an ordinary day

Sea lions lounging on Espanola, Galapagos Islands Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

The link above goes to my Galapagos Islands Photo Gallery. I like its layout and there are some decent shots in there, I think. Now if I can only start to sell more of my photos, like I do my writing! :)

Today I took my friends' girls and my kids to play mini-golf in a glow-in-the-dark place, and then we went to Movie Tavern to watch Kung Fu Panda again. It was fun to see them all together hanging out. They don't all know each other super well so they were getting to know one another, which was cute. I love kids.

I am still feeling a bit mellow and actually quite tired having just given up the caffeine (I hope the energy returns soon!). I've been enjoying lounging around a lot and working in my bed, or outside, or at Starbucks rather than in my office. In fact, I've decided I absolutely HATE having a desktop computer because it chains me to my desk, and we all know this free bird hates to be chained in any way shape or form!! I bought this desktop last year with this big fancy flatscreen monitor - which I do love - but the problem is, I love to move around the house and work and I can't do that with a desktop! I can move stuff back and forth between this and my (old old piece of junk) laptop, but it's a pain in the patootie. Plus my Outlook email is only on my desktop, so that is the thing I often like to catch up on while (multi-tasking) watching a video or sitting somewhere else besides in my office! I'm seriously going to have to buy a new laptop soon.

However, I also want to buy a Sony PD-150 videocamera to start shooting some random footage for a documentary. Where is all this money going to come from? Should I willingly choose to go into debt?! Ha ha!

crazy universe

My beautiful friend Paige at her amazing wedding which I shot the pics for!
(c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

Boy the universe is sending out some crazy stuff to so many friends right now - marriage and relationship struggles, breakups, illnesses, stress, struggles. It's just a rough, tough time. We need prayer warriors! For the most part, I am doing very well and am grateful for that. The pic above is a friend who is actually not one experienceing that craziness, just a photo I wanted to share, with her permission! She and I had homebirths with the same midwife, Shelly Girard (I made her website ages ago) and have known each other since our babies were babies.

To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I just finished a project and that always feels great! I was hoping I'd have some time now to work on my book - I have 12 months now to write it - but then a couple other things came up, but soon I will be working on my book! However, right now I'm going to take a break and watch a documentary because my brain is completely sick of sharks... even though I think they're incredibly awesome! But that's what working nonstop on them for days will do to ya. Sending love and light to everyone.

I watched Emmanuel's Gift the other day, which Oprah narrates. The story about the man is truly inspiring but the doco itself was so-so. It was good, but it left some questions unanswered and didn't flow as fast as some of the documentaries I've seen lately. The cinematography was gorgeous though. Every scene was like a National Geographic photograph. The man, Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was born with one leg deformed, yet went on to become a world class athlete, and he biked across Ghana to raise awareness for the something like 10% of their society that have deformities or are disabled (2 million people), so that they can have more normal lives and not beg. He since got an artificial leg in the and spends his time inspiring people, and raising money and awareness for them. The guy is going to end up winning the Nobel Peace Prize one day, mark my words. And if you didn't know, the name Emmanuel means "God with us."

Kids with Cameras

My best friend Daline had mentioned this documentary to me when we traveled to Peru, because the kids loved the cameras so much, and I finally got to watch it. When in Diamante, Peru we spent time outside showing them how to shoot the camera, and they showed us how to shoot a bow and arrow! I loved these kids. They had such amazing smiles and personalities! I sent back copies of photos to their community. Wonder what they thought of them...

Anyway so the doco Born into Brothels - which won the Academy Award - is an incredible story of a woman photographer who goes into the red light district of Calcutta India and befriends the children of the prostitutes there, and teaches them photography. Ultimately she is able to get a few of them into a couple of different boarding schools and also to sell their photos as art to raise money for their educations. During the film, one boy, Avijit, got selected to travel to Amsterdam to represent India in a photo show. The whole story is truly amazing. The woman, Zana Briski started a nonprofit organization Kids with Cameras which has now expanded into other countries. You can buy the prints of the images the kids shot with their cameras, and the website has updates on how the kids are doing now. So cool. It's so inspiring to me how they went in there and just through their love touched the lives of these kids. There has been some criticism by one guy involved in the film saying that the kids' lives were not improved, etc but I don't see how he can say that. He must be disgruntled in some way. I'm sure several of the kids perhaps are back there and you never know what they're doing but several of them have made changes and been given opportunities that they never would have had. It's a gritty and heart-wrenching yet ultimately very inspirational story. You so want everything to work out for these kids.

On another note my friend Elise just left and I have never laughed so hard in all my life. We are hatching up a great plan for a parody on a popular reality sitcom show which I'll keep to myself for now, and we have been dying laughing so hard tonight my throat is sore!!! That pic to the left is her at my house this evening - she was cracking me up with her hood!

God grew tired of us

Today I saw three birds in a tree that I wouldn't have noticed had I not been outside, watching. I felt the wind whoosh and saw it toss about the trees and bushes and leaves in the ever-darkening sky. I saw a boy so decrepit and bone-thin and absent in the eyes that I thought he was dead. Until he moved his mouth. Some survived. Many didn't.

God Grew Tired of Us documents the journey of some of the Lost Boys, a group of Sudanese refugees that fled their country first to Ethiopia, and then to Kenya. They fled Sudan because of a war in which the northern neighbors were killing all boys in the south, or sometimes they would sterilize them by poking holes in their testes. Many died as they fled, starved as they crossed through the desert without any food or water. They drank pee to survive. The footage of living skeletons from their initial journey was gut-wrenching. The name of this documentary comes from what the young Sudanese man, a Christian, said as he described how he felt when he was younger; as a boy fleeing he'd felt maybe God had grown tired of them, of people, and of the horrible things they have done on the earth to each other. He thought maybe he wanted to just wipe them from the land. These were his thoughts as a young boy that he was recalling now as a young man in America. The doco tracks the lives of several of these translocated refugees as they acclimated to life in America. It's brilliant, and sad, and poetic, and moving. Nicole Kidman narrates and the footage is in some places humorous, and some places gut-wrenchingly sad. It also shines a light on some of the negative aspects of American culture - subtly - by showing how for example in Sudan they were all a huge family and if you are wandering in a town and you are unfamiliar you can go to anyone's house and they will welcome you and show you around and ask are you lost? In America, one young man said, if you go to a stranger's house they will say "What are you doing here? I don't know you" and they call the police. They also have no time for the bonding and community they spent on in the refugee camp where they just had hours to talk and play soccer and tell stories. Now they had to work long hard hours, working 3 jobs to send money back to the Refugee camp to help out their family - voluntarily. These boys had no family. They'd lost everything except the other "Lost Boys" they had fled Sudan with and grown up with for years and years of their lives.

There is no excuse for the extent of poverty in our world. There is no excuse for Americans to have so much wealth while so many people suffer such grave injustices. It breaks my heart. And yet I know it's not a matter of just saying, ok let's ship all our money over to Sudan. It doesn't work that way. Yet if we all gave more of our money to charities that are working to do something real to help make the world a better place. If we gave more of our time. Watched more shows to enlighten us to the state of the world rather than buried our heads in the sand. We would be compelled and unable not to do something. It's our God-given duty, and especially to those who have committed their lives to following God, to Christ.

Since I was a young kid, I have wanted to "save the world." Maybe it's a hero complex, maybe it's a rescuer syndrome, but I don't think so. Despite their individual weaknesses and failings, I was given two very compassionate parents who taught me to care, to not judge, to love others despite their weaknesses, to forgive, to be there for people. And God planted in my spirit from a young age a desire to help make the world a better place. I've been donating money to various causes for several years. I have traveled the world and seen poverty. I've read about awful tragedies that break my heart. And I feel that now is my time to rise up and do something, and I just truly pray that God will open the doors as I take steps toward fulfilling that vision. I really want to make a difference. Because God is growing tired of so many of us sitting around. It is time to rise up!

crazy sexy life

I am sooo tired. I had a fun Memorial day pool party today, or rather I went to a fun pool party today at a friend's house, with all my crazy sexy fun girlfriends! Then I didn’t feel like working - ie writing - so I rented a couple movies. I rented the documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer by Kris Carr. I’d seen her website before (maybe even included the link here before) and had met her book's editor at the last years ASJA (American Society of Journalists & Autors) conference which is where I first heard of Kris.

As mentioned, I’m trying to watch docos since I want to produce one and/or be involved in one. I fell asleep though halfway through since I'm so tired... and am just doing a quick ol check o the email and post a quickie on the blog. I normally stay up late but tonite think I’m gonna hit the hay rack. Oh anyway if you get time check her out – pretty inspiring and interesting. At 31 she was a single actress living in NYC and was diagnosed with a slow-growing incurable cancer. She wrote a book then produced a documentary that aired on The Learning Channel, I think, and Discovery Health. Her website is Crazysexycancer.com but her blog is cool too: http://crazysexycancer.blogspot.com/. There’s also her My Crazy Sexy Life community for everyone not just cancer survivors http://my.crazysexylife.com/. She is very into raw food and helped make herself more healthy by transforming her diet. I'm going to have to read more about this.

documentaries to change the world

I just finished watching Bowling for Columbine. To be honest, I've avoided watching it and other Michael Moore films thinking they may be a little bit extreme. I have to admit - as I have before - sometimes it is easier to bury one's head in the sand and ignore the issues rather than see them right in front of our eyes. But I'm glad I watched it, and I actually liked it and was impressed by it, and yet of course I was saddened and shocked by some of the statistics about how many murders occur in the U.S. compared to Canada, England, Australia, and other countries. It reinforced what I've spoken about publicly regarding the over-exaggeration of violence in TV news and newspaper reporting (I discussed this in my talk I gave at University of North Texas in April 2007, "Changing the World One Story at a Time" - which discusses objectivity in journalism among other things). If you haven't seen the doco, I recommend it. It did sort of reinforce my desire to move to Australia! I wish there was a way to reduce our culture of violence and fear here in the States, and that is certainly something I'll be praying for and about.

The reason I chose to watch Bowling for Columbine is that I'm watching documentaries as I start to get into documentary production myself. This one won an Oscar so I figured it's important to see! Michael Moore has achieved notoriety and success, and though I don't exactly plan to follow his methods, I want to see how he puts his docos together. I've spent time in the past few days researching funding for documentaries as well as forming a nonprofit to get grants and funding for the Solomon Islands project Sean and I are discussing. Forming one here in the U.S. would allow us to receive donations from here as well as apply for grants from U.S. organizations. Everything is still very tentative and new, but it's such a cool project and has so much going for it, and it's exciting to investigate all the possibilities.

Sharkwater & a shocking proposal

Last night we went to the premier of the documentary movie, Sharkwater in Cairns. Rob Stewart, the Producer and host of the award-winning doco, was there. The movie was released in Fall 07 in the U.S. and I didn't even know! It should be out on DVD now. Everyone must see this movie.

This movie is incredibly emotional and powerful. It blew me away. It's a true story of the lifelong love Rob Stewart has had for sharks, and then how he ended up almost arrested by the Costa Rican authorities for his role in uncovering illegal private docks used for vast shark finning operations associated with the Taiwanese mafia, as well as illegal finning out off of the protected Cocos Island. The movie made me cry. They fin so many sharks, a brutal practice, and it's made sharks around the world decline by 90%. Yet he was shown in the movie swimming with, even holding gray reef sharks and other sharks, and swimming with vast schools of hammerheads in the Galapagos Islands. (I have got to get back there to go diving with them).

And then at the end of the movie he gave a short talk and had a Q&A and dropped this bombshell: Australia has a proposal on the bench that would open parts of the protected Great Barrier Reef to shark finning!!!!!!! (Check out this article in this month's Dive Log Magazine Australia, "Say No to Shark Finning on the Great Barrier Reef"). Everyone here at the Undersea Explorer (Sean works for them as the skipper of the boat and we went with the company) are in shock and trying to raise awareness of this.

Send your objections to:

Anna Bligh MP, Premier of Queensland

PO Box 15185

City East QLD 4002

Email: ThePremier@premiers.qld.gov.au

And check out some links that Rob has put together to do something about this reckless wanton horrific destruction of one of the world's most beautiful creatures, which I can personally vouch for --diving with sharks was absolutely one of my life's best experiences.

• Abandon Fear - the Sharkwater Blog http://www.abandonfear.com/
• Saving Sharks - http://www.savingsharks.com/
• WildAid - wildaid.org-- WildAid is doing incredible things to stop the sale of Shark Fin Soup in Asia, where many people falsely believe this tasteless soup is a sign of wealth and cures disease In reality because of the way sharks concentrate toxins due to bioaccumulation, sharkfin soup would cause more health problems not cure them. A study recently showed that many Asians do not even realize that shark fin soup has shark in it! The translation (at least in 1 language) is "fish wing" soup.

But this practice is just destroying sharks around the world, and there's no telling what will happen if the ocean's top predators disappear or severely decline. We may have just seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is happening to the oceans.