So much of who I am today is a result of the thirteen summers that I spent at Frost Valley.
Love the new video. Love the soundtrack. Jón "Jónsi" Þór Birgisson is the guitarist and vocalist for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. Love Frost Valley.
Showing posts with label Frost Valley YMCA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frost Valley YMCA. Show all posts
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Sunday, July 3, 2011
East Africa Day 47 (Wed June 29): Chimp Tracking
When I purchased my Chimp Tracking permit in Kampala the other day, I had to decide between the 8am group and the 2pm group. I picked the 2pm group, thinking that it would give me more time to find my way to the park. Turned out to be a good plan. In the AM I had a breakfast of fruit and toast – with hungry Vervet Monkeys watching my every move – and then spent the next two hours walking along the main road from CVK to the Kibale park entrance. I hadn’t gone more than a few feet from CVK’s entrance when I was approached by a young man, Ignatius. He is getting his certificate in tourism and is interning at the guest house across the road from CVK. We had a really nice talk and walk. He walked me several miles, up and down sloping hills, between more tea plantations and fields of other crops, until we reached the forest, when we parted ways. He said that he’s wanted to work with tourists since he was a young boy, and has been inspired to protect the environment and to not kill animals by his older brother, who works in the nature conservation field. I learned a lot from Ignatius.
Once I had entered the forest, I began to see so many butterflies all along the side of the road. When I would walk into a group of them resting and feeding on the roadside, they would flutter up and into my path. It was like walking through smoke, but the smoke was butterflies. All different colors and sizes – absolutely beautiful. Each time I heard a noise I’d peak into the dense trees along the side of the road, and saw several species of monkeys. Very few vehicles of any sort passed me, and no other pedestrians. It was an unpaved road, though well-packed and wide – so not quite like walking on a nature trail, but I would advise anyone visiting Kibale from CVK to do the walk!
When I arrived at the park at 12noon, I was the only guest in sight. Just me and the park rangers. I met Mark, who has been working there for about five years, checking in guests and collecting permits and payments. I learned that his sister passed away, and his brother-in-law invited Mark to come visit him in California. Mark is saving up the money for the trip. I told him to make sure that he visits Yosemite! Mark showed me a book about Yosemite that the park happened to have in their library, a gift from someone with an inscription on the inside cover. It was fun to see that book in one of Uganda’s national parks! I also learned that one of the monkey species that I’d seen along the road is rare, and not usually seen. So the walk was worth it:) While chatting with Mark I met two older park visitors, who had just completed their Chimp Tracking. They showed me photos of a mother chimp and her baby, that they had taken on their way back to the gate. The AM group didn’t have much luck with chimp spotting – didn’t see any until they had given up and were on their way back.
Since the rangers thought that it might rain, our group departed at 1:30pm instead of 2pm. There three groups of guests, each led by a ranger. Our group was led by Jessica and a trainee.
This is Jessica, checking in with the other groups’ rangers, to see if they had seen any signs of the chimps:
The other two members of my group were visiting Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they work – the Finnish woman has been there for 3.5 years working for an NGO, and the French woman works with the government regarding police reform. They are on a little Uganda national park tour, with a private guide. Flipping through the registration book with Mark, I noticed that many of the guests come to Kibale as part of a private tour group – from all over the world – but again it seems predominantly from Europe and the USA.
To sum up the afternoon, we walked through the rainforest until almost 6pm without spotting much wildlife. We saw a pretty insect, butterflies (though not as many as I saw on the road), and I spotted a large white and gray bird that I was told was a vulture. That was it. In the AM I had wanted to walk through the park by myself before the 2pm tracking started, and was told that I could not – that I would have to take a ranger with me, and that I didn’t have enough time to hire a ranger to give me a Nature Walk ($10). Once we started tracking chimps, I saw why I wasn’t allowed to walk through the park by myself. The trails are narrow, not that well-trodden, and unmarked. At times I wasn’t even sure if we were still on a trail, or were bushwacking. The trees were beautiful, and we passed a few chimp nests – but no chimps!
At around 5:30pm we received a call from one of the other groups’ rangers, saying that they had heard a chimp noise. Our rangers gave us the option of extending our hike by 30 minutes, to go explore the site of the noise, or to pack it up and continue on our walk back to the park gates. I said that we had been walking for hours – might as well walk for a little longer, if it meant we might see a chimp – I wasn’t quite ready to give up, not after having traveled so far and long to see the chimps! My group agreed to head to the site of the chimp noise.
When we arrived, we found the two other groups and their guides gazing up into the trees at a baby, an adolescent, and a mother. They were so far away – I couldn’t see very much, and only heard the rustling of branches, but it was great to finally see them in their natural environment! Wild, though acclimated (
“habituated”) to people so that they didn’t run away when they looked down and must have seen all of our camera lenses pointed in their direction. I recorded some video, which I’ll post at some other time.
Can you spot the chimp in this photo?
We couldn’t stay long – maybe 15 minutes – before the rangers said that if we stayed any longer, we’d be sleeping in the park. The sun was setting. The Finnish woman in my group said “Thanks to the optimistic American, we saw chimps.” I’m glad that we saw them. I could have tried to get into the AM group the next day, but the other two women in my group were headed off to another park the next day. So if we hadn’t seen the chimps in the trees, then they wouldn’t have gotten to see them.
Here’s a photo of my group, taken after we’d returned to the check in/departure point.
When we got back to the gate at 6:30pm, I had to catch transportation back up to the CVK campus. (Not safe to walk that road back to CVK in the dark.) I got really lucky – a middle aged couple and their private car and driver, who were in one of the other afternoon Tracking Groups, picked me up and dropped me off at the CVK gates. Along the way we passed two of the rare monkeys, on the side of the road. It was fun to hear about the couple’s experience with the Gorillas – they had just come from there. They were from Minnesota, but had once lived in San Francisco, not far from where I most recently lived. When I got back to CVK I had a great vegan dinner, thanks to Ben, and Nash who told Ben that I am vegan. My banda was on the top of a hill, overlooking the lake – so quiet – it reminded me of nights at Frost Valley.
Once I had entered the forest, I began to see so many butterflies all along the side of the road. When I would walk into a group of them resting and feeding on the roadside, they would flutter up and into my path. It was like walking through smoke, but the smoke was butterflies. All different colors and sizes – absolutely beautiful. Each time I heard a noise I’d peak into the dense trees along the side of the road, and saw several species of monkeys. Very few vehicles of any sort passed me, and no other pedestrians. It was an unpaved road, though well-packed and wide – so not quite like walking on a nature trail, but I would advise anyone visiting Kibale from CVK to do the walk!
When I arrived at the park at 12noon, I was the only guest in sight. Just me and the park rangers. I met Mark, who has been working there for about five years, checking in guests and collecting permits and payments. I learned that his sister passed away, and his brother-in-law invited Mark to come visit him in California. Mark is saving up the money for the trip. I told him to make sure that he visits Yosemite! Mark showed me a book about Yosemite that the park happened to have in their library, a gift from someone with an inscription on the inside cover. It was fun to see that book in one of Uganda’s national parks! I also learned that one of the monkey species that I’d seen along the road is rare, and not usually seen. So the walk was worth it:) While chatting with Mark I met two older park visitors, who had just completed their Chimp Tracking. They showed me photos of a mother chimp and her baby, that they had taken on their way back to the gate. The AM group didn’t have much luck with chimp spotting – didn’t see any until they had given up and were on their way back.
Since the rangers thought that it might rain, our group departed at 1:30pm instead of 2pm. There three groups of guests, each led by a ranger. Our group was led by Jessica and a trainee.
This is Jessica, checking in with the other groups’ rangers, to see if they had seen any signs of the chimps:
The other two members of my group were visiting Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they work – the Finnish woman has been there for 3.5 years working for an NGO, and the French woman works with the government regarding police reform. They are on a little Uganda national park tour, with a private guide. Flipping through the registration book with Mark, I noticed that many of the guests come to Kibale as part of a private tour group – from all over the world – but again it seems predominantly from Europe and the USA.
To sum up the afternoon, we walked through the rainforest until almost 6pm without spotting much wildlife. We saw a pretty insect, butterflies (though not as many as I saw on the road), and I spotted a large white and gray bird that I was told was a vulture. That was it. In the AM I had wanted to walk through the park by myself before the 2pm tracking started, and was told that I could not – that I would have to take a ranger with me, and that I didn’t have enough time to hire a ranger to give me a Nature Walk ($10). Once we started tracking chimps, I saw why I wasn’t allowed to walk through the park by myself. The trails are narrow, not that well-trodden, and unmarked. At times I wasn’t even sure if we were still on a trail, or were bushwacking. The trees were beautiful, and we passed a few chimp nests – but no chimps!
At around 5:30pm we received a call from one of the other groups’ rangers, saying that they had heard a chimp noise. Our rangers gave us the option of extending our hike by 30 minutes, to go explore the site of the noise, or to pack it up and continue on our walk back to the park gates. I said that we had been walking for hours – might as well walk for a little longer, if it meant we might see a chimp – I wasn’t quite ready to give up, not after having traveled so far and long to see the chimps! My group agreed to head to the site of the chimp noise.
When we arrived, we found the two other groups and their guides gazing up into the trees at a baby, an adolescent, and a mother. They were so far away – I couldn’t see very much, and only heard the rustling of branches, but it was great to finally see them in their natural environment! Wild, though acclimated (
“habituated”) to people so that they didn’t run away when they looked down and must have seen all of our camera lenses pointed in their direction. I recorded some video, which I’ll post at some other time.
Can you spot the chimp in this photo?
We couldn’t stay long – maybe 15 minutes – before the rangers said that if we stayed any longer, we’d be sleeping in the park. The sun was setting. The Finnish woman in my group said “Thanks to the optimistic American, we saw chimps.” I’m glad that we saw them. I could have tried to get into the AM group the next day, but the other two women in my group were headed off to another park the next day. So if we hadn’t seen the chimps in the trees, then they wouldn’t have gotten to see them.
Here’s a photo of my group, taken after we’d returned to the check in/departure point.
When we got back to the gate at 6:30pm, I had to catch transportation back up to the CVK campus. (Not safe to walk that road back to CVK in the dark.) I got really lucky – a middle aged couple and their private car and driver, who were in one of the other afternoon Tracking Groups, picked me up and dropped me off at the CVK gates. Along the way we passed two of the rare monkeys, on the side of the road. It was fun to hear about the couple’s experience with the Gorillas – they had just come from there. They were from Minnesota, but had once lived in San Francisco, not far from where I most recently lived. When I got back to CVK I had a great vegan dinner, thanks to Ben, and Nash who told Ben that I am vegan. My banda was on the top of a hill, overlooking the lake – so quiet – it reminded me of nights at Frost Valley.
Monday, June 6, 2011
East Africa Day 23 (Sun June 5): Catch Up Sunday
I needed today to catch up from the past few Nanyuki Music Festival days. It was a nice, laid back day.
Monday through Friday, breakfast is served at 7:30am. On Saturdays and Sundays it is 8:30am. I wake up with the sun – usually about 6:30am-ish. This morning I woke up a little later than usual – closer to 7am. Plenty of time to go for a morning run first around the outside perimter of the Daraja campus, and then along the inside perimeter. I was so happy that my lungs kept up with my legs today! I was able to do my longest Kenya run, yet. I usually breathe in for four paces, and then breathe out for four paces. But this morning it was more prudent to breathe five in – it’s funny how awkward that was:)
After breakfast I attended the Protestant services, curious to see who would be giving the sermon and testimony today. Irene, who gave it last Sunday did it again today. She talked about the importance of having faith in yourself and in God, no matter what your parents, friends and anyone else says. She again reminded the women that it doesn’t matter what troubles are behind you – that you can succeed if you have faith. One student led a prayer in which she repeated ly asked for forgiveness for all of the Daraja students’ sins, and another student sang a beautiful solo song about being a sinner. Their faces were streaked with tears by the time they finished and took their seats. The display of such strong emotion was striking - the students are often very soft-spoken and reserved. Kind of different from the typical Frost Valley camper – always my frame of reference. I was discussing the day’s schedule with another volunteer today, and when we determined that there wasn’t anything that immediately required my presence after lunch, I said to myself “it’s Hang Out Time”. Frost Valley lingo – it comes with me everywhere:)
This afternoon, after “Hang Out” I helped Sue lead a computer workshop in the Daraja library/computer room. Sue taught the students how to create headers and footers, how to insert the date and page numbers, and how to insert text boxes into the body of the document. We use Open Office, which I’m not intuitively familiar with. I must admit that Leila, the Computer Protcor, who loves computers, was a much better Teaching Assistant than I was, though I did get to teach some students how to do a few things, which was fun!
I was just washing some clothing in the sink with my biodegradable soap from Campmor, while rocking out to Sara Bareilles’ newest album. First time I’ve listened to thes songs since I left San Francisco. They remind me of the last two times that I saw Sara, in San Francisco last fall, and then earlier this winter. I’m about to start the “young readers edition” of “Three Cups of Tea”. Oh well – better that I read the young readers edition, than no edition:)
Monday through Friday, breakfast is served at 7:30am. On Saturdays and Sundays it is 8:30am. I wake up with the sun – usually about 6:30am-ish. This morning I woke up a little later than usual – closer to 7am. Plenty of time to go for a morning run first around the outside perimter of the Daraja campus, and then along the inside perimeter. I was so happy that my lungs kept up with my legs today! I was able to do my longest Kenya run, yet. I usually breathe in for four paces, and then breathe out for four paces. But this morning it was more prudent to breathe five in – it’s funny how awkward that was:)
After breakfast I attended the Protestant services, curious to see who would be giving the sermon and testimony today. Irene, who gave it last Sunday did it again today. She talked about the importance of having faith in yourself and in God, no matter what your parents, friends and anyone else says. She again reminded the women that it doesn’t matter what troubles are behind you – that you can succeed if you have faith. One student led a prayer in which she repeated ly asked for forgiveness for all of the Daraja students’ sins, and another student sang a beautiful solo song about being a sinner. Their faces were streaked with tears by the time they finished and took their seats. The display of such strong emotion was striking - the students are often very soft-spoken and reserved. Kind of different from the typical Frost Valley camper – always my frame of reference. I was discussing the day’s schedule with another volunteer today, and when we determined that there wasn’t anything that immediately required my presence after lunch, I said to myself “it’s Hang Out Time”. Frost Valley lingo – it comes with me everywhere:)
This afternoon, after “Hang Out” I helped Sue lead a computer workshop in the Daraja library/computer room. Sue taught the students how to create headers and footers, how to insert the date and page numbers, and how to insert text boxes into the body of the document. We use Open Office, which I’m not intuitively familiar with. I must admit that Leila, the Computer Protcor, who loves computers, was a much better Teaching Assistant than I was, though I did get to teach some students how to do a few things, which was fun!
I was just washing some clothing in the sink with my biodegradable soap from Campmor, while rocking out to Sara Bareilles’ newest album. First time I’ve listened to thes songs since I left San Francisco. They remind me of the last two times that I saw Sara, in San Francisco last fall, and then earlier this winter. I’m about to start the “young readers edition” of “Three Cups of Tea”. Oh well – better that I read the young readers edition, than no edition:)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Once, when I was at Band Camp ...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
It's Time to Learn to Swim!
Having grown up at the beaches and in the coastal waters of Long Island, NY and at the Frost Valley YMCA which has it's own lake and a camp scholarship program, these young social entrepreneurs' stories are really special to me.
I found out about Laura White's venture, Wild and Water Swimming, which she founded at age 16 while reading an Ashoka e-book yesterday.
Laura's story reminded me of Jennifer Gavlin's film that I'd gone to see at the 2010 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, called Free Swim.
This award-winning documentary chronicles a project to bring Bahamians a sense of empowerment by developing a very special skill: surviving in the ocean that surrounds them. After a boy’s tragic drowning, young Americans help Bahamian kids cope with fears both real and imagined, and minimize the threat that increasing tourism might further alienate them from their coastal identities.
Watch the trailer here.
The film spotlights another venture founded by 2 young American women who also founded their organization, Swim to Empower after hearing that the children of their Bahamas community could not swim.
To find similar volunteer opportunities in your own community check out the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings Program.
The Sierra Club has 50 volunteer-run ICO groups spread throughout the United States. Every year, these groups conduct more than 800 outings that serve approximately 14,000 youth.
I've volunteered with them through the San Francisco Chapter of the Sierra Club - good stuff! Check it out:
I found out about Laura White's venture, Wild and Water Swimming, which she founded at age 16 while reading an Ashoka e-book yesterday.
Laura's story reminded me of Jennifer Gavlin's film that I'd gone to see at the 2010 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, called Free Swim.
This award-winning documentary chronicles a project to bring Bahamians a sense of empowerment by developing a very special skill: surviving in the ocean that surrounds them. After a boy’s tragic drowning, young Americans help Bahamian kids cope with fears both real and imagined, and minimize the threat that increasing tourism might further alienate them from their coastal identities.
Watch the trailer here.
The film spotlights another venture founded by 2 young American women who also founded their organization, Swim to Empower after hearing that the children of their Bahamas community could not swim.
Swim to Empower from Jayson Jackson on Vimeo.
To find similar volunteer opportunities in your own community check out the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings Program.
The Sierra Club has 50 volunteer-run ICO groups spread throughout the United States. Every year, these groups conduct more than 800 outings that serve approximately 14,000 youth.
I've volunteered with them through the San Francisco Chapter of the Sierra Club - good stuff! Check it out:
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Word Choice
The Special Olympics launched a print campaign to stop the use of the word "retard" in casual conversation by loosely using other derogatory words in relaxed formats. BBDO New York created the ads.
This ad campaign caught my attention because when I was 15, I was called out at summer camp, for saying something like "that's so retarded" in the dining hall, during lunch. A Frost Valley Counselor In Training pointed out to me how inappropriate that was, especially considering that our camp has a MAC - Mainstreaming at Camp program for developmentally disabled youth. I was mortified - that was a totally new concept, for me. I never used that phrase again, and I get uncomfortable whenever I hear someone else use it.
A few years ago, George Lakoff, a professor of cognitive linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, taught me that a lot of commonly used english words and phrases originated from wars and the military. Once you become conscious of this, it's hard to avoid the use of military-oriented words, even in your every day life.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Steve McCurry -- raising awareness through international travel photography
While I'm on the subject of photographers ...
My favorite photographer is Steve McCurry. Ah! This guy is amazing. You'll probably know of him, from the photos above, which appeared on the cover of National Geographic. I first became familiar with Steve McCurry in 2001, when I organized a trip to a photography center in Woodstock, NY, for my Frost Valley YMCA CIT's (Counselors in Training). Steve was the guest speaker that night. I then happened upon a Steve McCurry traveling exhibit in 2003, at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. I was in Rochester, NY attending my brother, Justin's show, at the completion of his art residency at Genesee Pottery. Steve's work is incredible. If you get the opportunity to see his work in person, then don't miss it! (Justin's work is amazing, too. I wish I that I had a digital photo, to post here.)
Here, in these 2 videos -- part A, and Part B -- he talks about his first photography trip, when he left the USA for India for six weeks, and didn't return for 2 years. He talks about the little girl from the cover of National Geographic, and how it generated worldwide concern for her well-being, and how it moved people to volunteer at refugee camps in Pakistan. And then how finding her again, resulted in the founding of a non-profit that raised money to educate girls in Afghanistan. I know the videos are long, but they are fascinating, if you are interested in this stuff:)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)