California Pilgrimage

I would really like to tell you all about the journey west and describe in detail the variety of characters I incountered along the way... so I will.

I stopped in Wichita, KS for a lunch break and gas-up. After snarfing two unsatisfying hotdogs from a quicktrip, I waiting in line for the restroom and began talking to the man in front of me to get direction back to the highway. His name is Kendall Carpenter and after a few verbal volleys about the route I should take we began to share more about ourselves. At the end of our time together he gave me a card and told me to call him if I ever want to get into the electric supply business. He's a Branch Manager for City Electric Supply Co. "Suppliers of America's Leading Electrical Products."

I spent the night in Oklahoma City where I had planned to stay with a 37 year old missionary and web-designer who makes hemp jewelry, but that fell through. I was taken in (via couchsurfing.com) by a girl name Jessica. It was a very powerful experience for me.  We went to a house show where she played and sang some of her rootsy toons and a few other bands performed as well. There I met a large number of people who seemed to flow in the subculture of the music and art scene in OKC. Everything was fine, except that my hostess fell asleep on her friends bed, slightly intoxicated and very difficult to wake up. After waking her with help from a friend of hers I took her to Sonic for a little 2am dinner. We walked back to her place where I quickly crashed on the extra futon. The morning brought excellent conversation over coffee and breakfast at the Red Bean Cafe down the street. I was given an opportunity to share my faith and hear from her about her desires and spiritual questions. When I left, I asked if I could pray with her and was excited by her willingness and desire to participate. It was a beautiful prayer from a seeking individual hurt by past experiences of "christian living." I felt honored to be included.

The second night was in Amarillo, Texas.  There I stayed with a few great fellas who were preparing for leading worship at their mega church the next morning.  We had some delicious Mexican food and then grabbed Blue Moon's summer ale.  For an evening conversation of religion, politics and art.  A very uplifting time.

I stayed with the Browns in Albuequerque NM.  Thanks to Clint for the last minute hookup with his parents phone number when another couch surfing host fell through.  There I had an excellent dinner with green salsa and enjoyed a fudge sunday while watching a Ninja Warrior tv marathon with Mr. Brown.  I also slept in a big comfy bed for instead of a couch or futon... thanks Whitley.  

There were some bikers who sounded like the guy from Snatch somewhere in the first big empty section of Arizona.  I stopped to get gas and grab an ice cream cone from Dairy Queen, and in they swaggered, two tough guys with those cheap glasses and bandanas with flames imprinted on them.  I tried to have a conversation with them about where they were riding and figured out they lived only about 30 miles away.  They were just out cruisin'... to DQ... middle of nowhere.  I could barely understand what they were saying.  

On the fourth evening I stayed in Flagstaff, AZ.  Quaint.  I received a very thorough tour from my couch surfing host... who bailed me from yet another host who fell through at the last minute.  Michal-Lisa.  We made some gooood lasagna and ate some random fruit that looked like a blow fish.

I wish you all could have met the Chevron Gila Monster man.  He was a spindly old man, insistent that there were these giant lizards nearby that stood up like a little T-rex with little front claws, strong back legs, a stubby tail and razor sharp teeth.  "They're four feet tall and strong enough to knock over a car."  "If they grawl or roar once you better get movin', cuz after the second roar... they're gonna eat ya!"  "Once those little front claws get aholda yer leg, they ain't lettin' go."  "A man came in just yesterday... says he didn't believe me, then came back by later in the day, says his dog was eaten by one a them Gila Monsters."  

On the last night I stayed with Phillip Green in Visalia, CA.  I was only a couple hours from my Destination, but ready to fall over after a hellish ride through souther Cali, where the temp is 105 and the humidity is 105% and the wind 105 mph from the south.  For a few hours I held on with a fear grip they gave me an illusion that I was somehow escaping death by squeezing my handlebars harder to remain on the road.  The side wind was outrageously scary.  I was lean to the left, into the wind, even while going around right curves.  Phillip and I caught up a bit in his fiance's parents guest house while he studied for some finals.  It was great seeing him and riding back roads with too.  Still hoping to go for a ride through Yosemite Valley with my motobro.  

Welp... that's the gist of my trip west.  Better late than never, eh?

Now I'm just working, climbing, lookin' for post summer options and lovin' my time here at the Summit Adventure community.  I just returned yesterday from the Go For It course for people with special needs.  That was more than an incredible experience equally for me and the participants.  Thanks for your prayers and love.  God is.

'nuff sed fred

A not-rapper, practicing his rappin' skillz... Enjoy, or deploy!

Tuesday and Beyond

"We want to offer you a job, instructing
at Summit this summer."
Break my mind, make my heart come alive
give hope to the dope and
believe the words
of only the
Pope...
Nope...
Cash...
Trash...
Dance moves followed, a procession of aggression,
celebration style with hiccuped speech and
black diamond jump kicks that spell out the
word "death" with the bones of corporate prisons.

Wendy's... call it a freckled infatuation.
The days always change yet Frosties remain,
blanketed in nauseating joy,
buzzin' like a little boy,
Spillin' like a mental patient,
Relaxed,
and lackin' moot conversation
Withstanding dissemination of interpretation
while crowds gather in another state
of mind. Presidential campaign-nation.
Incognito sandwich switch
unsubstadized loans
and frustrated knee groans. Pass it to the judge.
Junior Bacon thief, will gather the pudge of
embarrassing grief. Word.

Art night flopped; Stopped by a rent-a-cop.
Grilled by the badge with a hot fuzz mind set.
Chilled by the serenity that plagues the benevolent.
Ambivalence prevails when our choices flip flop;
while cranes prescribe to DJ rhino's hip hop.

Don't let the little things get to you.
Eaves droppers prepare,
We shoot blanks to scare,
place ranks between the shell and your heart.
Develop a thick skin
maintain your compassionate heart.
Turn on the truth,
honesty and open-minded youth,
There is a stigma plaguing this place
an enigma breaking my face
Wrestle on king kong, with the
balance of transparency and mystery
in the intricately ethnocentric and
predictable society of parables.

USA, please,
please pray.
California,
see you in May.
word.

the good, the bad, and the rad

Most of the Cayambe ascent bound my stomach and mind and heart and spirit in contradiction.  My stomach, full of empty, cried for food, while my mind knew contentment would be less volatile in esophagus eruptions.  My heart, pounding to the beat of reggae-tone dance groove sped up 300% gulped after the thin oxygen being gathered by my warrior lungs.  My heart called for a nap, yet knew it was no option, for my spirit had made a commitment.  A commitment to not give in to the false limits a body puts on itself or the structured pain fed by self indulgence...(though I did fall asleep for a couple minutes during a time of rest)...a commitment to summit and thank God for the ability to do so.  It's not all glory my friends...oh no.  The feeling that chunks of breakfast could be gurgling up at any moment for hours at a time and wondering if your brain has shrunk and began bobbling around in the skull, smashing the side with every heavy step, doesn't exactly jive naturally with pushing your body to climb to a higher altitude where the symptoms could potentially become worse.

I suppose I could put this all a little more simply.  In the moment, uncomfortable.  Timelessly, awesome.  And of course I climbed the 18,900 ft glacier peak in Adidas Sambas.  What else?

Something I try to be conscious about when serving others who are less financially endowed than me, is this...

We are all equally gifted with the time of this moment.  Time is no longer money my friends.  It was awesome to rediscover the breaking of that lie and share it with the group and watch how that thought helped break down cultural and financial barriers between our group and those we served.  Invisible, imaginary walls are broken through what God has blessed us all with, this day.

This past weekend I visited Javier in Guayaquil.  Shout out!  It was amazing to stay as a guest in his home and see the city and beach as much as could be seen in a short 2.5 days.  We did some body surfing in the beautiful ocean with fairly warm waves for such a cloudy day.  I came to Ecuador knowing I would be doing hard work, serving at a church and climbing mountains, but visiting Guayaquil was a luxury reward to the maximum... Hanging at the beach, eating shrimp and lobster and other local delicacies with no time restraint or required appointments.  Mission work with wine.  Gracias Malbec.

The bus ride back to Quito was again about 9 hours.  I mostly just napped and watched the passing scenery out the windows, wishing I knew how to ask more substantial conversation questions to my neighbor than "what is your name?" and "how old are you?".  Someday.  The transformation of plant life from sea level to the highlands of Quito is amazing to watch.  The ecological diversity in this country in just a few miles is beautiful.  They have tropic beaches, to rainforests, to mountain glaciers all within a relatively short distance.  

Yesterday was my first day on the job, filming for the next Summit Adventure video.  We climbed Guagua Pinchincha.  This time it was snowing, which produced some incredibly epic shots of people coming over rock crests with an immeasurable foggy abyss below, and snow making visibility more of a challenge.  My hands became extremely cold.  Painfully chilled/numb.  Don't ask me why I didn't take my snow-soaked gloves off, seriously don't ask.  

I'm thrilled with the footage attained but had a scare.  My camera stopped working because of condensation from the wet snow.  I wasn't too worried though, because I thought it would just work after it completely dried out.  The next morning it still read "remove tape" and had a condensation warning.  Thank God it started smiling again, ready for more adventure right before we left for the service project.  Also, after the climb yesterday, on our drive back down from the mountain, a "tourista" bus had wedged itself across the only exit road.  It had slid back in the mud after apparently hitting a truck into the ditch, and lodged diagonally from mud wall to wall across the 1.5 lane country road.  It was completely empty, pretty erie since the fog was moving in again and we only had about an hour of daylight left.  Corinna, Matt and Bryce huddled for some fast actin' decision making.  Within about 15 minutes we'd unloaded all our bags from the vehicles, left all our extra food with the driver (because they'd be staying the night there) and began our climb up the front of the tour bus, up the right mirror, onto the grassy embankment and over the barbed-wire fence.  Cows welcomed our arrival to their territory.

We made it to the little town nearby in about 40 minutes where another mini bus had been sent to pick us up.  Everyone handled the adventure in stride, a true test of character...I'm thinking Summit Adventure should keep that one going for future courses.

Tomorrow it's back up to Cayambe for me, but this time with my GL2 video camera to hopefully (weather permitting) get some astounding shots of participants ascending to the summit with 360 degrees of make-you-pee-your-pants marvelous.

  

I finished reading Vagabonding by Rolf Pottson the bus trip back to Quito from Guayaquil.  It was a great encouragement in the way I want to live practically, physically and financially.  Please consider this quote referring to philosophers and religious leaders advice on money and living life to the full...

"Despite several millennium of such warnings, however, there is still an overwhelming social compulsion - an insanity of consensus if you will -  to get rich from life rather than live richly, to do well in the world instead of live well."

Something else I want to broadcast is a poem I just recently read.  Click the link.

"The Vision"

Smiles for miles,

Colin

Oh Ecuador!

Yesterday we hiked summited mount Guagua (wa-wa) which stands at 15,700 ft. There were incredible views of Quito and the surrounding mountains whenever the clouds moved off of us. Everyone had an excellent time climbing and traversing the ridge to the summit despite the fast beating hearts of thin air. It was a great warm up for what's to come.

Tomorrow we begin our time on mount Cayambe. The base camp is at about 15,500 ft where we will stay for a day and a half to acclimatize and practice mountaineering and ice climbing technique before our summit attempt on the 9th. Cayambe's Summit is around 18,700 ft. We all packed up our bags tonight with stoked-ness flying all around in the group and random songs beautifully exploding. We'll be on Cayambe for two nights...on the second, the plan is to leave the base hut at 11:30 pm to begin the ascent. I am extremely pumped for this climb as is all of the Summit Adventure group. No one had summited Guagua in the past, which gave it a true sense of adventure because of the unknown that lay ahead...and for Cayambe, only Bryce has climbed it. Sharing firsts of adventure with a like minded group of diverse guys is an incredible experience.

Today was our second day working at Remanso de Amor (Haven of Love) Community Church. We hauled and passed a load of two truck fulls of block up a few flights of stairs and have laid three new walls to help set up for more class rooms in the future. Haven of love is more than a church. It is also a community school, and has ministries for youth, pregnant single mothers, elderly, and indigenous people. The pastor, Ramiro, joined us after the church service today with a crowd of boys for a soccer game before we went back to work...Soccer is an international connection, helping brake down barriers of language and build friendships despite the difficulty of communication. After we began hand mixing mud again, four boys came up to help us. Ricardo and David were 14 and 16, and muy fuerte (strong). Having the extra help was great, and today overall helped us not focus so much on work production, but on giving time to existing with these people. The church service was so welcoming; they treated us like everyone else...the "meet and greet" section toward the beginning, was not what you imagine in the U.S. at a church service. Instead of 45 seconds of saying hello to the people right next to you, everyone moves about the room gliding from hug to hug. It was beautiful.

www.remansodeamor.mac

When I arrived in Ecuador, I met up with Bryce and Sarah and Graham. We stayed at an excellent hostel at the south west side of Quito, on a big hill with a nice vista of the city. We spent a few days playing exploring the city by day and playing Rook by night...and day. One game lasted a few hours because of how much "setting" was going on.

Other random points because I don't have the time to describe everything...

-I almost killed someone with fireworks on new years eve.

-Six people have asked Bryce and I if we're brothers because of our grande barbas (beards).

-I'm going to visit Juan Javier Coka Aguilar in Guayaquil this Friday for the weekend. He's forcing me to shave...(I kid, I'm ready)...and when I get back on Monday, the next course participants will be here thus video work begins.

-I stood not only on the equator, but on the point of Latitude 0, 0, 0 with Tim and Eli.

-I'm loving this and knowing that travel and missions and service and outdoor adventure must continue for me.

So far, so awesome, pictures will say more when I get home.

Mucho Amor,

Colino