Months of Plenty

There was plenty of summer left after we returned home!

Set up garden beds, built deer & rabbit fencing, mulched and composted, built ADK bridges over the inlet and outlet streams, and a zillion other little things:

Did some work inside the house, too:

 

But there was still plenty of time for wildflowers and hammocks, climbing trees and weeknight campfires:

Birthday parties and goat roasts:

Went back to work, fully embracing the fact that I really, truly, absolutely am not an indoor cat:

And to top it all off, a sport climbing "herd" trip that didn't get rained out:

The first few leaves in the back woods are turning yellow.  There is a hickory directly across from my window; I can't wait for it to turn brilliant.  It will.  I know it will!  First autumn in our home.  Still finding all of the new things.

By all standards, this was an epic summer.  And for the first time in long time, there's nothing big on the horizon.  No Peru, no New Zealand, no trip around the world, no homelessness, no career change, no Nicaragua, no wedding, no home buying, no road tripping.

Just wildflowers and gardens, campfires and hammocks, birthday parties with funny hats and virtual candles, goats on fire, and the happy hum of my treadmill.

And slip n' slides.  Definitely slip n' slides.

(Come find me, adventures!)

Life Updates

Alright, let's jump right in and drop a few bombshells, shall we?

Davo and I are getting married!

At this point, no date, no plans, no problem.  Someone suggested that we get married on a mountain or hanging off a cliff, a la Lynn Hill.  Sorry, I can't put myself in the same league as Lynn-freaking-Hill.  Plus, my mother would kill me.

photo © bob d'antonio, 1989

This was decided almost a month ago, but I've been fairly inconsistent about writing here, which is going to have to change because...

...I just bought a one-way ticket to Managua, Nicaragua.  Leaving on Monday.  Three days from now.  Ok, well, I decided to go last week and bought the ticket on Saturday, which was a full 8 days before departure.  Good thing I already have a passport.



My current plan is to start in Nicaragua, where I'll work on my Spanish language skills at a school for foreigners in Estelí.  They're arranging a homestay for me, so starting Tuesday 4/3, I will not speak or hear English for the foreseeable future (way to throw myself into the deep end).  When it's time to leave Nicaragua, I'll go overland via Honduras, El Salvador, or both on my way to Guatemala.  Dave will meet me in mid-May for some outdoor adventuring in Guatemala and southern México.  Back to Ithaca, New York, together, in June, for the next chapter of our lives.

For the past three years, since leaving Peru in 2009, I have coped with the aching desire to go back to Latin America.  Through a combination of this-and-that, I ended up back in the States when I felt like I should have been south-of-the-border.  I finally have a chance to correct my course...

...because I have resigned from my job.  For the second and final time.  I've typed and erased sentences trying to explain the conclusions I've drawn, what I've experienced, where that puts me in life and my ability to serve my community, blah blah blah.  The bottom line:  I love the organization, I love my colleagues, but it's time to move on.  I'm ready...  onward and upward!

Three major life changes in the past three weeks.  Eh, so it goes.  :-)

The Nomad's Resume

Realization:  I'm fully unemployed--completely without action-oriented verbs to go on a resume--for the first time since I was 14.  At that age, I worked at Alstede Farms in Morris County, New Jersey.  Now they're organic and run a CSA.  Funny how things come full circle, eh?

At some point, I heard that "breaks" in the resume are viewed unfavorably by employers.  But!  I would argue that travel, especially extended, non-vacation travel, is a better preparation for life and work than university.  Personally, I gained perspective and context from my travels that I could not have, indeed, did not gain at a university.  Plus, 10.5 months abroad was far less than 10% of the price of my Ivy League degree.  Which I don't plan to use any longer.  But that's another story.

To demonstrate that travelers can learn very real, very useful skills and abilities, I've prepared...

---

The Nomad's Resume

Passport Number:  memorized

Permanent Address:  unavailable

Employment History

• Barber:  Styled men's and women's haircuts with only a Swiss Army knife, hot water, and bravado.
• Language tutor:  Practiced English conversational skills with beginner through intermediate learners via impromptu interactions.  Focused on phoneme pronunciation via a self-developed lesson plan in a monastic setting.
• Driver:  Drove on both the left and right sides of the road (not under the influence of anything).
• Ambassador:  Represented the culture of New York and the United States to individuals who were unfamiliar with Americans who are not in movies or on television.
• Cook:  Prepared snacks and meals with minimal supplies (a carrot, a package of instant noodles, a Swiss Army knife, and 1/2 teaspoon of imagination).
• Accountant:  Managed trip finances and delivered an exceptional experience under budget.
• Nurse:  Treated blisters, toenail afflictions, profuse vomiting, violent diarrhea, and so much more.  Attended Himalayan Rescue Association's altitude sickness seminars; correctly diagnosed AMS in idiot trekkers ascending too fast.
• Guide:  Knows hiking trails from New Zealand to Malaysia to Nepal, proper method adjust a backpack, and correct trek pole technique.

Technical Skills

• Diplomacy:  Can tactfully listen to the entire world complain about Dubya and praise Obama without becoming involved in political discussions.
• Foreign languages:  Familiar with Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Cambodian, Nepali, Turkish, and Hebrew.  Speaks Spanish well enough and English fluently.  Proficient in Globeish (simplified international English) and, when all else fails, pantomime.
• Negotiation and bargaining:  Adept at getting as close to the "locals' price" as humanly possible without facial plastic surgery, CIA-operative training, or conversion to Islam.  Remember, if you don't want to kill each other by the end, you left money on the table.
• Mental currency exchange:  Able to convert between multiple currencies on-the-fly while bargaining hard (see above).  
• Kung fu trip planning:  Expedia is for amateurs.  Who else would travel on Azerbaijan Airlines?
• Metric system:  the only non-European, non-scientist, non-graduate student person in the U.S.A. to understand that salt should be purchased in grams, while salty snacks should be purchased in kilos.
• Can sleep anywhere:  I'm sure this is relevant somehow.

Character Skills

• Active listener:  believes that everyone has a story; even if you don't understand their language, you can still drink tea together.
• Immune to culture shock: traditional squat toilets, water buffalo milk, riding on the roof of a bus?  Ok! 
• Master of open-mindedness:  knows the difference between hijab, chador, and burqa, and no longer notices when a woman is wearing one.
• Practices self-restraint:  spent 313 days within 10 meters (see "Metric system" above) of one person and did not murder him in his sleep.
• From planner to do-er:  how many people talk about wanting to "travel more" and to "see the world," and how many actually do it?

References:

Rheden in South Jakarta, Indonesia
Ng at Five Brothers Restaurant, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Uğur in Diyarbakir, Turkey

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So, uh, anyone wanna give me a job?  (Just kidding!)

Finding Mind Happiness in Siem Reap

I came to Siem Reap to avoid Bangkok and to see Angkor Archaeological Park, which can be done in a day or two. Somehow, I ended up staying close to two weeks.  Those nice plans to get into northern Thailand, where there's hiking and hills, went right out the window.  Oh well.  I like this corner of Cambodia.

Impressions of Siem Reap...  well, a few decades ago, the insane dictator Pol Pot was extremely effective in eliminating a large chunk of the population, something like a third of the population, including anyone literate.  The country has only been stable for the last twenty years.  Tourism is new--maybe ten years.  Perhaps due to this, there is noticeable desire here to have a good, stable life, and it's much stronger and more easily acknowledged here than anywhere else I've traveled.

At least two Cambodians have mentioned that they have problems sleeping at night due to the stress of their business, making money, providing for their families, and worrying about the future.  And this comes up in small talk!

The entire young generation desperately wants to learn English.  English proficiency is seen as an absolute prerequisite for securing a job, at least in the Siem Reap area.

One day, Dave and I wandered into a random temple compound outside the main tourist district.  A young monk waved us over, sat us down, and proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes talking to us about a project he's starting.  As a monk in the service of the community, Chea Yorn teaches English six days a week in both Siem Reap and the countryside.  Amazingly, he manages to do this with only an intermediate grasp of the language himself!  In his opinion, English is so crucial to the success of the youth in Cambodia that they simply must learn it, even if he has to teach every damn teenager himself.

In addition, Chea has hatched a plan to bring more income into rural areas by selecting two families to participate in a fruit and vegetable growing project.  Outside the rainy season, these rice-growing villages have no source of income.  If a few families could be taught how to grow fruits and vegetables, they could have income all year round, plus show other families these techniques.  The fruit trees could provide shade and fresh air in the hot, dusty villages.  He also has ideas for irrigation improvements.

Dave and I have visited Chea's evening classes a few times to help model native English pronunciations.  We're not in Siem Reap long enough to take over teaching any classes, but it seems our attendance and participation keeps the students engaged.  Every little bit helps, or so I tell myself.  I've noticed that other random people show up to watch the spectacle, so at least we're entertaining someone!  This temple isn't in the nicest part of town, but Dave and I walk back to our village after dark, and we feel safer walking out of the temple here than we'd feel in many parts of the United States.

The classes take place under the deck of the small building where Chea lives with three other monks and a few temple boys.  There's a dirty whiteboard, one marker, and a bunch of young Cambodians, ages 16 to 25.  One young woman adds the consonant "ssss" to the end of every word, which I find endearing.

Besides teaching English with only an intermediate grasp of the language himself, and hatching mad awesome plans to save Cambodia one family at a time, Chea gets up at 4 a.m, eats one meal a day, and participates in temple life as a monk.  He's 28 and has been a monk since age 15. 

But he's still part of this world.  An Australian gave him a laptop and a digital camera.  He's very quick to show off pictures of his students.  And, like everyone in my generation, he's on Facebook.

He was thinking of going to university, if he could get the money, or maybe just getting a job.  In this part of the world, it's common to become a monk for a few years in the teens or 20s to further education and to become a better member of society.  But maybe Chea will remain a monk.

In his words, "helping other people and we don't need to get anything back that is mind happiness. doing any good deed for each others it will make our mind peaceful. making our mind pure."

You said it, Chea.  This is 21st century Buddhism, and the answer to the questions of the retreat experience.

Last Week in New Zealand

We're coming down the home stretch.  One week from tomorrow, we leave Tuateawa for an overnight on the benches of the Auckland International Airport.  What's new?

Tree Planting:  Mission Accomplished

We started off with about 1,200 acacia, eucalyptus, and fruit trees, as well as several dozen natives, like nikau palm, pohutakawa, hoheria, and even a few kauri.  We planted well over 1,000 of the non-natives, and a large chunk of the natives, as well.  Cat and Mel together were planting machines, and I estimate that I personally planted around 300 trees.  There are around 125 non-natives left in the nursery that will be used for in-fill in sparse areas and to replace seedlings lost to rabbits.  I might plant for another half day in the next week, but for all intents and purposes, the massive tree planting effort has concluded.  Cool!

Bye Bye, Cat and Mel :-(

Our cute little Canadian friends are on a plane to Canada right now.  Both Dave and I had a great time working with Catherine and Melanie.  The work here is not easy and is quite tiring, but they always managed to have a sense of humor about it (even when I wasn't in a smiley mood!).  The month of June wouldn't have been nearly as fun without them.  I'm so excited for Mel to be heading to med school and for Cat to pursue her dream as a vet!

Enough Rain, Already!

Rain usually doesn't bother me.  I like sleeping in the rain, the pitter-patter of the drops lulling me into peaceful slumbers.  But, golly darn it, I don't like torrential downpours that soak the ground to the point of standing water under the tent, which the mattress soaks up like a big sponge!  After removing our soaked mattress from the tent for the third time in as many weeks, Dave and I have (finally) decided to move out of the tent into Cat & Mel's old room.  Strange to sleep inside again!

Finishing Cabins

The walls for both cabins are up.  The lower cabin has a roof, walls have been nogged, and we're starting to hang plywood.  The upper cabin needs a bit more work--it has rafters but no roofing iron, partially nogged walls but no plywood.  This week, we're going hard on the cabins to get them as close to done as possible.  I got to cut roofing iron one day, which was fun because it involved playing with power tools, and painful because of all the sparks flying everywhere.

That's All, Folks

It's been a quiet weekend.  I'm catching up on emails, arranging couchsurfing hosts for our ~2 weeks on the road, talking to family on skype, and doing a crash course in Bhasa Indonesia (literally, "the language of Indonesia").  Plus, it's nice to have some time with just Dave, since we won't get a lot of quiet time while we're on the road.  Time to make dinner...  maybe I'll bake cookies or watch a movie tonight.  :-)

Welcome Back to Tuateawa

We've been back in Tuateawa for almost two weeks, and the June program is in full swing.  What's new and not-so-new?

Tree Planting
My main focus lately has been tree planting.  Over the next month, we hope to install 1,200 trees in the earth of the valley.  We are planting mostly acacia species for ground cover and mostly eucalyptus species for shelterbelts.  In the first week, with the equivalent of 3.5 days of a 3-person planting team, we've planted just about 30%...  an excellent start.

There is just as much non-planting work, however.  I've recovered and saved seeds, and planted seeds into root training trays.  We also have to pound stakes into the ground, paint the stakes, staple plastic tags into the stakes, and label the stakes with the code of the tree that will be planted next to it.  It's a huge effort with logistical challenges, as there are only 6 of us, certain people must do certain tasks, and certain tasks must happen before other tasks.  So far, I'm loving it, as one of my main motivations for coming to New Zealand was environmental conservation work.

Lettuce House
On one of our first days back, Dave and I built a glass house cover for our lettuce beds.  Since the weather is cool and rainy, the little lettuces need some extra warmth and protection from downpours to flourish.  It was only a one day project, but it turned out quite nicely.  We built this out of two old windows and some scrap wood.  Creative building material reuse:  check!

Plenty of Water; No Heat
It all started when the wood-burning stove inexplicably began to leak smoke into the house.  Time for a newer stove!  The old stove, however, was connected to the hot water supply, a smart way to use excess stove heat to reduce energy use by the hot water heater.  In the process of draining the hot water tank, we accidentally "drained" the tank all over the living room and the kitchen, resulting in an inch of standing water in most of the house.

Ooops.

To make matters worse, the heating element in the hot water tank burned out once the tank was empty.  Result:  no heat from the wood-burning stove and no hot water.  Hilariously, one of the burners on our electric cooking stove short-circuited, leaving us with an electric kettle as the sole source of heat in the entire house.

There is a happy ending to the story, however:  handy Dave figured out and repaired the hot water tank.  My hero!  :-)

New Friends
Two French Canadian young ladies, Melanie and Catherine, have joined us for June.  They are so much fun...  always laughing and telling stories!  I really appreciate their enthusiasm for tree planting and working outside.  I think we are going to have an awesome time working and playing together.  (And I'm not just saying that because they might read this!  :-P )

Quality Time with the Doggles
I actually don't have anything to say about the dogs; I simply love this picture of "smiling" Ninya.  The doggles are an endless source of entertainment and companionship.

Hiding from the Rain
All of the rain that we didn't get this summer has fallen in the past few weeks, and it will probably keep falling for the rest of the month.  It is certainly winter, the rainy season, here in our temperate rainforest.  The air is always damp and the weather changeable.  It's still warm enough to sleep outside, though, so we are happy in our tent.  It is mostly dark by 5:30 p.m, and it doesn't start getting light until 7:00 a.m.  North Americans, enjoy your daylight!

Let's Talk About Flax

Let's talk about flax.  This summer, we harvested and transplanted approximately 600 flax plants into the valley where we work.  What is flax, and why do we spend so much time working with it?

New Zealand flax is actually a member of the lily family (although parts of the plant can be used for making fiber, like European flax).  Flax has extremely long, sword-shaped, stiff leaves.  These leaves grow in a fan shape, and one plant growing from one root system can send out 8, 12, or even more fans.

This is New Zealand flax, complete with flower stalks with seeds.

In the spring, the flowers of the flax are an important source of nectar for birds, as they are too deep for bees.  In fact, the flowers of the flax plant curve at the same angle as the beaks of the tui birds!  In the summer, the flax sets its seeds, which are also an important food source for birds.  It's also a great shelter for birds, snails, and other insects.  (Remember, NZ does not have native land mammals, so birds are an extremely important part of the ecosystem here.)  Flax roots do a great job of penetrating very hard soils full of clay; their roots also do a great job stabilizing erosion-prone soil.

Flax has been used for many purposes by traditional Maori society.  Known as harakeke in Maori, flax fiber has been used to make clothing, ropes, canoe lashings--even baby rattles!  Nearly every part of the flax plant also has medicinal uses.  The leaves and flower stalks are used to stabilize and treat broken bones and other wounds.  A juice made from flax root is also a great disinfectant.

In this little video, Dave talks about flax and why it's important in New Zealand ecology.

   

Harvesting flax is a very dirty, very tiring job.  We work in pairs; one person uses a spade to dig around the fan of flax leaves and to separate the roots of the fan from the rest of the plant, while the other person grasps the fan by the outer leaves and tugs and pulls until it comes free.  We aim to harvest 200 plants every time we go into the field; this week, it took us only 2.5 hours to gather 181 plants (practice does help!).

If we're not going to replant immediately, we dump the flax in the river so it doesn't dry out.  Then we have to pull all of it out of the river and throw it back on the trailer.  (We usually make Dave do that part.)  Planting is simple--yank out the grass, dig a hole, pop in a plant, tap down the soil, use the grass as mulch around the bare soil.  Planting in wetlands is muddy and sloppy; once you get past the dirtiness, it's actually fun.

Here's a series of portraits from our last time harvesting flax:

...complete with lucky spade!  Yeah, we're having fun!

To get the flax from the bush to the trailer, we set up a fire line and toss each plant from person to person:

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from planting.  Imagine a spade and lots of dirt and you'll get the picture.

Yeah flax!

Elbow Grease

As beautiful as Tuateawa is (and it's beautiful), there's a lot of work to be done here.  We work either on the land doing projects directly related to conservation or at the resident house doing projects to make life more enjoyable for the folks doing the conservation work.

Dave did a great summary post of some of the things he's worked on here.  This is a very quick outline of some of the work I've done in the past 2.5 weeks.  It's definitely not a complete list...  actually it's based on the projects for which I have pictures!

Trail Clearing:

(at the land - one of my favorites)

Planting Flax:

(at the land - flax is a really important plant for stabilizing ecosystems here, especially wetlands and flood plains.  this was the dirtiest i've been in a long time)

"Tree Love:"

(at the house and the land - digging up seedlings, settling them into the nursery, & prepping to transplant them)

(one of my favorite projects)

Building a Spa Bath...

(at the house - a spa bath will make working in the winter much more tolerable, and the cool, damp winter months are the best times to plant seedling trees here.)

...building the deck of the spa bath:

(the "ol' fashioned" way - with a hammer and saw)

...bricks and mortar:

(building the structure to contain the wood fire and support the vat)

(the woman in the picture is laura, not me)

So there you have it:  good days of work in the fresh air and sunshine.  Not always glamorous or interesting, often uncomfortable, always tiring.  Yet for every tree I settle into our little nursery (we prepped 92 the other day), I think of the future, when that little eight-inch seedling will stand eighty feet tall.  I probably won't be around to see that day, which is both a humbling and reassuring thought.

Surprise! ...and Welcome to Tuateawa

Yes, I've made it to New Zealand.  Two plane rides, three bus rides, and a very winding, bumpy truck ride over the hills of the Coromandel brought me from frigid Ithaca to bright Tuateawa.  Except I didn't actually leave on March 1.  Back in October, I bought a plane ticket for February 20 and told everyone except for Dave.  What do you give as a birthday gift for a guy whose belongings all fit in a backpack?  One hell of a surprise.

So, I'm here, and I've been here nearly a week.  How's life?

View from the deck of the house, Tuateawa, New Zealand

Pretty sweet.

A lot of people have asked about what I'm doing here.  Dave spent the summer after he graduated college living and working at Tararu Valley, on the other side of the peninsula.  The man who ran the previous Tararu Valley project is working on starting a brand new project here in Tuateawa.  The "project(s)" vary by season, but the end goal is to create the physical and non-physical infrastructure to support a small community in an environmentally sound manner (so, basically, we're building a commune).  I ended up here because I figured it would be an interesting, less expensive way to stay in New Zealand for a while and maybe do a little good in the world while I was at it.

What do I actually do?  I expected that I would be doing more to help organize and manage the residential part of the program, but the program director's partner has been living here and volunteering her amazing meal planning, kitchen organization, and cooking skills.  She left today to travel for a few weeks, so I may be doing more in the kitchen soon.

A typical day (let's take today) goes like this:

Goodbye, Buses

In November 2006, I began employment as the Service and Operations Analyst at Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc. (TCAT), which is the public transit agency for the Ithaca-Tompkins County area.

Tomorrow, our Human Resources Manager will announce to the administrative staff that I will resign, effective Friday, February 19.

When I was hired, I expected to spend most of my time on spreadsheets, crunching ridership and operational statistics to help TCAT make better business decisions. In reality, I spent the last three years working on an assortment of transportation planning, project management, technology, and public outreach functions, and oh yeah, a bit of statistics, too. Essentially, I was allowed to do nearly anything I felt inspired to do, whether "necessary" or just "cool," even if it wasn't in my job description (as long as I finished the work actually outlined in my job description).

What an awesome privilege and responsibility to give to a 24 year-old starting her career.

Remember that one time someone put a "For Sale" sign on the amenities truck? Who was that?

It's exhausting, though. At a systematic level, there are never enough resources to cover all needs. On a personal level, I do believe that TCAT plays a vital role in my community. At TCAT, I feel a sense of reporting not to our General Manager, nor to our Board of Directors, but to our ridership. With 3.35 million boardings a year, that's a daunting task.

It's made more daunting by the timing of my departure. Without going into too much detail, there were things I wanted to do at TCAT in 2010, namely to wrap up phase II of our farebox development and to analyze the effects of TCAT's new routing on ridership patterns.

So, in summary: I am inspired, thankful, exhausted, and not completely ready to leave.

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