Re: Stacks.

This my excavation, today is kumran

Everything that happens is from now on

This is pouring rain,

This is paralyzed.

I keep throwing it down, two hundred at a time

It's hard to find it when you knew it

When your money's gone 

And you're drunk as hell.

On your back with your racks as the stacks as your load

In the back and the racks and the stacks are your load

In the back with your racks and you're un-stacking your load.

I'm twisting to the sun I needed to replace

The fountain in the front yard is rusted out

All my love was down

In the frozen ground.

There's a black crow sitting across from me; his wiry legs are crossed

And he's dangling my keys, he even fakes a toss

Whatever could it be 

That has brought me to this loss?

On your back with your racks as the stacks as your load

In the back and the racks and the stacks as your load

In the back with your racks and you're un-stacking your load.

This is not the sound of a new man or a crispy realization

It's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away

Your love will be

Safe with me.

-Bon Iver "Re: Stacks"

This picture I took reminds me of what I picture when I listen to Bon Iver. I always think of looking out a window at a wintery scene.

Bird just blew my mind.

Andrew Bird is incredible. Please watch this video! He makes me want to start the violin again.

Slab City.

The stage at Slab City.

Slab City hot dog stand.

Slab City "The Library"

Indoor/Outdoor library

Anarchy?

Going to Slab City after Salvation Mountain was great. It's "The Last Free Place" according to the sign that greets you when you drive in. There used to be a bunch of military buildings, but they got torn down, just leaving cement slabs all over. Now people live here, in the middle of nowhere, for free.

People mostly live in RVs. Some live in abandoned cars and school buses. Some people are just drunks, while others are just retired folk. It's the strangest mix. 

We pulled over to talk to one old man and two old ladies who were sitting outside of their RVs, chatting and reading. They were friendly and answered some questions we had about Slab City. All three of them were retired, living on their own in their RVs. They drive around the country most of the year and spend the winter months in Slab City. 

The old man gave us a tour of his RV. He had a flatscreen tv with satellite, a king sized bed, a shower, stove and lazy boy chairs. 

The most interesting part of his RV were the pictures. He had pictures of his family all over. What caught our eyes were the 5 pictures he had of men in military uniforms, all lined up next to one another. The first was a photo of his father from World War I. The second was a photo of his brother from World War II. The third was him, from the Korean War. Fourth was his son in Vietnam. Last was his grandson in Iraq.

Isn't that crazy? What a legacy. He was pretty proud.

Our last stop was The Library. It was the coolest library I've ever seen, minus the fact that I probably wouldn't want to actually read any of the books in it. It was just a little shack that the community at Slab City put up, with lots of shelves of old books and old magazines. They had years worth of National Geographics. It's open 24 hours to everyone and you just take whichever book you'd like. One of the signs said to "Bring your own flashlight."

Outside of The Library, there is a small fence of old wine and liquor bottles. A sign reads "We would like to extend our thanks to so-and-so for donating materials for the fence." It's so bizarre!

Salvation Mountain.

Salvation Mountain; Niland, CA

God is Love

The Desert

I was loving it.

Ironic graffiti?

Texture

Leonard's paint

Leonard Knight, 77, the man who built & lives at Salvation Mountain.

Leonard built a tree out of pieces of wood he found in the desert.

The "museum" Leonard is building out of hay and terra cotta, adjacent to the mountain.

Leonard's replication of the world's largest tree trunk, General Sherman.

All of us with Leonard.

Leonard Knight has been living out here in the middle of nowhere, next to Slab City for nearly 30 years. He built Salvation Mountain and painted it. People donate paint to him so he can continue his work. He lives in the back of a truck at the mountain. His sole purpose for doing this is to spread his message- "Keep it simple, God is Love." Some of us took a day trip out to see the mountain, it's just 3 hours or so from San Diego. We had such a great day between seeing the mountain and meeting Leonard (who I think may be the sweetest man that has ever lived) and going next door to Slab City. 

We met people who clearly have no interest in living a normal life and have no regard for society in general. It was amazing.

Don't Walk.

This video was made for a fashion show that St. Andrew's is having in England for IC. Last year their show raised $30,000! Just an average day in the office here in San Diego for us assistants :) Brandon did an awesome job making this.

Freedom of the Road.

San Francisco

On the way to Chico, CA

Kelowna, British Columbia

On the way to the Grand Canyon, AZ

Living out of a 15 passenger van named Queen Elizabeth for 3 months while traveling across the Pacific Northwest = freedom.

Shortest Winter of My Life.

This is what January is like in San Diego. Warm enough to go to the beach and spend all of your time outside! It's so enjoyable, but at the same time, it's disconcerting to have weather like this in months that have always been cold and snowy throughout my life. It doesn't matter what time of the year it is in southern California though, the sunsets are always unbelievable! 

I was only able to go home to Salt Lake City for two weeks for a Christmas vacation. As my first internship with Invisible Children ended, I got ready to prepare for my second internship back in San Diego. It has been really bizarre for me to experience the weather in San Diego (usually sunny and 70 degrees) in January and February. Here are pictures from winter back home, the type of winter I am definitely more accustomed to.

Random Thoughts.

Since I am new to this blog, I feel like I have a ton to catch up on. The past couple years of my life have been a crazy adventure. It's been an adventure revolved around northern Uganda, a country in East Africa that has been gravely affected by a 23 year long war between the government and a rebel army. I now wish I had been blogging about my experience all along, even if just to share pictures. From here on out, I will be intending to keep up with my current going ons, as well filling in the gaps with stories and pictures from the recent past. I would like to do this in order to help preserve my own terrible memory, as well as to invite people I'm close to in to my experiences (advice my dad gave me months ago). So... here goes!

Potatoes

I recently came across a bunch of pictures from my trip to Uganda that I love so much. Just looking at them brings back many memories. I think I will post some of them every so often. The pictures that I am putting up now are from one of my favorite and most memorable days spent in Uganda. For one day, Amanda and I, along with one of the other students, spent our time with a Ugandan woman named Janet. Janet introduced us to her daily life as one of a million internally displaced persons. She lives in an IDP camp and opened up her life to us so that we could briefly experience what she lives through every day. The first thing she did was give us raw corn, as a sort of welcome present. Then she took us on a long trek to gather some potatoes from her garden. 

Digging up potatoes sounds easy enough. It was relatively easy for Janet who has had tons of experience. For the three of us, it was really difficult. First, we had no clue which plants were potato plants and which were just weeds. It's almost impossible to tell if you've never seen them before. Secondly, Janet had no tools to make digging up the potatoes easy. I got cuts on my fingers from the scratchy leaves and the rocks in the soil as I tried to find potatoes. I only found one, in the same amount of time Janet (who was very pregnant at the time) found a bunch more.