The Great Revival

Yes! The Shades are restored to mint condition!

Saturday the Shades will ship out overseas once again, they will be sorely missed!

For one last week, they're out on the town in Chapel Hill.

Late nights in the Union = Hunger (?)
Emily may have contracted a minor case of the rabies, I think she's foaming at the mouth.
or maybe that's just drool?


Interacting with Art in the Union.
Giving it life, really.
Yes people were staring.


Sort of an Alice in Wonderland theme?
Wait, I think I'm mixing up story lines.
Whatever, 10 points to the first person who can guess where this cat tea party was taken.


So far beyond awesome, no words have even been invented to describe this...
I'll just make one up - Phenomenawesome!



Aynara joins the Comraderhood! Welcome!


I would say poser, but i think the picture already says it enough ;)

stay tuned for better photographed yet equally enthused actions shots around the hill!

Shadeless escapades in Colorado country

To start off, a disclaimer. I don't know if we're breaking any comraderhood guidelines here by posting updates in which the shades are not present, but we figured everyone would like to know what two very cool comrades were up to for the last week of July...

Emily at Claire's fam Ranch in Colorado! In case you guys weren't aware, Claire and Emily are serious mountaineers. Peaking 13,000 ft. mountains serious. Of course we do lawns too.





Bush-wacking for hours didn't bother us a bit! It must be that comraderhood optimism and enthusiasm shining through.

Climbing Gunnison. Edge of Rockies and West Elk Wilderness. Of course we NEVER doubted making it to the top....



And we made it!


We slipped and slid our way down--much easier.


Second backpacking trip (13 miles/day. hardcore.)


And the farmhouse! A magical trip, even without the shades!

Om El Donya = Mother of the World = Egypt

and the Shades venture on to another wonder of the world:


Scandal at the Sphinx


Ok...before I go on, I have a guilty confession.
(...)
So back in Delhi, all those autorickshaw rides were often rocky and sometimes a bit painful. On one fateful and unfortunately foggy afternoon, my pack was crushed against the side of the three-wheeler and the right shades lens was destroyed. [You must have noticed the 'artful' concealment through odd camera angles?]

the whole truth:


one lens short we soldiered onwards



Phew, with a clear conscience I can now continue my story - UNcensored:


the Mediterranean


an even STRANGER tanline this year


And there is more good news:
After consulting with several shades specialsts, the Shades have now been repaired and are ready to be passed on later this week.

[One specialist in Bangalore - the owner was very amused, but completely unhelpful]

in India

when last we left off, I had just been joyfully re-united with the Shades after a morning of wild-goose chasing around Delhi:

Since then, they've become the integral third in our trio of adventurers:

on a lawn opposite the Parliament House after the search for protestors

On a cycle rickshaw headed to the metro

in an autorickshaw in Delhi

...

Onwards to Bhopal!

Excellent eye protection from toxic fumes!

And now time for another fringe expedition

THE HimUH-LAY-as

in a Sakkara [sort of like a Gondola] on Dal Lake, Kashmir

lilly pads and lotus flowers

Dal Lake at Sunset, PHEnomenal

and I think to myself...what a WONDERful world

Shah Jahan, you are such a romantic. sigh.

After the death of his second wife, Mumtaz Majal, a heartbroken Shah Jahan builds a memorial for his love.

the Shades protect against a blinding glare off the brilliant white marble.

Shah Jahan was imprisoned in Agra Fort by his son, Aurangzeb. Until his final days, Shah Jahan could gaze out to the Taj Mahal.

Agra Fort shennanigans - trying to plot what an escape plan may have looked like for Shah Shahan.

Heat exhaustion.

Frantz Family vaca in GLACIER Nat'l Park

This is much belated... the adventure was June 17th-24th. Needless to say, the shades were absolutely crucial while hiking under the sun of that Montana "Big Sky". Under such conditions, I did make a new discovery about the shades: that shiny, reflectiveness puts the nose of the wearer in sun burn danger. Despite my generous application of sunscreen, I left Glacier with a rosy nose... it was well worth it to travel through grizzly country in style!

5am, RDU airport, couldn't resist grossing out the groggy, early morning travelers.

Canada side of the Park... did you know that Glacier was the first International Peace Park??

After a long hike, the shades gave me the energy I needed.

Wasn't feeling as strong on the second hike... little did I know a grizzly would cross our path at the top!

The nose-burning reflection was especially bad in the snow....

Happily posing for a photo opp.... this was before I realized an attacker was watching me and my snacks (see next photo...)

Unsuccessfully attempting to charm me into giving him my trail mix

I had to end with a pose with the bighorn sheep (CH ram?). He was stuffed--fell in through the skylights of one of the lodges one winter when the snow got that high! And on that note, I was back to Chapel Hill!

on the road

a few weeks ago I mentioned in passing my work on Bhopal - the Union Carbide disaster site of 1984 in central India. As I became more immersed in the technicalities of site assessment and cleanup, the intricate environmental justice tangle emerged as much more complex in India's post colonial environment than most articles were letting on. Having adopted a framework of analysis based on that of the U.S. environmental justice movement, it became apparent that I was far from understanding the implications of cleanup and the present dynamic of stakeholder interplay.

in short, this case is MESS-y.

I needed a better feel for the pulse of the Bhopal justice movement - on the ground. not so simple. in a crushing e-mail rejection of my offer to volunteer at the survivors clinic, I learned that the revolutionary leader for victims advocacy in Bhopal has tremendous suspicions of Cherokee's very purely intentioned but perhaps overly ambitious offer to assist with site assessment and eventual cleanup. by affiliation, I was blacklisted. he quickly terminated what was once an amicable e-mail relationship, and my Bhopal prospects were finished. in the next few days my alternate contacts wavered between promising, and dismal with travel plans roller coasting - on...off...on...off...so it goes.

Friday afternoon i got a green light,

and that's how i came to spend the second half of my birthday...en route to Indjaaa.

mmm, birthday dinner.

Having traveled with my brother Mohammad for the past 2 summers, it was now Ahmad's turn to begin some globe-trotting - i'm quickly acclimatizing to a 16-year-old brand of humor...

while making every effort not to adopt it as my own!