The year flew by.  We were touched by the people who followed us, supported us though all the ups and down of travel, and encouraged us to keep going.  Thank you!

In case you missed it, click here for the Globe article

We’re grateful to writer Joseph Kahn, not just for his great article, but for sharing his knowledge of volunteer, travel, and families doing out-of-the-ordinary things to try to help others.  He helped me (Teresa) learn the importance of the process and of involving the kids in all the decisions.

You can help us this year!

Donate today and Doug Tilden (RTW with Us’s fearless President) will double it!

We’re adding a program for kids in the US this year. Doug is so excited about the Globe article, all that we accomplished last year, and what we can do together going forward.  So he’s promised to personally double all donations that we get from now until September 15th.  So click here if you want to donate and double your impact!  Thank you, Doug!

Continuing RTW with Us??

Yes, of course we’re doing more projects this year!  We could’t help ourselves.  You inspired us.  The people we met inspired us.  How can we NOT keep this going??  As you can imagine, it’s hard to narrow it down when you’ve worked with so many great people doing amazing things…so…we actually plan to do even more this year…

so what’s the goal??

$225,000…plus an after school program for kids in the US…yes, it’s a big goal!

But you can help us.  We saw it last year…$5 make a huge difference.  It buys a pair of shoes, school supplies for one kid.  When you put lots of $5’s together, you get a library, or a well, or even a school.  Well, actually, you gave all of those things last year, plus a whole lot more!

Help us by volunteering!

We need help, especially with our goal of putting together a program for kids here in the US.  You can also help by lending your expertise in education, global issues, learning from travel, volunteering, writing, graphics design, fundraising, grant writing, etc.  Please let us know if you want to help.

We learned a lot traveling and volunteering – working with some of the best non-profits in the world.  Now were selecting the best of the best to work with in the next year.  You can be sure if you donate to these projects that you’ll be making a real difference.  100% of you donation goes to the project itself.  We pay all administrative costs out of our own pocket.

Getting connected

The best part is that we want to connect kids from the US with kids from the countries where we worked.  We’re talking a safe, closed community network where teachers and kids can get to know each other, and the cultures they live in.  We learned a lot from traveling, and now we want kids from different countries to get a taste of that same experience by interacting and working together on some interesting projects via the web.

Fun, fun, fun

At Round the World with Us, we’re working on developing and after school program of fun activities kids can do to celebrate different cultures, learn about world issues, and most important – DO SOMETHING about it!

Do you want to travel and volunteer around the world?

We’re also developing an on-line resource library for people who are ready to jump right in there.  How to find a great volunteer position, how to prepare, how to keep your sanity on the road, even how to select a quality charity if you don’t want to travel half way around  the world, but want to make a difference from the comfort of home.

Got computer skills – cool activities for kids – teaching skills??  Lend us a hand!

We need volunteers to help us pick the right closed community software, get kids connected, develop the after school program and put together and on-line resource library.  Can you help?  If so, leave a comment or send us an e-mail!

Here is what YOU made possible—

• 8,000 trees planted in Maasai villages in Tanzania
• 1,800 teens received health education training in India
• 1,000 for earthquake relief to the Japan Red Cross
• 900 Thanksgiving dinners for orphans in Kenya
• 765 pairs of shoes for orphans in Kenya
• 120 teens taught in conversational English
• 65 acres of land for 65 Dalit families to earn their own living
• 4 school libraries – three in Laos, 1 in Belize
• 2 homes for Dalit families in India
• 2 community kitchens in Peru
• 2 school renovations in Belize and Peru
• 2 computer labs at orphanages in Bulgaria
• 1 middle school in Cambodia!
• 1 well in Kenya
• 1 day care in Peru

KUDOS to YOU!!!

With your help, we saw communities from all over the world working together for better education, health care, economic development, housing and a better environment for all of us.

Check out our videos and see what a difference you made.

What now?

Check out our plans for this year.

Well those are all fine and good, but the lessons that resound in my head day after day, now that the trip is over are the bigger life lessons.  How to get the cheapest airfare…that’s interesting, but you can find lots of advice out there on that.  I’d rather talk about what can make a difference in your life whether you ever travel outside your home country or not.  So here are a few things I’ve learned along those lines:

Everyone wants happiness, but those with the loudest and most pervasive voices seem to be advertising companies.  What they have to offer can be pretty darn cool…but does it lead to the happiness they promise?

I don’t want to sound like another materialistic-gone-spiritual person with unpractical and extreme ideas about life, but I have seen so many people around the world who 1) are happier than I could have imagined and 2) have less than I could have imagined.

I know, I know – ho-hum – we hear that all the time…you don’t need things to be happy…money doesn’t make you happy.  But, hey, there may be more to it than you think.

So many of us are working more than we would like to in the name of financial security…or is part of it just so we can have more, cooler, better stuff?  Do some of us feel we are struggling when we actually have enough, because we don’t have as much as others?  And how much of our precious time and energy gets spent thinking about what we should buy, shopping for it, dusting, sorting, storing, cleaning, comparing, talking about…piles and piles of stuff?

In many places we visited, they simply don’t have many things.  Not having so much stuff to acquire and care for really seems to free up time and energy for enjoying friends, family and neighbors, for laughing, talking, and simple things like learning songs and dances and performing them for each other.

I don’t mean people should be poor, and hey – I do like my stuff…when I am in a thrift shop or a sporting or outdoor equipment store, I am like a kid in a candy store. But there’s something to be said for attempting to reorder our priorities and some of our thoughts about “stuff”…maybe starting with our definition of “enough”.  The likelihood of being happy gets a huge boost when we spend more time enjoying simple pleasures and less time desiring, acquiring and caring for things.

Travel is cheaper, easier as well as more enriching than you might think

I remember sitting in Bonn, Germany (after only having been to a handful of cities…most all of them in Europe) thinking that I had experienced a whole new set of values and way of life.  It’s hard to describe, but it was like there was literally a whole world out there that had been hidden from me…and it wasn’t the scenery, the monuments, it wasn’t even the people (most everyone says that it’s the people!)…it was the variety of attitudes and approaches I had never encountered that opened my eyes to the world and fascinated me the most.  And we were only in Europe…imagine what I had yet to encounter in places like India and Kenya!

I’ve been exposed to new ways of thinking and doing.  Now that we’re back, not a day goes by that I don’t see ordinary things in a new light after living with orphans in Bulgaria and Kenya, dancing with Maasai tribespeople – they loved it when we taught them the Macarena J, and talking with teens in Calcutta about everything from their hopes and dreams, to arranged marriage, to how they plan to care for their parents when they get older.  Life is a rich, wonderful experience, and it believe it or not, your own personal happiness and satisfaction doesn’t even depend on your life circumstances, it’s all about your attitude.

Think you can’t afford to travel?  Consider this…a plane ticket to the place you’ve always dreamed of going may not cost that much, especially if you consider the cost of that ticket spread over a long period of time spent in that area of the world.  You can get a great deal if you are flexible on travel times and don’t mind making multiple stops when it means a cheaper airfare.  We’ve had great luck with www.cheapoair.com Oh, my gosh, I guess I did end up talking about cheap airfares! Pick a developing country to visit and food and lodging are cheap, and so is most everything else, including all those adventure sports you’ve always dreamed of trying.

Travel can be even cheaper if you volunteer for an organization like Nyumbani that just needs you to reimburse their cost of housing and feeding you.  They charge volunteers $145/month for room and board…try living on that at home!  The secret for us was not only to cut way back and save before the trip, but to eliminate all expenses at home while we traveled…no bills, rent, utilities, etc.  Not everyone can leave their home like that, but there are many ways to make it work, so get out there and go for it!  You’ll be glad you did.

Relax!

Or in the only English words known by one of our guides while riding horseback through the mountains of Bulgaria for three days, “Everything is okay.”  It didn’t matter that his boss only taught him that phrase because it seems to makes American’s relax, or that he uttered it even when Alex’s horse took off on a wild gallop in the wrong direction, the truth is, everything IS okay.  And even if it isn’t, it will be, and it will be sooner if you relax and go with the flow.  Miss the train, take the next one.  Have to wait out on the sidewalk until morning for the next train, enjoy the adventure…you’ll have a story to tell.  All of life’s little (and big) trials and tribulations are better when you relax!

Discomfort is NOT a bad thing

I know it SOUNDS like a bad thing…after all, most of us put a lot of effort into making ourselves and others as comfortable as we can.  It wasn’t until our year of travel was almost done that a Buddhist Monk made me consider another possibility…

After days of silent meditation in classes where no one spoke English, I was frustrated with people who were breaking my concentration by packing up in the middle of a meditation session.  Anyway, I moved to the far end of the room and tried to think of the bag-rustling-zippering-unzippering-(repeat, repeat, repeat)-people with loving kindness rather than with frustration.  When I reported this to the English-speaking monk who checked on me once a day, proud of my proactive and loving self, he wasn’t enthusiastic.

Ah, that is what you usually do whenever you don’t like something, yes?  You try to change IT…or get away from it.  I could see he wasn’t likely to use the word “proactive” in his praise of my behavior…“uh, well, yes”, I mumbled.  He continued…before long it was clear that I am much better at making changes (even huge, life changes) than at accepting things (even little, tiny, insignificant, but annoying things).  And he wasn’t talking about begrudging acceptance, he was challenging me to see the possibility of peaceful, loving acceptance.

Thanks to his simple guidance, I actually learned to meditate that afternoon!  I just didn’t give in to the discomfort…my legs went numb, I was bored, I wanted to get up, but I just kept at it for another minute, and another, and then five, and then an hour, and then two hours.

All my life I thought avoiding discomfort was a good thing…I worked hard so I could be comfortable, bought things to be more comfortable, solved problems to be comfortable, and I am pretty good at it most of the time…but discomfort is just another part of life, and you can’t always avoid it.  On the other hand, if you can learn to just notice and accept it, but not stop what you are doing – wow – a world of new possibilities (not to mention peace and happiness) opens up to you.

I took up running a few weeks ago.  When I don’t want to do it, I do it anyway and then I smile thinking of my old self, who would have stopped by now, and think of how much more I can achieve now that I know I have the ability to keep going.

We all have the power to change the world

Another obvious lesson – could be that I was just unusually ignorant of these clichés – or maybe that I chose to ignore them until I was hit over the head with their meaning while traveling.

This is as much about helping and enjoying yourself as it is about helping others.  Giving feels good!  It builds confidence, connections, personal empowerment, feelings of well being…and if the Buddhists are right…good Karma!

We can ALL give.  This lesson hit home when we watched the orphans and grandparents who care for each other in the Nyumbani village in Kenya take up a collection for children in another village who were not as well off.  I believe they raised about $10 in total; donations don’t have to be large to make a difference.

Now I can’t explain the circumstances of the kids who were “not as well off” because I didn’t meet them, but let me tell you about the kids we lived with for a month who were giving the support.  Many of them don’t own shoes because they can’t afford them.  They have almost no concept of toys.  They have a few articles of clothing and that’s about it.  They don’t have running water or electricity in their homes. In the short amount of time they have before their school day begins at 6am and ends at 7pm, they work to grow vegetables for their new blended families.

We watched 50 of these kids pile into the back of the village’s truck on their one day off to go sing at a benefit concert for another charity.  Proof positive – anyone can give.

I hope that doesn’t sound like a lecture…it’s actually good news.  I think we all want to make a difference, and we’re sad or feel like less if we think our personal circumstances don’t allow us to do that.  Regardless of what you have or don’t have, or what your skill set is, there is something you can do to give to others.  Whether it’s donating your time, or your money.  Even offering a genuine smile to everyone you meet makes the world a better place.

I know that most people do give to others, and I don’t want to imply otherwise, I just want to emphasize that I saw so many “poor people” changing the world during our trip.  I saw first hand what a difference just a few dollars can make when given to the right charity.  I also came away from the trip with a firm belief that we are all connected and that practicing generosity in our day-to-day lives is an essential part of the human experience.

Everything you seek is right in front of you!

This is a tricky one though, because most often, you can’t see it until you look in a gazillion other places.  Read enough stories about people going out of their way seeking one thing or another…answers to the big questions in life, personal satisfaction, ways to make a difference in the world, and they often end up finding that what they were looking for was with them all the time.  Yes, it is the same with me.  I ended up traveling to 23 countries, staying everywhere from fancy hotels to the inside of an old shipping container, living with people from all backgrounds and circumstances and figuring out, by learning from so many of the people that I met, that the real keys to most of what I sought are inside of myself.

If there is a way for you to find the answers to your big questions without circling the globe, you won’t even need to find the cheapest airfares…but then…where is the fun in that??

Nyumbani Village children

Round the World’s model is built on the premise that everyone can make a difference. A small contribution channeled into sustainable projects can have sustainable impacts that reach far beyond the initial contribution.

This is the story of how one young student and her school decided to make that difference is people’s lives half way around the world. The story is in Eliza Oakley’s own words and tells of how it came about that she and the Alameda Community Learning Center made this happen:

ELIZA’s STORY

During my senior year of high school I decided it would be a new interesting experience to intern for a non-profit organization. I mainly wanted to intern for a business like this because during my junior year I worked with a school group that focused on showing kids how they can help people in their communities as well as others. This inspired me and even made me want to start my own non-profit organization and help other people in the world. Though I am only just out of high school I am still interested in helping others and this year while interning for Round the World With Us, a project was identified to raise money for children in Kenya, who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, and to give them shoes and school supplies so they can regularly attend school . I saw this as an opportunity to combine making something happen that positively impacted people’s lives and to have some fun at the same time.

During my senior year I was appointed Dance Committee President, and at my school it is a tradition to have a formal dance at the end of every year. This year I made the formal dance a fundraiser and donated half the proceeds to the children in Kenya. Raising the money was a lot of fun and it really made me feel like I accomplished something and helped people that really needed it. I would love to do something like this again, the feeling of helping someone other than myself is a rush that cannot be described. I would love to continue raising awareness around the bay area. I am totally devoted and willing to take the time and effort to help those in other countries. Round the World with Us has taught me that anything is possible and that if you really want to get something done you can do it. These are great life lessons to know and I believe that this experience has taught me a lot and will stay with me for a very long time.

Eliza Oakley

Teresa has already posted below on the RTWwithus website about the school project. It is the story of how a remarkable convergence of people and groups worked together to help improve the school as well as to gain a better understanding of each other’s culture.  As Teresa mentioned, the Davidson Day School students were in Belize as part of an annual archaeology field school that is operated by the non-profit American Foreign Academic Research  (AFAR) in cooperation with the Belize Valley  Archaeological Reconnaissance Project (BVAR). This field school has, for the past six seasons, provided the opportunity for students from Florida and now North Carolina to gain hands on experience in excavation and conservation of Mayan sites at Cahal Pech in western Belize. This year I was privileged to work with the students on the dig.

Students Get Ready for the Dig

Hard Work Digging

Sifting for Artifacts

But this year was very special.

In the field, archaeology is a laborious process.  Forget Indiana Jones; archaeology is long hours of carefully moving dirt and roots and rocks, It is endless sifting of buckets of soil for the occasional piece of broken pottery.  It hacking off a tree root only to find a bed of tarantulas underneath.  It is hot sweaty and dirty work.  And it all has to be documented.  Daily logs, measurements from every angle and direction, constantly checking to see that your markers have not moved and that your elevations are accurate. Writing out and logging hundred of tags for the artifacts found in the soil and in the sifting. And in Belize that work is carried on in a very hot, humid environment.

The main task this year was to be to excavate and if possible conserve a complex of three pyramids that the jungle had long reclaimed in Cahal Pech. The pyramids were covered in soil, vegetation and dirt in some places up to six feet.      Mounds similar to these pyramids are quite common in Belize. They are evidence of some kind of structure, but what kind of structure, you never know until you dig.  Often the limestone blocks that make up the outer layer of the pyramids have collapsed and the inner core of earth and rock now slumps into a difficult to recognize heap.

Did I mention that this is hot, humid tiring work ?? Yet the student of Davidson Day took on this work alongside trained archeologists and always under the watchful eye of Dr. Jaime Awe and Mat Saunders with an enthusiasm that was contagious.  From 7:30 each morning until 3:30 PM we hauled dirt, we sifted, we measured, we measured again, we drew profiles, we sifted some more, we moved a mountain of dirt in a bucket line from the top of the pyramid to the plaza below. And always there were ready hands to assist in all aspects of the work. And then at 3:30 when those of us who have done this before were ready to collapse under a tree in plaza , out would come the Frisbee and that amazing youthful energy would be channeled in a different direction.

THE FIND

The students from Davidson, assisted by three veterans of the Florida AFAR program were on site when a remarkable discovery was made. On one of the pyramids, covered over in vegetation and soil, a tomb was found. Not just any tomb but from all appearances a royal tomb, undisturbed for the last 1,400 years.  The discovery was made by Dr. Awe’s BVAR team just above the area where we were working with the Davidson students.  I am very indebted to Dr. Awe for allowing us to describe the find and include photographs of some of the pieces which came from the tomb.

The find appears to be royal due to the quantity of jade and other items of a ruler’s status that adorned the two skeletal remains found in the tomb. As beautiful as the jade and other ornaments are the real find was two carved rings which contain Mayan glyphs as well as some form of a carved needle which also contains a partial glyph.  The ring glyphs refer to the ruler’s name.  This is the first ruler’s tomb to be excavated and fully documented at Cahal Pech. There is still much work to be done studying and evaluating the find but it is clearly of great significance to the history of Cahal Pech, a medium sized Mayan city, but one that has a period of Mayan occupancy extending over 2,000 years.

The Tomb

Carved Ring

Bowl from Tomb

Jade Figure

Jade Ornament

To be on site while such amazing finds are being made is an experience that I am sure the students will not soon forget.   Oh yeah, and what did we find on the pyramid itself after all that hard work.  We were rewarded with considerable intact structure at the base of two pyramids we worked on this year as well a well defined walls and connecting structure between two of the pyramids.  Even where the pyramid structure had collapsed, the Mayan gods were smiling on us. The wall fell over in a near perfect 90 degree angle to its original position, allowing us to remove the cut stone for restoration.

The Plaza connecting two pyramids

As soon as we finished conservators from the Belize Institute of Archaeology started work on restoring the excavated portions of the pyramid. The pyramid structure will be accessible to all visitors to the Cahal Pech Archaeological Park to wonder at the massive structures of the complex civilization of the Maya.

I am sure that both the school project and the archaeological excavation will provide the students with a new perspective on cultures and peoples that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

This week we worked with students at the Succotz school in Belize, learning about their culture while teaching them about ours.  It was beautiful to see the students from Davidson Day connect with those from Belize and visa-versa.  I think we succeeded in creating an equal exchange rather than “we are here to teach you” or “we are here to help you”.  Our kids got as much or more out of it as did the Succotz students!

Here is a short video of the project of the project.

A heartfelt thank you to Round the World with Us donors who made the new library, roof and technology integration possible for the Succotz School, not bad for $5,000 and great partnerships with other schools and organizations!!

Creating a book connects kids with other cultures…and with their own past

Our students interviewed the students in Belize about their culture, but also sent them home with a list of questions for their grandparents about what the culture in Belize was like in the past and how it has changed.  How many of us take the time to learn about these things from our own grandparents these days?  Well, the kids at Davidson Day School will do that with their own grandparents as well.  Then the kids from both countries will stay in touch via the web, and produce a book this year about their different cultures, past and present. The goal is to do several shared projects, and create a sustainable connection between the kids.

Integrating technology into education

Mr. Teul, Principal at the Succotz School is always looking for ways to support his own school and give teachers and students the tools they need.  Through a partnership with Sacred Heart School in Belize, which will provide the technical expertise and support as well as teacher training, a Rotary Club in Canada, which provides funding, a local internet provider, a small grant ($360) from Round the World with Us for the wireless routers, and support from Davidson Day teacher Priscilla Saunders, who will keep the kids in NC and Belize sharing content, theSuccotz School will be able to integrate technology into their curriculum next school year!  The school will have three wireless routers and 12 laptops.  Enough for the 15 classes to have regular use of technology.

A new library!

I always try to tell people how easy it is to make a big difference in the lives of others.  Davidson Day students proved that.  They did a book drive and collected 1,200 books for the Succotz School.  The books are appropriate for the pre-school to 8th grade students and will allow them to have their own library.  They have a teacher who is trained in library management, who will be able to organize and put the books to good use with the students.  Principal Teul also coordinated a community service project to set up the library space in the school.  Thanks to our generous supporters, Round the World with Us was able to donate the money to ship the books to Belize.  Now that’s teamwork, and shows how easy it is to make a lasting difference.

No more rain inside the school!

The old roof was so bad it rained in the classroom

Community volunteers ripped off the old roof and constructed the new one...yes, we tried to help, but couldn't do the work nearly as fast

a view of the new roof

So how can you put a new roof on their school without sending the message “we are better than you and you need our help”?  THEY decide what they need and THEY do the work to make it happen.  We bought the materials, but they definitely had ownership over the project.  Jim Putz volunteered to be the contractor and he recruited all the community volunteers.  In fact, Jim got his elementary school education at the Succotz School.

Here is a short video of the project of the project.

The video was created by Priscilla Saunders, a teacher from Davidson Day School, who acted as the lead coordinator of the project.  (We’ll be creating a longer, in-depth one soon about not just this project, but the advantages of service learning in general and the archaeological research and excavation conducted by the students.)

Time to Celebrate!

Parents and teachers cooked for the volunteers and celebrated the new roof...mmm chicken with rice and beans!

Making new friends

A rousing game of Red Rover!

...and of course...SOCCER!

Unearthing history!

Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll show some of the things uncovered in an archaeological excavation done by the students from Davidson Day in conjunction with AFAR American Foreign Academic Research.  The finds are going to change the history books as they relate to the ancient Maya of that area. Doug supervised the student archaeologist and loved every minute of the excavation in spite of the hot, sweaty days spent moving buckets of dirt around.

The long 5-day journey home

How can it take 5 days to reach the US??  Well, first we had to get back to Tokyo by train so we could fly out Seoul where the flights are cheaper to the US, then changing planes in Beijing (again cheaper flights!).  Unfortunately, our flight was delayed to Beijing so we had to stay in China for 24 hours until the next flight.  The hotel they put you in when your flight is delayed is an adventure in and of itself.  The “flight delay” people get a cheap buffet, while the regular customers get a much better one.  Cheap as I am, we paid for the better buffet for breakfast, as I didn’t want to eat leftovers from our sub-standard dinner the night before at the hotel   The girls slept through breakfast…hoping to just sleep their way through anything until we were back in the US.

Trying to get back into the country…smuggling just a few things

But, Alas, we were finally, FINALLY on the plane to San Francisco!!  We were so excited…extra screening because the plane was headed to the US? no problem!  We went through immigration and customs (straight to the US citizen line!!) and the agent wanted to know where we had been and for how long…uhhh…that would be a long answer. Did you have any prescription drugs we bought outside the countries (yes, actually, bottles full as they were cheaper outside the US and my insurance company had given me such a hard time we couldn’t get them before we left) “no, Sir, no prescriptions”.  How about food? (well, we have a shitload of food as we are bringing back tons of gifts and some are foods from other places, Japanese Pocky, interesting snacks, etc…and particular food you are interested in?) when you hesitate, it really seems like you must be lying.  Do you have any statues? (well, let me think…I bet we have some, do you mean ancient, looted from an archaeological site…no, no, just the kind you can get hand carved out of wood, etc…could he be suspicious of bugs coming in with a wood statue?)  We were also smuggling the laser pointers Alex was bringing back to his friends…in Dubai, he had one confiscated and in China his checked bag was tagged as suspicious.  When they searched it, the guy ignored the laser though, and took some empty shells from the shooting range in Cambodia (which i am pretty sure are legal, I guess it pays to have a decoy).  Several other questions and follow-up questions made me nervous, until finally, with a huge smile, he said “welcome back home!” and let us pass.

Of course, Meagan came next and he only smiled at her and let her go right through with a big welcome – I guess I look more suspicious   We were all in!  Whoo-hoo!

The only thing better than leaving on a round the world trip is coming back from one!!

I know many other families and couples intend to travel for a year and just keep going…not us…we were all thrilled to come home.  Seeing other countries and meeting other people is fabulous.  It’s even better if you can try to do some good in this little world of ours, but having a home and a community is even better.  It’s one of the things I have learned on the trip – a strong sense of community is one of the things that makes people happy.

Comforts of home

The next two weeks in the US were bliss…enjoying all the comforts of home, like being able to communicate ANYTHING we wanted and understand everything people were saying.  Hot showers, towels, a place to put our stuff, no check out time, a WASHER and DRYER, oh yeah!!  Though, I have to say, my clothes fared better with all the hand washing and line drying.  It’s the little things in life that really make you happy!

Meagan headed off to Salt Lake City to see friends and family.  Jennifer went to Olympia to see one of her best friends for a while before she heads to NY to see her Dad and other family.  Alex and Bella and I explored San Francisco, which is to be our new home beginning in late summer (we have another project coming up in Belize).

stepping out!

The very first night we arrived, Doug and I got to go to the American Conservatory Theater Gala for the Opening of Tales of the City – what a way to spend my first night back in the US!  The play is terrific.  If you live in San Francisco, or are visiting before the end of July, go see it!

ready to step out in SF after an all night flight from China

SF is beautiful! We took this picture from Baker Beach.

First trip to Mel's Drive In

Bella smiles, even though she "hates" SF (translation: it's not Groton)

Ghirardelli Square

We also got to celebrate Doug’s daughter May’s birthday before Alex and Bella headed back East to see their dad and their friends, grandparents and other relatives.  The flew all by themselves (I’m proud of them and all they have learned over the past year!), lugging along a huge bag of presents for the people we’ve missed SO MUCH!

It’s GREAT to be back on the US, and great to be with my sweetheart after spending so many months of the past year apart.

Belize – amazing excavation of a Mayan Tomb, new roof for a school and 1,200 books collected by students in NC!

But we only had two weeks and then we headed off to Belize where Doug is excavating a Maya tomb and I am working with students at the Succotz School in Succotz, Belize.  In partnership with Davidson Day School in North Carolina, we will donate 1,200 books and put a new roof on the school!  The high school students from Davidson Day are also conducting the excavation and research and are having the time of their lives.

Love to all and sorry for not posting in such a long time.  I’ll write about Belize soon! We are already here and it is quite an adventure…wait until you read what’s been excavated from the tomb!!

Every time I walk up to someone who knows about the trip, they ask me what my favorite country was. If I had to choose, I’d say Laos, Thailand, or Kenya. Why? Let me explain.

Kenya – Everyone’s always happy to see you and all smiles. You feel like your around family and none of them are strangers. People in Kenya have a way of cheering you up. The kids at Nyumbani were really nice, and if I ever get the chance, I’m going back.

Thailand- Adventure!!! Bungee jumping!! It was so fun. I just love elephants, and Thailand has so many, how could I NOT love it? My Great Aunt Betty loves Thailand too, maybe it’s in the blood.

Laos –  Imagine a holiday where you chuck water at complete strangers. You get to soak them in ice water, and they’ll be completely fine with it. But, you’ll have to be fine with it yourself. Otherwise, you’d better lock yourself indoors for the holidays. The Water Festival in Laos was great. I loved the look on some ones face when you dump a bucket of water on them. Also, Flight Of The Gibbon, which was a zip line course, was AWESOME. You’d think there’d be no Gibbons, but I actually saw a family of them! They were adorable

Good enough answers for you? If not, I can’t see why. Those are not-so-common places people like to vacation at, but I think less touristy places are better. When there aren’t a lot of tourists around, people act like themselves and you know you’re not living in a lie.

IF you ever want to travel, my vote is on these places, because I love them and they’ll always be special to me.

But anyway, I’m back it America my home sweet home. I’ll tell you if something good happens, which it will, trust me

BYE!!

Give $5 or more to Round the World with Us for Japan Red Cross Earthquake Relief and we’ll send you one of these super-awesome “We Are One” charity bracelets.

We got them by donating $1,000 ourselves to the Red Cross when we visited Disneyland Tokyo yesterday.

Please click here to give now!

Here in Japan, Thousands upon thousands of people have lost their homes, family members, and/or friends. Japan has had many earthquakes before, but none this colossal, none so devastating.

Japan was hit hard. First the 9.0 magnitude earthquake stuck (the largest on record in Japan, and in the top 5 largest on record worldwide), which triggered the Tsunami and destroyed the homes of thousands of people, casting them out into the streets. Their homes and possessions were washed out to sea, destroyed or covered in muck.

As you know, the nuclear power plant in Japan had several explosions and is still facing a terribly dangerous situation. Most of my friends and family warned me to stay away from Japan altogether, saying that radiation was being strewn everywhere and it was going to become a dead zone. I don’t know what will happen eventually, but from what I see of Japan, the country is certainly not a dead zone, and radiation outside of a 50km radius measures from very low to 0 right now.

What I think is important right now is for people to pull together, whether they are dealing with the nuclear disaster, putting their lives back together after losing their home or a loved one (or both!), opening their homes to fellow Japanese as temporary housing, or live half a world away, in a country like America.

That is why I think we should all give something to help.

What it’s like here now:

The power plant was generating a big portion of electricity for a large amount of people. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power.  But gradually they have restored most of the power, lights have been turned on, temporary shelters were set up for the newly homeless, and people started the process of recovering from such devastation.

While visiting Tokyo, I can see that Japan is being very careful to conservative electricity. The subway system in Tokyo doesn’t run many of its escalators right now.  (meaning I have climbed many, many, many stairs traveling on the subway and the connected Japan Rail system!!) People make sure to shut of the lights when they are not needed…and there are signs everywhere as reminders.  Electric hand driers in bathrooms are turned off completely.

Disney questioned whether it should reopen because of the huge amount of electricity it uses. Some said that all that power could be used for something better, that it was a waste to use all power for rides and parades and that many people would be afraid to visit Japan.  But Japan is a vibrant country with a huge economy that depends on companies being open for business and lives getting back to normal as soon as possible.  I think it’s just like when people in the US needed to get over their fear of traveling after 9/11, Japan needs to deal with its emergency situation the best it can by controlling the radiation as much as possible, telling people the truth about what is safe and what isn’t, and then encouraging people to get on with their every day lives.

Disney decided to reopen in April, but it doesn’t put on most of its shows (like the electric light parade and the light show at the end of the night) in order to conserve energy.   Disney also donates part of the purchase price of every ticket and raises other funds for the Japanese Red Cross Society at its park. There we even girl scout troops just outside the park who were so cute that everyone seemed to be donating to them for earthquake relief!

There are volunteers all over the affected areas in Japan distributing food to those who need it, removing debris, uncovering homes, sifting through what is left of destroyed homes, and helping to save whatever can be salvaged, including precious family photos and important papers that are mixed in with all the muck.  They are helping those who need it.

I know most of us can’t help people put their lives back together literally by sifting through ruins for things that can be salvaged, or helping people move to temporary housing, but we can help make sure there is food for them at the distribution centers, that they can get access to medical care while they are in temporary housing, and that they can get the things they need to help them start the process of rebuilding their lives.

How can you do that?

Make a tax-deductible gift to Round the World with Us for the Japan Earthquake Relief Project and we will give 100% of your donation directly to the Japan Red Cross Society. They give all the basic necessities to the homeless of Japan. Food, water, shelter, you name it, the Red Cross is helping thousands recover from what they lost.

In case you weren’t paying attention, when I said it before, when we donated $1,000 ourselves to the Red Cross while visiting Disneyland Tokyo, they gave us 300 super awesome “We are One” charity bracelets (paid for by Disney) in return!  We are going to use these to raise more money:

If you donate 5$ to the ‘Japan Earthquake Relief’ on our website, you can get a super awesome bracelet too!  We will mail it to you.

It one of those rubber-y bracelets and it says “WE are ONE” in both English AND Japanese. So if you want one/ want to help the homeless get food, donate $5 (or more)!

P.S. (we only have 250 bracelets left, so if you want one, you better hurry!)

Please click here to donate now!