Year: 2011

Recalling My First Trip

Posted on by Marcia Mayne
El Castillo (pyramidd of Kukulcán) in Chichén Itzá
Image via Wikipedia

April 29, 1974: My first trip – Merida, Yucatan

Each time I think about this trip, I’m amazed that it ever happened. Almost everything that could go wrong did.

I was teaching basic Spanish to 11 year old students in Jamaica when my school received an invitation to take part in a one week trip to Merida, Yucatan. We jumped at the opportunity.

Three students, another teacher and I decided to go. Several weeks before we were scheduled to leave, we sent our passports to the travel agency that was taking care of the arrangements and get us our visas. But when we arrived to pick them up, we discovered that our passports had been destroyed in a fire at the agency. No one had even bothered to inform us.

So while the other students were jetting off to Merida, we were stuck in a police station in Kingston reporting the loss of our travel documents. We would spend the next few days waiting for the police reports, taking new photos, completing new application forms, getting them notarized and resubmitting them to the passport office.

A few weeks later, the 5 of us, passports in hand, we were on our way. We spent 7 wonderful days in Merida.

I’m glad now that I kept a journal because the few photos I have of that trip are so grainy I can hardly make out our faces.

Here’s what I remember:

  • Twisting my ankle in my clogs on the slippery stairs at the hotel.
  • Going to the movies – why we decided to go to do that escapes me now. Saw La Bruja en Amor, Man with Icy Eyes, Red Devils.
  • Going to Progreso Beach, twice.
  • Roberto and Belgio telling me “Te amo” and falling over themselves to show me around.
  • Having liver and onions for breakfast several mornings at a diner near the hotel. I never liked liver but I really enjoyed the way the Mexicans made it, with lots of onions. I tried to make it the same way when  I returned home but it just wasn’t the same. I doubt I’ve eaten liver since.
  • Visiting Chichen Itza. The highlight of the trip
  • Hearing Love’s Theme by Barry White‘s Love Unlimited Orchestra everywhere. It was a big hit that year.
  • Being invited to the home of the owners of a small restaurant, sneaking away when we saw how drunk they were getting. (I wasn’t used to seeing people just sit around and drink.)
  • Being stranded. According to our itinerary, we were scheduled to leave on a 10:15 a.m flight to Montego Bay. We were up and ready at 7:45 a.m. but when we arrived at the airport here was no 10:15 flight and there wasn’t going to be another direct flight to Montego Bay for several days. We were stuck in Merida with little money left. Thankfully, the agency in Merida found us a connecting flight to Miami the next day and paid for us to stay one more night. (I think we all bunked in the same room.) The next morning, we were at the airport long before check-in time. Our flight on Pan American was the best part of the trip. I think we were the only ones on the flight and they fawned over us.

Looking back, I’m surprised we even made it to Merida and I laugh now at all the problems we had. But when I think of trip, I don’t think of any of that. I think of the ruins at Chichen Itza and how they sparked my interest in ancient cultures. Sometimes, I wish I had better photos but the memory of what I saw is etched forever into my brain.

What was your first trip like?

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Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on by Marcia Mayne
Statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. located in K...
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Today, April 4th, marks the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was a young girl living in Jamaica when it happened and I still recall being afraid, even though I was 1,500 miles away. We had heard Dr. King’s message of peace and were saddened to learn of his assassination.

I’m proud to say that Jamaica honored Dr. King posthumously with a Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights in 1968.

I’ve often wondered what impact Dr. King would have had had he lived another 10 or 20 years. We can only speculate.

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Soulful Sundays: The “Barefoot Diva” Cesaria Evora

Posted on by Marcia Mayne
Cesária Évora in conzert (14. November 2009) a...
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I’m listening to one of my favorite singers, Cape Verdean, Cesária Évora. The 69 year old Évora, who has been compared to Billie Holliday, made her first recording in 1988. She has 20 studio albums, compilations and live albums to her credit.

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In this video, Évora sings Angola.

Enjoy!

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Shooting an Elephant

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

I haven’t seen the video and I don’t plan to. But I’m outraged that Go Daddy‘s Bob Parsons even thought of

Hwange Elephant up close - Photo Marcia Mayne

creating one glorifying his recent shooting of an elephant in Zimbabwe.

The arguments he and others like him use to justify this act are old and well worn.

Ditto the arguments the Zimbabwean officials use.

There was so much hope, so much promise in the newly independent Zimbabwe. Instead, it has been saddled with a government that for more than 30 years has been sucking the life out of it. All the economic indicators have fallen and continue to do so. In 2009, when hyperinflation had so devalued its currency, it was forced to stop using it in favor of the South African Rand, UK Pound or the US Dollar.

To use an African saying, “When two elephants fight, the grass suffers.”

Unfortunately, the elephants are now caught in the fight between people, like Parsons, who have deep pockets and corrupt government officials, like the ones in Zimbabwe, that’ll do just about anything to line their own pockets.

Hwange National Park Elephant

It is against this backdrop that Parson has seen fit to pose, wrapped in his suit of arrogance and sense of entitlement, his foot atop the carcass of the elephant he just slaughtered.

That arrogance, that sense of entitlement bothers me because that’s what drive men like Parsons to kill elephants and other animals.

It is that same arrogance, sense of entitlement and unbridled greed that drive Mugabe, and men of his ilk, and cause their own people to suffer needlessly.

Sadly, between the two of them, the elephants won’t have a change. They will continue to be slaughtered.

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An April Fool

Posted on by Marcia Mayne
91/365 Happy April Fools Day!
Image by Mykl Roventine via Flickr

Who says the folks at WordPress aren’t fun?

When I logged in today, I noticed that I had almost 300 visitors. Which post could have caused so many people to stop by my blog, I wondered.

The next time I logged back in, my stats were normal.

I didn’t get it until my mouse hovered over today’s count and I saw it: It’s April Fool’s.

Of course!

So if you’ve somehow forgotten what date it is and you’ve noticed a spike in your stats, it’s WP’s way of  playing an April Fool’s joke on you.

Smile, it’s April 1st.

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I Wasn’t Sure I Could Do It

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

I must admit, I wasn’t sure I could do it – post everyday for a week, let alone a year but I was willing to try.

I like a challenge.

But I’d taken on challenges before….

I don’t think of the year. I think of a day at a time.

Sometimes, ideas come quickly and often, other times not so.

Sometimes, I bang out several hundred words in no time flat. At other times, a few hundred seem to take an eternity to emerge.

Used to being more comfortable behind the scenes, I’m learning how to bare myself to the scrutiny of others and not become paralyzed by my fear that they won’t like what I say, think I’m a fraud or worry when they don’t comment.

And they’ve been surprisingly (to me) generous, receptive and supportive.

Now posting everyday has become a habit I don’t want to break. (I’m writing this as I wait to see a movie.) Three months just flew by!

There’s no prize at the end of the year, just the sense of accomplishment I know I’ll have.

Thanks to my blog buddies and everyone else whose comments have encouraged and propelled me forward.

To the next milestone.

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Content Block?

Posted on by Marcia Mayne
Collaborative writing exercises—such as the cl...
Image via Wikipedia

Is this content block?

For the first time since I started this challenge to post everyday in 2011, I don’t have a topic I want to write about.

I have a few ideas but I haven’t had the time to develop them as I’m in the middle of two writing projects – one with a fast approaching deadline.

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that the ideas aren’t popping as fast or as furious as they usually do. And for some reason, I’m not feeling any of the suggested DailyPost topics.

So rather than break my perfect postaday2011 record, I’m writing and hoping to clear my head because all I can think of is my deadline.

I can’t wait to get back to writing about my travels.

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Using your cell phone to take photos? (via Inside-Out)

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

It is incredible how cavalierly these companies put sensitive information into people’s hands without even a word of warning.

 I love to take photos but was unaware of the risk involved when you take photos with your cell phone and post them online (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) Unless you go into the GPS settings and turn off the tracking option, the location of the photo you just took is visible to the public. Take a look at these videos that sum up the risks and offer solutions to the problem. htt … Read More

via Inside-Out

Daily Post: Do You Prefer Talking to Text Messaging?

Posted on by Marcia Mayne
Texting on a keyboard phone
Image via Wikipedia

I definitely prefer talking to text messaging unless I’m in a setting where its impossible to have a phone conversation.

While text messages are great, they go only so far. They can’t tell me if I’ve made the person I’m communicating with upset, uncomfortable, insulted or angry.

When we speak face to face, we pick up visual cues and listen for audible cues to assess how the conversation is going.  Text messaging removes those cues and places the burden on abbreviated words to convey a range of emotions and intentions.

Unless my message is obviously funny, is a smiley face or LOL telling the recipient to laugh or that I’m laughing. (Although every time I see LMAO, I can’t help laughing out loud at the image it conjures up.)

And those abbreviations don’t work on my non-English speaking friends.

Sometimes, like today, after looking at the 20-odd messages that passed between a friend and I, I wondered, wouldn’t it have been better to just pick up the phone and talk?

That’s the other thing text messaging eliminates – the sound of peoples’ voices.

Frankly, all this technology keeps us separated in our own little worlds. I wouldn’t mind a little more face time with my friends.

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