Just stumbled on this old quick vid from a BBQ at the South Pole, Antarctica in 2012. The vid opens up on my frozen beer, gotta drink them quick! But the grilling was superb and the fire from the grill even better. Overall a fun memory from that crazy place.
Via Kris Amundson:
“Doc and I went out to the Igloo. Still cold, still -103. I’m trying to paint it and hold still at the same time.”
Kris is currently spending his second consecutive winter at the South Pole Station!! He has more incredible/unreal photos here. Maybe we can get him to send us some wintertime alien pics :)
Willy checking the water level.
Also on my move down to L.A., zebras outside of Hearst castle.
I just moved from Portland to L.A., so technically this happened while I was going down. Anyway, it’s too beautiful not to share. Apparently all these flowers were planted by one guy who is really into zen… just south of Big Sur, CA.
Hi buddy.
Mobile LeGare’s coffee setup // Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Pool in paradise // 2 miles from here nobody has clean water… white people be acting crazy.
Drive-by giraffe
Sad news from Kilanyi this morning:
Via Shirls:
“At the hospital with salfina and the triplets. All battling with malnutrition. SAME food parcels not sufficient for this struggling family. Additional help is needed”
I have struggled with deciding whether or not to use this blog to ask for help, but after hearing this news from Shirls this morning, I have decided it is too crucial. Salfina and her triplets are one of the families that touched my life in South Africa. You might remember the post on delivering baby food to her triplets, or the unthinkable/extraordinary story of Salfina making the mud bricks for her house whilst pregnant with the triplets. We later rebuilt three of the older walls as they looked ready to crumble on her and the babies. But the raw struggle in Kilanyi is an everyday battle; I’m telling you because I have seen it. Imagine being Salfina and having to take care of five children by yourself, three of which are all one-year-old babies, and on top of that you have to fetch all the water - not clean - by yourself, and your body is battling HIV. It is impossible for one person to carry that much burden. But she does, and despite all her struggles, Salfina more than most, maintains an undying sense of gratitude for all that she does have. She is love.
That’s why this news this morning is so sad, because now due to basic malnutrition, Salfina and her triplets are all very ill in hospital. It actually breaks my heart to think about, and I only hope you too feel a sense of compassion. Now I’ve been hesitant to ask for donations on behalf of SAME, but what separates SAME from other organizations is its size. SAME is four women: Shirley-Anne, Nora, Sarah, and Santi. These four women, backed merely by donations, are personally in the villages every day. They are working with a tiny budget that barely allows them to stay at work, but nonetheless everyday they feed and provide medical care for 50+ children. I have seen the immense positive improvement they have personally brought to the four villages. They are, without a doubt, saving lives. But today, this morning, Shirley-Anne is with Salfina and her triplets in hospital pleading for help. I have heard that plea, and I hope you hear it too. I realize there are millions of similar cases of need today, but here is a chance to actually help save a life TODAY. Any money you can donate will go directly to her. Even just $20 (tax deductible) is enough to feed one of her triplets for an entire month. We are born into lives that we don’t have a say in, but we have a say in what we do with our lives. Here is a chance to help someone who I’m telling you needs and deserves it.
Thank you and I hope at the very least you will take a moment today to be grateful for all you have in your life and health.
PEACE AND LOVE,
Mikey
You can find more info about making donations here:
http://sameonline.org/donations
Makanyi
Riding to work with Sarah and Nora in the back of the bucky.
Avoca
HIV in Shangan dialect
It’s easy to take for granted basic education. For example, most people on Tumblr probably learned biology and anatomy in primary school, so terms like cells and immune system sound like obvious concepts. But not only do the Shangan people (who are 60% HIV positive) not get educated in biology, but in the Shangan dialect there’s not even vocabulary for terms like cell or immune system. It’s not a concept they understand. So at the medical clinics when Santi and Sarah are explaining how HIV is making them sick, there’s not even a way to explain it. How do you explain that HIV is eating/destroying their white blood cells when they have no idea what is a cell?
