My USA 2007 Fundraising Trip: The Facts
Starting Point: Bowser, a village on Vancouver Island, off the Canadian West Coast, on April 20th, 2007
End Point: Harlem in New York City, on the US American East Coast, on September 16th, 2007
Distance covered: 13,506 kilometres / 8,392 miles
Means of transportation: Walking, hitchhiking, local and regional buses
Funds raised: $1,250 + funds directly donated to my partner organisation Oneworld Works
The route: Bowser (BC, Canada) -- Vancouver (BC, Canada) -- Seattle (WA, USA) -- Portland (OR) -- Goldendale (WA) -- Vantage (WA) -- Spokane (WA) -- Missoula (MT) -- Clinton (MT) -- Jackson (WY) -- Yellowstone National Park (WY) -- Idaho Falls (ID) -- Salt Lake City (UT) -- Las Vegas (NV) -- Death Valley National Park (CA) -- Las Vegas (NV) -- Mono Lake/Yosemite (CA) -- Midpines/Yosemite (CA) -- San Francisco (CA) -- Santa Barbara (CA) -- Los Angeles/Inglewood (CA) -- Los Angeles/Compton (CA) -- San Diego (CA) -- Tucson (AZ) -- El Paso (TX) -- Albuquerque (NM) -- Oklahoma City (OK) -- Dallas (TX) -- Houston (TX) -- Mexico City (DF, Mexico) -- Monterrey (NL, Mexico) -- Houston (TX) -- New Orleans (LA) -- Biloxi (MS) -- Mobile (AL) -- Montgomery (AL) -- Atlanta (GA) -- Columbia (SC) -- Charlotte (NC) -- Baltimore (MD) -- Washington (DC) -- New York City/Midtown (NY) -- New York City/Harlem (NY)
Update and Photos from Mexico City & Monterrey
Just a brief update to let you know I am finally back in the UK. I will be around until December 3rd, the day I am leaving for Dakar (and subsequently the Casamance) in Senegal.
My US cell doesn't work anymore unfortunately, but my old UK cell/mobile phone still works. So if you have the number, don't hesitate to use it!
It became increasingly difficult to update this site when I reached Texas, so I didn't get a chance to post any reports or photos from the last 2-3 months of my journey yet. This is going to change now. I will post entries regularly, to catch up with myself, so to speak, until the beginning of December. There’s plenty to come: New Orleans, the Dirty South, the remaining Southern states, Baltimore, DC, New York City and so forth. But I’d like to start somewhere else, namely in Mexico City and Monterrey, where I spent some time in July/August.
"Mexico City is not only the second-largest city in the world (after Tokyo, Japan), it is also infamous for its poverty and crimes: widespread gang violence, daylight robberies, taxi express kidnappings, prostitution, human trafficking, murders." That's what I heard before I visited the city. What I found, however, was not a Mexican Soweto, but a Latin-American Paris: the city is in fact a mesmerizing, bustling, eclectic melting pot, which boasts an abundance of bars, restaurants, museums, art galleries, and concert halls. It also prides itself on some of the finest examples of romantic and gothic architecture as well as remnants of pre-Hispanic structures, such as the foundation of the main temple of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, the templo mayor, which was largely destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores in the siege of 1521. Especially the historic part of town between the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the city’s premier opera house, and the Plaza de la Constitucion, informally known as El Zócalo, impresses with its architectural beauty and bohemian flair. Needless to say, the people are amongst the friendliest, most forthcoming and hospitable people I have come across and the food is plainly marvellous – if you are in town, do try the stuffed meat and pepper tacos from a street vendor. Here are some photos:
Mexico City, Plaza de la Constitucion: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Mexico City, Street Scenes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
If Mexico City is the Latin-American Paris, then Monterrey, capital of the northern state of Nuevo León, is the Mexican Monaco. Historically an industrial town of, well, negligible distinction is it now Mexico’s third-populous metropolitan area and ranked as Latin America’s safest city and richest municipality (by per capita GDP). Monterrey is home to some of the region’s most affluent neighbourhoods, upscale shopping districts, bars, restaurants, and, which comes with the territory, an abundance of what is locally known as fresas.
However, even Monterrey has its impoverished areas. Ciudad Solidaridad, for example, the “City of Solidarity,” is a neighbourhood that has been created for the victims of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Gilbert left many tens of thousands of people homeless. Unfortunately, due to their low income status, above average unemployment rates and insufficient governmental support, many of the 15,000 families who call the neighbourhood their home cannot even afford to complete the building process on their houses they have started almost 20 years ago. Wide-spread poverty and sub-urban decay are the inevitable consequences.
Ciudad Solidaridad: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Another example is La Coyotera, the “Land of the Coyotes.” La Coyotera is what in the US would be called “the hood”: gangsters, crack heads, drug dealers, transvestite prostitutes, run down hotels, questionable bars, burnt out or cannibalized vehicles, stolen goods sold in the streets - a place where lost souls often find each other, but rarely themselves.
Update from New York City
Dear Friends, I am very sorry I didn't get around updating this site more often in recent weeks. I am spending much of my time travelling and most of the remaining time either recuperating or writing, so there plainly isn’t much time for anything else. The good news is that I have safely arrived in New York City, the place where my journey ends. However, the bad news is that due to a number of necessary route changes I haven’t visited 25 states yet, but only 21 (I’m including D.C. in this list, which is fair enough, given the close proximity to Virginia, where I spent time but never stayed overnight). This means I will have to leave the state again and visit 4 others. I am not sure where I will go. New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, and maybe also Connecticut are options. We’ll see. This weekend, however, I will enjoy the Big Apple and start thinking about these issues on Monday morning.
I still owe you travel descriptions of the places I visited on my way to NYC. After Atlanta I stayed a few days each in Columbia (South Carolina), Charlotte (North Carolina), Baltimore (Maryland) and Washington (DC), from where I made my way directly to New York City. There is plenty to come, including articles on the Mexico, the “Dirty South” and New Orleans in particular, Atlanta, the Carolinas and much more. I have experienced a lot and took plenty of photos, so you may look forward to all of this and check back soon. Regular updates of this website will have to wait until I return to Europe though, which is going to be September 17.
On other news, on Tuesday, September 13 the Holy month of Ramadan starts. At the beginning of this year I had begun having reservations regarding my rather stringent views on the negative impact of religion on our societies and have subsequently decided to fast each year through both Lent and Ramadan. This is both in solidarity with religious folk and to use the time to learn more about the world religions and how they shape the way human beings interact with each other in the world we share. As with Lent, there are many different views on how Ramadan ought to be celebrated. I shall do the following: I will refrain from any type of food during daylight and am not allowed alcohol, medication, fast food, sweets and sodas during the entire month. Also, there will be restrictions on my meat intake during Ramadan (I am allowed white meat, red meat and fish once a week, the remaining four days being vegetarian). It may sound absurd to some, but the practice means something to me.
So if you run into me between September 1 and October 11 and I happen to be slightly grumpy, you probably know the reason...
Cowboys in Oklahoma
I recently spent a couple of days in Oklahoma City, where I visited the Oklahoma National Stockyards, the nation's largest stocker and feeder cattle market. It was interesting to see real-life cowboys in their natural habitat. Here are a few photos:
Photos of the stockyards: 1 2 3 4
Click here to watch a video of a livestock auction - and admire the auctioneer's chant!
Update
I apologise for having updated this site rather infrequently in the recent past. The past few weeks have seen me travel though Albuquerque (New Mexico), Oklahoma City (Oklahoma) and Dallas (Texas) to Houston (Texas). After that I spent a week in Mexico (in Monterrey and Mexico City), then another two days in Houston and after that I headed to New Orleans (Louisiana), where I have been for a week now. Leaving again on Monday I will spend a day each in Biloxi (Mississippi) and Mobile (Alabama) and two days in Montgomery (Alabama) before making my way to Atlanta (Georgia).
I have had many interesting experiences in the past few weeks and will post reports and photos on Oklahoma City, Monterrey, Mexico City and New Orleans soon, starting hopefully on Monday or Tuesday. Do stay tuned!
Madness in America's Southwest
Sometimes only a quote from the Bible can assist in evaluating the truth about a place. Proverbs 21:19 declares “it is better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and fretful woman”. Like most men I would have regarded this assertion as coming as close to an eternal truth as statements of this kind can. Until I travelled through Arizona and New Mexico, America’s desert states, in the month of July.
To be sure, America’s Southwest is exceptionally picturesque and interesting. It is not even necessary to visit the Grand Canyon or the many national parks or forests in Arizona and New Mexico: the austere, tranquil beauty of the desert landscape alone, with its expansive plateaus, mountains and xerophyte plants will overwhelm the appreciative visitor, and hobby psychologists can have a field day at any of the trailer park communes located in the middle of the desert. In the summer, however, America’s Southwest is just a little too, well, let’s say "crazy" for comfort.
A perfect example is Tucson, Arizona, a student town located at the heart of the Sonoran desert. This is what much of Tucson, like many other towns in the desert South West, looks like:
With temperatures exceeding 45°C almost daily and hardly a place to escape from the heat, this place is not supposed to be occupied by humanlike creatures in the summer months. And with students having left for the summer vacation, there is no counterbalance to the concentrated lunacy of the Tucson native, which will hit the unexpected visitor hard.
Mostly the madness is not malevolent. Neither is the behaviour all-out crazy. It is just a little too odd to be considered normal, like a few too many people walking down the street talking to themselves or shop owners being unduly friendly or aggressive. At one occasion I had an elegantly dressed 75-year-old lady walking up to me, inquiring about where to purchase a bag of weed. In the finest of Southern accents, mind you. And at another a scrap-yard-worker-cum-journalist took me to Tucson’s underground tunnel system of several miles in length, to seek evidence of rapes and murders carried out by the city’s large homeless and drug-addicted population that inhabits the tunnels. Needless to say, little sanity was to be found down there. I took a few photos for those of you who are interested:
Tucson's Underground Tunnel System: 1 2 3 4 5
Sometimes the lunacy organises itself. A widespread leisure activity in Southern Arizona, for example, is to join white supremacist "neighbourhood watch programmes". These are vigilante militia groups designed, often under the umbrella of sympathetic law enforcement officers, to hunt down, citizen-arrest and sometimes even lynch illegal Mexican immigrants, who attempt the immensely dangerous hike across the desert for a "better life" in the US. I have found a number of articles about these militia groups, in case you are interested in reading up on it:
Arizona Vigilantes Threaten Peace at the Border (or here)
Arizona Vigilantes: Highway Shootings Staged to Embarrass Visiting Mexican President (or here)
Click here to look at a handout with which a group seeks to recruit volunteers to participate in their "neighbourhood watch programme".
I am sure America’s desert Southwest is a beautiful and sane place in spring, fall and winter. For the summer months, however, living with a contentious and fretful woman does not seem to be the worst option after all.
And if that seems like a doomsday scenario to you, then take a look at what Tucson looks like just before a monsoon rain storm....
Mexico
I am currently in Houston, Texas, but will make my way into Mexico early tomorrow morning. I will spend about four days in Monterrey and two days in Mexico City, before returning to Houston on August 1. For this time period, my cell phone is unlikely to work, so for the time being the best way to get in touch with me is via email.
Article on South Central
I have recently posted a rather long article on South Central LA on my weblog for DIE ZEIT. So if you happen to speak German, please click here to visit the blog and read the article. Since I intend to write a full reportage on South Central LA in the near future, I would be very happy to receive comments and suggestions on the piece.
Ich habe gerade einen längeren Eintrag über South Central Los Angeles auf meiner ZEIT-Seite veröffentlicht. Folgen Sie bitte diesem Link, um den Artikel zu lesen. Ich würde mich sehr über Ihre Verbesserungsvorschläge und Kritik freuen.
Update and Photos from Tijuana
I am currently in El Paso (Texas), but shall leave this inviting little city right at the Texan-Mexican border on an overnight bus tonight, namely for Albuquerque (New Mexico). On Sunday I will make my way to Oklahoma City (Oklahoma) and a day or two later I will head back into Texas, first to Dallas and on July 20 to Houston. After a few days in Houston I will spend about a week in Mexico (Monterrey and Mexico City), travel back to Houston and proceed towards New Orleans (Louisiana) around August 4.
I still owe you updates and photos from San Diego (California), Tijuana (Mexico) and Tucson (Arizona). I have spent my time in San Diego in Ocean Beach, a friendly and cosy beach neighbourhood a few miles west of downtown. This is where I stayed in Ocean Beach: Newport Avenue.
I also went to Tijuana (Mexico). Do not believe what people tell you about Tijuana being dangerous and a hassle. It plainly is not. The 30 minute trolley ride to the US-Mexican border, from the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego, will cost $2.50 one-way. From there you can walk across the border and into Tijuana. Stay for the night if you can, as there are plenty of inexpensive hotels in the city center and you will find an abundance of things to see and do at any time of day. Here are a few photos from Tijuana:
Border Crossing and Overlooking the City: 1 2 3
A note to visitors to the US on a 90-day visa waiver programme, like most EU citizens, who hope to extend their stay by leaving the country and coming back the same day: your plan is quite likely to be unsuccessful, unless certain conditions are met. (1) You must have a “meaningful stay”, whatever that’s supposed to mean, outside of the US. An afternoon in Tijuana may not be good enough to get another 90 days. (2) You must have proof of a confirmed return flight/bus/train to your home country, otherwise you risk not being allowed back into the country. (3) You cannot have too much time left on your current visa, otherwise the officials may not see a reason for your stay to be extended. The fact that the date of your return flight is later than your visa expiration date does not necessarily matter - it didn’t matter in my case, at least. The safest bet is to leave the US a day or so before, and return whenever after, your visa expires. Well, that’s at least what I think. If after August 1 I am not posting from Houston, but from Mexico City, you know I was wrong…
More Photos from LA
South Central LA
As promised, here is a brief report on my time in South Central Los Angeles. In South Central I have stayed in Inglewood and Compton, and the places I have visited include Watts, Crenshaw, Hawthorne and Lennox. I have added a few photos at the end of this entry. I apologise to those who expect photos of hooded ghetto kids drinking 40s and selling dimes as they are shooting random strangers in the head. Hollywood's South Central may represent a tiny part of the real thing, but not more. South Central is to the largest extent a peaceful, vibrant and culturally rich place, full of peaceful and friendly people having ordinary jobs and living ordinary lives. As a matter of fact, I have met many more forthcoming, interesting and concerned people in South Central than in most other places. Also, most people I have met were delighted that foreigners are interested in what their communities have to offer, rather than exhibiting the distorted conception that is spread through the media.
Even though it may sound hackneyed, most of the "situations of danger" I have experienced were instigated by police: bullying and random searches of local residents, frequent arrests of people on ludicrous charges and generally threatening behaviour (such as speeding towards groups of people who gather in the street, to see if any of them will attempt to flee) are much more common in South Central than anywhere else I have been before. There is no question this behaviour is racially motivated. By this I don't mean to comment on whether individual police men are racists, i.e. are adherents to a particular racist ideology. Rather, I mean to say that the LA county police departments in particular follow an investigative method of racial profiling: being young, male and black or Chicano in Inglewood or Watts is in itself a sufficient condition for being suspicious. And being under suspicion a citizen loses one’s rights to privacy. And having lost this right a citizen can be subjected to random searches, questioning and arrests by the executive forces. Having witnessed these situations over and over again I have sympathy with the many African-Americans of any age, gender and social standing who are afraid of, and therefore have an antipathy towards, the police. (Read this article on Cornel West’s life and work, which starts with an anecdote that, while extreme, gives an indication of the reality of the situation).
True, life in South Central is not all rosy and cosy. There is a widespread drug-problem, the crack epidemic of the early 1980s has driven out much of the African-American middle class and gangs are prevalent in the entire area. And true, a city like Compton is more dangerous, especially at night and especially in gang-controlled residential neighbourhoods, than Santa Monica, Beverly Hills or Malibu. Almost 50% of Watts’ residents live below the poverty line and the per capita murder rate in Inglewood or Compton is up to eight times higher than the national average. Compton’s in particular (67 murders per 100,000 residents) is higher than the murder rates of many notorious cities and countries around the world, including Sao Paolo, Durban or Iraq.
These statistics, however, say nothing about the nature of the place in question. Most murders in these places are gang-related and, obviously, gang business is not tourist business. While you are quite likely to encounter gang members in Compton or elsewhere in South Central, you are very unlikely to encounter problems with gang members, unless you interfere with whatever their business is. You don’t even have to stay away from them: in reality you can easily start conversations with gang members, if you are interested in finding out about this particular aspect of life in South Central. In the end, people involved in gangs are people like you and me, people who chose to lead the life they lead for particular reasons. If you don't treat them like "tourist attractions" but are genuinely interested, they will happily talk to you and explain why they chose, or had to choose, their path. Just ask and you will be told. You don’t have to understand or agree, but you have to respect other people’s opinions, life choices and reasons for actions. This is hardly news. The only difference is that being disrespectful can mean different things in different places. In Compton it can mean walking down a street you have no business walking down. However, normally these are streets at the heart of a particular set’s territory, which you are unlikely to wish to get to in the first place.
Then again, life in South Central is only to a small extent shaped by the existence of gangs. If you are not interested in this particular aspect, just visit the Park Cemetery or a night club in Inglewood, the Heritage House or Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum in Compton, the Towers or a jazz club in Watts or, if that's what rocks your boat, get drunk in a strip club on Crenshaw Boulevard. There are also plenty of shopping malls, cultural centres, museums, casinos, and good bars. Ok, now you caught me lying: there aren't really any good bars in Compton - but if you can do without drinking for a few days, just go and visit the city and have a good time.
Here are the promised photos:
Lennox: 1
Newspaper Article about Philosophy
I am still in San Diego, leaving early on Friday morning for Phoenix, Arizona. So far it has been great staying in San Diego. I've especially enjoyed writing at the cosy cafes by the beach, after swimming a few rounds in the ocean. However, after almost three weeks in just two places, namely LA and San Diego, I do feel that it is time to pick up speed again.
In San Diego I have come across a very interesting sight, namely a 25-page cover article about a philosophy of language student at UCSD in a mainstream newspaper, namely the San Diego Weekly Reader. It gives the reader a good idea of what contemporary academic philosophy is like. Read the article here or here.
Article, Photos, News
Update 1: After two interesting and productive weeks in Los Angeles I have made my way to San Diego, where I will stay for another two or three nights. In LA I have spent most of my time in the greater South Central LA area, namely in Inglewood and Compton, and I have visited Watts, Crenshaw, Hawthorne, and Lennox. I will report in a separate entry about my experiences in South Central. Other than that I visited Santa Monica and Hollywood and met regularly with Ira Simmons, president of Oneworld Works, in Venice Beach. Ira introduced me to many wonderful and inspiring people in the city, which made my stay in LA a very special experience. More soon.
Update 2: An article about my US tour and our project in Kinshasa has recently appeared in the Santa Monica Mirror. Click here or here to take a look at it.
As promised, here are some more photos:
Photos: Death Valley
I am still in the LA area, recovering from many weeks of rather intensive travelling. LA, and Inglewood in particular, is a very interesting place. So far I have visited Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Crenshaw and in the next few days I will explore Watts, Compton and Hollywood, before leaving LA for San Diego. Here are the promised photos from Death Valley:
Overlooking the Valley from Dante's View: 1
The Desert: 1
Zabriskie Point: 1
Artist's Palette: 1
Badwater: 1
Ghost Town Rhyolite: 1
Photos: Grand Canyon West Rim & the Skywalk
From Yosemite to Frisco
Yosemite [yo-se-mi-tee]: I have recently spent two amazing nights just outside of Yosemite National Park. One night I camped at the Mono Lake, just outside the East entrance, where I witnessed an absolutely spectacular moon rise. I made my way through the park and spent the second night in Midpines, just outside the park's West entrance. Yosemite’s granite cliffs and waterfalls are absolutely stunning, and if you bring a bit of time you will be thanked with an abundance of hiking and rock-climbing opportunities. I will post photos soon.
San Francisco: I don’t know why I always had a slight aversion to Frisco since I first visited the city in 1998. It is a cosy, laid-back and liberal place with a very unique flair, which I am enjoying a lot. Even though I am still in love with the more eclectic and mesmerizing Oakland, birthplace of both the Black Panther Party and, believe it or not, the Hell’s Angels, I have definitely changed my mind about Frisco - it is a great city. With UC Berkeley just a few miles north of Oakland, the Bay area is actually quite an appealing place to live.
Article: I have recently published an article in Vancouver Island's PQB News. Click here or here to have a look at it.
I will be in San Francisco until Thursday, then spend a night in Oakland and on Friday morning I will travel down the Pacific Highway to Los Angeles. I will probably spend a night on the beach somewhere and hope to arrive in LA on June 9.
From Yellowstone to Death Valley
I apologise for not posting more regularly here in the past week. Life has been intensely busy and internet access more than often non-existent (or payable, as virtually everywhere in Vegas). Here’s a summary of the action:
Yellowstone/Grand Teton: about 1 ½ weeks ago I travelled through the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, which was an absolutely wonderful experience. (I have already posted a number of photos from this excursion.) On the way I saw grizzly bears, geysirs and plenty of bison and deer, and I experienced camping in Yellowstone. The latter I could have done without, as the overcrowded mass campgrounds in Yellowstone did not really allow for the kind of romantic feeling of wilderness camping I have been craving. If you ever do it, do look for the campground with the smallest number of sites.
Utah: I exited Yellowstone in the West, made my way to Idaho Falls (ID) and continued from there into Utah. In Salt Lake City I debated the problem of evil with a number of Mormon missionaries in the Temple, which was fun. I also had the rather bizarre experience of walking through a Mormon ghetto. I was looking for the Utah International Hostel, which happened to be located in a warehouse district West of the highway. The UIH must be the worst place to stay, as everybody I saw there seemed to be drugged, including the people who work there. After leaving the place in disbelief, I tried to find a shortcut back into town - bad idea.
Las Vegas: having saved up a bit of travel money I treated myself to a bus trip, namely from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. I arrived the day before Memorial Day weekend, so you can imagine that Vegas was absolute madness. Vegas is a strange place and seems to combine and embrace just those dreadful elements some regard as being constitutive of the American Way: its artificiality and shallowness, a shiny world in which pretence has a more secured place than depth, truth or humility, a world in which a dogma lies like a shadow over all social interaction, namely the belief that a harsh capitalistic mind is common sense serving everybody and not merely one’s own precious but trivial and pretentious little world. This is Vegas for you: it is all so big, but actually it is all so annoyingly little. An intelligent man cannot like this place sober.
Grand Canyon (West Rim) and the Skywalk: not at all worth it, please don't waste your money by getting onto the Skywalk when you are in Vegas. Instead, try for the Canyon South and/or North Rim (I will, from Flagstaff, Arizona in a few weeks). The view from the Skywalk was tolerable, but not worth the $25 admission fee and definitely not worth the additional $50 bus fee the Indian Hualapai Tribe charges in order to get to the Skywalk (from their tourist information center about 2 miles away). Since the tribe advertises Skywalk access to be only $25 per person, there were plenty of angry visitors who felt ripped off. So did I. Also, cameras are not allowed onto the Skywalk. One may of course have photos taken of oneself with the Canyon in the background, but the tribe charges $15 per photo. The tribe is also planning to erect a hotel and a tourism center right next to the Skywalk.
Death Valley: visiting Death Valley has been a truly astounding experience. The park, with 14,000km2 the largest national park in the United States, is home to the lowest point in the Western hemisphere (85.5m/282ft below sea level at Badwater) and it is one of the hottest places on earth. The average maximum temperature in July and August, the hottest months of the year, is 49°C (120°F) and the record high is 57°C (134°F). The Valley is incredibly inspiring: against popular conception it is not empty wasteland, but a place of incredible geological diversity, consisting of deserts, mountains, vast fields of salt crystals, sand dunes, waterfalls and deserted gold mines. It is a place of poetic justice, giving and caring to those who appreciate its austere beauty, and remorseless and unforgiving to those who refuse to understand it. Sleeping at full moon in the middle of the desert is an experience I will forever cherish.
Death Valley is also home to what may be one of my next projects: the Badwater Ultra Marathon, a 135 mile run over 60 hours and at up to 55°C from Badwater (elevation -282 feet/-85.5m) to the Mount Whitney trailhead (elevation 8360 feet/2533m).
Yosemite and other things to come: early on Saturday morning I am getting a ride to Yosemite National Park, where I will spend a few nights. I haven’t decided how to proceed from there, but there are only two real options: either I’ll hitchhike to San Francisco and continue down the Pacific Highway, or I will make my way through Fresno and Central California to Los Angeles. The first option is becoming more and more appealing to me. I hope to be in LA by June 7 or 8.
Recent Updates
Update 1: Since I crossed the Idaho/Utah border, my phone is working again. So please feel free to text or call any time.
Update 2: I have fully updated the DRC 2008 page. Please go here to take a look at it.
Update 3: I have uploaded a few photos. Here you go: 1 2 3 4 5 6
I'm leaving Salt Lake for Sin City in a few hours. Stay tuned for updates on and from Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Mormon state Utah (a very pleasant surprise!) and the trip down to Vegas!
Congo's Curse
In July 2006, IRIN, the UN’s Integrated Regional Information Network, released a 15-minute documentary entitled Congo's Curse, which is very informative with regards to the situation in the DRC's Eastern provinces. Please follow this link to (legally) download and watch the movie (in French or English, Real or WMP). You can also watch the movie here or here.
Montana to Wyoming
Update 1: My cell/mobile phone SIM card is currently not working, so if you have been trying to call or text me recently and didn’t get through, please bear with me. I will try to fix the problem as soon as possible and announce on this site when I once again am contactable via telephone.
Update 2: As you may have noticed, I have made a change to my route. Instead of passing through Bozeman (Montana) and entering Yellowstone National Park from the North, I turned South in Butte (Montana) and headed through Idaho Falls (Idaho) to Jackson (Wyoming). The choice was not, of course, mine. I got stuck in smalltown Montana, Clinton by name, 20 miles east of Missoula, where I camped behind a trucker bar. A very nice chap, on his way from Spokane to Jackson, broke down in Clinton the same night. After he got his car fixed the next morning, he was so nice to give me a ride all the way to Jackson. I will now enter Grand Teton National Park from the South, making my way north into Yellowstone and exit in the West. From there I will continue to Idaho Falls and further into Northern Utah. I hope to be in Salt Lake City by May 22 and in Las Vegas by May 24.
NGO Announcement
I am delighted to announce that Ira Simmons, president of the California-based charitable foundation Oneworld Works, and I have decided to collaborate on a number of fundraising projects for and humanitarian projects in the DRC. Effectively immediately I will incorporate Oneworld Works in my fundraising efforts. In the summer of 2008 I will work for one of the foundation’s mobile schools in Congo’s capital, providing food and basic education to some of the many thousand homeless children and former child soldiers, who live on the streets of Kinshasa. Furthermore, Oneworld Works will help me in securing an assignment with an (army-backed) emergency relief team that assists refugees escaping the ongoing fighting in the Eastern provinces with food, medicine, housing and clothing.
To find out more about Oneworld Works’ projects, or to make a contribution tax-deductible to the extent provided by the law for a 501 (c) 3 foundation, email oneworldworks@msn.com, or write to Oneworld Works, 2138 Penmar Avenue, Suite 3, Venice, CA 90291, USA.
On a Personal Note
Uncharacteristically un-Nietzschean and possibly a hangover from my Catholic upbringing is my fascination with the human potential for asceticism, discipline and strength of the will. Yet I have never considered myself particularly ascetic, disciplined, or strong-willed. A few years back I decided this must change. As a first step I started training my discipline by making lifestyle changes, starting with the elimination of hazardous and addictive influences on my life. In August 2006, for example, I quit smoking after 13 foolish years of 25-a-day. Now I wish to take the next step: I will quit five further hazardous substances, initially for one year (starting May 15), namely alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, drinks containing sugar and/or artificial sweeteners, and junk food. Writing this entry is embarrassing enough; should I slip, however, my penalty will be, for me at least, a paradigma of shame, namely a full confession on this news page.
Crossing Washington
Unfortunately my first real wilderness experience will have to wait for another week or so, as I could not make it onto the Pacific Crest Trail. Parts of the segment I had planned to hike on were still snowed in when I arrived at the trail head in Trout Lake, which meant hiking on this section of the trail would be very dangerous without the right equipment – which of course I don’t have. So I had to turn back. I hiked around Mount Adams a bit and eventually hitchhiked, over a period of three days and through a number of places (Goldendale, Toppenish, Yakima, Ellensburg, and Vantage) to Spokane, WA.
Hitchhiking has been loads of fun. I met very interesting and open-minded people on the way, who all loved a good political discussion. So the rides were very pleasant experiences, and oftentimes I didn’t even want to arrive.
The natural beauty and diversity of the state of Washington is amazing. Even though it calls itself “the Evergreen State”, it is not as green as the famous coastal destinations or Western Washington rain forests and national parks may make one believe. A large part of the Central and Eastern regions were or still are deserts, and many parts were arid only until the Columbia River, the fourth largest river by volume and largest hydroelectric power producing river in the US, was utilised to provide water for the already fertile land.
Crossing Washington State has been a great overall experience. I will leave Spokane tomorrow (Friday) morning, to hitchhike across Northern Idaho into Montana. If all goes well I will spend a night each in Missoula and Bozeman, before entering Yellowstone National Park (most likely at Gardiner). Hiking across Yellowstone is going to be interesting, especially because I am not sure if the park is actually designed for a through-hike. Neither is the visitor information desk. They suggested for me just to show up at one of the entrances. Way to prepare, I guess.
NGO Update
Update 1: I will now leave Portland on Saturday (not Friday) morning local time.
Update 2: I may have good news regarding my NGO search soon. A California-based humanitarian organisation that assists the UN Permanent Mission to the DRC in reviewing volunteer requests contacted me and informed me of their projects. Amongst them are both a mobile school project for street children and former child soldiers in Kinshasa and an emergency relief project that provides assistance to people dislocated during the ongoing conflicts in the Eastern provinces. Both projects are hugely important and precisely of the kind I have been envisaging. We are currently discussing the details.
Taking the first steps
I have arrived in the City of Roses, Portland, Oregon last night. It is rainy here, which means that I finally get a chance to write and continue updating this site. My apologies for the slow progress it is making.
So far it has not been necessary for me to be adventurous, which is largely due to the fact that there are plenty of hostels around, and because Washington State has a very well-developed and inexpensive local bus system. It is possible to hop from town to town, sometimes for as little as 75 cents. It is a great way to experience the beauty of this state and to get to meet people.
My journey will begin to get more interesting on Friday, which is when I will leave Portland. I will travel down the Oregon/Washington state line until I hit the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), going northwards across the Cascade Range and through the Mount Adams Wilderness area in Southern Washington State. The US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service calls the PCT the “crown jewel of American scenic trails” (namely here) and I am very much looking forward to seeing if only a small stretch of it. I will hike either 150 or 75 miles of it, depending on whether I get on at Stevenson or Trout Lake. Either route will take me to White Pass, from where I will take local buses/hitchhike to Yakima and further on to Spokane. Initially I had anticipated to spend 3-4 days on this trip, but it looks as if it is going to take longer, possibly as much as a week.
It will be the very first time for me spending an extended period of time by myself in the wilderness, so you can imagine that I am awaiting the experience in nervous anticipation. I will update the news page just before I embark on this hike.
Let the journey begin!
You will know by now that I am embarking on an epic journey across the United States. Unfortunately I am running a couple of days late. I am currently in Vancouver, but will start hiking towards the US border early on Thursday morning. I hope to reach Seattle, or at least Bellingham, by Thursday night.
