Untukmu Para Pengunjung

We just had a blessed few days in Kingston. It was great to see Bram & Anita and we fell in love with baby Wesley. It's hard to imagine how much love we're going to have for our own baby (although I have an idea from the way John kisses my belly and says "I love you! God bless you!" to our baby through my ever-expanding stomach every night!)

Let me share honestly. I had some mild panic attacks in Kingston. While we were there we saw and met many young couples with young children, beautiful houses, huge t.v.s and gorgeous backyards. We got a lot of advice on babies and what babies need. In Zim, if you are expecting, you save money in order to get a towel (to wrap the baby around you) plus some cloth diapers, a blanket, maybe some bottles... Here it seems like you "need" a mountain of furniture and supplies, and thinking about all the stuff we need made me panic. I cannot really explain how different this world of middle-class Canada is from the life we have been living in Zimbabwe. Although I have seen it with my own eyes, it is hard to conceive of the fact that both of these places are on the same planet. I am struggling mentally and emotionally to figure out how to "be." How to live in Canada while having experienced Zimbabwe. I know that God sent us to Zimbabwe and I know that we are not supposed to forget our experience there. I am just mentally straining to figure out how to incorporate those life lessons into the Canadian way of life. I am terrified of getting caught up in the consumerist rat-race that is North America, but I don't want to be a social recluse/bitter missionary either. "Stuff" is fleeting. At 4am yesterday we started wiping up water with towels because our friends' place (where we were staying in the basement) started flooding. Anything could change in a moment and all of our coveted "things" could disappear, so John and I have always valued people and experiences above things. But you need some things. A baby needs some things. How much? Right now, I have no idea!

To be honest, when we came home at Christmas, I had mild panic attacks the few nights before we were supposed to go back to Zimbabwe. At the airport, I was literally making myself sick (which I'm sure was a huge comfort for my parents!) I'm horrified that I'm admitting that to the world, because I know I shouldn't have felt that way. I love Zimbabwe and I loved our life there. But it was hard - physically, emotionally, spiritually, ethically. It's hard to watch people you love suffer. It's hard to see the place where you live get worse and worse and to know that it's a mad-made disaster. It's hard to feel helpless. It's hard to stress all the time and to know that you shouldn't stress because if you were a better person you would just trust God completely and not worry about "minor" or selfish issues like having water/electricity or finding food.

I am thankful for some friends who have been "defending" us on our blog about whether or not we should have left. These friends (and others who didn't comment) are being empathetic and not wanting us to feel worse than we already to about leaving. But I'm not upset that someone anonymous asked the question or whether or not we should have "retreated." It's a great question - something we wonder about every day. We have to live with the guilt associated with privilege. Privilege that allowed us to walk through those airport gates to an easy life, waving to people we love and care for who are struggling to survive in a place that gets worse and worse, day by day, week by week. It was heart-wrenching. Period.

And now it's: what now? what next? Now that we're here, how do we live our life? What impact does Zimbabwe have on my choices in Canada? And that's what we're trying to figure out. I guess I want you to keep remembering Zimbabwe and praying for people there, but we still need some prayer too! I'm wondering whether it's worthwhile to keep up this blog (since we intended it to share our life from Zim) but maybe it's helpful to someone somewhere to know some of the thoughts/feelings of someone coming back.

Confira abaixo os trabalhos de A. S. Tattoo. O A. S. Tattoo Studio localiza-se na cidade de Hortolândia.

Contatos: (019) 9311-3531 / 9186-1060
E-mail: formiga.tattoos@gmail.com

Salomão Dantas nascido em 27/09/1976 comecei a desenhar aos seis anos de idade e sou tatuador desde 2004. Meu primeiro contato com o mundo da tatuagem foi 1995 quando o Skatista Lango, do Rio de Janeiro, estava começando tatuar e esteve aqui em Natal para andarmos de skate fazer um "roler" na cidade. Ele trouxe seu material de tatuagem para tatuar a galera do skate, e fez minha primeira tattoo. Dei sempre força, e ele me falou como soldar as agulhas para tatuar. Fiquei observando sempre ele tatuar.

Depois de alguns anos tive contato com o George Tattoo, Cego Tattoo de João Pessoa, Laura, Sergio Tattoo entre muitos outros, mas nunca tive oportunidade de tatuar pela vida que eu levava enquanto casado. No final de 2003 para 2004 tive uma pequena chance de começar a tatuar, mas sabia que teria que largar algumas coisas da minha vida para poder ser um tatuador profissional. Nada mais justo que a vida mostrar quem somos. Abraço, saúde, paz e felicidade a todos.

Estúdio: Dantas Tattoo Studio
Endereço: Av. Coronel Estevam, nº 1805 - Entre a igreja Universal é o supermercado Bom Dia - no Alecrim. Natal/RN - Brasil Cep: 59030-000
Fotolog
Telefone: Tel. (84) 3653-8733 - (84) 8812-4532
Email: dantastattoo@hotmail.com

Thuane escolheu como presente de aniversário a sua tatuagem. De São Paulo a participante do quadro Minha Tattoo escreve para contar sua história.

"Há muito tempo eu gostaria de fazer uma tatuagem, e enchia o saco da minha mãe por causa disso. Minha mãe fez uma tattoo no ano passado, e isso fez com que a minha vontade de fazer a minha crescesse mais ainda. Pois bem, no meu aniversário estava combinado: eu eu faria uma festa ou eu fazia a minha tatuagem. Todos os meus amigos disseram pra eu escolher a festa, eu quis a tatuagem. Ela falou pra eu ir pesquisando lugares e desenhos pra fazer a tatuagem, tinha que ser um lugar higiênico e com um bom preço.

Meu aniversário foi no dia 13 de Maio, porém no dia 10 ela acordou e falou pra eu marcar hora com o tatuador pois eu iria fazer minha tattoo, fiquei super feliz. Fui para o estúdio e achei o desenho, "uma pimentinha" e pronto, estava super anciosa. Eu sempre achei que para pintar iria doer mais, porém pra mim o contorno foi mais doloroso, talvez porque eu já estivesse acostumada com a dor quando estava pintando.

Amei a minha experiência e já pretendo fazer mais tatuagens."

Thuane Heloísa Cordeiro

Participe do quadro Minha Tattoo.

Amazon has always been one of the pioneers in terms of Social Media Marketing. Amazon was one of the first to create Web2.0 tools, with product review tools.

Recently they have started twittering their Deal of the Day. This is slowly becoming more specialized with AmazonMP3 Deal of the Day as well. They join Woot, as examples of online e-commerce site spruiking their daily specials online. These are two great examples of companies creating their own platforms of communication (Platform Creation) with consumers. Thanks to Marketing Geek for the tip and Get Elastic for the Woot example.

Mariane do Rio Grande do Norte, optou por tatuar uma imagem disponível aqui mesmo no blog A Tattoo. Confira abaixo a nova tatuagem de Mariane e a imagem que deu origem a sua tattoo.

"Em maio desse ano, estava super indecisa sobre qual desenho tatuar na minha barriga, vim procurar no google, algo tipo flor com tribal e encontrei este site. Até que me encantei com um dos desenhos e enfim, tatuei. Gostei porque é bem diferente, não é tradicional. E faz maior sucesso.

A tatuagem escolhida: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaYnuPW_JAdNRmfx8IsZTSki5uq9LNHj2hGQKMbx5UXVrsDRyI82A9VJ4mMnrRr5l8AK5kWOI30wtW8AixMiVwe6ShrVwXFazIGcAscXYAVfl5K_ZK90xybt8qgwC-53vd14TyWpHrX18/s1600-h/lotus+tribal.jpg

As partes mais claras e as bolinhas eu tirei para ficar mais delicada, mas pretendo aumentá-la descendo na perna. Ficou linda!

Moro em Natal/RN e o tatuador foi o Junior, muito bom, um dos melhores da cidade."

Mariane M. Freire

Participe do quadro Minha Tattoo.

Well, we are back in Ontario after a lovely vacation in beautiful British Columbia. If you haven't been to this province, try to go (even though there's a crazy fuel tax on flights...) We had a chance to go to Vancouver Island to see some of John's family. We enjoyed Victoria, Nanaimo and Protection island. One of John's uncles (Ron) looks just like Robin Williams (I will try to post a photo soon) and he is funny too.

I loved spending time with my Nana, and I was blessed one morning when I went in to see her and through the crack of her bedroom door I could see that she was praying earnestly. My Nana is a prayer warrior and I know for sure that she prays for us daily. I can't tell you what that means to me. It was also good to play Rook and -crabble on the beach with Auntie Barbie and the crew and to have Moby Dick fish & chips and Andy's ice cream. Spending time with my beautiful, passionate, fun and sensitive sister Kirsten was also great. Family is great. The older I get, the more appreciative I am of everything... family, health, good marriage, food, electricity, water, life experience, mental health, being able to walk and see and hear and hold...

My dreams are easing up and we feel sort of rested (although I painted my toenails today and it took every ounce of energy out of me. That can't be healthy!) :) We are off to Kingston to meet baby Wesley Pearce... Happy Birthday (tomorrow) to my dream-chasing, passionate, loving and talented brother Joel.