Leap of faith

So I suppose this blog doesn't need to be just about my travels, there are other 'somedays', other experiences. In lieu of a true savings goal (no specific trip planned, though I'm putting away a bit of cash each month), I've decided my goal for the moment is to do all of those things I always said I'd get around to doing. To this end, I bought a climbing harness and shoes last month and some basic gear. I'm determined to spend a couple hundred dollars investing in mini-adventures like this. I've only gotten to go climbing once since I bought it, so far, but I did find another use for my harness yesterday.

A few of my friends are engineers. They also are adventure enthusiasts, adrenaline junkies you could say. Combine the two and you get some adventurous, yet rather safe, guys. They figured out last summer how to improvise a sort of bungee jumping system. Rather than that bouncy cord, however, they use climbing rope. This means that you don't bounce once the rope goes taunt, rather you swing like a pendulum. Eight of us got together yesterday morning, drove the hour to an old (unused) train bridge near Pipestone, strapped in, and yelled and screamed all the way down. Actually, I did very little screaming myself, just once choice word as I jumped backwards off the ledge. We also set up a bit differently and jumped from a lower point. Someone had the idea of trying a "superman" jump. Basically, take two harnesses, and put them on backwards, one on your hips and one on your shoulders. Strap in with both so you can hang lying flat out stomach down like superman flying in the old special effects. I tried this off the half jump we set up, no free fall to speak of, just swinging. The guys got a bit more adventurous and superman'd from the top of the bridge, but I don't have pictures of that as I was busy hitting rocks with hammers to make them ring. o.O

There are more pictures in the new album, Adventures in Life. One of the girls with us was planning to write an article for a local magazine possibly using some of my pictures. I'll let ya know when it shows up.

Sequin daydreams

The tea in this village has so much sugar, it is like imbibing liquid candy. Micheal suggested that this is to compensate for the lack of sweets since the village has no shops. The women in Syria often dress in vibrant colors adorned with glitter or sequins. I wonder if they are compensating for the restrictive lifestyles they lead in the name of their religion.

I'm not claiming they subjugated by the men of their lives; I'm not of the opinion that a cultural norm requiring women to dress modestly or cover their hair is something for foreigners to judge as discrimination or abuse. And in Syria, many of the women work outside the home or attend universities living rather independent lives. But I wonder what it must be like to watch American movies knowing they are not socially allowed to live such moments. There is a thrill to going on a date, dancing with someone you've just met, sunbathing, walking around your house naked, or even just feeling a warm wind on your back that is rare at best for women in many cultures. With the ease of communication between societies, satellite TV and foreign movies, Facebook, a woman from a society such as this is now able to see so many of those things only to realize such simple pleasures may not be open to them. I remember how liberating it felt, on the first warm day after I returned home, to walk outside in a tanktop and long cotton skirt and feel the cloth rustling at my feet, the sunshine and the breeze dancing on my shoulders. It was the first time in four months my arms had been bare to the open air and sun.