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
The southwest region of the United State of America was not meant for modern human settlement. Much of it is desert: dry, rocky, hot and splendid. The Sonoran and the Chihuahuan Deserts are classic arid deserts that cover much of the Southwest low land and largest cities, while the high desert defines places like southern … More Red Clay, Cacti, and Ravens: A Southwest US Car Camping Trip—Chapter 1
In Minnesota winters, we have a mix of three elements: snow, sun, and cold. We don’t get all three together very much. If there is fresh snow, it may be cloudy, grey and not too cold. If there is not much snow, it may be not too cold and bleak skies. If it’s below zero, … More Dressing for below zero: Superbowl visitors take note!
This is the script for a winter solstice celebration we have held for the last dozen years or so for friends and family. We travel back in time to share the fear, wonder and hope that our ancesters felt witnessing the hours of warming sun shrink until its nadir in the northern hemisphere Dec. 21. … More Winter Solstice: Traveling back in time
My husband Phil, the “mayor of Theodore Wirth Park” as I like to call him, started taking our grandson on woodland outings after he turned three in October. Wirth Park is the size of Central Park in New York City, over 700 acres, and has large tracks of undeveloped woodland, bogs and lakes. It straddles Minneapolis … More A Walk in the Woods: through a three year old’s eyes
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!
Have you wanted to visit Vietnam? Have some of your friends already visited Vietnam and commented how beautiful it is? Yes it is! And more. I have visited three times and my husband, five times. If you are an American and under 60, you may not know how complicated our relationship with Vietnam has … More Getting More Out of Your Visit to Vietnam
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
Other states, other lives, other souls 