Commemorative Photographs Surrounding Sue's Spilled Water

At last, another post

Hey All

Finally after days of unnecessary delay (primarily due to laziness on my part, and lack of internet at home), I can now present the continuation of my last post - the European Road Trip.

We started in the town pictured below called Ur Bock, near Stuttgart - the home-town of the Bride in the wedding I talked about earlier. We had booked a rental car before we even arrived in Germany. It was supposed to be a VW Polo. Don't recognize the name? Its because the car is so small that its not even sold in North America. Luckily for us, the rental company didn't have one available when we arrived, so we had to 'settle' for an Audi for the same price. :)Its no sports car or anything, but I did manage to get it up to 205 km/h on the Autobahn with 3 hefty men and their luggage on board.

Our first stop was Strasbourg, France. It is a beautiful town about half an hour from the French-German border. It is one of the few cities in the region that escaped destruction in the second world war. The medieval city center is still completely intact, and utterly amazing. Walking through it almost feels like a maze - the buildings are continuous, about 10 floors tall, and the roads follow no recognizable pattern. Every now and again, you come across a thousand year old church, outdoor markets, city squares with fountains, and outdoor restaurants. Forget about the wide, straight streets of Toronto - this is the way to design a city.
I surprised myself by communicating with various shop keepers and restaurateurs in French. I thought I had forgotten it all from back in the OAC days. Justin, who's French is as bad as it gets, thought he'd bravely attempt to order a beer in French. I told him to say 'Je prends un biere pressant' which is equivalent to saying I'll take a draft beer. Unfortunately for him, his 'pressant' sounded more like 'poisson', and he got laughed at by everyone who heard.
We left Strasbourg in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, eliciting strange looks from passers by as we attempted to change clothes in our little car. We stopped by Freiburg (a small city back in Germany) for a night. Its another great town - similar to Strasbourg, but not quite as cool, so we'll move along straight to Switzerland to save time.

We drove through much of the north-eastern part of the country. Check out the picture below. It gives a pretty good idea about what the countryside looks like closer to the Austrian border. Everywhere you look, you see mountains with small villages situated surprisingly high up on the steep slopes.

We stayed in Zurich for a couple days. Its a fairly large German speaking city in central Switzerland. Its a great city with plenty of history. We visited a few of the museums and a cathedral. My only complaint was the fact that Zurich, as with anywhere else in Switzerland, is extremely expensive. If you ever head that way, be prepared to spend twenty bucks on a personal sized pizza for lunch.
This particular cathedral is quite old - parts of it were built around a thousand years ago. For those who (unlike me) are familiar with church history, this is the church where Ulrich Zwingli would have been found preaching on a Sunday afternoon in 1500 ad. Zwingli was a founding father of Protestantism (independantly of Martin Luther), and effectively the dictator of Zurich until he was killed in a civil war.

After a very costly, but enjoyable stay in Zurich, we headed for Austria via a little country which (I'm ashamed to admit) I'd never heard of before. Its about 50 km long and far less wide, and by the time we reached the Austrian border, we had pretty much seen all that there is to see in Lichtenstein.
Of all the places I've visited so far, I think Austria is where I'd live if I ever move to Europe. Its a bit more laid back than Germany, and as you can see in the picture below - the scenery is alright, and the prospect for hiking and outdoor related stuff is not bad, and will having you singing "the hills are alive" in no time. :)
The city we stayed in is called Innsbruck. You may recognize the name from when it held the winter Olympics a number of years ago. It is another town where much of the Medieval inner city remains intact. Unfortunately for us, the gondola service to the top of some of those mountains (part of their public transit system) were shut down for maintenance. Its all good though, Innsbruck is only about 1.5 hours train ride from where I'm at right now, and I'll definitely be heading back.

After Innsbruck, we headed to Munich - our final destination where we'd all part company. I stayed behind, Jordan headed back to Canada, and Justin, back to Stuttgart to fly home from there.

Munich is a fantastic city. Its not quite as pretty as Innsbruck or Strasbourg since over 90% of the city was destroyed in WW2 and was rebuilt with a more modern look. But the culture and history of this town can't be equaled. It has a beautiful central park over twice the size of New York's, tons of Biergartens (outdoor restaurants that serve traditional Bavarian meals along with beer, beer, and a little more beer), outdoor cafes, and some fantastic museums.
So, to bring you completely up to date - I'm now working on a research project at the Technical University of Munich. Its a great school with all the facilities we at Rye can only imagine. Its pretty laid back here - we drink alot of beer, barbecue up dinner a few times a week, and we get some work done occasionally - whenever we find time.

Alright, I'm heading out to the alps to get some hiking done. I'll be climbing a 7000 ft tall mountain on Sunday so wish me luck. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Later!

life on the farm

Hey

So I'm starting to settle in here. It helps a lot that the monsoon has arrived and I can sleep at night. I just moved into another room that has better ventilation as it is at the corner of the house. This week I went exploring, found 2 good bakeries. I haven't found a good coffee place yet. Coffee is plentiful and it's brewed, but it's too sweet.

News --

So two days ago 3 Canadian volunteers departed for home, on June 12 the rest depart and then I'll be the only whitie for miles.

On June 1 I move into Bulanao where the school is. I'll be living in the dorm. It's currently under construction, mostly gut and rebuild. There's a crew of about 40 locals and then a bunch of Cdn construction workers who have been here since April 4. They've been working 7 days a week since I've been around to see. Yesterday I took the day off, did some laundry, played with the kids on the farm, played with giant beetles, chilled in a hammock. I also went on a fruit tour of the farm, complete with a red ant attack. I was valiantly defended by a crew of toddlers and 6 year olds . We found gauabano, lumboy, chico, jackfruit, mango and another one I can't remember the name of. It's great to just wander out of the house and find some fruit to chow down on.

A little more about the house, it's on a farm outside of Bulanao. There are 2 small houses, one larger 2 storey house and a barn for storing rice. There's a large tarmac for basketball and now, becaause it's harvest season they are drying rice out there. The homes are built of concrete (walls) and corrugated sheet metal roofs. We have electricity but no running water or toilets. There is a pump at the back of the big house with a shower area and a place to wash clothes. We have an outhouse type structure for toileting, essentially it's a crack between some boards, so you just squat to go. It does have a light so this is really convenient for nighttime.

There are several families that live on the farm, Anita and Agallo, Remy and Fernando (Remy is my supervisor) Sarah Jane, the cook, and Junior our driver, who is Remy's brother. Between all these people there are about 10 kids. Then at the big house, where I stay there are 2 other Cdn volunteers, 3-4 kitchen workers who are scholars working for them for the summer, the NGO founders and their son. Anita and Agallo's house is attached to the back of the big house. There's also Remy's mom, and an older woman who was just released from the hospital, her daughter works in the kitchen.

Last week Remy and Fernando's son fell off his bike and injured his foot. In response to this the family had a pig butchered to ward off evil spirits and ask for good healing. This is called palanao and it happens in honour of positive events as well. So I got to witness a pig butchering and for good measure several chickens were on offer as well. The butchering went like this, two boys go catch the pig, then they wash it. They grab a stool and put the head of the pig on the stool and one boy holds the back legs up. It's squealing like crazy. Then Agallo comes along with his bolo, a long knife. He slices a little into the pig's throat, then sticks a sharped piece of bamboo into the hole. Then the blood comes gushing and the pig convulses to his death, almost. To finish it off they start burning off his hair in the fire at which point the pig ceases to emit tortured sounds. After this the chickens show up and get defeathered in the same manner.
On this same night there was a clan meeting to resolve the amount of a settlement to be offered to a member of another tribe. The settlement is to make up for an attempted crime against a person in that tribe. The perpetrator has already gone to jail, this is tribal justice. No word on what they offered.

One last tidbit, I tried red ant eggs at a ceremony last week. And they were delicious!

Peace,
Miriam

A prayer

I ran into this prayer today in my readings, and thought I'd share it because it's beautiful.

Heavenly Father, in you I live and move and have my being: I humbly pray you so to guide and govern me by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of my life, I may not forget you, but may remember that I am ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Today is …

Jason's birthday. Have a good 'un … hope you read this blog still. Give us an update!

T

Tulgao

Here's a little update:

I spent the weekend in a remote mountain village of about 2,000. It's called Tulgao, you can probably find it on google earth. It's at about 7,000 ft elevation. It was incredible there, tranquil. Near the village there is a waterfall and a hotspring. It was quiet, no jeepneys, no tricycles (motorcycle w/ sidecar). We were there to meet applicants for the educational sponsorship program, there were 25.
They had a celebration to welcome us, I learned several dances, they really focused on teaching us the courtship dances! It was a lot of fun. The women were dressed in woven wrap skirts, in the colours of the tribe. The men wore g-strings and woven bamboo hats. We spend the afternoon dancing with them, taking turns, they would perform and then the men/women would teach us the dance they had just done. They butchered a pig in our honour, thankfully I was able to gracefully pass on it.
The economic activity in Tulgao is essentially split between working on the rice terraces and slash and burn mountain gardening. In the gardens they grow kamotes (type of sweet potato) and beans. Over 85% of the adults in this village are illiterate, yet they have organized an environmental group to clean up and protect their village from developers who want to put in a power plant. I will be returning to Tulgao in June to help facilitate a leadership training for sponsors.
I am still working on developing a work schedule here. It's kind of challenging as there is little work right now as it is their summer vacation. The kids return to school in 2 weeks so then I'll be busy. I'm living on a farm 25 minutes outside of Tabuk. When the kids return I'll move into the dormitory and act as a houseparent/counselor. I'll also spend some time each day working in a literacy program.
This coming weekend I am teaching a couple of sessions in a peer counselling workshop for the high school students.
Last week I spoke at a college, we did a comparison of how Aboriginals here were treated by the Spanish colonizers and how Aboriginals in Canada were/are treated by Europeans. We also discussed the legacy of the racism and cultural destruction each group experienced. The professor has offered to teach me some of the history of Kalinga, the province I am working in. So I will be meeting with him again soon.

that's about it.

Coming on the tails of Daniel's historic first post ever –

which I thoroughly enjoyed reading – you might have noticed that there are several more Contributors to this blog, listed in the sidebar. That is because, this past spring, Dan's Living Room got married (!! congratulations to us) to Sam and Katharine's Living Room. Stay tuned for some blog renovations to celebrate the changes.

And, welcome everybody new! Feel free to post anything anytime!



(I'm a little low on pics, I think Alison and Sam have a bunch they might share soon..?)

Hi all.... Welcome to my first blog entry ever!!! I suppose being so far from home for so long is driving me to extreme measures to keep in touch with people back home. Let me begin by telling you all where I am and how to reach me if you feel so inclined...
My mailing address here in Munich is:

Daniel Neufeld
Professorenhaus (yes, it does mean "Professor House" .. don't I feel special now :) )
Hans-Leipelt-Straße 12
80805 München

If you are confused by the 'ß' thingy, it just stands for a double 's', thats all. The best way contact me over the next 4 months is by MSN (cdn_dan@hotmail.com), Skpe (daniel.neufeld), or email (daniel.neufeld@gmail.com). Keep in mind that I'm 6 hours ahead, which means by the time you get up in the morning, I'm just finishing up my lunch of schnitzel, sauerkraut and beer.

This is, in fact, my first trip to the European continent (unless you count that 12 hour stopover in London on the way to Africa - really good fish and chips is all I really remember about that)

Alright, so when planning out this exchange, I naturally stretched the definition of 'summer semester' to the maximum limit on both the departure and return sides. I flew on April 24th - which happened to be exactly 10 days before my expected arrival in Munich. This left me time to attend a former roommates's wedding here in Germany. It seemed natural enough to fill the remaining void with an intense European road trip with two other friends of mine who came for the wedding (Jordan and Justin).

I've been told that when entering a new culture, there are several phases of "culture shock" that you need to pass through before you feel at home - the first, of course, being the honeymoon phase. If I'm following that pattern at all, I suppose that would be where I'm at. The grass seems greener, the sky seems bluer, the mountains are taller (not to difficult to surpass Ontario in that regard), the cities are cleaner and prettier... and I have a much nicer place to work here at the Technical University of Munich than back home. Alright, I'll quit rambling and show some pictures of the places we traveled through.

The first stop was Frankfurt. My flight landed there, and that's where I met up with Jordan - an old friend and former roommate. We had 3 hours or so to check out the town before our train to Stuttgart departed. Its a beautiful town. I've been told its one of the most 'westernized' in Germany, but it was still spectacular compared to what I'm used to in TO.
After a long and futile search for Jordan's camera, we headed to the Hauptbonhof (main train station) and rode the high speed rail to Stuttgart. Nerd engineering fact: the train can easily exceed 300 km/h - I'd never traveled that fast on land before.

We stayed for a couple days in a small German village near Stuttgart called Ur Bock. A bachelor party was had, and a large quantity of beer was consumed. (its soooo cheap here)

The wedding took place in an ancient chapel (built in 1100 ad) on a mountain top, and the reception was held in a castle of around the same age on top of a different mountain. I had no idea that places like this still existed. You wont find a single building in North America half as old as these locations. Incredible...

The day after the wedding, Jordan, Justin, and myself took off in a little budget rental car (which happened to be an Audi A3 for those who care) We didn't do much in the way of planning, it was a bit of a seat-of-the-pants operation. We had in mind to drive south to a German city called Frieburg and poke our nose into France along the way.

Alrighty, I think I'll have to do this in episode form, since its getting dark and I'm still sitting in my office here at the University, getting hungrier by the minute. Stay tuned...

Daniel