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Random thoughts from the saddle. My Blog
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
Dr. Suess
July 10, 2007
Africa
How do I explain to someone how meaningful and life changing our trip to Africa was?
I don't,,, I simply can't.
First an overview. This could take a while, so stop right now and go get yourself a cold drink. Relax. Breath deep.
Africa is the most amazing place I have ever witnessed. My trip there probably took a year off my life. The hardships the people must endure there are immeasurable. The pollution and filth in the large cities, the corruption in government, the POTHOLES, no streetlights, no running water, not even clean water to drink, no electricity, no plumbing, no shoes for almost all the children, not enough to eat. All of this, and for two old, soft Americans, just the flights to get there,,,,,
But the people! The rural landscape! The wildlife!
But mostly the people!
Our team consisted of 19 people, all women except myself and one other man, and he, like the rest of the team was MUCH younger than my wife and I. We were the parents, maybe even the grandparents of the group. We visited 17 schools while in Africa. We taught "square foot gardening", basic hygiene, tooth brushing, AIDS/HIV awareness and prevention. Our team purchased 8,000 toothbrushes and gave one to each student we taught. We ran out however and had to buy more.
Square foot gardening is a gardening technique utilizing compost instead of soil and much can be grown in a very small space. We actually built some of these at the schools so they could grow some food for the children to eat during the day. As it is now, the children are in school from 7:00 0 - 8:00 am until usually 4:00 to 5:00 pm. You add the time it takes for the children to walk, YES WALK, to school (sometimes several kilometers) and it makes for a long day without anything to eat. What they get now, if anything at all, is a cup of porage. Hunger is still a problem for the children.
Seeds are like gold to the men in Kenya and Uganda. These men lined up in a huge line to get just a few seeds we had left over from our square foot garden lesson. They were thrilled with just this many seeds each. All had big smiles.
We handed out several thousand toothbrushes. If I gave you a new car, you would not be as happy and as thankful as these children were. Really!
This young man is truly happy, his butt is covered and he has a new toothbrush in his pocket.
This is a typical class room in Uganda (shown are each end from middle)
The Headmasters office outside, inside (dirt floor), and the sign on his door.
There is a program in 14 countries in Africa called "Stay Alive." It was started by the Reach The Children (RTC) organization. It teaches aids/hiv awareness and prevention in the most brilliant way possible. It is spreading like wild fire throughout Africa. This is good! Every school we went had signs, posters, paintings right on the outside of the buildings like these;
I truly believe that if this program continues to spread as it is today, this younger generation in Africa could get the aids problem under control. Everyone thinks aids/hiv is THE problem in Africa. Don't misunderstand, it is a huge problem, but we were told at different hospitals there it is number sixteen (16) on the list. Malaria is the number one killer in Africa. We (not me) outlawed DDT to spray for malaria carrying mosquitoes because it has some bad side effects, but now we are killing tens of thousands of people, maybe millions of people each year, because we can't control the mosquitoes. This is a problem.
We painted a school. This kinda sucked, no, it DID suck. African paint thinner is nasty stuff!
Their parents are gonna hate us. They were white where they weren't supposed to be!
We visited one rural hospital and gave them four suitcases of medical supplies. The director, and staff were thrilled! Two of the best, memorable, touching, things happened while at this hospital. One now, and I'll save my most inspiring, most memorable moments for the end. First some photo's
The lady in the center of the last picture is named Medina. She works for RTC (Reach the Children) in the Uganda office. She went to the hospital with us that day. When we dumped out the supplies on the table, she said nothing as we sorted through the supplies. When we discovered we had about twenty blood glucose meters, (to test for blood sugar) she made a soft comment to Melanie and Debbie that her mother has diabetes and on the rare occasion she tests her blood, she has to take a bus for almost two hours to the nearest clinic to be tested. "She knows when she's not feeling right" she said. Upon hearing that we reached into the stack, pulled out the best, latest, easiest, model we had and along with four boxes of test strips, gave to her to give to her mother. This humble, hard working, sweet lady was so thankful to us. She just couldn't get over that we would give her mother one of these! You had to be there, but this was a defining moment in my life. I will never forget it.
We did have a couple of days to see the sights. We went to the Maasai Mara, a wildlife park where the Massai tribe live out their days tending to their herds of goats, sheep, but mostly cattle, and trying to keep the lion's, hyenas, and other critters from eating their bank account.
Maasai folks with young part of their heard.
On the left. My buddies! The one in the orange is "Jonathan". He is fifteen years old and goes to school outside the Mara. He wants to become a doctor some day and return to his village to take care of his people. Cool kid! We really hit it off. On the right. The women of the village dance for us.
In my hand is a bag of knives, clubs and a spear I bought as souvenirs. The tribe leader told us the money they get from tourists goes to send the children of the tribe to school, Jonathan assured me this was the case as he is living proof, and were that not the case, he would not be able to attend school as his parents could not afford to send him. After much bargaining, and the money paid, I put my arm around Jonathan's shoulder as we walked back to out van and said, " you guys ripped me off didn't you. You killed me!" He just smiled the biggest smile and said, "yeah, we're pretty good at that." I don't feel at all bad that I got "ripped off".
I do feel bad that all of our souvenirs were stolen! (see epilogue please)
Cheetah right after a kill. This dude was very close to us, VERY CLOSE!
L to R top to bottom Zebras, this male lion was very close to us too, did not use a telephoto lens for this shot! elephants on the move, crested crane, ya'll don't want to get too close to this big boy, we never could get close to the giraffe's, AND yes, he is doing what you think he's doing.
My wife Debbie and I traveled to Kenya and Uganda, each for a week. We went with an organization called Reach the Children. We went to do humanitarian service there. We took our anti-malaria pills, our cameras, our bottled water, our donations, our good intentions, and we went. We went for an adventure. We went to "save the world!"
Little did we know it was us to be saved.
Africa changed our lives. We both agree that outside of our marriage of almost thirty years, and doing our best raising our three wonderful children, this was THE most defining, most rewarding, most meaningful thing we have done in our entire lives. We are changed. We can't tell you how we're changed, you will have to do what we did and see for yourselves. Yes, It's that complicated.
Did we make a difference? Don't know. I think so because we taught and contacted so many people, but it's hard to say. With that in mind; The Starfish Story.
A young boy walks down the beach every morning after the tide has receded, tossing stranded starfish back into the water. An old man sees him doing this for several mornings and then approaches the boy and says. "Young man, you will never make a difference, there are literally thousands of these starfish that are stranded, you just can't possibly make a difference." The boy reaches down, picks up a starfish, tosses it into the ocean, then looks at the old man and says, " I made a difference to that one."
We went to Africa with some of the best people our country has to offer. (See epilog please) I know, I know, there are hundreds of thousands, millions, of great people in the United States of America. We were with some of the best, the most giving people I have ever seen. In closing, this story sums up and defines our entire trip.
While visiting the hospital in rural Uganda, we visited the maternity ward. There we found several mothers with brand new babies. You need to understand that this place seemed to me like just a place to come to not have your baby at home. Not a lot of doctoring and nursing going on here. One of the women was lying on a bed with a vinyl mattress with no sheets. If you want sheets in the hospital, you need to bring your own, because the hospital can't afford them. She had a light blanket over her. We passed out our new born kits that we brought from America to all of the other mothers there and toward the end of it all I saw members of our group gathered around this particular mothers bed. Being one of only two males in the room, and feeling a little out of place anyway, I watched from a distance. Turns out this lady's husband dropped her off and told her he would come back the next morning. He never came back. She had her baby C section the day before. She was lying there with NO clothes for her OR her baby, both were naked with just a light blanket over them. This woman and her baby had literally nothing, no food, no clothing, nothing! The baby had no diaper and had soiled itself and the mother. The women in our group took out the hand wipes, towels, anything they could use and began to clean the mother and baby off. Then they dressed the baby in diapers, gown, socks and a hat, from one of the new born kits we had, and presented this little one back to it's mother. Then,,, two of our team members that had tights on under their skirts, took off their skirts and laid them beside the mother, another gave her a shirt, then another shirt appeared. One girl asked if the woman had any underwear, she said no. Three of the women in our group went into the restroom and removed their underwear and gave to that lady. For us Americans, that may seem odd. Some may even find it disgusting to give someone "used" underwear. Let me assure you, when you have literally nothing, no clothing period, no food, no home, and no one to love you and take care of you, "used" underwear along with other used clothing is greatly appreciated.
These young women of our team displayed to me that day the most basic, elemental, fundamental, unselfish, act of giving I have ever seen in my life. They literally gave the clothing off their own bodies to a stranger to make her life better. I'm sure I will never witness anything like it again in my life.
I am changed.
Three starfish were thrown back into the water that day. The woman, her baby, and me.
Epilogue
August 12, 2007
When we boarded the plane in Entebe, Uganda for our return flight home, I had an uneasy feeling. The pessimist in me turned out to be right this time. Things had just gone to perfect for something bad not to happen. When we arrived in Zurich, I asked the lady behind the ticket counter if she could see if our luggage had made it to Zurich. It had not. But, she assured me, sometimes it gets put on a different plane and such, because Zurich was not our final destination. "Don't worry." Well, I (we) did and it turned out to be a legitimate one. We filed a missing luggage form in Las Vegas and waited. Waited, called, waited, tried to understand the voices of the United Airlines baggage claim personnel. India, Pakistan, Hell, who knows! Waited, called,,,,,,,. One of the two bags was found two weeks later and sent to our small airport in St. George. It had been plundered and all of our souvenirs and much of our other things had been taken. Stolen! The other bag has never been found.
Over a month after our trip ended, I returned home from a particularly horrible day at work, to find on our door step a box from one of our team leaders, Melanie. She had written a note inside explaining how she had heard about our souvenirs being stolen and she wished to share some of her souvenirs with us. There were many items in the box, and as my wife and I took each one out, the tears of gratitude and love for Melanie flowed down our faces. We could not believe someone would share their precious memories of their trip with us. One of the items she sent to us is a nativity scene carved out of ebony. Instead of putting it with our other Christmas decorations as we would have done with the one we had purchased, "Melanie's" nativity scene is now displayed on our fire place. We will think of Melanie until Christmas, then our thoughts will turn to the true meaning of the Christmas season, the same thoughts as we had as we opened Melanie's gift to us.
Melanie, Thank you. You ARE my hero. When I grow up, I want to be just like you. We love you!
May 27, 2007
Blackberries
If you've raised blackberries and raspberries, you know what a tangled mess can grow up; tiny treasures of purple and red gleaming amongst dead canes and grim thorns. When you're new to berries, all that growth looks productive. But in time, you realize that a lot of it is just clutter. Non productive sprouts and worthless dead canes have long since stopped being useful. If left too long, the clutter and thorns make it almost impossible to enjoy your garden, to pick the fruit.
I've been doing a little inventory of my life lately and I must admit; I have a "tangled mess" growing up. I have "worthless sprouts", "dead canes" and "grim thorns."
Don't misunderstand. I have a good life, no, I have a great life! My garden is abundant.
I have a wife that I love and respect more every day. I simply can't imagine my life without her. I think she loves me, otherwise she'd have long since left. If it weren't for my snoring and flatulence, I'm quite sure she would love me even more. I have three kids that are all good, honest, hard working, contributing people. They are on their own and doing noble things. I have other family members that share love with me. I have a handful of friends worthy of the name, and many acquaintances that are not. I have a wonderful home and toys; luxuries to be sure.
No, my "tangled mess", is not outward. It is inside. It's stuff like patience, tolerance, understanding, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, kindness and the like. Human emotions are so complicated sometimes. I just hope to be able to prune the "dead canes", the "grim thorns" and "worthless sprouts" from my life, so that everyone, including me, can better enjoy my garden, and pick more fruit.
In the words of good 'ol Popeye,,, "I yam what I yam"
(But working to get better) My life is still.............
April 21, 2007
"The Happiest Place On Earth"
I had just resigned myself to be the pack mule on our trip to Disneyland. I was that, but I also had a great time! There was so much more. Amusement parks, even Disneyland, just are not my thing, but spending time with my family is my thing, and what a wonderful trip I had. I think (hope) we all did.
Now, this is not an advertisement for Disneyland, but I have to admit, I do seem to think this could possibly be "the happiest place on earth."
Disneyland is a place for kids. My grand daughter Abby who is now at the ripe old age of 8,,,,,MONTHS, loved Disneyland. I saw old folks, no, old kids, not even able to walk any more being pushed around in wheel chairs. There were young kids, old kids, short kids, black kids, kids with no legs, fat kids, blonde kids, white kids, grandma kids, Asian kids, dad kids, sick kids, Mexican kids, tall kids, red headed kids, French kids, kids both young and old with every type of disability you can imagine.....and every one of them had smiles on their faces.
Everyone behaved themselves. When one of the Disney characters came out to greet and sign autographs, a line magically formed. No pushing, shoving, butting in line. Everyone just waited their turn. Everyone was very polite too. With that many people walking and gawking bumps happened. "I'm sorry", "Excuse me please", "Pardon me" was common.
One of the most amazing things I observed is that in three days of being at Disneyland, I only heard a hand full of kids crying. There had to be literally thousands of little kids there in those three days, but I only heard a few cry.
I know why. I heard one dad ask his little girl just after they had a picture taken with Mickey Mouse," Is it time for another treat? Do you want cookies this time?" She clapped her hands, jumped up and down, and squealed "YES, YES." Off to see what wonders are around the next corner, eating cookies! That's why.
The happiest place on earth! Where young and old wear their Mickey Mouse ears, eat junk food, behave themselves, live and laugh out loud!
And in the middle of it all, the Virginia Tech shooting.
I just don't know.
April 12, 2007
WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!
April 6, 2007
"Lemomade"
"LEMOMADE 25 SENTS" the hand painted sign said.
Hell, I had to stop.
Two kids, boy and a girl, probably brother and sister, had set up quite a little "lemomade" stand.
Normally you see some influence of a mom at these stands. Not at this one. These two were on their own! That should have been my first clue.
Following the advice of my favorite author Robert Fulghum, to "stop at every lemonade stand you see," I pulled over got out of the truck and found out everything he said about "lemomade" sellers years ago in his book still holds true today. Except the price.
"Twenty five cents huh? Isn't that a little steep?" The boy just shrugged his shoulders. Now twenty five cents wouldn't necessarily be steep if the kids weren't selling it in shot glasses. (dixie cups) "Is it cold?" I ask. The girl says "it used to be a couple of hours ago, but I'm not sure now." Whatever. "I'll take two" I said. I ceremoniously drop two quarters from about two feet high so they can see them drop. Both smile big smiles. Then the boy pours two shot glasses (dixie cups) about 1/4 full. "Geeze for buying two don't I get a little more for my money?" I ask. The girl reaches over and smacks him and says "fill'em up you dummy." He does.
By now there is another customer in line behind me and I don't want to hold up business, so off I go with my two shot glasses in one hand, fishing my pocket for my keys with the other. I walked around the truck and as I reached the drivers door I take a small sip of this "lemomade".
HOLY CRAP!
Bad decision.
This stuff would take the paint off my truck and melt speed bumps in the road! Looking into the shot glass I can clearly see the florescent yellow syrup they were calling "lemomade".
These kids were obviously beginners. They had not yet figured out how to water down their product to boost profits. They will.
After my vision cleared and I caught my breath again, I got into the truck, set my shot glasses in the cup holders and looked over just in time to see the boy drop the small spoon used for mixing this toxic stuff into the mixing picture. No problem, he just rolls up his sleeve, reaches all the way to the bottom and fishes it out. I thought the next customer was going to pass out cold. It was a lady wearing a business suit, high heels, and driving a white Mercedes Benz. She obviously knew the kids. Women in white Mercedes' dressed like that are not your typical lemonade stand customer. They should be though.
To her credit, she just dropped her quarter in, took her shot glass, and headed for the safety of her Benz. We shared a glance, both shook our heads and laughed. We got our moneys worth.
"Hey, your sign is spelled wrong." I said just before I drove off. "I know, but we ain't got any more paint to make a new one." the boy said.
Yup, nothing has changed.
You just haven't lived till you've stopped at a dozen or so lemonade stands and poked around a bit!
Epilogue:
I waited till I got out of sight, pulled over and dumped out my fifty cents worth of,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,whatever that was. Didn't sleep much that night either!
March 2, 2007
What color are your mothers eyes? No...really.... WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR MOTHERS EYES? I'll bet most of you don't know, can't even remember, or never knew at all. When this question was asked of me, I just said "green". Oh they were green all right, but I had no idea how beautiful they were until I took the time to LOOK. By that time mom was totally blind from the ravages of diabetes and I was just a blurry shadow to her. I looked though. I looked into her eyes and I saw what color they were. I to this day remember not only the color, but the lines, the dots, the waves, everything. It's a precious memory now. Mom has been gone for almost six years. While you still can, look into your mothers eyes. Look into your mothers eyes, your fathers eyes, your husbands, wifes, sons, daughters, friends.....While your looking, tell them how much you care....while you still can.
February 9 2007
I don't read the obituaries! Never have, never will, just for reading sake. Oh, if I know someone who has passed on I will read, but never just to read. Why then did I read this obituary of a man I have never heard of on a beautiful Saturday morning in February?
Robert ........ ........
"Robert ...... ...... passed away peacefully at his home in ........February 7, 2007. We thank God for the gift of experiencing this loving man in our lives. As he grew older, he became ever gentler, more forgiving and wise." On and on.......lots about his service to our country in WWII as a United States Marine. Obviously, he and his family were (are) very proud of his service to our country. I am proud of him too.
"As he grew older, he became ever gentler, more forgiving and wise."
I do hope the same can be said about me.
(ATTENTION),,,,,Robert sir, thank you. May you rest in peace,,,(SALUTE)