Memories-My Zuya-My Journey
Looking forward to this journey. Honored to share some heartfelt words with our relatives and Ambassadors of the Nations of the African Union at their Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I Just realized this trip to Africa and the Middle East will end my journey to the Four Directions, as instructed by Black Elk.
When I was 18, in 1962-1963, I traveled East to spend a year hitching hiking through Europe. When I was 26, 1n 1970, I went South to Bolivia and spent two years with our Quechua, Aymara, and our Amazon Indigenous relatives.
When I was 29 in 1973, I begin my journey, working with our Indigenous relatives across Turtle Island, including our Northern relations in Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Mexico, and the Island Nations of the Pacific, including Hawaii, Fiji, Easter Island, and others.
When I was 36, in 1980, I made my first journeys to Palestine and Israel. In 1982, I began my first of many journeys to India.
When I was 44, in 1989, I began traveling to SE Asia, including, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, as well as, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.
It was in Thailand that I met my beloved wife, Suthida. She was our translator and consultant on a CIDA evaluation of a UNICEF and Royal Thai Government Primary Health Care project in Northeast Thailand. She speaks Thai, Laotian, Cambodian, French, German, and, of course, English.
Since 1962, I have continued to return and revisit those regions of Mother Earth that I had traveled before, deepening and making new relationships. When I was 72, in 2016, I begin to think my Zuya was over, and then unexpectedly, I needed to travel to Morocco to light the Global Torch of Compassion, with the Blue Youth and the Green Sheikh, from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at COP 22
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Then, unexpectedly in November, I was invited to participate in U Day, during Interfaith Harmony Week and U Day Events in Ethiopia followed by a visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
And all of this seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.
Chief Crowfoot said it so beautifully, "Life is like the breath of a buffalo on a cold winter day, the blink of a firefly on a warm, summer evening or the shadows vanishing before the setting sun!' This is how quickly our very short lives on our Mother Earth pass.
I am thankful and pleased to be making this next journey with my Dakota Koda, Darcy Demas. Our last voyage together was to Panama. Koda Darcy's many cultural and spiritual gifts will be very respected and appreciated by both our African relatives and our relatives of the United Arab Emirates.