Sunday, April 10, 2016

Why Catfish Gone Walking?

The name of this blog started as a bit of a joke. In college Kim did some sustainable engineering work in Cambodia with our university and a group called SENEA. One of the projects SENEA was working on at an orphanage there was a hydroponics system. There was a little pond at the orphanage, which was occasionally populated with fish, which they wanted to harness to grow plants on a hydroponic raft. At the time the water in the pond was quite foul and they were told all of the fish had moved next door to a cleaner pond in the neighbor's yard. This is when they learned about walking catfish. Kim thought it was very cool. Her friend Maria, also on the trip thought it was very creepy. As such Kim took the opportunity to frequently send her videos such as this one after their return. 

Later that year, when Kim started this blog about her travels she felt the metaphor of a fish out of water was apt. All travelers are in a liminal state of being, and it is from this liminal state that we are best able to experience not only the culture of other, but our own. The name is now doubly apt as we are now headed back to southeast Asia, where the species is from.

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