(Untitled)

[aether8m]

So I finally got around to scanning and uploading some of the pics from my time in Peace Corps. I apologize in advance for the quality: these things has gone through every sort of degredation possible (taken from a beat up camera in a dusty environment, left to wallow in the canister for years before being developed, left exposed and often handled

Comments

[mzungumkali]

* It's interesting to see pictures of things/people which I vaguely remember you talking about in your journal. I don't think I ever remember you just saying "it's beautiful," though. It is.

* The one labeled "Fogo7," the Dragoeiro tree, was eerie. I have a tattoo that bears shocking resemblance.

[aether8m]

I don't think I ever remember you just saying "it's beautiful," though. It is.

Some of the views took my breath away even after seeing them every day for years...I consider it one of the great blessings of my life that I never lost my sense of awe towards the place, and can still imagine having the mountains and sky towering over me.

There's probably a good reason why you haven't yet but...Am I ever gonna get to see pictures from Kenya?

[mzungumkali]

Touche. I could offer many excuses (ie no scanner) but the reality is, I'm a bit weird about photographs. It's difficult to explain and not sound like I'm philosophizing unnecessarily...

I end up wanting things to be what they're not, and at times I've felt like it has inhibited my moving forward. I guess I have trouble separating pictures and the memories associated with them from my acute awareness that everything changes. I end up feeling that my pictures are dishonest because they represent the subject in a way that is no longer the truth. Even if they are just landscapes, I feel they reflect my emotions and me as I was when I took the picture, and the mix of nostalgia and regret and dissonance between what I want and what is, is just uncomfortable.

That said, I do have some pictures and I'll see what I can do. I don't have access to a scanner, but I have a few here and there in digital format. (And I'll be in Kenya again in two months.)

[nystral]

With that landscape, why hasn't it been developed and turned into essentially a European version of the Bahamas

[aether8m]

why has CV not had this level of exploitation and enjoyed the economic benefits associated with it?There are a few good reasons...part of it was that for much of its life as an independent country, CV had to rely on the world's less popular powers for support. China, the USSR, Apartheid South Africa were major financial donors. (The PAIGC, CVs independence movement and first govenring party, waged a 15 year long war against Portugal, a NATO ally, so they weren't hugely popular at the US state dept at first.) CV also had strong ties to the PanAfrican ideologies as well, so they rejected EuroAmerican tourism as a source of growth, instead focusing on refining their shipping and light industries

[nystral]

How has costa rica managed to scrounge by then? Could the West African nations laern a bit from Costa Rica's example? or has Costa Rica just been putting a nice, ego stroking, "you're a good toursit" vibe on tourism w/ no real benefit?

[aether8m]

Costa Rica has a few advantages that West Africa doesn't: Most notably a first-rate interal transit infrastructure, several international airports with direct flights to the United States, a position along the panamerican highway trade routes, and seaport access (read: tour ships).

Also, Rainforests and Beaches are much heavier tourist draws than mountains and deserts traditionally.

[lemonlies]

those are incredible. i could go on, but that's basically it. the photos and imagining actually being there is incredible.