Intention and Realization

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2010-09-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

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Intention and Realization

Recap On Nigeria

2010-03-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in the Dark here in the Niger Delta. No ÒLights,Ó which is a typical occurrence out here. The rain is pouring down and the lightning and thunder are exploding right outside my window. It is hard to put into words, but the natural forces out here seem so powerful and intense on every levelÉ I LOVE IT!

Let me give a recap of what we have been up to here in Nigeria for any friends or family members interested/ concerned. I am sorry that I have been pretty MIA lately. All or good reason thoughÉ things have been very busy and very interesting latelyÉ with lots of progress to show for it.

So, basically here is the recap. I came out here in Dec 2009, because I had met the Gov of Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta and he wanted to sponsor some community development projects in his state. After two months of reconnaissance and project preparation, things in the state government got real rocky as a reflection of the instabilities at the national level. Long story short, these extreme distractions prohibited the state government from taking community development seriously and we were not getting the attention that we had when we commenced. Then I went home and regrouped for a month. I had so much invested out here that I had to give it al one last shot before I threw in the towel on this one, knowing full well that I may come home empty handedÉ but as Jess will tell you, I never REALLY come home empty handed, whether meant to be or not. So, I got out here and again, the initial reception was extremely positive and gave me optimism that the projects would come to pass. Then things really started falling apart down here. The EFCC, an international organization that investigates government corruptions and embezzlement of government funds, showed up to in town and started investigating the place and I knew that nothing on my side would ever happen. During this process, one night while I was playing wii (yeah, super random right?, never played it in my life and I am out here playing wii one night with an Olympic gold medalist, not in wii though) I meet this very nice Canadian lady. Super rad, she had tons of experience and contact out here. I tell her what I am all about and she is like, Òwell I know this person and this personÉetc.Ó So a couple days later Nelson and I jump on a plane to Abuja, the capitol of Nigeria where we start to meet as many people as we can. We had a bunch of meetings with the World Bank, various Embassies and other stakeholders in the Niger Delta. Then one day when we are at the market, we meet this lady who runs a television program that airs on a Nigerian Station. She is very cool and is like mega connected. So she starts making introductions and we keep meeting with more and more influential people. After about a week, after meeting with professional soccer players, Senators, World Bank Officials and Embassies and being highlighted on said television show, we decided that mission was highly accomplished and that it was time to wrap things up in Bayelsa and start the decent of our trip. What had we accomplished in this process? We were able to establish and extremely well funded and influential support network who we will be able to work with for the rest of SCHAP in our sourcing for funding for projects we will be carrying out all over the world.

Once we got back to Bayelsa we still managed to keep ourselves pretty busy. We have been able to connect to two different World Bank Organizations who operate here in Bayelsa. We have picked their brains specifically about projects here as well as what it would take to collaborate. We have learned SO MUCH its nuts. So stoked and excited about the progress that we have made and how it has helped me to feel more mature and equipped and capable in my position within the organization. All the while, we try to spend as much time as possible in communities in order to carry out my informal research.

That is pretty much the story. Nelson will be heading back to Utah in a couple days and I will be heading out to Uganda and Kenya for a couple weeks in order to take care of a couple things and run some very important preparation activities with the Matoso in order to prepare for out Aug trip. Should be a good couple weeks. In order to get over to Uganda from Nigeria I have to have an overnight layover in EthiopiaÉ so I will be forced to spend a day exploring a new African city/ country. Kinda stoked about that: Addis Ababa. That will be my 8th African country! Starting to figure out the Dark Continent. Life is good. Got to keep things interesting. Despite how busy things get I try to never loose sight of the reasons that I am here. Every time I go to a community, it is SO easy for me to see all the things that could be done in order to massively increase the quality of life and create opportunities of serious progress and development for my brothers and sister out here. I love it out here. I love the landscapes and the people. I will miss this place hard core, but it is time to move on for nowÉ but looking forward to being able to get back here as soon as possible. Just donÕt tell my organization, I told them I will try to stay around for a couple months this time so that we can keep cranking out progress on our domestic operation.

Hope you find this interesting. All is well. I send my love and all that good stuff.

Abuja- Big Place, Big Meetings

2010-03-20T04:02:00.000-07:00

After several weeks back here in Bayelsa, it is becoming increasingly uncertain if we will be able pull funds out of the Bayelsan State Gov in order to carry out our projects. While visiting a friend in Yenagoa we met a wonderful new friend, Mary Ellen. She has been working here in Nigeria for the last five years as a Canadian Diplomat. She is super connected around here and very interesting. She started to give us contact details for various other people who work with organizations interested and capable of supporting community development projects. SO Nelson and I got on a flight and headed up to Abuja, the capitol of NIgeria. This place is unreal. From the poverty stricken creaks to what they say, is the fastest growing city in the world. Abuja is a relative modern place, with pre-planned streets, movie theaters and more land rovers than La Jolla.

Since we have been here we have met with the DIrector of Education of the World Bank, a friend who does political consulting and is very networked around here, as well as Samson Siassia, a former professional Footballer, who has some interest in Community Development, who will hopefully be connecting us to some big players. We have a couple more meetings with the World Bank this next week, hopefully one with Microsoft, and perhaps a couple more political figures here in Abuja... just doing our best to learn and understand this side of the system, so that we can utilize resources like these all over the world. It is a fascinating experience and, like I like it, every day is very interesting and unique experience.

Lots on my mind and a bit hard to focus, so I am going to leave it at that for now. Wish me luck, until next time...

Back in the heart of Africa

2010-03-08T02:09:00.000-08:00

So here I am (I think that I start most of my blog like this, but what else would I say if I am writing about my own experiences and circumstances) here in the Governor’s house, awaiting my next appointment with him. Quick recap: As the President of SCHAP, I had the opportunity to meet with the Governor of a Nigerian State, Bayelsa, and was able to discuss with him the principles that I believe are critical for sustainable rural development. He invited me to come to his state to consult him/ work with him on some state sponsored development projects. So for the last four months, with the exception of my recent month trip home to San Diego, I have been here researching, developing, preparing and learning how to play the political game here in Nigeria. Why am I here? That is a very tricky question. As President of SCHAP I am away from my baby while it is in a very important growth stage. I remain here, however, because it is giving me a wonderful opportunity to become an expert in my field. I have learned more about development and about how to get things done here than I have in the years of reading books. Not only am I learning, but if/ when this project is officially accepted and passed, I will have an opportunity to be able to have relatively massive impact for good, and where those opportunities arise, I must go. Despite the militants and the kidnappings. Despite the headaches of working with “the system.” Despite the malaria and the opportunity cost and the people I have left at home and the terrible food and the man-eating pythons… I am here because there are few others, so if I was not working on poverty relief and community development here, who would be?

I flew in here on Monday and have spent the last couple days getting organized and calibrated. We have our logistics and made the connections that we need in order to precede. Hopefully this meeting that I am about to have will be a major culminating and telling experience in the progression of our project.

So guess what? Yesterday I made bread by myself for the first time of my life. I came here with very little money and provisions, so Nelson and I will be providing for ourselves: Oatmeal and some protein powder follows our early morning Yoga session… and then we spend the rest of the day salvaging food where we can and living off bars and fruit to stay sustained. At night we eat our loaf of bread with… oh wait, we eat it with nothing…haha..last night, dinner was bread and water. I love it though. I love to get in touch with circumstances that force me to think more about survival. We, as animals, which we are and often forget that we are, are designed to perpetually consider the various aspects of our own survival. While we are in America, we worry about car accidents or loosing our job, but rarely we have require the thought process that we need to consider in order to preserve our life between the people who look at you and see a handsome ransom, or the calorie counting that we do to make sure that we are getting the necessary building blocks of life on any given day.

How is Nelson doing? He is doing fine. He is a former missionary companion from my service in Toronto and he was my first companion in my very first travels to Africa. So, in many sense it feels like things are really coming full circle. He is well. He is loving the adventure. We have met some pretty interesting people and have had some interesting experiences and we are just getting warmed up. He is a good sport and a pleasure to be with. Although he just disappeared and I am not sure where he went. Hopefully he didn’t get snatched. ☺.

How long will I be here? Well, I brought about two months worth of provisions. I am going to pursue my research and the community workshops that I hope to commence soon for the next 60 days or so. By then I will either be on me way home, or we will have a funded project and I will be working around the clock to mobilize for and execute. Short answer: I don’t really know.

So while I am here I am learning and growing. I brought some awesome books and yoga DVD’s. I have a wonderful field to work in for continual and arms-reach research, so I am pretty much in Paradise in ways. Say a prayer for me that all will be well for my personal affairs at home and our project affairs and safety here. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I will respond in my next post.

Godspeed.

Back Home! Africa is my favorite place/ San Diego is my favorite place

2010-02-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Here I am, back in Cali. It is funny how fast you can go from hanging out with Nigeria militants and working with people suffering from extreme disadvantages to going to a yoga class and walking on the beach with your aunt. Everything has their thing, and hopefully they get good at that thing, I guess that my "thing" is traveling around the world and thats just how it goes. I love and am so grateful for the opportunities that I have had thus far and I am excited for what the future holds. I don't usually write posts when I am state-side, but I thought that I would make an exception.

The last post that I wrote was right after my birthday while I was still in Nigeria. A bit has happened since. After that whole post about me humbling myself and accepting that subordiant role, things got to a point where I could no longer accept my partner's leadership and had to separate our project and hold the reings of my own content. It was a very difficult decision and process, and was a very complicate and a little messy, but when all was said and done, words do not describe the feeling of freedom that one feels when they demand their own volition and can chart their own course.

On Jan 30th, Michael, Jess and I temporarily sasid goodbye to our new home in Bayelsa and began our journey home. It was strange to leave as it really was beginning to feel like a home. Our trip home was going fine, until I sleepily walked off our flight in the Frankfurt Airport @ 5:30am without my laptop, which not only was a new mac, but had thousands of pictures and ALL of our video footage. Kinda a let down, but sometimes, once you pull a stupid move and there is nothing that you can do about it, you just have to move on.

So here I am, working my butt off to make sure that things are going well with SCHAP while I am preparing for my next trip back to Nigeria. Meeting and emails, more meeting and more emails. Its good though, its what I signed up for.

What are the plans now? Well, now it is time to get back to Nigeria, iron out the details of our project, do some additional recon, prep and community organizing and hopefully get started asap.

Don't want to bore you with any more of the details of my domestic life, I find them uninteresting to write about, but send me your thoughts and prayers that we will be able to make great progress with our project in Nigeria. I am going back and throwing in all the chips that things will work out according to my expectations. That's the only way to do it sometimes.

B-day in Nigeria...

2010-01-21T03:23:00.001-08:00

Another year passes and you think… what the heck is going on… I am getting older, what have I done with the last year, what have I done with my life? Have I done enough? Today I celebrated my Birthday here in Nigeria. It was wonderful to be surrounded by friends. Jess worked hard to make sure that it was a special day I am very grateful for her kindness and thoughtfulness. At dinner we had a Happy Birthday song, cake and she showed a slide show that she made of pictures from my last three years. In the very moments that I was contemplating my use of time, it really was incredible to see pictures of all the places that I have been and the different things that I have been involved with. I can’t believe how exciting it has all been. Between the different relationships, different businesses, different countries, different books and different humanitarian initiatives it has truly been incredible and I am extremely grateful for the healthy mind and body as well as the circumstances that I have been granted that have made it possible for me to be involved with the things that I have.

So what’s going on here in Nigeria?... I wish that you could tell me. Regarding our project we are still working hard to be able to have the necessary meeting that we need in order to get our MOU signed. With all the conflict in the country, the Governor has been extremely occupied with unforeseen activities and everything else has fallen victim to second priority-vile. So in many cases we are waiting… but never waiting idle. We fill our days writing more reports, brainstorming detailed conceptualizations of company requirements, project implementations and timeframes. We are making more and more contacts everyday and meeting more and more of the state stakeholders who need to be briefed on our proposals. As far as approval to move forward, that is 100% confirmed by the governor, in many private meetings, the problem is that he created a committee to officially analyze and approve the project, many of which we have had many private meetings with who are extremely enthusiastic about, others have their reservations, but the problem is that we have not been able to get everyone together. But we are working the system and ultimately it will all pay off. It is funny, about two weeks into our experience here; we were waiting in the Governor’s house, hoping to get a second of his time to talk about a very urgent matter. I was definitely getting impatient (nothing here happens by appointment… If you want to see the Governor, even if you are his guest brought out here for the US, then you wait in his parlor for hours and hours until he comes in, and/ or walks by and you get 15 seconds of face time…) and a man I barely knew at the time came up to me and said, if you want to get anything done around here you have to follow this one piece of advice: every day… EVERYDAY… take a big dose of patience in the morning and then one in the afternoon and then one at night. I laughed and knew exactly what he was referring to. It calmed my nerves to know that others knew EXACTLY how I was feeling… and I took it to heart. Rather than approaching it with Western mentality, feeling that it was unprofessional to not set up appointments and that my time was more important than to be forced to wait for hours… I began to simply accept and enjoy the wait. My understanding of the system has developed such that the other day, when we were sitting in the governor’s parlor, I looked across the room and noticed a young man, who I had met briefly several times was looking very restless and somewhat frustrated… I put my hand on his shoulder and gave him the same advice. He smiled and I have noticed him much more relaxed sense.

That really brings me to another interesting point altogether. Although everything about this experience has been incredible, from planning a statewide human infrastructure project, from being in Nigeria, to all the field work and little adventures in between… one of the other things that has been incredible has been the things that I have learned about how the political system around here works… who makes the decisions, who are the key players and how to connect to them, how to act, what to say, how things actually get done and in general, how to work the system. I am not sure that there are very many young San Diego guys who can confidently say that they know how to work the African politics game, and it is very exciting to feel more and more confident in this area. Not only do I know who to get things done, but I know what is appropriate when you are working out with a governor in the gym, why you must pee before you get into the car, because the government convoy NEVER stops, how to fasten the cool buckles on helicopter seat belts and the facial expressions that get the point across to people who have a different set of cultural programming. Pretty cool stuff.

Not only have I learned a ton about the aforementioned stuff, but also I have learned a ton about myself and I feel like I have really picked up some additional skills as well. One of the biggest advancements that I feel like I have made is with understanding the various components of leadership. As you may know, I founded and am the president of SCHAP, a San Diego based, international non-profit. Over those years I have been accused of many less than perfect leadership behaviors that have offended others or decreased my impact as a leader. When I came out here, the agreement was that I was going to partner with a Nigerian, who is a friend of the governor, who I met in San Diego. At first the agreement was 50-50… in every way. We were going to work side by side to head this social enterprise that we were founding. As the weeks went on, we had several arguments that began to emerge more and more frequently. Prince, the name of my partner, is substantially older than me and he assumed that although we had discussed 50-50, I would assume the role of the Jr. partner as a result of the age and nativity. I was having nothing of that and was prepared to be second to no one. One day this really hit a head and we had a couple blowout arguments. We were both furious and very happy to discover how to pursue things on our own. In a final blow out, Prince informed me that the relationship was over and that we must part ways. There were tremendous implications and we would be doing a major disservice to Bayelsa, by allowing our pride to thwart the progress of our project. I left the house furious and not about to give in… I felt that I would rather die than is a vice president to someone else. Luckily I had the sense to convince Michael to walk with me think that maybe he would be able to talk me out of what I was about to do. Sure enough his Chi-gonness in conjunction with some I-Ching radicands he was able to calm my nerve. I went back into the house, apologized for everything that had offended him and committed to work in a subordinate role. It was perhaps the hardest thing that I have ever done in my entire life. I had to hold up the project and my pride and luckily I had enough sense to choose the better path. Honestly, I have no shame saying this, that that was one of the most mature and humble and wise decisions that I have ever made. As we worked out the details, I was able to steer away from vice president and we settled on Chief Executive Officer for him and Chief Operating Officer for me. We are both equal owners in the Company and we are the only to officers in the company. It was a narly, but a cool experience. Since then it has proven to be a relationship that works and in fact very productive and functional. He does his stuff and I create the systems within our project initiatives that allow our objectives to be realized, I also manage the use of time of our employees to make sure that we are getting the job done.

In conclusion, things are working out very well. I am very anxious to be coming home soon and pray with all my heart and soul that we will have the MOU signed and in hand before I come back to the states so that any ambiguity regarding 2010 can be eliminated once and for all, and we can begin to really build our capacity and start making things happen already. Hope everything is going super well wherever you are, doing whatever you are doing. Stay tunes, next episode I will give you all the details about what is going on on the National Political Stage… pretty interesting stuff…

Merry Christmas from Nigeria

2010-01-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

Here I am, trying to decide what to write that would be meaningful and interesting to a reader while accurate and concise. I have embarked on the greatest adventure that I could imagine and I am having a difficult time being able to capture it in words. What I am involved with is fulfilling every category of my lifelong dreams. Working here in the Niger Delta, a place most consider to be one of the dangerous places in the world, I am learning to call home. A powerful African political leader many falsely call corrupt on inept, I call a friend. Tasks considered by most to be over ambitious and unrealistic, I call my daily action items. Ultimately, what could easily be considered a plot to fictional adventure I call my life.
It has been a bit of time since my last blog entry; so let me quickly update the past ten days or so… Monday afternoon, Dec 21st, we gave a complete presentation to the State of Bayelsa Executive Council, basically everyone who runs the state. The presentation was by far the most significant public presentations that I have given in my life and it was a bit intense, could have gone very bad, but turned out pretty ok in the end. We walked out of there with what seemed like unanimous support, and we were majorly stoked. If I have not mentioned, our project consists of a simultaneous, state wide multiplicity of projects designed to reinforce the human infrastructure (the capability of the individuals) of the state of Bayelsa through communities centers with computer and vocational training, community level micro-banking, state wide teacher trainings, orchestrated statewide campaign reinforcing human values that are fading away, community level waste management systems and leadership training. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me…
The next couple days we worked around the clock in order to put all of our plans to paper and ended up with a 50+ page document describing the what’s and whys and how’s of the projects. That was a major pain. We are just finishing it tonight and good riddance. We will be giving it to the members of the committee who were appointed to analyze our project tomorrow.
Next was Christmas. We got a nice helicopter ride over the Niger Delta to Governor Sylva’s hometown of Brass, where we spent Christmas day. I must have eaten something not too rad and the 26th was feeling pretty gnarly. The next day I was feeling ok and we worked our way, in the chopper, to Calambar, the Capitol city of a different Nigerian State where they have a massive parade that is a pretty big deal around here. Whenever we travel with the Gov we are treated as pretty significant VIP’s, so of course while the crowds were thronging, we had a private, shaded seat at the center of the parade’s course. Also, when traveling with the Governor, one really has no idea what to expect from minute to minute, so, following course, right in the middle of the parade I was told to get up and I thought that we were leaving. Nope. Turns out that we were supposed to join the parade at that point and so we spent the next several hours dancing down the streets and celebrating the festivities.
We got back to Yenagoa, our hometown, and got back to work. The next day Jessica Davies, the VP of SCHAP and one of my best friends came into town to pay us a little visit. We actually really needed here to help us with graphic design stuff and I missed her a little bit, so it was super good to see her. We all got to work.
When we got here we had basically ZERO electricity, no food, no laundry, to transportation, no house service, no security, no security access and little general support and no Jess. By this time we have secured two full time house stewards, two new vehicles with drivers, a chief who shops and cooks, a washer machine, relatively reliable electricity personal security guards and now that Jess is here I may never want to leave… haha… just kidding, kinda. But seriously, we are really setting this place up so that we will be able to work comfortably and effectively, while also maintaining a welcoming environment for future American employees, volunteers and visitors.
Despite my enjoyment of the big government meetings and the vip treatment and the personal chief… my favorite part of the experience is being in the field as often as possible, learning about the lives of people and the nature of their communities. Feeling my understanding of conditions augmented dailey and therefore my ability to assist in desired and substantial development increased. I love the people here more than words can express.
I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Holiday Season and I will be sure to fill you in on the adventure that lie ahead.

Cheers.

Progress in Bayelsa...

2009-12-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

Here I am, sitting in the Due-Process office of the state of Bayelsa. As expected, despite the enthusiastic support from the Governor in coming out here, we have still had to deal with the bureaucratic system in order to receive our reimbursements for our travel expenses and whatnot. So, like 20 meetings later, it seems that we should have resolution today. Finally. The last Blog that I posted was from a hotel room in Lagos the day before we met with Google. It has been very exciting to see the support that has been solicited for us by the powers that be. Omens, signs and miracles only reinforce our assurance that we are doing something that is meant to be and that nothing but complete commitment to this project is required. The meeting with the National representative of Google proved to be very effective as it turns out that their primary objectives in Nigeria are to increase literacy, computer literacy and internet usage… just so happens that we were able to detail to him a comprehensive plan in order to accomplish all of the above. Google’s big thing is not writing checks or giving equipment, but when they find a cause worthy of support they through their weight around to solicit funding and equipment support from those they are in close contact with. He told me that he would go to work in our behalf immediately. Very cool! You would not believe what airports are like in Nigeria, but once the meeting was completed we survived the airport experience and traveled back to Bayelsa. Without going into details, despite the blessing and divine support we have definitely faced our share of tests and trials, between being stranded, missing flights, not having food or water, not sure if Michael is coming down with malaria, and running this ENTIRE project our of our own pockets until we get the approval for the initial preparation budget request… but moral is high and we are persevering. While we have been working the bureaucratic system, presenting to government officials and doing research in the field to reinforce our conceptualized projects, there has also been a very cool and elite experience that has come along with this adventure. As we have been involved with several meetings and activities with the governor we are VIP’s in the black land cruiser high speed government convoys, we have been privileged to have several meetings in the presidential palace, which is the narliest mansion that I have ever seen, yesterday we got a private helicopter ride to visit the Governors home village and we have direct access to a man that people spend their entire lives wishing that they could have two minutes with. If you know my personality you can see me loving every second of this part of the project . But we keep everything within reason and with a humble focus. Despite the fun of the elite side, I hate the feeling of being a part of wealth and power while so many have nothing. I cannot laugh and smile as some of the rest do when we drive past extreme poverty. No matter the conditions I can never ignore the conditions that effect people’s daily lives and my passion behind our objectives is simply reinforced. Furthermore, there is nothing that I enjoy more than to spend time, one-on-one with the people in their homes, made out of reeds, understanding their lives: the things that make them happy, the things that they want, the things that they worry about and what they perceive their disadvantages to be.

Today is the big day where we will be presenting our proposed 2010 strategy and budget to the Executive Council of the State of Bayelsa. And today will be very telling as to the scope of the next 12 months.

Last night, we attended the Bayelsan Christmas Carol… yep, you heard me right. They freakn love Christmas around here and it was SO much fun to hear them sing their hearts out, so grateful for a reason to celebrate. We have been invited to some fun functions with the Governor for Christmas… anything that means more helicopter rides . It is turning out that it will surely be a Merry Christmas here in Nigeria. Thanks for your continued love and support and I hope that you find these adventures interesting… but let me just say… you have not seen anything yet!

NIGERIA!!!!

2009-12-15T14:20:00.001-08:00

My Last Blog entry was specific to our last SCHAP project in Kenya, in August 2009. Quick overview… The project was extremely successful and well received and we all had a wonderful experience. When we got home I was able to get set up in my dream home, with some awesome roommates and an outside office designed to be a major hub of productivity. I worked to build my alarm business, while functioning full time as the President of SCHAP. We prepared a major fundraising event that required huge amounts of energy, and produced little by way of $. There were two people there though, who will become critical players in the unfolding of this story… proving for me and schap that this night was very much worth it. Francine Busby is a wonderful woman from Cardiff who is running for the Congressional seat for the 50th District in Ca, representing the Democratic Party. She came by invite of Mickey Foster and thoroughly enjoyed the evening. As we talked, she mentioned that she had a son who would love to get involved with our group. One thing lead to another and he is sitting next to me in Lagos, Nigeria as I type this. The second is Adam Young. An Acquaintance/friend for years who I had been trying to get interested in SCHAP for most of the year. Due to the persuasion of a pretty face, he came to our Fundraising event and heard me speak about our organization and what we do. Several weeks later I received a phone call. This will prove to be perhaps the most important call that I have received to-date in my life. He told me I should come to his home in Valley Center to meet some guests of his Father. Governor Sylva, the Governor of Bayelsa State was long due for a retreat to clear his mind and plan his next twelve months in office. He, by recommendation of his close friend, Prince, came to an Alkalizing retreat at the Young’s Ranch where he was to determine his next steps in governance. A Year prior, Prince had sat him down in his bedroom and had made a case that in order to develop his state and in order to create a lasting legacy, he would have to focus on the Human Capital that was being utterly wasted. He had been thinking about a strategy and model that may be able to support such, “Human Infrastructure” projects. That Wednesday night it all came together.

After describing to the Gov and Prince my ideologies and methodologies attached to developing the human component, we all promptly recognized that I needed to get to Nigeria as quickly as possible.

They left the Ranch and I waited for weeks to get confirmation of a plane ticket and visa issued by the government. It never came. Not only did it not come, but communication with Prince and the Governors other top officials who committed to support our efforts was almost non-existent. I would wait for days for a response and it would be vague and utterly inconclusive. I was beginning to wonder if it was all too good to be true, and if I was better off just getting back to work selling alarms. One day I was sitting on the cliffs at Teramar, meditating on the issue and it hit me. If there was simply a 10% chance that I would be able to be involved with designing and implementing a state wide rural development plan with government funding, then I would be stupid not to risk everything in order to gamble that 10%. I pulled out my own payment method, which by no means was supported by a large number in my account, and bought all the equipment that I knew I would need, purchased a Nigerian Visa and a one-way ticket. If they were not going to facilitate the process then I would have to move a little closer in order to elicit my skills of persuasion. Michael was a brave soul who I asked to come along. Why?, cause I had a good feeling about it. Despite loads of uncertainty and risk, he put down his own money on this gamble as well and we were off to Nigeria.

Turns out that we made just the right move. We were received extremely warmly upon arrival. We were immediately invited to Lunch with the Governor, and from a banquet table that must have sat 30; I was given the seat next to governor Sylva, next to the head of the table. After lunch, we were given a direct audience with the Gov, which was a much larger deal than I had realized, and we were able to initiate our planning and prep. By This time, Prince has rendezvous with us and we have established a partnership that will work as a private company, in partnership with the state government, in order to push our efforts ferociously without hindrance from the swampy governmental bureaucracy.

Prince, Michael and I went to work; spending days in the guesthouse we had been given conceptualizing and reconceptualizing this project from A to Z. And it was massive. My mind has never worked so hard. For the first week, I literally had not had more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep. Our plans became more and more workable. It was a think-tank converging everything we had ever learned about economics, poverty, rural development, sustainability, business and just about everything else we had between our ears. As the days passed on we began attracting the most wonderful people who have joined our team. Day by day, our numbers grew and our ability to achieve grew as well.

With a Clear Project scope and implementation plan, we are able to dive into budget mode. We must put a monetary value to every aspect of this project, which is massive, and submit it for government approval. While in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, I received a call from Prince, who had flown to Lagos the day before to take care of some business that he had been able to arrange a meeting with a company that was interested in supporting our project. Who? Only a certain Google, the company that I would consider to be the most ubiquitous and influential company in the world. Michael and I, incurring major travel issues, made our way out to Lagos for the meeting. We arrived a day later than we had intended, but will be able to reschedule once the national rep for Nigeria is back in the country. So for now we are stationed in Lagos, working diligently to prepare both the budget as well as the presentation that will need to be given to the governor and all those who are involved with the ultimate budget allocations for his state.

I apologize for very trim overview, trust me, there are some incredible stories along the way, but I wanted to make sure that if you are interested in the meat and the potatoes you could know what has happened. It is looking that we will be able to have more reliable Internet connection, so I will do my best to bring some of the fun stories to the surface.

Suffice it to say that this has been the most incredible and exciting thing that I have been a part of. Despite our ability to implement, it has been extremely rewarding to spend 8 days doing nothing but wrapping our minds intensely around the issues that are being faced by the rural people and designing a sustainable mechanism capable of developing the human capital in a way that has never been implemented before. I am confident to say that this project will send shock waves through Bayelsa, Nigeria and all of Africa. The benefit to cost if unbelievable and would bring instant popularity to any political leader responsible for its implementation. We are presently working diligently to mobilize the people and resources that we need in order to fulfill the tall order that we have created for ourselves, as well as gear our self up for massive projects in the near future. We are creating a system that will be able to provide the human development support and micro-infrastructure required to empower rural communities with the resources to develop themselves. We see a day when every Bayelsan will be able to read proficiently, engage in meaningful work and have the means to be able to confidently provide for his family and develop his community. We are “Bridges to Goodness.”

Punctuation on the Project/Trip

2009-08-18T05:50:00.000-07:00

I spent the last 40 hours in Transit, waking up this morning in my friend’s pent house flat over looking down town Manhattan. A little bit of a contrast.

As we reflected as a team we concluded that it seemed as though we had been in Matoso forever, while it also flew by. The goal of the trip was to show how much could be done with so little money and so little time. Mission Accomplished.

Because we were working with and through the community as opposed to alongside the community we were able to magnify our labor base, our support base, our organizational base and our base of implementation.

The last several days were just like the first two weeks... More success. The crowning day of the entire project was Friday. Friday was a relatively well planned out day consisting of two major community events.

The day started out by slaughtering a cow at six in the morning. If you have never been a part of something like this, I recommend it, it help you to appreciate where your beef comes from.

They we began gathering the children. We had plastic bags, gloves and prizes ready for them. We gathered together about 40 kids and explained the rules. Pick up three bags of trash and bring them to the landfill and they would receive a new piece of clothing. (Some of which we brought with us and others that we purchased there.) Off they went. We knew as soon as the other kids saw what was going on they would want their chance to get in on it, so within twenty minutes we had about 120 kids out there picking up unprecedented amounts of trash.

They lined up single file (with some coercion) we recorded their names, we emptied their bags into our newly completed landfill and gave them back their bag and sent them on their way. Bag of trash after bag of trash after bag of trash... about 400 bags of trash later we stopped the event. We gather a crowd of at least 100 adults plus all the kids. There Maurice spoke, his two assistants spoke, I spoke and we had organized the girls to sing for us. We taught the community why and what this waste management system was all about. We told them where the trashcan were placed in their community and how to effectively use them: three physical waste and three for biological waste. There had been a lame girl who had fought hard to gather trash that day, despite her extreme difficulty in walking. I brought her up in front of the community and said that if she could fight to clean up Matoso, then why not everyone. The event was a huge success and in the next couple days to follow we heard people say, and I quote, "Matoso is clean now." They had a vision, a leader (Maurice) and a plan for success. As we walked around the beach area and the center of the community which used to be covered in indistinguishable wrappers that had been baking in the sun for years, disintegrating discarded clothing, abandoned fishing nets and all the biological waste from the last several days, now was clean and pleasant, and we could not walk around without having to stop for a second and just stare... brimming with joy.

We handed out all the promised rewards and headed back to Maurice's compound. Woman had gather to assist in preparing the meet for several hundred people... turns out you can feed about 250 people with one lean cow, as long as each person get three pieces only. We had arranged for a meal for our guests. Around 1:00 people from Matoso as well as leaders from other areas began to gather. We sat in a circle and ate sugar cane and listened to them debate this or that in their native language. By 2:30 a sufficient crowd had gathered and we began serving the food. Once the multitude had eaten we began our program. There in front of our center we had an opening celebration. Maurice spoke, William spoke, and several other community members spoke. We sang songs and watched the teen choirs that we had organized sing and dance for us. We had a couple musical numbers, a little guitar-off between the man who will be teaching at the community center and myself, African music vs. Western. The crowd enjoyed both. I was able to be one of the concluding speakers and as many of you know I feel more alive inn front of an audience in a speaking capacity than in any other time in my life. Being in front of my team, the community we had grown to love, many community members I had still not met, and leaders from other areas desirous to see what all the commotion had been about,... in that moment I realized that our dreams had come true and we had fulfilled our mandate. The audience was receptive and engaged. You could see a certain excitement, hope, confidence and sense of renewed commitment in their eyes. They now had access to a new waste management program, a community center that will be teaching computers, music, chess, drivers ed, health and much more as we continue to evolve. They have a new hope that they will soon be able to follow our guidelines in order to qualify for a loan that will certainly give them an opportunity to change their lives and their children’s lives. They have a new hope that Matoso can and will be something that none of them may have ever imagined. My speech was followed by the Assistant to the regional Chief. He spoke for a good length of time, validating our organization, our project and demanding that the community work to be able to ensure its success

As a result of a successful event as well as some meetings with regional leadership, we have been asked to duplicate our project in other areas near by. At the meeting were six members of West Kadem who had been chosen to for a committee in order to prepare the way and be an interface between us and the communities of the region. Following the event this committee met for the first time. Maurice was titled chairman, we chose a secretary and treasurer and I was given the title of project director within this committee. We discussed a proper sequence of focuses and what we would be able to do in the short term and in the long term. I have already made a commitment that I will be back in the next several months in order to help break ground. The great thing is that now we have a very intelligent, capable and prominent team, with government mandate to assist us from here on out.

There were many who wondered if we would be successful. We had basically no experience and no money and very little time. We have a beautiful new community center with an extremely capable hired full time manager. We have a growing loan program for the community. We have a new waste management system and more to come.

I know that we were successful because of the feelings of love and appreciation that we felt as we were gathering our things and preparing to leave. This was the most interesting and rewarding thing that I have ever done in my life.

If you are reading this right now please consider visiting www.schap.info and contributing, even if you have already. We raised $20K in the last six months and we need to raise $100K in the next six months.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog about our travels and projects. The words of JFK can be applied in so many regards... and now I challenge you to work with us and so many others across the globe to reinforce an absolutely critical paradigm: as not what the world can do for you, but ask what can you do for the world.

Vision Materialized

2009-08-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

All my international travels up until this point revolved around lots of time to read and lots of adventures. This one has revolved around insane ammounts of work. Yesterday I was stoked because I found, literally, five minutes to read as the sun was setting. Our existence has been consumed with meetings, planning, physical labor and lots of African food and smiles. Every day this place becomes more and more beautiful and sometimes we forget that we are not at home. Our headquarters (a house that we have completely taken over), is on the top of a hill with a beautiful view of rolling Kenyan landscape occupied by clusters of mud huts with tin roofs on one side and the engaging vista of peninsulas and islands reaching into Lake Victoria. God has been good to us. Everynight we are blessed with African Sunsets over the Lake and stars that shine for us with all their heart.

Our two main construction projects have been progressing steadily and should both be completed according to schedule. The community center is about to get a roof and we are pouring concrete at our landfill loactions today. I feel like my dad would be proud as I have luckily been able to pull out dormant construction/ foundation knowledge in order to prevent some major pitfalls.

On Sunday night we held a meeting that was heavily attended in order to begin the process of informing the community of our short term and long term objectives in Matoso. We also had in mind to recruit volunteers to help out our paid labor in order to expidite our projects. It has been really exciting to see a commuinty mobilize in support of something that they see value in. We have been working dilligently to teach and train those we have hired to be our teachers and have already recieved very signifiant interest in class enrollment.

Yesterday we held our first community meeting regardling the new waste management project and like our other initiatives have recievied excitiment and support. This Friday we will be mobilizing the entire community, picking up every piece of trash in site, and debuting our landfill and having several speaches to the whole community about the new program including public trash cans, an employed trash collector and new functional land fills.

In accordance to political protocall we set up an appointment with the chief over the region, West Kadem, about the size of San Diego county. He can to our site where we had tea and built some comrodery. We set up an appointment several days later to meet in his office. That meeting was perhaps the most interesting and simply coolest thing that I have ever done. We met with Cheif Dickens and his two asisstants. After humbly explaining our hopes and goals, of course contingent upon his support, he asked our organization to change our Kenyan name from SCHAP Matoso to SCHAP West Kadem. He asked us to come back and assist him in the development of his entire region utilizing similar community planning and development initiatives!

Earlier this week, and mom will be proud of this one, we held a seminar on oral hygene. We hoped to have ten or twenty and we ended up gathering over 150 people! We spoke on oral hygene for about an hour (thanks mom, I was listening...thankfully) and the clarification questions and the reception was phenominal. Maintaining our mandate that we are not here to give things away, but to assist in development, we offered to sell them the toothbrushes that we brought at a nominal cost rather than give them away. No matter how small the price, purchase prooves intent. We had about 150 toothbrushes and in minutes we sold out. We spent the next half hour having a toothbrushing party, young and old alike.

With several micsellaneous musts we also we able to schedule in tim to go on a mission to find Hippos, played an amazing game of soccer with the community and take time late at night to listen to the matriarchal twelve year old, who commands respect of all the children, tell stories in the dark to her yourger sibblins under the Kenyan stars.

It has been extremely rewarding working with Kris, Jill and Nichelle. Kris has been manning the technology education and preparing the computer teacher. He has also been working on filming, not to mention is the funniest person that I have ever spent time with. Jill has been rocking her accounting and detail management duties. She has been assisting in different effoprts accross the board, as well as spending time in many of the meeting and working with the children. Nichelle, who I name second in command, has been showing a tremendous ammount of proactive engament accross the board. She has been capturing some awesome photos and has lead the loan education and qualification process. This team has a very functional and enjoyable dynamic and I am honored and grateful and excited and proud of each of their attitude and commitment to activity and service.

Our project/ trip in nearing completion and we have and international flight home within sight. We can't wait to see all of you at home and we never want to leave this place... hopefully we will have the fortitude to get on the bus when the time comes. Thank you for each of your support that you have shown in so many different ways. We will be having pictures, videos and other forms of documentation available on www.schap.info asap, so please stay tuned. Jess and gang, we miss you. Oyaorya!

SCHAP- Matoso. Mission Accomplishing.

2009-08-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

I do not have very much time so I apologize for being brief. We travelled to NY, sweet. Then we spent about 12 hours in Qatar (look it up on a map), also sweet (my seventh middle eastern country). We arrived in Nairobi then worked our way to Matoso. 90+ hours of travelling later we arrived at our destination. Reuniting with Maurice was one of the sweetest moments of my life. We had been communicating for months preparing for the project, but in the back of my mind I knew that he doubted that we would actually do the things for his community that we promised to do. The moment that he saw us return to his village, our joy was mutually exquisite. Immidiately we got to work. I/ SCHAP has been blessed with the most wonderful team that I could have ever asked for. Jill, Kris and Nichelle have been awesomely durable and hard working. We started construction on the community center immediately. Simultaneously we began the multiplicity of meeting required to craete a waste management system though the community and as soon as we could we began construction on the land fill. Both are still under construction but are ahead of schedule. While we have been building the skeleton (the stuff)... we have also been building the muscles (the people and the programs). I have never been involved with so many meetings in my entire life, and those who know me know that is a very large statement. It has been fascinating as we have been able to coaless (there is no way that is the right spelling, or even the right word) the knowledge and innovation that we have in the west with the thoughtfulness and experience that they posess. All decisions have been thouroughly discussed, taking EVERYONE's input into consideration and concluding on the best decisions. Since the moment we stepped foot here we have been a part of a living, growing, evolving project. In the comunity center we have already commenced guitar, recorder, chess and computer classes.. despite its lack of completion to date. We have hired a primary education teacher who already has a following of students but no school. We have hired a manager and we have assigned a volunteer community chairman, secretary and treasurer who will be the interface between the center and the community to ensure its success. This is and has been the most exciting, most interesting, more rewarding, most fullfilling, most developing, most fun thing that I have ever done in my entire life. Team moral has been through the roof. We are all safe and healthy. The community has fed us well and provided very adequate accomidations. No dissentary, no lethal snake bites. The only thing that we dread os the day that we will ahve to pack up and leave. For those of you who need this wrapped up into a couple sentences: We are safe. We have made serious progress. 100% of our initiatie have been a success and those still on the horizon are confidently within our scopes. We have rendevoued (don't even care about the spelling on this one either?) with a rep from Uganda and one from Rwanda who we are training in order to help us run future projects in thsoe respective countries. SCHAP today is exciting. SCHAP tomorrow will be phenominal. We have a very clear vision for the future of our organization and what we MUST become in order to fullfill our mandate. We as a SCHAP team send our love. Thank you for all your support. I love you mom.

2009-07-31T16:40:00.003-07:00

We are leaving in a couple hours... Stay tuned for our ADVENTURE!!!

CONGO

2009-01-24T06:04:00.000-08:00

Kigali was a very nice city. Once we had felt as though we felt it out we had two choices:... start to work our way back to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where we would catch a flight to Tanzania in order to catch our flight home, or spend the last precious days of our trip journying deeper into the heart of central Africa. Anyone who knows me knows the decision that we made. We hopped on a bus that took us three ours west, into the haert of the jungle, western Rwanda. The scenery kept getting more and more beautiful and the signs of westernization and the quality of the road became less and less. As mentioned, Rwanda is simply a continous chain of steep tall hills in every direction. You see terraced landscapes and mud huts built into the hillside. We arrived in Gisenyi, a Rwandan city on the edge of Lake Kivu, the second largest in Africa, and also bordering Goma, one of the most dangerous cities in the DR Congo, which, of course, is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Arriving in Goma we walked around, acquanted ourselves with the town and grabbed some fries on the beach. It was about time to connect with a local. We met a man from the Congo on the beach trying to sell wooden African Masks. We turned down the masks( later we got one), but I asked him about the Congo. The wheels were turing. I asked him if he would be willing to serve as a guide. His english was limited and I did not totally trust his eyes, but he was the best we had. He turned us down, but said he had a friend. We did not even think that he fully understood our request so we went on our way. While we were diving off a dock into the lake with some locals he caught up with us and introduced us to Patrick. He was gold. I trusted his eyes and his english was really good. Very successful, relative to the area, and just solid through and through. We chatted and established a plan. That afternoon he took us to his village on the top of one of the neighboring hills. AMAZING. THe village was basically made out of mud, surrounded by jungle. We got a tour of their bannana farms and the other crops that they grew. He took us up to the top where we experienced one of the most beautiful views of my life. The huge Congolese Volcano in the background. We tried to explore a cove but were prevented by the army... a killer afternoon. This morning we woke up early. I removed my ring and my watch. We took a camera and nothing else. I carefully counted my money to make sure that we had just the right ammount of money to make it across the border and for transport within. We hid our money in our shoes and pockets and belt. We jumped on the back of a couple bicycles (Gisenyi's tai service), Nelson, Patrick and Myself, and we headed into the one of the most dangerous cities in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Why did we go?... just had to see what it was all about. THe night before we had talked to several local, who themselves told us that it was very dangerous and that we should not take the trek lightly. We were a little sketched, but similar to the feeling as you here the thunder right before a class five rapid. Crossing the border seemed normal and stable enough. A couple minutes into the country we heard an explosion!... here we go, I tought Turns out that it was just an exploding tire. We proceeded with caution, just slipping our camera out for a second to snap a sho then straight back into our pockets. After we had been there some time we relaxed. It seemed normal. Normal people doing normal things. You imagine the "congo" as a place were only unaccountable craziness happens, but isn't that just the way it always goes. Until you have experience, we fear something and villanize ad mythacize an area. The people were good and kind. We hired a car for a couple hours and drove all over Goma. We went as far west as we could go.. driving down jungle roads, when the driver stopped and turned around. I was confused and wanted to go further. He was determined, like a dog who haults for danger when its master in oblivious. Turns out that any further down that raod and we face severe danger. Ok... lets turn around. Everywhere we go, I have been checking the exhorbitant prices of electronics, as I have been contemplating business as well as humanitarian assisstence as well this journey. Lastly we made it to the camp. This is a huge refugee camp for refugees of norther Congo. Most of us do not know that there has been a mass killing over the last couple years, very similar to the nature of Darfur, but it dwarfs both Darfur and Rwanda conmibed, over two million dead. There is a reason that we don't hear about it. Sad. SO the ones that escape walk for miles and miles and miles to get away from the bullets. They live on top of each other in straw-like structures covered by a tarp. They do nothing. They wait for their month rations of beans and corn and then they cook it in the ovens they have made from mud. I have never seen anything like this. It was my first refugee camp experience, and my heart went out. Like most of the places that I go, I created a mental map of the things that I would do differently if I were in charge such projects. There is so much that could be done that would take no money and little effort, in order to drastically improve the quality of lives. It seems that the World groups are content to keep them alive and that's about it. THousands and THousands populated the camp and we were able to meet and talk to many, through our french translator. It was raining, which seemed appropriate, to get the whole congo experience, and we made our way back to the border. We arrived safely home( home being Rwanda). It is funny how quickly a place can assume "home status." Congo, check. We have nailed five countries this journey and have learned more than could be imaginable. Everything else from here is downhill. We board a bus a four in the morning tomorrow, to Kigali, three hours. Then a ten hour bus back into Uganda to Kampala. Half a day there then onto Entebbe, also Uganda, for our flight to Dar es Saalam in Tanzania. A night there, then on the plane for London. An evening and night there then back to LAX, for a bitter sweet arrival. I really miss home. I miss my fam and the life that I know so well. But I will surely miss Athuman, Mwana, Washington, Jane, Dida, Patrick and all the others we have come to love so much. I will miss the adventures and the uncertainty. I will miss the freedom to fly like a bird and spend hours on a bus just thinking and raeding. I will miss the time that I have had to imagine and dream. I will miss Africa. Africa is better than you would ever imagine it to be. Africa is worse than you could possibly imagine. It is a land where the lizards and the thorns and the bird are unbelievabley huge. The plants are all either poisonous or life saving, and the snakes can take you six feet under in twenty minutes. Diseases and poverty abound. It is not a place for the faint hearted. But the people are wonderful. We can learn a lot from them. The way that they work directly with the flow of nature. The way that they take care of each other. The way that they struggle and the way that they survive. You cannot imagine their stories, they make us look like whimps of the most extreme. I am so grateful for the life changing opportunity to travel through the dark continent and expereince the university of Africa. Africa needs our attention, and in a way, each of us need Africa. When some one needs your help and you reach out a helping hand, who benifits? This is one world. We are one family. Whether from a religous or anthropological perspective, we all share one common mother and one father. You have brothers and sisters who are waiting for us to understand the family ties.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I promise to have all my pics up within a week on my photobucket account, keep an eye on my blog for details, I promise they will be worthwhile. I will upated my blog as I progress in building SCHAP, my non-profit org that I have hand sculpted to accurately and effectivley empower the capable. So many lives can be saved and enhanced by smaller means than you would believe. Contact me @ coryglazier@gmail.com if you would like any further information about SCHAP. By small means, great and marvelous things come to pass... yeah, by very small means.

RWANDA

2009-01-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

Leaving Uganda at one in the morning I fell asleep and woke up rather groggy, winding through the misty, jungle-ee landscapes of Western Uganda. Nelson and I were on our way to Rwanda. The talk of lush jungles and the intrigue of the scars of fear still so vivid and deeply routed in every citizen forced us to Trek deeper into central Africa. We had both always wanted to see Rwanda and this was our chance. As we crossed the border we were so stoked as the talk of the beauty was absolutely justified. The hills shoot straight up out of the flat like something out of Asia and the entire hills are terraced for agriculture and riddled with little mud huts... truly the land of a thousand hills. Everything was so green and I hung my head out of the bus window like a dog, more happy than I could describe. The moment you realize that you are living a dream, your body becomes full of light and warmth and you can't help but smile from ear to ear. Kigali, the capital is teh cleanest most organized city that we have seen so far. Everything seems to be under control. Luckily the first day we met up with some young people and went to watch football at the national stadium: Rwanda vs. Camaroon. Have you ever been to a national football match in a third world country?... So nuts!... but sweet. The next day we began the obligatory journey through the memorial sites of the 94 genecide. The pictures, the descriptions, and videos, the statues. I had a feeling that I have never had before. It was a nausia that made me faint. I had to sit down every couple minutes because I was loosing it. It was like watching a super sad movie that you have found yourself wrapped up in, but at the same time knowing that you do not have the luxury of walking away telling yourself that it was just fiction. Everything that we saw and read was real. The mass graves with over 250,ooo people were real. There were the bodies and body parts of men, women and children. Each with likes and dislikes, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, favorite foods and aspirations. Reading the individual accounts of some of the children, both survivors and victims (everyone in the country was a victim, but I mean those killed), brought on uncontrollable sobbs. It was one of the most emotionally charged experiences of my life. After that, we visited a church that had been sought out as a sanctuary, but resulted in a death camp. Thousands of skeletons were strewn around the floors and the yard, you could imagine their last moments. Most of which inbvolved several hacks from dull machetes. We have heard about the genecide in Rwanda, but until you have been there, it does not toally register as real. It was real. THe day before we had met a really cool Rwanda girl, who was also pretty cute. We set up a double date and met her the next night, after our tours. Dida was really amazing, 21, working through college, very intellegent and capable, happened to land a great job, very put together. We talked a bit of the past and she mentioned that she used to live in the countryside before 94, I wanted to ask, but was so concerned how it would affect her, finally I felt that I had permission to ask and she told me her story. Dida, was born to a wonderful set of parents with 10 brothers and sisters. Life was good and stable in her farming village until it happened. She was seven. Her family was forced to laeve their home and they huddled tight with other Toutsie families, fighting off the Hutu rebels. They held their own on the hillside untill the rebels came back with fire arms. While Dida's dad went out to slay a cow to feed the starving group he was shot. As her sister watched. She ran back to the group to tell them what had happened, and as she arrived, a grenade was thrown, killing Dida's sister, right in front of her eyes. Her other sister was pretty messed up. Her mom and her other sisters ran down the hill and hid by a stream. Several minutes later they were found. Her mom was killed by a machete and her sister, who was her best friend, had her leg cut off with the same machete that had killed her mom. Dida, seven and her older sister, were forced to leave their two sisters, the own torn open by the grenade and the one bleeding to death from her leg, and run away. They were fortunate enough to escape this set of killers. They spent the next couple weeks hiding in the jungle. Starving. They occasionally, when they were sure they would die from starvtion, ventured into a town in order to find some food, and they were helped by some Hutu families brave enough to offer assisstance, but none willing to take her in to hide her. One day they were caught by a group of rebels. They grabbed seven year old Dida and tried to shove her down the hole of a toilet ( they are a little different out here). When she did not fit they went outside, and disregaurding the pleas of an innocent seven year old girl, who had already been through hell, lifted the lid of the septic tank and threw in Dida and her older sister. They found themselves drowning in biological refuse, perhaps only survivng because they were able to cling onto the dead bodies of other already exposed to their own fate. Dida's sister was able to find a latter... she climbed up it and banged on the lid. A decent hearted man opened the lid and lifted her out. She claimed that her sister was still in there, but afriad of being seen, the rescuer said that he would not help. After pleas from Dida's sister, the man got a rope and sent it down to Dida... she tried to hold on, but do to the slippery waste, fell of half way up and slashed back down, they tried again and failed, the man was sure to leave, but being begged, he tried one more time. She held on and was lifted out of the tank. The rescuer flead. They celaned themselves up and continued to hide. Eventually, by a swing of luck she was taken in by a generous Hutu man who took her as his own. When the killers came, he demanded that she was his daughter, which could have gotten him killed. Weeks later the Toutsie forces took back Rwanda and many of the Hutu's were forced to flea into Congo. The Hutu man did also and took Dida with him to a Hutu camp. There, in addition to facing extreme hunger she ran into both the man who killed her mother as well as the man who through her in the septic tank. They would have liked to kill her their, but she was protected by her guardian. She made it back to Kigali and has proceeded to live an extremely productive life.

Who are you in the story?... would you have given into the conformity and fear of the rebel group and participated in the killing?... of course you say that you would not have. Would you have had the courage to survive the way that Dida had? Would you have taken in the refugees or sent them away? Would you have headed the call from the septic tank, or saved your own back and continued on, hoping that you had just imagined it. Would you have boldly stood up to the killers with a Toutsie refugee at your side, the ultimate sin?... Or would we have passed the other side like the first two rich Jewish travellers, because we were in a hurry, or could not be inconvienenced, or could not bring threat to ourselves? I guess a crisis brings out the best and worst of humanity. If the genocide had never been real to me before, it is perfectly real to me now. Let us not shirk the responsibility of understanding some of the atrocities this world has faced, which allow us to mourn with those who mourn, and have compassion on those in need, in the name of "protecting ourselves from possible unpleasant dreams, or the guilt from knowing that we have no intenion to help." There are simple thing that we can all do in order to treat others the way that we would hope and pray they would treat us.

KAMPALA

2009-01-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

Life in Kampala has been really perfect. Perfect has really been the only word that I can use to describe this trip. We have done everything that we had hoped to, we have met the most wonderful people, we have had the most perfect connections to be able to point us in the right direction. We have had zero unwanted down time, no serious illness or inury or unexpected expenses. We have been extremely fortunate and I knew that we would. We only had a month to travel all east africa and only under perfect divine providence could we have experience so much in a perfectly expideted fashion. God is good. This journey has also blessed me with the much coveted time to catch up on my reading. With work and school, pleasure reading gets little attention at home. One of my favorite things about travelling is all the times on busses and the such to be able to read for hours. I have munched through some great political and spiritual stuff and had a bit of time to meditate on the future and concrete up my plans for 2009. I freakn love life.
So Kampala has really be a great expereince. Our time here has consisted of freestyle jam sessions, cultural dancing, local bands and dancing... yeah, I tear up the African dancing!, Dutch girls, working our way through one of the busiest towns ever, museums, temples, FHE (family home evening), volleyball, poential business deals and just lots of great people. Today we met Patrick and his gang, the famous friends youth group. They are acrobats. Maybe you have seen something like them, but I have never. They do all kinds of human stunts that you can't even imagine. Throwing kids around standing on each other's heads and just other obtuse craziness that you have never imagined are possible for a group of human bodies to do. They are strong and disciplined and tough and united and pure. Right now, without any substantial capital to their names, they will remain as the kids who practice EVERY single day in the park to ne avail. They were the most purehearted group of guys and I wanted to do anything that I could do to help get their group up and running with marketing and some decent equiptment. They wore rags, used an old bicylce rim for their stunt hoop and they could never afford a radio for the techno music that would enhance their performance. They have so much potential to perform at special cerimonies, for tourists, other public fuctions and teaching what they do to kids who need something in their lives to provide some direction and hope. These are the types of people that have inspired me to create SCHAP. A little bit of capital and they could put themselves out there for legit performances and also training others. Right now they are just inconfident to perform infront of anyone but the locals becasue of their attire. If you are reading this or any other part of the blog and you would like to learn about the organization that I will be putting together upon arrival back into the state, and may be interested in helping some of these great people's dreams come true, just e-mail me @ coryglazier@gmail.com. Africa has changed my life in a super positive way and I am so grateful that I have made it out here. I love you all and look forward to seeing some of you in about a weeks.

Bujugali Falls

2009-01-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

So after three weeks living in dirt huts and eating and drinking stuff that required a big... well "here goes hell" sigh and nod to each other, the silent, well if we go down, we go down together... before we ingested anything, and pooping over holes in the ground and showering with buckets or questionable water, we needed a bit or of a respite. Where better than Bujugali falls.. arguably the worlds best white water rafting right at the source of the Nile. We rolled up to camp and found ourselves in Paradise. The campground has a spectacular view of the Nile, the food was westernish, real showers, mosquito nets and toilets!... we were in heaven. It was a fun chance to hang out with some other travelers from all over the world... everyone has their own story. rather than joining one of the rafting groups we got guides and went down the Nile in tandem kayaks. Several class FIVE sections. It was one of the most intense things that I have ever done!... Nelson's guide was good... mine... well I spent more time upside down strapped into a kayak on HUGE rapids than rightside up... literally. To proactively put yourself in the force and energy of class five rapids is really ludicrous and it was amazing... we have some pics. The next day we chilled out and met Robert and travelled to his village. The last day we met up with some locals and took a private kayaking lesson... 17 bucks compared with 115 from the American guy... it was amazing, we worked on rolling and stuff like that and then went down some class three rapids by ourselves... nuts!... it actually gave me a lot of inspiration to help local groups run their own tourism adventure treks. They know the place better than the white guys, but they ALL end up working for the white guys, and sending all profits to Australia, America and Europe. We'll see. Our plan with Matosos is absolutely in stone and we are planning our trip back here in June... SCHAP is the name: Sustainable Comprehensive Humanitarian Assistance and Planning. We are really excited and perfectly hopeful. Once we were thoroughly rested and adventured, we took up our informal research project. We bussed into Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and found a chill hostel. Once there we met up with some new Ugandan friends and became acquainted with the place. LDS church today was really cool. They asked me point blank to speak in Sacrament meeting, so I did. Church was really nice and you could totally feel that LDSness there, in such a far and different place. Good people, working hard to be the best Saints that they can be. After that we ate with some church members and had a bit of a tour around Kampala. I think that we have become immuned to poverty. The sights and the smells don't turn my stomach like they used to. It is for two reasons, I think. One, we have seen lots and lots of it. Two, the people don't think that they are poor, its just life, so why should I think that they are poor. The conditions are horrendous, but they just live in them and operate fairly normal lives. Many of them have respectable jobs and just do the best that they can to put food on the table. On a disturbing note, today we saw a black stream at the bottom of a slum, this is common, the result of all the sewage and waste water running down the hill and collecting at the bottom, no plumbing. This black stream led into a little pool that was full of kids swimming. They were all still alive and apparently having the time of their lives, so all that we could do was laugh right along with them. Now when I see poverty, I analyze the ways that it could and should change, but I don't feel sorry for them.. they are people and should be thought of as people and not just poor helpless, african people. After our walk we concluded our night with a cultural performance featuring several dance styles from eastern Africa. Very cool... until next time.

Robert

2009-01-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you the story of Robert… actually his name is Muyindar, it means struggle in Lugandan, the language they speak in Uganda. When Robert was ten his mother was raped and possibly killed and his father was taken from the home by the LRA, the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Ugandan rebel group notorious for abducting children and forcing them to become soldiers. Robert ran with his two sisters. They ran about 500 kilometers as ended up in a village called Kivubuka, near Bujugali Falls. Here, at eleven years old he built a home out of sticks and mud and has lived there for the last eight years. He has stayed extremely dedicated to his education and speaks better English than anyone else in his village. He wants to be a successful politician and musician.
Robert, being a pure and honest kid got a coveted job working at a petro station in Jinja, a town about 15 kilometers away, which he would run to everyday. With the money that he earned he bought himself a radio costing him about $25 dollars. This was his pride and joy, which turned the monotony of his home into a pleasant concert hall featuring Bob Marley and the such. Several of the kids in his village were jealous that he had such a good job and that he could afford a radio, so they approached the manager of the petro station and told him that they had seen Robert giving out Petro for free. He was fired. Later he came home to find that his hut had been broken into and his ONE possession had been taken. Today, Robert has very little to eat and absolutely no chance of paying the fees to go to university. He is extremely bright and committed to education, however pursuing college is perfectly impossible for him. So he reads his same books over and over and plays his music. He builds string instruments from fishing line, sticks and cow hide which sound incredible. He and his friends jam to the beat of their home-made string instruments and drums. There are few things in the world that he would like more then to get into a recording studio and record some of his music. This will never happen for Robert… he should just give up on this dream to. So, with very few possibilities to pursue he spends his free time organizing dramas with the village kids depicting parables from the Bible. He wonders if his mother is alive and if his father is alive. He asks little from life and gives more than you could belive. I have seen Robert and his home and his fishing string instrument and his dramas. I know the nineteen year old who bears the name: struggle.

2009-01-13T23:37:00.000-08:00

Like usual, this trip has been fascinating as I can feel that every step along the way has been totally led divinely. As you can tell, the things that we have been doing were not exactly advertised in magazine or on a website... it is only by running into the right people and having the right conversations, asking the right questions, and having faith to follow the rabbit down the whole that we have been able to have the experiences that we have. This trip has been absolutely perfect in every way so far. The last couple days have been the most enlightening of the trip so far. We have been traveling with a guy named Peter through Kenya and he wanted to show us his home town in a place called Matoso. It was a bit of the beaten path (later I came to know how far off the path it really was), and Nelson and I both felt that he kinda just wanted to show up to be like... check it out, I have American friends... so we were super hesitant to go and kinda dragged our feet... we were ready for Uganda... regardless, we went along. We crammed ten people into a very small sedan as well as all our gear and all the stuff from the other passengers. Peter told us it would be half an hour, forty minutes max. 90 minutes later, after the most uncomfortable ride, over the worst roads that you could possibly imagine we showed up the the much spoken of, edge of Lake Victoria town of Matoso. We were less than thrilled to be there. It was something that we really could not have been prepared for. The lake front was disgusting... cow manuer and otherwise was scattered all over the place. Piles of trash lined the streets. Dirty naked kids, with those bellies that look like they are pregnant wandered the steets. Other kids that did have clothes were all too obvious that they NEVER changed them... no more than rags, barely hanging on. I felt bad, but I had to push all the kids away as I was litterally afraid of what I would contract... EVERYWHERE else I loved the kids and picked them up and played with them, but not in Matoso. Palsied and dieing elderly lay in their homes, abandoned and the adults walked around, or lay around with little hope in their eyes. It was sad and discouraging to the core. It was an energy sucker and I could hardly take it. I began to become angry and I did not know why. At first I told myself that it was because I had wasted so much time and did not want to be here in the first place, but later I realized that it was something much deeper. I was ashamed with myself. I wanted to run. I wanted to leave this place, forget all about it, and never come back. I wanted to be home with my Bimmer and In N Out and my surfboard, where you don't have to worry about typhoid of Hep A when you walk down the street. I wanted to tell myself that they were not people, they were not saveable, there were too many of them and there was nothing that I could do. I felt all these things and I hated myself for thinking them. The moment that we arrived, Nelson and I looked at each other and we knew each other's thoughts... FIRST thing in the morning we are out of here... a couple hours later something happened that started to change my heart... the last stop on our walking tour of Matoso was to visit his grandmother... with decrepid, blind, crippled, malaria infected grandmother... when we showed up she was laying by herself, in the dark, on a pile of rags and you don't want to know what else on the floor. I could hardly believe my eyes. He spoke to her for a couple minutes, then she reached out her hand to greet us, I was terrified of what might be on that hand, but I engaged regardless, sending a strong look to Nelson, saying, you are going to shake it too, If I die, we both die together!... as we were on our way out of there, she asked us for money for medicine. As my policy of not handing out money, for the most part, has been important to me , I told her that we would go to the pharmacy and buy some for her. We walked across town and found a little shack that was little more equipped than a first aid kit of a boy scout troop. We bought some drugs for her malaria and headaches for about two dollars. Something felt right and my heart started to soften a bit... then we went back up to our hosts home and hung out as the sun set, waiting for dinner. I have not yet mentioned that when you show up to an african town off the beaten path, you are quite the spektical to the children, within a couple minutes we had a loyal following of about twenty kids, like a heard of sheep everywhere we went. As we waited for dinner, which I did not expect to be much more than a couple grains of rice and some fishheads, (they often sell the fish they catch and just live off the heads), my main objective was to keep the kids from touching me. I was sitting down in the dirt and they were closing in on me. As tactfully as I could I kept pushing them back... you can't believe how dirty they were, they were coughing on my, and the little ones would just sit there, naked and deficate on the ground. One time as I urged them back I realized that they were all standing/ sitting in a semi-circle and for a moment I was sent back to singing time. I thought, and my heart became more soft. I took a deep breath and touched my pinky finger to my thumb, and then pivited to alternate to my other finger and thumb. As I had hypothesized they mimicked me... I brought my fingers down like rain and they did the same. I brought my hands above my head and they mimicked the action and I repeated the first gesture again. Within minutes were were all singing the "itsy bitsy spider!" The ones who spoke english sang along and the other just repeated the melody. They were laughing and giggling and clapping and cheering. My heart was changing and even thinking about it is making me emotional. Next we stood up and I got them in a big circle. We did it slow, but when we got the the line, "and do the hokie pokie..." they would shake and dance like there was not tomorrow. It was amazing. I sang for them every kids some I could think of and then they sang me there's. We played follow the leader and some form of red light green light. We were all laughing and giggling. They transformed into the most adorable group of kids I had ever seen. We had them race in different fashions between Nelson and I and on the last trip across, back to me, I said that this was the most important race, and whoever got to me first won... "ready, set, go!..."... they started running to me like a tidal wave of little black kids and right before they got to me, I turned and ran... they chased me through the streets, across people's yards, through the workers and the fishermen and through the little shops... it was a sight to see. All the adult were laughing and we were having more fun than I have had for a long time. One the oldest girl caught me, we worked out way back to Peter's brother's home. There we sat there as it got dark, and after a thourough lesson, we sang "I am a child of God" together. I was hooked. Dinner was ready and we went into the home of Maurice, the leader of the village. I almost cried when I saw how much food they had prepared for us. We ate and talked together for hours as I questioned them on all the issues of the town. I learned so much of what the causes of the problems were and what the solutions would need to be. All along the way of the conversation I thought... oh, we could help with that... yeah, we could surely help with that... and so on and so on...

The next morning they took us sailing. Now this is the most liberally I have ever used the word in my life. The boat was litterally some pieces of wood that somehow managed to float, with perpetually bailing of course, and the sail resembled shredded sheets that must have been a hundred years old with more area of holes that of actual sheet. I could not believe that it actually worked, but it did, and we observed there livelihood, fishing on Lake Victoria (the biggest lake in the world, by the way). Later that day we had a meeting with Maurice again over lunch. We discussed more thouroughly the issues of the town and the things that could be done by the town themselves to change and the things that they would need help with. We spoke for hours and discussed the loans that the potential business men and fishermen would need... we are talking a loan of a couple hundred buck can change whether or not a kid dies of diseases related to malnutrition. Another couple hundred bucks and we could build a school and pay for a teacher ( the kids presently walked about an hour and a half everyday to school, obviously many did not go, and that resulted in more idleness than you can imagine... even to the spreading of AIDS among nine year olds, if you understand)... They needed suggestion on what do do with their waste and their fecies, so that it did not all run into the lake and cause an outbreak of typhoid every year during the wet season. Basically, we drew up a plan to revolutionize, within extremely reasonable mean, the entire town and Maurice and his assisstants were smiling from ear to ear, saying... yeah, that needs to be done... yeah, we could do that. We spent the rest of the afternoon interviewing people and taking pictures. Nelson and I committed to go home, gather the troops and come back in a couple months. I knew that coming to Matoso may have been one of the most important trips of my life. The next morning, at 530... we got on a series of buses taking us around the lake, and by 8pm we arrived in our new home, Jinja, in Uganda.

...and the journey deeper into the dark continent continues

2009-01-11T02:05:00.000-08:00

The last couple days have been really incredible and a bit intense... sorry mom, fo being away from the computer for so long. The day after the safari Nelson and I did, what we had always hoped would become possible, but did not want to get our hopes up too high about... we went and visited a Maasai village. The Maasai and indiginous people who live throughout Tanzania and Kenya, in mud huts and villages, unchanged for hundreds of years. We found a cool guy, OLE, who was super dynamic and spoke english, and showed us the way that they live. We asked lots of questions and he was a straight shooter, he really told us the way that things are, even things that may appear to be self incriminating, such as the roles of the sexes and other things along these lines. They live entirely off domesticated cattle, they live off the milk, meet and the blood. The young men are prepared to defend their cattle against even lions if they need to. The men mary up to ten wives and have whole villages of children, for one guy. It is remarkable how they have preserved their culture while almost all the other east africans tribes have faded into westernization.

The next day we traveled on a bus north, across the Kenyan border and into Nairobi. Oh dear. Yeah, that was culture shock even a bit for us. So many people, so much pollution, traffic like you can't believe and just a lot of a lot of a lot. It really is a sight to see and we were stoked to be there, but my lungs were telling me that I could not stay long. In the evening we were taken to another unbelieveable location: Kibera, supposedly the largest slum in the world... We got off the bus and walked up to the top of a hill.. from there you could see tin mud and tin roofs as far as the eyes could see. I knew that we were in for an experience. but I did not realize, nor could I have imagined how one walk through an area of Nairobi could change my life. As we approached I could see people, like ants, scurrying all alond the hillsildes of the slum. At the bottom there was a stream. The water was a grey, blue, black color... this was the water the you could catch glimpses of if there continuous sheet of garbade parted for a couple moments. As we got even closer, it became totally apparant that these 500,000 plus people had no accomidations but mud shelters. We approached and began our trek through. like so many other places in Africa, the first thing that you notice is that there are just so many people. The next thing that you realize is that you can hardly breath. Not only are they forced to live on top of aech other, but also to relieve themselves whereever they can. EVERYWHERE there are streams on both sides of the allies of refuse. From which the puppies drink and the chicken nibble. THere are piles of trash that you can't imagine that the children play in. This is over half a million who are exposed to disgusting ammounts of diseases and serious malnutrition. The walk lasted about a half an hour, and opened my eyes to what extreme poverty really looks like. And the trap is a tight one, the possibility of rising out of that slum is virtually impossible... from hand to mouth, my friend told me, anything they can earn in a day, goes to filling their bellies at night, mostly with things such as fish heads, like I saw one woman preparing. ALthough it was physically hard for me to do so, I was able to take several pictures as we walked through, of which I have still yet to gain the courage to looks at them. Just too emotional.

THat night we slept with the most wonderful family in a area just outside of Nairobi called Dandora. I through up the next morning. A perspective on traffic... in a bus, going ten kilometers... over 1.5 hours!... and that is standard.

THe next day we headed on a bus to go visit a remote town in western Kenya, Migori. We traveled for about eight hours and ariived and were met by some new friends. They took us back to their home/ village. The experience with this family was my favorite so far of my trip. Unfortunately, due to time I cannot give you all the details.. let me just say that they too lived in a way that could easily take them back hundreds of years. They also lived in mud homes and slept in the same house as the chickens and had zero electricity, but one carosine lamp... however, these people were beautiful and wonderful and rich! They had nine kids... plus lots of extended family... all clean and beautiful. They lived the most sustainable life I have ever experienced. Everyone worked and nothing went to waste. Their systems of cleanliness and utilization blew my mind. I was stuck with awe minute after minute and I was given a tour around the compound, and I understood the relationship that were honored between the land and the animals and the people. I wish that I could give more details but I have tone of pictures. They were so kind and generous and just wonderful in every way. I cannot wait to come back and visit them... in fact, the eldest son and I joked/ seriously talked about making a documentary about his family... not sure if it would sell, but to me it would be fascinating. Now I am about to board a bus to a kenyan town, right on the edge of Lake Victoria... very naer the residence of good ol Obama's grandmother. I should be there for a couple days, then off to Uganda. I pray that all is well, and know that I am a pretty healthy, super happy and having the most perfect adventure!

Safari

2009-01-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

well two days ago, that part of me which hates to feel like a tourist battled with the part of me that would love to see lions in the wild. The latter won the battle, and nelson and I dropped some cash and joined a couple canadians and a very shy world traveler from japan, and enjoyed a two day safari troug lake mwanera and ngorogoro national parks. We were set up with a pretty sweet land cruiser and a cill driver. As you would correctly imagine we spent the two days driving around looking for wildlife and taking pics. We saw it all, and it was pretty sweet. For a lifetime you dream about something like that, and when you are actually there you can't believe that there they are... the zebra and the hienas and the girraffes and the elepants, the rhinos and the lions... we cruised trough both jungle type terrain and sereghetti stuff... it was really incredible. We took tons of pics and really enjoyed not having to worry too much about survival like we do most of the time. I did actually get sick for the safari, my first sign of illness since we have been here, like a 36 hour flu thing, but that is gone and all in all, we ad a great trip. Our next objective to to head north, trvel up into Kenya, see Nairobi, and then see Kenya as we journey east into Uganda. Hope everything is well at home. Love you guys.

Mwana from Moshi, Hello and Goodbye

2009-01-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the last entry, for the last several days, Nelson and I have been staying with a family in Moshi. We could have toured around africa's natural beauties for a month and come back the same person, it has been living with this wonderful family that we have begun the process of permanant change that any genuine african experience will inevitably provide. As the days go by Nelson and I look at each other and try to igure out what is so different, what is so wonderful, and how it is that way... You never hear babies crying, you never hear people argue, you NEVER hear parents yell at there children and you just don't see upset people. You don't see people that are "too stressed" to take the time to smile and you just do not feel negative energy... And we feel sorry for them... it is entirely laughable... we have been so duped! The wool has been pulled over our eyes, and those promoting materialism have successfully manipulated our perspective of origins of happiness... as a general observation of my AMerican experience. Everything here operates... like a river. Life just flows, there is not somuch to worry about, sometimes you move fast and with turbulance, other times slow and shallow, sometimes you gracefully go around a rock, other times you take a hunred foot fall and just keep going, other time you have to carve out a valley and other times you just sit there... Like a river, there is no complaining here,just a general undertanding of what needs to get done and a uncanny understanding of the best way to do it. The children here never cease to surprise me in their capabilities. They prepare dinner and they deal constantly with sharp knnives. They make long journeys to the market and they clean the house. They o as they are told and it is because they too, simply understand they flow of the river. There is no fear in the families. The parents are tender and loving and happy... I must finish where I left off next time

Zanzibar and Tanzania

2009-01-03T22:41:00.000-08:00

Well Zanzibar was absolutely perfect. It was an island about the size of San Diego County. The beaches had whiter sand and more turquize water than you could raelly imagine. The place was a paradise and it was hard to leave. I already know that one of favorite memories of the trip will be flying all over the island, through the villages and forrest and along the beaches on our motorcycles for hours and hours. We met a couple of Persian guys that we hung out with for a day and had a blast. Turns out that Swahili is more than just an expression in English, "are you speaking swahili?"... and so Nelson and I have committed to learn as much as we can... basic greatings and questions... check. ALthough Zanzibar was really a vacation paradise, that is not why we came to Africa, so we felt that after a couple days it was time to make it back to the mainland. We caught a ferry that took all night (9pm-6am) to get us back to Dar. From there we got on a bus for 8 hours to Arusha, near Mnt. Kilimanjaro. Thats a long time to be sitting in your trunks... trust me. Ever taken a bus in the middle of the day in the middle of the summer in the middle of Africa.. pressed up against lots of wonderful African bodies?... you should try it, definately an experience. On the bus I leaned forward after seeing the woman in front of me reading english and asked if she would help us with our Swahili. She consented and we started talking for the next several hours. Turns out that she is an extremely intellegent and educated lady who teached history. We spent most of the time introducing her to Jack Johnson, James Blunt, Incubus and Metalica... she loved it! Her parents live in a town called Moshi, which is at the base of Kilamanjaro. She invited us and we accepted. So now we are in Moshi... living with a wonderful TAnzanian Family. We spend our time learning about life and politics in east africa and swahili. Their home, which they call a shelter, is more a shelter than a house. THey have a singe common room, they cook outside, and we sleep in a shed in the back right next to the chickens... it is amazing and nelson and I are so happy... it is perfect. ALthough they are extremely poor to our standards, they do not see themselves as poor at all. They are happy, dignified, educated, kind, well dressed, clean and so very hospitable. Coming to Africa, many people heard me say, ahhh, I just want to go find an average african family and live with them a bit... totally mission accomplished. It is so exhillerating to feel like I am recieving such a global education. TO learn the ways of life of people out here, to begin to learn swahili, it will surely be difficult to come home, every day this place feels more and more like home. Everything in Africa is just moreness... there are so many people, everywhere you look, throngs and throngs of people. It is hard to explain, because, of course there are people in the states, but it is different here... like we see a couple of corners occupied by a couple illegal immigrants waiting to get picked up for low paying labor jobs, imagine that along every street, everywhere. I found a plamaria yesterday, it smelled just like the ones we have back home, but just so much more... it was incredable and powerful how wonderfully sweet it was. The poverty is intense, our bus ride showed us miles and miles of slums. Shacks built of arbitrary materials sprawled out through the muddy sewage. Life here is as you would imagine. Everything is perfect so far... we are off for now... talk to you soon

Landing in Africa

2009-01-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is addressed to anyone who cares to take the time to view my blog. I have been asked several time why traveling is so important to me, why I do it, how come I am so lucky, how I get the money, or why I go to such "dangerous places." Well, all those answers are tied together. I am finishing up my degree at SDSU in International Security and Conflict resolution. There is nothing that fascinates me more than to understand how the decisions that a few of the global leaders make effect the lives of billions. I put myself in situations all over the world so that I can see for myself how the drivers of the geopolitical context filter down to the homes of the inhabitants of this world. My last trip to the Middle East was unbelievably enlightening and I have similar goals for Africa. I guess, just a bunch of informal research projects. My priority is to get intimately connected to the people and find out what life is all about between their ears. I appologize for the lack of detail I will provide as I will usually be limited to the time that I can write, and like Mormon's excuse, the keyboards in africa are a bit of a different shape, ,resulting in typos every other word.

I left for LAX on Jan 29th. I knew that this trip would be blessed as the woman working for British Air, after realizing that I was a nice guy said, you have a bad seat... let me see what I can do, Oh I am sorry there are no better seats in economy, I had to move you up to Business. Makes a big difference on a two ten hour flight. Great Omen. I was fortunate enough to spend several hours wandering through London on my layover. That was really cool. Then off to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). I sat next to a very interesting girl doing research in Kenya as a graduate student at Harvard. Also, a great omen. Arriving in Dar es Salaam I made some quick decisions, and a couple minutes later I had found Nelson (my friend from Utah who I would be traveling with for the next month, who had arrived the day before), bought tickets for a Ferry that goes to Zanzibar, and got in line. For the first time we were able to stop for a second and let everything sink in. "We are in Africa!" became a fraze that has been repeated about a hundred times. Since I was a kid I knew that one day I would go to Africa. Something about the mystery and the danger and the excitement and the far distance and the suffering and the lion king atracted me. Now I was here, the sun was beating down and the sweat started pouring down as we waited in a mash pit of a line to board the ferry. The ferry took us two hours up the coast of Tanzania to the island, Zanzibar. Zanzibar has proven to be the perfect first step,, ,we had to have some light fun, ,before we trek into the heart of the mainland. RIght away we found a room and rented bikes. In the last two days we have covered over a hundred miles. We have met up with a bunch of locals for a soccer game on the beach, swam in the ocean with the same ( I got worked by jelly fish), we have explored ancient ruins, observed typical African poverty, Waded out over a mile on a crazy low tide beach, danced with the people in a New Years celebration, slept under the care of mesquito nets, eaten food with trepedation, ridden more and more,, seen beautiful jungle areas and more and more locals working and going to school and putting their all into the strugggle for survival. No one is dieing of starvation in Zanzibar, but everyone experiences a level of poverty that would make most Americans uncomfortable just to know about. It is a beatuiful island, ,and even just being in this little place, I feel as though I have already had a very genuine "African" experience. I will do my best to upload pictures, but no promises. It has really been perfect for the first couple days, and it seems that we have charted out a course which should help us to see as much as we can and meet as many people in East Africa as possible. Although the landscapes are beautiful and society interesting, the people have proven to be even more kind and generous and warm as I could have imagined. Everyone out there concerned about my safety, let me say I have not felt uncomfortable once that I was going to get jumped or robbed or anything of the sort. The only thing to worry about is riding a scooter, on roads that surpass any I have ever seen in lawlessness, extreme manuevers, unsafe driving practices and just plane scethyness.. but I love it. We will be here for the next day of too,, then off to Kenya. Wish me luck and I will be in touch.

2008-04-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

I came out of the west bank with no shrapenal (sp?)... but I learned a ton about what the place and the people and the situation are really like... I am super glad that I made it over there, cause I almost didn't. So yesterday the game plan was to get a couple buses from the west bank to Jerusalem, then one to Eilat, the south of Israel, then one from The Eggyptian border crossing to Cairo, after all said and done, 16 hours on the road... a typical international travel day. I will not bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, with travel logistics, delays, border crossing problems, check point crossing problems, ATM failure, Wrong Visa's, and very serious false accusitions there were a hundred reasons why I should not be here in Cairo right now, about to get on this plae that I will board in a couple hours later. Yesterday, with the persaverance of a mad man, and miracle after miracle from God... and a couple calls to the Embassy, Everything worked out, to get me here late last night. And you know what that means?... I had the extra day, that I have been hoping that I would have for weeks, to be in Cairo and hit the Pyramids. So I spent hours hanging with the old Pharohs and the Sphynx. It was really cool to be next to the Egyptian Icons that you have seen a thousands times on print, and to be insidebuilding like five thousand years old, and to lay in the sarcafogus of a really old guy... it was all really sweet.. the best touristee thing that I have done. So I loaded up on souveniers, and said goodbye to the adventures for now... I am looking forward to a nice shower, a solid dinner, a little re-packing of the backpack, and I will be off to the airport. I hope that if you have been following along with this blog you have enjoyed some of the stories.. I can't emphasize enough that you should look me up on facebook, so that you can see all my pictures. What is the verdict at the end...?... there are several. I have learned a lot about hospitality and kindness. I have come to appreciate America in a way that you never can until you have been to these type of places. I have come to appreciate English and a culture that is mine. I have learned ridiculous amount about the people and histories and situations of this area. I have made so many friends that I hope to know for life. I have had hundreds of traveling hours, to stare out the window of a bus and just think... discovering and getting to know myself in a whole new way. I have come to know the mountain of God better as I stood from other perspective and looked up... and I have gotten a lot of the "i need to travel the world before I can think about settling down" out of my system. Two months on the road, have made a home an a picket fence (not too far from good waves and an international airport), sound pretty dang good. When all is said and done, remember, life is a journey, we should all be going somewhere, so where are you going?

2008-04-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Wow... so Israel has been amazing! I have been here for a couple days and it has been beautiful and wonderful. I spent several days up near Galilee. Some friends let me stay with them and I have a bunch of beautiful pictures of the country there. I was also able to visit Nazareth. Then I took a couple buses over to Tel Aviv with another friend. It is a little San Diego in the Middle East... I would have surfed if there were waves. Then I made my way down to Jerusalem... I met up with some friends and was lucky enough to have a place to stay. Today I hit the old city and was raelly able to see it all. I wailed on the wailing wall and I walked the path that Jesus walked with the cross through the city. I saw the church of the seplucure and all the other parts of the old city. It was really cool and nice. When you put your hands on the wailing wall...(over two thousand years old)... and the home of millions of prayers over the centuries, you could feel the spiritual energy flowing through the stone. I have lots of pictures of the old city and would love to show them off to anyone. I left the old city and walked in the direction I believed Gethsemani to be in ... as I began to see the olive tree and felt that I was close, I entered in a gate. There I was surrounded by a beautiful olive orchard and, who knew, there was Truman and Ana Madson... So we chatted a bit in the garden of Gethsemani and that was that. I got a taxi to go to the see the last place that I wanted to before I left Israel.... I drove right into the heart of the west bank... just to see what it was like. Many think of it with feelings of fear and terror, but I suspected it might be different. In just moments, I met some great people, have been showed around and have a couple freinds to stay with tonight. It has been quite the day... a day to remember. Verdict... the Palestinians need a lot of global attention so that the world knows their story... but I will say this. I trust them with my life, they are the friendliest people that I have EVER met in my life, and If I was shot and dieing in the street with my child in my arms, and there was an American and a Palenstinian standing besides me, without thinking twice, I would hand my child to the Palestinian, because I know that he would take care of him... and Israel lets the world belive that they are nothing but terrorists. Hope all is well... I will be hom ein a couple days.... if everything goes well... I will get to Egypt in time to hit the puramids and catch my flight.... see you soon.

2008-04-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

After waking up early and checking out a really sweet town down the coast of Lebanon (hopefully I will be able to get some new facebook pics up soon), I got dropped off at the airport, bought a one way ticket to Amman (you cannot travel directly from Lebanon to Israel...they are enemies)... And hopped a bus to Irbit, where a friend of mine was waiting for me. I met a bunch of his friends, slept in the college dorms and this morning, got on a bus heading to Israel. Crossing the border was fun (you'll see why), and I poceeded to drive to Nazareth. I got a strong feeling that Galilee was actually the place for me, so when my bus was crossing a highway that headed north, I asked him to stop and I got out. After doing the thumb thing for like two minutes I was picked up by some really cool people... now I don't blame anyone for doubting my stories about meeting people that hook me up, but I always believe that it will happen and it always does. So this girl that picked me up had just left early from work for the day and had no real plans... so we drove up to galilee (AMAZING), then took this incredible mountain pass that gave you an incredible view of Syria and Isreal and Jordan. Then we hit this killer natural spring and I went on a really really cool hike/walk through the wheat fields. It was the PERFECT afternoon. I was invited to stay the night with some friends that I made. Took an very well deserved shower, then got picked up for me date with the security border agent that searched my bags as I crossed the border. Not a bad day. I really love Israel and feel so good about spending every second that I can here. It should be really fun, cultural, spiritual and safe. I will try to get some of my pictures up... hope all is well. choa

2008-04-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

OK... so who believes that by the end of this blog I will be sitting in the interogation chamber of a hostile, radical middle eastern political party!?... read on... I believe that I left off the last blog hanging out in Amman... I met a really cool guy there that I stayed with for a couple days and he showed me around... We saw a sweet ancient roman theater (super bodatious!) and some art galeries and the like. Then I got in a taxi with a Iraqi couple and started my journey to Lebanon (this included driving through Syria). As we began to drive I was getting sicker and sicker, and even asked the driver to pull over so that I could throw up... false alarm. When we got the border it turned out that since Syria is not on particularly good terms with us they would not give me a visa even to pass through the border... the border was like a filter for my cab and I did not make the cut. I was left there to figure things out on my own... let me tell you, trying to negotiate a visa into an islamic country who does not want you with no one that speaks english on friday (their sabath) while feeling like my body was undergoing some kind of internal revolution of the stomach was comprable to trying to navigate one of those marine obstacle courses blindfolded with an arm tied behind your back. Turns out that God was really looking out for me though... because as I was waiting (over four hours) I was nailed with torrential dyarreiah, and I thanked god everytime that I was on the "duty free" pot that I was not stuck in the middle of my Iraqi friends on the cab! So believe it or not I got the visa... they gave me six hours to get through and out of their country... or else. I did not ask what or else meant, so I hitch hiked my way onto some random bus that broke down two minutes later and finally got another ride to Demascus. From there I got a ride through the Syrian/Lebanese mountains, through the border (more of an adventure than it sounds) and into Beirut, after traveling all day. I walked around a bit, found a place to sleep and crashed at one in the morning for like eleven hours! The next morning I got cleaned up and started walking along the streets with my bag thinking in my heart, right about now is the time that I meat someone that will show me around... that is how God has dealt with me so far. Two minutes later I ran into a guy and talked for a while. He invited me back to his home to meet his wife and the adventures began. We met up with a frineds that had a car, I paid for the gas, and we drove all over Lebanon. We went to this one cave that made Boyden's Cavern look like a baby. It was Unbelievable... cavern after cavers that was teh size of the conference center and stalagmites bigger than roman collums. Jeita was the name... then we hit some other really special spots, stopped at all the right places for ethnic foods and really had a blast. I slept over at their place that night (their apartment was literally right on the Mediteranian, but super ghetto)... The next morning we had all kinds of plans, but first, we were going to see some of the sites of recent bombings... so we past by the explosion sites that killed a couple of their famous government ministers in the last couple years, then we stopped by a neighborhood of apartment buildings that the Isreal airforce demolished (15,000 buildings destroyed!... this was just in 2006)... they told me not ta talk to anyone as we walked around, cause there was a high concentration of Helballah party members around, and they hate Americans (this is one of the major political parties in Lebanon). As I stood in the middle of the street taking pictures, I was approached by several guys that came out of no where. They took my camera and my passport from me and I was surrounded by about ten guys speaking arabic. My friends, who only speak a little english did not look concerned, so I was not. After over a half hour, they said five more minutes... next thing I know, we are shoved into a land cruiser, taken to some random old building, stripped of everything but shirt and pants, and I was thrown into an interogation cell about 3.5 feet squared with the giant classic one way mirror thing... I was asked several questions, then left for a couple hours, then a couple more questions, and a couple more hours... I had every emotion that you could imagine, but mostly I thought... Ok, if I die today, then at least I went out with a good story, and that kept a smile on my face, and I stayed pretty cheery. My interogator spoke great english, and I tried to joke with him, but he kept saying, " I am not your friend."... to my great delight and pride, by the end he admited that we could be friends, "but just formal friends".. I laughed and laughed. Towards the end he said, " you know, I have never seen anyone that was not nervous and anxious in this little room"... I told him that I had nothing to be nervous about... I know that I am in good standing with God, what else matters. I sang songs out loud for hours and did every excersize that I could do in such a small area. Think about a room that if you sit down, your back will touch one wall and your feet the other. I had a lot of time to do nothing but think. I decided that everyone should have an opportunity to be interogated and I also concluded that I should probably find myself a wife that would come out of the situation laughing with me. Eight hours later, I got my personal belongings back, they showed me to the door, and that was that. So that was my day... I think that I am going to laeve Lebanon as soon as possible. I will not tell you my next plans until after I am done (these guys took all my internet info, and I have changed my passwords on everything, but my blog is open game... and I don't need to run into these guys again). but don't worry... mom, I love ya, Whitney knows where I will be. Take care.

2008-03-31T23:48:00.000-07:00

Well... here I am in Karak... I spent several days in Joradn Valley, with Ahmed's family... then I decided to travel with him to his university. I have been able to really get a feel for Palestinian youth and how they feel about their religion and what is happening in the world... you would not believe all that I have learned that you would never find in a western text book. My sympathy to the palestinians grows every day. There is not much by way of adventures to report in the last couple days. Just making friends and reading a lot, while everyone is in their classes. So far on this trip, in the last two weeks I have read a facinating book describing some jewels of truth from the ancient Mayans... the book of Matthew... the Devil and Miss Prym (Coehlo)... an autobiography on Benjamin Franklin... and the little prince. I am missing just about every tourist site here, which has already committed me to come back through here one day with a rental car. Last week I met the only other American girl the Jordan Valley... she works with the peace corp. She invited me to take a little 24 hour trip with her and travel to Amman. There I met a really cool girl that convinced me to spend some time in Lebanon... so I guess that the promise of the most beautiful country and surf, has ended my philanthopic mission, and thursday I will be on my way north. Lebanon is a bit unstable right now, but I feel like I should go, so God is with me... but just in case you don't here from me... let the feds know where I am... hahaha (kinda). All is well here... I always land on my feet. God has been so generous this trip... I have not gone five minutes without being connected to someone who cound point me in the right direction. Hope all is well. cory

2008-03-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

So, as you can tell, my last entry was under the context that I only had a couple minutes and I did not know if I would be by a computer any time soon... let me fill in some of the details and commentary... Mnt. Sinai was a really neat experience... the hike was sweet and there was a deep feeling of sentimental value there... when we awoke in the morning we were surrounded by a couple hundred pilgrims like ourselves and he watched the sunrise to the soundtrack of muslim, christian and jewish groups singing praise to their God... also, that day on the way to the Isreali border we hired a bedouin to take us off road to the Arada canyon... a really cool Zion national park feel... It is really neat to spend time with the bedouins... besides the fact that they all have cell phones and smoke Marborros (sp?) they really live like they would have for the last thousand years... so then there was the border issue... I will tell that story in person to anyone who cares... really funny... so we were stuck in Taba, a border city... see picture. Then and there I had a choice to make... go on through to Isreal without Whitney... but still be able to hang with her friend that had taken the week off to show us around, or get off the beaten track... I did not come across the world to be a tourist, but to meet people and learn about the world... I decided to make the gamble... my plan was to cross the red sea, hitchhike through Jordan and end up in Syria or Lebanon.... find a place to hang and just make friends and learn arabic. At the ferry I ran into a really cool Jordanian kid... we got stuck in Nueba (again see picture).. over night.. which was not that bad... but then we literally waited in the ferry terminal for like seventeen hours for a ferry.. kinda crazy. I followed him back to his home and have loved every minute. After being surrounded by rocks and dirt for a week, we drove down and down into Jordan Valley... it really is beautiful and so peaceful. Don't worry, I won't really... but I feel like I could stay here forever. His family... poor as they are, and having met me for two minutes have taken me in just as one of their sons. It has been so so so cool... Before I leave I hope to spend a day out in the farm and a day out with the sheep. I have learned a lot about patience and hospitality and the importance of human relationships... I feel so lucky and blessed for the experiences so far... I think that I will save all the tourist stuff for me and my wife one day... and for now I will learn more about the bedouin life (Ahmed refers to his family as bedouins with technology). My arabic is coming slowly but surely. I have given up some really "fun" opportunities that I could have while hear... but this is just unreal... I can always do that stuff later... If you, and I mean you mom, have not signed up for facebook yet...do it!... all my pictures are there now... I have instructions on a former blog. Love you guys. Hope all is well. salam aliakom

2008-03-27T04:15:00.001-07:00

I have two minutes... sorry for the lack of detail... the last couple days have been unreal.... after we left Dahab, the town that we were scuba diving in... whitney and I traveled to st. Katrin... that night, about madnight, we began hiking and got to the top of mount sinai.... we found some blankets up there and slept for a couple hours... we woke up to the rising sun easter morning, standing at the top of mount sinai... ya... then off to Israel... when we got to the border, whitney had a problem with her Visa and the egyptian gov would not let her leave the country... we tried to sneak across the border but were "escorted" away from the border.... we stayed that night an a brilliant five star hotel and then said our goodbyes... I was done with anything remotely connected to tourism.... she went back to Cairo and I took a bus to Nuwebia... I waited for 32 hours for a ferry to take me across the Red Sea, and ended up in Joran... I met Ahmed... a twenty three year old Jordanian who has invited me to live with his family... I am living now in Jordan Valley indefinately... which is the most authentic middleaster experience that I could imagine... Right now I am on my way to a peace corp pow wow in Amman... the capitol of Jordan... I will upload pics and fill you in as soon as I can... I am perfectly safe and perfectly happy... love you all salam aliakom!

2008-03-27T04:02:00.000-07:00

I have two minutes... sorry for the lack of detail...

the last couple days have been unreal.... after we left Dahab, the town that we were scuba diving in... whitney and I traveled to st. Katrin... that night, about madnight, we began hiking and got to the top of mount sinai.... we found some blankets up there and slept for a couple hours... we woke up to the rising sun easter morning, standing at the top of mount sinai... ya...

then off to Israel... when we got to the border, whitney had a problem with her Visa and the egyptian gov would not let her leave the country... we tried to sneak across the border but were "escorted" away from the border....

we stayed that night an a brilliant five star hotel and then said our goodbyes... I was done with anything remotely connected to tourism....

she went back to Cairo and I took a bus to Nuwebia... I waited for 32 hours for a ferry to take me across the Red Sea, and ended up in Joran...

I met Ahmed... a twenty three year old Jordanian who has invited me to live with his family...

I am living now in Jordan Valley indefinately... which is the most authentic middleaster experience that I could imagine...

Right now I am on my way to a peace corp pow wow in Amman... the capitol of Jordan...

I will upload pics and fill you in as soon as I can...

I am perfectly safe and perfectly happy... love you all

salam aliakom!

2008-03-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

I had one more chance to record a couple things before I head off to Isreal... You know there are the most beautiful sights and experiences... and I wish that I could capture everything in a bottle or with my camera... but then I realized.... there is value in leaving some wonders where they are and going back one day to get the experience again. Yesterday was absolutely unbelievable!!! We woke up and decided that we wanted to dive in an area that was a bit more remote than the previous day... so we rented camels and rode five kilo's along the shore of the Red Sea that was not available except by Camel and 4x4's... even boats could not get there cause it was blocked by a reef... the diving was unbelievable... the visibility was over 75 feet... and the red sea is really really pretty... we dove along reef walls that went down two hundred feet and you really got the abyss feeing... we were fed a killer lunch on the beach and hit another really cool drift dive... the camel ride along the coast there was really cool... the ride back, with an AMAZING rising full moon reflecting off the sea on the way back was indescribable... it was really perfect... everything today has been chill... I am fighting a little bit of a stomach thing... but that is to be expected.... You would not believe how inexpensive it is to do stuff here in Dahab and how nice the people are... I still have several weeks, tons to do, but still no agenda... what more could I ask for... I am going to try to upload some pics on facebook, but I have been having some struggles with that one... hope all is well... cory

2008-03-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

So Here I am in Dahab... where is that... it is on the eastern coast of the Sinai Pen. Last night aroung seven, we jumped in the car with some of Whitney's friends and drove eight hours under the suez canal, across the vast deserts of egypt... past Mnt. Sinai and on to our destination at some of the best scuba diving in the world. On the way I asked every question that I have ever had about the near east, it's history and Islam... when my questions were over, we got there... This morning we got up and scubad?..scubaed?... did scuba?...scuba-ed?... you pic, at some great sights. We saw all kinds of reef and fish and all that other good stuff down there... after two dives... a super cool lunch on the red sea and some off roading, whit and I hiked up into the mountains... I kept thinking to myself... for most people that I know... including myself... all this stuff is just storied out of the Bible... but, no, I have driven past the place thaat Moses was supposed to have crossed the Red Sea! so the diving and the hike was sweet... we came down from the hike... still at our off road attained dive location... where some locals had set us up with an AMAZING fish dinner, sitting on carpets, only feet away from the lapping shores of the Red Sea. not a bad day. This trip is only a couple days long, most of it has been traveling, but it has already far exceeded my expectations... I freak'n love beeing here... thius place has so much soul... Arabs and desert everywhere and I love them both... there is still a ton that I want to... am planning to do... but so far... no plan at all has worked great... I would like to tell you some of the people that I have met and the adventures that are in the works... but you would think that it is too good to be true... and you might not like me anymore. I love you guys... if you don't hear from me for a bit the next couple days should included more diving, some rock climbing... a hike up a little hill called Mt. Sinai and eventually I should end up in Isreal... don't worry I have a helmet and bullet proof vest for the shrapnel... one little side note... it takes FOREVER to upload a picture to my blog... so I put the one that best summarizes my trip so far. From now on I will be posting all my pics on my EGYPT album on my facebook... now mom, and leanna and anyone else not plugged into facebook... please do not panic and do one simple thing... go to facebook.com... create a profile... if you don't fill out any info, this will literally take you thirty seconds... then search Cory Tanner Glazier... press "ad as friend"... then from then on out, (once I ad you, that is), you will be able to log on, click on my face on your profile... and look at all my pics... trust me.. this way I will be able to put up way more pics... cool? love you guys.. take care... oh ya, how are the gas prices there?... we pay about $1.20 per gallon...hahaha

2008-03-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hey there!!! I have landed in Cairo... for concerned about my traveling safety. Just want to let you know... that when you fly on Russian Air... you get a very authentic Russian Experience. Moscow was really cool... and when I say that... I mean I looked at a bunch of those dolls that fit inside each other in the International Terminal (the had one of BUSH!) I met several really cool Russians and made a pledge to go back there one day. The flight to Cairo was fine. It feels really cool to know that in the last eighteen hours I have been over and looked at the north pole, stood in the country that is not much more than cold war text book material to most of us... and now, typing as the sun will rise, am listening to the calls to prayer by the mosques that surround me as I sit in an apartment in the middle of Cairo that is on an island in the middle of the Nile... not a bad day. (sorry, no pics)

Surfing... it's good for the soul

2008-03-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

The name of the game the last couple days has been surfing... not just normal surfing though.. it has been surfing that requires your who heart and soul. A solid swell came through that we had been waiting for... and it did good. We positioned ourselves at some killer breaks for the peak of the swell. some of these shots are taken at a beachbreak called playa gande and the other... the big right at the bottom is a right point reef break called playa negra.. this was a pretty heavy wave that broke on a couple feet of water... with big rocks waiting for you to make a mistake... I have no doubt surfed harder in the last couple days than any other time in my life... We have had killer dawn and sunset sessions every day of the swell... trying to rest our faculties in between. These waves were coming in like machines... at one break, playa aviana at the rivermouth... I had massive peeling off lefts all to myself... surfing my brains out into the setting sun... one evening, as these sets were coming through... the best way to tell you the feeling you get as the lines come in is as thought these were giant green sentinels sent to guard the horizon... so many waves lead to the make or break moments... there was no time for hesitation or doubt... other sessions, especially the reef break were pretty crouded. Imagine paddling into ten foot faces surrounded by people on both sides... off shore winds howling like nothing you have ever felt before... while you are trying to judge the waves and the people around you, the ocean, do to the heavy winds, is dumping five gallon bucket of water after five gallon bucket of water on your head... as you try to analyze your surroundings all you see is the little balls of foam that are illuminated by the rising sun and the face of the wave is one giant reflector blinding your view... you just have the opportunity to decide... thats is all that you can take creadit for... deciding... you have to trust your subconscious responses to do the rest... We had some killer waves and a ton of fun... I was lucky enough to have a couple photographers on the beach that snapped a couple shots... as always... these by no means capture the size of the biggest waves that we surfed.. but they do show how much fun we were having... after a couple of these session all I couple do was go sit on the deck of our hostile... with the warm costa rican breeze and write down my feelings of these marvelous surf sessions. Yesterday Josh and I said our fairwell to Mike and jumped on a bus from Liberia to Punteranous... as I walked up to the ferry station I was confromted by my favorite short blonde utahn in the world... nelson and I rendevoued thousands of miles away from home... we jumped on a ferry which took us over the the peninsula... hopped a cab across to mal pais... and twelve hours of travelling we arrived in our new destination... again we are carless... but we are surrounded by friends.. amaving waves, and a really cool new little beach town.

2008-02-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

The last couple days have totally been a blast... we finaly left Nosara... which was awesome...but it was just time to move on... you know?... mike and josh and I through aroung travel plans for days until we decided what to do... the big plan was to hit the mountain scene for a couple days, then swing by some northern beach braeks when the swell hit... so we drove for hours on dirt roads to a national park just to find out that it was closed... the joke for the day was... who closes a mountain?... we were hot and dirty and all that we wanted to do was surf, so we turned around drove forever again and hit a beach called playa grande... really really good surf!... kinda a DMJ`s beach break... we surfed till dark and were as happy as can be... that night after dinner and all I went for my nighttly walk on the beach... clear the mind, think about the future, enjoy the dark and make the most of every second in central america, type of nightly walks... as I approached the sand I was confronted by two guys that came out of the dark with red flashlights... and informed me that the beach was closed... who closes a beach?.. turns out they were environmentalist protecting the beaches that the leatherback turtles hang out on at night... who knew?... the next morning we surfed our brains out (at home I used to surf for an hour... here three minimun!)... , got in the car and drove back to that national park!.... the hike was amazing and the waterfall was really spiritual... we just sat around and meditated around this beautiful pool... we swam and I climbed up the falls a bit... the pic is me doing my bhudda thing under the water fall... the water is coming down WAY harder than it looks. drove back to playa grande and surfed this morning forever... way over head and macking like a beast... it has been fun to feel like I am taking my surfing up the next level... it is easy to do with so many waves... I actually had this photographer on the beach snap a couple shots... will include those on my next blog... we are going to cruise down the coast looking for the best breaks (there is a killer swell moving through for the next couple days)... my friend nelson just flew in to san jose so I have to figure out how/where to meet up with him... so mike... this 32 year old attorney that we have been hanging out with has this huge resource of knowledge and life lessons that he is genorous to share... the quote of my trip is this, prehaps one of the most profound quote I have ever heard...`when you practice something you get better.... you are ALWAYS practicing.` I decided to walk around smiling when ever I think about it... it makes you a happier person. I love you guys.. thanks for your support... pura vida.

2008-02-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

This is Chris... he has been hanging out in costa rica for a couple years... he´s only ninteen now.... ya... do the math... chill guy... very evident that costa rica does not demand huge amounts of mental stimulous... a really good guy... lots of experiences that your average 19 year old would only dream about...

Charging some of these crazy dirt roads in the middle of the night with Mike in his rental SUV... he drives pretty hard... notice the concentration on his face... he is a lawer down here building a house...

Yesterday I went out to breakfast at this nicer place... after I ordered I jumped in the pool to cool off... I think all restraunts should have pools!... this guy came cruising up next to the pool´s edge.

This is the path that I walk on every day to go surfing... there is no building for a couple hundred yards off the beach. THe surf is better in the afternoons here... so everyday we surf till dark... nothing quite like watching an AMAZING sunset...catching really fun waves, stewing in perfectly warm water with a warm breeze and some good friends... life is good.. pura vida

2008-02-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

The last couple days have been as sweet and chill as ever... really nothing breathtaking or epiphanical to report... we are still chilling in Nosara... abour to leave for a couple day raod trip through nicaruagua tomorrow... I was hooked up to join in on this really high end, two hour yoga class in the middle of the jungle... I hoped that I would run into some cool yogis in costa and it turns out that nosara is like the yoga capitol of costa rica... Not sure if it hapened up there but there was a really sweet luner eclipse here the other day, well, night that is... my friend is building a house in the middle of the jungle and it has been fun to help him work on that... kinda a unique opportunity... the waves have been smaller than usual... but there is a nation wide surf comp in Nosara this weekend so there has been tons of people and it has kinda been jammin around here... I ventured out into the night life this weekend... the bars and clubs are about what you could imagine.. kinda dirty... tons of guys... and funked up central american music. kinda getting antsy to et out of this town... the next couple weeks of the journey are pretty planned out though so it should be fun. I am just finishishing up another one of Paulo Coehlo´s books, the pilgrimage,.... I highly recommend it. love you all... enjoy the pics!... fill you in soon.

peaceful and tranquill so far

2008-02-22T12:42:00.000-08:00

Today is Friday... been here for just over a week, but it really feels like forever... life is just super slow and chill around here. The last couple days have consisted of lots and lots of surfing... and a bit of speculation. I spent a couple hours with some real estate folks and got the lowdown on investment ideas for down here... seems pretty solid... Above, at the request of Calee is the picture of a costa rican armadillo... this guy cruises through our back yard every afternoon... and no, I have not seen him roll up into a ball yet. The four guys in the pic, mike, me, josh and martin are the main guys that I have been hanging out with... such awesome guys... I feel super dupper blessed to have been thrown together with such a solid group in my hostel. Mike is building a house in the jungle, which I have been able to help out on... and the building has gotten a bit behind schedule, and he is our ride to nicaruagua, so our trip up there has been postponed. Nelson, my buddy from my mission is coming down here in a couple days to meet up and hit the culture and the waves. As far as life lessons go... I have really come to enjoy the value of slowing down life a bit... I have been able to spend all kinds of time just haning out and talking and thinking and reading... and you that know me well, know that is not all in my nature. I hope that the feelings that I have had done here will stick around when I get thrown back in yestern society... I will have to take this ¨you are in costa rica, and you have nothing to worry about´... and put it in a jar and take it home with me. Yes mom, I am perfectly safe and well... yes bishop, I am behaving myself... and yes calee, I am eating plenty... in fact, last night we spent all night cooking and eating, cooking and eating.... I don´t think I will eat for a week. it has been a lot of fun spending way more time in a kitchen then I am used to... we buy all our groceries raw and fresh from the market... and we have whipped together some pretty solid meals. I love you guys...nothing to worry about here... gotta go paddle out for the afternoon sesh. Pura Vida.

Life in Costa

2008-02-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

Life here has been perfect! everything has met and exceeded my expectations. I am in love with this place. The guys that I have met are really cool... everyone comes from different backgrounds so there is a lot to learn. The surf has been super duper fun. I bought a 6´ 4 epoxy al merrick surf board, so I am set for the rest of the trip. I didn´t intend for this to be a surf trip... but it has and it is amazing! I started itching yesterday and since have realized that I have about a hundred (not exagerating) spider bites all over my lages and arms... no biggy though... got some stuff to take away the itching. Monkeys... cool... they are called howlers and they are so freaking cool. the armadillos are pretty cool to. This place, Nosara is epically chill. I thought I would stay here the whole month... but it is a little too chill. I am leaving tomorrow to go on a surf trip through nicaruaga... the surf is supposed to be amazing and I am going to get the scoop on the real estate up there... this one guy that I know bought some land in nosara, where I am, for seven thousand bucks a couple years ago and now the land alone is worth over $3oo,ooo! I have locked arms with a new friend Josh. He is the chillest guy that I have ever met... super deep and a good surfer. Also fluent in spanish... I think I will be travelling with him for the rest of the time. I will keep you posted.. gotta get some footage of the waves... surfed for hours and hours today. Yoga starts in a couple minutes. pura vida

2008-02-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

I have found Paradise! Yesterday at the bus terminal I ran into two angels LJ and Jordan... they saved me from going to a lame, not so amazing surf, over crowded tourist trap... so I ended up following them on eight hours worth of buses across rocky dirt roads in a school bus that I think I recognize from elementary school. We arrived in Nosara... which is everything that I could ask for... there is a super chill hostel... plenty of english speakers... very little tourism... great food.. and all the waves that I could ask for. I have already paddled out twice. Some people have let me borrow boards... but my next mission is to look for one to buy.... the beach right in front of the town is a really fun beach break... kinda a combo of tamarack and blacks... easy take offs.. not super fast... but is strong all the way through and peals off to the shore... I will leave out details of the AMAZING water conditions... just so that you don´t hate too much. I will keep in touch every couple days... so don´t freak if you don´t hear from me... this is a really safe place. I love you mom... and anyone else who cares to follow my journey.

2008-02-14T22:15:00.000-08:00

The plane ride was pretty typical.. LA to phoenix to Costa Rica. I ended up meeting a pretty cool computer programer on the plane that kind of saved my life a bit the first night. I did not anticipate the language barrier to be that big of a deal... but I was stoked to get a cab, dinner and a hostel with him, being a spanish speaker. San Jose is a bit ghetto... but the hostel is super chill. Tomorrow I plan to get to the bus station and get out to Tamarindo... a costal town... wish me luck.

Embarkment

2008-02-14T05:06:00.000-08:00

So... here goes. I feel like I am at the threashhold of a new phase of my life. I have always wanted to just go... and that is exactly what I am doing. I have a plane ticket to Costa Rica and that is all that I know. Where I end up and what I will do is up to destiny. I have been up all night preparing and I am getting ready to drive away. Please stay in touch with my blog and I promise to keep you up to date with my adventures and epiphanies...

here goes, just getting warmed up.

2008-01-28T00:54:00.001-08:00