“He who has seen Paris and who has not seen Cassis can say … I have seen nothing.” Frédéric Mistral (1830 – 1914)
I had taken the short train ride from Marseille to Cassis, a small seaside fishing village, over twenty years ago. It was a sunny morning when we boarded the train and hopped off at the St. Charles train station, a 2-3 kilometer walk to town. If I close my eyes, I can picture the lush verdant greenery of the rugged countryside of Provence, the brilliant blue seaside and the reddish-orange terra cotta tiles of the rooftops. I also remember the beautifully colored buildings and boats of Cassis and how magical a place I had found. Would her colorful, playful buildings still dance atop the turquoise sea?
The spectacular Harbor at Cassis
Like many places in the world, I never believed it would take me twenty years to get back. But sometimes life gets in the way and keeps you busy. As I road the bus from Marseille to Cassis, over twenty years later with my sister and mother, I wondered and desperately hoped, “Would it be the same”?
So often memories are nostalgic for a reason. Things change. Places get discovered and sadly get spoiled. Would Cassis have the same fate as so many other beautiful places in Europe? Would it be lined with tacky t-shirt and souvenir shops taking all of her beloved charm away? Would it be overcome with tourists pushing and shoving for a table at an outdoor cafe? I would have to wait and see.
Close your eyes for a minute and picture Madagascar. What do you see? I see miles upon miles of pristine beaches, lush green tropical forests, exotic flora and fauna and brilliant blue sea. Madagascar, an island nation of 22 million people off the southeastern coast of Africa is home to several exotic species, 90% of which are unique to the country. Because of its isolation from other landmasses, most of Madagascar’s mammals, half its birds, and the majority of its plants exist nowhere else on earth.
Lemurs are endemic to Madagascar. Image Source: Wikipedia Free Commons
Lovely lush Madagascar. Image Source: Wikipedia Free Commons
Waterfalls are abundant in Madagascar. Image Source: Wikipedia Free Commons
This former French colony who gained their independence in 1960 is also home to a lesser, more ugly reality: Poverty. According to the World Bank, 69% of the population of Madagascar lives below the national poverty line threshold of one dollar per day (2011 statistic). With poverty brings hunger, malnutrition, disease, hardship and also lack of services such as access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Although running water, electricity and sanitation are provided by the government, sadly these services do not reach all the people. Based on 2010 estimates only 34% of the rural population have access to an improved water source (World Bank). Sanitation fared worse: 79% of the urban and 88% of the rural population live with unimproved sanitation services (2010 estimates from the CIA World Factbook).
Not having safe drinking water or adequate sanitation is a major hurdle in receiving an education. In a country with only 64.5% literacy rates, education is a key to lifting people out of poverty yet what child, especially a girl, would want to go to school without a toilet?
Last week WaterAid launched an exciting summer campaign to help provide proper sanitation and safe drinking water to Madagascar’s children. Over the next couple of months, WaterAid aims to reach 12,000 children in 31 schools by providing 150 taps and 100 toilets in Madagascar. What is so wonderful about this campaign is that all summer long you can follow the stories and updates of the children who will be impacted as well as the progress of the construction through the celebration on September 19th when the children return to school with taps and toilets for the very first time.
Project Sekoly: Improving School Water and Sanitation in Madagascar
In Madagascar only 41% of the population has access to safe water and 11% to sanitation. We’ve been working here since 1999 and have helped more than 177,000 gain access to safe water and 145,000 to sanitation. – WaterAid
Tsimahavaobe primary school in the town of Morondava is one of many schools in Madagascar with no toilets, no supply of safe water, and nowhere for pupils to wash their hands. We are asking supporters to join Project Sekoly, to help fund sustainable water and sanitation facilities for desperately poor schools in Madagascar. Your support will ultimately result in the poorest children in Madagascar staying healthy, gaining a better education and having the opportunity to achieve their potential. – WaterAid
What you can do?
Over the next few weeks you can follow the story as children in Madagascar get the water and sanitation they need to keep them healthy enough to build their dreams.
Follow their story on Twitter at the hashtag #buildfutures
About WaterAid: WaterAid was founded in 1981 and works tirelessly to provide clean water and sanitation for Africa, Asia and Central America. Since its inception, WaterAid has dramatically changed lives and has worked closely together with local organizations, communities and individuals, to employ affordable and locally appropriate solutions to provide safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education to people in developing countries
Perched high above the city of Marseille lies the crowned jewel The Notre Dame de la Garde which affords the most spectacular 360 degree view that can be found in all of Provence. Founded on the site of a small chapel built in 1214 overlooking Le Vieux Port of Marseille, the Notre Dame de la Garde is the most majestic basilica in the region and can be seen standing prominently from nearly every street in the city. Literally translated as “Our Lady of the Guard“, “La Bonne Mère” or “Good mother” as she is lovely called, is as symbolic to Marseille as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. Locals have believed for centuries that she watches over the city and protects its inhabitants.
Dramatic view of the Notre Dame de la Garde which dominates over the city of Marseille.
Throughout my travels, I’ve always marveled at the beauty, innocence and hopeful smiles of children. I believe strongly that children are our future. What has amazed me so much is how similar children are despite their unimaginable differences in culture, economic resources and lifestyles. At the end of the day, all children want is to be loved. All children want to have enough food on the table, a roof over their head and books to read. All children want to be respected, cared for and offered the same opportunities in life.
Here are some of the world’s children and their friends who have captured my heart and have filled me with hope.
Here are the smiling faces of some of the girls I volunteered with in La Ceiba, Honduras.
The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship. – Amelia Earhart Continue reading →
Monday night I had the pleasure of showing off my amazing town and its progressive dining scene to a couple of travel, foodie and photographer bloggers, Anita’s Feast and her husband Tom from Switzerland. I had met Anita last year at BlogHer in New York and we have kept in touch via social media ever since. Little did I know, her husband and travel photographer Tom Fakler is originally from Minnesota and had recently spent a few months in Nepal on a photography trip volunteering for an NGO. When I heard they were coming to Minneapolis to visit family, we scheduled a date to meet for coffee to catch up. We had so much to talk about that meeting for dinner was inevitable.
Since Anita is a travel and food blogger I had to pick somewhere wonderful to show off our town and it’s amazingly diverse dining scene. Piccolo, a small eclectic restaurant nearby my home was the first place that came to mind.
The weather has turned crazy. After a painstakingly, long, grueling “sprinter” as we like to call it here in Minnesota (a winter than never ever ended and moved right into spring), we are now faced with one of the wettest, stormiest starts to summer that I can ever remember.
On Friday night, while we were out to dinner on the other side of town, a vicious maddening storm swept through the metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul with a vengeance. I honestly had no idea it was coming save the loud beeping warning blinking on my cell phone saying “flash flood warning”. Within moments of that text, insane winds and torrential downpours of rain struck the streets of Northeast Minneapolis and I was about ready to look for the Arc. It was absolutely insane. The city streets were flowing like an angry river and the gutters had so much water that they were sputtering and shooting up water. The few brave (or stupid) cars tried to drive through the mess while I just stared out the huge glass windows of The Northeast Social wondering what on earth was going on with this crazy weather.
An hour after the storm, our drive back to Southwest Minneapolis would prove daunting. Street after street was flooded with water, cars were stuck, trees were down and traffic lights were out. The next morning we would realize how fortunate we were to not be one of the 590,000 homes and businesses around the Twin Cities without power.
My run around my beloved lake was filled with dismay. Enormous beautiful trees were uprooted and laying across the path. Severe straight-line winds up to 60-80 mph had torn through the Twin Cities tearing out thousands of trees. In fact, the estimate of downed trees is likely to surpass the 3,200 trees lost during the 2011 tornado that tore through North Minneapolis. My favorite Minneapolis weatherman Paul Douglas wrote in today’s Star Tribune that “Friday’s severe straight-line winds created a damage swath consistent with a 15 mile wide EF-0 to EF-1 tornado”. Just plain scary.
Meanwhile us hearty Minnesotans are enduring our crazy weather bracing for the next round of storms coming in soon. It is hard to be upset with Mother Nature. Now that it is finally summer, most of us Minnesotans are going to do what we love best: Enjoy our over 10,000 lakes. With all the storms, comes sensational sunsets late into the night, fresh lake air, birds singing, flowers blooming and the beauty of nature that keeps us here. There is no place like Minnesota in the summer.
Stay tuned…My computer is in the Apple shop being repaired and may not be back soon as their other store has no power! There is a backlog. Once it is back, I hope to work on my photos from the South of France and share them here.
The first weekend in June, I was one of 1,200 travel bloggers who packed my bags along with my tangled emotions, and headed to Toronto, Canada for the 3rd Annual TBEX (Travel Bloggers Exchange) conference. I had no idea what to expect and it was my first time ever attending a travel blogging conference. I went to BlogHer last summer along with 5,000 other blogging hopefuls and felt misplaced as a travel blogger among so many mommy bloggers. When I heard about a TBEX, an event exclusively for travel bloggers, I was thrilled. It was my tribe and the place for me to be. I instantly signed up with high expectations of what I’d learn, who I’d meet and the connections I’d make. My journey as a travel blogger was awash with opportunities.
Looking down from the CN Tower in Toronto during TBEX.
At the end of April, we traveled via TGV south from Paris to the Mediterranean town, Marseille. The second largest and oldest city in France, Marseille has experienced a dramatic rebirth from a rather banal port city to a vibrant, cultural mecca in line with any of Europe’s major cosmopolitan cities.
Room with a view of Vieux Port and Notre Dame de la Garde
I was curious to see Marseille again as it had been a very long time. Twenty years ago I wanted to faire un stage thus spent the summer as an intern at a French business after graduating from university. I honestly do not have many fond memories of my time there. I loved the region of Provence surrounding Marseille yet found the city to be dirty, uninspiring and relatively bland. After hearing so much fanfare about Marseille and what a magnificent city it has become, I decided to give it another whirl and I was not the slightest bit disappointed in what I found.
In Marseille, I found a pell mell of culture and electricity that other cities would die to have just a sliver of. In a nutshell, Marseille had come to life with a pizzazz and heartbeat that pulsates the city like a radiant shower of gold.
But best of all, you taught me to be me and live life happily.
Here’s to you, Dad!
Hiking the Tour de Vanoise, France. 2012
Skiing in Taos New Mexico. 2012
I look back at the last ten years and all the places we’ve been together…Argentina, Australia, Peru, China, Iceland, France, Nepal, India, Ireland, Italy and South Africa. I am forever changed and grateful.
Happy Father’s Day Dad, with Love! Looking forward to our next big hike!
Within the chaotic narrow streets of Old Delhi lies the largest mosque in India, the Jama Masjid, whose enormous courtyard has the capacity to hold 25,000 devotees. Built between 1644 and 1658, this sensational mosque was the last extravagnance commissioned by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, whose love for his wife resulted in the world-famous Taj Mahal in Agra and zest for beauty and power built the Red Fort of New Delhi.
The Jama Masjid’s spectacular beauty resides in her masterful architecture of various curving archways, gates, minarets, towers and decorative carvings. Jama Masjid’s brilliant red-hued sandstone juxtaposed against white marble is equally as impressive especially on a sunny, bright day. It took over 6,000 workers, mostly slaves, to build the mosque and today it remains one of India’s crown jewels and an important place of worship.
Music has been used for centuries to give people a voice to tell stories, entertain and inspire. Perhaps it is the emotional feelings one gets from listening to music that allows so many of us to connect with it. Music can bring us back years ago to an exact time and place within our hearts. Who can forget the words and rhythm of their first dance? Or the music you used to blast in your car during the summer with your windows rolled down?
The power of music has also been brilliantly used as a voice to garner support of the masses and impact societal change. Protest songs decrying great human injustices such as slavery, apartheid, violence and war, have become powerful tools by musicians to push politicians and governments to making the world a better and more just place.
ONE, a global advocacy organization created by Bono and backed by 3 million members worldwide to fit against global poverty and hunger, has launched a new music campaign called agit8, as a way to use music to push change. Agit8 will inspire people to take action and leaders to make big commitments on figthing chronic malnutrition during the upcoming G8 meeting in Northern Ireland June 17-18th.
The first weekend in June I attended TBEX, the world’s largest gathering of travel bloggers, writers, and new media content creators, in Toronto, Canada. It was my first time to Toronto and I only had three days to explore this fantastic city. Soon after landing, I realized what a mistake it was to have such a short time. It is a fabulous city with plenty of attractions inside and outside of the city that could fill up an entire week with wonderful things to do.
