July

t is July 23, I am sitting in the kitchen of an old 5 bedroom farm house, looking at the window at a small pasture and a large black walnut tree. It is raining. Today is packing day for Tara and I. Tomorrow, we move to Barranquilla, Colombia. How did we get here, and what have I been doing this year will be the subject of this post, a simple title for this post would be; What have I done since I last posted.

January: Got ready for International teaching job fair – Bought suits, thus ignoring the wisdom of Thoreau, “Be wary of any venture that requires you to buy new clothes.” Updated resumes, contacted schools, researched schools, read through interview tips, Drove out to Iowa, stopped by Northwestern to reconnect with friends, professors, mentors, and former students (at Dordt). We could not have done anything better the week before the job fair than to be in the place and with the people of those formative college years that put us on the teaching trajectory

February: International teaching Job Fair at the University of Northern Iowa, Waterloo Iowa.
Day 1: Get to the fair, our favorite school that had openings for both of us, no longer has an opening for either of us. 1.5 hours to sign up for interviews for the next 3 days, get 7 interviews, including one at a school that hadn’t been on our radar, Colegio Karl C. Parish. First interview is with KCP, goes great, next interview- 10 minutes, not so good, we talked for about 1 minute of the entire interview, Next interview – Tarsus Turkey – Great, last interview of the day – OK. Talk more with KCP – very good. Eat dinner. KCP finds us and wants to talk. They offer us contracts, High school Bio for me, Middle School Language arts for Tara. They let us sleep on the decision. We sleep
Day 2: We sign the contract with KCP, we are going to Barranquilla, Colombia!!!! (3 exclamation points didn’t seem enough) Have best prime rib of my life in Waverly Iowa.
Day 3: Start driving back to Washington from Eastern Iowa. Watch Superbowl in Rapid City SD, then keep driving.
Day 4: Get to Spokane in the morning and sleep at a friends house. Thank you John.

Rest of February: Go skiing

March: Work, skiing, and getting ready for Colombia. I didn’t do any brewing as the power was really low – 40KW for the whole village.

Tara and I take first place at Holden’s semi-annual homebrew competition with our co-brewed Glacier Stout.

April: Skied the Wapta traverse in Banff and Yoho National parks in Alberta and BC. 4 days skiing across glaciers, 3 nights in wonderful huts equipped with cooking gear and propane in the Canadian Rockies. There is something to be said for the Canadian model of wilderness where they provide huts to make stays easier, and to minimize impact. Thus allowing more people to get out in the wilderness, develop a love for it, and want to protect it. It was by no means overcrowded as the number of people at the huts is closely controlled and limited. This contrasts with the US model of no permanent structures, thus high use areas tend to be more heavily impacted, and fewer people get deeper into the wilderness. In the end there are positives to both, but I fell in love with the huts and swore off snow camping for the rest of my life.

One week later: Professional ski/snowboard bums come through village and invite me on a trip. I had climbed Bonanza with them the previous winter. 3 days circling the upper Entiats, 2 nights camping in the snow and wind… Not quite a hut. Climbed Mt. Maude, and 7 Fingered Jack, both over 9,000’.

May: Start working on Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish. The Spanish Language was one of the main reasons we looked heavily at the Latin America countries at the job fair, learning it for me, and opportunities to use it and get better for Tara.

Ski to sea at the end of May: Kevin La Fleur memorial team in honor of our friend Kevin who disappeared on Mt. Baker 4 years ago. A fantastic weekend with friends. I did the down hill ski leg, which consists of running up the ski area, then skiing back down – I loved it.

June: Trained replacements at Holden. Said good byes to our friends and community of 2 years. Left Holden, surreal being on the bus and waving good bye.

July: Stayed in Mt. Vernon, but took lots of trips. Lake Samish with the Van Loo family. Climbed and Skied Sahale peak, Performed wedding ceremony for my Brother in law Brett and his wife Lindie. I am now ordained! I gave myself several titles while working on the ceremony: The ordinary ordained officer of official auditory awesomeness (The auditory awesomeness being their vows, not what I said). Or, The Pontificating partial pastor presenting particular prepared pontifical pronouncements. Kayaked and camped on Ross lake. Visited Holden friends in Port Townsend.

Time to get packing. Picks may follow later

bvl