LEARNING, LEARNING, LEARNING -- Thanks to Kiva and KivaFriends

[Guest]

.

[Jill]

Sometimes, I choose to make a loan just because I’m grateful for some tidbit of knowledge I pick up from the description or photograph of one of our entrepreneurs, or, because they propel me to go on a treasure hunt, where I find out all kinds of amazing things.....

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=72418&_tpos=3&_tpg=1

Mame Yacine Dieng – Retail – Senegal

In this particular loan, it’s the following** that captivated me:

“…. She also sells fruit juice that she prepares with monkey bread (the fruit of the baobab tree,) hibiscus flowers, and sugar. ..”
** Along with my love of food, trees, flowers, fooling around at Google Image (see, below) and the exotic, that is.



Photos #1-3:  Baobab trees.  Do click on these three tree photos to enlarge them.  They're really quite magnificent and pretty weird, too. 
Think: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
The one in the first photo is supposed to be a thousand years old. For the incredible variety of uses of this amazing tree,  besides providing one of the ingredients in our Entrepreneur’s fruit juice, see, also :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobab


Photo #4: Baobab fruits in a photo taken in Malawi.

Photo #5: Baobab Body Butter.  I  found this when I was looking for Baobab tree fruits and smiled as it reminded me of one of my former students’ (and my) favorite tongue-twisting poems:  Betty Botter.

                        BETTY BOTTER

      Betty Botter bought some butter,
      But, she said, this butter’s bitter;
      If I put it in my batter,
      It will make my batter bitter,
      But a bit of better butter
      Will make my batter better.
      So she bought a bit of butter
      Better than her bitter butter,
      And she put it in her batter,
      And it made her batter better,
      So ‘twas a better Betty Botter
      Bought a bit of better butter.

Photo #6: A cake in the shape of a hibiscus flower.

"Off-Topic"  As though the entire post isn't already "off-topic".   
                          Nice "I Loan Because" post, Queen......

[Jill]

Riffing on a Baobab…..

Turns out that I’ve had this special reverence for trees ever since I was a little kid.   I've always just loved them!   After happening, this morning, on the fruit drink seller I mentioned in the post, above, who uses fruits from the baobab in her drink, I found myself wanting to delve further into the infinite wonders of those ohsostrange but spectacular creations of nature, the baobabs. 

Following are a couple of the more notable Baobabs I came across on this magic carpet ride quest I probably never would have begun had it not been for Senegalese entrepreneur, Mame Yacine Dieng and Kiva who featured her.  So, in case some of you were wondering how in the world I could contrive a connection between Kiva and baobabs, well, there you go!

According to Wikipedia, “….in African lore: after creation, each of the animals was given a tree to plant.   The hyena was given this tree and he planted the baobab upside-down….”

Photos #1-3: Limpopo, South Africa, has a pub inside a gigantic Baobab. The 6,000 year old tree has a 155 ft circumference, and is said to be one of the biggest living things on Earth.   The Big Baobab Pub is known to be “the world’s only bar inside a tree complete with electricity, dart board, telephone and room to comfortably fit 15 people...”
http://www.1075koolfm.com/Announcers/LisaMorgan.aspx  (See the July 31st entry).
“One year we had a party and squashed 54 people inside, but I wouldn’t recommend that.” said Mrs. van Heerden, one of the owners.
http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/worlds-only-bar-inside-a-tree/offbeat-news&mobi&comments=2085&page=1

Photo #4:  Boab Prison Tree:   Boabs are baobabs, Australian style.  A very large, hollow baobab south of Derby, Western Australia was reputed to be used in the 1890s as a prison for Aboriginal convicts on their way to Derby for sentencing. The Boab Prison Tree still stands and is now a tourist attraction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boab_Prison_Tree

So, What did you learn from Kiva today........?

[wind5001]

I will post pictures of the baobabs (or, as we call them in German: "Affenbrotbaum" = "Monkey bread tree") I saw in Bots once I get back to my own computer in a few hours... Not as spectacular as yours, Jill, but still.

I heard the story in Bots that God was somewhat angry with the tree (forgot why) and therefore uprooted it and stuck it into the ground upside down. Similar to your hyena story, Jill. I find the tree fascinating...the trunks look like elephant legs.

[Jill]

I joined in on a group loan from Mali early this morning because all the members of the group, apparently, work together making implements and other functional objects out of gourds, and I really like gourds.


Plus, happening upon that loan provided me with an excuse to dust off my Internet magic carpet and go off in pursuit of gourd-related treasures instead of doing all the things I’d put off doing until this weekend because I wasn’t all that excited about doing them in the first place.

On my gourdian quest,  I came across this giant smile of a photo, below, of gourd art.  I discovered that there’s actually a festival specifically to honor gourds held every September in Mayfield, Kentucky.

And…. I learned that “…. calabash were very well suited to the keeping of insects, and some of the most beautiful antique insect cages are made of gourds…..”
http://books.google.com/books?id=5sgO9BuZQSEC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=%22most++beautiful+antique+insect+cages%22&source=web&ots=CPEcnMlKr6&sig=QTGHFwV-uDdz8_udcBxgBvkg1IY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
That last essential bit of information sent my mind tripping to a news photo I saw a couple of days ago, the second picture I’m posting, that had absolutely nothing to do with gourds but that was accompanied by the worlds-expanding, mind-provoking caption noted below:

Photo #1: What someone can create if armed with a whole bunch of gourds, I'm sure, a phenomenal amount of time, and a terrific imagination. 
Do be sure to click on this first pic for full viewing pleasure.

Photo #2: Crickets bred for fighting at a Chinese market. Shanghai police have smashed a professional cricket fighting ring in a raid that snared the city's most notorious handler of the insects, state media reported Thursday. (AFP/OFF)

[Jan & John]

Ever since I became a Kiva Friend I have travelled the web to places I never dreamed of... and now this song, even though I don't know the words, will be in my head all tonight... jan

Alo Alo Children’s Environmental Club
The Alo Alo (Barracuda) Club was developed by Blue Ventures to teach the children of Andavadoaka (on the coast of Madagascar) about local habitats and species.  The goal of Club Alo Alo is to create a new generation of conservation-minded people with the skills needed to improve their lives and their communities through the long-term protection of local natural resources.