10 days ago, I found myself at the bottom of the hole yet again. I wasn't photographing anything anymore for a week then, maybe more. I was taking pictures, yes, but nothing to post here. I wasn't able to connect to beauty. To see it. To take the time to appreciate it, find the right angle and copy it into a 8Mb file on my phone.
Everything was ugly.
Because I felt like everything was ugly. I hit the bottom of the hole that weekend, decided that it was time to turn the corner again. But I still didn't feel like photographing. So I put myself up to a mind game. To not taking pictures of the beautiful, but of the ugly. Observe it, let the mind rumble around it, and find the beauty inside it.
Connection
This towel is old. I brought it with me when I came here. One of my father's towels, I kind of stole it from him. I'm not using it too much anymore - it does not absorb that much water, anyway, given it's state of degradation. But these days, I got it out of the drawer. For one, because I had to wash the regular towels, for second, because I felt like it. It feels good to wrap myself into something from where home was, and still is, in a way.
Same goes for this little wooden cross. I was raised Lutheran protestant, very liberal religion style - we did Tai Chi as part of our confirmation class. Which the pastor was scolded for, as I later found out. I'm not particularly religious anymore, but my mom is - she gave me that cross.
We have a construction going on in front of the house, and a lot of dust finds its way through the absolutely not impermeable windows. If you look closely, you can see that the cross has a white shadow beneath it, where it held the dust off. Ain't that a metaphor...
Old with potential
Cables lying around, rubble everywhere, "Danger" signs wrapping poles. But also a water connection turned on. The house of a neighbor up the street collapsed a year ago. They're rebuilding, little by little. Nothing to be done in a day, but there's progress visible. Very slow progress. I can relate so much to that.
A stripe of dried grass, in front of a grey wall, everything covered in the omnipresent dust. Somehow, a Bougainvillea flower found it's way there, most likely being tossed around by the harsh winds until being trapped in the grass tips. Color finds it's way everywhere.
It's still dry season. This water channel hasn't seen anything in a long time. A dog had walked through it, you can see it's paw marks if you look closely. Maybe he was dreaming of walking on the beach? I wouldn't mind some beach now. The channel leads to a lot of rubbish on the before mentioned stripe of dry grass. The water will just flow by that, pass it, keep flowing anyway. What's rubbish to water?
The unexpected
I could spend ages taking pictures of all the rubbish. But this one is special. You see, the bags lying there are trash bags, being brought out in the morning when the garbage truck comes by. They don't lie on that field by coincidence. Street dogs come early, too, before the truck, and grab whatever smells promising. They take it to a near save spot and try to scavenge whatever they can. Sometimes it's more, and they rip the bag to pieces to get it all. Sometimes not so much, and they leave it half untouched. But each bag is some dog having survived another day.
Time
How many layers of paint did this wall receive? Who knows. You can make out the words "Alcalde", mayor. Probably from the last local elections. Or the one before that. They have to paint it over afterwards. Which they comply with, in the mediocre way that so much here is done. Yet, the wall still stands. New letters painted on it. Preserving everything else under the layers of paint. Or maybe the paint preserves the wall?
So far for now. I'm glad that I was able to write a post today. I'm a bit out of touch, I know. Hopefully, I can get Hive back into my routines. As always, any feedback and especially tips and tricks are very welcome! As long as it's not AI generated content or comment spamming... 馃槄
Thank you for stopping by!
All pictures are taken by myself with a Motorola Edge 60 Pro and I reserve the copyright - but you're welcome to ask if you'd like to use one of the pics!