Ganb8te 4 - Putting on my giraffe ears

[gan]

Thanks V for stopping by. Sorry you subjected yourself to my threads - it's a rather dull tale with so little occurring on the R front around here.

You sound like you've done some interesting things in your life! Yes, I love Uganda. Beautiful people, beautiful lush landscape. I've been going there for work since 2005 - it's been amazing to see all the changes, all the construction - phew! So many new buildings popped up in Kampala, particularly just before the Queen came to visit a few years ago (CHOGM). The boda boda (motorbikes) were all cleared from the streets for the Queen's visit, too.

I've only been to Kigali in Rwanda, never ventured out to the wildlife areas. I presume you mean the gorillas? How was that? Haven't done that yet.

Also spent a bit of time in Tanzania (Dar, Zanzibar, Maasai areas in the north) and DR Congo. All so very different. I think Zanzibar is one of my all time favourite places - a melting pot of cultures, amazing seafood night markets, and of course Freddy Mercury.

[Ggrass]

Gan it's not dull. But like me it a place you come to muse and work out stuff.

Collect Advice and generally talk.

It's past 11, but I'm in bed. So that counts.

[Vanilla]

Nothing dull about Gan's threads. V is anally retentive so like to keep notes on the lads and lasses she posts too and the key stuff that appeals to her. Generally that is the fun stuff but sometimes the good and bad. I was loving the Africa connection especially as Uganda is an unusual choice. When I first visited in 1992 the roads were dirt roads.

Rwanda was not opened up to the South at that time and it was dangerous to travel without proper escort, so sadly did not see the Gorillas. Would love to go back though, sounds like a plan.

I gave some training in Nigeria when they opened up the new exchange market there, which was fascinating. A large number of farmers from the then Rhodesia were granted land rights in Nigeria (over scrubland) and after leaving Rhodesia started building new life for themselves. As Rhodesia took their land without compensation many of them were starting from fresh. It was very interesting and awe inspiring to me to see the energy vigour and enthusiasm of the new settlers. Went back about 5 years ago and what success had been made, including a baby milk powder factory for charitable distribution for the children.

It could only happen in Africa. Never been to the Congo or Zanzibar. But spent some time in Losotho at the university during the Apartheid years. If you were in South Africa, mixed marriages were forbidden so mixed race couples escaped into Losotho and it was where the intellectual elite from South Africa were studying. Have some lovely stories from Namibia which is a fantastic country including its capital of Windhoek.

Musing when I should be working.

Vanilla

[jim0987]

Hey Ganb8te

Hows things with you? is there anything happening?

I loooked up what crow pose is the other day and i'm impressed. I think if i tried that i'd be taking a trip to get my nose reset into position

[gan]

I'm good thanks, Jim. Been busy with work and GAL. Have you tried yoga? I'm finding it really useful to bring my meditation practice to yoga. It used to be that the instructor would tell us to go into the resting pose (shavasana) at the end and my head would still be racing. But now that I have a better handle on meditation techniques I can really find that head space. I just started the anxiety pack in Headspace? What are you on?

Haven't made much progress on the giraffe front - lady never replied to my inquiry about the practice groups (pretty bad for someone who specialises in communication!) Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a bunch of strangers to see if we want to form a team and start training for Oxfam Trailwalker (100km). Then a yoga workshop all about the breath in the arvo.

Not much happening M wise. February is just around the corner so I wonder what that will bring. If you recall, when I met up with H in December he suggested we meet in February. We'll see....

[gan]

V is anally retentive so like to keep notes on the lads and lasses she posts too and the key stuff that appeals to her.

I doubt that makes you anally retentive. Actually I think that is a beautiful and kind thing to do - to take such interest in other people. I bet you have giraffe ears....and that you're one of those people who refers to others by name in conversations because you're good at picking those things up.

So - Nigeria! That's one country that I'd be worried about travelling to. Seems quite volatile given the oil situation. But like all places in Africa, what one understands from the outside looking in is quite different to what its like on the ground. Namibia and Lesotho? Now I'm just jealous! So were you based in Africa or flying in and out?

[jim0987]

Its the oil situation that worries you about nigeria..........

Glad your keeping busy. I remember you said your H talked about february but thought i'd ask if anything was happening or even how your feeling about it with February just round the corner.

I've done yoga a few times on and off over the years - never really stuck with it for any long period of time as I've ended up choosing to other things so not got past the absolute basics. I've started doing the home based stuff again as i can just fit that in and I remembered that i do feel better for a good strech.

I've started doing half an hour of yoga immediately before my headspace meditation (i'm just starting the third basic pack). I'm mananging to do this probably 2 out of 3 days so I think its going ok. As i said on my thread though i'm relaxing a bit to much with the meditation and so my mind is wandering off to who knows where (though yesterday it was a nice holiday day dream about drinking coffee by the sea somewhere warm and sunny)

Have you found that when your talking to people you've started mentally seperating out the Jackal and giraffe language?

[Ggrass]

I so need to get to work besties, she has unlimited net and lets me watch those sorts of things.

I find I look for games and the victim one sticks out so far its not funny.

H told me I was game playing, but what he meant was he was!
He just didn't know it.

He laments "I'm the victim here! "
I always agree with him, tends to shut him up.

[gan]

(Boko Haram....sure...but they're not so different to other rebel groups in Africa. Dreadful violence on a somewhat limited scale. But oil is the stuff of major wars, feeds government corruption and opens up the door to foreign exploitation...difficult to build strong governments that can quash rebel groups in the face of that).

Re February - starting to think about it a bit (in a non-anxious, no expectations kind of way). Will post sometime soon on that as I'd like to test out some ideas on how to approach a possible meetup.

Yoga should help with settling your mind over time. When I was struggling with the same issue my IC recommended I take a walk first. So I used to walk to the park and meditate there first thing in the morning - which helped a lot. Doing that for a few weeks helped me know what it felt like to not to be distracted so I can now just do it at home. But really I think it took me learning a couple of other techniques (visualisation and reflection) after Level 3 to really feel like like I was getting somewhere. Creativity pack was particularly good. Stick with it. I've been reading a bit of the scientific literature around the benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and the findings are pretty remarkable - even after 8 weeks. Several medical and nursing schools are incorporating it into the curriculum as a way to build resilience in their students.

Did you see my post to Elsa the other day? In short, yes I am noticing giraffe and jackal language. Haven't advanced my own practice much though...but I do feel like meditation/yoga is helping me stand back from situations and be more conscious of what is coming out of my mouth which is a positive first step. Did you end up watching the videos?

[gan]

Gg - the videos are also available as ~10 minute short clips on youtube so you could space out the downloads if that is a better option. I get where you are coming from. Internet is a total pain at my parents (also in a rural area). But NBN is coming, right....? Sigh.