Volunteering in Haiti- help us get there!

We're raising money to get to Haiti to volunteer with Hands On Disaster Response for two weeks in October. We're asking you to help us get there! Why? Read on...



EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI
On January 12, 2010, Haiti was hit with a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake which all but leveled Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The quake left 220,000 dead, at least 300,000 injured, and over one million people homeless. Sixty percent of Haiti’s government infrastructure was destroyed, including hospitals and transport and communication systems. Unless you have been living under a rock you’ve seen photos of collapsed buildings, tent cities, and daily struggles of the Haitian survivors.

The immediate worldwide emergency aid response included search-and-rescue and medical personnel, equipment, supplies and food. Organizational confusion and demolished infrastructure compounded the delays in emergency aid. Slow distribution of relief supplies resulted in isolated violence and looting in the days after the quake. On January 22 the UN called the close of the emergency phase of relief operations.

To read more about the earthquake in Haiti, check out the wikipedia page.

The earthquake in Haiti graced the front page of the news for weeks, but has largely been eclipsed by more current news. However, the catastrophe in Haiti has not disappeared!



Six months after the quake, 98% of the rubble in Port-au-Prince remains uncleared. There are still 1.6 million people in emergency tent camps with very little housing rebuilt. Most of the camps do not have basic infrastructure such as sewage disposal or potable water. In Haiti, 1,261 schools were destroyed and 2,530 were badly damaged.

There is still a tremendous need for assistance in Haiti.

VOLUNTEERING
Dave and Chelsea are heading down to Haiti for two weeks, from October 12-27, to volunteer with Hands On Disaster Response. Leogane, a suburb 25 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, was the epicenter of the quake and is our destination.

Hands On Disaster Response is a hands-on, US-based, volunteer-driven non-profit which began in response to the 2004 tsunami in Thailand and has responded to natural disasters around the world including Hurricane Katrina, 2007 earthquake in Peru, 2006 and 2009 earthquakes in Indonesia, and flooding and tornadoes throughout the US in 2008 and 2009. HODR is a second responder, helping to make the difference between lingering disruption and timely restoration of daily life.

In Leogane, Haiti, HODR volunteers are focusing on clearing rubble, building transitional schools, and educating Haitian teachers for future disaster preparedness and art therapy for traumatized school children.



HODR is one of the only organizations in Leogane building schools so far this year, despite the need, due to many logistical roadblocks regarding permanent school structures. To skirt those obstacles and get as many children back in a functioning school as soon as possible, HODR will build a total of at least ten transitional schools in Leogane and surrounding communities over the next six months. Constructed with wood frames, wire mesh, and concrete masonry, the schools are hurricane and earthquake-safe, aesthetically pleasing, and give students a solid and safe space to learn in. In each case, HODR has chosen an earthquake-flattened primary school site where school directors have managed to maintain operation, typically under a tarp or a tree with teachers volunteering their time.



To read more about what HODR is doing in Haiti, check out their Haiti website.

FUNDRAISING
Budgets are tight for many of us. The recession has taken its toll on both of our finances and we have found that we have more time than money at the moment. However we are dedicated to helping those in need. Chelsea’s background in construction and architecture as well as her expertise in temporary and mobile housing are sure to be an asset to HODR’s work in Haiti. Dave’s work in education and his overflowing desire to improve the lives of those around him make him a perfect match for HODR’s transitional schools program. This will be very hot, dirty, hard work- 8 hour days, 6 days a week!

We are raising funds to cover our transportation to Leogane, Haiti. This includes round-trip flights as well as shuttles between Port-au-Prince and Leogane (there is no public transit or rental vehicles). Any money raised beyond our travel expenses (estimated at $1,200) will be donated directly to HODR in the form of tools and supplies requested on their wishlist and personally transported down or by cash donation to the cause.

Once we are there we will be staying in an open air bunk-house with 60 other HODR volunteers. There will be very limited electricity and running water (cold bucket showers). Three basic meals will be provided by a Haitian cook employed by HODR.

We will be personally covering expenditures such as recommended evacuation insurance, vaccines, personal protective equipment, and fresh produce in Haiti. We will also be learning basic Haitian Creole in the months leading up to our departure!


DONATE!!!
So please consider donating to the cause. $10 would be wonderful, $5 would be great. Consider skipping your latte today and helping us get to Haiti!. Donate here!

Thank you for taking the time to visit our fundraising page!

Burning Man Sticker Contest

Its been ages since I've posted anything to this blog! I figured its high time for me to put my design skills to work this summer. For the playa-schwag-ophiles out there, here is my sticker design!

where are your taxes going?

This is a FASCINATING graphic- it details the 2009 federal budget request. Where do your tax dollars go? Well, for every 1 billion dollars shown, you are paying $4 in taxes. Think about that as you zoom around this graphic....




click here to go to the flash site where you can zoom around


And ask yourself...

...why does the new budget slash spending on "Energy Efficiency and Renewables" from the Dept of Energy by 27%, while boosting spending on the "Strategic Petroleum Reserve" by 83%- now, when "going green" is so neccessary and popular?

...why is 0.112 Billion of the allotted 2.426 billion for "Middle East Reconstruction" going to "California"?

...and why is Airforce "Combat Operations" given a 10% cut while "Administration" gets a 7% raise? And Admin already brings in twice what Combat Ops receives... aren't we fighting a war here?

...and the "Corporation for Public Broadcasting"'s funds were cut by 55% to 0.200 billion. If Airforce Admin's raise was given to Public Broadcasting instead, they would receive a 100% increase in funding over last year's budget.

Are our militaristic government's values in the right place for The People???

And that brings us to.....Seattle!

still havin' fun in Seattle!

I've done my best to keep this tale somewhat succinct. There are a million stories, tall tales, and tidbits to tell about our amazing travels which began a year ago at Burning Man. We've come a long way, and my typing fingers are now exhausted! In the past year we have been to:

Black Rock Desert, Nevada, for Burning Man
New York
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Maryland
Michigan
New Zealand
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
New Zealand, this time for longer
Sydney, Australia
Thailand
Laos
California (dave) and Michigan (chelsea)
and finally, Seattle, Washington

I hope everyone has had a good time reading about our adventures! It has been fun to relive them over this summer while I sifted through photos and wrote up these posts.

If you're just tuning back in now after taking some time off while we caught up, I suggest that you start reading at the bottom of the page, and work your way up- as the posts show up with the newest on top.

Our post-Ice travels show up on the blog starting in July (start at the bottom of the page), where you'll find all of our photos from our hikes in New Zealand. In the August posts, we're hitching through the north end of the South Island of New Zealand. In September (starting at the bottom of this page) we stop in Sydney for a brief photo shoot, and then we're off to Thailand and Laos. Wheeee!!!

Ayutthya

map of Thailand- click on it for a larger image. Ko Tao is underlined in red, about half way down the peninsula. the black line outlines our ferry trip back to the mainland, and then our train trip from Chumphon to Bangkok (red dot) and then up to Ayutthya (red dot #2)

Dave and I returned to Bangkok from Ko Tao, and immdiately jumped on a train to Ayutthya, the ancient capital of Siam, founded in 1350. In the 1760s, the capital was ruined by Burmese invaders, and the ruins stand today in well-maintained parks, upkept but not repaired.

Liza and Hannah, her friend visiting from Michigan, had traveled by train up to Ayutthya the night before, and planned on meeting us there. We dumped out bags at the guesthouse they stayed at, ate some banana pancakes and smoothies for breakfast, and rented old cruiser bicycles for 30 bhat each for the day (thats less than $1) to check out the ruins! It was a bloody hot day, parching.


the old city- surrounded by a moat, we biked all over this place!

We toured quite a few different Wats, and they all start to blend together in my mind. A couple of common themes: all of the ruins we looked at were built of brick, originally covered in plaster and possibly painted. Much of the plaster work had crumbled off, but you got the idea of the form through the brickwork.


stupas- decorated mounds thought to hold buddhist or monk relics


well framed...

There were buddha statues everywhere, and many of them were relatively well maintained. There were whole halls with lines of seated buddha figures- something Dave and I also saw in the Wats in Bangkok.


many of the buddhas were well maintained

Many buddhas were headless- I'm not sure if this was done by the Burmese, or by later looters, or if they were just the most succeptable part of the statues.


headless buddhas


wait- this one has a head!


Liza and Dave

I don't know much about historic Buddhist architecture, so I can't shed much light on what all of these different elements mean (I've never been big on religious architecture!). But they were still beautiful!


tall, thin pointed arches creating a long hall within one of the ruins


ruins of a great hall


ruins


three stages of decay

Most of the wats we went to were relatively tourist-free. We had to pay a small fee to get into each one. The money supposedly went towards maintenance, which was just fine by me.

We ran into busloads of tourists at one Wat, which featured that over-photographed buddha head overgrown with tree roots. It was easy to find on the premises- it was surrounded by people (mostly asian tourists) taking photographs. Not overly amazing to me, I quickly passed on. But of course not before we took a picture!


one of the tourist favorites- a buddha head cloaked in tree roots


more ruins

We were allowed to climb all over the ruins, although respect for the sacrity of the sites kept us from doing too much bouldering. Many of the very-steep, trecherous stairways leading up to the top of the Khmer-style towers reminded me of the steep Mayan ritual stairs at Tikal- the ones they would throw their sacrificial people down after they were done with them. Ick. But I digress...


Liza and Hannah climb the steep stairs


Chelsea in ruins

One of the best maintained wats we visited even had a model of what it originally looked like!


model of one of the wats

At the end of our tour, it started to rain- a welcome relief to the oppressive heat of the day. We took cover in the nearest cafe. It was a strange hour for food, so we didn't bother the cooks and just cooled off with some cold drinks instead.


Liza, Hannah, and Chelsea cool off

We didn't spend a lot of time kicking around the rest of Ayutthya- we were just there for the day. But we did have a few good laughs on the streets!


crazy three-wheeled car- of the future?


matching sisters- we didn't plan this!


English Errors: the guesthouse Liza and Hannah stayed at

We took the train back to Bangkok all together. It was late, and it felt like we stood on the rickety wooden platform forever!


Liza, Chelsea, and Hannah wait for the train back to Bangkok

One of the most amazing things to me was the way that the slum-dwellers in Bangkok used the train tracks as their backyard, roadway, and even their porches! The rickety shacks are built smashed up against the wide bank of tracks on one side and one of the old water channels on the other side (which I suppose is used for drinking, washing, and trash removal, sadly). It was really interesting to pass by these houses on the train- you could see right into them, see people going about their daily lives. The slums reminded me of the favelas in Brazil- not only are they housing, but they include commodities for the entire community- cafes, bars, laundries... all below the radar of the wealthier residents and tourists of Bangkok.


train passing someone's "porch" -they didn't even flinch

As we zipped by I saw candy-colored taxis parked for the night, women cutting up fresh fruit to fill their street carts for the next day, kids playing next to the tracks, and men peeing in the bushes. Bangkok, and really, so much of Thailand, seemed to me to have two distinct communities (or classes, if you will) living in parallel. They formed a sort of overlay, interwoven together, feeding off of each other.


Liza buys fruit from a street vendor- plentiful, cheap, tasty! Also, probably prepared in a shack by the train tracks...

Liza's "secret passage" reminded me of that- the great, fast freeway with expensive cars above, crossed below by a small concrete sidewalk, used as a thoroughfare by many people. The small neighborhood near her towering apartment complex was similar as well. On one side of the moat/river were huge mansions, serviced by a wide paved road. On the other side were small shacks built of found materials, serviced by a hovering concrete walk. I could go on about how this parallels the lives lived by the Thai people....but I digress...


the "secret passage" under the main freeway to get to Liza's work- you had to duck on a bicycle, and look out for scooters!

A few days later, Dave and I flew out of Bangkok to start our long travel home. Walking through security, Dave and his large backpack sent off all sorts of alarms. They made him unpack the whole thing...and what did they find? An unopened bottle of fine red New Zealand wine! The last bottle out of the three from the guy who picked us up hitching to Picton! Doh! They were nice enough to let us break it open and drink it right there, at the security screening. Luckily, the new Bangkok international airport is very beautiful.



The security checkpoint stands in a gorgeous, airy, glass and fabric structure. We had a pretty good time chugging our wine out of the bottle and playing cards. We offered up a swig to many of the tourists going through the checkpoint, but no one took us up on our offer. Their loss!


making a dent in our illegal bottle of wine

From Bangkok, we flew to Sydney. We had a very uneventful overnight- choosing to sleep most of our time there. Then, we flew to Los Angeles, where Dave took a flight to San Diego to visit his sister and Chelsea flew to Traverse City, MI, via too many layovers, to visit her family in Charlevoix. Less than a week later, we rendesvoused at the Seattle airport, thrilled to see each other, happy to be home, and full of stories to tell!


Dave and Chuckanucka trade travel-weary looks on the plane

Ko Tao

The last week we had in Thailand, we decided to head south to the islands. Dave had wanted to take a scuba diving class for some time, especially after our preliminary exploratory dive with my Dad when we were in Charlevoix, MI, way back before we headed down to the Ice. Dave figured out that Ko Tao is the diving capital of Thailand, at least if you want to get your Padi certification. One of Liza's friends in Thailand was also a master diver and had taken some classes a small company called Scuba Junction on the island. So Dave called ahead and booked us a bungalow and himself a class.

We took an overnight train down from Bangkok to Chumpon, where we could catch a boat to Ko Tao. We opted for second class- no air conditioning, which was not the worst thing in the world, but definitely much cheaper than first class. We both got upper berths to sleep in, kitty corner to each other. When we first got on the train, the berths are stowed and everyone is sitting in seats. People walked up and down the aisles with food and buckets of cold drinks to sell. There did not seem to be many tourists on the train....maybe they were enjoying the air conditioning.

These sleeping cars were different than ones I've ridden in through Europe- you didn't get a (semi) private room, usually with 4 bunks. Soon after it got dark, the conductor came through and transformed the car into a sleeping car- the two facing seats laid flat to become one berth, and the second berth was folded down from high in the wall. Complete with white linens!


the sleeping car on the train- everyone is sleeping behind those curtains!

People went to sleep pretty quickly, and drew their thick green curtains. Which made it stifling hot in the car because the windows only opened to the lower bunks- there was no air circulation when they pulled their curtains. I rode most of the way with my curtain sagging low so I could get some sort of breeze from the rotating fans mounted at intervals along the ceiling in the aisle.


Chelsea, sleeping on the fold-out top sleeping berth

Early morning we were roused from bed by the conductor just before our stop. We stumbled out of the train car around 6am, and were immediately met by hawkers trying to interest us in fast boats to Ko Tao. We checked out a couple of them and settled on a not-so-fast boat (a couple of hours) to the island....and promptly slept on the boat.


Ko Tao: rocks and jungle

Ko Tao is a small rocky island. with lush jungles on the interior. It was surprisingly uninhabited until the 1930s, when it was used as a political prison for about 10 years. Eventually, all prisoners were pardoned and taken to a larger island. About the same time, two brothers were testing out a sailboat and sailed over to the island, found it to be a fantastic place, and set up camp. They harvested coconuts and fish, and soon the population grew. It was first discovered by the tourist population in the 1980s and eventually because a diving hot-spot, but all relatively later than other, more popular Thai islands. Therefore, it is relatively less built up- there are pockets of touristy areas, but it isn't overrun...yet. It still seemed very "touristy" after our travels through Laos.


bungalows peeking out of the jungle

Although residents mainly rely on tourism for their income, there are still fishing fleets that go out daily.


a Ko Tao resident working on maintaining his wooden fishing boat, by hand, with a chisel

We stayed in bungalows just off the Hat Sairee beach (middle of the west coast) which was nicer than Hat Mae Haad beach, which is where the main tourist town and the ferry terminal is.


Ko Tao map, from wikipedia.com

We ate all of our food at the little beach-side restaurants- so cheap! Definitely full of backpackers. We also found a woman who sold soup from a cart- also really good!


our favorite beach-front cafe had all the cheap standard fare (fried rice, curries and smoothies), at most tables you sat on cushions on the floor

While on the island, Dave took diving classes every day and I explored, swam, did a few dives, sat on the beach and read, and just relaxed. I originally had thought about taking boats to other islands near by, but it was so nice to just stay in one place for four days, I never even looked at a boat schedule!

One day I took a long walk from our beach all the way down to the south tip of the island, hugging the west coast as much as possible. The paved paths (barely even roads!) fell away to dirt and then finally just hiking trails through the jungle.

I stopped often to chill out- it was very warm! I swam where possible. Many of the little bays I came across had little "resorts" huddled up to them- half a dozen bungalows and a cafe that offered basic food.


Jansom bay, with an idle water taxi

Thais have a belief that there are spirits that inhabit the land. Landowners often build a "spirit house" on an auspicious corner of their property for the spirit, and leave regular offerings in the house. This is thought to keep the spirits happy so they won't do anything mischievous. I ran into this beautiful one on part of my hike:


a "spirit house"

Another day I rented a scooter and cruised over to the east coast of the island- not too far to walk, but it was pretty mountainous and I was whipped after walking all day in the hot humid heat to the south end of the island. I checked out Tanote Bay and rented scuba gear. The water was shallow and there were great fish and sea anemones. There were a couple of enormous rocks in the middle with interesting shallow pools that I explored a bit as well.


one of many bays Chelsea visited on her cross-island treks

Later on, Dave and I took the scooter up to some of the other eastern bays, and found a gorgeous secluded bay ringed in high rocks that we frolicked in for hours! The water was so warm, clear and deep! There was a single large boulder in the middle of the bay, in deep water, with a rope tied to a protrusion at the top that hung into the water. We climbed up it (avoiding the super-sharp barnacles as best we could) and jumped in from the top many times!


sunset soccer

Dave and I enjoyed many an evening on the beach. The beach was dotted with little bars and cafes with beanbags and low tables right in the sand, ringed by tiki torches. Awesome- could have spent ages in this paradise!


Dave and Chelsea joyfully swinging


sunset on the beach- check out those colors!!!


our favorite cafe on the beach- we sat in beanbag chairs on the beach and ate yummy cheap thai food, all with these great lanterns above us!

There were also quite a few free-roaming beach dogs that seemed to just live and play all day long on the beach. We befriended quite a few of them!


one super-sandy beach dog

One day we followed our noses out to the north-west edge of the island, past a small resort with bungalows built right on the big boulders that pop up everywhere. We slid and climbed out to the rocky (and I mean boulder-y) shore, and you could see the next island so close! Dave and I did a couple of dives over there- some interesting things in the water, although the visibility was not great (as in you could see 50' in front of you but not 100'). There were enormous giant clams buried in the corral, their pink striped flesh looked like pillows in the sea. I saw a large school of finger-sized skinny silver fish that would change direction as an entire group- not just follow the leader, but more like a marching band does an about-face. Crazy! Lots of colorful fish. Unfortunately, some of the coral was in rough shape because of the increase in tourists. Our dive masters seemed pretty careful and knowledgeable about taking care of the underwater environment they dived on.


sunset over Nanguna Island, a tiny island next to Ko Tao

When it was finally time to head back to the mainland, Dave and I took a larger ferry and watched the islands slide by us until sunset, when we finally arrived back at Chumpon.


open-water fishing


Chelsea on the ferry


one of many tiny islands we passed while on the ferry

At Chumpon, we were loaded into a pickup truck and taken back to the train station. Before we got there, they stopped for an hour in a cafe-heavy neighborhood in town and let everyone grab some food- a great idea. Dave and I wandered away from the tourist-oriented place they dropped us in front of, and found instead a little cafeteria down the street that was much more "authentic" -mostly Thais eating there. We had some of the best Pad Thai I've ever had- and liked it so much, we ordered more to take with us on the train!


tiny gecko on a sign at the train station