Race Pics

My first race!

I have been training for the Angkor Wat Bike Race which is happening this weekend and I am competing in the 30km mountain bike event. I've been cycling on the weekends and getting up some mornings at 5:30 to train... which I have really enjoyed. It has been wonderful getting up and seeing Khmer people, who get up daily before the sun rises, going about their morning routines. There are kids biking and walking to school, Buddhist Monks in bright orange robes being offered breakfast at the side of the road (did you know that they do not make their own food and only eat breakfast and lunch?). The traffic is not so bad on the road that I ride on, but there are plenty of dogs, chickens, and cows that I have to watch out for. I cycle towards the Tonle Sap Lake, about 15km from my house, where there is a 200m tall hill jutting out. I cycle up a gravel road that winds around and enjoy the cool breeze and the low rising sun. There is a temple on top and I can hear the sound of traditional Cambodian music echoing from houses below.

The race is happening around the temples of Angkor Wat, a world heritage site around 1000 years old. Super excited for the race, and even more excited for the brunch after!

I've been taking pictures in the morning with my film camera, and post some when they are developed.

Benjamin Coming on PEPY Ride 4!

As many of you know, I have been working here in Cambodia for the past 3 months for PEPY, an educational NGO that works in a small rural village and also organizes educational adventure tours which financially support development initiatives. The organization strives to bring social change through grass roots development initiatives and facilitating education for tour participants.

My time here so far has brought out a wide range of emotions in me that I was expecting, but could never really be prepared for. Cambodia is a poor country, still recovering from decades of war and genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970's and 80s. In recent years, an incredibly corrupt government and irresponsible foreign investment has created serious environmental and social problems for the country. Sadly, children are the most affected. Malnutrition and easily preventable diseases are common resulting in 1 in 4 children not surviving till their 5th birthday and of those who survive, more than one third live below the poverty line. Half the country's population are kids and many have little access to a poor educational system, with most working from a young age to support themselves and their family.

It is hard to imagine for most of us, who have never gone hungry, and have always had education and health care, but the sad reality is that these things which we consider a right, are not available for a large percentage for Cambodian children.

Cambodian people are among the friendliest and most genuine I have ever met. They always greet you with a smile and "hello" or "suasudai" in passing. They have a wonderful sense of humour and love to laugh. I swear they have more teeth in their mouth than we do, as their smiles are enormous!

It has been difficult getting my head around the enormity of the problems here, yet I remain positive. I have seen through PEPY, and other organizations that we work with, that it is possible to make a difference. I am inspired on a daily basis by the amazing people that I work with, in particular our amazing Cambodian staff who have overcome huge obstacles and have a vision to improve their country. I have seen first hand, the difference that education can make in the life of a child, and the opportunity it gives them for a better life. Through this experience I have learned much more than I ever anticipated, and continue to learn every day.

PEPY's programs have a positive impact on so many people, from staff who have learned new skills, to children who have stayed in school with PEPY's support. It is a self-reflective organization, as it is always improving the way it works within the local community. Among the many successful initiatives, my favourite is the Child-to-Child Program, where students have made clubs and act as leaders, identifying problems and enacting solutions. If you're interested, check out all of PEPY's Programs, as they will surely inspire you as they have inspired me.

From December 21st to January 11th, my girlfriend Lucky and I will be leading a 3 week bicycle tour across Cambodia with 12 participants coming from around the world. This tour, in its fourth year, focuses on education. Tour participants with learn first hand of the environmental and social problems that exist here, and through visiting NGOs will learn of solutions and inspiring work being done to help as we cycle over 800km across the country.

I am very lucky and excited, as my older brother Benjamin is joining the tour. He is a science student, working his way towards a degree in medicine and is also an avid cyclist and overall socially conscious person. Each participant is responsible for raising $1500 U.S. on top of their tour fee as a donation to PEPY literacy initiatives. 100% of the money raised goes directly to PEPY programs, as our overhead is covered by a generous donor.

He has done a great job of fundraising, but has not quite met his goal yet. If you are in a position to donate to PEPY on Benjamin's behalf, it would be greatly appreciated, both by my brother and the community that you will be supporting.

Please see Benjamin's blog for how to donate. Thank you for taking the time to read about my experiences here in Cambodia. If you are interested in more information about PEPY, check out www.pepyride.org.

We will be sending updates from the tour and you can follow along online with us here.

My e-life, what happened to it?

To say that I've taken a hiatus from writing this web-log otherwise know as a "blog" would be an understatement. Why haven't you written in over a year? ..you ask, first I shall finger the supermassivebottomlessblackhole known as facebook to which I have a sort of love/hate relationship. Yes, I, like everyone, enjoy "creeping," that is.. looking at all of your photo albums and such. But who can resist with all you beautiful picture-taking people. In the end however, I never really feel that satisfied with the amount of "actual communication" that my time scrolling and clicking produces.

Most of all though, I suppose the longer I lived here in Japan, the more I got tired of writing about my life. As time has rolled along over the past year and a half, things that I would previously consider out of the ordinary have somehow become mundane and commonplace. Recently however, I've started to consider a grander perspective of the speed in which life is going. Am I the only one noticing that life is speeding up as I age? For that reason, this will continue to serve as a personal journal I suppose, as well as a forum for me to make some sense of what I actually going on in my life. If anyone actually reads this, good luck and please remember that my grasp on the English language seems to be slipping away as I spend more and more time speaking Japanese, if you can actually call it that. Onward...

SUMO!!

Its been some time since I've written anything. Life has been flying by as usual. Two weekends ago I drove with a few friends up to Fukuoka (about 31/2 hours by car), on the northern tip of Kyushu. Its the biggest city on the island of Kyushu, and pretty modern and chic. We had bought tickets to see the final day of the Kyushu Basho, the annual professional sumo tournament that comes to Fukuoka. This past weekend there was a big cabin party organized by one of my friends, and I played in two shows with RENS on Sunday.

When we arrived in Fukuoka late Saturday morning, I met up with a guy who I had found by searching on the Internet for Capoeira in Fukuoka. I had assumed there would be a decent capoeira scene there due to the size of city and supposed Brazillian community, but turns out this guy has the only group and its really small (about 6 ppl!). I had planned to buy a berimbau (bow instrument that accompanies capoiera) from him, but the one he had wasn't quite what I was looking for. I did find out however that this guy's friend will be coming back to Kagoshima in April and starting up classes.. so I am really excited for that!

The weather on the weekend was rainy most of the time, so our exploring was limited. On Saturday night we hit the town and had dinner at an Indian restaurant. After we met up with my friends Jane and Evania from Winnipeg who have been out here teaching for the past year. It was great catching up with them. Later we ended up at some dance club filled with foreigners, which was pretty weird, since that is not so common around my place (considering I'm the only foreigner in my town).

On Sunday we went to COSTCO!! I cannot describe in words how great it is walking into a familiar store with all the foods from home... they had everything we have back in Winnipeg! (with the addition of wine and sushi!) I nearly fainted at the sight of bagels. After the four of us squeezed as much as humanly possible into my car. We headed over to the sumo match. Man those guys are huge! Despite their super-human size, they are really fast and of course strong. Its a really interesting sport, and I had no idea as to the rules before I went. Luckily they were prepared for foreigners and gave us an english guide to sumo as we entered the building. Sumo is filled with ancient rituals, which makes each match about 10 minutes even though the actual bout is usually 10-20 seconds.

I really want to go back to Fukuoka sometime and explore the city... the city gets a lot of international music acts and has a pretty big arts scene. It also has an indoor snowboarding/ski hill and an amusement park...most of all I want to go back to fantasy land (aka Costco).

First RENS show

Song titles: Once again, above. Terekakushi no Proresuwaza below.

Yesterday was my first show with RENS, a band from Makurazaki, a city near my town. We played two shows yesterday, the first at an event for a special needs home, and the second at an event outside of an art gallery. The band members are all 39 years old and all went to the same elementary and junior high together back in the day. It was really fun playing with them... in my first real show! We are practicing for a big show happening on Christmas eve, but I think there are a few shows before then.

As for the rest of the weekend, friday was a holiday and there as a big festival happening in the Kagoshima City. I got on a dancing squad to parade through the streets ad-libbing some sort of japanese dance... and getting served free shochu (sweet potato alcohol) along the way!

On friday night we ended up at a little music festival happening in the central park (don't let the name fool you, its about the size of a soccer field) with all kinds of dj's and bands playing. A highlight was a band from Amami Oshima island, a little island south of here. Ispired by all the great music, we headed down to rock out at a karaoke place.

Saturday night, ended up taking er easy and going to a movie, the first since I've been here.. at $20 per ticket you can guess why.. mind you i did enjoy some edamame during the movie which was certainly a first!

Some university students who were on our dancing squad

Each group has matching outfits and a dance routine.. some are better than others.. the girls below were amazing! we were something else...

Our group... finally done with dancing... it was about an hour and a half! The girl in the purple was the amazing singer from AMAMJAUBB, the band from Amami Oshima Island. The first show on Sunday, at a festival for a special needs home.

Weekend update

Well... it was another wonderful (and tasty) weekend here in beautiful Southern Japan. This weekend's action sports consisted of a paddle around lake Ikeda with my good bud Ben and a speedboat ride.

Despite some early setbacks trying to figure out how to build the kayak... it comes in a bag and fits in the trunk... yeah its an overpopulated island alright!... there's just no room for a solid state boat... luckily we had an obachan (grandmother) staring at us for the entire build which gave us some inspiration to actually get this thing floating... we could tell that she was really excited and kept on laughing and yelling something in kagoshima dialect that i could not quite make out. The yak as I will call her hence forth was borrowed from my good friend Sunada-san and he had given me a quick lesson on yak building the night before... turns out that its missing a few pieces, nevertheless it floated!

The day was beautiful and we even took some time out for some swan dives off the rocks along the side. Water temp was perfect and I'm happy that I was not eaten by the giant eels... oh yeah, no one really swims in this lake because of the giant eels and rumoured loch ness type monster who lives in the lake... the giant eels can be up to 10 feet long!

Later in the day we were invited out for some relaxing time on a barge (see pics). This man named Aki (who will further be called the godfather) has a barge where he throws parties in the summer, and a speed and sailboat for cruizin up and down the coast. This guy is quite the character... he also runs a private kindergarten. The afternoon on the ocean was a good ol time. We went for a spin in the speed boat... and got to drive through this awsome rock (see pic). The temperature here in Kagoshima is still around 28 degrees during the day cooler at night so I'm lovin it.

That night, the girls who live in Ibusiki (a city near my town) were throwing a Canadian Thanksgiving party at the Godfathers giant cabin. The food was amazing! complete with tofurkey and 12 or so pumpkin pies! some of the godfather's friends were in attendance too which added a little something to the festivities.

Sunada-san and his wacky yak in my living room

taking break on the lake

The yakkers looking on Really, who owns a party barge?

Da barge

The Godfather and some pirates, luckily we were not the target of the birds overhead.. but the next group was not so fortunate and there was a direct hit on one lady... oh yeah... why do you think the rock is white?

A joyful party guest and the Godfather entertaining the crowd

Hiking in Kirishima Park

This past weekend Lucky and I went exploring in Kirishima Park. We didn't know where we were going to stay, but we packed up her car Saturday morning in search of mountains, hot springs, and adventure.

Kirishima Park turned out to be one of my favourite places thus far and I'm already planning a trip back there.... especially since its not too far away!

We ended up finding some huge waterfalls, an amazing old Temple, some bright blue crater lakes, a beautiful campground, and even some wildlife... yes.. apparently japan has a little.

We ended up staying in a small cabin at one of the campsites rather than tenting... it was actually a lot colder than I had expected... it was quite high in the mountains. We ended up stumbling upon an outdoor skating rink where you can rent rollerblades in the summer and ice skates in the winter... I think one of the only places that gets cold enough to make ice in these parts...

It was a long weekend so we were able to do three days of hiking and found some beautiful places. The whole area is volcanic so it is mountainous, lush, and somewhat like the surface of the moon. There are warnings not to explore too much on your own as you may find it a little hot under-foot. You can see steam spewing from the rocks as you drive around the area, and there are numerous onsens (Japanese hot spring bath houses) around the park.

We saw quite a few deer.. which at first we though strange to be so comfortable in close proximity to humans, until we saw everyone feeding them at the sides of the road...

The Kirishima Shrine was a beautiful temple, and the first big temple I've visited in Japan. It was incredibly beautiful and I think about 300 years old. There was this spectacular gigantic tree near the temple that is 800 years old.. an amazing sight.

The trees in the park were starting to change colour, as autmn is in full effect. I would like to go back in a couple weeks when all the colours have changed.

Here's some choice pics:

First Day in Kindergarten!

Last Monday was my first day at Ei-Kindergarten. What a great time.. the kids are soooo much fun... and pretty damn exhausting too. We played with bubbles, sang some japanese and english songs, had lunch, and played some soccer.. all in all a great day. Here's a few pics...

Playing with bubbles never gets old

Kids on lunch duty ... all schools have special "lunch helper outfits"