Goodness in Canada

Hello my GC friends,


I've been meaning to update y'all for some time and now here I am at a starbucks in Ft S.t John BC, enjoying my first latte in I don't know how long; the boys have gone to the mall and I finally have the computer to myself.


For starters, we were supposed to start this thing back in June but we had to wait more than two months to import what Diego assured me was, "the best (support) vehicle in the world" from the UK. When the vehicle finally arrived I thought it was running funny. Two days into Canada we crested a hill in what seemed like the middle of nowhere and the stupid thing died.

One nice thing about Canada, is that people will always stop to help if you are in trouble. A couple, returning from their vacation in Alaska took Diego in their car full of luggage to an Indian reserve of no more than 100 inhabitants called Iskut. They took Diego to a small store and to our luck he met Jules, a heavy machinery transporter that works for the local mining companies. He pulled off the road put us up in his camper trailer for the night. Now this was my 9th time making this drive and the first time I had ever heard of Iskut, that is how I figured out that we were traveling on the wrong road. The previous night, Diego, trusting his GPS, programmed to the fastest route to Anchorage, took the Cassiar Highway which ultimately saves about 100 miles of traveling but it is a dangerous, narrow and desolate road.

After studying the situation, discussing options and considering where we were, it was obvious that we had no choice but to have the vehicle towed 300 miles North to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. We stayed with Jules for one more night and were off to Watson Lake by the next afternoon.



There were no hotel rooms available in Watson Lake so we slept in the car and trailer outside the mechanic's shop. First thing in the morning, the mechanic examined the vehicle and determined that the fuel filters were too small and that somewhere we had purchased, very low quality, high cost diesel complete with twigs, rocks and insects. The solution was to replace the filters and this time, make sure they actually fit. He ordered the right filter which was 300 miles away, in Whitehorse. When Diego went to the bus station to pick up the part, he was told that the driver did not load the filter and it would not arrive until Monday (this was Friday). Pat, the owner of the shop, lent us his personal truck, to go into Whitehorse and get the part ourselves.



We arrived in Whitehorse at 3am. We slept for 4 hours in a pricey hotel which I have to say was a pleasant change from sharing the back seat with Angel- I had never realized just how big she really is. In the morning we learned that there had been a misunderstanding and the part was, in fact, back in Watson Lake.


After that ordeal we finally got the vehicle to the point where we could at least reach Anchorage,. We crawled up at 30-45mph and spent the next few days looking for parts and a mechanic to work on this engine that is rare on this side of the world. On the positive side, I did get to see some old friends and explore downtown Anchorage more than I have ever had the chance to do before. When we had enough confidence in the truck to at least get us out of Alaska, we started riding at Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla.


We found some great camp sites on the way to the border but we never broke out the tents until we were well into Canada as it never seemed to be worth the effort. Most nights Angel and I slept in the back of the car or, "the nest" while Diego and Ernesto took the trailer. The night we decided to really camp, we were right on the edge of Marsh Lake and the Northern lights were out, it was amazing. Angel and I took the girls' tent, I did laundry and made dinner almost entirely from cans.


Our car troubles have not ended. the day after we crossed into Canada our trailer hitch broke which cost us a day and a few days later the best car in the world died again. It is sitting back in Watson Lake as we...um...speak. this time we have determined that the fuel injectors need to be replaced. We ordered new injectors from Argentina and rented a u-haul from Pat so that we could keep riding.


Our first night out of Watson Lake we saw 3 baby black bears near or on the road. After number 3 we called it a night. The next day we rode through 3 herds of buffalo. I have driven through many herds of buffalo, of course but never have I been so close to so many, it was incredible.


There is a wonderful hot springs halfway between Watson Lake and fort Nelson called Liard. We arrived there much earlier than I'd anticipated so we decided to just get in and out, no more than 20 minutes. Of course temptation got the best of us and what was supposed to be a twenty minute dip turned into a two-hour soak. I was only confronted about having Angel by the hot springs once, I told them she was a service dog which is not entirely untrue.


The ride into Fort Nelson was TOUGH with long steep hills, rain and a strong headwind. but we made it. We stayed with my friend, Buddy Streeper, the world sled dog sprint champion. I was able to get a sled dog/ puppy fix and the boys were able to play on their computers so everybody won. I also got to drive a golf cart and scare the heck out of the boys.


The terrain has eased up on us a bit, the hills aren't very steep anymore but as many of you who have driven the AlCan know, they never seem to end but that's ok. I can ride these gradual hills forever, I'm just glad the steep hills are behind us, for now. I hope we can stay ahead of the weather which, until yesterday had been fairly mild; we've had a little sun, a little rain, a lot of wind but nothing too serious however, Buddy said some big storms were moving in up North and yesterday morning we rode through 30 miles of freezing rain and I have a feeling it's going to stay with us for a few days. We'll see... Does any one want to join us now?


Hope all is well, much love

~Rachael

Goodness Abroad

Hello fellow GC’ers from all around the globe,

I just had a sweet Goodness Collective connection in Lima, Peru. Cassie and I recently flew down to South America and met up with Amanda for a couple of days. We are now working our way to Sucre, Bolivia and will be studying Spanish for a while.

Check out my blog at:

brent-wander.blogspot.com

Be Well,

Brent

Good work for goodness sake

Hello friends,
I recently got word of a short work opportunity that I though would be of interest to some, if not many of the people that share the goodness collective connection. A friend Valerie from Portland will be leading a group of Waldorf highs chool students on a backpacking/wilderness trip. She is looking for a co-leader for the week-long trip in September. Below is her description and contact info. Hope this lands on happy ears.
blessings,
Aaron

As part of our high school curriculum (Portland Waldorf School), we take each grade (9th-12th) on an outdoor experience for a week of school. The goals of our wilderness curriculum and field experience are to:

1) help students explore the ecological/economic implications of our use of natural resources and examine whether these pathways are healthy and sustainable,
2) Engender in students a sense of responsibility toward our natural resources,
3) help students gain an appreciation of the nature of reciprocity - i.e. how we affect the natural world and how it affects us,
4) Give students tools with which they can examine physical phenomena and
5) Provide opportunities for students to engage in self-reflection through the experience of nature.

Each grade, 9th-12th, has one week of class each year where they have a Wilderness Education program. In 9th grade students focus on wilderness survival skills: fire-building, shelter building, knots, cordage, along with other primitive skills. In 10th grade, students have a general introduction to Naturalist practices, focusing primarily on animals through tracking and bird language. They also do orienteering and sense of place/awareness work in this program. In 11th grade, students go on a backpacking trip where the focus is mostly on plants and habitats as a culmination of their Botany block and learning how to travel on foot. Students learn basic backpacking skills, along with leave-no-trace ethics and practices, food preparation & planning, and creating nature journals. In 12th grade, as the culmination of the program, students participate in a 24 or 48 wilderness solo experience.

I am looking for another lead guide to help me with the 9th grade trip this fall (Sept. 21-25). Preferable, I am looking for a male to balance out the teaching energy, and someone who has strong hard-skills in our craft and survival work, and who truly loves to teach, specifically working with adolescents. The specific and final curriculum will be decided based on the leaders collaborative skills and interest. Generally we focus on bowdrill fires, debri shelters, cordage, and begin other awareness and survival practices.

To learn more about our school and our education philosophy in general, you can check out our website: www.portlandwaldorfschool.org

If you have anyone who you would recommend as a good fit, please have them give me a call: 828.713.1965
My cell will be best, as I am away the next two weeks without anticipated email access.

my next adventue...

After finishing last year's Iditarod- I was 45th by the way and it was very cold- I was so excited to get back up to Alaska and see what my dogs and I could do the following year. There were a lot of factors to consider and I wasn't sure how I would get back up there. In May I got may answer. I was presented with the opportunity to partake in an adventure that is, for lack of a better word, crazy (even by my standards). I am going to Alaska but not for dog mushing. I am tandem cycling from Anchorage to Cancun.

The goals of this expedition will be to raise awareness for global warming and to raise money for unicef. Good stuff.

The best part is that while I won’t be sled dog racing I will have my leader, Angel with me. She will be in a pet carrier, attached to the bike. So for the first time in her life, I shall be pulling her around!

We should start next week.

Of course I will keep you posted as we go. And if anyone would like to join us, riding in the support vehicle, riding your own bike or both, don't hesitate.

I love you all and miss you tons.

~Rachael

People/trance festival/Kuala Lumpur/goodbyes

Hi everyone! I'll be home not too long from now, in a month. I leave Bali in a few days to go be a photographer in Darwin Australia for a music/arts festival (in exchange for tickets of course). I'll be there 2 weeks and then back to Bali for another 2 weeks, returning to Oregon September 12 or so.

I'm looking forward to getting home. Parts of my community here are solid, but many are moving on right now. People come and go in waves here.



Uneasonably beautiful Bali.











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Filled with unreasonably beautiful people.











Doing unreasonably wonderful things.

This is Bex, from Scotland, who is living with me for awhile at the Villa. She's a yoga and scuba instructor (not at the same time) as well as an excellent writer and a good friend.







Rob and Kavi. Rob and his partner Rachel own a beautiful piece of property that is slowly becoming permacultured. It slopes from a big house with rotating tenants to a river that is swimable and muddy.








Ubud street scene.












Alright, so I went to a trance festival. The Mayan Day Out of Time inspires these kinds of things all over the world apparently and it was supposed to draw quite a lot of people.

About 30 were there the night I went, 10 of whom were our group and we were mostly asleep by 11pm, but the music went on as we camped under the stars.

Upon arrival we watched the sun set behind Agung as Zack and Sam played thumb pianos.


Quiet time at the festival.











































It was in the east of Bali, on the coast, maybe 2 hours drive away by motorbike. I went with Bex, Holger, and Brita on two bikes.

It was on the coast and swimming with everyone in the morning was one of the best parts. The water is warm and buoyant.

















Zack on the Mbira, or Zimbabwean thumb piano.

















Agung, from the east, in the morning, Bali's spiritual epicenter.

















While many of us didn't exactly "trance", we occupied ourselves happily as the music thumpity-thumped. Atom and Allana doing acroyoga.









Allana is a remarkable hooper and photographer.

















Holger, from Germany, is also staying with me right now.











Here I am wrestling with a yoga hammock. A sweet contraption, I think I'll bring one home!












Putu, daughter of the owners of a warung Bex and I stopped at in Candidasa. Obviously enjoys posing.















I think this dragon looks like it belongs on the Simpsons.











Stephen from New Zealand, telling me about Mayan calendars, red dragons, hemp seeds, solar flares, cerebral circuitry and similar common topics of conversation

















Brita, from Germany, who stayed with me for awhile and just returned home yesterday. she teaches sports to kids and was a terrific acroyoga partner.


















Bex, making malas for a yoga retreat.






































I went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to renew my Indonesian Visa. I figured I may as well take a couple of days to explore the city since I had to go anyway. I loved it! I stayed in a cheap place near delicious Indian curry houses and I walked circles for hours and hours.

Jay here, from England was my first encounter and regailed me with tales of scams and adventures from California to down the road in KL.










Detail of the Petronas Towers.

















Street scene in KL.


















As I sat in a park for 2 hours enjoying the comings and goings of thousands of visitors to Kuala Lumpur, I watched at least 20 people do this. Someone is photographing her so it looks like she's holding up the Petronas Towers. A necessary cheesy photo for most.

Other tower-holders included Indians in brilliant silk, a Buddhist monk, and Muslims covered in full-body black shrouds.









The famous Petronas Towers, twins that light up KL each night, the tallest buildings in the world before 2003. 1400 tickets are given out every day to go up them and they're gone by 10am.

They really are beautiful, as I acclimated to tall buildings once again.













I think I remember Sean Connery climbing this skybridge in a movie once.











In Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur. Zoom in and tell me this guy doesn't look like an older, Chinese Obama.











At the National History Museum. I spent a whole day in KL exploring the museums...worth doing for anyone if you have a layover or time to spend in Malaysia. There is a series of museums within a kilometer of each other on the west end of the city and they all are very well done. This is a 200-year-old Koran.






At the national planetarium. Malaysia is very obviously proud of their two Malay astronauts who were sent to the space station a few years ago. A quarter of the building was dedicated to them, including spacesuits, engines, videos of their training, and photos of their childhood homes.














Back in Bali:

The state of the garden at the villa: the herbs are delicious, the pumpkins and sweet potatoes are growing faster than I can trellice them, the tomatoes are starting to fruit, and there is a newly planted orange tree in the center. I hope to harvest some things before I leave next month.





Sam, in the permaculture center garden, with one of the first cucumbers of the crop!

















Today I said goodbye to a few friends leaving Bali; we had a potluck a couple of nights ago. Jo left this afternoon, back to Holland. She's been an acroyoga partner and a big potluck fan.
















Hernan (middle) is leaving as well, in the direction of India. The couple, Nacho and Belinda are Spanish, on holiday and have put out an invitation to their beautiful-sounding island home in the Mediterranean...hmmm...














Love to everyone! See you all soon--

--Trav--

I made it!

The trip went well, with the exception of the uncomfortable concrete floors of the Taipei airport. I slept there during my 12 hour nighttime layover. I still have a partial belt of mosquito bites around my waist (I failed to tuck my shirt in).



Nonetheless, I am here in Bali and its beautiful! Trav is an extraordinary guide, and scooter driver. Until yesterday we were riding three on the scoot. Me, Trav and Kacy, (who is leaving today) I'll miss her fabulous puns...of course, there's always Trav to fall back on.











We now have our own scooters.






























Trav's gardening project at the villa.









Much love to all, traveling and at home!

Vietnam

First, one for Steve, who will be arriving in a couple of days! Orange on orange!

(note the intense bambgoo scaffolding on the construction site in the background).













I have to leave and reenter Indonesia every 60 days or so for my visa, so I chose to go to Vietnam last month to visit my friend Elisa (from Evergreen). She was working on a research project involving Agent Orange, dioxins, and the state of things these days. I slept in the Kuala Lumpur airport on a layover.

This is where I slept, on the grass. My yardmates were Israeli and Polish.










If anyone ever needs an overnight layover in Malaysia, I highly recommend the KL airport. It's the best hostel in town! There must have been 300 of us overnighters milling about all night, from every corner of the world, sharing benches, yards, and alcoves.

I arrived in Saigon and went to the train station to buy a 12-hour trainride north to Hue, where Elisa was. I had to take a number for the line to buy tickets. I was number 390. "Now serving #290..."

I've always wanted to travel by overnight train! I've had my fill. Not a souls on the train that I met spoke English and Vietnamese is not a language you learn in a few days (tonal).

This was one of my bunkmates, an obnoxious boy who had no qualms about crawling all over, yelling, slamming the door, and periodically staring at me for 20-minute spells. He looks cute in a still photo doesn't he?

Upon arrival in Hue I went to the Hotel where Elisa was. I got a 4th floor room. My balcony overlooked the public pool. The pool played dance hall remixes from about 6am to 10pm every day. I awoke some mornings to "Who let the dogs out?!" Thumpety thumpety thumpety thump...

Hue is the old imperial city, in the middle of Vietnam. It is near the demilitarized zone, the dividing line between the conflicting regions during the War. It was hit hard, but much of the amazing architecture and relics still stand, plus a few War artifacts.

Elisa introduced me to Nyoc Mia. Sugarcane juice! These women have stands all over Hue and for about $0.50 switch on their machine and press sugarcane through it with a little lime or orange. By the end of my week in Hue I was up to 3 or 4 glasses a day. Oh, so refeshing.

Elisa and I at a Pagoda.

In the old imperial city, a semi-preserved section of Hue where the old dynasties sat, these big frog things are scattered about. I don't know their purpose, but they seem to have successfully bred themselves all over the grounds.

This is Tia, one of the workers at the hotel where Elisa and I stayed. She took a liking to both of us and one day she and her friend put us on their motorbikes and gave us a great little tour of the nearby pagodas and such. We all went to dinner and they showed us "how" to eat Vietnamese food (which is incredible...but confusing).

Elisa on the roof next to our hotel balcony; sunset over Hue. Hard to believe if I'd been born a few decades earlier I might have been dropping bombs here.

Chnese remnants in the imperial city.

It looks like a chicken, but it's a giant foam-and-metal phoenix. It's getting overgrown, but two years ago Australian and Vietnamese artists created this 20-foot tall bird and a matching dragon for a parade.

Tia and I, saying goodbye and the ubiquitous victory "V".

Her friend (whose name escapes me right now). She's so short that we could get a good framing for the photo.

Elisa and I bussed to Hoi An, east and south of Hue, near Da Nang. We rented a motorbike at left at 5am the next morning to fing the Myson ruins. We buzzed through a trickle of rain that became real rain and got drenched, but the moistness enriched the moss on these ruins.

The ruins were well preserved until the 60's, when Viet Cong used them to hide out in. So they were bombed. Craters are all around, overgrown, and unexploded mines are in the area still.

Some artifacts have been collected by anthropologists and housed in one of the better structures there. It was quiet and misty as we strolled around.

Sanskrit? Some of these obelisks are incredibly legible (if only I could read the language).

Still at Myson ruins, a rich path through the woods.

Then back to Saigon for a day befor I flew back to Bali! I bought an instrument called a Dan Nguyet, which means "moon instrument." It sounds beautiful and looks a bit like a 2 stringed banjo. This is the girl that sold it to me after I spent 3 hours playing every instrument I could.

Kacy leaves in a week, Steve gets here in 2 days and Mike and Tam are here in a week! We've been getting our hands in the dirt and learning acro yoga and permaculture. Potlucks and portraits are sure to come soon!

--Trav--