Oddity Central |
- The Flying Men of Bolivia’s Yungas Valley
- Rules Are Simple at Atherstone Ball Game – Just Don’t Kill Anyone
- Woman Desperate to Find a Job Sells Herself on eBay
| The Flying Men of Bolivia’s Yungas Valley Posted: 27 Feb 2012 06:33 AM PST
It truly amazes me how people are able to find great shortcuts in any kind of situation. A while ago, we wrote about Bamboo Drifting , which was a means to cross rivers in China by balancing on a thin bamboo pole. Deep valleys exist in the jungles of Bolivia too, but the locals have chosen flying over rowing, and it's much faster. On foot, the journey would take a good 1 hour, as they'd have to walk down to the bottom, cross the river and climb up the other side. But 30 seconds is all it takes for the people of Yungas Valley to fly across. No, they haven't mysteriously sprouted wings, nor do they use any fancy machines. Their flying equipment is simple – 20 ropes strung across the valley with old rusting pulleys, 200 meters above the river and stretching as long as 400 meters. Several of the local cocoa harvesters, the Cocaleros, use the ropes every day to travel to and fro along with their goods. They tie themselves to the pulleys using strips of fabric, and glide across effortlessly. Branches and leaves are used as brakes to stop themselves so they don't end up crashing into the other side. The installation of the rope skyway is credited to 72-year-old Don Ignacio, a cocoa harvester who was one of the first to settle in the valley in 1955. According to Ignacio, there was nothing back then and people used to carry everything on their backs like animals. "That's when I thought about having the system of pulleys and cables. I bought steel wires and managed to stretch them across the valley using rope," he says. The idea of the rope travel is no doubt ingenious, but the glitches in the system cannot be ignored. Some of the ropes are over 20 years old and have considerably slackened. The tethers at each end are homemade, and are not all together reliable. Three people have fallen to their deaths in the last couple of decades. One of them was Maria's husband, who was on his own when he lost balance and fell out of his harness, right into the river. While the locals say the deaths were due to negligence, Maria refuses to use the cables any more.
The cocaleros, however, have not lost their faith in the cables that have changed their lives for the better. No matter how old, they believe that the ropes will never break. "It doesn't break. It will never break. It's galvanized steel and anyway we've put four of them across here," says one of them. Perhaps it's the faith that's kept the cables intact all this while. The Flying Men of Bolivia’s Yungas Valley was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Rules Are Simple at Atherstone Ball Game – Just Don’t Kill Anyone Posted: 27 Feb 2012 06:21 AM PST
Festival games are really fun to watch, but I certainly wouldn't want to be in one like the Atherstone Ball Game. I've always followed the Spanish La Tomatina with interest, so when I heard about the Atherstone Ball Game, I had to find out more. Considered to be one of the oldest traditions of England, it is played in Atherstone, Warwickshire, as a part of Mardi Gras celebrations each year. For over 800 years, hundreds of men have gathered on the streets of the town to fight for a giant ball. The man who emerges in possession of the ball at the end of two hours of pushing, shoving and punching, is the winner. The various traditions followed as a part of the festive day are quite interesting. The preparations for the game start early in the morning, with shop owners boarding up windows for protection. At 2.30pm, children start gathering under Barclays Bank. Pennies and sweets are showered on them from the balcony. Later, at around 3pm, the men start to assemble in anticipation of the ball game. A selected dignitary finally throws the ball into the crowd from a window above, and then all hell breaks loose. Photo via Warwickshire.gov.uk The ball itself is worth a mention. Weighing over four pounds, it's made by Gilbert of Rugby and filled with water so it cannot be kicked too far or too high. Four ribbons are tied to it, red, blue, white and gold. So it's not just the ball that's up for grabs, but the ribbons too. Each ribbon holder wins a prize of £10 at the end of the game. The final grabber of the ball is rewarded too, but the ball is considered a prestigious prize in itself. And it should be, given the kind of stuff the winner would have endured to hold on to it. The game really has no rules, so people are pretty much allowed to do whatever it takes to get their hands on the ball. What could be more exciting than that? Photo via Coventry Telegraph
Rules Are Simple at Atherstone Ball Game – Just Don’t Kill Anyone was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Woman Desperate to Find a Job Sells Herself on eBay Posted: 26 Feb 2012 12:10 PM PST
"For sale – a willing and able permanent or temporary employee' – reads the eBay ad. It's quite unusual for the e-commerce website where merchants are more interested in selling goods. But 38-year-old Deborah Bowen had no other choice but to try and sell herself on eBay, having had no proper employment for over 2 years. She went from a £33,000 per year role in sales, to looking for jobs where she's willing to do almost 'anything' for a living. In the last couple of years, Bowen has been sending out her resume to hundreds of recruiters and prospective employers. She didn't even leave out local plumber's merchants in the hope of receiving some sort of permanent employment. But all she could find was part-time work, sometimes paying as low as £6.6 per hour. Bowen and her partner have been struggling to make mortgage repayments and are facing eviction from their home in Gloucester. With the next payment due in March, she is desperate to try anything and hence decided to try out eBay. The ad went up on the 17th of February. It goes on to say, "Sales Professional/BDM/W/house will do almost anything for work. Please read on, could you be the right person to give me the right opportunity?" While it does sound like Bowen is really willing to try and do anything to get a job, the ad has not had any response so far. It's sad to hear her talk about her life. She says she's been in her house for 11 years and there are bits falling down so she can't even rent out the extra room. Her sheer desperation is pretty clear with this statement in the ad, "I will do absolutely anything, drive a forklift truck or even clean toilets. I don't think people understand." We do hope she gets a job soon and a chance to keep and fix her home as well. Update: Deborah’s ad is no longer live on eBay. Hopefully she got a proper job offer and removed it herself.
Woman Desperate to Find a Job Sells Herself on eBay was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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