the Nigerian Ghoul in an American Forest
Check out these time-lapse photos of the Cougar Lake behind my apartment from 2009 and how it has undergone some changes along with the seasons. Enjoy.
August 23, 2009
August 31, 2009
November 4, 2009
November 4, 2009
December 27, 2009
December 27, 2009
April 10, 2010
April 12, 2010
April 24, 2010
Yesterday...
“No one can ever know for sure what a deserted area looks like.” – George Carlin
I honestly, honestly have nothing to blog about today. Ask me, I can’t wait for January to be over with. It’s the longest month of the year, especially because it follows an already long festive one of December. February however is the shortest month, which is nice, except you are a compulsive blogger who has to write up to fourty-six interesting articles in a month.
What I intend to do in this short post then is to tell you the response to my so called “Charity Work”. It is interesting to see the responses so far, which is to me quite encouraging. We already have $100 pledged to Jos, Nigeria; I think. And today, Thursday, I will be making out the said photograph to send to the said donor who lives in Dolton, Illinois but wants to remain anonymous as soon as I receive the proof of said donation. There are two other pledges from contributors to this blog, and I thank them, Yemi and Tayo. Needless to say, it’s not sufficient. It is not the best we can do.
In a similar vein, I wrote a letter to the Fulbright Organization yesterday informing them of the project, and to the coordinator of the Haiti relief effort at my University. I haven’t received a response from either of them. What I hope to do in the next week is to hold an exhibition, if possible, of some of these photographs on campus. What I’m afraid of is that students may not have that much money to spare, adults who can spare may have already donated to Haiti. So for all its worth, if that ever happens, it will be more of my opportunity to showcase my work rather than to raise money. In any case, I’d be glad to explore the opportunity. Day by day, the pictures look better and better to me. I didn’t know that I’d taken so many shots in this little period of time.
If you’re interested in buying the works in this effort to raise money for Jos, Nigeria; and the country of Haiti, please head here for more information. I will try to keep the offer open until the end of my Fulbright Programme in May, if I can. From then on, you will have to pay heavily to buy them, by which time they would have become a collector’s item, even if I say so myself 
SOMETHING ELSE: I heard that Apple has finally come out with it’s new tablet, and they have chosen no other name to call it than the iPad. The obviously flawed marketing strategy has now spurned so many spoofs and parodies on twitter since yesterday. The product was actually called the iTampon by pranksters in the extreme of it. What worried me the most why Mr Jobs hadn’t considered the fact that the iPad uses the very same sound patterns as the iPod, at least in Americans English. How will listeners be able to tell them apart? This may as well be a failure of language sensitivity as it is a failure of marketing. My two cents.
Here is my promised post about my short project to raise money for the victims of the Earthquake in Haiti, and the senseless ethnic pogrom in the Nigerian city of Jos. I know that many of you want to donate money but haven’t found the time or the way. Here is an opportunity to do so, and get something back for it. This is how it goes:
1. Choose one of my photographs that you want to receive on a 20×16 inches high quality photoprint paper (frame is optional, depending on where you live). It comes with a postcard and an autograph from ktravula.com. (You can tell me which of the photos you want by going to the page where the photos are posted, and starting your bid in the comment section. See the bottom of this post for a list.)
2. Make an offer in cash that you’ll like to pay for the said artwork. Bidding starts at $50, and has no upper limit. All you have to do is write something like this in the comment box on said page: “I want pic number 4, and I’m bidding to pay $80 for it.” or “I want the pic with the filename IMG_0114 for $500″. As soon as you do, your comment will show up on the comment bar on the right side of this blog, and anyone who has a higher bid will see it. In 24hours, and in the absence of a higher bid, you will be confirmed winner of the said artwork which will be sent to you by post as soon as you make the donation promised to the either of the following sources.
3. Donate 50% of the amount (or whatever percentage suits you) to facilitate relief for the homeless victims of the Jos crisis through this link, and ask for a proof of said donation either through email or through a written letter. (Read more about the Jos crises here on Jerremy’s Blog).
4. Donate the rest % via Yele Haiti,the American Red Cross, UNICEF or PlanUSA to the relief efforts in Haiti. When you do, you will be sent a confirmation email. Keep the email safe.
NOTE: You can make all your payments to either of these two causes, Jos or Haiti. You don’t necessarily have to split your donation, except you want to.
5. Send said proof of donation to me via JosHaiti@ktravula.com, with your name and postal address. You may also need to pay $50 for handling and postage of said artwork to you wherever you are all over the world. Residents of the United States will get their artwork within one week. For those overseas, it might take a few days later.
Now, here are the pages where you can find my photos all taken since August in locations in the United States. (Note: photo quality is better in print than on the computer screen):
In actual fact, you can ask for any photo on this blog, as long as it is the one I took myself.
Alright, let the bidding begin. I hope it’s simple enough. If not, please let me know.
I heard that singer Lionel Richie is assembling a new cast to remake the 1984 hit We Are The World to raise money for Haiti. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was praised today by the President Bush/Clinton Haiti relief funds for his personal donations. Singers Beyonce, Twista, Rihanna and Wyclef Jean are doing all they could in their capacities as musicians. I can’t sing, unfortunately. This is all I have. I hope that you find the pictures good enough for you to spend your money on, especially with the aim of saving lives in some other part of the world. Cheers.
NOTE: This is totally not-for-profit!
For everyone who voted for my images, THANK YOU! Here is what the photos look like in a 16×20 frame that will now rest on the walls of my apartment. I’m also going to make postcards out of them to send to a few interested folks. Thank you again.
Q: Would I consider selling any of these framed artworks if anyone made a good financial offer?
A: Yes, I would. I definitely would. Definitely.
So if you are interested in buying the artworks, or you know someone who wants to…
Or you just want to contribute something to support this blog while getting something back for it…
Or you want a piece of KTravula through his photographic arts, which are good gift items for keepsake, even if I say so myself…
Make me an offer, and let me consider it.
It also comes with a photo postcard and a special KTravula autograph.
***End of KTravuladvertisement***
What I wish I could do really, looking at the artwork today in my room, is to auction them to both and others for the relief efforts in Haiti but I am afraid that I don’t have the energy and time it would require to make the needed noise. I made a contribution yesterday through the Unicef Website, but I wish I could do more. I hear that the rescue efforts have finally stopped after about twelve gruesome days of looking through the rubble for bodies. Nevertheless, if I get to sell any of these soon, 50% of the profits made from selling them will go to Unicef Website from ktravula.com. It may not be much, but it will help put food one some children’s table for more than one day. Meanwhile, you can still go to the Unicef Website to make your donations. Save a life today.
50% will go to the victims of the recent crisis and restlessness in the Nigerian city of Jos where religious and ethnic unrest has raised its ugly head again. I spent one year in that now not-so-peaceful state in the Nigerian midbelt for my National Youth Service in 2005/2006. So what are you waiting for? Make your bid here. Make me an offer, and have a KTravula keepsake. Going, going…!
More information is here.
Here are a few more photos of the fall (although I think that a little after the fall, we should start referring to the rot season. That’s when all the leaves that have fallen, start getting rotten on the ground. Along with the incessant rain nowadays, the feeling of walking or riding through the numerous leaves is one of the best things of the season. I heard that it’s raining non-stop in Nigeria as well. How do we explain that? I used to think that non-stop rain in a characteristic of the month of July at home. What am I missing? Well, enjoy these photos, especially the ones I took at night yesterday on my ride back from a long day of class and of teaching.
It is at times stressing, and definitely more exerting than driving a car. I have heard of the many advantages of riding over other means of transportation, and the best will have to be how it may help to protect the environment by reducing the amount of gas fumes in the atmosphere. And it’s healthy. With sufficient nutrition, the rider exercises his muscles and his mental alertness in a way that is not found in other vehicles like plane or car trips. The bike rider definitely lives in every second of the stretch, exercising his lungs as he takes in the breeze around his head. Besides this headache that I feel in my head as a result of yesterday’s daring long ride, I think I actually enjoy this new experience of cycling.
The bike trails in Edwardsville are some of the most advanced in this country, and they form a very beautiful network of tracks of tar for both runners and riders. Yesterday was my first long distance journey out of the campus by myself since the last time I’d made a similar effort about a week after I got my bike. That time, I didn’t go too far. I’d gone to the boundaries of the University, and returned when the signs began to read new names. But I had planned to return on another one of those trips whenever time permitted. The SIUE campus has been reputed to be one of the largest in the country in terms of land area, behind only a few other universities, so venturing out to the ends of the campus boundaries was something of a start. Yesterday however, I went out of campus – through a different route – into town for a visit.
But it was while returning, alone, at night that I had another one of my travula moments. I got to a traffic light that showed red, and I brought out my camera to immediately capture the contrast of the colours against the darkness of the night, only to hear some voices from inside a car on the road, also waiting for the lights to change, screaming in my direction.
“What are you doing?” Apparently they were concerned. For what, I had no idea.
My hand shook from the startling noise, and the camera moved. I had missed my target shot, and I looked back at them. From the distance, I couldn’t see who they were in the car or how many they were. There must have been at least one man, and a few other girls – most likely from the university, and most likely coming from a party. They sounded African-Americans, and the voices I heard were the girls’.
“I’m taking pictures,” I shouted back.
“What for?” I heard again.
“Why do you care?” I retorted, with a shrug. I just couldn’t understand their right to question my priceless appreciation of something of beauty even though, in my mind, I knew that their surprise must be one of these things:
1. That they’d never seen anyone on a bike at night.
2. They’d never seen anyone on a bike at night, taking pictures.
3. They’d never seen anyone on a bike at night, taking pictures of a traffic light!
They became quiet for a little while, and then the light changed. They must have then resolved the doubt within their murmurs, because I then heard: “Okay, have fun taking pictures,” and I said “Thank you” with a thumbs up gesture, before they went across the t-junction towards the university. In my surprise, I didn’t immediately move across the road myself, nor return to get another camera shot of the traffic lights, but later on the way home, I couldn’t immediately decide as well whether that was an awkward moment, or not.
PS: Today, I’m signing up for membership of bicycles-for-humanity.org and bikesfortheworld.com, two non-governmental organizations whose aim is to find unused bikes in North America, Europe and some other western countries and send them to spots in the world where they’re most needed, and where they might change someone’s life by providing an effective means of harmless transportation. Join them if you can. You might be helping someone, somewhere.
When I was going to Rudy Wilson’s house on Monday, I had my flash drive along with me for one purpose: to be able to copy a few pictures of mine which Rudy told me he had kept in his photo album since 2002/3 when we had first met in Nigeria. I didn’t put much hope on it, but I remembered him as one of the African-American professors on that trip to my University in Ibadan who had a camera and was busy clicking away while the programme went on. We had gathered to honour our new University Professor, Francis Egbokhare who was then the youngest professor in the University with poems, prose, jokes and testimonials. We also read out a few love letters of his that a few conspirators had previously colluded with his beautiful wife to make public. It was a jolly get-together back then. I didn’t put much hope on it because I didn’t believe that Rudy indeed had me in any of his shots. And in any case, it was a long time ago. The fact that he didn’t remember me on the first meeting, and I had to remind him of the event, only confirmed to me that I was on an almost wild goose chase.
It was a pleasant surprise therefore to open those thick photo albums and find, after about thirty minutes of browsing, a few pictures of my campus days that brought back great memories. As it turned out, my paper images have indeed preceded my arrival in the United States by a few more years than I could have confidently taken credit for just a few days ago. And to my pleasant surprise, I also found a few more candid shots of others people from Ibadan in that thick album. I promptly removed them, with permission, and scanned them into my flash drive. Let me share them with you here, along with a few other shots that I took today. Those pictured in the old photos would surely remember the thrills of those campus times.
Click on the images to enlarge
Alton, IL
