Austin to Big Bend

Our drive to Big Bend was a long 7.5 hours, through the beautiful scenery, exotic game ranches and anti-Obama yard signs of Central and West Texas. It was mostly uneventful and enjoyable, until the fuel light started flashing and beeping at us. It seemed we had overestimated both what our highway gas mileage would be and how close the next gas station was. For a while it was looking pretty dire, but we managed to coast into Fort Stockton and made it to a gas station in time. I maintain that we were running on fumes, but Alisha claims (based on her “research” and checking the “internet” and the “owner’s manual”) that we still had a whole gallon of gas left. In any case, we’ll be more careful in the future. (That’s actually the only thing I really dislike about my Prius: the fuel gauge is wacky as hell. I can go 100+ miles before it shows any drop in gas level and then it drops quickly and erratically after that. It’s pretty unreliable, so I never know when to trust it, which makes long drives a challenge.)

We think this would make a great ad photo for the Prius.

Once we gassed up, we found a (the only?) grocery store (Lowe’s) in Fort Stockton and went in to get supplies. This was a mistake. Yes, they had just about everything we needed (although buying the Jumex brand “Peach Nector” was another mistake) and yes, the prices were reasonable, cheap even. The real problem was that the whole store smelled like shit. Literally, like shit. It smelled as if someone (perhaps a terminally-ill employee) had taken a massive, rank dump in the AC unit, which then circulated the stench throughout the entire store. Well, not the entire store, the bathrooms actually smelled decent.

Big Bend Update

Well, it's been a few days since I've posted and it's been a busy couple of weeks! Our blog will probably be a lot like this for the whole trip, as we go in and out of places with no cell reception/wifi. I'll try to post as often as I can. I'm currently drafting this section while sitting in our campsite at Big Bend National Park while the wind threatens to rip our shelter apart. Fun!

At two weeks into the road trip (and three weeks of homelessness), I think we're adjusting pretty well. We went pretty hard at SXSW (as to be expected) but had a day off before we left Austin (when I last posted). Now, we just spent the last five days pushing ourselves pretty hard to see everything there is to see here in the park. We're taking today off to relax, read, write and spend some planning time online up at the visitors center (hooray for free wifi!). We still need to figure out what our two days between Big Bend and Ruidoso, NM will look like. If we have time today, we may even tidy our car (which is a complete mess!).

At three week, my beard is also at a pretty good length, where I usually like to have it. I predict by week five or six, it will already be quite ridiculous. As for our food, we brought a lot of random stuff from our apartment in Houston and spent $70 at a grocery store in Fort Stockton (more on that adventure later) and it's been lasting pretty well. We've just about finished the perishables and things that need to be kept cool (and only needed to buy one bag of ice all week). It's been surprisingly fun planning our meals to try to stretch the food out as long as possible. We've also been pretty good at not spending money this week, except on some ice cream and beer after exceptionally long/hot days or hikes.

We started the trip (as I mentioned in a previous post) in Austin, first staying for a couple of nights at McKinney Falls State Park (highly recommended!). On our first real, non-travel day of the road trip, rather than relaxing or exploring, we went to the state capitol to take part in an Equality Texas Lobby Day, talking to State Senators and Representatives about the employment non-discrimination bills currently under consideration. It was both frustrating and fulfilling, as politics usually is, and we met some great people!

After that we moved into the apartment of my friend Laura and headed out to the craziness that is SXSW. After five very full days of mostly Canadian music, poutine, bacon candy, free beer and tacos, not-so-free BBQ, hipster/brony spotting, chatting up rappers, insane crowds (but no riots), finding out what my beard will soon look like (see photo below), late nights, early mornings, sore feet and good friends, we took one day of rest and laundry (and hanging out with our Austinite friends) and started the long drive west to Big Bend. That's got to be all for right now, as both my laptop and phone batteries are about to die, but I'm hoping to get something up about our adventures here in the park soon!

And Off We Go!

Well, it's been a crazy/exciting week at SXSW, as it usually is, but tomorrow morning we're packing up the car again and driving the 7 hours out to Big Bend National Park, where we'll be staying for about a week. I'm assuming we'll start posting more after that. Up to now it's just been music festival adventures; just two chilly nights of camping in Austin and then staying with some friends.

As for SXSW, we managed to see 68 shows over five days, with 56 different artists, 39 of which we had never seen before. It was pretty intense and we're pretty exhausted today, as you'd expect, (especially our feet) but today is a rest/laundry day, so taking it pretty easy.

On Monday, before the festival even started, we took part in an Equality Texas Lobby Day at the state capitol, speaking to State Reps and Senators about workplace non-discrimination bills. It was a pretty rewarding way to spend our first full day in Austin!

Things will probably be pretty quiet from us for the next week or two, since we'll be camping and far away from civilization! But expect updates once we get to New Mexico!

Last Day in Houston

It's hard to believe, but it's our last day in Houston before we head out on our road trip! We're staying with friends in the northern 'burbs, taking it pretty easy. Hit up an amazing breakfast taco place (Titas) then a relaxed indie coffee shop. At some point today we're going to have to pack up the car, but why not put it off as long as possible? Updates will follow soon!

Homeless!

Very quick post here. Alisha and I are officially all moved out of our apartment and our stuff is in storage. We've still got a week left at work, so we're staying at friends' places for the week while we finish up our employment. It's been a great weekend, saying goodbye to friends and places, getting my saucer at the Flying Saucer, showing up hungover to a one-year-old's birthday party and getting excited to get on the road!

We're also trying to figure out the best ways to document and get the most out of this experience. We've been experimenting with websites like Daytum and Roadtrippers as well as this blog, Facebook and Twitter. Of course, we'll be taking lots of photos and posting them whenever we can, and we've already been taking daily photos of my facial hair to document it's growth to ridiculousness. Also, we've taken the idea from a friend to do a gift exchange between all the people we are staying with. Each host can give us something they don't need anymore and we'll pass it on to the next people we stay with! We'll try to be giving some warning to our hosts about this, but we'll see what happens.

We'll be officially leaving Houston on Sunday, March 10th (my last day of work is Thursday, Alisha's is Friday) and will be camping near Austin for a couple days before South by South West (SXSW). More updates will follow soon!

In need of a name (and hashtag)

For some reason, Alisha and I have been struggling to come up with a name for our road trip. I suppose not all trips need a name, but this one seems so long and life-changing that it needs some sort of title! (Such as a friend's Americanarama tour - also around the continent, but mostly by train, and in the other direction.) We've had a few suggestions, one of the best being Continental Drift, but we're looking for more ideas! (I specifically like anything with "nomad" in the title, for obvious reasons.)

We are also looking for a hashtag to use for our trip on twitter. Both Alisha and I are on twitter, but I'm the only one using it frequently (@canadajanes). We've had way more suggestions for this one, with the best coming from our friend Donna: #roadjanes. (That's right, you can follow this trip on facebook, twitter and here on this blog!)

Anyway, these obviously aren't the most pressing matters concerning us, but let us know if you think of any great ideas! We've got less than a month until the road trip starts, and less than three weeks until we are homeless and once again nomadic!

Restarting the Blog and Five Weeks to Go!

Wow, apparently it has been a couple of years since I've posted anything on my old travel blog. I tried to keep this thing up and running for a while after I moved to Houston, but eventually my job and normal life got in the way and I stopped writing. Well, I may be a little rusty at travel writing, but I'm about to start up again! In five weeks, my wife (Alisha) and I will be heading out on the road for a 128-day trip around the continent, from Houston to California, to Vancouver and across Canada to Southwestern Ontario. We will be attempting to use this blog as the journal of our adventures, so stay tuned here for updates along the way! In the next five weeks I hope to be posting a number of times in order to get back in the swing of writing and to fill you all in on the process of planning this sort of trip. Thanks for sticking around! --Andy

Hate, fear bigotry…

With the economy in shambles, unemployment way too high, a recent oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and state budgets in disarray all over the country, what would you say should the most important issue being discussed on political campaigns this year? If you said fixing the economy, creating jobs or developing green infrastructure… you’d be wrong. Obviously the most pressing issue out there is who we should hate! There are plenty of candidates out there, minorities that can’t defend themselves, people who are a little different then the rest of us, groups that we can score a few political points off of and maybe scare enough people into voting for one party or another. Hate, fear, bigotry – these have been part of campaigning since the country began, mostly because they work! But why should we let them? Recognizing these tactics as the pathetic election tools that they are is a good way to render them ineffective, so let’s take a look at who’s destroying America this year.

Hating on the gays is so 2004. Not a lot of anti-gay ballot issues this year, at least, not that I’ve heard of yet. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of people are still bizarrely frightened of the idea of two people who love each other getting married, and there have been a number of examples of openly gay candidates being slurred against, but it no longer seems like the issue that guarantees getting out the bigot vote. (Maybe I’m being overly optimistic. Let me know if you hear of the “gay agenda” being played around a lot by candidates.) Hmm, who else is out there we can hate on…

OMG! Have you heard? Muslims want to destroy America by building a mosque on Ground Zero in New York! Except, it’s not really a mosque, it’s a community center with a place to pray, and it’s not really on Ground Zero, it’s actually a couple of blocks away, only 2 blocks closer than an actual mosque (not to mention some strip clubs), and the Imam, one Faisal Rauf, is on record saying that he is not only a Muslim, but also a Jew and a Christian, as all three believe in the same things. So, it turns out to be a lot of fake outrage directed at the… you guessed it, the bigot vote! And don’t tell me it’s the placement of the mosque is why it’s a problem. There are active protests of soon-to-be mosques in Tennessee and other places, and a church in Florida had a Koran burning party to show their, what’s the term, stupidity? Racism? Outright idiocy? Something like that? Muslim fundamentalists talk about how the US and Islam are incompatible and thus are at war, and here we are doing are best to prove them right. Awesome.

Immigrants, of course, are an easy target for election hate, after all, unlike the gays, many of them can’t vote! Immigrants have been bashed in this country, by one party or another, since elections began. Of course, in the beginning it was those dirty Irish and the lazy Italians, and don’t get me started on the danged Germans! Speaking German and trying to hold on to their customs and culture. They’re takin’ our jurbs! Lately, of course, Hispanics have been the target of our hate and fear. Arizona’s famous “Show me your papers” law cost that state over $6 million in tourism revenue, and now South Dakota and many other states are considering similar legislation, as my friend Matt Hildreth detailed in an excellent blog a couple weeks ago. (As an immigrant myself, let me tell you, the idea of carrying your immigration paperwork with you everywhere you go is pretty ridiculous. You keep them at home, in a safe place! I almost lost my work visa at a beach once, and I will not let that happen again!) Stepping up the insanity ladder is the claim made by Texas Representatives Debbie Riddle and Louie Gohmert about Terror Babies. Let that sink in for a second. Terror Babies. Evil pregnant terrorists climbing over desert border fences to give birth to evil terrorist babies that will destroy this country in 20 years time. Facepalm.

This blog was supposed to be about some awesome undocumented kids that I know (don’t worry, they aren’t terror babies, or even terror teenagers) and how they are improving the community here in Houston, but one thing led to another and I got distracted. Maybe I’ll get to it at some point. Anyway, keep your eyes open for hate and fear being bandied around the political discourse. And please don’t ever fall for it!

Iowa is the worst state ever. So is Kansas. Nebraska's pretty horrible as well. Also Missouri. South Dakota and Texas, you're not so great either...

When this was posted as my Facebook status a few days ago, one of my “friends” commented that I had my “cranky pants” on. I suppose it was true, having just completed the 20 plus hour drive from Watertown, SD to Houston, TX for the second time in 10 days. I’d made that trip once before (alone, in January) but even with two people it isn’t a trip to be made by the faint of heart or in vehicles with low gas mileage.

The drive North to South Dakota went surprisingly well, other than the usual obscene amount of traffic in Houston and a bizarre freak-out at a Super 8 (if you ever stay at the Super 8 in Norman, OK, do not, I repeat DO NOT attempt to start the 6 AM continental breakfast at 5:59 AM). My girlfriend and I arrived in Brookings with more than enough energy to head straight downtown and close down O’Hare’s and Jim’s. Brookings was its usual self, full of people I hadn’t seen in way too long, but SDSU looks quite different with all the new construction. The week was filled with catching up, running into old high school friends, meeting the girlfriend’s parents for the first time (eep! gulp!), drinking, Shark Week and a wedding where I didn’t really know anyone. You know, the usual.

All in all, the whole week went pretty well; the cranky pants didn’t come on until the drive home. You see, the wedding was Saturday night and my girlfriend needed to be back at work Monday morning, so we needed to cram all that driving into a short period of time. We left Watertown at about 8:30 PM after the reception dinner and planned to stop in Omaha/Council Bluffs sometime around 12:30 or 1:00 AM. We pulled off the road about on schedule, ready for a short night’s sleep, only to find out that the hotel had no vacancies and according to the night desk guy, none of the other hotels in the area did either. Writing Omaha off as a loss, we got back on the road and proceeded to stop in Nebraska City, Hamburg, Mound City, St Joseph – 11 different hotels in all, excluding the places front desk clerks called to check for us – until we found a Travelodge with one empty room in Platte City just north of Kansas City. It was 5:00 AM at this point and we were about ready to pull over and sleep in the car (energy drinks and gas station coffee can only take you so far). Fortunately the nice desk clerk pushed back the checkout time for us and we were able to get a good morning’s sleep before heading out again around noon.

Now, I love South Dakota, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if it’s worth it to make that drive again. The Sturgis Rally (started that week), some Nebraskan rodeo and the Kansas City Chief’s training camp (shudder… yet another reason to hate that team) all conspired against us. The construction on I-29 in Iowa alone made me question humanity’s merits, while the desolate nothingness that is Kansas is enough to drive anyone to madness. What truly frightened me, however, were the billboards threatening a “New American Revolution” (surprisingly, the teabaggers usually spelled “revolution” correctly).

I don’t think we’ll be making that drive again any time soon. We’ll definitely be flying up next time. Look on the bright side – I’m sure the airports will be crazy enough over Thanksgiving that I’ll get to write about that trip too!

Burnt, sore and coated in salt; PLUS a little taste of home.

We had an amazing day this last Sunday. It was Memorial Day on the 31st, so we had a long weekend and decided to head down to Galveston Island for a day of kayaking and swimming. We signed up for a tour of Galveston Island State Park with Artist Boat, an organization that combines kayaking, science and art, and headed into the estuary/marshes of the park for a 4-hour excursion. If you’ve never gone kayaking, give it a try. I feel that kayaks are not only faster and more maneuverable that canoes, but the paddling motion is more natural on a kayak. I had only gone kayaking a couple of times before, and this was Alisha’s first time, but we totally rocked the two-person kayak. I’m proud to say that we were faster than anyone else and we never got stuck in the mud!

Next time we go kayaking, we’re going to just rent them and go out on our own, but it was nice to have a tour guide this time around. She pointed out the egrets, great blue herons, black skimmers (awesome birds – their lower beaks are longer than their upper ones and they fly along “skimming” the water with their lower beaks), turns, sea snots (like jellyfish, but just the jelly, not the fish part) and the places where stingrays live (unfortunately did not see any and fortunately did not step on any). During our lunch stop we even got a lesson in watercolours and had a chance to paint the scenery to help us remember the adventure. My painting looks like it got wet and was ruined on the trip back, but alas, it did not. It was just poorly done.

After the kayaking, we headed across the island to the Gulf side for a little bit of swimming and ended up playing in the surf for a good 3 hours. By the time we headed into Historic Downtown Galveston for some lovely Mediterranean food, we were sunburned, exhausted and quite salty. It was quite the day, and we are already making plans for our next kayaking trip.

“Home” in the title refers to Canada. Generic Canada, not really any particular place. We’ve found a spot here in Houston where we can get a little taste of Canada: the Maple Leaf Pub. Located in Midtown, the Maple Leaf is a fun little bar with a small selection of Canadian beers. I hear it gets quite busy when a hockey game is on (especially Houston Aeros or NHL playoffs) but we went on an off night and it stayed busy, it was never over crowded. I loved the atmosphere; there were people playing board games, there was a table hockey game in one corner, a map of Canada on the wall and jerseys and flags for Canadian sports teams (including quite a few for my favourite, the Leafs!) all over the room. You could also get a good selection of Canadian beer (unfortunately not my favourite, Dead Elephant Ale from Railway City Brewing Company) including a beer from Quebec that tasted like potpourri. Seriously. It was quite florally delicious.

Things I should have blogged about sooner…

Some of you might recall hearing about a series of immigration rallies that took place across the US on May Day (May 1st). The rallies were in part to call on the federal government to enact comprehensive immigration reform and in part to protest Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law (SB 1070). I could probably rant for several entire posts about that racist piece of work, but I’ll restrain. If you haven’t heard of it, basically it attempts to legalize racial profiling by allowing cops to pull people over for “looking illegal”. So, as an immigrant, along with other prominent immigrants to the US including Steve Nash (of Los Spurs) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (“I was also going to give a graduation speech in Arizona this weekend. But with my accent, I was afraid they would try to deport me,”{please read that quote with a Terminator accent}) I felt I needed to do something to in protest. Hence the immigration rally.

Honestly I had no idea what to expect. I’ve tried to go to other protests before, only to find just one or two people waving signs. Plus, I hadn’t heard much advertising about the rally, so I wasn’t all that hopeful, but we made our signs and headed over. When we saw two helicopters hovering over the area, we figured it was a good sign, but I was still impressed when I saw the crowds. Media estimates put about 7000 – 10 000 people at the rally, quite a big event (although we were dwarfed by Dallas which had around 20 000 turn out). We parked a few blocks away and ran over to join the march. Emerging as we did from a crowd of grumpy looking white people at the sidelines, we received a few apprehensive looks from the mostly Hispanic marchers, but once we pulled out our signs, they welcomed us quite warmly. One older lady even complimented my horrible mangling of the slogans we were chanting: “El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!” (A community united will never be defeated!)

We had a great time and marched a good distance and fortunately, only saw a few teabaggers. One idiot had his rallies confused and was holding a “No socialism” sign (not sure what immigration reform has to do with socialism) and another ‘bagger had one proclaiming the sacred border/language/culture of the US. Psst, dumbass, Texas used to be part of Mexico. As the saying goes, they didn’t cross the border, the border crossed them. My least favourite sign read “Immigration is ruining this country. Look what it did to the White House” which was all kinds of stupid and offensive. It was heartening, however, to note that there were only 20-50 teabaggers (of the ones I saw most were old and all were white) along the entire route, and set against at least 7000 marchers, I think makes us look pretty good.

In other news, thanks for the advice in the comments from the last post. The websites had good tips, Sara’s was the most appealing and Greg’s was, well, the most practical. To get rid of the fruit flies, we used a mixture of red wine vinegar and dish soap in a glass. We left it out on the counter overnight and the next morning, there were about 30 dead flies in the bottom of the glass. I guess the smell of the vinegar was irresistible and the soap broke the surface tension so the flies would sink and drown. We left a couple of glasses out for a couple of days and killed off almost all of the flies. My only worry is that we created a new race of flies that don’t like vinegar by killing off all the ones that do. Natural selection and all that. Or would it be artificial selection? Anyway, we’re still trying to find a way to deal with the millipedes. Normally I really don’t mind them; they’re some of the least threatening of bugs. However, we found one in bed the other night, and that is crossing a line.

Oh, and we have some sort of heron hanging around our apartment pool. This is one of those things that would be more interesting if I was still overseas. It would be an ostrich or a monkey or maybe a crocodile.

The immigrants are stealing your low-paid internships.

Hello all! I’m back at work and hopefully back at blogging!

I’ve been away from the blogging pretty much since getting back from Rwanda, other than a few random posts, but I’m going to try to start doing it regularly again. Ironically, I had plenty of time to write while I was unemployed and yet did very little of it. Now that I have a job and much less time, I decided to restart the blog. Not sure I understand myself sometimes.

First main point: I have a job! Hooray! Actually, I ended up getting three interviews all around the same time and ended up getting offered all three jobs! When it rains, eh? Fortunately, one of the jobs starts in September, doing after-school enrichment programs, so I accepted that one. I had to decide between an hourly job at Te House of Tea and a short-term internship at the Student Conservation Association (SCA). After taking everyone’s advice into account, I decided to go with the internship, mostly because it seemed like less of a downgrade than serving tea, even if the pay was worse. After two weeks, I still believe I made the right choice, especially since there could be a slight chance of it turning into longer-term, better-paid employment.

The SCA is an environmental non-profit that has been around since the 1950s placing people in internships at national parks and the like to do conservation work (habitat restoration, trail building, invasive species removal, population studies, environmental education, etc). In the last decade, it has also expanded to programs that get urban youth involved in conservation efforts. My job is to recruit people for internships in and around Houston (including Galveston), or as a friend put it, a non-corporate headhunter. I’ll also be helping to build partnerships with other organizations, running the intern program for the summer and helping out with the high school summer program. So far, so good!

That’s all for now, but I hope to post again in the near future. Keep an eye out for posts on my attempts at becoming more environmentally friendly, an awesome immigration rally we attended and our recent infestations of fruit flies and millipedes. (Alisha found an ingenious way to annihilate most of the fruit flies, but does anyone know how to get rid of large numbers of millipedes?)

Employment

Jobs I want and think I would be good at:

- Cartographer
- Xenoethnographer
- 2040 Olympic Croquet course designer
- Hero (although I would probably need some super powers. Or maybe just powers. Even some skills would be nice…)
- Coffee snob (is this a job?)
- Harrison Ford
- Death panelist
- Talking head (either the kind in a jar or the kind on TV, I’m not picky)
- English gentleman-adventurer
- Robot

If you can think of other jobs I might be good at/want, leave a comment!

Unemployment leads to much reading of the BBC

Has anyone else been following the news out of Niger? I’m guessing not, but it’s an interesting story. At first glance it looks like any one of a dozen stories that have come out of Africa over the years, but some people, myself included, are hoping it’s different. Basically, a military coup has overthrown Niger’s government, a uranium rich but extremely poor Saharan nation with a history of rebellions. This is unfortunately all too common in this part of Africa (see Guinea in Dec 2008). The new junta is now promising democracy and reform, something else frequently done by juntas across the world. The question is are they telling the truth? I’m guessing most people would answer no, or if they’re feeling extremely optimistic, maybe yes but it won’t happen. As for myself, I’d like to believe.

Here’s what I know: former President Mamadou Tandja was not democratic. He was one of many African leaders who rode into power on a wave of democratic revolutions but overstayed his welcome. Like many such leaders, he pushed through constitutional amendments to allow him to stay in power longer than previously allowed. Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe Velez are other such leaders. Some also fear that in Rwanda President Paul Kagame will do something similar, but I have my doubts. Anyway, Tandja ended up a dictator. Fast forward to February 18 of this year: military coup ousts Tandja. As you probably know, I don’t usually like militaries to have any influence at all in governance, but there have been a few promising signs out of this. For one, elections have been promised, but of course, these promises are easy to break, and they usually are. For another, members of the military junta AND the transitional government will not be allowed to run in the new elections. Again, it’s just a promise, but it’s a good one to make. Finally, although Tandja is being tried for treason, the junta is not seeking the death penalty, even though that would be permissible by law. I find that last one interesting. It could be just a smart move to prevent making a martyr out of him, or it could be something different, something promising. If nothing else, it shows that the junta is not planning a purge, which would a sure sign of trouble.

Will this coup lead to anything other than another dictatorship? If history were our guide, it would look like a resounding no. However, this does not mean we should immediately condemn the coup in Niger. Tandja’s government was not a good one, and this could be an opportunity to create a new functioning democracy in Saharan Africa, a region that desperately needs good role models. The governments of the US, Canada and the EU should reach out to Niger and offer to help them through the difficult process of building a new government. Will any of this come to pass? Who knows! But one thing is for certain: I’ll be following the news out of Niger.

Sad news out of Rwanda. There were recently three grenade attacks in Kigali shortly before French President Sarkozy’s visit (or due to the upcoming 2010 elections). One attack took place in front of a bar/restaurant I used to frequent, Chez Venant. They had cheap beer (for Kigali) and a nice atmosphere. I’m hoping the restaurant remains open and that there are no further attacks like this one.

Other random crap:

Now, I’m sure that the hats I purchased in Rwanda were probably made in China, like many of the things you could buy there, but I still think of them as my Africa hats. (You may have seen me wearing the brown one in many of my Rwanda photos.) They weren’t extremely common in Rwanda, but I’d see them every now and then, usually being worn by musees/old men. So when I saw an old man wearing one here in Houston, I smiled. A lot. And almost greeted him with a Mwirire!

So, small world, eh? I tend to have these moments quite often, like running into my parents in DC or meeting a guy I went to high school in South Dakota with in a random bar in Kigali. Or meeting a nice American in a hotel in Butare who know a friend of mine from SDUS. This latest incident is not nearly as interesting, but I have little else to write about. I met a fellow at a meeting about census jobs and we got to talking. He went to school in Iowa and when he found out I formerly lived in South Dakota, he happened to mention that the father of one of his friends ran for governor there! This would be Jack Billion of course, whose campaign I volunteered for and whose children I met while campaigning. I love being reminded of how interconnect the world is.

Finally, HOCKEY! Canadian women took the gold and I’ll be watching the men’s game tonight. NBC isn’t doing a good job of covering hockey, and I can’t seem to find it online to watch. Solution? My dad is going to set up his computer in front of his TV in Ontario and I’ll be watching it over Skype. Aren’t technology and parents awesome!?

Update attack!

So, it’s been quite a while since my last post, hasn’t it? That’s probably because my life now isn’t nearly as interesting as it was just five months ago. I’m currently living in Houston, the fourth, possibly third largest city in the US. I’m unemployed, looking for work and in the meantime, being a houseboy.

The problem with keeping up my blog is that, well, who is going to read it? When living in Rwanda (or as several friends have pointed out, anywhere overseas) even the most mundane event is worth blogging about. That’s probably because what’s mundane in other places is still strange and new to us Westerners. In Rwanda, I could write about the awful intestine brochettes I was served, or the live chicken in a paper bag under my bus seat, or the funny English problems I encountered. Other examples given to me by friends include “I waited for a bus today… in front of a castle!” and “I almost got hit crossing the road today… by a camel!” Now that I’m in Houston my life isn’t all that interesting to the rest of the world. Writing about putting together a bookshelf or job-hunting probably isn’t going to keep readers’ attentions.

Of course, this isn’t to say I’m not having a good time! Houston is a great city with so much to explore and see. Plus, my relationship is finally not a long distance one, which after more than a year is definitely a good thing! I’m beginning to get settled here, working through all the change of location stuff (though a little annoyed that I need to get my car inspected at an office this is only open from 9 am to 9:30 am on Mondays – and of course I found this out Tuesday morning) and job-hunting is keeping me busy. There are jobs out there, but having no real skills is a bit of a detriment to getting interviews. I’ve been finding a lot of them on Idealist.org, a great website for finding (generally) progressive jobs, volunteers, programs, and other opportunities.

I’m starting to get back into the politics I missed while in Rwanda, and frankly, I’m annoyed. Annoyed at the Republicans for doing nothing by saying no and at the Democrats for misplacing their collective spine. Again. Health insurance: I need it and I need it to be cheap. Jobs: also need it! The Repubs seem to have forgotten their economics: spending creates jobs. It doesn’t matter whether it’s private or public, but seeing as the average person doesn’t have as much spending money as usual, it’s up to the government to do that spending. I know the deficit is huge (and I also know it got that way under Bush by getting into two wars we couldn’t afford while cutting taxes) but now is not the time to try to fix it. Get the economy back on track, lower unemployment, THEN worry about the deficit.

Oh, and I may have found my new Cottonwood. If you know me, you’ll know how much I love coffee shops. I’ve been missing Cottonwood Coffee in Brookings. It was pretty much my home senior year at SDSU and need to find a replacement. I’m sitting in Salento Café in Rice Village right now, and it just might fit the bill. I need to try a few alternatives before I settle down, but this place has a lot going for it. It doesn’t just have coffee, it has wine…

That’s all for now. I think I’ll keep this up, more as a means of staying in the writing habit then anything. I don’t expect to keep readers, but meh… this is for me. Oh, and in case you didn’t guess, it’s also something to do when I should be writing cover letters and following up on applications…

Zanzibar!

Hello all! I accidentally paid for an hour of internet rather than a half an hour, so i decided to do a quick post.

I am in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. It is paradise here. Amazing. I have been snorkeling and swimming in the Indian ocean, drinking cocktails, eating delicious seafood (octopus, squid, barracuda, shrimp, etc) and generally having a great time. While snorkeling I saw dolphins, flying fish and all sorts of other beautiful fish and corals. The only negatives are the heat and the fact that I had to walk for about 45 minutes barefoot through a bed of sea urchins, sharp rocks and broken corals. Long story.

Stonetown, the largest city is beautiful. It is full of narrow winding alleys that i constantly get lost in. The architecture is pretty cool and there are towns of old forts, churches, mosques and museums to visit. Later this week I'm planning to take a "spice tour" to see and sample all sorts of fruits and spices.

When i'm done here, my friend and I are heading to the north of the island for more snorkeling, swimming and partying.

We're leaving Zanzibar on the 14th for Dar, then on the 15th taking the 30 hour bus ride back to Kigali. I can't bring myself to think about it, so i'll have to fill you in on those annoying details later.

Be jealous!

Saying Goodbye

I have finished with Worldteach and Rusumo High School. I am no longer a teacher. I am unemployed. I have pretty mixed feelings about that. It was very sad to say goodbye to a lot of people like my English Club, my students and some of the other teachers, but at the same time, I’m happy to get moving again. After 10 months I’m looking forward to getting home.

But first, Zanzibar! I am leaving tomorrow at 5:30 AM for a 30-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam. From there I’ll take the ferry to Zanzibar, a tropical island complete with beaches, reefs, ancient Stonetown, snorkeling, seafood and all that. It should be pretty amazing and you should all be jealous!

After that I will take another 30-hour bus ride back to Kigali and after a couple days fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for about 3 days before flying back to DC then Toronto. That means I’ll be back in North America in 3 weeks. See you then!

More pics!

DRC and less than two weeks to go

So, first of all, I have less than 2 weeks left in Rwanda. Crazy! I’m going to travel around for about a month before I get back to North America, so it’s still a little while until you can all see me again, but still…AHHHH! I’m in the process of saying my goodbyes and figuring out what I’m bringing back and what I’m leaving here. I’ve finished grading the exams and I’m almost done with the report cards, and that’s all I have left.

When I first came here I made it my goal to visit each country that borders Rwanda. I went to Uganda in April and Burundi a couple of months after that. Two weekends ago I went to the Democratic Republic of Congo. (If you don’t know much about the country, you should look it up. It’s got an interesting story, though pretty depressing, and have been locked in a series of rebellions and civil wars pretty much since it was created. It currently resides as No 3 on the UN’s list of most failed states, behind Somalia and Afghanistan. I tell you that so I can brag that I visited a country with less of a government than Iraq and Sudan.) Anyway, we only spent one night there (in Goma) but spent a good deal of time walking around the town. Let me tell you, it’s not in good shape. In 2004 the town was destroyed by/covered with lava from the volcano just to the north and even now the streets and alleys are covered in piles of volcanic rock. There are UN troops and aid workers everywhere, severely driving up prices making it more expensive than Kigali (which is very expensive compared to other parts of East Africa). There was also a lot more obvious poverty than you generally see in Rwanda. It’s definitely a rough place to live.

We did try two new beers though, both darker than the Rwandese beers. Tempo is quite good, but Turbo King (yes, that is what it is actually called) is disgusting. It tasted like they tried to make an energy drink/beer combination.

The craziest part of the trip though, is that we stumbled upon some illegal gorilla smugglers (not that any gorilla smuggling is legal). The compound bordering our hotel had two baby gorillas in it (so incredibly cute btw!). We asked at the hotel and found out that it was “unauthorized”. The smugglers didn’t like the fact that we took pictures, but we had to get photo evidence, so we took quite a few and walked up a creepy little side street to get the address of the place, then got the heck out of the country. We’re also in the process of trying to report this so some sort of authority.

So, I’m only human, right? Is it so wrong of me to want to know what my students think of me? On their finals, many of them had to write essays or paragraphs about…me. The results were, well, interesting. Mostly a huge ego boost of course, but some strange answers too. Almost every student said that they loved me and that I was a good teacher/the best teacher they’ve ever had. Of course, I know that a lot of that might be fishing for points but I have to believe that some of it is the truth! As for the other things they said…

The extremely obvious:
I’m white.
I don’t like cheating. (I made this quite clear!)

The complimentary:
I have a pretty smile.
I am thought of as a parent of the school.
I am handsome.
I have strength in my arms.
I look like a boxer or someone who knows karate.

The contradictory:
I’m fairly fat.
I am very thin.
I am short.
I am taller than others.

The just plain wrong:
I studied in USA (Union of South America)
I went to Denver University.
I was a secretary for Barack Obama (or Black Obama as several kids think he is called).
I was a teacher of Barack Obama.
I’m going to teach in Tanzania next.
I like to pray to God (or play God – Ls and Rs are difficult) every day and night.
I’m married.
I have two brothers and two sisters.
I live in England.

And the strange/extremely screwed up English:
I have white hair and side beards.
I am brown.
I am yellow.
I have an 84% for weight.
I don’t wear a trouser to school (definitely not true, I just don’t know what he meant!)
I have a good tail.
I have a chocolate head. (WHAT?)

See y’all in a couple months!

Book Reviews

A few of the books I’ve read this year. I wrote this instead of grading papers. I actually have some great stories to tell about a trip I just took, but I’ll have to post that at a future time.

Anna Karenina – My first Tolstoy. Anna is one of the most annoying characters in all literature, IMO. (Spoiler!) She should have jumped under the bus much, much earlier.

War and Peace – My second Tolstoy. Much better than the first. The story is quite riveting and non of the characters made me want to gouge my eyes out. The only problem was Tolstoy’s 100-page rant in the conclusion about how stupid historians are.

Great Expectations – This was a lot easier read than I thought it would be. Dickens genius may not be his stories, but it is definitely in his characters. All of them are such interesting portrayals of different aspects of the human spirit. I did figure out who Pip’s benefactor was after about the 3rd chapter though…

Lord of the Flies – I have read this before, but it was in the pile of books Dad and Sara brought for my school’s library. Always a great book.

The Road – An interesting post-apocalyptic story about a man and his son traveling a road in search of food and safety. Love the idea, but it gets a little repetitive. And there was very little punctuation, which after a year of teaching English bothered me.

Digital Fortress – Dan Brown. One of the worst books I have ever read. It was written like a bad junior novelisation of a bad movie.

Free Willy 2 – A bad junior novelisation of a bad movie, but it was better than Digital Fortress.

The Super Adventures of Wishbone – Awesome. Just awesome.

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass – Very strange. I enjoyed the two immensely, but Lewis Carroll was definitely on some interesting drugs. As for the Walrus and the Carpenter song, I don’t really see the religion analogy. It seems like it fits on a very basic level, but if you actually read the poem, there’s very little connection.

Audacity of Hope – Quite good. I read this around the time of his inauguration so I was doubly happy. Doesn’t quite deserve the Nobel Prize for literature though, sorry.

The Poisonwood Bible – A great novel about a family of missionaries in Congo/Zaire. It pretty much exactly spells out my feelings about missionaries (not positive!) as well as covering a lot of Congolese politics around the time of their independence. Spoiler – The US screwed that country over pretty effectively.

A State of Blood – Covers Idi Amin’s time in Uganda, written by an ex-comrade.

Hitching Rides with Buddha – A hilarious story by Canadian Will Ferguson who lived in Japan for several years. The book covers his journey hitchhiking from the North tip of Japan to the South tip. Interestingly, much of the cultural confusion he experiences there is directly relatable to things that have happened to me here in Rwanda.

Zanzibar Chest – A good, but a bit pompous story about a journalist in Africa. He covers all the major events in Africa through the 80 and 90s.

The Long Road Down – Ewen McGregor and some other guy ride motorcycles from the UK to South Africa. Meh. Too much pompous actor dialogue.

Krakatoa – An extensive discussion about the Indonesian volcano. A lot of great information, but a bit too extensive.

I read a lot of other books this year but either I can’t remember their names or they didn’t deserve a mention.