Email: It Is Good For Something--Finally!

It occured to me today that email has been relegated to the role of work tool. I check my Facebook with joyful anticipation, but I check my email with anxious trepidation. I don't mean to imply that I do not try very hard to remain connected or that I do not wish to use email better. I only mean to say that I tend not to expect anything truly enjoyable to be in my inbox.

I have a phone that is supposed to connect to my work email. It connects to my Gmail just fine, but I realized today that it had been some time since I had gotten that familiar buzzzzz--the one I normally get MANY times a day--notifying me that I had new work email. It took some time to relearn the menus on this new phone, but I finally managed to reconnect it with our email server and waited for the soothing buzzes to return.

The first buzzzz was a useless email (I need to get that filter set up to delete everything that does not contain the phrase "free food"), and I took a moment to think how nice it had been to be disconnected. The second buzzz was an email from "Luis Marcelo." Who?? Those who know me know that I am horrible with names, even in my native tongue; give me names in another language and I am hopeless. I am, however, very curious so I opened the email (there was no mention of Viagra, after all) and was very happy to find out that Luis Marcelo is the Luis from the Santa Cruz R/C flying club!

When I left the flying field that happy Bolivian day, I did attempt to get some contact information for the guys there, but when I got home, I discovered that I had no email addresses, just phone numbers. I was planning how I could get a translator to help me make contact with my new friends when this email came in. (I must admit that I shamelessly added my email address to the blog entry about the club in hopes that one of the guys would use it, but that would require one of them to find their way to my blog and actually read it. I didn't know if any of them would, but I really wanted to make contact with the flyers again, so I took a shot.)

Thanks to Luis, we are now connected! I can't stress enough how welcome they made me feel; it was like I had been at that field for years. I am planning to take a little electric pylon racer down with me next time I go to Bolivia. You know how I like to go fast and turn left! I am designing all my new plane projects to fit in a shipping box. My air fare down might be nothing compared to the cost of the toys I take. I don't think I have crashed in another country (if you exclude landing in a tree in Africa), but I bet I can fix that if I work really hard at it!

Thanks Luis for making contact. I hope we can stay in touch and do some flying in the Fall. Anyone want to do a humanitarian/R/C flying trip?

P.S. Take a look at this Video taken from Pablo's plane.

Spider Killer - Bolivian Super Hero

Sunday

Lyle and crew got up early today to do more work on the seeder. After another great breakfast, we all went to church--the first service ever for one of our team. It was good to see Jhonny’s family again, including the newest member, Moises, who was born about a month after Jhonny died. We sang many songs and listened to a Spanish sermon.  After the service, the community fed us a great meal.

When we returned to Hoogland’s, we finished the seeder and flipped it right-side-up while others packed and cleaned. We took one last trip to the river, and Lyle got to fulfill a fantasy of his: to quad in the jungle. (Funny how our fanta1sies change as we age. Or maybe we just become more realistic with our expectations!)

A vehicle never goes to town empty, and our bus was no exception.  We picked up many locals with their kids and produce, including Jhonny’s mom. Crystal had brought a number of copies of the Messenger magazine that contained the article she wrote about Jhonny. Erselia, Jhonny’s mom, wanted Marg to translate the  article for her. It must be very odd to read about your dead son in a magazine from a country half a world away. I am not sure how I would take that if it was my child. Do you feel honoured that someone so far away remembers your child, too, or do you just feel sad all over again?

Brent gained a reputation as a spider killer will he was still working on the seeder. He could kill just about any spider with his trusty wrench if he swung at it enough times. He earned the name Spider Killer - Bolivian Superhero! He also gained the reputation for sleeping very soundly anywhere, anytime. So, this afternoon when he fell asleep on the bus with his shirt open, someone who shall remain nameless used a Sharpie to draw a big S on his chest with a stylized spider. This took many minutes to complete with gales of laughter rolling through the vehicle the entire time. Our Bolivian guests howled along with us. Erselia laughed so hard she said her jaw hurt. Eventually Brent awoke, but it still took a few minutes for him to catch on to what everyone was laughing about. He may never have noticed his insignia if he had not had to wipe the drool off his chest. So now he is simply known as Spider Killer - Bolivian Superhero.

Bye for now

The Seedier Side of Bolivia

Today started with the sun, parrots, and Jake’s great porridge! After a great breakfast and a much-needed coffee (thanks Marg!), Lyle started the assembly of the seeder with one group and another group started in the gardens. Both groups started with the same activity: the gardeners by digging out weeds and the rest of us by digging out seeder parts. I don’t know when Jake planted the seeder parts, but they did not germinate!

Before lunch, Jake took us on a plant tour. Corrine kept eating the plants, including the leaves full of arsenic! Jake stopped her from eating the leaves containing cyanide.  There is a new rule for her now: ask before you eat. On the theme of food, lunch was very Bolivian and very good. It was the highlight of Brent’s day he said, and I believe it because the only picture he took all day was of lunch. We had my favorite, yuca frita, fried bananas and fresh fish from the river.

After lunch, Wilma, Jenna and Corinne when into the jungle to harvest peanuts. I tagged along to see the process and try my hand at peanut picking. Now, that is one more thing I don’t want to do for the rest of my life. The ladies did very well and showed up later in the afternoon with their harvest in hand. The peanuts were spread on a tarp to dry, and it was time to go back to the river to cool down and wash up.  The group followed Wilma into the river; she went with a stick in hand, and so there was no biting incidents this time. We all washed our hair and walked home through the jungle in the waning evening light. 

Goodbye for now. Keep us in your thoughts. 

The Final Shave

The final page has been turned on the Shave to Save saga. A good time was had by all (with the possible exception of Brent). Jack, just trying to be helpful, I'm sure, brought the hedge trimming shears, but Bob the Barber couldn’t hold them high enough long enough to get the job done, so the sheep shears had to come out.

As it turns out, Bob's barbering skills are dubious at best. He took the first few swipes at each head, but Wilma needed to finish the job. In the spirit of giving,Wilma even offered to let Bob take a few swipes at her, in the end offering up half her hair--the bottom half!--to the cause.

When the tally was done there was $1,025.34 on my head. Not too shabby, I thought. The amount that is; my head was plenty shabby! I was a little concerned when Lyle pulled out a brown envelope, but, although it made the competition closer, it was not enough to claim all my hair! I managed to get $1,378.00 on Brent’s head, so he lost it all, so to speak! That makes a total of $2,403.34 going to Bolivia for various projects! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

What I am most pleased with is Brent offering to do this for no monetary reward to him. He was not raising funds to subsidize his trip or to pay for new travel equipment. ALL the money goes somewhere else. $2,400.00 CAD C will go a very long way in Bolivia. So, thanks to all of you who gave, but especially thanks to Brent who gave of himself.

Shave to Save Update

Well the battle is on! At the end of the first week, I am ahead by a hair (which means I won't end up with any!), so I decided to use this space to strongly urge you to pledge money for BRENT's haircut. Let me cut to the chase: if I can't raise some funds for Brent, I am going to have to pack an extra suitcase just for sunscreen!

I have received a number of email inquires about the beard; no, it is not coming off! Rumour has it that a consortium is being formed to double whatever funds are raised by 'shave day' if I will take the beard off, too. To quote Ray R., "Talk is cheap. It takes money to buy whiskey." I suspect Gord A. and Trish are behind this anti-beard conspiracy. As for me, I am still looking for a corporate sponor to donate to Brent's haircut. I think that may be the only way I will get to keep any hair.

It has been a hair-raising week. I never thought that people's need to get even with me would result in saving lives in Bolivia, but, hey, whatever works! In all seriousness, though, my thanks go to all who have cut into their own funds to help those in need. Brent has been doing a wonderful job of drumming up support to cut me down to size. There are now a number of posters up on campus that I suspect have seen the less-flattering side of a PhotoShop program. The Student Association has also gotten behind this and is advertising on our behalf. Funds are being donated online, and I recieve a number of emails every day.

To better serve the students and to drum up a little more support on Shave day, the event will be held in the Time Square in residence on April 24th at noon--the last day of classes. Please plan on coming out to see the hair come off! If you are wondering what I am talking about or can't remember how to become involved, please see the origonal release below. Thanks for you support, and keep it coming!

In an effort to raise funds for A Better World’s Rural Health Project (an initiative that covers medical costs for individuals and families who cannot afford medical care) and for Bolivian agriculture projects, a few members of the team are donating their bodies (well, just their hair) to science (okay, it’s cosmetology, but that is science, right?) Gordon Gilchrist, who is also ABW’s technical director, and Brent Nicol, student extraordinaire, have agreed to participate in this hair-raising scheme. They will have their hair cut—shorter and shorter as the funds raised pile higher and higher. So choose your favourite and give, give, give!!

Whoever “wins” 1st place (raises the most money) gets their head shaved clean!
Whoever comes in 2nd gets to keep a 1/2” of hair.

To donate:

• Email ggilchrist@oldscollege.ca, indicating amount of donation and who you are sponsoring.


• Or go to http://www.a-better-world.ca/ and click ‘donate online’ (Specify “Shave to Save” and either “Gord” or “Brent”)

(Charitable receipts available for donations of $25 or more. Include mailing address, please.)

If you want an idea of the kind of work these donations will support, read:

It is Not All Laughing Children and Happy Endings
How Does Your Garden Grow?
You Can’t Get There From Here
Bolivia or Bust Tour 2009!
Bolivia or Bust
How I Spent My Summer Holidays

How Does Your Garden Grow?

A new member has been added to this May’s Bolivia trip. Wilma is going to join us and will bring her fruit tree and production garden experience with her. The goal for our group is to develop a three-year plan for food production for CERENID, a home for street boys, near Samaipata so her skills will valuable indeed. Also in the group we have Brent, an Olds College GIS student who will be in charge of mapping; Stacey, an Olds College Agricultural Production student, in charge of infrastructure; vets; a medical professional; a livestock specialist; an agricultural mechanic; and a writer extraordinaire! What a great team! Oh yes, and then there is me—the Jack of all trades.

Currently, the students are busily preparing their presentations with background information of Bolivia. We will have two presentations at noon on Friday March 13th.I am curious to see how their impressions of the country change as they go from impartial researching to actually travelling in and experiencing the country, because I’m very sure they will. For me, one of the best parts about traveling is that what I expect and what I end up experiencing is rarely the same thing. I suppose this also a good thing for the travel industry; if you could get the whole experience by merely researching a country, there would be far less incentive to spend all those wasted hours in airports!

The daily planner I use for these trips is a spreadsheet. That is because the plan changes often, and the idea of typing up a new one every time a change is made terrifies me! As I suspected would be the case, I am on version six of the schedule already—what with trying to coordinate in-country hosts and finally getting flights confirmed and such. I love spread sheets! I am moving, rearranging, and calculating like mad. It is the closest I get to being organized. (Thanks, Murray).

We have a great team assembled! Couple this with some great in-country contacts (you have to have great people on the ground) and I think we are looking at an unforgettable learning experience for everyone. It’s Bolivia or bust, baby. Just try to stop us now!

You Can’t Get There From Here

Well, I have put off buying airline tickets for the Bolivia trip for as long as I could. I guess you just can’t outwait global uncertainty and political unrest. At some point you just have to dive in. I feel for the travel agent because booking tickets is a bit like navigating a corn maze; there are many possible ways to reach the destination, but only one “best” way.
There is never a direct flight from where I am to where I want to be! It is not so much the flying I dislike but the waiting in airports between flights. It will be a real treat to travel with a group this time--much of my traveling is on my own—partly because I have a fear of falling asleep in an airport and missing my flight, or of getting on the wrong plane and winding up “going to Winnipeg.” The chance of these things happening when you are with a group is greatly reduced, and if these things do happen, at least you have company to commiserate with.

The standard route to Bolivia from Calgary is on American Airlines. You spend 22 hours hop scotching across American cities to end up in Miami, then La Paz, before finally ending up in Santa Cruz. Now, I will do almost anything to avoid the Miami airport due to some bad experiences with rats, faulty plug-ins, too-short or too-long turn around times, invariable the wrong gate listed, and significant running. I sometimes question if going to Bolivia is worth suffering through the Miami experience—but here I am about to go again, so I guess I have my answer.
I presented the trip’s daily itinerary to the group last week. It looked a bit skeletal. I am amazed at how much meat has been added to the bones in the week since then! I met with Jake and Marg Hoogland this week, and the event calendar filled rapidly—as I knew it would. Marg and Jake have been living and working in one of the homesteading areas in Bolivia for 3ish years now, and it will be a real eye-opener for our group to experience those surroundings for a couple of nights. I am sure it will be a highlight of the trip for many. I am also convinced that Jake will have no trouble filling all the time we can devote to the area.
Next week I hope to talk to Maria Jose from CERENID to flesh out the rest of the schedule. I have never worried about a trip plan that was too thin, I only hope it doesn’t get so fat that it needs two seats on the plane! One thing for sure, Olds College/A Better World Bolivia Ag Tour 2009 will not be boring!

Bolivia or Bust Tour 2009!

The first student presentation for the Bolivia or Bust Tour is next Tuesday, and then I will know how much interest there really is. I have been working on a day schedule ever since I came back from my preparatory trip in August, but it is always hard to know how much to pack in. Things happen on trips, and formulating a firm schedule is a fool’s game. For instance, my first day of my August trip was 51 hours long. It was not intended to be, but things happen. When it comes to scheduling, I am not known for stopping to smell the roses, but I know I will have to do much more rose-sniffing on this trip.

Bolivia is the only country that has been able to stop me in my tracks—to make me sit and breathe and take a break. I think I respect her a little for that. In August, I was in Santa Cruz during a para (general strike). Everything just stopped. No cars on the roads. No businesses open. No one working. I think my Facebook status read something like, “Santa Cruz is eerily quiet and peaceful in a Dawn of the Living Dead kind of way.” I found it an interesting form of protest; everyone just has a nice family day. There were a few days warning, so people stocked up on food, water, picnic supplies and toilet paper.

I have a well-honed sense for identifying trouble, but as we walked the streets of Santa Cruz, we saw soccer in the streets, not cars, and we even spotted an occasional ice cream vender. It has been my experience…you know, from riots I have attended in the past!...that there is rarely ice cream served. And yes, this para was very peaceful. Some since then have been more violent, unfortunately, but still nothing on the scale of the violence that has been seen in many other countries around the world.

What is important for me to remember, and it is important for students to understand as well, is that we will be travelling in a developing nation: things are not like home. They aren’t better or worse, just different. There are certainly risks and dangers (mostly with driving) in Bolivia that we do not have to contend with at home, but there is so much to be experienced! I can’t imagine Calgary without cars for a day, and I can’t remember the last time I took a day off work and spent it with my family.
There is no question that this will be a learning experience for all involved. And, for many, it will truly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. See you on the “B or B Tour 2009”!

Bolivia or Bust

I truly believe that one of the best educational experiences we can give our students is an opportunity to travel to a developing country. I have been influenced from an early age by my father’s childhood experiences in Africa. I did not realize how much affect it had on me until I started to travel to developing countries after the Tsunami of 2004.

Damaged buildings in Sri Lanka 2004

In May of 2009, Olds College and A Better World (ABW) will take students and community members to Bolivia for two weeks. I will be leading this trip and in so doing will realize a dream five years in the making. After Katrina, Olds College and ABW partnered to send a group of students, staff and teachers to the USA to help rebuild homes. Each student returned with new insights into the world in which they live. I know by experience that a trip to Bolivia will have the same result but multiplied by 10! I know by experience that this will be a life-altering experience for some of the people in our group and still very impactful for the rest. I have always said that my job as an instructor is to create a learning environment but that students must do the learning on their own; this trip to Bolivia be a learning environment like none that we could hope to offer here on our campus.

Bolivian mountains and forest

I do have concerns and a little trepidation: all developing countries are unstable, all have unique health and cultural challenges, and all have safety issues (usually the traffic is the worst). I am encouraged by the fact that we have some very fine people in Bolivia to help. Marg and Jake Hoogland moved to Bolivia from Canada about three years ago; Zenon Flores is a local agriculture instructor with a passion for his field; and Maria Jose is the director of CERINID, a local home for street boys. And I hope that my experience in the country will prove beneficial as I lead the trip. I have been to Bolivia twice myself, and ABW has completed two very successful trips there in the last two years.

Marg and Jake Hoogland

Zenon Flores and a Golden Agouti Boar

So, here goes a new journey for me and a great opportunity for students and others in the community. Let’s hope this time I don’t need to use my GPS coordinates for the coffin store! Stay tuned for more details, and follow along on this blog in May to read about the adventure.

It is Not All Laughing Children and Happy Endings

A Better World, a local Red Deer humanitarian group I work with, is supporting rural Bolivia in a number of ways. One of the things they provide is a health fund administered by Marg and Jake Hoogland who live and work deep in the jungle--literally at the end of the road. There are very limited medical facilities within 3 or 4 hours' drive of the farms in their area. Many of the homesteaders have never been to Santa Cruz (the nearest big city), and they would not have the funds or contacts necessary to obtain medical help even if they were able to get there. The rural health fund and Marg and Jake work together to fill these gaps.

Earlier this year, Marg contacted me about a little boy in their community who was not responding to treatments and slowly going down hill. Ten-year-old Jhonny was smart and a real leader in his family and at school. He was all boy: climbing trees, running fast, and coercing his sibling into trying to keep up. Jhonny was such a fixture in the community that when he did not show up at a local function, Marg became concerned. She found him at home, bedridden, dehydrated, and suffering with bad headaches. The family had taken him to the small local clinic again very recently, and there he was given milk of magnesia.

Jhonny's House

Marg suggested that Jhonny be the first case for the ABW rural health fund. I agreed, and the Hooglands dropped what they were doing and took Jhonny and his mother to the children’s hospital in Santa Cruz. It was to be a six week stay for Jhonny, his mother (8 months pregnant), and Marg. You see, Jhonny had a large brain tumor. Doctors determined that it was operable if there was money to cover the bills. If surgery was not performed soon, there was no question that this tumor would be fatal--probably soon. Marg and I discussed the impact of draining the entire health fund for one little boy instead of helping 20 or 25 people in the community. That these kinds of judgment calls have to be made in a country like Bolivia is the tragic reality. My cousin’s youngest son had an operable brain tumor, but at no point did anyone say, “Should we spend the money or just let him die?”

Marg and Jhonny in the Childrens' Hospital

This was a no brainer for me! Spend the money and give the kid a chance! Jhonny ended up having 6 surgeries in 6 weeks and contracted chickenpox to boot! The total hospital bill was around $5,000. I flew to Bolivia in August to start arrangements to take a group of Olds College students in May 09. On my first day in Bolivia Marg and Jake took me to see Jhonny in the hospital. They were hiring someone to be with Jhonny at night as Marg and Jake were coming with me to help plan the Olds College trip. Jhonny had his bandages off for the first time and was looking thin, but responsive. He was squeezing a tube of toothpaste, and his eyes would flutter open. He responded to touch on his feet, and the doctors were very hopeful about his condition.

Jhonny's mom Erselia and Marg

We left the hospital to get some food and talk about the busy week to come. Marg received a call to return to the hospital. Turns out the Jhonnys heart stopped, and he died. Six operations and chicken pock were just too much for his little body. Death in a tropical country leads to its own set of problems. We returned to the hospital to have the body released. This meant paying the bill in full, and getting the forms to transport Jhonnys body. A coffin would be about 600 B ($95.00 Can) and Jhonnys mother said she just couldn’t afford that, so we would just wrap him in a blanket and put him in the back of the truck…. Not if I can help it, I thought. It turns out there are all night coffin stores near the hospital, so off Jake and I went.After a long terrifying drive in the middle of the night, we lay Jhonny in his coffin on the alter of the local church for a day of service before the burial. Jake and I went to his house to get a little sleep before to burial. 51 hours had past since I had seen a bed, and that one had been in Canada. 51 hours that remolded who I am, and clarified why I try. Jhonnys mother was very upset that we spent all this money, and Jhonny died anyway. She felt badly and was concerned that we wasted all that money. She was devastated by Jhonnys passing, but was worried we would think we wasted the money. Wasted the money??? That somehow she had let the donors down, because Jhonny died???

Carrying Jhonny to the graveyard

I have replayed this over and over in my mind since returning to Canada. This was an operable, benign tumor in the head of a 10 year old boy. How could we not give this boy a chance? If this was your son, would you say, “sorry, too much money” and let him die? No, of course not. This family did not have the money (about 2 years wages for them) and I am not a big believer in throwing cash at problems, but this is the perfect example of where money is all that was needed to give Jhonny a chance because we had Marg and Jake on the ground willing to help.We do not win them all, but that should not deter us from trying. You cannot win if you don’t try. I know we like to read stories about happily ever after, but there is much to be learned from the journey as well. We tried, and I would try again given the same circumstance. The rural Bolivia fund is now empty, and I would like to double it for next year. Please consider supporting this activity, we are very lucky to have Marg and Jake on the ground to administer this fund. I don’t think you could get better bang for your buck anywhere else.I bring Jhonny to class with me every day now. He lives on in my mind, reminding me of how lucky I am to be raising my family in Canada. And he reminds me that even in Canada we have a long way to go. Fifty years from now we will look back at how primitive Canada was, much like I look at how primitive parts of Bolivia are today. The changes will happen because of Education. The student I help shape today will be the innovators and change agents of tomorrow. My students will make a difference in this world, and I am happy to be a small part of that. I hope that Jhonny will be part of the last generation that sees such a large gap between peoples of this earth. For more information on Jhonny or the Hooglands see http://www.hooglandsinbolivia.blogspot.com/

To donate, follow the link below, and please specify Rural Bolivia,Thanks! http://www.a-better-world.ca/

How I Spent My Summer Holidays

Last May, I travelled to Bolivia to help out at a couple of orphanages. While I was there, I fell in love. I really didn’t mean to, but the country stole my heart. Though I have been in the backwaters of every continent except Antartica, Bolivia grabbed my attention like no other place I've ever been. It is a beautiful country with the promise of a bright future. There is potential in Bolivia: land, water, and sunshine. Throw in a little knowledge, some hard work, and a bit of political stability, and you have the ingredients for success.

Bolivia is "homesteading" land like Canada did at the turn of the century. People are moving from the mountains to farm in the jungle. These new rural communities have great need, and great promise.

I volunteer as a "technical consultant" for a humanitarian group from Red Deer called A Better World. My title there is really just a fancy term for someone who is to be both creative and cheap. A Better World is assisting these rural Bolivian communities with three initiatives: financially supporting rural health assessments and treatment, promoting practical hands-on agricultural training, and helping to develop agricultural infrasturcture. Already, this years' health fund has been exhausted, and we are looking at increasing the funding for it next year. Two agricultural infrastructure projects are just being completed, and, by April 2009, we would like to have the first phase of the agricultural school complete.

This August I went back to Bolivia to see about setting up a tour for students and community members. It was good to see friends I met last year and to meet new people as well. It was good to see the progress on projects started earlier this year and to talk about starting construction of the new agricultural school. Being a teacher, this project really excites me! This school would be much like the apprenticeship system we have here in Canada.

I packed a lot into 12 days on the ground in Bolivia. I swam in the headwaters of the Amazon, I chewed coca leaves, I ate cuy (look it up), I walked deserted city streets during a general strike, I bought my first coffin (not a good thing; more on that in a later entry), and I cut down a banana tree in the jungle. All of these experiences shape and mold how I look at my role at Olds College, and, if nothing else, it gives me very unique examples for class: "How many people have used a GPS to tag the nearest all-night coffin store, or the top of the mountain pass to Cochibamba? Anyone? Anyone?"

My job with A Better World is to solve problems. The problem I pondered as we were working at those orphanages last May was "why are these kids here?" Supporting orphanages, though a necessary work, is really treating the symptom without addressing the underlying disease. In this case, the problem is poverty. Address that, and the need for orphanages is decreased. By providing care for immediate needs but also formulating a plan that will empower citizen--both through agriculture and education--A Better World is helping Bolivians today and into the future, and I hope to be part of it for many years to come.

For more information, check out:
www.a-better-world.ca

Or Marg and Jakes Hooglands blog on Bolivia at:
Blog page: www.hooglandsinbolivia.blogspot.com
Pictures:www.mjhoogland.myphotoalbum.com