Adventure -- Leaving the comfort zone

Last evening I went to a poetry reading session at my church. What's so remarkable about that? Well, first of all all my degrees are in the sciences, and the humanities are always a stretch -- nice, but not an area in which I feel expertise. It proved to be OK. I don't think, however, I'll go again, because I'm a very visual person. I don't like just hearing the poems. I want to see them! But it was a good exercise to stry something a bit out of the comfort zone.

Adventures along the commute

Today I stayed home until about 10:45 reading student papers through the web site for my class. Being on an unusual schedule paid off. I was going along my usual route, Shepherd Road, which parallels the Mississippi River, when suddenly I see an artist on the sidewalk. He has a canvas about 16-24 inches, and looked just as do the painters along the Seine in Paris. A quick glimpse showed me a lot of green and blue that must come from his imagination. The weather is good today -- there is a lot of blue sky, but we've not yet had enough spring to have anything be green. It is good, however, to see that at least one other person enjoys this route as much as I do.

More about Monetary Adventures

The money has arrived in Kenya. It took a couple more e-mails to get all the details settled. The picture above is of a young woman who is studying at a tailoring college. She will receive some of the financial support that we sent. She is holding the daughter of my former student. She missed some education for several weeks because she had returned to her home village. The civil disruptions in Kenya made it totally unsafe for her to travel back for a several weeks. We are glad to know she is now safe again with our former students' family.

We sent more funds that what was needed for this student, so another student will be receiving some support from us as well. Truly being part of a global community is an amazing adventure.

Spring Break Adventures

For Spring Break I had originally planned to go to Bolivia to help Mano a Mano, but that plan fell apart. When that happened I thought the best thing to do was to find a place to curl up by a fireplace and read books for a few days. I picked out the Cascade Lodge, 99 miles north of Duluth. This lodge got mixed reviews. It was OK, but not luxurious. It did have the necessary fireplace! And the fire building skills I learned in Poland came into good use. The best part of this lodge is that it is right by Lake Superior. I had huge picture windows through which to watch the lake. The colors, the wind, the lake changed almost every moment.

It took most of the daylight hours on Monday to drive up there. A bit north of Duluth I stopped at Betty's Pies and had a wonderful piece of peach/blackberry crumble pie. What a treat to have peaches actually taste like peaches. It was good!

After checking into the Lodge, I drove up to Grand Marais, about 10 miles. I ended up having a burger in Grand Marais for an early supper. I stopped at a grocery store and picked up chocolate,yogurt, and oranges for snacks.

On Tuesday morning I saw the sunrise over the lake. The wind was blowing so hard that it created an optical illusion making the lake look like it was a mighty river running south. About mid morning it began to snow, and that seemed like the time to build another good fire and hole up with the books. In the late afternoon the weather turned sunny so I drove about 9 miles back to explore the Lutsen Ski Resort. I marveled at how diverse Minnesota is. One minute I'm by a huge lake, and then in ten mintues I driving down a road with skiers wizzing over my head on a ski bridge. I had a nice early supper there.

Wednesday morning I found a light snow fall over everything. The lake at this moment looked as if it was totally frozen. There must have been some skim ice on the top that held the little bit of snow that fell over night. The weather was sunny, however, so I took off to see what I could find up the road. I stoppped for coffee and a cinnamon roll in Grand Marais. Then I headed all the way up the road to Grand Portage. Grand Portage is very, very quiet in the winter. Nothing in operation except the school and the casino. I was astonished to find that 90% of the cars at the casino were from Canada. I just couldn't imagine crossing an international border to come to a noisy, smoky slot machine casino.

I wandered back to Grand Marais and stoppped at the Pie Place. This is actually a gourmet restaurant. I choose the brunch lunch and had a very good plate of banana pancakes with caramel, banana syrup. I only wish I had found this restaurant earlier in my stay. I would have eaten more meals there. I stopped at a grocery store and picked up some more snack things, including a microwave potato/broccoli dinner, for I didn't want to go out for supper.

I stopped at Cascade State Park and walked around for a bit. I didn't have boots so had to be careful. I walked a bit on a deer trail. I'm certain I left smells that gave the deers something to think about when they wandered there again. Near the lodge I stopped to see where the Cascade River was entering Lake Superior. Even though the temperature was not much above zero, the river mouth was open and water was running over a low cascade into the lake. This time of the year the sound of spring rushing water is great. At the lodge I wandered around a bit and then went across the road to get down towards the lake shore.

On the drive home, Thursday, I also stopped at Gooseberry State Park. Even though the waterfalls looks totally frozen, I could hear water rushing underneath all that snow.

It was a good break from the usual routine.

Monetary Adventures

The recent civil disruptions that followed the Kenyan elections hit me personally, for one of the very best students I've had returned to Kenya when she completed her degree here. As I heard about the disruptions, even killings, my heart jumped every time. It was very good to hear then from my former student that she was fine. But the reason she wrote us was to say that the problems in Kenya have led to disruption in education, and girls are being denied education now if they can't pay for it. She said it would be helpful to get the equivalent of 20,000 Kenyan shillings to pay for one semester's tuition to a girl. She thought this was about $250, but with the devaluation of the dollar, it turned out to be $284. My colleagues donated $330 and I added up to $400 and after 45 minutes, first on the Internet and then by phone to Western Union, I sent off the money to Kenya. Now I'll be waiting anxiously for the news that it has been received.

It is an amazing world we live in -- first that I would have a former student in Kenya, secondly that we can exchange communication via e-mail, and third that with my plastic card I can make money start its way to Kenya. Watch here for more news about what is to be done with the money.

Update on Squirrelly Adventures

A squirrel has been making its home in the basement. On numerous occasions I opened a window, hoping it would leave. It would be quiet for several days making me think I had been successful, and then again I would find signs it was still here. At work colleagues advised me to make certain it had no source of water, so I took the cat's water away, and let the cat drink only under my supervison. Still no sign of the squirrel thinking it would be a good idea to leave. So at last I went to Home Depot and bought a trap. I didn't think it would be good for the animal to be living in the warm house and then turned out in the sub-zero weather. But it tested my patience for the last time by tearing around in the kitchen overnight. So I baited the trap and within 12 hours had the squirrel caught. It seemed Ok with the idea, so I was planning to wait until tomorrow morning to let it go. However, this evening it got very upset -- just as information found on several web sites predicted would happen. So I took it for a ride and let it go along the Mississippi River Bank. Hope it is far enough away from here that it will not find its way back and find its way in again. Thus, hopefully ends the adventure with Mr. Squirrel. And I have a new skill -- trapping.

Visiting Europe without a Plane Flight

Last night my church returned to 1569 and held a dinner with King Sigismund and Queeen Isabella from Transylvania. We celebrated the first kingdom that declared religious freedom. Before dinner drinks were Hungarian wine and the unique plum brandy found in the Transylvania area. The dinner entree included Hungarian sausage, potatoes, salad, and two unique Hungarian dishes: goulash -- not what most Americans think of when they envision goulash -- and a wonderful mushroom dish. We were serandaded by strolling musicians. After dinner we adjourned to the nearby sanctuary area for Hungarian dancing. We returned to our table to find a wonderful chocolate torte. All of this plus wonderful conversation indeed made it an evening in Europe without the annoying plane flight.