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 City of Jerusalem

The short week we spent in Israel, especially Jerusalem, was a crash course in religious history, politics and current events.  It is amazing how one little country can be the cornerstone for such debate and has shaped the World we live in today so immensely. I am going to assume that the knowledge of Israel’s religious history has decreased at the same rate as church attendance in ten year olds (no link, just my opinion); therefore, I am going to share my thoughts on a few interesting sites that I, no longer a rebellious kid, found so fascinating within the old walled city of Jerusalem:

Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock – this extremely religious Muslim site is located on the Temple Mount within the Muslim Quarter. It is not only situated on top of the spot where the first Jewish Temple was built in 900 BC and where Jews  believe that God created  Adam, but is also the exact place where Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to heaven.  With the Muslims in control of the Temple Mount, and since non-Muslims aren’t allowed to enter the Dome itself, the Temple Mount is the current crossroads between Israeli Jews and Muslims.  The balance of peace in the middle-eastern region literally balances on heavily guarded makeshift wooden ramp, connecting the Jewish Quarter to the Muslim Quarter.  A little disconcerting if you ask me. 

The Wailing Wall – since the Temple Mount is under Islamic control, the outside of its adjoining wall is therefore the most sacred site for the Jewish faith.  The wall is located at the base of the Temple Mount, outside of the Muslim quarter of the old city, allowing Jewish followers to pray to the ‘remains’ of their Holy Temple.  This is the end/beginning for all Jewish pilgrimages and birthrights - amazing site to see.

Burning one for her G-mas!

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre – just 200 meters from the Wailing Wall, in the Christian Quarter, is the most significant landmark for any Christian – the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.  Thousands of Christians enter this church daily to pay tribute to Jesus by kissing the rock he was crucified on.  Ironically, just like the Temple Mount, the gate and entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is actually controlled by a Muslim family who determines opening and closing times for Christian prayers – a ‘grandfather’ ruling.  

All three significant Abrahamic religious sites are within a stones throw away from each other.  Yes, because of these tight ‘quarters’, the old city has been and still is the centre of many religious conflicts and battles; however, despite their current circumstances, the people have adapted and live in relative peace.  There is no victim, no right, no wrong, just a common idea and belief – Jerusalem is the heart of religion.  I am not religious, nor am I Christian, Muslim or Jewish, but I now understand why Sunday School exists - to teach you history, not religion.  Maybe now I will send my kids to Sunday School, or at the very least, Louisa School, as this is a history lesson that shouldn't be missed. Shalom!   

Palestine West Gate Barrier - another topic for discussion

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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:  the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the abolishment of Apartheid in South Africa. Both of these significant events were very influential for the World; however, they were both very violent and volatile. So it was now time for her to see a third!

Goal #28 

Louisa and I have done our fair share of travelling over the years and have never taken an organized tour.  We believe travelling is best experienced through your own challenges and discoveries.  With Egypt in the middle of Arab Spring, we subdued our 'traveller's ego' of wanting to do everything on our own and signed up for an organized tour of Egypt and Jordan, thinking that our safety should be in the hands of local professionals instead of passers by and Google searches.

At first, the concept of someone telling us how to travel, where to travel and what to see was very difficult to grasp.  We were the quiet nerds that didn’t socialize and sat at the back of the bus – like the cool kids did in high school (not us). We soon discovered how silly we were being and started to fight our traveller's ego.

Jumping into the Nile - Egypt

Up until Egypt, we had been travelling for 6 months and were solely responsible for every sketchy border crossing, bus ride, flight, accommodation, meal and pee break.  The babysitting and handholding was a great interruption from our traditional travels – allowing us to relax, turn off the brains and just enjoy the Arab Spring, the sites, our tour mates and our amazing guide Said (Saiiiiiiiiid!).

The Treasury - Petra - Jordan

Despite almost being a part of the 1 million person protest in Tahrir Square on a nice little Friday afternoon, and barely avoiding the machine gunning/kidnapping/missile launch zone of Mount Sinai, our trip through Egypt and Jordan was amazing!  The highlights included: eating KFC beside the pyramids, swimming in the alligator infested Nile, seeing Petra, floating in the Dead Sea and camping at a Bedouin camp in the desert. 

Over the last 6 months we have realized that in life, just like in travels, our egos are the cause of most of our challenges and unhappiness.  Would we have been happier organizing our own trip? Probably not.  Would we have met the same great people if we did the tour solo? Not likely.  For the most part, we will probably continue to organize our own trips in the future due to our need for flexibility, but with this new awareness in travels and in life, we hope to be one step closer to happiness and one step further from a revolution. 

“All troubles come to an end when the ego dies “- Ramakrishna

Camping with Bedouins - Jordan desert 

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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 for a while.

The last 3 weeks at MIA have been the highlight of the Ferrungu World Tour thus far.  It is hard to put into words our feelings for all the children, but we do know that this experience has made us interested in adopting a child at some point in our lives (special thanks goes to Mageets for being our adopted child for one week!)

Thanks to all the donations and support from friends and family at home, MIA can continue to assist the current and future children of Kenya.  We received approximately $2,000 in donations and Louisa and I decided to do something fun with the funds.  Shoes were desperately needed at MIA due to wear and tear, growth-spurts, etc.  Also required were larger beds for the older girls that had outgrown theirs.  One-hundred shoes and four large bunk beds later, the kids are all set!  “ASANTE SANA” – said the watotos!

Lots and lots of shoes!

Tim Tam's new kicks!

Louisa and I truly believe that MIA is doing an amazing job here in Nakuru and the funds received are going to an amazing cause.  Most orphanages in Kenya are run by locals, however, MIA is run by an Australian couple who sold everything and came here to set up the orphanage with all their own money.  From what we’ve heard around town, other orphanages sometimes keep their children in old shoes, ragged clothes and un-bathed in order to make the volunteers open their pockets more.  More donations sometimes mean more money for the ‘owners’ of the orphanage, not the kids.  MIA is the complete opposite – the children come first in all aspects.  The donated dollars are going to a great cause and a great orphanage!  SO A GIANT THANK YOU AGAIN (ASANTE SANA) TO EVERYONE THAT DONATED! You are really making a difference in these children’s lives.

If anyone has questions about the costs to run the orphanage, its sustainability or about what you can do to help, please let us know and we would be happy to answer them.

In the meantime, here are some spotlights on a few of our favourite kids (are we allowed to say that?) and their heart wrenching stories:  

• Smiley – Daniel was abandoned at the local Nakuru hospital on birth. His weight was only 6 pounds when he came to MIA, but fortunately he is now the largest and most smiley 3 year old you will ever see.  He likes to quietly play and sing songs to himself and never bothers any of the other kids.  He loves hugs and always bursts out in hilarious laughter after a good tickle. He melted Louisa’s heart the other day when he said “Lulu, I don’t want you to go home”.

• Brainiac – Elli-Jo is 6 years old. She was abandoned at the Nairobi Kenyatta hospital after birth and was then brought to MIA.  She loves to read stories and sing and dance – and she does them all with such attitude!  She is the #1 student in kindergarten and one of the brightest kids at MIA.

• Sweetheart – Michelle was found dumped in a ditch on the side of road by local police shortly after she was born and was 1.5 months old when she came to MIA. She is now a beautiful 3 year old who is always happy and loves to give hugs.  She was shy at first but now loves to talk Lulu and Connie’s ears off.  Here’s the song Louisa and I sing to her every day (LINK).

• Grumpster – Peter is a recent addition to MIA.  He was abandoned and wound up on the steps of MIA.  He is a sad little boy and most of our time at MIA was spent trying to get Peter to smile. We finally broke him down and got a big laugh out of him one day, but his poutiness is what makes him so unbearably cute:)

• Troublemaker – 4 year old Miriam is the youngest of three siblings at the orphanage (Franko, Njao and Miriam).  Miriam’s father was abusive and sadly he eventually killed their mother. This was witnessed by all three children.  Luckily all three are now at MIA and are very happy!   Miriam really won over our hearts right from our first day.  Her incredibly mischievous personality and squeaky voice really separated her from the rest.  She can also do summersaults and beat up kids twice her size.  We are now Miriam’s sponsors and can’t wait to see what sorts of trouble she continues to get herself into as she grows up.

(for more information on all the children at MIA, check out their bio page here AND check out the rest of our photos here) 

As you can see, every child at MIA has their own story.  They seem to follow a common theme of abandonment, abuse and neglect.  It is very sad to hear the stories, but the good news is that these children now have a new chance at a happy life at the orphanage.

As Greg mentioned in his great blog post, there are many critics to voluntourism and its negative side effects on the kids at these orphanages.  We know we’re not solving the world’s problems by being here, and we’re not trying to. We wanted to do something unselfish during our trip, help bring some awareness to our friends and family about this particular orphanage, and raise a bit of money for some needing children; we accomplished that!  We also got to share a lot of love, hugs and smiles with 47 cute and happy kids - their smiles really do make the world a better place ;)

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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 (pictures just don’t do it justice).  We also managed to see the ‘Big 5’ and some very amazing scenery along the way.  The Safari was filled with Medium Fat Spread - the margarine of choice for East Africans, drawing straws for Hassan’s truck, dislocated fingers, many laughs and even sunset yoga!  A Safari is a must if anyone decides to travel this way (second to Kili of course).

The Great Migration

Amazing beasts!

One of the most anticipated plans of our travels was to spend 6 days in Zanzibar with 16 of our friends and family after the Safari.  One of our Ferrungu World Tour goals was to have a Zanzibar beach house party (see old post).  We not only had ONE house party, we had a daily house party in some form or another: 

2na, GG, Lulu &Connie

• Paje party – prior to heading to the beach house, Greorghe and Adriana were kind enough to treat the two of us to 2 nights of R&R at a hotel in Paje (another village).  Not only did we eat the biggest meal of our lives, we found a new nickname for Adriana – TUNA!  The origin of her new nickname is a little complicated, however, Adriana is living up to the 2na name and I think this one will stick for a long time ;) 

• Pool Party – the 14 person house not only came with our own personal cooks and cleaners, it also had a pool.  Many hours were spent frolicking in the cold pool to escape the blistering heat.  The pool was even used to read, meditate and fly. 

Reading pool side!

Flying pool side!

Konyagi!

• Stuff party – keeping on with our North American roots, we decided to consume and consume in order to feel like we were at home.  Since there was no local grocery store or liquor store (Muslim area), Trevor and Louisa decided to hire a cab and go into the closest village for supplies; 150 pints of beer, 10 boxes of Pringles, 50 bags of Konyagi and 30 chocolate bars later the local store closed up for early retirement.  The Story of Stuff would be embarrassed for our actions; however, Houston would be proud.

• Football party – the house was situated on prime beach front property that allowed for daily football matches with the local watotos (children).  The skill level differential between us and 12 year olds was embarrassing; I think Trevor is considering moving to Jambiani in order to brush up on his skills so he can 'potentially' join the Jambiani Simba Watoto Football Club (see picture below).

• Montezuma party – this seems to be the common theme with Team Calgary on this trip in one form or another.  We were losing comrades daily to the vicious debilitating ‘Montezuma's revenge’.  The good news is that Konyagi cures all illnesses even when drank from 100 ml plastic bags.

Jambiani Simba Football Club  (Juma far right)

• Juma party – during our daily beach football matches, one local watoto named Juma, would sit on our step from 8 am till 4 pm (game time) waiting to play.  He wouldn’t ask for anything, he would just sit there waiting to play football with some mzungus.  He was a nice boy that really had nothing to his name, like most in the area.  We decided that he would be the one to receive the brand new football as a gift when we left.  We had a mini-celebration with the kids and now Juma's belly is not only full of Medium Fat Spread, he is the football ‘king’ among watotos in the Jambiani! 

The Safari and Zanzibar were both amazing in their separate ways.  The Safari taught us that three guides and two cooks can do the work of 42 porters; their trick, 'Medium Fat Spread'.  Zanzibar taught us that we, as North Americans, take life for granted - we complain about the little things that other people, such as Juma, would be happy to have.  Eating Medium Fat Spread for every meal should make us be grateful for what we have.  Next time Louisa and I complain, we will think of Juma who would be happy to eat Medium Fat Spread everyday (if he had a meal to use it with). 

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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.  At 19,400 feet, 90% of people will feel symptoms of altitude sickness no matter their health, age, sex, etc.  To prevent a summit attempt failure, most people take Diamox to ensure altitude sickness is subdued.  However, Louisa ironically GOT altitude sickness from taking Diamox pills at only 10,000 feet (the height of Lake Louise) – yes, altitude sickness from altitude sickness pills.  That is like getting sunburnt from sunscreen without going into the sun! 

View of the sunrise from the summit - just amazing! 

• Hallucinations – on summit day, the group started hiking at midnight from 15,000 feet to summit.  Night time is the best time to hike to the summit to avoid sweating/hypothermia and to see the amazing sunrise.  With a maximum of two hours of sleep (in between shortness of breath) you are forced to hike seven hours to the summit.  Sleep walking is very common… and so are hallucinations apparently!  Joel managed to see a ‘chariot’ that he decided would be a faster way to get to the summit – he may not have gotten there faster, but he was first!

Victory! 

• Constipation – mentally preparing for Africa, the last thing that crossed our minds was constipation.  We were more worried about the ‘Montezuma’s revenge’ effect.  For ten days I battled the worst case of constipation; for six days of those days I was hiking Kilimanjaro.  At 18,000 feet during the summit night hike, I was ‘released’ of my problem – with less weight and a clearer mind, hiking to the summit was my second victory of the day.

Melissa and Trevor (and others) making their way to the summit! 

• Altitude sickness – unlike Louisa’s pill-induced altitude sickness, several people felt the true ill effects of high elevation – most notably, Melissa.  In between vomiting and dizziness, Melissa managed to convince herself, the guides, and her husband that everything was normal.  Her tenacious competitive spirit allowed her to overcome major altitude sickness and summit successfully.  Minutes after summiting, the guide finally realized the severity of Melissa’s symptoms and rushed her down 4,000 feet faster than gravity could take her.  Luckily there was no permanent damage other than Trevor’s ego once again coming in second to his ailing wife.

Every member of the Kili team had their own personal challenges to overcome (with the exception of Trevor, whose only challenge was not having any challenges to overcome).  Not only did all 14 of us make it, we all learned a lot about ourselves and how to deal with life’s trials.  The wise words of our guides Amani and Tigamea will forever be engrained in our heads, ‘Pole, Pole’ – which literally means, ‘slow, slow’ (to avoid altitude sickness).  Life has its challenges just like hiking Kilimanjaro – if taken slow, one step at a time, without focusing just on the summit, anything is possible! 

Summiting Kilimanjaro with such a great group will be a memory that will truly last a lifetime – Pole, Pole! 

Team Canada!

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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 like Buckley’s – it was awfully hard, but it worked!

Meditating by the pond

We had zero expectations coming into our first Ashram community.  We knew we would be doing a lot of yoga, meditation and not sleeping very much.  These are all true, however, some of you are probably thinking – how amazing is that, all you do is eat, sleep, yoga and meditate?  It is going to be very hard to describe our experience in words as Ashram life has to be practiced first hand –here are a few stories to give you a better understanding:

• Morning bell – for those of you who have ever lived with Louisa (Gigi, 2na, Toma, Anne, Sawatzky’s, etc), you all know how much she loves mornings.  Every day at 5:30 am our great German mate, Jonas, would ring the wake up bell.  The bell was an ear piercing mini-gong that would make you want to cry that sleep time was over.  It took about 2 weeks to get used to the early rising.  Louisa not only stopped spitting venom at me in the morning, she was the one waking ME up!!

The Scorpion

• Yoga addiction – since we were at the Ashram for the TTC, we actually had to do yoga daily – 4 hours a day to be exact.  Yoga originally was our way to "keep fit and have fun" – however, it turned into an intense experience that drug addicts would compare to pure heroin.  Our new drug of choice is yoga – if we miss one day, we are jonesing for our next fix like Anthony Kiedis did "Under the Bridge".
  

• Yogic diet – the schedule for food at the Ashram is similar to that of jail – 2 meals a day in reward for not shanking fellow inmates.  Brunch was served at 10:00 am (remember, we woke up at 5:30 am), and dinner at 6:00 pm.  However, instead of gruel, we were served delicious, amazing and diversified vegetarian meals that could resemble Jamie Oliver`s, had he been born in Asia.
  

Enjoying the view of the lotus pond!

• Satsang – the term ‘Satsang’ literally means “company of the wise”.  Out of our 16 hour daily schedule, the first 2 hours of the morning and the last 2 hours of the evening were reserved for Satsang – a combination of daily meditation and philosophical lectures or readings on all of life’s problems (stress, illness, anger, etc.).  At first, Louisa and I thought we would not enjoy Satsang as it cut into our sleep time.  However, just like our yoga, we are itching for our daily dose of this medicine as well.  Our “company of the wise” went from 70 fellow students, down to 2, however, Louisa is still practicing Satsang with me and her inspirational speeches would put Dr. Phil out of business.

As you can see, Yoga training and Ashrams aren’t for everyone.  We didn’t know what to expect arriving 30 days ago and we sure don’t know what expect moving forward.  What we do know however, is that this experience has had, and will continue to have, an influential positive impact in our lives.  We will leave you with one yogi quote to sum the Ashram’s secret to life – “health is wealth, peace of mind is happiness, yoga shows the way”.

If you’re interested in hearing more about what we learned, we’re happy to share.

Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

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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 and hotels to the prime sun spots - such as the beautiful beaches, Nha Trang and Phu Quoc.  However, all flights were booked and all hotels were booked.

Tet is a very special time of year in Vietnam.  In brief, it is the celebration of the Lunar New Year – this year, it was the year of the Dragon.  The locals leave the big cities and go home to relax with family and friends to carry on traditions and bring/attract ‘luck’ for New Year.  With everyone hanging out with their families, all stores, businesses and services are closed.  However, Tet isn’t for one day, it is a week long celebration… therefore, instead of soaking the rays of Nha Trang, we ended up in a “beach” town call Vung Tau for 6 days before our Yoga Teacher Training.

Vung Tau is to Nha Trang, as Edmonton is to Calgary, Albany is to New York or Brisbane is to Sydney.  The City of Champions is not a city at all, Albany is not New York and Brisbane does not know fashion – Vung Tau is NOT a beach town.  Louisa and I found a great hotel on the port side of Vang Tau – great sunsets.  However, on the other side of town, the “beach” side, it was a completely different story.  Only pictures can describe the chaos and craziness this beach experiences during Tet – thousands of Vietnamese, fully clothed, frolicking in the dirtiest oil polluted water reminiscent of the BP oil spill.

Despite our misjudgement and lack of planning, Tet was an amazing experience.  Vung Tau showed us the local experiences that we would not have seen if we were in the touristy areas.  The most amazing thing we saw was locals stopping in the middle of a crazy busy highway at midnight to give money to an elderly homeless man – this wasn’t only for their own luck, but to give wealth and prosperity to him, as it's said that the first thing you do in the New Year is what you will be doing for the next 365 days. We followed suit and ran after him to give him money ourselves as our first deed of the New Year with hope that we will cultivate more generosity towards everyone around us.

In true Tet fashion, Louisa and I decided to start fresh for the New Year and put the past behind us… some of us were more drastic then others ;)

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! (Happy New Year!)

PS.  This is the song we still find ourselves singing daily – sooooo good, but sooooo bad! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yxlQ8kodBU

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