www.couchsurfing.com/group_read.html?gid=709&post=392985
www.couchsurfing.com/people/tahirah
www.helptequila.com
written by Derek Wallace:
www.couchsurfing.com/profile.html?id=O65VQ0
Some of you may know Tahirah Johnson, an active couchsurfer in the Chicago area...
www.couchsurfing.com/people/tahirah
She came out to the January meet-up we had and she came to the August potluck meet-up as well. Through couchsurfing.com, Tahirah has become a close friend of mine and to some of you as well. For those who don't know, Tahirah is an attorney by day and roller derby skater by night. On August 25th, during a game, she fell in front of another player, who skated over her at the collarbone. She's now being treated at Schwab Rehabilitation Center on the South Side and has an injury to her C4 vertebra. She has partial use of just one arm and no use of her legs, but she has feeling in her limbs.
The Sun Times did an interview with her regarding her injuries. You can find the article here:
www.suntimes.com/news/metro/549681,CST-NWS-roller10.article
There have been a ton of well-wishers writing to ask where donations can be made, as she had no primary insurance at the time of her accident. Checks can be mailed to a charitable trust that has been established for Tahirah:
North Community Bank
c/o The Tahirah Johnson Trust
Attn: Amber Barnhill
1555 N. Damen
Chicago, IL 60622
Donations will be tax-deductible and a Paypal account has now been set-up at the following address:
TheTahirahJohnsonTrust@gmail.com
All funds will be transferred directly into her North Community Bank account and are tax-deductible. Also, people are welcome to send well-wishes to Tahirah at that email address and we will make sure they get to her.
She's in good hands now and the rest of her derby dolls are looking out for her.
She has also wanted me to let everyone know to be on the lookout for a used, or inexpensive power wheel chair that has a tilt system, and also adjustable mid chest side holders, and chest strap. If any one has anything like this, or someone you know that can help let us know, and we will relay this information on to her for you!
Posted October 30th, 2007 - 12:52 pm by MIKKY MOUTH from Sankt Nikola an der Donau, Austria
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
SAN DIEGO FIRES! help needed!!!!
Please help the families displaced by the San Diego Fires or those who have lost their homes!! Live by the couchsurfing motto and give whatever you can; your time, a spare room, some food, whatever.
There are many emergency shelters, but couch surfers we can help out too!
Many families with animals are forced to stay outside, so start by taking in a family with a dog or cat. Tomorrow my roommate and I going to some of the major shelters to see if we can help a family.
Thanks! do your part!
There are many emergency shelters, but couch surfers we can help out too!
Many families with animals are forced to stay outside, so start by taking in a family with a dog or cat. Tomorrow my roommate and I going to some of the major shelters to see if we can help a family.
Thanks! do your part!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Back from a 24 countries Couchsurfing experience
Hey guys !
After 10 weeks of traveling by train, plane, boat and foot, I'm now back in France with a workload of no less than 1800 hours of video to edit from the people I've met and interviewed, here and there, during this summer EU trip.
An amazing and passionating experience to get hosted in the whole European Union, mostly on the last minute -say day- and always meeting great, smart, open-minded people. Different cultures, different languages, different currencies and fashions, religions and philosophies, different faces and different differences. But we're all the same in the end.
An average of 3 days spent in every EU 24 countries visited.
8 categories of people filmed to answer the same list of 10 questions, about the E.U., politics, money, culture, life...
A documentary shall then be edited and produced within the next year, to show the result of this adventure, thanks in a great part, to all the couchsurfers I was hosted by in
Bologna, Roma, Bari, Patras, Athens, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Warszaw, Crackow, Warszaw again, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Turku, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg, Paris, London, Dublin, Madrid and Lisbon...
...before coming back to France on the 23rd of September.
Since then I moved to a new place and I'm now ready to get started with all the material collected, and to get back to you all with a testimony of the real people's people opinion about Europe and us being together.
A very big THANKS to Couchsurfing and to all of you who make this happening every day. Thank you.
aRno Jullien
After 10 weeks of traveling by train, plane, boat and foot, I'm now back in France with a workload of no less than 1800 hours of video to edit from the people I've met and interviewed, here and there, during this summer EU trip.
An amazing and passionating experience to get hosted in the whole European Union, mostly on the last minute -say day- and always meeting great, smart, open-minded people. Different cultures, different languages, different currencies and fashions, religions and philosophies, different faces and different differences. But we're all the same in the end.
An average of 3 days spent in every EU 24 countries visited.
8 categories of people filmed to answer the same list of 10 questions, about the E.U., politics, money, culture, life...
A documentary shall then be edited and produced within the next year, to show the result of this adventure, thanks in a great part, to all the couchsurfers I was hosted by in
Bologna, Roma, Bari, Patras, Athens, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Warszaw, Crackow, Warszaw again, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Turku, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg, Paris, London, Dublin, Madrid and Lisbon...
...before coming back to France on the 23rd of September.
Since then I moved to a new place and I'm now ready to get started with all the material collected, and to get back to you all with a testimony of the real people's people opinion about Europe and us being together.
A very big THANKS to Couchsurfing and to all of you who make this happening every day. Thank you.
aRno Jullien
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Up to Gambia by car to help women there become more indepent
On March 18, me and 5 more friends will leave from Antwerp, Belgium, to Banjul, the Gambia, not only for the adventure, but to collect money for a project that supports women in Gambia with microcredit-donations.
We go by car, which will be sold in Banjul, and the money will go to this micro-credits project.
At this moment we are looking for sponsors, all over the world, whom would like to help us getting there, and whom want to support the women in Gambia.
For more info. look at our website (in Dutch though...): www.eindhovendegexxte.punt.nl
or contact me on : ankefem1@yahoo.co.uk
Ankh Tsssss
We go by car, which will be sold in Banjul, and the money will go to this micro-credits project.
At this moment we are looking for sponsors, all over the world, whom would like to help us getting there, and whom want to support the women in Gambia.
For more info. look at our website (in Dutch though...): www.eindhovendegexxte.punt.nl
or contact me on : ankefem1@yahoo.co.uk
Ankh Tsssss
Friday, October 12, 2007
“Come Surf a Rainbow Wave @ AfriKa Burns”- 22-25 November 2007
The “Creation” - A Tale from umZansi AfriKa
The story begins with CS ofcourse...When a CS member Soulfood4U, received a request from the Burning Man to surf her couch in Muizenberg, Cape Town. Curious about his name, “What’s in the name?”, she asked, seeking an explanation. And so Soulfood4U was introduced to the concept of Burning Man, Black Rock by the CS “Burning Man” himself.
Unable to teleport herself to Burning Man 2007 in spite of her heart and soul’s burning desire to be there, imagine her delight when a message about AfriKa Burns (see www.afrikaburns.com) landed in her mailbox. Mmmm, some bad spam is good spam, she thought! And so the idea of AfriKa Burns lit Soulfood4U’s lantern promising to set her aflame …and the “Come Surf a Rainbow Wave @ AfriKa Burns”, a CS theme camp, was created by the flames and ….and Born from the ashes!!
The “Come Surf a Rainbow Wave @ AfriKa Burns” CS theme camp is inspired by Anais Nin who said that "I only believe in fire. Life. Fire. Being myself on fire I set others on fire. Never death. Fire and life. Les Jeux." And….the traditional three legged African pot.
The pot will be bubbling slowly on the days preceding the burn…flavoured with spices from the East, West, South and North of national and international borders… The intention is to cook up a melting pot of cultures to serve up on the night of the burn …everyone will soulfully savour a “Rainbow Nation” of cultures! Promising to be a sense-sational delight!
While Soulfood embraces the dream of the “Rainbow Nation” in South Africa the concept itself remains debateable in reality…It is her dream and intention to explore ways to make it possible, wherever and whenever possible building bridges or pathways that help people from all backgrounds imaginable to connect under one umbrella, creating a forest instead of the trees she sees. In South Africa the seed varieties planted by our apartheid past still divides our trees. On a social level, the different trees have still not created pathways or bridges between themselves to grow into a forest. So events like AfriKa Burns, whilst holding promise, may just turn out to be a “unicultural” tree. Under CS principles this is Not possible and/or acceptable.
The birth of the dream of a CS couch shaped into a surfboard and painted in the colours of the rainbow riding along three dimensional waves, may be one such bridge. An awsome Muizies couch! At the theme camp, local, and it is imagined international, and even virtual CSers will be welcomed by a warm umZansi Africa greeting with a generous serving of mqombothi, traditional South African homemade beer. A world map will be on display to indicate the location, along with pictures and messages from all “real” and “virtual” AfriKa Burns CS theme camp surfers. Non-CSers who drop by, will be invited to join the CS Theme Camp by completing a “membership form” committing them under oath stating in writing a way that they intend “creating a pathway” to the “Rainbow Nation”. Their message, together with a hastily created “virtual” mugshot will be posted on the world map of CS theme camp burners.
So Soulfood4U invites local and international CSers to join the camp, seeking “real” or “virtual” members to surf the ”Rainbow Nation” couch. Soulfood4U together with others promises to take turns to “tuck you in” on the couch. So quickly send your picture by snail mail (preferably) and/or email when you join the AfriKa Burns meeting, along with your message that “frees” the “Rainbow Nation” from its chains. And watch your message become one of the spices that flavour the melting pot of cultures to be served up on the night of the burn!
For now this is just a dream…one month away from the burn, participation is essential and therefore speedily invited, any help, ideas etc are encouraged and welcomed especially from seasoned burners! Let’s make this dream “bridge” a reality, together!
Join the meeting at ….. www.couchsurfing.com/meetings.html?mid=3569 and state your “real” or “virtual” status along with a mugshot of yourself, and an awe inspiring message on pathways to the “Rainbow Nation”
Soulfood4U
The story begins with CS ofcourse...When a CS member Soulfood4U, received a request from the Burning Man to surf her couch in Muizenberg, Cape Town. Curious about his name, “What’s in the name?”, she asked, seeking an explanation. And so Soulfood4U was introduced to the concept of Burning Man, Black Rock by the CS “Burning Man” himself.
Unable to teleport herself to Burning Man 2007 in spite of her heart and soul’s burning desire to be there, imagine her delight when a message about AfriKa Burns (see www.afrikaburns.com) landed in her mailbox. Mmmm, some bad spam is good spam, she thought! And so the idea of AfriKa Burns lit Soulfood4U’s lantern promising to set her aflame …and the “Come Surf a Rainbow Wave @ AfriKa Burns”, a CS theme camp, was created by the flames and ….and Born from the ashes!!
The “Come Surf a Rainbow Wave @ AfriKa Burns” CS theme camp is inspired by Anais Nin who said that "I only believe in fire. Life. Fire. Being myself on fire I set others on fire. Never death. Fire and life. Les Jeux." And….the traditional three legged African pot.
The pot will be bubbling slowly on the days preceding the burn…flavoured with spices from the East, West, South and North of national and international borders… The intention is to cook up a melting pot of cultures to serve up on the night of the burn …everyone will soulfully savour a “Rainbow Nation” of cultures! Promising to be a sense-sational delight!
While Soulfood embraces the dream of the “Rainbow Nation” in South Africa the concept itself remains debateable in reality…It is her dream and intention to explore ways to make it possible, wherever and whenever possible building bridges or pathways that help people from all backgrounds imaginable to connect under one umbrella, creating a forest instead of the trees she sees. In South Africa the seed varieties planted by our apartheid past still divides our trees. On a social level, the different trees have still not created pathways or bridges between themselves to grow into a forest. So events like AfriKa Burns, whilst holding promise, may just turn out to be a “unicultural” tree. Under CS principles this is Not possible and/or acceptable.
The birth of the dream of a CS couch shaped into a surfboard and painted in the colours of the rainbow riding along three dimensional waves, may be one such bridge. An awsome Muizies couch! At the theme camp, local, and it is imagined international, and even virtual CSers will be welcomed by a warm umZansi Africa greeting with a generous serving of mqombothi, traditional South African homemade beer. A world map will be on display to indicate the location, along with pictures and messages from all “real” and “virtual” AfriKa Burns CS theme camp surfers. Non-CSers who drop by, will be invited to join the CS Theme Camp by completing a “membership form” committing them under oath stating in writing a way that they intend “creating a pathway” to the “Rainbow Nation”. Their message, together with a hastily created “virtual” mugshot will be posted on the world map of CS theme camp burners.
So Soulfood4U invites local and international CSers to join the camp, seeking “real” or “virtual” members to surf the ”Rainbow Nation” couch. Soulfood4U together with others promises to take turns to “tuck you in” on the couch. So quickly send your picture by snail mail (preferably) and/or email when you join the AfriKa Burns meeting, along with your message that “frees” the “Rainbow Nation” from its chains. And watch your message become one of the spices that flavour the melting pot of cultures to be served up on the night of the burn!
For now this is just a dream…one month away from the burn, participation is essential and therefore speedily invited, any help, ideas etc are encouraged and welcomed especially from seasoned burners! Let’s make this dream “bridge” a reality, together!
Join the meeting at ….. www.couchsurfing.com/meetings.html?mid=3569 and state your “real” or “virtual” status along with a mugshot of yourself, and an awe inspiring message on pathways to the “Rainbow Nation”
Soulfood4U
Friday, October 5, 2007
1000 miles completed!
Yesterday I made it back to England after walking since August 1st. I'd have to double-check but I think I stayed with about 20 or so surfers and met a lot more than that for dinner, drinks and so on.
I'd be grateful if you could put a post up on the news page just to say a huge "thank you" to each and every one, some of whom went so far beyond the call of duty that they'd need the Hubble telescope to see it in the distance behind them. I'll email them all individually as well.
I tried to get the word out about Couchsurfing and I know TFM radio in England mentioned it almost every time I was on air. The Evening Chronicle (local paper) did a whole page on me when I got back and managed to get the name of the site wrong... And forgot to mention the charity's website for donations! hey ho...
Iain Purdie
I'd be grateful if you could put a post up on the news page just to say a huge "thank you" to each and every one, some of whom went so far beyond the call of duty that they'd need the Hubble telescope to see it in the distance behind them. I'll email them all individually as well.
I tried to get the word out about Couchsurfing and I know TFM radio in England mentioned it almost every time I was on air. The Evening Chronicle (local paper) did a whole page on me when I got back and managed to get the name of the site wrong... And forgot to mention the charity's website for donations! hey ho...
Iain Purdie
CouchSurfers WANTED to host new traveling show
Hi fellow couchsurfers. I'm producing a new traveling show made specifically for backpackers. I'm looking for multiple hosts from all around the world. We are having casting calls with all the regular people in Los Angeles and New York, but I think the best candidates could be right here on CS.
This is a real paying gig. It will also include flight, food, and accomidations.
It is very simple to apply. Make a video that is less than five minutes. Tell me about the city or cities you love the most. Where would you love to take your friends and play tour guide. Describe a couple of your favorite areas in that city, favorite hostel, favorite foods, or maybe even a unique thing that you experienced as a backpacker.
To submit the video:
You can send a link to montoyafilms@gmail.com
or snail mail a dvd to:
Montoya Films
10061 Riverside Dr. #144
Toluca Lake, CA 91602
I'm not looking for professional videos. I'm looking for a bit of your personality. Just talk into the camera as if you"re telling a friend about your adventures. Include in your email or package a short description of the cities you've traveled to, languages you speak, and a link to a profile that will help me get to know you, like your CS link or myspace.
Good luck
Brian Moraga
Santa Monica, CA USA
www.couchsurfing.com/mapsurf.html?SEARCH[skip]=0&view=detail&sid=d50c3e6e1a80243bb8a15b8bbe442f06
This is a real paying gig. It will also include flight, food, and accomidations.
It is very simple to apply. Make a video that is less than five minutes. Tell me about the city or cities you love the most. Where would you love to take your friends and play tour guide. Describe a couple of your favorite areas in that city, favorite hostel, favorite foods, or maybe even a unique thing that you experienced as a backpacker.
To submit the video:
You can send a link to montoyafilms@gmail.com
or snail mail a dvd to:
Montoya Films
10061 Riverside Dr. #144
Toluca Lake, CA 91602
I'm not looking for professional videos. I'm looking for a bit of your personality. Just talk into the camera as if you"re telling a friend about your adventures. Include in your email or package a short description of the cities you've traveled to, languages you speak, and a link to a profile that will help me get to know you, like your CS link or myspace.
Good luck
Brian Moraga
Santa Monica, CA USA
www.couchsurfing.com/mapsurf.html?SEARCH[skip]=0&view=detail&sid=d50c3e6e1a80243bb8a15b8bbe442f06
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