Yesterday was a public holiday. Independent Czechoslovak State Day to be exact - the day when Czechoslovak came into being on October 28th, 1918. Except it is no longer Czechoslovakia but two separate countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. So why am I showing pictures of what obviously has nothing to do with this holiday? Easy. While I was sleeping away my holiday, a very much loved member of my family was cavorting through the Solomon Islands and sending me pictures of dancing dolphins and his views on the simple, graceful and most unfortunate flying fish. None of it was to make me envious of course.
BIL. That's his name. From now on, whenever I refer to BIL, accept that this is a very important person in my life who continually inspires me to trudge on in life because no matter where I am, how low I get, I know he's in a far more dangerous place, helping people who really need to be helped. Don't let the tranquil pictures of the Solomon Islands and dolphins fool you. BIL is constantly circumnutating some of the most dangerous places in the world, in regions where his skin colour should get him killed almost immediately or held for ransom. He scales mountains, scraping on jagged rocks and tremulous hillsides with armoured guards sworn to protect him and for what? He's not a soldier, politician, charity or aid worker. No, he's an educator.
He climbs those mountains so that he can teach farmers how to raise goats and sheep, to take care of themselves and their families. In women he bequeaths confidence to step into markets dominated by backward thinking men and negotiate.That's right - behind their veil covered faces, these women take their first step into business and they negotiate the hell out of those men to make a living. Hell, they even take charge and slowly but surely, the tide turns. In the most volatile and harshest environments, where guns, religion, and outdated thinking govern countless lives considered expandable, BIL makes a difference. Not a difference in our spoiled world, but a difference in the lives of someone, somewhere, who will now have food in their mouths. But I digress.
Marovo lagoon in the Solomon Islands. That is where I'm going next. But for now, I can only stare at the photos that BIL sends as he sojourns through the islands on his quest to determine the viability of cocoa farming. With a recent hip replacement and a dependence on canoes for water transport, his occasional pain is soothed and even abolished by his sighting of playful dolphins and flying fish. On the subject of flying fish, this is what he has to say to me:
"I was watching the flying fish “fly”. Surely Nature erred here? Flying fish “fly” to escape when being pursued. They leap out of the sea and away they go. Some go prodigious distances. Most don’t. What I don’t understand is that when out of the water they don’t do a sharp left or hang a major right. Or even do a complete 180 turn. Instead they travel in the same straight line. The pursuing fish can’t stop on thruppence. By the time the pursuing fish slows down to say “where did it get to?”, then da-da, the flying fish plops down right in front of it. Exhausted from all that flying!"
I also added two pictures of my own sightings of dolphins in Takalana Bay in Fiji. I'm privileged as a good friend of mine manages Takalana Bay Resort and it only takes a phone call and a bumpy ride to get there in no time (provided you don't get lost because of all the poor road signs leading to it). Seeing these frolicking dolphins are always the highlight of my time spent there.
He climbs those mountains so that he can teach farmers how to raise goats and sheep, to take care of themselves and their families. In women he bequeaths confidence to step into markets dominated by backward thinking men and negotiate.That's right - behind their veil covered faces, these women take their first step into business and they negotiate the hell out of those men to make a living. Hell, they even take charge and slowly but surely, the tide turns. In the most volatile and harshest environments, where guns, religion, and outdated thinking govern countless lives considered expandable, BIL makes a difference. Not a difference in our spoiled world, but a difference in the lives of someone, somewhere, who will now have food in their mouths. But I digress.
Marovo lagoon in the Solomon Islands. That is where I'm going next. But for now, I can only stare at the photos that BIL sends as he sojourns through the islands on his quest to determine the viability of cocoa farming. With a recent hip replacement and a dependence on canoes for water transport, his occasional pain is soothed and even abolished by his sighting of playful dolphins and flying fish. On the subject of flying fish, this is what he has to say to me:
"I was watching the flying fish “fly”. Surely Nature erred here? Flying fish “fly” to escape when being pursued. They leap out of the sea and away they go. Some go prodigious distances. Most don’t. What I don’t understand is that when out of the water they don’t do a sharp left or hang a major right. Or even do a complete 180 turn. Instead they travel in the same straight line. The pursuing fish can’t stop on thruppence. By the time the pursuing fish slows down to say “where did it get to?”, then da-da, the flying fish plops down right in front of it. Exhausted from all that flying!"
I also added two pictures of my own sightings of dolphins in Takalana Bay in Fiji. I'm privileged as a good friend of mine manages Takalana Bay Resort and it only takes a phone call and a bumpy ride to get there in no time (provided you don't get lost because of all the poor road signs leading to it). Seeing these frolicking dolphins are always the highlight of my time spent there.