Friday, November 30, 2012

The Unforgotten Coat

For all those of you who need to find holidays gifts for youngsters, please check out Frank Cottrell Boye's book The Unforgotten Coat.  

An evocative immigration tale about two Mongolian brothers trying to survive in London without loosing their nomadic traditions  - a daring story that miraculously defies belief.


Publisher Weekly called it "A tight, powerful story-brimming with humor, mystery, and pathos."

It's a beautifully designed book, with Polaroid snap shots of the boy's imagination. I read it and I loved it.
 

Monday, November 26, 2012

New Update: After 15 years of unanswered questions, Vannie meets his mother.

Here is the long anticipated story of Vannie’s reunion with his mother. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, at the age of two, Vannie was left behind in an orphanage and subsequently spent the following 12 years in various institutions. He had no recollection of his parents or relatives. 

Through entirely unrelated and unforeseen events, we found a link to his past and located his mother.

Last August I went back to Mongolia to help facilitate the reunion and to be Vannie’s backup.

Although the entire trip was focused around Vannie, I also saw Nasa briefly, who was a bit thrown by the excitement; and reminded of her own past. Her mom died when she was five-years old and shortly after she was separated from her siblings.

Baaskaa had planned to be in UB for my visit, but by the time I arrived he had found a job close to the Russian border. We talked a lot on the phone, but at the end I couldn’t bear not to see him, so Vannie and I embarked on a rather grueling eight-hour trip (one way) up north.

It ill be seen how the relationship between son and mother will develop. Speaking from my own experience, I think it will depend a lot on the mother’s actions and how much she will engage and invest in getting to know her son. Vannie is not the outgoing fighter type, and although he doesn’t seem to hold his mother’s actions against her, he has been hurt badly. I will do anything I can to support him, but ultimately it’s about their wishes, action and time. 


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Jeff announces his new tour

Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum announced his he will be touring the U.S. throughout January and February.

This is how he puts it:
“hello friends in a flock of finches unfolding from the face of a foam horse on the phone to inform you that Jeff is heading out for a u.s. acoustic tour, giving him the chance to play to all the silver citizens dwelling in cites that he has yet to sing in.”
 

He has kindly attached Children of the Blue Sky as his charity of choice again. A portion of concert proceeds and one dollar from every box set will be donated to my organization and others in need.
He had done so for his last tour and almost single handily made the efforts of last year possible.

Please go to NMH website for dates and location. 


Friday, November 16, 2012

You never know!


This story goes a bit backwards in time, but it’s worth telling. 
 It was always understood that Vannie is an orphan. He had been given up as a toddler, and with a name as common as Smith or Johnson, there was no way to track his family down. But sometimes things work in mysterious ways. 
While applying for his government support, out of the blue, a clerk points at Vannie’s papers and says: “ I know his mother, we were classmates in elementary school. She just moved to Gobi”.
We decided not to tell Vannie anything, because at that point, it was just a suspicion.  Some serious detective work was needed, and who was better suited for that than Ayuraa, the police chief in charge of runaways! When I returned to the US in late April, I believed that I’d set things in motion. 
 To read the full story and updates of my June 2012 trip, please go to the website.  http://www.eternalblueskyofmongolia.org/

To be continued soon.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Borgne, Haiti and HOPE



One of the most  incredible women I ever had the opportunity to meet and shoot with was interviewed about her project in Haiti by Women’s Eye. Her story is very inspirational, particular in a time like this.


Rose-Marie Chierici, a native Haitian, and a handful of her colleagues from Rochester, NY, have built a hospital and several connected projects in Borgne, a largely ignored region in Haiti. What impressed me most is her determination to ensure that the affected communities are involved in the daily management of the projects. People need to be invested in order to care. Please take a look at her project, H.O.P.E.

Borgne stretches from the sea, through a valley, up the mountains. Traditionally the people have lived of farming and fishing. 
As a peasant community, most people are forced to live right at the edge of subsistence and extreme poverty is visible everywhere. 

Basic infrastructure like electricity and running water is non-existent. 

H.O.P.E.’s hospital is the only hospital in the region. 

 





Because of the lack of infrastructure, people often have to walk or be carried for hours to reach the hospital. 

Before H.O.P.E. people had to walk up to 120 miles, to Cap Haitian, for emergencies and basic medical care  

This boy was brought in after he severed his tendon with his machete while working in the field. His dad, several family members and neighbors brought him down from the mountain, carrying him in a casket. 
After the boy's leg was stitched up, the family started the four hour trek back up the mountain. 
The hospital is the only building that has electricity in the region. 

H.O.P.E. also organizes and runs a mobile clinic, which goes out to a different community every week to provide medical care. Furthermore they support a mobile teacher unit and several water and tree planting projects. All projects are selected, prioritized and managed by the community leaders. The funding for these projects, including the hospital, the largest employer in the region, comes from private donations raised by H.O.P.E., mainly from the States. 

Rose-Marie is also one of three moms to Valery, a two year old chubby boy. 

Valery was left at the hospital when he was a couple month old. He was so malnourished that everyone thought he'll die. Two women, both hospital staff, refused to give up on him and somehow managed to nurse him back to health.  

We got to witness Valery's first day of kindergarten. Both mom's walked him to school; one held his hand for the duration of the walk, while the other took over when he stepped over the threshold of the kindergarten. 







  
For the entire walk we had an audience cheering on Valery.  

It does take a village to raise a child! And in this case H.O.P.E.



All images are taken from the footage of the film, courtesy of director Bonnie Strauss.

Monday, November 5, 2012

A Week After Sandy


Things are almost back to normal, at least for some of us. Except the empty shelves in delis and supermarkets.

What an experience. I was always afraid of water and wind, two incredible forces. Nevertheless,  I have to admit I didn’t take the storm that serious, at first. I quickly changed my mind when I went to the East River during the day, hours before Sandy hit. It was quite humbling how wrong I was.


Thank goodness, I have practiced life without essentials in Mongolia! When in the countryside, I live without power, hot water, heater or fridge. But then again, if you have to do that at home, the novelty of the adventure wears off quickly.


If I have to life through another crisis, I want to do so in the East Village. I love my neighborhood. Everyone pulls together. Restaurants cooked their perishables on the sidewalk and portable grills came out for potluck diners. When it got dark, bars opened their doors and sold warm beer under candlelight. I never felt unsafe, not even when I had to walk the dog at night, and all I could see were dark shapes moving towards me, waving around blinding flashlights.  


It was strange to look up and see a dark sky, while a white cloud of light hovered above uptown. During a cloudless night, we got to see the stars and the full mood lit up the streets, like I had never experienced before. The glass was half full, at least some times.


I am glad life is back to normal, while I have a new appreciation for comfort.