10 June, 201311 June, 2013 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Datsun 510 Bluebird

León, Nicaragua 2013

There’s more where that came from. Too much to share now.

Good night, friends.

Datsun is an automobile marque. The name was created in 1931 by the DAT Motorcar Co. for a new car model, spelling it as “Datson” to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. In 1934, after Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. took control of DAT Motorcar Co. the last syllable of Datson was changed to “sun”, because “son” also means “loss” in Japanese, and also to honour the sun depicted in the national flag, hence the name “Datsun”:Dattosan. Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in March 1986. The Datsun name is most famous for the 510, Fairlady roadsters and later the Fairlady (240Z) coupes.

Wikipedia.org

9 June, 20139 June, 2013 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Live from the road.

Renata and I, on the road back to Managua after a great weekend in beautiful Leon.

Den stayed in Leon to continue her trip to New York, we miss her already!

7 June, 20139 June, 2013 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Human Suffering, in pink.

Bits and pieces from Richard Mosse’s 2013 art installation and documentary film The Enclave, along with an interview of the artist.

“If you make something that’s derived from human suffering, or from war. If you represent that with beauty, and sometimes it is beautiful, it creates an ethical problem in the viewers mind.”

Richard Mosse

7 June, 20135 December, 2013 Caroline Bach6 Comments

Double love

I’m so happy to have my girls with me here in Managua!

Den arrived yesterday – she is traveling through Central America on her way back home to New York after studying at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. Den is Filipina, origninally from San Fransisco, and I got to know her in Brazil in 2008, when we went out eating and dancing together, spent time hanging out in the Ipanema hostel, and sat on a beach with a bunch of people while Den was singing and playing the guitar. We connected, became friends, and stayed in touch. In 2011 she came to visit me when I was living in Barcelona as part of her Europe trip and we spent a lot of quality time together walking for hours through the city, photographing, drinking absinthe, and talking about values. Den is one of those people who always knows where I am and what I am up to, we have similar ambitions and keep each other updated on our whereabouts, on opportunities, and on thoughts. Den has the warmest of smiles and biggest of hearts, and she dances hip-hop like a loca! (Don’t you think I will ever forget that night! haha)

You’ve already met Renata. We met in Barcelona in 2011 as well when working together for the UN Association of Spain, Renata lived in Barcelona for two years and we met a couple of times outside of work but never really got the time to spend time by ourselves. Our values, preferences and interests match very well though, and we have stayed in touch throughout the years. Renata is from the Dominican Republic and lives in New York. One day, two weeks ago, we were having a chat when she suddenly decided that she wanted to visit Nicaragua. I was thrilled to invite and host her here, so she arrived last Saturday and we spent some days on the beach before I had to get back to work and she traveled to Granada. Renata is a gem and we never really stop talking. Having her here has been a true pleasure and I’m thrilled to have a new amazing friend. Also – I adore her mini-fro.

I introduced the girls electronically at some point last year as they live in the same city and I’m happy to see that they are getting along really well. Actually, I’m kind of a bit overwhelmed by how valuable and beautiful they both are and how happy I am to have them here with me, and in my life.

Yesterday we went out to have dinner at a really nice middle eastern place here in Managua and shared a big plate of pure pleasure. The food was perfect, the atmosphere was great as we had a fashion show and lip syncing concert from Tercer Ojo just across the street, and the talks were just as detailed and juicy as girl talk can get when it’s at its best. It’s like a double rainbow all the way across the sky and you’re on your periodical. What does it mean?

Chhyeah!

6 June, 2013 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Mjau

I have two cats in my bed.

6 June, 20136 June, 2013 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Empty Thoughts Over a Shallow Ocean

Teatro Avenida, Maputo. Mozambique 2012

Ryan Hemsworth – Empty Thoughts Over a Shallow Ocean
Still Awake (2013)

I’m listening to Ryan Hemsworth’s fantastic new EP, Still Awake, at a time when I apparently should be sleeping. I’m craving quality time with beloved and missed friends and wishing for an hour of uninterrupted Internet connection clashing right to break this time-zone barrier between me and the rest of my world – allowing me to have a proper conversation with my mother or at least somebody of my friends who I haven’t heard from for too long now. Being able to spontaneously call or text a friend has always been the most valued possibility that a 3G connection could provide. With an 8 hour time difference, those messages lose value and might even wake the person up – so I don’t share, and I don’t get as many of those random little answers and pictures that would keep me updated on the whereabouts of my darlings. A huge loss – I miss them.

Renata and Den are in Granada and I can’t wait to have both of them with me here tomorrow – reunions like this are truly beautiful and I will be meeting Den for the third time now, in a third country. Two years since last time.

Speaking of which, I feel that time is moving on again and although my contract with UNICEF has been extended until August, uncertainty is catching up with me once again and asking me what I actually would like from reality. I wouldn’t be me if I could answer that question immediately as there are so many options that my mind is craving. On one hand, there is an infinite amount of things I still really want to experience, going to exciting places, travel, visit India again, focus on my photography, challenges and meetings, growing in my career, learning more new things. On the other hand, I am really missing a base, some form of stability, rooted friendships. A job that allows me to define a home and buy myself a proper sound system, knowing that I will be staying put for a while, with a nice little guestroom always prepared for visits from friends and my mother.

Renata has been selling New York quite efficiently to me. The eclectic mix of cuisine, cultures, styles, architecture, people, values, preferences, languages, interests, music, things to do, and of course her own presence in the city. Professionally, I have gotten “Don’t do it!” from many people I trust. “It’s not worth it, New York might be a fantastic city, but the working atmosphere is not pleasant at all and you get downgraded instantly to do work you are completely overqualified for.” Still, I can’t help but being extremely curious about what life would look like when there is always something to do, what work looks like on HQ level, and how I would be able to handle it all. At least for a couple of months to be convinced about the down parts myself instead of going around wondering, or to decide that it’s indeed great and all just a matter of preference and what you decide to make of it.

Actually, there are quite a lot of scenarios that would be fantastic. A long term position with big responsibilities and doing what I do best at a regional office here in Latin America, or maybe even finding my way back to Scandinavia and really reconnecting with a life free of worries and full of beloved friends. Or maybe starting something completely new or travelling to an emergency country and living a hard but very enriching reality for some time. So yeah, on one hand I would love to really unpack my bags and know where my home is – but I’m not saying that I’m in need or wish to completely settle down right now – I’m far from done growing and learning and getting to travel to places I haven’t seen can still keep my mind and heart content, busy and happy – for some time more, or until I find my spot.

But most of all, and first of all, I’m craving real opportunities. So that I can choose. Bring it on, Internet and the bureaucratic application systems, give a curious lady some answers over here.

Update: And just as I published this blogpost there was a flash, the sound of thunder, and then the sky opened up for one of those soothing nightly rains that release all the tensions in the air and smell so nicely. Time to sleep now. Thank you for the treat, Managua.

5 June, 20135 June, 2013 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Every winter was a war, she said.

My braid and I just got home from the office, we decided that it’s a Sade kind of evening.

5 June, 20135 June, 2013 Caroline BachLeave a comment

Lights, Malmö – pay my drink, mister.

Fun to see old friends and acquaintances from Malmö star in a music video where they go all the way into decadence, dress up as party queens and dance the night away. This video has a big Made in Malmö stamp on it, the director of the video, the singer, the models, the streets. All of it. Go Malmö, go!

Makes me miss my wifey Emilia and think about those white wigs she bought for us, it’s time to use them very soon – don’t you think? I mean, it’s what we do.

Lunch time!

4 June, 20134 June, 2013 Caroline Bach2 Comments

A walk in Ramallah, Palestine

Somebody asked me the other day whether I wasn’t afraid to go to Palestine on my own, being a woman and all. Here’s a short video that I took during a solitary walk in central Ramallah in 2010. Not particularly terrifying, or what do you think?

Click here for the rest of the stories from my two months in Israel and Palestine in 2010. (I see I haven’t shared a lot of my impressions from this trip, except for the Master thesis – obviously. Will write some stories when time allows.)

4 June, 20134 June, 2013 Caroline Bach5 Comments

Weekend in San Juan del Sur

We arrived to San Juan del Sur at 7pm, after a two hour long busride where there were no free seats left. So we stood up all the way, Renata and I, and had a long talk about life, work and things that have happened since we met last time two years ago when both living in Barcelona.

In San Juan, we found a room to share for 15$ in a guesthouse close to the beach called Brisas y Olas, and then took a walk around the little town and shared a plate of traditional Nicaraguan Fritanga. On the next day, we went to Playa Hermosa where we had a nice walk but didn’t swim as it was cloudy. After coming back to San Juan and having a shower, we went out for a walk, met a sailor with a parrot, and had a great evening with hours of talking, a setting sun and fantastic seafood at Bambú restaurant.

During the walk back to the hotel we suddenly heard loud music coming from far from a colourful tent. “Is that a circus?” I asked. “That’s random. I have never been to a circus” Renata said. So we went. And indeed, it was. A circus. With clowns, monkeys, an ostrich, a busty girl named “Barbara” doing a sexy dance, and a nervous lion. I felt extremely uneasy about seeing the lion in a small cage with curious kids running around and parents taking photos with flash. The monkey was called Shakira and was forced by a bored clown to “get drunk” by drinking from a bottle and then fall from her chair as the kids were laughing. All I could think of were the magnificent lions I had seen in their natural habitat in Swaziland and Namibia, the abandoned chimpanzees I had seen in the Chimp Eden in South Africa and how wrong it was to see the animals in this context, humiliated, abused, in small cages and funny clothes. I also thought of how little access there is to entertainment for these children, and how much fun it must be to see a circus, and about how “Barbara’s sexy dance” probably was a way to entertain the parents. Still inappropriate.

We went back to the hotel and continued talking, and in the morning the next day it was sunny enough for both of us to drink cocktails on the beach, get a tan, and then get massage preparing for another two hour bus ride.

When arriving at where the bus should be waiting, we found out that the last bus to Managua was broken and wouldn’t be leaving. So we jumped on a bus to Rivas instead, and I was trying to sleep through my stomach cramps. Just before Rivas, the busdriver shouted that the bus going to Managua was leaving, so we jumped out and I got on the bus while Renata ran to the bathroom. The bus was almost completely full and I was in the front looking out the window to see whether Renata was coming. The bus started moving and I shouted “Wait for my friend! I’m going off!” the bus driver answered “Don’t worry, we will wait.” as he continued driving away. Renata came out and noticed that the bus was not where she had seen it before and I yelled out the window, “RENATA!” She saw us and started running and everybody started yelling “Renata! Hurry Renata! Wait for Renata!! Renata, Renata!” and then there was a unison “She’s on!!” as Renata jumped on the bus through the back door. The bus driver asked again “Is Renata with us?” we answered “Yes!” and we drove off on a bumpy ride towards Managua. Renata and I on each far end of the bus. A five-year-old in my lap.