What I took to Africa 1

Photo art by Clara G. Herrera
These are two photos I took to capture what I took to Africa and to climb Kilimanjaro.

Medium: Open globe, dresses of my son, the ABCs.
Title: The World Is Not Broken, The People Are
Enriching music: Conquer the World, Youssou Ndour; Around The World, Daft Punk

A Dark House

Title: A Dark House

Medium: Canvas, acrylic paint, crushed egg shells with black tempera paint, glue

By: Clara G. Herrera

Enriching music: Own House, MisterWives; Our House, Madness

Pardon me ma’am, would you like a little feces to go with your water?

Climbing Kilimanjaro I

By Clara G. Herrera

Here's 2 Oxymorons I: Dirty Water       
By Clara G. Herrera 

I am not thirsty.

I can’t remember ever having been parched, cottonmouth, and unable to quench my palate.

I never worry about my water source. Just go to the kitchen tap or a water fountain, or the ever-present water bottle we all carry around, and drink my fill.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about water a lot, which is kinda weird and isn’t at the same time.

Two months ago, I signed up to help Water to Thrive achieve their 10-year anniversary goal of building 1,000 clean water wells in rural Africa by year’s end.

In truth, I’m really not doing much, just taking pledges while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with a bunch of other Texans to show our support for clean water. Our trips are all privately paid, so any pledges you make go straight to Water to Thrive.

But the whole mental exercise has made me have water on the brain. I’m an elementary school science and writing teacher in real life, so it’s not at all unusual to end the school year drained, parched, and with a bit of hydrocephalus even if it’s imagined and will evaporate by summer’s end.

But, I thought perhaps part of my liquid journey is to learn how fortunate I am, and teach my students how fortunate they are.

No one I know personally has to worry if their water is safe to drink.

I am thankful I’m not one of the 2 billion people that the World Health Organization estimates use a water source contaminated by feces.

I grateful that my students and their families in Austin, TX don’t have to worry if their water will cause cholera, or other diarrhea-related diseases as a result of unsafe drinking water, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Come this fall, I know that my 60+ students will happily enter my classroom with bottles filled with fearless water. My job is to teach. My life is to learn.

There are few things I am certain of in life. Today, there are two that I am.

One is climbing that mountain, and taking these pledges will help at least one African child that I will likely never meet.

And two, I already have a deeper appreciation of water, and my experiences to come will help me teach my students - children more fortunate than those who I will meet in Africa - just how lucky they are. I am a learner, but I am also a teacher.

Aren’t we all?

Here's 2 Oxymorons II: Clean Water
By Clara G. Herrera

 

Here's 2 Oxymorons I & II

Here's 2 Oxymorons I: Dirty Water
By Clara G. Herrera
Medium: acrylic, chalk, canvas, water

Here's 2 Oxymorons II: Clean Water
By Clara G. Herrera
Medium: acrylic, chalk, canvas, water

My observation: This is the same canvas, same water, different outcome within a few seconds. The same is different. H20. Perspective.

A cool day

(Enriching music: Joy and Pain by Rob Base and DJ E Z Rock) 

Life is magnetic: Attract, repel, Yin,Yang, up, down, happy, sad, laugh, cry, quizzical, certain, joy, pain, sunshine, rain, kinetic and potential. 


In short, it is a wonderful roller coaster.

It is like Texas weather. Wait a moment, and it will change.

The other day I wrote about a day without baseball and it was not a cool day. Both days were an analogy. The other day was not cool as today was very cool. On those not cool days, I think about how there are so many that will be wonderful and bottle them in my mind. Thus is the juxtaposition we call life.    

For every negative, there is always a positive under all circumstances. You just have to see it, imbibe it, and know it is there.

Today, my birthday, was one of those. I had many hugs from children, songs, flowers, cards, gifts, and in short, love. I got "glitter bombed". This is a tradition I have with my students. On their birthdays, I surprise them and dump glitter confetti over their heads. Now, when students see glitter on the floor, they just ask: "Whose birthday was it?" They see it in someone's hair and say, "Happy Birthday." Today was mine. I felt much more glitter on the inside. It was light and joyful.

In this vein, I posted an art piece I am just beginning. Do you know what it is?  Of course not. But I do. I see it there. I know the positive beneath the stripes. There's a monkey on it playing cymbals. The cymbals are symbols. Do you fathom its potential?

See the positive potential in everything.

Not a cool day

Today was not a cool day. All I wanted was a baseball game to see my son play and not have to think abut anything but baseball. It was rained out. We all have those days. There are many things I would post here if I were not a public school teacher. Perhaps, someday, I will. For now, as we all should, I think of the positives: My children are safe. I got many hugs from students and children. I have wonderful friends who grok me. My birthday is coming up. I'm continuing to DO. Art and writing continue. I am not bored! I will take challenges over boredom any day!

This art piece is coming along. I was happy with the new medium I used, tempera paint, dry, glue, and egg shells in part of it. There is also broken glass, acrylic. It's not finished yet. I have a few more things to add.  Moving forward!

Always learning

Besides seeing the Falcon Heavy launch into space live with my students and teaching them about geology and rock formation, I learned a new word: epistemology. Great, meaty, word.

Now I feel as if I should write an epistle on epistemology.