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May 27, 2005
Moksha pirates in the classroom
A big congratulations to the students of Ms. April's class in Colorado who recreated a life-size model of pedalboat Moksha in their classroom. Quite a project! I'm sure Ms. A's salty tales of life on the ocean wave of the Coral Sea crossing that she completed in 2000 helped to make bring it all alive.
Big news - we finally got to see our beautiful kayaks this morning! It's been a tortous wait these past months waiting to get our hands on them; first they had to shipped from the Wenonah Canoe in Wisconsin to Chicago by truck, then to Los Angeles by rail, then by container ship courtesy of Direct Container Lines to Darwin via Singapore, then back to Dili here in East Timor when Australian customs wouldn't allow us to work on them. But I think I can speak on behalf of both Chris and Lourdes when I say they were worth the wait. They're not only beautiful to look at, but more importantly are the best boats for the job in terms of strength, speed and storage capacity. The weekend will be spent boiling down our gear to what will realistically fit into the relatively small storage compartment.
At 3pm Chris and I went for his visa interview at the Indonesian Embassy. Immediately we were turned away because his trousers were 3 inches too short, so we found ourselves tearing around in Dili in a taxi (a relative term - taxi drivers here are the slowest in the world) looking for a pair of trousers. Anway, we got the visa in his passport so what with the boats and the visas in order we're almost good to go.
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Kenny this morning. He is on a plane as I write - heading back to LA and then staight onto New York to film a feature film. We wish him the very best and miss his rapier wit and dry humour already. Good luck with the screen test mate - hope you definitely get the gig!
Posted on May 27, 2005 10:57 AM
Comments
Hurray, you must be exhilarated to have this phase under your belt finally. This beaurocracy though makes Ukraine seem almost efficient by comparison. Best of luck with the next step, we continue to follow along here in the Great White North.
darcia
Posted by: darcia at May 30, 2005 7:06 AM
Hi Jason, Great photos, great stories, & great news. I wish you would have gotten a photo of Kenny in there so we could see him again, but space is probably limited. Did I miss Chris's introduction? I'll check the site for details on your plan and timing for departures & landings, etc. as you (all?) begin the kayaking. Do the yaks go back to the donor or are you selling them enroute? East country had bomb news reported here today- can't find any other info. Hope all is well where you are.
I'm in your pocket-
N
Posted by: nancy sanford at May 28, 2005 7:59 PM