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Doing good in Manila

Our big ending climax has started: the Philippines. There are so many stories to tell: crazy Manila-city-traffic moments, being confronted directly withe poor/rich-gap, my first Asian culture-experience or the total climate change compared to the freezing cold North Platte, aside from that the biggest thing is our volunteer work.

For the past couple of days our group of 19 volunteers has been working at Gawad Kalinga (=GK) Teguig. This site is located in the surroundings of a stinky river (covered with garbage) and slum houses. But the GK project fights against this by building houses in hopeful colors and paid with the sweat of the future inhabitants. Each family can only live in one of the houses if they have contributed to the construction and can only stay if they remain to be active in the GK community. Our site has seven parts and some are at the end of their development, some are just about to start, some contain school or other community facilities.



The first day they explained us the whole concept by taking a look at the different parts of our Gawad Kalinga project and community members shared their experiences. Besides that we were treated with a delicious home-cooked Philippine dish, at first I was hesitant because it looked strange but trying it helps. Another amazing first day experience was being dropped in a local family, everyone single one of us was placed in a different family to meet them for 30 minutes. To me this sounded so pushy. The first moments were indeed kind of awkward, but slowly we started a conversation and eventually I had the best 30 minutes of the whole day. In this half hour we tried to teach each other some words in our language, the kids and I played a bit (I even received a bracelet from the smallest of the 4 children) and just talked about very basic things to get to know one another.



The next days we started with our “real” volunteer work. However I have to mention that one of the GK members made an interesting comment: It is not just construction labor or teaching practical skills to the community moms that should be seen as valuable volunteer work, it is the interaction and interest of foreign volunteers that gives them the hope that people actually believe in their project. Our group was split into 7 small groups. Four groups work on construction sites and did work ranging from painting to sifting to building walls. My site was finishing up for the opening ceremony, which occurred on Monday. The whole community came together to celebrate the entry of the families into the houses, a beautiful moment where our group was part of. Other groups played with the local children or taught them English and just help out with their classes. And the last group is responsible for livelihood workshops, where they teach the local moms and children practical skills or just have fun. During the past days we taught them Up with People songs, someone learned them Japanese writing, everyone danced together, they taught us their language and we taught them some English. For the next couple of days we hope to do some geography, making bracelets they can sell, teaching some more English, etc. So you see, a high variety volunteer project where our whole group can put in its passion for these two weeks.



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Mid-west small towns

Would you ever as a tourist think of a destination like Cheyenne? Or Aberdeen? Or Sioux Falls? Or North Platte? Maybe not, but that is what makes it so interesting to drop a 22-country counting cast inside of them.

Cheyenne
The capital of Wyoming, but only 53000 people, very small compared to the other USA state capitals. But it is famous for it's rodeo traditions, it has the largest outdoor rodeo in the world. Our whole cast got the chance to meet some rodeo-cowboys. I got the opportunity to throw a lasso, catch a goat and ride a fake bull.






Beside this chance to get some rodeo-experience, the opportunity arised to have a 20 minute radio interview. It went really smooth, so a very good first experience. Another great memory was our community impact project in this city. Together with CALC we worked on constructing houses for the homeless, which will hopefully be finished by next month. Our contribution here will last forever, let us hope because we set the walls!



Aberdeen
On the way to Aberdeen our buses stopped at 2 places, first of all Mt. Rushmore. The famous monument of 4 presidents that were important for the American history, i.e. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). And a real treat was waiting for our cast, a group overnight in cabins in the Black hills



Our stay in this small town mid-west city was made more exciting by our host family, the Halloween-happenings, a surprise birthday party of someone we did not know and a very intense cast-week-game (Up with people Land). This cast game simulated a hierarchical city and was focused on immigration issues, super interesting! Aside from that I worked on educational workshops, about international relations and one about Belgium (!).

Sioux Falls
This city will always leave a strong memory, because of a great mixture of exciting things. Goofing of at a basketball court on a volunteer project in a rehabilitation center. Another great moment was performing at the half-time show of an important high school football game, we had to bear freezing cold temperatures but we danced our heart out! This week was also my first internship week, what means that I'm helping out the education staff for 6 weeks. It is a great way to learn a lot about up with people, improve some of my educational skills, learn more about volunteer projects we do along the way, etc. And last but not least my host family was incredible. If all people in Sioux Falls are like this family then everyone should visit this city!

Crazy basketball moments


My host family


We performed at a football game, incredible experience (however also really cold)


North Platte
Our last city in the USA was North Platte - Nebraska.

Up with People also performs at parades apparently... A great cast atmosphere moment.


This is the last sunshine in the US shining on the railroad factories. North Platte has the biggest railroad hub in the USA, which makes it the 5th most attractive place to bomb for terrorists in the US (what a random fact to close down...)
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Cruising through the USA

Since 4 cities have passed since my last post, I'll do a quick sprint through them. Our big return to the USA, a 8-week tour from Nord to South. Again the one amazing event after another. A meeting with the history of Up with People, closer look at the presidential events, experiencing the most photographed event in the world, my first radio spot ever, performing as a singing solist for the first time ever and being at the world center of the mormon religion.

Sahuarita
The first city after Mexico had some sentimental value. It was right next to Phoenix, the origin of Up with People. We even got the chance to stay with an alumni, perfect for such an Up with People-tinted week. Exceptional chances we got were meeting the founder of Up with People, the original music-writers and getting a last performance from Jessica (she is an amazing singer that joined us thoughout Mexico till this city).



An interesting part of getting to the USA is the start of the presidential debates. It is really exciting to experience it with an inside perspective. Clearly Obama is a better speaker and however most do not agree with the last 8 years, still more Americans than you would expect are McCainn minded.



Albuquerque
A larger city situated in New Mexico close to Acoma Pueblo, a native american reservation. So one of the cast visits was to this beautiful area filled with gigantic rock-formations.

During this week our volunteer work was with Adelante, a center for people with disabilities. It is unbelieveable how much patience the staff of this center has. At the end all of the Up with People volunteers did a talent show with music from our own countries, poems, dance-acts, etc. After us the persons with disablities got the chance to show there talents, especially jokes and dancing seemed to be popular. One even sang a song for us :)

At the end of the week we had the awesome opportunity to go to the Balloon Fiesta, the largest hot air balloon race in the world. Over 650 ballons were up in the air, an unbelieveable sight, it is not suprising it is one of the most photographed events in the world. Everyone of our cast was spread over the ballons and we could help these balloons out. I got to help with the launch, then chase the ballon and eventually help with the landing. A nice experience.


Colorado Springs
Back into Colorado, it was since staging Denver ago that I had been here. This time we were in the mountains, but expectionally was the chance that we could stay at a military base: Fort Carson. Our volunteer work was in schools on the military base and the show was in honor of the military. The idea behind it is to break barriers.

A cool thing was the chance I got to do a radio-spot, one that was aired the whole week of our stay. A unique experience. Other fun things were a visit to a mountain city park called Garden of the Gods, a hike in the mountains with my hostdad Vernon and Zach (roommate for the week) and a visit to one of the 3 olympic centers in the US and getting a tour by a olympic boxing athlete.

Probably the most memorable moment the week was show day. Since we've been touring for quite a while know you can imagine that the show becomes a habit. More and more you get used to certain show parts and when I looked at the show list I saw it was gonna be a pretty regular day. Some rehearsals in the morning and some random singing of pieces I had practiced earlier on the tour. During the pre-show rehearsal suddenly one of the main singers fell sick. And who did they think of maybe replacing him? The non-experienced guy from Belgium, it made them feel kind of nervous but apparantly no one else even knew the song. A fast course training for the difficult parts (I tought I would never be able) , but I did the rehearsal... and even got a big applause. So, this week for the first time ever a Spanish passionate solo called Oye El Boom by Joris Van Doorslaer :)



Salt Lake City
One of the few cities that we are visiting on our tour that I actually knew something about before the tour began. It is famous for it's winter olympics. But aside from this it is also known for it's mormon community. The original founder of the mormon community based it's first church in this city. A visit to this historic place was something we definitely could not miss.



This week I got to use my previous experience in youth organisations, because we got to work with the Boys and Girls Club. Aside from that there were some exciting experience with my host family. For the first time ever I went to a haunted house, drag queen bingo (for charity, what gives it an excuse) and oatmeal launching (something you do while driving, just ask if you wanna know the details). Again an interesting week, I had loads of fun. Read more...

Mexico the mainland

Meanwhile our cast has hit the mainland of Mexico so fast that the last day has arrived before I realized it. So before I leave this amazing country, a large update on the last part of cast B Mexico tour! The interesting moments in the past 3 weeks have lined up, but interesting experiences were most definitely the threat of a major storm and the panic of the audience, having the mayor as a hostdad, staying in a family that only knows Spanish and realizing that our Mexican tour is over!

Tepic
Our first Mexican mainland city was far more green than any of the Mexico places we had been too. Interesting about this city were the surroundings: green hills covered with fog, a old vulcano and the ocean on a 1 hour driving distance. Bizarre for me this week was not staying at a host families' home but in a host families' hotel. Instead of experiencing the pleasure of being served random Mexican food I could to choose from a menu list (however, this was pretty random too, since I did not understand anything of the menu card).



Since I'm part of the admissions teams for the Mexican part of our tour I had the chance to visit some local universities and schools. It is so interesting to observe the differences, like tiny class rooms and totally different hours in the day (much earlier because of the heat). And the cool thing is that everyone is so amazed by "Oooh Belgium..." or "Oooh he can say some Spanish words".

Our show day experienced some serious challenges. Toilets that did not work, nails lying around the stage, backstage that was open to see to everyone that was walking around there, for myself a heavy cold, but this was all nothing compared to the storm... Suddenly during the show lightning came up all around the area of our show. And then it happened, rain during our open air show... All people suddenly ran towards the stage (one of the spots that had a roof), some were even standing on our stairs, close to our electrical equipment, everything... Luckily it was at the last song of the first half. We just hoped that the rain would go away, and you know what? It did! At the end they even called "otra" for the first time in our whole tour!



Culiacan
A long drive up to the North brought us to the 1 million people counting city Culiacan. As soon as we arrived Arnab from Bangladesh, Josh from the US and Humberto from Mexico found out we were happy to be hosted togeher. But not only that we also had the honor to stay at the Mayors house. Soon we found out his children were in their twenties and really friendly to us. And of cource the topics we discussed during this week were often related to city-issues, but really interesting.



Culiacan had very interesting volunteer projects. Our main project (where our benefits were going to) was casa Valentina, a beautiful project where children with cancer can stay if they lack money. Some of these children are so much older in what they say because of their life experience. Really wow...

As admission team is was also really exciting since we had the chance to go to a "values"-event. What? That's what we thought to. But they combined this discussion topic with famous comedians, politicians, etc. to make it appealing to young people. Eventually we also got the chance to go on stage here. Awesome experience.

Hermosillo
This week I'm hosted together with Anthony from the US in a super-friendly family but without English-knowledge. It's such a funny situation because with my French and English combinations I try to make clear what I want to say. This is definitely the way to learn a language, but it also make the desire greater to learn Spanish!

In this city our big project is fixing 21 basketball courts over the whole city. In poorer regions of the city we are re-painting or building for the first time basketball courts. Together with local youth we worked side to side to have a court ready at the end of the day. Over the whole city little Up with People groups were doing the same thing, what made it way more special.



Looking back on Mexico I realize that this part of the world is so interesting and I definitely need to see more to get a better picture. It is so different from Belgium and I'm sure that there are a lot of things still to improve here. But at the same thing I've figured out some things we should improve at home too... Read more...

Timing updates or updates and time

Since the last post was of our first show I feel that some explanation is necessary.

Up with People absorbs our time so much that we just have a few moments to ourselfs. We do have time off, but we´re only staying in host families for 1 week and you want to get as much out of it as possible. To not forget anything I do take notes for myself but in the meanwhile I forgot the notes for all of the other people wondering about my activities. And it was so fun to notice that a lot of people were actually asking about more updates, so that definitely stimulates me (the number of comments pushes me to write more and the emails that I got definitely help out too).

Since the last update so many things have happened but in general I´m now in the 3rd city of our tour, in chronological order Breckenridge, La Paz and now Los Cabos.

Breckenridge
This is a lovely mountain village at almost 2 miles above sea-level or around 2800 meters. A great second host family took care of Russ and me (everyone who hasn´t, look at his blog for a late-evening produced video of us on his blog). Our community projects were focused on the schools and that is were the proceeds of our show also went to, as an extra impulse for the Rocky Mountain University they are building. I was working a lot on promotions this week which wasn´t easy because a lot of tourist are just in Breckenridge for quiet peaceful restdays. But our show at the end of the week was awesome and 500 people really seemed to have enjoyed it.





La Paz
Unusally soon for an Up with People tour we were going to Mexico, which needs a lot of adaption on all fronts. We arrived in a much warmer climate at a coast city named La Paz. As always on a travel day in the evening our cast meets there host family, really exciting every time. Almost always it is with a certain game, find matching olympic city games, matching film posters, matching Spanish word-actual object, etc. My host family was probably the best pick, such a warm hospitable family and always ready to let me try new Mexican foods or see local spots in their city. During the week I was on "admissions" which means we visit schools to talk about Up with people as a possible opportunity for them. Projects our cast was working went from anti-grafitti, painting in an eldery home to helping Mobilize Mankind. This last organisation collects wheelchairs in the US to change them to the needs of the disabled in Mexico. If this organisation wouldn´t do this it could easily cost 10,000to 15,000 dollars to buy such a wheel chair (all show revenues went to this project).
In this week my parents visited me, which was an awesome opportunity for me to show them a small insight in the life of Up with People. It is so hard to describe everything we do, it would take days to really fully explain... And seeing it makes so much more sense. Because of a hurricane in the neighbooring city where there plane was supposed to be leaving they were obligated to stay a day longer. But my host famlily was so nice to share their home and give my family a bit of the host family experience.





Los Cabos
Now I´m in another coastal city, but more known to tourists: Los Cabos. Till known I´ve had really interesting insights. A visit to local slums showed the huge gap between rich and poor. It made me feel so uncomfortable that it just puches me to really do something about it. A woman even invited me into here few cubic metres house where she lived with 6 or 7 persons and told me that she was still lucky. It is always relative in comparison, but oh so confronting.


Today I particpated in an anti-grafitti painting session at the local baseball stadium, we worked along the side of some local youth. A nice project but with Mexican timing, the paint arrived 3 hours late. Time needed to be filled with games and cleaning garbage. But jeah, everything is realtive isn´t it?

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A glimpse of the first show excitement

Just a small message: Saturday was our first show, which was awesome and we really had a blast! This video shows some (only some) of the excitement before going on stage. Thanks to Jackie, Kelsey and Laura Lynn.

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