Welcome

CURRENTLY VISITING HAWAII!!

Hawaii

Hawaii
Akaka Falls

See the World for Free

The idea here is to TRAVEL THE WORLD regardless of time or budget. It dawned on me one day that even if I had unlimited time and money (which I definitley do not), I still couldn't see everything in the world that I'd like to see--I'm simply not going to live long enough to do it.

But I had a bit of brain wave and soon after the travel envelope was born. This is an actual physical envelope. I typed the name of every country in the world, plus every state in the US on little slips of paper which I then put into the envelope. In the beginning we (myself, my husband, Dave and daugher Catherine) would draw out a slip at random at the beginning of the month and that's where we would go---at least in our minds. We grab some books about the country from the library and put them in our bathroom to look at. We also check out some videos about the country if any. We check it out on googleearth, listen to the music, try the food, maybe even attempt to learn a dance or celebrate a festival.

After the first two years we discovered that even virtual traveling can be tiring, so we travel now whenever I happen to be in the mood.

It's great fun. I especially love it when people I meet have been to the place I'm "visiting" in real life, or get excited and have some virtual adventures of their own. I hope that anyone who comes across this blog will feel welcome to come with us on the trip!



You have a standing reservation to see it all!

Feb 9, 2012

Pizza oven

Catherine found a book on African cooking. One of the receipes calls for pizza made in a termite mound oven.  Talk about using resources!!  I found this pic on the internet from someone who actually made one. It looks fine--once you sort of get over the idea of what built the oven--it's just a great idea. After all, the bugs aren't there anymore.  Why not?

Feb 6, 2012

Fetish Markets

I read a little of a non-fiction children's book yesterday which successfully avoided mentioning the word "voodoo" but nevertheless seemed to give a pretty good idea of what's behind it. The concept seems fairly simple--there are good and evil forces all around us and in people, animals and objects. The idea is to strengthen the good and weaken the evil. How all the specifics evolved is something else. But I imagine the weirdest and wildest thing to western eyes has got to be the fetish markets.

Here is all the creepy stuff straight from Hollywood. The local priest would know how to use it. The thing that's important to remember is that none of the stuff for sale has any power because it hasn't been blessed yet.  As soon as it IS blessed. Watch out!