Phase 2: Bella in Wonderland

Bella ate a cookie that makes her smaller and has to face an army of snails and Haydar's shoe.

Stage 1: 

Spring Finals are here! Below is phase one of my digital studio photography spring 2012 final.  Children have so many questions and Bella takes hers into the garden where she encounters beings that are the same as her but different. 

The Mystery Bakery

In an unsuspected alley way there is a bag of day old bread hanging in a window.  It is so dark inside that it would take someone adventurous and brave enough to enter for inquiries.  The scent of fresh baked bread pulls my nostrils and guides me in.  The baker waves me away to not take his picture, ashamed of his tattoos he doesn't want to be seen.  I have to convince him I think he is beautiful and that I don't mind the tattoos for his to allow me to shoot.  The sun is so hot outside and yet in here there is no escape.  The oven burns even hotter raising the temperature to almost sauna status at 150 degrees F.  It is like a sweat lodge, no wonder they have their shirts off.  I walk out of there with fresh, hot french rolls.  They are perfectly crisp and flaky on the outside and soft and airy on the inside.  I eat two before hopping on a motor bike (against the provision of my professor) to go share the rest of the bread with hungry patients waiting in line at the hospital.  Back home in my editing process I wondered who is this man? What do his tattoos represent? And why was he ashamed of them?  Was he a soldier in the khmer rouge, is he accepted in his community? What is his story? Having not spoken Khmer I decided to tell a story of what may have been going on.  Inspired by the ash and smoke of burning bread I share with you "The Baker of the Bread"

Koh Kong Cambodia

Alice Chasing the Rabbit

San Francisco at Sunrise

San Francisco @ Sunrise

Alice in Wonderland CA

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. ~Lewis Carroll

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.~Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland Composite

 Down the Rabbit Hole

"But I was thinking of a way To multiply by ten, And always, in the answer, get The question back again." ~Louis Carrol

Photo Composite © Chelsea DeVere 

Flickr Finally

I finally have a Flikr account. Please take the "journey" to view my first SET from Project Cambodia 2012.

Journey

Project Cambodia accompanied the Cambodian Health Professionals of America (CHPAA) on a medical and dental mission to Koh Dach, Koh Kong and Ta Tai Cambodia to fit amputees for prosthetic arms, treat over 6,000 people in a seven day free clinic. Experience the joy and rewards of helping those in need.  Visit CHPAA to learn more and to help.  Visit Project Cambodia 2012 for more journalistic stories regarding the mission.

Meditation in Koh Kong

Teachers open the door but you must enter yourself ~Chinese Proverb

Meditation
Reflections of how two strangers from different worlds came together as one.

The sun hot, the air still, and every corridor of the hospital is a sea of noise.  Sweating bodies young and old stand in long lines waiting to be seen by American doctors in Koh Kong Feb 2, 2012.  Volunteer voices call loudly encouraging order, waving their arms and using vibrant American humor.  Babies cry in fear for attention.  Middle-aged women cackle remarks in Khmer amongst each other and men become disgruntled with the wait. Those extremely ill are eerily quiet.  Hundreds of people flock from miles around.  They are treated promptly or referred to ICU if in need of major surgery.  Many surround the perimeter shaded by big hats sipping fresh iced sugar cane juice seeking relief from the scorching heat. 

Water which is too pure has no fish ~ Ts'ai Ken Ta'ian

By some universal force my eyes meet with an elderly man sitting at the roots of a tree in front of the hospital.  With open palms he reveals bags of “miracle medicine” and signals for me to sit down.  He is smiling with one tooth remaining and says to me “81” as he points to his heart.  I am intrigued but I don’t speak Khmer or French and he speaks very little English so we are silent, smiling at each other on the grass.  He taps my knee and shows me, a yoga teacher, how to get into half lotus.  He seems impressed by my ability and I feel nurtured.   We close our eyes and become very silent.  I battle for a moment with my nerves wanting so bad to hear his story while he curiously peeks at me through one eye.   Finally I am there, the orbiting noise of the clinic and all the people become distant as we meditate together for a timeless moment.  We find peace within ourselves and together we are one.  

By Chelsea DeVere

The quieter you become the more you are able to hear ~Lao Tzu

Karma

All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states. ~Buddha

Karma
A disheartening story of one foreigner buying a young boy for all of his needs as a tourist living in Thailand.  

On Feb 3, 2012 Austrian tourist Josef Osterreich died in Ward 5 at Koh Kong Hospital, Cambodia.  According to medical officials at Koh Kong Hospital he checked only four days earlier with ill health, loss of control over his bowels, extreme diabetes and little will to live.  According to the resident Doctor, Osterreich’s immune system was entirely failing having HIV like symptoms, a test he refused to have in his final days.

Andy Scheidegger, his only present friend, explained in depth Osterreich having been paranoid ever since becoming sick and finding a red bottle of poison in his old home in Thailand. Living in Asia for twenty years he had allegedly purchased a young boy eight years ago to “take care” of his needs.  Medical needs? I think probably more than that.  At thirteen the boy brought a girl to the house, interested in having a girlfriend, to which Osterreich reacted violently denying the boy payment if he brought any girls back.   “The family was more of a problem” admits Scheidegger, “he should have never told them about the money that was his first mistake.”  This is apparently very common for foreign tourists to buy young boys and girls for all their needs in return they offer them money, housing and support.  In return, apparently the families poison them for payment sooner.  Osterreich allegedly became paranoid so he sold his home in Thailand, let the young boy go and moved to Cambodia where he struggled to live out his final days.  He had been kicked out of every hotel in Koh Kong having asked several tenants for a gun to end his misery.  Scheidegger claims he offered to buy him a new boy in Cambodia for only $300-$400 “but he was a cheap charlie” he says and paranoid after what happened in Thailand.   I parted from Scheidegger as he left with Cambodian officials and an ambulance to finalize Osterreich’s departure from this world.

In an hour or so I spot his jeep driving back into the clinic, I run over to inquire, will there be a burial?  Andy squints looking straight ahead “he is over at the temple now if you care to go, there is not much else to see maybe just some ashes.”  Then he looks at me with piercing crystal blue eyes and says “or something to smell.”  These pictures are not for the light hearted.  They are pictures of a dark journey to one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I have ever set foot.  Sabun, my tuk tuk driver took me to the temple (wat community) where I was joined by wat residents, four monks and a beautiful young girl, to witness Osterreich’s body burn in the crematorium; his hopeless soul leaving his body to be reincarnated as something maybe less than a rooster or a pig.

Written and photographed by Chelsea DeVere

Ward 5 where deceased was said to have stayed four days hallucinating and asking for a gun.

Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get.
- Frederick Douglas

As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.
- Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji

Karma literally means “deed” or “act” and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction which governs all life. Karma is not fate, for man acts with free will creating his own destiny. 

Fish Eye Babies

I am back from a two week trip to Cambodia and my babies missed me terribly.  Bella and I made Little Ladybugs out of her princess cookbook tonight using strawberry bodies, red grapes for heads, and mini chocolate chips for spots.  She then decided we would have a sleep over.  She crawls in my cozy bed and reads herself to sleep.

Chloe is now old enough for teeny bopper magazines and writes beautiful poetry that she recites to me, on this appropriate stormy night, titled "Rain."  

 My favorite baby gives me kisses till I can't stand it and he sleeps in a ball by my feet every night. Dudley is the truly my best friend and my Valentine for 2012.