Two summers ago in 2017 I got frustrated. I was trying to edge my townhome community toward a more conscious ecological perspective on maintenance decisions, but I didn’t know enough to be really persuasive. I saw an ad via email for something called a Master Water Steward program, run jointly by the Freshwater Society , and … More A Water Immersion
by Phil Deering This is chapter three of a three-part post. In Chapter 1, I told the story of a 2007 trek during which I encountered a one-room school in the highlands of the north of Vietnam. When I learned the school had been destroyed in a landslide I decided to raise the money and … More My Three Cups of Tea: Chapter 3 and end
In chapter one, guest blogger Phil Deering told the story of a 2007 trek during which he encountered a one-room school in the highlands of the north of Vietnam. When he learned the school had been destroyed in a landslide, he decided to raise the money and ensure it would be used for a new … More My Three Cups of Tea: chapter 2
Guest blogger Phil Deering [photo courtesy of Mike Holtby, 2008, Flower Hmong child doing homework] Three Cups of Tea tells the story of an elite mountain climber who, injured and lost, stumbles into a tiny village deep in the Hindu Kush. As he’s nursed back to health, the author sees girl children of the village … More My Three Cups of Tea: chapter 1
Six years ago (2011) our son was living and working in Medellin, Colombia. It seems that North Americans, when the topic of Medellin comes up in the conversation, immediately go to Narcos and Pablo Escobar. It’s like if you said you were going to visit Chicago, your friends would say: aren’t you worried about Al Capone? … More It’s Colombia, not Columbia!
Note: This series is about a cultural immersion experience in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It was cultural immersion because I was new to factory work and for three of the five years that I worked for Control Data Corporation, I worked alongside primarily African-Americans. I am white (whatever the hell that means; actually … More Factory Girl, Chapter 3: Fighting Sexual Harassment—No Lawyers Required
Today’s post is by guest blogger and friend Linda Feltes. Linda Feltes is a team leader with Xperitas (formerly Global citizens Network) She has ten years experience co-leading groups on cultural immersion travel trips in the US and abroad, in addition to her fulltime job with the State of Minnesota. I learn something new every time I leave … More Why Travel Outside the US (If you are an American)
In 1980 I put in a transfer request to move from the Arden Hills Control Data Corporation plant in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities to the Normandale Inner City plant (NIC), in downtown Minneapolis. (For more context, see my first post: Factory Girl: Prologue). My one year at Arden Hills was enough for me. … More Factory Girl, Chapter 1: Where push comes to shove
When I started this blog, I promised it would be a travel blog “writ large”. That means you can travel without leaving home, if you put yourself in a new situation: culture or region and stay long enough to get to know the locals, the culture and find yourself being changed in the process. This … More Factory Girl: Prologue
In 1966 I joined a national YM/YWCA summer organizing project to bring college students from all over the US to Chicago to be part of the Fair Housing Campaign for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by Dr. Martin Luther King. (www.movingimagearchivenews.org/the-1966-march-on-cicero-a-step-towards-equity/) I was 20 and a college senior to be. The goal was to … More Traveling a Great Distance in a Few Miles
Other states, other lives, other souls 