Change and Transition: The 2008 Version

February 09, 2008

Every year we spend one week in December reviewing the previous year and preparing for the next one. One of the things we needed to figure out in 2007 was what we'd be doing with the ChrisandJolie.com site.

After heading overseas in early 2002, we began this site in 2003 to update our family and friends about our work in West Africa. In 2006, we returned to the U.S. to begin a new life in Seattle. For the first year here, we updated our site regularly as we had a lot of transition happening.

That transition is now nearly complete. I'm in my last quarter of study at the University of Washington, and should graduate in 36 days from today. I started a small publishing company while working overseas in 2005, and spent much of the last year working on that business while going to graduate school. My business is not really profitable at the moment, but it was fun while it lasted.

I also began serving this fall as the President of the Board for our church in Fremont. This commitment will continue until April 1.

Of course, I also traveled overseas a lot, to more than 25 countries in 2007. It was a great travel year, with my first visit to the Middle East, a complete trip through the Balkans, bus rides through East Africa, and more.

Jolie has been busy too. After studying art for a year and a half, she now feels ready to move to the next step of defining her painting theme and marketing herself as a working artist.

What's Coming Next - Chris

For at least three years, I've felt that I should create a writing project that would allow me to transition from helping people on an individual basis, like I do now, to helping people on a broader basis.

Nine months ago, I was traveling on two red-eye flights to JFK and Frankfurt, and I stayed up all night writing an outline for how I would go about doing that.

You can follow those adventures on my upcoming site, ChrisGuillebeau.com. I'll begin posting content sometime over the next couple of months for a two-month beta test, and the official launch will be in early April.

I'll also be taking on a new non-profit commitment in June, traveling to at least fifteen new countries, deciding on additional school commitments sometime before September, and hopefully finding a new way to make a living. (Don't worry; I've done this before.)

What's Coming Next - Jolie

Jolie will be focusing more on her identity as a painter. You can view her Etsy shop now, where she sells some of her artwork, and her own site will be coming soon. She is also involved with the Women's Development Council in Seattle and other fun and fulfilling projects.

The Future of this Site

Since we are no longer working as aid workers or living overseas, we've struggled with defining the primary audience for this site. As we proceed with our next projects, ChrisandJolie.com will probably close down at some point in mid-2008.

However, we will keep the domain and may use it again in the future if we return to full-time overseas service. We remain tremendously grateful for all our friends and family who have helped us along the way.

Our journey is far from over.

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Posted By Chris at 03:19 AM
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Circles 2007

January 05, 2008

At the end of 2006 I posted a summary of my travels during the past year. In the spirit of that brief chronology, here's everywhere I visited in 2007:

Belgium, Greece, Israel, Jordan, all seven of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany, England, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Malta, and Barbados

The main highlights were my first trip to the Middle East, a 36-hour bus ride through East Africa, two weeks taking buses through the Balkans, and my first Round-the-World trip.

I also visited Kosovo, Taiwan, Zanzibar-- none of which are sovereign countries at the moment, but operate more or less independently from the countries that try to claim them (Serbia, China, Tanzania).

On our December vacation, we went to a few islands I haven't been to before: St. Lucia, Dominica, and Tobago. In short, it was a great travel year and I exceeded my expectations.

Over the next few months, both Jolie and I will be making a lot of changes in our work, and we'll also be making changes to the ChrisandJolie.com site. Stay tuned for information on those changes in the next few weeks.

Happy New Year's, everyone.

Posted By Chris at 01:42 AM
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Far Away

December 12, 2007

Chris and Jolie will be out of contact until December 24. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Posted By Chris at 05:03 PM
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3:32:40

November 26, 2007

I ran the Seattle Marathon yesterday in just over 3 hours and 30 minutes. The weather was much better than last year and I really enjoyed the race, except for the hour between miles 20 and 26.

Posted By Chris at 04:07 PM
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Seattle Marathon Part II

November 23, 2007

One year ago this week, I ran the Seattle Marathon along with a lot of great support from my family. The race was great, but I was sidelined from running for nearly six months afterwards due to a leg injury I still haven't completely figured out yet. The good news is that I'm doing much better and will be running the marathon again this Sunday!

The University of Washington Graduate School is sponsoring 100 students to run either the half or the full marathon (I'm doing the full). Wish me luck on Sunday!

Chris with another runner at our pre-race pizza party.

Some of the rest of the group who will be running the race to raise money for graduate students (a good cause).

***

Also-- our condo renovation is still not complete, but some progress has been made. For the first time in six months, we can now see outside due to the shrink-wrap on the building finally being removed. A huge scaffolding is still there, we can't get in the garage, and we don't have blinds on our windows... but any progress is good at this point.

Posted By Chris at 07:03 PM
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Chris at the U.N.

October 27, 2007

I was in New York for some meetings last week, and my friend Matt van Etten gave me a private tour of the United Nations headquarters. I've been to the U.N. before, but thanks to Matt having access to most parts of the building that visitors aren't normally able to see, I was able to go to places like the General Assembly room and make myself comfortable.

The photos were taken with a cell phone camera (thanks, Matt!) so they're a bit low-res, but I really enjoyed the chance to visit the same rooms and halls where presidents and diplomats work every day.

Posted By Chris at 12:04 AM
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Check out Jolie's Latest Studies

October 05, 2007

View Flickr Portfolio here

Posted By Chris at 09:39 PM
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Jolie's Progress...

October 02, 2007

Since my last post on this, I've accomplished 4 more goals... only 11 and half to go!

1. Sing in Public
2. Make Mousse au chocolat 10 June 2007
3. Go to New York City 2 September 2007
4. Ski down a hill
5. Ride a roller coaster
6. Copy a Masterwork 21 August 2007
7. Learn to jump rope
8. Swim half a mile
9. Tie my shoes in under 30 seconds 3 June 2007
10. Make Bananas Foster 27 July 2007
11. Grow my own vegetables and cook with them. 10 May 2007
12. Read The Message all the way through (I'm on page 1136 of 2265)
13. Have a Fondue Party 13 April 2007
14. Make a cheese danish and a custard pie (Half done- 29 June 2007)
15. Something about dogs 28 July 2007
16. Climb a mountain 17 September 2007
17. Be honest all the time
18. Publish something 28 May 2007
19. Sell a piece of artwork
20. Paint a portrait of Chris 1 October 2007
21. Drink Veuve Clicquot champagne 13 April 2007
22. Read a short story in French 4 June 2007
23. Ride in a hot air balloon 24 June 2007 (Thanks, Dad!)
24. See the Grand Canyon 25 June 2007 (Thanks again, Dad!)
25. Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 13 June 2007
26. Read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
27. Drive a stick shift
28. Knit a sweater 14 June 2007
29. Learn to Kayak
30. Go to the Symphony 27 April 2007

Posted By Jolie at 02:02 AM
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36 Hours from Kampala to Dar es Salaam (2/2)

September 12, 2007

We had roughly seven hours more until Nairobi, where we were scheduled to arrive at 3:00 a.m. for a two-hour stop. Mid-point through the journey, the bus broke down. I wasn't thrilled about this, and neither were the other passengers, but after a while the engine started up and we were underway again. We arrived in Nairobi sometime around 4:30, and got back underway just before dawn.

At this point my memory gets a bit fuzzy, because I had only slept an hour or two during the night and wasn't feeling well from all the bumpy roads. (Thankfully, the roads improved after a while.) I think it was about three of four more hours when we arrived at the next border, this time between Kenya and Tanzania.

This stop was also remarkably efficient-- we were through within 45 minutes. A couple more undetermined hours later we arrived in Arusha, a major Tanzanian city in the north. I have a friend who is working there for a few months, but unfortunately I didn't realize she was there until two days after I left. It would have been great to see her, especially since the trip ran into its biggest delay on this stop. We were told that the bus was changing, but no other bus was around. I spent the time writing postcards from Kampala and eating peanuts, which in addition to two Cliff Bars I had brought from Seattle and the ice cream in the beginning of the journey were my only food. I wasn't really hungry, but I was certainly tired.

A new bus finally arrived two hours later. We were all relieved to transfer our bags and hop on board, but there was just one problem: five other passengers had joined us at Arusha, and they had seat numbers for seats that were already occupied by those of us who had started way back in Uganda. Thankfully, I had already taken my seat when the mistake was discovered, so I didn't have to worry about standing up for the remaining nine hours.

After a lot of arguing and the unsuccessful mediation efforts of the bus company's employees, a woman stood up and addressed everyone. "Brothers and sisters in the Lord!" she began. "We are all Christians, so let us find a way to solve this problem!"

So far, so good, but some guys in the back were laughing and not listening to her, so she commanded them to "Shut up in the name of Jesus!" It was one of the most interesting social interactions I've ever watched. For better or worse, the evangelist was able to resolve the problem by acquiring some extra makeshift seats from the bus driver. Before we left Arusha after waiting far too long, she led the whole bus in a prayer for the journey. Even the Muslims supported a Christian prayer for a safe road journey to our final destination.

A lot of other things happened along the way, but as we hit the 24-hour point, I was pretty exhausted. I vaguely remember running my hands through my hair and seeing them completely covered in red dust. I remember a collective bus stop for bananas, which looked nice but I couldn't buy because I didn't have any Tanzanian currency, and I remember waking up after sleeping for three straight hours to find our bus about an hour out of Dar es Salaam. By then, it had gone well over the 31 hours we had expected to travel, so when people said we were an hour away I could hardly believe it.

We arrived at the bus station close to midnight the day after I had left Uganda. I stepped off the bus for the last time and walked to the gate where I navigated the usual throng of taxi drivers all shouting for my attention. Choosing one and negotiating a price of $8 (it was a long way and late at night) to take me downtown to change money and then to a hotel near the port, I finally arrived at the beautiful sight of a hotel check-in counter shortly after 1:00 a.m. They had one last room available, which I was quite happy to accept sight unseen. Before I feel asleep, I took two full showers in a partially successful attempt to get the dust of three African countries and 36 hours in a bus off of me. For the next week, however, my shoes would set off a mini dust storm every time I put them on or take them off. My bags still have Kenya's dust on them despite my best efforts to clean them with washcloths in my next two stops. I consider it evidence of an achievement that has personal meaning to me even if other people find it incomprehensible.

I don't think I would do this again. But I'm really glad I did it once.

###

Posted By Chris at 02:41 PM
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36 Hours from Kampala to Dar es Salaam (1/2)

September 12, 2007

A few trips ago, I learned that it is usually better to travel by land whenever possible. I love flying, and I even love hanging out in big airports for hours, but it's true that the experience of flying from one place to another often isn't much different wherever you are in the world. When you travel overland, however, you'll almost always meet people and experience life as it's seen through more local perspectives. Therefore, I usually try to fly into one country, travel overland for a while, and then fly out of another airport at least one country away.

I did this in Jordan earlier this year, flying into Tel Aviv in Israel, traveling overland between the two countries and then throughout Jordan before leaving from Amman. I did it again in July by taking a series of buses throughout the Balkans, including an overnight bus through Albania. I thought these experiences would prepare me well for an even bigger trip that I just finished. For the most part, they did.

My trip began in Kampala (Uganda), where I visited the coolest taxi park in the world and spent some time with local NGO workers. After a few days sightseeing, I bought a one-way bus ticket to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania via a number of other cities along the way. The ticket cost $54, and the journey was expected to take 31 hours.

I showed up at 12:30 for the 1:00 p.m. departure, but I didn't see a bus anywhere. I sat with all of the other passengers for two hours, waiting for the appearance of an elusive bus. It finally arrived close to 3:00. In a way, I didn't mind the delay, because another passenger told me they were fixing the tires. Not having good tires is a major cause of road accidents in Africa, so better to be late with good tires, I thought.

After the delayed departure, our trip began well enough. Every seat on the bus was taken, but there was no overcrowding and no one standing. I was also the only Westerner for the entire trip. After we got out of Kampala, the driver's assistant passed out ice cream samples to each passenger, which I enjoyed after not eating lunch.

For the next four hours, nothing much happened. I had hoped to use a big part of the trip for reading and writing, but the roads were far too bumpy for that. We rode along through Eastern Uganda until arriving at the Kenyan border directly at sunset. Border stops are rarely boring, and in Africa they are often highly disorganized and corrupt. At this one, though, all the formalities worked pretty well. I paid $20 for a transit visa, as I had expected, and headed back up the road to the bus after receiving the necessary clearances. The whole process took less than half an hour, including an amazing dust storm that I tried to capture in a quick snapshot (shown below in the last picture).

Coming Soon: Part II of the Journey

Posted By Chris at 02:39 PM
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