Burkina Faso: celebrating African filmmaking.

Since 1969, Burkina Faso has been home to the Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou, or FESPACO for short. This biennial event celebrates the best of the film industry in Africa. There are two categories of awards: the Etalon d’or de Yennenga for fictional and documentary feature films and the Poulain d’or de Yennenga for short films. 

The most recent iteration of the festival took place in October 2021, delayed from its scheduled date in February 2021 due to COVID. This year's big winner was Somali filmmaker Khadar Ahmed, who was recognized for a film he wrote and directed, "The Gravedigger's Wife." Click below for the trailer:

Bulgaria: fire walking to honor great saints.

The fire walk is not unique to Bulgaria. In fact, many cultures embrace some form of it, usually as a rite of passage or as a means to test courage. But not in Bulgaria.

While the exact origin of fire walking in Bulgaria is unknown, it is a celebrated way to honor Saints Constantine and Helena. Saint Constantine is the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and the fire walk that is performed on June 3 celebrates that conversion. Known in Bulgaria as Nestinari, this holiday includes a parade featuring icons of Saints Constantine and Helena and lighting of candles where the icons are displayed.

Those who walk on fire on Nestinari are said to be purified and become more fertile after the ritual. Interestingly, most of the videos I watched of Nestinari feature more men than women. I am not making any judgments, just an observation...

 

Brunei: not your grandfather's floating village.

What do you think of when you hear the term "floating village?" A few shacks? Floating gardens? Nothing to do?

There is a floating village outside Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. This 13-minute video provides a tour of that village, which includes a full working gym, restaurant, school, mosque, fire station, and police station. It also includes a tour of a family home, which includes a large flat screen television and a modern kitchen that even Rachel Ray would enjoy.

This video also includes a brief trek through some mangroves -- you can hear and barely make out some monkeys in the treetops. Apparently they're shy.

 

Brazil: Christ the Redeemer.

When I think of Rio de Janeiro, I think of approaching the city from a plane and seeing the massive Christ the Redeemer statute. I never gave this statue that is counted among the seven wonders of the world much thought -- until today.

This 10-minute video describes history of the statue, why it was built, and the experience of walking up the mountain to view it. While there is a tram that can bring you to the statue's base, many people elect to walk up the stairs instead as a pilgrimage.

What I found particularly interesting was that the original vision for the statue was to have Jesus holding a cross in one hand and the world in another. The idea was rejected when the concept was being shopped around because people started calling the statue "Jesus will a ball in his hand."

Botswana: off-road safari.

Happy 2022. I decided to resurrect my travel blog as I do not know when I will be able to go on the adventure of my dreams. While we can hope that the pandemic will abate in 2022, it is very likely that some of the remote parts of the world in which I am most interested will not be safe or easy to access for a while. Besides, there's nothing like a little traveling from a sofa on a lazy Sunday afternoon to nurture my wanderlusting soul.

Botswana -- that's where I left off last year. I really do not know that much about it, other than it is a landlocked country north of South Africa and one can go on safari there. 

The video I selected here is a visual vacation with no narration and African music to help transport you. I have never been on a safari IRL and was a little stunned to see some graphic footage of animals eating their prey.   

Bosnia and Herzegovina: beyond the war.

When I saw that Bosnia and Herzegovina was next up on the list of countries I would visit from my sofa, all that came to mind was the war in the 1990s and Miss Sarajevo, a war protest song by U2 and Luciano Pavarotti.

While any place is more than its wars and its conflicts, those wars and conflicts are part of that place's current context. The first 10 minutes of this BBC travel show showcase Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, since that war took place more than 25 years ago. The 1984 Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo and the luge chute that was used as a hiding place during the war is now a place where people can seek thrills on bicycles. The Holiday Inn where journalists who covered the war stayed has been restored -- and still shines from the humanity of the people who worked there during the war.

Go to Sarajevo -- not only to see what happened to the "Jerusalem of Europe" -- but to discover the soul of a place that has been ground zero for the thrill of victory...and the agony of defeat.

Bolivia: alpacas supporting the livelihood of Andean people.

 

Yesterday I took a yoga class at the Blue Alpaca Ranch & Store in Belfast, Maine. Not knowing much about this pack animal, I did some research today and discovered that they are an important source of income for the Andean people in Bolivia. They are gentle, they are soft, and they interact with people.

This four-minute video depicts how the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development has helped revitalize rural Bolivia.