This is what I've done for weeks. Knitting & collaging. I did it between my shifts, on my days off, before I go to sleep, on my way to somewhere, while calling my bestfriends, anywhere. Recently I'm working with another yarns. Orange one!
I learned how to make a collage too and turns out that I am easily frustrated with repetitive shape. At first, I thought it was me that didn't get used to piles of papers to work on, but later on when I did it at home, I knew that it was the SCISSORS. Boo-Hoo.
Thanks to Ika Vantiani for the collaboration on her piece. (click on pictures for larger image & original post). I did the drawing part, she did the collage. I always wonder how she could cut all those pieces in exactly the same size. M-m-m-m-a-a-a-r-r-r-v-v-v-e-e-e-l-l-l-o-o-u-s-s-s-s!! You could get the art prints here
I printed out some postcards out of pictures from my last trip to Bangkok and already gave it to my cousin on her birthday.
Having a dream and facing a reality in the other hand will always be in everyone's life. Either he's a Nelson Mandela or a high school student. So does with William Kamkwamba. He was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery (seems not-so-strange-situation in Indonesia, eh?). And also a land, where drought and hunger collide. In other words it's just simply a place where hope and opportunity are hard to find. This William had read a lot about windmills in a book called "Using Energy" and he dreamed of building one, so that he could bring electricity and water to his village. As we know, a road to good is always paved with bad intentions, William's neighbors may have mocked him and called him "misala" (or crazy, in English), but he was determined to show them what a little grit and ingenuity could do.
As a boy he's easily attracted by the workings of electricity, so he set a goal to study science in Malawi top boarding school. But in 2002, his country was stricken with a famine that left his family's farm devastated (this is how his family gain some money for a living). Unable to pay William's tuition fee, which costs them 80 dollar a year, he was forced to drop out and help his family gathering food to eat as thousands slowly starved and died. Yet William refused to let go of his dreams. With nothing more than a fistful of corn meal in his stomach, a small pile of science textbooks and extra curiosity, he embarked on a daring plan to bring his family a set of luxuries. In the meantime, only 2 percents of Malawian could afford what west world considers a necessity: running water and electricity. Using only scrap metals, tractor parts and bicycle halves, William succeed in built a crude yet operable windmill. This small miracle could powered four lights, completed with a home made switchers and a circuit breaker made from nails and wire. Then came a second machine that turned a water pump that could battle the drought and famine in every season. William called his little magic: magetsi a mphepo (electric wind, they may say).
(photos taken from http://blog.goods4good.org)
Soon, his little magic spread beyond the borders of his home and the boy who was once called misala became an inspiration.
xxx
What I like about reading a memoir, is their wits that closely related to their daily life or even a specific culture. This is what I considered (sometimes) hard to find in fictional works. Or if they existed, it may sounds a bit artificial or being pushed in, so they could go along the stories. But, here's what I found in "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind"
"One of the seasonal workers Uncle John hired to help with planting and harvesting was named Mister Phiri, a man of near-heavenly strength. Uncle John didn't even use tractors to clear the land and trees. Instead he sent Phiri, who was so powerful he'd walk from tree to tree and rip them from the earth as if they were weeds. Everyone knew Phiri's secret was mangolomera, a form of magic that delivered superhuman strength. Mangolomera was the ultimate self-defense, a king of vaccine against weakness. Only the strongest wizards in the district could administer this potion -a kind of paste made from the burned and ground bones of leopards and lions and mixed with roots and herbs. The medicine was rubbed into small incisions made on each knuckle, usually by a magic razor. Once mangolomera was in your blood, it could never be reversed and was always gaining strength"(p.39)
The story about the windmill is now made into a full-length documentary. Can't wait to see them, hope it would turned out like Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars and Black Gold, which I like it so much.
I watched this videos on Mr. Kamkwamba's blog, he showed us how he built the windmill and I watched it over and over and over again. I don't know why I feel the same, as if we shared the passions of struggle to get something we really wanted.
He said "maybe someday you watched this on the internet. I said to you: TRUST YOURSELF AND BELIEVE, WHATEVER HAPPENED DON'T GIVE UP."
Every morning I bumped to this book at the "Gift Ideas" section in my workplace, then one morning I decided to take a quick preview. It's interesting though, to explain something bitter in our life in a scientific terms. I thought it would be that hard (imagining those quantum leaps thingy and so on), but as I leafed through the page, I found this book more a self-help book, than a scientific explanation. Maybe you should try to look at the quotes below:
"Why do things have to fall?
Wouldn't be great if when you dropped things they just hung in midair where you'd just left them?
Falling is a real pain in the butt, especially if that's where we land. But if nothing ever fell, if there were no up and no down, we would not exist. Nor would any of the planets and stars in the heavens above us."
-"Why Sh*t Happens: The Science of a Really Bad Day", Peter J. Bentley, Ph.D., page 185
*Dang!*
Sounds so familiar. I stopped reading at that point and couldn't stop thinking how's Mr. Bentley could read my mind. Ha ha.
The loved one gave me this set of woodcut knife on my last birthday and not to forget to mention the hardboard (that already cutted in smaller pieces). With his tutorial and his mouthwatering woodcutting equipments (yeah, he's got those super cool Japanese set with rubber grip. I envy you, boy), I tried to make my own woodcut. Different from knitting, that sometimes took days to finished a single project, I can finished it within hours. He took my woodcut to his place and stayed for months there.
Few months later, he sent me these...the woodcut prints! He said he gave away my prints to an Australian artist, who's going to go back to her country and make some Indonesian woodcut prints exhibition. A bit cheerful I am. I think his town is the most supportive art scene I've ever known, really good for art piece exchange to and from all over the world.
Diesem Nachmittag kam Fr. Vantiani nach dem Laden, Ich war in der Schicht. Überraschung! Sie brachte viele interessante Knöpfe, Filzeblumen und Geschenke...für mich. La la la la.
Hier (und oben), was sie brachte:
Unbewußtlich (sagte sie) sind alle gelb.
After two years (or more) have a narrow, stuffed desk, this morning I succeed cleaning up those clutters! I moved my PC to its proper place (since I'm using the laptop more often), stored some two knick knack boxes in the drawer under the desk and tadaaaa...all I got is wide open space for crafting, drawing, writing or even day dreaming.
My first knitted plush toy, finally! I got the patterns from Mochi-mochi land and finished the back and front sides 6 months ago...and just stuffed it a month ago! *dang!* what a procrastinator I am.
Once divided, nothing left to subtract
Some words when spoken, can't be taken back
Walks on his own, with thoughts he can't help thinking
Future's above, but in the past he's slow and sinking
Caught a bolt 'a lightnin', cursed the day he let it go
Nothingman...
Isn't it something?
-Pearl Jam
***
Bulan purnama semalam mengirimkan pelukan hangatku untuk sahabat dan kakak perempuanku yang jauh. Ini idenya untuk jatuh di pelukan Eddie Vedder dan Vedder sukses menggantikan Cobain yang bertahan selama seminggu :)
"Peluk dia dari jauh, dia mungkin bisa merasakan kehangatannya"
