Thursday, January 10, 2008

Deep inside my heart



@ Kenyan refugee camp on the border

ways to help

http://www.directrelief.org/
EmergencyResponse/2008/

CivilStrifeKenya/CivilStrifeKenya.aspx?gclid
=CL3YypejrpECFUV0OAodzEhsdQ
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/
fromthefield/sosaus/120101160178.htm
http://www.imcworldwide.org/microsites/kenya_crisis
/kenya1.html?gclid=CIzaiOSfrpECFQIQFQodIjMjfA
http://www.goal.ie/
http://www.theirc.org/where/the_irc_in_kenya.html

Some stories

Spent yesterday rocking out Hineh Mah Tov and Lecha dodi with the most spectacular Jewish come-unity I ever did see...the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda.....They Live down a dirt road on the side of a mountain by the equator and they speak some hebrew and sing the most wonderful songs and study Torah (YouTube videos pending)...
Im starting to organize a Birthright Trip for them...
Last week I played a new years gig for a thousand Ugandans . I sang mostly Shlomo Niguns and Marley tunes of freedom (Mweterana Ab-Africa = Africa Unite!) The big hit was a free style reggae jam in their local language Rootoru. I sang all ten of the phrases I know. More people were scheduled to come but theres no gas in this whole country because of the fighting in Kenya....Im heading to a border refugee camp in an hour to sing some "deep inside my heart"
God is so tripped out! I saw some of the strangest animals that i didnt even know existed at a National park I was based out of for a bit. I went to the park to spend some chill time in nature and to get away from the city but for the first time in my life, it was actually too much nature! It was unsafe to walk around on your own because there were tons of big toothed predators that freely walked around like they own the place, cuz they did....Lions and tigers and Hippos (Hippos are very temperamental and fight to the death....and there was one that would come half a frisbee toss from my door every night)! Once I tried to sit outside and close my eyes to meditate...
It didn't work...
But Im Alive!
And so are you!

Monday, January 07, 2008

U ganda and I

Day of the show

January 1st, Fort Portal Uganda
Day of the show.
Fighting broke out yesterday in neihboring Kenya.
Somehow somone thought they could cheet on elections and get away with it!
124 dead is what they said.
War in the North....Now war in the east....
Theres actauly fighting in the West as well in Congo...
Uganda is landlocked and she gets her petrol from Kenya, and since the fighting broke out, the pumps have run dry. In the region I am in, there is one station with petrol within 100 miles. It happens to be two frisbee throws away from my guest house. Hundreds of petrol hungry motorist have desended upon this little station with there motor cycles and empty geri-cans...fighting over drops. I can hear them shouting from my bedroom. Police with AK47s have been gathering at the station, for soon the pumps will run dry.
The show must go on...
It begins in an hour...

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Day One...Uganda

1st day in Uganda...I rolled up to the Central bus station in Kampalah the capital...
Stood around for a while and stared at a map...There were busses going in every direction to different countries and I had to pick...
I got on a bus that said "Fort Portal".
I liked the name....I like portals....And it was headed towards the Rawenzori Mountains, the tallest in Africa...This region is also allegedly the densest most monkifull place on the planet (though I doubt the researchers have been to brothers Apt on the upper left side or to Nachlaot Jerusalem). So I sat parked in the non-airconditioned equatorial mid-day heat, waiting for the bus to depart for FIVE HOURS! Didnt move...for five hours. Luckily I didnt have to pee the whole time becaue all the water in me was dripping out sweat. It was an incredible meditation. In hour two of the sit I reminded myself that this bus station was just as much Uganda as any other, and I had come to experience Uganda, so I was doing what I came for. I had arrived, though the bus hadn't budged. That thought morphed into brother Yonis Snorkling Meditation. When Yoni and I snorkeled in the Red sea, we'ed often just float limp on the top of the water...We'd become water...and so much more would become revealed once we stopped moving. I did this on the bus.
Hour four I spent pondering the nature of frustration and my lack there of. I reminded myself that if I ever wanted to try getting angry or frustrated at something, there were far greater sources to choose from, like the Invisible Children in the north, or the uninterupted Genocide in Darfur, or the killing in Kenya....
Then the engine fired...the air started moving...and we were on our way...
We pulled into town at night and the first two Hotels I went to were booked...The third one I walked in and a local was sitting at the cafe writing a song...I pulled up a stool, pulled out my guitar and we started to Jam...Turns out hes famous around here. James Katz (Katzchululi)is his name...His break through hit was a song he wrote a few years ago about Ebola prevention....Soon afterwards Ebola cases dropped severely. We're working on an HIV diddy. So he's my new best friend. Hes got a heart of gold. We ride all around together...and he takes me to gigs and has introduced me to Members of Parliament and other fancy people...and lots and lots of people people.
Rodger, the guy who works the desk at my guest house, makes 3 dollars a day. He works from 8Am till midnight every day of the week. His transportation costs are $1.50. Then food and rent...the math doesn't add up.
So James was throwing a new years Concert where thousands were due to attend and he invited me to be a featured performer!
Ill tell you about it in the next episode.........