Drinking Tea

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...

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.