Hike with Mike Y Nat

L.E. Taylor

2012-01-15T11:54:00.008-06:00

i have been most fortunate over the past few years to have the opportunity to meet, know, love and invest in individuals with intensely fertile talent. one such source of talent has been ms. L.E. Taylor of denton, tx. lauren has been a dear friend and subject of my admiration for some time. her voice and unity with instruments brings about peace in her listeners and a strange craving for a cold glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and lush fields of green.

enjoy . . . nry

Road Trip

2012-01-13T22:38:00.005-06:00

Natalie and I are winding down a huge 5 week 7000 mile road trip from Austin, Texas through southern California to Seattle, Washington and back home. We visited 5 different national parks, 9 states and over 20 friends along the way. I feel like it happened in the blink of an eye but here we find ourselves on the tail end looking back.
Maybe over the next few days I will try to write up some short posts on highlights of the trip, for now I am just happy to be reunited with Atlas after his adventures with Ma and Pa Young. The poor pup was un-invited from the trip after we realized that most of the national parks prefer that dogs don't go into the backcountry. He is in good spirits and ready to go home tomorrow.
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the weather.

love
mike y nat

The Statesman loves Rosie

2012-01-13T15:39:00.006-06:00

For Those out there on the web who didn't stumble across a facebook link to the Article we were interviewed last month by Nancy Flores with the Austin American Statesman. Nancy wrote a great little article about our home for the life and style section of the paper complete with pictures by Ralph Barrera. The online version can be found here with a photo gallery here.

I get fascinated with the web and how stories spread, but in deference to my wife won't go through and talk about where the story has popped up except to mention that it got picked up by a blogger who appears to be located in Malaysia.

Thank you all for your interest in our life and the kind words of support we have gotten from everyone. The neatest part of the whole experience for me is seeing how many friends in distant places have stumbled upon the story and contacted us. We love you all.

peace love and old buses
m y n

"Rosie": for Natalie and Michael

2012-01-09T01:20:00.000-06:00

Steven Wilbur is a slam poet, teacher, and musician in Seattle Washington. He is also a longtime friend of one Natalie R.W. Young and consequently now one of my favorite people. This is most relevent to the blog because he gave a toast at our wedding in the slam poetry style that blew me away. Luckily for everyone, we got to have lunch with him last week in Seattle and subsequently got a copy of the poem. So, without further adieu, Mr. Steven Wilbur...

"Rosie"

a wedding poem by: Steven Wilbur

"Love is a rusty red school bus named Rosie.

At first glance, you doubt a commercial drivers license

could prepare anyone to drive this colossus.

It’s scorn for tight corners and parking garages

cased in loudest forty feet in the county, and while you could turn back,

you’ve always been homesick

for wide open spaces,

and

Michael, in the morning light, Natalie is a refined silver key,

blinding you with hope of her years.

Natalie, Michael is a gallon of gas, which is to say,

potential waiting for a spark, waiting

for you,

and together you say to the knowing wind, let’s see how far we can go.

The door folds open like a page,

The furniture knows your names,

The steering wheel speaks in a tongue you barely understand.

Rosie says allons-y, which, in English, means, go.

She says,

The bold brazen way

a bus opens its throttle,

sings the highway’s songs,

and raindrops leave home,
oak seeds dare to become - this

is the way you love.

which is reassuring to you, because if love were a bus,

that bus would certainly write haiku poems about love.

Your hands folded in an allegory for aspen groves

around the wheel, you will drive

to Maine in the fall,

to Ketchikan (which is impossible)

And you will wake up

in Kansas beneath electric skies,

in Austin to seven hundred pedestrians.

You will take them to God. You will take them to their fathers.

You will wake up in towns you never intended, knowing

this means that you are in Rosie, which is to say,

in love,

you will plant a seed in the ground,

hold each other like home

within the infinite symmetry of your rings.

You will drive across three state lines on empty,

write rivers into the desert.

You will learn cacti pour themselves out

for anyone brave enough;

you are brave enough.

On the days you’re not, you know a

Mechanic who splits his time between Jupiter

and Abilene and where you are

who is,

and you may wake up to envy scrawled in paint cans. You might have to

push-start Rosie when the engine is tired,

and it might take all your friends.

You may find yourself West-Texas-stranded twenty miles from the nearest gas,

cooled in the shadow of your love before you walk

400,000 steps with the best definition of beauty you’ve found.

Trial may disintegrate the tires into flames, rocketing both of you

through those windows like the eyes of your youth.

There on the pavement, blood-and-gravel-toothed, you

will stand and stare down that axle, shouting,

I have come this far.

Not even death could make me look back.

But after that moment

you might ask, Do I have something in my teeth?

because you do, and the pavement peppering

your smile is the fabric of songs

sweeter than any engine hum or cicada symphony or pine

after the rain.

O the magnificent songs you’ll sing

with gravel in your mouths."

. . . thank you, steven

<3 mikeYnat

Pictures from the Road

2011-12-27T14:31:00.000-06:00

Hey all, we are starting week three on the road in beautiful Joshua Tree National Park. We started with some hiking in Big Bend, climbing in Red Rocks Nevada, driving (and some short hikes (and Christmas!)) in Death Valley and now climbing in Joshua Tree! I am going to throw some pictures up and let them speak for themselves (1000 words and all of that.)

And the Dog has a Vest

2011-12-05T22:56:00.001-06:00

This little number was dogified by my beautiful wife N Are Dub, and is all the rave in pup circles this year. It helps him sleep.

.and.we're.off.

2011-12-05T21:06:00.000-06:00

an evening of stove-top chai, experimenting with the possibilities available to one living in a metal home (SO rad by the way), tent repair, conversation and puppy coat sewing (he's about to embark on a month long winter climbing trip, cut us some slack) has brought us to a lovely and much welcomed end to the fall semester. new to rosie is a 6x6 foot magnetic fabric insulation partition that separates the living space from the bedroom space. the idea is that it is much easier and more efficient to heat half of a bus than a whole bus . . . turns out we were right. the winter has come on suddenly to the ATX area, but we refuse to be caught off guard. in addition to the cozy partition is the seasonal insulation sheet window blockers on the windows surrounding the bedroom. it also turns out that a dozen windows in a 100 square foot metal space during 30 degree temperatures doesn't help with heat retention either. good thing the mr. is a genius and had us warm and frost tight in no time. thanksgiving was a most gorgeous occasion at the m&n young abode, complete with approximately 25 tabletop feet cram packed with sweet and savory goodness, and family from all angles

having the honor of hosting two thanksgivings in our mere year of being together has most certainly contributed to my deep appreciation of the dynamics and richness of the crew and how well they function as one even if they don't always see it. my mother fit in perfectly, as she always does, and pie and music were had well into the night. with life overflowing and bellies almost as full, we are grateful beyond words

this next week will find us dehydrating food, sorting gear and wrapping up life in rosie until mid january. the youngsters3 are headed to washington to scope out possibilities for the future - by way of big bend, red rocks and joshua tree, ca.

- warmth, spice and dreams run wild-

blessings from our home to yours,
mYn

from our bus to . . . . yours?

2011-11-21T11:29:00.000-06:00

i am so very proud to have the honored title of guest blogger this week as we prepare for a beautiful thanksgiving celebration, the end of a school semester and the beginning of an epic winter break road trip. our days have been filled with friends, food, new family additions (miss jolene "cutie patootie puppy" walsh) and tying up small projects, including th

e exciting resurrection of our little "puch" moped, moshibby.

I have begun flirting with the art of aerial dancing thanks to our dear and talented friend, susan harkey, and mike is continuing on his journey

learning the ins and outs ofsolar energy, the mastery of electricity and green living.

we have most recently remembered a sorely missed brother, stewart jason wofford, on his birthday - welcomed a new little cousin, natalie claire marlow, into our family - and said goodbye to a beloved and magical grandmother, mary sue wofford, as she joins her cherished husband (our granfather) eddie louis wofford. its most certainly a time of beginnings, memories and endings . . .strengthening, stretching and adventure.

thank you for your love - you have ours

la paz, el amor y la familia,

nry

(our beautiful friend, mackenzie rollins, has finished our wedding photos! they can be viewed @ mackenzierollins.com, go to client proofing, password:young . . . enjoy!!)

Rosie Photos

2011-10-20T10:30:00.000-05:00

It turns out, I didn't put many of the pictures I have of Rosie on the internet. In an effort to share this adventure I would like to remedy that situation. Here are three more photos of our lovely home.

Rosie and Atlas

2011-10-14T13:12:00.001-05:00

Folks have been asking us lately for more pictures of Rosie, well here we find ourselves with more pictures so I can oblige. Living in Rosie as the Youngsters with young Atlas the holstein-boxer mix has been great. We adapted to the early challenges of heat and facilities and survived to the current bliss of fall temps and open windows.
Our first experience with rain, and hence muddy yards, offered some learning lessons on puppy wrangling, shoe management and rolling with the mess. But West Texans we are and we welcome rain in all of its forms.
I am pleased to announce we have running water in the bus now and are working towards a secure electrical source. I just received my electrician's apprentice license and I am giddy with the new world of wiring. Hopefully I will be able to move through the project with grace and safety.
Natalie is tearing her way through nursing school and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are looking at job postings and future places to park Rosie. It is amazing how well she can balance school, work and quality time. She has been running with the dude (Atlas) and climbing at the Austin Rock Gym in the evenings to get strong for our big climbing road trip over the winter break.
I have not been climbing as strong but I am working on catching up. I just got back from a mountain biking trip with Outpost Wilderness Adventure in Moab Utah where we got to ride with the fellas from Cycle Wise in the UK. They were some great blokes. Right now I am just enjoying being in town with my new family and working on projects.
Thanks for taking the time to check in on us Youngsters and we hope you are enjoying everything you can. Drop us a line if you are coming through town and want to come by for a visit.

Peace Love and mobile housing.

Love
Mike y Nat

Married Life

2011-08-22T13:27:00.000-05:00

Well, we are officially back from our honeymoon today. Natalie started class this afternoon and I am back on the job market. We got Rosie mostly settled and looking like a home, kicked it off with a bus warming party this weekend with Black Metal Stout by the fellas at Jester King Brewery, and we got ourselves a pup. Now onto life.

It is a good life, I think we are going to be pretty busy this year but I am excited about everything we have in store for ourselves with travel, climbing, exploring Austin, and working on our bus. So far we have a new floor in Rosie, a little bit of electricity, an air conditioner, a bed, some storage, a kitchen and a bed. Next on deck is running water, then into the full electrical conversion, and lastly full plumbing. I am currently fixing up our little bike fleet so we can roll in style. It will be good to put some time in on the bikes, I haven't gotten to ride much since January. However, now we live just a few miles from Walnut Creek a chill little set of trails.

Our friend Chris is a first year medical student and has decided to leave his Capri Cyclone with the house while he studies, we have dutifully taken on the care and exercise of said boat. He and I went out yesterday for a few hours and I really enjoy this little one class race boat. It has a more complicated rigging system than my slightly longer dagger boat but is a riot to sail in low wind, I can't wait until we get a little breeze in the fall.

Well, I hope everyone is weathering well, we are making our way through the heat and praying for rain. I hope you are enjoying life and eating well.

Peace, Love, and Rain

Mike

And we're back

2011-08-20T16:27:00.001-05:00

Alaska!

2011-05-19T08:47:00.000-05:00

With mixed feelings I am rolling out to Alaska today. I am leaving Natalie for the longest stint that we have been apart and that is sad but we are excited about the course and what it can mean for our future. This is going to be a great adventure. I am going to leave you with a few pictures of the last few weeks and I will get back to you soon.

Peace and Love and Good Food,

Mike

Bus news, Alaska Prep, ARI update

2011-05-11T22:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I am in Colorado. I have left Texas for the summer, returning in August in time to get married to my dream girl. Before I left we got the bus titled, inspected, insured, and checked over by our friendly mechanics in Buda. She has been deemed road worthy and we are now planning the next steps in our remodel. As a gauge for the sheer size of Rambling Rose (AKA Rosie) I have posted a picture of all of my ladies (Natalie giving scale to Lola who in turn gives scale to Rosie) for you all to ponder. In August I will be bringing more updates as we make progress.

I leave for Alaska next week and it is just now sinking in how close that trip is to reality. I bought a new camera so I will be able to offer a full run down in the future, for now just know that it is going to be awesome.

I have received another update from ARI, and they are doing well. The participants have all arrived safely and they have begun the training program at the original host location at a farm in Tokyo while they continue to make repairs at ARI proper in Nishinasuno. Prayers and donations are still greatly appreciated and needed.

Have a great week wherever you are, find some friends, make some food, and start a conversation.

Peace and Love
Mike

I'm getting Married

2011-04-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

Yep, I am getting married on August 13, 2011 to Natalie Ruth Wofford. The short story: we met at a climbing gym, hung out doing the friend thing for a while, I realized I was in love, she realized she was in love, we both thought about running, changed our minds, we decided to get married, and now we are planning a wedding. She is awesome, among other things she is a rock climber, amazing cook, farmer, chicken raiser, snake owner, traveler, humanitarian, artist, photographer, realist, get-things-doner, and a huge support. I am so lucky to have her in my life and she makes me strive to be a better person. I hope you get to meet her soon!

Peace and Love
Mike

PS (this is not our baby, he's just happy we're getting married too.)

Home Ownership

2011-04-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

On this blog I have written a lot about the value of a simple life, and the ability to roam, and taking life slow, and the value of having a roof over your head. Always a fan of putting actions into words I am stepping into the world of home ownership with my fiancé. Well, earlier this week we bought a house... bus...bus-house! It is 40 ft of Bluebird snub nosed goodness and we are very excited. We got it here in Austin from a man who has been converting it into a studio/ office space. As a living space it is about 80% there, as a completed project we are probably looking at 60% done, and as a great recycleable home project it is right on.

For years I have been interested in the mobile lifestyle, tiny houses, re-purposing useful materials, and auto mechanics. Recently these interests have taken me into the world of buses. There seems to be a whole web community of bus conversion enthusiasts called Skoolies who retrofit old busses into tail gating machines, book-mobiles, Recreational Vehicles, and even homes. Since Natalie and I met I have been teasing her about moving into a van or somesuch nonsense to avoid high cost rent, have a mobile house, and travel. After joking about the idea for a few months we found a beat up old bus for sale in Hico, TX and the race was on, we were going to get a bus. It is a brilliantly simple plan and offers us so much room to work with our hands, be creative, and express our world views through physical action.

As an experiment in simplicity the bus allows us to strip our lives and possessions to a very finite number. We have just under 400 s.f. to contain our lives from working, sleeping, and cooking to cleaning, entertaining, and recreating. Both of us are coming from relatively modest living situations and working to fit our basic needs and a few enriching extras into this new environment. Our goal: to be able to live and thrive in a healthy, functional, and above all tasteful rolling home.

We are working with friends to secure a place to park/live next year as newlyweds while Natalie finishes nursing school and I work as an outdoor educator in Austin, TX. After that the world is our oyster and will most likely be rolling out of town onto a new adventure. We hope to keep you all posted on our home owning journey on this blog. Stay tuned for details.

Peace and Love

Mike

ARI Earthquake update #3

2011-04-18T07:47:00.000-05:00

I have just received another update from my friend Steven Cutting about the current state of affairs at the Asian Rural Institute in Tochigi, Japan after the earthquake that hit March 11, 2011. The short version is that things are returning to normal, radiation levels are well below government safety limits, and they are going to run the first part of the training program from a location outside of Tokyo while rebuilding continues on the main campus. I am including the full email below. Please read and feel free to send me any questions.

Peace and Love,

Mike

Enter Steven

"#3 ARI Post Quake Report April 18, 2011

Hello everyone,

Sorry to be so long in getting out this 3^rd report. As you can imagine there is just so much to do with clean up and repair on top of our regular work of getting our crops sown and preparing for our incoming students.

It has been over one month since the Earthquake and Tsunami. On April 11, exactly one month after the quake, we had the pleasant experience of getting one of the biggest aftershocks, over 7 on the Richter scale. Only a few books and things fell down, but the tension, the almost imperceptible tightness that had kept us all on edge, but was slowly dissipating, that same feeling came back instantly. These aftershocks, both big and small, continue daily. Last night there were at least four. Each time you feel the tremor start, you wonder if this one will evolve into another huge quake or not. And sometimes you realize that there was actually no shaking at all – it was only the wind blowing or your heart beating.

At ARI we have been trying to get back to some of our regular activities that had been disrupted. We are longing to return to some sense of normalcy. We have resumed morning exercise, after which we hold a short meeting to share updates on the nuclear power plant situation, report the wind direction and radiation levels in the air and water, and decide our daily work. Today the news was not so good. The power company outlined a plan that will take nine months to stabilize the reactors. The first three months would be focused on getting the cooling systems working again, which is essential in stopping the release of radiation. This timeframe is assuming that things go well and there are no further complications. But the more immediate bad news was the wind direction. Today it is blowing from east to west and is swirling all around Japan. Up to now it had been blowing consistently toward the sea. It is not very comforting to know that our wellbeing rests on something as fickle as the direction of the wind.

We are moving forward, however, with our plans to begin the training program on May 2, just one month late. We are expecting 22 participants. The number is a bit less than usual because we had some difficulties with visas, but this year it will be helpful to have a smaller class. About two weeks ago we made a major decision to hold the first part of our training at a different location. Since all of our students come from overseas and live on campus, ARI bears somewhat more responsibility for their health and well-being than a typical school. The main reasons for this precautionary measure are: (1) the facilities in ARI are not completely ready for use. Work is going quickly and smoothly, but completion will require more time (2) We still continue to experience aftershocks in this area (3) The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant remains unstable. We are located 110 km from the plant. The government has issued no warnings about this region and no special actions are being taken at other schools in Nasushiobara (except to reduce outdoor sports and activities). However as long as the plant continues to leak radiation at the current rate we feel more comfortable relocating temporarily. The first 30 to 90 days of the training will be held at the Theological Seminary for Rural Mission in Tsurukawa, a suburb of Tokyo. This seminary is the birthplace of ARI and they have kindly allowed us to make use of their facilities.

At the beginning of the month I made a short trip to Kyushu to bring back my family, where they had been staying with grandma. School started last week, which forced us to make a decision for the kids – restart life here or settle in for the long term in Kyushu. Actually, life is pretty much normal in this town. Schools and businesses are open as usual. Both government and independent sources have declared areas this far from the plant as safe. Radiation in the air is down to 0.20 microsieverts/hour and water at the nearest reservoir is 2.5 Becquerels per liter. Both figures are far below government set safety limits. So we are back. But let me tell you, as a parent this was not an easy decision to make. No matter what level is said to be safe I never thought that I would have to decide how much radiation is OK for my kids. The fact that ARI water has been tested clean (at least for the time being) is a huge relief. A recent photo I saw in the newspaper of a health official holding a Geiger counter to the throat of a child who lives in a town closer to the power plant is still etched in my mind. Iodine, which accumulates in the thyroid, is an important component in the natural growth and development of children. Radioactive iodine, or iodine 131, is not. “Lucky” for us is that Iodine 131 has a short half-life of 8 days. Other staff with children have had to make similar difficult decisions. Gussan’s pregnant wife, Natsuko, is not planning to return soon!

Regional governments throughout northern Japan have been checking the soil to determine which areas are safe to start planting and which are banned from agriculture. Northern Tochigi was found to be within the safety limits, so we are preparing our rice seedlings and vegetable nurseries and we will see how it goes. We are exploring ways to be able to independently measure our soil and food products. We are also working with a research team that is experimenting with using certain kinds of microorganisms to clean radiation from the soil.

Bans on certain food products from certain areas of Japan continue, but they are slowly becoming less restrictive. I heard that Tochigi farmers are gradually finding markets to sell their produce – though consumers remain hesitant, even if the products are deemed acceptable. I find it ironic that we now call instant food and bottled drinks as “safe” (stores can barely keep these on the shelves) while we have to “protect” ourselves from air, water, and fresh vegetables. We are not sure yet, how our customers will respond to our products. Fortunately ARI eggs have tested completely free of radiation!!

The extent of damage to the campus is pretty heavy and the big aftershocks have not helped matters much. Actually the aftershocks have confirmed what the building inspector already suspected. Some of the buildings frames are in a weakened state and become more so with each quake. The Koinonia Dining Hall and the Main Building are especially problematic. With some repairs and reinforcements we should be able to use them for this year’s program but it is recommended that they be replaced at the end of the year. This is going to be an incredibly tough challenge for us since the costs are estimated at $2,000,000 for Koinonia and $1,500,000 for the main building. We also need to tear down and rebuild the “Denmark” style pigpen. It is basically in a state of slow collapse, but don’t worry, the pigs are in a process of planned evacuation. On the bright side, the construction of the new farm shop is coming along nicely. This was in the works before the earthquake, which hit just after the old farm shop was torn down and before work had started on the new one. The dorms and other buildings sustained some damage, but are basically OK. Most areas of campus have been cleaned up and water is running once again. Repairs continue all around with good progress being made. We have been receiving donations from people near and far and I can’t tell you how much this helps. The bills have started rolling in, but because these contributions are also coming in we are able to rebuild and we are able to continue to carry out our work and mission, not only this year, but in the years to come. Thank you.

ARI continues to supply food to people at the nearby evacuation center. On the weekends some staff go to visit farmer friends in the areas near the nuclear power plant. They carry eggs, meat, and produce to distribute to the people there. This food is very welcome since many are living on a diet of instant noodles and cold rice balls. I said this before, but I will say it again. ARI’s life of self-sufficiency is given even greater meaning by this disaster. Rather than being in need food we are able to help out others.

Last weekend that one organic farmer who lives about 40 km from the plant decided to pack up move out. After 30 years his land was rich and beautiful, but not anymore. We also checked on the boys from Iwaki city (who evacuated to ARI for about a week). One of the aftershocks seriously damaged their house, but they are somehow getting along. Tohoku people are known for being reserved, conservative, and tough. I saw a woman on TV who had lost her house and even some members of her family say, “I can’t think of myself because others have lost more than me.”

We at ARI are all past the initial shock and now that we have a plan in place to receive this year’s participants we are working with more vigor. This disaster has tested us in unexpected ways and at the same time it has brought us closer together. When you shake the foundations in life, you find the things that are truly strong, truly important.

In stubborn defiance to the seriousness of the situation, the spring flowers are in full bloom and the cherry blossoms are now at their magnificent peak. Last Saturday I went to the park with Miki and the kids to do drawings and a lot of people were out. As we sat on the ground with our sketch books we were rocked by yet another tremor, but no one moved. We were already in the safest place we could be. As I looked at the cherry blossoms stretched out over the small lake I couldn’t help feeling sad though. Every piece of nature that caught my eye; every flower, leaf, blade of grass, and the life of every person walking by has been affected by the radiation of a nuclear power plant over 100km away. How in the world did we do this? Why did we do this? These are the questions I have to answer to my children, and not some day in the future, but now.

Thank you once again for all of your prayers and words of support.

Steven

Sending Money

As I mentioned before my main purpose for sending this report is to keep you updated. However, people do continue to ask how they can help out financially and so I will include this information once again.

American Citizens can send a check to:

American Friends of ARI (AFARI)

c/o Steve Gerdes - Treasurer

11920 Burt St., Suite 145

Omaha, NE 68154-1598

Designate “ARI relief” on the check

or donate online through AFARI at http://friends-ari.org/

Canadian citizens

Cheques payable to The United Church of Canada can be sent to:

United Church of Canada

Partners in Mission Unit

3250 Bloor St. W.

Etobicoke, ON M8X 2Y4

Attn: Pat Elson (Please designate "ARI relief" on the cheque)

In Japan

Postal Transfer 00340-8-8758

Account Name: Gakko Hojin Asia Gakuin

In Europe

German Citizens can make tax deductable donations through the European Friends of ARI (EFARI). Please see their website at www.efari.org Europeans of other countries may also donate through EFARI, but it would not be tax deductable.

Steven Cutting

Ecumenical Relations

The Asian Rural Institute

442-1 Tsukinokizawa

Nasushiobara-shi, Tochigi-ken 329-2703

Japan

Tel: +81-(0)287-36-3111

Fax: +81-(0)287-37-5833

Email: ecu@ari-edu.org

Web: www.ari-edu.org

I wanna CHAI to make some SALSA

2011-03-29T13:08:00.002-05:00

For those of you in the mood for a little spice in your life I want to share my two favorite recipes of the moment.

First: Salsa, I use a blender.

15 roma tomatoes (40 oz processed)
1 large! yellow onion
3 habanero peppers (red, yellow, and green)
4 serrano peppers
cilantro (you know about a handful)
several cloves of garlic
a palm of salt (about a tbs.?)
blend
chill (best to let it steep in the fridge for a day or so to get those flavors right)
eat

And then the slightly more complicated Chai from scratch (also known as Masala Chai, or even milk tea. (beats the coffee shop.))

For 4 people:

maybe 6 cups of water
add 6-10 green cardamon pods (mortared and pestaled)
1-2 sticks o cinnamon (m&p'ed)
10 pepper corns (m&p... you get the picture)
6-8 cloves (..."")
simmer for a long while, maybe 20-25 minutes

Black Tea- 2 bags (any black tea, sometimes I even use black chai tea (it has more spices))

you can boil it at this point black tea is not as sensitive as green tea (THANKS Melody!)

After the concoction becomes a dark (amber reddish) color you can pull the tea bags and add your white liquid (I like whole milk but usually use soy milk (silk) for my lady,) until the whole things blends to a brownish dirty white color.

Bring to a boil but catch it right before it boils over.
turn on low, add brown sugar (you be the judge, I usually add more than I think is needed,) and ginger (about a half inch thinly sliced, ginger does not do well in a boil, it blanches out the flavor.) More ginger is better if you are feeling sick (same with peppercorn.) Sometimes I leave the ginger out.

Taste, if it doesn't taste right, add white liquid (milk/silk) and sugar.

This will taste mild right out of the pan but turns out great in a small cup.

Serve to friends, put in a thermos or save some in the fridge for later. You probably want to take the spices out or they will steep and change the flavor.

I have a saucepan with a strainer in the lid to help with the spice extraction, my friend Melody just eats the spices in the bottom of the cup. Do it big.

Peace and Love

Mike

The ARI Update

2011-03-19T11:19:00.000-05:00

An update on my home in Japan. ARI is located about 130 km from the broken nuclear plant in Fukushima, and the earthquake itself happened off the coast of Sendai which is where I caught the ferry to Hokkaido oh so long ago. When I first heard about the tsunami I did not think it had hit so close to home. My friend Steven Cutting just sent out an email update on the farm and the ARI program. I am including the email in full in this post, and have posted a pdf version here. Everyone is ok but very shaken up, let me know if you would like to help in some way and I can get you in contact with the right folks.

Peace and Love,

Mike

Enter Steven:

Dear Friends,

March 16

Greetings from ARI. As I sit down to write this message I am feeling yet another aftershock rock the room, though this one is very small. I know you are all worried and I’m not sure how much news has gotten to you about the situation of ARI. I’m sorry this report isn’t coming sooner, but as you can imagine, we have had quite a few things on our hands. This letter is going out only to people on the Take My Hand Email list, so please feel free to pass it on to others.

It has been 5 days since the earthquake but we are still in the middle of the prolonged and incredibly nerve-racking disaster of the nuclear power plant failure. Every day we wait for the news and when one problem seems to get solved at the plant another one starts and the situation remains critical. Of course the big question is about whether we are safe from the radiation. We are situated about 130km from the plant and the radiation levels you here on the news consist mostly of those at the plant itself and in the immediate vicinity. From yesterday we started getting regular reports about the radiation levels here in the area of ARI. Presently it stands at 1.4 microsieverts per hour. Last night it went as high as 1.7 microsieverts/hour. So what the heck does that mean? Well in this area the normal radiation levels are 0.027 microsieverts per hour. A standard chest x-ray exposes you to 100-300 microsieverts in one shot. A flight from New York to Tokyo exposes you to 200 microsieverts.

So the conclusion is that at the moment we are not any danger and we should just stay inside. Nuclear power plant workers are exposed to 5.7 microsieverts per hour and this is considered within standard safety limits for the industry. That being said, I have to tell you that whenever I am outside I don’t feel much like breathing! We are all wearing masks and when we do have to go out to feed the animals or take care of other necessary things, like repairing burst water pipes, we wear raincoats. We also shower often.

The volunteers evacuated early on and went home or are staying with friends. Children and spouses of staff have also relocated. My own two kids went with their mother to Kyushu to stay with their grandmother much to my relief. Gussan’s wife, who is pregnant, also left for southern Japan at the very beginning of this incident. Some staff left to assist families and volunteers (including myself), but they are slowly coming back to take care of ARI and people who are evacuating from Fukushima to this region. I was gone Sunday and Monday and returned Tuesday.

We are all praying for the workers at the Nuclear Plant and hope that this disaster will find a conclusion that is less than the worst case scenario. Your prayers are very welcome.

March 17

There is little change in the situation at the nuclear power plant. They are continuing to try to find ways to

get and keep enough water on the reactors to prevent them from melting down. There is real threat of a meltdown, but even if that happens ARI is said to be at a distance that is safe enough. Nevertheless we are taking precautions. We have made the seminar house our refuge as it was not at all damaged in the quake. Today we restocked ourselves with food and water – vegetables from the gardens, several bags of rice. Nearly all the foodstuffs we need we have in plenty. Our whole self-sufficiency life style is paying off big time. We are even in a situation to help others and have taken in 3 boys who evacuated from the town of Iwaki (40 km form the plant). We are also distributing eggs and milk to neighbors and to evacuation centers that were recently set up in town. We are also sealing all the windows and have cleared out the basement of this building in case we really do have to hunker down for a few days.

For the moment the nuclear threat has overshadowed the earthquake damage. We have started to do some cleanup but it is going slowly as we try to refrain from going outside too much. The buildings of ARI sustained damage, but we are still not sure

of the extent. A building inspector did an initial inspection and it looks like the biggest problem is the ceiling inside Koinonia was dislodged. A few parts actually fell, but most of the ceiling is still up, and in a dangerous state. The first floor of Koinonia also subsided a little, but we don’t yet know the extent of the damage. Two rooms in the women’s dorm sustained structural damage. The men’s dorm, fortress that it is, was mostly unhurt. The main building also seems to have survived, but needs more careful checking. The souvenir shop slid off the foundation and the stage seating and stage itself broke apart. The pig pen beside the biogas is also damaged, but at least the pig can’t escape. There are a lot of broken windows including the big windows in the chapel. ALL items inside ALL buildings were thrown to the floor and smashed. This includes computers, dishes, rice containers for long term storage, and much more. It is such a mess you can’t see the floor. The buildings do carry insurance, but it is unlikely they are covered for earthquake. We are checking into this.

All of this, of course, has interrupted the operations of the school. The biggest decision we had to take was whether or not we could carry on with our 2011 training program. The staff decided that we would do everything we could to carry out the program since this is our mission and purpose. However, we have tentatively decided to postpone the start by one month. This is not yet a fixed decision since we must first have assurance that the nuclear power plant is stable and this area is completely safe before we can even think of brining participants here. Also we will have to complete crucial repairs to the facilities.

We are scared but we are coming together. This is what community is all about. I am so thankful that I am going through this with a community of people who trust each other, love each other and care for each other. We still hold morning gathering every day and we pray together often, doing our best to trust in God and be led by God. There are people suffering much more than we are and I truly can’t keep my eyes dry when I think about them, because what we have been through is already awful. People in the tsunami stricken areas have to wait 5 hours in a line for water and many sleeping on the cold ground (and it snowed yesterday). Relief is coming, but slow and hampered by fear of radiation. There is a UCC missionary (Jeffery Mensendeik) working in Sendai and things look really tough there. We are trying to figure out how we can get them some of our food. Yet, the people in Japan are also rallying. They are stoic and orderly, even in the face of danger. There is confusion but not panic. I heard things are being sold out in stores in safe western Japan , not because people are scared and stocking up, but because they are sending supplies to the north.

There is so much to write about and so many stories, but I will stop now so I can get this sent off.

Please continue to pray for us at ARI and also for all the people of Japan .

In Peace,

Steven

Update: This late afternoon the city of Nasushiobara took in 80 people from Fukushima . They provided them shelter and two blankets, but nothing else. We just took over a supply of food and will see what we can do for them in the morning.

Sending Money:

I have received some inquiries about where people can send money to help us out. At the moment I would welcome peace of mind more than money, but when the nuclear crisis is over we will have to start rebuilding and this will bear costs. We appreciate your thinking of us. Below is the information that you need to make tax deductable contributions to ARI.

American Citizens can send a check to:

American Friends of ARI (AFARI)

c/o Steve Gerdes - Treasurer

11920 Burt St., Suite 145

Omaha , NE 68154-1598

Designate “ARI relief” on the check

or donate online through AFARI at http://friends-ari.org/

Steven Cutting

Hike WITH mike

2011-01-26T14:22:00.000-06:00

Among other things in life I am an outdoor educator. I have been teaching outdoor skills in a variety of settings for going on 6 years now. Currently I am a guide for Outpost Wilderness Adventures in Austin and will be guiding for them this summer in the beautiful Terryall Valley in Colorado. I am in collaboration with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) to get myself onto, and then pay for an instructor course so I will be able to lead multi-week technical leadership courses all over the world.

At this point I have thrown myself wholeheartedly with OWA and I am helping run programs, market for the company, and figure out logistics for our trips as well as my guiding opportunities. A few months ago I worked with my boss on organizing a private outdoor tutoring program that takes kids out for a few hours once a week to work on outdoor skill like climbing, mountain biking, and kayaking.

I will be updating this more as I go along but I wanted to get some information out for those people who happen upon my blog over the next few weeks.

Peace and Love

Mike

Slow Life

2011-01-09T13:55:00.000-06:00

I hear a lot about slow movements, slow food, slow money, intentional walking, slow life... there is a feeling in the air, a need to get more out of life, get a better feel for it, get into the meat of life, slide out of ethereal academic perception into the dirty hands, elbow deep in the guts of a deer kind of life. Over the last generation my experience has been so far removed from that of my ancestors that I feel this urge to chase it down and bite it in the neck.

When I drive across the state in Lola my '72 Baja Bug I get a good feeling. When I crawl under Lola to change the oil, fix the breaks, or pack the bearings, I get a good feeling. When I sit under a tarp in my back yard and take apart Mo-, my '79 Puch moped, I get a good feeling. When I cook breakfast for myself, I get a good feeling. When I invite 20 people to my house and cook them dinner I get a good feeling. In the middle of a trail ride on my ‘03 Gary Fisher, I get a good feeling. While cars are passing me with unlimited power and I can't go any faster, I am content and I get a good feeling. When I sit and talk with friends new and old, I get a good feeling. When I read Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Mathew B. Crawford, I get a good feeling.

I own a VW because it is paid off. I own a VW because I love it. I own a VW for the romance. I own a VW because I understand it. I own a VW because I always have. I own a VW because I can work on it. I own a VW so I don't drive too fast. I own a VW because I can customize it. I own a VW because it is pretty. I own a VW because it needs me. I own a VW because we are bonded. I own a VW because it is opportunity. I own a VW because I love the smell.

For whatever reason, owning a VW has an effect on me. It slows me down, it makes me flexible, it teaches me patience and it gives me something to look forward to. The poor souls that have to buy new cars, I pity. The poor souls that can buy speed, I pity. The poor souls that are speed limited by law, I pity. The poor souls that can never get there fast enough, I pity.

Economics is, at its base, an exchange of money for time. I could work less and have time to spend on my loves, or I could work more and have money to spend on my hobbies. I put more worth on time. As a part time worker I pay a high price in lost wages for my free time and have to remind myself of that regularly, but I find great value in that.

The other day I spoke with a guy about working on bikes. He talked about the new parts market and the constant need to buy new stuff. As he talked, I reflected on my bike and all of the things I could buy for it, all the things I want to buy for it, and then I think about all the riding I do without any of it. We have great tools at our disposal that are built to work for a long time, built to be repairable and upgradeable and I love that. I look forward to building up and maintaining my tools/toys for years and value the lessons I learn from that repair process. I am limited in my budget, but freed through my limits to go out and ride, or drive, or fix. The limits let me breathe.

Go cook some food, fix a bike, and take a slow drive. However, be careful you might fall in love with people passing you by on their way to more urgent endeavors.

Peace and Love
Mike

Motivation

2010-10-07T11:19:00.000-05:00

My family refers to me as one of those people that has 2 speeds, fast and off. I don't know how true that statement is but it paints a nice picture of my energy use. It has been a year now since I returned from the Asian Rural Institute, it does not seem that long but then again, it never does. My return to America has effected me, I have gone through phases of apathy, frustration, learning, and elation. My ambitions have swung to all points of the compass, and at times I have lost sight of my purpose, any purpose really. I have run from things that are good, and hidden when things seemed bad. I have gotten to connect with people that I have known forever and made deep connections with people that I hope to know forever after. I have slept on couches and traveled the country. I have dreamed many dreams but have chased very few. I have been floating and I have loved it.

In my last post I talked about a roof over my head. Now the next step is a dream to chase and purpose to stand for. I think a purpose is more important than a roof and a dream supplies energy for the purpose. In college and even in Japan I was a lightning rod for ideas and purpose, an advocate for change and new thinking. I was surrounded by people who excited my curiosity about the world and ideas that gave me hope. Over the next few weeks I am looking to get involved with groups that have the same kind of energy and passion. In my aloofness I have not tapped into these sources of energy. I plan to work on that. For now, I hope you are sharing your life and eating well.

Peace and Love,

Mike

A roof over my head

2010-08-19T19:31:00.000-05:00

I love being a vagabond, the gypsy lifestyle, floating from couch to couch, but sometimes you just need your own bed. So, to that end I have moved into a little duplex in South Austin. It is a great little place, ugly on the outside, clean on the inside, and there is just enough room for little dinner parties. I have a place to keep my things and park my car, lay down at night and cook in the morning. It is nice.

A lot has been said about the value of a home, a base for operations, a place to hang your hat, so I won't go into it here but to say that having that grounding place really helps me figure out what I am doing right now. Since my return to the US I have floated and my mind has floated with me, it has been a valuable time of growth and questions. Right now, at this moment, I have the opportunity to sit still and my mind has the opportunity to focus.

I am currently expanding my client base for private climbing lessons, trying to expand into other outdoor pursuits, working with a friend on a climbing shoe resoling company, and researching the feasibility of a brewpub in College Station. Along with those humble projects I am scheduling a Wilderness First Responder refresher course, looking into a American Mountain Guide Association course, and an American Alpine Institute avalanche course. I am also still pedicabbing on the weekends for income and entertainment.

I have gotten to see lots of friends over the summer and had even more time with family than I could have ever hoped for. My roommate and I are having dinner gatherings regularly, and looking forward to more. Little sister came into town today, and my parents were in a few weeks ago. Lola, my car, has been parked since June because of a wheel bearing but I am enjoying not paying for gas so I haven't rushed out to get her fixed. I feel guilty but my pocketbook is happy for now... besides have you seen my cycling calves lately? But seriously I love my bike.

I hope you all are sharing time with good people, eating good food, and learning about your passions.

Peace and Love

Mike

Irie

2010-08-12T08:18:00.000-05:00

Irie: to be at total peace with your current state of being. The way you feel when you have no worries. (urbandictionary.com)

I regularly stop in at the Irie Bean Coffee Shop on South Lamar to get coffee, use the internet, and hook into the south Austin community. I found the Irie bean when I first moved down here and it has become my coffee shop and I really dig the community that has developed here. As a matter of fact I am here right now.

A lot has been going on recently and it is hard to get it all in order to convey through a few paragraphs on the web, but here is a short synopsis; I am focusing outdoor education right now teaching private lessons and camps at the gym, I went up to Colorado for a week and taught mountain biking and mountaineering, I have started working on feasibility studies and market analysis with two different friends on two different business ideas, and I am training (in fits and starts) for the Austin Triathlon in September (if anyone wants to sponsor me please shoot me an email or leave a comment.) It is all very exciting and I will flesh this out more as more becomes apparent.

A note: I love teaching, I have gotten back into outdoor ed. over the last month and I am looking to start doing outdoor tutoring in Austin. There are people all over the place that would like to learn more about paddling, hiking, camping, biking, and climbing, and I would like to help them. Over the next few weeks I will be rolling out a small outdoor tutoring service in Austin. I am excited about this and hope you are too, I will keep you posted.

Peace Love and good food,

Mike

Rain in Texas

2010-07-08T19:27:00.000-05:00

I grew up in Abilene. If you don't know much about Abilene that is ok, but one thing you ought to know is that it can be very, very dry. For a majority (read that most) of the time I lived there we were in a "severe drought" i.e. a desert. So for us, rain storms were the greatest thing in the world.

We had big booming thunderstorms that would roll in across the plains, sending fresh, beautiful wind out in front to announce their approach. You never forget what those storms smell like. They would come in with big towering clouds, and flashes of lighting that would steal all of the air for the split second before the thunder would hit. We would sit out on the front porch with our blankets and watch the storms at night, or run around in the rain and build dams in the gutter. Dad would load us up in the truck and we would drive around town checking the levels on the creeks (as an aside it is no wonder I get so fascinated with flooded creeks and kayaking as an adult.) Rain meant change, clean air, clean streets, and fresh starts. The world always seems happy after a big storm.

Today I am sitting at my favorite coffee shop, doing some some life-study, and watching the rain fall outside. We ate dinner with the doors open and the rain coming down. Last night while I was at blues on the green I saw these huge clouds piling up with the sunset tinting them orange. We have had a lot of rain and it is great. All of the creeks have some water in them, the lakes are up and the plants are eating it up. True, unlike Abilene, the air has been heavy with moisture, and there is lots of sweating, but it has been great and the cloudy days make everyone appreciate the sunshine that much more.

I hope you are well, eating good food, and sharing time with friends.

Peace and Love,

Mike

The Hiatus

2010-06-21T22:08:00.000-05:00

Settling down

Sometimes, you find yourself in an eddy, a place in the stream where you can stop and check your bearings and look downstream for hazards. Recently, I decided to catch an eddy and take a look around for a while. I am sitting in a coffee shop/bar in downtown Austin listening to a new age jazz/hip hop/ string trio play and thinking about life. Last week I signed a 6 month lease on a little duplex with my new friend/ roommate Chris and I am looking into some side projects to keep my income up and start paying down some student loans.

My months of couch surfing are coming to a much awaited hiatus. I could not have foreseen this a few months ago but it is where I find myself and I am happy. As an update for those who do not know I have picked up a few jobs over the last few months as a pedicabber downtown in the evenings, as desk staff at the local rock gym and an itinerant guide for a company in Central Texas and Colorado. Along with that I am looking into a few other projects that I will detail as they come closer to launch.

A note on family; I have been able to see a large majority of my extended family over the weekend and gotten to share some great meals. I live down the street and around the corner (and on the couches more recent than not) of the Young Boys whom I was privileged to grow up with in Abilene, and most of my mom’s family lives in the Austin/ San Antonio area. My little sister just got back to San Antonio from the Dominican Republic and my parents came down to visit this weekend. It has been great getting to know everyone as an adult and I am happy to share my life with them.

More on life in Austin in the near future, get some good food, say hi to your family, and raise a glass for me.

Peace and Love,

Mike

An idea

2010-05-20T15:25:00.000-05:00

They say that ideas are meant to be shared... Here is one of my favorites I like to refer to as the Pickadilly Project, at first it was to be known as "Mike Young's center for all things delicious and Beautiful" but I was told that was somewhat conceited. The basic concept starts with an abandoned gas station, then mixes with a taste of beer and bread, add in local food, music, and art, and my affinity for housing (small, efficient, sustainable, and shared) tag that towards my dream of communal land ownership and a flair for the dramatic and you get the Pickadilly Project. It would basically be a space for people to come together and share food, stories, ideas, music, and passions.

The first phase was visioned around the aforementioned abandoned gas station. We would buy the station and land around it, retrofit the building for beer brewing, bio diesel production, and a short order cafe. around the property we could cultivate plants (after breaking up the parking lot) that would leech the negative chemicals out of the soil and eventually produce food on the same land. The cafe would be stocked by food from local farmers, and the beer ingredients could be sourced from nearby as well ( a true regional beer.) The next structure on the property could house a bakery and then further an art gallery with studio space for transient artists. We could build a small recording studio as well and have a potters kiln and even glass blowing facilities. On site we would have different housing structures built from hay, rammed, earth, and reclaimed materials, experimenting with in the earth homes, yurts, etc. Some of these could be rented out, or used as Bed and Breakfasts (featuring local art, and food) Others could be permanent homes for employees, and community members. Once a year we would have a huge festival bringing people together to share in the synergy. The goal would be to create a destination that entertains, relaxes, and inspires individuals, part experiment, part reality. I set a goal of 2017, I will let you know how it goes.

Peace and Love

Mike

Surprises

2010-03-05T11:04:00.000-06:00

The other day, while sitting on the greenbelt in Austin, I noticed a boisterous group of 20 somethings hanging out on the other side of the creek. I didn't realize it at first but they were all talking to each other in sign language, I thought it was just that they were too far away to hear anything but they were all just signing. It was the first time I have seen a large group of otherwise non-descript 20 somethings using sign language, and I was surprisingly warmed by this. Maybe it was the momentary glimpse into the lives of a group I am admittedly unfamiliar with but the experience touched me. There are so many different types of people in the world with different challenges and dreams and goals in life, sometimes it is fun to be reminded of this. I hope you take the chance to look around and see the lives going on around you and share yours with someone else.

I am in Dallas at my buddy John's house, 3 of us are leaving for Florida this afternoon for a wedding, 17 hrs of driving either way. I am excited about getting to spend time with friends and see some more of this great country. I hope this finds you well, share some food, and I look forward to talking to you soon.

mike

Aristocracy

2010-02-11T10:12:00.000-06:00

I am a modern day aristocrat, an aristocrat of the 21st century. I spend my days as I please, rotating between rock climbing, kayaking, looking for jobs and socializing. My fare consists of robust ramen feasts and peanut butter platters. I am free at the drop of a hat to join you in a climbing expedition or on a jaunt out of town. If the creeks are swolen with rain I can meet you at the river in record time. I can spend most of a day idly chatting about life. My nights can drift from gathering to gathering.

I am as free as if I were a 4 year old, or the child of an industrialist with a trust fund, yet I am neither. I am a middle class American, with college debt to pay, and an education to use. But I find myself in a limbo land, a purgatory of sorts waiting to be cast into my lot. I am between those with much and with little, I am below the radar. I am floating.

Eventually I will find paying work and join my peers. I will move from the impoverished vagabond, floating with the wind, free of cares and possessions set loose by my poverty. Eventually, I will have responsibilities.

I have been told to enjoy being unemployed, that I will do, nay that I must do. Until otherwise, go see some friends, share a meal, and give someone a place on your couch, it could change your life.

Peace and Love

Mike

Road Trippin'

2010-01-28T11:21:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I embarked on a road trip with 3 friends, 4 backpacks, 4 sets of climbing shoes, a malfunctioning GPS, and 2 cameras in a Mazda Protege for 3 weeks of the Southwest. We had few plans and no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but since a picture is worth a thousand words here is a slide-show worth about 7,367,000 words...

Elissa is an aspiring slide-show professional, and photographer. You can find more of her work here and here and she is starting to blog here. Leave some comments.

Special road trip thanks to Sante Fe's finest The Flying Tortilla restaurant, The Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, the Ouray Ice Festival, the US highway department, bread, peanut butter, and pesto.

More coming later

peace and love

Mike

Climbing

2010-01-14T12:50:00.001-06:00

This year has been a big year for me in the sport of climbing. About 12 months ago I started bouldering at a gym near ARI, in March I got to go see the Bouldering World Cup in Saitama, Japan, in April I did a little climbing at Railay Beach in Thailand, in June I went bouldering at the famous Shiobara boulders near Nikko National Park, in November I led my first sport climbing routes at Reimer's Ranch in Travis county, in December I led my first trad climbing routes at Enchanted Rock SP, and last week I got to lead part of a trad route in Zion National Park before heading to the Ouray Ice Festival in Colorado where I took an ice climbing clinic and got to do some climbs in the gorge where I met Steve House a climbing legend.

I have wanted to be a good climber for a while now, it's been and off and on kind of thing throughout college. I would get really excited and climb a lot at the gym, maybe go outside a few times, get pretty strong, then stop climbing only to pick it up again from the beginning a while later.

I can give you all kinds of reasons why, but I guess I just wasn't that into it. Now though, I am not just climbing (pulling myself up a wall) but moving forward in technique and learning how to climb in the traditional sense and protecting myself as I move up the wall which makes everything a little more real. I started trying this type of climbing to improve my outdoor resume but have found that I really enjoy the challenge and the exposure. Now it is not a matter of how difficult the actual moves are, now I get to think about where I will stand to place gear, or how I can get to the next bolt on the wall. It has added a whole new dimension that forces me to climb within my limits in order to safely protect a fall.

Over the next few months I hope to do a lot more climbing and I will keep you updated on those exploits as I move along in the sport. I hope you are all well.

Peace, Love, and Goof Food.

Mike

One month give or take a week

2009-11-05T15:48:00.000-06:00

It has been a month since I came back to America, a month of traveling, visiting, talking, and questioning. I still don’t know what I am doing, but the best way to stifle the unnerving sense of doom is to keep doing something. So today I am studying, I am learning how to move forward in my life. I am making decisions about my future, and I am throwing things away.

I spent the morning sorting through boxes from my past, piles of detritus left from a pack-ratting childhood. Everything I threw away had a memory connected to it, each choice was difficult. But in the end I feel better for letting it go. Some of it went to Goodwill, some of it went to the landfill, but the one time consciousness hit is so worth the long term liberation from my clutter.

Go forth, do good things and eat good food with friends.

Peace and Love
Mike

NYC

2009-09-29T22:49:00.001-05:00

Short Post:

I made it safely to the United states, Will Ferrel was on my plane from LA to New York, it was hard to leave ARI, I am going to central park tomorrow, and I am trying to get some sleep right now even though it is lunch time in Japan. I hope you are all well.

Peace and Love

Mike

The day before departure

2009-09-28T00:47:00.000-05:00

It hasn't hit me yet that I will be gone tomorrow. Everyone keeps reminding me of my lasts, my last lunch, my last working day, my last weekend, my last foodlife, my last night, etc. etc. I gave up on lasts back in high school, everything is a last until you do it again.

I am taking the afternoon to pack and wrap up loose ends before my flight. The weekend was full of last minute trips and get-togethers with friends, and I am notorious for last minute packing so I have my work cut out for me today.

It will be hard to say goodbye tomorrow, but I will do my best. I like it here, despite some of the pitfalls of a community life, an "it's not perfect but its mine" kind of thing, I guess you could say I have grown comfortable. I will come back sooner rather than later, but maybe just in a visitor role.

To add some color to this post I have added a few of my favorite pictures, some may look familiar from the last slide show but I thought they deserved some individual attention. I misplaced my camera a few weeks ago so I have not been able to add anything new but this should tide you over. I hope you are all doing well and eating good food. This might be my last post from Japan (but it might not) so I will see many of you soon.

Final Morning Gathering

2009-09-17T18:56:00.000-05:00

I have about 10 days left at ARI. My flight home is scheduled for September 29th at 4PM. By home I mean the US, I will fly to New York for about a week and land in Texas on October 9th. Next week I will be in Tokyo for a few days to visit friends and attend the 150th anniversary of the Anglican Church in Japan.

Yesterday I had my final morning gathering where I summed up my experiences at ARI and talked about the future. This is a slideshow I made for the morning gathering. It includes pictures from my year at ARI.

During my sharing I read my answer to the question "what do you do at ARI?". Here is an excerpt:
What do we do? What do we do? Where the hell have you been? We create change, we educate the educators, we share food (for a fair price) we plant we grow we harvest we learn. What do you mean what do we do? 1100 graduates in 50 countries across Asia and Africa, 36 years. What do we do indeed. We bring people, smart, educated people, pillars of their communities, leaders in their own rights, and we bring them to this little corner of the world. We invite them to come and live and learn with us for 9 months. We all live and learn about life, food, community. We learn about the three pillars, love soil, love neighbor, love god. We learn about appropriate technology; biogas, wind energy, biodiesel, bicycles, incubation. We learn about agriculture (organic and otherwise) , aquaculture, animal husbandry. We learn about the dangers of an unchecked global marketplace for small, ill equipped rural farmers with governments that don’t care for their welfare. We learn about pesticides and chemical fertilizers. We learn about bokashi and compost, why to spray milk on aphids, and why ducks and rice are such good friends. We learn about butchering and the true cost of meat, castration and egg hatching. We learn about the connection between food and life. And sometimes, we even learn how to laugh again. Sometimes, yes sometimes, we even dance.

What do we do indeed.

And with that I will leave you to get back to your lives. I hope you are challenged and happy.

peace love and good food

Mike

Hotel California Music Video

2009-09-15T06:12:00.000-05:00

My friend Te-chan here in February and came back to work for a few weeks. While we were talking he told me about a video he posted on Vimeo and said I should check it out...he was right. And now for your viewing pleasure I bring you Mike Young and the Lonely Wintertime Acapella Dinner Singers and their rendition of Hotel California.

one day　raughty dinner at Asian Rural Institude in winter 2009 from tetsuaki on Vimeo.

cuts and bruises

2009-09-07T23:47:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, the best way for me to gauge how active I am being is by checking to see how injure dI have become. For instance during my luxury years in later college I rarely had muscle pain, or cuts or scrapes or bruises, but in the earlier years I was generally sore and occasionally came up with some type of injury. Towards the end of college when I start running more and kayaking a lot the soreness and cuts came back, consequently I was busier, having more fun, and feeling challenged. Currently I have cuts on both feet, one on my thumb and a bruise on my neck and collarbone from riding my bike into a sign... and my other thumb hurts from a wrestling match with the baby calf. All that to say, I am having fun and staying busy. I have three weeks left at ARI and am making plans for my return home, if you have a place for me to crash and want to get together let me know.

peace and Love

Mike

Summer, guitars, and community life

2009-09-03T05:59:00.000-05:00

Sitting still when you need to move is a bad idea, just ask that squished turtle in the road. Sometimes in a person, organization, or species life they have to make a choice to move, I just hope they make it is time. It is wonderful to work with people who are willing to make changes to their lives, their organizations or the future of their planet, I hope you are one of them. If your vocation has been effected by the winds of change that are sweeping the world now is a perfect time to change something and find a new way to serve the people you are working with or for, I hope you get a chance. If you have any questions, email me at myoung4142 at gmail dot com, or check back more for more thoughts later.

I hope everyone is eating well, I am going through the slow realization that I will be leaving my friends in a month and just how much they mean to me. I have so many great memories and friends here and will be drifting into the realm of those who have left soon. I hope to be able to do as much for ARI and my friends in the coming weeks and months as possible. For now, I am going to rustle up an adventure, I think we are going to find some ice cream... go get some food, talk to your family, forgive one for something and smile at a stranger. Hugs are important and so is food.

LOVE and PEACE

Mike

The Thing to Remember

2009-08-18T23:52:00.001-05:00

The most important thing to remember is this; the world is huge, the problems are complex, there are no magic answers, but there is always hope and with hope there is a future.

Post #50

2009-08-11T23:28:00.000-05:00

It's summertime here in Tochigi and it finally stopped raining. We had our rainy season which was all fine and good and it ended about 6 weeks ago. Then we had our second rainy season... and it was the unexpected, uninvited, unwanted guest at our dinner party. The second rainy season (I will refer to it as Ignacious) was the one that made our floors damp, kept our clothes from drying, encouraged mold on my boots, soaked everything, and generally dampened the mood around the place. We made it all the way through the first rainy season (Peggy) relatively unscathed but when Ignacious showed up, the party turned south. But enough of that. The typhoon seems to have switched course and headed East, the earthquake in Tokyo sent a few tremors our way and today the birds are singing and we are doing skits about gender issues.

This weekend I got back from summer vacation where I traveled up to the north island (Hokkaido) and met with Yamato for 5 days of hiking in the mountains at Daisetsuzan National Park. Twelve months ago I read a National Geographic article about this park and the pictures captured my imagination, I was not disappointed. The place is gorgeous and we had a great time. Lots of rice, lots of hiking, and a wild onsen (hot spring). The weather turned bad on the 3rd night but we were able to make it to a mountain hut and wait out the rain. Among other things, we saw a fox, bear poop, butterflies, mountain lakes, snow, and lots of clouds. In Sapporo, before the trip, I met a french traveler, Olivie, and he ended up coming hiking with us. I took some pictures and video, and would like to compile them into a short clip soon, wish me luck.

Leander and Phillip left yesterday. They were great friends and the last two volunteers that were here when I arrived. I am still getting used to that fact but I know they will go do great things, and I will see them again in the future. Our new Germans are coming in a few weeks so I am excited about getting to talk to them about ARI before I leave.

I will be heading to the US on September 30 for a retreat in New York then back to Texas. I am planning on visiting friends and family for the first month or two so let me know where you are and we can get together for some food, or drinks, or both, or kayaking. I hope all is well, go cook dinner with some friends.

Peace and Love (Love and Peace)

Mike

Dirtbag Altruism

2009-07-24T05:46:00.000-05:00

I meet people every day who want to make a difference in the world. They go out and study intercultural communications, environmental justice, and peace making. But what comes next? How do you pay for college loans by talking about peace? How do you feed a family volunteering in Southeast Asia? How do you tell a story from a hut in the mountains? So many of my friends are intelligent, passionate people that want to make a difference, but in order to do that it seems that our only option is to vanquish ourselves to a life of poverty. Is there another way? What should we change in order to pursue a better world, or even a better community, or neighborhood, or family, or life and not be a beggar. I am looking for a middle way, as the Buddha would put it, a path between the extremes of commercial excess and abject poverty, a middle way that offers us peace of mind, good health, and a fulfilled existence. Maybe this is idle talk of a dreamer, but I have been pondering this for months and will continue to do so for some time. Maybe I will discuss this topic more in the future. Peace Love and Ramen

Mike

Utsunomia Community Cafe

2009-07-24T05:10:00.000-05:00

In Utsunomia there is a curious little noodle-shop-turned-community-cafe that hosts a different restaraunt each day. Day to Day you could would into a cheeky college coffee shop, a fair trade restaurant or ARI's open cafe. It is a beautiful opportunity for groups to share their ideals and their tastes with others.

A local business owns the building and rents it to groups for about $20 a day, the groups then take care of their cooking, advertising, and atmosphere for the day. A student group at Utsunomiya University (right down the street from the cafe) is responsible for organizing the different groups and arranging the schedule, which is a great way for students to get involved in this project.

ARI was featured today and I was able to ride along to help out. I hovered between the dish washing sink and the egg frying pan just trying to do my part to keep the flow of clean plates and sunny side ups, it was great. As with most noodle shops/ local restaurants in Japan this one had an upstairs living area and another room for hosting small parties complete with dumbwaiter to shuttle food up from the kitchen.

I think they could add to the flavor and success of this project by renting out the living space to a college student and hosting parties/meetings for college groups in the other room, maybe opening up the cafe for concerts on Saturday nights it could be classic. When I first heard about the cafe six months ago I was immediately struck by its implications and hope to hear that one of you has opened one in the States before I get back...

I hope everyone is doing well, getting enough food and meeting new people. Life is relationships and we should be friends.

Peace Love and Music

Mike

Summer Thunder Storms

2009-07-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

We have made it through the rainy season officially, now it is full fledged summer and a little on the warm side. Tonight are experiencing a nice little thunderstorm with lightning and raindrops. I gave a morning gathering today about non profits, entrepreneurialship, how to play the guitar, freedom, and the old testament, it was received warmly and I don't think I put anyone to sleep. I still need to work on writing outlines for my public speaking, but sometimes it works out for me without many notes. I spent the evening reading blogs about entrepreneurialship and non profits, there is a connection between the two and I think it could make a huge difference in how we look at saving the world and methods to get there. I hope everyone is eating well, go cook a meal and invite some friends over, Sunday night dinners are a favorite of mine and they should be a regular on your calender.

Peace Love and Thunderstorms

Mike

Guest Post

2009-07-04T01:54:00.000-05:00

It is American independence day and the American contingent at ARI has organized a real shindig to celebrate life and culture. In this Kathy has rounded up volunteers from all over ARI to create a quintessential American barbeque with chicken, cornbread, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, chocolate chip cookies and homemade ice cream, there will be fireworks tonight.

We have a few visitors on campus this weekend including two former volunteers. One of these volunteers is my former roomate who rode his bike up from Chiba on Thursday to spend a few days at ARI. He was gracious enough to offer a few words as my first guest contributor to the blog, here is what he had to say (unedited) I give you Yumitaro Yamato:

Hi everyone.

I can listen to the music from outside and people chatting. I can smell the chicken being grilled. Yes, meeen today is July 4th. People are preparing for tonight 's BBQ. I know there were people prepared icecreams and cookies. These extraordinarily many flies are celebrating this day.
Oh happy day oh happy day.

On that note I am going to wander out to see how the grilling is going and listen to a little Eric Clapton.

Peace Love and Explosions

Mike

Lessons Learned

2009-06-30T06:33:00.000-05:00

I have recently begun taking my life lessons seriously, evaluating my mistakes and trying to make steps to correct future behaviors. That might seem like a stiff and uptight wayt ot start a post, but it is a short post so I wanted to get it off of my chest.

This weekend I got a chance to go down to Tokyo and make a few connections. I met with my contact with the Anglican office in Japan, then got a chance to speak at St. Alban's about ARI. I had some trouble with my speaking in church but rallied after the service and got to make some good connections about ARI. Despite botching my speech I was treated to a great lunch with my new friend Tomoko. After lunch I headed to a natural farmer's gathering at my friends and former roomate Yamato's house. There was a speaker from Osaka, his talk was all in Japanese but I enjoyed watching his enthusiasm and our friend Maria did a great job translating for the two English speakers. On Monday I headed home with the participants who had been in Tokyo for a home stay program, I even got to drive the van. All in all a great weekend was had by all. More to come later.

Peace and love
Mike

Lazarus

2009-06-21T18:15:00.000-05:00

Well I made it back from the dead. I spent the last 10 days with my head on a pillow wondering if I would ever feel good again. I had caught the crud that was going around the dorm. We are still debating about its vector but the best I can tell it came down through Steven and then passed through Yukiko to Edo at which point it split to Mahanaz and Leander (my roomate). Around the time Leander was getting better I had been reflecting on my immunity to said crud at which point I got a tickle at the back f my throat and knew I was doomed. It took me out right before it got to Mahanaz's roomate Ven Van. After that it went down the hall to Kina and I have lost track of it. The crud was manifested in a wretched cough, headache, congestion, and occassional fever. You can spot it in a victom when they are shuffling listlessly through the halls, eyes heavy and demeanor blunted. In general the patient will have slept too much but remained tired. The tell tale sign is the cough. After a week I went to the doctors and he perscribed a whopping arsenal of pills (7 pills 3 times a day for 3 days) and though some of the infection is still present my general health and life outlook is greatly improved. I will keep you all informed if there is another outbreak, be vigilant in your homes and drink plenty of water. Get some good food, visit some friends and take care of yourselves out there, life is a full contact sport with a 0% survival rate.

Peace and Love

Mike

Visit to Tokyo

2009-05-30T04:11:00.000-05:00

.

A few weeks ago I made it down to Tokyo for a much needed visit. The impetus for the trip was my long lost friend Maylee coming to Japan for a few weeks of work, and that was all I needed to pack my small bag and head down for a weekend of catching up and sightseeing. She works for a retailer that recently opened a new store in Harijuku (a VERY busy shopping district in Tokyo) and was part of a team that came down to help them get rolling in their first few weeks. It was crazy, thousands of people came in each day, so much that they hired a bouncer and formed a cue down the sidewalk.

She was working 15 hour days and only had 2 off in her 14 there. Needless to say I did not call her until 11 on her day off and we went walking around the neighborhood near her hotel until we headed to Yoyogi park for a Thai festival where we gorged on Pad Thai and Thai curries before heading to the fried bananas with mngo ice cream and other delectable deserts (my sweet tooth, already formidable, has grown beyond itself under the attack of so much healthy food.)

Once we had our fill of edibles we strolled over to the other side of the park to see what a Saturday holds for the inhabitants of Tokyo, and we were not disappointed; the park was full of picnicking groups, running groups, and musical groups to name a few. As we walked we came across a group that boasted a banjo picker, tuba player, and a beat box drummer, as well as a vocalist that played the kazoo among other things... they were great. We sat and got a personal concert for a full 30 minutes. I bought two cds, and I never buy cds. I got a sheet of paper with their bio and website information but subsequently lost it, but have no fear when I find it again I will pass it on to you.

After the concert we wandered some more, on a mission to walk the two stations back towards the hotel, and wound up at their store. The store was huge and crowded and I avoided going in, but I was still inspired by the dedication of the shoppers and their commitment to their wardrobes. We wound up meeting some of her co-workers for a sushi dinner then hanging out like hooligans outside of the hotel into the wee hours of the morning, reminiscing and pondering all the possibilities of life.

The next morning I rolled out of bed and found my way to the St. Alban's Anglican church and went to my first English speaking service in almost 8 months. It was awesome, the priest gave a sermon I could understand (about a Rabbi and very long spoons) and then I met all kinds of wonderful people afterward. Most of the people I had met had not heard of ARI but were intrigued so we exchanged emails and are currently working on getting a group together to come visit. After the service I went and had lunch with to of the parishioners and then got a tour of the Ropungi district before heading back to ARI exhausted but happy.

Stay tuned for more updates on my shenanigans and the first installment of my food generation series, I am still working on a Thailand post and have two more talks in the works, wish me luck. Peace, love and good food.

Mike

ARI Update

2009-05-17T19:01:00.001-05:00

Ever wonder about ARI? So do I so I got together some info for you in an update, read on my friends, read on.

We are into the full swing of the season, we had a nice day of rain yesterday that we needed badly. Last week we actually had to water our Kankong seedlings after we transplanted (note to those in the southwest of the US, they don't water here, much less have water spigots at each field.) We are heading into the rainy season next month so I can't wait to see what that holds.

We have 30 participants from 18 different countries (China, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, Sierra Leone) 8 volunteers (US, Germany, Japan, Korea) and about 12 staff (Japan, US, Ghana, Philippines, Myanmar.) In April we got a new director, Rev. Otsu and he is settling in nicely, I have really enjoyed working with him and look forward to all of the good work he has in store for us. Along with a new director we have two new staff in the farm section and they add some spice to my life. Sanae-san came down from school in Hokkaido and specializes in livestock (she wears a sweatshirt from their animal reproductive program.) Good-san most recently worked in Afganistan for a year after studying arid climate agriculture at school, he works with us in the crops and vegetables arena and likes to go camping, we sometimes play baseball together.

I have mentioned the animals in recent posts, but just for good measure; we have around 450 laying hens, 18 roosters, and 100 chicks. I am not as clear on the pigs but somewhere around 5 sows, 30 piglets, and 40 growers (fatteners). We now have 3 cows and we are babysitting 2 sheep. Our duck population is in flux as we butcher the old ones from last year and continue to hatch ducklings for this years rice paddies.

On the farm we have transplanted most of our seedlings into the fields and it is an exhaustive list of vegetables but to highlight some of my favorites; tomatoes, chinese cabbage, leaks, kankong (I like the name), spinach, carrots, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. From the winter we are harvesting strawberries (be jealous), our wheat is coming in strong, our onions and garlic are growing well, and we are finishing up the broccoli. On Wednesday we have the big community rice transplant which is going to be a riot. I have been assigned to the group that gets up at dawn and prepares the paddies, but on the bright side I get to deliver (read that as throw) the seedlings to the people transplanting in the field.

Everything is moving along well and life is full of food music and new friends, now get up and go give someone a hug.

Peace and Love

Mike

Has it been that long?

2009-05-09T07:30:00.000-05:00

Can we just say that it has been a while since I wrote anything and I want to make amends? Cool? Allright, well I will slowly try to play catch up and let you all in on my stories, thoughts, dreams, and trials over the last few months. I want to warn you however that this might take some time and several different posts to get around.

I really want to talk about my trip to Thailand with my cousin Daniel, and I will very soon, but that kind of story will take more time to wrap my head around. It was an amazing trip, a wonderful vacation, and a challenging time for me as we traveled so well through a country whose average day laborer made about what I paid for 2 beers. The moral and ethical questions of travel in the "developing world" were my constant companions, but as I said more on that in another post.

I have been back at ARI for about a week, I am working on 7 and a half months in Japan, and starting to peer around the corner at October and wonder what the future holds. Various ideas over the past few months have included; a bike ride across the desert Southwest stopping at various bouldering meccas for rock climbing before stopping in California to see what all the hubbub is about. Or moving to Costa Rica to paddle, learn Spanish, and find a non-profit to work with. Possibly picking up a non-working motorcycle for cheap, rebuilding it and driving on back roads around the country for a while, enjoying those last fossil fuels before they are too expensive. Maybe moving back to Thailand to work as a divemaster until May when I want to head to NOLS. I have kicked around the idea of catching a job at a ski resort but I think the cold would depress me, the culture shock might be too much for my idealistic sensibilities, and I might get mountain fever and opt for a tropical beach somewhere. Speaking of beaches, the international sailing season starts up around October in Ft. Lauderdale and there are possibilities of paid crew jobs on boats heading out to sea... Along with my usual desire for the vagabond adrenaline junky lifestyle is my new found interest in food (Food Generation post coming soon) and my continued interest in saving the world, which should play a vital role in my upcoming adventures. I have come to the simple conclusion that I was not built to be a full time farmer, it takes a much more patient, organized, and down to earth individual than I, but I am extremely interested in the social aspects of food systems and their organization. So as you can see I am hopping gleefully from one idea to the next and not quite sure where it will lead.

The weather here is incredible, not too hot not too cold, the frogs are singing all night and the balcony view is starting to take on jungle proportions. There is a huge full moon tonight, which I am told is sending off very strong energy for everyone so go soak it up we could all use a little good energy. We have been having almost daily jam sessions after dinner as we gather around the couches with drums, guitars, flutes, and maracas and spend hours rehashing all the old songs we love. I have adopted the Myanmar-styled Lo-gee and find it extremely comfortable evening wear. It is basically a sarong that is sewed into a tube, very conservative down to the ankles, in the West we might call it a dress but in the Southeast it is the height of manly fashion, and I love it (pictures should be circulating soon.)

Tomorrow morning I am heading out to the mountains for a little wild flower viewing, so I will have to leave you with wishes for a happy day, good food, and good friends.

Peace and Love

Mike

The 5 Minute Talk: Procrastination

2009-04-15T04:06:00.000-05:00

I was going to do this one about five weeks ago, but you know how it is...

Leave a comment in the blog or on the video if you have an idea for another topic. This one was sent in by good old snail mail which is always an option.

Peace ,Love, and good food

Mike

Pictures and Reflections

2009-04-10T19:05:00.000-05:00

I guess vulnerability is a funny thing, when you show someone the cracks in your armor you show them a little more about yourself. In a morning gathering this week I heard a man say that when we are at our weakest point we are strong. Through our weakness we can find more strength than we ever thought possible. The last few weeks I have been in that hazy area of vulnerability, heart split open, hoping for strength. What I find funny now is that even when you are sad, and lonely wondering when it will stop, there is always hope. As we finish Lent and move into the Easter season we have a chance to focus on that hope and see it work in our lives. As I work in the field, and feel the sun, and see the flowers I can’t help but think about the resurrection and hope for new life. The spring is a beautiful reminder of hope, happiness, and love. If you don’t believe me just go out and listen to the birds, they never lie.

Peace and Love

Mike

Rumminations

2009-04-09T08:20:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day. Today was the kind of day you hope for during the winter, and miss during the fall. Today was a quintessential spring day, and I loved every minute of it right down to the full moon. God is good.

Peace and Love

Mike

April

2009-04-05T23:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I hit the half way mark last week which consequently was also my 24th birthday and the first day of new participant arrivals. It was a loaded day.

Spring is in the air here at ARI and that is a great thing for a agricultural institute. We have 25 new community members, all of our seedlings are sprouting, one of our sows will have piglets this weekend, the cow will give birth in two weeks, our duck eggs are incubating, and all of the fruit trees are starting to blossom. All of this to say, our life is getting very busy very fast. After the long lazy winter (farmers don't get lazy summers) this is very exciting.

Last week I spent a week working with a volunteer from Nebraska who worked here 33 years ago for over a very. Charles and I spent many many hours in the workshop repairing weed eaters, tractors, hand tools, small trucks, and just about anything else he found interesting. Throughout all of these projects he taught me all about machines and systems and how to diagnose and fix them. We replaced a clutch throw out bearing and put the truck back together before breakfast on my birthday. After breakfast I learned how to weld and by lunch I was welding the tailgate back together. He went back home yesterday but I will be a fixture in the shop now for the rest of my stay.

I hope everyone is enjoying the changing weather and finding ways to get involved in their foodlife. I look forward to hearing stories. Peace and Love

Mike

The 5 Minute Talk: Bread

2009-03-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

The 5 Minute Talk: Bread

Thank you Alex for requesting this one. I apologize to those of you who actually enjoy my rambling, the internet and I have been in negotiations for some time about uploads but we have it worked out so hopefully I can add more soon.

These first few talks are warm-ups for me and I hope to increase quality and content as I move along. The rules are simple, one subject, 5 minutes, you can request subjects through comments on the blog, the video, or through hand written letters (thanks Hannah) my address is posted to the right of the screen.

Peace and Love,

Mike

Picking up the Pace

2009-03-06T18:33:00.000-06:00

I have made a discovery recently, and I would like to share it with you my faithful readers and friends. I like to come up with new ideas, and I like to write, but it seems that the best time for both of these activities, falls between the hours of 10 AM and 2 PM. So, when I sit down in front of my computer at 9 PM, my best has abandoned me and you poor folks (at least the ones that stick it out and read on) are stuck with whatever drivel I can drag out onto the screen. With this in mind I will keep tonight’s post short, and work diligently to adjust my schedule accordingly in the future. I just have a few points I wanted to touch on.

It feels like we have been inundated with Americans recently and I love it. We have had some great working visitors on exchange from Wasilla University in Tokyo (Rachel, Charlie, Brandon, and David), a bamboo expert and former long term volunteer from Oregon (Dane), and two world travelers formerly from the D.C. area (Ely and Savannah). The conversations have been deep and bountiful, the laughter has been common and relaxing, and the food has been shared by all. ARI draws some great people together.

The participants start arriving in a few weeks (on April 1^st no less,) and we are gearing up for their company. Last week we had 3 teaching assistants (overseas graduates) arrive, and our 3 graduate interns (Japanese graduates) came back from their study tour in Indonesia and the Philippines. It is starting to feel festive and exciting after a long quiet winter.

This weekend I went to a Couchsurfer’s gathering in Utsunomiya and had a great time eating Gyoza and singing karaoke with fellow travelers. After church today a few of the Couchsurfers from last night (Nori my host for the night and Megumi the organizer of the gathering) went with me to a climbing gym I heard about in Utsunomiya. It was awesome, the gym is part of a small non profit community center. There was a collection of walls in three different rooms and bouldering seemed to be the order of the day. I took some pictures and a video I want to post soon.

I have been having some trouble uploading videos recently this is rough because I have at least one 5 minute talk ready to go and a few more projects in the works. I am trying a new program to upload the videos so maybe this week. I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from you. Go get some good food and give someone a hug. Peace and Love.

Handstands in the kitchen

2009-02-22T05:46:00.000-06:00

Not exactly the kitchen, more like the dining room but it did not sound as good. It is Sunday night and we start work in the morning. Last week was a strange one for weather with some warm days then two nights of snow I never new what was coming next, I would go to bed to clear skies and wake up with 6 inches of powder.

I am settling in to Japan a little more now. For the first several months I went back and forth about my opinions of my host country. It took my discovery of a really nice river 30 minutes from ARI and a random backyard full of kayaks to wake me up to the possibilities. I have since taken a new approach to language learning, started rock climbing and started planning a hike for May. There are some really cool aspects to the country and the people that I overlooked when I first got here. I don't think I have mentioned it on here before but before I decided to apply to YASC I had never really thought of visiting Japan. As such I knew little about the culture and history that I had not picked up from samurai movies. It just seemed to complicated for me. However, while I was re-watching Kill Bill vol. 1 today I started to recognize phrases and little elements of Japanese culture that I have picked up in my stay.

This afternoon we went to a local Ramen restaurant and then spent the rest of the day wandering along small trails and rambling through rice paddies. I have taken it upon myself to search out the best ramen and gyoza spots in town. For those of you that are missing out on this food phenomenon, ramen is not just a bag of freeze dried noodles and msg's that you heat up in 3 minutes, it is an art form. Ramen is a noodle dish native to China that has been welcomed with open arms here in Japan. They serve bowls of ramen the size of your head, and a very popular side dish is another Chinese immigrant the gyoza. Gyoza is effectively a wanton stuffed with meat and onions (or a wide variety of other foodstuffs I am learning) and pan fried, deep fried, stewed, or baked. They are delicious and I am seriously considering opening a small restaurant when I get back to the States.

This evening we spent some time trying to do yoga poses in the main room which led to handstands and break dancing. We have a boisterous group of Japanese volunteers who are getting ready to go overseas for 2 year service assignments with the Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteer organization (think Peace Corps.) They were my adventuring posse this afternoon and always down for a good time.

I am glad the video blogs have received a positive acceptance and I will be posting another one soon. Go find a local farmer or restaurant to support and enjoy some good company. All my love.

Peace,

Mike

The 5 Minute Talk: Community

2009-02-15T18:03:00.000-06:00

Here is another 5 minute talk. I got some good response from the first one and I want to keep it going. I already have some requests for other talks so keep your eye open.

Peace and Love

Mike

The 5 Minute Talk

2009-02-09T04:29:00.000-06:00

I wanted to start a new style of blog through videos. Sometimes I have a hard time getting my thoughts out through the keyboard so I decided to do what I do best, and that is ramble to a captive audience...my camera. If you missed hearing my voice this is your chance. To save us all time I decided to put a time limit on these videos and set some ground rules:
Each talk will be 5 minutes or less
I will try to stick to one subject
I am open to subject suggestions if they are posted as comments on my blog, the youtube video, or through Twitter. I want to really explore the space here in the new internet.

I want to leave you with a little prayer I found in the hymnal we use here, it is from the United Farm Workers

Show me the suffering of the most miserable
so I will know my people's plight.
Free me to pray for others
for you are present in every person.
Help me to take responsibility for my own life
so that I can be free at last.
Grant me courage to serve others
for in service there is true life.
Give me honesty and patience
so that I can work with other workers.
Bring forth song and celebration
so that the spirit will be alive among us.
Let the spirit flourish and grow
so that we will never tire of the struggle.
Let us remember those who have died for justice
for they have given us life.
Help us love even those who hate us,
so that we can change the world. Amen.

A Rambling Weekend of Adventure

2009-02-08T06:14:00.000-06:00

I had a great weekend. I got to explore the area by bike with the help of a map, and found some really cool neighborhoods in the neighboring town of Otawara. I went to the bakery and a local grocery store to buy apples. I followed a great green way bike path and cruised along the river until I was riding off of the map. I eventually found myself and explored some more off-beat parts of the city.

After lunch I went bouldering with Mitsuru-san our staff climbing fiend. The bouldering wall is in a warehouse district close to the farm. It is a long low wall that goes from vertical to overhanging cave, and there is a giant foam crash pad on the floor. The routes (referred to as "problems") marked with colored tape and numbers which helps reference which route is which. Since I am so much taller than everyone else that climbs there I have begun skipping holds on the routes, this is a constant source of entertainment for the other climbers. This skipping inadvertently makes the routes harder and thus brings everyone back down to my level. We had a great time yesterday on red #7 which I took from 9 moves to five making the last move a dyno (think flying.) None of us actually stuck the dyno yet but I have faith that we will next time.

Last night we went to one of the commuting volunteer's house for dinner and festivities. He gladly shared his collection of exotic liquors from around Asia and we ate our fill of nabe. I had a great time.

This morning I woke up early to go snow shoe hiking in the mountains with Ishiyama-san. He is another commuting volunteer and splits his time between ARI, his passion for wildflowers, and guiding hiking trips with the Shiobara visitor center in Nikko National Park. He picked me up around 8 and we met a group of about 25 retirees at the visitor center for a 3 hour trek through the snow studded mountains. It was very pretty and very cold. The Japanese seem to age very well and no one had any problems on the hike it was amazing. After the hike I got to visit Ishiyama-san's house which is very nice and complete with a traditional Japanese garden. I met his wife and got to see his photo albums of wild flowers. He has three large wild flower observation areas in the mountains where he has documented over 800 different flowers. He is a very interesting man.

Unfortunately, my camera is on the fritz so I didn't get any of my own photos this weekend, but there were cameras present so I will try to track down some photos and post them soon. I will leave you with a picture from the Organic Farmer's soccer weekend, we got to wear Japanese clothes. Stay warm, hug an Episcopalian, and eat some good food for me. Peace and Love.

Mike

Missionary

2009-02-06T06:02:00.000-06:00

The Episcopal church wants to change the name of missionaries to "Mission Partners" and it has caused quite a stir amongst those currently serving in the mission field. An enterprising young YASC volunteer, Jesse Zink, sent out an email to all of the mission personnel in the field with his objections to the change and requesting other reactions. For the last three days I have been reading responses from all over the Anglican communion. It is incredible. There are people all over the place doing incredible things out of love and faith. It makes me feel somewhat lacking. But this email stream is highly encouraging and it just makes me want to re engage in the mission or "spiritual" aspect of my work here. As for the name change it feels like a superficial patch on a perceived problem. For some of the missionaries out here dealing with the title missionary is a chllenging but rewarding step in the mission process. Changing the name makes an often misunderstood ministry that much more opaque and hard to explain.

It is challenging living your faith so far from home, your friends, and comfort zone, but I guess that is a funny turn of phrase because "living your faith" requires faith or trust or love or that ever elusive peace. SO maybe I should say that the challenge is living away from home, friends, and comfort zones, and living your faith is what helps make it bearable. I have done a lot of thinking, and praying, and a little growing the last few months. Living here I can view current events from the periphery. Working with so many other cultures lets me see that greed, excess, and waste are not the exclusive domain of the U.S.. This has been a healthy time for me to see some of the broader conditions around. Granted there are some terrible terrible things being done in the world, and the folks at the bottom are quite a ways down there, but there is hope and love and all the good people doing their little parts in their little places to make it all a little better.

Just a little bit

2009-01-21T21:28:00.000-06:00

"Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
Give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my love to you
There's so much that we need to share
So send a smile and show you care

I'll give a little bit
I'll give a little bit of my life for you
So give a little bit
Give a little bit of your time to me
See the man with the lonely eyes
Take his hand, you'll be surprised

Give a little bit
Give a little bit of your love to me
I'll give a little bit of my life for you
Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we're on our way back home

Going home
Don't you need to feel at home?
Oh yeah, we gotta sing"
Supertramp- Give a Little Bit

I always enjoyed the "secular music" worship services we would try in college. They gave me a chance to reflect on faith through music outside of the normal confines of the bible. I originally posted these lyrics because I liked the first few lines as a request to be patient with me as I prepare a good post. I have been going through several rounds of thought and not been able to put any down that make much sense. So view this as one of my interludes.

The lyrics actually touch a lot deeper than I thought at first. It could almost be mistaken for a church song really. I don't know the original intent of the artists (part of what makes these experiments work for me) but I do know that they are talking about love, and caring, and two way streets, and seeing the hope and sadness in others, and the way being in communion with others can make us all feel better. And of course it touches on the subject of home. Whether that is our final home at the end of life's journey, or the "home is where the heart is," or most probably the home where we grew up that smells like spaghetti and old books where we are most comfortable. You could probably draw meaning and insight from all three.

One thing that is amazing about being so far from home is how much you realize it means to you, how much it shaped you, and how much value it can hold in your life and building a community. We grew up in a warm home, with loving parents, and a variety of friends and family that would share meals together on Sundays. That kind of home, I am learning, is harder to find these days, which makes me so much more grateful for those people who helped shape mine, namely my parents. I love you guys. A subject that has come up a lot around here is community and home and what that means or how you can nurture it. I have become increasingly aware of the people and places that I think of as home.

I have heard from some great friends since I started this journey and hope to continue hearing from them. It has been a blessing to know that people are following this journey through my blog. They have brought up questions, and encouraged my growth. I hope to address some of these and open some avenues for future discussion. Most notably I want to give a shout out to my long lost friend Chris Bailey in the cold stark library in Chicago, and Daniel Brown in Maryland as he learns how to fix big machines. I hope everyone is well and I look forward to sharing food with you someday. Peace and love.

Mike

The Holidays

2008-12-31T23:21:00.001-06:00

BUSY! I have gone off and neglected my dear readers (the few of you that are still hanging on for some glint of intelligent discourse, I apologize.) First things first. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I had a great Christmas and we got snow!... on the Second day of Christmas. Here is a picture of the aforementioned snow and Yamato on our mythical rope swing. That is Leander down on the ground, probably wondering what the tensile strength of that rope is (note for dad: I tested the swing first before sending my roommate flying over the void. The rope is actually four strands tied into a double loop with a overhand on a bite around a very stout tree limb, for it to fail, at least two strands would have to break.) We had much festivity and merry making for Christmas. There was a community party with a gift exchange an an impromptu Christmas pageant complete with costumes and a Virgin Mary with some shaky credentials (a married pastor from Ghana we call Uncle Timothy.) Robert and I even had our stockings hanging in my room for Christmas morning (thanks mom!)

Speaking of Robert, I had my first visitor here at ARI. Robert, my elder brother, stopped by on his way home from Korea where he taught English for the last year. He stayed for a week and we got to spend Christmas together then go on a journey to the North Island of Hokkaido (kind of Japan's version of Alaska.) We traveled by train and overnight ferry and had a roaring good time. To keep ourselves occupied we would talk, read or play one of our many games of Rummy. The weather stayed with us on the boat and met us in Hokkaido so we had snow and ice for three days, a lot for a couple of boys from West Texas. In Hokkaido we stayed on a farm run by Raymond Epp, a friend of ARI who came to lecture a few weeks ago. He invited me out to visit and offered us a place to stay. He has four sons between 2 and 14 and we had a lot of fun playing guitars and banging pots and pans, their mother even joined in and hit a plastic bucket with us. Ray is an organic farmer with a CSA (community Supported Agriculture) program near Sapporo. He is a Mennonite farmer interested in local economies and peace making through food, so we had some great conversations, and some even better food. Here is a picture of his middle son at our Sunday morning home church service. We did not get to stay for very long because of train and ferry schedules but our trip was definitely worthwhile and exciting.

We made it back to ARI for one more night before we had to get Robert to the airport. Now that the numbers have dwindled at ARI we stave off loneliness by eating a LOT of great food and lingering over the meals to talk and share stories. It is a new feel to the place but a nice small community. On the to do list is create an ARI version of Monopoly, knit a scarf, and sew my new tarp that I got for Christmas. Very exciting.

I have been learning some great lessons on loving people and being open to share time and a smile. Whenever I get tired or jaded about life I just sit back and remeber that the greatest commandments were to love your God and love your neighbor. When I come back to that center everything is easier to deal with. There is a lot of stuff going on in our lives, and in our world, if we can come back around to caring about those around us it seems more manageable. One of my good friends had a quote on her facebook wall that she got from Storypeople.com, it went something like this, "maybe love your enemies is too hard at first, let's start with 'don't bite' and go on from there." I have liked this quote since I read it several years ago. It helps me re-center when I think too hard about all the big problems and the frustrating moments in life. So for now, let's just start with not biting, and see where it gets us headed. Peace and Love.

Mike

2008-12-15T02:34:00.000-06:00

So, the participants graduated this weekend which means that after 9 months of studying, traveling, and farming they are going back to their home communities to share their learning and excitement. They have a lot of challenges in front of them, and some of their new ideas are going to be met with hostility, but they are good people with a lot of will power. We now have over 1,100 graduates spread across the globe working so that we may live together.

It is sad to see them leaving. I have grown so close with these folks from so many different lands. We have gotten to laugh together more than our share, and shared the good work of food and life. As they leave a few at a time there is a hope that we might see each other somewhere some how. Several of them live on islands or near the coast, I am plotting a sailing trip to include stops at their various countries and saying hi, doing a little farming, and checking on their projects.

We spent the last night in men's dorm singing songs and recording videos for posterity. I will be adding them on Youtube as I get them edited, I will put links on here as well. I have been slacking on the pictures lately because I have been collecting video footage and trying to compile it into workable movies. I have a rough cut of a working video that was requested by one of my advisors at Mission personnel. So, David this one is for you...

Peace and Love

Mike

2008-12-09T04:13:00.000-06:00

The weather has been anything but constant this week. It kind of reminds me of the swings we have in West Texas. At the beginning of the week it was cold and wet. By Wednesday it was sunny and beautiful. It has started to get a little cooler but nothing like last week. They say that it will snow sometime in the next few months.

This afternoon we took a community outing and drove to the mountains for snow viewing. Most of the participants have never seen the snow. Everything went splendid and we had a great day... except that there was no snow. We drove to a conference center that is historically snow covered, but today it was nice and green. Instead of romping through the snow we got a tour of the facilities and a buffet style lunch. It was disappointing for all, but to every cloud there is a lining. We loaded back into the buses and headed farther up the road. After much winding and weaving we pulled into a parking lot and walked down a side trail to a 30 ft stretch of three day old snow. It was awesome. Madness ensued, snow was flying everywhere. I loved it, so much excitement for a small pleasure.

Speaking of snow, apparently College Station is inundated with it right now. Who would have thought? I keep getting asked about Texas and how hot it is over there. I can't help but laugh that our southern desert state is colder right now than it is here. I know why it is cold, and that it can get very cold, but trying to explain that to someone that has never been there except through movies and T.V. is difficult. For those of you who are reading this from a warm room in a snow filled play land, please enjoy.

I hope all is well, and that your lives are merry. Feel free to leave your love. Peace, Love, and deep fried food for all.

Mike

My Experience with Death

2008-12-04T22:24:00.000-06:00

We sent 58 birds to the freezers yesterday. It took all day to kill, cut, and clean the two-year-old layers that inhabited the F2 pen.

I don't know how to explain how I felt during the blood bath. I don't think I have prayed that much in a long time. My head swam as my thoughts try to order themselves. I have always eaten meat, it is what I do, but I had never fully understood the depth of that choice until this moment, and it all came rushing up at once. The arguments for and against, the stories I’ve heard, the books I have read. Yet, none of it made sense, so I cut, that is what you do, you cut.

It is a strange thing taking a life so personally. I am standing there, in a slatted room, with a chicken in one hand, a knife in the other, my skin trying to crawl off my back, and a queasy feeling in my stomach. Butchering puts you face to face with your eating habits, shows you the cost of your life on earth, and questions your disconnected notions about food and where it comes from. Rationally I understand that in order that I may eat meat an actual animal has to sacrifice its life. Emotionally though, as the bird and I make eye contact, there is a deep regret. At this point I just tell the bird in a soothing voice that it will be over soon. I have been repeating this phrase as a sort of mantra all day as we caught the birds in their pen, transported them to the slaughterhouse, and pulled their compatriots one by one out of the crate.

The first round of chickens were the hardest. At ARI we do not chop of the head or wring the neck, instead we slice the jugular veins in order to bleed out the bird and minimize the damage to the meat. They say that it is humane, and the birds don't actually feel much. I don't believe them. Once the cuts are made (a process that involves inserting a blade into the neck behind the airway and severing the jugular veins along the neck bone) the birds are turned upside down and put into a metal funnel to allow them to bleed out. There is usually some "involuntary" muscle contractions as the bird’s body comes to terms with its fate. After some time we move them into hot water then a de-feathering contraption before plucking and butchering the rest of what is now very definitely a carcass. At the end we have something that looks very much like what you would find in your local grocery store.

By the end of the day I was drained. I had not realized how emotionally demanding the whole process was until it was over. I ambled up the hill to my dorm where I laid in my hammock for several minutes collecting my thoughts, pondering life and my place in the grand scheme. I was surprised by how often my thoughts turned to God during this process. It seemed that I was in a state of constant prayer, trying to come to terms with our entwined fates, the chicken that would be my dinner. Two days later, I am still processing my thoughts.

I don’t like to write stories that are sad or discouraging. I don’t want you to think that I am sad or miserable. I just wanted to share my experience, that you might see more clearly what I see, and understand more fully my experiences. Thank you for taking the time to walk with me in my journey. I hope that you are well fed and happy. Peace and Love.

Mike

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T17:48:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I don't have a whole lot of
time to write in this post so I have added some pictures to speak for me.

As you can see to the left, it is getting cold, evidenced by the monkey warming himself by the heater. I got to visit a school last week and play games with 2 classes of 4th graders. Did you know that they have unicycles at Japanese schools? It is an integral part of their recess time. We hiked up to a waterfall this weekend, it was the third largest waterfall in Japan. While we were there we spent some time in a tunnel waiting for an elevator to go to a lookout. After the lookout we hiked across the river and then up to the top of the falls. There were some great views of the farmland around the river that fed the waterfall. Good times were had by all.

Since Thanksgiving is not a national holiday in Japan, a group of us will be celebrating our own version of a Thanksgiving feast Saturday night. It is good to have a group here to share time with over a roasted turkey. Unfortunately due to a scheduling error on my part I am foregoing an opportunity to go rock climbing, but I know the rock will be there a lot longer than the home made chess pie.

Since it is Thanksgiving my roommate and I made a video for you last night. It is not high quality but it is the second such video I have produced. I hope you enjoy it. With that I will leave you to view some pictures and the video. Keep checking back, I would like to discuss some of the spiritual aspects of this journey. I hope you are all full and happy.

Peace and Love
Mike

2008-11-16T06:01:00.000-06:00

The participants just got back from a two week tour of Western Japan so there has been much music and merry making tonight. We played guitar for about two hours before everyone ran out of energy. There is a Tom Wait's song called I Don't Wanna Grow Up, and it has been stuck in my head for some time now. Towards the end I looked up the above mentioned song and played it for the group. When I played the recording some of the folks asked if it was me singing (Tom Waits has a very raspy voice, as if he was raised on Whiskey and Cigarettes, and apparently so do I (aka my AC/DC voice)) So I decided I should just sing it and claim the song as my own.

It is rainy here at ARI and the trees are dripping water. This morning I was going to try to travel to Utsunomya to the Anglican Church (a 40 minute train ride, and the closes to ARI.) I could not find the directions and I was running late so it was suggested that I wait until next week. Instead I spent some time with my BCP and went searching for sermons from familiar priests online. I settled on a sermon by Father Mike formerly of San Angelo and currently located in Arizona. He used a story about his daughter's early arrival into this world to discuss preparedness and the coming of Advent, very nice. I then found a podcast that my good friend Ryan Kuratko was involved with, it was a post from December last year but it was great to hear his thoughts on Mary's reaction to the news that she would have a baby. These words of wisdom, coupled with a conversation with my roommate about church and community, were very comforting to a young Texan so far from home.

This afternoon we went rambling through the woods around ARI and into town because it was too wet for bikes. I found an old logging road and followed it up into the hills. I decided to take a non-path back and spent some time bushwhacking my way to civilization. It reminded me of my time in British Columbia and my heart was happy. I have been doing some personal study on simplicity and attitudes we can adapt for our life that will help us be more aware of our connection wide web of nature. It has been an enlightening mental journey and I have been able to evaluate my natural patterns and perceptions of life from a distance. I am learning a lot about my life and how I want to fit into this world. One of the books I am reading was published a few decades ago, but its discssions are very relevant to todays issues. It is called Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher, a study of economics as if people mattered. It talks about our recent engrained acceptance of greed and jealousy as nescessary components of a "healthy economic system," and the current assumption that unlimited growth is possible in a finite world. Heavy implications but the alternatives he brings up are enlightened and promising.

Because the participants were gone for two weeks I got to spend a lot of time in the kitchen "training" for the winter when we would have to cook more often. This weekend I introduced several of the community member to the now world famous Heavy Cake. Of course as luck would have it I burned the whole thing by putting too much trust in the oven. After some doctoring and a heavy dose of icing we salvaged most of the cake. One of the volunteers was so impressed he thought the burned layer was actually a third type of chocolate. Good times. Last night I made southern style biscuits from the Perini cookbook and they went over very well with scrambled eggs. I am making my way through the kitchen and learning a lot of the standard dishes, mainly miso soup, scrambled eggs, sauteed veggies, and rice. I have gotten some good response and mild acceptance, so I consider it an overall success. Food is obviously a big part of our lives here so it is fun to be involved in all aspects of the process.

Last week, after some consultation, we decided we should put up a rope swing. In keeping with the Austin Greenbelt style my roommate and I decided it should be over a drop so you could really get the feeling of air under your feet. So we found a good sturdy tree overhanging a hill, and in less than half of an hour we had a very sturdy swing set up. We have only used it a few times and gotten a weary acceptance by the staff. Now that the participants are back we will see how it goes, I think they will enjoy it as much as I do.

Faith is a funny thing here. ARI is built and largely funded by religious groups. Every day we pray before meals and in the mornings, there is a very boisterous prayer group on Monday nights, and a shuttle to churches close by on Sundays. Most of the participants have faith traditions, some more fundamental than others. My peers, the volunteers, are a typical young adult crowd with mixed opinions and hesitant affiliations. It is fun to discuss religion and ideas of faith with the community members. We have a variety of opinions and experiences. I have shared when asked and tried to keep my mouth shut re it was prudent. It is sometimes difficult to feel like a missionary in this dormitory environment, and I often find myself saying "ok I am here, tell me what you want now." As could be expected the answer is hard to discern and mostly interpreted as love your neighbor and try to be nice. So here I sit, thousands of miles from home with with my veggies and chickens, doing what I can. I can only trust that I am supposed to be here and that by living my life and sharing it with others, I will contribute something to the lives of those that I encounter.

I hope you are all well, and that your lives are full of joy and good food. Peace Love and Merriment.

Mike

One Month

2008-11-03T06:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I have been here for a month now. I was trying to decide when I would call it a month officially. Thursday was the end of the fourth week, Saturday was the first day of the new month, Sunday was the anniversary by date, but by the time I actually got around to posting a blog about it I was already into month two and behind schedule by a day. Some things never change.

I feel like I am growing and learning here. I am thinking a lot and asking myself all kinds of questions. There are so many amazing and varied things in this world, and so many people with different ideas and dreams. Our community is diverse but we all have the same concerns about our families, our communities and the future. We are all separated from people we love in a new home trying to learn to live together. Some of my fellows are getting reports from home about turmoil or unrest. There governments are split or under attack, or even attacking. When they leave this place in a little more than a month they will have to go home and to hostile governments and business interests that don't have any love for rural leaders that would encourage the masses to stand up for themselves and take back their lives and their food. Or their countries are split in a struggle for power, a struggle that is leaving their families in harms way. But while we are here, we are safe and inspired. I pray that these wonderful people will be able to take what they have learned here back home with them and share the love and compassion that they so ably display here.

Our weather is changing, and the temperature is dropping. We have harvested a lot of food and begun planting some of our winter crops. The food is wonderful and warm. I always look forward to meal time.

Speaking of food, I have had some culinary adventures both inside and out of ARI. I have eaten fried crickets served as a snack during dinner. We regularly get a side of baby fish in a crunchy sweet sauce, the was a restaraunt where you pick sushi from a conveyor belt, fresh sashimi at my roomates house, fish guts served in a kind of gravy, cow guts that are regularly served with beer to cure hangovers, the largest bowls of Ramen noodles I have ever seen , and a myriad of variations along these themes. To tell you the truth I haven't find much that I don't like to eat. I am getting especially adept at using chopsticks .

This weekend we got to go fishing at a little river aout 40 minutes away. We used little worms from the bottom of the rocks as bait and caught 31 fish in about 45 minutes, I have included a picture of one of the largest of our catch. We brought them back to ARI with us and they got cooked up with some of our farm raised fish and served a dinner, whole.

As a recap for the month, I have gotten very acquainted with our chickens, harvested rice, climbed three mountains, started learning Japanese, gone fishing, visited Tokyo, dried my clothes on the roof, soaked in an Onsen (hot spring) , adopted three bicycles, eaten crickets, and eaten sushi from a conveyor belt.

Thank you for all of your support. I hope you enjoy these little updates. I will add more pictures later. If you click on the pictures it will take you to a full size version and my online photo folder. Peace, Love and good food for all.

Mike

2008-10-27T06:47:00.000-05:00

"What do we gain by all of our hard work? I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. I know the best thing we can do is always enjoy life, because God's gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do.
Everywhere on earth I saw violence and injustice instead of fairness and justice. So I told myself that God has set a time and a place for everything. He will judge everyone, both the wicked and the good. I know that God is testing us to show us that we are merely animals. Like animals we breathe and die, and we are no better off than they are. It just doesn't make sense. All living creatures go to the same place. We are made from the earth and we return to the earth. Who really knows if our spirits go up and the spirits of animals go down into the earth? We were meant to enjoy our work, and that's the best thing we can do. We can never know the future." Ecclesiates 3:9-13 16-22

We had a prayer meeting tonight. It was my first time to attend so I was in for a surprise. We start with a verse like the one mentioned above and then we have a mass prayer. Being from a strong liturgical background I assumed some form of organized prayer , what I got was truly a mass prayer where everyone prayed in their own language, at their own pace, about whatever was on the hearts. I had never experienced anything quite like it, all I could think about was the disciples speaking in tongues to the crowd. It was great.

I have been thinking a lot lately about power, greed, injustice, and violence. You might say I have been consumed by the concern about these problems and their presence in the world. When we read this passage tonight it struck me that things haven't changed, I have just been aware of them more recently.

It does not make it feel any better knowing that there are so many terrible things going on in the world and I can do little about them. However, there is some peace in knowing that I can do my little part, in my little community to make our lives a little more peaceful and a little more happy, and try to share and spread the love to those around me through work, food, and smiles. It is funny how food plays such a central roll in our lives, but only in the last 6 months have I realized how much it could effect us.

Peace and love

Mike

Rod's speech

2008-10-20T23:19:00.000-05:00

Here is a copy of a speech that was given Booth the HTC last weekend. I enjoyed the speech and asked if I could post a copy on my blog. Enjoy.

HTC OPENING CEREMONY ADDRESS – Rod Booth, October 11, 2008

INTRODUCTION:

a) Welcome to the 36^th annual Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration of the Asian Rural Institute. We’ve been doing this every year since 1973 when this place was founded. My name is Rod Booth, currently a volunteer here at ARI.

b) My 1^st HTC was 15 years ago in 1993. I think we have some people here whose first HTC was 35 years ago! Who here was at the first? … How many have been to 10 or more? ….For how many is this their first? …. We welcome you all, and hope you will have a great day of new experiences, entertainment, and bargains!

c) Giving thanks for the harvest, as we’ve just done here, is as old as human civilization itself.

d) If I was home in Canada this weekend we would have the family together: there would be roast turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie. Our church would be decorated with vegetables and stocks of corn, pumpkins and squash – probably a few cans from the supermarket, which is where a lot of kids now think food comes from! My Sikh neighbours will be filling the air with aroma of curry and sound of bangrha music as they celebrate Baisakhi.

e) We had that Deuteronomy reading. For our Jewish neighbors this weekend is Sukkot, their harvest tradition. You saw all the different countries represented here in our ARI community. We are a multi-cultural, multi-faith community of Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto – all of which have their own variations of harvest celebration. As you probably have your own family and faith traditions.

f) What joins us today is our common understanding of the critical link between FOOD and LIFE. Here at ARI we actually call our farm work Food-Life, and in this celebration we come to celebrate that link and express our gratitude for another year of harvest.

1) THAT ALL MAY EAT AND BE FILLED

a) In 2007 ARI hosted a symposium called “Peace From the Soil”. It looked at the problem of violence and war in our world and concluded: “Peace begins within and peace is possible when there is food on the table. Peace within a human being, peace of mind, and peace within a community, all require that basic needs are met so that there is security of life and livelihood, and the opportunity for physical, mental and spiritual health.

b) I’d say out of a lifetime in broadcast journalism, in refugee camps and marginalized communities in over 70 different countries, that peace is possible ONLY when there is food on the table. Which I think is the point of that familiar Bible story which was read for us, Jesus’ Feeding of the 5000.

c) If I had a text today if would be that one little line: “they all ate and were filled”. Biblical Scholars vary in their interpretations of that story: the conservatives say it happened exactly as it says – a miracle of reproduction; liberals refer to the little boy who gave his all (2 loaves, 5 fishes) and so shamed everyone else into opening their bag lunches - a miracle of sharing if you like! The disciples wanted to send the people away, Jesus wasn’t having any part of it; for him, in God’s world, ALL people deserve to be fed.

2) SO HOW ARE WE DOING ON THAT SCORE?

a) Not so Good. In 1996 the world’s governments pledged to reduce the level of world hunger by 50% by the year 2015. Well we’re more than half way there, and the numbers have gone UP, not DOWN. More of the world’s people are hungry in 2008 than was the case in 1996.

b) 12.6% of the people living on this earth, 854 million of them, suffer from malnutrition – 30 million of them die of it each year.

c) We added another 50 million to that total in 2007 alone when the price of the three basic food staples, rice, wheat and corn, all doubled - pricing those foods out of range for millions of the world’s peoples.

d) In Mexico, where tortillas are a staple of life, people are going hungry because their corn is being sent instead to America to make fuel for automobiles!

3) AN UNSUSTAINABLE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM

The bottom line is that we have evolved a world food system based on the consumption of two non-renewable resources:

a) The first one is oil – which has also managed to double in price within the last year. Dean Freudenberger who addressed our AFARI annual meeting last June warned that the vise-grip connection between agricultural productivity and fossil fuels is a ticking time- bomb. “Whether its the fuel that runs the tractor, powers the irrigation systems, dries the grains, ships to markets, or manufactures the fertilizers (which incidentally have tripled in price in one year) – modern Westernized agriculture is resting upon a base of cheap, available fossil fuel. It’s not a question of “if” but “when” this fuel becomes so expensive that the entire system will implode”. There is reason to think that “when” has already arrived.

b) But the second non-renewable resource which we are consuming is less obvious – it is the world’s supply of arable soil … that essential ingredient in which we grow all the food for man and beast alike.

c) More than half the earth’s surface (7/10) is covered by water, only 3/10 is dry land.

One of those10ths is too hot, a second is too cold, leaving only 1/10^th of the earth’s surface that is arable for range lands or cropping. How do you feed 7 - heading on 10 - billion people on that?

d) And there are three critical things we’re doing to that arable 10%:

1) - We’re paving it over. My country is no different from yours. 50 years ago Tokyo to Yokhama was a mix of villages, towns and farms. Today it is one endless city … all who live there dependant on someone else, somewhere else, providing them with food. - Japan now imports more than half its food needs.

- China is buying up farmland in Africa which it will crop to feed its people. Not good news for Africa’s already undernourished millions.

- In my country greedy developers work with equally short-sighted politicians to remove ever more land from the Agricultural Reserve.

2) - We’re abusing it through mono-cropping. 150 years ago when my mother’s grand- parents sod-busted the Kansas prairie, the buffalo grass root system went down 16 inches in the ground – holding water, nutrients, everything needed to sustain life. They made their first house out of those sod bricks. Then they and everyone else plowed it up to plant wheat. Then came drought, then winds, and that good fertile soil literally blew away.

- Even today for every bushel of grain the US Midwest produces, it looses two bushels of top soil. Every 20 minutes the equivalent of 50 train-cars full of top soil washes down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.

3) - We’re killing it with chemicals. In Thailand last month I visited one of our ARI grads who after he inherited his father’s commercially-farmed paddy field, it took him 10 years of composting and vermiculture to reclaim the land sufficiently to grow anything on it.

I - In Kenya I visited an ARI-trained farmer who was doing integrated organic agriculture. All around him his neighbors had bought into the government/fertilizer company mono- cropping program growing corn. The price of corn fell, they could no longer afford the company’s seeds or its fertilizers, and their reliance on pesticides and herbicides had killed many of their soil’s essential micro-organisms.

4) CARING FOR GOD’S CREATION

a) One of the things you learn here at ARI, with its emphasis on organic, integrated agriculture, is the incredible interconnectedness of the whole of nature – of which we humans are but a part.

b) I think we’ve missed the point of that Psalm we read earlier in this service: how we’ve been given dominion over the works of God’s hands. We’ve tended to think that means the world is ours to dominate and control. We’re having to realize that the real issue is our responsibility for being good stewards of God’s creation. We’ve been given our skills and ability to CARE FOR the Creation, not to destroy it.

6) CONCLUSION

a) It’s because ARI believes that, teaches that, lives that, that I and the others who volunteer to be part of this community do so happily and willingly.

- It’s why a staff who work long hours for modest pay, continue to do so faithfully.

- Its why participants from all over Asia, Africa and the Pacific, come each year – leaving behind for 9 months family, loved ones, jobs – working and learning so they can take home skills that will help their own people to better, more fulfilling lives.

b) And its because of that that so many of you come year after year to participate in this Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration and to lend your support to the work of ARI, helping to make this a world in which we can truly “live together”.

c) God be with us in our rejoicing, and may we be with Him in caring for the world he has entrusted into our keeping.

Time to Catch Up

2008-10-14T18:15:00.000-05:00

There has been much goings on since my last post. I will try to start posting regularly in order to address things as they happen. As it is for now you will have to suffer with a rough outline of the last week.

The Thanksgiving Celebration went off splendidly with large crowds, great weather, and a lot of food. At final count I was involved in 7 performances including some impromptu country songs to start off the second day. We raised some money for a local library and the profits from food sales are going to help with projects for next years celebration.

As I mentioned earlier we have had several new additions to the farm. Our third sow has had a litter of piglets, apparently there are two more in waiting. I got to see the newest litter when they were only a few hours old. I want one.

Yesterday the Japanese chapter of Second Harvest dropped off some expired food for us to feed to the pigs. Second Harvest is a program started in the US to minimize food waste at restaurants, grocery stores, and farmers markets by collecting the edible left overs and passing them on to less fortunate people who can put them to use on the dinner table. It is a very neat program which I would encourage you to check out.

This weekend we had about 15 Americans at ARI 10 of them were members of the American Friends of ARI (AFARI) which is a support organization based in the states that does a lot for fundraising for ARI, there were two English Teachers and a few volunteers. It was kind of crazy we were almost the majority nationality, second to the Japanese. One of the Americans is a former employee of ARI and is now working with a non-profit in Seattle. We have had some great conversations about non-profits and entrepreneurial management so they can be self-supporting.

I have started reading a book called Small is Beautiful written in the 60's about the effects of our current economic model. I have only read a few chapters but the concepts he discusses seems well thought out and sincere, I might have more about some of those ideas in later posts. I also read a book on American Militarism.

On Wednesday I went to my first Japanese class! It was a lot of information very quickly, but I feel like I can do tis. Once I figure out how to order things to be sent here I think I am going to order Rosetta Stone as a supplement. The native speakers here are also very helpful and work with me in my meager efforts.

The two weeks I have spent here so far have been wonderful. I can't believe all of the activity that has happened. I promise I will update more often. Thank you for following along. Don't forget to leave some love. Peace Love and Godd Food to all.

Mike

Old McDonald

2008-10-09T05:11:00.000-05:00

In previous posts I might have made reference to Food-Life Work here at ARI, for foodlife I am assigned to the chicken houses. We have two chicken houses, each with around 200 chickens, and we recently got 200 chicks (minus two that were tragically smooshed in a tragic newspaper accident,) which makes about 598 chickens at ARI. So every morning I am greeted by a face like this: well about 200 faces, and they are all hungry, very hungry. This morning I was in there before the food turning the floor (think compost) and they surrounded me and held me for ransom until the food came. The chickens can be very persuasive.

This weekend is our big Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration and we are all very busy. The HTC is an open house we throw for the community in celebration of this years plentiful food. So we are expecting between 750 and 1000 people to come through each day. All day we have been getting tents ready, cooking food, practicing for our performances, and decorating. There have been lots of new volunteers for the weekend and local community members bringing in food and items to sell. I have now met little old church ladies from Japan and let me tell you, they are the same as the little old church ladies from back home, smiling helpful, burdened with thrift goods and they come en masse.

Tomorrow morning I have a feeling that the top is going to blow off here, it will look like a volcano erupted and we are all going to be running around trying to put on the final touches before the guests arrive. My day will start at 5:30 in the kitchen, someone needs help grinding something and I got to volunteer, as such things go.

On another note, along with the chickens we have two cows and lots of pigs. One of the mama pigs (pictured here) had 15 piglets a few weeks ago, and another mama pig started having babies last night, as far as I know she is done now but I don't know the final count.

So, life is in full swing here and we are rolling along at full tilt. I want to leave you with a few of the thoughts that have been floating through my head, the idea that we are built for work, and only through work can we be truly fulfilled. If there is no toil how then can you appreciate joy? I think at times we feel bored or anxious because our bodies are lacking the satisfaction of work. As I work during the days here I can reflect on the merits of labor. It occurs to me that by growing our food and working this land we are taking part in an inherent act. I try to think about how this could be applied in a normal life back home and can't get beyond the fact that it should be applied back home throughout my life. The gratification I get from working to produce the food we eat is amazing. There is a song here that was written by a volunteer in 1988 I think it speaks well to us, here is an excerpt "Until the day we can feed ourselves, we never will be free." I leave you with those thoughts, do with them what you will. Peace and Love and good good feelings.

Mike

HAHA

2008-10-07T07:19:00.000-05:00

Well, this weekend is a big weekend, the annual Harvest Thanksgiving Festival here at ARI. We are spending the entire week getting ready for two days of food and entertainment for the community. We are cleaning the property for an open house, harvesting food and preparing lists for the regional dishes and desserts we will be cooking, and of course rehearsing our singing and dancing for the stage shows. I have been here for 4 days and tonight I was pulled into my fourth act for this weekend. So far I am the vocals for Hotel California, a guitar player for a skit, a dancer in our rendition of Footloose, and an "interactive" curtain holder for a skit. We stayed up until midnight playing guitar in the dorm getting ready for Hotel California, and today we practiced Footloose for at least an hour, I was pulled down there under the impression that we were just going to try it and next thing I know they are talking about stage cues and partners. Such is the life I guess.

I am having a lot of fun. The community here is so welcoming I feel like I have been here for weeks. I am learning some Japanese and hope to go to my first official lesson tomorrow night, it might not be as hard as I initially expected. There is a library in the main building with a surprising collection of books. I met the librarian on Friday and told her that my mom is a librarian and I loved reading. She couldn't believe I love books, who would have thought? Well I checked out a book called Small is Beautiful, a Japanese phrase book, and Addicted to War about our countries militarism. They are proving to be provocative books.

Sunday morning I was woken up at 4:50 and invited to go climb a mountain. I piled into a small car with four others and we drove an hour into Nikko National Park. By 6:15 we were on our way up the trail. As we climbed it was explained to me that we were actually going to climb three peaks that day. It was great, besides being very tired I got to see some amazing views. The area we were in had already started changing colors so the foliage was beautiful. Have you ever noticed how the trees in Japanese gardens always look so manicured? Well, apparently that is how God does things in Japan because everywhere there were these georgeous trees that looked like someone had been tending them for years, it was enough to inspire some magnificent gardens. The third peak we climbed was an active volcano complete with steam vents spewing sulfur into the autumn air. At the top you could very clearly see the 200m (notice the metric system being used here) crater left over from the last eruption. After all the climbing up we rode an air trolley back down the mountain (think James Bond when jaws bites through the cable in Europe.) That day left me very drained, but I have recovered well.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. I am calling it a night. I will keep you posted.

Peace and Love,

Mike

2008-10-04T07:23:00.000-05:00

I feel like so much has happened in the last three days that it is overwhelming me, so if I don't put it down now it will never escape the recesses of my mind. I finally made it, I am in Japan!

The travel was long and arduous, I won't bore you all with details but it involved 3 planes, a train, a bus, and a van and totaled almost 24 hours. I arrived in the evening after dinner worn out but excited. The first night was hard because I knew I should sleep but my internal clock was broken, so I stayed up with several of the other guys from my dorm talking and getting to know one another. The next morning I had the option to sleep in until breakfast but I was scared I would not wake up on my own. So, I decided that the best option would be to wake up at 6:30 and work a full day with the rest of the group. The ARI schedul is pretty consistent and follows this pattern:

6:30 Morning Exercises
6:45 Cleaning the buildings
7:00 Food Life Work 1hr
8:15 Breakfast
9:00 Group Meeting
9:30 Morning Activities (read work)
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Afternoon Activities (see above)
4:30 Food Life Work 1hr
6:30 Dinner
9:30 Night Patrol (Community Buildings locked)
repeat

The guys in the dorm usually have an impromptu gathering upstairs talking late into the night with classic rock playing from one of several laptops.

So, my first morning at ARI I was cleaning toilets at 6:45 then feeding chickens at 7:00. It was a great start. However it got better after that. I arrived in time for the Rice Harvest when the whole community comes together to harvest. It was great fun but very tiring. This gave me an opportunity to meet a lot of community members that I might not have met so soon had we all been working under the normal schedule.

I am going to have to cut this short, they are closing up the computer area for the night. I will add more tomorrow. I love you all, have a great day, and don't forget to leave your love in comments, they make my day.

Peace and Love
Mike

And So We Begin

2008-09-11T19:57:00.000-05:00

Well folks, the long awaited visa has arrived and is in my possession. Which means I can set a departure date, October 1st. I am talking to the travel agents right now arranging my flight details. I went out and got some important work clothes today and my new camera arrived in the mail this week. It is finally happening and it is kind of scary fast now. My mild mannered meandering has to come to a halt as the pleasant packing and preparations begins. I still haven't finished cleaning my room yet but rest assured that it should be completed before departure.

You haven't left yet?

2008-08-24T22:48:00.000-05:00

Nope. I get that question a lot though. It seems like I have been getting ready to go for a while now. The truth is I was getting ready to go for a while, then I kind of zoned out while the paperwork was dragging on, but I am now getting ready to go again.
I just received an email from Mr. Yawata in Japan who has been ushering my paperwork through the system. He told me that my Certificate of Eligibility has been completed and it is in the mail to me. Once I have the Certificate I can take it to the Japanese Consulate in Houston and they will issue me a Visa for Japan. So, this brings me close to a departure date.
In the morning I will be on the phone with the consulate office and our travel agent and I should have an idea of when I will fly to Japan. This is an exciting break in the story and I wanted to share it here with those who suffer through my droughts of communication and actually check what I have to say.
Last week I spent some time in Tennessee visiting Oree. While I was there she took me kayaking on the Ocoee River, this is the one that she guides rafts down and it is incredibly exciting. I made it all the way down without embarrassing anyone and had a great time. The water was huge! There are somewhere around 25 different rapids on the Ocoee ranging from class 3 to class 4 they have names like Table Saw, Diamond Splitter, Double Suck, and Broken Nose. At the end there is a giant wave called the Hell Hole where we stopped to surf for a little while. I had a great time.
That trip has to be the highlight of my summer. I have spent a lot of time traveling around Texas to visit friends, get shots, and go to weddings. I spent a week in Amarillo working at Happy camp. I went to Ft. Worth for a Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine, College Station for a Wedding, Austin for two more shots. During these travels I have ridden 8 different mountain bike trails across the state, visited with some great friends, gone to the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, TX, and seen Austin at least 6 times. I am about done with a car for a little while it will be nice to use trains and my own two feet.
This is all I have for now. Be looking for more updates more frequently as I move into this next life phase. Peace and Love.

That We May Live Together

2008-07-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

I have a little bit of information for you here. I warn you it is not much but it has helped me to figure out where I will be located on the island. The main island of Japan is Hanshu. I will be in the Kanto region which also contains Tokyo. There are seven prefectures in Kanto and of these Tochigi is located on the northern end. Inside the Tochigi prefecture is a small city called Nasushiobara. I will be working at the Asian Rural institute on the outskirts of Nasushiobara. I know this is a lot of names but it helped me finally settle where I would be in relation to Tokyo. I found a video on Youtube that shows some of the activities and life at ARI. I hope this offers some more insight.

2008-06-03T21:46:00.000-05:00

6/2/08

I arrived in New York yesterday afternoon. As part of our conference they had us find our way to the retreat center using the bus system through the city. The weather was great and I was not pressed for time so I had a nice afternoon traveling through downtown to Staten Island where we are staying.

There are about 25 people here from across the country, varying ages and backgrounds. One of the couples even has a son who lives in Tokyo so I might look him up when I get there. The group has a great mix and we are all clicking very well. It is hard to find a time when we are not laughing.

I spoke with the McConnells today, they are the couple that I will be replacing at ARI. Andy and I talked for almost an hour about their experience. I feel like I have a better grasp on what to expect, very long days. He said it is a great chance to lose weight, even if you don't want to.

6/3/08
We talked about insurance. Insurance and cross cultural communication. The good news is I will be taken care of if something were to happen. This evening we watched Romero. Oscar Romero was an Archbishop in El Salvador in the late 70's through 1979, he got involved in the civil rights movement in that country and was murdered for his convictions. It is an eye-opening and frightening story of the struggle for equality against a power hungry elite. We were informed that it is not a good idea to become martyrs during our YASC service period. I hope you understand.

Summer

2008-05-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

It is definitely summer in West Texas now, we broke 100 degrees the other day and it is staying in the nineties for the rest of the week.
I finished at A&M on May 9th which was a lot of fun, that Sunday May 11th I spoke at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in College Station and got a great response. On Tuesday I drove home to Abilene, after a few debacles including a walking stint for gas, I made it in time to meet with the Heavenly Rest Vestry. Wednesday night 3AM found me in the Greyhound Station on my way to Lubbock. I arrived around 8AM and my girlfriend Oree Walkup picked me up at the bus station at which time I went pack to the Walkup homestead and slept for a few hours. That afternoon I got to visit with our bishop for about an hour about my mission and what life had in store for both of us.
Oree and I drove down to Abilene on Friday after a good visit with her family. On Saturday she headed to North Carolina with my sister for their inaugural season at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Oree is going to be a raft guide while Katie is working in the reservations office.
Since then I have been in Abilene talking with people about my upcoming journey, avoiding packing, and riding my mountain bike at the Buck Creek Trails. I have raised almost half of my required $10,000 mission budget, I will be speaking at Heavenly Rest on Sunday, and I would like to go visit some more of the churches in our Diocese before I leave for the mission conference in New York.
Thank you for your interest, I will be updating more frequently in the coming weeks. I appreciate the support I have gotten and look forward to sharing with you as this journey unfolds.

Progress

2008-05-03T14:36:00.001-05:00

Things are moving along here. I have been officially assigned to the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) in central Japan, you can find there website in my links section. It is an ecumenically (multi-faith) run training farm. They teach grass-roots community leaders from Southeast Asia and Africa how to work the land in a sustainable manner and empower their communities. Everyone on the farm participates in the daily chores and "foodwork" and 80% of our food actually comes from our farm. I am really excited about this opportunity it coincides with my current interests and I think it is a healthy and empowering way to work in the world.

My fundraising efforts are making a slow but promising start. I have raised $1500 of my $10,000 missionary budget so far, with appointments to talk to the congregation at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in College Station and Heavenly Rest in Abilene. I hope to make stops at a few smaller churches in Albany and Calvert to extend an opportunity for them to take part in my mission.

This afternoon I am heading down to a little spot on the Brazos River called Hidalgo Falls to do some whitewater playboating in a kayak with a few friends. It is a really neat little bend in the river that drops about 6 feet over a quarter of a mile. When the water is up we can spend hours surfing on the waves.

Thanks for you interest.

EarthVision

2008-04-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

Washington, D.C. the Student Conservation Association's 50th Anniversary
I am at a 3 day conference on conservation and the future of the environment. I have been doing a lot of talking and networking with some very exciting people. Here is a taste of what has been happening; I had conversations with several influential leaders in the Park service, networked with an editor from Backpacker Magazine and the President of the SCA about trail protection and the size of the organizations that are working for them, met several leaders in the green park design field, I met a woman who is campaigning for a pumps to parks initiative creating abandoned gas stations into green spaces, I met a good friend of one of my mentors and discussed community gardening, heard a keynote address by a motivational newscaster, heard several professors talk about climate change. Basically I have heard a lot of good things and met some neat people, an had some good conversations. If you are concerned about our future and the state of the environment have faith you are not alone. Talk to someone, talk to me, or even write down your thoughts. I have found some books to check out, Organizing social change, Radical Simplicity, Bury the Chains, as well as a few websites to check out The Sundance Channel, Dartmouth dining and sustainability, live-the-solution.com. And the list goes on. It has been great. I have recently realized how much I enjoy talking to people and sharing ideas, it is amazing how small ideas can blow up. I am going to sign off for now. Look for more soon.

First run

2008-04-17T15:43:00.000-05:00

I am nearing the end of my college career. As I wrap up my schoolwork (and start my english class) I look to the future. I have been accepted by the Mission Personnel Office of the Episcopal church as a Young Adult Service Corps (YASC) volunteer. I will spend a year overseas in service, struggling to understand new cultures, learn from new people, and build relationships in God's love.

This week I have started my concerted fund raising efforts. It is a daunting task but God always seems to come through. In a recent conversation I was reminded that God is a God of abundance, we should not worry about the money it will come when it is ready.

Lately I have become extremely interested in sustainability and even more recently gardening or urban agriculture. I have always had an affinity to digging holes and this has manifested itself in new and wonderful ways. In high school I got to work with a paleontology club digging up bones in the desert. Multiple service projects and mission trips have offered a multitude of opportunities. Over the years our church camp has had a mudpit that the willing have dug for the masses. Most recently I have had the opportunity to help work the gardens at St. Thomas Episcopal church and Fr. Bill's house. Looking back now it seems to me that God has been grooming me to dig holes for years I just never realized it until now.

We have not gotten an official confirmation yet but word on the street is that I will be working with a large sustainable organic teaching farm called ARI located in Japan. ARI brings leaders from third world communities in for 6 months to a year and teaches them how to make sustainable agriculture work in their areas. When they leave they have a strong knowledge base, resources, and understanding to go home and spread the knowledge. ARI is an ecumenical community that has hosted 2 YASC volunteers in the past.

Going into this program I had thought that I would be placed in South America or Africa doing eco tourism or digging wells, but during my interview we started talking about Japan. Now I don't know about you but that was not the first thing I thought of when I thought of mission. But the more I found out about the program and thought about it I realized that it was the perfect fit. Today I am excited about the prospect and what God has in store for me. I hope you will join me in my mission through prayer and encouragement. Thank you for taking the time to read my posts.