A great loss for a very talented photographer, I hope it is not long before he can replace his equipment and get back to what he does best,,,,taking incredible pictures,
Last week was one of the darkest in my life. And this is how an eventful and bright day suddenly went dark.
I was meant to travel to Gulu town, located about 400km north of Kampala, Uganda’s capital on Thursday morning to volunteer for a robotic training organized by my friends Solomon King and Sandra Washburn.
That morning, Taxi operators went on strike, protesting the increased operation fees. Transport in Kampala City was a mess. The over 5 million inhabitants of this city who primarily use public transport were held hostage. I was part of the statistic that day.
Sporadic riots were happening all over down town Kampala. Teargas was being fired from one side of town, bullets went off in the other. I was caught in between. For that reason, I didn’t travel. No one did.
I decided to take advantage of the situation and photographed a few exchanges…
I won’t start this post with the obligatory “I know I haven’t posted in awhile”….well never mind, I think I just did. Regardless, I came across a TED Talk video today that made me laugh and think. It struck an immediate chord with me as one that struggles with algebra. I remember as a young student yelling in frustration at my mother, “Letters are for reading, not adding.” Needless to say, math continued to be forced on me and it wasn’t until I was 40 that I actually passed an algebra class. I still think letters should be for reading not adding.
As this video went on I began to consider the statement ” When pigs fly”. Me being me and unwilling to accept that anything is impossible I consider pig flight to be improbable but not necessarily impossible, just as many things in my life could be explained in the same light. I have had dramatic changes happen in my life the past few years. If I had been asked years ago if they would occur I would have said “when pigs fly”. But here we are and not a flying pig in sight. I am sure that in some secret government lab some bumbling yet brilliant LSD imbibing fringe scientist along with his sweet but weird son and an FBI agent that travels to a parallel universe are working on making pigs fly….oh wait, that’s a television show. OK, maybe no one is actively trying to make pigs fly but I do feel all of us should be trying by sheer force of will, imagination and fearlessness make our own pigs fly. (You do have a pig don’t you?). You should strive to challenge the impossibilities in your life and make them possible. Reach for your dreams and like the song says “You may not get what you want but you’ll get what you need”. (Source: Rolling Stones a bitchin’ rock and roll group that is now geriatric and a weird) Or just take a nap. We need our rest, too.
If you are so inclined let me know about your flying pig experiences. What did impossibility did you make possible? I may, with your permission put any responses into a blog post to show others how amazing you are.
(You may be thinking, did she really after all this time feel that this is the most compelling post she could come up with? Yeah, that’s pretty much it. I have a lot on my mind and a lot on my plate but I feel that I will be posting more soon. Maybe when pigs fly.)
As a nine-year-old child, Marta recalled seeing her name on a list to go to the doctor’s office. An orphan, she had been living in the National Education Center since the age of six.
Before long, she would be prodded and poked every week for a year, receiving shots in her hip and shoulder, and having blood drawn.
“My mother tells us that she would ask over and over again, ‘why are you doing this if I am not even sick?'” says Luis Estuardo Vasquez Orellana, one of Marta Lidia Orellana Guerra’s five children. His mother, who is still alive today, also underwent unnecessary back surgery and was left to rest hanging upside down on and off in post-surgery recovery for months.
It was 1946, and Ms. Orellana was one of thousands of Guatemalans who were unwittingly subjected to secret human experiments led by US doctors.
I found this video that will absolutely touch your heart. After a horrific car crash, this man was told he would never walk, move, or speak again. Thanks to an indomitable spirit and some help from a monkey, that’s all changing.
I have an 8 year old grandson. He is really awesome kid. He’s smart, funny and kind. His passion in life right now involves an Xbox and the game Minecraft. Honestly, sometimes it really gets on my nerves. But today I realized something, here in the United States my grandson can sit with a game controller in his hand and be a boy. He is not holding a machine gun, or the dying body of a brother, sister mother, father or grandparent. When he is hungry he can pause the game and find food and drinks in the fridge. He is not starving, searching for food, begging or selling himself to feed himself and his family. In our country my grandson lives below the poverty level but he still has food, a roof and he can go to school. My grandson is not being threatened, raped or forced to shoot others. He is allowed to be an 8 year old boy.
“Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul.”
― Dave Pelzer, A Child Called “It”
This is not the case for thousands and thousands of children across the world. It is not the case for the children of Africa that are forced into the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). It is not the case for children sold as sex slaves. It is not the case for children that are beaten, raped and mutilated by adults.
It saddens me deeply, when I watch a movie such as “Machine Gun Preacher” about the life of Sam Childers, it reminds me of the frailty of the human condition, particularly among children, our most vulnerable. Childers is a former Outlaw biker, heroin addict, drug dealer who accepted Christ into his life and went on to build a church here is the States and after seeing the atrocities in Sudan he built an orphanage to save children in Africa. It sickens me when I read about children being forced into sex slavery. Being a child is not a possibility for so many.
“Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me. ”
― Fred Rogers
It angers me when I hear people say, well that’s not our problem, we have our own problems in the US that we need to fix. While there it is true that we do have our own problems, we also have far more services, opportunities and support than many other areas of the world, a world that we are all part of. I don’t have to worry when I go to sleep tonight that a military group is going to burn my grandson out of his home, kill his mother, and probably his brother because he is only two and then force him to carry a gun, kill people including friends and family and live a life of fear and helplessness.
Yeah, I think I will let him play his Xbox, build his Minecraft towns and let him be a child for as long as possible.
Joseph Kony. Leader of the LRA with the help of the Sudanese government is responsible for an estimated 40,000 child abductions. In the past 15 years approximately 200,000 women and girls have been raped in the Congo.
This took place in Sweden. A wonderful creative group got together and staged a brilliant prank at a bus top. Hats off to the guy with mad Photoshop skills.
I am a freelance writer and graphic designer in Central Florida. Please check out my portfolio at http://www.laurabwilliamsdesigns. I have always loved to read and write and draw. I wrote and illustrated my first book when I was 6 about a princess and her mean father, the King. It wasn’t ... Continue reading →
I am a writer, content marketer and social consultant. I work with brands and public figures to help them tell their story. You can learn more at www.goodinklings.com.
I am also the host of The Writing Biz Show http://thewritingbiz.com
Laura B Williams Designs 