Sustainable Development in Islam

In addition to our stereotype discussion in Tinjdad, we got a unique opportunity to sit in on a sustainable development presentation.

At the local high school, Hachimi gave a presentation on a topic that's become a large part of what we're doing, and part of my own personal goals. However, Hachimi surprised everyone at the last minute and tweaked his presentation topic from a simple "Sustainable Development in the World" to "Sustainable Development in Islam".

Islam keeps coming up in every last aspect of everyone's life here. Religion is so powerful and so prominent in everyone's lives. Some rough notes of his outline and presentation are as follows:

Intro
His intro began with, "In the name of Allah, the most merciful." He focused his argument on human entitlement to nature and stressed that we are nature's manager, not owner.

Land Reclamation
He started with verses from Koran and went into human responsibility as dictated by Allah. "Plant a tree, but don't forget that it's a gift from Allah, and if an animal eats from it, you will be rewarded in the afterlife."

Water Pollution
"No one should bathe in the water if they are unclean." He related that the only reason to have clean water is because you need it to clean yourself before you pray. So if the water is polluted, then you can't clean yourself in order to pray.

Sustainable Forestry
"If anyone plants a tree, they will be rewarded in the hereafter. Advise troops to not kill trees or animals."

Knowledge and Education
"Allah taught Adam the names of all things. This is why only humans have the knowlege of nature."

Poverty and Alleviation
"Poverty is described in Islam through a direct connection to language." Meaning there are specific words in Arabic that translate to poverty and alleviation principles.

Responsibilities Toward Underprivilaged Communities
Sustainable development is compatible with Islam in social, econimical, ecological, and political realms.

Questions from the presenter's peers:
What is the water pollution connection to sustainable development in islam?
"View water to clean your body. We need to clean before prayer."

Is there a difference between sustainable development and Islam and other religions?
"No idea."

Do all Muslim nations practice this example of sustainable development?
"Modernization is the problem for other countries. Islam accepts positive points of modernization."

How do we do this?
"Change peoples' minds"

Moderization isn't against Islam?
"Not all countries use koran as source of law."

My Thoughts
This was a challenge for me to write about neutrally. Tim pointed out that due to my natural aversion to religion, not just to Islam, that I'm biased about the twist on this sustainable development presentation. Perhaps so. I should be proud that someone is using something they believe in to make a connection to something that's good for the planet's continued health. I can definitely see the value in using a language that people understand to communicate complex principles. If people don't care about garbage and pollution, why not use a religion, like Islam, to draw a connection to the problem that people can recognize?

It was an interesting perspective on one topic I know well, and on another that keeps popping up and confusing me.

To my faithful readers - If you're not reading Tim's blog, you might be missing a significant part of my story! Some say his blogs aren't quite as magnificent as mine, others say his might be slightly more profound... Check it out!

Stereotypes in Morocco

Our first official project! And my, how successful it was!

Chris had managed to round up 20 Moroccans between the age of 15 and 21, plus two translators from the community of Tinjdad, for an intense two hour discussion! They were a great group - well prepared, and very insightful on our chosen topic of stereotypes!

We led through some examples and jokes about what a stereotype is and kind of how they exist. Our participants caught on quickly and we immediately had a sound discussion on our hands.

Tim and I asked them to brain storm some common stereotypes in their lives. The first one mentioned had to do with the level of conservatism in their town with respect to how women are supposed to dress. We talked about that a little bit, and found that the stereotype made some women uncomfortable - as you can imagine. It didn't take long, after that to start hearing other stereotypes.

They had a list of many different kinds of stereotypes and then we broke them up into four groups of four or five people to: choose a stereotype to discuss, vote on whether or not the stereotype is consistent with the truth, give examples of how the stereotype can be corrected or broken down, and finally to discuss the consequences of such a stereotype.

For their discussions, the four groups chose the following four stereotypes:

• Americans teach us well.
• Americans are rich and have nice lives.
• Americans look down on other people.
• Islam = terror.

Americans teach us well.
This stereotype came about because there have been five Peace Corps Volunteers at this site, and they have effectively created a reputation of being good teachers. While this felt like a compliment to me, I had to dig a little deeper. Turns out, this perspective was generated because the Americans that they know are better at teaching them English than the Moroccans they know. To their surprise, I explained that there are a lot of people in the United States that don't even speak English!

Americans are rich and have nice lives.
This group dispelled this stereotype after talking about what they had seen on the news after Hurricane Katrina. They decided that, in fact, there are people in America who aren't rich and who don't have nice lives. They also brought Rap music into the discussion and pointed out that the Rappers sing about how hard their lives are... I felt the first example was quite a bit more powerful.

Americans look down on other people.
The third group felt this way because in many popular movies they see Americans depicted as more powerful or "better" than Arabs. They then reinforced their stereotype from what they see happening in the news with respect to international politics. After voting and discussing for a while, they came to the conclusion that not all Americans look down on other people, and used us Peace Corps Volunteers as examples. By being here, in Morocco, and by forming friendships and bonds with these students, they can see a contrast to what different forms of media are telling them.

Islam = Terror
Of course this is not a stereotype belonging to our participants, but they are well aware that it exists in Europe and across the ocean. It was clear to see that they were quite offended by this stereotype and were quick to point out it's falacies. They contradicted the misled belief that all Muslims are terrorists because they themselves are Muslims and are, in fact, not terrorists. They further supported their argument by stating that terrorist groups exist who are not Muslim, citing the ETA in Spain, and the IRA in Northern Ireland. They concluded their argument by citing that the Koran and Islam teach Muslims to be tolerant of and peaceful to other religions.
We talked about the consequences of these stereotypes and explained that stereotypes beget stereotypes, throwing those involved into the realms of a destructive state of fear and anger over what people do not understand.

In conclusion we discussed further the consequences of stereotypes and emphasized that it was important for all people to not always take things at face value - to think about what they're hearing and to consider that it may not be true for all people.

Our group was a great, intelligent group and they were extremely insightful about how Moroccans view the West. It was nice to hear what another culture thinks about my own culture, but at the same time, I found it a bit disheartening that some of these stereotypes exist about my home. I completely understand, though, because stereotypes from my home must certainly equally dishearten them. In the end, my opinion is still to not judge a person or a culture based on hearsay and rumors. It's an opinion that I feel was shared this night by all participants.

I Bless the Kids Down in Africa!

We arrived to Tinjdad where we met up with our Peace Corps connection - Chris Blackwood. He took us on a walk through a little part of town called a duwar, which is kind of like a separated neighborhood. Our mission was to get some interesting photographs of how the locals here live - clay houses, dirt roads, palm tree oases, etc.


Upon our entrance to the duwar, we passed through a group of kids who saw Tim's camera and immediately wanted their picture taken! Tim humored them with his youth skills and got them riled up about posing. After that, they decided to follow us on our hike through the palm oasis. We had 18 following us, giggling, yelling, laughing, and posing to get their photo taken again and again. The boys were really aggressive, and the girls were super shy! I accidentally made one girl cry by walking towards her with a big smile on my face! After some time though, even the girls wanted their pictures taken. We taught them English words like sun, moon, and tree - whatever we could point at. We taught high-fives and learned the word for friend and said it over and over and over! When the kids started asking for money, I turned it around on them and asked them for money. One kid actually gave me two Durhams! Of course I didn't keep it. They were persistent in asking for some kind of gift so I gave in and made the mistake of giving something... I gave one kid an old earplug I had in my bag. He ran to Chris, who speaks Arabic, and said "Your friend gave me this. Can I eat it?" as he was putting it into his mouth! After that, all the kids wanted an earplug! Oops - won't do that again!

The experience as a whole was overwhelming in a delightful way. A crazy, huge group of kids followed us around for nearly an hour with a level of excitement that could have powered the towns electricity needs for a week!

I've Been through the Desert on a Bus with no Name!

A very unsuccessful beginning started one of our most successful days.

Woke up super early in Taghazout in order to get on a bus and head up into the mountains. We were to catch a bus from Agadir and travel to Ouarzazate, however Agadir proved to be more than we had planned for. We wasted four hours hopping from station to station trying to find any bus leaving town. No dice. After the forth station, we decided to take a taxi to the next town over and catch a bus from there. The bus station was a chaotic mess of ticket sellers running toward us trying to guess where we were going and all fighting to sell us a ticket! We were lost and had an incapacitating deficiency of the French language, which all the locals seem to know.

Greeting the ticket sellers with the two Arabic words we know made a group of gals giggle and Tim caught the word "British" to which he turned and said, "No, we're American. Do you think you could help us out?" For the next hour or so, we had three wonderful new friends: Siham, Ilham, and Wafa. They were all studying English at the University and have dreams of becoming teachers! They were very interested in the project we were doing to educate Americans about other cultures and to educate other cultures about Americans.

We talked a bit about their lives and compared studies and career goals in the U.S. and Morocco. They helped us buy some food from the market and get situated with our bus. It was a kindness we had heard about but not yet experienced. And it initiated a whole new perspective on this beautiful country.

On the bus, we met a man named Abder who we had the great opportunity to converse with at great lengths. We talked about gold mining and mineralogy (his old profession), olive and almond harvesting (his new profession), work or lack thereof and poverty in Morocco, politics and the King of Morocco, relationships, sex, and love - everything under the sun!

And under the sun we were. Even in winter, the Moroccan sun is a strong one! I can't begin to imagine what summer is like. Abder told us that as we left the city and headed up the mountain, the temperature would drop significantly. It didn't. Not on the bus, anyway. The winding roads yielded view after view of a beautiful, yet rugged landscape. Despite its beauty, I can't seem to grasp how people are living out here. The soil seems so... so non-existent! It looks like everywhere is a giant field of rocks with very few determined and uncompromising plant species that have managed to find a way to live. We occasionally passed Argon trees to which some shepherd had led his flock of goats. Tim and I would stare like tourists at the goats, which had managed to climb the trees in order to eat their fruit. Can you even imagine - a goat, 15 feet in the air and quite literally out on a limb, trying to find food? Neither can we, and that's why we stared!

Abder was very willing to share with us, and it seemed he was almost nearly as willing to hear what we had to share. Much of the conversation he related back to Islam. From what I understand, which I'll admit, isn't much, Islam is the culture of Morocco. It seems to dictate and fully define every aspect of these peoples' lives, traditions, celebrations, food, relationships, clothing, character, behavior in public, gender roles, and even their language. Understanding the culture of Morocco will only be possible by having some understanding of Islam.

We lost the battle of the buses and consequently didn't make it all the way to Ouarzazate. We had to stop for the night in a small village called Taliouine. There we met an interesting character named Abdula.Abdula was an intensely excited individual trying to make it through university. He spoke Berber, Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian, and English! He had never even received formal English lessons! Very impressive! Abdula exhibited so much potential, but was limited by unfortunate circumstances in his life. Instead of finishing his degree in Spanish Literature, he has come home to work in order to support his family. It sounds sad from a western perspective, but there is no sadness in his soul. Every fiber of his being was glowing with enthusiasm at the chance to speak with a couple of Americans. He told us about Morocco, about the history of the Berber people and the three Berber dialects in Morocco. From there, our conversation moved on to stereotypes, prejudices and religion. And when I say 'religion' I mean Islam. It seems that most conversations lead to or end up at Islam. I need to explore that further to have a better insight into these peoples thinking.

At the end of the day, we had come from not really experiencing any of Morocco's culture - only observing it - to three wonderful, insightful experiences and five new friends! All five of our new friends have invited us back to their villages after we complete our project in Tinjdad! Their generosity and kindness is something as foreign as their language to me. It's a welcomed and refreshing change from the rough start we had in Morocco.

International Language: Taekwondo! Choo-ahh!

Tim wanted to learn Taekwondo, and I have been itching at the chance to train again so we made plans during this trip to train. And in the beach town of Taghazout, we're finding that we have lots of free time because we don't have surfboards.

This is a laid back, quiet community, nearly how I would imagine a typical surfer town on the West Coast to be... about 30 or 40 years ago! Now I get what the Beach Boys were singing about!

The beach here is big and beautiful. Perfect sand, perfect surf! And there's nobody in sight! We set out for our first formal Taekwondo lesson and it was intense! I really worked Tim hard! Half-way through our session, a young girl walked up out of nowhere and said, "Taekwondo?" She didn't speak any English, just Arabic and French (just!), but had trained in Taekwondo at some point in her past and wanted to work out with us. She knew the first three forms, exactly as I had been taught - half a world away!It's a cool feeling to know that despite our differences, and total lack of communication - we were able to establish a bond with this young Moroccan girl on the basis of world's most popular Martial Art. It's as exciting as the universal language of math - no matter where you are, our base 10 mathematical system is the same! And here we are, in a foreign country, where we don't speak the any of the local languages nor have we successfully integrated into the local cultures, Yet, we were able to make a connection with someone - to teach and to learn - with the international language of Taekwondo to communicate similarities in personal development through exercise and philosophy.We trained for nearly two hours in total, and just after the sun set, I dismissed my new class. Raza, our new friend, communicated that she wanted to train with us again. I showed her on her watch when we could meet - the next day at 10am.The next day, Tim and I ran on the beach in the morning for a warm up and began class at 10am. Raza showed up around 10:30 so I made her do push-ups for being late. She explained to me that she lived three or four towns away in Agadir and had to take the bus to meet us. "Too bad!" I responded! Haha! All in good fun! I taught a new set of material and enjoyed the diversity in students. I felt proud to share a martial art that's become such a significant part of who I am!

The Last Express Train to Marrakech

After our week's stay in Sevilla, we pushed on southbound! It was hard to leave such a beautiful city. During our stay we met people from all over the world and explained our project. Everyone was quite enthused for us and we greatly appreciated the international support!

We arrived in Tanger by way of ferry from Algerciras. We got taken for tickets and paid too much, and that seemed to set the pace for much of our time in Morocco.

Much to our disappointment, our first project partner, Moroccan NGO CADIX, turned out to be a scam. We've been in communication with them for more than half a year and just a couple days prior to our arrival they emailed us and informed us of the "price" to volunteer... Money had never before been mentioned, even when we asked, and being that we would rather be able to get to more organizations, we had to tell CADIX to take a hike.

In order to salvage our time in Morocco, we went back to our roots - the Peace Corps! We found a Youth Development Volunteer that has agreed to let us come and be guest speakers at his school. So we're going to prepare a discussion on stereotypes!

Speaking of stereotypes, here is what we've seen of Morocco:

Tim and I hit the ground running, almost literally! As soon as the boat landed we were on a mission to get to the train station. Exiting the boat was like jumping into the ball pit at McDonalds - and each ball wanted to sell us something. Chaos! After some time we got to the train station and booked our overnight train to Marrakech.

Arriving in Marrakech was more of the same - a giant ball pit! You can say "no" a million times and never get out of the pit. From taxis and hotels to hash-hish and directions, it's one scamming ball after another.


We found a cheap hotel, and later found that it could have been cheaper... There are no set prices here - on anything. And even though we're well aware that locals are paying a small fraction of what we're paying - we find it a bit difficult to pay less than cheap European prices. We're definitely treated more as an opportunity than a friend.


As we walk through the streets, we're constantly hassled: "Come into my shop", "That way is closed up ahead", "Hash-hish", "We have rooms, very cheap", "Let me show you something", and on and on and on. And it never ends! It's impossible to stand in one place and just observe! Even if we had money to shop with, the sales technique here is so overpowering that it turns off anyone with an interest in whatever product is being offered. And by 'offered' I mean 'pushed'. One young kid said to us, "The tannery is that way." We didn't have an agenda so we took that street to go see the tannery. He followed us and started giving a tour of the streets. Immediately, we stopped and said, "Thanks, but we don't have any money to pay you." "No problem, don't worry" he responded and continued "showing us the way"... His intentions were as apparent as my draining wallet: take us through the maze of streets that is Marrakech to get us lost and then ask for money to get us back. Eventually, he did lead us to the tannery and it was every bit as impressive as any other ditch filled with smelly water and animal carcasses. Great. Then he asked us for a "gift". When we told him that we already told him we wouldn't pay him, he got pissed, called us "Jewish people" and disappeared, leaving us in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us, we had our walking legs on and enjoyed exploring Marrakech.

The city itself is quite beautiful. The big Atlas Mountains in the background. The most perfect minaret near the center. The architecture, arches, streets, fashion, people, everything! And the food! There are spices and flavors here that I've never even imagined! It's all so different and interesting! In the main square, there're thousands of people at any given moment throughout the day (and night) busy selling fruit, nuts, juices or performing - snake tamers, musicians, story tellers - the works! Kids run through the streets banging on drums - sometimes they'll gather in small groups and "rock out" to the random, unorganized beat of 10 drums drumming. It's sensory overload everywhere you look! There is so much life happening in every direction, at every moment, in every way!

Later, we managed to strike up a conversation with a young shop keeper on the street who seemed interested in things other than selling us women's shoes so we stayed a while and chatted. Yunis was 27 and had been taking English lessons for 3 months. He seemed like a good guy so we mentioned that we'd come back to this area of town and invited him for dinner with us. We met him at 7pm and he took us to a tiny food shop that we had been eyeing. We had a great conversation about Moroccan people - the Arabs and the Berbers - life and work in Morocco. It all went great until it was time to pay. Scam. We figured since we were with a "friend" that we didn't need to haggle before we ordered. Our meal was much smaller than anything else we had gotten at proper restaurants, and I didn't even get a drink, but the price was the same as other places. Thanks, Yunis, didn't think we had to pay for the conversation...

These experiences left me wondering - is this a simple difference in cultures or are we being consistently taken advantage of because we're different? The answer came to me on a bus ride to Essaouira as I started to observe the locals' interaction with each other.

I took a giant leap backwards to escape my Cartesian perspective and learned that the beauty and mystery that Morocco has to offer are still far from our grasp. We haven't even found the surface - much less figured out a way to scratch at it! I arrogantly thought we could walk into this culture and learn about it. In fact, it will be nearly impossible to do that without some kind of help. What we've been seeing in Morocco has been the tourist image of the country. It doesn't accurately represent the people or their culture. Once I started watching Moroccans interact with each other, rather than waiting to be accepted in order to gain insight, I found a much broader and beautiful perspective of Morocco. Now, instead of scam, cheat, and discrimination, I see friendship, loyalty, passion, beauty, tradition, faith, love, and ambition! It's beautiful! And, oh how nice it would be to integrate... just a little!


After our project partner, CADIX, left us high and dry, we thought we'd not get the chance for any bit of integration. However, with our new Peace Corps contact it's looking like we may get an opportunity! We can't wait to get to his village and get an insiders perspective on Morocco!

T Minus - Ready, Set - Hey, We Already Started!

Tim and I met up in Lisbon and immediately began our cultural exploration agenda!
To attain the most cultural insight possible, we're trying as much as possible to stay with local people instead of staying in hostels. Our first hosts were a gay couple in Lisbon - Marco and Sergio - a couple of rockin good guys! They accepted our request to stay with them over the New Years holiday and invited us to partake in their party with their friends! Sergio cooked up a feast and we all debated different perspectives on politics, religion, global climate change, and lifestyle - the works! We heard more of the stereotypical European viewpoint that the stereotypical American is ignorant to most international affairs.
With our new found friendship, we made a lot of jokes about stereotypes about gay and straight communities. As the night went on, the music played and the wine flowed. We started dancing and singing to a bunch of stereotypical "gay" music: Madonna, Prince, The Village People and the like. Marco and Sergio did an amazing dance routine to "It´s Raining Men" for Tim that had everyone busting up! When a less "gay" song came on, Tim and I started singing along. Sergio turned it off and said, "Oh my god, that is so straight!" We about died laughing!

I learned something very significant from Sergio. I had previously embraced "tolerance" as an argument settler. For example, I would state that a person doesn't have to necessarily accept a religion, but should have tolerance for it, in order to maintain peace. But respecting a person for who they are and what they believe, instead of simply tolerating them, is a much more sustainable foundation for peace. I don't have to accept what a person believes as a part of my own personal values, but respecting their decisions and choices for their own life presents a much more powerful platform for mutual understanding and integrated peace.
It was also nice to have such open acceptance into a gay community. In my previous experience with gay friends, I've found myself discriminated against for being straight - like they're elitists, looking down on me from a pedestal. However, Marco and Sergio (and their friends) accepted us, a couple of straight guys, to share the best holiday of the year! Smashing my previously formed stereotype felt good - as it normally does to realize something new about the world that can bring a smile to your face. We danced and sang and laughed together! I can't think of more fun people with whom to spend my favorite holiday! Our extreme high at having had this experience came crashing down during the first night of our project.

We said goodbye to Marco and Sergio and then Marco took us to the train station to get our train. Unfortunately, he took us to the wrong station, so we missed our train. This would prove to be an indicator of how the rest of our first day would go...

We jumped on a bus south, to Albufeira with only one other passenger. 3.5 hours later, we arrived. It was dark by the time we left the bus station. We headed toward the beach for some beach camping. Tim said he expected to hike about an hour, and I was more hoping for 15 minutes after not having slept much the previous night. We hiked and hiked and hiked and never found a beach, but headed in a direction we thought would lead us out of town. Looking for somewhere to set up camp! We hiked down the highway for 2 hours before we decided we needed some food and found ourselves a supermarket. Made cheese sandwiches, drank cheap wine, and had ourselves a very nice conversation!

Tired and ready for bed, we found a covered patch of bushes off the main road that concealed us if we laid down. So we busted our out sleeping bags and went to sleep. And we slept great, for 2.5 hours... then the rain started... Packed up our stuff and headed for cover. After about another hour of hiking, we ended up huddled in a bus stop trying, with some degree of success, to escape the rain and wind. Slept for about an hour until the rain stopped and we decided to find better shelter. Hiked again, for an hour or two - completely worn out and sore - until we started running out of homes and businesses around us. All of a sudden it started raining again - hard! We took the first thing we could find - the patio of an unsold house. It was cold, windy, wet and down right miserable! At 4.30am some guy yelled at us to figure out what we were doing. When he saw we were just avoiding the torrential rainfall, he motioned for us that it was ok to stay. This was the hardest part of the night. I was sick, hungry, cold, and my head started hurting badly just as I ran out of food and water! 6.30 rolled around and the rain had stopped so Tim and I decided to keep on traveling. We hiked another hour to some tiny village and suddenly saw a sign that said "bus stop" in plain English! Hot damn! Waited an hour for the bus and found our way to Faro.

We were both ready to crash, but had to wait for the tourist office to open so that we could find a hostel. Around 10am we were there... but learned that the check in time wasn´t until 5pm!!! So we sluggishly killed 7 hours before we were finally able to rest!

This is how you start an adventure!

Home on La Grange!

Tim and I have both been back home from the Peace Corps for a good chunk of time now and we've done our best to prepare for this next amazing mission of cultural exploration and international community service!

While at home, I have had the chance to see my family and a lot of my good friends, and i even had some adventures. Unfortunately there isn't enough time to see everyone... I also tried to lay out a plan for my next step in life - grad school and beyond.

I tried not to adjust to America too much because I'd just be leaving again so soon, and I wanted to maintain a traveling mentality. Some things about home made me laugh, however, some things, like the Northwest outdoors, and enjoying some nice home cooking were too much to pass up!

Aside from spending time with my family - a couple of highlights of my brief trip home were:

Hunting for Razor clams on the Pacific Ocean coast in Washington State! We spent a few hours on a cold, beautiful evening with big plastic PVC (polyvinyl chloride (I'm a scientist!)) tubes that we would use to suck unsuspecting clams out of their comfortable sandy homes! As we strolled through the surf, waves would roll in and out, covering all the holes people had made in the sand while collecting their dinner. There were clam hunters as far as I could see - north and south - every one of them staring intently at the sand by their feet! There was a limit of 15 clams per person, which was easily met on the first day of the season, but I arrived only for the second day and only made it to eight clams by the time the sun sank behind the waves. Cleaned some clams, hung out around a bonfire, drank and told stories - it was a good weekend at the beach!

Hunting for Christmas Trees in the beautiful Gifford Pinchot forest in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State! Nearly 50 tree hunters headed up the mountain as part of a group of trucks, 17 strong and looking for adventure! We drove up into the snow covered hills until trucks started getting stuck and couldn't climb any more - so we stopped, built a fire, had some lunch, and hunted down some Christmas Trees! It was more of a party in the forest with great views and fun in the snow than it was for the responsible harvest of forest products. And man, it was a g.d. good time!!! Being in nature feels so energizing - like a recharge to my batteries of life, readying me for anything that might come my way! The fresh, clean mountain air was enough to keep me smiling all day! It brought back memories of my adolescence - camping and hiking and developing a passion for protecting nature and the force that allows me to feel so incredible! Ironic that this was brought on by a trip to the woods to cut down some trees. It's also kind of funny that the first thing I noticed that I missed after being in Bulgaria for two years was the fresh mountain air of the great northwest! And who better to share it with than a couple of my favorite Peace Corps Volunteers! Emily and Mary came to visit for a week - flying here from Indiana and Florida (two places completely lacking of the great northwest). This was even Mary's first time on the west coast! I tried to show them everything I loved about my home, while at the same time rediscovering the connection I have to my home and community. I'm grateful and lucky to have the opportunities to travel as I do, but at the end of the day - when it's all over and done - I've got a super mighty fine place to come home to! And it's with this connection, strong in my mind, that I begin the next set of adventures that will carry me to a greater appreciation of the wonders that this world and it's people have to offer.

I've got most things in my near future figured out, roughly, but my focus now is on Supercross08! Tim and I have put in some major effort on this development and culture exchange project and we both want it to be supremely successful! Unfortunately due to a lack of sponsorships that we were hoping for, we had to cut short our trip of one year. We're uncertain exactly how long we're going to be implementing this project. Our end date is currently, "When we run out of money." My biggest hope is that we'll have enough time to get a chance to realize and achieve the potential of what we're capable of doing in order to inspire whoever we contact to want to improve themselves and also have a better understanding of the world's people!

Big dreams, you say? My only response is, "Watch this!"

Stories from the Road!

On September 11, 2007, my Peace Corps service in Bulgaria ended. I had said goodbye to almost everyone that had impacted me in some way, and slightly reluctantly, I hit the road. My route home was a seven week journey to Moscow, exploring Eastern Europe as much as my short time would allow.

Serbia
Started off my trip in Serbia where I met up with a friend I had met on a train five years ago, Ana. She lives and works in Belgrade and it was nice to see her for a few days. I explored Belgrade and wondered how Bulgaria had made it into the EU and Serbia didn’t. Belgrade was a beautiful, modern city and the people there were pleasant. However, on my way out of Belgrade I had some bad luck. I got on to a night train bound for Budapest and quickly found a cabin to myself. I threw my backpack up on the rack and sat in the seat by the window as four punk ass kids quickly filed in to the cabin. Two of them were smoking. Well I’d be damned if I was gonna sit up all night on an eight hour train ride while four punk kids kept me awake with their smoke! So I grabbed my pack and headed for the door. As I did one of the guys asked me where I was going. He asked in Serbian, which was close enough to Bulgarian for me to understand and reply. So I said I couldn’t breathe the smoke and was going to find another cabin. He started trying to guess at where I was from – Italy, Macedonia, Russia… never figured out how Italy made his list of possibilities. As I tried to exit, he stuck his foot out, physically blocking my path, and said, “Where are you from?” as if he needed the answer to be satisfied for the night. “Somewhere.” I told him, as I started to feel his friends’ exploring hands trying to make their way into my pockets and my backpack. Well that pissed me right off so I forced my way out of the cabin with a rude shove. Four on one aren’t great odds! One of them followed me out the door and I could feel him still fiddling with my backpack so I turned around and challenged him! “What do you want? What are you doing?” I asked in an aggressive tone. He backed down and I hurried to find another cabin before his lackeys followed him out. In the end, although I was extremely annoyed, I only lost a few minutes of happiness and woke up in Budapest to a new day, in a new city, with new people to make my story more interesting!

Hungary and Slovakia
It had been awhile since I’d backpacked, but even though I’m a bit older than the typical hostel kid, I still consider myself part of that clique. Unfortunately, a lot has changed since I last traveled. I remember the gatherings around the television in the hostel where people watched CNN’s coverage on the Israeli incursions into the West Bank, the accusations the Bush administration made against Iraq for having WMDs, and even the announcement of the new pope. But as I traveled this time around, the only thing on any hostel television was that damned MTV! It was a crying shame! That garbage rots the minds and potential of countless youth and unfortunately it’s made it’s way into my favorite culture – the traveling culture! How can this be? Travelers had become such different people than I remembered. I watched in disgust while they sat silent around the TV watching worthless crap only to occasionally speak during a commercial break to ask if anyone had seen a certain video! The only things they spoke of was which bar they were going to and if there was a hookah pipe? It seemed “the party” was all they were searching for. There wasn’t much conversation about politics or cultural exploration at all! Depressing. With that, I turned to couch surfing. This is a website for travelers that lets people experience the culture first hand! You get to sleep on a hosts’ couch or get taken on a tour of their city! It’s a great way to travel and learn! And it’s cheaper and more psychologically stimulating than a hostel!

My first couch surfing experience was in a small town called Trnava with a great gal named Luccka! She took me to neighboring villages, showed me local coffee shops, we cooked and drank wine, we toured art exhibits in the park and watched a parade for some celebration that neither of us understood! It was a fantastic week! There’s no possible way I could have gotten a better glimpse into another culture than this. My time with Luccka opened my eyes to a new way of traveling – a way that I’ll not turn back from!

Latvia
In Latvia I met up with a friend I had met in Europe five years ago on my first backpacking adventure – Becca! We traveled together through a couple countries and experienced foreign cultures as best we could! However, not all of our hosts were as wonderful as Luccka had been. Our first host while traveling together was a nice old gal that barely spoke any English! Usually language barriers are fun, and for the most part, it was in this case too. The kicker that made this surf an uncomfortable one was this lady’s dog – a stray that she had taken in. The thing looked like she had just taken it in the day before we got there! It had lots of fleas and maybe some kind of skin disease! And it was all about Becca and I!!! It wanted to greet us, jump on us, and sleep with us! It was gross! We couldn’t do anything but laugh, and so we did! And so did our host! But we’re still not sure if we were all laughing at the same thing.

The next family we stayed with in Sigulda had a hobby of keeping up traditional ways of life from their Latvian ancestors – Inese and Andres! Andres made beautiful traditional stringed instruments from wood, all by hand, and played them! Inese made traditional style clothing from different time periods and tribes. Towards the end of the evening, Andres played some music for us, and Inese dressed Becca up in traditional princess attire! It was about as far away from MTV as we could be and it was perfect!

Estonia
The next host we stayed with was in Lahema National Park! Lenne took us on a tour of the Viru Bog and it was gorgeous! I’d never been to a bog before and she explained all the intricacies of it on our three hour hike through the pristine nature! Consistent to my hiking back home, I greeted all the people we passed, but I did it in their language. In Estonian, “Hello” is “Tere” and I said it with my sweetest American accent! Lenne would laugh every time I said it and finally said to me, “You sound like an unintelligent person.” Basically she was politely telling me that I sounded retarded!

Russia
Becca and I were going from one couch surfing host to the next and killing time in the middle of the day to wait for our hosts to be available. So we hung out near the Red Square! It was our understanding that drinking in public was legal on account of that’s what we’d been told and everyone drank in public. Becca bought a beer from a street vendor and was drinking it while we enjoyed some sights. We were moving locations to get some night photography shots and we were to walk past a cop. I told Becca that even though I “knew” the law, it still made me nervous to be drinking in public. Just as she was telling me to relax and to not worry the cop turned around and said, “You can’t drink that here. Show me your documents.” Wonderful…

He used his rough English skills to tell us that we had “broken the law.” Bulgarian is close enough to Russian to communicate so I used my Bulgarian skills to understand that we would have to go downtown with him, fill out some paperwork and then pay a penalty for breaking the law and the process would take about three hours. He took us to another location in the Red Square and we met his sergeant for more intimidation. The police sergeant would address me only and ran through the whole three hour process description once again. He told there would be a car there in ten minutes to take us away!

As another cop came over to distract Becca, the police sergeant pulled me aside and told me that he didn’t want to go downtown and fill out paperwork and call the embassy and all that noise. He said “I can see that you’re good tourists so instead of wasting 3 hours, you can just pay the penalty now and then go see the sights in 10 minutes.” Becca heard that and chimed in to ask if they could just take her to the station and leave me behind cause I wasn’t drinking. She kept saying she would go with them and that it’s not a problem, but there was no way I was gonna let her get taken away by a couple of Russian cops to god-knows-where! So after the other cop came back over and distracted her again, I turned to the sergeant and said, “Take a walk with me.”

He spoke better English than the last guy, but I still needed some Bulgarian to communicate effectively. I explained that I had just spent the last two years in Bulgaria, earning no money, volunteering my time to develop the country. I went on to say that we weren’t here to see the sights - we were interested in the Russian culture and personal experiences. I also said that Becca had made a mistake that we were both sorry for, but that it was an insignificant mistake and I told him he knew that! He tried to play the card of “What would a cop in America do?” and followed with, “Just pay the penalty and you can go see the sights like a good tourist.” So I told him I didn’t want to see any more cathedrals or castles or Kremlins or anything. I told him I didn’t care anymore and he asked why and I told him it was because he had taken away my happiness! I said that in America, we don’t know a lot about Russia and we were here to learn. And then I said, “You’re creating a bad memory of Russia for me and this is what I’m going to have to take back to America to tell my friends and family!” I said that with a little bit of sass cause I was pissed off and really cold.

He was silent for a moment and then looked over at Becca and said, “Is that your lady?” “If it is will you let me go?” I thought, but only said “yes”. He was silent for another moment and then looked at me and said, “Don’t drink on the metro or in a park or near a monument. That’s it, you can go.”

Well that just blew me away to think that I had just out-talked a Russian cop and I was overcome with energy! I shook his hand and told him thanks and he looked away and said, “Have a good evening.” Through the whole ordeal, they all knew that I hadn’t been drinking - yet I was the one that they addressed and negotiated with. It’s a cultural difference that I may be able to identify but I’m far from understanding it.

That said – Russia was AWESOME! The people were super friendly and excited to meet us! Not what I was expecting from my propaganda-like education during the Cold War. Our hosts in Russia were fantastic people and went way far out of their way to accommodate us. We talked and cooked together and through many conversations we were able to break all kinds of stereotypes that had been created by various sorts of media. One of the ones that stood out in my mind was about vodka. Russian vodka is some of the best I’ve ever had – but we were hard pressed to find any Russians that would drink it! I thought all Russians drank vodka, all the time! But they looked at us like we were nuts when we asked to go to a bar that had vodka. They told us they just preferred beer. This, of course, wasn’t the case everywhere or with everyone, but it did happen often enough to surprise me!

I had to fly home on November 1st, and it wasn’t easy to leave Russia, and it certainly wasn’t easy to part with Becca. I had been homesick for so long while in the Peace Corps, yet found myself making this last trip, the trip home, with great reluctance. My Peace Corps experiences, coupled with my traveling experiences, have had a synergistic effect to develop my character. I’ve grown so much as a person and developed into someone I’m super proud to be! I’ve done amazing things – I’ve made amazing friends – I’ve been to amazing places – I’ve created some amazing stories! And I’ve got a future of happiness sitting in front of me that will lead me to more personal development – and this is what I crave! Not even MTV could slow me down now! I’m on my way!

If you're dying to get a glipse into my adventures - take a look at the best pictures you've ever seen!!!

Peace Corps!

I served as an Environmental Education Volunteer with the United States Peace Corps from 2005 to 2007 in Bulgaria.

Below are the emails I sent home:

Peace Corps - About to Begin
A Quick Note from Bulgaria
Brace Yourself, It's a Long One
Here's Your Andy Update
Happy Saturday
Howdy from Kalofer!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Winter Solstice!
Your Monthly Andy Update
Happy International Women's Day!
Andy Kind of Excited!
Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work!
The Happiest Peace Corps Volunteer, Ever!
This Is How We Do It in America!
Politically Correct? Never Heard of it...
Integrating with Hippies!
Biodiesel of Peace!
Save the School!

Photos to Prove it:
Here are the pictures I collected from my Peace Corps service