Wind River Range Demo

A short demo of the Wind River Range at a recent trade show. Dave Langston of the Western States Sportsman interviews, I demonstrate.

Brunton Powers TEAM INSPI(RED)

Jeff Dossett, the Expedition Team Leader for EVEREST TEAM INSPI(RED), is using Brunton solar panels and Solo personal power plants to power laptops and communications components at Everest Base Camp.

Jeff sent us this message today:

We are well on our way on our EVEREST TEAM INSPI(RED) expedition. David, Melissa and I are acclimatizing well here at Everest Base Camp and we anticipate our first foray up into the Khumbu Ice Fall to Camp I (at 20,500 feet) in
the next 48 hours.

As you may know from media reports, the Nepalese government (under strong pressure from the Chinese) have place all Everest expeditions under strict communications restrictions prior to May 10th, the anticipated date upon which a Chinese climbing expedition hopes to carry the Olympic Torch to the summit of Mount Everest from the north side (Tibetan) side of Everest. The Chinese government continues to be concerned that Everest climbing expeditions from the south (Nepalese) side of Everest may attempt to disrupt China’s historic Olympic Torch ceremony on the summit of Everest (e.g. perhaps displaying “Free Tibet” banners or equivalent).

As of today (and the situation changes daily), our primary communications equipment (e.g. Dell (PRODUCT) RED laptop computers, sat phones, sat modems, video cameras, etc.) was confiscated by the Nepalese Police (under supervision of the Nepalese Army). We are likely to be able to gain access and use of this equipment periodically as long as we are “supervised” by Army personnel. In fact, we are under Nepalese Army “supervision” here at our personal camp with two Nepalese Army Captains assigned to our expedition for the duration to monitor our actions and communications.

We are doing our best to deliver upon the goals of EVEREST TEAM INSPI(RED) – to build awareness of (PRODUCT) RED and to

inspire others to do what they can to help make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. We have received excellent

promotional support on MSN.com and across the Windows Live services (Hotmail, Messenger and Spaces, in particular). We anticipate over 600 million promotional ad impressions during April and May!

The Brunton solar solutions (Solaris 26 and 52, SolarRoll 14 and Solo units) are helping us tremendously! We have included several photos of our product use to date – and will continue to do so as we further evolve our communications setup in the context of these government-imposed restrictions.

View the website here: EVEREST TEAM INSPI(RED)

Africa's Undiscovered Myths

Photographer Janis Miglavs in the Omo

This is a return trip for me to the Omo. I first went there in 2001, to study with six of the least-touched tribes in this remotest corner of Africa. As I interviewed the elders, shamans, chiefs and storytellers about their myths and archetypal personal dreams, I wondered if the seeds of their oral stories predated written history.

Amazingly, anthropologists tell me that I am the only person to ever record those oral stories. These are the stories that answer the big questions of life such as where the first person came from, is there life after death and is there a God? From the detailed interviews, I created photo illustrations to visualize the tribal myths and dreams. You can visit my web site to get a more complete picture about Africa’s Undiscovered Myths Project and my previous four Africa trips at www.jmiglavs.com.

On this return trip, I want to share the work I have done with the people of the Omo tribes and hear more stories. I want to talk again with the Konso elder whose advice to world leaders was: “We are all the same. We all have five fingers,” he said as he held up his hand. “Even if we have different religions.” I want to hear shaman Haska Galede tell me more about the personal god that each Karo and Hamar has.

My previous Africa trips have been solo. I wanted a total immersion into the life, culture and spiritual wisdom of these least-touched tribes. While that was very effective, there were lots of questions that didn’t get asked because I didn’t think of them until someone asked when I got home.

This time, besides traveling with my youngest son, Ryan, I want to interactively involve the entire world to share in these travel adventures and spiritual experiences. This is an open invitation for you to share your thoughts, perspectives and questions as my son Ryan and I travel to the Omo, searching for the roots of Modern Man, searching for what we humans have learned since the first tribes people left the Omo 150,000 years ago.

Janis Miglavs