CPTJMIY: Kevin Friedman on OfertaSimple and living life as a pirate

It’s been awhile since our last installment of Crazy People That Just Might Inspire You, but if there’s one thing you can count on in life it’s that there are always more crazy people out there.  We think you’ll agree that today’s Crazy Person, Kevin Friedman, is crazy in ways that sound pretty fun.

We originally met Kevin through some mutual friends in San Francisco awhile back.  He’s got an MBA from one of the best business schools and some might even say a somewhat conservative early career in banking, but somewhere along the way he chose a more unconventional path.  When we met him he had  already left the corporate world behind and was engaged in at least a few unconventional and interesting businesses (more to come on these); now, somehow he’s heading up a business in Buenos Aires and other parts of LATAM called OfertaSimple while still living in San Francisco – obviously we had to find out more.  Let’s do this.

Kevin Friedman, the interview

Kevin, before we get started, tell us where in the world you are answering these questions?

At the back table in Jovino on Union Street in San Francisco.

When people ask you what you do for a living, how do you respond?

I usually lie through my teeth and make up the job du jour.  I guess I’m a little bit sensitive that I fill ATMs with twenties for a living.

Fair enough.  Other than filling ATMS, what are your primary motivations/inspirations in life?

I had a list of 30+ inspirational people from a few years ago… except Tiger Woods was on the top of that list.  So I’ve learned to admire specific characteristics of some notable people, but I look to my parents, my fiancée and a few close friends for real inspiration.

Before we get into your current project at OfertaSimple, tell us a little more about your background…

We understand that you are “The man behind the man” at MisterArcher.com…   What does this mean?  What is MisterArcher and what do you do there?

Mister Archer is my nom de plume for a bon vivant gallivanting around San Francisco exposing the unique and under-appreciated.  The motto is “Inspirations for your Explorations” and we share the ideas that are worthy through a members-only newsletter (sign up at MisterArcher.com).

That is a lot of fancy words in a row!  How/why did you get involved with MisterArcher?

I started Mister Archer to fight off my inner-couch potato.

We also understand that you started TValacarte.org in a campaign to take down Comcast… what’s that all about?

Does anyone believe that paying $150/month to watch a dozen or so channels is a good deal?  My frustration boiled over about a year and a half ago when I realized that Comcast’s strangehold on cable choked off the competition.  I believe if we can aggregate our demand and coordinate a movement away from Big Cable, we will ultimately be rewarded with cost-effective, high-quality programming.  Of course, if you prefer channel surfing through 300 channels in order to develop the strongest thumb muscles on the block, then you’re probably better off with the status quo.

Nice Time write-up about it by the way, how did you manage to get them to pick it up?

The Time write-up happened organically.  The author, Brad Tuttle, saw one of my comments on another related story about the cable industry, then he followed up directly with me.

Ok, let’s hear about this OfertaSimple thing…

Give us the pitch, what are you doing down in South America?

I’m running away from the United States economy (half-kidding).  America is flat-lining… while much needed reforms (patent, immigration, tax) are stuck in a rubber room due to partisanship.  On the other hand, emerging markets are implementing thoughtful policies and programs improving their GDP.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to try and launch an international business.

What is OfertaSimple?

OfertaSimple.com.ar is an online service that connects consumers with local businesses. The OfertaSimple business is based on the “collective buying power” concept that has now proved successful throughout the world. Every day, OfertaSimple features an exclusive deal with one local business in each city where we operate. Local businesses benefit from customer acquisition without having to pay an upfront cost. Consumers love the huge discounts and the sensation of discovering local businesses.

Who should be interested in this site?

Some would think that our core customer is the bargain shopper.  In fact, our most loyal customers are working professionals short on time, but excited to experience new spots in the City.  Time is their most important resource.  In the time it takes to cream and sugar their morning coffee, we provide them with a recommendation of a new spot to check out.  And we require that the business provide a 40% – 90% off discount as a reward for our customers for trying out something new.

Can you give us some examples of recent deals?

Sure.  We’ve offered a great range of deals like over 60% off sushi libre at Aires de Geisha in Palermo Soho to 75% off a parapente flight.  Although we are getting some cool spots approaching us to run deals for them, we’re still finding the best deals through our sales team and member recommendations.

How’s business going?

Overall, the business is going swimmingly.  We’ve been fortunate to have hired some tremendous employees for roles ranging from sales to marketing and customer service.  Our country manager, Eugenia, is the glue to the team.  She rocks!

There are a few other competitors who have also recently entered the marketplace, including Groupon.  But I believe there will still be room for them since someone who buys a deal on our site, might also find a few other deals attractive on their site.  Ultimately, these purchases are not mutually exclusive.

How did you get involved?

I got involved with OfertaSimple by buying the website domain.  The rest of the founding team has been living in LatAm for the past 7 years.  We drew straws to determine our responsibilities and I ended up with the CTO short-straw.

Anything else we should know about OfertaSimple?

We are looking to build an OfertaSimple mobile app for Blackberries and iPhone.  Interested app developers, please drop me a line at kevin@ofertasimple.com.

Back to you for a minute…

Were you always off doing crazy things?  When was the last time you had what most people would consider to be a ‘real’ job?

It’s been a while.  I’ve actually been trying to get a part-time job as a sports consultant.  For example, I’d love to share some zany brainstorms with the SF Giants… like bottom of the 9th, Giants are tied with one out and a runner on third base.  The other team hits a deep fly ball… definitely deep enough for the runner to tag.  Typically, the left fielder catches the ball then throws home late while the winning run scores.  Instead, the left fielder should intentionally bobble the ball, as if they are a volleyball setter while moving towards home plate.  They wouldn’t control the ball until they were within range to throw the runner out at home.  It might be tough to execute, but even if there’s a 1% chance of success better than 100% certainty of losing.  These ideas are not available to the L.A. Trolley Dodgers.

What was your last ‘real’ job and why did you leave it?

My last real job was working in Corporate Strategy for Roost.com.  I enjoyed working there and we had a strong executive team, but I decided to leave right after we raised an $8mm series B round.  My passion was to launch our rentals product, but with the real estate market upside-down, we decided to focus on the core search technology.

Would you ever go back to that kind of work environment?

Certainly.  Although I’ve opted for the pirate’s life, I do miss the security of a steady salary.  But what I miss most is the office cooler conversations.  I haven’t heard a good joke in months because it simply isn’t the same chatting with the team through a skype window or on IM.

I can definitely relate to that!  Maybe we should create an online virtual water cooler…  Sorry, back to the interview: Was it scary when you first started off on your own?   Anything you would do differently in retrospect?

Not only was it scary… it still is scary.  I still have doubts enter my mind during some weak moments in the wee hours of the morning.  A little stress might help to motivate, but a lot of stress is counter-productive.  But I’ve been lucky to have a strong support network with my founding team, my close friends and my fiancée.  (Yup, I know how to type accents over vowels.)  I am also heartened by the inspirational Marianne Williamson quote about “playing small does not serve the world.”  Touché.

I am impressed by your vowel accenting – a key skill for the success any international business.  Any advice for people who are reading this from a cubicle at a job they don’t love wishing they could get out there and pursue their passions?

I don’t think I’ve earned the right to share unsolicited advice to others yet.  But, I will share a quote from Charles Swindoll that stays top of mind.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Thanks Kevin, good luck with OfertaSimple.com.ar!

THANK YOU, Ryan and Jen!  It’s been a pleasure to meet you both and I sincerely hope your journey inspires others to explore the world and pursue their ventures.

Interview post-mortem

This is craziness at it’s best.  I always have tremendous respect for anyone who risks failure to pursue their passions and Kevin is a great example of someone who is doing just that.  On more of a side note, I also think the idea of starting a business that focuses on international markets without necessarily having to relocate yourself is pretty novel.  I continue to be surprised by just how many different possibilities there are out there… rather than the 3-5 life/career options that most people think they have (e.g., stick with current job, look for other job in same industry, go get an advanced degree, etc.), in reality there are an infinite number of options – often they require risk, but if you know you aren’t ever going to be truly happy doing what you’re doing today and there is some possibility that you will be if you take the leap, the odds seem pretty good.  I heard a story recently of a guy that left his 10+ year successful business career to become a professional golf caddy… it’s been a few years now and he absolutely LOVES it.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

Thanks again for the inspiration Kevin.  If anyone out there knows other crazy people we should be talking to, please let us know!

Trip report: San Pedro de Atacama (part 2)

Our vacation from a vacation from a vacation in San Pedro continues – here’s what we did days 3 and 4, as well as our thoughts on a few restaurants and hotels in San Pedro.  (P.S. Day 4 includes the most incredible natural landscape we’ve ever seen . . . and we get around.)  If you missed it, you can read Part 1 of our trip review here.

TOURS/EXCURSIONS

Day 3: Lagunas Cejar and Tebenquiche

Tour company: Layana

Price: CLP10,000/person (~US$20)

Time: Afternoon trip leaving San Pedro at 3pm (~4 hours)

What we did: The big attraction for this tour is going out to Laguna Cejar, where the water is so salty that you float.  A lot.  This sounded cool, so we signed up.  What we didn’t hear before we went was that the water is cold.  Really, really cold.  We had been looking forward to relaxing in the water, given that it was a hot, sunny day, but all that changed when our toes touched the laguna.  Ryan ended up getting in (briefly) and verified that you do, in fact, float more than in regular water.

Ryan floating in Laguna Cejar image

Ryan's the crazy one who floated in the freezing cold water

Then, we hopped back in our tour bus and headed nearby to Laguna Tebenquiche for sunset.  This place is really cool because you can get some incredible reflections of the volcanoes in the laguna – Ryan really liked this and took a lot of pictures.

Sunset at Laguna Tebenquiche image

Us at Laguna Tebenquiche

A nice touch by the tour company was that they brought along snacks and pisco sours – yum!  Some of our tour-mates skipped the sunset photo op and instead focused on taking pictures of themselves in various poses with the pisco sour bottle . . .

Verdict: This was a chill, relaxing afternoon activity – nothing spectacular (actually, the sunset was pretty incredible) but it was something fun to do close to town that didn’t mean being on a bus all day long.  One strange thing with this tour was that the guide didn’t speak English at all during the tour.  Not that he couldn’t speak English (he busted out some English with us later) but just that he didn’t bother asking if anyone on the tour wanted English.  With other tours we were on, the guides always said everything in both English and Spanish.  We didn’t say anything because we’d already heard enough about the volcanoes and lagoons on the other tours, but seemed strange to us that this was the approach.

See the rest of our pics from this trip here: Lagunas Cejar and Tebenquiche.

Day 4: Lagunas Altiplanicas

Tour company: Cosmo Andino

Price: CLP35,000/person (~US$70)

Time: Full day trip leaving San Pedro at 7am (~11 hours)

What we did: This was a day that involved a lot of sitting in the van, as many of the places we visited were really far away.  We started at the Laguna Chaxa, which is in the middle of a massive salt flat – actually the 3rd largest in the world (after Bolivia and apparently Utah – who knew?).  This was different than the salt flat we visited near Salta, Argentina, in that it’s an incredibly rugged landscape that looks more like rocks than the smooth white field we saw in Argentina.

Salar de Atacama image

Yep, that crinkly, rocky looking stuff is salt

The big attraction here for most people is the flamingos that hang out in the lagoon.  They were cool, but really, really far away – see?

Flamingos at Salar de Atacama image

Those are flamingos

Luckily, we have a really good zoom on our camera.

Flamingos up close image

They look just like the yard decorations in Florida!

We’d been to the (very good) zoo in Santiago the week before and seen flamingos from about 5 feet away, so we were less impressed than others in our group.

After breakfast at the first stop, we hopped in the van for a ~2 hour ride to 2 big lagoons at really high altitude.  They were kind of pretty but (in my opinion) not worth the hours in the car.  And, this was essentially just a photo stop – when we got there, we walked along a set path, then got back in the van.  Not exactly adventure travel.

Path at lagoon image

Please do not stray from the path

The stop that made this trip worthwhile, though, was at the Salar de Talar (Talar salt flat).  Apparently Cosmo Andino is the only tour company that goes there – we arrived and were the only sign of civilization anywhere around.  And this place was pretty incredible – the most spectacular thing we saw on the entire trip.

Salar de Talar image

It really looked like that - like somebody airbrushed an entire mountain

The colors that existed here were absolutely amazing.

Salar de Talar image

Seriously, you should check out our album - this place was incredible

We hopped out of the van and walked for a good 40 minutes along the edge of the lagoon – it was cold and windy but worth it because the view was so amazing. Check out our panoramic video and listen to the wind:

After the lagoons, we stopped in 2 small towns to walk around a bit.  The second one, Toconao, was really charming – enjoying sodas in the main square before heading back to San Pedro was a great end to the day.

Toconao plaza image

Such a cute town square!

Verdict: This tour was worth it for the special stop at Salar de Talar – this was one of the most spectacular things we’ve ever seen in nature.  After seeing it, we don’t understand why this isn’t the main attraction on the tour and the other tour companies don’t even go there at all.  Cosmo Andino was a little more expensive than other tour companies but totally worth it.  Also, our guide was great – Oscar was born of Chilean parents in London so speaks perfect English and Spanish . . . although we weren’t expecting the Cockney accent from a big Chilean dude, so took us a minute to adjust.  He was great and made the tour really relaxed and fun.

See the rest of the pics from our trip here: Lagunas Altiplanicas.

RESTAURANTS

La Estaka

This place is AH-MAZ-ING.  Better than pretty much anywhere we’ve eaten in Santiago.  It’s 2 long rooms (indoors, which is important during cold desert nights – some of the other places are outside), both with fireplaces that give it a cozy atmosphere.

La Estaka image

Cozy inside La Estaka when it's freezing outside

They usually play lounge music, and one night we were treated to an (actually very good) quartet playing traditional local music.  The food here is really, really good – over the 4 out of 5 nights of our trip that we ate here, we tried both salmons on the menu (one served with an incredible, cheesy quinoa risotto), the chicken curry and the steak.  There were some mix-ups in the service – on two separate nights, we tried to order the salmon with risotto and instead were served the other salmon.  Not quite sure how or why this happened, but the serving staff handled it really well and recovered nicely, comping us drinks to make up for it (we like drinks).  Aside than this, the service was fabulous – very attentive, very friendly and generally made us feel welcome.  By our last night there, the manager knew us, knew how we liked our salmon cooked and knew we’d want extra pebre with our bread (it’s so good!!!).  This place is on the more expensive end for San Pedro (mains CLP8,900/US$17), but well worth it in our opinion.

La Estaka outside image

We LOVE this place!!

Adobe

We think this place is owned by the same company as our beloved La Estaka.  They’re known for the fire pit they have in the middle of the dining area where people hang out at the end of their long day tours.  We had lunch here but avoided it for dinner – the fire pit is awesome, but it’s outside, and we were cold enough when we sat INSIDE!!  We had a salad and a pizza here, and both were good but not out of this world.

Blanco

What an embarrassment of a restaurant.  This is a swanky-looking place in all white right on the main drag.  It’s trying really hard to be sleek and modern, but just not getting it done.  We’re fine with basic food when we’re traveling, especially when we’re in the middle of a desert.  We just don’t like when a place pretends to be high end, charges really high prices, serves bad food and has a wait staff with an attitude.  Our waiter here was probably the worst we’ve ever had.  He completely forgot about our drinks and looked perturbed when we asked about them 15 minutes later, took our order wrong and then argued with us when we asked him to correct it when our food was delivered.  The chicken was raw in the middle and, when it came back from the kitchen the second time, was overdone and crunchy.  We came really close to walking out but ended up staying because we had a just-opened bottle of wine on the table.  It was this experience that sent us back to La Estaka for the remainder of our trip.

Tierra Todo Natural

We stopped in to this cool little open-air cafe for coffee (real espresso, not Nescafe) one afternoon and again for lunch another day.  The espresso was good, the sandwich I had for lunch was fresh but a little bland and the tacos Ryan had were really good.  We were a little confused by the taco menu at first (they have one that’s  a “guacamole taco” which consists of just a tortilla and guac . . . hmmm), but the meat tacos were really tasty, especially with cheese added.  Service is a little slow but friendly – we’d go back.

WHERE WE STAYED

San Pedro has a handful of really high-end places to stay (think US$300-600/night) and a bunch of simple hotels and hostals; we opted for the latter.  We made a reservation in advance to stay at the Takha Takha and then moved to the Hostal Katarpe after our first night.

Takha Takha Hotel

This is located right at the end of the main road running through town.  We arrived late at night and we happy that they had our reservation.  It was freezing, so we decided to upgrade to a room with heat, which cost CLP47,000 (~US$95).   The room was pretty, done in adobe.  But we were less-than-thrilled with the king bed (actually, 2 twins pushed together with a giant bump in the middle; could feel the individual springs when we laid down; one half of the bed (mine, lucky me) had a plastic potty guard mattress pad that crinkled any time we moved) and the bathroom that had 2 thin-as-paper closet doors.  The next morning, we saw that the compound was under construction and had building materials strewn everywhere – not that pretty.

Takha Takha image

The construction area was right outside our room

Also, no wifi – not a necessity, but nice to have.  For what we were getting, we thought the place was significantly overpriced, so we found another place the next morning and moved.

Hostal Katarpe

We found this place after wandering in to ~10 different hotels/hostals near the main street.

Hostal Katarpe image

See - isn't it cute?

At most of the places we checked, prices were pretty consistent, but this place was a great value!  Our room was set near the back of the property (quiet!!), was very simple and clean and HAD HEAT and wifi!!!  All this for CLP30,000/night (~US$60); note – we opted for the no-breakfast option for CLP5,000 less since so many of the tours leave first thing in the morning and include breakfast.  The place also has a central patio that was great for relaxing and taking in a bit of late-afternoon sun.  The woman who runs the place is very friendly and helpful, and we really enjoyed staying here!

Hostal Katarpe patio image

Ryan chilling at the patio after the crazy geyser tour

OVERALL

This was a great trip, and we’re so glad we were able to fit it in while we’re here.  It was really relaxing (other than the 4am geyser trip) and as different from Santiago as is possible.  We got a ton of amazing pictures (see them here), at least a few of them will end up framed on the wall (someday, when we have a wall to call our own again).  Yay travel!

Trip report: San Pedro de Atacama (part 1)

We decided to take a trip to get out of the Santiago smog for a few days and quickly decided on San Pedro because (1) it’s the only major attraction that’s to the north, and it’s still too cold to go south and (2) it’s really neat.  San Pedro is a small town in the middle of the Atacama desert in northern Chile, the driest desert in the world.  We learned while we were there that there are actually places in the desert where rain has never, ever fallen.  Whoa.

The desert is beautiful shades of pink and orange that go on forever with some really funky rock formations, lagoons, lots of volcanoes and a giant sand dune we got to run down (without having to walk up it first – key benefit to the tour we took; see below).  This was such a great, chill getaway from Santiago (our vacation from vacation from vacation), and we’re really glad we went.  We went for 5 days and had an awesome time, and here’s what we did that made it awesome.  This post covers our first two days there – details on our last 2 days coming soon!  (Note: Lots and lots of travel details below for those of you planning trips to San Pedro; for the rest of you, focus on the pictures.)

TOURS/EXCURSIONS

There are a ton of tour companies lining the streets of San Pedro, pretty much all of them offering trips to the same attractions.  We’d done some research beforehand and heard horror stories about a few of them (e.g., they’d cancel your trip then not give you your money back and just wait until your flight or bus left and there was nothing you could do about it) and noted a few that had consistently good reviews on Tripadvisor.  Our first morning there, we went around and talked to a few of them and booked our excursions for the next few days – some have discounts if you book multiple tours with them or pay in cash (but you have to ask; they’re not just going to offer it up).  Here’s what we decided to do:

Day 1: Valle de la Muerte and Valle de la Luna

Tour company: Cactus

Price: CLP10,000/person (~US$20)

Time: Afternoon trip leaving San Pedro at 3pm (~4 hours)

What we did: We did this tour our first afternoon in San Pedro.  It’s the closest to town and seems to be the most common tour – pretty much everybody does this one.  We received a recommendation to go with Cactus Tours because they’re a bit more active than the others, and we really liked this.  Our guide (Pablo) was really cool, made the trip fun and relaxed.  We first drove out to Valle de la Muerte and walked for ~40 minutes across the desert.

Hiking in Valle de la Muerte image

Pretty crazy landscape!

We ended up at the top of this massive sand dune where people were sandboarding.  We then had a lot of fun running down it.

Sand dune image

Those people had to walk up first - ha ha HA!!!

And the landscapes were amazing.  Besides the really cool sand dune, there were also these crazy pointy rocks – how did they get that way????

Valle de la Muerte view image

Crazy landscape (along with the obligatory volcano)

Then we headed over to Valle de la Luna (so named because the landscapes are so strange it feels like you’re on the moon) and saw another really big sand dune, along with the Three Marias, which are 3 natural rock columns that somebody thought looked like Maria.  Except that now there are only 2 – some tourist knocked one of them over.  We ended the afternoon watching sunset over the valley.

Valle de la Luna sunset image

Sunset in the desert is beautiful

Verdict: This was one of our favorite trips, for the combination of actually getting out and doing some walking (many trips involve sitting on a bus for hours and then getting out and taking pictures of things, then getting back on the bus), the great guide that we had and the beautiful sunset.  Not to mention that it didn’t involve getting up before the sun was up (you’ll see what I mean in a minute).

See the rest of our pics from this trip here: Valle de la Luna photos.

Day 2: Geysers de Tatio and hot springs

Tour company: Cosmo Andino

Price: CLP25,000/person (~US$50)

Time: Brutally early morning trip leaving San Pedro at 4am (~8 hours)

What we did: This is a really popular tour in San Pedro, and most people would say it’s a can’t-miss, so we signed up and did it our second day in town.  First, we set our alarm for 3:45am and waited outside our hostal for the bus in the dark at 4am.  The drive up to the geysers takes about 1.5 hours, and we arrived while it was still dark.  The geysers are at 13,700 feet, so it’s REALLY cold up there.  We were bundled up in all the clothes we had (and some more we’d borrowed from friends in Santiago) and were still freezing.  And not just the “I’m uncomfortable” type of freezing; this was more of the “I can’t feel my hands and am somewhat concerned my toes may need to be amputated” type of freezing.  I grew up in Alaska and I’ve never been this cold.

Once we arrived, we had a cold breakfast and Nescafe outside the van as the pitch black was turning to morning dusk.

Breakfast at Tatio geysers image

Breakfast in the dark and freezing cold

Our guide then took us around and told us a bit about the geysers and then gave us some time to walk around on our own.  The geysers were kind of cool – lots of steam coming up from the ground, and one or two that would occasionally blow water up into the air.  But we couldn’t really figure out why we had to be there so early in the morning.  The explanation we got was that you couldn’t see the steam as well as it warmed up.  But to us, it seemed like the geysers looked just as cool (and maybe better) when we left around 8am (after the sun had finally come up).

Tatio geysers image

That's a fake smile (if you couldn't tell) - I was just pretending to have fun

We then drove out to a hot springs.  Cosmo Andino goes to a different hot springs than most of the other tours, so we were the only ones there.  It was basically a stream at the bottom of a hill filled with really warm water (actually boiling in some places – we didn’t go in to those places).  It was nice, but it was still very cold, so the idea of stripping down to our skivvies was less-than-enticing for us and we ended up only dipping our feet in.

Hot springs image

Pretty neat, but too cold to strip down

On our way back to San Pedro, we stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere, where our guide (Oscar) showed us a bunch of endangered cacti (including one that was ~200 years old!) and then led us to a hidden waterfall around the side of a hill.  It had finally warmed up, so we were able to enjoy the waterfall and a little bit of sunshine along with the waterfall.

Jen hugging cactus image

It turned out that hugging the cactus was a bad idea

Verdict: For me, this tour was not worth getting up at 4 in the morning and nearly freezing to death for; if we had it to do again, I would skip it (or at the very least hire a private guide who would take us a few hours later).  The geysers were ok, but we just can’t see why the 4am start is necessary.  And I was so uncomfortably cold for at least the first 4 hours of the tour that for me it wasn’t worth the pain.

See the rest of our pics from this trip here: Geysers de Tatio.

Day 2: Astronomy adventure

Tour company: Space Star Tours

Price: CLP15,000/person (~US$30)

Time: Evening trip leaving San Pedro at 8pm (~2.5 hours)

What we did: While we were there, we learned that the Atacama desert is one of the best places for astronomy in the world, due to the high altitude and 350+ clear days per year.  What’s going to be the largest observatory in the world (ALMA) is actually being built not far from San Pedro.  A group of astronomers have set up an outdoor observatory where they basically give a tour of the night sky.  We were picked up in town around 8pm and driven to the observatory, around 15 minutes away.  We started in a round room lit by a single candle with a glass ceiling so you could see the stars.  Our host for the evening, a Canadian astronomer (I think named Les) who lives in San Pedro, was incredible.  He started by giving us a basic introduction to astronomy (really interesting, not dry at all), where we learned for one thing that Pluto is no longer considered a planet – who knew?

Then we went outside, near the 10 massive telescopes they have set up essentially in the front yard.  Les had the coolest laser pointer we’ve ever seen – crazy green and looked like it was actually reaching all the way to the stars.  He used this to point out the Southern Cross, Milky Way, Venus (we saw planets!!), Mars (more planets!) and even Jupiter which could all easily be seen with the naked eye, all the while explaining really fascinating historical discoveries.  He then introduced us to what was on each of the telescopes, and then we had time to walk around and look in each of them.  We saw 4 of Jupiter’s moons!!!  And we saw a star formation that looks like a butterfly.  And lots of other cool things.  We ended the evening by heading back into the candlelit room for hot chocolate and Q&A with Les.  He was really fascinating to talk to, had very thoughtful and detailed answers for all the questions but also had a skill for making it easy to understand.

Atacama desert night sky image

Sadly our camera does not have a long enough exposure time to take good pictures of the stars... they were spectacular

Verdict: This was definitely our favorite “tour” of the trip.  It’s definitely different from the other tours that are offered, and it’s like nothing we’ve ever done.  I hadn’t expected seeing the stars and planets to be so interesting, but this was really a fabulous experience!!!  Our camera is not good at night, so check out the Space Star Tours website for cool photos and more info – this is a must-do trip if you are in the area.

To be continued . . .

See how much fun we had in San Pedro?  Be sure to check back for Part 2 tomorrow – including the coolest landscape we’ve ever seen!!

Update:  Part 2 is posted:  Trip Report:  San Pedro de Atacama (part 2)

CPTJMIY: Dave Kovac on Volunteer Vacations, Global Village, and finding balance (Part 2)

It’s been a long and arduous 3 day wait, but I’m thrilled to let you know that you need not wait any longer… Part 2 of our interview with the very first featured Crazy Person That Just Might Inspire You (CPTJMIY) is here.

I’m sure you all read part 1 of our interview with Dave Kovac which focused mainly on his inspiring involvement in Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village international trip program (if not, you should!).  While reading it, you may have wondered how he possibly manages to spend 2-8+ weeks a year out of the country building houses and making a true difference for people in remote parts of the world.  It’s one thing to go on a trip every once in a while, but how has he managed to balance it with the rest of his life/career/family for several years now?  We’re glad you asked.  That’s what part 2 is all about.  Let’s find out:

Dave Kovac – The interview (part 2)

Dave Kovac Global Village image

As a trip leader, Dave is forced to wear many hats. Sometimes simultaneously.

Ok, a little more about you…

We hear you actually have a “real job”. When you’re not leading trips, what do you do with your time?

I split between a couple of things. I teach at Oregon State University, I own/manage some rental properties, I do a little consulting, and I’m easing out of my 12-year tenure as a house-dad.

Did you intentionally choose a career that would allow you the kind of flexibility you currently have? If so, how? And if not, how did you end up this way?

That’s an interesting question. I don’t see myself as having a “career.” I had one. I prepared for it and I worked for it and I followed a well-worn path that was to put me in a career position as a college administrator, but I found that the deeper I got into the career, the less time I spent doing what I initially intended on doing. It’s a fairly common occurrence — people join a profession because they enjoy the work and then move up the administrative ladder moving further and further from the work that they enjoyed so much in the first place. Our reward for doing a good job is oftentimes being given extra jobs for which we have little preparation or interest (or even skill). That produces ambiguity, loss of confidence, stress… In education, at least, good teachers are often promoted to administrative positions which require a completely different skill set. One goes from displaying the ability to connect with students and impart knowledge to balancing budgets and making personnel decisions. That’s not what most teachers are either trained for or want to do.

Now back to your question. When I stopped my career I thought it would be temporary but “knew” that it necessitated a change of some kind. I stopped in order to be a “house-dad” for our three growing children. My wife was in a position/career that she was devoted to and our kids needed the time and attention. It was weird and scary and oddly threatening — to me and to people in our community. A lot of people — including myself — seemed very uncomfortable with the notion of purposely jumping off of the career track. Some were disappointed, many were confused, and a lot, I discovered, were envious of me doing what they secretly hoped to do. So I added the title “consultant” to my name plate and shopped that around for a bit. It was easier than trying to explain what I was doing, an understandable “career-move” (if it brought in the bucks), and wasn’t untrue: I did a lot of consulting — I consulted with the family on what we should have for dinner, I consulted with the kids on when their soccer practices were, I consulted with my wife on what needed to be done around the house…

I began reconstructing my interests, skills, and priorities — not necessarily in any planned sort of way — in order to feel better about what I was doing. What I’ve come to is not a career, really. It’s a mix of commitments, responsibilities, interests, and involvements. I’m much busier now. I’m pretty scattered. I am crazy. But that’s my life — the one I’ve defined, and not the one defined by my “career.”

Dave Kovac Global Village 2 image

Dave and some of his 'clients'

How do you balance being on the road for extended periods of time with work, family, other responsibilities at home?

I don’t know if I balance it. It doesn’t feel balanced. But it doesn’t feel chaotic or stressful, either. I’ve been able to incorporate family into the trips by taking each of my children, separately, on a Habitat build. My wife will tell you that she counts on me being gone a few weeks out of the year so that she can have some alone time with the kids or visit relatives that we just haven’t had the time to see together. I do think that my teaching suffers when classes are interrupted by me being gone, so I’m trying to work on that. But that’s just a matter of me being more conscious of my schedule.

Dave Kovac Global Village Balance image

Looks pretty well balanced to us

Do you feel you’ve had to make any major sacrifices to find this balance?

Not really. This is more of who I am. I’m following my interests, I feel I’m making a difference, and I believe that the good I do in one area of my life seeps through to other areas. I do miss having spending money, but that never worked out so well for me anyway.

What are the biggest challenges? Biggest rewards?

The biggest challenge is packing. Oh, and completing expense reports. As for the rewards…they are plentiful, my son.

Any advice for people trying to create a better balance in their life (for instance, people who work crazy hours in jobs they don’t love)?

The easiest advice that someone could give is, “hey, if you don’t like what you’re doing, stop.” But that’s not very realistic. When we’re talking about achieving balance we’re really talking about developing our own identity. Who am I? What am I good at? What inspires me? What do I like to do? Seek out those activities that help answer those questions and reinforce what you’ve discovered. It’s funny, but I’ve found that during those times I’ve been completely stressed and anxious, instead of subtracting from my list of commitments, I ended up adding to them so that the sum of those commitments held meaning. “Who am I?” is not a question that can or should have one answer — it’s a compilation of many things.

Anything else to add?

If this makes me crazy, then yeah, I’m nuts.

One last thing…

When/where is your next trip? How do you sign up?

Thanks for mentioning that. We are still looking for participants in my next Global Village adventure to Udon Thani, Thailand in November. After that, it looks like I’ll be heading back to Macedonia in June. Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program maintains a constantly updated trip schedule at http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/schedule.aspx . Look at when and were trips are being scheduled throughout the world and if my name’s in the trip leader column — bonus!

Dave Kovac Global Village team image

Consider Global Village for your next vacation; these people did.

Thanks Dave!!  We definitely think that you are Crazy–and to us, that is high praise.  We are inspired and we’re hoping that this interview will inspire others as well.

You can get more info about Dave’s upcoming trip to Udon Thani, Thailand in this brochure.  Also, check out the Global Village website for info about this and other trips; they are happening all the time, all over the world and they are 100% worth checking out.

Meet, Plan, Go! September 14th in thirteen cities.  Be there. Seriously.

Listen up.  This is important.  We want to tell you about an outstanding event that will be taking place on Sept. 14th in thirteen cities across the US and Canada called Meet, Plan, Go! Its entire purpose is to provide you with inspiration, contacts and resources to “plan the trip of a lifetime” – and then go.  You’re probably wondering how much something this awesome would cost.  Well, I hope you’re sitting down: this event is free.  If you live anywhere near one of these cities, we think you should go.  To be honest, we’re pretty bummed that the fact that we’re already traveling prevents us from going.  Please go and tell us about it so that we can live vicariously through YOU (seriously, it’s the least you could do).  🙂

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, read on…

If you’ve followed this blog at all in the past, then you know a little bit about our story–we were management consultants with intense jobs for a long time, now we’re hanging out in South America applying our high-intensity, driven personalities to enjoying life rather than making PowerPoint slides.  We won’t be doing this forever, and we wouldn’t want to.  Even if we had the finances to enable doing it forever (which we most decidedly do not), we’d eventually need to go back to doing something that felt like it gave us a purpose.  Going on a long-term trip like this doesn’t mean abandoning your career or even your current job, it just means taking a break.  That’s why we like the term “Career Break”, which we keep coming across more and more during our adventure.

The more we reflect on our experience and the more we learn about what others get out of taking Career Breaks (whether they last 2 months or 12), the more enthusiastic we are about suggesting them to others–everyone really.  I can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t benefit from taking a step back for a little while.  It brings perspective.  It allows you to see more clearly what it is that you want.  It may lead to you returning to your previous job/career with a renewed vigor and sense of purpose, or it may lead you to new epiphanies about who you are and what you really want to be doing.  Regardless of where it leads you, by the end you’ll know yourself better, be more excited about life and probably have some great photos and crazy stories that you can use to make your friends jealous.

If you read our recent post on career option-value and identified with anything in it, you’ll agree that one of the very best ways to remove the stress from your life is to embrace and enjoy failure rather than running from it.  There is no better way to feel like a failure on a daily basis than to immerse yourself in a foreign culture–trust me, it’s pretty fascinating to go from being a senior client advisor to only having the ability to communicate at the level of a 5th grader!  Not only will you be humbled on a daily basis, but you’ll be away from the constant influence of your friends and colleagues who, in an attempt to be supportive, tend to reinforce the idea that you should stay on the path you’re on.  They may be right, but it’s more important what you think–and it’s almost impossible to get real perspective without getting away from it all every so often.  Long-term travel is the best way I know to do it.

Still not convinced?  We’ve got reinforcements…

I could go on and on (and you’ve seen me do it!), but instead I’d like to turn it over to one of the founders of Meet, Plan, Go! who also happens to be the host of the event in San Francisco to tell you more.  Her name is Tara Russell and she is someone you should get to know.  Here’s a quick snippet of her bio from the Meet, Plan, Go website:

TARA RUSSELL is a “Life Sabbatical & Long-term Travel Coach” – a Certified Life and Career Coach with a passion for working with clients who dream of taking time off to travel, live, work, study or volunteer abroad. As the Founder and President of Three Month Visa Coaching and Consulting, her mission is to empower her clients to change their lives (and ultimately the world at large), through meaningful international travel experiences.

Let’s talk about this Meet, Plan Go! thing…

Tara, tell us more about the origins of Meet, Plan, Go!… How did it get started and why does it exist?

The seed for Meet, Plan, Go! was planted back in January of 2010 when Michaela Potter and Sherry Ott who founded Briefcase to Backpack were in town and we met up for coffee.  We realized that there were so many cool ways that we might work together that what was meant to be a half-hour meeting turned into a 5-hour brainstorming session!  Our goal working together has been to take this conversation about Americans and career breaks and start building some critical mass behind it – get it out from the underground and take it national.  One thing that came up was the success of a group I have been running for a few years now in SF – SF Travel Book Club and Lectures Series – and we started to wonder what it would look like if we could take the strength of that in-person group dynamic and expand it nationwide by doing a day of coordinated events across the US.  From there, Michaela and Sherry were able to leverage the strength of their online network to recruit hosts and panelists from across the US and that’s how Meet, Plan, Go! came to be!

Why do you think that taking a Career Break and traveling is beneficial for people?

I would go beyond even saying “beneficial” – I think career breaks are absolutely essential for people…perhaps now more so than ever.  Consider that our office desks are no longer stationary items that we can leave behind after 5pm…with the introduction of cell phones and PDAs, many of us are forever wired and always accessible from the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we go to bed at night. In an age when we are hearing more and more about work /life balance, it seems increasingly difficult to truly “unplug.”

Career breaks and travel give us that opportunity to unplug…to really take a step back, get perspective and regain balance in a way that we just can’t do while we are caught up in the pace of our hectic 9-5.  (Or – let’s be honest – given the crazy hours many of us work, our 5-9.)

Travel gives us fresh and new perspectives, expands our horizons, strengthens our sense of adventure, pushes us to challenge ourselves, feeds an appreciation of our own strengths and abilities and provides us with space and time to examine who we are and what we truly want out of life.  I’m passionate about helping my clients find that and taking that message national is what MPG is all about!

Who is this event for?

Well, it’s pretty simple, really.  Here’s a quick and easy exercise to help readers determine if MPG is right for them…

Close your eyes and imagine taking time for yourself to do exactly what you have always wanted.  Do you see:
* Surfing lessons in Costa Rica?

* Taking classes at a local university?

* Hiking the Himalayan Annapurna Circuit in Nepal?

* Renovating your house into the home you dream of?

* Volunteering at an orphanage in Brazil?

* Japanese lessons in Kyoto?

If you came up with anything other than “I’d like to be right here where I am…in my beige cubicle.”, then Meet, Plan, Go! is definitely for you.

This event is for anyone who has ever had a travel dream and wondered how to make it a reality.  Anyone who has ever thought “Oh, I would so love to do something like that, but…  Anyone who is currently reading this from their tiny little corner of cubicleland and thinking “Man, I wish I was lounging on the beach in Fiji right now.”

You get the picture…if you close your eyes and dream of being somewhere other than where you are, this is the event for you.

What exactly will happen at the event?

We have put together a stellar panel of travel experts – travel writers, photographers, podcasters and bloggers as well as me wearing the hat of Travel Coach.  We will be presenting on the big Whys and Hows of career breaks and long-term travel and helping participants get an idea of resources that they turn to when they can start planning and go for support as they move forward.

What do you expect that people will get out of it?  Why is it worth their time?

I would say this really breaks down into the “big three” of what you need to make your plans for a career break a success – inspiration, resources, and community.  People who attend will be inspired by a panel of speakers / travel industry experts, they will be connected with some of the resources they need to start making their travel dreams a reality and they will be surrounded by a dynamic, supportive community of people who “get it”.  Each element of that formula is really key for us.

Ok, let’s talk about the San Francisco event for a minute…

What are the logistics (e.g., when, where, how long, how do people sign up, etc.)?

The SF event is being held on Tuesday, September 14th from 7-9pm at NextSpace in downtown San Francisco.  The event is free but participants do need to reserve their space and print and bring their ticket with them.  RSVPs can be made at:      http://meetplangosanfrancisco.eventbrite.com

Switching gears a bit, let’s talk about you…

How and why did you personally get involved in this?

When I met Sherry and Michaela back in January, there was such a cool synergy there when we combined our skill sets.  Given their professional and personal backgrounds and their experience running Briefcase to Backpack and also blogs of their own, they are incredibly savvy about the internet, blogging, online networks and marketing, etc.  What I brought to the table was years of experience running in-person travel-related events and also working with one-on-one coaching clients as they prepared for career breaks of their own.  From that, (coupled with my own experiences planning and realizing a year-long career break of my own,) I had a keen understanding of the self-imposed limitations and perceived obstacles that often deter people from taking the sabbaticals that they really want.  When we put our heads together, in short, I saw the opportunity to work with really cool people on a project I was extremely passionate about – how could I say no?

What do you do with your time when you’re not working on Meet, Plan, Go?

I am thrilled that I get to spend a great deal of my time working with one-on-one travel coaching clients, helping them work through the logistical and emotional preparations that go into making a career break possible.  In addition, I’ve been able to do quite a bit of speaking in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond on topics revolving around career breaks, life sabbaticals and long-term travel.  Loving my work makes it something I am pleased to dedicate a lot of time to.

When I’m not coaching, reading travel books or arranging events for SF Travel Lit & Lectures or working on MPG, I do my best to get out in this gorgeous city with friends to enjoy all the great sights, music, food and museums that SF has to offer.  I also dedicate as much time as possible to my passion for photography and some of my work can be seen at www.greentaraphoto.com

And (of course,) whenever I can, I travel!

A few things to summarize…

This event sounds awesome.  It is unbelievably inspiring to me/us that a few people got in a room together and conceived a plan to put something like this together for the sole purpose of inspiring others to get out there and pursue their travel-related passions and that now, in a few weeks, it’s going to happen simultaneously in thirteen cities.  We are at the same time impressed by the ambition and execution of the coordinators, inspired by the concept and, perhaps more than anything, jealous that you get to go and we don’t.  Don’t miss it-we’ll be angry with you.

Check out the Meet, Plan, Go! website for more info

CPTJMIY: Dave Kovac on Volunteer Vacations, Global Village, and finding balance (Part 1)

We are tired. It’s hard [expletive removed] work trying to inspire all of you people out there to get out and create the life you’ve always wanted rather than the one you think you are supposed to have. We recognize that many of you read this and think, “Wow, that’s really great for them that they are out there having so much fun with no concern for the consequences,” shortly followed by, “That said, they are crazy.” Since we are outnumbered (seriously, there are more of you everyday!), we’ve decided to enlist the help of some other crazy people to help make our point.

As part of our very well thought out and documented blogging strategy (which often involves cocktail napkins and pisco sours), we are officially announcing our new feature “Crazy People That Just Might Inspire You,” or simply CPTJMIY–we even made a fancy logo for it (see above), that’s how serious we are. In CPTJMIY, we will periodically highlight crazy people that have found ways to combine their passions with their daily lives rather than put the pursuit of their passions off until “someday”.

Our first Crazy Person is Dave Kovac

Romania Habitat Global Village trip 2006 Dave Kovac image

See what I mean by crazy? 🙂

First, a little background on Dave

Dave holds a special place in both of our hearts. Actually, in a very weird coincidence, he was perhaps the first indirect connection between Jen and me and certainly a major catalyst for us having so much to talk about when we first met.

During the summer of 2006 just after I graduated from business school, I had the opportunity to go on a Habitat For Humanity International/Global Village program through the consulting firm that I would soon be working for (they were offering to sponsor this as a sort of sign-on bonus, which was fantastic). I chose a 2-week trip to help build houses in Cluj, Romania–the heart of Transylvania. I had never done anything like this before; it was an amazing experience. Working alongside locals and knowing that you are helping to make a difference for them is so much better than being a tourist–not only do you feel good about helping, but it’s also relatively inexpensive, you do and see things that you’d never be able to experience as a tourist and you get to hang out with a group of pretty awesome fellow volunteers. Why am I telling you this? Dave Kovac was the leader of that trip.

Romania Habitat Global Village Trip 2006 build site image

This is from our work site in Romania. We worked hard...

Not only was Dave the leader of my trip in 2006, but he’s been leading trips like this all over the world for years… including the same trip in 2007 at the exact same worksite in Romania that my now-wife Jen went on (you know what they say–a couple that builds the same house together, in Romania, a year apart, with the same trip leader, stays together). So, Dave knew us before we knew us. In an indirect way, he may be responsible for us (which he has mentioned makes him feel a little bit dirty).

Romania Habitat Global Village Trip 2006, Monastery image

... we also played hard. We spent several days exploring the country side with the awesome local staff as our guides. This photo is from a functioning monastery that we spent the night at. It was awesome.

I’ll let Dave tell the rest of his story himself, but one other thing I want to mention… Leading these trips is NOT Dave’s job. Dave does other things for employment and income purposes, but he still makes the time to lead a couple of these trips a year. He is a great example of someone that has found a way to balance passions and responsibilities in a way that perhaps gives him the best of all worlds. Don’t believe me? Let’s ask him:

Note:  We’ve split the interview into 2 parts.  Part 1, below, focuses mostly on Dave’s involvement with the Habitat for Humanity Global Village program and the kind of amazing experiences you can get from this form of “volunteer vacation.”  This is cool stuff and I highly recommend you look into it if you’re looking to do something a little different and extremely rewarding for your next 2 week vacation.

Part 2 of the interview will launch later in the week and will focus more on Dave himself and how he was able to set up his life and career in a way that allows him to spend ~1 month every year somewhere in the world leading trips like this.  Very cool stuff.

Dave Kovac – The interview

Dave, how does it feel to be the very first ‘Crazy Person’ featured on Consulting Rehab?

Kind of a weird combination of honored, overjoyed, humbled, and confused. But I’m ready. Bring it.

So let’s talk a little about these Habitat trips you lead…

So, give us the overview–how/when/why did you get into leading these Habitat Global Village trips?

Habitat for Humanity is a great organization. I think a lot of people know that. The Global Village program is Habitat’s international trip program that has really led the way in what has become the volunteer vacation movement. My initial involvement was accidental and during a time in my life when I was in transition — I had been a university administrator and teacher for quite some time and I needed to stop-out of that for the good of our growing family. So when I was in the room when someone received a phone call asking them if they’d be interested in going on a Habitat trip to Kenya, the person who received the call said “No, I don’t think so, but Dave might want to…” And I did.

I had a great experience on that first trip. But it was a little tough. It was in the year 2000 and we would be building the 1,000th Habitat home in Kenya. We didn’t really know that going in, but it became a big deal — dubbed “the Millennium Build.” That put a lot of pressure on our team leader who had to meet with dignitaries, resolve conflicts and disputes arising from villages and communities either vying for our attention or backing-out of previous arrangements, and generally feeling like all of our moves were under some microscope. While being pulled in so many different directions, our team leader asked me to help pay attention to the team and dynamics. All 13 of us were sleeping on a concrete floor under mosquito nets in a 12×13 room, there was no running water, at night we were at the mercy of periodic scheduled and unscheduled rolling blackouts, and during the day we might not even see each other as the team was divided into small groups of 2 or 3 and sent to different work sites (some as far as 90 minutes away) so that different communities could share in the honor of being part of the Millennium Build. I think there ended-up being 6 or 7 Millenium Houses. Separated, in tough conditions, and not knowing what was happening next, people got a little cranky. At the same time, we were all having a fantastic experience — we just need a little time to process it and share in this amazing thing that was happening. So I became the fun guy. It was great! I’d lead massive games of Simon Sez with 30 or 40 village kids each night; we set-up a soccer field in our encampment for evening games; we rented bicycles from the local bike-taxi drivers so we could take an afternoon off to tour the area… We became more engaged in the community. And as we became more engaged in the community we became more committed to the work and began relating to each other better. And I started thinking, “Wow! This happened within days! If I could bottle this up and take it home, think of how enjoyable and productive this could be to our communities, our businesses, and our corporations.”

During the later part of the build, as things were going better and our team really hit our stride, someone suggested I do this sort of thing on a regular basis – that I should lead trips. I was open to the idea but I was hesitant — there wasn’t any money in it and I was a little skeptical about jumping into an organization that I didn’t know too much about. I decided that I’d visit the Habitat headquarters in Americus, Georgia so I could meet some of the people I might be working with and to see if I could honestly support the work they were doing and how they were doing it. Habitat was great. They let me know of a training weekend in Americus, provided me with a place to stay in town — all I had to do was come up with airfare and book a flight. I’m glad I did. I discovered that like anything else, different people have different motivations for being involved in this kind of effort. And that’s OK. I may not be able to recite the spiritual rationale for Habitat’s work, but I can support the outcome. Doing something good is more important than saying something good, and Habitat’s Global Village program is all about doing something good. Once I learned how I could support the effort, it was easy to say “yes.”

How many trips to you lead per year? How long are they?

I average 2 trips a year. Some years I’ll do one, some years I might lead four. Most trips last a little over two weeks — about 17 days when you count travel time, which, for some destinations, can take 4 straight days of travel just to get there. There are a few week-long adventures to locations that are a bit closer to home and don’t take quite as much energy getting to the site. While the trips themselves might last a few weeks, the planning and developing of each trip can take as long as 10 months. And that, for me, is part of what holds my interest — it’s a thread that I use to weave together other facets of my life: the planning, and being intentional about what we try to do helps hold things together for me.

Where have you done trips? Any favorites?

I’ve been to a number of pretty cool spots in Kenya, Mexico, Tanzania, Portugal, Alaska, South Africa, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan…and then there were the trips to Transylvania (Romania) with you and Jen. I ended up going back to Romania 9 times, I think. As for favorites, I get asked that a lot and end up answering pretty much the same way…it’s hard for me to pick out a single favorite. Each experience has been a little different — a different mix of people, of cultures, of scenery, of work, of conditions — and that mix has made each trip distinctive and special. Those moments kind of meld together into one great uber-memory for me. I have these pictures in my head of driving a bota-bota (bicycle taxi) through a little town in western Kenya while people poured out of their houses to point and laugh; of Habitat families, laborers, and our crew dancing around a tamale truck in Mexico celebrating someone’s birthday; retracing Nelson Mandela’s 11k to Freedom on the 10th anniversary of his release; a soccer match in Portugal in a stadium carved out of an old quarry; peeking outside of a yurt in Kyrgyzstan at the most amazing stars I had ever seen. All of those things are great, but I think what gets me every time is the sincere thanks that I receive from people who truly and sincerely appreciate what little I have done to help them get on with their lives. Most people I’ve come to know as recipients of a Habitat home are terrific, hardworking, wonderful people who have simply become stuck in an unenviable situation. And this little boost helps unstick them. What’s really cool for me is returning to a site that I’ve been to previously and seeing that that little boost really did help. And what’s super-cool is that for those builds I’ve been involved with overseas, there’s a 100% success rate. 1-0-0 PERCENT! Who can say that? Most of us contribute to things/people/causes as an act of faith — we hope that our contributions make a difference. I KNOW my contributions — and the contributions our teams have made — make a difference. And I am reminded of that every time I lead a Global Village trip.

How many and what kind of people go on these trips? (e.g., age, attitude, motivation for going, where they are from, etc.)

Teams can range in size from 8-24. A lot depends on the conditions at the local affiliate where there might be some restrictions on how many people can be transported to and from the worksite, what accommodations are available, how much room is at the project site, etc. Team members can be from anywhere in the world (most are from the US) and there’s an application process that’s facilitated through Habitat’s online web site. Applicants can be specific about when and where they’d like to be considered or they can be fairly general about it. The GV program tries to match potential participants with trips based on availability and interest, then it’s a matter of working with the team leader to make sure there’s a good match with each others’ expectations.

As for motivations of participants, I think that’s all over the map. Someone shared with me a profile of Global Village participants as having certain characteristics, but I haven’t found that profile to fit my teams. I think once you start looking for or targeting certain “types” of people you lose one of the special characteristics of a team which is its diversity. Different people with different motivations having different skills equals a great build experience.

Romania Global Village Trip 2006 image

Here's some of the group that I went to Romania with in 2006 - age range spanned ~50 years from youngest to oldest and people were from all over (Our fearless leader, Dave, is the top left)

Can just anyone go (do you need specific skills, background, etc.)?

Just about anyone can join a Global Village team. No construction skills are required — a little flexibility, willingness to learn, a helpful mindset, humor, and a sense of adventure go a long way, though.

What do you think people get out of these trips?

For a lot of people I think that there’s an unexpected sense of appreciation and purpose that comes if they just let it happen. People looking for something specific often don’t find it, or are so intent on finding that one ingredient they miss out on everything else. Not having an agenda actually helps as the experience unfolds. I know, it sounds very karmic. I find, though, that many of us are in jobs and commitments and relationships and activities that don’t seem to have tangible outcomes. We even get judged on those intangibles. What a building a house brings is a tangible set of measures — instant feedback. Combine that sense of accomplishment (even when it’s frustratingly produced) with a continual bombardment of appreciation and thanks, and think of the high that can produce. It’s pure positive feedback — even when it involves digging a hole (which I’ve done on several continents).

Any other marriages resulting from your trips?

Yeah, a few. But I have to warn you, there have also been a few breakups. I had nothing to do with either. Honest.

What do you get out of leading these trips/why do you keep doing it? Any favorite memories?

Besides that high of appreciation and accomplishment, I think what really keeps me involved is how this activity has provided a common thread of purpose through the various fragments of my life. I’m able to relate the experiences of these trips to my other commitments and responsibilities, which often feels fragmented and disconnected. My involvement in Global Village brings continuity to who I am.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this interview later this week to hear more about how Dave manages to balance these trips against family, career, life, etc…

Update: Part 2 is now available here

Our 10 favorite things about our life in Buenos Aires right now

A quick reflection about our 10 favorite things about our life in Buenos Aires right now (in no particular order):

  1. Dogs: We’ve told you about this before – they’re everywhere.  It’s a little strange that they don’t seem to have the slightest interest in talking to us or being pet by us, but just seeing them makes us happy.
  2. Empanadas:  This is one of our greatest discoveries here.  At first, we’d stop into one of the dozen empanada shops in our neighborhood and wait while they got our order ready.  Now, we’ve evolved to become professional empanada-orderers, calling in our order for delivery (in Spanish – go us!!) and having them delivered to our front door 30 minutes later.  It’s become one of our favorite (and cheapest) meals – we eat this for dinner at least 2x week.
  3. Learning Spanish: When we came, Ryan hadn’t spoken his high school Spanish in years, and the only Spanish Jen knew was from menus in Mexican restaurants (and they don’t really even have Mexican food here).  We’re not exactly fluent now, but we’ve come along way (reference the note about ordering in Spanish above . . . seriously, we’re really proud of that one, and no, it doesn’t matter that we had to ask for a script from our Spanish teachers).  Sitting in a cafe and reading the local newspaper this morning was gratifying.  We didn’t understand everything, but being able to understand anything at all felt like quite an achievement.  Then we went to a Spanish movie in the afternoon . . . and were promptly reminded that we still have a long way to go!
  4. Walking places: Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with amazing architecture and a plethora of parks.  We love not only being able to walk to our school and most other places we go, but also just going for walks in general with no particular destination.  Especially now as it’s turning to fall, the air is crisp and clean and it’s invigorating to get out and walk around this beautiful city.
  5. Carne: The steak here is unbelievable, unbelievably cheap and available everywhere.  When is the last time you paid $12 for the best steak you’ve every had?  We ate red meat maybe once a month in the US; we eat it at least once a day here.  Yum.
  6. Vino: It’s good, it’s cheap and if you know us, you know we like to drink it.  Looking forward to getting out to Mendoza (the main wine region) sometime soon . . .
  7. Being able to take a half-empty bottle of wine home from restaurants: This is the best rule ever.  Apparently, it’s tacky to ask for your leftover food to go, but if you ask for your leftover wine, they’ll whisk it away, wrap it up for you and off you go.  Too bad it’s illegal to take an open container in the US . . .
  8. Argentine culture of appreciation for the good things in life: You may have noticed that a lot of our favorite things involve food and drink – turns out that’s something the locals here really value too.  On top of that, they value beauty (made clear in the architecture, the many parks, and of course the well-groomed dogs), family and relationships – witness the closing of shops for the afternoon siesta and the fact that you can’t get coffee to-go.  The culture here seems to have a better set of life priorities than in the US, and despite the crazy ups and downs they’ve lived through over the last century (govt, economy, etc.), the Argentines set a great example of how to appreciate all the wonderful things in life.
  9. The people: We don’t know a lot of them yet, but those that we do know are incredibly gracious and welcoming.  We can’t wait until we can speak intelligently enough that they’ll actually want to talk to us too!
  10. Having time to spend with each other:  Cheezy, we know.  But hey, we’re newlyweds, and it’s wonderful to be able to have so much time to do nothing other than just enjoy life together.  It’s pretty amazing that after essentially 24-hours a day for 3 months straight, with virtually no other friends to spend time with (note #9 above), we still enjoy spending each day together.