The Project and The Plan

I have been in Seattle since August 10th and am starting to find a bit of rhythm. What am I doing here and what is the plan with Romania and the dream of helping people that no one else is helping? Excellent questions and will do my best to answer them. Pieces I am still working out. For now, I will be having Seattle as my home base. There seem to be options for me here as the rest of my project get developed.

Romania and Solid Rock Youth Ranch - As you know, I love Romania and felt like I belonged. This means it will be on my effort to return there as soon as possible. As for the project with Solid Rock Youth Ranch, Scott and Carolyn and I came to the conclusion that while we have a similar dream and idea, we are different enough that partnering together will divert energy away from the project and helping the kids. Meaning that we would spend more time working on being of one mind than spending time getting the work going. Scott and Carolyn are continuing to move forward with the project in Romania, although it will require a long time to develop. I will continue to be available to them and help in anyway that works.

What does that mean for me? I am kind of back at the drawing board and am grieving the loss of "a way" to get the dream done. Recently I was directed to a unique boarding school near Santa Barbara California that believes combining excellent education with mountains, horses, art and sports create good leaders and well rounded individuals. This particular school caters to the wealthy, although I thought it would work excellently for urban poor kids. And it could be a great idea for Romania. Just another idea to explore.

I haven't lost sight of my dream, I am just working on making a living in such a way that I can be flexible and continue to find ways to live out my passion of helping people no one else is helping. In Seattle I have gotten involved in three different projects, which could turn into more. Two are with Bakke Graduate University and one is consulting with a very interesting business start up.

Bakke Graduate University: is a Christian University whose origins is a School of Theology where they strive to transform cities through the development of leaders who work with both the rich and the poor. Their motto is: Transformational Leadership for the Global City. They recently started an MBA program to help pastors and other urban leaders serve their communities through business and creating work. I am teaching two classes for them: 1) Principles of Management 2) Organizational Behavior, Conflict Resolution and Cross Cultural Communications. Bakke is working to be a global school and the theology school is virtually all over the world with a very strong presence in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Right now the business school is in Seattle, Hong Kong and Manilla. Yes, I get to go to these places to teach. Not bad, eh? I need a PhD to teach more so am looking at a PhD program at the University of Washington.

One of the other projects I am working on for Bakke is creating a certificate program that teaching basic business skills (entrepreneurial) to what I call marginalized and oppressed groups. Right now we are exploring this with Native American Indians (those without the benefit of casinos), inmates (prisoners) and ex-convicts, as well as with the urban and rural poor. It will be looking at how to fund the certificate as well as what kind of curriculum (and a cycle of teachers) and accreditation issues. The goal is to do a pilot of it here in Seattle area and expand the certificate program all over the world.

Consulting with Direct Access is the third project. Direct Access is a small start up that provides services to inmates such as mailing books and magazines to them and it would like to expand in helping inmates mail things to their friends and families. There are many interesting nuances to working with the federal and state prison institutions. The founder is an ex-prisoner who was released three years ago and wanted to find a legitimate way of making money. I am working with another gentleman to help this founder get the work done for this growing business as well as teach the founder (mentor and coach) to manage and understand a growing business. The founder was so overwhelmed with clients that he shut down for several weeks causing much chaos and upheaval. We are also working with him to get through the crisis and rebuild relationships with his customers.

It is a fascinating project and intersects with the other two projects I am doing with Bakke. And it is giving me a practical base for my own dream as well as a PhD.

Romania - While I may not move back there right away, I want to spend several months a year there working more with NetWorks and seeing how my school idea (residential school integrating excellent education with horses, mountains, art and sports) might be of service in Romania. NetWorks also does micro enterprise activities helping people figure out how to do a business and I would like to see if the projects I am working on here with the curriculum can be of use to the work of NetWorks.

Seattle - I haven't taken many photos yet, been too busy trying to figure out where to make my home base and what to do. I do have a couple of favorites to share with you.

Sign by Lake Washington on the "beach"

a five foot strip of sand that spans about 30 feet.

(Couldn't figure out how to rotate the photo so you could read it better)

Lake Washington looking at where Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft lives.

I will keep you posted as things develop and as I take more pictures of Seattle. Several future blog posting will be an effort to show what America is like to my friends in Romania who don't have the chance to visit and see for themselves.

What I have been up to

Ok, I know, it has been far too long since my last post. Sometimes I can't even keep up with my own life. When we last left off, I was in North Carolina. Since then I flew back to Chicago to get my car and far too many belongings for the trunk of my car and began the next part of my journey: finding the "next thing" (for now).

It took me to Indianapolis where I visited my good friend Carmela and her family where I:

Checked out the very cool downtown area

Explored the super cool high technology and amazing library

(you do remember I am a 'geek', right?)

Went "surfing" with the boys in front of an excellent waterfall

I am surfing left-footed in case you can't tell.

Then I headed up to Grand Portage Wisconsin which is about five miles from the Canadian border. My favorite quote along the way was from a motorcycle man at a gas station in Two Harbors Wisconsin. He pulled in behind me as I was filling my tank. I was washing the massive amounts of dead bugs off my windshield and debating getting my jacket on as it was only 60 degrees F (15 degrees Celsius) outside when the man walked by me. He looked at me and said "the bugs really come out in this hot weather and I am just not used to it". That's right, he said HOT weather. I had just returned from Romania where it had been close to 100 degrees F (37 degrees Celsius) and couldn't help but giggle.

Life really is all about perspective, isn't it.

Pretty, isn't it?

A lighthouse turned bed a breakfast - my retirement gig.

Why did I go there you ask? I went to see my friend Sherene, from Jamaica, who is working there for the next year. I figured it was now or never - no regrets here. I had the great honor of meeting all her new friends there and seeing where she is living and working.

Not bad for a self photo!

We had fun as we explored a bit of the area, did my laundry at a laundromat(exciting I know) where I with great reluctance and paranoia (I am used to high crime areas) left my clothes while we:

Giggled on the swings

Explored the frontier exhibit.

Sherene thought this should be my new home.

We also took a drive to the Canadian border, just to see. Hard to conceptualize what a land border would look like if you have never been to one before. Sherene has that photo on her camera.

After a very tearful good-bye I began making my way to Seattle. Ok, it actually took me three days to get there. On my way I stopped in Billings Montana and reconnected with some old friends. Well, they aren't old chronologically, just old in the sense that I have known them a long time. It had been almost 10 years since I had last seen them.

While on the road I passed by this sign

Needless to say I called my brother Terry to ask him why he wasn't anywhere to been seen in one mile when the sign promised he would be. I had to take a detour a check out the town. The high school mascots are the "Terriers". And I couldn't find the ice cream shop that was so boldly advertised. My brother must have eaten it all when he passed through this town way back in the late 80's or early 1990's. Progress is slow in very small town America.

Then I headed to Coeurs de A'lene Idaho

I was trying to catch the sun rays streaming through the clouds

Lake Coeurs de A'lene

My friends "talking trash".

I could resist this photo as they were taking the green trash bin to the curb for pick up.

I am now in Seattle WA and there is much more to write about what I am doing here and what projects I am working on. That is for another blog update.

For now, I just know I have been incredibly blessed again by the people I have gotten to see and the roads I have traveled. I did miss my friends in Romania alot, and still do. One day, I will be back there again. Right now, I will embrace where I am today - in Seattle with over four days of Sunshine in a row! Not bad for a city known for having only a total of 100 and some days of sun.

The next blog will be posted this weekend.

Making my Way to America

Hopefully, you read the previous blog "My Seven Days with Networks" which gave more details on my ending activities. They did leave quite an impression on me.

As did my trip back to America.

I had the joy of having an "adventure filled" return trip. All good adventures. My flight pattern was this: Timisoara Romania to Budapest Hungary to Brussels Belgium to London England to Raleigh North Carolina to Chicago Illinois. I don't know about you, but that seems like alot so I decided to break it up with a few layovers.

My first layover was in Brussels Belgium where I got to spend 12 short hours with my friend Sarah and her family. Sarah and I met last year at Wilderness Trails Ranch where she started as a guest and loved it so much extended her stay two more weeks, one of which had her helping me out.

Even though I was in Brussels for only 12 hours, Sarah and her father voted that I could include it on my country list as I saw more things in those 12 hours than many people do in several days. We took a quick tour of Brussels where I saw some cool remnants from the World Fair in the 50's.

Sarah and I in front of the cool World Fair tower

(yes, Sarah is making herself small and I am trying to make myself tall)

After Brussels brief tour, we went back to Antwerp where Sarah's father lives. We stayed there overnight since it had more space than Sarah's place. And I got to see Antwerp - a very beautiful place.

Me trying to imitate the warrior pose of the statue in center square.

It is obvious I don't come from warrior roots.

Guild houses around the square (like our professional associations or guilds) from long ago

The Gold statues on top indicating which guild belongs to the building

One of the more beautiful train stations I have seen to date.

Check out this cool video of a very unusual sight in Belgium

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k)

I did have a very traditional food experience (and extremely tasty) of fries and mayonnaise. Hmm Hmmm Hmm. So much better than the version in America. I did round it off with lots of fruit so it was good for me.

After a far too short of a time in Belgium I made my way to Raleigh NC where I had eight days with my friend Christy. We toured Raleigh one day. Only took an hour. Although we did see a few cool things.

State building

My favorite mural.

And I got to visit with my cousin Mike and his wife, Toni and their kids. It had been since my brothers wedding in 2000, I think, since I last saw them. It was extremely wonderful and great to get caught up in person.

Now I am making my way to Seattle to teach a class at Bakke Graduate University in their brand new MBA program.

Still figuring out when to go back to Romania and what to do now. My homeless state is beginning to wear on me in new ways. I will keep you posted.

My seven days with Networks

I promised I would share more about the last seven days in Romania and some of my trip back to America. There are very few pictures of my last six days in Romania - partly because I was wanting to live in denial about leaving. Although the main reason is that the work I was doing was in some very poor communities and working with people. I have a rule to not post pictures of people unless I have permission. And, Networks, the non profit with whom I was volunteering, doesn't allow photos of the people they work with as they they don't want it to become "poverty tourism". What this means is I will have to tell some of my stories without pictures.

Checheci (pronounced Kehkech): is an inner city ghetto in Arad, not too far from where I was staying. This is an interesting ghetto and one that is changing. As the city of Arad grows, development is encroaching into this ghetto and requiring the residents to move. Many aren't legal residents and as they land they are squatting on is purchased and developed they must find a new home. For those who are "legal" their land is sometimes taken away from them and resold to the rich developers. In this ghetto, Networks has developed relationships with many of the families and over the years has responded to the needs of the community through starting a year round preschool and after school homework club. Many of the kids are caught in a cycle of poverty as they cannot get an education. Many are unregistered and therefore cannot go to the public schools. Those who can go to the public school are behind from the very first day as they can't hold pencils and don't know the basics that many preschoolers know.

As the public school was not in session, I watched the preschool kids learning to make lines and zeros and then helped with the afternoon bible club. The teachers did a great job with these kids who attention span is about 3 minutes. Every now and then she would say "hands up" and all hands would go up. Then she would engage in a short game of "simon says" which captured their attention again. When they got restless, the kids propensity for fights and arguments would rise considerable. Talk about needing to find effective crowd control methods.

I also sat in while Networks distributed some oil and washing powder (laundry detergent). The rules of this distribution were that the parents received the staples if their kids had attended school the prerequisite amount of times. This helps to keep the kids in school and also encourages the relationship building that is so important to Networks.

After all this, I went with one of the long term Networks staff members to visit a couple of families that needed to talk with her. One was a prostitute who has just had a baby. She has had several other babies that she has not kept and her oldest son does live with her. He is known for being quite out of control most of the time. I think he is about 12 or so. For some reason the mother wants to keep the new baby and yet she can't afford to keep him. She is in a very difficult place. While the mother and staff member talked, I entertained the out of control lad through arm wrestling, asking him questions (such that I could form) and discussing the art of Kung Fu. As I looked at the few week old newborn, I couldn't help but think of my niece and the fact that she has everything she needs, and this little fellow may not make it.

Obviously there is so much more I can tell about this experience, I am just trying to give you a flavor of what I experienced.

Siria (pronounced Shihria) - the main office is located in this village and aside from helping out around the office, I also went into the village to work in one small community. This community is predominantly comprised of three gypsy families. It feels much more like a community in that the gypsies are very community oriented and families help each other out and live with each other in various houses - mixing themselves up some. You can't every really tell who is a brother or sister to someone because they move in and out of each others houses so easily. It is also much more violent. Networks gave a short orientation to the team of 10 American teenagers who were there to do an afternoon kids club (in addition to other things). The orientation included: don't be shocked if we have to yell, don't be shocked if there are random fights that break out, don't be shocked if the kids come without clothes, don't be shocked if there is lots of shoving, pushing and general chaos. All good advice which helped the team not panic when there was chaos galore. One of the projects was making a tambourine out of paper plates and beans. Lots of chaos, shoving, yelling, and yet lots of happy kids.

During the debrief afterwards, Networks staff asked if any of the kids peed on the legs of the visiting team. No kid had so the afternoon was considered a success. Apparently, if some of the kids are bored or don't like what is going on, they will simply pee on an adults leg. Since they sometimes don't wear clothes, it makes anticipating that act much more difficult. Now I understand why so many of Networks staff where quick dry pants!

Taut (pronounced Tautz) - this is a camp that is open from April through the end of September. It is open for groups as well as individuals just passing through the area. Many of the older kids they work with in Siria attend the camp at least one week. I helped clean the cabins after one of the camps. I got to hang out with several young handsome men from England and Sweden (they are part of Networks) who wanted to serve me as much as I served them by cleaning cabins by myself. It was a "tough" weekend to hang out with three incredibly interesting, handsome and funny young men.

Taut from the air - no I didn't take this picture

Well, that is probably all I can share in a short amount of space other than I was incredible blessed to have met so many wonderful people in Romania - many were a part of Networks, although many were not. I was able to share a last meal with two Romanian families who I appreciate greatly - and not just because it is fabulous food. They have been good friends who helped make Romania so great.

Now, it is just figuring out what comes next.