Hey everyone in the Salt Lake City area!

“Invisible Children” will be shown on Thursday October 26, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. in the Union Theater at the University of Utah. This is a great, FREE, opportunity to learn a little bit about what is going on in the world today.

Also if you would like to learn more about the ONE campaign, come to the movie and find a ONE group member who will gladly tell you all about it.

Hope to see you there!

I was telling the story of my drive up the west coast, when I was interrupted by a car accident and a trip to Colombia, er, Columbia.

Let’s see, where was I?...

The map above shows my planned route (in red) and the actual route traveled (in blue). After leaving Portland, I drove north to Seattle. I stayed there one night, then took a ferry to Vancouver. Ferry travel is represented by dotted lines. I was in the Vancouver area for several days, before driving back down to Seattle.

Most of the Seattle Photos were taken after my visit to Vancouver. But I’m going to share Seattle photos before Vancouver photos. Thus this becomes a non-chronological story-telling, in the style of Quentin Tarantino.

After four days in the Vancouver area, I was ready to move on. I left town and headed south on Interstate 5.

This is the monument at the Canada/USA border crossing. Inscriptions on the monument read “CHILDREN OF A COMMON MOTHER. MAY THESE GATES NEVER BE CLOSED.” I wonder what the monuments look like on the border with Mexico.

When I entered the United States of America I was dressed up, because I performed a video interview earlier that day.

I stayed for several days with my friend, Bev Pecoraro. Bev’s apartment is located in Bellevue, a close suburb of Seattle. I met Bev three years ago when I was living in Bellevue. After I moved from the Seattle area I stayed in touch with Bev and we have remained close friends.

Bev is so great! Check out the snack she fixed for me when I got into town. Just looking at it makes me hungry.

Bev is a hard-working, kind-spirited, intelligent woman. These are charactaristics that all people should try to foster in themselves. Bev works for a company that makes the Final Fastasy video games, and therefore is the envy of many gamers. She is also working on obtaining her master’s degree in teaching.

During our time together, Bev and I discussed the important role that education plays in efforts to end poverty. I have interviewed many distinguished economists, and they have all reinforced the need for ongoing improvements in educational systems, both in the United States and abroad.

Bev told me about Teach For America, a non-profit group which attracts talented instructors to teach in under-priveleged schools. Teach For America has a useful model for change.

In the past, education reform efforts have generally pushed broad, sweeping measures. These measures are seen in statewide campagins to increase funding and decrease classroom size. These efforts are, in a word, non-local.

By contrast, Teach For America seeks to improve the quality of instruction on a school-by-school basis. It does this by attracting high-achieving college graduates to teach at schools in under-priveleged urban areas. In concept, these efforts are more localized, and therefore should be more effective. I am interested to learn more about this organization.

Bev and I share common interests and common friends.

When I walked into Bev’s bedroom, there was a Tie Man hanging from the light fixture. There’s only one person who can make a Tie Man like that – Matt Deford. In college I was roommates with Matt’s brother, Willie Deford. It turns out that Bev is close friends with Matt Deford’s wife!

I call this photo “The Fall of Icarus.”

Believe it or not, Bev is also friends with my old friend Cindy Ferguson! Cindy and I were friends back in college days. Bev, on the other hand, met Cindy in Seattle.

It’s a small world after all!

One Sunday afternoon Bev and I met up with Cindy and another mutual friend, Kirk Hartman. Cindy’s house is located a few blocks from one of the coolest parks in the world, Gasworks Park.

Gasworks Park lies on the northwestern shore of Lake Union, in north Seattle. If you ever have a chance, you should rent a kayak and row across Lake Union. I once did this with my then-girlfriend Erin Chambers (who is now married and has a different last name).

This park was once an oil refinery or something, but it has since been converted into a post-modern paradise.

Seriously, this place is just cool. And we picked the right day to go there.

It was perfect weather for a picnic.

A nice day to fly a kite…

...if you’re into that kind of thing.

We made friends with some local teenagers.

Meet Dalton, Kevin, Simón, and Clay. Click on the photos to see a bigger image.

These young men are skilled at climbing…

...modeling…

...leaping…

...even from extreme heights!

Their ninja skills are unmatched!

Thanks for hanging out guys. It was a lot of fun!

While at the park, I took a tough-looking photo of my friend Kirk. Notice downtown Seattle and the Space Needle in the background.

Kirk and I are old buddies. One time we scared these girls by hiding an old mannequin in their bathroom. They went in there in the morning, and this creepy-looking human form was there waiting for them. It worked like a charm, scared the daylights out of them! Good times, good times. It was really great to see Kirk again. Kirk, thanks for making the effort to get together and hang out.

If Bev and I were married, this is the photo I would keep on my desk at work. That is, if I still worked at job with a desk.

After leaving the park, we went to see the Freemont Troll. It’s located underneath the north end of the Freemont Bridge.

This is easily one of the top ten craziest things I have ever seen in my life. It’s right up there with donkeys in Mexico that can down a bottle of beer in thirty seconds. If you visit Seattle, this is a must-see. Trust me, the Freemont Troll is way cooler than the Pike Place market. Every city has fish. Only one city has an enormous troll.

While we’re on the topic of cool things to do in Seattle, I also recommend visiting the Experience Music Project.

After visiting the Freemont Troll, Bev and I met up with a couple of her friends for dinner. Jared and Christina are such a cute couple!

We ate at a pizza place down on Alki Beach, in Southwest Seattle. The food there was pretty good.

And the sunset was spectacular!

While I was in town I made a point of visiting my old workplace. Good old M&T Mortgage. Too bad it was a Sunday. I would have liked to have seen my old friends who work there… Kathy O’Banyan, Theresa Nguyen, Cheryl at the front desk, not to mention that one girl who worked in the wholesale department, umm… was it Liddy? no, Tierney, I think… Man, I would love to see those people again! I can’t believe how quickly I’ve forgotten their names!

The wind blows. The leaves rustle. Details fade from the memory.

Quiero decirles “hola” a todos mis amigos de Colombia. Gracias por toda la ayuda y apoyo que me han brindado. Garlys, recibí tu mensaje que me dejaste. Muy lindo. Te agradesco muchísimo, y ya estarás recibiendo un email de mi parte. Hoy regreso a los Estados Unidos, pero volveré entre mas o menos un año.

Now the English part…   Today is my last day in Colombia. I was supposed to fly out today, but I missed my flight. I arrived at the airport at 7:00 am for an 8:00 am flight. I thought an hour was plenty of time and I was even trying to hurry. When I got to the ticket counter they told me the flight was already closed and there was no way I could get on. So I changed the flight to tomorrow.

(Note to travelers: Make sure you arrive at LEAST an hour and a half early for international flights in the Bogotá Airport.)

‘Just as well,’ I thought. ‘This way I can spend the whole day uploading photos. Finally I can tell everyone what kind of replacement vehicle I purchased.’

But then I met a middle-class Brazilian man named Jair (pronounced ‘zjhah-eer’). Jair recently left Brazil for a two-week trip to Costa Rica. His travel plans included a two-day layover in Colombia.

During Jair’s second day in Colombia, he was robbed by common thiefs. It happened in the middle of the day, in a rough neighborhood near downtown Bogotá.

All of Jair’s money, information, and documents (including passport) were in his hip pack. He was walking through town when two young men approached him. One of the men grabbed the hip pack forcefully, breaking the plastic latch on the back. The two men ran away with Jair’s hip pack. A report was filed with the local police department.

As a result Jair now has to return to Brazil to replace his passport, and he is unable to travel to Costa Rica for the time being. Yesterday he spent several hours in the Brazilian Embassy, getting a document that would allow him to return to Brazil without a passport.

At any rate, right now I’m hanging out with Jair at an internet cafe close to my hotel. I got him some food and helped him make some phone calls to let his family know where he is.

I realized that Jair and I have many things in common. For example, when Jair called his family, he decided not to tell them he was robbed because he didn’t want them to worry. He told them only that he had some problems with the immigration department, and that he would be returning to Brazil ahead of schedule.

That’s just like the time when I crashed my car in Northern British Columbia, and I didn’t tell my mom because I didn’t want her to worry too much.

To make a long story short, Jair and I will be busy following up with the police about his passport today. But I promise I’ll stop meeting people and put up a whole bunch of photos when I get back to Alaska.

Today I would first I would like to thank two readers who took the time to make comments on one of my poverty-related posts. Rosie from San Jose recently added her thoughts in response to comments my mom had made about the relationship among homelessness, mental illness and drug use. Thanks to Rosie and my mom for contributing to the discussion.

On a different note, tonight (October 10th) HBO is airing a documentary, called The Journalist and the Jihadi, about the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl by Pakistani militants. This promises to be interesting material with some useful insights into the world situation. Unfortunately my hotel doesn’t have HBO (or a microwave for that matter), so I won’t be able to watch it tonight. Any readers who have watched this documentary, please leave a comment and share your thoughts about the film and its subject matter.

Since we’re on the topic of documentaries, I am including here a list of other relatively current documentaries on the “interesting and relevant” list. The film title appears followed by the Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating (in parantheses) and a description of the film.

An Inconvenient Truth (92%) – A basic overview of the causes and expected effects of global warning
Who Killed the Electric Car? (90%) – An investigation into the political and economic factors contributing to the failure of electric car in the automobile market
Africa Open For Business (n/a) – A look at the influence of global trade in Africa, airing on PBS this fall
Invisible Children (n/a) – A film about child abductions by militant groups in Uganda

Do your brain a favor, watch a documentary. Then come back to this post and make some comments about the film and its content.

The Salt Lake City ONE Group will host showing of Invisible Children sometime in upcoming weeks. KereAna, when you know the time and location of the showing will you advertise it within the comments of this post?

In the aftermath of my automobile accident, my 4Runner was towed to Terrace, British Columbia, a small city near Prince Rupert. We held a small memorial service, with music provided by the staff of Pronto Towing. Click here to watch the video.

Improvements to the sound quality and other details will happen after I return to the U.S. and gain access to a normal keyboard. Incidentally, if you’re ever in Latin America, and you’re trying to type the @ symbol, you have to hold Alt, then hit 6, then 4. Crazy, but true!

I’m updating this post from an Internet Cafe in Bogota. I edited the funeral video on my laptop in my hotel room. The world is truly an amazing place! And if you’re not already convinced, check this out! 

Glaciers, the Northern Lights, Helicopter Rides, Colombian – er – Columbian Coffee… It’s all coming during the month of October!