My Post-Sabbatical Year(s) in Asia (or wherever)

Helping out a family in India

2012-02-04T17:58:00.001-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

At the beginning of my sabbatical year, in September 2009 I met Dinu and his family in the town of Bodh Gaya, India. After spending a number of days with him, I decided to help out his family by paying the tuition for a better school for his younger sister Rajni. Many of you have also helped with this endeavor, and I am thankful. I am now in the third year of this commitment. by the end of this month I will be sending Dinu the funds for another year of education for Rajni (it costs $400 a year). I am grateful for this opportunity to help Dinu and his family, who live in the poorest state in all of India.

If you are also willing to continue to help out financially, Please send a check to:

Robert Lee-Engel

C/O Evergreen School

15201 Meridian Ave N

Shoreline, WA 98133

Thanks again. Love,

Robert

Dinu's family during my sabbatical (Rajni is in the middle eating)

Rajni's progress report last year

July 29th through August 2nd: Last Days

2011-08-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

July 29th, 30th, and 31st: Laporte, southwest of Quincy:

kayaking with my old friend Jeff, from my college days, and a neighbor

We went on a hike to Lookout Mountain, and came across a lot of snow on the way. This is a photo taken of the space where the snow melted above the trail

A friend of a neighbor of Jeff's, playing in the snow

view from Lookout Mountain

Boomer (on the left) took us out on his boat

Jeff trying to entice his dog, Shaina, to join him on the kayak. Shaina was not interested.

We finally got her on the kayak, but not for long

August 1st: leaving Jeff and Laporte:

Sunrise at Lake Almanor

I left Jeff's cabin at 3AM heading east to Quincy then north towards Mount Lassan National Park.

Mount Lassan National Park:

The road takes you over a 9300 foot pass (about 3000meters). there is still a lot of snow

Views from Highway 299 to the coast:

I decided to continue my theme of staying off the large freeways, so I took highway 299 west to the coast.

near the coast

Northern California coast

August 2nd: Oregon coast:

The lupines are for you, Christy

August 3rd:

sunrise on my deck at home

It was a great month. Thank you to all of you who have followed my journey.
My next travel blogging will be in April, 2012, when I lead my 8th grade class to Turkey.
See you then. Bye.

July 26th through 28th: Leaving Fresno, arriving in Tahoe

2011-07-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

July 26th: last day in Fresno

Paul, me, Bruce and Lisa wine tasting

This was my last family visit on this trip. It has been such a joy to be able to spend time with my family.

July 27th:

sunrise on the road to Tahoe

I was thinking about snakes this morning, and shedding skins. When an old skin is no longer useful, when it no longer serves its purpose, when it has been outgrown, the snake just sheds it. How I wish, at times, that I could be a snake.

The Merced River

Don Pedro lake

Sylvia and John Schofield

John and Sylvia live in a small cabin outside of Volcano, a small town of 200 souls south of Tahoe. They have spent much of their lives living in foreign countries, working as teacher and nurse in places like Germany, Brazil, and Korea, while raising 5 children. I met John and Sylvia my freshman year in college - parents of my first true love - 34 years ago. Our relationship started a little rocky, to say the least (which was fun to reminisce about on this trip). Their current project, inspired by their latest trip abroad to Africa, is to help the girls they met in a small town in Tanzania, with their educational expenses . I am honored to call them friends.

sunset from their balcony

It was so great spending a little time with John and Sylvia. It is such a blessing - this life on the road - the opportunity to explore, to be free of schedule, direction and path. What a blessing to meet a new person and connect in that empty space of newness. Maybe even more a blessing to reacquaint with old friends, share familiar memories, with the ease that trust allows.

July 28th: I spent my time slowly driving up to Tahoe

Silver lake, Highway 88, south of Tahoe

or maybe this is Silver Lake

Could be this photo too

picnic dinner on Lake Tahoe with Chris and Scooter

I have known Scooter since I was 14 years old. About every couple of years I come driving through Tahoe, and their door is always open. And though we haven't talked to each other for 2 years, it seems like it has only been a week. Some friends are like that. Good friends.

We went for a three hour work from Scooter's house, through the Shasta daisies (also known as mule's ears) and mosquitoes

We made it to a section of the Tahoe Rim trail

July 25th in Fresno

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dinner:

front row: sister Lisa, Uncle Bruce, friend Lori

back row: Lisa and Paul's nephew Ben, my nephew Joel, Lori's husband Doug, Paul and me

Rocky

Penny

A really bad but funny picture of a really cute dog (looks like a troll doll)

July 24th: On to Fresno

2011-07-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

sunrise light somewhere in California, west of Tonopah, Nevada.

High desert in California

Mono Lake

Tioga Pass, Eastern entrance to Yosemite

Top of the pass, over 9943 feet (about 3031 meters)

View of Half Dome from Tioga Pass. Half Dome rises almost 5000 feet (1500 meters) from the valley floor.

Yosemite Valley, with Half Dome in the background

Yosemite Falls - the highest measured falls in North America at 2425 feet (739 meters), and 6th highest in the world.

Yosemite Valley as I left, heading south to Fresno to visit my sister Lisa and brother-in-law Paul, and Uncle Bruce

Fresno:

Lisa and Paul's dog, Zoey. She sets the ball on the counter and waits for someone to throw it to her.

Zoey is a little obsessed with balls

July 23rd: Colorado, Utah and Navada

2011-07-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

Western Colorado

To my eye, there is something spectacularly beautiful about this scenery as I move west, away from the lushness surrounding Denver, away from the high mountains and steep gorges of Central Colorado, and into the open spaces and stark mountains of the dessert landscape of Western Colorado. I try to think about what this means - why this landscape touches my heart, and realize that it is in my blood. I am of the desert. It is where I was born. It is my nature, my joy, and a blessing to be connected to it in this way. It is my birth rite.

The road to Moab, Eastern Utah:

The road is one of my favorite places in the world. I drove through here on my first road trip with my sons, Noah and Natan, in the summer of 2005

Moab is also the site of one of my favorite Torah stories from Rabbi ted Falcon:

After leaving Egypt, Moses and the Israelites were wandering in the desert for 40 years. They came upon the land of Moab. Balak, the king of the Moabites, was afraid of this huge tribe of wandering Israelites, so he hired Balaam, a professional curser, to curse the Israelites. Balaam prayed to get a really good curse, but when he saw the Israelites, he could not curse them. He said, “How fair are your tents, o Jacob, your dwellings O Israel.” Balaam was commanded to curse, but he chose to bless. At every moment, in every interaction, one has a choice – to curse or to bless.

I used the story of Moab as a meditation for my students in Vietnam this year, when we were visiting Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue, Central Vietnam, the Pagoda of Thich Quang Duc (the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lit himself on fire in 1963 to protest the mistreatment of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government):

The Dalai Lama, the exiled King and religious leader of Tibet and considered the reincarnation of the God of Compassion, once said, in response to a question about his 50-year exile from Tibet at the hands of the Chinese, (I paraphrase) "The Chinese government has been a great teacher. It is easy to feel compassion for those that are like you - your family, your people. How much harder has it been for me to feel compassion for the Chinese government."

Anger, jealousy, pain, frustration, hate - they are all feelings inside of us.

No one else is responsible.

Each one of us is responsible for our own thoughts and feelings.

This doesn't mean that bad things don't happen.

Or when they do happen, it doesn't mean that they are an illusion.

They are real.

But there are many realities that exist side by side.

Some people feel that the only true power each of us has is how we respond to the things that happen to us.

Thich Quang Duc chose how he lived is life, and he chose how he ended his life.

The land mine victims which we will meet tomorrow did not choose what happened to them.

But each of them has chosen how they will live their life.

I hear students say to me all the time, "But this is who I am."

And I cringe inside, for at each moment we have a choice.

I am not denying the power of conditioning, or that we each have propensities and limitations.

But we each have a choice.

Each moment is new.

Each one of us must choose how we will live our life.

Central Utah:

Nevada:

After 14 hours on the road, I entered the state of Nevada, the state of my birth. When I entered from Utah, I was in the high desert. After half an hour, I made it to Ely, a town I had heard of but had never been to. I drove around, wondering if I should stop for the day, but decided to drive on. One minute after leaving the town, I saw the lights of a police car behind me. Apparently I was driving 45 MPH in a 35 MPH zone. After looking at my driver's license and registration, and asking me questions about the painting in the back of my car, where I was coming from, and what was my line of work, the police man let me go without giving me a ticket. A mile up the road I passed a sign that read, "Next gas in 184 miles" (about 300 kilometers), so I turned around, went back to Ely, and filled up my gas tank. I drove west, winding my way through the high desert, over a pass of 7000 feet (about 2100 meters), then down into the flat desert. The mountains in the background, the road a straight line as far as I could see in either direction. I stopped for half an hour, admiring the beauty of the place. It was totally silent, except for the sound of a few flies. A small rodent scurried across the road. In the half hour that I sat, only two cars passed, one stopping to see if I was okay. That was it. The few flies. Every so often the feel of a slight breeze. Stillness. It was disarming. "Beautiful" does not do it justice. There is a power in it - indescribable.

July 16th through 22nd: Littleton, Colorado

2011-07-21T04:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a wonderful week of family and friends connections: good food and kid stuff - rollerskating and roller coasters, driving back and forth to gym classes, watching jump roping practice, playing foosball and watching movies. It has been a blessing spending time with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, aunt and cousins, and reconnecting with old friends. It has been a blessing seeing the world through the eyes of children (as best I can) - remindful of my time with my own boys as they were children (as well as giving thanks that they are no longer that age). It is so cliche to think how quickly time passes, and how important it is to appreciate whatever stage your children are in, for before you know it they are on to another stage, and it is also so true.

Nephew Rory

My friends Mark and Lisa's boys, Samuel and Thomas

Samuel, Mark, Lisa and Thomas

On the drive to Boulder to visit my cousin Dana

Cousin Dana's daughter Alexis and my niece, Ricki

Dana, Alexis, Ricki and me

My sister Amy, Aunt Laurie, Ricki and Alexis

The whole family with my mom and dad (except for my brother-in-law Russ, who went fishing with Rory)

Tomorrow I head west, across Colorado, Utah, Nevada and into California. I don't know which route I will take, for I will try, once again, to stay off the freeways. The shortest distance between Littleton, Colorado and Fresno, California is 1200 miles (2000 kilometers) - this is one big country! I am excited to get on the road again and see where I end up.

July 15th and 16th: Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Colorado

2011-07-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

July 15th: Yellowstone:

I found a beautiful camp site last night right on the river, a bit to the northwest of Yellowstone. I had never been to Yellowstone, and have been looking forward to this for a long time. Created in 1872, Yellowstone is the oldest National Park in the world.

I entered at the west entrance, the scenery was picturesque and gentle, unlike the intensity of Glacier National Park.

I was looking forward to a grizzly bear, which I did not see. This guy let me walk right up to him.

The smoke of hot springs

This geyser was very impressive

Hundreds of people waiting for "Old Faithful"

Here she starts

I set my camera for continuous photos

taking one photo every second

for about three minutes - 190 photos in all

This is after about 10 seconds

12 seconds: It stayed like this for about 2 minutes, then slowly relaxed

near the south entrance to the park

The road south took me through Grand Tetons National Park

These lupines are for you, Christy

My late lunch spot - one of the nicest things about traveling and not having a schedule is that there is also no meal schedule. I eat when I am hungry. It seems like such a little thing, but for me, it is significant.

The scenery through the northern part of Wyoming looked much like this - rolling hills, valleys, rivers. And then it got dry, hot, flat and empty - ranch land - a lot of tumbleweed and grasses, cows, 50 miles (80 kilometers) in between towns, long barbed wire fences (I grew up thinking it was called "bob-wire" and thus had an affinity to the thing), few cars (mostly trucks), highway signs like "next passing lane in 8 miles" or town signs that read "Eden - population 220."

July 16th:

After a couple of poor nights of sleep in a row, I decided to call it a day pretty early on the 15th. I found a motel room in a little town in southwest Wyoming and got a good night's sleep.

First light (and the full moon) on the morning of the 16th

outside of Steamboat, Colorado

I am now in Littleton, just to the southwest of Denver, visiting my family.

By the way, I was able to fix the photo sizes in the last two entries (July 13th and 14th).

It is easier to see the scenery now.

July 14th: Back in the USA and Glacier National Park

2011-07-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

I got up at 5AM and had my tent packed up and was on the road by 5:20AM. The night before, in Jasper, it being such a tourist town, I had slept in the back of my car, and very poorly. So last night I was planning on a motel. I ended up in the little town of Cardston, about 20 miles from the US border. The first motel I saw ended up being closed. Then I saw a sign for a B and B, but on the way I passed a cute camp ground and ended up there. So I was at the border at 5:40AM, and didn't know that borders actually have operating hours (the borders from Washington state to Canada are open 24 hours a day). so a read another chapter in my book on the current political situation of Turkey (studying for next year's global studies class), and was back in the USA by 7:05AM

Northwestern Montana

Near the entrance to Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park

These photos are from a road through Glacier called "Going to the Sun Road."

This was a spectacular three hour drive through the park - as beautiful as anything I saw in the national parks in Canada.

A week ago, when I checked the road conditions, much of this road was closed due to snow. It must have just opened, for they were doing a lot of road work, with only one lane open and a lot of delays.

Near the pass at the top, which is also on the Continental Divide.

Over the pass, and on to the western side of the road

This is where I lost my Swiss army knife. I stopped here for lunch, and must have just left it where I was sitting. It made me very sad - not just because it was an old friend, having gone around the world with me a number of times, but also because it was a gift from my parents.

When I got to a big enough town, I located a sporting goods sore, and bought myself another Swiss Army Knife. That made me feel better.

After leaving Glacier National park, I headed south through Montana. Much of it looks like this photo - beautiful rolling, green hills. I have been avoiding the big freeways, choosing instead to wind my way through Montana on the small roads. I am now in Big Sky, a small town near the northwest entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

July 13th

2011-07-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

I spent the day driving south through the Jasper and Banff National Parks. what an incredible day! I must have stopped at every pull out - Every site just as spectacular as the last. I don't have anything else to say.

First light at the resort town of Jasper

Driving south through Jasper National Park

There's my car

Mistaya Lake

Peyto Lake

Glacier meeting water at Peyto Lake

Bow Lake

Lake Louise

Still in Canada, but near the Montana border, where I am at now

July 10th through 12th

2011-07-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

It was really nice spending time with my sister, Suzanna, but it is time to move on.

Before sunrise on some lake on some road leaving Tofino, on my way to Victoria

Kayaking with Teah, Shea, Sheree and Dave

My older son Noah was born 21 years ago in the house my family shared with Sheree and Dave. Teah, only one year old at the time, was Noah's hero. As soon as he could crawl he was following her around. Now Teah is a beautiful young lady of 22, and Shea, who was not yet born when we all lived together, is a wonderful young man of almost 20. It has been so nice spending a couple of days with this family again, seeing how their beautiful little children have grown into beautiful young adults.

Last night we had a delicious meal of salmon, broccoli and Swiss chard on a bed of rice with feta cheese, along with strawberry mango chutney

July 12th:

Entering Horseshoe Bay, Vancouver

I woke at 3:30AM, and was on the road at 4:00 to drive the 1.5 hours to the Nanaimo ferry terminal to catch the 6:20 ferry back to the mainland. My original plan was to drive along the border to Banff, and then back down into the US through Montana. But Suzanna convinced me that I must go up to Jasper, which adds hours and hours of driving, so I had to start pretty early today.

just past Whistler, about an hour or two north of Vancouver

a log jam on a river

The drive today was so spectacular

A bit of a dry section in between the two mountain ranges, and still beautiful

I stopped at a rest stop here. I was thinking about how far Jasper was from where I was, and this voice pretty much shouted at me (from I don't know where), "Don't be in such a rush to get somewhere else. Where you are is prefect." I thought that was pretty good advice, so I thanked the voice.

I just entered the province of Alberta and Jasper National Park to this view

This guy was meandering on the side of the road, pretty much ignoring me while I was in my car, but I definitely drew his attention as I got out of my car to take his picture (I didn't get more than about a foot from my car door, cuz he didn't look too happy with my presence).

July 9th

2011-07-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

I got up early to walk on Long Beach, but it was closed, so I headed south to the next beach, Combers Beach.

Combers Beach in the early morning

You can climb over the headland and end up at Long Beach.

I tried to capture the texture of the water on the sand, and ended up just liking how the water and sand merge into greyness.

It ended up being quite a walk - 1.5 hours each way.

I imagine I can see the curvature of the earth in this photo

In the afternoon I visited the shoreline bog

And then the rain forest

Beginning of my road trip - July 6th through 8th

2011-07-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

July 5th:

"Guess what?" I asked my son, Noah.

"What?" he appropriately replied.

"I'm going on a one-month driving trip tomorrow morning."

"You just can't stay put, can you?" was his reply. Again, appropriate.

July 6th:

About a third of the way up the west coast of Vancouver Island is the small town of Tofino. That is where I am headed. It's abou

t 2 hours from Seattle to the Canadian border, another 45 minutes to the ferry, a two hour ferry ride, then 4 hours to go up and across the island to Tofino. Luckily, I was on the road by 3:30AM.

Tofino is on the tip of this beautiful peninsula.

July 6th through 8th:

Suzanna sitting by her fire on the beach

For those of you who followed my blog during my sabbatical year, you might recognize Suzanna. She is my twin sister from Canada who I met in the Himalayas in October, 2009. It was my first day on the Annapurna trek, and her last day. We got to talking and it turned out we were born about 4 hours apart, so she is my older twin, and thus, she calls me "Little Brother."

Suzanna is the caretaker for this really nice piece of property right on the beach, and this is her little cottage.

Her outside shower (check out the incredible wood work and drift wood)

Her outside bath tub

The harbor at Tofino

Chesterman Beach, where Suzanna lives

Chesterman Beach

Suzanna with Snapper, "The faster fish cutter in the world." I met Snapper on the street. He told me he is in the Guinness Book of World Records, having cut 17,000 fish in 7 hours (which is about a fish every 1.5 seconds). By the way, I looked him up and couldn't find anything.

Half Moon Bay (not the one near San Francisco)

It has been exactly as a vacation should be - nice and slow: a little walking on the beach, a little exploring, a lot of salmon, and good company and conversation.

End of the trip and home again

2011-03-30T01:13:00.000-07:00

March 29th: I can't sleep. Laying in my bed and sleep is no where in sight. The end of the trip. The remnants of 14 hour time change. My mind knows I am home in Seattle, but my body is most definitely confused.

I'm going to work my way forward:

March 26th: Farewell Dinner group shot

March 27th: My last day in Vietnam - I woke up very early - 4:30AM, and walked to the Hoan Kiem Lake. As the sun rose, the path around the lake filled with walkers, and exercisers. Some people doing yoga and others doing Tai Chi. There were badminton players. People brought their portable stereos and groups did calisthenics to the beat. I saw one row of old women standing in a line, each massaging the back of the person in front of them.

morning bridge

Hat bicycle

I love Hanoi for all the action on the streets. There are more people selling things, more people walking, more sidewalk restaurants, then anywhere in Vietnam.

Just a conversation

bread lady

Sidewalk restaurant

bridge through a door way

Eli leading the last "Gratitude Circle," with Mike on his shoulder

The students were free in the morning, until hotel check-out. Then we walked all the students to the lake, went to one pagoda on the island in the lake, then had our last "gratitude circle." There are so many things we all have to be grateful for.

That evening, before the bus ride to the airport, Mike and Ha took me out for one last meal. they know how I love to eat "like the locals," so we went to this street of sidewalk seafood restaurants.

We sat on the street on little red stools, ate clams and prawns and toasted loudly to everything from cross-cultural confusion to how much we love each other.

Mike with three huge prawns.

These may have been the best prawns I have ever eaten.

Ha in the bus, with his "microphone"

Last group shot at the airport

Our 11:30PM flight got us into Seoul, Korea 3.5 hours later, though it was 5AM on March 28th Korean time when we landed. Korean Airlines gave us the option of a day tour or day hotel. Back in Seattle a few months ago I picked the tour, but the airlines got it wrong, and booked us in a hotel, and we were all really glad that they did, as the students collapsed at one stop after another on our way through immigration, customs, and waiting for the bus to the hotel. 12 hours later we were back on a flight - this time 9 more hours to arrive in Seattle at noon on the 28th (crossing the international date line gave us an extra day), though our bodies thought it was 2AM (Vietnam time).

At that is the end of our story, except for my sleeplessness as my body readjusts to Pacific Standard time, oh yes, and all the things I am grateful for.

I believe I must have the best teaching job in the world, and for this I am grateful. It is not the best teaching job because I get to go to a foreign country for 4 weeks every year. It is the best teaching job because, for four weeks, I get the privilege of witnessing the transformation of these young men and women. I get to be there as they open their eyes, open their hearts, and spread their wings. I get to see their wings. What can be better than that!

March 26th Farewell Dinner Most Important Lessons

2011-03-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I asked the students to be prepared to share the "most important lesson" they learned while in Vietnam, something that they want to hold on to when they return to Seattle. I have included all 26 students' lessons, because they are all precious.

March 26th, 2011 Farewell Dinner Most Important Lesson
I never thought a place could change me, but that was the pre-Vietnam person. I wouldn’t say I’m a changed person, but I would say I have a changed mind.
For the past month, we’ve been traveling through Vietnam, going to places filled with opportunities. Like trying new foods from a rundown restaurant, or diving off boats into the Mekong Delta. Some experiences I didn’t do, maybe because I was nervous, or scared, but I’ve learned to push those feelings away. I guess what I’m saying is that you should always try new things because it’s rare to get another chance to try it.
The trip has affected me in a lot of ways already, but the most important lesson to me is; whenever something new comes up. Try it, because the chance of doing it again is very slim.

The most important lesson that I have learned on this trip is to take all of the risks, chances and opportunities that come up in life. There is a time for everything, and when we get older, we will not be able to try all new things and take risks. Whether you think it will turnout well or not, try it. Otherwise, you will not get the chance to try the same thing again. You also may be surprised; your conclusion may be different than your hypothesis.

As I wander the endless foreign streets with old friends and bargain with desperate shopkeepers, I feel a longing for home. Not home in the normal sense, but the carefree days at camp, surrounded by the gorgeous cascades, and endless forests. Days where I can just throw on shorts and a t-shirt, pull my hair in to a pony tail and go. Days where I can run around with my friends acting like complete idiot and no one bats an eye. Days when I scream at the top of my lungs and bang on tables in the middle of dinner and everyone else joins in. Sitting at dinner one night, I realized that I‘d been with all these people five times long as my camp friends. Why wasn’t I able to do that with these people? Slowly I started to let go, and care less. Today, I rolled out of bed five minutes before breakfast and just walked out the door, something I never would have done before this trip. I haven’t worn anywhere near as much make up in the past week as I did before, and I’ve never felt better. Sure, I might still wear some make up, and I’m still going to spend more than five seconds picking out my outfit in the morning, but this time it’ll be for me.

On this trip I learned so many different things. One of the main lessons I learned from being in Vietnam for a month surrounded by the Vietnamese people and their environment is to be thankful for everyone, and everything I have. In the U.S. we don’t realize how much we have, but being exposed to how little most people have in Vietnam really makes me grateful for what I have.

I think the most important lesson I learned was during the Sapa minority village homestays. I was in a group that I would not have normally chosen. At first I was disappointed that I was not with my closest friends, but on the first day there, I realized that this was going to be an even better experience because I wasn’t with my friends. This was going to be a great opportunity to expand my group of friends. I first realized this when we were farming in the rice patties on the first day. I noticed that our group was working together extremely well, and we were having a ton of fun doing it. I want to branch out to new people that I don’t normally hang out with back at school.

I should stop complaining about small things that I don’t like, because there are others who don’t have those things to complain about. I have so much, so I don’t really have the right to complain about those little things that are easy to fix.
There are many small comforts I take for granted at home, which I haven’t had here. One of these is *cough, cough* having clean clothes regularly. Currently, I have one clean and dry pair of pants until the end of the trip (Note: it’s a good idea to do laundry at every opportunity, or else you get backed up with nothing to wear like I am right now). This is mostly because of my procrastination in washing them, and I will be fine. However, it is a good lesson for the next time I do something like this.
At home, I take a lot for granted. One thing is, as I mentioned before, having clean laundry every week. But there are many other things. Specifically finances, which I never paid much attention to before this trip. Now I have started to think about cost. For example, high schools. I want to go to an expensive private high school, which I wouldn’t be able to do if I was Vietnamese.
We should all realize how much we take for granted. Then, I then it will be easier to understand Vietnam.

On this trip I learned even more than I already have this year about how lucky I am to have such a comfortable life with a loving family, many opportunities, and little hardships. Mainly, I realized that I should not only appreciate what I have, but dedicate my life to giving back and helping others because, to me, learning these important lessons isn’t about what it makes you feel, it’s about what it makes you do.
This lesson will immediately affect the way I live in three ways. First, I have decided to really follow through with all the volunteering I’ve been wanting to do. Second, when I’m thinking about buying something for myself or I’m spending too much time on me I have to ask myself whether my money, time, and passion would be better used for someone else. Third, I realized that the things like appearance, popularity, and drama that we care so much about are really unimportant and selfish. I’ve stopped wearing makeup and started not letting these things get in the way of having fun and being considerate of others because they really aren’t the things that make us happy.

My most important lesson is to enjoy each moment. Because if you don’t, you’ll keep waiting for the next moment, and you’ll always be waiting.

We have been surrounded by poverty for the past four weeks. I have seen people living in shacks, working on the rice fields, and with absolutely no luxuries whatsoever. I didn’t think it was fair for people to be living in shacks right next to fancy buildings, but when I walk down the street I see happy faces smiling at me. Over the past month I have noticed that these people are happy without being rich or having any money to spare. I have come to realize just how lucky I am, but at the same time have learned that I don’t need a soft bed to come back to every night, or a cell phone to be happy. There are things that just don’t matter as much anymore since being on this trip and I am going to make a bigger effort to spend my time worrying about more important things than how I look every morning, or what’s going on on Facebook.

Why, I must ask myself, was I always trying to impress these people? Wearing all these tight clothes, and all this makeup, to get something. I wanted to be a ‘pretty girl’. I would notice the things that people would say to everyone else, and I wanted to be those things. All my friends were hearing it, and it seemed like it would be nice. But it isn’t. It’s all so fake. That’s all we want… something. To have something, to hear something, to be someone. But I hate sitting up here on the surface. It’s so easy just to float, and hear those words that you can’t tell yourself anymore. But they’ll never be quite right, no one you’ll have, and nothing you’ve been made out to be. Because all you wanted was just underneath. To be able to be wearing soccer shorts, and a baggy t-shirt, and not have piled on the makeup, and look in the mirror and tell yourself, tell myself, ‘I am beautiful’.
And I don’t want to hear it from anyone else. I don’t want to hear something, have something, and I don’t want to be some girl. We don’t have to be just floating on the surface. We can go as deep as we want into the water. As deep as you want into life; everything. When we’re too busy floating up here, trying so hard to make sure the water is smooth, we can never be fully submerged in this. It doesn’t matter if no one’s following you or letting the water touch their face. Don’t even think about wading in; letting the water only up to your eyes. The lesson I learned is to dive in.

The greatest lesson I have learned from my experiences here it to live in the present because before you know it, it’s gone. If you spend your trip thinking of all the things you miss or of the things ahead in your journey it will be over before you know it. Noticing the little things can help slow it down, like the kid at the school in the school trying to have a conversation with you or the old woman in the market chopping fish. Don’t worry about the future or think about the past just live in the moment.

The Vietnamese have shown me that people are basically loving, happy, and forgiving. My classmates have shown me that the more you get to know people, the more you get to know their ins and outs, the harder it is to see that sometimes. But then they taught me, once again, that people are basically loving, forgiving, and happy.

The lesson that I got out of this trip wasn’t something that I learned here in Vietnam but something that I had been told all my life but never really gotten before now. Need is a funny word. As we traveled throughout Vietnam I looked at how much we have in America and how little the Vietnamese have here and how happy they are. In Seattle we think we need to get that pair of cleats or hand bag but really we only want it. Here in Vietnam people don’t want much even if their need is greater than ours.

I remember the land mine victim from champs who described a moment he had to be strong for his parents. There is no way that he could have expected that to happen. What I learned from this was don’t take things for granted. All the little things that are so easy in the US are much harder here and even something as simple as walking properly we should be thankful about.

After seeing all the local Vietnamese people throughout this trip, I’ve realized how many things I took for granted back home. All the hard work the people do with so little to live off of, compared to the many privileges I have with the little work I do, has not only taught me to appreciate the little things. But also take action and help make a difference around the world.

I think that the most important lesson that I want to take away from this trip is to really appreciate my parents and to help them out when I can. Before this trip I didn’t quite fathom just how much they do for me. Now that I have a better understanding of it, and I know that I can do some of it myself, I want to take some of the weight off of their shoulders when I get back. Also, when we went to the orphanage, it really hit me hard, seeing all of these children left without parents. It was brought to my attention that I’m lucky just to have parents in the first place, because some kids go their whole lives without any actual parental support.

Carpe Diem. This will never happen again, so enjoy it while it lasts. I mean, the amount of things you can spend your time on is, more or less, infinite. Your time is not. Therefore, what you do with your life is valuable. Be someone interesting. Take a chance. See the world. Don’t look back.

While Vietnam might not have changed who I am as a person, it has helped me become aware of the way I live my life and the way I look at the world. One of the lessons that especially affected me was my realization of the power of patience. At the beginning of the trip, I had a problem with time-management; being a naturally tardy person, I had trouble with the strict time line imposed our band of traveling chaperones. So as I struggled through the first week, dealing with the consequences of always being late, I learned to be patient with myself and accept that it takes time to change my previous habits. So eventually, after beginning to show up on time, I truly began to realize that when I have patience with myself, I transform in a subtle, but everlasting way.

On this trip, I have learned many things, but perhaps the most important is to enjoy the little things in life. In our sheltered American lives there are so many things we take for granted that make such a difference here. I have come to realize that the reason people who have so little can be happy is because they enjoy little things, such as hot water or even a smile from a passing tourist. I see far too many instances of people getting upset over petty things, so when I get back to Seattle, I plan to take nothing for granted.

On this trip you have to deal with the same 34 people for an entire month. You will probably learn a little bit about each person while on the trip. Maybe you will discover something that you have in common with someone that you didn’t know before. The most important lesson I learned is to learn something about everyone and extent your friend circle.

I learned a very important lesson during this trip. I learned how fragile trust is. It isn’t granted at birth, and people don’t give it out automatically. It must be earned. And once it’s earned, it’s not set in stone. Trust can be lost at the blink of an eye and can be difficult, even impossible to get back. I have learned through trial and error, more error, to always think about the trusts I have with my parents, friends and teachers, and how easily my actions can effect it.

Love is blind. Beauty is on the outside and the inside. No one cares about what I look like so why should I? True beauty is on the inside.

The most important lesson I learned on this trip was to not be worried or stressed about anything. Whether its high school or social stuff it doesn’t matter, you’re in Vietnam in a foreign country so just slow down and enjoy Vietnam and don’t stress out over things so much.

Before I came to Vietnam I never used to take many risks or try too many different things. FOR EXAMPLE back at the homestay Eli had told us that we were going on a 2 hour hike around our village I pretty much just groaned and tried to crawl back into bed. But while I was going back up the stairs I thought about how I was never coming back to Vietnam and this is probably my last chance to explore and experience what Vietnam is really like, instead of the touristy city places. When I got back from the hike I was so glad I chose to! So because I decided to try something new I saw amazing views and went swimming in one of the nicest rivers I ever been to.

The best lesson I believe that I’ve learned would be that communication is precious. During the homestays on our second night in the village, our group had a three hour dinner. We were discussing how people had two sides and spending too much time with them can cause the second, less appealing side show through more than usual. This alone was a cool discussion topic to share with my friends because it was something different than normal. But I was impressed with the fact that we could get this far into a topic in a serious manner. It has confused me how much my parents and my relative could talk and talk but I’m realizing now that it’s these interactions that define us.

The most important lesson I learned this trip was to try new things don’t assume because usually you will find you will like them. An example of this is I used to hate eggplant but then one day I tried it at the cooking lesson and it was one of the best things I had had in my entire life. Meditation was a new thing I tried on this trip and I really liked it. Before I thought meditation was really weird but even me the always hyper one meditation was really cool. I will continue to try new things even if I am positive I won’t like them.

3/26: 3 days and 2 nights in Ha Long Bay

2011-03-26T03:48:00.001-07:00

Though almost impossible to imagine, the 4 hour bus ride from Hanoi to Ha Long was virtually silent. The formula for keeping 26 14-year-old students quite for that long is sleep deprivation: put them on a night train from Lao Cai to Hanoi, arrive in Hanoi at 5AM, eat breakfast, then take a long bus ride to Ha Long.

Ha Long means "descending dragon." Each time the dragon descending into the water, he brought up another island. There are thousands of them in Ha Long Bay.

little floating village

Trip leader Eli leading a "class meeting" on reentry back into the US and high school choices, from our boat's top deck.

Kayaking in Ha Long Bay - the students are followed by a "floating store."

The floating store, going from tourist boat to tourist boat

Our boat from my kayak inside a cave

Jaclyn jumping off the boat

Eli doing a back flip off the boat

This little girl and her slightly older sister go from boat to boat, trying to sell sea shells.

Robbie taking a break on his kayak

Last morning in Ha Long Bay, cruising back to the harbor

Early morning fog - I love the "feel" of this picture

We have 2 days and one night left.

Student Composite Journal

2011-03-23T02:45:00.000-07:00

One of the assignments students have while in Vietnam is to contribute to the "Composite Journal." As I read my students writings and reflections, I realized that they must be shared, for the students see through such fresh eyes, and in their innocence there is such wisdom. Below are some of the student entries from the beginning of the trip.

Leaving Seattle 3/1/11
I left the car and got my luggage out of the trunk. Goodbyes were said, but they felt insubstantial, unreal. Meeting up with the rest of the group, there was a sense of “are we really going to do this?” The general mood was that of a group of bungee jumpers, or perhaps roller coaster patrons. There was a excitement in the air, akin to looking down from the top of the cliff, or up at the mountain. We did not know how things would turn out, but we knew it would be a heck of a ride. Getting through customs was accompanied by a strange sense of alienness. Most of the place looked familiar, but things were, or seemed to be, different. Full-body scans in the checkpoints. A different route to the plane. Little things. Once on the first plane, the hours blurred away. Getting off, finding my way to the next plane, seemed unreal. I caught myself wondering when I would be home, not processing my surroundings. Once aboard the second, I entertained fantasies about the trip being a hoax, that we just flew back to Seattle, and then doctored some photos. The second flight also passed quickly, and before long we were on the ground. The plane emptied, and I left the air- conditioned cabin for the bridge between the plane and the airport. The heat and humidity hit me like a fist. I continued, into the airport proper, and the actual heat level hit me like another fist. Reeling from this one- two, I entered Vietnam.

Arriving 3/2
I walked into the Sea-Tac airport thinking the same words that I’m thinking now- I can’t believe this is happening. The thing was, it still hadn’t hit me- the fact that we were going to spend a month in Vietnam. I had been waiting for it to hit me for the last month. We went through security and such and wondered through the airport for about an hour. Finally, the time came to board the plane. We all filed on and waited for take-off. As the plane rumbled to life I grabbed my friend’s hand in excitement. My eyes glued to the window, I watched Seattle grow farther and farther away until it disappeared underneath the clouds.

When we arrived in Korea it seemed strangely familiar. Not that I had been there before or anything, but I guess I expected it to be, well, more foreign. More signs that I couldn’t read. More people that I couldn’t understand. So I waited a bit longer for it to hit me.

My first steps in Vietnam- off of the plane. My first thoughts of Vietnam- I hate humidity. As soon as I stepped off of the plane, it was like stepping into a sauna, for me. I felt dead on my feet, it was around 8 o’clock in the morning for me and I had gotten maybe two hours of sleep. My first view of Vietnam- people. Lots and lots of people, all waiting right outside of the airport. Trying to get to my group once outside was pretty hectic. I became acutely aware of, once pointed out to me by my classmates, that I was one of the very few blonde people there. I climbed aboard the bus and as it started driving I looked out the window. For some reason seeing what was outdoors made me want to smile. It was 11:30 in the night for the Vietnamese people, but there were still plenty of people out and about. Then- there it was. The moment I had been waiting for, for the past month. The cyclos, the people, the signs and restaurants and shops. None of it was American. This is no longer America. I was in Vietnam now, and it felt amazing.

March 2
So many different feelings and words come to mind when I think of Vietnam. In the time it took to travel from Seattle Washington to Seoul, Korea to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, I have started to define those feelings and experience new ones.
When we landed in Ho Chi Minh City, everyone was overwhelmed by the immense wave of heat and humidity. At once I began sweating. I went to the restroom, and discovered a first difference. It was much more efficient then the bathrooms in America. The stalls where skinny and tall versus the wide spacious bathrooms in America. Yes, the smell was not pleasant, but I was impressed by how many stalls fit into the tiny room.
When we walked outside to our bus, we came face to face with hundreds of Vietnamese citizens waiting for their arriving loved ones. Some held signs, others shouted. It sort of made me realize that now I was a racial minority. I had traded shoes with the Vietnamese in America, and I kind of liked it.
When we boarded the bus, the smell hit me first. Very specifically smelled like rice and feet. Although I was extremely tired from the plane rides, the excitement took over and I spent the entire time looking out the window in awe at this country.
My first impression of Vietnam was that it was a very loud, efficient, beautiful, diverse, and full of life. Even though it has only been two nights and a day, I feel as though I have taken the first step into this amazing experience and adventure.

First impressions 3/2
When I walked out of the airport in Vietnam the first thing you see is people lots and lots of people. Now one could say that there are always tons of people at an airport but in Vietnam it’s different. The hundreds of people outside the airport weren’t leaving or coming back to Vietnam. Most of them were families all of them waiting for a member of their family which for some reason was coming back to Vietnam. I immediately realized how unique Vietnam is.
As we got onto the bus we were awed by all the Vietnamese things. As we drove through town I was amazed by the motorcycles and the way the swerved through traffic it was almost like there were no rules in Vietnam. I stared at the motorcycles through the bus window. They drove through Vietnam in an elegant chaos, it was amazing. Couldn’t help but stare out of the window when I got to the hotel room, I had finally made it. I was in Vietnam.

War remnants Museum 3/3
The word war is something we use to cover up the cold truth, something to keep the tears in from past memories. The American war was something on its own, not meant to be shoved aside with all the other wars. The horror of the atrocities that we can commit when we face enough fear and pressure is terrifying. Agent Orange is only one of the many examples of what people will go to in war and even in everyday life, to busy thinking about the immediate and not in the long term.
Being from a different generation from the war gives you a much different perspective. It changes things for you and brings out certain feelings and ideas that you may not normally feel. Guilt is one of them and it runs deep with the shock of what happened. In our eyes we are always the good guys but, in reality that is not always true. On the other hand the loser always seems to become the villain when everything is over. With death must come life and a flower has risen from the ashes of the American War.

War Remnants Museum 3/3
Even as I write this passage hours after the fact, a sense of horror still lingers in me after visiting the War Remnants Museum. The relatively benign exterior of weapons of war such as helicopters, tanks, and planes do not betray what lies ahead. As the intensity slowly ramps up, you walk through “tiger cages” and accounts of the torture that awaited VC captured by the South. That is only the beginning. Many of the pictures and accounts that followed are too gruesome to mention, but one photo has been forever burned into my mind. An image of a US soldier holding up the mutilated body of a communist hung on the wall with a caption explaining he was killed by a grenade stuck with me. It provokes a profound question. How can a human being treat another one so? The American holds the body of his adversary like a fishing trophy, with no regard to the horror of it. A smile seems to cross his face. How can this happen? People say greed is the root of all evil, but they are wrong. Dehumanization can be spotted as causing many of the world’s ills. How can a person mistreat another so? The easiest way is to make the victim less than human. In the eye of the aggressor, if they are not human, then it is not a big step to torture, mutilate, or even kill them. People try to stop wars, but they treat people unequally. We must be fair for a kinder Earth for the future.

The Mekong Delta 3/4
Today we got up early and rode the bus to the Mekong. It felt great to get out on the river, away from the stagnant air of the city. The river was so wide and the current so faint that it seemed like we were on a giant lake. Our boat passed miles of houses that protruded out over the water, their floors resting somewhat haphazardly on large, stripped sticks. All around us were boats, probably twenty feet long, piles of fresh produce, or fish, or houses with people living on them. Some of the people we saw waved as we passed, reinforcing my opinion that the Vietnamese are largely a happy and friendly people. I also saw little children in their yards, eating or doing work, and they waved and shouted “he-llo!” as we passed. As we were walking along the path, a kid about as old as I was, or maybe a little older, who was lying in a hammock in their yard, asked me, “What are you thinking about our country?” No one here seems to dislike Americans for any reason.
After several tea-and-fruit stops, where we saw how rice paper, coconut candy, and popped rice were made, we got into smaller boats, , paddled into an island on a smaller screen. There was little talking for a long time. Maybe it was just the awkward position that discouraged conversation, or the heat, but I think the setting stole the words from our mouths. There was an ancient feel to it, sitting in a long, low boat, sliding quietly through the jungle, wearing traditional Vietnamese style hats. I felt like the scene could have been from ten, fifty, one hundred, five hundred even a thousand years ago. It was peacefully awe inspiring.

Mekong Delta March 4th, 2011
Straw hats bob down the sidewalk as Vietnamese ladies shout their wares. All 34 of us loaded the boats, each person nervous to step on. The boat wavered under my feet. I could feel each ripple splash against the boat. I stepped on, and the view was a stunning, even from under the roof. Lillie pad as scattered all over the Delta, hiding the greenish brown infested water. The sun glared down at us, causing us to gulp down our water bottles. By the time we got to the first island the bottles were half empty.
Shock, Fascination, sadness and hopefulness. That’s what I thought the moment I stepped out of out of the Evergreen bubble and into to the world. The first island we went to looked like a torn apart paradise. Each house was made with scrap metal, and a couple planks of wood. As we walked down the dirt road, complete strangers would wave and say, “hello!” and start a conversation. I really wanted to help these people, seeing how hard they work, but how they really know what’s important in life.
The rest of the day blurred by. We ohhed and ahhed at the exotic food and large snakes. Not one thought about the sadness of how poor the conditions were came up. I really learned from these people. They don’t need much money to have a great time, or love life. All you need is a family, friends, and to accept yourself.

Cu Chi Tunnels 3/5/11
200 miles through the red clay, eighteen feet underground, over twenty years. It’s hard to believe that the feat of the Cu Chi tunnels was done during the dark of night with only hand spades and bamboo baskets to carry the dirt out of the tunnels. If American G.I.s had been able to see these tunnels during the war they would have seen the sheer determination of the Viet Cong and their unwillingness to quit. This quote from Catfish and Mandala comes back to me now, “There are only two things worth seeing in Asia. One you can see from space. The other you can’t see when you’re standing on top of it.” It is amazing the quality of work went into Cu Chi and ingenuity in the making the tunnels.

Cu Chi Tunnels Reflection March 5, 2011
Nothing
Have I done.
At this time I
Carry the burden
Of those
Who have.
Photographed as
The enemy;
Invited as
A guest.
Why then
Do they
Stare, wide-eyed?

First Impressions of Hoi An – 3.6.11
As I bike down the street, I realize that Ho Chi Minh City didn’t really feel like Vietnam. It was too much of a big city, and not enough of a relaxing place. Now, going to the beach it really feels like Vietnam. I think it’s mostly the lack of noise. Ho Chi Minh City was so loud; I didn’t get to enjoy the peaceful aspect of Vietnam. Now, I can enjoy the feel of Vietnam in a beautiful city with lots to do.
The realization hits me again and again as we keep going. All the time we are going to the beach, and while we’re there. I also realize afterwards at dinner, while I’m watching the lights on the river. I keep thinking, I’m actually in Vietnam, and I believe it. Now, I am in Vietnam.

Hoi Anh first impressions 3/6
It was hard to take in the beauty of the city and beach through the window when the world outside was moving so fast. Used to the hills of Seattle I was unprepared for how flat Hoi An was. It was less busy than Ho Chi Minh but still enough to be fast paced. It wasn’t as much as when we first flew into Vietnam but my senses were on overload and time had slowed down. The architecture looked Chinese influenced. Monster hotels sat next to small one bedroom households. The beach was one out of a postcard when viewed from three hundred yards away, I soon found out it was littered with garbage. The weather was hotter than Ho Chi Minh but there was much less humidity.
When stepped out of the bus it was like a blast of city mixed with farm land and some water buffalo to top it off. Sun beat down on us and was only cooled by the almost constant wind. I made an effort to take pictures of everything I could while still paying attention to my other senses and remembering to look around. The over load was wearing off and I noticed small detail’s, like the woman selling what appeared to be doughnuts and the lack of sunglass vendors swarming us. Here they made us go to them.

Hoi An Orphanage March 7, 2011
After a long day of activity, I had the amazing privilege to visit a nearby orphanage along with most of my classmates. We took a pleasant five minute stroll and were greeted by a man pushing a blue cart overflowing with food. Following Ha’s lead we helped this man push his heavy load into the orphanage. Then we were hustled into a room with a circular table, where each spot had a glass waiting for tea. Then Ha translated for us while we asked the director questions about the orphanage. It really struck me that they only received three hundred and sixty thousand dong per child each month. That’s how much I use in a day or two. Realizing that made me appreciate what I have. I admit and we all should admit to the amount of time I spend wishing that I had more. In the moment, I felt greedy and disgusted at my American lifestyle.
The instant entered the room with disabled infants, 24 set of eyes lit up. Tiny hands beckoned me over. As I got closer I saw that the little one reaching for me was a small 2 year old girl. As I approached her, I realized she could not see because she kept looking passed me with a disconnected look. I placed my hands in front of her. She immediately grasped them and began feeling her way around my palms. It felt like she was searching my soul through was of touch, instead of sight. I held her hands and swung them back and forth, which made her laugh. It amazed me at how a person who daily endures two of the worst things in the world; being disabled, and an orphan, could find happiness in the most simple things, like hand games.
I think we can all learn an important lesson from this girl. Although times get tough, it’s still important to find happiness through great struggle, and appreciate the little things.

Cooking class
Cooking was my favorite activity so far. After having a free morning we were taken through the back alleys and side streets of Hoi An to a rickety old boat which took us down the baby barf brown river to a shallow marshy area with a stream flowing through it. After following the stream we eventually got to the cooking class/resort thing. After having a quick lesson on what plants looked like we were off again to the cooking class.
Cooking class was a gigantic collection of tasty failure. The teacher of the class would throw the ingredients together and then in a whirl of knives fire and chopsticks make a dish. Then we would do it. We sucked. The finished dish would be a haphazard concoction, held together by rice paper and hands looking nothing like the meal the chef had prepared. And then we would eat them. Even though they didn’t look pretty they still tasted great. We ate a lot of food that day and the boat ride back was really peaceful.

Farming in Hoi An
Going farming was an interesting experience. Firstly, because I fell off my bike and strained my wrist ten minutes before the farming, and second due to the slow quality of the work. Nothing was hurried or rushed. I mean, take the lesson. We biked there, got outfitted in farmer garb, and headed into the fields. We got a bunch of interesting herbs pointed out to us, and then arrived at a small rectangle of unplanted land. We dug it, placed some seaweed in it, filled it back up, plowed it, planted it, and watered it. Then, the farmer answered some questions for us, and then we went back to his house and made ourselves some food. We ate it, and then headed home. That slow pace consumed five hours. It is all too easy to imagine the time stretching into days, weeks, months. That kind of simple life evokes a timeless quality to the space, but in an interesting way. In the rubber tree farm we passed on the way back to Saigon, where the trees seemed infinite, you expected fallen leaves to hang in the air, forever drifting. In the farm, you expected to walk outside and be in the midst of the Chinese occupation of Vietnam, or Dien Bien Phu, or the American War. The farm seemed to be everywhere, unchanging through the ages. You could enter the farm in 1968 and meet the same farmer who greets you in 2157. The trees were nowhere, detached from the ages. And then there are the places that seem to move ahead of the times, skyscrapers rising in a village, hospitals in the desert. Vietnam is all of these at once. It is an amalgamation of past history, present development, and future planning.

Connections – 3-9-2011
While going to the lantern making lesson, we had a little time to spare. Our guide decided to go to a school playground. A group of boys were playing soccer in the field and our guide asked the kids if we could join. They let us join, and our game started.
The boys and we barely had a single language in common. We spoke nearly no Vietnamese and they spoke just a little English. Even though we didn’t understand each other with words, we had connections. We understood what to do and when. I understood them well and I had great connections with all of them. A great example of my connections was I scored two goals. They were both off great crosses. I thought that we both had the same objective and the same goal.

March 19th through 22nd: Sapa and the Red Dao Village

2011-03-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

March 19th: Sapa town
After 9 hours on the night train from Hanoi, we arrived in Lao Cai, in north west of Vietnam on the Chinese border. From there we took a one hour bus ride to Sapa, the center for a variety of minority people and the jumping off place for village trekking. I first came to Sapa in 2006 on my second Evergreen School trip to Vietnam. The town has grown so much since then as tourism has boomed. There are Vietnamese on holiday here, as well as quite a large international community. I am told that some property value has increased 800 percent. The cold spell that hit Hanoi while we were there dropped snow on Sapa - the first time in ten years.

Black H'mong girl selling a necklace

Red Dao (pronounced Zow) woman

Black H'mong woman selling her incredible hat

Street food - my lunch - YUM!

Colorful products for sale from the minority people

Personally, I do not think the pig hanging outside the restaurant is much of an enticement.

Tile roofs

My friend Song. I met her the first time I came to Sapa. I helped her set up an internet account, but never kept in touch. I do manage to run into her almost every time I come to Sapa.

Trekking to Ta Phin of the Red Dao
We stayed in Sapa just a few hours, then divided into 4 groups and each headed for a different village of a different minority group. Every year the village stay is the students' favorite time in Vietnam, and every year that ask for more time. I was able to increase our time spent in the villages to three nights this year.

My group has one parent chaperone and six students. We have a local guide named Ha (I call him Ha Hai , meaning Ha two, to differentiate him form our national guide), and will be met at our home-stay by a local cook as well.

We walked for 3 hours through beautiful rice terraced hills to the village of Ta Phin.

I apologize for all the pictures, but it was just too difficult to edit, for the scenery was so spectacular.

I have never seen anything like these rice fields, as if swirling down a sink hole.

Rice drying on the trail, with rice terraces in the back ground.

View from our home-stay

After a magical walk of three hours, we arrived at Ta Phin village, home of the Red Dao people. Our home-stay is a very simple wood house with a tin roof and a cement floor. There are no windows with glass in this house. All the students stayed in one room with a number of mattresses and mosquito nets. I stayed in a sectioned off area. Between the two areas was a sitting room open wide to this view. At night a big, blue plastic tarp is lowered to keep out the wind. All the food is cooked over a wood fire. The smoke, at times, fills the whole house. The family (father, mother, son, daughter and "adopted" son) sleep in another room behind the cooking area. The roof is high to allow for a loft area as well.

March 20th: Day two of our home-stay
Life moves at a simpler pace here. It is 6:30AM and I am the only person from my group awake. The village animals are so noisy - roosters crowing, dogs barking, pigs squealing. The village is started to wake up as well. I watch kids dragging long bamboo poles down the trail, the women in their black or indigo clothes with their Red Dao hats and a hoe over their shoulders, heading for the rice fields. People are gathering wood, or feeding and watering the animals. The wind blows through the valley. You can hear it's roar building as it gets closer, but barely feel it as it following the channel of the valley below - very cool! I have always loved the wind. It feels like it cleanses me as it blows through me.

Chu and the family Breakfast

Chu is 15 years old and an indentured servant to this family. Chu comes from a very poor family. His family traded his services to our home-stay family for 4 years, and at the end of that time, our home-stay family will give Chu's family a buffalo. Chu is treated like a family member - he eats, sleeps and works with the family. Our guide Ha says Chu is very happy here and will be sad when he lives, for his standard of living is so much higher here than with this family.

Silver bracelet Offer of engagement
The red Dao still practice arranged marriages. The boy's family will send a spokesperson, someone who can speak very well for the family, to the girl's family. They bring a silver bracelet and a bottle of rice wine. The girl's family makes a special breakfast of buffalo meat, stomach and liver, as well as other savory dishes. The girl's family holds on to the bracelet for one week. At the end of a week, the girl's family either keeps the bracelet, accepting the proposal, or rejects the proposal by the girl returning the bracelet.

Chao May, 20 year old daughter of our home stay family

Chau May received her 22nd marriage proposal the morning after we arrived at the home-stay. Needless to say, she has rejected the previous 21 proposals. Our local guide Ha explained that "the times, they are a changin." The home-stay family is letting Chau May accept or reject each proposal, unlike their arranged marriage, which was set up by their parents before they had ever even met each other. Chau May is 20 years old, and so her parents are concerned that she is becoming an "old maid." At the end of our three day home-stay, I asked Chau May what she will respond to this proposal. "I have no idea," she said. How will she decide what she will do, I asked. "I have no idea," was her reply. Our home-stay family has never met this family, so I asked the mother how the decision will be made. She said she will ask about the family this week, and then go to a "fortune teller" to look at the couple's horoscope. I asked the mother how many more rejections will she allow her daughter to make. When this question was translated, everyone just laughed.

We worked in the rice fields in the morning, scraping the weeds off of the terraced walls and digging up the hard ground with picks. It was very hard work and we were exhausted after one hour. Ha told us that one square meter produces about a bowl of rice. So every time a farmer eats a bowl of rice, he or she is reminded of all the sweat that went into producing it. Unlike a city dweller, for the farmer nothing is wasted and nothing is taken for granted.

Izie and an infant

We went for a walk in the afternoon, touring the villages around our home-stay.

Early evening cooking lesson

At night we took advantage of hot herbal baths, made from 17 different jungle herbs. The herbs are boiled in a large wok, and then the liquid is poured into two small wooden tubs, large enough for one person to squat in. One student remarked, "It was like soaking in tomato soup. . . .But in a good way." It was a pretty good description of the smell, and quite a luscious experience.

3/21: Day three of our home-stay
In the morning we volunteered to go with Chu to gather wood. We trekked through the jungle for close to an hour, sometimes using all four limbs as the trail made its way up a slippery wet path that closely resembling a stream bed. I asked why we had to walk to so far to gather wood, and was explained that all the land is owned by families, even the jungle, so we had to walk to our home-stay's property.

Our group with back packs for carrying the wood back to the home-stay

Izie bursting into song

Anna in Red Dao garb

Our home stay family is wealthy, and does not need to sell hand-made textiles any more, unlike many of the Red Dao people we have met. They do have a basket full of stuff that is for sale. As we looked through the items, our search became a fashion show.

Sam

My group modeling their Red Dao clothing

Chau May, the 20 year old daughter, with Mai Duong, our cook. Though Mai Duong is also from a minority group, though not Red Dao. She is Thai, and so she was excited to get involved in the fashion show as well.

March 22nd - Day four of our homestay

Saying good bye to our home-stay family. In the middle is the father, daughter, and mother.

We walked to the van, were driven to another location south of Sapa, then walked for an hour or so to Ta Van, where we met two other Evergreen school groups. From there we took our vans to Ban Ho, the location of the fourth group.

View from the Ban Ho home-stay, the location of the fourth group

The reason we all met at Ban Ho is because of this water fall and river. Though the water is very cold, it was so nice and refreshing to swim in. The waterfall is just around the corner, in the upper left of the photo.

We all ate lunch together at the Ban Ho home-stay, and then were treated to traditional dancing, including this dance with poles that separate and come together. We all had to try.

Me with Mai Duong, our group's cook. I teased her that I would have to hide this picture from my wife.

My old friend Ming, the owner of the Ban Ho home-stay. I came here the first three times I came to Sapa, in 2006, 2008, and 2009. The last two years I have gone to the Ta Phin home-stay. Maybe next trip to Vietnam I will go to the Ta Van home-stay. It is important for me to experience all the different home-stays, though it is difficult to not return because of the bonds created.

We returned to Sapa in the afternoon. We have been trying to give the students a "work session" from 6 to 7PM every day. The students have a number of assignments while on the trip: reflect in their journal every day, work on their NGO projects, upload their best photos to a shared file, contribute to the "composite journal" (each student must contribute 4 entries, which I will compile for everyone on the trip), email their parents, and read the other students' itinerary reports. Today we asked each student to write three "post cards" or slides about their home-stay experience. Then we got back together in home-stay groups and decided on six of them to share, creating skits for each entry. We then got back together as a whole group and read and acted out each vignette. It was a fun way to share with everyone each group's home-stay experience.

3/18: Last day in Hanoi

2011-03-22T04:23:00.001-07:00

Our last day in Hanoi, and checking out of the hotel is always a little hectic, so a few of the adults went to the closest banh my shop and ordered 15 sandwiches for the adults. Unfortunately, these banh my were not Alicia's favorite.

The sidewalks in the old section of Hanoi are really just motor cycle parking lots.

We took the students to Hoa Lo Prison museum, known by the American prisoners of war as "Hanoi Hilton." The videos in the museum said it got this name because the prisoners were treated so well. I have a feeling, just a hunch, that there might have been a little sarcasm in the renaming of the prison.

An American who lit himself on fire in protest of the Vietnam War

Hoa Lo prison was built by the French in 1896, and was used to house Vietnamese political prisoners. The prison documents the horrible abuses suffered by the Vietnamese under the French. In 1954 the prison came under the control of the North Vietnamese, and was used during the American War for captured American pilots.

John McCain receiving medical treatment at Hoa Lo prison

About half the prison documented the American War, including the anti-war movement in both Europe and the United States.

John McCain returning to "Hanoi Hilton" in the year 2000.

After the prison tour, we took the students the the Museum of Ethnology, which beautifully documents the 53 minority groups of Vietnam.

Max and Jimmy at one of the minority houses in the outdoor section of the museum

Student meditation
This is about the time of the trip when students start to get on each other's nerves, tensions grow, as does home sickness. So we did this guided meditation and then a few moments of quiet reflection.

We are half way through the third week.
We have all experienced so much.
And all of our experiences are different,
Even when we do exactly the same thing.
Our reactions to the event might be different,
Because we carry so much into each event -
Our own thoughts,
Our own past,
Our own expectations.

Have you ever felt anger or frustration or impatience in reaction to an event,
Only later, when you had time to relax and reflect, see the event very differently.
It is all about who we are,
What we carry with us
And how we choose to react

This is one of the most important lessons we can learn from traveling,
And it's a paradox -
We travel so far
Only to learn about ourselves.

We are more than half way through this trip,
And we have had so many opportunities.
But the opportunity is really to go inside of ourselves
And learn about who we are.

You might be asked to do something out of the ordinary,
Like eat a meal in complete silence.
And you might say to yourself,
"This is stupid," or "This is not fun."
But the opportunity is to take the experience one step further,
And say to your self,
"What does this experience teach me about myself?"
"Why do I think this is stupid?"
"Why do I think this is not fun?"

I am the projector of my reality.
My awareness of the world is a reflection of who I am.
It is a projection of my own state of mind.

I get angry at my friend.
What does this say about who I am?
Why do I choose to be angry?
I get into a conflict with someone.
What does this say about who I am?
What can I learn about me?

I am responsible for my own behavior.
I can be a victim of circumstance,
Or I can choose to learn,
Choose to grow.

In every interaction
In everything I do,
I can choose to curse,
Or I can choose to bless.
I can choose to take responsibility for me.

3/17: Mike's Village

2011-03-17T17:52:00.001-07:00

The day didn't start so well. I was told yesterday by Mike that the local government would not allow our home-stay in Mike's village, so we had to scramble to get hotel rooms. Mike had already gotten approval, but just verbally. When it came to the approval in writing, it was rejected. Mike explained that even he didn't understand. But with elections coming up, the local government decided they needed approval of the district government, and our troubles began. Mike was so apologetic, and even embarrassed for the strict government control, first saying one thing and then doing another. So we decided to make a day trip out of it instead. It was actually a good travel lesson about expectations. One of my favorite things about travel are these unexpected occurrences, which just reminds me of how little I understand about what is going on. So it became a "teachable moment" for the students.

Mike and a neighbor, who met us as we got off the bus. The old man spoke French to our chaperones, David and Liz.

Outside the entry way to Mike's home, a neighbor was cooking.

The students, seated in Mike's kitchen, the largest room in the house, greeting the entrance of the American War veterans.

During my sabbatical year last year, I met the Evergreen School 8th grade class to lead their trip in Vietnam, and then stayed in Mike's village after the Evergreen students left. I met Mike's father, a veteran of the American war. I asked Mike if his father could come and talk to my students. He did even better, bringing seven veterans together to share their experience. It truly was a sharing, for the veterans wanted to hear from the Evergreen adults and what their experience of the war was.

The seven veterans - Mike's father is in the front on the right.

The man in the back row, second from the right, being the eldest, spoke first. He is 88 years old and a veteran of both the French war and the American war. He told us that he had met Americans only during the war, so he was very pleased and proud to see the next generation of Americans. His wish was for the Vietnamese and American people to do everything possible to make this world better.

The next man to speak (far left back row) told us of his experience fighting against American soldiers in the province of Hoi Anh. I asked him why he joined the army - was it for communism or nationalism? (All the vets volunteered, by the way.) He told us that the reason he joined the army was first - love of his nation. He trusted the army and followed the calling of the government to join. It wasn't compulsory to join. They all knew they were going to die, but they joined anyway. He told us that during the war he hated American soldiers, but now he sees Americans as friends.

The final person to speak (far left, front row) told us about his suffering from Agent Orange. He joined the army in 1968 and fought in the Mekong delta. "At first the soldiers didn't know about Agent Orange. we saw orange and green smoke coming down from the helicopters. We were hiding in the forest and couldn't escape." He gets $60 a month from the government. I asked if he is still suffering from Agent Orange. He replied that he is still suffering, but from being an old man. He went on to say, "I hope that when you hear our stories, you are willing to share with others how much we suffered. The war ended a long time ago. Today American and Vietnam governments have close relations. We must leave the past and look towards the future for closer relations."

It was very strange for me to sit there and hear about strategies to kill American soldiers. I believe with my whole heart that it was such a healing process for everyone. Even though my students were born much after the war had ended, many of them had voiced their feeling of guilt about American actions in Vietnam. For them to experience such a warm welcoming from these veterans, and hear the veterans' wishes about moving beyond the past and working towards a shared future, felt so good. And for the veterans, they had never met Americans before, so it was a healing for them as well.

Group shot with the veterans

Afterward, we shared a meal together. We all sat on the floor (students in the kitchen and adults in the living room) and ate what many said was their best meal in Vietnam.

There was a lot of toasting in the adult room.

Trip-leaders Eli and Alicia, with the veteran of both the French war and the American war.

Mike's wife Hai and his brother Ha. Yesterday Mike and Hai had to get to the local market at 5AM to purchase all the food. Hai took the day off from work to cook. She cooked all morning long for our lunch, then cleaned and immediately started cooking all afternoon for our dinner. A number of neighbors were also helping out, as well as Hai's recently married brother and sister-in-law, whose wedding I was at earlier in the trip. I don't believe any of us will forget Mike and Hai's graciousness and hospitality.

After lunch we divided into 3 groups. A small groups of students, whose NGO is looking into medical issues in Vietnam, went with the doctor chaperones to deliver 4 boxes of medical supplies they had gathered up from their hospitals to donate to the village clinic and hospital. Ha took one group of students on a tour around the village. Mike took another group of students to visit the local school. We all gathered in the back of this truck for our ride to the school. By the way, the truck is started by cranking the engine by hand.

Vietnamese students as we entered the school

Anna and her new friends

Jaclyn and her new friends

Ankush and his new friends

Some of the boys ready to perform a song

playing a blindfold game together

While the students continued having fun together, I was ushered to a meeting with the teachers and the head of school, to share my thoughts about the Vietnamese educational system, which I know nothing about, and to explain about American education, which I know little about, having spent 23 of my 24 years teaching at Evergreen school.

Hot pot dinner back at Mike and Hai's house. A boiling bowl of broth flavored with cinnamon, star anise, sugar, and other stuff, then we ate piles of chicken, tofu, vegetables, shrimp, and squid. I was in shrimp and squid heaven.

Chaperone Paul with Hai, saying good bye. Though the day didn't start so well it turned out being the best day of the trip.

3/16

2011-03-16T09:35:00.001-07:00

Chaperones Matt and David, enjoying a delicious banh my (Vietnamese sandwich)

Alicia, one of the trip leaders, loves banh my (pronounced bawn mee). She didn't realize how much she loved banh my until she tasted one in Hoi Anh. Now she is on a mission - banh my where ever she goes. Alicia is worried that she will never be able to eat banh my in Seattle again, now that she has had the real thing. Last night Matt, David and I went searching for a late night snack and found a little "hole in the wall," complete with little metal tables, very little plastic chairs, and so small I had to move my seat every time the waitress needed something from the refrigerator. We had never eaten anything like the sandwich they served, with fried egg and beef. I cannot pass up an opportunity to tease the students, but here was an opportunity to tease an adult. After our meal, we bought a sandwich to take back to the hotel for Alicia, though we kept it hidden from her. Only after describing how delicous the sandwich was, and showing her this picture, did we take the sandwich out of hiding. She was sort of mad at us, but then grateful.

3/16: Meditation lesson

Offerings of oranges, a water bottle and a bunch of coca cola at Bo De Pagoda

In the morning we went to Bo De Pagoda for a meditation lesson. We were met by the head monk, Master Lunh. Before actually meditating, Master Lunh talked to us about spirituality, Buddhism, and health. What he mainly focused on was "mindfulness." He did not use this word, for he used Ha as a translator. "When you are walking, you should focus on walking. When you walk, you should know that you are walking. When you stop, you should be aware that you stopped. Meditation is the simplest thing - you just focus on what you are doing. When you are sitting, focus on sitting. When eating, focus on eating. When talking, focus on talking. When you are eating, you should hear the sound of chewing. It is like music. Eating a meal can be the same as meditating in the pagoda. Meditation is the most simple thing, but it is not easy."

During the first two Evergreen trips to Vietnam, in 2004 and 2006, we went to a different pagoda for our lessons. There too was a focus on mindfulness. We learned walking meditation, and then ate a meal, completely in silence, which was quite a unique expeience. I decided to try and continue the lesson, or at least, put the lesson to practice. On the bus ride to a restaurant for a group lunch, I spoke to the students about mindfulness, about attempting to do just one thing at a time and to pay attention to that one thing with all of our senses. I also talked to the students about our "monkey mind," always jumping about. I asked the students to try to get in touch with the "observing self," not to try and stop the monkey mind from jumping about, but to just observe it, acknowledging the place it goes, and then letting the thought go, getting back to the single focus on eating. It was an interesting experiment, though only partially successful. I learned there is a quite a difference between a quiet reflective act, and non-verbal communication, for though the students did an excellent job of not speaking, there was quite a bit of non-verbal communication going on. We did a sharing afterward, and the students had some interesting things to say: noticing that we taste the food the first bite, and then forget to pay attention to the food from then on, paying attention to all of the sounds, or the colors of the food, slowing down, being more aware of where we put our hand, being aware of our great need to communicate, whether about what we are eating or what is on our mind, the discomfort with silence, and how difficult it was to remain attentive to just one thing - eating. I think that a little difficulty every once in a while is a good thing. It puts things in perspective. It give you the opportunity to see things differently, the opportunity to observe your own process, and the opportunity to appreciate things taken for granted.

3/15 Hanoi: Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and Temple of Literature

2011-03-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

Evergreen group shot in front of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890 in a village outside of Hue. In 1910 he was hired on as a cook on a French ship, which eventually took him to France. He then went to the USA, back to Europe, and in 1924 to the USSR. After an extended stay in China and Hong Kong, where he started the Vietnam Indochina Party, gathering the exiled Vietnamese nationalists together, Ho returned to Vietnam in 1940, after being away for 30 years. From 1941 to 1945, Ho hid out in with the minority people in the Northwest of Vietnam and organized the resistance to the Japanese occupation. In 1945, with the Japanese surrender, Ho used excerpts from the US Declaration of Independence, declaring Vietnam independent. Ho wrote to President Truman a number of times, but never received a response. There are certain events in history that had extraordinary consequences, and I believe the death of President Roosevelt in office was one of them. President Roosevelt, on a number of occasions, had voiced his opposition to European colonialism once WWII was concluded. Unfortunately, he died before the war ended, and President Truman supported the French return to Vietnam. If President Roosevelt had lived to see the end of WWII, he may have supported Vietnamese independence. Ho was, first and foremost, a nationalist. Being rejected by the US, Ho went to the USSR to seek an ally. Eventually that chain of events resulted in the American War, in which approximately three million Vietnamese died, and over 58 thousand American soldiers.

The President's house

Our national guide Ha, singing with Jimmy the Lionel Richie song, "Hello," which is Ha's favorite song. After going on line to print the lyrics for all the students, Ha has all the students singing this song numerous times a day.

One Pillar Pagoda

Fiona, Hallie, Kami and chaperone Matt coming down One Pillar Pagoda.

I just thought this was a classic Vietnamese face.

Meera, Izie and Angela listening to one of Ha's lectures at the Temple of Literature. Ha was obviously very excited to be back home in Hanoi, for he talked and talked today - maybe a little too much.

Max and Jimmy at the Temple of Literature, which is the oldest university in Vietnam, founded in the year 1010.

A bunch of students one the balcony of one of the buildings in the Temple of Literature.

Preparing food on the street

All the chaperones, teachers and guides at a special meal of Cha Ka, a unique preparation of fish, vegetables and noodles (and of course chilies and fish sauce)

3/14: Hanoi

2011-03-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

After a two and a half hour flight delay we finally made it to Hanoi. I love this city. I love the energy. I love all the street food. I love everything going on in the streets. Like every capitol city, I suppose, Hanoi has a special kind of energy.

Omar transformed into a pineapple salesman.

Conversation across the street

A little bit of laundry

5/13: CHAMPS school and Peace Trees

2011-03-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

For the past 4 years, we have been fund raising for Peace Trees, a non profit that works to clear land mines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO), as well as support land mine victims. Each year we have visited Peace Trees Vietnam, about two hours north of Hue in Quan Tri province, the most heavily mined area in Vietnam due to its location just south of the 17th parallel - the dividing line of North and South Vietnam. (During the American War, there were more bombs dropped on Quan Tri province alone than all the bombs used during WWII, including the atomic weapons used in Japan.) Peace Trees started by clearing land mines and planting trees in the crater. They have removed almost 60,000 ordnance items to date. There is still great need for the work that they do. Though there were only 15 accidents in 2010 in Quan Tri Province, resulting in 26 victims, the number of ordnance is still incredible. They just cleared 100 acres of land to a depth of 2 feet, and found 1285 unexploded ordnance. Every year with the rain season and the flooding of the rivers, more UXO are washed up or carried into Vietnam from Laos and Cambodia.

Last year while I was on my sabbatical, teachers at Evergreen School made contact with CHAMPS, a non profit organization that works with schools and the US State department, raising funds to train land mine detection dogs, as well as educating students about the risks of land mines. CHAMPS works with a number of countries around the world. They partner schools in the developed world with schools in land mine risk countries. The Evergreen students skyped a few times this school year with their partner school in Vietnam. Our trip to the CHAMPS school in Vietnam was the first time that students from partner schools met face to face. This event was so important to the organization that Kimberly, the Executive Director of the Marshall Legacy Institute, the umbrella organization for all the CHAMPS schools, and Rebecca, the Communications Coordinator for CHAMPS, came to Vietnam to witness this event.

Students from the two schools observing a number of singing performances, as well as two plays that focused on land mine education.

A play showing the dangers of land mines

In this play, a buffalo, the main livelihood of the family, was killed by a land mine.

My students performed as well. Then all the students met in the central square of the school to play games and exchange gifts.

After that we planted a few trees as a symbolic gesture of this event, then took the CHAMPS students and their teachers out to lunch. After lunch we said good bye and headed for Peace Trees, which works in partnership with CHAMPS school.

We planted trees

Then we met Li, Sang and Hong to hear their stories.

Hong told his story first. He is 18 years old and in the 11th grade. 6 years ago he was working at an excavation site, where he found a round item. He took it home and was trying to scrape off the dirt with a hammer when it exploded. He was in the hospital for one and a half months and lost his left hand. he hopes to go to art school when he graduates.

Sang is also 18 years old and in the 11th grade. In 2003 he found a strange item. He had heard from a friend that if you break it open, you can make great fireworks with the material inside. He lost his hand and his friends were injured as well.

Li is 21 years old and in the 11th grade. His accident occurred in June of 2000. he was only 10 years old when he and his cousins stopped at some sand dunes to play, on their way to visit their grand mother. He remembers the explosion. He said, "Right after the accident I was still awake. I could hear the screaming of my relatives and feel the burning inside and outside of my body. I could still see. A couple of minutes after that I couldn't see any more." Li was in the hospital for 4 months and had 10 surgeries. Because he couldn't see, he didn't know that he hand lost his arm and both his legs. When he first realized he had lost his limbs, he was with his parents at the hospital. Li explained, "When I saw the pain and sadness in my parents' eyes, I tried to be strong and not show my pain and disappointment." Li told us that two of his relatives had died. "I know that I have to leave that bad memory in the past and try to overcome it for my future. Sometimes when I am alone I try to think of the accident and wonder what had happened."

Li concluded his talk with a couple of songs, and told us he is so happy to meet us. I have met all three of these young men on past trips to Peace Trees. It was good to see them again. I am happy to be able to help them out in some small way, for they give so much more to my students in the sharing of their stories.

At the class meeting my students were asked to share something from today's events. Here are a few of their comments:

"It was the best lunch I have had yet, though the food wasn't very good."
"Even though we couldn't speak each other's language, I feel we really made a connection with them."
"I realized how hard even the simplest activities can be, like opening a bottle of water with one hand. But they wouldn't let that stop them."
"They are still willing to pursue their dreams. 'Land mine victim' isn't who they are. They don't let it define them."
"How amazing it is that today we can come to Vietnam, sit with these students, talk with them and play games together, when 50 years ago we may have been shooting at each other. It made me think about forgiveness."

3/12: Thien Mu, Tu Duc, Minh Mang and the Perfume river dinner cruise

2011-03-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

A brief history of Vietnam:
About a thousand years ago, China conquered Vietnam (what is now the very north of Vietnam). Their reign lasted about a thousand years. After numerous revolts, the Vietnamese finally drove China out of Vietnam in the 10th century CE. The Ly dynasty, which later became the Trinh Dynasty, lasted for centuries. Vietnam eventually conquered the Cham people in what is now Central Vietnam, and then later, the Khmer people in what is now Southern Vietnam. Eventually Vietnam became two dynasties - the Trinh in the north, and the Nguyen in the South. In the beginning of the 19th century, Nguyen Anh conquered the Trinh, unifying all of Vietnam and changing his name to Gia Long. His son, Minh Mang, reigned during the golden age of Vietnam. His granson, Tu Duc, was the longest reigning emperor, from 1847 until his death in 1883. During his rule the French defeated Vietnam in 1858 and took the southern section of the country. After his death the French were able to take control of all of Vietnam. Their rule lasted for almost 100 years, ending with a huge military defeat to the communists at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The Geneva conference of 1956 divided Vietnam into two countries - North and South. There was supposed to be an election in 1956 in the south to determine if they wanted to unify with the north. South Vietnam's president Diem, and his ally the United States, knew they would lose the election and thus, canceled it. Both sides claimed the other broke the Geneva accords, beginning the American War. Under President Kennedy the US had only "advisers" in Vietnam - about 15,000 of them. Under President Johnson the first US troops landed in Vietnam in early 1965. Their numbers grew to 550,000 by the beginning of 1969. Under President Nixon a cease fire and withdrawal of US troops was agreed upon in 1973. The civil war lasted 2 years, until the South surrendered in 1975, unifying the nation once again. in 1994 President Clinton normalized relations with Vietnam. It is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Thien Mu Pagoda

An ancient religious symbol, found in Vietnam, Laos, and India, to name a few that I know about

Incense prayer offerings

In 1963, in protest of President Diem's repressive treatment of Buddhism, the monk Thich Quang Duc drove this car from Thien Mu to Saigon, sat in the middle of a busy street in Saigon, and lit himself on fire. Not too long after that, President Diem was assassinated in a military coup.

His car has become a shrine at Thien Mu Pagoda.

I just like this picture, at the exit of the pagoda.

The students congregated at the rear of the pagoda and I led the following meditation:
The Dalai Lama, the exiled King and religious leader of Tibet and considered the reincarnation of the God of Compassion, once said, in response to a question about his 50-year exile from Tibet at the hands of the Chinese, (I paraphrase) "The Chinese government has been my greatest teacher. It is easy to feel compassion for those that are like you - your family, your people. How much harder has it been for me to feel compassion for the Chinese government."

Anger, jealousy, pain, frustration, hate - they are all feelings inside of us.
No one else is responsible.
Each one of us is responsible for our own thoughts and feelings.
This doesn't mean that bad things don't happen.
Or when they do happen, it doesn't mean that they are an illusion.
They are real.
But there are many realities that exist side by side.
Some people feel that the only true power each of us has is how we respond to the things that happen to us.

Thich Quang Duc chose how he lived is life, and he chose how he ended his life.
The land mine victims which we will meet tomorrow did not choose what happened to them.
But each of them has chosen how they will live their life.
I hear students say to me all the time, "But this is who I am."
And I cringe inside, for at each moment we have a choice.
I am not denying the power of conditioning, or that we each have propensities and limitations.
But we each have a choice.
Each moment is new.
Each one of us must choose how we will live our life.

Then after a few minutes of quiet meditation, Eli, another trip leader, led us in a "gratitude circle." Here are some of the comments students made about what they were grateful for:

"Being in a supportive environment. Even though I am sick and not feeling well right now, at least I have a body that works and am healthy in general."
"my friends and family"
"to be in the kind of environment that supports me as I am"
"for the opportunity to go to Vietnam"
"for the little things we usually don't notice"
After the orphanage, I am grateful for being able-bodied."
"everyday things like clean clothes and a place to sleep"
"I am thankful for nature, and not being so caught up in electronics on this trip."
"for the Vietnamese who have so many reasons to be angry at us, but aren't"
"for the people I don't know and the opportunity to make new friends"
"I know there are people around the world who need our help, and I am thankful for the opportunity to help them."
"I am thankful for uncomfortable moments, for they help us to appreciate other moments."

Tu Duc Mausoleum

It took over 16 years to build this complex, which Tu Duc had completed and could enjoy while he was alive. Tu Duc had over 100 wives, but no children, due to small pox as a boy.

Robbie, Jimmy and Jaclyn

Students listening to a lecture on Tu Duc

I remember last year taking a picture of these doors. They are still attractive to me.

The tiled roof of one of the buildings

The Evergreen students wrote the guide book that we are using, researching the history and places that we are visiting. The students then become the "expert" on a particular topic. Before each place that we have visited on this trip, all the students would read the report, then the student authors would make presentations to the class about their research topic. I had to cut a day from Hue to add a village stay later in the trip, so there wasn't enough time to see all the impressive sights. Students had to chose what sights they would visit after we left Tu Duc's tomb. We then divided into 8 groups based on student choices, each with one adult and 3 to 4 students. My group decided to go to Minh Mang's tomb next.

On the way, I walked past this beautiful girl selling bananas to the tourists. One student, who was researching education for his NGO project, wondered why she wasn't in school.

Minh Mang's tomb

Fiona, one of my students, looking off into the distance

More doors

On the way to our next stop, the Citadel (also known as the Forbidden City), two students were feeling sick. I passed my other student on to another group and took these students back to the hotel (for I had already seen the Citadel 5 times, on each of my other trips to Vietnam). I stopped a bicycle rickshaw for my students, and jumped on a motorcycle taxi, who followed behind. Since the rickshaw driver was so slow, the motorcycle taxi man stuck his foot on the fender of the rickshaw to increase its speed. He sang a Mexican song the whole way home, and I joined along. We weren't really singing, it was more like shouting. The student said it was the most fun ride ever.

That evening we went on a Dragon Boat dinner cruise on the Perfume River. The students used this opportunity to wear the clothes they had made in Hoi An at the tailor shops.

The girls

The boys

Spring rolls presented as a chicken

Kyle and Robbie, the King and Queen of the cruise

March 10 & 11: Last day in Hoi An, My Son, and Marble Mountain

2011-03-11T15:45:00.000-08:00

March 10th: Last day in Hoi An:
Our last lesson in Hoi An was fishing. After a beautiful bike ride along the river road, we met our fishermen.

Mrs. Kien, my "Vietnamese wife"

This is the 4th time I have fished with Mrs. Kien. The first time she saw me, in 2008, she requested I ride in her boat. While she fished and her husband paddled, she joked with me about becoming my "second wife," while her husband and all the other fishermen just laughed and laughed. This was all done without any common language. Of course, I played along, and the romance has continued all these years. Two years ago she sang me songs of her broken heart each time I left. Of all the people I have met in Vietnam over the years, it seems to me that the fishermen are the happiest. Their joy in the most simple things is a powerful lesson for me.

I have printed photos of us together for her, including two years ago with my younger son, Natan, who was an 8th grade student at Evergreen that year. This year I showed her my photo album with updated photos of my family, and she brought three laminated photos, two of which were with me and her from past trips, and one was of herself and her husband. She carried them in a plastic bag. It was touching that she would bring them.

Fisherman showing us how to through the net

Jack's attempt with the net

Noah's attempt - it is much harder than it looks!

My attempt

My response after the applause from the fishermen

Max with an eel

My students showing off the snails they had caught.

After the fishing lesson, Mrs. Kien invited us into her house for green tea. She took us up stairs to the alter room, where there are photos of her deceased parents. We lit incense and said a prayer.

One of the fishermen was a veteran of the war against the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot in Cambodia. He lost a leg to a land mind. The students asked questions and our guide translated. This year we have added another assignment for the students. After brainstorming and researching global issues, the students organized themselves into NGO groups to research issues relevant to Vietnam. They will gather data while on the trip and them continue their research when they return to Seattle, culminating in a school presentation of their findings and possible solutions. Two groups are looking at "Legacy of War," so this interview was particularly significant to their research.

"Goodbye" to Mrs. Kien

Ha arranged a soccer game with the local 10th grade students. They had never seen girls playing. When one of our girls kicked the ball across the fields, all the Vietnamese students stopped and applauded.

Sam, very tired after the soccer game

March 12th: travel day to Hue

We left Hoi An early in the morning for a 75 minute drive to My Son, the ancient Cham ruins. The Cham civilization lasted from the 4th to the 16th century, when they were defeated by the Kinh people of Vietnam.

But before we visited the ruins, we saw a Apsara dance performance. The Cham followed the Hindu religion, and the movements of the Apsara dance portray the statues of women at the erotic temples of ancient India.

Buddha statue

Christian and Omar

Kami and Kyle

Liz, one of the chaperones, with a security guard

Cham temple

Christian and Buddha

Alicia, one of the teacher trip leaders, and her banh my, Vietnamese sandwich. Alicia is in love with Ban My, especially when she tried the "real thing" in Vietnam. She is afraid she will never be able to eat banh my in Seattle again.

Banh My

On the way to Hue we stopped at Marble Mountains

Temple at Marble Mountain

The caves at Marble Mountain were used as hinding places by the Viet Cong during the American war. This cave is 30 meters tall (about 100 feet).

Banh Beo, a specialty of Hue

After a 3 to 4 hour bus ride, we arrived in Hue, the ancient capitol of Vietnam. I took the chaperones to this restaraunt that only served banh beo, a specialty of Hue.

March 9th: Connections

2011-03-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up at 5AM feeling such a strong connection to my wife. I got up and wrote this meditation for my students:

Morning meditation:
So much about travel inspires a focus on differences,
from the smells to the language,
customs and history.
But somehow, amidst all the differences,
a greater truth always emerges for me,
a truth of the heart - connections.

It can be as simple as eyes meeting,
or a smile,
a handshake,
laughter.

There is a freedom I feel with our national guides Ha and Mike
that I have with no one else.
That freedom is rooted,
and is possible,
I believe,
Because we come from such different cultures.
We can connect from our hearts.

And I believe connection is real.
It is powerful,
and it can be life-changing.

I'll tell you a story:
30 years ago,
before Christy was my wife,
she was my best friend.
On the morning I was taking her to the airport
for an 8-month journey,
she said to me,
"Robert, I think I am falling in love with you."
At one point on her journey,
she wrote me a letter,
quoting a line from a James Taylor song.
At the same time,
I wrote her a letter
quoting a different line from the very same song.
Our letters crossed in the mail.

So here is one of my favorite meditations:
I focus on my breath.
The air that enters my lungs is the same air all over the world.
Everywhere humans breathing the same breath.
The whole planet - one big breath,
One big heart beat.
Together.

After our meditation lesson, we headed out on our bikes to our bamboo lantern making lesson. On the way we passed a group of students playing soccer, and were allowed to join in.

After the soccer game we taught the Vietnamese boys the "hi 5" post game ritual, which they apparently really liked.

We then passed an elementary school. Ha brought us into a classroom. The children sang us a song, so we sang for them "BINGO" and taught them the "Hokey Pokey." Here they are putting "their right hand in." Or maybe it is supposed to be their left.

Matthew with kindergarten students and his camera.

Max concentrating hard on his bamboo lantern.

Our guide Ha with the 5-month old baby of one of the lantern workers.

My students with their lanterns. The lanterns look really good if you don't look closely.

This afternoon we took the students back to the beach. And then in the evening circled up for a class meeting. I asked them to pay attention to connections today, and they would share this evening. The students spoke about their sense of connection to the Vietnamese people in general, the fishermen today, player soccer (with no need for words), the school classroom visit, holding the orphans, the cooking teacher, to their Evergreen friends, and "to myself - paying attention to why I do the things I do."

March 8th - morning market and cooking lesson

2011-03-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

March 8th: Women's Day (sort of a Vietnamese Valentine's Day) - lots of flowers being sold. Some things are universal. By the way, the woman in the mask is not because she is afraid of spreading some contagious disease. The Vietnamese women are obsessed with not getting tan, so many women cover themselves from head to toe, including long gloves and face masks.

I woke up early and was about to head to the morning fish market, when 7 students were waiting to go exploring as well (I love this class - they are so adventuresome). On the way to the river (about a 5 minute walk from our hotel) we passed the vegetable market. No mangosteens on sale here - too early in the season. This makes me , and many of my students who have heard so much about them, not just from me but also from our Vietnamese language teacher, very sad.

The fish market

squid and cuttle fish

I had the opportunity to just sit on a street corner and watch. This is one of my favorite past times ever.

Most of the vegetable market is covered by low tarps. Unlike the Vietnamese, I have to duck my head to walk through. It makes me feel tall.

There are narrow walk ways through the market, which are not only crowded with too many people, but also bicycles, carts and motorcycles carrying goods to the stalls. It is quite a crazy scene.

Hoi An from the bridge

banana motorcycle

I took my group of 6 students to a cooking lesson this afternoon. But first we were toured through the market. I tried a fruit I had never tried before (I thought I knew them all) called vou sua, which means "breast milk." It was very delicious - round, soft and sweet. Here is Max trying duck egg with embryo.

We then took a boat on the river for about 20 minutes to the cooking school.

boat with large fishing net behind

some type of flower

Liz, one of the parent chaperones, with her fresh roll.

Our cooking lesson included making rice paper from scratch, green papaya salad, eggplant with tomatoes, lemongrass and scallions, and decorations from tomatoes and cucumbers.

Jack on the boat ride home (It was his 14th birthday today. We celebrated with a birthday cake party before dinner.)

March 6th and 7th - Hoian, farming lesson and orphanage

2011-03-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

March 6th - Hoi An:
This morning we flew to Danang, then took a one hour bus ride to the beautiful village of Hoi An. I have been trying to figure out why I have had nothing to say in my blog, and I realized that I have had no time for me. Being a leader of a group of 34 people, and the responsibility that entails, is so different than my sabbatical year abroad. I changed the itinerary this year, adding a village homestay outside of Hanoi, and another day in the minority villages in Sapa, which meant fully packing each day in Ho Chi Minh City.

We arrived in Hoi An around 4PM, then got on our bicycles and rode the 3 miles to the beach. We will be here for 5 days, going to lessons in small groups each day - farming, fishing, cooking, and lantern making. Everything is close by, so we will have a break from the bus, and ride our bikes to our lessons each day.

Sunset on our way back from the beach

It is the newness of a foreign place that engages all of my senses, as if shouting at me, "Wake up," as if I had been only half awake, sleep walking.

March 7th: farming lesson and the orphanage:

Something shifted for me today. Maybe it is finally getting back into "travel mode," or maybe it was the bike ride through the rice fields to the farming lesson, or maybe just the change of pace in Hoi An, so different from the hectic pace of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), but I noticed for the first time everything slowing down, and the chatter in my head becoming quiet.

shrimp farming pond

On our bike ride to our farming lesson

One of my students riding a water buffalo

Our farm

religious shrine in the middle of the farm land

bug net (this is an organic farm)

farmer with his watering cans and laundry in the back ground

more laundry, still attractive to me

After a tour of the farm, students were taught how to hoe up the soil, lay down seaweed collected from the nearby ponds for fertilizer, then plant cabbage seedlings.

student attempting to use the two water can system on the seedlings

We then had a cooking lesson at the farm house.

Our cooking teacher with this delicious appetizer of pork, shrimp and mint, tied together with a scallion. Dip it in spicy fish sauce and wow - so delicious!

The farmers then prepared for us a delicious lunch. This is sesame seed rice with banana leaf fish.

In the afternoon we all went to a nearby orphanage. We purchased rice, noodles, milk for the infants, and snack food to donate to the orphanage.

Eli, on of the trip leaders, with a orphan in the baby house.

The orphange was established during the French period. In 1975, with the communist victory, the orphange was turned over to the government. There are currently 70 children in the orphanage, ranging from new-born babies to high school students. 25 of the orphans are physically or mentally disabled. Most of the orphans were given up by their parents. The government provides 360,000 dong (approximately $18) per child per month for food, housing and supplies. The rest must come from donations.

a student with an infant

This baby crawled over to me and held up his arms. He wouldn't let me put him down, and I didn't want to. I held him until he fell asleep.

This boy loved our cameras. He squealed with joy every time he viewed a picture he took.

Our whole group with the able-bodied children, who we met when they returned from school. We played a rousing game of soccer and Vietnamese hacky-sack with them.

Beginning of the Evergreen Vietnam trip

2011-03-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

I might as well start this blog with a laundry shot.

Mekong delta floating market laundry

March 3rd - The First Morning:

After a long day of transit (20 hours from Seattle to Seoul to Ho Chi Minh City) on the first and 2nd of March, we let the students sleep in, then went exploring the city in small groups. We spent a lot of time all year during Trip Advisory class preparing the students for maximizing their experience in Vietnam with classes on addressing their fears, accepting "vulnerability" as an opportunity instead of a fear, self-reflection and meditation, and the students took their lessons to heart. They were excited to try everything. Here is my group trying their first fresh coconut juice.

We walked to Ben Thanh market, which is a huge indoor complex where just about everything is sold. We wandered through the meat market.

Students had their first bowl of pho (Vietnamese soup).

And I had my favorite dish - fresh spring rolls.

In the fruit market students saw dragon fruit.

Durian

And of course, the best fruit in the world - mangosteens. As president of "Mongosteens Are The Best Fruit In The World Club," it is my priviledge, right and responsibility to share this most delicious fruit with everyone. We are in Vietnam 7 weeks earlier than normal. The mangosteen season has just begun, and they are very expensive - 200,000 dong per kilo (about $4.50 per pound), but I have to say that they are worth it. Membership in my club is free, all one has to do is agree with the name of the club. Out of my small exploring group of 5 students, I now have one new member, and two students decided to start their own club, titled "Mangosteens are the best fruit in the world, along with a number of other delicious fruit. " Personally, I like my club title better.

Banana bicycle

Street sales woman

In the afternoon we went to the War Remnants Museum, which graphically documents the American War (what we call the Vietnam War).

US plane carpet bombing

I like to start the Evergreen Vietnam experience by going to this museum. It is a very intense experience for everyone, but especially for Americans. And it helps to put the year's study in perspective (students study Vietnam's history, culture, religion, economy all year - five days a week) - this trip is not a vacation.

After about an hour and a half at the museum, we met up as a group to refective journal write and then debrief. One student said, "What really affected me was the photo of a US military man giving mouth to mouth to another soldier. And then seeing the photo of the two little Vietnamese boys shot down by our soldiers. How do these two realities exist side by side?"

Other student comments during the debriefing:
"It is sad how we can look at these photos, feel really bad, then a few minutes later, just forget and be right back in our daily reality."

"I appreciate so much how lucky I am, and how much I have."

"War is not war. It is vicious aggression and revenge."

"Even though we studied the American war, it became so much more real to me when I saw the individual faces of the people hurt by this war."

Birth defects from agent orange

Gas-masked US soldiers working with agent orange

Before and after shots, showing the rebuilding of Vietnam

March 4th: Mekong Delta all day tour:

One of the student learning to make edible rice paper.

Student and snake

Mango tree

After a 2 hour bus ride, we started the tour on a large boat through the floating market. We then walked through some villages, learned to make rice paper, watched popped rice made from hot black sand in a huge wak, watched the making of coconut candy, and ate a delicious lunch, the students boarded small row boats to explore the canals.

Students working hard on their row boat.

March 5th: I was invited by Mike, our national guide, to the wedding of his brother-in-law, as the students went to Cu Chi tunnels to explore the underground network of the communists.

Bride and Groom

The ritual gift giving

The groom give agift of gold jewlry to the bride. Here he is putting in the earrings.

We were served a great meal.

The ritualistic giving back part of the gifts.

11/27: An opportunity to help

2010-11-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

In September of 2009 I went with my son Noah to Bodh Gaya in India, the site of where Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree 2,500 years ago and achieved enlightenment. It was here that I met Dinu, a young man working to help support his family while attending college . I ended up spending many days with Dinu - we ate many meals together, and he toured me around Bodh Gaya, including a visit to his village and a meal at his family's home. Besides being a really nice young man, Dinu was searching for a way to help out his family, in particular, his sister Rajni. Bodh Gaya is in the state of Bihar, the poorest state in all of India. The only way out of the poverty is through education. I decided to support his sister in private school this year.

Dinu and his family, including his mother (far left) and sister Rajni (in the front with the bowl of rice)

Rajni in her new school uniform

Throughout the school year, Dinu would write me, telling me of his sister's progress in school. He even sent me her school progress reports (picture below). I will continue to support his sister's education, but Dinu has asked me if it was possible to help pay for transportation and other costs. So I thought in this time of thankfulness, it might be nice to share with others the opportunity to help make a difference for a family that is not so financially fortunate, but is working towards making their life better. If you are interested in helping out this family, please let me know. You can write me at: rleeengel@gmail.com, but let me know soon, for the school year starts in January.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T06:13:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is tomorrow - thus a good time to reflect on what I am thankful for (actually, I am forgetting the lesson that it is always a good time to reflect on what I am thankful for). And though there is a side to me that wants to separate out the "good stuff," I know deep down that I am thankful for everything, every event, every moment that has brought me to this place in time (for they are nothing less than "hidden blessings").

Natan, running cross country

The Yakima river - on my way back from the state cross-country tournament, I crossed over this river and had to pull over.

my deck yesterday morning - an early snow storm

stairs down the deck

A nice fire, as temperatures dipped into the teens (negative 8 degrees C)

8/28: Seattle Thank You

2010-08-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

So, I have been back in Seattle for 3 days now. Things seem to naturally fall back into place. I even had one work meeting (though I did request that we meet at a coffee shop so I wouldn't have to go into school yet and it wouldn't feel so much like work), which went fine and got me excited (a little bit) about the upcoming school year.

I don't know how or if I will continue this blog. I imagine there will be some things to say about the transition from "travel mode" to "back at home mode." Really, though, what I have been feeling this morning is appreciative. I had never done a blog before and I learned to love doing it. Every once in a while I would meet a person and say, "Nice to meet you," and the person would reply, "Nice to be met," or someone I know, after saying, "Nice to see you," would reply, "Nice to be seen." And that is how I feel. I have been trying to understand my attraction to writing the blog and to being read. My intention was to be as open as possible, and it was nice having a venue to do that, for I know that I shared parts of myself that I do not normally do. It was nice to be read, and nice to be seen. I know that communication is a "two-way street," and I have no control over how I have been seen (which is actually a pretty true life lesson), but I am so appreciative of all of you out there who have read my blog, and have, to some degree, "seen me." To make this long story short - Thank You from all of my heart.

8/22-8/25: Littleton Colorado, Back in the USA

2010-08-24T04:31:00.000-07:00

As I had been reading about all the anti-Muslim sentiment in the States, I joked with my European friends that I would be held up at US customs due to all the new Facebook friends I have with Muslim names. (When I left the Muslim Girls High school in Malaysia, a number of students asked if they could keep contact with me through Facebook. One student led to the next - now I have over 200 new friends, all with names like Fatiha Afiqah.) Even though I was joking, I did have a slight fear that it might be true. To my relief, the only thing I was questioned about was the $4 I listed as the amount of goods I was bringing into the States (I bought a bottle of Marmite in Bristol before I left - I fell in love with Marmite.)

My sister Amy with Dude, on our walk through the hills of Littleton, Colorado.

View of Littleton while on our walk

My nephew Rory with the fish he had caught

Family dinner: Amy and Russ with their children Ricki and Rory, my parents Adele and Phil, my cousin Dana and her daughter Alexis, and me.

My last night in Littleton we went out to a fish restaurant in Denver. though I forgot to take a group shot, I did get a photo of my delicious oysters. It was sooo nice spending time with my parents and my sister's family.

Mount Rainier, [14,411 feet high (4392 meters), located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) Southeast of Seattle] from the airplane on the flight to Seattle

It is both very strange and very normal being back in Seattle in my home. The first thing I noticed was how many things we have (quite a shock from living for the past year with just what I could carry in my back pack). I actually had to lay down for a while and let it sink in. I think it will be the impetus to "clean house" and get rid of stuff. (Though it was sort of fun opening up a drawer and putting on a different of pair socks, a different t-shirt and different underwear, but I am still stuck wearing the same pair of pants, for I lost too much weight to wear any of the pants in my closet.) Driving from place to place came back without thinking, but I couldn't remember where our living room clock was, or how to turn on my mobile phone.

8/23: Quotes and Reflection on the Sacred

2010-08-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Quotes from Wild Comfort:
"If the universe is an unfolding bud, then I am a part of its creative surge, along with the flowing of water and the growing of pines. I can find a kind of camaraderie in this universe, once I recover from the astonishment of it." (p. 147)

"Even if we don't believe in God, we walk out the door on a sacred morning and lift our eyes to the sacred rain and are called to remember our sacred obligations of care and celebration." (p. 151)

The part I love is the last line - "our sacred obligations of care and celebration." At every moment it is our responsibility to look and to see, to feel and to know that this "every-day reality" is a mystery and a miracle to behold. The most mundane of all actions - a single breath - is a miracle of creation, a miracle of life. Oh, to pay such attention, to be so aware and appreciative, to live and walk through our lives and our days in such a state!

8/19-8/22: Bristol, England

2010-08-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

Ginetta in Bristol, England

I met Ginetta twice in India - first in Pushkar, Rajasthan in November, and then again three months later in Southern India in Hampi, Karnataka. So I thought it would be a good way to end my trip - visiting an old friend. And it was.

Bristol train station

Bristol is two hours directly west of London, near the west coast of England. The town was listed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1051 CE, though there is evidence of human activity in the area from as far back as 60,000 years, during the Palaeolithic era. The city prospered on the trade of slavery (during the height of the slave trade, more than 2,000 slaving ships were fitted out at Bristol between 1700 and 1807), tobacco, and piracy. though piracy was illegal, privateering was not. (Privateers had a "letter of Marque" from the government, allowing them to attack and steal from merchant ships of certain countries.) The famous pirate, Blackbeard, was born in Bristol. Many important voyages exploring the world started in Bristol, notably John Cabot's 1497 voyage of the exploration to North America.

Vegetable market and street scene in Clifton, the "up-scale" area of Bristol

In an old cemetery

Bristol Cathedral - originally known as the Abbey of Saint Augustine, was founded in 1140CE, and constructed over a period of 700 years.

Also Bristol Cathedral

St Mary Redcliffe Church - construction started in the 12th century CE and completed in the 15th century, has a height of 292 feet (about 90 meters) - the third tallest English church. Queen Elizabeth described it as "the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England."

Due to damage during WWII, much of the original stain glass has been replaced.

Royal York Crescent - "the longest crescent in Europe, or maybe in the world," say Ginetta. "Or maybe not."

Walking the streets of Bristol, an old private school in the background

The "world famous" (according to the Bristol tourist guide)Clifton Suspension Bridge, crossing the Avon Gorge, designed by the Victorian engineer Isambard Brunel, built in 1864.

View of the River Avon and the Avon Gorge from the Clifton Suspension Bridge

Sailing in the harbor area on a Saturday

Scenic Bristol's rivers and canals

Many people live on these house boats, and can explore much of the area through the rivers and canals

Peter, Ginetta's cat - my second "cat friend" on this trip. Peter would sleep with me on Ginetta's couch

Quote from Wild Comfort, p. 68: ""'Those who dwell . . . among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone . . .' (Rachel Carson) . . . There are no edges in this world. The water, the snow, the bear, the memory of the blackbird, the urgent growth of the lily are all one beautiful, mysterious thing, and we are part of that one thing. How, then, can we ever be alone."

The end: It was really fun hanging out with Ginetta for three days, meeting her friends (all of them artists of some sort - painters, musicians, song writers), and going for walks through the beautiful city of Bristol. On my last evening of this year sabbatical, I went with Ginetta to a dinner party at Angie's house. Angie asked me what was my favorite place that I visited, and I couldn't come up with one. Thinking back, I realize now that more important than the places I went were the people I met. Their open hearts touched my heart, becoming part of who I am. I am thankful for the time I have had this year, to connect - heart to heart - to so many good people.

8/22 - A very long day: It started at 2:30AM, catching a bus from Bristol to Heathrow airport. My flight from London to Denver (to visit my parents) went through Madrid and then Chicago. The first leg out of Heathrow Airport was delayed, creating quite a rush in Madrid to catch my international flight to the States. I ran through the airport to my gate, arriving during "last call." Then the flight to Chicago was also late in departing, so that I was met as I exited the plane and given an "express connection" pass, rushing me through customs and security at Chicago's O'Hare airport so I could be at the gate on time for my flight to Denver. Then there was a bus from Denver's airport to Cold Springs, where my sister Amy picked me up. All in all, it took exctly 24 hours, door-to-door.

And here I am, back in America. To tell the truth, it still feels just like traveling - new place, new people, new culture.

Quote from Wild Comfort, p. 69-70: ""I am sure of this much, that Earth lights these small signal fires - not for us, but among us - and we can find them if we look. If we are not afraid, if we can keep our balance, if we let our anxious selves dissolve into the beauties and mysteries of the night, we will find a way to peace and assurance. Signal fires burn all over the land."

Last foreign personal reflection: As I feel my sense of reality dissolve around me, have faith that there are "signal fires" all around me and within me. Nothing dies, just dissolves and reforms into something else. My responsibility is to take each step into the fog consciously, with as much self awareness as I am, with my senses and my heart wide open to appreciate the beauties and mysteries all around me, within me.

8/20: Natan and Ultimate Frisbee

2010-08-20T02:26:00.001-07:00

Since Natan wasn't with us in Paris, and I just got these pictures of him from the Ultimate Peace camp photographer, Ohad Segall, I thought to share them.

8/11 through 8/19: Paris

2010-08-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Dear blog readers, I am so sorry it has taken so long to post this latest entry, what can I say . . .

8/11: Goodbye to Karina and Georgios on Paros, Greece. What a wonderful two weeks I had with these two wonderful people.

8/12 through 8/13: The Seine, Paris, at sunrise

Paris is, in my mind, the most beautiful city I have ever been in. Everywhere you turn there is such spectacular architecture. I was here for one week in both 1983 and 1985, but remember very little from those trips, and, or course, Paris has changed so much since then. I love the little alley ways, the cute shops, the outdoor cafes. And even though French pastries are made everywhere, there is no other place where they are this delicious.

It still has delicious and very picturesque fruit markets.

Beautiful and interesting architecture

But so much is new - these smart cars are everywhere

As are these three-wheeled motorcycles (I like to think of them as tricycles).

There are so many motorcycles in the city - all shapes and sizes.

This was very cool - the city has invested in bicycles which the Parisians can use - they can check them out of one station and return them to other stations. I don't know exactly how it works, but it is an effort to reduce congestion, reduce pollution, and help to create a healthier life style.

I saw a number of homeless people in Paris. During my early morning walks, I would see people going through the garbage. With my mind and heart still "in Asia," the stark difference between the rich and poor was pretty shocking as I am transitioning back to Western culture.

Reflection of a building in a building - I just liked this image.

Quote for the day: I am reading a beautiful book by Kathleen Dean Moore called Wild Comfort - The Solace of Nature, which explores the relationship between happiness and sorrow.

"Failing to notice a gift dishonors it, and deflects the love of the giver. That's what's wrong with living a careless life, storing up sorrow, waking up regretful, walking unaware. But to turn the gift in your hands, to say, this is wonderful and beautiful, this is a great gift - this honors the gift and the giver. Maybe this is what Hank has been trying to make me understand. Notice the gift. Be astonished at it. Be glad for it, care about it. Keep it in mind. This is the greatest gift a person can give in return.
"This is your work," my friend told me, "which is work of substance and prayer and wild attentiveness, which is the real deal, which is why we are here." (p. 19)

For me, the concept of "living a careless life" hit home. "Carelessness" is being sucked into the future and into the past. So how to remain conscious of the ever-flowing present, the "now" which continues to stretch from moment to moment, which is, of course, the only thing that "now" does, if you let it.

Notre Dame from the East

Notre Dame from the South

Notre Dame still

Notre Dame from the West

Close up of the beautiful stone work on Notre Dame

Eglise Saint Eustache (Notre Dame is not the only beautiful building in Paris)

Inside the church of Saint Eustache (hard to see in this small photo, but I love the image of the two people in the aisle looking up into the vastness of this space)

Sunset on the Seine

Quote from Wild Comfort, p. 36: "I confess: Wonder is easy when you travel to desert islands in search of experiences you have never imagined, in search of something you have never seen before, in search of wonder, the shock of surprise. It's easy, and maybe it's cheap. It's not what the world asks of us.

To be worthy of the astonishing world, a sense of wonder will be a way of life, in every place and time, no matter how familiar: to listen in the dark of every night, to praise the mystery of every returning day, to be astonished again and again, to be grateful with an intensity that cannot be distinguished from joy."

8/14 through 8/19: My sister-in-law Sheri and her 9-month old daughter, Poppy

For Sheri's 50th birthday, she offered to spend it with my family in Paris, so I met her in Paris. Being abroad for the past year, this was the first time I met my new niece, Poppy.

My son Noah

Sheri, and her partner, Eric, flew my wife, Christy and my son, Noah from Seattle to Paris (Natan, my younger son, opted to state in the States, for the trip to Paris coincided with a national Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Minnesota - his Seattle team lost in the finals).

Christy, Noah, Sheri and Eric at a falafel restaurant

Delicious French food - duck in honey sauce

Lamb in prune sauce

The Thinker - Rodin museum

Quote from Wild Comfort, p. 36: "And what is sand? - black urchin spines, fallen stars, unimaginable time."

Sacre Coeur church

Eiffel Tower at sunset

Quote from Wild Comfort, p. 64: "Prayer is when the night falls over thought." (by the French philosopher Alain)

Poppy - the star of the show

The sisters Christy and Sheri

Goodbye to Paris: Christy, Noah, Sheri, Eric and I - all focused on Poppy

Quote from Wild Comfort, p. 60: "I don't know any other way to move through darkness, but to put one foot ahead of the other and listen for the exact sound of our footsteps."

Sometimes this is where I feel that I am - in the darkness. There is no light illuminating the path ahead. At each foot step a multitude of paths exist. At each foot step a multitude of paths disappear. But what else to do other than keep on walking, trying to be as conscious as I can with each step.

8/11: Last day on Paros

2010-08-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

Lefkes

I have so much loved my time here on Paros. It is hard to believe that two weeks went by so quickly. (It is hard to believe that one year has gone by so quickly!) I decided to take the motorbike into the hills to Lefkes one more time. A few people had mentioned the church in lefkes, which I had failed to visit.

But when I got there, I was drawn to the back streets, the little alley ways which I hadn't walked on before. And in those little lanes everything seemed to slow down for me (even more than usual, if you can believe that), and I was immediately attracted to the details around me.

Even close-ups of laundry were calling me.

I eventually made it to the church, which I must say was not as nice as the pomegranate I saw earlier (in the mood I was in). From lefkes I headed down to the coast, to the half-moon beach I saw from the hill top of Ayios Antonios Church a few days ago.

The beach was lovely, but once again I was surprised by what was pulling at me - not the beach, not the water, but this church, looking forelorn and seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Leaving is a strange thing. I am thinking about endings. Which also means arriving - new beginnings, new possibilities.

Kiki and Karina

When I got back to the Karina's Taverna, Karina was sitting with Kiki, who was her waitress last season. Kiki, who is now a nursery school teacher in Athens, came back to say hello. From my two weeks here I have witnessed so many reunions - everyone comes back to Karina's Taverna. She has customers that have been coming back every year for years. It is not just the excellent food (though I am sure that is a big part of it), but it is also the atmosphere that Karina has created, an atmosphere that reflects her heart.

It has been quite my good fortune to have met Karina and Georgios on the island of Flores in Indonesia 5 months ago half way around the world. Once again, I rest my heart in appreciation and in blessing.

8/10: Looking Back

2010-08-10T22:29:00.003-07:00

Karina with Louisa (16 month old French girl) at the Taverna

I have been in a very reflective mood these last few days, I suppose with my sabbatical year coming to an end. My time on this lovely, relaxing island is also coming to an end. Just past midnight tonight I catch a ferry for the port of Pireaus, then tomorrow morning a bus to the Athens airport and on to Paris (life is rough). So I have been thinking about what I have learned, and in what ways I have grown. To tell you the truth, it has been very difficult to pin point progress. It is sort of like when you see someone after a long time and they mention how your children have grown, or your hair has turned grey, but you don't notice for you see them (your children) or your hair every day, and the change is gradual. Maybe it will not be until I return to a familiar environment and interact with it that I will notice a difference. Or maybe it will depend on people who have known me, telling me what they see and feel that is different. One thing I do know - the feeling of gratitude and appreciation are more in my awareness. I am sure there is much I still take for granted, but I am more aware of the blessings of my life.

8/9: Sunken Boat, Beached Boat

2010-08-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Fiona - Karina's sweet neighbor, who lives above the taverna. I see her most days walking to or from work. I thought she matched the bougainvillea behind her.

Naoussa at sunset from across the bay, near the lighthouse

I have found my favorite walk - every day I walk east along the shore towards the lighthouse (two hours there and back). I pass this spot every time, and almost every time try to capture an image of it. This is the best I can do with my crappy, little camera.

I woke up this morning at 5AM, and headed to the taverna. Since I now have a key, it gives me access to the computer before the restaurant opens. I have been working the last few days creating a spreadsheet for Karina's Taverna (Karina still does all her finances in little notebooks). I have put hours into it these last few days - ironing out the kinks in all the formulas, and inputing data from the last two years, so Karina can do some economic analyses. It has been very satisfying giving something back to Karina and Georgios after all their generosity (also, I really love spread sheets). After a couple hours of Excel formula writing this morning, I needed a break and went for a long snorkel. While swimming I saw a little sunken boat resting on the sea floor. Then during my walk this evening, at the place where I turn around, I noticed how attractive this beached boat was in the sunset light. Sunken boat and beached boat - the beginning and end of my day - could be metaphors for something, but I don't know. I am just happy and appreciative to still be "afloat."

8/8: Morning walk on the Byzantine Road, Lefkes

2010-08-08T01:05:00.000-07:00

Delicious breakfast of rich Greek yogurt with fresh figs and cactus fruit

Lefkes in the morning light

I drove this morning on Georgios' motorbike to Lefkes to walk the Byzantine road. The motorbike, being very old with a very small engine, moves at "island pace." Though there are a few roads with a maximum speed of 50 kph (30 mph), most of the roads have a maximum speed limit of 30 kph (18 mph), and some with a speed limit of 20 kph (12 mph). These speeds are fine for me on this old motor bike. In fact, I go up some of the hills at a little faster than a jogger's pace, and some times the bike needs a little help , Flinstones style.

Lefkes is my favorite village on the island. During the Middle Ages, Lefkes was the capital of the island of Paros. It has churches dating back to the 15th century CE. With a population of only 500, and no beach so no teenage tourists, it has maintained its charm even during the high tourist season.

Lefkes laundry

Red shutters are nice too

The Byzantine Road

The Byzantine road goes from Lefkes to the village of Prodromos, about 4 kilometers to the east, and then continues to the sea. Originally it went from the port of Paroikia on the west coast, to the port of Piso Livadhi on the east. I went to 6 or 7 internet sites to find the age of the road, but couldn't find a date.

Stone house and wind mill

Byzantine road and Lefkes - The road meanders through the country side of olive trees and wind mills

lefkes in the back ground

End of the road for me - the village of Prodromos, with the hill of Ayios Antonios Church

There is something very provocative about seeing the two roads (the old Byzantine road and the new, paved one) in the same photo.

8/7: Parikia

2010-08-07T11:48:00.001-07:00

Early this morning I drove the motor bike to Parikia

The small harbor at Parikia

The northern edge of Parikia

Ekatontapyliani (really, not a mispelling) Church

I came to Parikia this morning to see this church (highly recommended by my friend Karina), which translates to "Church of 100 Doors" (I don't know why the name). It was built in the 6th century CE during the Byzantine Period, during the reign of Emperor Justinian. The church was designed by the architect Ignatius, a student of Isidore, the designer of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. According to legend, when Isidore saw Exatontapyliani Church, in a fit of jealous rage, Isidore tried to push Ignatius from the roof, and they both fell to their deaths.

Also in the town of Parikia is a cemetery, which was in use for over 1000 years, from the 8th century BCE until the 3rd century CE. (Those numbers blow me away!)

Before I left Parikia, I bought a kilo of fresh figs (called sika in Greek, and now on my list of favorite fruits - though nothing compares to the mangosteen) and a kilo of that cactus fruit (a picture in my blog on August 6th) called sabra in Israel and ragosika in Greek. Life has been good here on Paros - really good people (Karina, Georgios, and their friends I have been introduced to), and lots of walking, swimming, motor biking, and, of course, eating.

8/7: Totally out of place photos of Malaysian sea life

2010-08-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

In the beginning of April I spent a week of snorkeling on the island of Pulau Perhentian in the northeast corner of Malaysia. My friend Jessica, who rented the bungalow next door to me, had an underwater camera, which she lent to me when I went snorkeling alone. She just sent me these photos. And though snorkeling in Greece in no way compares to Southeast Asia (mostly I see rocks underwater here, though there are a few little fish), this seems like an okay place to squeeze these photos in.

"Big lipped" clams (I called them) - they were huge, and such a variety of colors!

Sea slug - also huge, some of them grew as long as my forearm

Finding Nemo just about everywhere