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*** 30th Edition --- Adventures in Life Series – 2018 –– Yearly Log ***
Instead of a Christmas note -- we write a Log of the last year after Christmas and mail it in the new year
Hoping You had a Merry Christmas and are having a Great New Year
KELZIE'S FANTASTIC YEAR
*** 30th Edition --- Adventures in Life Series – 2018 –– Yearly Log ***
Instead of a Christmas note -- we write a Log of the last year after Christmas and mail it in the new year
Hoping You had a Merry Christmas and are having a Great New Year
KELZIE'S FANTASTIC YEAR
Sometimes after a period of time passes you think “yep, nothing’s gonna ever be the same again.” Sometimes that period of time feels four years long. Seriously, it may be 2019 in a week, but 2017 was half a decade ago; you cannot convince me otherwise.
After last year’s PhD application cycle beat down, this year’s cycle was exquisitely worse, even if the outcome was #spoileralert better. I knew the stakes for my future were pretty much do or die and there were really only 2 schools (out of 11) that I would be truly excited to attend so the chronic anxiety was brutal: 4 months of injecting stress hormones straight into my veins and waiting for the axe to fall. But in mid-April, when the tea leaves were read and the rubble cleared, I got an offer from my first choice, the University of North Texas (UNT) in Denton, TX. Writing about it now the process seems a distant, but nevertheless denting, memory.
I slowly drew my time at IU to some sort of closure by early June. However, the tone and urgency of that changed when the same day that I signed a lease in Denton, my parents bought a house in Bloomington. I switched from saying “bye, see you never” to “bye, see you in December.”
Again - and now with some urgency because UNT has different expectations for its students’ summers than IU - it was a summer of travel. It started with a venture to Chicago to see friends who won’t be so easy to reach from down near the OK border, and a last-minute trip back to Salem, WV, for the funeral of 6-year-old-Kelzie’s best friend. I walked out of the past and into the funeral home to much reminiscing; I was 6? 8? the last time the Schumacher’s saw me and well, I have less hair now. Mom helped me pack up my apartment and put my life into boxes before adjourning first to Madison for 5 days and then Central Asia for 6.5 weeks. I started in Tbilisi because Georgia gets along with the countries not named Russia in the region, and did a bunch of out-and-backs: a few days in Georgia, 10 days in Azerbaijan, a few days in Georgia, a week in Armenia and the Artsakh, 10 days in Georgia, and then 2.5 weeks in Turkey.
It’s here that time really starts to dilate and shrink, duck and dodge. On my third day in Istanbul I was attacked by a pack of street dogs (cue ambulance, hospital, bandages, rabies shots…). Which frequently overshadows the memory that a month earlier, a week into my time in Azerbaijan, I was thrown off a horse – a white horse even! – while fording a river high up in the Caucus Mountains (cue the fastest/cheapest x-rays I have ever received and using the miracles of modern technology to text them around the world). Which tends to make me forget that 36 hours before flying home I caught…something…and spent an overnight bus trip vomiting into plastic bags.
Azerbaijan is a study in modern nation-state building. In a state created out of thin air by the Soviets in 1918, modern Azeris are either dirt poor or oil barons, with almost no in-between. I really enjoyed the dichotomy of Baku, the capital city awash in disgusting wealth and fantastic architecture (be sure to Google a video of the Flame Towers), and the Caucasian villages that pretty much each date back several thousand years and live (mostly) that way still and just happen to fall on a different side of a border now. Up in Xinaliq, the oldest and highest village in the Caucus mountains, I watched Russian news on a flat screen TV with this old Caucasian solider while his wife was outside hand-making bricks from dung – to burn to power the flat screen TV during the winter.
In contrast, their neighbors in Armenia and the Artsakh, as well as the Kurds two borders over, are an object lesson in fierce loyalty and pride, emphasis on fierce. Wooboy. Since the mountainous Artsakh was wrested from Azerbaijan in a civil war that started when the Soviet Union fell in 1991, every adult there guards it literally with their life; Azerbaijan sits mere kilometers away and the first tank used to retake the historical capital, Shushi, still sits next to the road into town. It’s a self-declared independent state recognized by no one, but you have to get an entry visa and stamp from the Artsakh Foreign Ministry – because 4% of the population died to secure those borders. However, once you get that stamp in your passport, Azerbaijan won’t let you in, so Artsakh will kindly put it on a loose sheet of paper if you ask. I received so many free shots of oghi (basically Armenia moonshine, gag) because I chose to get it in my passport; I had declared my loyalty and done my bit to fight the Azeris (until my current passport expires anyway).
Georgia is just as dichotomous as Azerbaijan: Tbilisi is one of the hottest tourist destinations and men in the Caucasian mountain towns in the Svaneti region are only a few decades removed from wearing chainmail. And I thoroughly enjoyed both parts! I didn’t have enough time to do any of the common multi-day hikes along the range, so I would pick a trail and climb as high as I could, before having a picnic, taking a nap or seeing a precariously perched church, and climbing down. The pictures weren’t doing the views justice so I just started taking 360-degree videos. In Mestia, I was wandering around on the edge of town and spent a couple hours working on carpentry in a Svan tower (just Google that term) that was oh, nearly 1,000 years old. And then mind-bogglingly, one (long) minivan ride later I was in the resort city of Batumi and swimming in the Black Sea.
From there I went overland to Turkey and well, I managed to not get dismembered – and that’s not even a joke about journalists and embassies. Truly, Istanbul is a world city not to be missed – except for this one park next to the Topkapi Palace, I just really recommend not going there. I’m not sure what frenzied the dogs that morning, but my scars are healing far better than I ever could have expected when ripping apart my pants for tourniquets and looking down at my legs during the ambulance ride. Plus I will never forget the Turkish word for rabies: in Turkey street animals are so prevalent that the government covers all medical expenses related to their bites, and there is a specific room in major hospitals that is tasked only with giving rabies shots, with a sign on the door that says simply “Kuduz” (pronounced with the “eu” sound of the French “bleu” for each “u”). As I told my doctoral program director this Fall, compared to my adventures while traveling, graduate school is relatively equanimous.
I returned to the US via Warsaw and a night lay-over with long-time family friends Justyna and Tomasz (who is a fantastic Polish historian and has video of my teenage years that is best left on that side of the Atlantic). I stayed in Madison for 2 days and 1 rabies shot and then drove 2 days to Denton, where I arrived to a rented apartment contaminated with mold. After 8 days sleeping on benevolent couches and air mattresses, I finally moved into a different, mold-free apartment 3 days before classes started.
This semester was probably the closest I have come to figuratively drowning. I’m not sure why professional schools are all so proud of nearly killing their students because unless you’re becoming an ER doctor or trauma surgeon, what’s the point of training while overwhelmed and rushed? Anyway, my clinical experiences have vindicated my decision to wait a year and apply again in hopes of going to UNT; it’s reputation for being the best place in the country for sport psych is not exaggerated. And besides, I am starting to enjoy the place and people, in the few spare moments I have, and I already knew I would enjoy the food. My life in Denton probably won’t resemble my life in Bloomington (hockey, bells, bunnies, trivia, etc.) for a while, if ever, but you are welcome to come find and join me for some BBQ and tacos.
You know it’s been a weird – and LONG – year when you spend just as long writing about riding in foreign ambulances as you do writing about your brand spanking new PhD program. Then again, after 30 years you readers kind of know what to expect with me.
Kelzie: 617/461-8354
3300 Fallmeadow street apt # 2218A
Denton,Texas 76207
MARNIE and RICK
The fall of 2017 was consumed by preparing for our winter volunteering in Cambodia and traveling in Vietnam and Mongolia. After our Christmas and New Years celebrations we embarked on the 30 hour trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where we would be involved in a Global Service Corps (GSC) service-learning program with several other volunteers of various ages and specialties. This organization, developed and run by Rick’s high school/college friend Rick Lathrop and his wife Maxine, assists in-country partners with program development for Cambodia’s most vulnerable populations.
For the next 3 weeks we lived at the “Volunteer for Children and Development Organization” facility while we spent our mornings volunteering in a feeding center for street children called Les Restaurants Des Enfants and the afternoons volunteering at the Sacrifice Families and Orphans Development Association (52 kids ages 2-18). At these 2 sites we provided/organized needed 1st aid supplies and personal hygiene items, and donated sports equipment, games, tshirts, backpacks, waist packs, etc. We trained staff and children in basic first aid and personal hygiene skills, supported teachers and assisted students in English/Math classrooms and cooks in the kitchen, played and socialized with children, practiced English with children and adults and immersed ourselves in the Cambodian culture and history. Our 3 daily lengthy commutes through the intense bustling traffic were by driver and his tuk tuk, a motorbike with an attached covered passenger cart. Motorbikes are the predominant means of transportation for most people and can be overburdened with furniture, a large family, a driver with a phone in his helmet, huge stacked bags of supplies, and even animals. As part of the program we were able to tour significant sites in Phnom Penh including the Palace, the National Museum, the Killing Fields, and local markets, as well as hear a stirring presentation on the oppressive history of the country. We hope that we made some small difference in the lives of the children and monks we worked with. We appreciated the experiences we had at these sites and the relationships we developed with many of the people and have remained in contact via Facebook/email.
One weekend we traveled north with other GSC volunteers to the city of Siem Reap to tour its temples including the Angkor Wat temple complex. These are very popular and famous UNESCO sites of ancient Buddhist cities and worship areas developed before the 12th century. On the trip there we were able to see Cambodian agriculture including already harvested rice fields, hay being put up, farming equipment, privately owned cattle and water buffalo in small numbers, and homes built on stilts. At a lunch stop market we saw popular prepared and sauced foods such as scorpions, crickets, silk worms, quail eggs, and tarantulas, as well as local fruits, for eating. Fortunately, the restaurant menu included more tourist-friendly Cambodian dishes.
During our last week in Cambodia we lived and were immersed in the Buddhist culture at Wat Kultoterna, a Buddhist monastery and temple. During the days we held sessions in conversational English and shared life stories of resident monks, and we observed/participated in the Wat and Buddhist routines. Each evening we taught conversational English in a private nite school for students who attended regular school during the day - first hour with children thru middle school age and second hour with their teachers (who also had little practice). Mid-week we were fortunate to be able to participate in a Buddhist festival at the Wat which celebrated Buddha’s sermon on the 3 things Buddhists must do/be. This 24-hour-long celebration was attended by 1000’s of followers and included many speakers, traditional candle lightings day and night, donation tents for the faithful, and a massive parade observed by throngs of people. Someday we hope to be able to share an experience in America with some of these monks as they shared their Wat with us while we were there.
After the first week in February we finished the GSC program and bused to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), where we immediately noticed several notable differences from Cambodia: the SMOG and dirty streets, the absence of tuk tuk’s, fewer multiple motorbike riders, and the frenetic night life. We would be touring the country for 3 weeks with Footprint Tours, with a different personal guide and driver in each area.
In and around HCMC we toured the fanciful main Cao Dai temple, explored the war tunnel network at Cu Chi, learned about peanut fields, visited Chinatown and its markets, and toured the Thien Tau temple. We walked the 3 floors of the War Remnants Museum which depicts Vietnam wars since the 40’s, visited a popular eggshell art factory which employs maimed adults, and drove by the now-unrecognizable American Consulate. We traveled south to the Mekong Delta for an overnight to take boat trips on the Mekong River and observe canal and river life/business. The Delta’s floating wholesale markets sell local fruits, vegetables, flowers, and fish from up river, all of which are sold retail regionally.
From HCMC we flew to Nah Trang (the drive on poor roads takes 12 miserable hours), the winter vacation-beach area for Russians, Chinese, Eastern Europeans. Here we visited popular sites then headed to the countryside to observe green rice crops, unlike elsewhere where the seasons, lack of moisture, and cool temps preclude year-round growth of rice.
A 45 minute flight delivered us to Da Nang, from where we drove past the dragon bridge and on to HoiAn for a 4-day stay in a boutique resort during the major celebration of Tet. HoiAn is a resort community famous for US R&R during the war. We traveled by boat down the Thu Bon river, visited a fisherman’s family who gave Rick a net casting lesson, went for a basket boat excursion, rode bikes through rice, vegetable and flower fields, and toured and shopped the old part of the city (many buildings are from the 17th C). Here we purchased a very large oil painting of a local scene, which we carried rolled up in a tube for the rest of the trip, and Marnie bought a North Face outer jacket for $18 to replace the one she left in Seoul when we were running to catch a flight.
Next, in Hue, we visited the Thien Mu pagoda, an icon of Vietnam built on a steep hill overlooking the Perfume River, the serene tomb of Minh Manh, the popular 2nd emperor, and then that of the unpopular 12th emperor Khai Dinh. A cruise of the river, a cyclo bike ride (bike is behind the passenger seat), and a tour of the Citadel completed our tour of Hue.
As you might have noticed, travel was a significant part of our itinerary in Vietnam. At this point we had a 4:45 PM departure on an overnight sleeper train north to Hanoi, with a 5:30 AM arrival. During a busy day here we sampled authentic Vietnamese salads (chopsticks were expected) at a restaurant with child sized furniture (apparently normal), toured the Museum of Ethnology (demonstration of the 54 ethnic minority groups of Vietnam), took an early evening cyclo ride around Hoian Kim lake and through the old city then attended a traditional Lotus Water Puppet Show at the Vietnam Contemporary Art Theater.
An overnight train delivered us to Lao Cai, then we shuttled by car to SaPa in the mountain region just south of China (which we could see). In this popular trekking area we hiked, drove and Rick rode behind the driver on a motorbike (on a 18” wide concrete strip over hill and creek) to a very interesting overnight Home/farm stay with a Red Doa Hmong family (4921’ elevation and Marnie was taller than each of the family members). The next morning we trekked down the mountain to an amazing annual festival of several minority ethnic groups from surrounding communities, each dressed in the colorful traditional clothing specific to their group - Red, Flower, & Black Hmong. Entertainment included traditional singing and dancing, a pig race, a contest of pole walking across a rice paddy, displays of food and clothing, and booths selling products including handmade Hmong clothing. As foreigners, we were interviewed for a TV news program about the event! A tour of SaPa, a family visit in a remote Black Hmong village and a walk on the Chinese border bridge were fit in before the return overnight train trip to Hanoi.
From HaLong Bay a 2-day junk boat cruise gave us an education about life on the Bay of Tonkin among the limestone, steep-sided islands and floating cities. In Hanoi during our last day in Vietnam we bicycled/motorbiked thru a major flower and vegetable growing area where all work was done by hand, visited a horticulturist who grafts orchids, observed tofu making in a small private business, learned to make our spring rolls for our lunch in a typical home, and stopped at the Footprint tour headquarters. Footprint tours was great and we recommend them for Vietnam tours.
On the 1st of March we flew to Bangkok, where it was 100+ degrees, and then on to UlaanBaatar, the capital of Mongolia, where it was minus 28 degrees. In this Winter off-season we were here on a specially-designed tour with Mongolian Secret History tours. Odka, our guide, and Odbayr, our driver, oriented us about the 2 weeks to come then checked us into our friendly, tidy guesthouse of 10 rooms. From here we would tour the city and make several short trips to the countryside. We proceeded to lunch with a family in their ger, which gave us the first of several first hand opportunities to learn about Mongolian family structure, culture, housing, life style, traditional foods, work opportunities, etc. The next order of business was to buy a traditional Mongolian coat for less than $10 with a free braided Ger wrap as a belt for Rick, which required exploring 2 large markets, 1 inside, 1 outside.
75% of the UlaanBaatar (UB) area is made up of small fenced plots containing a ger and perhaps a small brick house, if the family has prospered. A Ger is a round felt building with an interior wooden spine structure, with a coal/wood heating/cooking stove in the middle, vented out the peak. Half of the Mongolian population of 3 million lives in UB and half of the UB dwellers live in Ger village areas. UB is surrounded by mountains and has 4 coal (largest Mongolian industry) fired power plants, making it one of the worst atmospheric inversion, polluted locations in the world (for a while worse than Beijing).
In UB we toured one of 4 city schools for special needs students and were greatly impressed by the quality of the services provided. At the Univ of UB we visited with an Economics professor to learn about regional economics and agriculture, the information of which was very helpful to us later when we toured in the countryside. We also climbed the Zaisan Memorial to the observation area, learned about cashmere and camel wool clothing production in a factory, and visited the rural Lotus Children’s Center Orphanage. We spent 2 nights in a hotel ger to attend the Winter Eagle Hunter festival/competition. The participants were from the western area near Kazakhstan, and they put on an impressive show with their well-trained eagles. See the movie “The Eagle Huntress,” the story of the only female hunter, whom we met, and how the hunting is done.
Additional touring in UB during our stay included the Gandan Monastery during a chanting session, the Choijim Lama Temple Museum, the State Department Store, a summer “cabin area”, and a huge coal mine collapsed by illegal over-digging. We were given special permission (civilians cannot attend) to observe a court proceeding (“smart clothes” required), had a pre-arranged lengthy discussion with an attorney regarding the Mongolian legal system, and toured the Parliament building museum (an opportunity granted few tourists).
Travel in the country-side requires patience and an “iron butt”, as communities are few and far apart and the major roads are 2-lane affairs of rough quality. Beyond the roads were communities connected by dirt paths with no signage; more than one dirt path can be seen going in a direction. We had to pick the one least muddy, snowy or bumpy path. Thus, we traveled sometimes over 100 KM to get to a location and 100 kms back, often seeing unfenced and unattended herds of horses, sheep/goats, a few cattle and camels forging on the steppes for the little available grass. These trips included staying at a Travel Complex to visit a nearby herder family on their farm, touring a Japanese solar project for food production in greenhouses, and staying in a very to-us-remote town/district of about 5600 people to leap-frog to the long-ago abandoned but renovated Baldon Bereeven Monastery. We also visited the massive Chinggis Khaan Equestrian statue and the Aryapala Initiation/Meditation Temple (each requiring a overnite ger camp stay).
In the desert area west of UB a prosperous herder family hosted us (camels, sheep, goats, cattle with a corral and 3 gers), including an afternoon in the Ger drinking vodka. At 40 degrees below we rode their Bahrain camels (double humps), fed sheep/goats which were born too early (catching the mother, bringing her into the Ger and holding both of them for a feeding time), and gasped for breath when we went outside at nite to relieve ourselves. We were not able to find the Przewalski wild horses in the Khustal Nauru Nat’l Park because of too much snow, in which we got stuck 5 times. Home on 3.17.
While we kept updated on US news via the internet, in our transition to home we devoured the daily political developments. While we hate the trajectory, the political developments/disasters are the most dramatic/tragic of our lifetimes.
From this point in this year we are not sure what happened and what to report about the quality of our lives. We immediately resumed our daily workout and life activities and acclimated to Madison culture. R realized his second knee went bad from all the walking overseas and started working on a final replacement. We volunteered for the Primary election then in April after visiting Kelzie R took a bike trip to visit Geoff Hubbard (one of our live-ins as a teen) and family in Alabama before heading for CA. Half way across Tx he burned out and headed NE thru Denton (where Kelzie goes to school now) to scope out the scene there and then on home after 3800 miles. Meanwhile, Marnie kept up with her book club, gardening, and animal trapping then helped Kelzie pack to move. Rick spent the first half of May biking 3500 miles across IA, WY, CO, NM, UT, CO and back to reride the Colorado River area on the Utah-New Mexico border.
Boredom of life in Madison and finding a house with 7 acres for restarting with animals interacted so we bought a place in Bloomington, IN and sold Royal Oaks by July. To be ready for this change Rick had his second knee replaced June 26. However, shortly after settling the exchange of homes our hope of farmetting fell apart and we were sorry we had made the move. But in Bloomington we immediately joined the YMCA and signed up with trainers (2 sessions each week) to have a health focus each AM after reading the overnite news developments. In the afternoons we’ve been working outside on our property, even into the cold days of winter. We revamped the landscaping and ground around the house, removed trees and ground roots to allow more air and sun into the intermediate space, removed fencing and overhauled the kitchen garden, and pruned 50 large bushes in the front 3 acres. Using our zero turn mower as a bushog we cleared the back 4 acres of invasive species/growth and mowed the large front field. Alas, the winter project has been to remove the large brush piles (some very old) adjacent to our property including cutting invasive vines and bushes. We have been surprised and amazed that we 70+ year olds could work this well and make these accomplishments - we are proud!
Feeling cut off from and missing Madison, we purchased a small place there (technically Middleton) to which we can go for short periods to visit friends, attend church, and maintain our primary residence in WI.
We remember those who we’ve lost in the near past: Kyle S, Dallas B, Nell B, Al S, Ross J, Dick H, Jean H, Caroline K, and Mary S’s brother-in-law.
We are anxious for new daily news developments in hopes for the demise of 45* and those antics. We endeavored to end the year on a positive note, ringing in the New Year with friends and family and each going our separate way for new and exciting experiences in 2019. Love to all
2570 E. Schacht Road
Bloomington, Indiana 47401
812/824-8248 hm
Happy New Year
Kelzie, Marnie & Rick
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