Hello from Rochester: A Discovery of its Architectural Jewels

July 30, 2005

Hello from Rochester: A Discovery of its Architectural Jewels

My second day in Rochester started off with a lovely Park Avenue neighbourhood breakfast and an exploration of the ArtWalk neighbourhood. I only had a few hours left before I would have to hop back on the high-speed ferry, the CAT, to Toronto, and I definitely wanted to get a more indepth look at some of Rochester's historical architecture. Rochester is one of those North American cities that has managed to preserve a good portion of its historical masterpieces, despite the "urban renewal" efforts of the 1960s that saw many historic buildings razed and replaced with nameless, faceless skyscrapers and office buildings.

We started our architectural tour right at the foot of the building that fascinated me the most: the Times Square Building. However, an equipment malfunction (i.e. empty batteries) forced me to search for a convenience store, and my local expert Patti came to my aid and took me to another historical building, the Reynolds Arcade, where I was able to replace my batteries and continue my photographic journey.

Rochester has a surprising amount of historical architecture, here is just a tiny sample of some of the well-preserved buildings.

There would have been so many more buildings to see, but my stay in Rochester was rapidly coming to end. My departure on the ferry was scheduled for 3:30 pm and we still had to have lunch and check out the Charlotte area surrounding the Rochester ferry terminal.

So we headed off on the green highways of the city, which is located about 13 km (8 miles) south of Charlotte on Lake Ontario. This time I really enjoyed the drive through the well-manicured streets of Rochester since a crystal-blue sky brought out the vibrant colours of the surrounding scenery.

We had a casual lunch in the bright sunshine on the patio of the Pelican's Nest restaurant, located right on the Western shore of the Genesee River. The view from the restaurant is great - you get to peak out at an old, now unused swivelling railroad bridge that marks the center of the river. Families of ducks, sail boats and kayakers round out the serene picture.

About half an hour before the departure of the ferry we checked out Ontario Beach Park which features a beautiful sandy beach, a boardwalk, various concession stands, a community center as well as the famous historic Denzel Carousel, created by Gustav A. Denzel, a German immigrant to Philadelphia who opened a cabinet making shop and found his calling in carving horses. He introduced a novel mechanism that allowed the animals on the carousel to go up and down. Today there are only 26 Denzel carousels left, of which 14 are still in operation. Interestingly enough, the only one left in Canada is located in Toronto, in the Centreville Amusement Park, just a ferry ride away from Rochester...

Just minutes before getting on the ferry my local experts Patti and Carrie said they couldn't let me go before exposing me to another Rochesterian specialty: a sample of Abbot's frozen custard! I had never tasted frozen custard before, I guess it's very similar to icecream, just smoother and creamier.

So after a very fulfilling taste of chocolate and almonds I made my way onto the Spirit of Ontario ferry, also referred to as the CAT, and I watched our slow departure from the ferry dock from the top open-air deck of the vessel. As the vessel sped up to its top speed of almost 80 kph (50 mph) I stood out there watching the Port of Rochester and the southern shorelines of Lake Ontario disappear. I thought that I had had a fabulous time in picturesque Rochester, and now that the ferry makes things so much more accessible, I am planning to come back to check out Rochester and its surrounding area in more detail in the future.

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Hello from Rochester: Exploring ArtWalk - A Fabulous Outdoor Art Experience

July 29, 2005

Hello from Rochester: Exploring ArtWalk - A Fabulous Outdoor Art Experience

If you have read my articles for a while, you know that I am a visual arts lover. One of the highlights of my Rochester trip was a walk through the Neighbourhood of the Arts.

My local experts Patti and Carrie met me in the morning and we started off with a lovely breakfast at a restaurant called Jine's, located in a bustling neighbourhood on Park Avenue. The friendly feel of this city became evident when several passers-by stopped by to chat with Patti and I was vaguely reminded of my home town in Europe, where everybody knows everybody and people still say hello. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere on the patio as the local residents read the paper, savoured their coffees, walked their dogs or started to go about their errands. Sometimes smaller cities have a more tranquil ambience to them.

After strenghtening ourselves with a nice breakfast we set off to explore Rochester's Neighbourhood of the Arts. Set in the middle of this neighbourhood is the Memorial Art Gallery on University Avenue. With its comprehensive collections spanning 50 centuries, the museum hosts travelling exhibitions and operates a popular gift shop and restaurant. Every September it hosts the Clotheslines Arts Festival. ArtWalk is Rochester outdoor art museum and features sidewalk imprints, artistic benches, tiled light poles, sculptures and other artistic endeavours.

The Neighbourhood of the Arts has won several awards and I thought it was just an awesome i regular nice-looking neighbourhood into a stunning, creative destination full of outdoor art installations. The idea with the decorative benches in particular introduces the element of street life, inviting residents and visitors alike to sit down and enjoy the visual pleasures offered by this outdoor art experience.

After exploring this lovely neighbourhood, we continued our exploration of Rochester and the next item on our itinerary was an exploration of the well-preserved architecture downtown.


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Hello from Rochester: A Perfect Getaway for Stressed Out Torontonians (and Other Urbanites)

July 29, 2005

Hello from Rochester: A Perfect Getaway for Stressed Out Torontonians (and Other Urbanites)

Two days ago I took the CAT fast ferry from Toronto to Rochester and arrived well-rested after a 2.5 hour boat ride in the Port of Rochester, a scenic Rochester suburb called Charlotte. I was greeted by Patti and Carrie from the Rochester Visitors Association who had helped me with my itinerary and were kind enough to show me around.

It had been raining all day and Port Charlotte greeted me with grey skies and deep-hanging clouds. But the first thing I noticed as we drove towards downtown Rochester was the amount of green spaces and parks. We drove through a number of nicely manicured neighbourhoods and Patti showed me some of the amazing parks systems that Rochester has to offer. We drove through Genesee Valley Park, designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead who also designed Central Park in New York City.

We then headed to Highland Park where each May the City holds the annual Lilac Festival, when more than 1,200 lilac bushes of different varieties and colours burst into bloom. Driving through beautiful neighbourhoods with large villas and expansive front lawns we made our way to Cobbs Hill Park which is located on a hill and holds a water reservoir with a fountain. The unique thing about Cobbs Hill Park is that there is one spot in this elevated green zone from where you can perfectly see the skyline of Rochester away in the distance, past the lush green neighbourhoods that stretch in front of downtown.

After exploring some of the expansive parks of Rochester as well as the beautiful Victorian-era Mt. Hope Cemetery, we slowly made our way downtown on East Avenue, a historic street with extensive mansions. One of Rochester's famous home-grown entrepreneurs is George Eastman, the founder of the Eastman-Kodak Corporation, which to this day has its headquarters in Rochester. Eastman was a great benefactor to the city and donated the greatest part of his wealth, estimated at $2 billion in today's dollars, to different medical, cultural and educational institutions throughout the city. We briefly stopped at his home, the Eastman House, an elegant 50-room Colonial Revival Mansion surrounded by formal gardens.

Following the Eastman House, which also contains the International Museum of Photography and Film, we crossed over to University Avenue to the Neighbourhood of the Arts, or also referred to as Artwalk. This is a stretch of road down University Avenue which houses studios, galleries, art and antique retailers in a neighbourhood of post-war apartment buildings, multi-family Victorian mansions and charming cottages.

The award winning Artwalk features sidewalk imprints, artistic benches, tiled light poles, sculptures and bus shelters all the way from the George Eastman House towards the stunning neogothic building of the Memorial Art Gallery. Every September this neighbourhood hosts the Clothesline Art Show.

After Artwalk we headed down Main Street into the downtown area. I got a look at the Eastman Theatre, home of the Eastman School of Music, one of the top music schools in the country. The Eastman Theatre itself is an interesting building, curved and classically styled, it is literally cut off on one side since a neighbour of George Eastman demanded an exorbitant price for his property, and rather than giving in to these demands, Eastman simply decided to stop the building at the property line.

Our next stop was the Browns Race and High Falls Area: one of the city's newest entertainment districts. Rochester was once known as the Flour City for all the wheat grinding that occurred along its River. Today, the Brown's Race area is a national register historic district. The area sits above the Genesee River, right next to the thundering High Falls. The Pont de Rennes bridge is a pedestrian bridge, connecting the east and west side of the city, and is named after Rochester's sister city in France.

Many of the former industrial buildings have been renovated and are now occupied by ad agencies, tech companies and engineering firms. The streets in the district have cobble-stoned pavement and feature historically styled street lighting. There are a number of entertainment places in the area, including the Triphammer Grill, which has a patio area overlooking the falls. Beside this restaurant is an old water wheel, testimony to this area's milling history. It's a very atmospheric place and an example of a successful conversion of an old industrial area into a modern entertainment district.

The Kodak headquarters are not far away from the High Falls area, and our tour continued past a number of the downtown streets. As a true architecture buff, I marveled at how many of Rochester's historic buildings have been preserved. There are entire blocks that have an intact 19th century street front, some with cast iron architecture. There was no time to explore the architecture in detail, that would have to wait for my second day in town. But needless to say, I knew I had found a city that had preserved a lot of its architectural heritage that would require further exploration.

We crossed into the city's west end and passed by a famous tavern called Nick Tahou's House, which is the home of the "garbage plate": a plate full of hamburgers, fries, and a variety of other heart-attack inducing delicacies. This route took us past a beautiful modern townhouse development that, surprisingly enough, holds recently built subsidized housing. We then made our way towards Susan B. Anthony's house. Anthony was a daring social activist who insisted on voting rights for women and was arrested in 1872 for voting in the presidential election, challenging the law. Her house was a congregation for many of her activist friends, including the famous suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Rochester's history includes another famous activist, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and both Susan B. Anthony and Federick Douglass are featured in sculptures in a little park just down the road from the Susan B. Anthony House.

We then took in the Corn Hill neighbourhood, an area with tidy historic homes that hosts the Corn Hill Arts Festival every July. The next stop on our itinerary was the Strong Museum, ranked one of the top 10 children's museums in the United States. It holds the National Toy Hall of Fame and many world renowned collections of toys, miniatures, dollhouses as well as the world's most comprehensive collection of dolls. The entrance area features an authentic 1950s diner still in operation and an antique carousel.

Crossing the city again into the east end, past tree lined avenues with attractive homes, we headed outside of town to a quaint Rochester suburb called Fairport, located on the Erie Canal. On the way we passed through the wealthy suburb of Pittsford, which is the location of the Oak Hill Country Club where the 2003 PGA Championships were held. On our way to Fairport we drove past St. John Fisher College which is the location of the Buffalo Bill's training camp. Fairport itself is a gorgeous little village with beautiful storefronts, a river walk and public docking facilities. We caught a glimpse of the Colonial Belle, a 2-deck sight-seeing boat that cruises the Erie Canal.

From Fairport we went back to Pittsford, whose quaint historical center is also located right on the Erie Canal. Pittsford has a number of retail stores and restaurants that are built around an old lumber mill and it is the home of the Sam Patch, an excursion and charter boat that is a replica of an old canal packet boat. Both Fairport and Pittsford reminded me of Niagara-on-the-Lake with beautifully restored architecture, colourful overflowing flower baskets, and a variety of shopping and dining opportunities.

Well, after this comprehensive sightseeing program it was time to go for dinner. We headed up towards the Lake Ontario shoreline and into beautiful Irondequoit Bay. The name for this large bay of water is from the Iroquois Nation and means "where the two waters meet." The Native Americans once used this bay and the incoming Irondequoit Creek for canoe travel to avoid the high falls on the Genesee River. At the southern end of the bay is a large attractively styled new restaurant called Bazil's which features casual Italian cuisine.

Although the restaurant is fairly new, the place was absolutely packed, and the first thing we noticed was the chandelier in the front entrance hall which is made completely of wine bottles. We waited for about 15 minutes and then had a great dinner in the bay-side dining room area. I enjoyed the dinner which was capped off by the largest and most delicious funnel cake I have ever seen.

After this long day of sightseeing Patti and Carrie dropped me off at the Holiday Inn Express where I had well-deserved night's rest since another round of sightseeing would await me in just a few hours. My first day in Rochester had left me with a number of impressions:

- the large expanses of green spaces within the city
- meticulously manicured neighbourhoods with attractive well
-kept homes- several vibrant entertainment districts, including the historic High Falls area
- one of my favourite spots: the outdoor art experience of ArtWalk
- the historic buildings of the downtown core
- and the beautiful bayside dining at Bazil's.

I admit I didn't know much about Rochester before I got there, but the scenic quality of its suburban and downtown neighbourhoods definitely struck me. Combined with convenient access to water sports on the Erie Canal and Lake Ontario as well as to a huge variety of sports activities including golf, hiking, biking and skiing ust minutes from the downtown core, I realized why Rochester's slogan is "Made for Living".

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Hello from Rochester: The CAT - An Awesome Beast

July 29, 2005

Hello from Rochester: The CAT - An Awesome Beast

For a while now I have been dreaming of taking the recently re-introduced high-speed ferry service from Toronto to Rochester. The ferry service briefly ran last year, introduced by a group of private investors, but stopped running after a few weeks due to financial difficulties. It was reintroduced this year after the City of Rochester purchased the ferry at an auction and contracted an experienced ferry service based out of Nova Scotia to run it.

North America's newest CAT fast ferry is an amazing vessel. Built in Australia in 2003, it made its way around the globe to its new home on Lake Ontario in 2005. It's as long as a football field and can also reach speeds of up to 80 kilometers or 52 miles an hour. The CAT can carry up to 774 passengers and 220 cars, and is one of the fastest and largest car ferries in North America.

It's a sharp-looking ship and its aerodynamic style and 44,000 horsepower engines allow it to make the lake-crossing within only 2.5 hours. I had a look around the ship and when you first come upstairs from the cargo hold area, you arrive in a sleekly designed passenger room that has airline-style seats, some of them with tables in-between so people can comfortably sit down and enjoy food that they may have purchased at one of a number of on-ship bars and bistros.

I took a stroll around the ship and was quite astounded by the amenities: the CAT offers 2 movie theatres, a duty-free shop, a video arcade / children's game area and a gorgeous Panorama seating area at the front of the ship that allows you to take in the scenery as you approach the harbours.

While it was raining 2 days ago on my trip to Rochester, yesterday was a crisp day with crystal-blue skies and the experience of approaching Toronto's skyline in the ferry was breathtaking. The Panorama lounge holds comfortable table and airliner-style seating and offers excellent views through its large windows. The only unfortunate thing is that when you ride the ferry with your car, you have to leave about 10 minutes early to get to your vehicle so you don't get to see the complete docking process.

I really enjoyed the expansiveness of the CAT. You can walk around, sit in different areas, or you can go up to the top level viewing deck and watch the vessel depart the harbour. Since it was such a beautiful day yesterday, I went upstairs to the open-air deck and watched the process as the ferry pulled away from the attractive Rochester Ferry Terminal, a 55,000 sf terminal facility built at the Rochester Harborwith ground level restaurant and retail facilities. Then it slowly proceeded to glide out between the two long stone piers, and picked up speed once out on the open water.

The return price for one passenger is US$ 144.00 including passenger, vehicle transportation and security fees and it shaves substantial time off the drive the Rochester. There is a $15 return vehicle discount in addition to numerous packages and special offers throughout the year. I thought one of the greatest advantages of taking the ferry are the border processing facilities. The inspection procedures on both the American and Canadian side were extremely efficient and friendly and definitely alleviated one of my worst fears of crossing the border since 911: the wait times at the border crossings. If passengers have proper ID and travel documents as required by Canada and US Customs, the check-through procedures are very smooth. On the way back I was actually the second vehicle out of the ship and within less than 5 minutes I was on my way home, well-rested after an exciting , luxurious high-speed adventure across Lake Ontario.

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Hello from the Ottawa River - And Reflections on City Life

July 25, 2005

Hello from the Ottawa River - And Reflections on City Life

So Friday I decided to head out on a kayaking weekend with my friend Leslie. This was the first time in about 8 years that I went camping again, and I had a ball sleeping under the stars. A fabulous weekend in nature makes you think about life a little bit, so here are a few snapshots of what's been going through my head in the last few days. In particular, I have been thinking about our lifestyles in the city and some of the stark contrasts with the experiences of this weekend.

City snapshot number 1: Thursday night I linked up with a friend of mine who works for a big international bank in finance. He was telling me how his employer was sending around a survey to find out what tasks people were spending time on at work, all for the purpose of efficiency and downsizing the workforce. In his employee newsletter he read that his company was proud that the annual turnover rate among employees is now below 30% (!), and this was a big story in the newsletter. We were wondering why a turnover of almost 1/3 of the entire staff in a year would be considered a good thing, considering the recruitment, training and outplacement costs as well as the disruptions caused by a constantly fluctuating workforce. But on a few days of the year his company gives away free icecream cones to their employees....

City snapshot number 2:Leslie and I left to go on our kayaking excursion at 3 pm Friday. We left in mid-town, just north of the 401, Toronto's major cross-town highway. It took us about an hour and a half, to get to Toronto's eastern suburbs, from about Pickering onwards we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic until I had enough and headed northwards to a local road where at least we were moving in between being stopped at red lights.

City snapshot number 3:At the outdoor adventure camp I actually talked to another weekend traveller who told me that he worked for many years for a major international paper manufacturer until he got unceremoniously laid off a few years ago. He had been living and working in Toronto's east end. After his lay-off he finally found a job in Toronto's west end and he ended up commuting probably about 2 hours in rush hour traffic on a daily basis between his house in the east end to his new workplace in Toronto's west end. He figures there is no point in moving since he doesnt' know when he's going to get laid off again and where his next job might be.

City snapshot number 4:This same person told me that one of the travellers in his group was trying to use her cell phone in the middle of the wilderness on Calumet Island in the Ottawa River. She even tried to get up on a picnic table and lifted the cell phone up in the air to try to get better reception. He found it rather ridiculous that someone would need to make a cell phone call during an 2-day weekend outing into nature. I guess we need to be wired all the time these days.

City snapshot number 5:Life is speeding up all around us. To meet a friend for coffee you now need at least 3 weeks notice and set up an appointment. People work on the weekend, according to official statistics, many Canadians don't even manage to take advantage of their full 2 weeks of vacation since they can't get away from work. I was talking to a client recently who works for a major international retailer. I asked her why she doesn't work from home since she receives all her documents electronically from head office anyways. She said the head office people just don't trust people working from home, so she continues to spend 2.5 hours a day in traffic (on a good day, way more during a snowstorm...)

Country snapshot number 1:After getting out of rush hour traffic my friend and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive into Eastern Ontario, particularly once we headed north of Belleville into the rolling hills, past tiny country towns and provincial parks. Saturday morning we were woken up by the mooing sounds of cows who were announcing day break. The sounds of crickets and cicadas filled the air in the campground.

Country snapshot number 2:The facilities at the Equinox river rafting camp are extremely basic. We realize that we can get by on 2 toilets in tiny plywood cubicles and 4 co-ed shower stalls that are located in a wooden shed. We sleep in a tent on a mat, I forgot my pillow and I borrow Leslie's mini-pillow. There is no Internet, no cell phones, no appointments, no fancy clothes, no make-up.

Country snapshop number 3:Evening in the campground. About 60 city folks are letting out their inner child, they are partying, shouting, playing music, having fun. That's what it looks like when city people let loose. The next night is a lot quieter, after a full day of paddling the rafters and kayakers are tired and Saturday night was a much tamer affair.

Country snapshot number 4:I am doing my interview with Krista, the spunky young intern at Equinox' river camp. I ask her if it would be possible to borrow one of the bicycles that were leaning against the shed. "Sure", she says, "just help yourself, my bike is the silver-coloured one. Just grab it whenever you feel like it". You don't see this easy-going generosity in the city.

Country snapshot number 5:During the interview, Krista tells me that a number of her rafting/kayaking guide colleagues are living in tents, in a tree house or in a cobbled-together shack during the summer. During the winter they go off to teach English as a Second Language, study theatre, teach skiing or plant trees and do horticulture in the spring. Krista mentions a key phrase several times: "It's amazing how little you need to live." And this morcel of wisdom is coming from a 25-year old woman! The guides are young adults that co-exist without a lot of structure, very few rules, and they are just having fun doing sports they love and interacting with the clients. And somehow they manage to feed the clients and safely get them down the river. Everybody, the guides and the clients, feels like a kid again.....

Makes you think, doesn't it?

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Hello from the Ottawa River: Mating in the Wild and Other Diversions

July 25, 2005

Hello from the Ottawa River: Mating in the Wild and Other Diversions

On July 23 and 24 my friend Leslie and I went on a weekend adventure: a learn-how-to-kayak weekend on the Ottawa River. We had a great time, combining sports and relaxation on a weekend away from the city.

As you know, wherever I am, I keep my eyes open for interesting travel-related story ideas, and one story idea decidedly hit me right in the face when we started socializing with the other weekend vacationers. There was a group of 36 people who had all come on a bus from Toronto to go rafting for the weekend, and the trip was organized by a company called Meet Market Adventures.

Their website says that Meet Market Adventures promotes singles travel in Canada & the United States for busy singles seeking adventurous singles travel vacations in Canada & the United States. Apparently you can choose from over 30 adventures for every interest in any month and enjoy the great outdoors with hiking, biking, sky diving, skiing and lots of other activities.

At breakfast on Saturday morning we got to know a few people from the group and they told us that this singles travel company organizes everything from after-work get-togethers in local bars to one or two-day weekend getaways, to week-long cruises and other outings.

Well, I am solidly married woman, so I am not personally concerned about finding a mate, but I have lots of single female friends who are experiencing varying degrees of frustration with the dating world and have tried everything from online dating sites like Lava Life, to speed dating services, to more personalized match-making services, with decidedly mixed success.

During the past weekend the hobby behavioural scientist in me made an appearance and I tried to study the dynamics of this group as much as possible. Friday night was a very rowdy night on the campground and I can only conclude that this group (probably the largest group on the campground) as well as some other smaller groups took advantage of a weekend away from home and really let loose. There was lots of hollering, loud music, obviously plenty of drinking, and from the sounds of it, people had a pretty entertaining time.

Saturday was the first day of rafting for these groups and since we went kayaking instead of rafting, we didn't have any interactions with the singles group during the day. In the evening we headed down to a dock by the river front and bumped into 6 members of the group: 4 males and 2 females who were chatting in a very orderly way and taking in the sunset. Everybody was very friendly and the ladies including us said goodbye after about half an hour to head back to the campgrounds.

We had a nice chat with one of the ladies from the singles travel group who said that she has participated in several major adventure events organized by Meet Market Adventures and she quite enjoyed them, although her dating results to date have been mixed.

Once back at the campground we briefly joined our white water kayaking colleagues at the campfire on the top campground, designated for "quiet campers". Here totally opposite dynamics were at play: these were 2 couples who had been together for 5 and 8 years respectively, and one of the couples just recently found out that they are expecting a baby.
Definitely no mating help needed here...

After about 10 pm we joined Krista's "poise" performance on the middle campground which was the home base of the Meet Market travel group. Krista delivered 4 performances of poise, a martial art used by the Maori people that involves two wires with a wick at the end that is set on fire. It was an awesome performance, and the guys in particular seemed to enjoy it since Krista is not only talented, she's also a very cute-looking young woman.

As the evening went on, one of the single travellers declared himself the "leader of the tribe" and proceeded to play the bongo drums that had accompanied Krista's performance earlier. He certainly had an interesting concept of rhytthm and style. He also delivered a graceful dance around the campfire in a towel and for some reason kept referring to my friend Leslie and me either as "the kayak girls" or "the sacrificial virgins" (yeah right..), but overall the tribal leader turned out to be a lot less obnoxious than he initially seemed to be. I was wondering who was actually going to get voted off the campground by the end of the night....;)

My friend and I had a great time socializing with a few people from this group, jokes were flying the whole evening, we even went down to the 3rd campground level (designated specifically for noisy campers...) where the local residents had the biggest bonfire on the go that you can imagine. It was one of those evenings where you just feel giddy and laugh your head off, both Leslie and I unaided by alcohol since neither one of us actually drinks. Mind-altering drugs weren't necessary, since this was an evening of pure unadulterated, spontaneous and harmless fun.

Overall the single travellers seemed to have a great time. There definitely seemed to be more group socializing going on than individual mating attempts, and overall it seemed to be a pretty respectable way of connecting with other like-minded human beings, male or female for that matter.

Leslie and I headed to bed at around 1 am, but many in the crowd were still going strong. The next morning the group had another day of rafting scheduled and some people had been on the go until 6 am, when the cows made their wake-up calls and daily inspection and paddie-dropping run through the campgrounds. There were a few bed-heads and red eyes in the crowd and I didn't envy these folks for having to go rafting on whitewater for the whole day after a night of hearty partying.

The crowd returned at about 2 pm, and there were even more tired faces in the group. They were safely packed into their bus, ready to go home to Toronto, until next time. All I can say is that an adventure outing for a group of single adventure travellers seems like a pretty decent alternative for people who want to make friends with shared interests. Whether it is a good mating venue only time will tell.....

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For more travel articles, advice, photos, interesting interviews &
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Hello from the Ottawa River - Learning How to Whitewater Kayak (and how the river kicked my ass...)

July 25, 2005

Hello from the Ottawa River - Learning How to Whitewater Kayak (and how the river kicked my ass...)

Way back when in February I went to the Outdoor Adventure Show and I twisted my friend Leslie's arm to go on a learn-how-to-kayak weekend with me. We booked 2 days including meals, kayaking lessons and camping accommodation with a company called Equinox Adventures that has a rafting and kayaking camp located on Calumet Island in the Ottawa River.

So Friday we got ready, I picked Leslie up from work and we headed off on Highway 401 east of Toronto. We got stuck in rush hour traffic for a solid hour and half until I decided to go north of the highway to take a country road. We stopped in for a nice little dinner in Belleville, and after driving through the beautiful countryside in Eastern Ontario and after getting lost on the winding roads near our destination, we finally set up our tent at about 11 pm, illuminated by the headlights of my car.

Equinox river camp is very basic, located around an old farmhouse are 3 different campgrounds (for noisy, semi-noisy and quiet campers..), an outbuilding with extremely basic men's and women's bathrooms that have 2 toilet stalls as well as 4 functioning shower stalls in a co-ed shower and an outdoor eating area covered by tarps that are draped over metal railings. Luxury accommodation this is definitely not.

Saturday morning we got started early, we actually got woken up by the mooing of cows in the farmers field next door at about 6 am. Other campers reported that some of the cows took a walk right through the camp ground and actually left some sizeable paddies behind. It was fabulous to be in a tent again after not having gone camping for about 8 years.... We got a simple breakfast, some pancakes and pre-packaged muffins (some of them a little furry) and we started picking our kayak gear and headed off with our knowledgeable guide Christine and her helper Krista in a van to the Ottawa River. We got suited up with our life jackets, helmets and sprayskirs, and then put our kayaks in the water.

I had a devil of a time getting my sprayskirt over the kayak's opening because it was so tight. We started with simple paddling exercises in the calm waters of the Rocher Fendu dam and first learned how to do a "wet exit": after you tip the kayak and are underneath the vessel (panic time for most people) we were taught to rip the sprayskirt off and swim our way out of the kayak.

Paddling was quite difficult since the angle of the blades of the paddle is offset, so while your right hand is supposed to stay still, the left hand is supposed to tilt a little so the left blade of the paddle goes into the water at the proper angle. I had a bit of a problem with that since my right arm is way stronger than my left arm (from playing tennis) and I couldn't get the entry angle of the left side of the paddle right, so many times I ended up going in a circle off to the left, having to paddle 3 or 4 times on the left side just to straighten myself out again. The kayaks are perfectly flat on the bottom, so there is no hull to help you out with the tracking on the water.

Paddling got a little more difficult when we went up the Ottawa River and my own personal faulty technique caused me to veer off to the left all the time, causing me to get caught in the current of the river, drifting downstream, against the direction of where we were trying to go. I then realized a few things: that the currents on a river as big as the Ottawa River are extremely strong and that my upper body strength was waning pretty quickly. I really developed some major respect for the river and for the skills involved in kayaking.

To be honest, I never quite got the hang of it. We were taught skills like "ferrying", i.e. getting across a current at an angle, or the "T-rescue", where a second kayak comes up to you after you have tipped your kayak and are trapped underneath the boat in the water. You are then supposed to tap on your own kayak 3 times to make noise to alert other paddlers that you have capsized. Then you have to reach along the side of the boat to locate the second kayak, and then you put both hands on the other kayak and twist yourself out from underneath your own vessel with a flick of the hips.

I have to admit, I am a pretty athletic person, and I love speedy sports like downhill skiing and mountain biking, and I am actually pretty good at them. But some things about whitewater kayaking gave me the chills, just the idea of getting entrapped upside down underneath the kayak, possibly snagged by a rock underneath the water, and not being able to get back up freaked me out.

So I decided that in the future I would try calmer water sports such as canoeing or sea kayaking on a calm lake, instead of facing mortal danger on the rapids. To reassure all of you readers though: all the other kayaking students did fine, they went upriver, and came down through some mild rapids and had a great time paddling themselves around on the Ottawa River on Saturday and Sunday. And Christine, our guide, was very helpful, and there was always another kayaking student around to help you if you were in trouble, so assistance to safety was never far away.

Saturday evening we actually watched a safety video for whitewater kayaking and in the video I realized that advanced whitewater kayaking is a pretty dangerous sport and the risk of drowning or hurting yourself by getting entrapped in rocks or "strainers" (fallen tree branches that stick out of the water) is substantial and must be avoided at all cost. We also learned that working as a team and rescuing one's team mates are critical life-saving skills. By this time I had already decided that I would trade my second day of kayaking lessons in for some mountain biking on Sunday, combined with a little photo safari of Calumet Island.

So Sunday morning, after my interview with Krista, she was kind enough to lend me her mountain bike and I grabbed my camera and started my discovery of Calumet Island, a large island in the Ottawa River wedged between Ontario and Quebec. I cycled through forests, rolling hills, grazing pastures and past a few extremely well-kept country properties. I spent about an hour cycling on dirt roads to the edge of the Ottawa River where I started to experiment with my camera a little bit.

My brother-in-law Roger, a consummate graphic designer and visual artist, had recently taught me how to do close-up shots of plants and other objects, so I started experimenting taking close-range shots of plants and flowers right next to the Ottawa River. This was the first time I experimented with this photo technique and I have to say I was reasonably pleased with the outcome once I came home last night and downloaded the images.

On my way back from the river I had an interesting encounter: I drove by a barn and saw 2 horses grazing in the distance. They looked up and noticed me, and as if on cue, two other horses came out of the barn as well. They started approaching me, as I was standing on the side of the road, behind a wire fence. All four horses came trotting towards me. About half way from me they stopped in unison, checked me out, then looked at each other, figured they had seen all they needed to see, and trotted off in perfect coordination again. It was a really comical cross-species encounter and I ended up chuckling to myself when the horses disappeared again into the barn.

After my 2 hour mountain biking excursion I spent the rest of Sunday exploring the island in my car and drove through rolling hills and farm land. Upon my return to the camp ground I spread out a blanket under a tree and did some open-air reading. All the other campers were gone to either river raft or kayak, and the campground was totally quiet, all you could hear were the crickets and an occasional moo from a cow. It was serenity at its best. The other rafters and kayakers came back in the afternoon and they all reported that they had had a fabulous time at their respective water sports.

At about 4:30 we headed back out on the road and did a nice 5 hour highly scenic drive through towns like Eganville and Bancroft that are surrounded by rolling hills, lush green forests and ancient rock faces, before we headed into the serene lake district of the Kawartha Highlands. It was a perfect weekend - a combination of adventure and relaxation under crystal blue skies, and it just taught me how beautiful the back roads of Ontario can be.

www.textronics.bellnet.ca

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Krista Scott: A Spunky Spirit, Snow Boarder, Surfer Girl, Australian Harvest Worker, Kayaking Intern and ESL Teacher in Vietnam

July 25, 2005

Krista Scott: A Spunky Spirit, Snow Boarder, Surfer Girl, Australian Harvest Worker, Kayaking Intern and ESL Teacher in Vietnam

I always keep my eyes open for interesting people, and Krista Scott just absolutely grabbed my attention. I first met Krista 2 days ago on a whitewater kayaking weekend where she accompanied our group to do our first kayaking lessons on the Ottawa River. In the van she told us that she recently did a 13 month trip to Australia where she did all sorts of harvest work in different locations. She also mentioned that she completed an ESL program at the university and is heading off for her first teaching assignment to Vietnam this fall. I knew at that stage that this was a very interesting young woman and I decided I would get to know her a bit better.

Krista is a very cute young woman, always in a good mood and sporting a great smile. Later that evening, Krista gave a special performance after sunset at the campground of something called "poise", a former Martial art developed by the Maori people that involves the rhythmic twirling of two long wires that have a wick at the end that is set on fire. One of her co-workers was playing the bongos and the performance did have a very aboriginal feel to it. The image that is created in the dark is of circles of fires whirling around the performer in perfect coordination with the rhythm.

So without further ado, here is Krista Scott, a very adventurous, endearing young woman, as you will discover yourself.

1) Please tell us about yourself.

I am 25 years old and I'm originally from Cobourg, Ontario. I have always loved the outdoors and loved to play outside. When I finished high school I wasn't ready for university. I went travelling to the prairies and started working in a restaurant in Regina. I met a lot of cool people along the way. From there I went west to work in Alberta as well as in Whistler, B.C. There I worked in a grocery store and at Boston Pizza and spent the rest of my time snowboarding. I also ran into a lot of Aussies there. I knew this was a place that was going to suck you in with its addictive lifestyle, so I decided to head home. Based on my friendships with these people from Australia, I decided to get a working visa for that country, something that was pretty easy to get for a Canadian citizen. I had decided I wanted to go to Australia to travel and work there for a year.

2) Please tell us about your 13 month adventure in Australia.

After a couple of stopovers in Alaska and Hong Kong I landed in Australia. In Alaska I had a chance to see the Aurora Borealis, while Hong Kong struck me as a very busy and smoggy place. But the airport is on an island, which was really interesting.

I landed in Sydney and headed over to New South Wales to link up with a girl I had met at Whistler. I bought a 1984 Toyota Tourago camping van which had a flat nose because the engine was right under the seat. I had a tent and a stove and I lived out of the van. During this time I realized for the first time how little you need to live. I often slept on the roof of the van, looking at the stars.

In South Australia I stayed in a working hostel that connected me to harvest work opportunities. I found these places through the Lonely Planet guidebook, which was tremendously helpful. My first harvest work assignment was to sort potatoes in a shed. This was midnight work since the potatoes' skins would crack during the day time. The heat was often stifling at 42 degrees Celsius. After the potato harvest I also harvested grapes and onions. In total I did about 3 months of harvest work there.

At that time the engine in my camper van seized up and I had to buy a new engine. After it was fixed, together with 8 other people we decided to drive to Central Australia and we visited Ayer's Rock (Uluru) and various other little towns in the area. I heard lots of outback stories from the locals while we were there. We also went to a town called Cooper Pedy, a place where everybody lives underground in caves since the weather is too hot. We stayed in a hostel where the bunkbeds were located in a cave. While I was there I also talked to a group of Hell's Angels bikers, who seemed to be pretty cool people as long as you didn't upset them.

From there I went to the West Coast which is just a beautiful area. There you can have all sorts of beaches to yourself. I went to a place called Exmouth and from there I explored the Nigaloo Reef which is unique since the corals start right at the beach. The scenery is breathtaking. While there I did some harvest work and I ended up picking apples.

Next I explored Northern Australia, including the cities of Cairns and Darwin. There I got a surfboard and did lots of surfing.I explored places like Margaret River and Esperance. My friend from Canada had joined me and we stayed in hostels, parked by the side of the road, camped in caravan parks. At that time I realized that sometimes a hot shower goes a long way....

Queensland was my next stop, it's a beautiful place with lush rainforest. I got myself a job in banana harvesting, started working in the shed, sorting bananas. Then I asked to work outside, which was very unusual for a woman. I got to drive a 4x4 and cut down banans with a machete. Harvest work is done about 80% by backpackers. The local harvest workers are a different crowd of people and they sport some amazing mullets. They are a little reserved at the beginning, but if you make an effort they are really approachable.

On the Gold Coast I met up with the same people I had travelled with earlier, we mostly did surfing and bummed around the area. We also checked out Frazier Island, did some swimming with the sharks and some skydiving. I later told my dad that I went skydiving and he said he would have really worried about me if he had known. But when I was back in Canada, my dad and I decided to go skydiving together and he really loved it. That was great.

My last stop in Australia was Sydney again from where I came home. The culture shock of coming back to Canada was harsh. I went from + 30 degrees to -25 degrees. I had also gone through this amazing adventure, while life for my friends had pretty much stayed the same. It was difficult to adjust when I came back. But it gave me the idea to take an ESL (Teaching English at a Second Language) program to get myself an international career.

3) Please tell us about the ESL program that you took.

The brochure for Trent University's ESL program literally fell into my lap one day. I decided to take a one-year program at Trent in Peterborough (Ontario). It's a great program, it's 2 semesters long and includes 100 hours of theory and 20 hours of practical teaching. The classes were small, there were only 10 of us. Most of my co-students were retirees who were launching second careeers.

4) You have plans to go on your first ESL teaching assignment to Vietnam. What's in store for you?

In the first year after graduating you don't have a lot of choice with ESL since you don't have real teaching experience yet. I wanted to go to Vietnam, but I figured I would more easily be able to go to Korea or Japan where there is a big demand for certified ESL teachers. Contrary to China, in these 2 countries you definitely need credentials to work in ESL. Through a stroke of luck I found out that one of my friend's parents lives in Vietnam and he will be able to make some local connections for me and I am planning to head over there in September. I don't know exactly yet where I am going to go, but I am sure I will find my first ESL assignment with his help.

5) You learned how to do "poise" (an impressive twirling of 2 long wires whose ends have a wick that is set on fire) in Australia, tell us more about that.

Poise was originally a martial art used by the Maori people and it involves two wires with a wick at the end that is set on fire. Then at night you twirl the wires in different patterns around your body, usually set to music or drums. I met some people in Australia who taught me some pretty good moves and I have been performing occasionally in public or entertaining people on the campground with it. It's a really fun thing to do.

6) You now work as an intern for this adventure travel company called Equinox. What do you do there, how did you get the job?

The way I landed this job was another one of these chance encounters. I was actually supposed to do a 6-week road trip out to Eastern Canada with a friend of mine. One day my brother and I went to a pub and ended up chatting to Blair, who is the manager at Equinox' rafting location on the Ottawa River. He had just lost an intern, so he asked me if I would be interested. It sounded great so my friend and I decided to postpone the road trip and I am working right now as an intern for Equinox from mid-May to September until I go to Vietnam. Right now I am working as a cook and I also help out with the kayaking courses.

I love being here, it's just like being a child. Work doesn't even feel like work, we have so much fun here. There is so much freedom here, you don't have four walls around you and people are just so friendly. I am learning so much. I am learning about the white water, how to read the river and I am picking up the basics of river rafting and kayaking. One day I might want to become a river guide. I'd definitely like to come back next year after my ESL assignment.

7) Tell me about the lifestyle here at this outdoor adventure camp.

The lifestyle is very basic which is great. We have 12 people here permanently, and just like some of my colleagues, I actually sleep in a tent. Other colleagues of mine actually have built a tree house and live there, and another co-worker of mine has created a shack out of discarded materials that has a boat for a roof. It's a very simple life with basically no conveniences, no TV, no Internet. We get by with so little here.

Hygiene is pretty basic, we brush our teeth, comb our hair. There are no laundry facilities on site, so I just wash my t-shirts in the shower. My work schedule is from 7 am to 7 pm. We get the rafting or kayaking gear ready, go to the river, unload. Or when I am working in the kitchen, I am preparing the meals for the day. There are not a lot of rules here, but everything still seems to work.

8) What are your plans for the future?

Other than going to Vietnam to teach ESL I don't really have any long-term plans. I am a very spontaneous individual and I generally trust that I'll be in the right place at the right time. I don't know what's in store for me. Friends have often said you are like a missionary, you go to different places, help out and don't get paid for it.

As far as ESL is concerned, I would be interested to teach English in places like Bali or Thailand, in small communities. I have also thought of going to Africa, to help build schools. But people have warned me and said in places like these you need to have money to be able to bribe people.
I just love to help. Somehow I think it'll all come together. If I stay the happy person that I am somehow I think it will all work out.

Thank you, Krista, for your time. It's been great meeting such an energetic positive spirit. I wish you all the best for your time in Vietnam and for anything that might happen for you afterwards. Stay in touch and let us know how your first ESL assignment goes!

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For more travel articles, advice, photos, interesting interviews &
the opportunity to win a cruise on the Amazon River
visit my website at www.travelandtransitions.com.

For more travel articles, advice, photos, interesting interviews &

July 21, 2005

Doctors without Borders - Journey into the World of Humanitarian Aid

Just yesterday I completed an interview with Doctors Without Borders/ Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) and while researching their website, I found that some of the volunteers at MSF had written really interesting stories about their experiences in foreign countries. MSF gave me the permission to republish some of these stories, I think you'll find them very interesting since they shed light on the situation of the local population and the experiences of the volunteers in some of these far away places.

Journey into the World of Humanitarian Aid
By Brian K. Smith

As I flew over Cuba, a goal I had set eight months earlier was realized — I wanted to see this vibrant country that has a rich cultural and musical presence in Canadian society. The view of Cuba was short (only three minutes), and at 32 000 feet it was a little high to absorb any of the sounds or smells of this island country. On we raced across the Caribbean Ocean to Nicaragua above the beautiful turquoise blue.

This trip had its beginning fourteen months earlier when a kind Quebec doctor from Médecins Sans Frontières had given me and a video cameraman permission to get on a Red Cross medical evacuation flight out of Afghanistan to Pakistan. We had been left behind earlier in the day by the United Nations because we had too much equipment for their overcrowded twin prop plane. I was very grateful to MSF because after eight days in Afghanistan, my health had started to rapidly deteriorate.

MSF has an office in Vancouver, and in April this year they had an information night at Vancouver General Hospital. I decided to attend, hoping there was something I could offer to this international organization. A few weeks later, I couriered a portfolio of my work to the head office in Toronto. This included medical and corporate photography from St. Paul's Hospital, and a selection of my travel photos from third world countries I had visited. I included a profile of my professional memberships and associations in the photographic world. I also have Spanish as a second language. My proposal to MSF was to help them through my experiences. The realization many years ago that my life's passion was photography has made me want to share this gift with organizations like MSF, and also to help young aspiring photographers realize their dreams.

In my carry-on luggage, I had a variety of Canon camera gear, and a large bag of film from Kodak Canada donated to this project. I also carried my itinerary for the thirteen days I would spend in Nicaragua. I wanted to make sure I didn't arrive to a group of very busy people who would look at me in a confused way, saying they had no idea why I was there. The flight was a perfect low-level approach to Managua — just skimming under the bottom of threatening thunderheads. I noticed as I got off the plane there was the classic CIA agent sitting three rows behind me. He watched everyone while he sucked on his lollipop. I never did see him come through customs and immigration. I breathed deeply as I step onto the Nicaragua soil. The smell of Central America filled my nose — the hot humid air was heavy in my lungs. Every place has its own particular smell. I waddled through the congestion of taxi drivers, with my heavy bags to my MSF driver. He was the only one in the crowd that knew my name. Once we got inside the unmarked truck, I double-checked that it was my name he had said! Ronald only spoke Spanish, so I had to become quickly functional after a five-year hiatus from speaking this foreign language. We understood each other well enough. Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the MSF head office. I was greeted by the receptionist Casta, who introduced me to Liz Steele, financial administrator for MSF Nicaragua. Liz introduced me to the Director of the mission, Chus Alonso. As Director, she coordinates the different projects throughout Nicaragua that are sponsored by MSF Belgium and Switzerland. These are the countries that sent me to Nicaragua through the head office in Toronto. I was taken to my accommodations on the outskirts of Managua.

On Tuesday, September 7th, 1999, I started my tours of the camps created by the devastation of hurricane Mitch (October 1998). The first settlement I went to was Nueva Vida (new life). The displaced people in this small village had lived on the shores of Lake Managua for many generations before the hurricane struck. The storm raised the level of the lake five meters — ten months later it was still many meters above normal. We traveled to Mateare, just outside of Managua, to look at sanitation and water projects. The MSF staff explained to me in great detail about the projects they were working on. This included the complications created by local and national governments, and the dedication and sometimes burnout of MSF staff dealing with these logistics. The hurricane devastated about one half of Nicaragua. A steady torrent of rain fell unceasingly for an entire week.

On Wednesday, we headed off to Chinandega, two and a half-hours northwest of Managua. Between Leon and Chinandega, we stopped at the side of the highway to view an earth filled home. A six-member family parished inside when Casita Volcano's lake spilled over the top of the mountain and set off a huge landslide/mudflow that obliterated three villages. It resulted in the loss of two thousand lives. Shortly after we arrived in Chinandega, Andre, head of administration, took me to Limonal Chinandega refugee camp. What is seen at first looks okay, a fertile river delta where the displaced people live, but after three hours of touring what was not so apparent was shocking. Surrounding these poor people is a river contaminated by the garbage dump. The garbage dump and cemetery directly drain through the soil of the camp — this is not to be outdone by the holding lake for the city sewer and nearby slaughterhouse. During heavy rains, this lake overflows directly into the camp. I will never forget the nauseating smell in the garbage dump.

The next morning I toured the center of Managua with two MSF doctors who work on the Street Children Project. These abandoned or runaway children make their lives by whatever means they can, from stealing to prostitution. All of them are glue inhalers — it deadens their pain of this seemingly hopeless situation. We met about twenty kids in three different locations. A lot of tension exists between the merchants and the children; however, I could immediately see the trust bond that exists between the MSF staff and these kids.

In the afternoon, I went on a one-hour flight to the Caribbean Coast. My destination was the Great Corn Island. This tropical paradise is feeling the effects of the drug trade from South America. There I documented the HIV/AIDS seminar that was hosted by MSF at the island's hospital. The participants included hospital staff, nurses, and the doctor.

I went to Bluefields on the Mosquito Coast the following day. This was a magical place for me. It is a mix of Spanish, Creole, and Afro Indian people. Most speak a funky, Jamaican style of English in addition to Spanish. The MSF staff gave up their five-day holiday to tour me around in their panga (small boat). Our trip to Pearl Lagoon was incredible. We travelled along a canal bordered by a lush growth of mangrove trees and palms. This fresh body of water is huge, and at its end, is the village of Orinoco. It has a population of fifteen hundred people. Two teenagers guided us from house to house through the village. I didn't hesitate to ask everyone I met if I could photograph him or her. We went to one other village before turning around - Tasbapouni. After one hour of photographing many of the inhabitants, a village representative questioned me about my motives. My guide told him that I was with a human rights organization. This definitely didn't go over well. I quickly corrected him, and clarified that I was with a humanitarian group. I was permitted to continue. Whether it was this situation or the afternoon heat, it left me totally drenched in sweat. My MSF companions in comparison seemed fine — this must be an effect of my thick Canadian blood. To compensate, we drank fresh coconut milk in the sweltering afternoon sun. The return journey back to Bluefields that day was surreal. We glided down the waterway with a fiery sunset to the west behind huge thunderheads. Mangroves and palms framed the scene perfectly.

I stayed an extra day in Bluefields and was rewarded by an exciting afternoon of photography in the Town Square. Everyone was dressed in uniforms for the independence celebration. That evening we drove to a mountain view-point, to the west of Bluefields to witness the sunset over the jungle. A spectacular and fitting end to my Caribbean sojourn.

The following morning, I had an early flight back to Managua. After checking into the MSF house, I caught a bus to Granada. Unfortunately, it was totally closed for the holiday. For many centuries, it had been the grandest city in the Americas. In 1857, an American, who had corruptly proclaimed himself president of Nicaragua, was forced to flee Granada. Upon his departure, he set the city on fire, loosing this treasure of the Americas forever. The present city has a stately appearance, but lacks a feeling of its five centuries of history.

On September 16th, my driver, Gustavo, and I departed on a six-hour journey to Nueva Segovia - the most northern province. The purpose of our trip was to visit Casa Materna in the mountainous village of Quilali. On our way we past fields of rice and tobacco. The winding road became rough and narrow as we climbed through the mountains towards the Honduran border. More than once we were surprised to find a herd of cattle greeting us around a sharp canyon corner. Devastation from hurricane Mitch was still very evident along the scared Rio Coco, the largest river in the province. The riverbank's raw edges were clear of vegetation fifteen meters above its present level. Most settlements along rivers in this northern frontier province were swept away. During my first day in Quilali, I visited the San Bartolo camp with the MSF staff. MSF constructed wells that the local people can easily maintain and service themselves. They were also showing the inhabitants how to make cement construction bricks. These are used for the building of solid, rain resistant homes, and for the lining of wells and outhouse toilets.

My last assignment was to visit Casa Materna, a complex containing diagnostic quarters with a prenatal classroom, and a delivery room. Up to twelve women can stay there at one time. This is mainly for high-risk pregnancies in the third trimester. Many of the patients are young teenagers. The atmosphere within is calm and soothing. Before leaving for Managua, I took a walk along the back streets of Quilali. Families invited me into their yards to photograph them. At noon, Gustavo and I departed in the Land Rover jeep for our trip back to Managua. I felt sad that this incredible journey was coming to a conclusion. MSF had provided an unforgettable personal experience — the most memorable of all my travels.

As my flight took me northeast over Nicaragua towards Miami, I reflected on the past thirteen days. The MSF staff had immediately made me feel like part of the team. Thorough briefings on the history and current situations that they shared with me made this trip an educational experience. The Nicaraguan people demonstrated an incredible resilience to situations that are very difficult to tolerate. Through the dedication and hard work of the MSF staff the quality of life is gradually improving for these people.

I am very grateful to have the opportunity to show the world through my photography how MSF is making a big difference to those who are in need of humanitarian aid.

By Brian K. Smith
www.msf.ca

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For more travel articles, advice, photos, interesting interviews &
the opportunity to win a cruise on the Amazon River
visit my website at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/.

Doctors without Borders - Lost between River and Sky

July 21, 2005

Doctors without Borders - Lost between River and Sky

Just yesterday I completed an interview with Doctors Without Borders/ Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) and while researching their website, I found that some of the volunteers at MSF had written really interesting stories about their experiences in foreign countries. MSF gave me the permission to republish some of these stories, I think you'll find them very interesting since they shed light on the situation of the local population and the experiences of the volunteers in some of these far away places.

LOST BETWEEN RIVER AND SKY
By Ian Brown

Uraba is a land that has been forgotten by the world. It is a region of vast jungle wilderness that hugs the Panamanian border in northern Colombia. The region is bisected by the Atrato river, which by volume of water per kilometer is the third largest in the world.
Ian Brown

The Atrato is the artery of life for the area and the only transportation link to the outside world. Beyond the Atrato lies the Darrien. One of the last true jungle rainforests on earth. There are no roads. The only means of travel is by river.

Hundreds of rivers and a lush carpet of green were all I could see as our small twin engine plane circled for its final approach. Before me lay a land rich in beauty, shrouded in mystique and choked with conflict.

I had come to Uraba to document for Médecins Sans Frontières a unique project that was opened in 1997. At that time Uraba was the most violent region in the most violent country in the world. An internal conflict between various armed actors had initiated an epoch of fear and terror among the population, most of who lived in remote communities. As a result of the violence, large numbers of people had been forced to flee their homes and had become displaced. Many now live in IDP (internally displaced people) camps and have all but given up hope in returning to the lives they once knew.

One of the central components to the MSF work in Uraba is travelling to remote indigenous communities to provide vaccinations and hold medical consultations. Healthcare in the area is virtually non-existent. The local staff at the Riosucio hospital refuses to travel upriver for fear for their lives. The hospital has only one doctor for a population base of 30 000 people. This is the equivalent of having less than seventy doctors for all of Toronto.

Going upriver, one could be forgiven for thinking they were in a Joseph Conrad novel. The dense jungle seemed to envelop all the senses. More than once it felt like we were penetrating into the heart of darkness, not knowing what, or who would lie around the next bend in the river.

The rivers were always a logistical challenge, and would require us pulling, pushing, cutting broken trees, whatever it would take to push on. Often the MSF team would travel for nine or ten hours by dugout to reach a village by dusk. Despite exhaustion, the team would always return smiles, answer endless questions and endure countless pokes and stares from curious villagers. We were as interesting to them as they were to us.

It would be impossible to summarize the experience of spending a month in the jungle in a few paragraphs. One would have to have been there to understand. With all of the fear and the killing it is often the small things that keep people going, and the things that one remembers. Sharing a warm tea with an elderly woman watching the sheets of rain sweep across her village, neither of us speaking the other's language, yet still understanding one another. Setting up an IV drip for a young child with severe pneumonia during a torrential thunderstorm in the middle of the night and helping to bring him back to life. These are experiences one cannot convey completely with words.

What I can say is that my appreciation for MSF and the people who are selfless enough to work in the field has grown immensely. I made some new friends, learned much from others in the "team" and perhaps realize that if everyone does a little, than a lot can be accomplished.

By Ian Brown
www.msf.ca

www.textronics.com

For more travel articles, advice, photos, interesting interviews &
the opportunity to win a cruise on the Amazon River
visit my website at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/.

Doctors without Borders - Water for Ixtahuacan

July 21, 2005

Doctors without Borders - Water for Ixtahuacan

Just yesterday I completed an interview with Doctors Without Borders/ Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) and while researching their website, I found that some of the volunteers at MSF had written really interesting stories about their experiences in foreign countries. MSF gave me the permission to republish some of these stories, I think you'll find them very interesting since they shed light on the situation of the local population and the experiences of the volunteers in some of these far away places.

Water for Ixtahuacan
By Chris Osler

As I scrambled up the embankment of the new road, my right foot sank into the furrow of earth plowed up by graters and other heavy machinery. To my amazement, this experience was like cutting across a wintery street in Canada, when the snow is piled along the curbs and sidewalks of our cities, and sinking into the snow. The difference here, however, was that this was extremely thick, dry dust and this was not Canada but one of the highest points in Guatemala — the new village of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan.

Coming over the crest of the hill, Ixtahuacan appeared as a cluster of corrugated tin shacks and small cinderblock houses. Immediately I was struck by the dust: a thick layer of powdery dust, like brown icing sugar, blew into my eyes and nose. Swirling Dust Devils spun across the tiny valley, twisting debris far up into the sky. After a day in Ixtahuacan, I could feel the parched resistance of my throat and lungs. After only a few hours here, visitors usually want to leave; but for more than 550 families, this desolate place is home.

There is a buzz of activity in this construction site of a village. Everywhere you turn, people are busily tending to their homes, molding mud bricks, and pouring concrete. It seems difficult to imagine that just six weeks before my visit in February 2000, there were no buildings at all, only dusty fields and the crusty stalks of last years' corn crop. This is the relocated town of Ixtahuacan, an impoverished gathering of 2800 stoic Guatemalans who continue to fight against a barrage of obstacles in their lives. As a documentary photographer and development worker, I had come to Guatemala to record the story of these people and their difficult decision to move the town. Happily, I found that several NGOs, most notably MSF, had begun to assist the community with their basic needs.

Daily life for the people of Ixtahuacan is a struggle for survival. Behind the superficial beauty of this Central American region, lie both a political uncertainty and a string of bubbling volcanoes. Over the past few years, frequent tremors have led many seismic experts to label the old village of Ixtahuacan a "category orange" danger site. When Hurricane Mitch hit the area in November of 1998, dumping up to six feet of rain in only three days, it ravaged the steep slopes, sending torrential rivers of mud through about one-third of the town. Two people lost their lives during this crisis, and many houses were damaged or washed away completely. During the aftermath of the devastating storm, the leaders of the community met to discuss possible locations that would prove safer from future environmental disasters. On January 11th, 2000, the people of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan packed up their belongings, salvaged what pieces of their homes they could transport, and traveled fifteen kilometres to the site of their new village.

The new site of Ixtahuacan, nicknamed "Alaska" because of its regular morning frost and its bleak arctic landscape, sits within a stone's throw of the highest point on the Inter-American Highway at 3670 metres. Nights are cold and mornings brisk. Weather changes quickly here and bright warm sun can disappear in minutes when the fog drifts in. The tree-less exposure at the top of this volcanic mountain range leaves the bowl-shaped site of Ixtahuacan vulnerable to wind.

When asked why they wanted to move to a place with no surrounding farmland, firewood or available clean water, most people replied that after years of rebuilding their houses from tremors, they feel safer in "Alaska" despite the difficulties. Catarina Salame Mas, a Quiche Mayan woman, has eleven children. Despite her struggle to feed and cloth her family in the new village site, she is relieved to no longer be fearful for their lives. During the downpour of Hurricane Mitch, the foundation of their water tower was quickly eroded and the tower crashed through their roof. Fortunately, the family managed to wade through the mud to the safety of a neighbour’s house. In the new community, she is no longer afraid for her family.

In addition to the increased safety and psychological relief, many younger men also noted the "advantages" of the new town site’s proximity to the main highway, and therefore, to the frequency of cars and buses. Xela, the second largest city of Guatemala, is now only one hour away.

Due to extremely harsh economic circumstances, most of the village's dark and dusty one-room shacks are used for everything from sleeping to cooking. When a wood-fire is burning to cook food or to heat water, the smoke billows out and saturates the room, filling the homes and lungs of the inhabitants. Since women and children are usually responsible for these daily chores, they are disproportionately affected. Respiratory problems, conjunctivitis, and various other eye irritations are common. Until the arrival of MSF, the lack of available clean water was the biggest concern.

MSF France, MSF Spain, and MSF Switzerland are all working in Guatemala. Under the direction of MSF Spain, Ixtahuacan received perhaps the greatest assistance of all — a potable water supply system. As the community is almost flat and it is high in elevation, there are only tiny trickling streams. MSF drilled two wells which run into a central cistern at the lowest point of the village. They then set up a diesel pump to fill two "inflatable" emergency water bladders up higher, closer to the houses. These bladders, which can hold 15 000 litres each, flow by gravity to six-way taps where the people of Ixtahuacan collect clean water. Local resident Miguel Angel was trained by MSF to maintain the water supply system, run the diesel pump, and add chlorine to the water bladders. Now MSF visits the site every couple of weeks to check that all is running smoothly.

The water supply bladders installed by MSF have made a huge impact on the people of Ixtahuacan. Now they are able to access clean water at nearby taps, without facing the health risks probable when collecting water from stagnant pools, walking kilometres to surrounding rivers, or wasting valuable firewood boiling water for drinking and cooking.

With water resources now available, the community can begin to direct their energy towards other struggles facing them — proper housing, nutritious food, farming, wage labour, etc.

By Chris Osler
www.msf.ca

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Doctors without Borders - El Salvador, After the Earthquake

Doctors without Borders - El Salvador, After the Earthquake

Just yesterday I completed an interview with Doctors Without Borders/ Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) and while researching their website, I found that some of the volunteers at MSF had written really interesting stories about their experiences in foreign countries. MSF gave me the permission to republish some of these stories, I think you'll find them very interesting since they shed light on the situation of the local population and the experiences of the volunteers in some of these far away places.

El Salvador, After the Earthquake
By David Morley

Thursday 25 January 2001

In the morning the team meets in the MSF house in San Salvador. The teams have come from around Central America, volunteers who were working on AIDS projects in Guatemala, water projects in Honduras, from the Emergency Preparedness Office in Costa Rica, and the people who have come here for this emergency. They plan the day's activities; who will go to Armenia - one of the hardest hit towns - to support the building of a little cholera centre in the hospital there; who will go to Cafetalon, to continue our mental health and water programs for the 7,000 people from Santa Tecla and neighbouring towns who are living in the football field and who, unless things change, will be there for quite a while yet.

Vincent Brown, who has come here from Epicentre, the MSF research centre in Paris, briefs us on the data he has collected on diarrheal and respitorial problems in the country, and how these figures should help the team plan the next steps.

Then we are off to Armenia. Armenia is just 40 minutes from San Salvador, but it could be on another planet. The busy boulevards of San Salvador, with their MacDonald's and Pizza Huts and car dealerships, look like any other bustling Latin American capital. Armenia, before the earthquake, would have looked like a provincial Latin American town. The Central Square dominated by its church, one storey buildings made of brick and adobe. A sleepy place.

Now, it looks like the aftermath of an aerial bombardment. There is rubble everywhere in the streets. In every block of houses one is gone, replaced by a pile of bricks, mortar, wood, and tin. Occasionally you can see broken pieces of tables and beds. You would never ever guess that these piles could have ever been homes full of life. They look like they have always been this way, piles of useless rubble. For street after street after street the destruction goes on.

The destruction is even worse than it first appears. Many of the fronts of houses are still standing, but behind them there is just rubble. Many people are sleeping in the streets, underneath makeshift plastic roofs. It will take 2,000,000 sheets of zinc to provide the most rudimentary reconstruction. The largest manufacturer here in El Salvador produces 100,000 per year. How long will it be before these people have their homes again?

A bookcase peeps out of one little green plastic tent in front of a pile of rubble - a student must live there. Down another street a group of mourners sit around a coffin. They are bathed in a blue light cast by the plastic sheeting which has been strung above them as an awning. An elderly man tosses great chunks of stone from the wreck of his house into the street while his grandson diligently works beside him trying to rebuild his tricycle. And everywhere you see beautiful red, purple and white blooms of bougainvillea looking impassively over the rubble surrounding them.

I cannot imagine the power that it must have been to wreak such havoc, to turn so many homes into nothing. I have been in earth tremors, and they are frightening, but this earthquake - what can it have been like to see your home, your street, your community shaken and shaken until it falls apart? It was on a Saturday morning, a day no different than any other, and suddenly your daily life is destroyed.

Some people are living in makeshift camps. MSF provides the water in San Martin. "Everyone pitched in," says Claudine, an MSF volunteer from Belgium. "We shared the work in this camp with Unicef and Action Contre le Faim."

In the middle of town MSF is supporting the work of the local clinic. We will use a garage to build a little centre to treat diarrhea. Pierre, a French engineer who drove supplies here from the MSF emergency stockpiles in Honduras, works with the Salvadoran health staff how the centre will look. "We'll use plastic sheeting to make the walls and divisions for the men and women. We have to make channels for the water so it doesn't contaminate that cistern over there. We need to string 2 by 4s there so we can hang the rehydration IV bags." They draw rough plans in their note books. "Do we have the cement we need to make the channels? It's in San Salvador, we can bring it tomorrow morning and we'll be done by Saturday."

A Health Official comes up and asks Claudine if we can help them do a fumigation of areas at risk of dengue fever. "We did a dengue campaign here in the fall, we have trained some local health promoters. It's good to see that they have seen the signs and are taking the initiative to come to us for help."

Then we go to Santa Tecla. This is the community that was hit with the mudslide, the town whose suffering has been on TV screens around the world. The victims are living in a football field. "When we arrived last Monday," says Pierre, "everyone was living in makeshift huts. We got the water system running with the tanks and the plumbing supplies we brought from Honduras, and the Red Cross brought in some tents. This is the kind of place where, if you don't get the sanitation down fast, cholera can kill before you know it." In two days a cholera centre was built on a basketball court beside the soccer field, with all the different sanitation zones, drainage, water supply and tents. Latrines and washing stations were built at different places around the football field - which is now home for more than 7,000 people. MSF built a hut and distributes Oral Rehydration Solution and we are also running a mental health program to try and help people deal with the psychological trauma of this catastrophe.

So far, there is only one suspected case of cholera. "If we are really lucky," says Pierre, looking around the empty cholera centre, "we will never have to use this place. We moved fast here, and maybe there won't be a cholera outbreak. But in 1986, last time there was an earthquake here in El Salvador, some people had to live in tents like this for six months, so it is good that we've built this well. If it doesn't have to be used for cholera, we will find another use for it. It could be used as a school or a community centre." The great thing is that almost all of this material is re-useable. The tents, the plastic sheeting, a lot of the wood - when this crisis is finished we will store it all again and be ready for when the next emergency hits.

"Basic hygiene is so important," he says. "In our emergency kits we include soap, towels, washing up things, plates and utensils. These help keep people healthy."

At the end of the day, people come back to the MSF office in San Salvador. It has been a hot day, and everyone is sticky and dusty. In one room the water and sanitation people work on the design for a latrine. In another, people pour over health statistics from another community and ponder if we can help there, too. The mental health team sits quietly together, debriefing after the day's work. The sun has set, and the temperature cooling off. Another day is over.

By David Morley
www.msf.ca

www.textronics.com

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the opportunity to win a cruise on the Amazon River
visit my website at www.travelandtransitions.com.

Doctors Without Borders: Visiting An Afghan Refugee Camp

Doctors Without Borders: Visiting An Afghan Refugee Camp

Just yesterday I completed an interview with Doctors Without Borders/ Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) and while researching their website, I found that some of the volunteers at MSF had written really interesting stories about their experiences in foreign countries. MSF gave me the permission to republish some of these stories, I think you'll find them very interesting since they shed light on the situation of the local population and the experiences of the volunteers in some of these far away places.

Naureen Shah, a photographer who has worked on photographing women issues in muslim countries, recently undertook another challenging project. She visited the refugee camps at the Pakistan-Afghan border to bring world awareness to the plight of the people torn between politics and poverty.

Since the Afghan-Soviet war in the 1980s, Pakistan has given sanctuary to over 1.2 million Afghan refugees. Even after the Soviet troops withdrew, a devastating drought and a protracted civil war has forced Afghanis to continue pouring over the borders. Most of the refugees are housed in camps in the northwest.

Jalozai is a makeshift settlement, located in a place where you don't expect towns to bloom naturally... parched, cracked dust as far as the eye can see, and blinding afternoon light reflecting off the row after row of shiny white plastic tents. The summer temperatures frequently reach 49 degrees centigrade that make life in tents unbearable.

The squalor and harsh conditions are not conducive to optimism. A disillusioned old woman told Shah, "You're not the first to come with a camera. You take photographs to show the world, but nothing changes for us."

Many of the families earn a pittance by weaving carpets. "We don't want charity," said one woman Shah spoke to. "We want to work and live normal lives. But who is there to help us?" Another said, "Faced with a choice of death here or death back home, I wish I had died there. At least that would have been with honor."

Inroads into their self-esteem are not the only dismal consequences of the Afghani's flight from the drought in their country. Respiratory disorders caused by infected wool and aggravated by extreme temperatures and malnutrition are common as are skin infections. Another occupational hazard is permanently stooped shoulders from bending over the carpet looms. Often, young children are given drugs to keep them at their tasks all day as smaller fingers are better at knotting. Opium-based drugs also keep hunger at bay. The staple food is a rock hard ball of bread baked in a common oven, and usually it is the children's chore to queue up at the tandoor with their family's share of kneaded dough. The only schooling available is for boys only, and is limited to religious instruction. In spite of the appalling conditions, Shah says she noticed that the human spirit was not defeated. Children followed her eagerly; one little girl even played hide and seek with her.

On her visit to the refugee camps and Peshawar, Pakistan's border town, Shah's particular interest was meeting the Afghani women. Zubaida, a teacher by profession had fled to Pakistan because she was not allowed to work by the Taliban. She told Shah with tears in her eyes, "They [Taliban] have taken our country hostage and driven us out." Her story is not uncommon. Bibi Jan was another recent refugee who was forced to cross the border to save her three small children from starvation because she could not find work after her husband was killed in the civil war. Few of the women Shah met were interested in politics. Gul Bano said, "I don't care about Taliban or any other government. All I care about is getting food for my children and praying for peace in my country."

Her experience at the refugee camps this summer in July 2001 has taken on new meaning after the tragedy in the USA on September 11. Shah, originally from Pakistan and now settled in Canada, faces the tough predicament of protecting her two young daughters from misconception about their religion in the Western media. "As a mother and a Muslim, I want my daughters to know the Islam that I know and practice which is the Islam of peace, love and tolerance and not of hatred, intolerance and violence."

By F.M. Dinshaw
www.msf.ca

www.textronics.com

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visit my website at www.travelandtransitions.com.

Doctors Without Borders - A Global Volunteer Organization Helping People In Crisis Regions

July 20, 2005

Doctors Without Borders - A Global Volunteer Organization Helping People In Crisis Regions

One of the subjects I am going to research in the near future is combining travel with volunteer opportunities all over the world. Volunteering is a great way of exploring different cultures while making a positive contribution to important causes.

Doctors Without Borders first caught my attention during the Tsunami Crisis. It is an organization that provides important medical relief to people in disaster-stricken areas. I felt compelled to find out more about this organization, about its philosophies and its recent missions. Here is my interview with Isabelle Jeanson, National Press Officer Toronto with Doctors Without Borders.

1. Please tell us about Médécins Sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders. What type of organization is it? What philosophy is it based on?

We are the world's leading independent international medical relief organization.Médecins Sans Frontières offers assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation. We also observe neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics and the right to humanitarian assistance.

2. Please tell us about the history of Doctors with Borders. Who founded the organization? How has it evolved since its inception?

MSF was originally founded in France in 1971 by a group of doctors and medical journalists who were concerned with the plight of populations in emergency situations. Since 1971, MSF has grown into 5 European operational sections, and 13 partner sections around the world. The Canadian office was founded in 1991, by a few Canadian doctors who came back to Canada from mission, and realized there was a need for an MSF presence in Canada.
Photo credit: Juan Carolo Tomisi

3. How is your organization funded?

We are mostly funded by donations from the public (80%) and the rest from governments and foundations (20%).

4. Who can volunteer with Doctors without Borders? How many volunteers are there world-wide?

Please tell us about the volunteer recruitment process.
Doctors, nurses, midwives, logisticians, project coordinators, financial coordinators, mental health specialists, social workers, and many other professionals can volunteer with Doctors without Borders. There are over 2000 volunteers working for MSF in the field, and hundreds more who work in offices around the world.

People who are interested should first visit our website: www.msf.ca, that explains in detail what we look for in our candidates. Once an interested candidate has applied (either on-line or by mail), their application is revised by a recruitment officer. If their application is relevant to what we look for, they will be invited to an interview. If the interview is successful, the candidate will be offered pre-departure training prior to going on mission. The selection of their mission is based on the candidate's skills which are matched to the needs of the field. The time needed to find the right mission for the right person can happen anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

5. Please comment on some of the risks and dangers that the volunteers face.

Security is of the outmost concern for MSF, for all of its volunteers and national staff. A security briefing is given to the volunteer prior to going on mission, and once they arrive at their mission. A volunteer is never forced to go on mission if they are concerned about their security. The volunteer is ultimately responsible for his or her security once they are on mission, however MSF provides excellent security protocols and systems to minimize the risk. If a volunteer is in a mission which becomes too insecure, he/she will be evacuated with his or her team to a secure environment.

6. What are the living conditions for the volunteers?

Volunteers will often live in a house shared by other international MSF volunteers. Housing, food, transportation and all other amenities are covered by MSF. Volunteers also receive a stipend as pocket money.

7. What critical missions has your organization been involved in recently?

Currently we are involved in a famine crisis in Niger; in the conflict in Darfur, West Sudan; in conflict areas in Democratic Republic of Congo; in mental health projects in Asia; in the tsunami relief in South-East Asia; and we offer AIDS treatment projects in dozens of countries around the world, to name only a few. MSF is currently working in over 70 countries around the world and manages hundreds of projects.

8. MSF also speaks out to end suffering and provides public education and informational events. Please tell us more about that.

Other than providing medical relief to populations in distress, MSF also has a mandate to speak-out or do "témoignage". This basically means that we speak out against the atrocities or injustices that we witness in the field, to raise international public awareness about an issue that is otherwise forgotten or unknown by the world. We do this by speaking at public events, or giving interviews in the media or by publishing reports.

9. Please comment specifically on the situation now in South Asia, more than 6 months after the Tsunami Disaster.

We are currently still active in India and Indonesia, providing mental health counseling to the victims of the tsunami and basic health care.

10. Please tell us about the different ways of making a contribution to Doctors without Borders.
People can give to MSF through a variety of venues:

Through Partners Without Borders, our monthly giving program ;

By internet through our secure online giving form ;

By fax or mail, in response to our annual campaign, or our special or emergency appeals ;

By phone - we may call you, or you can contact us toll-free at 1-800-982-7903 ; Through donations of publicly traded securities ;

By leaving a contribution to MSF in your will ;

By hosting or organizing a special event to benefit MSF ;

By making a gift in honour of a birthday, anniversary, marriage or graduation of a friend or family member ;

By making a gift in memory of a loved one who has passed on ;

At work through matching gift programs

Thank you, Isabelle, for providing further information about your organization and the important missions and activities you are involved in. We wish you the best of luck in your humanitarian efforts.

www.textronics.com

For more travel articles, advice, photos, interesting interviews &

the opportunity to win a cruise on the Amazon River

visit my website at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/.