How important is it? - Page 4

Aisha Azar · 11-26-2007, 07:34 PM

Dear Lisaj,
I am more than likely going to spend some time in Cairo ( and a trip to Alexandria to deliver presents to friends' of mine's families), next year. I have lived in places where you can't drink the water, and it is not amusing, no matter how many fine doctors there are to treat me. As far as cruelty of any kind, there is NOTHING that balances that for the poor, the victimized, etc. no matter how many other smiling people there are. It's easy to sit on the other side of the fence and rationalize. I may sound like Ursula LeGuin, who wrote "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", but there it is.
Regards,
A'isha

Shanazel · 11-27-2007, 03:06 AM

One of my favorite stories, A'isha. Did you get to live a lot of places overseas while you were growing up?

Aisha Azar · 11-27-2007, 03:51 AM

Dear Shanazel,
Urusla LeGuin can really hit home with a point, can she not? I have not lived a lot of places overseas, only a few. I have lived in places where the water is undrinkable for people who are not natives. The one I remember best is, I have a school photo of myself from a school I went to in Newfoundland, and I have these horrible scabs all over my mouth from drinking the water at school. We boiled our water at home, but I was quite young, like, 5 years old, and did not connect it. I also caught something and had to stay home for a couple of weeks once,again from drinking the water. We also were not supposed to drink milk from the cows on the Island, so all of our milk was powdered, and put into the water that we boiled. And that was still in North America!!
Another point I would like to make is that when I was a child,it never felt like I "got" to live in a lot of different places, but more like I "had" to move again, leave my friends behind, be the new kid at school again, get used to the new surroundings and social situation, etc. The good part of this is that one never really gets a very ethnocentric mind set because you simply are not there long enough for it to happen. Even in just moving from one part of the U.S. to the another, there is a vast difference.
Regards,
A'isha

Shanazel · 11-27-2007, 04:49 AM

Yes, I understand about having to move as opposed to getting to move. I didn't move as often as you did, but I think I racked up around a dozen or so towns before I got to chose to stay put as an adult.

The worst water I ever had, by the way, was in Cholame, California on the way from the central valley to Morro Bay. It was undrinkable, and the water in my home town in Arkansas wasn't far behind in sheer unpalatability. Hope was built on a swamp and you could smell chlorine in the water as soon as you opened a tap.

Aisha Azar · 11-27-2007, 02:49 PM

Dear Shanazel,
Yeah, it can be a bummer to move all the time. I suppose it has helped me in may ways, though, too. When I was 19, I finally moved to a place where I have spent my entire adulthood. I have even lived in the same house for about 27 years now. My daughter has a place that is her real home.
We also have terrible water here, but I am not afraid to drink it. I only choose to drink bottled water because the chlorine is very noticeable in the city water here in Spokane. it might be safe, but it sure ain't good!!
Mark Balahadia and I were talking on the phone last night about maybe meeting up in Egypt in April. He was reading from a book about the shots we need to get. It is pretty daunting since we even have to get a polio booster, and perhaps rabies vaccination. EEEWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!! We were laughing our butts off by the time we got through the section about avoiding watching out for black hooded cobras and carpet vipers, not eating any street food or drinking the water, how the air in the big museum is practically unbreathable because of the bus station right near it, how we should pack a Malaria kit, etc. Oh, and don't fall in any standing water, either as it isn't pretty. I thought , hhhmmmm.... they should give us the same advice for going to L.A. in August!!
Regards,
A'isha

lizaj · 11-27-2007, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A'isha Azar

Dear Lisaj,
I am more than likely going to spend some time in Cairo ( and a trip to Alexandria to deliver presents to friends' of mine's families), next year. I have lived in places where you can't drink the water, and it is not amusing, no matter how many fine doctors there are to treat me. As far as cruelty of any kind, there is NOTHING that balances that for the poor, the victimized, etc. no matter how many other smiling people there are. It's easy to sit on the other side of the fence and rationalize. I may sound like Ursula LeGuin, who wrote "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", but there it is.
Regards,
A'isha

Oh I sympathise.... I spent my early years in a country battered by war, playing on bomb sites, chronic shortage of decent housing,food strictly rationed, hand me down clothes, my grandparents had no inside running water nor toilets nor electricty and we had to save up for doctor's and dentists. We fed our rescued kitten on left over scraps..no cat food then. School classes were 50+ and no one had a such a luxury as a automobile unless you were rich, no TV just a night out at the moves as a luxury. Yes I am talking Britain. It was in a hell of a mess in the late 40s through to the 60s just like a lot of Europe and needed US money to survive.The scary thing is...it doesn't seem that long ago

No way does that excuse or make acceptable the way some have to live in nor the way animals are treated in the developing world but sorry, I don't feel guilty for visting it. I wish its' people well and some of them are beginning to start up animal welfare agencies and realise that you get more out of a well treated working animal.

lizaj · 11-27-2007, 04:17 PM

..and to return to the thread I do think there is great value in travelling to lands of dance. Ballet dancers would no doubt dream of visiting Russia and Line Dancers the US.
I have to confess that I don't just wear a dancers belt when I visit Turkey , Egypt Morocco etc..the historian in me gets all enthusiastic too....

Aisha Azar · 11-27-2007, 04:53 PM

Dear Lisaj,
While I also believe there is great value in traveling to the lands where the dance originated, I think there are other ways to learn about the culture, people and all of the other elements that make up the dance. My point was that we can not negate other methods of learning besides traveling there; especially on some of the tours I have heard about! I also see many dancers returning from Egypt having learned nothing, if we judge by watching them dance.
Regards,
A'isha

lizaj · 11-27-2007, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A'isha Azar

Dear Lisaj,
While I also believe there is great value in traveling to the lands where the dance originated, I think there are other ways to learn about the culture, people and all of the other elements that make up the dance. My point was that we can not negate other methods of learning besides traveling there; especially on some of the tours I have heard about! I also see many dancers returning from Egypt having learned nothing, if we judge by watching them dance.
Regards,
A'isha

Oh I agree..they have to follow up and a dancer will always learn from others who have travelled or studied with the masters of a particular style. I like to think I have a good grasp of ATS despite never having been to California as I have studied with Wendy Marlett, Paulette Rees Denis and Domba and 2 British teachers who have danced "over there".
But there is a magic in seeing dancing in situ' and I would love to travel to the home of ATS as I have to Cairo and Turkey.
Mind you I am a little daunted by what I may have to face at the hands of US immigration!

even if the water's OK

Aisha Azar · 11-27-2007, 05:38 PM

Dear Lisaj,
Actually, my friends who still live in the City (San Francisco) say that the water there is not for drinking, though you can still bathe in it!! I graduated from high school in Marin County, just above San Francisco, back when it was still pretty reasonable to expect a safe ride when hitchhiking!!
Regards,
A'isha

11-26-2007, 07:34 PM	#31 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 4,518	Dance, etc. Dear Lisaj, I am more than likely going to spend some time in Cairo ( and a trip to Alexandria to deliver presents to friends' of mine's families), next year. I have lived in places where you can't drink the water, and it is not amusing, no matter how many fine doctors there are to treat me. As far as cruelty of any kind, there is NOTHING that balances that for the poor, the victimized, etc. no matter how many other smiling people there are. It's easy to sit on the other side of the fence and rationalize. I may sound like Ursula LeGuin, who wrote "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", but there it is. Regards, A'isha

11-27-2007, 03:51 AM	#33 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 4,518	Dance, etc. Dear Shanazel, Urusla LeGuin can really hit home with a point, can she not? I have not lived a lot of places overseas, only a few. I have lived in places where the water is undrinkable for people who are not natives. The one I remember best is, I have a school photo of myself from a school I went to in Newfoundland, and I have these horrible scabs all over my mouth from drinking the water at school. We boiled our water at home, but I was quite young, like, 5 years old, and did not connect it. I also caught something and had to stay home for a couple of weeks once,again from drinking the water. We also were not supposed to drink milk from the cows on the Island, so all of our milk was powdered, and put into the water that we boiled. And that was still in North America!! Another point I would like to make is that when I was a child,it never felt like I "got" to live in a lot of different places, but more like I "had" to move again, leave my friends behind, be the new kid at school again, get used to the new surroundings and social situation, etc. The good part of this is that one never really gets a very ethnocentric mind set because you simply are not there long enough for it to happen. Even in just moving from one part of the U.S. to the another, there is a vast difference. Regards, A'isha Last edited by Aisha Azar; 11-27-2007 at 03:55 AM.

11-27-2007, 02:49 PM	#35 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 4,518	Water, etc. Dear Shanazel, Yeah, it can be a bummer to move all the time. I suppose it has helped me in may ways, though, too. When I was 19, I finally moved to a place where I have spent my entire adulthood. I have even lived in the same house for about 27 years now. My daughter has a place that is her real home. We also have terrible water here, but I am not afraid to drink it. I only choose to drink bottled water because the chlorine is very noticeable in the city water here in Spokane. it might be safe, but it sure ain't good!! Mark Balahadia and I were talking on the phone last night about maybe meeting up in Egypt in April. He was reading from a book about the shots we need to get. It is pretty daunting since we even have to get a polio booster, and perhaps rabies vaccination. EEEWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!! We were laughing our butts off by the time we got through the section about avoiding watching out for black hooded cobras and carpet vipers, not eating any street food or drinking the water, how the air in the big museum is practically unbreathable because of the bus station right near it, how we should pack a Malaria kit, etc. Oh, and don't fall in any standing water, either as it isn't pretty. I thought , hhhmmmm.... they should give us the same advice for going to L.A. in August!! Regards, A'isha

11-27-2007, 04:53 PM	#38 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 4,518	Dance, etc. Dear Lisaj, While I also believe there is great value in traveling to the lands where the dance originated, I think there are other ways to learn about the culture, people and all of the other elements that make up the dance. My point was that we can not negate other methods of learning besides traveling there; especially on some of the tours I have heard about! I also see many dancers returning from Egypt having learned nothing, if we judge by watching them dance. Regards, A'isha

11-27-2007, 05:38 PM	#40 (permalink)
Aisha Azar V.I.P. Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Pacific Northwest USA Posts: 4,518	Dance etc. Dear Lisaj, Actually, my friends who still live in the City (San Francisco) say that the water there is not for drinking, though you can still bathe in it!! I graduated from high school in Marin County, just above San Francisco, back when it was still pretty reasonable to expect a safe ride when hitchhiking!! Regards, A'isha

11-27-2007, 03:06 AM	#32 (permalink)
Shanazel Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rocky Mountains USA Posts: 4,687	One of my favorite stories, A'isha. Did you get to live a lot of places overseas while you were growing up?

11-27-2007, 04:49 AM	#34 (permalink)
Shanazel Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rocky Mountains USA Posts: 4,687	Yes, I understand about having to move as opposed to getting to move. I didn't move as often as you did, but I think I racked up around a dozen or so towns before I got to chose to stay put as an adult. The worst water I ever had, by the way, was in Cholame, California on the way from the central valley to Morro Bay. It was undrinkable, and the water in my home town in Arkansas wasn't far behind in sheer unpalatability. Hope was built on a swamp and you could smell chlorine in the water as soon as you opened a tap.

11-27-2007, 04:17 PM	#37 (permalink)
lizaj Moderator Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Posts: 1,287	..and to return to the thread I do think there is great value in travelling to lands of dance. Ballet dancers would no doubt dream of visiting Russia and Line Dancers the US. I have to confess that I don't just wear a dancers belt when I visit Turkey , Egypt Morocco etc..the historian in me gets all enthusiastic too....