Captivated by Crete

How do I begin this last entry in the chronicles of our big adventure? This morning we leave Crete and begin our trek back home. It is almost impossible to believe that this is now an adventure stored in our memory banks and we are looking backwards on it instead of forward in anticipation. But what memories we have made!

Crete has been an amazing surprise. Our villa was on the western side of the island, which is much more remote and less impacted by tourists. The roads are very narrow and winding all along the edge of the mountains that make up the island. The village we stayed in, Livadia, is made up of rocky shore, endless olive groves, and lots of sheep and goat herds.










The back deck looked out over the Aegean Sea in the direction of some awesome sunsets. We filled the Jacuzzi one nice evening and sat in it while watching the sun drop over the horizon and listening to a CD Kelly had made for us at our 10 year anniversary. It really was magical.



We watched lots of storms come in during our week in Crete. Since we were inside safe and dry, we really enjoyed watching the light show, the wind and the rain. Fortunately, even though we had rain almost every day, we also had sun almost every day so we were able to get out and wander. We had a few challenges associated with the weather…. it rained and blew so hard a few times it forced the water inside the edge of a door or window, but it never created a significant problem. It also took out the electricity a few times, but again, we were able to work around that without any great inconvenience. We were fortunate to have Alberto check on us regularly enough to help out with whatever we needed.

We had several exciting adventures on our afternoon jaunts. One day we drove over to an ecotourism spot called Milia. The narrow winding paved roads turned into narrow winding gravel roads that went high up into the mountain to a neat little lodge and restaurant where we sat in front of a pot belly stove eating Greek salad, bread, rice-stuffed cabbage, and goat. The ride up was quite a nail biting experience but we really enjoyed the experience and since we survived decided it was worth the nubs.






Another day we took a short easy drive to a nearby taverna called Agia Fizi that had been recommended by the owner of our villa. We had a good time communicating with the proprietor, Giorgo; he only spoke a very little bit of English and we speak absolutely no Greek. Since he couldn’t tell us what he had to offer for lunch he took us back into the kitchen and showed us so we could point and say Mmmm to the things we wanted to try. One thing he offered us was these little silver fish not much larger than a sardine. We shrugged and say sure, why not and held up one finger to indicate we would try one. Apparently that translated to one plate of them! With sign language we were able to ask how to eat them, which turned out to be by popping their heads off, splitting them down the belly, lifting out their little skeleton and munching away. Ok then! They were fun and Maynard liked them a lot so I let him enjoy himself and eat almost all of them.

As we were leaving we asked (again with lots of sign language) if Giorgo could tell us how to get to the church of Agios Paraskevi - a small Byzantine temple also recommended by the owner of our villa for the “landscape of exceptional beauty” in which it is set. There was a bit of Greek chatter that took place between Giorgos and a few other locals and the next thing we knew he was driving us to the little church in his own car. We think he tried to tell us it was too difficult for us to drive our car, which turned out to be a major understatement! The road to Milia suddenly seemed like a freeway in comparison to the steep, rocky road we were on! In fact, the road was so bad in one spot the car kept getting stuck…. ON THE SIDE OF THE CLIFF!!!!! Giorgos kept saying “no problem, no problem” while Maynard got out to pull big rocks out of the road that the car kept getting stuck over. I was in the back seat praying and thinking we were having a BIG, HUGE, MAJOR problem!!! But after Maynard dug out about a dozen mini-boulders and hurled them off the gravel path we finally made it up the mountain to the little church. It was very old, probably dating back to the 1400’s, and very pretty inside, with many fresco scenes painted right on the ceilings and walls. It had several large cement picnic-like tables outside where we think Giorgos was telling us they come for celebrating an annual festival. Anyway, we laughed ourselves silly once we made it back safe and sound. This is truly one for the memory books.



Each day we ventured out and found interesting things to explore – an old monastery, a beautiful beach, a winding gorge…. more than I can tell about here.





We made lots of stops along our drives each day to watch the waves crashing into the rocky beaches. It was a fun exercise trying to capture them hitting just when the largest waves would crash into the air. On our last day we made one more jaunt to explore a nearby beach and I managed to get caught by one of them, which was a fun surprise.



For all of our efforts to capture them, it seems like every picture we got just didn’t quite show their grandeur. Maybe you will get a sense of that spectacular beauty from these, but maybe you will have to come to Crete if you want to really understand why this was such a wonderful sight.







On the last day of our journey, we sat over dinner and took turns talking about our favorite memories in each place we visited. It was a really great walk down this last month’s memory lane. I can’t think of any time we have racked up so many great memories to savor. And savor them is definitely something I think we will do. What a blessing this journey has been! We are very grateful that God has allowed us to have this experience. As the sun sets on the last day of our journey, we are very grateful to you who have traveled with us via the reports in our blog. Your emails and blog comments have been a little taste of home to us. I guess this puts this reporter to rest now.



Until we land…..

Love,
Maynard and Sheryl

Adventures in Athens

Hello from Crete!

We are beginning the last leg of our journey and if things turn out as we anticipate, it will be a wonderful end. For now, though, I will tell you about our adventures in Athens. We had a real blessing on all three of our flights to Athens. We thought we would face paying excess weight charges again for our luggage, but that did not happen. The gate agent said nothing and checked all three of them straight through. In addition, all three of our flights into Athens had been upgraded to first class!!! We have no idea how or why things turned out this way other than God's hand was in it, so we just said thank you Lord and flew in comfort.

Greece is a country of approximately 11M people and nearly half of them live in Athens! This is not a joke, this is a fact. Athens is a very big, heavily populated city. We think perhaps this crowded atmosphere was the catalyst of the driving news we have to report. The only thing of interest here is the vast number of motorcycles on the streets. Maynard tried unsuccessfully to capture a video of how they all weave their way up to the front of the line at a stop light. When it turns green they all shoot out ahead of the cars sort of like a swarm of bees.

We also wanted to share the wide variation in gas prices we have seen in each location.

Turkey - $12/gallon
UAE - $1.20/gallon
Egypt - $0.95/gallon
Morocco - $3.50/gallon
Greece - $4.50/gallon

So, I guess I am grateful for US gas prices after all. Hmmmmm. I thought I wasn’t before we came on this trip, but unless we want to live in the UAE or Egypt we have it better than we thought.

OK. Back to Athens………..

Most of the time we have spent wandering the city, some on our own and some with a tour guide. The tour guide was really helpful for bringing all of the history into perspective. We saw the Acropolis, which includes the Parthenon, the Roman Theatre, the Theatre of Dionysos, Mars Hills, etc. It was really cool to stand on Mars Hill and imagine Paul making his defense on that very spot two thousand years ago. We also walked the ancient market. It was amazing to see all of this, but quite disheartening to see the vast amount of graffiti painted all over the city even in the areas surrounding these significant monuments of history.


Sheryl in front of the Roman Theatre with the Parthenon in the background


Maynard in front of the Parthenon


Maynard pretending he is Paul on top of Mars Hill


One of the most preserved ancient temples to the gods

We also saw the changing of the guard at both the Parliament and the Presidential Residence. The video shows what that looks like. Our guide told us it is a significant honor to be selected for this duty.





We did not go visit the Temple of Zeus, but the balcony of our room overlooked it so we saw it against a backdrop of mountains every day. I love this moonlight picture Maynard captured from our balcony.



I think perhaps my favorite aspect of Athens was the food. Every day I had some mix of tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and feta – usually more than once. I ate them at breakfast and lunch or dinner. I LOVED eating the Greek flavors. And we were both so grateful to be able to eat and drink the water and food without concern after being in so many countries where we couldn’t.

The downside of this stop has been feeling the impact of the weakened dollar against the Euro in combination with higher prices than we experience in the US. This was pretty consistent throughout the city no matter where we were. We stopped at a seaside café on our last day and shared a delicious meal of chicken with mushrooms, salad, and two cups of coffee and it cost us the equivalent of $75! It was really wonderful food and sitting on an open deck overlooking the Mediterranean Sea was an amazing experience, but it was another expensive meal. It would have felt expensive regardless, but even more so in comparison to our last meal in Morocco which was quite nice and only cost the equivalent of $5 per person!!! It was another cultural whiplash moment.

Hope you have enjoyed this issue of the Belson Big Adventure Times. I guess there will only be one or perhaps two more issues before we put this reporter to rest. Stay tuned for next time!

Love,
Maynard and Sheryl

Moroccan Moments

Hello from Athens!

We have just concluded a wonderful week in Morocco with John, Cyndi and their girls. It was truly a neat chance to experience a lot of Moroccan culture.

Maynard spent most of his time with John checking on two construction projects or purchasing materials for them. There are two projects currently underway - a community center in a nearby village and a bathroom at a school.

The community center has been the dream of the association leader in the village for some time. Work on the center had begun but stalled until John was able to partner his brick making company with the association leader to re-mobilize the work. The center will be a wonderful place for training classes, craft guilds, internet, and other meetings. There is currently very limited space for any gatherings of this sort nearby so this will be quite nice for them. Maynard and John spent time with this association leader working out the details of a data base Maynard and John are building for them to track various information about all the associations in the area. The leader’s dream is to use the data base to find out how the associations can more effectively work together and share resources.






The bathroom being built at the school is a real significant need. It will include two “squatty potties” each for the girls and the boys. The school has about 400 students and no toilet facility at all, so even though this is only four facilities it is a great improvement. It is hard to imagine this in a school in the US. This was another reminder to be grateful to the Lord for something we take for granted. Here is a picture of the progress made while we were there.



The construction method was very interesting. The walls are created with John’s special adobe bricks that resist dissolving when the rains come. Once the walls are constructed, they are covered with a sort of plaster made with mud, straw, and water. We watched them making the plaster by stomping to mix this all together in a sort of a mud pit. It was really interesting. Maynard and I both wished we had a pair of rubber boots so we could get into the process! After it is mixed, they throw the mud on the walls, and then trowel it out to look nice and smooth. The color comes totally from the dirt so they changed dirt to make different plaster colors. Here is a video clip of the plastering process. Sorry, but I can't figure out how to rotate it upright so you will have to look sideways. :-)



The plumbing for the bathroom is also quite interesting. The pipes come out of each potty and meet in a “box” at the back of the building before flowing on out through the larger pipes to the area that works much like a septic tank. The “box” is built with access so it can be cleaned. The box will periodically have to be cleaned out to remove rocks and date pits because the children typically use them for toilet paper. So I ask you, when was the last time you remembered to be grateful for toilet paper? Well, I am now reminded to be grateful for that too!

As you can tell, a significant part of our experience in Morocco was tied to construction. Very different from the construction we learned about from Mike in Abu Dhabi! As a matter of fact, one of the interesting aspects of this trip has been the cultural whiplash we have seen and experienced along the way. Each country has its own uniqueness and some things are widely different. What works in one will not work in another … due to available resources, culture, or whatever. It really is a big wide world!

We had some great non-construction experiences too. I spent a lot of time at home with Cyndi and Alyssa. I really enjoyed just experiencing life with them. We shared meals, played games, and made a few neighborhood visits to have tea. One evening all five of us shared a meal with a Moroccan couple at John and Cyndi’s house. We learned several rules of Moroccan etiquette during the evening. Prior to the meal, a large silver pot and water kettle is offered to each guest so they can wash their hands. When the meal begins, we all eat from the same large platter, pinching the food off with pieces of bread. No one is supposed to pinch off any of the meat until the male host offers it by pinching chunks of meat and tossing them to the side of the platter in front of each guest. If you don’t want to finish your meat, you toss the rest of it over to someone who looks hungry. Don’t agree to a traditional Moroccan meal if you don’t like eating after people. As for us, we loved it! And it was a really neat chance to get to know this couple as we exchanged reactions to a story we read about the challenges of a tired, hungry man in the desert. That was really fun to try to do with all of the translation involved!





On our last day, we had a chance to visit this same family’s home to see a Berber rug they were making. They had bought the wool, spun it, and died it themselves. Then Alyssa had gone a few days earlier to help them cut the wool into strands. I had the fun chance to try my hand at tying a few strands into the rug. We hope to purchase the rug once it is complete as a wonderful reminder of our time in Morocco and our time sharing a meal with them.




As usual, Maynard was on the lookout for sunset photo ops. On our two+ hour drive to the airport, the sun was beginning to set so John decided to take an off-road chase for the perfect sunset. It was a little bit twisty and bumpy but it was fun….. sort of taking off across the desert. After several attempts we finally did see the perfect shot. The sun was setting in orange and pink hues with a minaret in the distance. Both Maynard and John had their cameras out snapping away for several minutes. God had really provided something to capture. We hopped back in the truck on this back desert road and had a new surprise. The truck battery was dead! In what felt a lot like the middle of nowhere! Well, thankfully God provided a Good Samaritan in a small white truck who came along and gave us a jump so we could be on our way. It was a really neat end to our trip and another reminder to be grateful.



As with every entry so far, this can’t begin to capture all of the experience. Hope you enjoy reading what it does capture. It was an absolute joy living it.

Until the next Belson Big Adventure Times update…….

Love,
Maynard and Sheryl

Careening Through Cairo

Hello from Morocco!

Once again we are in a new country, but once again I am writing about the country we just left. We spent 6 amazing days in Egypt, with most of our time being spent in Cairo.

I need to start with the driving theme that has been following us around the world. Cairo is a very large city with traffic like nothing we had ever experienced before. I have another left turn story to tell. For one thing, if you need to turn left, you have to drive past the place you need to turn, make a u-turn at the next available opening and go back. This process can be a quite challenging one since there are more cars, people, and donkey carts on the road than you can begin to imagine. Yes, you read that right… donkey carts. On the way in from the airport as we were on a major three-lane road filled with four lanes of vehicles, up comes a donkey cart in the midst of it all, changing lanes no less! We really tried hard to get that picture but just didn’t move from surprise to action quickly enough. These pictures don’t begin to capture the reality of Cairo traffic, but it is the best we can offer you.

Our first morning in Cairo we hired a driver to take us to Maadi Community Church for Friday service. Friday is to Egypt what Sunday is to us in America. It was an outdoor church under a tent connected to space owned by an Anglican Church. We sat in plastic lawn chairs and had a great experience. After church we went to Jared’s Bagel shop, owned by Troy and Sarita Stringfield. It was really a pleasure to meet them and their three kids. They treated us to bagel sandwiches from their shop and we sat outside eating and getting to know one another. They started this one little shop several years ago and now their business has grown to include providing food services to three international schools as well as the Cairo Proctor and Gamble building. From what we could tell, business was growing quite nicely. In addition, they told us about some really neat projects they have been engaged in involving orphans, both those who are still in the orphanage as well as those who have “graduated”.

Then we were off to be tourist! We had the best guide we could have hoped for. Her name is Dalia and she has spent her whole life in Cairo. She had such sparkle and paid attention to our every need and desire. Most of the trip we had her to ourselves, which of course made for a nice experience too. She took us to see several pyramids, the Sphinx, the Antiquities Museum, the Mohammed Ali Citadel and Alabaster Mosque, and the Khan El Khalili market. In between these attractions she took us to an Egyptian rug school (where we bought a small rug), a papyrus school (where we bought a papyrus painting), and a perfumery (where we bought perfume). Do you think there is a plan there on the part of the tour guides?!?! Yes, there was probably some sort of commission going on, but we enjoyed every experience and were very pleased to go and buy.

I think our two most significant memories are tied to the pyramids and the market. While touring the pyramids it suddenly hit Maynard that we were probably looking at the same setting Moses looked at when he was dealing with Pharaoh. Wow! Talk about surreal! He was also significantly moved by how much effort the kings went to in hopes of preserving their legacy, power, and wealth. The phrase “you can’t take it with you” was apparently unacceptable to them. These massive pyramids were built by thousands of servants/slaves over periods of sometimes 20-30 years per pyramid in order to prepare a place for their dead bodies to be housed along with wealth, food, and perfumes. Sometimes their servants and pets were even killed and embalmed at their death so they could serve the king in the afterlife. And the huge and intricate pyramid tombs were constructed to protect all of this from thieves because if the tomb was robbed of the treasures or bodies, their afterlife was robbed along with it. And even with all of this effort, all of the tombs we saw had been rediscovered empty. Seems to underscore the phrase and reminded us that we had better secure a very different kind of “it” if we want to take “it” with us.

The market dates back to 1400 and is a maze of small shops, sort of like the shops in NYC’s Little China on steroids. Dalia took us deep into the shops far past the area a tourist usually goes to. There was every thing an Egyptian household could possible need right there in the market. Every purchase was made with haggling. And the deeper we went into the market, the denser the throng of people was. Maynard loved the part deep in. I was glad in this case to get back to the tourist section! With Dalia’s help we haggled for a few gifts before we left. The picture below shows how very crowded the market was.

We also took an overnight excursion to Alexandria which was just OK. I think perhaps Dalia had spoiled us for any other guide. We felt a little bit like we were being herded, but we did get to see the Catacombs, Pompeii’s Pillar, a Roman Coliseum, Montazah Garden, and the Alex Citadel. Our hotel for the evening overlooked the Mediterranean Sea. It was nice to sit and watch all the throngs of people, cars, donkey carts, etc move through the streets in the evening. We noticed that everyone walks along either holding hands or with their arms hooked together…. girls, women, young men and occasionally even the grown men. When we returned to Cairo and were on tour with Dalia again, I really enjoyed walking along this way with her. It seems to connect the conversation even more.

We ended our time in Cairo with Troy and Sarita’s family. We took a felucca ride on the Nile River. Sarita brought food from a traditional Egyptian restaurant and we set up a picnic on a table on the boat. It was a wonderful end to our trip, cruising along in the cool evening breeze with just the 7 of us. The noise of the city seemed to drift off into the distance and we had a great time sorting out all our Cairo adventures with them. By the way, to all of you who contributed to their gift pack, they send a hearty thank you for everything.

We set out for our flight to Morocco very early on Tuesday morning with only one unexpected blip…. an extremely large excess weight baggage charge of $500! We grasped as we whipped out a large chunk of change we had not planned for. If things are the same when we leave Morocco on the same airlines, we will be faced with the same dilemma. We have a few ideas on how to minimize this some, but don’t see how to get past it all together. UGH! But we have decided we aren’t willing to allow this to darken the view of what is truly continuing to be a trip of a life time.

Until the next publication of the Belson Big Adventure Times…..

Love,

Maynard and Sheryl

PS - I just had to include this picture of our first laundry night. Let me just say I have expressed much gratitude to the Lord for the washer and dryer back at home that I have taken so much for granted up to now!

Abu Dhabi Doo

Hello from Cairo!

Yes, our journey is progressing. We are already making new memories in Egypt which I will blog about later. This entry will be about our time in Abu Dhabi and Dubai with Mike and Mattie. If I had to describe these cities in a single sentence, I would describe Abu Dhabi as the UAE version of New York City and Dubai as the UAE version of Las Vegas, just without the gambling and show girls.

It was SSSOOO good to see Mike and Mattie! And it was really nice to meet several of their friends as we just engaged in the comings and goings of their life. We attended the parenting class they teach at their church, a football party, park and beach outings, a girl’s night out with Mattie’s English club, and a tour of Mike’s construction site. I have a few snapshots of fun outings included below. One of us at Heritage Village with the Persian Gulf and Abu Dhabi skyline in the background, one of Sallie trying her hand at a potter's wheel, and one of the Emerates Palace Hotel.

Speaking of construction, if there is one word to describe Abu Dhabi and Dubai, it is CONSTRUCTION. We have never seen so much construction all going on at once. Maynard had a chance to visit Mike’s construction site while we were there and he was so amazed at the work Mike is involved with. It is MASSIVE! He is responsible for all the roads and power infrastructure to the entire island. Plus he is responsible for project managing the construction of eight of the buildings going up on the island… six of those are over 60 stories tall! The island is being built from the ground up… that means it started with no construction and Mike’s project plan includes a fully populated island. Needless to say, Maynard was more than a little impressed with what he saw.

Here is an interesting fact about the population of the area. There are more construction and infrastructure laborers in Abu Dhabi than there are Emiratis. I’m not kidding about this. My memory may not be totally correct, but the ratio of Emiratis to ex-pat laborers in Abu Dhabi is something like 250K Emiratis to about 550K ex-pats. The other surprise is that Americans are a minority in the ex-pat community. There are so many nationalities that it reminded us of the melting pot environment of the early US. Here the difference is that the UAE environment seems to encourage the ex-pats to remain ex-pats rather than melt together into the Emiratis culture. I guess that is more like a partitioned lunch tray than a melting pot. :-)

Now let’s talk about driving. Driving seems to be emerging as a common theme as we move from country to country. Do you remember how in Turkey they don’t clog traffic by always stopping at red left turn lights? Well, in Abu Dhabi they are very observant of those turn lights. In fact, if you run a red light, they take a photo of your license and when you register your car you get to pay for not only your annual registration, but also for every ticket you have received during the year. OUCH! But back to driving…. the fun driving fact in the UAE is that you can turn left from any lane you are in! Yes, even if you are in the far right lane! You can imagine the interesting sudden stopping that causes when someone on your RIGHT turns left right in front of you. Let me just say that we were very glad that Mattie and Mike did all of the driving. :-)

The other fun fact about driving in Abu Dhabi is that if you drive you had better be prepared to hunt for parking. And you had better be creative. Parking in a turn lane is not only completely acceptable, but often a necessity! As long as car can still get by to make the turn it is fair game.

Mattie was a great tour guide while Mike was working. One of the most surreal things she took us to do was swim in the Persian Gulf, or as the Emiratis say, the Arabian Gulf. We found it so amazing to realize we were swimming in the very waters that have been so contended in current events of recent years. The water was great. We had a chance to meet one of Mattie’s friends who is married to an Emirati at the beach. I love the picture we took together since it shows both ends of the cultural spectrum. We loved chatting with this friend. She was so funny and easy to talk to.

It was such a great time. I know this seems long but in comparison to the experience, it truly is very short. How can you fully describe the experience of reconnecting with dear friends half way across the globe? It just is not possible. Now we are building a whole new set of memories in Egypt. Stay tuned for next week’s installment of the Belson Big Adventure Times!

Love,

Mary Poppins and Frankenstein

- ask Mike and Mattie :-)

Thought I would also thow in a few pictures from our visit of the aquarium at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai.

Escapades in Ankara

Hello from Abu Dhabi!!!

I will write about Abu Dhabi in my next blog, but we have just concluded a wonderful three day stay in Ankara, Turkey so that is the topic of this entry. Dan and Devri were wonderful hosts. They are both so devoted to the people there … Dan is the serious one, such an intellectual and an amazing wealth of information about everything from culture to politics to the legal system to…. you name it. Devri is the free spirited social butterfly full of sparkle and laughter, always meeting someone for lunch or coffee, always teaching someone something or hosting young girls or women for something. We had such neat opportunities to be with people they knew, some English-speaking, but most not, and yet we felt such a connection with so many of them. We met people in study groups, over lunch or tea, and at a special meeting at the church they attend. On our last day in Ankara, Maynard spent time with Dan organizing the library at their church while Devri and I got together with several women in their home. Here are a few pictures of those outings.

So here are two fun stories from our stay there. Driving in other countries is usually a little bit different from what feels familiar to us at home. We noticed that when cars were making a left turn at an intersection with a traffic light, they would sometimes stop when the red turn arrow was showing and sometime they would slow, look, and proceed. When we asked them how they knew what to do, they told us that if there were other cars already stopping at the light they would proceed because if everyone stopped to wait for the light to turn green it would just clog up traffic. Hmmmmm!!!! Now that’s a different approach! Don’t think we will try that one when we get back home!

Another fun story was our trip to the market. Oh my goodness! The produce was unbelievable! Very large, very lush, and very abundant. Of course, I loved seeing it all and pulled out the camera to capture the memory. When I did, the people at the stands got very interested and began calling out to me and pointing to their produce as if to say, “Take a picture of my stand!” One guy kept saying something to me in Turkish over and over so I asked Devri to translate. He was asking me what newspaper I was with! HA! Well, I guess this is sort of a newspaper… The Belson Big Adventure Times. So to my friends in the Ankara market, here are you two minutes of fame. :-)

It seemed as if we had just arrived when it was already time to leave. I had made such a deep connection with Devri that it was a bit tearful saying goodbye. She has a passion for life and work in Turkey that was contagious. I developed such deep admiration for her and felt she had so much to teach me. God willing, we will have time together again one day.

It is actually a little bit frightening to realize that we are finishing up the first week of our “big adventure”. As we were reflecting on the first week it dawned on me that we have spent years dreaming about this trip and a full year looking forward to and planning it. And in only a few more weeks the experience will have come and gone and we will make a shift from anticipation to memories. I think I will miss the anticipation, but we are definitely storing up memories to replace it with.

Until next week.....

Love,

Maynard and Sheryl