The heat is on...

..and it is everywhere!!! Oh. My. Dog.

Mexico City is unbearable! It is hot. Hot. Hot. And Happyland, being the last floor of the building, is just crazy!

And then, there are people who say that global warming is a scam. F.... Republicans! They are so stupid! And selfish. And ignorant.

This is nothing but a small rant.... In reality, it is an attempt to get back to the blog, where I have been absent for too long.

A different Africa

Maputo is my entry point to lusophone Africa. Up to this moment, I had only been to Northern Africa and to English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. But the feeling in Mozambique is very different.

The urban planning and design immediately strikes familiar chords in my heart. This actually looks and feels like the world that I am most acquainted with. The streets have side walks and are green with exuberant trees. The common architecture looks strangely familiar. Food is simple, very natural, extremely tasty.

Below the surface, the feeling of the spirit and culture resembles all I have lived and thrived in. The respectful dress code, so common among Latins. The tradition of good, real lunches--as opposed to sandwiches or salads. And the ease of long, pleasant and cherished conversations in small coffee shops.

I have only had a first glimpse of Maputo. But this is a place to come back to.

High as the sky...

Looking from Clifton toward Camps Bay. Feeling the sun on my skin. Hearing the waves break, endlessly, distant, but so close. Lion's Head is right behind us.

I can feel the lawn under my hands. It feels green, fresh. It smells like the sea. Like emotions.

I bury my feet in the sand. The waves keep breaking, endlessly, so close, but distant. If I were to focus on them, capture their energy--I could feed on their blue, fly into the sun.

There is no reason to run, no reason to escape. This velvety feeling--the taste of serenity dripping off my soul.

My spiritual homeland.

Getting ready to hit the road...

...one more time.

My three days in NY were far too short to actually breathe in the city. But the six hours I spent walking around, buying food at the Deli, and hanging out in cool places were quite substantial. It was cold the first day, but then spring the next one--a sudden change that is as much part of NY as a good bagel with Lox cream cheese.

I took the red-eye flight out of NY at midnight on thursday, arriving here before the sun went up on friday. While those flights are a killer, this one actually allowed me to crawl into bed with the raccoon, the Chinese Rat and Kanga-roo, and wake up four hours later, as if I spent the whole night there. That restores the balance in my own private universe.

But, I will be off on monday again. Gone for another two weeks to Africa. My spiritual homeland. But, without the creatures that inhabit Happyland.

I want to wake up...

...in a city that never sleeps... And that is exactly what will happen.
Why is New York so special? Why are we endlessly attracted to this crazy city?
It is, certainly, more vibrant than almost any other city.

Manu, Shaams and I make sure that we go at least once a year. The same way in which the raccoon and I always make it to Cape Town, my sistas and me continue to end up in New York. We walk up and down Manhattan, stroll around the Village and enjoy the green air in Central Park--watching dogs and their pets (who believe to be their owners) run and enjoy.

We never get tired of it. It is never boring. The city hat never sleeps is always exactly that: an endless stream of energetic pulsations, which come up through the ground, fill your veins and explode in your heart.

I am looking forward to it, once again.

Youssou N'Dour

Last night we went to the 12th International Cape Town Jazz Festival, to see Youssou N'Dour perform. He sang Bob Marley's Redemption Song, propelling the crowd into bliss.

In my mind and my heart, Redemption Song is a sweet memory from the first time I came to Cape Town, 11 years ago. That time, I took the ride to Robben Island, to see the cell where Nelson Mandela spent a lifetime before peacefully pushing the apartheid government into extinction. The song was playing on the ferry on our way back, with the bluest sky ever hanging over Table Mountain--the sun light as clear as it can only be in the cape.

Seeing Youssou N'Dour last night was wonderful! Not only does he stand for everything I love in African music, but also for the spirit of Africa, the humility and the human dignity that is so unique to the continent. He is a bit older than I expected. He looks thinner than I thought he would. But he is larger than life.

Getting drunk with very young people...

...in rainy Seattle. This is not something that I would have foreseen. But it was a side effect of being called "the grooviest evaluator" by a class of students on their way out of college and into real life. And it was A LOT OF FUN.

Hanging out with kids that are making up their minds--at least sporadically--about what they want to do for the rest of their lives is compelling. They have the urge to find something meaningful, but the ease of knowing that life is just beginning. They are somehow troubled, but not yet too much, and believe that everything remains to be done, at the same time of being jittery about what the future will bring for each of them, individually.

This particular group, which worked as a Task Force for one of the research/advocacy projects of the PI, was deeply inspired by the work of gropus all over the world, working to hold their governments to account. They were passionate about budgets as a tool for advocacy, and passionate about making change happen. And even if only one of them takes this as a lasting input into what they want to do with their lives, it was worth it.

It also made me think about those people who have been an inspiration to me. Some are gone, many remain. And I have the privilege of working by their side, of building something together with them, and of learning from them. Strangely enough, I don't feel too far away from the Task Force kids--I am happy to say that I am still excited thinking about what life can bring and what changes might happen.

But, I should get drunk more often.