Three bags, two boys, one daddy....oh, and a goat.

After only three days back in Vilcabamba we are proud goat-owners....but that story is for another blog. This one is a brief recount of our recalibration and arrival; a recap of the journey from France to Ecuador.

As Kasem would say, and said at every leg of the journey since mid-July ".....the three travellers continue their journey". We had rather short and rushed weekend in St. Pryve with visits from Cecile's cousins and plenty of last minute things, packing, etc that followed a relaxed week on the coast of Portugal just north of of Lisbon. Ericeira, on the beach and riding bikes, eating sea-food (I had mussels 3 times in 4 days) and generally just hanging about.

Ericeira, Portugal...this beach is right in town!

Monday morning, August 20th dawned and we bid au revoir to Mami and Papi Fradot, headed to Orly airport in a taxi shuttle, the boys and I to board a flight to Madrid and on to Guayaquil, Cecile continuing to CDG and to Beirut later in the day. An emotionally charged moment that had been coming for a while, the excitement of travel and anticipation of Ecuador seemed to eclipse the idea of leaving Maman behind but this is the third summer with a similar configuration so perhaps we are used to it...probably not. Time will tell with the kids.....it always does.

Iberia didn't have seat-back screens on the 2hr flight to Madrid, so the boys reverted to their portable screens; iPad, Gameboy or DS.....they have choices such is the modern age of transcontinental travel with kids these days....admittedly I too succumbed to sudoko on my iPhone, like father like sons. To our credit we all had a read of books as well....in fact I finished mine which is an odd way to start a trip. We had two hrs in Madrid Airport enjoying the thrall of summer travellers tanned and tarted up for their trips to or from Mallorca, Les Canaries and other fun in the sun destinations...until we changed terminals and hit a more southern latino flavour, destinations for Bogota, Caracas, Buenos Aires and Guayaquil of course.  It makes the boys so happy to play their (age appropriate which among its meanings also means 'no blood') games that its hard not to cave in when Zaki sends Kasem and his doe-eyed diplomacy, which is too hard to resist, to negotiate for screen time.   On the 11hr flight to Guayquil both pissed about on the seat-back screens before caving in to exhaustion in hour 5 then to sleep for 4hrs so it wasn't too bad.....resistance is futile, I just let them go at it.....games, series, movies....after 2 movies (and 2 bottles of wine) I also slept.

Zaki woke in a grump upon arriving at the terminal....he refused to wake up before that, to eat or pee or anything. Kasem was a star, full of humour and infectious excitement for the couple of hours before landing....poof...11hour flight over. We got through Immigration (using our European flavour of passports) with 90day entry visas and sailed through Customs where curiosity normally gains us special attention...three bags, two boys, one daddy....on this trip we have 2 lap-tops, 2 iPads, an i Phone and then games gadgets......criminney.....travel has changed since the days when the old SLR camera was the only bit of tech in your back-pack (age-alert).

Changing tack completely we got picked up by a hotel and spent the night in Guayquil....in past adventures to Ecuador, including in 2010 when the boys were 3 and 5 years old, after 21hrs of travel we arrived at 6am, caught a flight at 9am to Cuenca and then a 4hr taxi to Vilcabamba arriving in time for a late lunch. This year, arriving at 9pm we were picked up at 9am by a Vilcabamba taxi-truck (which turned out to be a Hyundai truck engine on a van body) and its most excellent driver Jaime, and 8.5 hrs later arrived in Vilcabamba. The drive was spectacular. A new highway traverses the lower Andes to the east and gains heights of 4100m, then remaining between 2500 and 3500m up and over passes to Cuenca. We had a very pleasant cruise stopping in Cuenca to buy a used mountain bike for me and a chicken lunch and then the amazing drive through Ona and Saraguro to provincia Loja arriving at 5:30pm having left at 9am. The 8.5hrs drive was fine for the boys, I mean, did I mention they are stellar travellers? They had the whole back of the van to cruise around, the ubiquitous gadgets, easy naps and amazing views. In 2001 I had gone from Guayaquil to Vilcabamba on the old southern route through Machala by night bus that took 16hrs to Loja and 1 to Vilca.

Casa Roja, Vilcabamba.....all the info you need for a precision bombing...or just to come and visit.

Greeting us were our old friend Vicente, and friends (and tenants) Rebecca and James and Chaupi-Tu-ta their 1yr old black labrador now united, the boys finding a new best friend. First time I have had such a greeting in many trips up to the house. I remember once arriving to find the house locked and the tenant at the time, not home. This wasn't before mobile phones but mine wasn't picking up a signal despite the visible presence of 5 towers (now there are 7). I fell asleep in the hammock on the front terrace until she turned up.

Not this time, Rebecca and James had just carried their last box into the casita they had been building for the 3 months previous. They will live there while we live in the casa roja. A stalwart and gallant effort resulting in a quite lovely little two room cottage-like place but with a rather nice bathroom. The terrace is pretty cool sitting about 2.5m off the ground and with a yoga extension. It has been an intense slog for James and Rebecca, getting the casita finished, the past month quite a trial as I was off-line for most of that time and time compressing the number of things that needed to get done. And so, minus one terrace door, they had moved in just as we appeared at the garden path. It was very nice to arrive in time to see the casita in the setting sunlight, glowing the new 'caterpillar' yellow that fits the monastic motif....good choice James! The two house complement each other nicely and they are well-congratulated for a hard job well done.

So we are now installed. Did a big shopping today in Loja and also bought some carpet to lay upstairs in the loft/schoolroom/yoga therapy practice and studio, plywood to make small furniture including desks for the boys, goat food, housewares for the casita and groceries. Two workers have been fixing up a few things.... including re-planting/replacing the boys club/playhouse, re-building a chicken/goat pen and fixing up the fenced area. The boys bikes are running, mine is cranking....lucky to find a light-frame, good gear bike my size. The kids love the biking, we get around town so much faster and with so much less effort.....has to be said I will be glad when the helmets arrive.  We have visited the site of the coming Waterwoman festival next weekend which will be a rather excellent time....I'll be volunteering and the kids in the Children's area going wild (no doubt). Tomorrow its yoga and generally just hanging about visiting with people, Sunday innit?

Slowly weaning them off the gadgets they love so much.

Kasem and the biggest cactus of the year award winner

Casa Roja and Casita Amarillo

Casita Amraillo

Casa Roja...the big house

Small boy, big gate

Muchacho alert

........and a goat.

Skype is keeping everyone connected. The time difference makes things a bit tricky. Thus far I have stayed home all evenings.....will need to get out one of these nights but have been very tired at the end of long days, waking early and trying not to sleep too early. The boys are adjusting nicely, enjoying having a dog, freedom to roam. And did I mention the goat?

Hang on Tightly, let go lightly: contemplations and images upon leaving Lebanon

Read from bottom to top!

18 August (St. Pryve, France)

Sunset over the Atlantic from Ericeira marking the end of another moment in our transition to Ecuador. Following the Yoga Therapy training, Cecile and the boys came for a holiday proving to be a very pleasant sojourn in the sun. Ericeira....very chilled and very friendly.

On Monday we pack our bags and head off into this sunset destined for Ecuador to see what shenanigans await us there. 

07 August (Ericeira, Portugal): Second half day off my Elemental Yoga Therapy course . A fascinating and enriching learning experience, corner-turning game changer. Will be done in 6 days. What to say....OM.

17 July (London): Here we are, 1 week into our new reality. It is taking a while for it all to sink in....we have actually left Lebanon. Wow. Will we ever go back? Kasem said the other day....'i'm so happy to be travelling', we've been through Wales and this morning as we packed up at cousins in the Cotswolds he said 'and so the little travellers continue their journey'. A very prescient little fellow. Both are coping very well, sleeping well and seemingly understanding of the situation and their separation from their Mum. Time will tell, I mean they seem happy, but I expect some kind of crisis to precipitate as emotions are bound to bubble through. We keep active but there are clear moments of reflection in the car, the train, etc when we talk about where we have been and where we are going and whats to come....and we skype Cecile in Beirut, that helps a lot.

We are in London tonight, a city pumping up its heart rate as the Olympics loom in 2 weeks time. I might be sensitive to it but it is true, people are more friendly in an openly sincere kind of way that simply exudes acceptance. Had dinner tonight with two excellent friends and the boys in a touristy Indian restaurant. The boys were going from table to table offering people a lick of the big lollipop they were sharing that Zaki was given by a street performer (a story in itself!). People just thought it was so funny, the staff loved it, no one seemed bothered or to care. I think some thought there was a hidden camera somewhere! Just light-hearted laughing.

There is a sense of anchoring here in the UK, perhaps more like sea anchor helping to maintain a steady course and even keel that allows things to feel more stable. But then it is more stable....I mean Lebanon feels on the edge of war or some reasonable facsimilie of instability and violence. But its more than that, here laws of all kinds are made and are followed, people obey not only because there might be a penalty for an infraction, but because they realise it makes things work better. Watched today as a traffic light turned red and the traffic including cyclists waited even though there was no traffic coming through the opposite green, it allowed the pedestrians to cross safely....thats what traffic lights are supposed to do....not so much an option as they are in Beirut.

Zaki and Kasem had their street performing debut yesterday at Covent Garden...selected from the crowd by a would-be Charlie Chaplin, like a dream come true, particularly for Zaki who ended up sharing the stage for nearly 30mins. It was really quite hilarious.

And we went to the Apple Store in Covent Garden today, biggest in the world they say! The boys had a hoot and I would have had too except my Mastercard was declined and declined and declined. Bugger Lebanese banks!! Someone tell me, why do credit cards from Lebanon not have the chip, only the stripe?

Those two boys in the corner are having a serious Mac Attack....on the iPad for nearly 2hrs! iYikes!

06 July (Beirut): Gladly but sadly, sold the Volty, I loved that bike. 2 more sleeps in Beirut and we're outta heeya. 

05 July (Beirut): Folks this is a Welsh dragon drawn in Arabic which when translated to Welsh reads 'The land of our Fathers' the first line of the rather fantastic Welsh National Anthem, a fine going away gift! thanks Richard!

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/content_objectid=13915571_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-A-national-anthem-to-stir-the-soul-name_page.html

Planning:2012

Planning. Whats that about? We can try to plan but when your destiny appears to lay in the hands of others it is not so easy, you have to do what feels right, be courageous, follow your spirit guide.

In summary, our plan for the rest of 2012:

Boys (all 3)
10 July 
Beirut  - London 
(in Wales and England with Auntie Margaret, family, friends)
18 July 
London - Switzerland
(with friends from KL!)
22 July Switzerland - St. Pryve
(kids stay with les grandparents)
Daniel
25 July  - 13 August
on Elemental Yoga Therapy Course in Portugal*
Cecile
04 August - 20 August
On leave to France

Boys
20 August
Paris - Guayaquil
(inVilcabamba to Jan/13)
Cecile
19 August
Paris Beirut
(visit to Ecuador Oct/Nov)

Early 2013 we'll likely move to the next post destination which is for now an unknown. Read on if you have an interest in the why's and wherefores, otherwise, if your plans and ours coincide in dates and locations, let us know. All are welcome to the sunny south of Ecuador!

This year we knew we had to move on from Beirut with the expiry of Cecile's time here with UNHCR. The process requires her to apply for a new post and so she looks for family duty stations, where she can work as a Protection officer and at the appropriate P4 middle-management level and...there are other considerations, like good schooling, work opportunities for spouses (me), availability of skiing for spouses (haha, but a good bonus!), clean air, etc. Think of these as filters which in effect reduce the number of possible jobs to apply for. Add to this that UNHCR's staffing pyramid shrank by 30% in the past 5 years of reform and budget strife (even though the number of refugees and internally displaced has grown globally), and so the higher your grade level and filters the fewer jobs there are.

Finding a suitable post is much more challenging than for a young singleton and the competition fierce...permanent staff have to do this every 2-5yrs depending on the post duration (which depends on the country). Suffice it to say UNHCR staff fight the battle to find work against the demographic odds and economics of the times like everyone else. We are lucky in a way, Cecile has a 'permanent contract' so there is a certain job security in that and although the built-in uncertainty doesn't go away.

We knew from the get-go, the year of the dragon was was going to be an interesting year. Without being appointed to a post yet, Cecile will be on a temporary assignment (TA) until the next round of posts comes up for January. It was only earlier this month that the office in Beirut got around to offering Cecile a suitable 6 month TA, she will work on the crisis of Syrian's displaced in Lebanon until December, before that she could have been going anywhere.  

Add caption

My own career path isn't so easily defined, it is more like that tangled spider's web from the spider on bennys experiment (watch the vid to the end)(at least I quit coffee!) so I can deal with another convolution, twist or turn. Good that one of us stays on track.

Now they say everything happens for reason; in this uncertainty I saw the chance to give the boys a break from formal schooling, to my mind an option while they are young and something I have been wanting to do for a while. The best place for this.....Ecuador of course! The house and land in Vilcabamba is really what makes such a possibility real. It also gives the chance to finally live in the house we built in Vilcabamba in 2003....a chance that has also been elusive so in a sense things start to come together. On the schooling question we consider that Mark Twain said 'don't let your schooling get in the way of your education' and Thoreau who said 'travel is the best education', I am working on the modality we will use for an informal home school.

Even not to planning to return to Lebanon may be wise the way things are going; the hard analysis says that unless the Syrian situation starts evolving differently, Lebanon stability appears like a small boat on the outer swirl of a spinning vortex going round round round and down down down. The pessimists view? I hope so and we pray that the power-brokers remember the damage of the long civil war here, and recognize the potential that awaits Lebanon that can only come with a sustained peace and proper governance.

Apologies friends in Lebanon for the visual metaphor but if things keep going the way they are, it could get quite shitty.

So by 20 August us boys will wing out over the Pacific to southern Ecuador until the end of the year. Work progresses on the construction of a casita adjacent to the casa roja in Vilcabamba to serve as a guest house. Construction is being supervised by our most excellent tenants and they will be the first 'guests' to live there. Rather than having to move away when we come, they'll just move next door!  They will manage the rental of the casita once we leave....a good option for all!

The footprint and foundation. Rebecca surveying.

So thats the plan, by remote I am working on this casita project, getting things ready to move to storage and closing the apartment, studying for my yoga course and looking at the education programme for the boys while we are in South America, I'll blog on that anon, stay tuned. busy is as busy does.

*The course is in Elemental Yoga as I build further on a different modality bringing therapy back to yoga practice and hope to work with people open to the notion that yoga as a life science can help them better manage their spiritual, mental and physical wellness. The more I practice, the more I realise how important this is in today's fractured and confusing world. This idea fits into a longer term vision to open a yoga/meditation site in Vilcabamba on the land, a project which has started and will grow organically as interest, time and commitment will allow, being there this year will help catalyze things significantly.

Privacy Notice - Its come to this!

PRIVACY NOTICE: Warning - any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/or the comments made about my photos or any other "picture" art posted on my profile.


Similarly anyone commenting on the content contained herein enjoys the same protections as myself and cannot be considered associated to me nor me to them simply by posting their commentary.

You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from printing, disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any action against me with regard to the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee , agent , student or any personnel under your direction or control.

The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Downward facing dog

The article below by acupuncturist Sara Calabro has been circulating this week on fb. Normally I don't re-post but in this case the author captures clearly the relationship between yoga and good health which has been of interest to me over 25 yrs of yoga practice. 

Yoga as a part of a healthy holistic lifestyle is very practical (and portable!) and has benefits which (not surprisngly) I find especially relevant for people hovering around 50. 

I will continue my exploration of this relationship and consider how to approach it as a therapy. To that end I will also be taking a course in Elemental Yoga this summer and the thinking is to begin work this year on a yoga/meditation site on the land in Ecuador..... you gotta have a 'retirement plan' right? Check it out: http://www.elemental-yoga.com/what-is-elemental-yoga.html

Adho mukha savanasana - downward facing dog

Downward-facing dog is the most ubiquitous pose in yoga. Acupuncture explains why.

This popular yoga pose is the one we see in advertisements and movies, on yoga DVDs, and the covers of health and fitness magazines. Downward-facing dog is taught in beginner yoga classes and returned to again and again by the most advanced yoga practitioners.
Almost everyone who has tried yoga, no matter their skill level, is familiar with downward-facing dog. Even people who have never set foot on a yoga mat can visualize the pose, known in Sanskrit as adho mukha svanasana.
So why is downward-facing dog the media darling of yoga poses? What keeps people coming back to this pose? Why does downward-facing dog make us feel so good? And what the heck does this have to do with acupuncture?
Downward-Facing Dog Has Your Back
From an acupuncture perspective, downward-facing dog has gained its rightful place at the top of the yoga-pose heap because it activates the bladder channel.
The bladder channel, sometimes referred to as tai yang, is the longest channel in the body. It has 67 acupuncture points that run from the inner eye, up and over the head, down the entire spine and posterior leg, along the side of the foot and ending at the pinkie toe.
The location of the bladder channel is significant because the back in acupuncture is considered the most yang––the most external, superficial––part of the body. It is our initial connection with the outside world.
The bladder channel, since it takes up such significant territory on the back, is our first line of defense against invaders from the external environment––cold, wind, germs, pollen, etc. For this reason, points along the bladder channel are frequently selected to get rid of cold and flu symptoms, and to boost immunity.
Downward-facing dog elongates the entire Bladder channel, enabling flow and strengthening the body’s primary defense mechanism.
The Secret to Understanding Downward-Facing Dog’s Many Benefits
The large surface area covered by the bladder channel means that its applications extend beyond immunity. The bladder channel is used to treat a very wide range of conditions, including pain in any part of the body that’s located along its route––headaches; neck pain; upper, mid and low back pain; pulled hamstrings; calf strains; and foot pain.
But even more than size or location, the reason the bladder channel is so important to overall health––and the reason downward-facing dog is such a gem of a yoga pose––is because it contains what are known in acupuncture as the Back Shu Points.

Each of the body’s organs has its own Back Shu Point and they are all located along the bladder channel. Shu in Chinese means “to transport,” as in transport qi (or blood, or fluids, or whatever’s needed) to the organ associated with that point.

Back Shu Points are used diagnostically and as treatment points.
Acupuncturists often palpate these points to gather information about which organ system is involved in a person’s symptoms. If a certain point is tender, or noticeably raised or depressed, it may indicate that something’s going on with that point’s corresponding organ. Once a diagnosis has been determined, Back Shu Points may be needled directly.
The Back Shu Points are traditionally associated with treating chronic diseases, so pretty much anything you can think of that’s not related to an acute injury––anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, menstrual irregularities, asthma, incontinence, migraines, insomnia, etc. Many acupuncturists think of Back Shu Points as going to the source, the most direct way of affecting a particular organ.
The Back Shu Points also are used to treat problems with sense organs, since each organ system has an associated sense organ. The eyes, for example, are associated with liver, and would be treated with the liver Back Shu point. The mouth is the sense organ of spleen, so the spleen Back Shu Point would be chosen for any mouth-related issues. And so on.

The bottom line is this: The bladder channel covers a lot of ground, both in terms of size and function. Smooth flow throughout the channel is critical to achieving optimal health and at the same time challenging to maintain since there’s a lot that can go wrong.

Downward-facing dog is unique in its ability to engage, in one fell swoop, acupuncture’s largest and most all-encompassing channel. For the remaining few who haven’t already, it’s time to strike this pose.