Warning, this one is a long kayaking story (often boring) photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/MJMcWhirter/Canada2009# might be more fun.
After being in Detroit we flew back to the old haunts of Boston where many of our friends live. I had pre-arranged with a few of my mad kayaking buds to head up to Canada and the Ottawa River which is warm, friendly and reliable kayaking throughout the summer there.
It was in all respects a classic kayaking trip. Starting with the messing around! Due to the 10hour drive to Ottawa, we planned to get away from our various points of New England at a reaonably early time, probably around 5 but if possible before hand. I planned to do the shopping during the day. Well when it all happened Niall and I finally got in the car at 7pm and I hadn't done the shopping. Admirably Paul was ahead of us in his car but we soon found out that Jerry was probably an hour behind us coming up from Connecticut. A great start to any kayaking trip.
As always getting to the river was a good deal of the fun. We planned to all meet at Jerry's holiday home in New Hampshire and drop one of the cars. Well actually we planned to meet off a freeway near there while there was still cell reception. Niall and I put in some GPS coordinates and happily started catching up... ooopps we missed a freeway we were supposed to take, never mind we'll follow the GPS and go another way. Things went well but at some stage Niall and I tried to find Jerry's house on our own and found that the GPS didn't know the gravel roads of a small community in New Hampshire very well at all. We spent probably 30min driving around in the dark on gravel roads, in circles with the GPS telling us to turn down roads taht didn't exist. We were a little relieved when we made it back to a known sealed road and abaondoned the attempts to find the house by ourselves and headed for the rendevous point! All this adventure and we were only 2 hours north of Boston.
We all got together at a truckstop off I-91 finally and after a large amount of sugar courtesy of a HUGE piece of ridiculous sweet pie that was sold there we headed off for Canada.
I travlled that next bit with Paul and really enjoyed talking with him about the changes that two toddlers have bought to his life. The long drives of kayaking really help one to learn about one's friend's lives. About 3am we stopped a very homely freeway rest area in Quebec where I'd camped on a similar trip once before. We put up tents (Nialls tent puts itself up...seriously...) and went to sleep. Well of course Jerry just slept under a tree as that is the way he rolls.
In the morning we thanked Quebec for its high quality rest-stops and cruised on to the Ottawa river in Ontario. I travelled with Jerry that morning and again found that the last year had been busy on account of his kids. Just before I left Boston last year Jerry and I spent a lot of time in cars on our Quebec creeking trip and here I was hearing what things had been turned up-side-down in the last year. Again it was really great to get to spend time having a long chat with a close friend on the way to the river. Having these long conversations a year apart helped me to realize how much life can change in a year and looking back on my year I also saw the massive ebbs and flows there had been.
At the Ottawa we happily got a campsite at the takeout complete with hot showers and a sauna!!! Every takeout should have a place to sleep and a sauna.... We unloaded our food and sleeping gear and got down to the business at hand, kayaking.
The Ottawa is very very very large river even in low summer flow. I had been there before when it was about 10ft higher in water level but it was still big. It is reknowed for its big rapids which are great for playing in rather than being scary and dangerous and its warm water. We had a very pleasant time over the next days playing aruond on the river and planning how to run some of the harder rapids in our little playboats.
Of river the good times continued to roll. Firstly we found that the province of Ontario likes to make it difficult to get beer at night in the rural areas. They only let certain shops sell alcohol and they close prety early for disorganized and late kayakers. Fortunately we were saved (as usual) by Quebec which was just across the river and not only had beer but had beer with alcoholo content of up to 16.5% - I think we knew that it couldn't taste any good the whole time but the lovely Quebecoise lady who owned the store and her 10 year old kids were so happy and talkative about it and we had an Irishman with us so we left with it.
That night was hilarious too. I was tired after the late night driving the day before and the physical exertion of first kayaking in a year (sad very sad) and headed to sleep a little before Nial did. I laid in the bed and listened to the ipod a little. At one stage it felt like someone was pulling at the end of my sleeping bag but I thought nothing of it. I quickly feel into deep sleep. When Niall came in he seemed displeased, taking about a hole in the tent and seemed to be moving food around or something. I was too out of it to be much help and again sleep took me. Then in the middle of the night I heard what I was sure was a very large wild-bore right beside the tent, and man was it making some noise!!!! I was pretty scared and unsure about how to proceed, fortunately I heard Paul get up next door in his tent. He also thought it was a bore but when he got outside with his flash light he said 'there are three huge racoons eating our raisins and they don't seem to be scared of me'. With us (or me at least) scared of them and them not scared of us the best thing seemed to be to secure the food inside the tent and barricade entrances with bags and go to sleep. This was all pretty noisy and Niall slept happily through it all! Morning was a very funny scene, the racoons had feasted on raisins, bagels and bread, they had eaten a small hole in the tent and undoubtedly they were what had been pulling on my sleeping bag as I went to sleep. Niall reported that when he went to sleep there had been food strewn all over the tent entrance and he thought that I had become quite a sloppy eater in Indonesia! Very funny.
We packed most of the food in the car that day but did find out that while racoons are nocturnal, squirrels aren't and they quite enjoy popcorn. Ooops, that night all food was in the car!
After three runs down teh Ottawa, at widely different levels due to changes in the level by dam control we headed back towards New England. On the way we stopped off an enjoyed descending the Rouge River just west of Montreal. That was a real blast with some good grade 4 rapids which we playfull cruised down. There are 7 waterfalls at the end which can be run at much lower water and it was fun to hike around them. Also a bridge is being built for a new freeway over the gorge. The construction work on that put all our little efforts in Indonesia into perspective!
The final stop on the kayaking trip was a surf on teh Lachine waves on the mightly St Lawerence right in the middle of Montreal. The river is over a mile wide going through Montreal and in a place where it loses some gradient it makes epic surfing waves which are some of the best in the world. We got there Friday night and had a sureal time surfing these waves in the middle of the river as the sun went down. Just perfect. Paul left at 830am for another late night drive to resume his parenting duties. That evening the rest of us had a delicious mexican meal (first for a long time for me) in Montreal and plotted an early morning surf and then with rain falling in New England the possibility of getting Jon Loehrke out paddling on his wedding day.
We bivied downtown in the park near Lachine got up early and surfed again as dawn rose. Again a perfect moment. With the lure of getting Jon out boating on we did the unbelieveable and were ontime as we drove down to the USA. Fortunately we were saved from actually carrying out a plan made on a kayaking trip as the river levels dropped and we ended up just chilling out the whole day. Tired and with sore bodies it had been a great kayaking trip :-)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
A Couple of Lovely Things In Detroit
We had a wonderful time catching up with family in Detroit. As I mentioned we did a lot of wonderful eating. There were a couple of things that I thought that were a bit out of the ordinary and were realy wonderful. No pictures just now but I hope to post one or two with this soon.
Firstly it was really amazing to go back to Florence's garden where we got married. When we arrived in the US we were picked up by Laura who was also getting David from the airport. We dropped David off at Florence's house and got to see how wonderful things were. Walking out the back to where we got married was really special for me. As I've noted before, coming home we were particularly partial to things like clean air, nice comfortable temperatures and well cared for gardens and that combined with the memories of a great number of our friends and family from all over the world being there was a really special way to come back to one of our homes.
Another really special thing happened when we headed downtown Detroit one day to go to the local farmers market. On the way down we stopped off to check up on the place where some members of the family (most credit due to David I believe) had organized for the Greening of Detroit -an urban environmental oganization- to plant some trees in honor of Rachel's grandfather. Quite a few of the family including Rachel and I went along to help out at the planting stage.
The site that was selected was a triangle of grasss between some roads in front of the enormous school where Rachel's grandfather, and many others in the family, went to school. The school buildings where really beautiful and very majestic. The school actually was a site for primary school all the way through to the end of high school so a lot of people in Detroit spent a big chunk of their lives there. Unfortunately the Detroit school system has been in trouble and the downtown area has soured over the years so the neighbourhood and the school are now a bit rough.
Just the fact that the trees were planted was nice and when a group of us went by we saw that the area had been recently mowed and was looking tidy. We went over to pick up small bits of trash lying around and to remember. As we were over there a lady came over towards us, we were organizing to take a picture of our little group there and she helped us out. Afterwards she started to convey her very heartfelt thanks for the improvement that had been made in the area. She lives right there and said that since the trees had been planted it had been regularly mowed and maintained. She said that she really loved this little piece of land now and gazed out every morning at it in a medatative way while she collected herself for the day. She and her family were longtime residents and really cared about the neighbourhood and were so grateful that others had put some effort into the place as well. She was tearful and hugging everyone and it was really wonderful to be there! Good work to the Greening of Detroit, David and the other members of the family who made this happen. I bet that David's father Jack couldn't have wished for any more touching moment than that one.
Firstly it was really amazing to go back to Florence's garden where we got married. When we arrived in the US we were picked up by Laura who was also getting David from the airport. We dropped David off at Florence's house and got to see how wonderful things were. Walking out the back to where we got married was really special for me. As I've noted before, coming home we were particularly partial to things like clean air, nice comfortable temperatures and well cared for gardens and that combined with the memories of a great number of our friends and family from all over the world being there was a really special way to come back to one of our homes.
Another really special thing happened when we headed downtown Detroit one day to go to the local farmers market. On the way down we stopped off to check up on the place where some members of the family (most credit due to David I believe) had organized for the Greening of Detroit -an urban environmental oganization- to plant some trees in honor of Rachel's grandfather. Quite a few of the family including Rachel and I went along to help out at the planting stage.
The site that was selected was a triangle of grasss between some roads in front of the enormous school where Rachel's grandfather, and many others in the family, went to school. The school buildings where really beautiful and very majestic. The school actually was a site for primary school all the way through to the end of high school so a lot of people in Detroit spent a big chunk of their lives there. Unfortunately the Detroit school system has been in trouble and the downtown area has soured over the years so the neighbourhood and the school are now a bit rough.
Just the fact that the trees were planted was nice and when a group of us went by we saw that the area had been recently mowed and was looking tidy. We went over to pick up small bits of trash lying around and to remember. As we were over there a lady came over towards us, we were organizing to take a picture of our little group there and she helped us out. Afterwards she started to convey her very heartfelt thanks for the improvement that had been made in the area. She lives right there and said that since the trees had been planted it had been regularly mowed and maintained. She said that she really loved this little piece of land now and gazed out every morning at it in a medatative way while she collected herself for the day. She and her family were longtime residents and really cared about the neighbourhood and were so grateful that others had put some effort into the place as well. She was tearful and hugging everyone and it was really wonderful to be there! Good work to the Greening of Detroit, David and the other members of the family who made this happen. I bet that David's father Jack couldn't have wished for any more touching moment than that one.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Back to Civilization
So we left Indonesia around 11 August and travelled back to the USA. The first 5 or so days we spent in the Detroit area with most of Rachel's extended family there. Then after a couple of days in Boston I headed up to the Ottawa river for some much missed kayaking. Then Jon and Talia's wedding in New Hampshire and finally a week in Boston catching up with friends there.
As normal with return to the US or NZ after Indonesia it was just so wonderful. The simplest of things make us stop and look for weeks when we come back. The clean air, the massive variety of food available, quiet suburbs, orderly traffic, high speed traffic, smooth roads, nice lawns, ahhh it is so nice to be back in the west. We would walk down the streets and I was always struck by how big healthy and (at face value) wealthy just about everyone looked in most of the areas that we went to. We would go into people's houses and just struggle to understand the luxury, how the finishing on everything could be so nice, how all the little comforts were there. Talking with people I also noted how with all the opportunities that life in the west offers us people had complex stories to tell which aren't so commonplace in Indonesia - although granted I might just be used to the stories there.
Another thing is that I can't tell you how much I enjoyed using the internet at highspeed! Webpages just popping up, photos loading, being able to watch videos... ahh it is so cool. I think most of us who live with highspeed internet in our homes forget just how awesome it is to have that available. Again, I just can't tell you how cool that felt.
Speaking of internet speeds. I am back in Kuala Lumpur where the internet in my layover hotel seems to be shaky so I may post this up and go to sleep.
As normal with return to the US or NZ after Indonesia it was just so wonderful. The simplest of things make us stop and look for weeks when we come back. The clean air, the massive variety of food available, quiet suburbs, orderly traffic, high speed traffic, smooth roads, nice lawns, ahhh it is so nice to be back in the west. We would walk down the streets and I was always struck by how big healthy and (at face value) wealthy just about everyone looked in most of the areas that we went to. We would go into people's houses and just struggle to understand the luxury, how the finishing on everything could be so nice, how all the little comforts were there. Talking with people I also noted how with all the opportunities that life in the west offers us people had complex stories to tell which aren't so commonplace in Indonesia - although granted I might just be used to the stories there.
Another thing is that I can't tell you how much I enjoyed using the internet at highspeed! Webpages just popping up, photos loading, being able to watch videos... ahh it is so cool. I think most of us who live with highspeed internet in our homes forget just how awesome it is to have that available. Again, I just can't tell you how cool that felt.
Speaking of internet speeds. I am back in Kuala Lumpur where the internet in my layover hotel seems to be shaky so I may post this up and go to sleep.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Getting Balance Back - R&R and Holidays
Photo above is a lovely door at the place we stayed in Ubud called Ubud Sari Health Resort. We learnt about raw food and had a wonderful time relaxing after some crazy months at this place. It was one of the most peaceful places you could stay on holiday!
So it was becoming apparent that I needed something else to divert me away from work a little. In July Rachel and I took up scuba diving. We'd both done it before but a long time ago. We can travel 45min by boat to the island of Pulau Weh and then travel 20min by car to Gapang beach where we learnt to dive in a 4 day scuba course we did over two weekends. It is really fun to be weightless (neutrally bouyant) under sea and to see the amazing colour and variety of the wildlife under there. Also the beach has a lot of backpackers, some more western food and nice relaxing accomodation. We probably should have started going there for weekends a lot earlier.
Also in July we had a week of R&R. We had to stay in Indonesia as Rachel didn't have a multiple entry visa so we booked tickets to go to Bali. RAchel actually got a very high fever for 6 days in bed just as we were due to leave so we had to delay by a week. We think it was likely to be the pandemic but one never really knows. Anyway, going to Bali was absolutely wonderful. We completely skipped the southern beach tourist location of Kuta and went inland an hour from the airport to a town called Ubud which great Balinese dances, amazing food, wonderful rice field walks and general coolness due to a little bit of altitude. We had a wonderful time there relaxing at a health resort with massages, saunas, delicious fresh organic food aaaahhhh. We walked through the rice fields and I hired bikes and went mountainbiking along the single track or through teh towns. All in all a fantastic place. I can't say enough about the food, while supercheap it was higher quality than we've eaten anywhere else as there is a major hippie, raw food, organic movement in Ubud. Also people in Bali were extremely friendly, we were always called guests rather than foreigners and people were happy just to have a chat. It was great. We want to go back to stay!
We also took a couple of days up in the north coast where we went diving. The diving was a lot of fun. We dove on a 1940s wreck where there were a great number of fish. We also went diving twice when there was pretty strong current and got to drift along and enjoy the feeling of being gentle swept along past all the fish. We saw a couple of sharks! I don't think diving will ever take over from kayaking for me but it is fun as Rachel and I can do it together (she actually can dive longer than me as she is more efficient with air) and it is a really nice experience.
All this holidaying has helped me to get life back in balance and now I am happy again. To tell the truth I am happy right now as we are in Detroit with Rachel's family having a wonderful time of catching up and enjoying the luxury of the USA. I'll write more about that next blog.
Wrap-Up of April, May, June
Well it was a dry period for blogging apparently Apri, May and June. The short reason for this was work getting really crazy and busy. It became a little too stressful actually and I was happy to not be going to near the internet or having extra things to do on the computer so the blog fell by the wayside.
The month of June in particular was a nightmare. It was always meant to be a busy month for our program with most of our construction projects scheduled to end that month. Then our staff of four expatriots,which was already one less than it was supposed to me, dropped to just lonely old me as one person resigned early and two others got cuaght outside Indonesia by visa laws. In short the Indonesian government took a while to issue us visas and if you left the country during that time it was difficult to get back in. Anyway I quickly had to learn about the 2/3 of the program that I hadn't had anything to do with as I was now responsible for it all. I've officially been promoted to Deputy Program manager but have been the acting program manager and am likely to continue that role for the rest of the program now.
I am now on holiday in the USA and have a chance to look back. It wasn't at all pleasant for me working during this time as there were just too many demands on me. I learnt how stress affects a person! I did get great help from the management in the organization in Aceh and of course from Rachel. Also looking back I can see that the program has got over a major hurdle with the majority of the construction finished. We still have construction but it is a manageable level and we can now focus on teaching more soft skills about how to operate, adminster and maintain what we have built. For me personally I now know intimate details of just about all of the program across its very wide geographical area. There are some great people doing good things at the American Red Cross in Aceh and I am (sitting here with a bit of space) confident we can bring the program to a nice close and achieve our objectives. Seeing as it has become such a big part of life there I'll try to put a bit more about it in the blog over the coming months but for now that is probably enough.
The month of June in particular was a nightmare. It was always meant to be a busy month for our program with most of our construction projects scheduled to end that month. Then our staff of four expatriots,which was already one less than it was supposed to me, dropped to just lonely old me as one person resigned early and two others got cuaght outside Indonesia by visa laws. In short the Indonesian government took a while to issue us visas and if you left the country during that time it was difficult to get back in. Anyway I quickly had to learn about the 2/3 of the program that I hadn't had anything to do with as I was now responsible for it all. I've officially been promoted to Deputy Program manager but have been the acting program manager and am likely to continue that role for the rest of the program now.
I am now on holiday in the USA and have a chance to look back. It wasn't at all pleasant for me working during this time as there were just too many demands on me. I learnt how stress affects a person! I did get great help from the management in the organization in Aceh and of course from Rachel. Also looking back I can see that the program has got over a major hurdle with the majority of the construction finished. We still have construction but it is a manageable level and we can now focus on teaching more soft skills about how to operate, adminster and maintain what we have built. For me personally I now know intimate details of just about all of the program across its very wide geographical area. There are some great people doing good things at the American Red Cross in Aceh and I am (sitting here with a bit of space) confident we can bring the program to a nice close and achieve our objectives. Seeing as it has become such a big part of life there I'll try to put a bit more about it in the blog over the coming months but for now that is probably enough.
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