tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57699442011-04-21T20:37:09.689-07:00A trip on a moto.Gone to Mexico.jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comBlogger731100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-16615494048143283942009-02-28T16:05:00.000-08:002009-02-28T16:06:19.666-08:00And now, a familiar look in a new place: www.austinhealingmassage.comjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-22805844267962356102008-04-07T19:53:00.000-07:002008-04-07T19:58:38.309-07:00Merri and I made a web site for her business and it came out nicely: http://renohealingmassage.com/jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-84556413050163081012007-09-02T20:24:00.001-07:002007-09-02T22:31:35.593-07:00stuff from hong kong...some dim sum and some isoms:family resemblance?she wanted me to promise not to post this. what are brothers for?i like to ride the bus around in the morning and read the paper. you can see a lot of hong kong from on top and in the front.the family likes to ride in the back. it is, literally, cooler and there's more legroom:kowloon is being rebuilt taller, now that the jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1473208691625418072007-07-07T17:03:00.000-07:002007-07-08T07:59:35.836-07:00jasper national park isn't a place that you can really take a picture of. imagine a range of sharp snow-covered mountains on either side of a valley:this picture doesn't do it justice. there's a really cool section where it looks like a flat sheet of rock just got bent up into a 40 degree angle. i can't imagine how cool it must look to climb up to the corner... i hope to know someday:went to jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-78839600734040792652007-07-03T21:36:00.000-07:002007-07-03T21:37:18.845-07:00Am safely home in Austin. Will put the rest of the pictures and such up shortly.jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-16466492132900479732007-07-01T20:22:00.000-07:002007-07-04T11:24:02.847-07:00left anchorage to find that dolores is about the same size as denali:i thought i was about 120 miles from denali when i took this and that the mountain would be clouded over. imagine my surprise when i realized it wasn't a cloud in the distance. i nearly dropped the motorcycle stopping and getting down and jumping around.i rode as far into the park as one can without getting on a bus, then did jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-42429227462537745592007-06-25T16:05:00.001-07:002007-06-27T00:10:52.843-07:00Pictures from Portland, Seattle, and Anchorage...The first night we went to a school that had been converted into an entertainment venue (there was a hotel, 3 or 4 bars, and a restaraunt). We swam in the pool, and rode bikes there through some neighborhoods and alternately cruised easily and put in some digs up the hills. No pictures from that unfortunately, but it was great.The next night, jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-54638764926604710842007-06-18T17:22:00.000-07:002007-06-18T17:59:09.806-07:00hi all,i spent a few days with scott and ali in san francisco. we had a nice evening with jonathan stewart in a bar, as well, but unfortunately i didn't get any pictures of all of us together. this is what scott, ali, chip, and i looked like as we relaxed after relaxing:this is how i like chip the best:dolores hardly ever asks for anything, so i had to do this for her:i ended up getting a jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-41401974360722765672007-06-14T11:50:00.001-07:002007-06-14T12:24:20.542-07:00in l.a. i stayed with some friends of gunnar and abby's in altadena. it was at this fantastic house. it was fun to hang out with some kids and we drank some beer and whiskey and played some poker:they were motorcycle riders as well. note the red "stop button" on the truck:i love how california smells. i spent time behind a flatbed carrying hay, riding past a pea field, and then past some jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-59068495083721328262007-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:002007-06-14T11:49:54.618-07:00more pictures:i left todos santos and it was (once again) foggy. saw a side road that was too neat to pass up, went down it and took a picture of this tree:i stayed in el rosario nuevo. they were very friendly--people were walking by and saying hello and 'buen provecho' as i ate dinner. i pulled a dumb tourist trick and spent $2.40 a minute to talk to grandma about retirement home politics for 15jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-57021065211179747562007-06-10T09:33:00.000-07:002007-06-10T09:37:04.895-07:00Am in El Rosario de Arriba (just ate a Rib Eye and burritos breakfast at Mama Espinozas) and am headed to Parque Nacional San Pedro Martir. Should get to see some antelope & maybe both oceans at the same time from the highest point in Baja.I plan to cross back to the US tomorrow. As always, I have pictures for you on the other computer. Hopefully I´ll get caught up a litle while in the US.-jonjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-86343041249295281292007-06-08T20:37:00.000-07:002007-06-14T11:00:44.948-07:00backing up, and with mostly pictures... i left ciudad constitucion and stopped here. had a nice conversation with a trucker, and we put his son on the motorcycle for a picture. check out how his truck was loaded:i arrived in todos santos and drove down the beach to look at the ocean and the guidebook. i walked out to the point where you can see the guy fishing, but left it to them when they jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-44064450586713929952007-06-08T16:13:00.000-07:002007-06-08T20:37:05.660-07:00ok, rolling back the clock to the aforementioned prepared blog entry:i'm going to name it dolores. it sounds nice, has kind of a unconventionally attractive connotation, and when things are going bad you can emphasize the 'dolor' part of it and get the idea across. when you want her to sound faster you can add the numbers: "DOLORES 650 se corrida muy rapida" type of stuff.baja's pretty deserty jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-65182381764797135072007-06-07T11:27:00.000-07:002007-06-07T11:32:04.821-07:00all,i have a nice blog entry typed and some decent pictures re-sized and everything, but this casa de internet wont let me use my laptop and doesn´t have usb ports, so we are all going to have to wait.last night i was the victim of incredible good fortune, in that a bolt in my duct-tape-and-cable-ties headlight mount broke and i was worried it would be hard to find a replacement. i woke up, and jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-25625180677784348122007-06-06T09:27:00.001-07:002007-07-13T11:31:53.980-07:00i spent yesterday snorkeling and swimming in the clear blue sea of cortez. but, they call it the gulf of california here. i also visited a canyon outside of san carlos, mx with a name that i will have to look up for you.i'm in santa rosalia with a full tank of gas and will head to mulege and bahia de la concepcion today. after that (maybe tomorrow, maybe later) i'll head way south on the pacific jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-66608599450955375152007-06-04T15:02:00.000-07:002007-06-04T19:48:13.776-07:00the motorcycle needs a name. suzuki calls it a v-strom or a dl650, i've been thinking about stombolini or stromzuki. there are some obvious things that begin with the initials d & l, or delilah is a seductress with a mean streak, kind of like this motorcycle.anyway, here's how the trip has gone:day 1 -- austin to chihauha. i took tx 29 to 377 to us 90 west, then went through big bend np and big jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1121348119640245352005-07-14T06:33:00.000-07:002005-07-14T06:35:19.650-07:00last wednesday was one of the best days that i can remember. as i described it in an e-mail,i think yesterday was one of the best days i've ever had. i rode the motorcycle back to berseba -- the volunteer there who was my roommate (kiwan) was leaving town for good, and i still had a bicycle in the garage there. the motorcycle ride was fantastic. it's a long, lonely, rocky, sandy, road. the bike jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1119476528386363542005-06-22T14:39:00.000-07:002005-06-22T14:42:08.396-07:00dear blog,i have a story for you.luckily, i thought, i met this guy from iowa whose church has some kind of sister church relationship with the lutheran church here in bethanie. when i talked to him about the visa situation, and my 'run for the border' plan (i'd thought i'd just go in and out of the country every 90 days and get a new tourist visa -- the visa guy at the namibian embassy in jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1116504348210838312005-05-19T04:54:00.000-07:002005-05-19T05:05:48.216-07:00the trip is going well. it feels weird to be on a keyboard.weve pretty much got the plan worked out so our days are either long, long, hot, stinky bus rides or pretty blissful. sometimes the llhs bus rides are also blissful. this part of africa (im writing from mozambique, and weve been (really, blown) through zambia and malawi) has a lot more of the stuff you expect -- buses packed so full that jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1115113694046102492005-05-03T02:42:00.000-07:002005-05-03T02:48:14.046-07:00hi all,there's not much new going on since i wrote last, but i just got a new number for my cell phone (the old one had expired from non-usage. you can dial me from the US with: 011-264-812-112-129. It should be operational about 24 hours from now, when I charge the thing up.the weather is great here. cool, but not cold and some little rain showers blowing through. i'm really looking forward to jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1115018486537741332005-05-02T00:14:00.000-07:002005-05-02T00:21:26.540-07:00I'm heading out today for the May vacation. Plans are changing quickly, but the current itinerary looks like this:Trip "Itinerary"Big picture-- Vic falls, then up to Lake Malawi. Take ferry upand down lake, snorkel, etc. I think it will be amazing.Option B would be, skip Lake Malawi and head to Indian oceancoast of Mozambique. Personally, I would like to try the Lake, I'm less likely to getthere jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1113892008279073592005-04-18T23:22:00.000-07:002005-04-18T23:26:48.280-07:00hi all,things are pretty good. kristin needed a day or two away, so she cut out of school early on friday and we took the big bus (it runs mondays and fridays during the day, so usually isn't an option for kristin because she's working when it runs) to luderitz -- a small town on the coast that's about 150 miles west of bethanie. we spent the day sitting by the ocean, reading, and taking breaks jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1112556270428953142005-04-03T12:21:00.000-07:002005-04-03T12:24:30.430-07:00hello all,well, i’ve been back almost a week. i’d say things are going pretty well, mostly. i worked the first day at the butcher shop on friday. we made deliveries to rosh pinah (a zinc mining town near the orange river). it really reminded me of kolmanskuppe – the ghost town that you sometimes see in pictures of namibia that is famous because the buildings are being swallowed by sand dunes. jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1112245421201812922005-03-30T21:01:00.000-08:002005-03-30T21:03:41.203-08:00hello everybody.well, i’m back in namibia. i had a good trip. the highlight was probably staying in a cheap hotel in johannesburg with a poster on the wall that said SOAPit’s all you need (big picture of soap) available at thefront desk for R0.80R0.80 is about US0.08, so if soap really is all you need then you’re in pretty good shape..My return trip involved 4 airplanes, a jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1106059484777383322005-01-18T06:35:00.000-08:002005-01-18T06:44:44.776-08:00i'm in colorado now -- i arrived on saturday. i'm living the good life, spending lots of time with my cousins and grandma, eating good food, and having fun. i slept well last night, so i think the worst of the jet lag is over. today the highlight will be my 4 year old cousin sarah's show-and-tell exhibit today.
this is my rough travel plan. i'll be checking with those most directly affected, jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1105524260966452102005-01-12T01:41:00.000-08:002005-01-12T02:04:20.966-08:00well, the free and unlimited internet access thing hasn't really worked out that way. there are lots of volunteers here on vacation, and i have a lot of meetings, appointments, and various wastings of time going on, so i have only jumped on here for a few minutes at a time. i also haven't had much time to check on fares for visiting my parents and returning here, so my plan hasn't firmed up much jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1105259352506741302005-01-09T01:19:00.000-08:002005-01-09T00:29:12.506-08:00hey. i'm overdue for an update--sorry about that. i've been working on a plan, but haven't finished with it.
here's what i do know:
i'll leave today for windhoek, and get there tomorrow. tomorrow i'll officially resign from the peace corps and start the getting out of town process. it sounds like it may only take a few days, and they're already working on a flight home, so tomorrow i should be jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1103474603603192522004-12-19T07:56:00.000-08:002004-12-19T08:43:23.603-08:00ok, my vacation report. so far.
i left school on the 3rd and went to bethanie. oh, i was sick. i was at the bar, exchanging culture with namibians, at about 3 in the morning and a farmer offered to sell us a rack of goat ribs and neighboring meat for about 3 u.s. bucks -- a great deal. we quickly coughed up the cash (how do you beat farm fresh goat at cut rate prices?) and threw the meat in the jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1102756817849125312004-12-11T01:49:00.000-08:002004-12-11T01:20:17.850-08:00finally, i have some time and am kind of in a writing mood. the last thing i wrote on here -- that i've decided to leave the school and the peace corps -- is true. it's not the kind of thing i would have anticipated doing when i joined up, but i think it's the right thing. i've spent lots of time agonizing and flip-flopping about whether to stay or go, but i've decided now.
there are lots of jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1102587252922396292004-12-09T02:01:00.002-08:002004-12-09T02:14:12.923-08:00ok, since we talked last i sat down and talked to the rest of the teachers about that meeting i told you about. we ended up in an argument that lasted an hour and a half and included lots of yelling. i think it pretty well finished things up for me. my plan is, very tentatively, to go on vacation through the beginning of next year, then around the 10th of january tell the peace corps i'm through.jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1102587246460773212004-12-09T02:01:00.001-08:002004-12-09T02:14:06.460-08:00ok, since we talked last i sat down and talked to the rest of the teachers about that meeting i told you about. we ended up in an argument that lasted an hour and a half and included lots of yelling. i think it pretty well finished things up for me. my plan is, very tentatively, to go on vacation through the beginning of next year, then around the 10th of january tell the peace corps i'm through.jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1102587148089089152004-12-09T02:01:00.000-08:002004-12-09T02:12:28.090-08:00ok, since we talked last i sat down and talked to the rest of the teachers about that meeting i told you about. we ended up in an argument that lasted an hour and a half and included lots of yelling. i think it pretty well finished things up for me. my plan is, very tentatively, to go on vacation through the beginning of next year, then around the 10th of january tell the peace corps i'm through.jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1101204428441946382004-11-23T01:40:00.000-08:002004-11-23T02:07:08.440-08:00hi all. i'm still in namibia.
i ate the single most difficult thing to get down that i've ever tasted the other day. it was a sheep jaw, complete with teeth, but most of the food was the lips and cheeks. it really looked like it was smiling, and had a really rough texture not unlike the inside of buddy's lip as i remember it. it was colored green from the marinade. top that, if possible, with jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1098356250702649832004-10-21T03:39:00.000-07:002004-10-21T03:57:30.703-07:00so i'm in town today, planning on travelling to swakopmund to try a marathon. only thing is i don't have my shoes. i left them in some shuffle of homework to grade, science equipment to organize, and sleep-deprived mental haze.
i've stepped way back at school. i'm nominally going there, teaching my classes, and leaving. it's the right thing to do--wednesday when i left the school, during classesjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1096958669225684382004-10-04T22:32:00.000-07:002004-10-04T23:51:07.776-07:00[oops. i typed this whole thing out, thinking that yesterday's post didn't make it. now, i see that it did. so it's largely a repetition of yesteday's. you might want to skip it, or skip to the story of leaving town (which is new).]
i had a little bit of a breakdown. i've been really struggling at school to try and sort of maintain some level of order and discipline. i think too much so, becausejonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1096891065627245972004-10-04T04:39:00.000-07:002004-10-04T04:57:45.626-07:00hey. i need to make this quick.
long story short, i bicycled off the job last sunday. i've been in rough shape. feeling tired, helpless, like i was trying to run the school by myself, etc.
i don't know if circumstances really justify how bad i've been doing. i think that running was really helping me to cope and that spraining my ankle sort of took that away. it wasn't long until i was just a jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1095688371924365762004-09-20T06:47:00.000-07:002004-09-20T06:52:51.923-07:00hey, everybody.
i should have told you that gretchen had her baby. her name is cadence emily geyer, and she looks healthy from the pictures. it sounds like she's already sleeping through the night and being good.
also, i haven't done a good job of showing you pictures of my girlfriend. i don't have a lot of them, but the best one is probably to tell you that she's the girl on the right in: httpjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1095243026048102842004-09-15T02:47:00.000-07:002004-09-15T03:10:26.046-07:00yes. sorry. i waited until i was on the way out of town to try and update this before i went home. then, the internet wasn't available when i tried, and you all were left un-notified. again, my apologies.
the rest of the vacation was pretty ok. strange, too. i spent the last of it in windhoek (the capital city), put up in a hotel by the peace corps so they could do a mid-service medical check-upjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1093085787034637952004-08-21T03:37:00.000-07:002004-08-21T03:56:27.033-07:00hey. yesterday was the last day of school. the kids mostly went home on wednesday after they took their last exam, so we were finishing up report cards and completing @#&%! forms in triplicate. it sucked, because one of the teachers who needed to be there didn't show up, and the secretary was demonstrating her mastery of the work avoidance technique called get really mad if anyone asks you to do jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1091276604923727512004-07-31T05:15:00.000-07:002004-07-31T05:23:24.923-07:00i had accepted, pretty much without question, that i was going to show up as a volunteer and want to jump in with my american ideas. i expected to need to rein in my feelings about how things were going to work and learn how they actually worked here and how to do the right thing here without making everybody angry by telling them they should do things my way. i'm being wordy, but that's pretty jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1090236714749233162004-07-19T04:20:00.000-07:002004-07-19T04:31:54.750-07:00hey. i'm back in town, real quick like, to participate in a shady business dealing. my part of it isn't shady.
nothing much is new since friday, but the other volunteers are saying that y'all can get calling cards from callingcard.com for $10 that will let you call me for 126 minutes. it might be a little less because i have a cell phone, but if the difference is dramatic you could call and i jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1089989786265648562004-07-16T07:37:00.000-07:002004-07-16T07:56:26.266-07:00you ought to be able to look at some namibia pictures with this link. many thanks to marc digby for scanning and uploading them. if you want higher resolution scans for some reason, ask marc. if you don't have his address, ask me for it.
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=52qv49rj.3bwugz47&x=0&y=-fbqh3h
i'd be interested in what you think. i don't remember exactly what pictures are included, becausejonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1088887390741669712004-07-03T13:35:00.000-07:002004-07-03T13:43:10.740-07:00so i have free internet time, but there's a long line
for the compouter. no blog entry yet, so i'll steal
from emails.
went to a nice 4th of july picnic today (actually the
3rd) at the school all the american businesspeople's
kids go to. it was nice to talk to some americans. i'm
in windhoek (the capital city) because my girlfriend
is sick and they're going to send her to south africa
to poke jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1087729310284321162004-06-20T03:42:00.000-07:002004-06-20T04:01:50.283-07:00hey all,
the first two weeks of school went pretty well. we were studying, the kids were learning stuff, and everything was alright. last week sucked. some teachers left for a conference for a few days, leaving us with just enough teachers to fill the classes, which for practical purposes meant empty classes and rowdy kids. when they came back, they seemed to have lost that working feeling, jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1085406651957069392004-05-24T06:02:00.000-07:002004-05-24T06:50:51.956-07:00hey! i'm back again.
lots of people have asked about my shoulder. some ligament that holds the joint together is still broken, but it doesn't hurt anymore. well, unless i'm riding a bicycle or sleeping on that side. it is easy to live with, but i will probably let the peace corps pay to fix it when i get done here. before if i really need to visit home, but i like the idea of staying here in jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1084799229294566532004-05-17T05:43:00.000-07:002004-05-17T06:13:18.946-07:00hi everyone.
school ended april 30 and i've been on vacation. i've done a few really enjoyable things that you'll like hearing about.
first, after finishing my 'learners' progress reports' (students' report cards) i hopped on my bike and rode it to see my girlfriend. it is about a 100 km trip on a road that is only really passable in a 4 wheel drive, so it was a pretty big undertaking. i ended jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1081774174612392602004-04-12T05:30:00.000-07:002004-04-12T05:52:23.110-07:00hi all,
i'm back in town again. we had a long weekend from school for easter, and i went to visit the girlfriend. i'm killing time now while i wait for a ride home.
i hitch-hiked again today. usually i try to line up rides with people i know, but it doesn't always work out. today the girlfriend and i put me on a bus, and we drove a little ways and i started talking to the girl sitting next to jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1080381051805462352004-03-27T01:21:00.000-08:002004-03-27T01:59:56.513-08:00hey there, it has been a while.
things are good here. things were kind of rough the last time i wrote, but some things are better, some are the same and i've adjusted to them, and few new difficult things have popped up. so life is ok.
things that have been going on--my classes are going pretty well. i have some students that are working really hard and getting perfect scores on tests. other jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1076772007884473052004-02-14T07:19:00.000-08:002004-02-14T07:21:58.936-08:00after telling him that being off work, sick wasn't all bad, eric said:
Another story: my sister, the doctor
of who knows what, told me that she
had a patient when she was an intern
in the VA that would shoot his own
urine to stay ill and get the good
drugs. That may be smarter than
holding spiders to your face.jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1076770013622113092004-02-14T05:50:00.000-08:002004-02-14T07:00:07.966-08:00i'm still writing stuff down in my joe book. here are some of the things i've written:
the guy who wrote elements of style says that oscar wilde once said "we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
van gogh is reported (by the guy who wrote an article about him in our school's issue of national geographic) to have said "my youth is gone. not my love of life or my energyjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1075126924542818122004-01-26T06:01:00.000-08:002004-01-26T06:24:46.186-08:00the trip to windhoek was really nice. i rode the train, and slept a lot because i'd been vigorously relaxing over the weekend. i woke up to look at stars out of the window for a while, then watch the sun come up as we got to town. i spent the day shopping--buying some sports equipment for my students and (this is really the best thing) a mosquito net/tarp thing that i can use to camp out with andjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1075037021984449722004-01-25T05:14:00.000-08:002004-01-25T05:26:58.170-08:00Hello,
I have a mailing address here, now. It is:
Jon Isom
C/O Berseba ECS
Private Bag 2040
Keetmanshoop
Namibia
Any packages sent before the end of February should go to: Please underestimate their value (I may have to pay duty on them) but insure them for something (they are a lot less likely to dissapear):
Jon Isom
C/O US Peace Corps
P/Bag 6862
Ausspannplatz
Windhoek, Namibia
I have hadjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1073553484594364492004-01-08T01:15:00.000-08:002004-01-08T01:19:18.436-08:00i don't have time to write a lot, but this will be my phone number: (081)293-2432
and i'm looking forward to swearing in tomorrow. expect another update with an address in 2 weeks or so.
best,
jonjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1073396905792701212004-01-06T05:48:00.000-08:002004-01-06T05:49:37.420-08:00one of you wrote: "Your description of the accident wasn't really clear, did you land on the board or on the rocks?"
i landed on the sand while the wave broke on top of me. the water was pretty shallow by the time the wave was breaking, so it was pretty much equivalent to diving off of something on to sand, then having someone dump a swimming pool on me.
good times.
the latest is that i'll be jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1072791263849874882003-12-30T05:05:00.000-08:002003-12-30T05:54:36.513-08:00well, christmas was good. we went to a beach town called swakopmund. when we got there, i decided to go surfing with this jonathan guy (it was his birthday, so i told him i was up for whatever he wanted to do). the sea was angry, and there was a riptide and undertow and all that stuff so i was having a good time. after i'd been swimming a while, i saw a big wave coming, swam to catch it, and did.jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1072101338356844012003-12-22T05:55:00.000-08:002003-12-22T05:56:35.060-08:00hi all,
i'm back from otjiwarongo and on a three day vacation for christmas. we're going to the beach (along with everyone else in namibia who can afford to). it should be fun.
as the song says: feliz navidad. i want to wish you a merry christmas.
i wish you all an enjoyable holiday and i miss you.
the rest of model school went well. i learned a lot about being a teacher, and expect to learnjonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1071492219327345472003-12-15T04:43:00.000-08:002003-12-15T04:44:29.233-08:00the 'model school' is going well. it is really difficult to know which things the students will already know, so every time i start a new topic we hiccup a little. the classes love to play games, so we play a game called 'survivor' and another game called 'math relay' a lot.
probably the best part, so far, was when i taught them to sing on top of old smokey and then assigned writing about how jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1070871609209506292003-12-08T00:17:00.000-08:002003-12-08T00:20:52.390-08:00you can see some pictures of namibia and our group (taken by a married couple that went home) here: http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=zphsj51.nkko15h&x=0&y=o4jc3l
today we were supposed to do "model school" and practice teaching, but the students and classrooms were not available. it is good to be flexible in this business.
jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1070634660994661902003-12-05T06:31:00.000-08:002003-12-05T06:31:41.390-08:00well, i don't have much new news from this week -- we have been studying language a lot, and it is going well--the grammar is starting to make a little sense, although the plethora of options for sentence formation are a little intimidating. i had a language proficiency test today, and the immediate feedback from the tester was encouraging.
people ask me what i'm eating. no worms or dirt yet. jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1070266677827010412003-12-01T00:17:00.000-08:002003-12-01T00:18:34.153-08:00oh, i should also tell you that i climbed the mountain. i left !au tsawises at around 8 in the morning, and walked in a straight line to it (and, in a straight line to my door on the way back... it was cool, because the non-mountain ground is so flat that i could see our town's water tower the whole way and the building i stayed in most of the way). i thought i was nearly there (about an hour jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1070265061917648872003-11-30T23:51:00.000-08:002003-11-30T23:51:38.500-08:00we had a very nice thanksgiving. we ate a big turkey dinner, then a group of us went out to a dry riverbed near town and watched shooting stars, drank wine, and talked about being thankful. i loved it, and it was really the best medicine for missing all of my friends and family who i normally celebrate thanksgiving with.
the last week of training has been difficult. many sessions have been on jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1069325611112306962003-11-20T02:53:00.000-08:002003-11-20T02:53:56.843-08:00I was assigned a permanent location yesterday. I will leave tomorrow or Saturday to visit it. The place is a town called Berseba (named after the woman in the bible that we call Bathsheba) in the south of Namibia (sort of between Keetmanshoop and Luderitz, but a few tens of kilometers on a ‘very bad’ road off of the main road). The Nama people call it !au tsawises, which means “hunt springs” (jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1068646883038331282003-11-12T06:07:00.000-08:002003-11-12T06:21:20.383-08:00this time i'm working on this thing first. internet access is expensive (compared to our salary) and really, really slow. half an hour goes by really fast.
i had a really good time with my host sister jane the other night. we were washing dishes, and she took one of the lids for a pan that we were washing and put it on her head. i said 'that's not a hat, and you will get it dirty.' she said 'it jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1068464585784924302003-11-10T03:43:00.000-08:002003-11-10T03:43:03.280-08:00if you're jon isom, and the united states government will pay for you to sit on a porch and learn to speak khoekhoe-whatever from a pretty girl, like they're doing for me, you should take them up on it. it is really nice.
we had a feast on sunday. visitors came, and brought enough goat meat to fill a shelf. they grilled it, and made potatoe salad and cabbage. it was great. one of the people who jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1068118776057070652003-11-06T03:39:00.000-08:002003-11-06T03:39:33.986-08:00remember when doug corbin went to india and someone asked him how his trip went? (for those who've forgotten, he famously said "i didn't get diahrea.") so far, that is one thing he and i have in common, which isn't something i would have expected.
i'm really digging learning this language. it's only been a week and i feel like i can say a lot of stuff. i guess if you study 4-6 hours a day, you jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1067965912407879712003-11-04T09:11:00.000-08:002003-11-04T09:11:50.943-08:00hi everybody,
first the business. i promised to post a schedule of when i would be at okahandja and the phone number below. i didn't bring it with me this time either, but i know that i will head back there on sunday the 15th and be there about a week before i visit my permanent site. still no word on where that is.
i'm staying with ms. emgard swartz in orwetoveni (the '1st location' (place jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1067613949395993332003-10-31T07:25:00.000-08:002003-10-31T07:25:48.260-08:00let's see. a lot has happened.
the hotel in windhoek was nice, but we were supposed to stay on the grounds all the time, so windhoek was less 'boundless freedom of untamed africa' and more 'minimum security containment facility.' the peace corps places quite an emphasis on safety, and it leads to having us do things that don't come naturally to a lot of the free-spirited travelers that are here jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1067060060291640782003-10-24T22:34:00.000-07:002003-10-24T22:34:19.820-07:00welp, i am here in windhoek, safe and sound. they put us up at the safari hotel, which apparently is where visiting dignataries stay. it is across the road from etosha airport if you want to look for it on a map.
tomorrow we head up to okahandja to start training (today is orientation and interviews). we are available for phone calls sunday night (our time = EST+6 currently) local time. if jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1066939017818600872003-10-23T12:40:00.000-07:002003-10-23T12:56:57.156-07:00well, i leave for namibia in about an hour. i like how that looks on the screen.
here's some schedule stuff.
now -> nov 1 = orientation
nov 1 -> nov 15 = community based training (host family type of thing)
nov 17-21 = training where we are together
nov 22-25 = permanent site visit
nov 26-30 = fart around for thanksgiving
december, more of the same. we get a field trip december 23-25.
the jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1066882521542520072003-10-22T21:15:00.000-07:002003-10-22T21:19:35.233-07:00I am Jon's dad Bruce. I told him I would help him out with entries at different times. For the time being he has an address where you can write him.
Jon Isom
Po box 6862
ausspannplapz
windhoek, Namibia
There is no zipcode.
Make sure and underline Namibia when you send him mail and underline USA on your return address.
jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1066308265442095022003-10-16T05:44:00.000-07:002003-10-16T05:44:24.996-07:00i promised some of you folks that i would put a (as the banks say) 'physical address' on here for the training site in namibia (that will be good until the end of the year). unfortunately, i don't seem to have such an address. i should get one at the staging event next week, so i will post it then.
welp, i am in good old east greenville, pa at gretchen and chet's mansion. it is good to be here.
jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1064521395757544282003-09-25T13:23:00.000-07:002003-09-25T13:23:15.586-07:00jon's motorcycle trip, by the numbers:
(estimated) percentage of customers classifiable as 'morbidly obese' at the friday night all you can eat catfish buffet at the truck stop near pleasant valley, tx : 40
(estimated) largest payload seen riding in a dodge aries (4 people, near said buffet) : 1150 pounds
biggest day, miles : 873
best deal on gas (near springdale, id / per gallon) : $2.85
# of jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5769944.post-1062721986598075232003-09-04T17:33:00.000-07:002003-09-04T17:33:06.600-07:00So, to get this started I want to tell you my plans for the next couple of weeks and post the essay I sent the Peace Corps about my goals and expectations for my service.
Plans =
09/05-09/06 - ride the scooter to denver
09/06-09/10 - hang out with grandma, mom, and uncle charlie and family in denver
09/10-09/11 - ride the scooter or take the bus to pendleton
09/11-09/14 - try to do round-up jonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02285603990794014598noreply@blogger.com