was beautiful to me.

The Rescue

Invisible Children are getting there. I urge you, watch this interview on Larry King Live.

I have rarely seen something so informative & so full of potential as is the movement called Invisible Children. I've been a part of this movement for five years, and we are increasingly seeing hope.

It's moving.

"Last week, senators introduced the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 to help end LRA violence in northern Uganda and neighboring countries. The bipartisan act would require the Obama Administration to develop a strategy within 120 days to "apprehend or otherwise remove Joseph Kony from the battlefield." The bill also authorizes funding for humanitarian assistance in LRA-affected areas, as well as additional funds for recovery efforts in northern Uganda. " - Invisible Children

Towards the end of this month [ June 22-23 ] you can (if you're in D.C) go to the lobbying event and let your voice be heard, or for us over the seas and far away, you can go online with the live feed that will be telling you what's going on> you can advocate from your couch - we can actually participate in this. So make sure you watch The Rescue, then see How It Ends by participating via the Live Feed online over June 22nd & 23rd. I'll be doing just that.

Mixtape

I've always said that "life should have a soundtrack!" - everything that we do should have a song. So I've put together sort of a 'mixed tape' of songs.. you'll find the player over there in the right-hand side column near the top, or you can open this link to have these songs play through your day - just start from the top!

Life really is Beautiful

She's just a small-town girl from a residential area just outside of Durban, South Africa (I've always wanted to start off a post like that), and now she's in Mozambique. My friend Lauren Nixon is really doing this thing, this life, so beautifully! It's rich, it's raw and it's real. She's always living in her present. We're often looking in so many other directions towards trying to find the one thing we ought to be doing. Well it seems, that there are those among us getting it right, and just going for it.

I don't know why I haven't told you about her before! Ever since I've known her, she's always had a heart for the people most-in-need in our world, just outside our front door. She is simply living out a loving and effective life; loving God + loving others. Wowzers!

See her at Life is Beautiful + also see her pics.

The Song.

The song keeps playing.
It's reality at it's most raw.
It's written on our hearts.

If you can, see more: Nooma.com + Rob Bell

Be yourself

I liked this. Just be yourself.

Compassion + Art

This is art changing poverty.
See what they're doing at Compassion Art.
Wow.

Nurturing Creativity

This is one of the most refreshing things I've heard, and I hope that you really hear it too > Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity.

Wait until you have 20mins to sit & watch this.

Olé to you.

In the bag

These are my two long-time companions of late.. brilliant reads by the great C.S. Lewis & Elizabeth Gilbert that always make it into my bag (one of which you can read online.)

I've been reading, thinking and absorbing a lot more since being here in Brazil, not writing as much, and I've enjoyed that for the moment. I've also been digging deeper creatively, & doing some designing, which has been fantastic. I took some pictures too, yet since then, my pocket camera gave up on me just after these were taken. Figures. I'll buy some film again for my more favoured and trustworthy Yashica, which does some loverly things. Ahh, I just pulled it out for old-times sake.. smells classic.

Life

It's simple.

Times are grand. See the video at vimeo. Also go to hillsong.com.

I took these screenshots simply because the video is just gorgeous.. and I take a liking towards these type of things, as you already know. Images © Hillsong 2009.

New

You're brand new.

Holdable

It's my new word: holdable. And a Moleskine is such a thing - magnificently holdable. You should buy it and try it. Oh and I just wrote to them and told them to include Cape Town in their new City Notebook range. Yes.

Sometimes..

Same goes for all of us, i think.
I wish i thought more about digging deeper.
I wish i thought more about every moment.
I wish i thought more about the environment.
I wish i thought more about my family.
I wish i thought more about resting.

Image: Steffan Bruggemann

Two Double Oh Nine

.. or Two Double Oh Shine, as my friend jp says. He's got it right.

So we just got back from the most fantastic road trip from the Gold Coast back to Sydney. I wasn't as hardcore as the others - i jumped on webjet, flew up and met them there, but did the miles back, from camping in no-camping zones near Surfers Paradise (nice); to preparing our meals of beans&bread on the footpath; to getting a flat tyre in Byron Bay* and choosing to take a nap just because we were 'over it'; to staying for two days with the couple who helped us out of that (free b&b pretty much, amazing r&r); to bathing in the hippy (& nudist, to our surprise) highly acclaimed Tea-Tree Lake near Byron + covering ourselves with the therapeutic mud that the lake provided; all the way to celebrating New Years Eve on Bondi Beach with my two dear Brazilians, our two Danish-ians**, a Welsh girl named Esther, and a Dani + a Jess from who-knows-everywhere (nice girls), all the while having the nicest time, meeting & being with the greatest people from around the world.. and still, it goes on.

(Oh and two more beautiful discoveries: Annika's Family + Açaí pr. Ah-sigh-ee, the most beautiful thing Brazil has given to the world. Find it. Try it.)

Rajão & I saw Morcheeba on Sunday at the 'Days Like This' festival.. which was glorious! Rajão shouted the tickets (in fact he shouted everything while i was living with him, knowing i've got like $20 to my name.. so he's been amazing), so yeah, where was i, oh yeah, the tickets.. which we walked the whole frikn city for the previous day - it was worth it. He found a Ghandi Doll too, his prize. So yeah, great days. Please tell me you've heard this:



*Click on the link and view gallery.
**Danish-ians? What would we call you, Patricia!? Danes?