Gap Year travelling begins

Starting new travels tomorrow......2 months into my self declared "gap year". I quit my job as Executive Director of Portland's Business for Culture & the Arts in March, after 3 years of enjoying a romp through the dynamic arts and culture scene putting together businesses and employees with nonprofit arts and culture boards, projects and pathways. It was time to get my energy back after a very full 15 months navigating Lynn's journey through lung cancer (which is chronicled in the Up and Down the Hill blog). My mother, indefatigable traveller par excellence, invited me to tour Iceland,  and my friend Christy invited me to join her during her teaching gig in Barcelona, so I added a trip to Paris and to Prague and organized two months of European adventures.

In preparation for the trip I did a few key things:
-- Took a sketchbook journalling class  at Oregon College of Art and Craft with Suki Allen
-- Signed up to attend the Theatre Scene Design Quadrennial
-- Read one Icelandic saga (can't pronounce anything in that language yet!)
-- Invited son Jess to apartment sit with his wife Nicole and their new son Asa (my first grandchild)
-- Enrolled in a Spanish language class for two weeks in Barcelona

Today is my last day in Portland until July 13th. Do I have aspirations for this trip? Hmm. It started as a chance to see a few new sights and revisit old haunts....My guess is that it would be valuable to be somewhat more intentional about the adventure. More on this as it takes shape. In the meantime, off to last minute errands - notifying the bank, getting a french phrase book, returning library materials, repacking...and finishing my first knitting project since college - Asa's car seat blanket!

(Here's Asa Francois Sanders, nestled in a blanket knitted by Joyce Edward, now known as "Gigi" (Great Grandma).

Camels and Trains in India

Show allA new year begins with a 2-week adventure in India.....Exploring "the golden triangle" of Delhi-Agra-Rajastan with Jono, who has been volunteering in Avani - a voluntary organization in the Central Himalayas which is building a base of economic growth for a small community by nurturing solar energy, rainwater collection and the emergence of some high priced textile designs using indigenous dyes and techniques. Jono was ready for change - having mastered Hindi and tinkered with some various engineering solutions to a heating problem - and I was ready to travel - so we arranged for him to play tourist for a while with me.

I arrived late at night into the cacaphony of Delhi traffic - camels and horses pulling wagons alongside whizzing motorcycles, honking buses, weaving rickshaws, and basic white cars whizzing through lights and intersections. In the midst of this chaos - and they all drive on the British side of the roads - we slowed down for an elephant lumbering through the fog. Quite a welcome to India!

Jono and I travelled by car to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and then on to Ranthambore National Park in search of the elusive tigers.


















We spent two days in Jaipur marveling at the old sandstone carved buildings, the complex observatory architecture at Jantar Majan, and the kite flyers on the old fort walls.




Then we took bus and train into the countryside to spend a few days at Barefoot College in Tilonia - Bunker Roy's 30-year old center that inspired Avani and other outposts in the philosophy of using the natural education of the people to solve the problems close at hand. Delight of delights



-Barefoot College was also hosting a visit by 300+ young people on the Jagritiyatra train tour of social change role models in India. Great way to get a sense of what's happening in India NGO's!







The desert towns of Jodphur and Jaisalmer were the site of considerable Rajastan color - in the architecture, the clothing and the dunes. We were there to ride camels, see bollywood films and explore the narrow streets of the forts and haveli's.


The return to Delhi by overnight train was punctuated by chai sellers and dusty stops - and the last night in Delhi was a reminder how little we really saw of India. The Craft Museum and our drink with a local NGO leader provided glimpses in morer stories to come.

Headed back to Austin by way of Helsinki, London and NYC/Long Island....happy to transition by reading Shantarem's exploits in Mumbai. The country was an overwhelming experience - seeing the kind of poverty that can only be found in India, being part of the street scenes that jumbled camels, monkeys, barbers, snake charmers, cell phone shops, food carts, hand pumps, horse drawn trucks, beggars, school children, tekkies on motorbikes, and sari-garbed women........eating some of the finest spiced foods available.......trying to breathe through the smoky air......cringing at the trash on the streets and the public toilets, delighting in all the amazing buildings and textiles and the music all around, and enjoying the hospitality of some lovely small hotels most beloved by backpackers and families.

India now has a special place in my heart.

Texas trails

My current assignment for the Mid America Arts Alliance is to visit 20 museums in Texas' small towns to help their boards of directors grow from good to great. This means getting my zippy red Honda on the ranch roads and farm roads (still posting 60-70 miles and hour), plugging in my IPOD to listen to Texas music (KGSR is just the right mood music), and visiting the most diverse set of museums imaginable.

I've been learning about....
...the youngest governor in Texas
...the history of the WASPS - one thousand talented women test pilots in Sweetwater 1942-44
...white lightning production in Fairfield County during Prohibition
...the determination of one strong woman in Waco
...the Wendish recipe for noodles
...jails and their architectural quirks
...stories of collectors (for instance the Birsong Circus miniature collection featured on this blog - flip a switch and the lights come on, the music starts and the acrobats swing with glee -- showcased in the back room of a Brownwood, Texas jail, built like a castle fortress a while back)
...stories of ranchers, politicians, firearms, travels, war heroes, artists, families, settlers, founders, inventors, writers, and characters.

Each museum has shown its own special pride in its collection and its stories, as well as its own fierce protectiveness of its mission and its values.

First foray photos will be on Flickr..soon.

Russia and our US elections -- Slightly late

The US election has come and gone and a new era has begun. Many Texans have restarted the clock for the 21st century, beginning with Barak Obama's win.

My conviction that Obama would win happened in a hotel room at 5 am in Moscow - watching the Palin-Biden debate live on CNN television in my pajamas. My colleague Sally and I had just spent a week in Kostroma, Russia - working with a group of 35 museum professionals on building capacity for marketing and visibility in a range of small museums in the region. We had decided to stay an extra day in Russia after the seminar ended - to see somne contemporary art, visit the new galleries in Moscow, and experience some big city life.

I had purchased a pink notepad in a paper store in Kostroma - a notepad distinctive because it had what looked like Sarah Palin on the cover - in actuality the photo was of a 50's housewife with a poodle skirt. But the hairdo and the attitude were reminiscent.

I had pen and notepad in hand to record the debates - and quickly filled up my paper with those now-infamous remarks and gestures that mean our Alaska governor and her winsome ways have gone from cute to cutesie.

On returning to Austin - the energy was palpable. Friends and family took on volunteer roles in the last days of the Obama campaign - traveling to New Mexico to knowck on doors, staffing the phones to get out the vote.

I ultimately celebrated the election night in Dallas, Texas - on route to a few small museums in Central Texas where I am currently consulting on board issues.

But we're still celebrating!

Last days in France

There are some quintessential, historical aspects of a trip to Paris that cannot be ignored - one is a visit to Versailles to relive/relearn the history of the French Revolution. Another is to find a way to appreciate the Baroque and Gothic art from an intimate perspective.

So we made sure that this trip to Paris had these elements. After a day of walking around the modern sights - the colorful, fanciful, global Quay Branly museum of oriental, african and asian art, and many shops and patisseries - we signed on to a day long Fat Tire Bicycle Tour of Versailles - already mentioned. Mason was our guide - trying to add drama and satire in his retelling of the french kings and their worlds. The day was beautiful and the crowds were manageable. A lovely day, that was topped off by attending an evening concert at St. Chappelle. Beneath the stained glass windows and the buttresses artists shared music on recorder, cello, and harpsichord.

Back to the US to move into New England/NYC family time and relaxation time.

French flowers and vacation mode

How magical to be in France this July! It's definitely fashion season, and flower season, and sunny season. I've been in and out of metro's for a few days - side trip to Chartres to hear Malcolm Miller "read" the stained glass windows - and a side trip tomorrow to Versailles with the Fat Tire Bicycle Tour.

I have finished coding all my research data from Prague and catching up on sleep and tour books - Lynn joined me Sunday afternoon and we've been exploring, walking, and eating from our tiny abode in St. Germain des Pres. Being a tourist is quite fun, albeit slightly uncomfortable every time 10 euros are needed for the next meal, museum pass, or movie ticket. We saw a french movie in french last night - helped our accents, but our comprehension was pretty much based on how well the comedy was filmed.

Jono still awaiting his papers in Romania. As we breakfast with fresh pressed OJ and light as air croissants, he's testing the Romania nutella. Definely different!

Moravian Collage

It's a rainy morning in Prague. I am just back to my favorite alter-hometown from Moravia - spent two days in Olomouc which is two hours east of Prague, near Brno, in the heart of Moravia (a part of the Czech Republic that is fiercely committed to its Moravian roots). In prior travels I had visited other cities in the area - Zlin, Kromeriz,, Boskovice. But this was my first time in Olomouc.

I have been traveling with a team from Seimans and from neziskovky.cz (nonprofits.czech) conducting training on marketing and team building for Czech NGO's of all kinds. Met some 100+ creative, resourceful nonprofiteers over the past two days and was grateful that I had great interpreters for my communication. One of the interpreters - Vojtech - had the most beautiful English/American accent. He explained that he'd spent a year at Moravian College in Pennsylvania -- the only Moravian there!

Czech nonprofits are different from US nonprofits. For example, we have many food pantries - that function is not needed in CZ. We have many nonprofit museums - in CZ museums are usually state run. The many advocacy and human rights/social justice groups that we see in the US and in many other countries don't appear on the radar in the workshops I was conducting.

On the other hand, programs for the handicapped or disabled and programs addressing "social exclusion" are prevalent in CZ. And there are a growing number of volunteer centers and environmental groups.

Same issues plague us all - how to focus on marketing, people, money, and impact. How to be visible, how to be effective. How to help the government with tax laws and regulations that promote philanthropy.

So what's Moravia like? Your typical magical small town - old town square, 3 hotels, sweetshop and restaurants on the square, traditional train station, large university presence. Olomouc's town square stood out because of the fountain with a turtle holding up the world, a wonderful 3-d map of the town, and the Communist era clock that is alot like the Prague Orloj, but with communist symbols.