Dear Everyone!!
Late last year my family and I made a decision ... my older sister and I had sold our Mum's small house in New Zealand. We had a choice, either pay off the mortgage on our own home or travel and document grassroots perspectives on climate change. Of course you all know what we chose to do.
It took a huge effort to organise our journey, but we could never have done it without all of you. In various ways you all helped us along the way. I want to especially mention Khun Tuenjai and her amazing network of people in Thailand. You organised such a busy itinerary for us to start our journey, but it was such a rich experience and we met so many warm, generous people in your country... too many to name here. After Thailand we were on our own a lot more and it was very hard work at times to meet and film people and places. But we managed. Viet Nam was hard, but we have some very good friends there who did their very best to help us. Our brief stay in India was greatly helped by Andy in New Delhi.
Nepal was both challenging and inspiring ... for Lena, Ali and I it was truly a highlight to walk with Karma Lama for 19 days and to cross Thorong La Pass (5400 metres). I greatly enjoyed meeting Ngamindra and his colleagues in Kathmandu and I sincerely hope we can find a way to work with and support you. A special thankyou to Chandra for being there when we all had food poisoning! Everything in Egypt came together at the last minute, but again we met such warm, hospitable people who did their best to help us. Thankyou to Angela and Selim, and to Prof Zakharia for compelling me to go out to the Western Desert where we again met some wonderful people at Bahariya Oasis ... thankyou Ahmed and Corien.
In Italy I have to thank Marco and his small team and I sincerely hope we can keep working together and find ways to work with all of these other wonderful people we have met. And who would have imagined the connection with Katharina and Alfredo in a beautiful valley in Umbria ... a place we went to because the accommodation was a good deal and it looked nice! In Milan, thankyou to Iva and Paolo for having us in your home. We experienced the same warmth again with the Galli family in Lugano. Our time in France was too short, but thanks to Remy for having a bit of time to meet and talk... and to Jean-Pierre and Claire in the south of France (whose email address I don't have) for your wonderful work.
We've come to the end of our journey now. On Saturday, 7 July, Karen, Ali, Emma (who many of you never met but maybe you will one day) and I leave London for New Zealand. Lena is staying on here until late October and has already started a job here in London. For me the last week or so has been a time to rest and reflect. I have a lot to do when I get home, not least of which is to start earning some money again!! I still don't know yet how I'm going to produce a documentary out of all that we've done. But it will happen somehow. Meanwhile I am working on ways to strengthen the connection that I have made with many of you and hopefully to find ways to develop interconections between some of you and others in your respective countries. Already many of you are interconnected through our blog page ... if you haven't looked recently, take a look at http://earthlimited.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately I'm not able to communicate to many of the real grassroots people we met ... farmers, village leaders and others ... Thankyou to those of you who helped me meet all of these people.
A special mention goes to my cousin, Michael, who has done such a wonderful job with the blog page. And to my big sister Jill for buying me such a great hat!.... and to everyone else who I haven't mentioned by name!!
Very warm regards from me and on behalf of my family Gavin, Karen, Lena, Emma, Alice.
Late last year my family and I made a decision ... my older sister and I had sold our Mum's small house in New Zealand. We had a choice, either pay off the mortgage on our own home or travel and document grassroots perspectives on climate change. Of course you all know what we chose to do.
It took a huge effort to organise our journey, but we could never have done it without all of you. In various ways you all helped us along the way. I want to especially mention Khun Tuenjai and her amazing network of people in Thailand. You organised such a busy itinerary for us to start our journey, but it was such a rich experience and we met so many warm, generous people in your country... too many to name here. After Thailand we were on our own a lot more and it was very hard work at times to meet and film people and places. But we managed. Viet Nam was hard, but we have some very good friends there who did their very best to help us. Our brief stay in India was greatly helped by Andy in New Delhi.
Nepal was both challenging and inspiring ... for Lena, Ali and I it was truly a highlight to walk with Karma Lama for 19 days and to cross Thorong La Pass (5400 metres). I greatly enjoyed meeting Ngamindra and his colleagues in Kathmandu and I sincerely hope we can find a way to work with and support you. A special thankyou to Chandra for being there when we all had food poisoning! Everything in Egypt came together at the last minute, but again we met such warm, hospitable people who did their best to help us. Thankyou to Angela and Selim, and to Prof Zakharia for compelling me to go out to the Western Desert where we again met some wonderful people at Bahariya Oasis ... thankyou Ahmed and Corien.
In Italy I have to thank Marco and his small team and I sincerely hope we can keep working together and find ways to work with all of these other wonderful people we have met. And who would have imagined the connection with Katharina and Alfredo in a beautiful valley in Umbria ... a place we went to because the accommodation was a good deal and it looked nice! In Milan, thankyou to Iva and Paolo for having us in your home. We experienced the same warmth again with the Galli family in Lugano. Our time in France was too short, but thanks to Remy for having a bit of time to meet and talk... and to Jean-Pierre and Claire in the south of France (whose email address I don't have) for your wonderful work.
We've come to the end of our journey now. On Saturday, 7 July, Karen, Ali, Emma (who many of you never met but maybe you will one day) and I leave London for New Zealand. Lena is staying on here until late October and has already started a job here in London. For me the last week or so has been a time to rest and reflect. I have a lot to do when I get home, not least of which is to start earning some money again!! I still don't know yet how I'm going to produce a documentary out of all that we've done. But it will happen somehow. Meanwhile I am working on ways to strengthen the connection that I have made with many of you and hopefully to find ways to develop interconections between some of you and others in your respective countries. Already many of you are interconnected through our blog page ... if you haven't looked recently, take a look at http://earthlimited.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately I'm not able to communicate to many of the real grassroots people we met ... farmers, village leaders and others ... Thankyou to those of you who helped me meet all of these people.
A special mention goes to my cousin, Michael, who has done such a wonderful job with the blog page. And to my big sister Jill for buying me such a great hat!.... and to everyone else who I haven't mentioned by name!!
Very warm regards from me and on behalf of my family Gavin, Karen, Lena, Emma, Alice.
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