Greetings from Montevideo, from Alison Schwabe, Aussie quiltmaker

Heat, dust, an incredible sense of length of history, phases of building and destruction, renewal and decay, these cliches don't come anywhere close to giving you an idea of my first and ongoing impressions of this country. I suspect it will be quite a while before it gets into some kind of perspective. Jenny Bowker and her husband Bob are doing their best to ensure we come away with a lot of varied experiences to help that perspective crystallise. Just outside our hotel is this ivy encrusted building... I wonder what is holding which up ....

At the museum in front of the fabuous gold jewellery and other artefacts from Tutenkhamon's tomb I had another watery knee, emotional experience in the vicinity of the magnificent outermost death mask, the one everyone has seen and which has become a an icon for the fabulous wealth of Egypt's past - in itself it is 11kg of gold inlaid with finely crafted lapis.... the craftmanship on this ancient stuff is breathtaking, literally. We have had our first wander down a small part of the khan or market, but will be going back in the company of some other textile people, quilters, yet to arrive, and then we'll focus on the tentmakers district. ( see Jenny Bowker's blog for fabulous pictures and information on these textile workers) Last evening we had a lovely sunset felucca ride on the Nile observing the many faceted city from the water. We visited a glassblowing business where Jenny is clearly a frequent visitor and found ourselves at a project among the Zebelin, the garbage sorters, where the innate sorting skills of the young girls in that part of the community alongside the City of the Dead are being chanelled and educated into literacy at the same time they learn/hone weaving, papermaking and other productive skills to improve earning capacity in ways that are comfortable and acceptable to husbands and families. It has been clearly illustrated how well-meaning aid or assistance from outsiders can be anything but helpful without these factors being taken into full account: and this project is totally locally generated and run. We were so impressed - and happened along just as a local TV crew were doing a segment there - and Jenny found herself unexpectedly being pressed into being filmed as part of this doco. What a trouper - in a small crowded room with the outside temperature somewhere way over 100F, and one ineffective fan bravely churning on, wiping her sweaty brow and gathering a few well chosen words together, Jenny gave an excellent impromptu endorsement of the value of the work being done in this project, one in which she herself has given teaching time, sharing and passing on some of her textile skills to be absorbed and used by the organisers and participants as the range of skills and products grows and widen. Among other things I bought some wonderful little stitched note cards, and have ordered a wallhanging in a tufted weave using offcuts from textile manufacturing processes; it will be ready before we leave, taking only a couple of days.

While en route to several very interesting mosques we visited the City of the Dead and found it to be a fascinating, very positive place; not at all macabre. There we spent some time with several other of Jenny's extensive network of friends around the city, the spinners, a little appreciated group of men who spin together single loosely plied threads of silk that comes to them on cones, producing fine silk cords. These are then passed on to garment makers and couched in lively swirling patterns onto blouses shirts and the long loose kaftans called gebalayahs that many wear. Early in the day and in the evening they spread out the threads in long arrays between the houses in the dusty streets of this city within a city, and using marvellous recycling of cycle wheels, pieces of timber, wire and all manner of other simple equipment, spin the cords together. Photos and descriptions of this craft will form the subject of another post when I can get some blog time together in this crowded amazing trip, or maybe not until after it.

We strolled along the Seine to visit Notre Dame and passed numerous shops opening up and in one particular zone they seemed to be all either pet shops or plant shops. We wandered in and out of some of them; some specialised in fish and aquariums, others with pretty standard but generally pure-bred 4-legged pets, and some offered exotic birds like parrots bizarre fancy pigeons and a myriad of finches; and budgies were everywhere. We saw lots of wonderful plants, many of which we knew, and other different ones like this one, a Tacca, caught our imaginiation and attention. The aubergine-like colour was real - nothing plastic about this beauty. If it can be grown in Paris we are sure it can be in Uruguay and will try to get something like it there.

This textile noted on a rather smart looking canal boat owned by a couple from UK who come and go from France in their semi retired lifestyle. There was a similar one at the back, too. On the deck at the stern there was a little matching dark green car, which is lifted off the deck with a mobile crane, giving the flexibility that complements one's own travelling accomodation of this kind. As the lady I spoke to said, the deck is a little crowded, their immediate outdoor living area reduced when they are on the move, but we agreed there is nothing perfect in this life, something always has to be compromised - way to go, Poms - a nice set-up.

Unexpectedly the pic now posts OK - the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre - we found oursleves hopelessly lost in there but think we will go back for another sortie in the few days we have there beginning saturday. Poeople constrantly throng around this anciemt work, and we found it quite impossible to get within spitting distance of the Mona Lisa - in one way it's probably better to find a good pic in a book, than push forward to the front of the crowd. And even if you get to the front of the crowd it's roped off over 1m back, and you still aren't close.

What with internet difficulties - should I say absences more than anything - I have found it difficult to get anything posted - and even the pic I wanted to put up just now won't go for some reasson - so suffice to say we are having a most interesting time. Not very textile oriented so far - but I did buy a very nice piece of batik printed cotton from the congo - here in the small town of clamecy about 120m S of Paris - where our canal boat has been tied up the past 36 hours due to unfortunately heavy rain. Black, with rooosters and chickens and eggs all over it, it is beautiful it seemed to symbolise France. A textile shop here stocked mostly with notions ribbons napery and the wonderful narrow curtainings they put up at windows neverthless had a table of these Congo pieces, probably to coincide with an African themed exhibition at the local museum just now. I will put the pic up when conditions normalise.

I have been really struck by how manicured the landscape is, I realise essentially due to the long and many layered history here: and so many lovely flowery window boxes, the locks are all beautifully decked out with flower gardens, the woods and forests can bee seen through with trimmed trunks revealing further landscape vistas beyond... quite different to anything we have been used to. We have found difficulty adapting to things being closed at unexpected times, services not being offered where one might expect them in other parts of the world, and in our humble opinions so many opportunities wasted to show off this part of the world to visitors. But, that's their way. We have totally enjoyed to fresh foods and cheeses, many of the wines and the wonderful goodies ofered in charcuteries and boulangeries.

So, briefly that's it from me now, sorry I haven't been able to post a pic or two but will do later.

So we are getting ready for a little mind broadening, starting with heading to Paris later this week, some canal boating with friends in Burgundy and then on to Cairo: good friend and fellow Aussie Jenny Bowker there has promised to make sure we see good stuff - from all I have heard and pics seen of the tentmakers' work, that should be a delight, a highlight. And I know to expect so much more. We are fortunate to be able to go into Upper Egypt, too.
So, over the next few weeks while our minds are being broadened, alhough we will have computer access along the way, I have no idea how often I will be able to post, but I do plan to from time to time.

I saw this gem was on board one of the ferries plying between Auckland and Waiheke Is, NZ a few months ago. Now Kiwis, don't jump up and down - it's a great sign, nothing wrong with it, and plenty of them were posted about near the life vest storage lockers. Clear diagrams and good text make it clear how to put these things on - that is, how to "don" them. I think english speakers everywhere know what this term means, and some of us outside NZ and perhaps UK? use it very occasionally, but I have never seen 'donning' instructions. I guess for the commuters on the ferries this is an everyday term, otherwise the heading would have been " Putting on a Life Vest", " In Case of Emergency", or "Wearing a Life Vest".
To quote Kath Day, to me Donning is different, fresh and unusual !