Interim Correspondence

Correspondence for Interim 2006 is available here.

Journals from Service Learning projects are located here.

Interim 2005

January 3

Wind and waves determine where we go and when. However, we're talking about sailing for Tortuga immediately, then to los Testigas off Venezuela, maybe then head for Dominica, and see what happens then.

-- Dr. Duane Pontius, Interim at Sea

January 5

Tashi dele, which means "Hello" in Tibetan. For all of you in the Central Standard Time Zone, I think you are about an hour into the new year. I hope that everyone is doing well. I have been traveling for about a week now, and everything has been wonderful.

The first 2-3 days sort of meshed all together. I flew on the 25th from Atlanta to New York, then I took a 20 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan, which was split in half with a short layover in Anchorage, then I immediately flew to Bangkok, Thailand. When I arrived I had been on airplanes for about two days, and it was about 12:00pm there. My next flight was not until 3:10am, so I exchanged some money and basically hopped on the first bus I saw. It took us to a part of town that many backpackers like to stay in, so I met a few other travelers. I found out about the earthquakes on the bus ride by an Australian who was planning to travel to some of the islands. I was not affected by the disaster at all, but it was on every television in Bangkok, and the locals were very sad.

I had some great meals, saw the sunset, and talked to many people. In Thailand, many people speak English, especially anyone who profits from tourism. One man, who was a professor at the local university, stopped me in the street and started a conversation, then he said he had to go because he was on his way to see wife in the hospital with his new baby boy. I loved how open he was. I plan on spending about 3 days there on my return, but I had to get back to the airport that night. I slept for a couple hours in the terminal, then for a couple more on the flight, and then I was in Chengdu, China.

When I got there, most everything in the airport was closed, and my instructions told me to talk to travel agents and information consultants about booking my flight into Lhasa and getting permission to enter Tibet. Since I couldn't do that, I went straight to a hotel I picked out, by taxi.

In Chengdu, very few people speak English, so it was much more difficult to communicate. Luckily, I met a girl who spoke English fairly well, but really liked to try to speak what she knew, so we became good friends. In Chengdu, I visited a temple, saw many many pandas close up at a research center, saw a Sichuan opera, and visited Chengdu center, which is pretty much like the Times Square of Chengdu. Beside the hotel there was an elementary school, and I sort of snuck in the back through an open gate and walked around. I just went in to see what it was like, and eventually I met an English teacher who let me teach the kids for about 20 minutes. The kids were so enthusiastic, and it was really fun.

I left for Lhasa early on the 31st. The plane ride was by far the best I've ever been on. Much to my surprise, I entered the plane hearing The Eagles, "Hell Freezes Over" concert, playing In a New York Minute, and when I exited it was Hotel California. As we flew West, the sun began to rise and color the cloud level below us, and then you could start seeing mountains peak through the clouds.

Lhasa is very very unique, and I definitely stand out, but fortunately, most locals greet me with a big smile. In Chengdu, I mostly got blank stares, and no response when I would greet them, but here it is much different. The city is very busy, and there are many unfamiliar noises, many of which I can hear outside my hotel window. Most of what I read about Tibetan food was not particularly good, but I have rather enjoyed it. Yak butter tea, which I read bad things about, is the most common drink, and I actually think that it is soothing. In the day, the sun is very warm; I would be fine in a t-shirt (although I'd be the only one dressed that way), but at night it gets pretty cold.

Today I visited the orphanage where I will be working. There are about 120 kids. Mostly I think I will be teaching English, and I will also get to teach two kids the guitar. In Chengdu, I missed my stop on a bus, and got off by a mall. One thing led to another, and I was directed to a store that might sell guitars. Sure enough they did and I bought a very cheap one and a flimsy case (it's more like a guitar shaped sack) for 200 yuan, which is about 24 bucks. The reason I got is because I thought that a guitar might be something fun to use with the kids at the orphanage, and so it is that there are two kids there who want to learn. So far, everything in this trip has just sort of worked its way out just like this.

Kah le peh (Good Bye)
Daniel
-- Daniel Ferguson, Independent Study in Tibet

January 6

We arrived safely last night. It is a beautiful morning in Bangkok and I just enjoyed a great and peaceful Thai breakfast before the students awake. All is well.
-- Dr. Bob Slagter, Study trip to SE Asia

January 8

8 January and we are almost ready to leave for the train station. Chiang Mai tomorrow morning our time. More then.
-- Dr. Bob Slagter, Interim in SE Asia

January 9

We made an overnight train journey to Chiang Mai in the north. everybody arrived tired but otherwise fine. I am traveling with a mountain of luggage. Hopefully I convinced the students to leave it in storage at the airport when we go to Cambodia and Vietnam so we can actually move around.

I have a lot less than them and I even brought a bunch for family members here, one can't imagine but now I think some of the students are actually getting tired of their stuff.

More later.

Dr. Bob Slagter, Interim in SE Asia

January 11

I have been mostly teaching English classes at the orphanage. The students all speak Tibetan, but learn Chinese and English. A couple of the students are pretty good at English, which helps a lot. Usually I just write a sentence on the board like "I have..." and they will come up with the end, like "a red jacket" and then I'll get them to say what someone else has, and they'll have to say "She has a red jacket". That works best because I can call on everyone; there are some shy kids in my classes.

The best part of my week, by far, is when I get to teach Singing-English class. All of the students have to take a singing class, and they learn songs in three different languages. Since I brought a guitar, they just told me to teach them some English songs. They already knew "You are my Sunshine" and part of "Jingle Bells". The first one I taught them was "This Little Light of Mine". The greatest part about singing class is that the kids have no inhibitions whatsoever about singing really loud, and they just learn the gist of the melody, and they always speed up. I don't really mind though, cause they look like they're having so much fun. Some of them really got into the "Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!" After I taught them that, they started asking me if I knew different songs. Some were Chinese pop songs that I didn't know, but one kid asked me if I knew "With or Without You", and I said "you mean U2?!", and he said yes and flipped through his notebook, and sure enough he had all the lyrics written out. I started playing it and a couple of them tried to sing it, but it kind of fell apart. I couldn't believe it though!

Right now I'm teaching them this song I learned this summer by Joe Pisapia. It's very simple, and I changed the lyrics just a bit so that they could work on the 'have' conjugation more. It goes:

I have a daytime,
and I have a nighttime,
and that's enough. That's enough.
She has a starry sky,
and he has a starry sky,
and that's enough. That's enough.
Sometimes you get so overwhelmed
because you simply have too much.
and we have a starry sky,
and we have a sunrise,
and that's enough. That's enough.

I like it because it's easy, and I think the meaning is also easy for them to get. In Buddhism, simplicity is a very important theme, and it means a lot to me especially living here. Sending these emails is about the most frivolous thing I do, and the daily life has been harder than I thought it would be, but I'm happy about it.

The weather has gotten a little colder every week, but the sun still shines really bright, so in the day it is good to be outside. Yesterday it snowed for the first time, about an inch worth. People on the bikes are having the hardest times; I've seen a few slips, and experienced one myself. It sure is beautiful. I wish you could all see it.

-- Daniel Ferguson, Independent study in Tibet

January 12

Everything is going fine. I think each student individually will get
something positive from the experience. We leave for Puebla Wed. morning.
-- Dr. Vince Gawronski, Interim in Mexico

Doug, we have had a truly great run in Chiang Mai. We leave in a couple of hours returning to Bangkok by train. We will be there approx. 48 hours before leaving by air for Hanoi.

I am really hoping I can get the students to leave two thirds of their stuff in Bangkok so we can travel light.

Hope all is well at BSC.
-- Dr. Bob Slagter, Interim in SE Asia

January 13

We almost missed the plane [in Atlanta] due to a delay from Birmingham. I ran ahead to the gate and virtually arm wrestled the gate agent to hold the plan. Lost the first fall, but the gate agent went for best two out of three, and she lost the next two.

All is well here: lost credit card replaced with new one that arrived today by UPS, lost passport recovered from airplane and reunited with student. All about par for the course. A very good and attentive group of students; great weather.

-- Dr. Sam Pezzillo, Interim in Italy

January 15

This has been a great trip so far. Strong winds, fast sailing, and great camaraderie. We made the passage from Tobago to Bequia (just south of St. Vincent) hitting speeds of up to 9 knots, which is really impressive. I'm really impressed with all the students and the crew as well. Everyone is pulled their weight and learning their lines (quite literally). I wish I could stay up around the clock just to observe how well everyone is doing. You should all be proud.

We depart tomorrow or Monday for points North. The phone service has been spotty and there are no particular indications whether it should be better or worse as we go along. All I can suggest is that you sit tight and trust in this very professionally prepared ship and crew. Everyone is having the time of their lives.

Fair winds and clear skies,
-- Dr. Duane Pontius, Interim at Sea

January 18

The students have discovered Florentine steak; no herd is now safe. They continue to be an energetic group, attentive to every lecture, mixing well across groups, and they have climbed every dome. Tomorrow they make an excursion to Pisa by train.

-- Dr. Sam Pezzillo, Interim in Italy

We are in Hoi An, Vietnam. All is well: students are tired but carrying less luggage. Tomorrow on to Ho Chi Minh City and then Cambodia.

-- Dr. Bob Slagter, Interim in SE Asia

BSC and Westward should be arriving in Dominica today at some point. They are all well and motor sailing into the wind at about 5 knots. The ship will make port today.

-- Ocean Classroom Foundation, Interim at Sea

January 19

First day of rain--but it is snowing in Bolzano, our destination tomorrow.

We ran into one of the students on the independent tour [i.e. who is traveling in Europe on an independent study contract] and his group is spending much time on buses. The student [from that group] who went with us last year now recognizes the difference in our BSC Interim trip.

Students learned about Italian strikes today, their free day to visit Pisa when museums are closed in Florence. It turns out trains went on strike after they had carried the morning work commuters. One energetic group of students took the regional bus instead and had a great time, with an added bonus stop in Lucca with time to look around. They thought better of climbing the tower in Pisa, though, when they saw the 15 euro charge, about 20 dollars with a good exchange rate. Final things in Florence today. Off tomorrow to Bolzano and the iceman; Bolzano, reportedly with a new blanket of snow.

-- Dr. Sam Pezzillo

January 23

Sailed westward in the vicinity of Montserrat to watch its volcanic activity. The group hopes to visit it ashore this week as well. They plan to be in St. Kitts Sunday night. All hands are well.

-- Ocean Classroom Foundation, Interim at Sea

January 24

Today I have left Lhasa. When I arrived at the airport, I found out that my flight had been cancelled, and was told to go to a hotel and come back tomorrow. I thought about it, but was angry. People were running around trying to get in different lines, pushing and staring, which is normal, but today it was getting to me so I went to talk to the lady at the info desk one more time, and soon enough, another woman lead me to a check-in line and got me a 1st class seat on a plane full of people who were supposed to fly out yesterday!

The last week at the orphanage was examination week, so I only taught guitar, but early in the week I got 4 more students who were interested. Two of them can almost play you are my sunshine, which seems to be their favorite English song, mainly because they know it I guess.

Now that I'm done, I think that I should try to paint a more accurate picture of what I saw in the city. Once, Tibet, and especially Lhasa, was a place where foreigners were not allowed. Today, because of the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the 50's and continuing to this day, Lhasa is very much like any other Chinese city. Surrounding the Potala Palace: the front is a destroyed small village and on its sides are designer clothing stores, Chinese restaurants, and camera and souvenir shops. On the sidewalk you will see many native Tibetans still walking the circuit around the Palace as a religious practice, and you can never walk anywhere without seeing beggars. Almost all of the stores have become Chinese-owned, and the locals have become a minority in their own country.

I didn't start to understand what the political sentiments were like until I began developing relationships with different people at the orphanage. One of the teachers opened up to me one day, and told me how Chinese officials will randomly check the orphanage. I became friends with one of the older students who works at the orphanage. He told me how his mother has been in prison for 14 years, since he was almost too small to remember, and he doesn't know why.

And here is where their picture changes. This student showed me, as I was shown by many others during my stay, that above it all there is still a genuine kindness that is hard to imagine. He knew some English, so he started talking to me. He wanted to do anything for me. In particular, he was determined to find a dranyen, which is a Tibetan stringed instrument, for me, because he knew that I played guitar and thought I might enjoy it.

One day, he went with me to the Barkhor area, which is the Tibetan market, to look for one, but we learned that no store sells them in Lhasa; most come from Shigatse, another big city. Then as we were walking by the Potala, the student saw a man playing a dranyen and singing to customers at a restaurant. We went over to him and asked him to play. He was blind, but his hands were very familiar with the instrument, and he had a younger sidekick who accompanied and guided him. When he finished, the student asked him if he would sell his instrument to me, and he said he would. At first I didn't want to buy it. It looked like he had had it for a long time, and I wondered how he would get another, but he told my friend that he was from Shigatse. I still just didn't feel right about it, so we said that we might come back and walked away, but we didn't get 100m before a man from the crowd that arose from our negotiation stopped us, and told the student that he really wanted to sell it. The dranyen player followed him, and I agreed, and asked him to play one last song before he gave it to me. When he finished, he smiled and handed it over.

I'd say right now, I'm mostly overwhelmed at these sort of moments, where people were just so kind. There are many things that I do not understand on this trip from just seeing things and not being able to communicate with anyone deeply, but it's these moments that came through most clearly. They didn't happen all the time either -- I saw a lot of things that were not compassionate -- but when they did happen, you couldn't forget.

So that's my attempt at closure for a trip that's not quite over yet. I'm looking forward to getting back into the old routine at school, and hearing about what everyone has been up to. Sorry if this one is a bit in the clouds, but that's what happens when you are at "the roof of the world", and on that stupid pun, I'll say goodbye, and safe travels to those still abroad.

Homeward Bound,
Daniel

January 26

Big surprise for the group in Venice. "Because of a circumstance" as the reception put it, most of the group was upgraded to suites in the Palazzo portion of the Bauer Hotel in Venice which is a little like putting a student group booked into a nice Washington Hotel into the Lincoln bedroom at the White House, "because of a circumstance." The students rose to the occasion, the hotel staff was happy, the students were happy. When I talked to the Rome agent the day before departure -- who I found out from our US travel agents probably had arranged the whole thing -- she said the management has told her the students were "perfect."

Ten years of working with the same hotel paid off. One note on service: when one of the students wanted to take a bath in the whirlpool tub and it didn't seem to be working [at about 2:00 AM], the hotel immediately sent someone to check. Yep, it wasn't working. Not to worry, they changed their room in the middle of the night, and when they entered the new one, the bath was already drawn and the water bubbling.

We all got back in late last night, on schedule. Close connection in New York since the plane we were to take from Venice was delayed due to a late arrival of turn around plane from New York.

-- Dr. Sam Pezzillo, Interim in Italy