The Art of Therapeutic Touch and Bodymapping

I am having a tough time relaxing, after a wonderfully inspiring weekend of facilitating a workshop on body mapping. Body-mapping takes a sacred look inside and those involved are able to use colour and creativity to explore experiences and emotions. Through a series of exercises participants, who live with challenging illnesses, were able to understand more about how courageous and truely amazing they really are. I will upload my own body map and explain a bit about it below. This life-size art piece and a few other bodymaps will be present at an art collection that AIDS Vancouver Island is hosting in Victoria this February - please go to their website for details.

My body map shows the movement that is important recently, as well as an open-eyed attitude to life. I looked at my empty womb but realized that there are at least 60 African orphans that are part of my life these days. Through the mapping process I recalled the little University town I came from on the east coast, the sea nearby and the marshlands. The images in the upper right reflect the desire to balance myself and my current life while writing the Africa-Canada book on about two women living with HIV. I didn't explore the traumas that have affected me these past few years but that means there is more work for me to do!

This past week I also had my first client in my new treatment room. It was a strange thing to get paid for doing a Therapeutic Touch (TT) treatment after more than 10 years of providing this service to the Hospice community and others in need of TT. It feels that I am being supported financially to continue with this work. So thank you to my first client, and I welcome others - open my doors to anyone who would like a treatment. I decided on a sliding scale from $30 to $60.

Today I am getting ready to travel - first south to a yoga retreat in Sayulita, Mexico - a place for healing; and then east to my parents near Ottawa. Victoria is looking particularly spring-like: I passed a blizzard of snowdrops while walking Hibou the other day. It should still be winter in Ottawa where I may do a few glides on ice if the canal is frozen and hope to look up some pals in Ottawa and Brockville area.

And I will try to keep you posted!

Sabbatical Year

Yes I am taking a year in the back seat at positively AFRICA and everything is sailing along really well without me! What I am doing. I'm writing a book - you'll hear more about that later.
And I am recovering from stress and trauma related illness - that is a challenge all on its own but a great learning opportunity for me.
Finally I am teaching, doing Therapeutic Touch more, and marketing my art. Here is an image of THumbellina doing the triangle pose in a yoga class. Let me know if you would liek to see some of the sculptures and paintings I have available.

This last weekend in January, I am co-facilitating a Bodymapping workshop. Bodymapping is a great way to look inside ourselves and position those things - like HIV - which impact our lives, and then arrive at a finished bodymap and realize that we are complex humans and HIV is NOT our identity!

Water walk 2012

Water Walk 2012 - Save this Date - Sunday May 27th

I have not been keeping up the blog. Did you have a moment to look at the water walk video on our website www.positivelyafrica.com? The amazing news last year was that the truck arrived at Osopet. It took time to find the perfect truck for the job but the Committee found a great little truck.Osopet is now able to get clean drinking water to families in need. We have pictures of the truck and plenty of great imaginings of how this simple truck is improving health among Osopet families. Half the illnesses in these communities are related to dirty drinking water.

New partnerships for Water Walk 2012.
positively AFRICA is now a project of VIDEA www.videa.ca and we have been linking more projects ideas and support for our existing African partners. We're excited about the closer relationship.
The Salt Spring Roasting Company www.saltspringcoffee.com have come on board as a corporate sponsor for Water Walk 2012. We have set a goal of at least doubling the number of participants in the event this year. Soon we will look towards expanding the idea to other communities - even big ones like Vancouver! It's great to have the knowledge and support of a socially concious coffee company.

Thanks S. for covering the costs of this site!

Water Walk 2011

Everyone is getting excited about raising funds for the water truck so the women don't have to continue to do the long walk for water, and - bonus - the truck will give them clean drinking water. We have lots of information on the website for positively Africa including registration forms. I'll try to keep you posted as to how we are doing on our community goal for raising enough money to buy a used truck for the Masai women.

Today I was speaking to students at Belmont High, and Deb and Martine were at Central. It is great to think that if all the people we talk to make at least one small change in their behaviour soon we will have a water-conscious world. And we will also have lots of posters for the water walk and a whole host of young fund-raisers. It's exciting. I can almost see the wheels on the truck going round and round...

I tried lifting even 10 litres of water which of course is only half what the Masai women carry. I think we will hear a few complaints on May 15th. While its a challenge to move even a small amount of water, it's a good opportunity to see how lucky we are to have taps. I was surprised that no one used wells in the western communities. I guess Saltspring is different from Victoria and the youth there might understand about running out of water more easily than the city kids.

Enough for today - but tomorrow I might try to post a picture.

WaterWalk 2011

Spring is coming and time for more action that will allow people in other parts of the world to enjoy a less burdened life. Last year when I was in Kenya - as well as realizing that Health Care is unreachable to most, I was shocked to learn how hard women worked to get drinking water. In my mind they were getting clean drinking water but a visit by friends tells me that it is not clean water at all. The image of the woman walking to the river is very clear on Maggie's blog http://www.journeyrwanda.blogspot.com

Back from a week of Introspection and Discussion

My short hair and I are returning from Indralaya on Orcas Island, where I shared much about the head shaving with friends there. It was a great week, learning more about Therapeutic Touch, working with wonderful people in the kitchen and treating some of the most open and receptive people I will ever meet. I received encouragement for the projects, posiitvely AFRICA and also the new look!

I wonder how others are feeling. I have been out of touch for a week and managed to delete all my emails just before I left Victoria. I realize that I need to add a few pictures of others that were sent to me. Here is one of the United World College Students. a stranger to the people in Kenya who will benefit from the funds raised but a wonderful young man willing to share life with others he has not yet met. I wonder how his family and friends are reacting to his new look.

As people look at me I can see them wondering if I am a religious person, a woman suffering from the effects of chemo, or some eclectic older woman! I like the confusion that I cause!

Indralaya inspires me to change the way that I live my life. As I head home and back to the busy world of home I am going to try a few techniques for restricting my work time to a limited amount of the day. One idea I have is that I will leave the house out the front door and come in the back door as though heading to work. Then when I return I will do the reverse, thus allowing my home to remain both a home and an office.

More updates on the hair campaign very soon. love -peg

The during and after shots

Here are a few shots from the event. We are looking for someone to purchase the blond hair that was cut from Svea's beautiful head so please post any thoughts that you have about this. Thanks. everyone.
I suppose you are wondering if we made our target of $10,000. We are at $7,100 and cheques are still coming in. Please know that we are very grateful to those who were able to post a cheque to us for this cause. More about that in the next blogs.