Sunday School

Right after arriving in Jerusalem  I received a one liner email from my mother – “I bet you wish you’d paid more attention in Sunday school”.  Moms are always right, and in this circumstance she was 110% correct.  My knowledge of Christianity (and any religious history for that matter) was promptly cut short when I persuaded my parents to remove me from Sunday school and church in general, at the young age of ten.  I had no regrets about my actions… until now. Old Walled...

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Arab Spring

View from our deck - SA After a quick reminiscent tour of South Africa, an incredibly beautiful but still racist country, we headed to the highly anticipated Middle East – Egypt and Jordan.  Like most of the Middle East, Egypt is currently in the middle of a revolution called the Arab Spring where the citizens overthrew their corrupt dictatorship and are in search of a new democratic leader.  In Louisa’s 30 years, she has been a witness to two huge historical events:...

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Cheaper by the Dozen

I am not sure if any of you knew this, but one of Louisa’s favourite movies is “Cheaper by the Dozen” featuring a family with twelve kids and the chaos that ensues.  Volunteering at the Mission in Action Baby Orphanage (MIA) near Nakuru, Kenya, was as close as we would get to living Louisa’s dream family (fingers crossed).  Instead of just twelve kids, the orphanage is filled with 47 beautiful, mischievous, and full of personality kids that could even get Joel to want to stay in Africa...

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Medium Fat Spread

After summiting Kilimanjaro we decided to ‘relax’ on a 4 day Safari through the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Carater.  We were joined by three new members of Team Calgary; Louisa’s parents, GG (Gheorghe) and Tuna (Adriana), and Jeff - bringing our total crew to 17. We managed to do the Safari trip at the perfect time to witness the Wildebeast migration – it was a surreal sight with millions of Wildebeast slowly moving north through the Serengeti towards the Maasai Mara in Kenya...

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Pole, Pole!

Mount Kilimanjaro was a harder climb then Louisa and I originally anticipated.  Per usual, we did little research and left it up to the Sawatzkys and our new found yoga strength to make it to the top of the 19,400 foot peak.  Amazingly, all 14 dodgy Canadian team members made it to the summit; however, this astounding achievement came with many struggles: The Ferrungus on the summit!!! Diamox – this wonder drug for any extreme mountaineer helps reduce the symptoms of high altitude sickness. ...

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Buckley's

When Canadians hear the word Buckley’s, the first thing that normally comes to their mind is “that sh!@ is awful” and then it is followed by “but it works!”.  There was a Buckley’s ad campaign years ago that poked fun at their own disgusting formula that tasted like mouldy socks dipped in steaming hot garbage (see video link).  Louisa and I have spent the last month, yes a month, doing Yoga Teacher Training (TTC) in an Ashram in Vietnam with Sivananda Yoga.  Our experience was just...

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Chúc Mừng Năm Mới

Our arrival in Vietnam was perfectly timed for Vietnamese Lunar New Year, Tet (see link).  Even after repeatedly receiving advice to avoid Vietnam during Tet, we managed to arrive two days before the country’s biggest annual celebration.  You might be thinking to yourself - everyone loves parties, why would people recommend missing a country-wide party?  One simple answer, NOTHING IS OPEN DURING TET! Discovering our misjudgement and error in timing, we frantically tried to book flights...

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