TOEFL Practice 4

I wanted to write about the Open Day at IICD that we had on Saturday. Then I thought it was better to tell you about my visit to the court at Berry Springs County and about Rev. Pinkney and our cooperation. I was also tempted to write about the morning course that I did about the work of JR and his project (www.insideoutproject.net).

This things are part of the daily life at this place, and of course for the ones here and for the others that have been in a community sharing, fighting and learning, this is common things. For other individuals who live in cities this can sound like a crazy schedule full of non-productive activities.

So... after some thinking I didn't get a real idea of what I want to share with you. I just feel like writing. That happen a lot when I listen to "The Album Leaf", when the stress is coming too high in my eyes.

I take super food for breakfast, may be is that.

Anyway, thanks to Laura and Rita who took the time to correct my spelling and grammar in the last practices.

I promise I will come with a nice idea for practicing later today. I must do it.

And I will write without the computer correcting my spelling.

Peace'

TOEFL Practice 3

Today my writing practice will be about the Showtime in Motown. This is a fundraising show that the Young Detroit Builders (YDB) organize every year. The show is a talent contest where the winner gets $1,000. YDB is a non profit organization that works with youth that has problems to get their GDE and that struggles with the daily life of Detroit. The participants of the YDB program come twice a year to share some days with us and get a international experience. Many of them have never been outside Detroit in their life, and coming all the way to Dowagiac is a big deal. Every year, as an exchange and also because we love Detroit art and culture, we go to Showtime in support.

This year the show was good but it was not as good as the past years. The performers were talented, no doubts, but the organization and the energy of the public was not very positive. It was visible that there where different kinds of problems with the show in particular but with the whole program as well. Nowadays, is not easy task to run a non-profit organization and to change the world with it. The world's power are getting better and better in stopping and discourage the work that we do in the non-profit sector. The reasons can seem obvious, they do not want us to change the world and create conscious human beings. They want matrix-type followers and not encourage rebellious youth, like the ones preparing themselves with the YDB. I hope they get over the crisis they are having now (if they are in crisis, I do not have a real idea, is just my perception), not just to have a great Showtime next year but also because their work is very important for the local communities and I really believe they are doing an amazing work.

On another matter, the journey to Detroit was good for the participants at IICD. For the August Team it was the first excursion they needed to organize. They had been here for two months but the February and May team were the ones in charge of organizing the common actions and trips to the lake. They did a good job, dividing everybody in the transport available and making sure we all had a good lunch bag with healthy food for the way back home. So thanks to them at 2:30, the 25 travelers were ready to go. After 3 hours we got there…

I love to drive everywhere, but in the US specially, and yesterday was even better because we had a almost full moon coming with us the whole way. I have to be honest, when you drive there is nothing better that good company, good music, good coffee and a full moon or a starry sky (of course a good car also helps).

TOEFL Practice 2

So. Yesterday it was impossible to study. However, my life this days is mainly in English, so I take that as an indirect practice for the TOEFL test.

We watched the documentary HOME (2009). I will link the complete English version here for the ones that get encourage to watch it after reading. It is totally worth to spend one or two hours analyzing and enjoying this movie. The photo is beautiful and the message is simple: “change or die”.

The amazing landscapes and the slow narrations makes you feel like in an amazing brainwash session. And yes, it can be that you take the message as a brainwash, but who cares, true or not, global warming or not, Earth is changing, is getting rid of us, and that matters.

So yes, the message is to prove how global warming is accelerating the clock and how climate change will challenge us.

The participants at IICD took it very positive, even the religious ones didn’t complain. They even decided to take a one month initiative, some will quit plastic bags, some will quit car to go to town, some will take shorter showers and I will not eat beef that is not grass feed, organic and grown in less than 100 miles around home.

Did you know coal, gas, oil comes from the accumulated energy that the trees had store underground? Yes, the trees take the energy of the sun and store part of that energy, the part they don’t use to grow. That ancient storage is what we suck out of Gaia to create our society the way we know it today. So look around and realize that everything you see is made of sunlight.

Enjoy the show.

http://youtu.be/jqxENMKaeCU

TOEFEL Practice 1

Ok. Hello there, mute readers of this silent girl. So this days I have been studying for my TOEFL exam. One of the tasks (one of the difficult ones) is to write. So this week I will simply write (of course, in english). I will practice my writing by telling you some lies... or not. The thing is that I have to practice, not just grammar, but to write without giving my opinion. Perhaps that’s the hardest part. To write about something without having an opinion. I was train to have an opinion on everything. May be this is the first time that I have to train in not having an opinion.

Yes, you cannot have an opinion in everything. You may not have opinions on scientific subjects (not because I don’t understand or care, but because they are facts... or at least they look like that).

Ok. As this is the first post and the first practice exercise of the day the lie will be about yesterday (and it will have an opinion, fake or real, doesn’t matter, an opinion will be).

I went to Chicago to see Ani DiFranco singing in “The Vic” theater. We, friends and I, arrived just in time to get good sits. Once there, we decided to have a coffee. Of course they do not sell coffee in a bar! who wants coffee in a bar? Lola and her friends. So then we try to go out and for our surprise they didn’t allow us, they simply will not allow us to go out and in again. Perhaps this is normal to people who goes to this kind of events, but for us was totally insane. How come we were not allow to go and drink a cup of coffee and come back in? what if we wanted to smoke? (which we didn’t because we don’t smoke) I thought may be they have that policy to prevent people to resale or reuse the tickets. Which is also crazy because they have pretty good control of the bar codes and, actually, half of the people has the ticket in their phone... and also, this kind of things happen south of the border, in this country you can even pay yourself out of any grocery store without cashiers or someone looking that you didn’t steal something.

Well, we didn’t got coffee. But the concert was great! Ani is one of the most amazing women in the world. She is simple and powerful. The band that came before was also good. I didn’t recall the name (I will google it later). They were a trio from Brooklyn, quite crazy and original, hope I could understand the lyrics.

Enjoy the video this song is amazing live! If you are subscribe to get the updates of my blog to your email (which I doubt) sorry if you get tree emails a day, but I really need to practice for my test and this is the best way.

Peace!


The name is Pearl And The Beard

Sin Título

Cuando observamos de cerca aquello que nos da la vida, ese aliento que a veces parece faltarnos, ese destello que nos da recuerdos, esa palabra que inspira... se nos olvidan ellos. Los otros. Y sí, es una necesidad olvidarlos, hacerlos a un lado, disfrazarlos, taparlos con arquitecturas ilusorias y paredes de justificaciones políticas, religiosas o hasta históricas. No, Los otros siguen ahí, y nuestro camino cada vez está más cerca. Se ensancha y se ensancha la vereda que nos hará compartirlo todo, que nos hará renunciar a la discriminada costumbre de alejarnos, disminuyendo al otro, pecando de superioridad sólo porque hablamos un idioma más que el de nuestra madre. Ellos hablan 5, a veces 6 lenguas distintas; ellos tienen un lenguaje directo con dios, tienen acceso a la tierra y la saben mejor, son ellos los inventores de la agricultura sustentable, del pan, de la tortilla, del frijol. La grieta que nos divide es aquel aliento que nos falta, que a ellos los mata, es pues por eso que me entrego, me entrego a esa diferencia, me declaro inepta... soy suya, soy para ellos, soy para los otros, soy de los de abajo, soy a la izquierda porque ellos son a la izquierda. Renuncio a mi nombre, renuncio a mi placer de media clase, renuncio o muero, ya no hay de otra.

Fire Walking

Si la vida me pidiera permiso cada que viene a mostrarme su grandeza,

creo que tardaríamos más tiempo en discutir que en disfrutarnos... (me gusta que sólo venga)

Hoy, la Vida, me sonrió con su sutil tristeza de domingo.

Me enseñó un nuevo ritmo. Un toque de tambor y el swing de las flautas de los indios de esta tierra que hoy habito.

Me tomó los hombros. Me mostró paciencia. Me llenó los pulmones de humo y me dijo "lo que sea que pasa sólo pasa si lo dejas pasar. No lo pases por alto, sólo deja que se vaya en el dum dum, en el dam dam".

Abuelo Sol.

Madre Luna.

Hermano indio.

Hermana alma estrella y paz.

Lo siento

Perdón

Gracias 

Te amo

Relatos de La Gran Tenochtitlán

Él sábado Raúl y yo decidimos ir a cotorrear al centro. Sin ningún rumbo ni motivo, sólo a caminar, a sentir a la gente, a ver. Cruzamos el eje central, nos reímos de algún recuerdo, nos tomamos de la mano para no perdernos, nos preguntamos si teníamos sed, hambre o ganas de ir al baño. Teníamos calor, pero decidimos seguir andando. Pasamos de frente a la catedral y fuimos a ver Templo Mayor. Observamos a los danzantes y fuimos a ver si había algunos lentes obscuros de 25 pesos que nos gustaran. Decidimos volver, cruzar la plancha del zócalo rumbo a reforma. Ahí una chica se me acercó y me dijo “oye ¿eres rasta?”, “no”, “ves mamá no es rasta”, “pero igual dile”, “¿te puedo tomar una foto”. Raúl se hizo a un lado y se tapó con la mano la boca, la carcajada. Creo que me sonrojé, pero todo fue muy rápido. La mamá sacó el celular y de pronto yo tenía a una chica de cada lado posando. Posamos mientras otros dos chicos se acercaron apuntando sus celulares hacia mi. Yo veía a Raúl detrás de ellos y pensaba “¿qué es esto?”, “¿qué está pasando?”. No entendí nada. Claro que los dos chicos se pusieron a mi lado y posamos, de nuevo. “Gracias. Muchas gracias”. Caminamos a reforma, nos reímos y pensamos, pero no comentamos lo sucedido. Para Raúl tiene todo el sentido del mundo que la gente se detenga en la calle a verme con ganas de hablar conmigo.

Hoy, después de un desayuno con Brisa, quien siempre me alimenta con historias, chistes y pláticas profundas sobre la vida y nuestros caminos, decidí caminar del centro a casa de mi madre. En la calle Gandhi, casi esquina con Reforma, uno de los chicos que estaba lavando los carros estacionados entre los camiones que traen a los turistas al Museo de Antropología y al Castillo de Chapultepec, me detiene con señas para que me quite los audífonos. Me los quito. “Oye ¿haces dreadlocks?” Desde ahí me di cuenta que él no era un franelero cualquiera, pues no dijo ‘rastas’. Le dije “No, yo me los hago a mi pero no los hago”, “es que están muy bonitos y yo toco con una banda de reggae y me encantaría trenzar mi cabello, ¿te puedo dar mi mail?”. “Sí”, le dije “así te pongo en contacto con quien te puede hacer el cabello”. Él sonrío y continuo “es que soy pintor, sí lavo aquí los coches, pero soy pintor y hoy justo se inaugura mi exposición, si quieres ir va a ser en el dada-x de avenida cuahutémoc. Voy a ir de traje, pero me voy a dejar la barba para que me reconozcan”. Sé que sonreí ante todo lo que estaba pasando mientras apuntaba su mail. Se limpió la mano en su franela y me la ofreció “me llamo Yogi”, “me llamo Lola”, me apretó y me dijo “sí, es que la neta tienes una luz bien grande, eres... un ser de luz, ojalá puedas venir hoy en la noche”. ¿Qué le contestas a alguien en la calle que te dice eso, alguien que, además, no te hizo la más mínima insinuación sexual ni el más sutil coqueteo cotidiano de los hombres en la ciudad?.

Lola contestó “va, gracias, carnal!” y seguí mi camino a casa de mi madre. He de decir que se me salieron unas lágrimas y que la sonrisa, esa que lo hizo ver mi luz y mi amor, sigue bien pintada en mi carita.

Por eso yo nunca hablé mal de los franeleros, ellos también son humanos.