San Jose>Houston>GrandRapids>CRWRC>Calvin College....soon Holland
Dear Friends,
I'm in Grand Rapids, Michigan tonight. It's about 9pm here and it's a really nice place. I had no clue it was so farm land looking. A lot of it reminded me of the New Jersey area I grew up in. This has been a super long traveling day for sure.
I went to bed at 1am. Got up at 4pm. Got to the airport at 5am. Got frisked. My camera stuff was checked for chemical warfare of some sort. It looked like a big clearasil pad swiping the acne off of my cameras. I had my holga in the bag and ended up having a 1o minute conversation with the security guard. And then met up with Kristin. Kristin Nowicki is my travel companion. Thankful that she's on this trip with me. She's super funny and totally smart.
We had a short lay over in Houston and then hopped on the smallest plane on the planet. My guess is that they will be smaller and smaller as time progressses. I'm not sure what type of plane it was but it had a single seat and then two seat and a very thin aisle in the middle. Apparently Houston to Grand Rapids is only a two hour and change flight. I didn't know this.
On our flight to Houston we met a computer engineer teacher for brocade in san jose. He lives in south carolina. Kristin was chopping it up with him and I loved the fact that she is so conversational and not shy. It's a good quality in a traveling pal.
When we got to Grand Rapids, Idella (another awesome person) picked us up. There were two people from Canada already there waiting for us. We drove to the CRWRC conference center and had a quick snack and a meeting. There are two other people going with us too. So there is a total of 6 people going to Kenya & Uganda.
We are all from totally different walks of life. Kristin and I are the most conversationsal and the youngest. We're the only two that aren't married and dont' have kids. And we all come from super different backgrounds. And when they mentioned that we were in a learning tour they weren't joking. We got down to the basics.
After we talked about who we are and what we would like to bring from this journey we started to explore the idea of poverty. What is poverty? Do we have a North american point of view? What do we do when we look at someone and say that they are impoverished but really are the richest people in their community. etc. Lots of talk. No concrete answers.
Curious to see how we will develop as a team.
Mary, Idella, & Carrie are not going with us to africa. We're taking ourselves. And someone from Africa named Nema is going to meet us there. THe final plans for Uganda haven't been made so we're not sure what we're going to do. But we're staying in the guest house of Luthern Church in Nairobi. Not sure what that means either, but I do know that we didn't need to bring our own sheets, just our own towels.
After we gatehred and had dinner we drove to Calvin college in Grand Rapids. On the campus there is a conference/hotel center called the Prince Center. Kristen thought it was named for the artist formerly known as but it's not. It's a great big room. Lots of good light and two comfy beds, and free internet. yippie.
Oh and Idella gave me her keys so I drove the van from CRWRC to the Prince Center. Super exciting. I have keys to a van in Grand Rapids. yippie.
I'll write more later....
Tomorrow we have another meeting at CRWRC and then we head to the airport and then off to Holland and Africa.
what a trip.
I'm super excited.
more later!
I'm in Grand Rapids, Michigan tonight. It's about 9pm here and it's a really nice place. I had no clue it was so farm land looking. A lot of it reminded me of the New Jersey area I grew up in. This has been a super long traveling day for sure.
I went to bed at 1am. Got up at 4pm. Got to the airport at 5am. Got frisked. My camera stuff was checked for chemical warfare of some sort. It looked like a big clearasil pad swiping the acne off of my cameras. I had my holga in the bag and ended up having a 1o minute conversation with the security guard. And then met up with Kristin. Kristin Nowicki is my travel companion. Thankful that she's on this trip with me. She's super funny and totally smart.
We had a short lay over in Houston and then hopped on the smallest plane on the planet. My guess is that they will be smaller and smaller as time progressses. I'm not sure what type of plane it was but it had a single seat and then two seat and a very thin aisle in the middle. Apparently Houston to Grand Rapids is only a two hour and change flight. I didn't know this.
On our flight to Houston we met a computer engineer teacher for brocade in san jose. He lives in south carolina. Kristin was chopping it up with him and I loved the fact that she is so conversational and not shy. It's a good quality in a traveling pal.
When we got to Grand Rapids, Idella (another awesome person) picked us up. There were two people from Canada already there waiting for us. We drove to the CRWRC conference center and had a quick snack and a meeting. There are two other people going with us too. So there is a total of 6 people going to Kenya & Uganda.
We are all from totally different walks of life. Kristin and I are the most conversationsal and the youngest. We're the only two that aren't married and dont' have kids. And we all come from super different backgrounds. And when they mentioned that we were in a learning tour they weren't joking. We got down to the basics.
After we talked about who we are and what we would like to bring from this journey we started to explore the idea of poverty. What is poverty? Do we have a North american point of view? What do we do when we look at someone and say that they are impoverished but really are the richest people in their community. etc. Lots of talk. No concrete answers.
Curious to see how we will develop as a team.
Mary, Idella, & Carrie are not going with us to africa. We're taking ourselves. And someone from Africa named Nema is going to meet us there. THe final plans for Uganda haven't been made so we're not sure what we're going to do. But we're staying in the guest house of Luthern Church in Nairobi. Not sure what that means either, but I do know that we didn't need to bring our own sheets, just our own towels.
After we gatehred and had dinner we drove to Calvin college in Grand Rapids. On the campus there is a conference/hotel center called the Prince Center. Kristen thought it was named for the artist formerly known as but it's not. It's a great big room. Lots of good light and two comfy beds, and free internet. yippie.
Oh and Idella gave me her keys so I drove the van from CRWRC to the Prince Center. Super exciting. I have keys to a van in Grand Rapids. yippie.
I'll write more later....
Tomorrow we have another meeting at CRWRC and then we head to the airport and then off to Holland and Africa.
what a trip.
I'm super excited.
more later!
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