http://haskinphoto.com/eeindex.php/site/index/ en julia@haskinphoto.com Copyright 2008 2008-08-04T10:10:00-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/wasnt_squished/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/wasnt_squished/#When:10:10:00Z I’m writing this from our accomodation in Lusaka on the last day before we head off again.  We’re staying at a place called Nena’s Guest House and Restaurant, which is quite nice, particularly in that their campsite rentals includes a tent, much bigger than the one we’re carrying with us.  We head up to Kapiri Mposhi tomorrow morning early, there to catch the Tazara train to Dar es Salaam.  I’m really looking forward to this train journey - I’ve heard very good things about it. Wednesday to Saturday of this last week was given over to our canoeing safari.  I can’t do justice to how wonderful the trip was in the few minutes I have to update.  Apart from one too-close call with a hippo who took umbrage at our canoe and decided to try to tip us over (it didn’t quite succeed, but I can say with first-hand honesty that a hippo at six feet away is a remarkably large animal), everything was easy and beautiful.  Seeing my first wild elephants was (though it may sound cliched to say so) aboslutely magical.  I had no real conception of how wonderful it would be because I had no real conception of just *how* different elephants in a zoo are from elephants in the wild.  I mean, I knew that they were different, but not how different.  And we saw so many!  One group of five bull elephants cut us off from our canoes during a lunch break and came close to drowning my camera with their splashing around; I wouldn’t really have minded if they had, because it was so incredible to see them so close. I’m sorry that I can’t give a more complete update right now, but the last few weeks have been too packed to do justice to in a short sitting.  I will write more when we get back, obviously.  Only two or three more countries to go!  Actually, I can’t believe how much time we have left.  I had expected the seven weeks to fly by, but they haven’t.  They’ve progressed at quite a normal rate, possibly because we’ve spent so much time crammed into uncomfortable minibuses.  :-) Anyway, I hope that everyone is doing well, and I look forward to hearing how your summers have gone when I get back! P.S.  I haven’t been able to find postcards anywhere except in South Africa, where I only bought two because I thought I’d be able to find them everywhere.  So if you haven’t received one yet, that’s why!  I’m hoping that there will be more to hand in Tanzania. 2008-08-04T10:10:00-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/still_moving/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/still_moving/#When:12:30:01Z (Copied from an email I sent to my mom.) ----------- And, as a further update, we’re now in Mozambique.  We arrived in Maputo last night at about 7 p.m. and found a hostel - Fatima’s - where we’re staying tonight as well.  We walked around Maputo this morning and I think I’ll suggest that we go for a wander again this afternoon; I’m trying to work up the courage to use my camera.  It’s hard - I don’t want to feel too much like a tourist or make myself too much of a “mark”, but at the same time, I don’t want to NOT take photos!  ::shrug:: Tomorrow we’re going to get up really early (taxi at about 5:30 a.m.) to go out to the bus station and catch a bus to Vilankulo, a long (12 hour) slog up the coast.  We’ll stay there a couple of nights, hopefully, and get a chance to go snorkeling (maybe) in the Marine Reserve there.  Then it’s onwards, in a series of long days on buses, up to the Ilha de Mocambique, where we’ll stay for a few days, assuming everything goes right!  :-) It’s good here, but what with sleeping in the dorms and spending days on buses, I’m feeling pretty tired already.  I’m looking forward to getting up to the Ilha and having a few days of down time.  Who knew that traveling was so exhausting? 2008-07-13T12:30:01-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/were_here/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/were_here/#When:15:12:00Z Just a quick note to let everyone know that we got safely to Africa.  We’ve just spent a lovely down down in Royal Natal Park, hiking to a gorge called Devil’s Tooth Gully, and spent most of today getting back up here to Jo’burg, from where we’ll depart for Mozambique tomorrow, hopefully! 2008-07-11T15:12:00-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/off_we_go/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/off_we_go/#When:15:39:00Z Our plane for Africa departs tomorrow evening.  Today I have done the first run of packing.  Keeping in mind that I have never been backpacking before, not really… Geez, backpacks can be heavy suckers!  And I don’t really know what I could drop to lessen the weight.  The three single-most heavy things in my bag are my sleeping pad (an inflatable one - not even self-inflatable, so no extra weight of foam or anything like that), my camera, and my tripod.  The first I’m not sure that I could sleep without, the second is non-negotiable, and the third, I’m not willing to give up, since I want my photos to turn out!  A is going to carry the tent… I guess it’s just a matter of getting used to it. Anyway, other than that, everything is in order.  We took our first malaria tablets this morning and I am glad to report no ill side-effects.  That’s a relief; I had been worried that I might be one of those people for whom taking the tablets is comparable or worse than actually getting malaria!  :-) Wish us luck, everyone!  I’ll update on here when and if I get the chance, but I doubt it will be anything extended.  So you’ll have to wait until September until the reports start coming back! I’m off to Africa! 2008-07-07T15:39:00-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/gre/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/gre/#When:07:58:01Z I went into London yesterday and took my GRE.  Thanks to the wonders of computer-based testing, I got my results for the math and verbal sections straightaway; the writing sections still have to be read.  Out of a possible 800 apiece, I got: 560 on the maths 740 on the verbal I’m pretty darn happy with these scores.  I’ll still probably take it again, because I think I can do better, and I’m almost positive that my writing score is going to be awful, but overall, it’s a lot better than I was expecting.  :-) 2008-07-03T07:58:01-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/exercising_my_citizenship/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/exercising_my_citizenship/#When:09:21:00Z I wrote to my Congressman yesterday.  (Well, I actually messed up and wrote to two Congressmen, of whom only one is actually my Congressman.) I wrote to encourage him to stand up against the renewed push towards drilling in the Arctic Refuge and offshore, and instead to put more emphasis on alternative/renewable energies.  I received a response - an actual response from an actual Congressman (it wasn’t from the one who actually represents me, but hey, it’s something).  It wasn’t a form letter from a staffer!  And I wrote back this morning, in greater depth.  And do you know how fantastic it feels to think that I’m having some say, no matter how small, in the way things are run?  Pretty bloody fantastic, let me tell you! 2008-06-24T09:21:00-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/zen_and_the_art_of_travelling/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/zen_and_the_art_of_travelling/#When:10:37:01Z We’re leaving for Africa two weeks from tomorrow.  And you know what I’m spending most of my time doing?  Trying not to think about it.  I’m really quite nervous, and every time I think about it (like right now), I end up with a knot or two or fifteen in my stomach. I’ve never been tents-camping.  (I’ve been snow camping, but somehow I doubt that will be a skill transferable to Africa.) I’ve never really been backpacking at all.  I’m never been to Southern Africa.  I’ve never been travelling for more than a couple of weeks.  I’ve never been somewhere where there’s a real risk of catching a dread disease or getting caught up in a tense situation.  I’ve never done any travelling where I didn’t have *any* places to stay booked in advance. … And this is our honeymoon.  ::shaking her head:: I mean, it’s going to be great, I’m sure.  I know that I’ll come back amazed by the experience, hopefully with lots of lovely photos to show for it.  I’m fully expecting it to be wonderful through and through.  But that doesn’t mean that I’m not nervous. … Oh yeah.  And I have to take the GRE in a week and a bit.  Ohbloodyhell.  2008-06-23T10:37:01-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/carbon_emissions/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/carbon_emissions/#When:18:42:00Z A few days ago, a friend posted the following comment on this blog: “Recently I heard on NPR that of the entire total sum of human carbon emissions, driving personal cars makes up 10%.  This really shocked me since so much effort is made to have people drive less.  This essentially means to me that if everyone started walking and sold their cars today, we would still be at 90% of our carbon emissions.  I’m not sure what makes up that 90%, it wasn’t addressed—factories? air planes?  Whatever it is though, while we should all try to drive less of course, I think we should be much more aggressive about stopping that source!  I was thinking of you actually, and wondering if you know what the main causes of carbon output besides driving are . . .” I’m currently reading Jeffrey Sachs’ Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, and was happy to run across the exact answer to my friend’s question whilst reading tonight.  In Chapter 4, Table 4.1, Sachs gives the breakdown of the total carbon dioxide emissions in 2007, extrapolated from 2005 data from the International Energy Agency.  The burning of fossil fuels, according to Sachs, accounts for 81% of all carbon dioxide emissions, of which the creation of electricity causes 32%, industry causes 22%, transportation (including personal) causes 18%, residential (i.e. fires, furnaces, etc.) causes 6%, and commercial emissions causes 3%.  The 19% of carbon dioxide emissions not caused by fossil fuel consumption is accounted for in deforestation. So what this means is that transportation is the fourth largest (of six) emitter of carbon dioxide, with 10% (according to NPR) coming from personal transport.  It’s true that ten percent isn’t that much.  My inclination is to believe that the push towards personal car use reduction stems from a “give them something they can deal with” approach to educating the public about personal responsibility for environmental action.  You know, people in power thinking that they can’t overwhelm us, or perhaps not wanting to threaten the industries that fund all of their campaigns by bringing constituents’ attention to the problems in industry.  Or maybe it comes from the other side - what are Americans if not consumers, after all, so push for them to consume less or, at least, differently.  “Go green.” So, in light of the fact that electricity is such a larger emitter, perhaps there should be an equally-large, if not larger, push to encourage Americans to go for green energy plans. Or should there be? Another book I read recently, Judith Levine’s Not Buying It had a quote which struck me: “If I am a consumer first and last, all I can do to better the world is consumer more responsibly - ‘buy green,’ invest in socially responsible businesses, and buy less.  The other choice I have is to reject consumer as my sole role and reclaim my other public identity: citizen.” We can choose the Prius.  We can choose Ecotricity, or whatever green tariff our local energy supplier has.  We can drive less, and turn off more lights in our houses.  And we should.  Every little helps.  BUT… we shouldn’t stop there. Instead, we should become citizens again.  It’s been obvious of late (see the abysmal voter turnouts in the last several elections) that, for whatever reason, citizens aren’t acting like full citizens.  Perhaps we are understandably disenchanted with governance that seems determined to pander to a few, divide the rest, and to assume the lowest common denominator of its citizens.  Perhaps we don’t vote because, really, what can one individual vote do?  But that’s not how America has always been!  We are taught to revere the Founding Fathers as men who fought and won a revolution because they felt their voices weren’t being heard by their government.  Women banded together and won the vote; African-Americans banded together and ended segregation.  We are a nation founded on idealism and stubbornness and individual, collective action.  We can still be so!  So instead of just buying a Prius, buy a Prius (or a bicycle), talk to all of your friends and coworkers and people who help you and Facebook contacts and everyone else about how great your Prius (or bicycle!) is, and then send a letter to your senators and representatives urging them to force greater fuel efficiency measures onto the auto industry (and urge them to push a bicycle-lane structure into your local area), and sign all those petitions that get shoved your way about autos, and attend local government meetings and speak up about how your city should pass a congestion and emissions charge like London, or whatever scratches your auto/bicycle/public transport itch. And instead of just buying the wind-power option, buy the wind-power option, do all the yammering to everyone, and then start pushing HARD for greater investment in R&D for alternative energy.  I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: humans are incredibly ingenious.  The technology already exists to squeeze much greater efficiency out of our current energy structure - push to have it applied.  But equally, the intelligence and imagination is undoubtedly out there to find new ways of powering things, ways that don’t burn fossil fuels and don’t depend on the fossil fuel chain (as biofuels currently do) and that won’t cause mass extinctions or altered wind patterns or even ugly landscapes.  That intelligence and imagination needs to be drawn to work on this problem if it’s not already there, and one good way to draw people in is to pay them.  So make sure more money - LOTS more money - gets put into the research sector.  And then help make sure that the results are applied quickly. A citizen is not just a voter, nor just a consumer, but a member of society.  Movements happen when like-minded people find each other and start talking and doing about the thing they believe in, regardless of the scorn/derision/hatred of those who disagree with them.  Let’s keep this movement moving!  It’s important to remember, however, that not everyone prioritizes everything the same, even if they are of like minds.  Some people might find the plight of the polar bears or the national parks more engaging than climate change or famine.  We can’t insist that everyone focus on any one goal.  They are all under the same umbrella.  Decide which is the most important to you and put the vast majority of your energy towards that.  Save a little to support others’ causes (petitions, anyone?), and remember to occasionally raise your eyes from your specific cause to the grander scale.  Don’t lose the forest for the trees, or something like that.  But most importantly, keep moving! 2008-06-10T18:42:00-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/and_relax/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/and_relax/#When:10:19:00Z I just passed the theory portion of my UK driving test!  Including the annoying “hazard perception” portion, which disqualified one of my clips because I clicked the mouse too many times.  I now have two years to pass the practical portion, so I’m not going to worry about it until after we get back from Africa; I have plenty to do between now and then, what with the GRE and all. 2008-06-10T10:19:00-05:00 http://haskinphoto.com/site/a_month_from_yesterday/ http://haskinphoto.com/site/a_month_from_yesterday/#When:10:50:00Z A and I went out and bought our tent for Africa this last weekend.  We bought an Octance 2 tent from Blacks, which looks to be a good balance between size and weight.  We’re both a little nervous about this, as neither of us has really spent much/any time camping, but I’m sure that after seven weeks in Africa, we’ll be fine! I’m also going to get a good tripod to take with me.  I’ve been wanting a good one for years - I love low-light shots but have shaky hands.  This is a probably the best time to get it, as I want to make sure I have lots of wonderful photos from this trip!  It’s also a great time to get one because my wonderful mom and grandfather have offered to cover the cost.  ::grin::  I’m going to get a Velbon Sherpa Pro tripod with a Manfrotto ball-and-socket head.  Overall, what with the tripod and the head and the 30-year-old, metal-body camera and all the film, my photo equipment is going to be by far the heaviest things in my backpack, but, again, how often am I going to make a trip like this? We went down to London last Wednesday and dropped our passports and visa applications off at the Kenyan embassy.  All being well, they should be in the mail back to us today.  We probably won’t be getting any other visas before we go, as our plans are flexible and so we aren’t really sure where we’re going to go. Looking at the state of things now, we’re probably going to follow something like the following route: fly into Jo’burg.  Leave South Africa pretty much immediately.  Head up the Mozambique coast, possibly stopping in to visit a friend’s daughter, who lives there.  Cross over into Malawi, thence to Zambia.  Canoe trip on the Zambezi (note: don’t annoy the hippos).  Train from Kapiri Mposhi up to Dar es Salaam.  Zanzibar.  Travel along the northern part of Tanzania, past Kilimanjaro (but not up it), into Uganda.  Out of Uganda, down through Kenya, out of Nairobi.  Three days after arriving back in the UK, travel up north for some friends’ wedding.  Eat lots and lots of food there, and enjoy sleeping on real beds. I’m finally starting to get excited about this trip.  Before now I hadn’t been too bothered, mostly because it seemed so remote and impossible.  Now, however - we leave in less than a month!  And we’ve bought a tent.  I mean, we must be going somewhere if we’ve bought a tent, right? As mentioned before, our plans are very flexible.  The one thing we definitely do not want to do is rush too much, try to fit too much in.  One of my big failings is a tendency to look towards the future too much, to the detriment of my experience of the present.  So I’m going to try my best to be very conscious and in-the-moment, and not to worry about what’s going to happen next or where we’re going to go next or how we’re going to get there.  That’s one reason (for me, at least) that I haven’t been pushing to plan more for this trip.  Up until just a week ago, all we really had was the arrival date and departure date; now we have a date to enter Kenya.  We still don’t really have much of anything in between, and that’s fine by me.  It’s good for me, too.  ::grin:: 2008-06-09T10:50:00-05:00