Jade's Blog

Ripple effects

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Poodling down the amazon in your little canoe, the outboard whirring like an egg beater and the jungle looking like green wool, all knotted up with sticks and tree stumps, it{s easy to think you have arrived in the {real wilderness{. You think that as you drape your fingers in the muddy water - Amazon mud - Amazon water, and as you watch big chest-beating clouds gather ahead for a yodelling session of Pantheon proportions, as you dodge the plate-sized butterflies and the fork-equipped bugs. You think that until somebody cuts the engine.

Then! Then you realise that you are not in the wilderness until you are in its silence. Being freed of the engine fast-tracks you out of what you thought was {peace{ into what IS peace. And the biggest surprise of it, the thing that{s a little sad about it, is that it{s the sort of peace we have forgotten to remember. Silence without the buzz. Without the engines of thought, tv, worries, schemes, doubts and all... a silence so delicate as to be lost eclipsed entirely by an errant idea, but so gargantuan and everlasting that it stretches toward infinity in all directions, the home base of everything that was ever born, in flesh, in wood, in water or wonder on this planet and all the others.

Ancient silence. Delicious.

With this awareness you see, for the first time, the effects of your speed, of your noise and your canoe - even though it seems so small on this river. You see the ripples of your being here eating bites out of the river bank, tugging at plant roots, sending birds into the air and causing fish to fly. You see women on their floating rafts doing laundry tossed about, and children paddling to school thrown around like leaves on your wake. You realise that even this tiny amount of force, even this extra speed, perhaps just a couple of knots faster than jungle-time, is separating you from the world here, cutting you off from how it really is, how it works. From balance.

Girls on Top has officially disbanded for 2008, with the team all home now in Oz, and one happily at home in Cusco, the magical centre of Peru. Now the adventure is ended, and all the work and our goals achieved, the ripples have extended out for me here in the Amazon where I have stayed on to work a little more with our charities here in the jungle.

My days are filled with sketching the new school to build at the Amazon Rescue Centre - how many nails? how many leaves for the roof? how do we keep the monkeys from pissing on the children? do we need light? can we arrange posters? or I am working a little with Amazon Promise as their volunteer team of 20 doctors arrives from around the world to pack their mobile clinic around the jungle and its villages and towns to treat hundreds of people with a myriad of needs. Already, here in Iquitos, Amazon Promise have seen more than 300 people from the floating slum city, Belen, tomorrow we all leave for deeper jungle where clinics will be conjured out of plastic tubs, packs and canoes to see perhaps hundreds more every day for 2 weeks... people who have nothing for the simplest injuries, burns, cuts, bites, welts and headaches... through to those with long-term tumours, cancer, TB, HIV and a host of mysterious ailments that no doctor has seen in the book, let alone attended to.

My role (nurse Jade) will be assistant in the pharmacy, or perhaps something else. I am traveling as a volunteer helper, and reporter for the crew and it is my honour to see Amazon Promise in action, as well as to be involved, on the ground, with a charity we have helped fund in its work.}

In my own world here, the jungle has teased out of me an old, strange illness that has covered me in welts, blotches and swollen roses of my own. typically, no doctor has seen such a rash, and even in the company of 20 wonderful, curious and passionate western healers I am something of a mystery. Luckily, this is the jungle, and there is always another way.

I have tucked myself under the wing of an Indian Shaman witch, Rossa, who is taking me on another journey, one into the healing arcana of the magical plants of the Amazon. All week I have been drinking her bitter curing teas and watching her cable tv. I am learning the ways of the plants, which are very jealous medicines, very strong and not to be treated lightly. An {appointment{ with Rossa can take half a day and involves many stories, many legends, some gossip, lots of laughing and chanel surfing on her tiny television. She tells me I have bad problems with my liver. Some anger that needs to let go. Some unspoken needs. She tells me I have astral parasites too (you know who you are) and she is working on clearing all those from my aura, and protecting me from bad forces, poor mojo, black magic and dickheads.

I leave for the jungle expedition tomorrow with bags full of powdered leaves, shaved wood and bark chips. I will boil them up, smoking big fat mupacho cigarettes that ward off evil and sing love songs in smoke plumes to the plant medicine. i will drink them under the full moon. After my work with Amazon Promise healing others, I will travel with Rossa to her jungle hut where she will spend the next two weeks healing me.

Rhymes and Reasons

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

A farewell sonnet for Natalie, Renee and Chloe... read this poem the wy I am, with a massive purple sky hanging down over El Cyber Cafe, thunder booming in across the Amazon, and a quiet place inside which understands the words as the password to another world. with love, Jade xxx

Girls in Motion

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Watching the girls set off for home with their woven baskets, beaded necklaces, sandals, hammocks, urns, plates, pyjama pants and allergic reactions as a tropical storm spilt over the edges of a Simpsons cloudscape last night brought tears to my eyes... and it wasn´t because they looked so..... different to when I first met them.

String theory

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

If you want an unpredictable, streamy, dreamy ride through the smoke and mirrors corridors of the universe, then hitch a ride from the Andes to the Amazon, it´s the Bermuda Triangle of Chaos ... where strange things disappear and even stranger things are simply just true.

I was reminded of Alices´adventures in Wonderland by William on the plane (thank you William, this was just one illumination you gave me and I hope we get to meet again so there may be more) ... for reasons involving tea parties and madness ... and today I feel like I have slipped another notch down my own rabbit hole to find yet another eccentric dimension of reality - one that had been missing for a long time back in the more solid reality of Sydney. For one thing, I won an egg and spoon race, with a small child attached to me, and for another, I won a dance competition with a 7-year-old at a slum town festival, and based all of my technique on a tango class I once had beside a rockpool in the deep Aussie bush, and an old Gidget film. See!!! Life really can be full of wonder, magic and unexpected wins... especially when you bend the rules and the map a bit! I think the reason for this free ticket to a great attitude has something to do with completing the quest of the hills as well as the mental, physical, emotional impact of moving suddenly from 5000m closer to the sun into this Amazon world where the water moves in so many directions, visible and invisible, that we´re really spending most of our time floating ... there ain´t no true terra firma in the Amazon.

Or perhaps it´s just the cosmic pumpkin´s way of sending out a big toothy grin to us gals, rewarding us for doing good, and sticking it out, and having faith in the big picture .. through thick air and thin¿

Yesterday´s time with the animla rescue centre reminded me how precious and how like us all our world´s animals are... and how much we need to ensure they have the safe, vibrant, mysterious homes they deserve - in the wild, where their spirits can be free. Todáy´s adventure with the children of the slum town of Belen here next to the jungle city Iquitos, reminded me that there are people living in this world in ways that would curl your hair!! Girls on Top were made international guests of honour at a festival for the people of this floating ramshackle suburb of more than 50,000 who do not even have solid ground, let alone a solid meal every day to rely upon. We represented Australia as we entered sack races, tug of war, dance competitions and sing-offs with the children for whom we have made our donation to fund the first stage of a medical clinic... some of whom, I couldn´t help thinking, may one day depend on this project for their very lives! We gave the gift of resources to make this vital service possible, but as always, the people we came here to help, gave us so much more back... showing us a passion for fun, a gentleness and connectedness, enthusiasm and radiance - even amidst the open sewers, the sideways houses, the dog shit and piss-rich puddles that surround their homes and gardens.

The best shone out in everybody, and I wonder if more than one Girl on Top thought through her own tests and challenges on our expedition, measuring the struggles and doubts we had in the Andes against the daily currency of compromise and danger, frustration and hopelessness that must be traded here? Having it made so real and vivid just how much difference we have been able to make has made me see again that an empowered, impassioned, focused soul of the western world can turn a standard life into a catalyst for incredible change and happiness in countries where $10 is a monthly wage, not a half-hour earning. That is an exciting thought for me... but it gets even more incredible when you think of what we can achieve too when we employ our expertise, education and will to improving the worlds of others who do not have the privilage of our levels of knowledge and application but are eager and awake to the possibility of a better life - one where, for example, they can eat a proper meal, live free of raw sewerage or toxic waste, where they do not die from basic problems like diahorrea and worms, where they have a real chance at simple health and freedom to be who they are.

It´s all very meaningful I suppose, but whenever i find myself holding hands with a child from one of these villages, or skipping off down some dusty alleyway, or just engaging with the melted chocolate sweetness of their South American eyes I really do see both the splendour in these people and, reflected right back at me, the splendour in my own.

Jen Duffy

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Life is full of strange coincidences and spooky timing, is it not¿

Miss Jen Duffy, you are the Madonna of the meaningful synaptic bleep, and it is a true delifght and a wonder to see traces of your good self here on my blog. Huaraz is not the same without you. Mind you, all of South America is not realy the same without you ... haven´t seen a Smurf (for one thing), nor any sign of green vomit or Kermit and the devil. That could all change soon though, because - just for one more time - I´m back to Vilcabamba - just can´t get enough of that cocktail with the cactus and the chuppa chupps in it!

What news oh acrobat of the waterfall¿ Still Asia-side¿ No plans to swing by this neck of the enchanted forest? It´s almost been too long...

Jade xxx

Green Slime

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

My green slime and I havejust watched the Andes slip away under the wing of a tiny plane on our way our of Huaraz and onto the Amazon.

: (

Not sure how the team feels about it, but I was sad not to have more time in the mountains, and another chance to trek... even though the Huayhuash has left me with a blistered eyeball, burnt lips and a deeply imbedded green slime situation which has given me unusual expertise on the quality of Peruvian tissues (mostly only good for one blow, no sneezing, and a touch rough on the skin which is why I have lost about half a pint of blood since coming off the hills). Not that I´m complaining. I love those mountains, and that crazy rubble-strewn town with it´s chickens in all states of life and death, and it´s flowers so incredible they look fake. Could eat the avocadoes and the potato chips as long as the elastic in my pants holds out.. and wouldn´t mind givng it all away to live Peruvian, if only it was with the blue skies and the sweet ocean of home. The mountain makes real men out of the sober ones, and they leave the Aussie suits for dead. Zac, our guide, for example, can re-stitch a sleeping bag in a 5am snow squwal, cook pancakes by 7 and then carry a girl 8 hours over a glaciar if she shouls so wish... and still look freshly ironed, cheerful and bursting with the wealth of an open heart and a healthy soul at the end of it .. evn if said girl is now demanding a hot water bird bath, three litres of soup and a game of Pigs (which it would be best for everybody if she won).

It seems like a long time since then though (and it´s certainly several kilos of shopping later for the team who seem to have been able to recover from the various trails and existential traumas of the treks well enough to manage 8-hour shopping assaults on the gold-toothed and no-toothed market folk of Huaraz) .. out 2 days in town went super-fast, jam-packed with feasts, a touch of the vomits and splats here and there, extravegant and bedazzling displays of Peruvian silver jewels on two of our more glamour-oriented chicas, and delicious sleeps in real beds. With pillows.

We are in transit now to the jungle and I can say that there is a lot more excitement and hype at this junction in our adventure than there was when the team were facing the climbing chapter of the trip. All fears behind us now (except for some questions about the size of the spiders and cockroaches we may be encountering .. and the truth about pirhanas, and whether or not Amazon mosquitoes really can rip your arm off to suck out the blood) ... Girls on Top are practically wriggling in their zip-off pants to get into the tropical heat, the sweet air and the oxgen gravy of the Amazon. I can´t wait to see them morph from broken-lipped, dry haired, fleecey layered mountain travelers into babes of the hot selva. Many delights await....

PS: With reference to my control issues, the mountain guide co-ordinator in Huaraz and I have discussed this at length and agreed, in the end, that this may just be a misinformed perspective on what it actually takes to get the job done, in the Huayhuash, without injury, evacuation or sillyness. I´m proud of myself and all the team that our Girls on Top tribe of inexperienced mountaineers made one of South America´s toughest trips without as much as a real bruise between us, and with something to laugh about at the end of almost every day.

Back from the brink

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

It´s about five hours since our team of sweaty, greasy, sun-struck and wonder-lusted Girls on Top made it back to the beeping, bleating, tooting, spitting town of Huaraz with its miracles including laundromats, taps, pillows, coffee and vegetables. The shock of ´reality´ has jolted me, as it always does, into a sort of sleepy overwhelm and shopping madness... the man-made world seems so insane after the infinite silence of the hills where everything necessary is so much quieter, and subtler, and gentler. In a mad scramble to make it all make sense the best thing to do seems to be to spend money - or walk fast -or look at magazines - it´s simply just Too Much to stay moving at mountain pace and watch the helter skelter of the built world in all its chokey, smokey, sexy, sad'eyed panic.

Avalanches are quieter than traffic.

Sheep love each other.

The girls are in their own little frenzies of adjustment, shaping mountains out of washing, fleece and separating out from the merino and feathers clothes which we can hardly imagine wearing in the hot and sweaty Amazon after our days sleeping in ice, making snowmen after soccer matches and catching trout in down jackets.

Their diaries and photos will appear here over the next few days as they tell the tale of our adventure in the Huayuash.

From where I stand, inspiring, serving, caring for and leading five of us, with our own unique approaches, attitudes, fears and resistances over the toughest trek in the Cordillera Huayhuash these last 12 day has been a privilage and a test. From beginnings of crippling nausea, tears, diahorrea and fears over everything from the food to our boots on the radically changing terrain, the team has emerged from the hills confident, calm and close. Five strangers crossing the Andes over 200kms (give or take about 10ks due to knee preservation considerations) in snow, storms, dust and all....with only a few blisters, one weird rash, several nasty bites, a weather-worn ear, one shaving cut and some sunbun to show for it all is not bad going.

I loved this year´s adventure, even with the little hiccups and the doubts and questions it raised ..as it always does. I think we walked out plenty of the phobias and melodramas we arrived with, as casualties of our own self doubt and our civilised neuroses. The mountains, I think we mostly found, are not a place to test out control, but to practice letting it go. The 45 degree sand dune descent of San Antonio pass, which we had to run down as it collapsed under our feet, was the best place to learn that lesson - and we did, bad knees, vertigo, trepidation and all.

Every girl on top made the expedition in her own sweet way, and some of us even managed to see how we could sweeten the bits that were in need of it -for everybody´s sake, especially our own.

The mountains are their own curriculum and some came to learn tougher lessons than others. I think we did a very good job of Being There, of opening our hearts to what was going on, and helping each other accept it so we could be present to the beauty of the Andes, the ancient workings of the world all about us, and the circus that was someimes going on inside.

Thanks to those of you who´ve sent me messages here to come back to ... nice to know you´re out there and nice to be able to share the tale too!

Realising more and more that love is more important than leadership - though our beautiful Peruvian crew remind me every year that truly, in a culture like this, with its heart in the land and its eyes turned gently toward the other, they can really be the same thing.... hope I can come back with this lesson more deeply learnt.

Does anybody know the best treatment for blistered lips¿

jadex

You can tell you are in Huaraz when...

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

There are hamsters on the menu.

The question marks are upside down ¿

People are herding sheep up the main drag.

Your room looks like a military line-up of empty 2 litre water bottles and you´´re still thirsty.

There are condor on the clouds. And vultures on the roadside.

You buy your $5 watch and feel proud and out-doorsy.

Your socks are not to be left in the open air.

The girl who sells you a soccer ball is wearing a large green iguana.

Ladies in bowler hats and wide, woolly skirts are selling you the world´s best avocados for 30cents each ... and a bunch of roses is $1.

The 'supermarket' is all outdoors, undercover of cheap plastic sheets that crack and whip in the mountain winds like limp sails on a harbour of spectacular horrors. The Veggie section is radiant with the gloaming of real fruit ... fruit that glows with the true colours of tomato, of strawberry, of apple ... colours we have forgotten back home. The carrots, potatoes, corn and grains come in more varieties than even I have metaphors for, and look like they were each grown gently and quietly in the bosom of the soil, and show the creases where they were made. The meat section made a few of the team a little pale. To say the least. Cuts include pig face, pig jaw, chicken guts )in assorted varieties), cow feet, offal sausage and who dares to imagine the rest.. all attended meticulously by flies.

Girls on Top 2008 have arrived! Let{s skip over the 3'day transit out of Sydney via Buenos Aires )nice day at the market and delicious lunch overlooking tango dancers and treasure sellers) ... shame about the lack of movies, audio, lights or vegetables on the flight... it was a passage to forget. But here in the mountains we are getting aclimatised )read fending off the bone's having headache of first days over 3000m, a few waves of nausea, some close encounters of the porcelain type, and cases of sudden fatigue, sunburn, inability to do simple sums like... if I buy one bottle of water for 3 Peruvian soles, and another one for 3 Peruvian soles... how much... weird ideas of humour and extra long confusion when trying to be decisive with a menu)

Everybody has so far admitted that it feels a little weird to have suddenly jetisoned ourselves out of blue'sky Sydney, Townsville, Melbourne and Berkely and arrived here... just like that! Shopping in the markets yesterday was frenzied and furious and I do believe I saw a pretty high degree of awareness that we were not in Cansas anymore at the food market too.

Today I stayed in bed until 3pm nursing the evils of a headcold and Sydney flu that has amplified its attentions here at 3000m in Huaraz. The team made 2km ascent of the devilishly steep, but twinkly rewarding Churup mountain to see its aqua lake. For the first time at altitude they seemed to do well, but you might not have thought so at first, seeing Girls on Top draped in various defeated poses around the furniture at our hotel at 5pm this afternoon. Onward and Upward Girls!!

The weather is clear. Blue, hot, dry wind and we have missed a nasty rain spell... off on a baby trek tomorrow to get a bit more practice before we head out into Huayhuash for the real deal on Friday.

Stay tuned ... Jade x

Like it is...

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

By far the most common thing that people say when I meet them at high School reunions, parties or wherever ... and the conversation swings to Girls on Top is something like; "Wow! Pick Me!! I would Loooovveee to come... Wonderful! Fantastic! If only!! And then there is a dialogue which usually opens up that great perplexing question of What We would Do in Life - If Only! Most often men, women and children all say that they admire our work, and all the girls, and that surely this journey is one that we all dream of, and that would be so life-changing and inspiring...

When I speak with our brave and wonderful girls through their journeys of fundraising and preparation - of Getting Real about the fact that they have signed up for this very same Wonderful Adventure .. the most common thing they say along the way is.... "Ouch! It sure does take a lot of guts to do this." And you know what - the things our team learn and share a little on the blog about what it really tak

Like it is...

sijmen@girlsontop.net — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

By far the most common thing that people say when I meet them at high School reunions, parties or wherever ... and the conversation swings to Girls on Top is something like; "Wow! Pick Me!! I would Loooovveee to come... Wonderful! Fantastic! If only!! And then we explore that great perplexing question of What We would Do in Life - If Only! Most often men, women and children admire our work, and all the girls, and that surely this journey is one that we all dream of, and that would be so life-changing and inspiring... When I speak with our brave and wonderful girls through their journeys of fundraising and preparation - of Getting Real about the fact that they have signed up for this very same Wonderful Adventure .. the most common thing they say is....