kittens in a basket

More kitten pics just for Caleb

more pics of the kitties! I hear that my nephew Caleb has been checking for new ones, luckily, I take a lot. They have a tendency to fall asleep on one, preventing one from accomplishing much for hours at a time...
enjoy!

kittens kittens kittens

new kittens in the house! we had the option of getting 4, but Pema & Tania's common sense prevailed over my kitten-fever (and later, after dealing w/ kitty litter again, I too felt that it was the right choice to only get two). They are little sisters (did you know that kitties from the same litter can have different dads?) They don't have names yet--we're taking suggestions...

Halloween 2007 with Caleb

Went to Arkansas to visit Ali, Joel & Caleb for Halloween. Caleb played guitar for us, and we also got to catch one of his gigs at the Whistle Stop Cafe, where we also had fried catfish. Caleb was an elephant for Halloween. And we took him crystal mining, where he enjoyed digging in the dirt, and where I unearthed the biggest crystal cluster I've ever found. Totally great trip, left me wanting more Caleb, more crystals, more sweet tea, and more guitar performances.

pensamiento...thinking

The voyage isn't over...tendrils of it still twine through my days (much like a sprouting Panamainian bean-beaded necklace--don't get them wet). For example...Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest nation in our hemisphere (Haiti is the poorest). Their annual average income is about $800 per year. Emails from my new friends in Nicaragua reach out with this reality...money is needed...dental work...aftermath of a hurricane...sick parents. These emails come sandwiched in between emails from Nigeria and Britain--"dear sir or madame, happy salutations. I have come into some perfectly legal money but I need your assistance in transferring it, for a payment to you, to a safe account..." I know those emails are bogus, and here is another true solicitation, twisting into my world, presenting me with ethical choices, forcing me to realize that on the global scale of things, I am definitely a HAVE...and that we don't get to have tidy relationships with the have nots. I send money...a bit more than I would have sent on my own perhaps, but that was what was asked for. I know this is needed--I watched the homemade dinner being made in the back kitchen, with one bare bulb in an alley-like room, plastic bags used to fuel the grill--half of an oil drum--right in the kitchen. I went shopping for the food for the meal, asked if anything else was needed--yes, the humble answer--toilet paper. Of all the gifts brought to all of the homes for hosts & hostesses--never before toilet paper. I know this is needed. Another email--much thanks...more money for school fees? Lo siento--possiblemente en Deciembre...more ethical choices. And I know that it is needed. Fragmented spanglish on both sides. Still a connection, maybe more real now and less a tidy fantasy. Lights flashing between a multi-million dollar ship and a small bicycle on the beach...estoy pensamiento.

pictures: street in Corinto Nicaragua...Rebecca, colleague from the ship, with tp

More photos

So, I have over 5000 pictures from my trip...and I need more space on my computer before I can edit...and this is slowing the whole process down...but here are some more pics. Guatemala continues to be my favorite location for photography, I feel like that's where I hit my artistic/interactive stride, yes, in the last country. These are all from Chichi (chichicastenega), a great town in the highlands that has an amazing market on Saturday. It also has a high number of indigenous folks living there and nearby, and the mixture of Catholicism and Mayan religion is intriguing...

Camino Segure/Safe Passage

I wanted to send out the website to one of the service visits we did in Guatamala. The non-profit is called Camino Seguro ("Safe Passage"), http://www.safepassage.org/welcome-to-safe-passage, and if any of you are in a position to volunteer or help financially, this is definitely a worthy cause and an honest non-profit that is making a difference. I am thinking of going back to volunteer here on either a short term or long term basis. The recently oscar-nominated film documentary "Recycled Life" is a movie about the Guatamala dump and those that make their living there if you want to check that out. The non-profit Camino Seguro works to provide shelter, food, & also education to the children of the dump-workers to try to stop the cycle of limited options. The pictures I've posted are of the Guatemala dump and the workers that make their living their sorting through the trash and sustaining themselves through what is thrown away by others. The dump is partially walled off, set to the side of Guatemala City, and located in a ravine which is rapidly filling. We took these pictures from the Guatemala City Cemetary, which is at the top of the ravine overlooking the dump. It was drizzly, we all were shocked into silence, surrounded by tombs, mausoleums, and vultures, looking out into the dump itself, with the taste and smell of it overwhelming all. The area around the dump is apparently extremely dangerous, with people driven to desparate measures. Our guide, who grew up in this area, was one of the people who "made it out". His repeated line was "this is the real world". We had two armed guards with us in addition to our 3 guides for the entire trip (from the dump, to the 2 Camino Seguro school sites we visited). I appreciate this non-profit for letting us, however briefly, into their world of making a difference.
I would be happy to talk about this further with any of you if you'd like more information.

next steps in the journey

ahhhh, dear readers (if there's even any of you left), 19 days without a post! The rest of Nicaragua, steering the ship between Nicaragua & Guatemala, all of Guatemala, and re-entry back into California has passed and awaits comment. I do intend to blog, this blog wasn't just for a particular adventure or voyage. I have many adventures and voyages in life, and so this will continue--I even thought of this ahead of time in picking my blog-name, I didn't want it to hinge on one experience. What's in my head right now: well, I'm getting over the ship-cough, which I'm told takes about 2-3 weeks to get over. I'm incredibly thankful that I didn't get sick on the ship til the last 3 days, and then not even really sick until the day we docked in San Diego on Tuesday. Wednesday was loading up our rental car and driving home--that day wasn't much fun with an upper respitory infection, but immediately upon getting home I started to feel better. I had said, about two weeks earlier, that what I missed about being home was sleeping with the windows open, and sure enough, as soon as I started doing that I started feeling better. I am so thankful that I felt great the rest of the voyage--I did the whole thing full-throttle, and that was exciting, invigorating & strengthening. What's swirling about my head right now is a combination of thankfulness (for an amazing voyage with amazing students and amazing colleagues), and wonder (both wonder from what I've experienced and seen and wonder as in I wonder what's next?). I do have several posts to finish to round out the voyage experience--Guatemala itself is worthy of at least 3 posts, one for the trip to the Chichi market, one for the lake experience, one for the service visit to Camino Seguro & the Guatemala City dump, and probably one more from a photographer's perspective--this is the country where it came together for me as a travel photographer.

Nicaragua

10pm Corinto, Nicaragua
8/8/07 Okay, here’s the rough outline of my itinerary for Nicaragua (of which I still have one more day)—arrive on Tuesday, get to a beach house, stay there Tuesday night & Wednesday night, leave Thursday at 6:30am to be back to the ship for duty by 8:30am, be on duty on Thursday day til Friday morning, and then go to possibly an orphanage on Friday morning, and have dinner at David’s mom’s house on Friday evening. (David is a Nicaraguan who we—myself, Tom & Rebecca, met about 4 hours ago, he’s 24, looks 18, and is very sweet—he showed us around town).
Many people say that Nicaragua is like Costa Rica was about 30 years ago—friendly people, beautiful country-side with a plethora of natural resources (minus the whole Iran-Contra CIA debacle). I think that statement, from the little I saw of Nicaragua, is probably true. This includes only the merest beginnings of a tourist infrastructure, and some of our students were at a loss as to what to do the first day—I’ll get to that in a moment. A group of us had decided to rent a beach house up the coast a bit, and Mario found a great place online that slept 12 and had a communal kitchen, with a pool, and right on the beach. It was about 2 hours away, and on our first day, we all disembarked in search of a van that would fit us. We procured one, and were just waiting for it to arrive for about 30 minutes, when we saw a van-load of students return to the ship, which was unusual, because we had only really been cleared for about an hour, so we checked in with them. They had found a beach recommendation in Corinto in the Nicaragua Lonely Planet guide, jumped into a van, and went there, only to discover, in their words: “the beach was dirt and they said there were buildings but there were only shacks”. So they came back to re-group. As I write this today, 3 days into the trip, I know that of the 400 or so folks here on the voyage, there are about 126 on board tonight, which is encouraging as it does mean that people have found their way out and about. Every country we’ve visited so far has had fairly advanced tourism industries, and it is good & interesting to see a country that is not keyed to the United Statesian consumer, and it’s also good to see our students learn to find their way about. Corinto is very different from everywhere else we’ve been—not the absolute industrialized poverty of Calloa Peru, with block after block of dusty homes, but not developed either. Walking around Corinto tonight it was hard to tell right away which buildings were homes and which ones were businesses—lazy hot dogs lolling about, people sitting in plastic chairs in the doorways, and somebody grilling meat outside.
Here are some free-form thoughts:
It’s super-hot here during the day, with amazing lightning shows at night lasting about an hour. From 7am-2pm there is no electricity anywhere, since Nicaragua has been having some power issues.
Driving around you can see all of the political party slogans painted everywhere—for the ALN party, for the FLN party, for Daniel Ortega (the original Sandinista and now a newly elected president again) “la gente pobre del mundo unido.”
Men with machetes in the fields, by the side of the road, and only men.
Kids with buckets of sand filling potholes for tips.
Finding a crab claw on our bed in the beach house…not sure where the rest of that guy went, but leaving at 6am & grabbing my backpack & finding another crab underneath about the size of a soap bar—crab: “oh, errr, hey”, me “hi little crab—hey, you got the bottom of my backpack all wet”, crab: “errr, yeah…gotta go” scuttle scuttle scuttle, me “ahhhh, let me get my feet out of the way”.

Annnnd--more to follow. Dinner at David's house was wonderful, and we were all sad that we had just met at the end of our quick trip there. Nicaragua ended with us leaving port at 10pm & me flashing my flashlight at the front of the ship in a pre-arranged signal, which was responded to by David & his family on shore flashing their bicycle lights--amazingly touching.

Costa Rica

Pura Vida! Costa Rica is beautiful. So this is really a place holder, the one day crossings are really hard to keep up with journalling & blogging, but I'll get back here. In the meantime: We went to Arenal Volcano, where you could see the top of the volcano glow red at night. During our visit we paid a home visit to Don Juan's organic farm where we crushed sugar cane and picked fruit & vegetables for our lunch, where we helped to make fresh tortillas. The finca (farm) was really cool--they collected methane gas from the cow dung which they used to heat their water. We did a canopy walk through the jungle, and saw howler monkeys, including a baby howler monkey. And then it poured (they don't call it the rain-forest for nothing). Our last day we went ziplining through the forests--we went on a 7 cable-segment trip. Some of the cables were over half a mile long and we zipped at up to 60mph. It was truly exhilarating--and actually over rather quickly.
Yay rice, beans & plantains!

Machu Picchu

One of the wonders of the world, we went there over two days, spending the night in Aguas Calientes. Our first day we spent 3 hours there, from 3pm til 6pm, and it was sunny & beautiful. The quality of blue sky, let alone the surrounding mountains, made me think that I was in a different world. The second day, we went up at 5:30am and stayed for 8 hours. Ostensibly we went up to see the sunrise, but it was shrouded in mists and clouds, which made for a more introspective, moody, and spiritual experience. Machu Picchu is about 9,000 feet above sea level, so there was some altitude consideration walking around, but it's lower than Cusco (our "home base" for the area). Just one note about the photos: where these were taken were mainly right above the entrance overlooking the main plaza, with the peak of Huanupicchu (wainupicchu) immediately in the background. On the second misty, rainy, slippery day we hiked up to the top of Wainupicchu, which was also amazing, and muddy, and did I mention slippery? How the Incas cut the stones into the side of this mountain, and lugged other stone steps up the side of this steep mountain is truly a feat. This was an extremely steep hike; they only allow 400 people up a day; most of the way was up stone stairs, sometimes with wire cable railings. At one point, even I was moved to create a song during this hike (to the tune of simon & garfunkle's "sound of silence")--"hello cable my old friend..." I hiked up with Nate & Anne, and Tania joined us later after some muffins. It was incredible. An important side note, Nate proposed to Anne in Macchu Pichu on that misty morning, which was very sweet.

Students of Service

7/29/07 Students of Service Auction
I have now joined the halls of those SAS fanatics who bid ridiculous amounts for the privilege of doing something ship-wise. By ridiculous, I mean, it’s all going to a great cause—3 different charities in Latin America. Earlier I had tried to win the honor of blowing the ship’s horn when we arrive in San Diego, but I stopped at $100 and a friend/life-long learner topped out at $300. We moved on to the live auction at 9pm, and after a bidding war with a variety of folks, coming down to 1 student and myself, I finally won the privilege of steering the ship! I don’t fully know what that means yet, I don’t think I get to do doughnuts or anything, probably just a squiggle—maybe even over the equator! $350 is going to charity, and I’m totally excited. They have to check my driving record before I'm all cleared to do this officially though (sorry, rumor-starting tendencies starting to surface).

Turn Around

Shipboard life: we’ve turned around, our cabin faces east now, waking up with the sun. I am having a hard time though with my sense of land—I was so used to it being on the “left”, portside, and now it’s on the starboard side. I have to concentrate on this every day. I find it so disorienting! Yeah, I know, my life is a constant struggle. We had the crew talent show last night, with lots of fun dance numbers. We have 10 more days at sea and 4 countries—this is a strange, and possibly stressful combo, given that my last trip we had 11 days alone between Japan and Seattle on the way home. We’re staying on top of everything though, mainlybecausewejustspeedupallofourplanningandmakeithappenrightaway. That’s pretty much how it feels.

Valparaiso--photographer's dream

7/22/07 Valparaiso
Valparaiso was one of the home cities of Pablo Neruda, and one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen. Chile is better off financially than many of it’s neighbors, for a variety of reasons, including their copper mines as well as a 20 year dictatorship mixed with some economic experiments that paid off (google Chicago Gang). There are those who are of a mind that it was worth it (even though the dictatorship broke more than 100 years of democracy). There are those who remember the disappearances and people killed in the local futbol stadium, and do not think that it was worth it. Chile—well Valparaiso & Santiago at least, is a very European South American country. It is winter there—a mild winter by the coast. I stayed in Valpo the whole time—I was duty dean for two days, and I just wrapped Valparaiso around me like a warm alpaca shawl. It’s a great place for photography, a great place for food and wine, and a great place for reflection. It smelled of cinnamon, incense, and dog poop—there were dogs everywhere. I tried to do a Chile Dog photo series, but really only got one cooperative dog. I also did a little bit of shopping here, as many of you will find out. The currency is basically 550 pesos to a dollar, so math skills were required. The city is known as San Pancho, a nick-name for little San Francisco, since it reminds many of San Francisco—but unlike SF, Valparaiso has a number of cool rickety funiculars all over the city which you can take for 200 pesos up or down. It also has a very modern & clean metro, and a banking street pre-Wall Street.
Our first day there was a national holiday, which didn’t impact our city tour but certainly impacted our dinner plans as we (Tania, myself, & Anna one of the faculty) found out the hard way, wandering around dark streets looking for any open restaurant anywhere. After several failed attempts and several warnings of “peligroso” we finally decided to ask a Chilean family (father, mother & teenage daughter) for a recommendation for a restaurant, tipico Chilean, pizza, Chinese--whatever. They consulted for a while and finally put us on a bus. Then they talked to the bus driver. Then they got on the bus with us. We went about 4 blocks and got off. The street we were on was a main street, but also closed up. They lead us to a tiny dark ally between two big buildings—at the end of this ally was one sign only—J. Cruz Casino. “After you” they said, and so we went, and they followed us in. We opened the door to a small, funky restaurant with antiques and photographs all over the walls, locals at many of the tables, and graffiti on all the tablecloths and open wall spaces. This was a local “club” (aka casino), it was a group of people that got together to eat/provide good food. I believe they were the creators of chorilleno, a typical Valparaiso dish that consisted of a layer of fried potatoes, a layer of sautéed onions & eggs, and a layer of chopped steak, which was served family-style (one large plate, 4 forks). There was also picante sauce—good stuff. Ali & Joel—it was like the Chilean version of McClard’s “spread”. We ended up eating dinner with Jorge, Elienana and their daughter, carrying on our best conversation in Spanish. This is definitely a highlight of the trip. None of us had our cameras though since we were just going out for a quick bite to eat. In the middle of dinner a news clip came on the tv of the ship & the program, which was ridiculously synchronicitous in the best possible way.

I will, as my default, let some of the pictures speak to my experience. One other note on food though: warm street churros (cinnamon covered fried dough), filled with dulce de leche. Yum!


Ode to Salt
Pablo Neruda

This salt
in the salt cellar
I once saw in the salt mines.
I knowyou won'tbelieve me
but it sings
salt sings, the skin of the salt mines
sings with a mouth smothered by the earth.
I shivered in those solitudes when I heard
the voice of the salt in the desert.
Near Antofagasta the nitrous pampare sounds:
a broken voice,
a mournful song.
In its caves the salt moans,
mountain of buried light,
translucent cathedral, crystal of the sea, oblivionof the waves.
And then on every table in the world,salt,
we see your piquant powder sprinkling vital light upon our food.
Preserverof the ancient holds of ships,
discoverer on the high seas,
earliest sailor of the unknown,
shifting byways of the foam.
Dust of the sea,
in you the tongue receives a kiss from ocean night:
taste imparts to every seasoned dish your ocean essence;
the smallest, miniature wave from the saltcellar reveals to us more than domestic whiteness;
in it, we taste finitude.
Pablo Neruda

Star-gazing in Galapagos

Tania gave me the Galapagos for my birthday this year! We went on a 4 day tour (not enough time) by "yacht". Our boat was the Estrella del Mar (you could do a google search on her for more pics). It was really great to be out in nature for 4 days, it gave me time to process all sorts of things, and time to reflect on little Jeremy's passing. It is really an amazing place--the landscape is different than one might think--sort of desert-y, with cacti & low-lying shrubs, but it also varied dramatically from island to island--there were some forests, covered in hanging moss, and there were definitely micro-climates, from bay up to top of volcano. Most of the places that we went did have some sugary tan sand beaches with lots and lots of dark dramatic volcanic rock. It was "winter" there, which meant is was about 65-75 degrees, which was quite pleasant, mainly overcast with some segments of bright, bright equator sun. The boat & crew & guide were great--a 3 deck wooden boat with motorized rubber dinghies that brought us to shore for wet & dry landings. There was one bumpy night (we toured/hiked during the day, and sailed/motored to the next place overnight) when I stuck my head outside to watch the ocean--overcast with no moon or stars, but bright bioluminscent waves in our wake. I was trip leader for this amazing group of 16 people--a mixture of students, staff/faculty & life-long learners (besides myself and Tania, we had Joe the security officer & his wife Susie, and Nurse Jane with her kids. We were probably the most prepared group of people). I enjoy getting to know folks in that setting. The last night was mainly cloudless, with no moon, and being out in the middle of the ocean with no lights was the most spectactular star-viewing I've been blessed to see--including a bright Venus that cast shadows, and the amazing site of the southern cross, as well as actually getting to see the big dipper vertically dipping into the inky ocean. One of those infinity-inducing moments that are always filled with awe for me. It's funny how as trip leader you become the expert on everything--I was happy to pretend. I think I'm going to let the pics do most of the talking now, although I will add the Galapagos is the kind of place where you would have to play the game "where are there NO animals/marine life", because everywhere you look there were sea lions, iguanas, pelicans, blue-footed boobies, lizards, coromorants, seagulls, fish, sea turtles, finches, stingrays, red-throated frigates, sharks, sand-dollars, sea-urchins, and Sally light-footed crabs. Ok, ok one more thing: I got to snorkel with baby sea lions! And sea turtles! And stingrays! It was so amazing. We had wetsuits & snorkel equipment on board--we snorkeled twice, for about an hour each time. The water where we were was crystal clear--and underwater is full of noises--little beings eating, the water crackling with life, the sea lions blowing bubbles and chasing them, as well as playing the game "how close can I get to you without actually touching you oops I just bumped your mask, ha ha ha." I loved being checked out by the sea lions, one little guy just floated on his back underwater looking at me--upside down only applies to those of us on feet on land. The sea lions were a highlight and were a blast--you could tell they had a sense of humor--they out-pixied me. And, after snorkeling for an hour, we got our to find the crew with hot-milk chocolate for us...! It couldn't have been any better. The last day a couple of us got stung by invisible jelly-fish, but even that only lasted an hour. Oh, and the fruit on the ship--sooooo good, with fresh juices every morning, including mora juice (like a raspberry), and something else that was a cross between a pear and a pineapple (my favorite). I love the variety of fruit in the world that I don't even know about.

Panama Part 2--Connections

The story of Balboa to Isla Grande, aka everything you ever wished in a Caribbean Latin American hotel resort, without any hotel/transportation reservations whatsoever:
Connections—5 people meeting up without phones in the center of Balboa (and with plans made 24 hours earlier)—check (Mario, Anne, Nate, Tania & myself).
Change out of wet clothes (from Embera village visit & waterfall swimming) at fancy mall bathroom—check.
Finding a hotel in Balboa on the first try—check.
Finding the most amazing restaurant and having the most amazing 13 course meal (with Balboa beer & fresh pineapple juice)—check.
Going to the train station at 6:30am on Sunday to catch a train to the Caribbean—X (buzz)—not quite, even though 4 people and a guidebook said it ran every day—making it to the bus station to catch a bus to the Caribbean by 7:30am—check.
Transferring buses at the right stop—check—deciding not to crowd on one of the old converted school buses (known as the “red devils” b/c they are often painted red) with 70 people on it and get a cab for $20 instead—check.
Note on cabs—5 of us and a cab driver = 6 people. Thank you to Mario & Anne for doubling up (up to an hour!!!).
Getting to Portabella, finding out that the boat ride from Portabella to Isla Grande was $50/person—X (buzz).
Having an awesome cab driver who will drive us the additional 25 minutes for 10$--check (ps—this was the bumpiest road in Panama. Boob bumps, although that might have been just my special issue).
Reading the description in our travel book of the possible hotels on Isla Grande on the bumpy road, including the following advice: “take a left at the rooster”—check.Getting to Guiera and finding a boat for $2/person to Isla Grande—check
Rounding the island, & slowing down as we get to the ocean side swells and the 8 year old boy in front starts to pass out life jackets…and as we realize that our driver is actually a 12 year old boy—check
Watch said boys fish from the boat & also land us safely—check.
Get to Bananas Resort and actually get two sweet rooms next to one another—check.

Bananas Resort was beautiful—wonderful pool by the ocean, free snorkeling equipment & reef-protected swimming/snorkeling area, free kayaks, beautiful coconut trees, large air-conditioned rooms with gorgeous views, and private balconies with our own hammock. They had fresh coconut juice on the menu, and on Sunday they said they had ran out & that they’d have some the next day. On Monday I asked again, and 3 guys with machetes headed out to get some fresh ones—well, of course. Definitely a gringo-pampered moment. On Sunday at 3pm, everyone else left b/c it was the end of the weekend, so we had our resort entirely to ourselves. We also decided to call a driver that Anne had met earlier in the week, who came to get us on Sunday—we planned to meet him at 3pm, but we headed over earlier—we literally had just stepped off of our boat when Pedro’s van pulled up to meet us at about 2:15. I had met Pedro’s daughter earlier (she speaks English very well) just hanging out by the ship’s tenders. Pedro’s daughter’s name: Yeremi (pronounced Jeremy). Amazing synchronicity. Garrett calls them omens.
It all worked out beautifully.

Sea Olympics

I'm playing catch-up, today is the sea-olympics. I will try to post more before Chile (and there is a lot to post), in the meantime, please enjoy my friends' & staff's blogs (Mario has a great entry on our time in Panama). BTW, I love my staff--they are amazing, and I'm so blessed to be on this journey with them!
much love,
lisa
http://www.boyonabigblueboat.blogspot.com/ Doug RD blog
http://www.marioandthesea.blogspot.com/ Mario RD blog
http://www.amdatsea.blogspot.com/ Anne Assistant Director Student Life blog
http://www.rasavella.blogspot.com/ Rasa Administrative Assistant blog

Another Goodbye

My Grandma, Flo Slavid, passed away on 7/11/07. She lived a full life, and was a woman full of love & spirit, and, just for the record, extremely fashionable & stylish. Her funeral was today, 7/13/07, and it was also Shabbat (our first Friday night) on the ship, which was helpful for me to have a space in which to say Kiddush and say my goodbyes. I loved her dearly, and I'll carry her in my heart. It has been the voyage of a lifetime in many ways, and this past week has seen two souls important to me in my life move to another place. I am thankful to those in my family who are in Florida to pay respects to Grandma--
much love,
lisa

Already I'm running out of adjectives for this trip and my experiences. This is not an official entry, I'm writing it as we do the dock-time/missing passenger countdown. We're back from the Galapagos, which were amazing (ergo the adjective comment, so much has been amazing). Thanks to Ro, Cindy, Ally & Yasmine for cards & letters--super sweet! And thank you to many for your kind comments & memories of Jeremy. It's been a bit surreal with the ups and downs, but I am able to take the time to process--under a starry starry night on a boat in the Galapagos helped. I had my first dream in Spanish too (nothing exciting, I was trying to explain Quickbooks to someone in spanish).
mucho amor--
lisa

Jeremy 1987-2007

Our beloved little guy passed away yesterday on July 4th. As Tania said, it was a day for crossings. We crossed the equator, I crossed from 38 to 39, and Jeremy crossed over. Our dear friend Pema let us know that he was winding down and it was clear that it was time--he remained bright-eyed and purry until the end. He was a sweet, loving little guy who filled our lives with light, a bright soul and loving spirit, I will miss him for the rest of my life, but I know that he lived a long full life here too. I am thankful for our wonderful Santa Barbara friends (Britt, Chris, Henry, Geoff, Pema & Janice) who helped Jeremy make this transition yesterday evening and surrounded him with love--we were doing the same from afar.

Last night was pre-port before Ecuador, and the first thing that happened for that meeting was one of the music teachers warmed us up to sing songs for our hosts (since during many of our visits folks sing songs for us, it's only polite to reciprocate). The song that we practiced/sang was "You Are My Sunshine", which was a favorite of Jeremy's (and Ali's & Lisa's & Susan's). I like to think that all 400 of us sang it to little guy.

Goodnight little bear--

goodnight all--

love lisa

Panama

Panama—
I was on duty the first day, and I did get several phone calls—two staff members had been detained by Panamanian police b/c their passports were not stamped…and we had an intoxicated student come back on board at 2am that I followed up on. This was also the day that we were tendering, which was quite an ordeal as large swells came and went with no pattern. I began my next day (Saturday June 30th) a bit sleep-deprived. Tania and I were going on a S * A * S sponsored trip to the Embera native people’s village, and I was a bus leader for the trip, which really means that I just take people’s names as they get on the bus and make sure they come back with us. Theoretically our trip was supposed to end at 4pm, at which point we were supposed to meet up with friends at the mall to travel across Panama to the Carribean side, so we had to pack for three days. This trip was amazing—it was definitely a peak experience. We drove to one of the national parks where the Embera live, we boarded 20-25 foot dug-out canoes (with motorboats), steered by the Embera. The male Embera basically wore loincloths adorned with beaded belts. We were driven up a beautiful river in an open valley with hills & jungle-y forest on both sides, and it was cool (in the temperature sense of the word). We passed by several villages on either side of the river, and saw lots of kids playing in the water & moms doing laundry in the river. Along the way we saw several bright blue & black iridescent butterflies fluttering by—they were the size of a large hand. We stopped a ways up, and then went for a gorgeous sun spackled muddy & wet hike to a large powerful waterfall. I am continuing to appreciate my new Teva shoes, which are good for hiking and designed to be water shoes as well. The first stream we crossed was only about ankle deep, and I just strode in—others carefully took off their shoes and we helped them across. The second stream was a bit higher, between ankles & knees, and so we stopped and rolled up our shorts/pants and then crossed. Oscar, Jill, Emma & Kyla were on the trip and we occasionally passed Emma up and over some of the larger rocks, and finally we got to the waterfall, at which point pretty much everyone jumped in the water in various states of dress (which was funny since for the first 30 minutes we were all being so careful about not getting wet). Unfortunately, I had left my bathing suit on the trip bus, but I was not necessarily going to be at a waterfall in a Panamanian jungle any time again soon, so I just went in because clothes do dry eventually—this is why I am wet in all the pics of me afterwards..

Afterwards we went to the actual village, where we were welcomed by a group of Emberan men playing a variety of instruments (including turtle-shell). The Embera are great weavers & bead-makers, and they had several stalls set out to sell their work. There was also a little nine year old girl (the daughter of Riquierdo, the man in the photo) who was doing Embera henna tattoos on people’s arms, which were beautifully geometric designs. The Embera also cooked us lunch—fried tilapia fish with plantains, served in banana leaf cups—best fried fish I’ve ever had! There were large wooden bowls filled with water & herbs (mint & others) to wash our hands afterwards. Throughout the course of the afternoon I was just really drawn to Riquierdo—he and I had a connection—I had bought some things from his wife, and I met his son & daughter. I gave him the photo of Tania, Jeremy & myself—my line on this is since I take so many pictures I also like to give a picture as well (yo tomo fotografias, y entonces me gusta dar una fotografia—still working out the best translation). We got to talk a bit and tell one another about each others’ families, and Riquierdo asked if I’d come back someday. As we were leaving, one of the life long learners (Gail) was really touched by the whole experience, and so she just started hugging people, and one of the women gave Gail her woven hibiscus head piece, which started Gail crying, and I teared up too, and then one of Riquierdo’s daughters gave me a hibiscus head piece, and then Tania & Jill got one as well. We were the last 4 to leave the village to get back on the canoes, and there was much to be thankful & wonder-filled for.

We had a damp bus-ride back, stopped briefly at a supermarket, handed off some of our purchases & cameras to Jill and Oscar, and then Tania and I jumped into a taxi to try to meet up with Anne, her partner Nate, and Mario at the mall to begin a journey to an idyllic beach (in our minds) on an island in the Caribbean. Amazingly enough, we were dropped off at the mall, and within a minute we found each other—meeting up without phones and with 24 hours between plans is always a minor miracle. We figured out that we shouldn’t try to head to the Caribbean at night without knowing where we were going, so we spent the night in Panama city. We went to the casca Viejo, the old colonial area of the city, and wandered around the waterfront for a while. Nate had brought a guidebook, and we found a restaurant recommendation—Manolo Carcuso (might need to change that later, basically it’s Manolo’s spiral shell). This was one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life. It was a set menu with 13 courses, and it was all fresh food artistically presented. My two favorite dishes were the sashimi on a pineapple slice with a sprinkle of passion-fruit sauce, and the inverted ravioli with thin slices of roast beef wrapped around a type of heart of palm. Mario took pics of all of the courses and took notes, so I will link to his blog too. Ok, I’m going to end here so I can get this chapter posted. The next post will be about our Caribbean adventures. Much love, Lisa

Lucha Libre

So much to write about—there is the job-side of things, and the travel-side of things. And within the job-side of things, there is the work & the students, and then the new colleagues and friends.
Today I was thinking—we encourage folks to be travelers and not tourists, but sometimes that nut is hard to crack. I talk to waiters & waitresses, I say hello to the security guards, I thank the store-tenders, and we chat with the taxi drivers. Today we caught the bus, with Tania’s enthusiasm for public transportation pushing us on, and what a great air-conditioned bargain. My Spanish is ok—pretty good to get by, but I’m hoping to do more than get by. It is coming back to me, and I am learning some new words—I think I’d benefit from a vocabulary list to study, because my brain needs to repeat things several times & see it in writing before it lodges there more permanently. And I found out I’ve been saying Chile Relleno wrong for years—I thought the n was an ennyay—can’t do the symbol just now. I asked Chris the photographer if she’d like to walk around and take pics together, and I asked her if we could chat about respectful ways to take photographs. She said that I really already know, that it varies by circumstance and context & manner, she said that I have the mannerism/respect, but it doesn’t always work out in a positive way. With such a power differential between myself and the people I want to take pictures of it’s hard. I looked up “beautiful”—linda or hermosa, because I wanted folks to know that’s why I wanted to take their picture, that they are beautiful. And then I ask myself why do I want to take pictures of “them”…what is it that I want? Am I taking something from them if I take their picture? I think if I take their picture and they didn’t want it taken then I am taking something from them. I also think that I want to take “their” picture because they are real people and not plastic models—I think part of it is that I want to bear witness to the myriad of ways that people live and walk through live and how the sun or the wind carves maps of their journeys into their faces. I am also remembering that I used to walk around Northampton and take pictures of people for my photography class, and it was much the same thing. Now though in Santa Barbara I’m usually not taking pictures of people I don’t know unless they ask me to, or if I’m at a rally. There was a beautiful woman stacking fruit with long black & gray hair pulled back in a clip with eyes that twinkled and an open smiling face. I would have liked to have taken her picture. I would have like to have spoken with her.

Acapulco is a tourist town, so that does add to it a bit. Even the German lady who serves us lunch (yeah, we went to a Mexican restaurant owned by a German—although she was super-sweet and cooked everything herself) warns me & Ray (one of the faculty) to watch our surroundings. So far so good. I did go off on my own a bit today to the supermercado, where they have 10 different kinds of Tang, including Mango Tang which I haven’t had since Malaysia. They also have Jamaica tang—I gave a packet to Tom (the assistant dean), and he ate it raw like a pixie-stick. In the market I got to wander for about 30 minutes. Big stainless steel bowls of mole are laid out at the deli—Oaxaqueno mole, others whose names I don’t remember but who vary in shades of red to chocolatey brown, including “dry” mole rub, a bowl full of a spice mix. Cheeses—not so many hard cheeses (Manchego from Spain, Parmasen from Italy are the only ones)—the rest are soft & creamy, or crumbly curds, all bright milky white.
The first day in Acapulco we went to El Zorrito’s, (the fox’s) restaurant. The usual $15 taxi ride to the restaurant for 5 (which later could go down to 3-8$, and once we got the hang of the buses, would have been .50 cents, but that’s the way it goes). Awesome food, chorizo sopas, silky lemony guacamole, cold dos equis beer, and ah-mazing chile rellenos—the best I’ve ever had. The chiles were spicy, smooth, and mellow all at the same time. Good stuff. We then went to the tourist flea market, which was just an amalgamation of trinkets in a maze of booths. After wandering for about 15 minutes I got a goofy octopus magnet—we call him Aca-pulpo (pulpo is octopus/squid)—one of my first Spanish-language jokes! Well, that was fun for about 4 minutes, so I wandered off to a side street where vendors were selling meat on tables on the sidewalks, and where, true to my internal cheese-sensing spidey powers, I found the local cheese store (really more of a cheese table). I snapped a picture, but as we cannot bring anything not grocery-sealed onto the ship, I didn’t get anything.
One evening we ventured out to La Perla—a restaurant overlooking the Acapulco cliff divers. The cliff divers dove at 9 and at 10:30. It was hard to photograph them, but they are incredible—they dive from a height of 165 feet. My pictures look like a little shrimp diving off of a rock into inky depths, (as does my video), so it was definitely something you had to be there for.

We went out to El Cabrito (the little goat) for dinner for Mario’s birthday on June 22nd. They served…little goats. But also amazing Oaxaqueno mole—I got the mole enchiladas—spicy, deep chocolate sauce over tender chicken in fresh corn tortillas. That was food of the Mexican gods. We also had queso fundido with champingnons (mushrooms) served with fresh hot hot hot fluffy flour tortillas. The food has been outstanding, from the chile rellenos yesterday to tonight’s meal, everything I could have wanted in my Mexican dining adventures! I did opt out of the little goat head specialty though. Maybe someday.

Air-conditioning—where even the air is privileged.

The last night in Acapulco, we went to Lucha Libre—Mexican wrestling a la Nacho Libre, the real deal, a hot immersion into Mexican pop culture. Tom, his wife Rebecca, and Ray all got tickets and Augustine (one of the lecturers here, a great fun 6 foot 4” Spanish guy) and I tagged along to see if there were still tickets available. We were in luck—there were 2nd row seats still available for 150 pesos ($15). We could have gotten cheaper seats, but those would have been up in the bleachers, behind the chain link fence and the barbed wire (really). It was an amazing mish-mash of rowdy teenagers, sweaty wrestlers in funky costumes with the whole head-masks, and families with little kids. Little cats were running around underfoot snatching up dropped popcorn, with what looked like huge former-wrestlers hawking t-shirts, cotton candy, beer, popcorn with spicy habanero sauce, and peanuts with lime/mango/habanero sauce. The big match was between Misterio and Los Perros, which the locals shouted repeatedly, along with “Otra! Otra!” whenever anyone got “slapped”. I learned new swears, and I learned that the first row was audience participation row as the wrestlers repeated threw each other into the crowd. Second row caught some of the action as well. It was pretty much the pinnacle of aerobic fake fighting but with real flips and body contact. Acapulco was hot, hot, hot, but after the wrestling match we left the auditorium and were happy to be outside. My description of the evening: “That was some crazy shit”. It was awesome.

Panama (accent on the last “a”) is tomorrow, and yes, this trip is flying by. I’m on duty the first day, we go visit an Embero indigenous people’s village the second day, and the 3rd day the plan is to jump on a train to the Carribean and spend the night over there.

No Mo' 12 hour meetings!

Training is over, and we hit the ground running. The RD's are amazing, and the students are great. I am updating this on the back 7th deck, drinking a mango smoothie. It's sunny & warm outside with a beautiful breeze, probably 88 degrees, and the water is apparently 77 degrees. Here are some journal entries from the past couple of days:

June 12th
It’s 7:20 am and I’m already up and showered. What happened to sleepy Lisa? I did take a nap yesterday & was groggy for a while. After 4 trips to the car for luggage & water, I’m feeling it this morning! I am so excited to be back on the ship—again, the smell of the ocean and the scent of the ship—whatever industrial cleaning supplies they use are pretty much the same ones, and it brings me back. I am so excited in general. I seem to be the youngest Admin. Staff (maybe Wade is a bit younger?). Truth be told, I’m also a teeny-tiny bit sad, which I haven’t said aloud, but I loved looking forward to this trip—and now that I know that it’s here, it will totally fly by leaving me like a junkie wondering when my next trip will be! I know, I know, I will be present and I will enjoy it. I just know how fast it will go, but then again, it will also be like a huge Super Cucas burrito, one that I can’t eat or digest all at once, filled with good stuff. Oops--I don’t mean to compare Latin America to a burrito, it was just the metaphor that came to mind. So today for training looks good—the basics, the mission, and later the duty/emergency stuff which I am excited to learn about, as that’s an area internationally I don’t know much about at all.
Our cabin is cute—we have a window out to the world and not onto a deck! Yay, we get to keep our curtains open without people looking in. When do I get my keys? When do I get into the office? When do I make up the training schedule for my staff? Ahhhh!
Other random Latin America Today (the core class that everyone takes) thoughts—the Storyteller & magic realism—I think this trip will be like that, some linear narratives and then lots of magical circular stories with deep Jungian collective consciousness. That, anyways, is what I know.

Saturday, June 16th
Again up at 7am—awake earlier and just not able to sleep as my mind kicks in and starts thinking. Today I have breakfast with the Admin Team and the captain at 8am. I am really, really liking all the folks I work with. Tom, Rebecca, John, David, Wade, Dawn—they are all great, and all characters. Tom, the “Voice” aka Assistant Dean, is particularly awesome—I didn’t even know this guy a week ago, and know I can’t imagine functioning without him! We did our SL presentation yesterday for the faculty & staff, and we got a lot of compliments on it for setting just the right tone. Tom said that even some students came in and were commenting “yeup, that’s true”. And again, I feel born to do this job! Although there are already some students, who are testing boundaries, but we're very clear on where they are. Anne, my Assistant DSL has a great style with these folk. It’s sweet having Tania here—she helped with the presentation & taught me more powerpoint at like midnight the night before.
Ahh, sleep—the gentle rocking of the ship while we’re at anchor in Ensenada—it rocks the right way too for us—side to side instead of feet to head.

On ship time!

Hi all! I have been amazingly super busy. Everything is great--I love being back on the ship! We just had 5 days of great training. The Student Life Team rocks. We are in Ensenada now, and the students all board tomorrow. I will write more soon when I can transfer my journal entries onto the computer/blog.
Much love--
Lisa

1 day

I honestly tried. I really did. I'm done now, at 10:00pm my time, but I really really tried to be done packing yesterday so that I could have a day to relax/nap/visit etc. It all went well, it wasn't really stressful, just very busy. I do feel very prepared, which is something. I'm taking 2 big bags and 3 smaller bags, and two of Tania's big bags, so I will definitely look like a diva. I did take a cue from my friend Roane who has done this trip many times--I packed my pillow and a down quilt. Seems a bit luxurious, but I'm ok with that. Speaking of luxurious, I did manage to find the perfect--and I don't say that lightly-pair of shoes--Teva Suntori's. I love these shoes. On another shout-out note, two of my friends who are graduating UCSB students, Jared & Cecilia, stopped by today to give me a gift--a really cool digital photo frame. I'm looking forward to putting my travel pics on it when I get back and having those just scroll through in my office.
Pause. Breathe. Envision.
I'm looking forward to being on the ocean, and gazing at the curve of the world--that is a strong thread that is pulling me forward. Santa Barbara to San Diego tomorrow, only 1000 zips away! My zipcode is 93101 and the berth at San Diego is 92101.

6 days

Kyla & Emma & their art

Wow, less than a week! Everyone keeps on asking if I'm ready--my reply is "I don't know if I'll ever be ready but I'll be packed!" There always seems like there's one more cool thing to do or get, and then you just have to go and realize that you don't actually need much! We did have the opportunity to play this past weekend--Tania and I did an art project with Kyla & Emma & their mom Jill. They are all going on the voyage with us. We made sculpey magnets--the ship's walls are metal, so magnets are handy. Here's a pic of the girls with their magnets behind them--they also made sculpey switchplates. By the way, sculpey is brightly colored modeling clay that you make into cool stuff and then bake.

visit & countdown

Two weeks ago my mom, sister, & little nephew Caleb came to visit. Much fun was had by all, and then when they left, I napped for almost an entire day. I think the ratio of 4 adults to one 2 year old is just about right. Countdown to the big trip is 16 days!

We got our trip confirmations, and the S* A *S trips that we'll be doing are:

in Panama, a visit to an indigenous people's village, the Embera Indian Village of Tusipono

In Ecuador, we'll be going to the Galapagos islands! This is our big trip. We fly in to the Galapagos, and then we'll be on a boat with 20 folks travelling from island to island.

In Peru, we'll be doing independent travel to Machu Picchu, and then a service visit to local schools & orphanages--I think it's sort of like a Habitat for Humanity service visit where we'll be helping to build & clean stuff. In Costa Rica, we're going to the Arenal Volcano & home visit which includes a home-made meal that we get to make with the family. It also includes a Sky Trek Canopy site with some zip-lining through a tropical forest. That's it for now, there's another service project we want to do in Guatamala called Camino Seguro--stopping the cycle. This includes learning about this non-profit, which works to educate the poorest of Guatamalan kids living in the Guatamala City garbage dump--it pays for the kids to go to school and offers them an after-school daycare center. After the tour of the program, we'll spend the afternoon with the kids at the after school program, playing with the kids and helping them with their homework.

No estoy lista, I don't know if I'll ever be totally "ready", but at least I'll be packed soon!
much love,
Lisa