Schmenebo Journey

Drinking Tea

2009-04-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Host Mom Sylvia took us to her friend's tea shop to drink tea in the traditional way. Sylvia has been taking a tea preparation class for over a year, and wanted us to taste the true traditional tea. And taste we did-- I had some caffeine issues after 12 cups!

Leaving Taipei...

2009-04-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

Today I left Taipei to join the cast in Taichung for my last week in Taiwan. Its hard when you are working in a city, versus being there on vacation... as I rode the train south I realized how many things in Taipei I didn't get to see!
But it was good to live the life of the local-- I will miss the efficiency and independence of the MRT, the bakeries with the chocolate pastries full of flavored cream, the crazy springtime weather where I need a sweater and an umbrella at all times, even though it could also be 85 degrees!
I will miss texting all the students I met at universities, though I will not miss my sticky phone buttons that made my thumbs work overtime on literally hundreds of text messages.

I will miss hanging out and planning my schedule with Sofie- we had the rare independence of the five days away from the cast, interviewing and giving presentations all over Taipei. It was a joy to work with her, and with our fab advance team support: shout out to Johan and Sean!

So as evidence that I did actually see a few sites, here is me on the rainy day that the cast visited Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. Behind me is I think the National Theatre building.

I have one more week of adventures in Taiwan before heading back to Minnesota on May 3. Its hard to believe its going so fast.

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

When your host family day, and only day off in the next two weeks, starts by needing to be in the car with hostmom at 6:45am, you know your life is not your own!

Yui and my hostmom, Sylvia, is a member of a nature club called Society of Wilderness. As today was the big Earth Day Celebration, her club was helping organize a shoreline clean-up along the Taiwan Straight. Yui and I came along. We weren't much help with the organizing part, since we couldn't speak to anyone, and Yui could only read the parts of signs/ characters that are similar to Japanese, but we had a great time in the sunshine, picking up trash along the breakers.

The coast of the Taiwan Straight near Taichung is very rocky, and at this time, very shallow for a long ways out. But there are huge cement breakers, and canal channels to help control flooding during typhoon season, and a lot of trash that washes up in this area. We had tongs and two kinds of gloves and hats and buckets and trash bags, and participated in the most organized beach cleanup I've ever attended. There were even "documenters" wearing arm bands and walking around with clipboards. They were looking at the trash we found and recording the different types.

I've also never seen a society so integrated and active in their recycling programs. Every meal we sort our trash into food scraps, cardboard, plastic, and chopsticks. This is in fast food restaurants, at the MRT, and for the cast on our own, as whatever building we are eating in also requires this sorting system to pick up our trash. There are huge campaigns to use reusable chopsticks, and many people have collapsible sets they carry in their bags/ purses. For our earth day lunch today, everyone at the event brought dishes from home to eat out of, and there was no trash from the event besides the watermelon rinds.

It was a humid, warm sunny day, and really lovely to be near the water. Then we came home for a nap and went to dinner with the boys- we had a dinner that sounds something like yahm-cha in JApanese. Its basically Chinese tapas-- bitesize snacks, spring rolls, fried pork, coconut jello bites, lots of fun and some unidentifiable things. Its a show day tomorrow, so I'm going to get to bed early.

Photo-happy Taiwanese

2009-04-17T05:51:00.001-07:00

I have met a LOT of Taiwanese youth in my work as admissions support. As a result, I am on more cell-phone wallpapers than I have ever been in my entire life. This is such a photo-taking culture. And every person needs their own photo with you- individual poses. Some of the girls came to our mini-shows, and then to our big show both nights, and I've taken photos with each of them individually at least five times.

The incredible part is, they have turned the photos into beautiful gifts for the cast. There was a group of girls from the business college we are working with that made two huge poster-sized collages of all the photos they took of them with cast members, as enormous thank you cards. I also received a lot of individual prints from girls who wrote their emails and facebook name on them for me. They were so welcoming and so excited, and at times more than a little overwhelming. For some of the guys it was almost scary- we called it the boy band effect. I even got to reprise my role as a bodyguard, which I haven't done since working for Camp Snoopy! You can imagine the hilarity of the situation- me, hardly five feet and eye-to-eye with Taiwanese teenage girls, telling them to back up as the All-American handsome guys on my team need a bit of breathing room!

Even for adults there is a photo-happy culture; every high profile meeting ends with a group photo in front of the company sign or in the University president's office.

Its a novelty that sometimes is fun, but other times gets tiring. I have never had my picture taken so much, not even on my wedding day.

more English fun!

2009-04-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

Today was the cast's big move from Taipei south to Taichung, for our second and last Taiwan city. I am staying with the Cheng family, Sylvia and Jung-Shi, and their twin sons who are eight: Joey and Roy. Of course, except for Jung-Shi, these are their English names, and not their "real" given names.

Jung-Shi said to me as we sat down to dinner, "You need to make a wish?" and he folded his hands to demonstrate to me that he meant if I need to pray before the meal. I love interpretation translations like this.

host family day!

2009-04-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

There's nothing quite like host family day... a chance to catch up on sleep, do laundry, and of course, be up for whatever adventure your host family has in store!

I am very lucky to be hosted with an UWP alumna named Paige here in Taipei. She is Canadian and has been living here for about three years. We had a really lovely day exploring the northern tip of the island.

We drove north out of Taipei and around the most northern point, stopping at a surfing beach, and at a beautiful lookout where we sat outside at a cafe, reading books and listening to the waves. There was a lone fisherman on the rocks below us, and it was a peaceful and gorgeous, if hazy, morning.

We stopped by a bizarre temple up in the mountains where there is a 12-story monument of a dog. Apparently a merchant ship sank offshore and the 18 sailors drowned. The dog attempted to rescue them, and when he was unsuccessful, he sat on the shore and waited for his owner for the rest of his life. The temple is dedicated to the sailors and of course, the dog.

We visited Ju Ming sculpture park and museum, which houses the art of Taiwan's most famous contemporary artist, Ju Ming. His chunky people sculptures were my favorite. The grounds were gorgeous and we enjoyed being outside.

We also stopped by Yehliu Geopark which is a skinny peninsula that has striking rock formations that have been shaped by the ocean crashing over the most northern part of the island.

We drove over the mountain back to Taipei, where we could see fields of calla lilies in full bloom. There were roadside stands and tons of people, as the Festival of the Calla Lily is the full month of April.

We stopped at one of Paige's favorite restaurants, which is named Stone House but everyone just calls it "Jesse's", and ate in the garden. We had kung pao chicken, fried tofu, a shrimp & pineapple dish, and steamed sweet potato leaves. Guava, pineapple, and wax apples for dessert.

It was a full day, but in a relaxing way, which is lucky, as there's another busy week ahead!

more fun English

2009-04-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

I try to take note of a fun English phrase every day. Here are some gems from this week:

Sign at our welcome buffet for the cast on the first day said the meat was "lamp".

Bulletin board on the side of the road has cartoon children smiling. Underneath in huge lettering it says: Don't Do Drugs. Don't Drag Race.

I was standing with one of our contacts from Taipei watching the cast perform a mini-show. He turned to me with huge excitement in his voice and said "This group is so high! All your students, so high!" I'm interpreting that to mean high on life.

Bakeries

2009-04-04T16:14:00.001-07:00

When I think of typical Chinese-style food, I never think of bakeries. And yet, they are so popular here-- within a block radius of the office there are at least three bakeries, with delicious flaky breads and pastries. There are spongey cakes, and little custards covered in fruit, and then the occasional Asian flair to remind you that you are in Taipei and not Munich.

Yesterday I tried a roll that had a piece of battered, fried chicken in the middle, was surrounded by lettuce and a mustard/mayonnaise spread in a doughy bread tube, and the whole thing was wrapped in seaweed! An adventurous mid-morning snack.

Taipei 101 tower

2009-04-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world, (until the new tallest building in Dubai is completed.) It also has the world's fastest elevators, which cost 2.5 million USD each, and include the same ceramic heat-resistant material that is used in the space shuttle. The 84 story ride (which puts you on the 89th floor) takes 37 seconds.

We went up to the observatory last night to see the city lights. Paige recommended going at night because its rare to have a clear enough day to have a good view of the city through the humid haze. When I checked weather.com yesterday for the forecast, it was the first time I had ever seen the graphic for "haze" as the current local weather (rather than something like partly cloudy).

The tower is named the 101 to represent our digital age of ones and zeros, as well as to symbolize being of the highest quality- more than 100%.

Dumpling

2009-04-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

My host mom Paige took me for arguably the most popular food in Taiwan, steamed dumpling. Dumpling look like potstickers, but instead of being pan-seared, they are steamed in bamboo racks, and filled with pork and mixtures of other seafood or veggies. The shell is a doughy skin that is very similar to a wonton wrapper, but has a sticky (rather than bubbly) texture when cooked because its steamed instead of fried.

There are dumpling restaurants all over Taipei, and Aoife told me her host family had the leftover dumpling from their dinner the next morning fried for breakfast. I can't imagine how they'd have any leftover at all, because they are SO delicious. Possibly my new favorite food!

Picture a bright, bustling restaurant, full of smiling waitresses in matching black skirts and white blouses, constantly stopping by your table to refill your green tea or give you more shredded ginger. They can clear a table and have it turned around for a new group in about 15 seconds.

You order dumpling like sushi, by filling out a small form of how many orders of each type of dumpling you'd like. To supplement your dumpling you can also get steamed greens, boiled peanuts, or soup.

There's a very specific way to eat dumpling, and the restaurant we went to had a demonstration card to teach us so we wouldn't burn our tongues. You first mix yourself a small bowl of a combination of soy sauce, vinegar, shredded ginger and optional hot sauce. Then you take one dumpling with chopsticks, and put it on your flat spoon. You poke a hole in the dumpling skin with your chopstick to let some of the broth inside out-- this is what would scald your mouth if you just bit straight in. You can pick up the full dumpling with chopsticks and dip it in your soy sauce mixture, or pick up shredded ginger to put on top of the dumpling, and then you eat it in one or two bites from your spoon. The broth is in the pork-based dumplings, which you need to eat from the spoon to get the full flavor. We also had mushroom dumpling, which you could dip and eat with your chopsticks because their filling wasn't as juicy.

The dumpling are handmade in glass kitchens so you can watch the 20+ chefs at work rolling dough, stuffing dumpling, and then swirling it into intricate shapes. The shapes are slightly different in each restaurant, which is part of their signature, and makes each type unique.

When you are finished eating, you leave. There is no lingering over dessert or drinks or to finish a conversation... when your food is gone its time to go, and the smiley waitresses pounce on your table to prepare it for the huge lines of people waiting outside to have their fill.

coming to Asia

2009-04-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a few things I love about coming to Asia:

Funny signs
there are lots of small grammatical errors in the English translation of signs, that are good for a smile or sometimes a laugh-out-loud. My favorite of the trip so far was the sign that welcomed me on the jetway into the airplane in Japan, with its ironic use of quotations... it said:

We hope you have a "safe" and "comfortable" flight.

structure
Taiwanese people like things neat and organized and very very structured. This was the only time in my life that I have seen two men whose job it was to turn the suitcases as they came up the conveyor belt so they all were laying neatly with the handles turned out for easy pick-up.

The MRT is a very fast, very clean train system, which I will be using to get around Taipei everyday. I was amazed at how clean it was-- its the first metro system I've been in where the stations actually smelled nice. And there are lines painted on the ground at every door entrance. People boarding the trains line up in two neat rows on the left of the doors, so they can load as people simultaneously exit to the right. Some people might find this precision and organization suffocating, but so far I like it! I know what to expect, and don't have to be so aggressive to make it on the train like in other cities.

Trip to Taiwan!

2009-04-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

After abandoning this blog when we got off the road, I am ready to revive it for a brief stint as I journey to support Up with People's Cast A 2009 in Taiwan! I am here in Taipei for two weeks, then on to TaiChung for two weeks, returning home May 3.

I am excited to share a bit of my adventures in Taiwan. Stay tuned! --ellen

final city

2008-12-15T04:29:00.000-08:00

Cast B 2008 is saying goodbye. We finished our semester in tropical Subic Bay, Philippines, and its sister city, Olongapo. It was a whirlwind 10 days... closures, fantastic CI days, an incredible last show with an overflowing audience of over 3,000 people, a fantastic staff banquet celebrating a team we were lucky and grateful to work with, and just now, finishing with a beautiful cast banquet to celebrate our triumphs and say farewell.

We waved goodbye to the bus full of Europeans, who are already on the way to the airport in Manila. The North American flight leaves tomorrow evening at 8pm, to arrive in Los Angeles three hours before we left.

Scott and I will be in Colorado for about a week before driving home to Minneapolis to move back into our lovely house.

We'll post a little more about the end of our trip in the next few days. Thank you for following us on this adventure! Soon we'll be on our way home.

Habitat by the numbers...

2008-12-01T02:37:00.000-08:00

In our eight days of CI in Manila at Habitat for Humanity – Baranguay Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City, we:

□ Made 593 CIB (Cement Interlocking Blocks)
□ Laid 2,303 blocks
□ Poured 21 bags of cement grout
□ Hauled 132 Jackbuilt blocks
□ Hauled 400 CIB blocks
□ Completed 2.5 cubic meters of gravel bedding
□ Bent 325 pieces of rebar
□ Cut 660 pieces of rebar

We also…

□ Were a team of 11 people from five countries (Ethiopia, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, and the USA) who helped to build the first story of a four-story, 120-unit housing complex.

□ Watched other volunteers come and go, just carrying blocks and hauling dirt, while we learned to make CIB blocks, lay blocks, level walls, extend rebar, make cement, mix and pour grout, shovel and bag gravel, haul mud on the chain gang, move gravel in the pit, and to cut and bend rebar.

□ Worked alongside the Boss, Mario, George, B-Boy, Glenna, Ching, Anita, Elaine, Mr. Perfection, Engineer Noel, Volunteer Coordinator Ving, and many others…

□ Ate a delicious lunch everyday at Delia’s.

□ Drank more than our fair share of Coca-Cola, Royal Orange, and Juicy Lemon sodas, and snacked on Chocolate Pillows, Choco-Pretzels, and Combis.

□ Rode in taxis, tricycles and jeepneys to get to and from our site each day

□ Visited a partially completed Habitat site in Paranaque to see the housing units that last year’s UWP crew helped to build.

□ Met and played with the children of our home partners, the beneficiaries of our team’s hard work, including visiting Rainforest Park with them.

□ Were invited to visit the current homes of our new friends, Anita and Elaine, and were welcomed warmly by their families.

□ Learned that of the 18-20 families that live on stilted slum housing under the bridge in C-5 (including Anita with her husband and five children) only four of those families are currently eligible and approved to receive a Habitat home unit.

It was eight sweaty days full of hard work, and I am proud to have been part of such a great team.

Turkey Hands and Apple Pie

2008-11-30T04:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving from steamy Manila! In elementary school Thanksgiving tradition, we spent the evening as a cast tracing our hands on bright-colored paper, adding legs at the wrist and a beak on the thumb, turning them into the day of thanks Turkey Hand.
We then spent 30 minutes wandering around, writing on each person's sheet why we are thankful for him or her.

In the meantime, Yui and I wandered through grocery stores and bakeries all around the Ortigas Center, on a desperate hunt for Thanksgiving pie. We were having Filipino BBQ donated from a local restaurant... no mashed potatoes and gravy for us, so we wanted to have a special treat made of pie and cool whip, to remind us Americans of home.

But unfortunately, no such luck... lots of cakes and pastries, but we only found one pie, and it was an "egg pie" (more like quiche) which wasn't: A. Enough for the whole cast, nor B. anything close to what we were looking for to be a Thanksgiving dessert.

So, disappointed, we headed back to our meeting room at the Ortigas Foundation, until we looked up at the building right next door, and knew we had found the perfect substitute.

That's right, the Golden Arches of McDonalds were a small parking lot away, and we went straight inside and asked if it was possible to order 110 apple pies. The shocked cashier ran away to ask the manager, who came back laughing and said, "40 minutes, 40 minutes." And so it was that we had a little bit of America on Thanksgiving in the Philippines, thanks to McDonalds global domination. And I can't lie, after barbequed chicken, soy sauce and lots of white rice, the deep-fried individual apple pie tasted GOOD.

back in Manila

2008-11-21T05:19:00.000-08:00

So, almost exactly one year later, we find ourselves back in the bustling city of Manila. Actually, bustling is a severe understatement... think blood-pumping, jam-packed with people, belching fumes from the most chaotic traffic you've ever seen, thick, muggy air that was 85 degrees at 7am when we arrived, and the excited energy of 104 people, 99 of whom hadn't been here before, ready for their last big adventure together.

For Scottie and I, there is a lot that is familiar. We are staying with his same host family, Frank and Inez Reyes, and their two boys Patrick and Pa-el (short for Pablo Gabriel). Pa-el, who is adorable, said to us at dinner on our first night, in his charming Filipino accent, "Scott and Ellen, I know why you got married!" "Why, Pa-el?" "Because you have the same skin color."

We've dived right into our Community Impact projects... the cast is at seven different sites each day, for eight total service days here in Manila. My site is a Habitat for Humanity site, where we are working alongside Filipinos who are accumulating sweat equity, part of their 1000 hours required to qualify to receive a habitat home in the area we're building.

Two days of hauling cement blocks, and buckets of mortar, building walls with interlocking bricks which are a bit like Legos (and are an exclusive Habitat design, to be lighter so more accessible for volunteers, more appealing to the eye than cinderblock, and more efficient and sturdy). We only use mortar for every fourth row, and then pour a runnier consistency down into the vertical holes after every layer of three rows. Now we've got the system down to the point that our foreman can't keep up! We call him Boss, and his crew of guys who know what they're doing run around leveling our walls, laying water pipe and electrical lines, tying up rebar- the things they haven't taught us how to do (or don't see us qualified for), and we just keep hauling, stacking, and cementing things into place. We are building a 120-unit apartment building, the first of two on a government-owned lot in Pasig City. It is a pleasure to work next to Ching, a woman who is approved to live in the building we are building, once it is finished in the next eight months or so.

It takes us about an hour to get to our site from the Reyes' house, though without traffic it would be only about a 15-20 minute drive. We take either a taxi, or a combination of jeepney and tricycle. The taxi costs a little over two dollars, and the jeepney/trike combo is about a dollar. Its nice to know enough about the transportation system that we can get around confidently, even on our first day.

I was worried about jet lag with such a busy schedule for our first days, but besides falling asleep by 8pm the last two nights, I'm doing pretty well! Tomorrow is our big regional learning day in Manila, another day of stark contrasts.

North Platte, NE: Nov 10-17

2008-11-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

Our last USA city! North Platte is the proud location of the largest railroad yard and track exchange in the United States. During WWII, they had a canteen in the depot for soldiers that provided free cookies, cakes, sandwiches and coffee, as the troop trains stopped for a 10-minute pause on their cross-country treks.

The story was that the town had heard the train coming through was carrying local boys, so all the moms and sisters baked goodies and went down to the platform to meet the train. They quickly realized that the troops weren't the ones they knew, but was actually a platoon from Kansas. After their initial disappointment, one woman declared she wasn't going to bring her cake back home again... and the whole community followed her lead. They decided that it was the way that they in the heartland could support the war effort, but having a 10-minute morale boost for the troops that came through. And there were plenty that came! Over the six years that the canteen was operated, they served between 10 and 20,000 troops EVERY DAY. Keep in mind that sugar, flour, all treat-making supplies were rationed, and that everything was made by hand. It was a legendary stop for troops, and those 10 minutes stuck with many soldiers as they felt the appreciation of the communities that supported the North Platte Canteen.

As you can tell, this story is a source of pride for the town, and we watched a documentary on the Canteen, and then our host families brought tons of incredible food for a real Nebraska potluck, in the style of the Canteen. We even borrowed 1940's costumes for the staff from the local community theatre, to help set the mood for the dinner.

But Lloyd and Nola are the ones who really stole the show. This warm and wonderful couple has only been married five years (same as me!). They both lost their first spouses, and now play four-handed piano for parties and events. They work for free, but often get paid in restaurant gift certificates. Lloyd plays the low notes and Nola plays high- they tried to switch once and it didn't go well. They played a fun combination of old show tunes and Christmas songs, and had a steady crowd gathered round the piano for a sing-along. My favorite was when they played the song they always play before they go to bed every night, called "I'll see you in my dreams."

Lloyd and Nola came to both of our shows, and were such a touching impact on my experience in the city.

We had the unique opportunity of going to Ft Cody, which is one of the '7 Wonders" of North Platte. We had a ton of fun!

Not only did we see all of the kitsch in the shop, but we also saw the 2-headed cow!

We had so much fun that we eventually got thrown in jail :-(

Being the last US city, we also had to say goodbye to three cast members who aren't joining us in the Philippines because of health reasons. It was an emotional last few days, and now we're running on just a few hours sleep, catching up on the past six weeks sitting in LAX on a 12-hour layover. We're headed back to Manila, ready for four more weeks of adventure!

Sioux Falls, SD: Nov 3-9

2008-11-17T13:55:00.000-08:00

I looked forward to Sioux Falls all semester because it was the closest city to home, and I hoped to have visitors! We weren't disappointed...

We were so happy to have Beth and Emmy drive down on Friday night to hang out with us on our host family day. We went to the waterfalls of Sioux Falls, checked out the sculpture walk downtown, and then saw the cast perform at a half-time show for a high school football playoff game. I was so glad that they were able to come and hang out with us--- its always so good to see the sibs. Missed you, Kato!

Thanks to M & D, along with Uncle Jonny and Aunt Linda, for making the long drive all in one day to come see the show and go to dinner with us! Scott and I had fun working on the swing dance, to perform in the show and surprise the fam.

Other fave moments of Sioux Falls:
We had our hunger and poverty banquet there, which is always a powerful experience for the cast. The volunteer team of students that helped plan it added another dimension... they wanted the various social groups to spend time working in the typical occupational environment of their economic status. The poorest group, representing the bottom half of our world population, spends the majority of their time getting food and shelter, and so they were given access to a dumpster full of cardboard, and needed to make a home for the 10 people in their family. Some of their family members represented those too young or old to work, and could only watch but couldn't help with the planning or building.

The middle class, about 35% of the group (which is those people in our world that make between $400-$1,500 annually) spend their work time doing mostly manual labor, and so in our simulation they helped the school we were at by raking leaves, and picking up sticks on the playground.

The wealthy class, the top 15% in our world, were given the task of making a business model for a non-profit organization. They worked around a conference table, and had snacks of popcorn, cookies and hot cider, as the others worked outside in a blustery fall day.

After their hour of "work", we went into the banquet, where the top percent has a three-course meal, the middle class has beans, rice and water, and the poor class shares one pot of rice, and slightly salted water.

There were two significant points of discussion in reflecting on the experience that have stuck with me: Laura Lynn from Nebraska commented on how frustrated she was that the middle class ate beans and rice only, because she thinks of herself as middle class. Its the difference between the relative poverty within a country, and looking at the percentages on a global scale. It was a new reality to confront for her, and a powerful moment.

For Caitlin from Arizona, she was most upset by watching us throw away the perfectly good food that was left over from the wealthy table. This is the hardest part of the simulation for me, because it is so tremendously wasteful, as we purposely make more than the wealthy class could eat, in order to throw away the leftovers, in full view of the poor and middle classes who are sitting there, stomachs growling, smelling the flavorful pasta and garlic bread. But, sadly, around 30% of the food in developed nations is wasted, and so to not represent that as part of the simulation is doing an injustice to the circumstances in our world. What I thought was really significant was the reaction of the middle class... they saw me throw away the wealthy class' food, and they immediately went cleaned out the dishes that held the rice and beans they were served, not leaving a bit to be thrown away. Those type of reactions, and the hope that it affects how much food we take in buffet lines for the rest of the semester, is why we do these activities.

Aberdeen, SD: Oct 27-Nov 3

2008-11-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

In Aberdeen, many of the cast attended their very first Halloween Party! We had costume contests, carved pumpkins, and got people in the festive Halloween spirit. The road staff went as Dominoes, and we had a signal, so we would periodically line up during the party, and then knock each other down. Our party was on the 30th, so people could be home on Friday night to pass out candy with their host families.

Aberdeen is the home of StoryBook Land, and though it was closed for the season, they let us come in and check out the park anyway, posing in front of the statues and scenes of many famous storybook characters.

We did our immigration simulation in Aberdeen-- we start off with people getting passports, determining their citizenship status, and then we make it interesting by electing a mayor, proposing laws, taking citizenship tests, starting businesses, getting married... it becomes more of a simulation on government and social involvement. And it inevitably gets silly, and people get frustrated because some want to take it seriously and for others, its a game where its more fun to make a mafia, or kill the mayor with a letter bomb. It ends just as things start to get out of control, and the lesson is always in the reflection and analysis of what happened, what that says about our society, and about us as a group. After three semesters, I'm still not sure the activity exactly gets to the purpose of why we try to do it, but its really fun, and I hope its valuable at least for some people.

We held a Diversity Fair at the mall, and each continent had an information booth. We held an international fashion show, had contests to guess national anthems, face painting, language lessons, Name that Flag, mini-performances from our show, and even had a "security checkpoint" where you received a passport and ID card, and were scanned with a hairbrush. It was a lot of work, but ended up to be a huge success. It was fun to make a structure that really let people be creative and have a lot of fun within it.

It’s a small world after all

2008-11-17T13:34:00.000-08:00

It really is funny how the world works sometimes. When you think of the probability of things happening, they can often seem so remote, but then…BOOM!...there it is. On our way from Cheyenne, WY to Aberdeen, SD, we had the great opportunity to stop by Mount Rushmore and then spend a night at a camp in the Black Hills. When we arrived at “the faces” as some of our foreign students have come to call them, it was a sunny, brisk day with a biting wind blowing. One of the rangers gave us a tour and shared some fun facts about Mount Rushmore. Did you know that it was originally going to be faces of old west legends? The sculptor talked them out of it though and we ended up with four presidents who helped being about the unity of this country.

As we finished our tour I hear someone yell “Scott Enebo!” I thought that this was odd since no one ever uses my last name here, and so I turn around and see a park ranger walking towards me with gun, badge and everything. “Oh crap” I think…my first thought was that one of our students had done something stupid and that they needed someone in charge to bail someone out or something. But as he gets closer, I realize that I know him! It was Chris Chaffe who Ellen and I travelled with as students in Up with People. As it turns out, it was almost 11 years exactly that we were at Mount Rushmore together as students and here we were connecting after all of those years. Was the world sending a message? Who knows, but I can say that it was so great to have such a surprise.

After this we went to the “Outlaw Ranch” and had an overnight stay with the entire cast in cabins. It was an amazing night where we ate good food together, played games, toasted marshmallows around a campfire and played pranks on each other while running around in the woods. It was just what the cast needed and a fun way for us to just unwind and have fun. In the morning we woke to a herd of deer in the pasture and dozens of wild turkeys too. With our brains recharged, we headed back on the road to Aberdeen, SD.

Cheyenne, WY: Oct 20-26

2008-11-17T13:14:00.000-08:00

We were so excited to get to Cheyenne, WY, where we were lucky enough to stay with Jack and Karen Sapp. We were so spoiled the whole week, having fresh smoothies delivered to our bathroom, delicious hot breakfasts every day, and lively, fun-filled conversation every night. Julie was in town two evenings for dinner, since she commutes to Cheyenne for her job once a week, and it was wonderful, as always, to spend time with her.

Our regional learning for the cast was to hang out for a few hours with the Laramie County Community College Rodeo team- they talked with us about their rodeo events, shared some theory, answered our questions, and then taught us (or at least attempted to)how to rope cattle, tie goats, and try out riding a mechanical bull. The cast got a kick out of seeing Scott's bull-riding footage from the Sapp-Stone wedding (on You Tube- search amateur bull-riding and he is the number one video!). Quite a few cast members thought it would be fun to pretend to BE cattle, and the college cowboys roped their legs. It was a pretty stupid idea (and a few people got ankle rope burns) but it was hilarious to watch!

We had a fun crew drive up from Denver to support us and see the show: Lisa, Collins, Jules & Jon hung out on host family day for a fabulous brunch and a visit to the fall festival, where we raced in the corn maze, went on a hay ride, and watched the pumpkin cannons in full force. We ended the night with a legendary Karen Sapp dinner, and a fierce "peanuts" competition. Phil Worcester, who was hosted by the Sapps while he set up Cheyenne, graciously gave up the guest room and slept on the couch while we were in town, and he and Lisa, Jon and Scott, all bravely faced the intensity that is a Peanuts game in the Sapp household.

The week was over all too quickly, as we had a long drive ahead, with an exciting overnight planned in the Black Hills!

Salt Lake City

2008-11-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

We took the cast to Temple Square, where the Mormon sisters gave tours in many cast members' native languages! It was fun to see Seung-beom, our South Korean student, getting his own private tour of the complex.

Our stay in Salt Lake was impacted by organizing the tradition of Cast Appreciation. Ten staff members were hosted with the owner of the movie production company, Feature Films for the Family. His enormous house very generously held a lot of rehearsing, planning, and baking sessions to get ready for the big day.

In addition to the surprise set-up and the self-deprecating mini-show we prepared for the cast, we also this time made a "Cast B Lounge". You could get mixed "drinks" (made with combinations of fruit juice, sparkling water, and Red Bull), play a slot machine, get your shoes shined, have a massage, eat a cupcake, brownie, cereal bar or bagel, or play a little blackjack (complete with a Native American dealer!) I think we possibly had more fun planning it than the cast had getting appreciated.

Our show facility was in the suburb of Murray, at Murray High School. Many cast members were excited because the auditorium where we performed was the very same facility that High School Musical was filmed in! You could recognize the space especially in the audition scene.

On Sunday, after recovering from an exhausting week, we drove out to the Great Salt Lake. What a great place to film a thriller movie with its rolling fog and spooky mist, even in the middle of the day. We barbequed in the evening, and enjoyed our success!

Colorado Springs: Oct 6-12

2008-11-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

Highlights from our week in the Springs:

Visiting Garden of the Gods -- these gorgeous red rock formations were a huge hit with the cast. My favorite was the "Kissing Camels"... a few years ago one of the camels was hit by lightning, and now it looks more like a camel kissing a turtle.

Touring the Olympic Training Center -- they only drain the pool once every four years, during the summer Olympics, so we got to see a rare site at the center- a completely empty pool. Our tour guide was a female weightlifter... she's been living at the center for over 10 years training to be an Olympian. Unfortunately she only qualified for the team as an alternate, so she didn't get to go to Beijing. She's going to train for four more years, give it one more shot. I can't imagine that kind of one-track focus... talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.

Being based on the base of Fort Carson: We were there for the week to honor military families. Our bus driver Marv was thrown for a loop when his GPS didn't work anywhere on the base. It was grayed out completely like it didn't exist.

Great Big Sea: we drove up for a concert at the Paramount Theatre in Denver... always a good show!

Hanging with the Enebos: we went hiking with Chris and Gene on our host family day. They came down to celebrate an early birthday with Scott, brought cake for the cast, and then on Sunday we saw Seven Falls, and went for lunch.

Hurray for Photos

2008-11-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well, after much slacking and procrastinating, Scott got his act together and posted some pics. Be ready for some serious blog action in the near future. Here is a photo that never got posted but is totally fun.

It just made me laugh!

No pics yet...

2008-10-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to say that something is wrong with our photo card, and though I have tons of pictures from the last few weeks, I can't get them off the card to post. So as soon as we figure out what's wrong to make that transfer happen, you'll start seeing pics again.

Balloon Fiesta

2008-10-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

This week I checked something off my life list:
As a surprise for the cast, the advance team got us all volunteer positions to work the opening day of the largest hot air balloon event in the USA, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta!

We didn't go home after our show Friday night, but went instead to a banquet facility we used all week called the Event Palace, where we took about a two-hour nap before departing for the Balloon Fiesta launch grounds at 4:00am Saturday morning.

About 40 people volunteered for the Make a Wish foundation, working their tables selling calendars and programs, and the other 60 were on chase crews. We were assigned balloon pilots in groups of 2-3, and were spread out over the 74 acres of balloons. There were over 600 launched in a little under two hours.

To be on the field, seeing so many balloons filled and lit up in the dawn, and then taking off in pickups and vans to chase the balloons through ABQ and repack them was totally exhilarating. There were at least 15 cast members who were invited by their pilot to fly in the balloon instead of riding on the ground in the chase crew... we felt so lucky, and decided it was definitely worth it to schedule a night that lasted only three hours (which is always a fear when you are responsible for planning a ridiculous schedule.)

Another recommend from this week's stay: anybody can come and volunteer on a chase crew at the fiesta. Lots of people come and volunteer multiple days for the same balloonist in hopes that they will reward your hard work with a free ride. I would love to come back and do it again sometime.

ABQ = FUN

2008-10-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

Our week in Albuquerque had some really incredible opportunities!

We toured Acoma Sky City, a Native American community that sits atop a mesa on a reservation north of ABQ, and the oldest buildings are carbon dated back to 1150. Our tour guide was an engaging and mysterious storyteller, and wandering through this town which is still inhabited with no running water and no electricity (though many families have generators, because as our guide said, even they can't live without Deal or No Deal and Monday Night Football.) We were shuttled up to the little town, but got to climb down an ancient steep stairway to get off the mesa and back to the museum and welcome center. I highly recommend visiting this community if you are in New Mexico.

ABQ was our environment city, where the cast does one of my very favorite activities, carrying our trash for the week. We had a few meals with excess packaging, and it is fun to see how people handle the challenge. We had a few who tried to eat things they would normally discard- someone ate her whole watermelon rind, and another tried to choke down a banana peel (but gave up after just a few bites). This activity is always a realization in how much we use and waste- especially when our trash also includes any unfinished food on our plates. My hope is that the lessons transfer to less waste for the rest of the semester.

Our show in Albuquerque was at the amphitheatre at the Rio Grande Zoo. We performed literally in the duck pond- there was a moat complete with a huge white swan between the stage and the grassy lawn where the audience brought blankets and lawn chairs. It was a lovely evening and a great crowd- the only downside was that our generator was having problems and the power to the lights kept going out. Scott can add another line to his job description: his task for the evening was to sit next to the generator and every time it shut off unexpectedly, he was there to turn it back on. So now, in addition to being the assistant cast manager and the truck driver, he is also the generator monitor. Hopefully that will come with a pay bump.

Saw-wah-ree-tah

2008-10-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

It turns out that its quite difficult for most people to pronounce our first city back in the US, Sahuarita AZ. This community in the midst of the largest pecan grove in the United States is about 45 minutes south of Tucson. We had our first day of school projects, with this cast's debut of the Stand for Peace program. They taught two 1.5 hour classes and performed a mini-show in the afternoon. It was a huge learning curve, as your first child audience always is, but most people loved it and are excited to do it again (which is good because at least three more of our US cities have this program as part of our community impact.)
We also had a really wonderful evening at an independent living community for seniors called La Posada. They hosted a barbecue where we were the food line crew and wait staff, and after we had served our tables, then we sat down and ate with them. We thought it was going to be burgers and brats, but our meal turned out to be roast beef and a skewer of shrimp, rice pilaf, salad with berries and greens, and New York cheesecake topped with bananas foster. It was quite possibly the fanciest dinner we've had on the road, and it was a pleasure to chat with the residents of La Posada. They were so appreciative and friendly, and many came to our show (even though they usually don't like to drive in the dark).

The show day was also incredible--- being so close to Tucson, which was UWP's headquarters for over 25 years, there is a lot of history here. The original UWP musicians, the Colwell Brothers and Herb Allen, all in their 80s, joined the cast onstage towards the end of the show and played a few songs. Herb Allen is the most incredible xylophone player I have ever seen. It is such an honor for the cast to be able to perform with them and to experience live that part of UWP's legacy. We also had lots of guests from Europe who were wanting to see how the "new" Up with People was working, and they ate dinner with the cast before the show. We had to have special security in place because a prince from the Netherlands was in attendance, Peter Von Vollenhoven, who is also a famous pianist and produced the well-loved UWP album, "The Dutch Touch."

Much of this week was a blur to me though, as I was incredibly sick for a few days. I was a walking zombie on the show day, and laid in bed for literally all of our free day... luckily I was in the hotel and not a host family, as I would have been an antisocial, grumpy mess. There's nothing worse than being sick on the road- usually my body doesn't allow it, but I think it held together for the whole Mexican tour, and figured that when we got back to the US it could finally relax. No such luck. Thankfully, I'm almost back to normal, with just a little cough lagging behind.

over 900 hours

2008-10-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hermosillo was an incredible service city too. The cast logged over 900 hours of community impact work. We had three main projects: we attended a youth conference on health and sexuality and participated in activities with local youth leaders, we visited a children's hospital with what roughly translates as "funny doctors" (like Patch Adams, who wear red clown noses as they do their rounds), and each afternoon we refurbished basketball courts around the city, completing a total of 21. We repainted lines, planted trees and picked up trash, working alongside local high school and college students that came out to help.
The city ended with our hottest show day yet. We had a super crew that started setup at 5am to try to avoid the heat of the day. I wrapped rope from our education supplies around the hand railings to get onstage because the metal was so hot you couldn't touch them (which makes handrails basically useless). We went through 16 five-gallon jugs of water throughout the day (which is almost a gallon per person, which doesn't sound like much-- but you have to remember that that is only refills, it doesn't count what each person brought with them at the beginning of the day). But by the time the show started it was an almost comfortable 90 degrees, and the whole community was there. We sold a ton of T-shirts (including a few hundred to the cast) and had a fun encore. It was a fabulous way to end our Mexican tour!

last beach day (for awhile)

2008-10-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Something that was very different about this tour of Mexico from our last one was the amount of time we've been able to spend at the beach! Compared to our landlocked tour in May, this cast has been absolutely spoiled.
Our regional learning day in Hermosillo was no exception. We traveled about an hour to the coast, as we were invited to a luncheon hosted for us by the Mayor of the Guaymas/ San Carlos area. There was an amazing buffet at the San Carlos Beach Club, where afterwards we could swim in the pool and go kayaking and paddle-boating around the bay. Check out the tamarind margarita garnished with a chili-covered mango (pic to come!)
We also had a historic tour of Guaymas before our bus trip back to Hermosillo. Such a relaxing, wonderful day-- especially after our busy, late night.

Dia de la Independencia

2008-10-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Hermosillo on Mexican Independence day, changed immediately into our fanciest clothes and walked over to the Municipal Palace to attend the Governor's reception. We made a long receiving line, went into the reception for a quick drink, before being escorted back outside to the plaza to see "el grito" and some fireworks. El grito (the shout) is a tradition on Independence day- the mayor of every city, the Governor of every state, and the President of the country all stand on the balcony of their respective government palace building and do their own version of a cheer for Mexico, which of course always ends with "Viva Mexico!"
This is a reenactment of the cry of independence first shouted by a priest named Miguel Hidalgo, who rallied his community to revolt against the Spaniards in a battle that started September 16, 1810.
We stood in front of the palace, the white facade was lit green and red like the Mexican flag, and watched from a prime location inside the security fence the huge display of festivities. There were Mariachi bands, the military drum corps and color guard, lots of folklorico dance groups, and a huge finale timed to music with fireworks and confetti that went off in three directions.
It was a huge honor to shake the governor's hand, and to be welcomed into the city by being invited to attend this special event. We finally met our host families a little before midnight, and jumped into a really fun and full week in Hermosillo.

Dental and drug adventures

2008-10-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry that we've derailed on the blog for a few weeks... the rest of the Mexican tour was a blur of tacos, huge crowds, fireworks, and the biggest tortillas I'd ever seen.

But first, back to Culiacan:
Culiacan was about 45 minutes from the coast, and the capital city of the state of Sinaloa. Our host families from the rest of the tour were very concerned that Culiacan was on our itinerary, because there is a long history of drug-related violence in this area. (Of course, most of them had never been to Culiacan before themselves...)
Because President Calderon has a personal agenda to severely cut down on drug-trafficking, there is a large military presence in Culiacan. But, like so many things, it sounds so much worse in the media than it feels when you are actually in the community. The only difference we saw at all was occasionally passing a military vehicle full of patrolling soldiers with machine guns. Otherwise, its normal everyday life for the community. We asked the cast how they felt after being in the city for a few days, and had a really great discussion about perceptions, realities, daily life in cities that have a bad rep in the eye of the media, and what their host families thought about it all.

And then, the rest of the city was a blur to me, as I broke a tooth on the first show day, and spent the majority of the rest of my time in the city at the dentist.

Differences in Mexican dentistry, at least in my experience:
Though he had a spit-sucking tube, my dentist didn't use it but rather had me sit up and spit, to give my jaw a break. What's gross was actually seeing the color of my spit as he worked on my tooth... not recommended.
I had a television hanging in my line of sight, and held the remote so I could channel surf during my appointment.
There was no dental assistant or nurse of any kind-- just one on one, me and the dentist.
After my first of two appointments, my jaw had been wide open for almost two hours, so my appointment ended with a jaw and face massage. Relaxing, yet very odd. I chalked it up to a cultural experience.
Best of all, the price difference. I always want to break my tooth in Mexico: what surely would have set me back $600-800 in the US cost $120 cash in Mexico. Two appointments and three hours later, I was good as new. On to our last city: Hermosillo!

Free Beer - Non Negiable

2008-09-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

For our host family day, we went with our host fam out to the coast after a nice relaxing morning (our typical Sunday in Up with People). We started by going on a boat ride through an estuary that eventually led to a crocodile breeding area. When we got tickets, there was a sign out front that said something to the effect “With every ticket purchased you get a beer…not negotiable.” As we did not want to be offensive to our Mexican hosts, we took the beer and we road the boat ;-) It was such a beautiful ride where we saw some nesting birds, a crocodile and some beautiful landscape. We stopped at a crocodile breeding area, where they are working to maintain a healthy crocodile population in the area.

After this we made a trip to the beach and played with the host bro and sister in the water. Right after we arrived, it started to rain like crazy. This was such an amazing experience to be in the water and have a torrential downpour fall all around us.

When we had our fill, we came out and had a meal of ceviche, empanadas and pescado Santiago (a fish smoked over a special wood found in the mangrove forest). It tasted so amazing...I think I ate about 6 tacos.

Life continues to be great down here in Mexico. Thanks for reading about our latest adventures.

Mexican show days

2008-09-07T18:25:00.001-07:00

September 6th- I love show days, because the education department isn’t responsible for anything in particular, and are just there to support what all the other departments are doing. We’ve been performing in huge open spaces, baseball stadiums, and here in Tepic at the fairgrounds, and in all locations so far, we’ve set up at least 2,000 chairs. One of the things I love about Up with People is when you get a group of people helping, how quickly you can do something like set up thousands of seats in the glaring sunshine. I’ve spent my last few show days helping out at our merchandise stands, which I really enjoy. It lets me use my Spanish to chat with people about what they think of the show, help them pick out which T-shirts they want, and doing quick math in pesos keeps my brain on its toes. Also, because Matthew, our merchandise coordinator, is also in the show a lot because he has a great voice (and this cast doesn’t have many strong male vocalists) so he needs somebody to guard his stuff. So the past few shows Scottie sits at one of the merch tables and I man the other one. Last night was incredible, as I watched from the back of the amphitheatre, I could see the bright lights of the stage, the moon, and a huge lightning show silhouetted against the mountains. It was a lovely evening, and the few raindrops didn’t deter our audience… in fact, they rushed the stage (mostly to get under the roof that overhung the stage area by just a few feet), but to the cast, it felt like they were rock stars with everyone leaning in so close. The energy at the Mexican shows is just so fun, and last night, the cast got to do its first encore. “Otra! Otra!”

Feria Cultural

2008-09-07T18:24:00.002-07:00

September 5- We’ve spent the week in the city of Tepic, in the state of Nayarit. It is about two hours from Guadalajara, 40 minutes from the Pacific coast, and set in the green, tropical mountains of western Mexico. We are partnering with three universities this week, and one of our community impact projects was to participate in a Culture Fair for university and high school students. We designed our booths the day before: we had an international trivia booth in a jeopardy-type format, a Music & Nightlife booth where you could learn about what going out with your friends looks like in different regions of the world (and where they had periodic dance parties and club music playing throughout the fair), and a Languages booth, where people could learn phrases in other languages, and get their names written in other alphabets (like Thai, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese). The universities had booths too- there was a culinary school that was teaching people how to carve fruits & vegetables, an art department that was screening Tshirts, and a representatives from the Huichol tribe that were demonstrating and selling their traditional beadwork. Part of the cast performed a mini-show, and we had an International Costume fashion show with about 15 cast members. What I love about events like this is the cast gets to create the content beforehand, so we are all more invested in the success of the event.

Cabo Contrasts

2008-09-07T18:24:00.001-07:00

In coming to Los Cabos, we wanted to show the cast more than just the beautiful vacation community full of wealthy snowbirds that move south to spend their winters here. Part of the goal of our sponsor, the Los Cabos Children’s Foundation, was to educate the local Mexican community that lives and works here year-round about the services and support that the foundations partner agencies offer. So we were taken by the director of Ligamac, which is an agency that helps children get school supplies and uniforms so they can attend school, to a very poor, newer community on the outskirts of Cabo San Jose. In recent years, there has been a huge migration to Cabo because of the construction demand. But families are moving here too quickly for the community infrastructure, so there isn’t enough housing or schools or sewers or roads to handle the influx. As a result, there are squatter communities popping up in the desert outside of town, where homes are made of plywood and scrap metal, and in some cases are put up the dry riverbeds, where a strong storm can wash away an entire community overnight.

It was hard for the cast to drive our air-conditioned shiny coach buses into this community, to get out for less than an hour, to walk around, talk with the families living there, to play with the kids, and to learn a little bit about these people and their situation. To some it looked so bleak, yet there were small gardens, and homes that were well-cared for, and in the more established community, where most families have been there for a year or more, there are structures of cement with rebar sticking out the top as a sign of the 2^nd floor addition that they’re planning as more money comes in. That’s what is incredible about the way this community is developing—its not that a big development company comes in and builds a complex, and then the families move into bright, finished suburbia. It’s one family at a time, building their houses from scraps that the husband brings back from the fancy condo construction site he works on all day, if he’s lucky enough to have found work. Every house has a water tank, and a truck drives through the community delivering water, house by house. It isn’t potable, so another truck delivers drinking water. Schools are overflowing and for many, the nearest one is over an hour’s walk away.

But as we talked to the women and played with the children in this dry, dusty village, they expressed their appreciation for us coming, and being interested in learning about their situation. So even though it feels horrible to get off the buses and take pictures—I heard comments about cast members not wanting to treat these people like we were at a zoo- but if we had ignored it altogether by not coming, and instead have only had the more touristy Cabo experience, we wouldn’t be doing the community justice either. And in visiting the community with one of our beneficiary partners who works with these people every day, it was an honor for us to see what the money raised from our show will benefit.

The irony was that we started the day in this poor, depressed community, and then visited a lush mango farm in the rain where we hurriedly hiked to a waterfall and rode back to the buses in pickup trucks full of mangos, with fresh mango juice dribbling from our chins. We had to rush back to Cabo in order to make our sunset boat cruise out to the famous Cabo arch. On the boat there was a band and an open bar, and we danced and ate sushi and saw sea lions, and had a wonderful, amazing time… all the while remembering the families we met this morning and how different our lives were from theirs. It was a day of huge contrasts, and one that this cast will not soon forget.

nuestro anniversario

2008-09-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

August 30^th, 2008: To celebrate our anniversary, we actually took a day off! It was August 29^th, because we had to attend a VIP cocktail hour before the show on our real anniversary. It was so relaxing to stop and do nothing for a day… we hung out around two of the resort pools, went out to breakfast and to dinner, and walked along the beach. The resort sat almost at the very tip of the Baja peninsula, so you couldn’t actually swim in the ocean there. The waves were too dangerous, because of the riptides from the Pacific meeting the Sea of Cortez. I’ve never seen such powerful, intense waves in my life. We were up at the sky pool at happy hour, and enjoyed mojitos sitting on stools in the pool. We couldn’t have been luckier to celebrate here, to have that gift of a wonderful, peaceful day in the middle of this crazy busy life that we love.

Pueblo Bonito

2008-09-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

In honor of our fifth wedding anniversary on August 30th, we requested to be in the staff hotel, which happened to be the Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach resort in Cabo San Lucas. They were one of our sponsors in Los Cabos, and we were so spoiled! The resort sits on a steep hillside, with speedy oversized golf carts that drive guests around the complex. Our building was in the middle, so we could walk easily down to the lagoon pool and beachfront, and also up to the restaurants. The sky pool, which was above everything- a two-level pool with a hottub that sat above it, was where we spent most of our time when we were there… though most days we didn’t get home before dark. On our last day though, we went up to the sky pool at 3:30pm and stayed until 8pm. The sunset was incredible.

Bombitas!

2008-08-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

Though you might think that “little bombs” or bombitas would be the result of eating too many beans here in Mexico, its actually the term for cannonball! In honor of the close of the Olympics, we did some synchronized cannonballing. Que padre!

La lluvia

2008-08-28T22:05:00.001-07:00

(Sunday, August 24th) So it never rains in La Paz, except when there’s a hurricane. When I asked the advance team if we needed a rainy day plan for any of our activities, they laughed… until tropical storm Julio started rolling in yesterday. Our show was in a baseball stadium, and we built a stage basically on second base. Because its 110 degrees here everyday, we were worried about our equipment being too hot to function properly. That turned out to not be a problem at all, since it started to rain right when we started our afternoon rehearsal. It sprinkled through most of the afternoon, and rained hard enough for us to stop and get offstage for a little while. The tech team was busy all day… moving tents over speaker towers and wrapping lighting trusses in tarp. There was a canopy onstage all afternoon over the band. When the rain got heavy, all the microphones were covered with plastic bags, and the stage was full of gravelly mud from the baseball field. Thankfully, by some miracle, it cleared up about two hours before our show and was dry through the evening.

Our biggest problem during the show was that the air was steamy and humid, and dancers kept losing their grip because they were so sweaty!

We awoke this morning (Sunday) to a gray, steady rain. It cooled the temperature to about 90 degrees, and though our beach and boating plans were foiled, we instead got to relax around the house, and had a fabulous pool party in the rain with our host parents’ grandchildren. Every Sunday their children and grandkids come over and make a big lunch… we had a mix of Italian, Lebanese and Mexican food (since two of the daughters lived for awhile in Italy, and hostmom Magui’s family is from Lebanon). Caprese salad, shrimp and fish ceviche, spaghetti la carbonera and a homemade red sauce with a little bit of cream cheese. Also jocoque (which is like Lebanese sour cream- I don’t know the English word) with pita chips and salami. We ate and swam, and had diving contests, races, did cartwheels into the pool, played marco polo and “Tiburon” (shark!), and just had a wonderful day… and tomorrow we’re off to Los Cabos!

Volunteering in La Paz

2008-08-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

(Thursday, August 21) Our beneficiary this week (who receives the proceeds from our show) is Mobilize Mankind. Its an organization started by an American couple who have been living here for five years. They bring used wheelchairs, that by law cannot be redistributed in the United States, down here to the Baja. They find the families that need the chairs, and they give them away. They fit the kids with chairs, and they do continual service, and trade them into new chairs as they grow or their needs change. They also work with schools to make facilities handicapped accessible, and they have just laid the cornerstone on an amazing playground that is over 90% accessible to wheelchair bound children. (Most playgrounds in the US are only required to be 10% accessible—you put up one ramp and a spinning wheel and you meet that minimum requirement…) their vision is for kids of all abilities to play together on creative, beautiful equipment that is fun for all. There is a castle and a pirate ship, water fountains and sprinklers… the designs are incredible. Our sponsor, the Los Cabos Children’s Foundation, that’s helping support Mobilize Mankind, is bringing us to La Paz to spread awareness of this project and to get the community excited about it.

The cast has also spent a lot of time on an anti-graffiti campaign in the city, painting the baseball stadium where we perform tomorrow, parks, and walls all over town.

We also managed to squeeze in a little fun: on our first day all together here (Tuesday), we visited the anthropology museum to learn about the history of settlers on the Baja, the cathedral, and ended on the beach to play in the sun. Coca-cola has been our beverage sponsor this week, and brings coolers of water, iced tea and powerade to our volunteer sites, along with a truck with huge speakers to blast party music while we work. It feels like Spring Break meets Americorps! Its hilarious, and oh so fun.

Peaceful La Paz

2008-08-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

(Wed, Aug 20th) Scottie arrived in gorgeous, steamy La Paz, Mexico on Saturday with the majority of the cast, and I got here with the remaining 16 who didn’t fit on the first flight on Monday afternoon. We flew to the airport at the southern tip of Baja California in Cabo San Jose, and drove two hours north (and stopped for lots of cows and goats on the narrow highway) to reach the coastal community. La Paz sits on a bay on the eastern, gulf side of the Baja, though the coast wraps around to form 3/4ths of a circle, so we can actually look out west over the water to see the amazing sunsets every night.

We’re hosted separately this week- I’m with four girls at the house of Magui Valazquez Dipp, and her husband, the architect who we’ve never met. Magui (pronounced Maggie) lives on the bluffs at the edge of the city, and our spectacular pool patio looks out over the bay. We are so spoiled, coming home every day to tupperwares of fresh mango, quesadillas, and a dip in the pool to cool off after a day in the 110 degree sun.

These are the contrasts that come with our Mexican tour—your hosting situation is totally the luck of the draw. We feel overwhelmed with our lovely, spacious home, where there are others in the cast staying with families on the other end of the spectrum, who only have running water every few days.

No Gracias Julio

2008-08-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well, we are getting ready to leave La Paz and it is just in time for Tropical Storm Julio! According to host families it only rains about 2 days a year here, and we are here for both of them...lucky us. The weather here has been totally like fuego with daily temperatures around 110 degrees with humidity. It seems that whether it has been raining or not that my shirt is wet most of the time. Our first show in Mexico was very successful with a crowd in a baseball stadium totaling over 2000 people. We were pretty worried as the day turned into rain for several hours and the show was outdoors. We wondered what we should do if it continued to rain, but fortunately the answer was relatively simple. According to certain Mexican legend , if you take a knife and bury it point down in the area you are at, this will stop the rain. We tried this out and sure enough...the rain stopped for the show! This theory is hotly contested by the Venezuelans though who say that you need to take two knives and put that in the shape of a cross and then bury them. We will have to try this method out next time and see which country holds the gold medal for the best juju.

The food has been amazing as you can imagine. We have eaten serious quantities of real Mexican food, which beats the heck out of the ham sandwiches of last tour. We are off to Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo tomorrow where we will have more adventures on the peninsula. Lucky us, we will also be celebrating our 5-year anniversary!!! Have a great day and thanks for reading.

Phoenix Mine

2008-08-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

We are setting our standards high for regional learning! On our way up to Breckenridge, we stopped at the Phoenix Mine in Idaho Springs. A third generation gold miner named Al spoke to the cast about what it means to be a miner today, and then we had tours through the still functioning gold mine. These miners were characters... and the cast had a fabulous time. We panned for gold in the creek, looked for a packrat named Jerry Garcia back in the depths of the mine, and heard the ghost stories from these crazy old men who supplemented their mining income by doing tours through the top layers of the mine.

time to go!

2008-08-10T21:39:00.001-07:00

And we're off again...
Cast B's dress rehearsal was yesterday afternoon, and after four quick weeks, they've got the show down pretty well. There's some extra pressure on this group, because they only have one week in the USA before their show changes to Spanish in Mexico. That's new lyrics to three current songs, plus adding in a seven-minute medley of popular and traditional Mexican music.

Tonight everyone is packing, weighing their suitcases, and then repacking, before our first travel day as a cast! We are headed to Breckenridge, CO, with a stop first at a gold mine in Idaho Springs. Stay tuned for adventures from the road!

Jammer - not a job for me!

2008-08-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

With my pending job search looming in a few month's time, I've decided to begin by eliminating those I definitely do not want. Top of my list at the moment for career paths I will not be pursuing is being a "Jammer" for a women's roller derby team.

Our fab host fam took us on Friday night to see a scrimmage of the Denver Roller Dolls (where Julie's hairdresser, Gabe, is an announcer named Evel Con Evel). If you have never been to a roller derby, YOU MUST GO. There is nothing quite like it...

Women, some big and burly, others sleek and speedy, dress in fishnets and rollerskates with matching colored wheels, and have names like Enya Biznass, Fonda Pain, Judo No and Angela Death. They race around a tiny track, trying to help their team's Jammer, while hindering the path of the opposing Jammer.

The Jammers, who start 20 feet or so behind the rest of the pack of skaters, have to make their way through the pack, then get around quick to lap the pack. They get a point for every person on the opposing team that they lap.

Now officially, its illegal to throw elbows and trip people, but roller derby a bit like hockey, in that the penalty-causing behavior is exactly what the PBR-drinking crowd is there to see. Plus, there was a frisbee-catching dog show at halftime. The trainers tossed a constant stream of frisbees to frolicking dogs who would jump on the trainer's back, or knee, or in some cases over their (sitting) heads, to grab the frisbees. (Let's talk about another job I don't want...)

The whole evening was entertaining, and if you can handle the baudy side (like Dump Truck, Scott's favorite announcer, who wore a pink cutoff t-shirt, a diaper and cowboy boots, with a mohawk and a tattoo that said "ridiculous" in three-inch letters that arched over his beer belly), it is well worth the trip.

If you're in the Denver area, swing by the Fillmore Auditorium next month when the Denver Roller Dolls battle the Minnesota Roller Girls! How I wish I could be there...

wildfire recovery

2008-08-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

In 2002, the largest wildfire in Colorado's recorded history burned through a valley southwest of Denver. The Hayman fire, as it is known, burned 138,000 acres of land. This land is part of the Upper South Platte River watershed, and the erosion and debris severely affected the water supply to the city of Denver.

Since 2004, Up with People has worked with the coalition of the upper south Platte (or CUSP), to do wildfire reparation work. On Tuesday we took the cast up into the mountains near Buffalo Creek, CO, to do some fire maintenance.

We divided into three groups of about 35 people. One group planted 100 trees across two acres of private land, below the border of the national forest (where the wildlife, burned and dead as it is, can't be touched).

Ellen's group planted native grasses on two more acres. It was a three step process: first we cleared burnt out trees, branches and bark from the land, throwing it into the drainage ravine, where it will be fully burned in the winter. Then we raked the hard-packed, gravelly earth to loosen it up for seed. Two people walked over the property with seeders, which spit eight types of seeds of native grasses on the ground, and we followed behind and covered the bare, patchy areas of seeded gravel with hay. When it rains, the hay will hold the moisture for the seeds to take root.

Scott's group worked to pull a noxious weed that poisons the ground around it. Knapweed is from Russia, and came to the US in a bin of grain in the early 1900s. It releases a toxin that kills off anything around it, so the native plants and grasses, that are crucial to the forest growing back, are getting squeezed out. Scottie's group pulled weeds until they ran out of garbage bags (they filled over 60!) The bummer about knapweed is that the chemical irritates your skin, so lots of people are nursing itchy, rashy arms. The remedy recommended by our contact was to rub salt on your skin and then rinse it off with cool water. Its had mixed reviews on its success.

We worked for about four hours in blazing Colorado sunshine, with sweat pouring from our hardhats. We were covered in dust, dirt, ash, and hay. At the end it was satisfying to look around and see how much we accomplished on our five acres in such a short time, yet so humbling and sad to drive for over 45 minutes to the site through the barren, brown mountains that were in the fire's path. It was a drop in the bucket, but our work will help prevent erosion, which means cleaner water for the city of Denver.

round three

2008-07-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

One tour barely ends before the next cast flies in to start their adventure!

Since you last heard from us, we had a relaxing vacation on Ko Samui Island in Thailand, returned to Minnesota for a fast week of seeing family and friends, trimming the bushes around our house, and going to the dentist, before returning to Denver to begin staging for Cast B 2008. This will be our last tour as road staff, as we love the work, but miss home and the pace of "normal" life.

We are already in the third week of staging and orientation, and it feels so much easier this time around! We actually can relax in the evenings, instead of trying to learn our jobs every waking moment of the day. I'm excited for my second semester as education manager, continuing to improve the curriculum and come up with new ways to facilitate those challenging discussions that make a cast grow.

Today we are headed north to Cheyenne to witness the Finals of the "daddy of 'em all", Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo. My goal for this blog is to continue to update weekly (never mind the last two months), and with a new semester comes a fresh start. Hopefully all our readers haven't abandoned us!

We have an incredible tour ahead- check out the tour schedule on the side, and stay tuned for our next adventures! -ee

Intense host family day

2008-05-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

I love host family days where you have no idea what's in store for you... and that's what Sunday was. We left the house at 9am, and didn't get home until 9:30pm. The only stop in our itinerary that we knew about was the first one. We never knew how long we'd stay, what we'd need with us, what we'd be doing, and our family's English didn't allow for those questions to be answered accurately anyway, so we were just along for the ride!

Our first stop was Doi Tung, which is the queen mother's summer house. She passed away in 1994, so the house is more of a museum now, and has beautiful gardens and an orchid breeding/ research lab. The flowers and plants and fountains were all spectacular. Because Thai culture is very reserved about clothing, when you entered the queen mother's home, you had to be wearing long pants and shirts with sleeves to the elbow. If you didn't arrive in that, you were given a shirt and pants to wear over your clothing! I'll have Scottie post some pics of my sweet outfit.

After Doi Tung, we spent the afternoon at a teacher friend of hostmom's, in a traditional Thai style house (which is mostly open, all hardwood, where sit on mats, eat on the floor around a short table)... delicious food, lots of fruit and fun things to try. We played puzzle games and relaxed on the patio/ deck outdoor area for a few hours. They took us to the campus of Mae Fa Luang University, which is very lovely, and all the instruction is in English. We visited the statue of the Queen Mother there, and also the Chinese Institute.

Sunday evening we met the rest of the host fam at the Night Bazaar downtown Chiang Rai for dinner, more Thai dancing, and a little shopping.

This blog must be cut short, because it is definitely gonna rain in the next few minutes and I have to try to beat it home!

Regional Learning

2008-05-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

Sightseeing in Up with People is all part of the experience, so we call it "regional learning". This past Saturday was the prime example of a successful and truly wonderful regional learning day. First, we rode flat little boats with funny outboard motors on the back down the Mae Kok river, which flows on the north side of Chiang Rai. The boats only held 6-7 people plus the driver, so we were a long trail winding down the river. The scenery was gorgeous, and as we approach our destination, the cast realizes that what we are looking at is about 20 elephants standing in the river. The best part: they were waiting to give us a ride!

You can ride an elephant two ways: you can sit on its head, which is actually quite comfortable and sturdy compared to the second way, riding on a bench which is perched on its back. It feels very precarious to be up so high, and you wobble with every step. We rode for about an hour, during which I tried both ways of riding, and we ended our ride by coming back through the river that we had just arrived on.

After lunch, we had a surprise endurance hike for two hours up a mountain through hill tribe villages to a waterfall. Granted, we knew it was a hike that would last two hours and that we should wear "comfortable walking shoes". For some cast members that choice was flipflops, which they regretted about a fourth of the way up the mountain. It was incredibly hot and very steep, and a great experience to push yourself to your limit. The reward was an impressive waterfall called Houykeaw, where we swam and slid on the rocks, before hiking back down the short way, to get rides back into town.

The day ended at a delicious restaurant in Chiang Rai, where there was a two-man acoustic band who played top 40 hits with a little Thai flair. We also had guest performers: the arts and culture group from the clay house, most of whom are from the Akra tribes in northern Thailand, performed traditional song and dance for us. It was a picture perfect regional learning day, and something that the whole group will not soon forget.

Kindness

2008-05-27T03:51:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you story about kindness. I am not sure why it surprises me when people are so kind and generous, but I was so totally floored by the kind hearts that we encountered today. I’ll start from the beginning…

As we were in the midst of our super-long travel day to Thailand (scheduled to be over 50 hours of traveling), one of our students lost his passport somewhere between clearing customs in Los Angeles and boarding our connecting flight in Hong Kong. Now, losing your passport is freaky enough as it is, but what makes this even scarier is that you cannot leave the airport without a passport. If you’ve seen “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks, it felt a lot like that. So while the rest of the cast boarded the plane, this student and I sat there in disbelief in the Hong Kong airport and tried to think of what to do next. Not a super way to start up our last month of touring eh?

Before we could even wonder what to do, the airline found the phone number for the consulate and let us talk to them. We were then escorted around the airport by a delightful woman who not only helped us navigate the red tape, but also made sure that we had a map and all of the information that we needed to get as quickly as possible to the consulate. Getting into Hong Kong was a snap and there we continued to find people who really wanted to make sure that we got things sorted out as quickly as possible. Much to our shock, we had a new passport in hand by 3:30 that same day.

Without wasting a moment, we raced back to the airport in hopes of getting on a new flight. Now, we fully expected to have to pay a change fee, but with a kind woman at the Cathay Pacific desk, she spoke with her manager and had the fees waived. She put us on the next flight that left in 45 minutes and wished us well. With no plans of what we were going to do once we arrived in Bangkok, we felt that at least we would be in the correct country and timezone and we could figure everything else out. Upon arrival though, an alumna from Up with People was waiting for us to take to a hotel that had already been booked with plane tickets in hand that were to take us up north the next morning.

So here I write from the humid, tropical paradise of northern Thailand still in awe of the kindness shown to us by strangers. I know that this has set my journey here off on the right foot so that I can do my best to give back to this place that has already earned my heart and gratitude.

white temple

2008-05-23T02:46:00.000-07:00

On Sunday my family took me to visit the White Temple. It is modern Buddhist art in-progress... the nationally acclaimed artist has dedicated the rest of his life to building the nine building temple complex. He knows it won't be finished in his lifetime (he is 55) so he has trained disciples of his work, one group aged 16 and the other aged 24, to help complete it.

It is intricate mirror mosaic set into cement, in the curving, ornate shapes of the traditional Buddhist temple. There's also definitely some odd modern flair- the mural inside (which unfortunately I couldn't take photos of) includes Keanu Reeve's character from the Matrix, along with other memorabilia from the movie- the electronic bugs and cables of the matrix, all painted alongside Golden Buddhas, and three-headed snake dragons, etc. Wild.

We walked among the workers who were putting together future pieces of the temple, whose mosaic cement shop was set up under a large tent at the back of the grounds. The dream of the artist is for it to be a modern Buddhist masterpiece, his gift to his country. The white temple is treated like a temple inside, though there were way more tourists than monks visiting the day I was there. Fascinating, and a bit bizarre.

playing in the mud

2008-05-23T02:45:00.000-07:00

Our first Community Impact day in Chiang Rai! We are helping to build a clay house at the Arts & Culture Learning Center, which is on the grounds of the temple we slept at the cast’s first night here. It is a center that supports the abolition of human trafficking, and the girls that come there are from hill tribes in the northern region of Thailand that are at risk to enter the sex trade to raise money for their families.

This center houses a few of the girls, who travel to tribes to educate other young people. They also create art in workshops, and the traditional clay house that we are helping to build will be used as an art gallery.

Today we chopped down bamboo, split it into eighths lengthwise, and wove it to make a grid that will be the infrastructure of the clay walls. Then we helped to break up the dense chunks of clay mud, mixing it with water and grain to make it the correct consistency for building the walls.

Stomping in the mud, on a tropical May day. Does it get much better than this?

Maybe… we’re riding elephants and hiking to a waterfall tomorrow.

Buddha's Birthday Party

2008-05-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

So Monday night my family took me to the temple to celebrate Buddha's birthday. Before we went, host grandma taught me to fold flowers.

Imagine an enormous, durable rosebud, the size of my fist, with white petals. We peeled each petal back, folded it into itself once, and then into a point. We did this with all the outer layers until the center showed.

Each of us carried one flower, along with three sticks of incense and a lit candle. We gathered in front of one of the Buddhist temples in Chiang Rai, along with hundreds of our Thai neighbors. We listened to a loudspeaker of what was going on inside, which I was told was the head monk of the temple speaking, followed by the governor of Chiang Rai Province. Then they came out and led a procession around the temple. The older men monks led, followed by two rows of young boy monks, all dressed in the bright orange robes that wrap over one shoulder. Then the governor, his wife and party, and then the crowd of people. We all walked around the temple three times. There was a mix of chanting and singing, and people bowed towards every Buddha statue that we passed on our route.

The air was full of candlelight and a strong smell of incense. It was so surreal to be walking in this large crowd of Thai people, at Buddha's birthday party, and I couldn't help thinking, "how on earth did I get here?" Its one of my favorite things about these crazy cultural experiences... something I would never know to put on my life list, but was so glad I was here to live it.

We finished the walk by putting our still burning incense in large clay pots, pulled our candles out of their holders and melted wax to stick them standing up on the tables on either side of the temple entrance, and added our flowers to the large piles... our birthday presents for Buddha.

We went inside to pay our respects, and then went home to have some dragonfruit. It was a birthday party like no other I've been to!

Steamy Thailand

2008-05-21T07:15:00.001-07:00

So I've been in Thailand for a week now, and it is definitely the muggiest place I've spent an extended length of time. I came ahead of the cast to help the advance team ready the Community Impact projects... so I've spent the week in meetings, confirming times and details.

The cast finally arrives tonight, and today we've been making copies of memos, buying toilet paper and water, and now we're headed to the temple, where they will spend their first night in Thailand sleeping on mats just like the monks!

They are scheduled to get in around midnight, so we will have them meet their host families tomorrow.

I bike about 20 minutes every morning to our beautiful tropical office, where I sit on a steamy patio, and have to weigh all my papers down with mugs and water bottles, because where the Thai people lack in AC they make up for in fans.

My host family is wonderful- my actual host mom and her husband live across the street. She brought me home and across the road to the house where her mother and two sisters live, along with their two daughters. Five Thai women and me, and they are excited to host Scottie too, starting tomorrow.

They don't speak very much English, but we have fun communicating.

Their favorite game is to buy Thai fruit, and have me try it...
Mangosteens, Durian, Dragonfruit, and something that sounds like "naw". Some are delicious, and one - Durian, the king of fruit, was terrible-- mushy and rotten tasting... I gagged, which they thought was hilarious.

Chiang Rai is in the northern mountainous area, though around the city it is pretty flat, and very green. Lots of mosquitos, and gorgeous flowers. It rains almost every day, and the air feels like its going to any minute most of the time. My first gift from my host family, a long plastic raincoat that I can wear while biking... luckily I've timed my rides so I haven't had to break it out yet!

Yeehay Y'all - Welcome back to the US of A

2008-05-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

When we came back to the US, we had a fairly uneventful border crossing (minus the student who lost his passport...oops) and found ourselves in the beautiful town of New Braunfels, Texas. It is a city just north of San Antonio and is influenced by German settlers. On our regional learning day we went to San Antonio and visited the Alamo. What fun this was as the Alamo was one of the first places that Ellen and I visited when we were dating. The last time we were there it was cloudy and rainy all day, but this time it was sunny and gorgeous with hundreds of our closest friends around. Ahhhhh....memories.

New Braunfels also has a beautiful underground cave system that is open for tours. While I usually think of caves as cold and damp, this cave system was actually hot and very humid because it was originally enclosed and they chose to keep the same climate. The formations were amazing as you can see in the pictures below.

I had a truly fantastic time with my host family there and the week was full of incredible conversation and food. It was sad having to leave, but I know that I will be in contact with this wonderful family. To top things off, my roommate and I went to the local waterpark called Schlitterbahn! Really fantastic times were had here including a rollercoaster-waterslide. If you have not been on one, please close your computer right now and go find one because it is truly an experience that everyone should have.

The Blue Menace

2008-05-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

As you can see our Mexico tour has been crazy busy AND crazy fun. What you do not yet know is the real reason why we have been so bad at updating our blog. I think that it is important for all of you to know that we have become rather heavily involved in "Lucho Libre", which is Mexican masked wrestling. I am about to divulge some very confidential information that I need your promise to not disclose to anyone, but I think that it is important that you understand. I am known as "The Blue Menace" down here in Mexico and have been involved in several matches now. You can see me below in my tag-team partner...Mystico.

We have been on the underground wrestling circuit and meet in unlisted locations to hold our bouts. Recently we met in an abandoned cock-fighting arena and let loose the thunder of pure wrestling mayhem. You can imagine the pure joy of the crowd members as the luchadors showcased their magical moves. I hope to be able to share more details with you sometime in the future.

... San Luis Potosi

2008-05-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

... our last Mexican city! In San Luis, Scottie and I were hosted together in an ambitious family who hosted 6 of us! It was a really interesting dynamic of a bachelorpad, as the result of the mom's death about a year previous. It started off a bit rough, host dad was frustrated with host brothers for not getting things ready for us (because they went to MXC instead the weekend before our arrival to see their cousin wrestle in lucha libre).

So, Juan Pablo, older brother age 25, and Memo (real name Guillermo) who was 15, were our main hosts for 6 of us. Juan Pablo's car was an ancient navy blue Volkswagon bug (as seen in the picture above...it looks a bit yellow, but is really blue), and he had to do two trips to be able to drive us anywhere! He ran around the first night borrowing mattresses from friends to have places for us all to sleep, and we ate dinner when pizza came around 11pm.

Needless to say, the week was an adventure, and was exhausting, but we had a good time.
Highlights:
The staff prepared cast appreciation for this city! We had a long staff meeting where we rehearsed and planned a fun mockery of our show, made appreciation signs, and plotted on how to pamper the cast on show day. Our show facility was an amphitheatre in a beautiful park, and we had no security for our equipment to set up the night before. The solution: we slept at the amphitheatre! We set up the stage in the evening, rehearsed our silly show, and then slept onstage and in the dressing rooms until the cast arrived the next morning. It was a lovely evening, and though the cement floor left something to be desired, it was a pleasure to do for this fabulous cast. And they were so surprised!

Puebla = gorgeous

2008-05-04T10:22:00.001-07:00

After MXC we were in the gorgeous colonial city Puebla. We were based on the state university campus called UPAEP, and my workroom office for the days was a picnic table near the lap pool.

My favorite moments from the week:

An activity we call "World Values", where we give small groups index cards with 18 values they can choose to give the world. They need to prioritize them in order from the first thing, or most important thing, they would give, all the way to the least important. Things like: equality, wisdom, salvation, health, family security, pleasure, a world at peace, true friendship. Each group only got 20 minutes, and it was an intensive and enriching debate.

The city anniversary celebration in the main square: a perfect, warm spring evening with a symphony and fireworks... I was staying in the hotel with Yui, Wouter and Mitch, and we went and had dessert at our favorite Italian restaurant and watched the fireworks.

It didn't start off as fun, but I was proud to help (afterwards...): The last time UWP was at the university our lights damaged their gym floor, so this time they decided that we had to rig our lights to hang from the rafters. The lighting crew had to stay late to set up, but then the students needed to go home, so we hotel staffers got called in at 9:30pm to come help set up the back light truss. All I wanted to do that evening was watch a movie and go to bed, and instead I went to the facility to 1am to put up lights and learn dances for our cast appreciation! I had such a cranky attitude going in, but ended up feeling very satisfied with helping the tech team.

Hometeam Olympics planned by our awesome 2nd round interns! Silly team competitions that made a spectacle on campus, but was a really good time.

Puebla was fast and furious, and set us up well for...

lo siento, amigos!

2008-05-04T10:20:00.001-07:00

Wow... I'm so sorry- I have totally derailed on the blog. We've been back in the USA for almost a week already... Viva La Gente already feels so long ago.

I apologize for the delay, here's a quick catch-up on the last few weeks:

High profile Viva La Gente

2008-04-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

The craziest thing about changing from Up with People to Viva La Gente when we come to Mexico is the name recognition and serious clout we get just for being us! Lots of media attention in the form of newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, live TV performances on news shows and talk shows, and best of all, audiences with some high profile people.

Last week we toured the grounds of Los Pinos, which is the presidential complex with seven houses, equivalent to visiting the white house. During our tour we met with the First Lady, Margarita Zavala, and we performed two songs for her, acoustic style. She sang along!

Apparently the Spanish version of Up with People is a song that every child learns in school or camp… its just in their repertoire, like “Old McDonald”. So most every taxi driver I’ve had or person I meet, when I mention Viva La Gente, begins to sing.

On Thursday we were guests at the Department of Foreign Relations. We spoke with two advisors to the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Patricia Espinoza, who answered our questions on Mexican foreign policy. We were supposed to meet with the secretary herself… she was an honored guest in the box seats at our show, and was unfortunately delayed at a meeting with the president. We waited for her, and she spoke to the cast briefly at the end of our session. I was proud of the cast, of the articulate and thoughtful questions they asked, and for how much they valued this experience in the foreign relations offices.

the way things work

2008-04-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

I'm learning quite a bit about the way things work here in Mexico...

After being told for weeks that our semi-trailer truck full of show equipment could drive to the center of the city and drop everything off, we learned only two days before that it couldn’t enter the city center, so we’d need a new way to get our sound and lights to the theatre. So, on Saturday Scottie & I got up at 5:30am to join a small crew at the place where our big semi-truck was parked.
The reason: we went and cross-loaded equipment from the large semi-trailer to two small U-Haul shaped trucks. It was like playing Tetris with tech boxes, bars of lights, costume bags, and risers. So, we shifted everything around to fit in the small trucks that could drive to the theatre, and we still had to bribe the police to allow those trucks to drive in.

What I’m learning about bribing though is that it doesn’t feel corrupt here the way it sounds, it is just how things are done. Its like paying for the service… we give the police money to let our trucks in the city center, then they escort us in and provide security service during the unloading. It’s a give and take.

So by 9:30am we were back home and in bed for a few more hours, before enjoying our first of two host family days here in MXC.

In the afternoon, we went to this beautiful old monastery called Museo del Carmen, which was full of somber art, cool old furniture, and a neat orchard courtyard. The biggest draw to the monastery though is the naturally preserved bodies that were descovered in the crypt of the monastery. They are believed to be benefactors of the church that are at least 300 years old. The crazy part was these mummified bodies still had skin, fingernails, and Spanish-style clothing-- nothing special was done to preserve them... its believed to be the result of the dry, salty, atmosphere of the crypt. The coffins are glass-topped and not sealed very well, and are leaning so the people are basically standing on their heels. Each had a different expression, and they were so fascinating, creepy, and drew you in in the way that you didn't want to look, but couldn't look away either.

We also explored some local arts markets, and went out to dinner with some future sponsors of Mexican tours of UWP. Lastly, we got to lose another hour of sleep to daylight savings... Mexico did not shift theirs earlier like the United States, so Cast A got to lose two hours of sleep this spring, two weeks apart!

mucho traffico

2008-04-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

We’ve been in enormous Mexico City for a week, and I think that the honeymoon stage of being in Mexico may wear off soon. Not that MXC is a bad place—I was actually surprised at how clean the city is! I know the pollution is something else, but the streets are pretty clean and there is a lot of beautiful architecture in the colonial old town.

The only downside of Mexico City is the amount of time we spend in traffic. We sit for hours—literally hours and hours every day. For example, last week I went to an environmental preserve called Xochitla, which was aways across town from where I live. I left my house at 6:45am. We arrived at the park by 9:30am. We left a little after 5:00pm, and I wasn’t home again until almost 9:00pm!! If you do the math, that is 6 hours on the bus to be at the park for 7.5 hours. That’s the extreme… fun days, and lots of time to nap on the bus, but exhausting all the same.

We've also learned a little about the rivalry between the north and south-- its kindof like that between Minneapolis & St Paul- everybody thinks their part of town is way better, and that caused more than one debate between our advance team members who were split between being natives of north or south. We've learned for future visits to MXC how not to do it! Next time UWP will focus their energy around one area of town. Live and learn!

Teotihuacan - And so Can You

2008-04-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

We had a long and uneventful trip from Monterrey to Mexico City. We are again hosted together and are staying with our good friend, Christine Paluf, and our Director of Latin America, Korey Riggs. Holy Mexico City Batman! This place is huge!!!!! While we got into the city late, the traffic was intense. We did not get back to our host family until about 11:00pm, which as is turns out is when dinner is often served here…so I guess we were right on time ;-)

On our first day we went to Teotihuacan, which is where the pyramids are just outside of Mexico City. People commonly say that the Aztecs were the builders of these pyramids, but the current ideology says that it was the Teotihuacani. This was a truly magical experience that really made you think about the mysteries of the world. How long did it take to build them? What were they hoping to do by building these? Where did the builders go? Why are there so many people selling weird kitsch on the “Street of the Dead”?

What a great way to start our time here in Mexico City and how great to experience such an amazing place as a group. After seeing into the past at Teotihuacan, we then went to the National Museum in downtown Mexico City where we had the chance to see the art of many Mexicans throughout the years. What a great way to end a fantastic day!

Monterrey Magic

2008-04-02T21:35:00.001-07:00

We had a few incredible days in Monterrey:

Friday, March 28th-- our "regional learning" day was full of sightseeing and not seeing. The cast was on a rotation through four sites. Included were a blast furnace and museum that gave the history of Monterrey's steel industry-- we rode to the top display deck, and looked over the city, had a boat ride down Paseo Santa Lucia, which is a river walk with restaurants and fountains-- very beautiful and similar to the famous one in San Antonio, the Mexican History museum where we had a whirlwind tour/ crash course in pre and post-colonial history, and "Dialogo en la Obscuridad." Translated to "Dialogue in the Darkness" this was a hour and 15 minute blind experience. We were in groups of eight, with canes and with a guide named Joaquin who was blind. He led us through simulations of a park, grocery store, crossing the street in a city, a boat ride, and a coffee shop-- all taking place in complete darkness. It was a fascinating experience, and felt like a very safe space to try out walking around in the dark, feeling our way and trying to determine where we were.

I felt very confident in touching things because again, I knew it was a simulation, but I can't imagine running my hand along the trash can at the bus stop, for example, in real life. Also, using a cane was challenging to get used to, along with crouching down right underneath yourself so you didn't lean forward and smack your head on something you couldn't see.

It was especially insightful as I am traveling a second semester with Jessica Rojas, a student in our cast who is blind, and I felt myself moving my body in the way I see her move hers everyday.

And finally, at the end of the day, we visited a social services facility for children called "Ninos de Capullo", which translates to children of the cocoon. It is a transition center where children live and receive care if they are removed from their homes. We spent a few hours there learning about the center, performing a few songs for the children, and having them dance for us. We also had time to play games for a little while before it was time for their dinner. Most of the cast wanted to stay and play longer... (and so did the kids).

And the day ended with an incredible party at Casa Paraiso (Paradise House), which is a house that is owned by an alumna and is rented out for weddings and events. We danced and had fresh-grilled tacos, hosted also in part by CARE (pronounced Car-eh), which is the university student org that was our sponsor in Monterrey. They brought a DJ and invited a Mariachi band who played a few numbers. Host families brought tons of other food, and we danced the night away!

It was also very fun to hang out with Carlos and his parents. Carlos brought us to the party friday night, and we had a relaxing and wonderful afternoon with him and his parents on Saturday. They took us to Chipinque park, which was up in the mountains that overlooked Monterrey. We ate a wonderful late lunch in the restaurant on top, and wandered through the park. We then drove down to a little puebla called Santiago, walked through the main square, peeked into the church where there was a quinceinera ceremony taking place, and then, still full, went to a fabulous little italian restaurant owned by friends of the ORdonez family. It was a lovely day, and helped us catch up on relaxing time, which we often forget to do.

estamos aqui!

2008-03-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

= we're here in Mexico! I love this country... its been so fun to wake up my sleeping Spanish over the past few days. The weather is gorgeous-- Monterrey is the third largest city in Mexico, a major industrial hub (the "Pittsburg of Mexico" because of the steel industry), and is surrounded by beautiful, steep mountains that hug the city.

Scott & I are hosted with the Ordonez family, parents of Carlos Ordonez who traveled with us in 1997. Carlos also lives here in Monterrey, but wasn't in town the first days we were here, and also doesn't have a guest room, so we are staying in his parent's lovely house, with 5 star service courtesy of mama & papa. Welcoming, warm company, plus all the mangoes we can eat. You can't go wrong!

The thing that has been harder to get used to in this country transition is eating later. Lunch comes usually between 1:00pm & 2:00pm, but sometimes not until almost 3:00pm. Consequently, our first two nights we left home to go out to restaurants for dinner at 10:00pm. This is normal! The restaurants are all packed at this time-- there are waits of 45 minutes for tables, on a Tuesday night. que loco.

After two nights of this, and long days of speaking Spanish and being in the sun, on Wednesday I came home, and I think we moved up dinner an hour because we were so hungry. So we ate at 8:30pm and I was in bed by 9:30pm... and it was so necessary. I could not keep my eyes open!

hottest tickets in town

2008-03-23T10:58:00.001-07:00

Apparently, tickets for "Viva La Gente" through Ticketmaster in our first city of Monterrey are the second most purchased tickets in the city over the last four weeks! Mexico, here we come...

I scream you scream...

2008-03-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

...we all scream for ice cream!

Brenham, TX, is home to the third largest ice cream producer in the United States: Blue Bell Ice Cream. We went on the factory tour our first day here-- and sampled delicious, creamy flavors at 9:00am! My favorite was watching the ice cream sandwich machine in operation... yum, yum.

We've spent the week preparing for Mexico, and closing out our first part of our US tour. Our show on Good Friday had a much better turnout than we expected, and I was surprised to run into a girl we had traveled with in 1997 and hadn't seen since... Stacy Grange! It was fun to catch up with her-- she drove down from College Station for the show.

And yesterday we went over our final procedures for crossing the border- we are taking the buses to about a block away, then unloading everything and walking over the border. We re-load on two Mexican buses on the other side, which have about half of the luggage space of our current ones. It is going to be an adventure!

tour finalized!

2008-03-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Our remaining Texas tour dates are now confirmed! After we return from Mexico, we will come back to New Braunfels, which is between San Antonio & Austin, then the Woodlands, which is a suburb of Houston, and finally Plano, TX, which is near Dallas.

I believe then the cast will fly out of Dallas, and four airplanes later, will land in Bangkok.

I (Ellen) will be going ahead of the cast to Thailand a week early, to finalize some of the education set-up there. The advance team wanted the assistance of someone who knows the cast to determine who will do which volunteer opportunities. I am excited to have that chance!

Enid, OK!

2008-03-16T12:52:00.001-07:00

Here in Enid, I am staying with Carl & Bev Carroll, along with my roommates Nina from Finland and Teng from China.

Carl and Bev have been trying to help us "work the system" in regards to our trash collection... Carl is making his famous honey mustard chicken tonight for dinner and has stressed repeatedly that he is only giving us the meat, and the bones are his (so they don't need to go in our trash bags!)

Enid is a friendly town... our beneficiary here is called Leonardo's and it is a children's science and art museum, named after Leonardo Da Vinci. It is an incredible warehouse and adjoining castle-shaped playground, that is the biggest community built structure of its kind. 10s of thousands of volunteer labor hours went into the Adventure Quest park, and its really a cool place for kids and families. I helped sort piles of donations for the art projects that Leonardo's leads. The third floor at first glance looked full of heaps of trash, but they value every cardboard tube, empty spool of thread, scrap of fabric, and we helped get them all in a proper place so they can be found for future works of art.

Our theatre here in Enid is supposedly haunted by the ghost of John Wilkes Booth, who died in this town. Luckily we had nothing out of the ordinary happen during the show... he must've liked us.

trash time!

2008-03-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

Before we left St Joseph, we kicked off one of my favorite cast activities... For the next five days, we are carrying around all of the trash that we would normally throw away or recycle. The only exception is toilet paper or other bathroom trash, but if you take a paper towel to dry your hands in the bathroom, then it goes in your trash bag.

Its a fabulous exercise in being aware of our waste--- especially when we buy fast food, and when we eat all of our meals on disposable plates with plastic silverware.

There are two schools of thought on this activity: I see people either trying to reduce as much as they can and see how it affects their lifestyle, OR they take everything they usually would and see how much trash it is. I'm doing the latter, and it is really hard to remember to put everything in my bag. I have a little "stinky trash" bag inside the big one for fruit peels, teabags, and other things that will smell.

We will carry everything for the entire city of Enid, and on our first full day next city we will sort out the recyclables from our bags, and see how much we carried was trash, how much was recyclable and just overall how much there was.

Though its a little bit gross (I have to hold my breath now every time I open my bag), its a great activity to hold ourselves accountable, and to open up a discussion regarding international opinions on environmental awareness. I'm excited for the wrap-up conversation... and for the way that this activity changes the cast behavior in regards to their trash in the future.

St Joe's

2008-03-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

March 12, 2008: St Joseph, Missouri- "where the Pony Express started and Jesse James ended." Those two bits of history happened on the same date (April 3) in St Joe's, 18 years apart.

Scott and I were lucky enough to stay with the Campbells: Denise & Chad, with kids Zac (17) Sydney (11) and Kennedy (4), along with Sandra from Switzerland & Francois from Namibia. We had a quick and fun four days, playing air hockey and pictionary, and going on walks in the beautiful spring twilight.

We drove straight into spring from Chicago-- our first day in St Joe's hit 70 degrees, which really brightened the general cast mood! There's something so exciting after a cold gloomy winter about packing your winter coat in a box to ship home. Our tour only gets warmer from here.

We had a full schedule in St Joes- our community impact projects were the Stand for Peace program at Sydney's school and one other in town, and some people painted mini "buildings" for a tiny tot town event that the community holds each November. I love projects like that when the cast really gets to use their creativity-- there was a pet store with a colorful jungle mural, a post office with a working mail slot, and from the scraps of other buildings, two guys created a basilica!

favorite Chicago stories

2008-03-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my fave Chicago moments:

On Wednesday we had a fun staff party, where we did a "How to Host a Murder"-type event. It was pirate-themed, called "Murder Among the Mateys". As an international staff, we sometimes encounter fabulous challenges with language, and it turns out, pirate jargon is no exception. I spent the busride to the party explaining to Yui from Japan and Manuel from Mexico the following terms: buccaneer, commodore, privateer, gurgling, and wench.

Picture Sofie from Sweden: she is standing on the street corner downtown Chicago in a flowy jagged hemmed skirt, a large green parka, hightop tennis shoes, striped socks, and long curly hair. She is counting her change, trying to figure out if she has enough cash to buy a coffee before the bus leaves. A homeless man approaches her and hands her a dollar bill. He says to her, "Here you go, honey. I know how it is. I've been there." She was so shocked she didn't know what to do beyond saying thank you and keeping the dollar!

the whirlwindy city

2008-03-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

we were in blustery, snowy Chicago for a very fast week. Three days of classroom programming in inner city high schools was an intense experience for the cast... lots of metal detectors, showing ID at the door, and very positive responses from the majority of students we interacted with.

Our sponsor was the National PTA, so our school projects were under the microscope for potential future projects. I hope they were pleased, as I was very proud of how much the cast is improving in their facilitation of activities, and the creativity at which they approach ways to personalize the games to their countries and personal style. The week was also a test drive of an activity & leave-behind puzzle that I designed with the help of one of our students, Ultan from Ireland, who is a talented graphic designer. We used to hand cut world puzzles out of posterboard for every classroom we went into, and I am so excited about the higher quality and less labor that this new version allows.

We had decent turnout for the show in a city that is really challenging to promote in, because of the vast amount of entertainment any given night of the week. The Copernicus theatre was a funky old movie house in the Polish part of town-- it doubled as a Polish community center. UWP Chicago alumni sponsored our meals on show day, and they did a polish theme for lunch, complete with sausage and delicious perogies from a local restaurant. The only downside of the show was the backstage: there wasn't one!
It really changed the shape of the show, as everyone had to enter the stage from the sides, and to get around behind the stage you had to run outside in the parking lot, where it was of course about 15 degrees, windy and snowing. I'm pretty sure everyone has a cold now.

Even though casts love the idea of big cities like Chicago, in reality, it makes for an extra grueling schedule, because we are hosted all over the metro. That means that most people got up before 6am every day, took the L in to Union Station, then took our shuttle buses for another 45 minutes to wherever we were meeting first thing. Reverse that to go home, and most people got back between 7:30-8:00pm. Do that for 6 days in a row, and we're all ready to go back to the small town where our meeting point is five minutes from our host family's house!

BUT big cities also offer a lot of cool opportunities. We partnered with the National PTA to help them with an event they hosted at the Field Museum. They held a Parent Summit, and parents could bring their kids, and then while they were in the parenting classes, we took their kids around the Field Museum. A great way for us to get to see a cool museum from a kid's perspective... and we got in free! The only hard part was it was after our show day, so we finished taking down the set at midnight, and were at the museum at 8am. The cast had the afternoon free for sightseeing, and I went home and took a nap.

Scottie and I were lucky to be in the staff hotel this week-- right downtown at the Sheraton near Navy Pier. We went to dinner at Heaven on Seven, a Cajun restaurant, with Michael & Alyssa Burgart. It was so fun to catch up with them for an evening!
Our hotel team tried out Ed Debevicks - always a good time, and Al's Italian Beef Sandwiches, which were delicious.

And I was so excited to have Kato and Bethie come visit for the weekend! Katie took a bus from Minneapolis and made it in time for the 2nd half of the show friday night. Bethie, who had seen the show earlier in our tour, made it in late Friday- taking an evening flight. They joined us at the museum and helped out a group of kids... their team was the Bodacious Bugs. We visited Millenium park, had a drink at the Signature lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock Center, and on Sunday B & K won the Wicked rush lottery and went to the matinee. To end our week we drove out to Wheaton to have a fantastic homecooked dinner at Howie & Dorothy's house. I was so glad that it worked out to see them too.

A quick, crazy city, and then we're off, back across I-80, and then turning south to drive into spring!

Chocolate City, USA

2008-03-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

We've been in Burlington, WI, since Wednesday. Burlington is known as chocolate city because of the big Nestle factory that is here. When the wind blowing, the whole town smells like chocolate. Unfortunately, they don't have tours, otherwise we would definitely have gone. Instead, we focused on other local Wisconsin flair, by visiting two dairy farms and having brats for lunch.

Burlington is a really charming town, very friendly with lots of lakes... my host family keeps lamenting that we're not here in the summer so we could go waterskiing. We worked with an incredible non-profit organization called Love Incorporated, which is a thrift store, transition living center, food pantry, food kitchen and many other community services all rolled into one. My favorite part is that they will use everything you drop off. Items that they can't sell in the thrift store gets baled and sold to developing countries for $150.00 per bale of clothing.

Burlington's sold out show in the high school gymnasium contained our sound technician Andrew's worst nightmare-- during the song right before intermission all the sound went out... band, microphones, everything. The cast finished the song "Keep the Beat" acapella, with the audience keeping the beat! They pulled it off so well that some audience members thought it was supposed to happen that way. Many of the students commented in our cast meeting yesterday that that moment was one of their very favorites in up with people so far... knowing that even when something goes horribly wrong, they can pull through.

Go Muskies!

2008-03-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

Our three quick days in Muscatine focused around the Muscatine schools (Go Muskies!)--- our beneficiary was the Muscatine Community School Foundation, and we led our Stand for Peace classes in 48 classrooms in one day, plus visited another 15 classrooms at the high school. Our show in the high school auditorium was sold out, and we had people waiting to see if they could get late seating.

Muscatine was especially fun for me, because Lorene Lewison, my high school show choir director who originally connected me to Up with People, lives there and it was so neat to see her and her family.

We also met with a really fascinating organization called the "Stanley Foundation", which is based in Muscatine. They started as an organization that funded informal interaction between international leaders that served at the United Nations. It brings a whole new meaning to "those who play together stay together." They would host retreats, tennis tournaments, other events in the 1950s for UN delegates so they could interact in a more relaxed environment. Now they have expanded and morphed into a foreign policy think tank. They have a number of programs, including producing international segments for NPR, and they produce videos and discussion questions on international issues that church groups, community leaders, college campuses, etc., can receive from them free of charge to host a current events discussion. They led for us a discussion on peacekeeping missions (like well-digging in Djibouti) by the US military, and if that is an appropriate task for them, and if not, what other organization should be doing it. Check them out at www.stanleyfoundation.org

Des Moines

2008-02-27T20:38:00.000-08:00

February 25, 2008: Our first week-long city was over in the blink of an eye. It was such fun to stay with Kate and Andy Menschner, who just recently moved to Des Moines with their friendly bulldog, Penny Lane. (Katie is Ellen’s good friend from high school).

Our travel to Des Moines was treacherous – we saw literally hundreds of vehicles in the ditch of I-80, which was designated a no-tow zone because of the inches thick glazing of ice on the road. We also hit an extremely cold snap, where the highs were just around zero with bitter winds. We changed a cast ice-skating event at the last minute to an indoor rollerskating party instead, as the weather was too miserable to have people skate outdoors for 2 hours.

We were sponsored by Holmes Honda, the owner of which created a foundation called Kids Against Hunger of Des Moines. We worked alongside community volunteers all day on Tuesday packing meals. The cast scooped rice, soy, dried vegetables, and a vitamin packed bouillon tablet into a 400g plastic bag, then sealed them and packed them in boxes to be shipped to underdeveloped countries in turmoil, like Haiti and Zimbabue. Our goal was to pack 200,000 meals in one day. Success! We ended up packaging 251,640 meals, and a small group of students also did short UWP performances eight times throughout the day. It was fun to have Emily come and volunteer with us in the afternoon.

We performed the UWP Show for over 1,000 people at the Des Moines Civic Center. Thank you to the volleyball friends group for making the trek to see the performance. Scott was in the audience and said it was this cast’s strongest show yet on the road.

We also had our first significant regional learning day… we toured Pioneer Labs, which is a Du Pont company that engineers seeds. Some are genetically modified, others are cross-bred for higher yield or to effectively deter pests. It was fascinating to talk to their scientists, including Dwight, who holds the patent on the first gene particle gun, developed in the 1980s to literally shoot genes into a plant seed cell to experiment in plant genetic modification. This topic is fairly controversial, with strong differing opinions in various parts of the world, and the representatives of the company did a fantastic job of answering our tough questions.

Their take on genetic modification is this: The population of our earth is growing rapidly. To feed that population, either we can grow more food on the land we currently use, or we need to use more land to grow more food. Other modifications beides higher yield also can include putting small amounts of toxins in the seed that will kill root-eating or plant-infesting bugs when they eat the plant, but is much less chemical than using pesticides to spray the plants once they are grown. Farmers that use these modifications also need to plant a certain percentage of their fields without this chemical, so the bugs aren’t completely eliminated from that region. We visited labs full of petri dishes and test tubes of baby corn stalks, and the whole experience was fascinating.

We also heard from the president of the World Food Prize, which was created by a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to acknowledge significant achievements in agriculture in relation to human food supply.

Maquoketa (pronounced Macoconut)

2008-02-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

Feb 18, 2008: Maquoketa, IA is a town of 6,000 people that is about 40 miles north of the Quad Cities Area. The town had an enormous fire a few weeks ago that destroyed six buildings on their historic main street. Part of our service was raising money for the strained fire department.

We also experienced our first serious winter storm, lots of freezing rain that turned to snow on our show day. We were afraid that we would have less people in our audience than we had onstage! But luckily, we had some dedicated host families and community members, and we still had over 300 people on a blizzardy Sunday afternoon. I was especially appreciative of my sisters Beth and Emily that made long drives from Minneapolis and Des Moines to come see the show. It was the first performance I participated in with this cast, and I had such a fun time onstage. Beth took some fabulous pics of the show with her zoom lens, and shared them with me, so I can share them with you!

Scott and I were hosted in Davenport, 40 miles south of Maquoketa, with Beth’s good friend from college, Elizabeth and her husband Tim. On our host family day they took us to Credit Island, which is a winter nesting site for bald eagles. We saw at least 15 eagles in the trees and soaring above the river, which I thought was spectacular. Apparently that’s not even average—that at certain times of day you can see more in the range of 50-70 eagles in that area.

Funny Lincoln Memories

2008-02-16T13:41:00.000-08:00

February 12th, 2008: My roommate Sofie is from Sweden, and last night on our walk around the block with our host dad Bill and his black lab, Poudre, (pronounced: poo-durr… its Dutch), Sofie had to stop and take a photo of a fire hydrant. She thought it was so cool, as they don’t have them in Sweden.

My roommate Jessica is from Tucson, AZ, and has never spent any significant amount of time in cold weather. When we stopped just inside the front door to take off our coats, hats, mittens, and unbundle ourselves, she commented that it was just like when its cold in the movies! Cold for her is 50 degrees, so Nebraska in February has been quite an experience.

Today was our first day of doing our curriculum in schools called “Stand for Peace”, and I ate lunch next to a first grader named Eleanor. She was at a table alone, seemed very comfortable and talkative with grown-ups but not really included by her peers. We were having a nice chat; she told me how we had the same hair, and about her favorite TV show called Cyber- something, and how I can read more about it on PBSkids.org, and out of the blue she says, “Will I ever see you again?” Just so matter of fact, and I am shocked to realize that the answer is very likely no. It really touched my heart, that here I was sitting with this little girl, and she could read that I was just passing through her life. I told her that I didn’t think so, as I was off to another school in the afternoon and leaving for Iowa on Thursday. She’d never been to Iowa, but did have cousins in Kearney (which I had driven through yesterday). She showed me how where to dump my trash, and bring my lunch tray and silverware, and as she walked away, she said in a very wise and charming little voice, “Well, its been nice chatting with you.”

Eleanor from Rousseau Elementary school is a very classy little lady, and I hope when I grow up, I can be a bit like her.

On the road again...

2008-02-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

February 11, 2008: Its hard to believe we are starting a brand new tour already! Cast A 2008 is a fabulous group of people: 95 students from 26 countries, including Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Namibia and Nepal. The majority of Western Europe is represented, including a huge Swedish delegation (15 people, which is the largest after the US). We are a little over 1/3 US American. Our caravan has doubled in size- we have two buses, two minivans and two trucks. We added the second truck because we added a front lighting truss to the show, to light the extra people onstage.

We have a glamorous tour ahead of us—I posted it on the side… we are still getting our final US cities confirmed, so I will update it in a few weeks. Right now we are headed across cold, windy Nebraska, on our way to our first city on the road: Lincoln!

Denver show at the Buell

2008-02-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday night, UWP made their debut performance at the prestigious Buell Theatre in downtown Denver. (For the Minnesotans, this is comparable to performing on the mainstage at the Ordway). We had a full house- over 2,000 seats filled, and the sponsorship of the show made it possible to donate all the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. The grand total donated was $50,000.

The cast did a phenomenal job, putting together a new show in just over three weeks. Its similar to the show we traveled with last semester, but has some new songs and moments that are fun, and add to the continuity and message of the show, which is to “shine the light” on local organizations doing good in the community—like all the agencies we do volunteer work with, especially, in this case, Habitat.

One of the coolest things about performing at the Buell was being backstage. National and international touring companies have “wall rights”, to paint an artistic rendering of their show poster on a wall backstage. The cast then signs it. These painted show posters are all over the backstage hallways and wings, and include signatures of Julie Andrews (directing the Boyfriend), President Clinton (painted with the presidential seal), Bill Gates (painted on the Windows logo), and many shows like Rent, Wicked, Spamalot, & Riverdance. Because we are a touring company, we also got wall rights. One of our incredibly talented students from last semester, Yuri Yamaguchi from Japan, recreated our show poster on the wall, and we all signed it after the show Saturday night. So cool!

Thank you Stones!

2008-02-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

Well, with the end of staging comes the reality of having to say good bye to our wonderful friends (and world class host mom and dad) Julie and Jon Stone. We spent a wonderful five weeks at their home and were once again overwhelmed with their amazing hospitality and delicious food. We consider ourselves so fortunate to have tremendous friends and role models like the Stones and look forward to the next time our journeys align.

Picture of all of us at a Mammoth Lacrosse Game at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Jon and Julie just passed their first wedding anniversary in November. In a massive freezer cleaning in January, Julie came across the top to their wedding cake and defrosted it in their fridge. Overcome with sentimentality as usual, Julie choose to share the cake with friends as seen in the image below.
Note for the future...cake tends to dry out in the freezer. Be sure to drench it in chocolate liqueur and let it soak before trying to consume for best results.

Staging is in full swing!

2008-01-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

Wow...sorry for the lack of posts. We have been having an amazing (if not incredibly busy time) here in Denver with our students now in town. Our new group is truly fantastic with a rich diversity of backgrounds, ages, and countries. Some information that might be interesting:

We have 95 students and 16 staff members in Cast A 2008
We come from 26 countries including Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, Namibia and many western nations
Our students are doctors, teachers, college students, non-profit workers and wayward souls looking for inspiration about what to do next

Both Ellen and I are doing slightly different jobs than we did last semester. This is a great challenge for us as we are learning new skills and techniques, but with this learning comes long hours and red eyes from looking at a computer. Ellen is now the Education Manager and Scott is the full-time Assistant Cast Manager. We are working with an amazing group of people who have a wealth of experience and are just plain fun to be around. I consider myself very lucky to be doing the things that I love and to work with people I enjoy, while knowing that I am making a difference in the world.

Now, more than ever, the world is in need of leaders who know how to work with others and are committed to making a difference in their communities. That is what we hope to build over the next 6 months as we travel. It is a great challenge, but so rewarding and the best thing that we could be doing with our time right now.

We hope that you enjoy following us as this new journey unfolds.

When we are not working we love to hang out with our wonderful host family, the Stones. We love to cook good food, sit and talk over a glass of wine and of course, watch motocross ;-) Here is our hostdad Jon getting his mullet trimmed up. What a sexy beast!

Rose Parade!

2008-01-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

(Link to our performance) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pHRar8LQrs

On December 26th, alumni of Casts B & C 2007, along with Up with People support staff, descended on Pasadena, CA, to rehearse the opening of the Tournament of Roses Parade. As Scottie and I drove 17 hours across Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, we lamented giving up our last week of vacation. But it was the last time regret crossed our minds… to be a part of the Rose Parade performance was incredibly fun!

We rehearsed our three minute performance for four solid days. There was “downtime”, during which we chomped down granola bars and clementines, were assigned international costumes, chatted with the boy and girl scouts that performed with us, and waited to be told where to stand.
But most of the time, we danced. I can’t remember the last time I was so sore! The song that was rewritten for our performance, “World Celebration”, was a remake of “Festa Humana”, the opening song in the Up with People show we traveled with 10 years ago. So the basics of the dance came back quickly, but with a TV audience of 300 million, it had to be as perfect as it could be. We had an UWP cast of 70, and then added to that 100 Boy & Girl Scouts carrying flags of the US and around the world, professional Japanese Teikyo drummers, an African rhythm percussionist from Trinidad & Tobago, and the drumline and part of the brass section from Missouri State University. It was at least 250 performers, and many pieces to put together.

Our first three days we rehearsed at the fairgrounds, primarily indoors. The third day in the late afternoon was the first time outdoors, adding in the marching band and our pyro guys, who needed to practice the fireworks once for the Pasadena Fire Marshall. Our pyrotechnics crew were true professionals—they do the fireworks each week for the WWE.

New Years Eve day we went in the morning to one of many float barns that are located throughout Pasadena. We got to see three floats up close, that had just received their finishing touches, and rehearsed our whole production (minus the pyro) on and in front of the opening float of the parade, so we could space everything out the way it would be on the big day.

We also had to practice our 45 second strike, during which we had to wheel away three large steel platforms (for each set of drums), take down all the speakers and sound cable, and help the float riders into place so the parade could begin. Every person had a task--- I ran around the end of the drumline to the Teikyo drum platform, unclasped the front wheel and joined the six person team pushing it up the street and out of the way.

New years eve afternoon we were instructed to go nap, as we’d be reporting for duty around 9:00pm and would be up until at least 11am New Years Day. That night, we had a complicated series of parking passes and security badges to get us into the secured area of the grandstands, and we hung out most of the evening in a high school cafeteria. We watched the ball drop, and then took quick cat naps, before our rehearsal for the TV cameras. That final rehearsal was on the street in front of the grandstand from 3:00am-5:00am. The director and cameramen practiced their positions for the planned 56 camera shots for the 3 minute performance (which the director needed to call live at 8:01:30, our official start time.)

We went back to the high school for hair, makeup, and to take off the sweats we had under our costumes for the 3am run throughs. Then we walked back up through the security checkpoints, which were now swarming with people headed to the grandstand. We were in place a little after 7am, and walked out behind the float at 7:45am. We warmed up the crowd with a performance of Up with People (which we learned, also tricks people into getting into their seats, because they think the parade is starting).

And finally, our big moment! It was so exhilarating and so fast! Scott & I were both in American costumes, and he’s visible briefly a few times in the televised broadcast (I am usually just off camera… just my luck!) We had a really fun part—in the last 30 seconds we two-stepped to the center, and did a series of hoe-down style kicks & turns, for the final pose. Unfortunately the TV director missed only two shots in calling the live feed—and our feature segment was one of them. But the 10,000 people in the grandstand got a great view of my red bloomers!

We struck the set within our 45 second requirement, and were able, with our all-access passes, to stand on the street and watch the parade go by: 46 floats, 23 marching bands and 19 equestrian units, over 18 million flowers including 1.5 million roses. Each float uses more flowers than the average florist goes through in FIVE YEARS. I chose to appreciate it as art, so I wouldn’t be as grossed out by the extravagance. And art it truly was… each float was gorgeous and striking.

And then we were done! The week felt like a blur, and we were back on the road on January 2nd—17 hours back to Denver, to start staging for a new Up with People cast. It was a New Years I will not soon forget.

travel plans

2007-12-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for us over the holidays...

We will be in Minnesota until December 23rd, staying in Bloomington at Family Schmieg's house. We fly the evening of the 23rd to Denver for Christmas with Scott's family, and then drive to Pasadena, California, on the 26th for rehearsal for the Rose Bowl Parade.
We will be in CA from the 26th-Jan 2 (performing in the Rose Bowl Parade on Jan 1!). We will drive back on the 2nd to Colorado, where we begin staging for Up with People's Cast A 2008 on January 3rd.

The best way to reach us over the next few weeks is either via email, or on Ellen's cell phone: 612 720 9178.

whirlwind weeks

2007-12-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

Its hard to believe that the tour is done already! Stay tuned for more details on the tapestry of experience that was Manila: our final shows that were especially moving with the children and community members from our service sites in attendance (many of whom was their first experience ever seeing a live performance in a theatre); the last days of community service—sore muscles and weary hearts, leaving the poverty feeling that our impact was important, and yet such a small drop in a big bucket; and closing our tour as a cast… processing the whole experience through the US, Europe, and now the Philippines.
Our last few days were in the summer capital of the Philippines, Baguio City, up 5000 feet of tropical mountains (and scary windy roads) where we enjoyed a few gorgeous sunny days and intense experiences at the Philippines Military Academy. There’s nothing quite like eating in a mess hall with over 900 cadets to experience another kind of group culture.
So these final days were full and fast and there’s so much to say…
Right now I’m grateful for the free wireless in the Hong Kong airport. Stay tuned for photos and entries with details from the Philippines in the upcoming days.

two great articles

2007-11-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

My brilliant first intern, Hanna, is Filipina, and has been featured in media coverage we've received here. She also has written a few stories for local print media... here are two links that are worth taking a look at:

http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/you/2bu/view_article.php?article_id=102125

The second one was published after our US tour:

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/philippineexplorer/philippineexplorer/view_article.php?article_id=99643

Something to Ponder

2007-11-23T00:43:00.001-08:00

Here is something that I learned since I have been in the Philippines.

Regional Learning

2007-11-19T15:56:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we had a great opportunity to learn a lot about the Philippines and area where we are staying. We first started our day at the Ayala Museum (http://www.ayalamuseum.com/) where we learned about the very rich history of this country. Often, history only talks about three occupying nations through history: the Spanish, the USA and the Japanese. But we also learned that the British were also a colonial power here for a couple of years. With so many invaders, the influences can be seen all over, especially the Spanish architecture very visible in Intramuros, the old walled city once reserved for the Spanish. It was interesting to see this beautiful place, and to put into place the cultural pressures put on this place as they were converted to Christianity and their ways to forced to change by colonial occupation.

In the afternoon we were invited to go to the slums and see the revitalization work that is being done by one of our partnering organizations Gawad Kalinga. In the middle of the corrugated aluminum and cardboard houses, there is an oasis of hope where brightly colored buildings are being built and community spaces cleared out. For our group, it was fantastic to see the potential of the work that we are doing here and to know that we will be making a positive difference for the people of these communities. With children holding our hands as we walked back to our buses we were then taken to a private dinner hosted by the Department of Tourism.

The sharp contrast of these two experiences was staggering. As we were ushered onto a red carpet walk, Cast B was greeted by the sounds of a famous bamboo instrument band called the Singing Bamboos. We were in an open courtyard with a full dinner set for us with traditional dishes from the Philippino culture. There is no way that we could have eaten everything there, and it all felt so extravagant. We then had a private performance from the Philippine National Folk Dance Company, Bayanihan. The group was absolutely amazing and it was hard to believe that this was done all for us.

Many people went home that night and tried to piece together the two worlds that we had come into contact with during that day. This will definitely be one of our struggles here as we continue our journey here in Manila.

first week in a nutshell

2007-11-19T02:46:00.000-08:00

This is a message that Joern, our cast manager, sent out to UWP's worldwide staff. I thought that it summarized our first week so well, that I should share it with you...

I wanted to send you all an update about our first week here in Manila. It has been such a rich, incredible, eye-opening, beautiful, sad, empowering experience that it is hard to find the words to do this week justice.

To begin with: approximately 75% of Manila’s population lives in poverty. Having been to Bangkok last year, I can say that the Thai capital is a wealthy city compared to Manila. Here you are confronted with poverty at every street corner. Every part of the city seems to have large slums. The team in Manila (Luis, Yamil, Scott, Margaux, Ana and Paul) has done an amazing job of setting up the city for our cast. I spoke with a friend of mine, whom I traveled with in UWP in 1998 and who currently works for Lufthansa here in Manila. He said that if you can successfully bring a cast to Manila, you can practically go anywhere in the world. Thank you Manila team for everything you have done for our cast!

The CI sites the team organized represent the essence of what we are trying to accomplish in Up with People. They are truly relevant. They are truly educational for our participants. And they are truly leaving a lasting impact with people in need.

I had the chance to go to two different sites so far. On Friday I worked with a Habitat for Humanity project. Seven cast members are helping to build homes for 384 families on a small compound in the middle of a slum. Each family will receive a one-room apartment of 20 square meters. The cast is intricately involved in finishing the project by the beginning of December. This project is not just being there for a few hours, posing for some photo opps and leaving again. But it is carrying thousands of bricks per day. It is painting countless window frames and walls and it is working alongside Filipino volunteers (including the future home owners) over a total period of 3 weeks (13 full days on site).

Just today I went to a school project for poor children, which is sponsored by an NGO and the city’s welfare office. The children receive the school uniform, supplies as well as a stipend to be able to go to school. Otherwise their families couldn’t afford sending them and would rather have them support the family income by begging or selling things in the streets. Before our group started working with the children we were invited to visit the squatter area where the families of the children live. Hardly anyone of us in the group has ever seen poverty like this. These families live in shacks in an extremely tight quarter. These huts are built out of old wood, metal scraps and other garbage. The grounds are swampy and filthy water is around most of them. Families of up to 12 are crammed into damp little rooms. It was extremely depressing to see. BUT, the friendliness, the spirit and the smiles of the residents were truly remarkable. They invited us in. They asked us to take photos of them. This content for the life that they have was very inspiring.

Apart from our CI we also had a great regional learning day. We went to a museum to learn about the history of the Philippines, saw some colonial buildings downtown, went to a housing project that was built on the ashes of a shantytown and had a traditional dinner with music and dances. The contrasts of the day were enormous. From the beautiful music and red carpet in the restaurant to families with little kids who practically have nothing...These are just a few experiences providing you only with a little snapshot of our experience so far. As I said when we were in Thailand last semester, I can’t imagine the UWP program without going to developing countries anymore. It is such an invaluable experience for students in order to become global leaders. In order to understand the world, it is absolutely needed to spend time in places like the Philippines. And to see how much the cast is gaining from this experience and how much they have embraced the challenge shows the importance of these four weeks already.

--Joern Gutowski, Cast Manager

Zesto

2007-11-18T07:20:00.000-08:00

Up with People is able to be in the Philippines for four weeks thanks to the sponsorship of a beverage company called Zesto. This is our cast’s first really major sponsorship experience, and we have been showered with Zesto’s generous hospitality (and marketability). We are provided with unlimited Zesto soda, fruit juice, and ice tea for all cast meals, (which includes RC Cola, as it is owned by Zesto.) We have four Zesto polo shirts, plus t-shirts and baseball caps that are our uniforms for all of our service days. We had a delicious Filipino food welcome lunch, and we’ve been making up spontaneous Zesto commercials and slogans ever since. My personal favorite:
“Zesto is the Best-o!”

They also changed our usual poster slogan, which is "70 people. 19 countries. 1 voice." to one that reflects Zesto a little more: "19 countries. 1 voice. 1 drink."

prices

2007-11-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

One of the stereotypes we knew of the Philippines coming in was that things are cheaper here and our dollars would go farther, which was, admittedly, something to look forward to (especially coming from Europe, where the Euro/dollar exchange really cramped our budget).

Check out what you can get for 150 pesos (about $3.70):

A 30-minute taxi ride
A movie ticket
3-5 beers, depending on how classy the bar is
20 jeepney rides
A pedicure
A floating pearl necklace
…and my personal favorite: a cup of coffee at Starbucks

How amazing is it that most things are drastically lower prices, and yet Starbucks costs exactly the same as in the USA. Ana, my host sister, explains that Starbucks is a status symbol here. The upper middle and wealthy class teenagers and college students hang out there. The coffee shop is at least 3-4x the size of ones in the US, and most people camp out at a table for hours at a time. Ana and her friends have studied there for 5-7 hours, after buying only one cup of coffee. So she thinks of the inflated prices as rent!

Other western brands are the same prices as in the US too: the Gap, Zara, Crocs, LaCoste, etc., are in every mall on the top levels, and on the bottom level are the market stands where you can buy the knockoffs at a fraction of the price, if you want to risk being caught with them and paying fines upon entry back into the United States. This applies especially to big-name purses and pirated movies, both of which are big business here. I will have to choose my Christmas presents wisely!

transport & traffic

2007-11-18T06:46:00.000-08:00

There’s nothing quite like getting around in Manila. It is a huge sprawling collection of cities that make up the area of Metro Manila. Our cast is hosted in a few different areas (I’m in Quezon City), and because of the amount of traffic, we only get together as a full group every few days. Most days we travel directly to our service sites and home again, and that travel takes many forms.

Most students take taxis, which are everywhere, and are usually easy to hail, unless you live in a congested part of town. Then no one wants to drive you home, because it takes too long, and they can make more money picking up someone else. If that happens too many times in a row, or if you are near your home and know the direction to go, you can take the other two main forms of transport: jeepneys or tricycles.

The jeepney is a remnant of the influence of the US occupation. It is modified jeep that is the length of a suburban. The back is an open entrance, and in the main body of the jeep are benches along each side. It costs you 7.5 pesos (about 13 cents) to ride, and about 20 people pack onto the vinyl benches. They are fairly quick, relatively consistent, and cheap, but they mostly go on the main drags. Most people hop off a jeepney a little ways from their final destination and take a tricycle the rest of the way.

A “tricycle” is a motorbike with a huge metal sidecar that seats 3-4 people (cozily). There is also room for 1-2 people behind the driver, so essentially one motorcycle can carry 5-6 people plus the driver. Tricycles are also cheap, and the price depends on how far you’re going. Their biggest perk is to-the-door service, and their biggest downside is lungs full of exhaust (and wondering if the sidecar ever falls off—which Ana swears has never happened-- that she has seen, anyway).

There is also a bus system and a rail transit, but both aren’t accessible where I live. As for walking, it isn’t very common. Most people take tricycles even short distances. There isn’t really pedestrian infrastructure—sidewalks are hit & miss, and the residential area that I’m in isn’t within walking distance of anything but the corner store and Laundromat. Most other gated communities are similar.

Getting around makes every day an adventure. Traffic can be dead-stopped for minutes, and inching for hours. A place that’s 15 minutes away in the middle of the night can take you two hours to get to during the day. And there aren’t exactly consistent times of day for traffic either, so in general, we leave really early and hope that we don’t hit any.

Bombing in Manila

2007-11-14T06:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, there was a bombing in Manila at the Parliament building the evening we arrived. It was (they think) targeted at the congressman that was killed in the blast, along with his driver. He represented the very south of the country where there is unrest due to Muslim extremist groups that are supposedly linked to Al Quaida. This kind of attack is rare in Manila…the southern islands, where there are recent conflicts, are a thousand miles from here. As far as our safety goes, I feel as safe as I would in any other big city. There’s no reason to think that any of the locations where we spend our days (mostly the slums and poor villages where our service sites are) would be targeted in any way. We take all the precautions we can for personal safety (like traveling in at least pairs, communicating when we plan to arrive certain places, etc.) and that’s all we can do. Ana pointed out the extra security in the city today in malls and buildings in the downtown financial district... a precautionary measure that gives some sense of security, though who knows how effective it is.

The interesting part is the perspective that Paul Whitaker, the long-time Up with People guru who has planned the last two Thai tours, our current tour, and is working on next semester’s Thai tour, offers. He explains that the travel cautionary list put out by the US and other state departments, of which the Philippines is on, is more political than it is about safety. When the last casts were in Thailand, there were bombings in Bangkok and a coup of the government. BUT the words “Al Quaida” are nowhere near this unrest in Thailand, so it hasn’t shown up on the US’ watch list. So it is not about the frequency of attacks or the risk to civilians (which is what I would think they would consider in their ratings), but rather how close the groups are to the biggest media attention “bad guys” in our world today.

We are in Manila, Ila, Ila Hey Hey

2007-11-14T06:25:00.000-08:00

Yeah for Asia!! With our very first adventure in this part of the world, we are so excited to be in the muggy paradise of the Philippines. We were are little nervous about getting everyone to this
point though as we had some snags on our way to the airport:

* First, we had a couple of students with severe intestinal issues (read as...the runs) and they needed to see doctors before we left to make sure they could fly
* When we went to get our vans out of the parking garage, we found the gate stuck in the down position, which made it impossible to get them out. Yikes!! Fortunately they called about 3 support trucks and we got them out in time to get to the airport.

Fortunately, we all made the flight and they airline was not as restrictive as they made themselves out to be. Our things arrived with us and we were welcomed by our Sponsor, Zesto (owners of RC Cola) and a bunch of media outlets. The cast had been great and we are getting adjusted to our new timezone (although I have to admit that I have no idea what time it is at home right now).

I am staying with a delightful host family who has two young boys. They also have their own driver and two "helpers" in the house. This came as a shock to me, but I came to understand that this is common here. We even have one cast member where there are 25 "helpers" in the home. We are definitely staying with wealthier families here, which will make for an interesting contrast when we start to do our Community Impact.

Transportation here is a trip. The driving is enough to make you want to walk everywhere, but because the city is so huge, it is impossible. One cast member noticed that there is a sign on the back of most vehicles saying, "How is my driving?" We all laughed at this because the only sane response is "TERRIBLE!!" But you would be dialing the phone all day if you took this attitude, we are definitely all in on this new adventure.

Ellen's Filipino first impressions:

2007-11-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

Warm, humid, friendly people, crazy traffic.

I am staying with Ana Pascual’s family (she is a member of our advance team). She’s the oldest of five kids: Dino, Chantal, Bolo and Eio. Parents are Ruben and Mayang, and then there's Lola, the grandmother, who graciously greeted me this morning. She introduced herself as “the administrator of this little village” that is her home. When my roommate Adam and I sat last night out with the rest of the family in their garden/ patio, we were told that the house only has two rules:

1. We should always simply ask for what we need. They are a straightforward family and don’t take things personally.

2. Everything that Lola (grandma) says, goes.

Riding down the street in a taxi, I am amazed at how much Manila reminds me of Mexico, and parts of Ecuador. Here come my stereotypes of developing countries: they have... children who sell candy in the middle of the street, or even who run through traffic to tap on your windows to beg for money. Lots of KFC. Crazy public transportation where there are 20 people in a van made for seven weaving through the lanes. Extreme poverty right across the alley from extravagant wealth. Obsession with certain parts of American/Western culture: Oprah, fast food, SpongeBob, the GAP. There's more I'm missing, but even in the first 24 hours, this stuff jumps out at me, and brings back so many memories, even though I've never been on this continent before.

continent transitions

2007-11-11T07:42:00.001-08:00

There is nothing more exhausting than figuring out how to move 67 people and all their crap from one continent to another. Plus we have all these extra costume bags, musical instruments, and other things (like our archive for the end of the year) that have to come with us. The tricky part of the equation came this week when we learned the airline luggage restrictions: each person only gets 20 kilos (44 pounds) total in checked luggage, and 8 kilos of carry on luggage, in one bag. And the kicker: for every kilo you are overweight, you pay 30 Euros! (which, with the recent drop in the dollar, is about 45 bucks). Ouch. So, we have two hours of free time tomorrow morning, where the majority of the cast will wait in line at the post office, mailing boxes home. (Mom, Scottie and I have a hefty box coming your way.) I’m hoping that the restrictions leaving the Philippines will be a little more lenient, as I am planning on doing some Christmas shopping.

Cast Uni and a surprise!

2007-11-11T07:41:00.004-08:00

We had one of my favorite education opportunities yesterday: UWP University! Students volunteer to teach 50-minute courses on things that they are knowledgeable in. We had courses on Chinese characters, yoga, crochet, song-writing, speaking Pidgeon, musical dance, Kendo (Japanese fencing), self defense, creative writing, financial planning, and a course for women on what guys are thinking. Such fun! The hard part was deciding which courses to attend. We also were supposed to have courses on photography basics, reading Braille & learning a step routine, but those classes were actually fake because the students had prepared for us a staff appreciation!
They made a slide show of photos, wrote us thoughtful letters, gave us chocolate, serenaded us with Japanese music videos and Seasons of Love, Blaine from Texas did a short “Impression Session” with impressions of each staff member, and Johan from Sweden had written an incredible song after the cast appreciation two weeks ago, which he performed for us. It was very touching, and these students are just a good group of people. I feel really lucky that I like them all so much!

two bummers

2007-11-11T07:41:00.003-08:00

Leuven was the site of two minor cast disasters. The first was a situation that always makes for a good story once it’s over: food poisoning! We had two types of soup for lunch, and everyone who ate “the meat soup” had the runs all night long. Thank goodness our show facility had a lot of bathrooms.

The second was more tragic: Our big show on Thursday evening was in an arena, and the cast performed on a portable stage platform. Laurel Long from Colorado missed the edge of the stairs exiting off the platform backstage, fell and broke her ankle in two places. She returned to the US for surgery, and will not be rejoining the cast. She was incredibly disappointed, and the whole cast grieved for her not being able to end the tour with us, and to miss our journey to the Philippines. She was very courageous, and flew home yesterday in positive spirits. I think the rest of us did quite a bit of reflecting… what if I was the one who was injured and was heading home today?

Big show day

2007-11-11T07:41:00.001-08:00

The performance of the Up with People Show in Leuven was by far the best I have seen from this cast. It was a show with a lot of pressure… we had 400 VIP guests attend a champagne reception beforehand, an enthusiastic audience of over 2,000 people, and many potential sponsors and bigwigs that are interested in being involved in future uwp European tours in attendance. The stakes were high, and I was so proud of this cast--- they just turned it on! The dances were the cleanest I’ve ever seen them, the energy was off the charts, and everyone was giving their all for this last European show, and the cast’s third to last show ever (as we only have two shows in Manila). We also had a guest performer perform with us; Sandrine is a Belgian pop star who had two chart hits from being on “Idol” (which is basically “American Idol” but not in America). She sang both her hit songs in our show, and a lot of the student audience was drawn to our show to see her. Leuven is the largest university town in Belgium with 30,000 students, so this city also had a big focus on recruiting future up with people students. We definitely are finishing our European tour with a bang.