whirlwind

on the way back from climbing mt. whitney tuesday night, i turned to dad and said, "dear god, i'm moving to the philippines tomorrow"

and now here i am ...

i don't have pictures to post from mt. whitney because my rechargeable batteries for some unknown reason did not, in fact, charge, and so dad took all the pictures and i didn't have time before i left to get the pictures from him and load them onto my computer. it was a great trip - absolutely beautiful and it felt so so good to be climbing mountains again. it rained both nights, which made for a lot of discussion as to whether or not we would actually climb mt. whitney. it was breaking my heart, not trying when we were so close. and then the clouds lifted, the sun came out, and granijo told dad, uncle danny, and i to go on ahead and she and aunt susan followed. sadly, granijo and aunt susan were turned back by weather and the three of us barely made it. but we did and had fun and everything! i will post pictures when dad sends them to me.

and then i came home, slept for a few hours, packed, and got on an airplane. 15 hours later, i arrived. raymund, the CERV-philippines director, picked me up at the airport and we drove to the CERV house. the first thing you notice about manila is the color - everything is painted brightly and multicolored. the driving and traffic is crazy - all sorts of cars, jeepneys, motorcycles, tricycles all weaving in and out with apparently no rules.

i'm the only volunteer arriving this month and the only environmental volunteer, which is daunting and a little intimidating, but i am sure it will work out ok. i go to my placement in romblon on monday, so i'll get a much better feel for things there. these next two days in manila will be a crash course on filipino culture, customs, and language, so it will definitely be interesting. everyone has been very very nice and friendly and welcoming, which is reassuring. i definitely stand out (literally) here - i'm at least a foot taller than everyone else and am the only blonde and white person i've seen - i get gawked at a lot. but so far and so good and while i'm exhausted from my flight and will sleep well tonight, i'm excited to be getting going on this.

i'll get some pictures up next time (once i've actually taken some of manila). love to you all ...

route 101

my parents 25 wedding anniversary was the 14 august. to celebrate, erica and i planned a threw them a party here at their new house (we planned, they wrote the check :)).

we had about 75 people here and it was a great time.

honestly, my parents have the perfect marriage. they're high school sweethearts, have been together for 32 years, still love each other very much, my dad still swears my mom is the most beautiful woman in the world, and in their everyday lives you can see how much they love each other, in all those little things. it is something to hope and dream and wish for in the future ...

anyways, a few pictures:




[dad giving the toast]


[looking out over the crowd during the toast]


[the beatiful and delicious cake]


[cutting the cake]

"an act of faith"

sometimes (no offense, parents), my parents get some rather hare-brained ideas. when they built their new house, they decided they wanted to put a hot tub on their balcony. so they had it reinforced, able to hold extra weight, and so on.

and then a few weeks ago they bought a hot tub - 600 lbs. the question, of course, is how does one lift a 600 pound hot tub up to a balcony. cranes were out of the questionb ecause this neighboord is set=up with walkways in front of the houses and alley/streets behind them, so no crane would be able to get to our hosue. instead, dad rented a cable hijack. the maximum weight of which was 640 lbs and was basically exactly the height of the balcony.

so ...

my parents talked musty and mike and our neighbor into helping out. dad explained the plan, and on we went!







my mom kept saying, "positive thoughts only! positive thoughts only!" and up and up and finally it was at the balcony.





and then over and done and it worked! none of us could even believe it. still can't believe it, really ... it was a joint effort, for sure.

better get yourself together darlin' join the human race

this summer i've been volunteering with an organization called the samaritans, a humanitarian group that leaves from tucson every day to do patrols in the desert, leaving water along trails and providing medical aid to anyone we may meet. the border issue is ... very complex. but whatever your beliefs regarding migrants entering the country, the fact is that these are real people, who pay thousands of dollars to the coyotes to be dumped in the middle of the desert and left to fend for themselves. and people are dying every day out there. it's 60 miles from tucson to nogales, and there is no way that anyone could carry enough water with them. and so people die from heat stroke.

it is a humanitarian issue, i believe, more than anything else.

these patrols are an absolutely heart-wrenching experience. i have not met anyone on the trails - migrants travel at night and usually try to avoid the heat during the day. if you see someone, it is usually because they are in really bad shape. there are, literally, trails crossing the desert - trails laden with discarded bottles for water, backpacks, clothing, the belongings that people dump when they are close to meeting their ride.










it is greener than usual in these pictures, thanks to the monsoons. the monsoons bring some relief, lowering the temperature a few degrees. since last october, there have been about 200 known deaths in the desert. the number is likely higher than that.

the last patrol i went on, we met a migrant on the side of the road - he had been out there for four days, two without food or water and was ready to give up. we gave him food, water, and called the border patrol for him. he was 28.

most migrants who are deported turn right back around and try again. they say that it becomes a cycle of life - entering, getting deported, entering, getting deported, until they either reach their destination, or they die trying.

i don't mean to push some sort of political agenda in this post ... volunteering with this organization has been very illuminating - in that you hear all this about people crossing the desert, but it is quite a different experience to walk the same trails they are and actually seeing and feeling it.