TWIG project Together We Integrate Growth
Malaika Sarco & Richard Thomas Joined: April 7th 2006
Logged in: April 5th 2009
Logged in: April 5th 2009
To find out about the Nanling National Forest Park and the Children's Eternal Forest, previous ecological projects curated by Vitamin Creative Space in China (the organization inviting TWIG), visit:
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Weekend/GD02Jp02.html
Travel Blog Posts
looking for a last lift
Home Today In the UK Home in Devon now after seven months of being away. We finally have ourselves an apartment - yay! And though the floors are squeaky And the kids are cheeky We’re back in the swing Of the work-study thing. I’m writing about ecology And dance improvisation Rich works with kids And needs a vacation But we love what we do And we keep planting trees And planning our next TWIG overseas. China again? Rich hankers for more Maybe Brazil—if a boat opens the door. Missing our friends from Nanling and beyond~ We’ll see you soon, for of TWIG we are fond. ... read more
the fantastic dancing menagerie
From Swaziland we searched again, fully and futilely for a non-flight transport mode to get to west Africa… We found a pleasure boat ride that could take us from Cape Town as far as Angola and drop us off, and we heard that from Accra you can take a motorboat to Monrovia, but the journey takes about three days and sometimes the boat capsizes. Walking and hitching was seen and recommended as a certain death sentence. Even as we drove in a rental car from Mbabane, Swaziland’s capital, to Johannesburg airport we were advised to never pick up hitchhikers. We broke this rule a few times for an elderly lady first, and a young woman second, who was on her way to the town to do some shopping and appeared by the side of the ... read more
Border-CrosseR
Can you imagine what this entry will entail? A rickety but relieving border crossing from the land of green onions in more food than you’d like to see, to the region of curry in the air. Another long jeep ride into the center of Nepal took us to Kathmandu, capital of one of the countries with the world’s highest rate of travelers’ trots! Only a few days later and we were ready to leave, but the trots got the best of us and put R into the clinic for two days while they tried to drip life back into him. He perked up considerably after 12 vials of liquid, and just as he was about to be discharged, M, who had been fine throughout the week’s tummy trials and tribulations, ran to the loo and expunged ... read more
Blue Lizard in Mlilwane
Hello dear friends and colleagues around the world! Many moons it has been since you last heard from the TWIG Project. This is not because we were taken hostage by Maoists on the countryside roads of Nepal and ran into the woods to escape from the siege, eating nuts and berries to survive… No, we write to you now from Dartington in England, back in the place we began our TWIG Project journey exactly a year ago. There are many blogs unwritten about the last two months of our journey, which gathered momentum and speed due to a few unnegotiable international laws, such as: no matter who you ask or what you say, there is basically no way that you can get a place as an international passenger on a freight boat from Mumbai to ... read more
butterfinger
Much still needs to be said about Nanling. The children we worked with there impressed into our hearts and minds like gleaming lights... the spunky ones, the diligent ones, the rakish and mischievous ones. Each lesson we would arrive to the classroom early to set up and get ready, and each time we would have to hold off the crowd of boisterous young’ns clustering around the door, trying, in singles or in small groups, to sneak up the stairs to get in first before the class hour began. The wonderful, impeccable help we had all along the way in accomplishing our many ambitious projects: Huang Xinghai, our project coordinator and main host, he represented Nanling Eco-Tourism company and personally set up every aspect of our stay and the project. From driving with us to Shaoguan (the ... read more
Spot the Mama
We came along to this high land upon the newest railway in the world, just built and opened this July 2006. The scenery changing as we crossed from Sichuan into the Tibetan plateau, from scrupulously utilized farmland --every inch of space used to plant either rice, corn, peanuts, or vegetables-- to the endless expanses of land on the plateau, nearly devoid of people but rich in plant and animal wildlife. Clean air, thin on oxygen but filling the whole self with unfiltered sunshine and clarity. The abounding wilderness and the freshness of it all, untainted by people for the most part, struck us profoundly. The once-a-week train was still a novelty to these parts, and people would stop their work in the barley fields and wave at the train in groups. Smiling broadly, beautiful people, children ... read more
Little Universes
05:30 Lhasa ~ i wake up and m is still asleep. so i put on my gear and head for the door. m wakes momentarily to ask where i’m off. i kiss her goodbye and head out. first encounter on the main street is a middle aged man dressed in burgundy with a suggestion of yellow or gold underneath. he places both his hands together at his heart and tells me good day ~ i respond with a similar gesture of good will as we pass and walk to the end of the street. the sky is pitch black and all the stars are up there. the street is similarly dark with little street lighting. on the corner there is an old man and his two sons vending sun dried cured meat. the smell is vivid ... read more
The Green Beings
it’s been six weeks give or take a week or so since our last blog entry and plenty has happened upon and around us. but for the most part this should be about the children. to begin with we posted some information about our project plans in the town and along with it a kind of registration day date, and sat back and waited. we expected maybe forty or so kids to attend. we decided to give them a form they could give to their parents and return if they were interested. two days before the big day we already had one hundred and thirty two applicants. word travels fast among the children of nanling. so we divided the children into four groups: red, green, blue and yellow and began to run around sorting art supplies, ... read more
Morning Misty Mountains
Nanling Forest National Park on the 23rd of june we arrived in shaoguan train station where we were to meet our hosts for the coming two months. representatives of nan-ling ecotourism huang xinghai and yu ying collected us from the taxi rank in front of the station and took us after some lunch to the mountains and our home for the foreseeable future. over the course of these last ten days we have been given many tours of the area, introductions to the local people we share this space with, and all the information we could possibly need-- in short: much support! we are very grateful to all concerned and especially to the aforementioned huang xinghai and yu ying. the fact is i could go on about the support thing but in the interests of readability ... read more
Our Progress
Hitchhiking is expensive in China. You will be expected to pay a lot if you are foreigners. And so a fast train whisks us south from Beijing. Our sleeper is the picture of lacy cleanliness and efficiency. Our companion is the gracious and courteous Mr. Lee, a businessman from Guangzhou. Guangzhou (pronounced gwong-jo), embraces us like a sweaty hug that doesn't stop. Tooling through the city toward Vitamin Creative Space we see the high-rises, through the smog, brimming green with rooftop gardens, and below busy tropical streets clouded by pockets of mushrooming construction. Spaghetti-like highway intersections tangle in 3D throughout a maze of residential block apartments. Bananas. Breadfruit. Buses. A little kid peeing on the street. What begs two twiggers' skills in a muggy high-rise city of 11 million? We immediately set about bringing two ... read more
