Pj's Place

Ouch!

2011-01-22T01:01:00.000-08:00

You know it's a good party when you come home pierced.
We celebrated Hameed's end of finals (yet again) at Jamila's handicraft shop on Thursday. She kindly invited the whole crew over for a lunch of baked chicken, cauliflower, yogurt sauce, salad and cake...all delicious. Since her and her friend are handy with a needle we also thought it'd be a good opportunity to get our noses pierced. Wahina - why not? (Rachel and Jenn also got their nose pierced but I don't have the photographic evidence just yet. Thanks to Juan for the photos!)

Jamila offering encouragement pre-piercing

My piercer describing where she's going to stick me

Hameed, as surgical assistant, sterilizing the needle with a match

Yikes, it's about to happen...

She was quick and confident, this definitely wasn't her first piercing

The needle had black thread which went through the hole
in my nose and was then tied in a knot.

done!

Hameed with all of his women!

Hameed, Peretz and Najib. Najib is fluent in Pashto, Russian and
Urdu and is now learning English.

Delicious lunch

Cake from the pastry shop. Notice the cardboard is recycled cereal boxes

How to make bread

2011-01-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

Step 1. Invite the local baker over!

Step 2: Ask him to bring dough

Step 3: Douse the inner walls of the clay oven with water.
(Start fire about an hour beforehand)

Step 4: Roll the dough into a large circle

Step 5: Use this contraptrion to create lovely designs on your dough

Step 6: Place tbe dough on a pillow

Step 7: Push the pillow against the wall with force!

Step 8: Make sure your bread doesn't fall into the fire

Step 9: Go for a roll aftewards to use up all those carbs!

Cricket!

2011-01-21T08:06:00.000-08:00

The First Pre-School in Jalalabad!

2011-01-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

Our friends Israr and Sayeed recently opened the first pre-school in Jalalabad! Children typically don't begin school until they are seven or eight so this school gives kids a chance to start learning English, Pashto, math and science at age five. The kids all wear stylish uniforms with leather jackets and were in the middle of exams when we visited. Most of the teachers are recent high school graduates and have never had formal teacher training. We are trying to work with Israr to provide some sort of training for the teachers.

Sara and I with Madina, the Principal of the school

Grade 3 students studying animals

Seriously cute kids in their leather jackets

DIY Soil Testing

2011-01-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

The Agriculture Technical School in Jalalabad trains boys from throughout the Province in both general high school courses and agricultural studies. They have very few useful textbooks on agriculture though, since the few books they do have are in English – which few students can read.

Juan and I visited the school on Tuesday to get an idea of what level of education the students had, what type of training they’d like and, in general, how we could best help them. We brought with us a very simple soil test for them to try that didn’t require any specialized equipment – just an empty water bottle (ubiquitous in Afghanistan) and some water.

One of the Ag instructors showing rose bush transplants

We got to the school and were immediately taken to the GCE class where we were given two seats in front of a group of 30 students. The kids had no idea who we were or why we were there, but they looked on politely – I guess it’s not every day that a couple foreigners crash your class. The GCE students speak English so w chatted for a bit about what they are currently studying and what they’d like to learn more about. One big issue that was brought up several times was the fact that they have lab but it’s currently not functional.

Finally, we showed them the soil composition test. It’s a simple test I had found online which tells you’re the percentages of sand, clay and silt in the soil. You basically dig a small hole at least four inches deep and scoop out about a cup of soil. You put the soil in a clear jar (or plastic bottle) and add about twice as much water. Then you shake the bottle until it’s thoroughly mixed – and you’re done! You let the concoction sit overnight and the minerals in the soil will settle based on weight. All the sand will settle to the bottom, then the silt and then the clay. You can then measure the percentages of each and use a soil texture triangle to identify the soil type. Easy! And, with this knowledge, you can determine what soil amendments to add, what will grow best, etc. (Although a NPK test is pretty crucial as well.)

I described the process and then one of the students repeated it in Pashto to make sure everyone fully understand. The kids seemed into it and promised to try it out that night. Juan will be returning soon and can finish the experiment with them using the soil texture triangle.

Their instructor posted some photos and started a discussion about our visit here, on their Ning site.

Beautiful veggies and fruit abound in Jalalabad but

many of them are from Pakistan

Pimp my tractor

2011-01-16T23:44:00.000-08:00

Tractors in the midwest seem soooo boring my comparison. Tractors, tuk-tuks (rickshaws), donkeys, jingle trucks from Pakistan - they all get brightly colored, elaborate paint jobs, often with images of flowers and birds.

Social Links. Discuss!

2011-01-16T05:02:00.000-08:00

Today Lou and I visited Abdul Wakil Boys School and took part in their weekly English Open Discussion (EOD). The discussion is part of the curriculum for the Global Connection Exchange (GCE) Program which promotes cultural exchange between high school students and provides IT training. GCE’s facebook-like website can be found here. We are currently hosting a daily trivia game on the site, so check it out, but don’t give away the answer!

The GCE EOD group. Check out our sweet scarves!

The topic for today was social links. After the opening introductions, each student was asked to describe social links, in English. Lou and I were totally impressed not only with their English skills but their ability to discuss, debate and think on their feet in their second language (or actually their third or fourth language). The discussion focused on the need for people to be honest and respectful to one another, regardless of where they are from.

The students were eloquent and thoughtful and….competitive! To make things interesting, the students decided that we should break into teams and compete against one another when answering the questions. The student who was leading the discussion would then decide on the winner. The de-facto leader of my team was determined to get ‘first position’, so I was a bit nervous when it was my turn to discuss the advantages of social links. At one point, he even nudged me and told me to take notes! In the end, the student leading the discussion (nicknamed by his friends Osama because of his thick beard) judiciously decided that both teams gave excellent answers and he couldn’t decide between the two!

The discussion leader with the donated National Geographic mags.
Thanks Brent and Heidi!

In typical Afghan hospitality, Mr. Zia presented Lou and I with beautiful scarves before we left. They asked us to wear the scarves for a group photo and I had a moment’s hesitation – can I take off my scarf in front of men to put the new one on? I decided to just put the new scarf over the one I was wearing…I think it looked okay. After the photos, we headed on our way with promises to return for next’s week discussion – what would you do if you were the Governor of Nangarhar Province. That’ll be an interesting one!

Buddies

2011-01-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

Jalalywood

2011-01-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

Love, betrayal and slow-motion fight scenes – the makings of a good movie and in Mr. Azizi’s case, the makings of a GREAT movie.

Mr. Azizi watching a pivotal scene in his movie

We recently had the chance to rub shoulders with one of the biggest movie stars in Jalalabad – Mr. Azizi, who also works at SAFA radio station. He was kind enough to show us his entire movie during a recent trip to SAFA. Well, I suppose we only saw most of the movie, he fast-forwarded through the parts of the movie that he wasn’t in.

A tense scene half-way through the movie when Mr. Azizi
discovers the bad guy is actually his best friend!

The entire movie was filmed in and around Jalalabad and was completely financed by the small group of friends that created the movie. They took a big risk producing the movie since it has a strong love story and the main actress isn’t wearing a head scarf. There are also a few risqué dance scenes scattered throughout the film. The main actress is from Pakistan; apparently they weren’t any women in Jalalabad who were willing to be in the film.

I will add a link as soon as I’m able to post part of the movie on youtube. It’s a must-see!

Hangin' with the Ladies - Afghan style

2011-01-15T07:44:00.000-08:00

Aside from the schools where some of the women of Jalalabad work and study, there are few public places for women to gather and socialize. A rare exception is the main park downtown, which is only open to women and their children on Wednesdays. The park is downtown and has one large field and another field with trees and benches for picnicking. A concrete wall eight feet high surrounds the park, allowing for privacy.

Jenn and Lou hanging with the the female guard for the park. The only Afghan woman I've seen wearing pants - and sweet shades to boot!

Lou, Jenn and I visited the park this past Wednesday,

not know what to expect once we crossed the gate. We were first greeted by an Afghan woman dressed in a military outfit and surprisingly – wearing pants! She was very friendly and ushered us in with a smile. There were a couple hundred women and children milling around the park. The children, both boys and girls, were chasing each other around the fields while the women were sitting together in groups talking, drinking tea and eating. The first thing I noticed was the brilliant colors. Everyone seemed to be decked out in their finest, which included bright reds, purples and greens and lots of flashy jewelry. The second thing I noticed was that we were one of the few women who had head scarves on! Most of the women had their scarves draped around their shoulders with their long hair stylishly in plain sight. It was a beautiful thing to behold.

One of the first girls to join our game of soccer

We had just bought a knock-off Nike soccer ball so we headed out to the main field to kick the ball around. It didn’t take long for a few of the braver kids to edge over towards us and watch. We kicked them the ball, the international sign for come play with us, and we quickly had a couple dozen kids playing with us. The boys started to dominate the game, pushing aside the girls to get to the ball, but we tried to pass the girls the ball and encourage them to participate. After about a half hour we took a break and had tea with one of the families. I was kicking myself for not knowing enough Pashto (or any really) to be able to converse with the ladies. It would have been a great opportunity to talk candidly with them.

Two of our soccer buddies - the older one is wearing one of Lou's stickers

After our tea, the three of us walked over to the food vendors in the back of the park to snag lunch. We sat down at a small table with our newspaper-wrapped bits of goodness and snacked while looking out on the park. While we were eating, our ever-popular Jenn, was approached by two groups of students that recognized her from visits to the schools. They were taking a break from their exams which they said had been quite stressful! One of the girls invited us to meet her two sisters and mother who were with her at the park. Jenn’s student-friend was able to speak English so she helped translate for us as we chatted with her family. Finally, although we were the drabbest women at the park (wearing dark colors, no makeup and matted-down hair) Jenn’s friend and her family asked us to have our picture taken with them. They had a photographer from a photo studio in the park come out with his digital camera and take photos of us in front of a defunct water fountain. Like the male food vendors, it didn’t seem to matter that this man was seeing the women without their head scarves.

All good things must come to an end, so after two hours we said our goodbyes with promises of returning to the park next Wednesday.

I can see Russia from my airplane

2011-01-04T03:50:00.000-08:00

Maybe I should see if Palin needs a foreign policy advisor!

The snowy suburbs of Moscow on an early Tuesday morning...

Chickens are rad

2010-11-15T05:29:00.000-08:00

Nobody said anything about not putting your all your chicks in one basket

Panama Red and Poncho scoping the area
The first egg! Before...

And after...

Chicken Love

2010-11-12T05:26:00.000-08:00

Mom and Dad got some one-on-one chicken time when they came for a visit in August.

Awwww.....Mom and Dad on top of Mesa Verde

Dad got into some trouble with a crew of Giant Ute on the way back...

Notice the hat - Dad has gone local!

A birthday on the farm!

Twilight on the farm

2010-11-11T17:56:00.003-08:00

More Veggie Glamour Shots

2010-11-11T17:34:00.000-08:00

Harvest Season

2010-11-11T17:22:00.000-08:00

One of our first CSAs
And one of our last
Salsa Makings

The Farm Grows!

2010-11-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

Early Carrots

The famous flashy troutback lettuce!
Miles!
Greenhouse chockfull of tomatoes, peppers and zucchini
Eighteen rows of taters = lots of digging

Taters and Garlic

2010-05-15T13:17:00.003-07:00

Farm Dog

2010-05-08T15:36:00.004-07:00

Bodhi is slowly acclimating to the the grueling life of a farm dog.

Jitterbug and crew

2010-05-08T15:36:00.003-07:00

Jitterbug checking out her new digs

I think that's Poncho?

Bodhi really likes the new arrivals

Death of a Queen

2010-05-08T15:21:00.001-07:00

Four thousand bees arrived a couple weeks ago in a small wire cage with the Queen in her own private suite blocked off from the other bees by candy. The bees slowly eat the candy, allowing her to escape and giving time for the bees to get used to their new Queen's scent. Or at least that's what supposed to happen.

Dave built a sweet top bar hive in the back of his property along a stream for the little buggers. We shook the bees into their new house, along with the Queen still trapped in her tiny cage. I checked on her two days later and she was dead! Apparently there is a small cork that you have to take off to give the bees access to the candy. Bummed out, we ordered a new Queen via FedEx and left the sad little corpse of the first Queen in the hive. Two days later the new Queen and her retinue arrived but alas, when I went to take out the old Queen, she was alive and well! And, a bit angry to still be stuck in her cage. I let her out and the bees immediately surrounded her, which I hope is a good sign. I had no idea that bees played dead but apparently when the temperature is below 50 degrees their muscles freeze and they can't move.

Veggie Starts!

2010-05-08T14:51:00.001-07:00

The starts spend the first two weeks of their little lives with me and Bodhi in the cabin before heading off to the seed greenhouse.

The first zucchini!

Lots of peppers

The first set of cabbage

Onions!

Off to the seed greenhouse

Life at Banga's Farm

2010-05-08T14:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a super fun, dirty, amazing and inspiring month at the farm. There have been bees, duststorms, chicks, good folk, fun dancing, tortilla-making, seed starting, hiking, onion burying, and sheep shearing. I'm looking forward to the next five months!

Project HOW

2010-03-13T16:33:00.000-08:00

Tragically, the recent massacres that took place on the outskirts of Jos, Nigeria has forced Project HOW to cancel its mission to Evangel Hospital in Jos. One of our doctors and acting medical director, Dr. Ene George is traveling solo to Jos and will be supporting the doctors at Evangel Hospital as they perform an estimated 200 fistula surgeries. Dr. George will be staying with family in Jos and has promised us to stay safe!

Drs. Adele, Soile and Babalola, Selina Hayes and I will be traveling to Oyo State, Nigeria to conduct a rapid assessment of three hospitals. We'll be examining the feasibility of conducting a future mission in Oyo State, including determining how we can best support existing medical capabilities in the hospitals.

Follow us on our journey to Oyo State on our new Project HOW blog!

Survivors recount the Jos slaughter

Field to Fork

2009-11-25T10:26:00.000-08:00

The Neighborhood Farm Initiative and some other good folks recently set up the Field to Fork Network for the DC area. The network is comprised of a few dozen organizations that are focused on changing the way we approach food production.

An interactive map of the community gardens that we developed this summer can be found here. The map includes photos and information for each of the 30 or so community gardes in DC.

There's also a short blurb on our recent movie shoot with peaches and sauerkraut.

Kilt Lifters

2009-11-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

The Kilt Lifters decided to crash a 5K race in Alexandria last weekend.

Photo courtesy of Halo Photographic.

What happens when you give Dave five minutes

2009-09-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dave Warner was asked to give a rapid fire five minute presentation at the Government 2.o conference. He focused on information sharing and humanitarian communication operations - including the ongoing work in Afghanistan.

And here it is.

Afghanistan and the beer for data program begin around the second minute.

Rockclimbing Pooch

2009-09-12T07:11:00.001-07:00

Poor Bodhi had no idea he was about to be lowered down a 30 foot cliff. This is after his run in with the mamma bear and cubs and before his wasp attack. He had a rough weekend.

The Zydeco Danceathon!

2009-08-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

Beth and I cruised on up to Clark, New Jersey for the wildy popular (for the 60 and up crowd) "Arn and Jerry's 2009 Danceathon". Our friends Brian and Robin live close by and had turned us on to this amazing cultural phenomena that takes place one a year in central Jersey. Beth and I finagled almost-free tickets in exchange for volunteering for a few hours at the food counter. It was a great way to meet folks and we had first dibs on the raspberry pie (sooo good).

While it was slightly odd being the only people under the age of 60, it did provide us with ample attention from the older dancers. We were even able to convince a few of them to do the chicken dance with us towards the end of the evening - not exactly a typical dance move at a zydeco dance. It was a fun time and brought back memories of dancing to Rockin Dopsie Junior and the Zydeco Twisters down in Loooosiana.

We spent the next morning with Brian and Robin checking out their cute town - New Jersey, who knew?

Beth with one of her many suitors

I got three dances with Bill!

Brian and Robin breaking it down on the dance floor

Waiting for someone to dance with us :(

The volunteers get a shout-out

Our 10-year-old nemesis A slightly young(er) person - but with the band

Central Suriname Reserve

2009-08-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Our view from the room at the ecoresort
Yup, solar panels in the jungle. They weren't operational while we were there though.

A (foggy) view of the Coppename River from the plane

Our first view of the ecoresort. CI-Suriname provided funding and support for the resort to be built in the hopes that it would bring in ecotourism money for the local communities.

Daniel trying on a reed mat. I don't think it fit.

The towering Voltzberg. We hiked to the top and had amazing 360 views of untouched wilderness.

The crew on top of the Voltzberg. We are all very stinky.

Crocs. You can't escape them. They're everywhere.

The life of a tomato

2009-08-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should put this in reverse chronological order but this tomato was too purty not to put first. Thanks to Kory for letting me tear up his front yard!

Congratulations!!!

2009-07-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

Allison and Jeff -newly engaged!!

Inaugural Weekend

2009-06-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

I would be remiss if I didn't recognize the momentous occasion that transpired on May 22nd: the first day of The Best Two Years of Our Lives (TBTYOOL). We spent the inaugural weekend of TBTYOOL in Assoteague National Park, communing with the wild ponies and drunk dogs. It was a bit overcast but we had a great time and were able try out sea kayaking and of course stalk the omnipresent ponies. We weren't too successful with our chicken head-on-a-stick crabbing technique, so we had to settle with veggie burritos and veggie burgers on the campfire. Delish.

The TBTYOOL was commemorated with an official ceremony involving a tiki torch, glow sticks and inspiring speeches.

Happy Day 24 everyone!

Halocaust of the Worms*

2009-04-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

My bedroom is littered with the corpses of a science experiment gone horribly wrong. I've been trying to start some veggie seedlings in my bedroom, with little success. A nasty looking mold had formed on the soil and so I checked with the all-knowing internet to see what could be done. The answer: hydrogen peroxide! Apparantly, the peroxide kills the mold and helps to add oxygen to the soil. Perfect. Too impatient to dilute the peroxide, I poured a few drops into each pot and listened to the beautiful hiss and sizzle of the peroxide killing the mold.

Emboldened by my assumed success, I felt the need for more action. And so, I grabbed a handful of worms from the compost and tossed one into each of the pots, hoping they would help aerate the soil. They seemed happy in their new home until I noticed that they were writhing around in very spastic un-wormlike contortions. I hadn't thought about the effect of the peroxide on their porous little bodies and had unwittingly dropped the poor little buggers into their coffins. At the very least, hopefully their shriveled little corpses will provide some much needed sustenance to my basil seeds.

RIP my worm brethren.

The lone survivor

The culprit

Medical Mission to Nigeria

2009-04-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a trip to Northern Nigeria with the Kaduna State Medical Mission. The mission was started by a group of Nigerian-born or bred doctors who now work in the States. They go back to Nigeria ~2x a year for two weeks, offering general medical services, surgery and pharmeceuticals. http://www.flickr.com/groups/nigeriamedicalmission/

A twitterin' we go

2009-01-21T06:07:00.000-08:00

Matt and Meredith were kind enough to twitter during our inauguration follies: www.twitter.com/allenml; and twitter.com/FrostyMcTeague. The twitters include our brush with Jesse Jackson, a description of the energy and excitement coursing through DC and my terrorist fist bump with Michelle Obama. *

* One of these is not quite true.

Inauguration musings:
1. Too many fur coats, not enough red paint
2. Inauguration should be held in May and/or Cabo.
3. You can't get rich in the homemade t-shirt making business.

Buy our stuff

2009-01-11T17:56:00.000-08:00

I know what you're thinking: wow, those shirts look friggin' awesome, I wish I had one. Well, now's your chance. These beautful works of art celebrating the inaugaration of Barrack Obama are now available for sale! Get 'em while they're hot!

*** 50% of our profits (if we have any) will go to a local charity!

The Big Bad Monkey Watch

2008-11-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

We had a saying at Inti Wari Yassi, “Bolivia: Todo es posible, nada es seguro.” In my thirty days at the wildlife refuge, I would come to realize just how true that saying was.

Inti Wara Yassi (IWY) is a wildlife refuge which cares for physically and mentally abused animals. The refuge is run almost entirely by volunteers; travelers from all over the world who stay two weeks, a month, sometimes as long as six months.

The menagerie at the refuge included 8 pumas, 3 ocelots, hundreds of capuchin and spider monkeys and a spattering of beaver-sized jungle creatures. The big cats lived in individual cages deep in the jungle, save for the Millie the Ocelot who was living in Room 5 of the volunteers’ hostel.

I had somehow been convinced to spend my month at the refuge hanging out with a twenty-year-old Danish guy and a three-year-old Puma, both challenges in their own right. Our Puma, Leoncio, had been sold by poachers as a pet and came to the refuge after having his legs broken in three places by his “owners”. He had his playful moments but was commonly known as one of the more aggressive cats at the park. So, when the monkey volunteers asked for help at Spider Park, I jumped at the chance to take a day off from Leo and his “playful attacks”

Life at Spider Park
Home to the Spider Monkeys, the aptly named Spider Park was situated on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the two forks of the Chapare river. The alpha male of the group, Teho, was one of the few monkeys that had to be corded, due to his aggressive and slightly psychotic behavior.

Two burly, wild Spider Monkeys were trying to kill Teho and therefore take over his harem of fine-looking female Spider Monkeys. The monkey volunteers had been able to scare them off during the day but no one was in Spider Park from dawn till 7:30 AM to protect Teho. Hence “The Big Bad Monkey Watch” was formed. Every morning a volunteer tramped up to Spider Park before dawn armed with firecrackers to scare the Big Bad Monkeys away.

Around 5:20 AM, I left my comfy bed, grabbed my spider man backpack and crawled under the chain linked fence that separated our house from the refuge. I made it up to the Park and got settled on a wooden bench underneath a small shelter.

The Invasion Begins
About 20 minutes later, I heard a noise in the trees. Dawn was starting to infiltrate the dense jungle and I could see two large spider monkeys about fifteen meters up in the trees across from me. I stood up and began shouting rude monkey taunts and then I tried to light the fireworks. Big problem: the firecrackers had gotten wet and none of them lit. But, it looked like my discourteous remarks had been sufficient because I watched the monkeys recede farther back into the jungle until they disappeared. Problem solved.

Ten minutes later however, a big Spider Monkey reappeared from the same area. I started shouting again but this time it didn’t scare him off. He came closer and closer, dropping lower to the ground as he came forward. When the invading monkey was about 10 meters away, I picked up rocks and sticks to throw at him. I tossed a few rocks close to him but it didn’t faze him. He came steadily towards me, looking me straight in the eye.

At this point, I’m very nervous. The wild monkeys had never dared to come so close so I was not prepared for a frontal assault. Teho, whom I was sworn to protect, was swinging drunkenly on his cord on a downward slope behind me. I tried to position myself between him and the incoming wild monkey. When the wild monkey was on the ground about five meters from me I threw two rocks close to him. He looked angry, but not frightened, and kept coming forward. The next rock I threw, I made sure it hit him. It was a soft lob but I was hoping it would shock him into running away. I was wrong.

As soon as the rock hit, the monkey flared up on his two legs, swung his arms wildly, bared his enormous fangs and screamed. Then he charged. I ran about 7 meters down the path leading out of the Park, thinking about what I would do if he attacked.

I stopped running and turned to see if the monkey was chasing me. Luckily, he had stopped and was now riffling through my unzipped bag. In an apparent act of monkey insolence, he grabbed my all-natural mosquito spray and threw it at the ground in my direction. He then picked up my entire bag, shook it and threw it on the ground as well. Finally, while keeping his eyes on me, he ran down the bank towards Teho. I edged back to the shelter, grabbed a few rocks and watched the wild monkey. He had gone about 10 meters down the slope but was staying out of reach of Teho. During all of the drama, Teho seemed oblivious and was simply running up and down on his cord.

The wild monkey and I seemed to have reached a stalemate. He was sitting on the downward slope of the bank and when he tried to get closer to Teho, I would throw a rock near him and he would retreat. I started to calm down a bit, thinking that if I could maintain this shaky truce until the monkey folks came at 7:30, everyone - me, Teho and the wild monkey, would end up unscathed. But then the Capuchins came.

The Gang
Capuchin monkeys are about a third of the size of Spider Monkeys and one-fifth the mass. What they lack in might however, they make up in intelligence. As smart as a 6- year old kid, they act in movies, play the accordion with street performers and pickpocket unsuspecting tourists. In fact, many of the Capuchins at our refuge were reformed pickpockets, confiscated by the police when their owners were sent to jail. Male Capuchins could also be aggressive and so volunteers were told to never fight for a stolen cookie, camera or banana.

So, the Capuchins arrived; most likely attracted by all of the screeching -- by me and the wild Spider Monkey. There were four in all and they had the vibe of an adolescent monkey gang. The alpha and undisputed gang leader, aptly named Jefe, sauntered in front, his huge balls trailing behind him.

Jefe found my mosquito spray on the ground and began gnawing on it. Intent on getting to the golden liquid on the inside, he soon figured out how to unscrew the top.

I panicked. Although he was a tough bully, Jefe was nonetheless an innocent bystander to my confrontation with the wild monkey and didn’t deserve to be poisoned by my bug spray. I started yelling at him as I ran directly towards him, trying to scare him into dropping the bug spray. He took in my antics with a look of bemusement as he tipped back his head and chugged the bug spray.

I involuntary stopped mid-stride and watched. He shook the bottle to get the last few drops out and then chucked the empty bottle on the ground. While the natural spray was made mostly of eucalyptus leaves, I was still worried that chugging a full bottle could do significant damage to the internal workings of a 15-pound animal. But the deed was done and now I watched as he and his cronies rifled through my bag.

Monkey Trickery
There was now a perfect three-point triangle consisting of: me with rock in hand in the clearing; the Capuchin gang under the shelter checking out my tampons and other back bag items; and Teho and the wild monkey down the slope. My eyes flicked back and forth between my various adversaries as I assessed my next move. The wild monkey was sitting calmly on his haunches so I decided to go after the Capuchins and salvage the contents of my bag.

I ran the remaining three meters towards them, yelling obscenities in Spanish. This time I was successful. The Capuchins slowly edged away from my bag and scuttled up nearby trees, just out of my reach. My plan had worked, except for one minor exception: Jefe had my headlamp. He was sitting on a branch chattering loudly as he poked and prodded it. I watched helplessly as the light went from on, to flashing, to off and then back on again. With a pain in my heart, I knew I only had one option available to me. I grabbed my packet of double-stuffed Oreos from a hidden compartment in my bag and offered them to Jefe as a trade. He couldn’t resist. He edged down the branch and grabbed my Oreos from my extended hand, dropping my headlamp in the process. Success!

As I gathered my things, I began to feel pretty good. In fact, I was feeling a bit proud of myself. I had thwarted a Capuchin gang thievery attack (I was ignoring the possible poisoning issue). As if to acknowledge my dominance of the situation and my new position as supreme Alpha, one of the lesser Capuchins scampered up my leg and sat on my shoulder. As I awaited my grooming, a monkey sign of respect and submission, I gloried in my new situation. I had out-smarted the monkeys! I was brilliant.

The grooming never came. The sneaky monkey had lulled me into a false sense of security with his offer of friendship. While I was puffing my chest out in pride, my new ‘friend’ scurried down my torso and poked a skinny little monkey hand into my pants pocket, restealing my headlamp. Within two seconds of the crime, he was up on the same branch Jefe had used and was looking down at me with an evil-looking monkey grin. I watched in defeat as the little devil bit, shook and finally ripped apart my headlamp, scattering its parts to the wind.

Help Arrives
The next 20 minutes were spent watching the wild monkey glare at Teho while battling off the Capuchins from the remaining contents of my bag. Trying to argue fundamental principles of ownership with a monkey just doesn’t work. So was the state of matters when my salvation finally came: the monkey volunteers. I ran towards them and breathlessly recapped the wild monkey incident while pointing frantically down the slope at the evil monkey still calmly staring at Teho. The three monkey volunteers looked at me in disbelief and then looked over at the wild monkey. And then looked back at me, this time in anger.

“Are you crazy?” the alpha volunteer, Nick, shouted at me. “That’s Juanita, she’s one of ours and she’s a friggin female.”

I feebly dropped the rock my hand had been sweating around for the last half hour as Nick ran down to console Juanita.

The other two volunteers looked at me with pity. “It’s okay” said Tina, “the females and males are hard to tell apart.”

Defeated, drained and now thoroughly humiliated, I mumbled a goodbye and started down the path with backpack in hand. Remembering my headlamp, I turned back and shouted, “The Capuchins stole my tampons and my headlamp. If you see pieces of it, the headlamp that is, could you pick them up for me?”

After getting their assurances, I turned my back on Spider Park and headed back to the relative sanctuary of the jungle.

Epilogue
Jefe never showed any symptoms of having been poisoned by the mosquito spray; he also never had a single mosquito bite.

Apparently Juanita and Teho were “special friends” and they continued their monkey romance without the hindrance of air-borne rocks.

Tina lived up to her promise and a week after my stint at Spider Park she presented me with 80% of my headlamp.

I never again ventured into Spider Park, preferring the relative safety of spending nine hours a day with an aggressive full-grown Puma.

Securing Rice

2008-07-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

These fellas are securing a JICA agriculture project in the middle of Jalalabad. The JICA Agriculture specialists are working to develop a strain of rice that has up to 70% more yield than the rice currently grown in the region. We had a chance to visit their experimental farms, row after row of dark green rice plants. The water that runs through most of the canal-like waterways in town is well, not exactly the cleanest, so the Japanese got permission to dig a 35-foot well for their farm.

Unwrapping the Fab Lab

2008-06-30T01:49:00.000-07:00

The Fab Lab is slowling starting to blossom as boxes get ripped open and funky, little gadgets start to appear. The garganteous shop bot is almost complete and the laser cutter, which has been the display machine of the lab, has been up and running for days. Most of the rooms have been painted and the electricians are in the (slow) process of of making sure each room has reliable power.

I was given the mentally numbing but oddly satisfying task of organizing the electronics room. With air conditioning flowing and Old Crow Medicine Show blaring in the background, I spent the better part of a day finding homes for little processors and resistors. I'm pretty sure I ruined some of the bits and pieces by taking them out of their anti-static compartments, but I say that if the little buggers can't handle a little static then they'll never make it in the real world. It's a mean, lonely, staticy world out there.

Rashid and Masoud, two IT fellows from Nangarhar University, have also been helping prep the lab. They've been working on setting up the network and other computery-type things.

Guess who has experience with a gun...

2008-06-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

Fieldtrip off the Compound

2008-06-27T01:10:00.000-07:00

So after a week of pleading, we somehow talked the boys into taking us on a fieldtrip to the mountains. We loaded up the car with two cases of water and lots of guns, the two necessities for a car trip in Afghanistan. Our first stop was an isolated village about an hour outside of Jalalabad. The area saw a lot of fighting during the Afghan civil war and many of the villagers have not returned after fleeing to Pakistan 20 years ago. Shem had met the village doctor on a previous trip and so we tried to track him down. Unfortunately he wasn't around, but Shem woke up a couple villagers and we had a brief chat. The picture below is of the village clinic, two bed racks underneath a bamboo cover.

There were at least three graveyards in the village, filled with large blocks of stone marking all of the lives lost. I would guess that there were about 100 graves for every villager.

The closest village to the one we visited had been completely abondoned during the civil war. The mud buildings were pockmarked with bullet and rocket holes.

On our way back to the main road (and to the firing range!) we followed a canal that served as the only source of drinking water and irrigation for the area. It was a hot, hot afternoon so men, women, kids, goats and cows were all lounging under the trees by the canal. The road also went by an old UN refugee camp that is still being used by some families. Several of the kids dove into the canal as we drove by, I don't know if they were showing off or trying to hide.

A Taj Family Portrait

2008-06-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

An Intro to the Taj

2008-06-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Life at the Taj ain't all that bad. It's a huge walled-off compound in what one might call the suburbs of Jalalabad, sans the soccer moms in SUVs. The compound houses a large guest house, a (slightly warm) pool, a garden, a decent-sized soccer field and of course ample space for the Fab Lab. After getting the tour and settling in a bit, Tim, our entrepid security guru and zen master, gave us our official 'Welcome to Jalalabad' security brief. At the very least, we now know how to detect a ticking time bomb.
There are a number of local Afghan men who work at the Taj, including guards, gardeners, cooks, and of course the "Dinner is Served" announcer. I'm not quite sure what he does for the rest of the day but he becomes slightly disgruntled if you don't follow him immediately to the dining room at meal time.

There are two gardens at The Taj, one managed by the locals and another managed by Japanese ag specialists who have been staying at the Taj. They are both chock full of veggies, including tomatoes, eggplants, watermelon and corn, although the uniform bamboo structures gives away which one the Japanese have created.

The jubiliant Ken can often be spotted hanging out on the Baba deck; it's alluring amenities make it prime habitat for a Nanjemoy fellow.

Ah, the pool and bar area of the Taj. A relaxing place to grab a drink and spend a few hours (or more) chatting with the expats and hearing war stories that involve big guns, armored trucks and beer runs. Since it's a holy day, Friday is a day off for locals and expats alike. Meaning...Thursday's are a big night at the Taj bar. During our last Thursday night I think the bar went through five cases of beer and plenty of bad Russian vodka.

Girrl Power in Afghanistan

2008-06-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

The picture on the right served as a welcome sign for the Director of Education's compound. After meeting with the Director, we visited a computer class at the Teacher Training Center. It was a women’s only class and we had a chance to speak with several of them after class. They showed us what they were learning in class, which was basically an introduction to Word, Windows and Excel. The course lasts four months and they go to class every other day for one hour. Since most of the students don't have electricity in their homes, much less a computer, the time they spend at the the Training Center is the only time they have to practice their computer skills. The Training Center offers computer classes to men, women, orphans and street children and you can check out their blog at: http://www.rihr.blogspot.com/.

Since my Pashto consists of manana (thank you) and a badly gurbled sengay (how are you), we used English as our main form of communication. The women spoke English pretty well, especially considering we were the first Western women some of the ladies had ever spoken to.

The next day, four of the women and their instructor came to visit us at the Fab Lab. Since most of the equipment was not set up, Amy used her laptop to show them how to work the laser cutter. The women spent the next two hours designing and creating plexiglass keepsakes.

We sat around for a while before they left and chatted about our home lives. The women were curious to know more about how women live in the U.S., namely when they get married and what type of jobs they have. There was definitely an aura of feminism in the room. A couple of them declared that they were never going to get married, a daring thought given that most Afghan women are married by age 17.

The Road to Jalalabad

2008-06-21T03:14:00.003-07:00

Some pics from our journey from Kabul to Jalalabad...

Dress Shopping in Jalalabad

2008-06-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

For our first foray into town, we took care of the essentials: dress shopping. It was my first time having both an armed escort and a translator when shopping but I think I still got ripped off. Zee took Amy and me to his buddy's dress shop and gave us fashion do and dont's, Afghan style. He absolutely refused to let me buy an orange dress, swearing that only fat, old married women wear orange. I later learned this wasn't true, Zee just didn't like the dress. Our armed guard Shem seemed bored out of his mind, I don't think this is what he had imagined when he signed on for a security detail in Afghanistan.

Zee modeling the hideous orange top

So I picked the white one instead
Shem wondering how he is going to explain this to his army buddies

The Mall of Jalalabad

Stalking Leo

2008-04-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

Glacier Climbing

2008-03-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

During our ice-climbing foray, David and I took a boat-ride to Glacier Viedma where we cruised by icebergs and awed at the vertical edge of the glacier where ice meets water.

We lucked out and the two Brazilians who were supposed to climb with us overslept, so we had our two guides and the glaicer to ourselves. After a short demonstration on how use the crampons and ice-axes, we practiced top-roping up a gently sloped wall of the glacier. We quickly conquered our practice wall and moved on to more difficult ascents, ending at a crevasse with hard, neon blue ice and an overhanging wall. It was the first time our guides had brought any of their clients to climb it, and although I had both guides shouting in Spanish how to orientate my body (mueve tu mano izqueirda arriba y alado!) I only made it a bit over halfway before my muscles whimpered and gave up. It was super fun though and I look forward to more glacier-climbing once I get back to Virginia.

***On a sad note, I had to say goodbye to my faithful camera after it was knocked against the side of the glacier and fell into a small stream of glacier water. I don't think that falls under the warranty.

El Chelten

2008-03-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

After a 36 hour (yes! 36) busride from Bariloche, we were unceremoniously dumped off on the side of the road at 5 AM during a windstorm in the tiny trekking town of El Chelten. Once the sun rose, we saw what a small town it really was. The government of Argentina incorporated the town in 1985 in an attempt to keep Chile from claiming the territory. Its main draws are the mountains surrounding it, including the jagged adn often cloud-covered Fitz Roy adn the glacier-studded Cerro Torre. Mountaineering tourism is the city´s bankroll and during the winter once the tourists leave, there are only 100 or so people in town.

Patagonia is famed for it´s harsh winds and likewise Fitz Roy is often shrouded in a cloudy haze, but we were lucky. During our 3-day trek we had two gorgeously clear days where we had 360 degree views showing Patagonia in all of it´s glory. The mountains and the flora supported by them looked somewhat similar to that in Bariloche, but the landscape had a certain vastness that was missing in Bariloche. In fact, the entire region of Southern Patagonia felt huge, with wide open valleys and big jagged mountain peaks.

Since we had decided against renting a stove while camping (I had mailed mine home a month prior and the rentals were too expensive) David and I dined on an assortment of salami, cheese, jam, tomatoes, onions and pastries from the bakery in town (those were gone after our first lunch). Our first night we camped directly below Fitz Roy and hiked up the vertical ascent to Fitz Roy´s mirador in the morning to catch the sun´s early rays on it´s peaks.

The second night we stayed near Cerro Torre where we collected our water from a river hat had recent memories of being a glacier. From our campground, it was a short hike to the glacier itself, along with it´s corresponding tairn and the source of our river. From Cerro Torre it was an easy three hour hike back into town and to the scrumptious hot-water showers and the friendly Alberto at our hostel.

Mount Tronador and Laguna Ilum

2008-03-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

First off, don´t ever trust a Swedish girl with hippie braids who is trying to convince you to hike a lagoon in the Patagonian mountains. More on that later.

The hike up to Mount Tronador, a stunning glacier-filled mountain outside of Bariloche, offered amazing views of several receding glaciers, a glacier-fed waterfall and snow-topped mountains. We camped about 20 meteres from a glacier and had beautiful mountain views outside of our tent that were reminiscent of the North Cascades. In fact, most of the trees, bushes and groundcover looked eerily similar to those found in Washington, perhaps due to the fact that both locales are located around 50 degrees latitude, albeit in different hemispheres.

After hiking the 18km down from Mt. Tronador, we chatted with the aforementioned Swedish girl who told us about the ¨magical Laguna Ilum¨ whose trailhead was a mere 50 meters away. I think her exact words when describing it were :a paradise for the soul¨. So, although it was 4 PM, we were tired and the first 8 KM of the trek was fairly steep according to the Swedish girl, we shrugged our backpacks back on and gave it a go.

After a pleasant walk through a meadow and a slightly sketchy river crossing, we discovered what she meant by fairly steep. The mountain shot straight up with the faint outline of a dusty trail running parallel. There were no switchbacks and only spiky bamboo shoots along the trail to grab when gravity started to pull you backwards. We spent the next three hours fighting our way uphill, cursing the Swedish girl and her paradise (well, maybe that was just me) until we reached a rocky outcropping that signified the top of our climb. From there on out, the path meandered gently through forested areas with little undergrowth and even less wildlife. In fact, it was pookily quiet, as if we were the only thing living within miles. Finally however, awe broke out of the enchangted forest and reached the now legendary Laguna Ilum. I will admit, it was beautiful, but I don´t know if my soul was rejoicing in this new-found paradise. It was a small mountain tairn with sandy beaches and a stunning view of Mt. Tronador. We spent the night up there and then endured the knee-breaking downhill with thoughts of Mexican food invading our head.

Attack on the Streets!

2008-03-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

The wildlife was vicious in El Chelten.

Vanderven!

2008-03-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

Can you give a name to this strange bird? It´s brethren are scattered throughtout El Calafate.

The Punch Tree of Patagonia

2008-03-06T11:32:00.001-08:00

Jason proving that you can indeed punch the aptly named Punch Tree. Photo taken during a mountain bike trip outside of Bariloche.

Chocolate and Lakes

2008-03-05T04:41:00.000-08:00

With the stunning backdrop of Patagonia, the city of Bariloche can hardly go wrong. You can overlook the somewhat forced homey look of some of the buildings with their faux timber exteriors and the touts on every corner. For what Bariloche may lack in authenticity, it makes up with chocolate; heaps and heaps of decadent, artesan chocolate that looked almost too good to eat. Almost.

David and I were in Bariloche for about five days, preparing and recovering from treks in the surrounding mountains. We spent our days hunting down mountain gear and our nights eating Mexican food. For a couple of those days, we were able to meet up with the lovely Prem, David´s partner at Inti Wari Yassi and a good friend. The three of us managed to find a beautiful lake (okay, that wasn´t exactly exactly hard) with a small rocky island that we alsmot had to ourselves. The water was freezing but crystal clear; you could see 6 meters down in some areas.

Mas de Karumbe

2008-02-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

After attempting (unsuccessfully) to set the net in rough seas, we rigged up a lean-to for our afternoon seista. Life is rough when you work at the beach.

Ali-Karumbe´s founder and El Gordo - a fisherman by trade who stayed with us for a week and cooked some delish meals.

Part of the Karumbe crew

Gus teaching and playing games with the local kids during an environmental outreach campaign
Getting ready to take a DNA sample from a very dead fresh-water dolphin

Ita, Lu and I at camp

Paryting on the beach in Punto del Diablo on my last night

Karumbe and Cardboard Turtles

2008-02-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

I arrived at Karumbe the day before Carnival. Karumbe is a turtle research station in the small coastal town of La Coronilla. As a new volunteer, I was expecting to be thrown into work, maybe cleaning field equipment or helping with the turtle capture. Instead, I was sized up for a starfish costume. In fact, I spent the whole day creating marine animal costumes out of cardboard, driftwood and anything else we could find lying around the station or beach. On the night of Carnival, we marched in the town´s parade as a medley of turtles, sharks, jellyfish, starfish and sealions. We stratigically placed ourselves behind a drum line so we had a great beat to dance to during the parade.

Turtle Liberation!

I was starting to doubt that Karumbe Bay actually worked with turtles because with all the hubbub over Carnival, I dídn´t actually see a turtle till my fourth day. But since then, I have been helping the scientists with turtle sightings, capture and census walks. Their goal is to obtain more information on the habits of juvenile green turtles who come down from Brazil and the Carribean to feed during the summer months. The days can be long, but you can´t beat working in a bikini and swimming in the ocean as a part of your job.

Turtle Capture
This dolphin has seen better days

Tramping through Argentina (and Uruguay)

2008-02-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

After a couple days in the desert oasis/tourist trap of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, I found myself in Northern Argentina. I spent a few days in Salta, then headed to Mendoza, in the heart of wine country and finally on to sultry Buenos Aires. In every town I found the people to be incredibly friendly, outgoing, funny and of course holding a mate. Rich, poor, young and old, everyone in Arngentina drinks yerba mate.

I was suprised to find myself falling in love with Buenos Aires. Although it is a huge city (6 million people call it home), it is easy to walk around and in places it is downright quaint. I arrived on a Sunday and headed down to San Telmo´s market, an incredible feast. The streets were packed with vendors, street performers, artisans and their wares, musicians, tourists and tango dancers. Yes, tango in the streets. It was a vibrant, sensual city and reminded me of a more sanitized version of pre-Katrina New Orleans.
After Buenos Aires, I took a ferry across the Rio Platos to the coastal village of Colonia, Uruguay and then headed on to Montevideo. It was a couple days till Carnival, so the streets were packed with the sound of drums and chants as everyone practiced for the upcoming parades. Late one night, after checking out a traditional murga, some friends and I stumbled onto a ceremony being held on the beach. Groups of people wearing all white were walking into the water and sending small shoebox-sized boats filled with lit candles to sea. They would then walk backwards to the beach, while chanting. On the beach, there were more groups of people all dressed in white and traditional healers that were offering their services to those taking part in the ceremony. No one was in charge and there was a very organic, spontaneous feel to the whole event. Later, we learned that they were offering thanks to Yemanya, La Madre del Mar, a Brazilian Goddess with African roots.

Protest outside of the La Casa Rosa in Buenos Aires - the same building where Eva Peron gave her speeches

Xabi normally cuts hair for transvestites in Basque, but kindly cut all of our hair at our hostel in Mendoza.

The World Turned Upside Down

2008-01-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

After a three day tour of Southwest Bolivia, your mind is awash with images. With every curve around a mountain or dip into a canyon, the landscape seems to change completely. We went from the stunning salt flats which offered surreal mirror images of the sky, to bleak, lifeless desert moonscapes and finally to vibrant blue and green salt lagoon, all in one day.

Our group consisted of me, David, who I had met at the refuge, Tirini from Spain, a New Zealand* couple and our quiet guide/driver Raolo. We had also begun with a couple from Venezuala, but we lost them after the truck broke down the second time. Ah, the truck. It was a four-wheel drive Toyota that had apparantly seen better days. It broke down around 12 times during our trip, often leaving us stranded in very remote, desolate areas. There was apparantly something wrong with the fanbelt, but fear not! Raolo was able to cut pieces of the rubber that secured our luggage to the roof and use it to fix the fanbelt. I won´t get into the techie mechanical details but I´m pretty sure I saw bubblegum being used at one point. Fortunately, the scenery was amazing so we didn´t mind waiting while Raolo worked his magic. There was also a strong communal aspect to the truck tours, so often during our pitstops a fellow driver would stop, look under the hood and offer his bubblegum.

After three days of jumping around boulders, skipping stones on salt lagoons, prancing around salt flats and warming up by geysers, we were dropped off at the border of Chile, bus ticket in hand. Next stop, San Pedro de Atacoma.

*One useful piece of information gleaned from this trip: Kiwis will put ketchup on ANYTHING.

Salt Flats

Flamingo Reserve
High Plains Desert

Our Truck Broken Down, AgainValle de los PiedrasSalt Lagoons Early Morning Gysers

Inti Wara Yassi

2008-01-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

I don´t think Inti Wara Yassi could exist in any other country. My partner Mikel had a saying, "Bolivia: Todo es posible, nada es seguro". (Bolivia: Anything is possible, nothing is safe.) At times, I felt like I was living in a John Irving novel: we had an ocelot living in one of the hostal rooms because a landslide destroyed her cage; I danced with a Spectacled Bear; my housemate had a cute, green inchworm-looking bug pop out of his hand, the monkeys teased my 300 pound cat by peeing on him from the trees; I was quasi-attacked my a large spider monkey baring fangs while on dawn patrol of the "Big Bad Monkey Watch"; and the list goes on...

There was a fun cast of characters at the refuge and we spent our evenings drinking beer or macoyoa juice at the cafe or at a local restuarant, destressing and swapping animal stories. We had many a fun night, including trading gifts of Christmas Eve, kisses on New Year´s Eve and money on poker nights.

IWY is always in need of volunteers so if you are thinking of heading to South America, consider spending a month or so at the refuge. For me, it was one of the most intense, amazing and unforgettable experiences I have ever had. Where else can you spend nine hours a day bonding with a Puma in the jungle?

Walking a Puma

2007-12-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Right now I am volunteering at a very unique animal refuge in Central Bolivia. You can check out their website (and donate!): http://www.intiwarayassi.org/. My job is to walk a three year old puma named Leoncio. His Mom was shot by poachers when he was a baby and he was sold on the black market to a family as a pet. When he was 9 months old the mother of the house beat him so hard they his back legs broke in three places. Leo and I are buddies now but for the first few days he 'tested me' (i.e., attacked) all the time.

The work is very tough and wet (I am covered in cat scratches and mosquito bites) but it has been amazing. There are also monkeys, birds and loads of other animals at the pàrk. The monkeys are very cute but you have to watch your cookies and cameras because some were trained as pickpockets before coming to the park. So far they have only gotten two oreo cookies from me, the puma seems to scare them off.

The Cordilleras

2007-12-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

Panic aboard the Titicaca

2007-12-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

It started out as a peaceful, sunny day as I chased down the President of Bolivia on the Isla del Sol. However, as we loaded on the seaworthy boat ¨Titicaca¨ for the return trip back to Copacabana, things turned bad. A storm was brewing out on the lake and our boat was headed right towards it. The waves got bigger and bigger and there was plenty of nervous chatter on board as people debated how far they could swim before the froze in the frigid waters. I don´t think anyone was really worried until one of the workers on the boat began to nervously hand out life jackets while he spoke in rapid-fire Spanish to (I think) someone on shore. At one point, the captain tried to steer into the waves and the boat felt like it was at an 90 degree angle. The motor went out a couple times and a few tourists started to freak out but we made it back safe and sound. (By the way, the Virginia hat is being worn by a German lady who lived in Richmond for five years, small world.)

Chasing Evo

2007-12-10T12:14:00.000-08:00

So somehow, Evo Morales and I ended up on the Isla del Sol on the same day. I came for the hikes and the views, he came to rally up support for an upcoming referundum which will determine whether or not he stays office. When I found out that he might be visiting one of the small villages, I eschewed the typical trek up to the Inca ruins and took the village trails in the hopes of catching up to him. I stumbled into the town of Chu´lla, which was entirely deserted. The whole village had congregated on the top of a local hill and were all dressed in the finest clothes, waiting for the President to arrive. Quecha flags were waving and the local men were performing traditional dances in some unusal headwear. We all waited for over an hour (okay, the villagers waited for hours, I waited for 45 minutes) for Morales to show up and rumors kept spreading as to where he was. I finally had to leave to hike to where the boat was picking up all the tourists. Turns out, Morales was on the island, but he never made it to the town of Chu´lla. Instead, he had arrived at the small port on the other side of the island and had given a short but passionate (so I heard) speech there. The villagers of Chu´lla never had a chance to see their President. As the first indigenous President of Bolivia, Morales was no doubt using the sacred island of the Incas as a symbolic backdrop for his rally to keep the support of the indigenous campesinos.

The Islands of Lake Titicaca

2007-12-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

The islands of Lake Titicaca were beautiful and tranquil. From Puno, I took a boat to the tiny island of Amantani with several other backpackers. We stopped at the incredible floating islands of Uros along the way. The islands are made entirely out of reed, which by the way, are also edible. The Uros people have been living on the islands for centuries; they first created them to escape the warring cultures on the mainland. They were a little bouncy to stand on and living on the floating islands, with the intense sun and wind during the day and the harsh, cold nights, is not an easy way of life.

Once we got to Amantani, five of us stayed at the house of the boat captain. We were fed simple but satisfying meals of boiled potatoes and carrots and bread. The island has no electricity, no cars and no roads so life is pretty simple and some food stuffs are scarce. We hiked around the island, which offered incredible views, and at night we went to a traditional Pena and danced around a campfire with the local women while the menfolk played music. We spent the next day at Taquile, a similar island on the Lake.

The Isla de Sol, where the Inca believe that the Sun, Moon and the first Incas were created, is also on Lake Titicaca, but on the Bolivian side. The island was similar to the others but with more Inca ruins, i.e., more stone walls. To get to the Isla de Sol you have to take a boat from the Bolivian town of Copacabana. Copa is a tiny, tranquil town that gets tons of Peruvian and Bolivian pilgrams who these days come for to see a sacred cross in the local cathedral rather than the Inca´s sacred island.

Aymari women on the Isla del Sol Sunset on Amantani
One of the Uros floating islands An Uros girl on a reed boat

Serafina, my host mom on Amantani

Musical Chairs in the Jungle

2007-12-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

I lost.

La Vida en la Selva

2007-12-04T17:48:00.000-08:00

Bay and I did another four-day trek...this time with monkeys! Our trip was to Manu National Park, a large Park East of Cuzco full of birds, monkeys, jaguars and river otters. Our transportation included a bus, river boat, traditional wooden boat, mountain bikes, river rafting, zip-lining and rapelling. We saw an incredible array of birds, including the funky looking hoatzin, the flamboyant Cock-of-the-Rock and the crazy nest-making Putzi. We also spotted a family of woolly monkeys and a group of smaller monkeys (maybe cappuchins?)

During our mountain bike ride, we stopped at a small coca plantation and had a chance to see how the coca leaves were cultivated. We spent our nights at comfy lodges in the jungle, one of which was right on the edge of the beautiful Madre de los Dios River.

Disneyworld of the Andes

2007-12-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

The infamous Machu Picchu. It does live up to the superlatives; it is stunning, beautiful and amazing, but man is it crowded with tourists. Bay and I were able to escape the throngs of khaki-clad Germans by hiking up Waynupichu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu. It was a steep hike but we had great views looking down on Machu Picchu. It really is amazing to think about how the Incas built these huge structures high up in the mountains without the help of modern technology.

Stalking Llamas at Machu Picchu

2007-12-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

Most people come to Machu Picchu to witness the majestic ruins of a by-gone culture. I came for the llamas.

Ayacucho

2007-12-04T14:07:00.000-08:00

We stumbled into the vibrant Andean mountain town of Ayacucho after a painful 24 hour bus ride. While we were there we caught a parade/festival and a protest for women´s rights. It was a beautiful town with cobblestone streets, a very active market and yummy hand-spun ice cream.

A Bit Twisted

2007-11-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow´s dinner eating today´s lunch

(Cuy vs. Yucca)

Trekking around Chachapoyas

2007-11-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

Bay and I just finished an amazing four day trek in the mountains near Chachapoyas. It was wet and muddy and I can barely feel my legs, but it was a great experience.

Day one: We left Chachapoyas at 5 AM and headed to the Valle de los Muertos, one of many Chachapoyas ruins in the area. The Chachapoyas lived in the Andes for about a 1,000 years before the Incas conquered them, and they had a pretty developed culture. We saw some sarcophaguses that were just discovered a year ago and actually ran into the archeologist who is currently working on excavating the area. If you look closely in the pic you can see the clay sarcophoguses on the steep mountain wall. We had lunch in a small village, stopped at the local market for dinner goods and then headed out to the mountains. After driving on a very sketchy, muddy mountain road (amazingly, we only got stuck once), our driver dropped us off and bid us farewell. Bay, myself and our guide, Jose, headed off for the Valle Bejen. We stayed the night in a small cabin in the valley, sorrounded by beautiful mountains and wild horses. There were six local workers staying in the cabin with us and before dinner we had a three on three soccer match. We didn´t last too long though, since playing soccer at 10,000 feet really knocks the wind out of you. After dinner, we spent the evening chewing cocoa with the guys and trying to converse with broken english and spanish.

Day two: We hiked out of the valley and headed to another set of Chachapoyas ruins, about three hours away. We ate lunch surounded by 1,000 year old stone circular houses that were enveloped in plants and vines. After another four hour hike, we made it to the small village of Colgon where we had a room and a great cold shower. The house we stayed in had an amazing balcony where we could see the coffee trees that supplied the coffee we drank. We could hear the cuys (guinea pigs) squealing in the kitchen; fortunately for them, our dinner consisted of pasta and yucca. As it got dark, we watched the chickens climb up a skinny branch to roost in the avocado trees.

Day three: Day three killed me. It started off good though with fresh coffee, fried plaintains and yucca. It was raining off and on all day and we had a pretty vertical ascent for most of the day. We checked out some more Chachapoyas ruins (they were everywhere) and then had lunch at the top of the mountain in the house of a very friendly older couple. They are pretty isolated up on the mountain but seemed to enjoy it. After a hearty meal of egg soup, rice, beans and avocado and mint tea, we set back out into the rain. We finally made it to the top of the mountain at about 4 PM. We were wet and exhaused but very happy. Our trusty driver, Manuel Rubio, was waiting for us and took us down to the local village for a quasi-hot shower and a tasty meal of lomo saltado (beef, potatoes and rice). We were warned not to use the bathroom by the river (check out the pic).

Day Four: Day four was pretty relaxed as it consisted of hiking around the ruins of Kuelap, the Chachapoyan fortress high up on a cloudy mountaintop. Archeologists are still excavating the site and it was cool to watch them in action. After Kuelap, we headed back to Chachapoyas and had a tasty lunch with Jose and his family and then watched Ecuador destroy Peru 5-1.

Huanchacho

2007-11-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

The local fishermen use these reef boats to fish out in the Pacific Ocean. They last about two months before they start to rot.

Etch-a-Sketch in the Desert

2007-11-13T04:57:00.000-08:00

The Nazca Lines--The only reason anyone would stop in the hot, dusty town of Nazca. The only way to see the mysterious images in the desert is to fly over them, so after arriving by overnight bus at 5:so AM, I took a 7:30 AM plane ride over the desert. I was very, very thankful that I didn´t have a chance to eat breakfast before going because the pilot seemed to be doing evasive maneauvors the whole time we were in the air. The images were pretty impressive, with some stretching over 300 meters across.

Theories abound as to way the ancient Nazca culture drew the images in the dessert: UFO runways, map of underground aqueducts, celestial maps, cult worship, etc. I just think they were bored; there is nothing to do in Nazca.

The images are hard to make out, but if you squint you should be able to see an anastronaut, big hands and a hummingbird, oh and a plane.

Ciao Arequipa

2007-11-10T11:13:00.000-08:00

I have a great stay in Arequipa but it´s time to head on. After dinner with Martha and the gang, I am taking an overnight bus to Nazca to possibly see the Nazca Lines and-or sandboard.

My Classroom at La Casa de Avila

My early morning yoga group

My tour group at the Canyon del Colca

Lo Siento, Bodhi

2007-11-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

My new favorite perro.

I pass by Palcho every day on my morning jog. He´s 10 months old and is supposed to be a guard dog but I think he´s too sweet of a dog to actually hurt anyone.

Modern Day Human Sacrifice to the Gods

2007-11-06T12:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, maybe it´s just a couple of tourists posing. The birds in the background are Andean Condors. The pics were taken at the Canyon del Colca, a canyon that is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful but packed full with tourists from all over the world.

I spent the night in a small town called Chivay that sits at the head of the Canyon.

My Dream Come True

2007-11-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

At long last, Alpacas!

El Dia del Muerte

2007-11-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, Day of the Living...it heard it called different names by different Arequepinas. Whatever the case, November 1st is a very important day for Arequepinas. Everyone has the day off and the head to the cemetaries to celebrate and remember thier loved ones. Our profesors took us to the largest and oldest cemetary in town to check it out. The cemetary was packed and looked like a small city with streets, vendors selling ice cream y muchas personas. Families come every year to clean the graves, leave flowers and basically spend the day. You can even pay singers to come to the graves and sing your loved ones favorite song.

In a far off corner of the cemetary, persons who had committed suicide were buried. Since it is considered a mortal sin in the Catholic faith, they were not buried with eveyone else. Some of the families of the deceased had even scratched out their names out of shame. In another corner, we found the graves of Jewish and Protestant folk. While we were looking at these graves, an older Peruvian lady came and left a single yellow flower on each grave and had some younger boys spray a bit of water on each grave (symbolic of cleaning the grave). She wanted to make sure that the deceased knew that they were not forgotten. It was very sweet.

Mis Profesoras posing in front of the body of Christ

Tombs of the Babies Graves with Chachani in the backround

Cheaters

2007-11-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

My host family and I have worked out a pretty sweet arrangement. The six-year old, Geraldine, helps me with my spanish homework at night and I am helping my host mom download the cliffnotes to Anna Karenina in Spanish. Her book club meets this Friday and she hasn´t had tiime to actually read the book. Geraldine is pretty good with conjugating the present tense in Spanish although she tends to write her ´S´s backwards. That will be hard to explain to my profesors. When she gets bored with helping I have to bribe her with candy or pieces of my Halloween costume (I was a witch).

Arequipa

2007-10-31T13:20:00.000-07:00

Life is good in Arequipa. My host family lives on a hill overlooking the city and they have been very welcoming. I wake up to a huge breakfast and come home to a huge dinner, ah yes, life is good. Spanish school has been very helpful although my profesoras like to my fun of my accent.

Arequipa is a beautiful city with white washed stone buildings and cute little paseos filled with cafes and little shops. It is very easy to walk around and there are tons of markets, cathedrals and shops to check out. Halloween is tonight so I am off to find a costumbre...

Mi casa

Melanie

El Misti

Even the dogs wear sunglasses

Arequipa

2007-10-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

I´ve finally arrived in Arequipa after spending the last day and a half in dreary Lima. The locals here are a little stiff but very welcoming.

Kansas.

2007-10-16T07:17:00.001-07:00

Sorry Dad, I'm moving to Boulder

2007-10-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

After a 10 long hours driving through Wyoming and Northern Colorado, we cruised up the Rockie mountains and ended up 9,000 feet in the air and at the doorstep of Dan and Tori's new pad. The house is beautiful and has great views of the pine forests that surround it. Dan and Tori had a tasty meal waiting (we're getting good at arriving at dinner time) and some good brew chilled.

Bodhi met Dan and Tori's dogs, Wolfgang and Nileke, and got a taste of what it would be like in Doggy prison. (They REALLY liked Bodhi).

We spent our time in Boulder drinking coffee, playing scrabble, drinking beer and laughing. We also celebrated the fact that Dan and Tori just got engaged!

We were lucky enough to experience Boulder's first good snowfall of the year during our second night. There were about eight inches on the ground when we left and it was still snowing.

It was great to see Dan and Tori in their new environs, even if their dogs tried to hump the life out of poor, poor Bodhi.

Thanks Ted

2007-10-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

We pulled into Livingston, Montana on Wednesday night and sat down to a delish meal of bison pot roast thanks to Bay's friends Julian and Marleen. The bison came straight from Ted Turner's ranch; he regularly culls his herd and sells the meat. We woke up early the next morning and Julian and Marleen took us to Yellowstone National Park. Our first stop was the Boiling River, perhaps the greatest place on earth. The river comes up out of a cave and is a part of the same geothermal system as Old Faithful. There are pools and waterfalls at the confluence of the Boiling River and the very cold Yellowstone River and you can swim around and find your own private hot tub. While at the Park we also saw tons of tasty bison, elk and two packs of wolves. The wolves were amazing. We spotted the second pack right after they had finished eating a kill and watched as they slowly ambled up the hill. Bodhi must caught a whiff of them while he was stuck in the car because we could hear him whining from 30 yards away. Bodhi also got an eyeful when a buffalo walked within a foot of our car. I can't imagine what he must have been thinking.

Yellowstone was amazing and offered a tiny glimpse of how incredible the entire Plains area must have been with buffalo, elk and grizzlies roaming the landscape. Fences, cows and corn just ain't the same.

Before hitting Livingston, we stopped at Three Forks, where the Galliton, Madison and Jefferson meet. They form the headwaters for the Missouri River, the longest river in the country with a watershed of 580,00 square miles.

That's a big river.

On the Road

2007-10-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

After three years of good beer, better friends and too much rain, I have finally left Bellingham. Bay, Bodhi and I loaded into my new rig on Sunday afternoon and headed South. As we pulled onto the highway, Bellingham offered it's typical farewell: torrents of rain. We had managed to fill every nook and cranny of the truck and had the rack loaded with baggage, so we looked like true hillbillies.

For our first night on the road, we enjoyed the hospitality of Bay's friends in Spokane: a comfy bed, good coffee and cute kids. After Spokane, we headed towards Glacier National Park, not exactly on the way to Virginia, but a beautiful part of the country. We checked out the happenin' nightlife of Whitefish, Montana and headed towards the Park early the next morning. We snagged some good shots of the Park before we hit the entrance gate and found out that a.) most of the roads and trails were closed in the Park. b.) dogs weren't allowed on the trials and c.) it cost $25 to enter for the day. We did a quick u-turn and ended up in Hungry Horse National Forest, which basically borders Glacier National Park. After a 8 mile drive up an old logging road we found a sweet trail that led us through the snow and into Grizzly country. We didn't see any Grizzlies but I'm pretty sure we found a Polar Bear paw print close to the trail.

We made it to Missoula just in time to snag a quick dinner and make it to the Widespread show. It was a fun show and we ran into some of Bay's friends and, perhaps more importantly, pizzadillas (sooo good). Next stop, Livingston...