Salt Lake City

The annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association was held in Salt Lake City this June, making it easier for us to attend. We stayed in the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, just across the street from Temple Square.When we go to Guadalajara, one of the things we enjoy is "tacos on the street." We found that we don't have to go all the way to Guadalajara for that. Each day, a small taco stand would appear at the corner of the park, across from Temple Square and across from our hotel. Mighty good tacos, as hot, or as mild as you may wish...

It has been some time since we were in Salt Lake. Though much is the same, much has changed, and right now it is changing rapidly. There were many, many cranes, and tall buildings were growing quite rapidly.

Let's take a look at this very tall building, growing just south of Temple Square. The downtown is beginning to make Temple Square look small, though there are some good sized buildings there as well.

Can you imagine what this place looked like long ago when Brigham Young said "This is the place"? I wonder what Brigham Young would think if he could see this place today. There are so many buildings, so many people, so much activity today.... but it is still a beautiful place here beneath the towering mountains.

What a beautiful world!

Saturday morning, the 6th of June, we went with Lance and Peg and Ann and Ed to Palisade. Just east of town, a trail heads south, right up the lower slopes of the Grand Mesa. At these lower altitudes, there is little rain and so the slopes are semi-desert. Along the edges of the valley are beautiful rocks.




Out hiking like that, one might see people hiking with their dogs following. But, up the trail behind us came a group of people with their goats. The goats were walking along, much as one might expect dogs to do. They told us the goats make nice pets and they carry them in their car just as they would dogs.



There have been people in this area long before us, and long before the Europeans came. In places, they have carved images into the rocks













Here are a couple of the old folks beneath one of the beautiful rocks. It was quite a hike for us, but we need to get out to see these beautiful places while we still can.









The rocks are beautiful. The junipers have not been there as long as the rocks, but they, too, are beautiful. And many of them remain, even after they die.


It may be quite dry on these lower slopes, but the mountains catch a lot of rain which comes down in many streams to make green valleys. The contrast of the rocks and the green valley is marvelous.









As beautiful as the rocks are, don't forget to watch the sky....


and the earth beneath your feet....

Books

With books, one can visit so many places in the world. I have found another that I hope many people will read, Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and Oliver Relin. The book was written by Relin about the work of Mortenson, who has built schools in isolated areas across high altitude portions of Pakistan. It is a great tale about a man who, after knowing the kindness of people in the remote village of Korphe, promised to build the small town a school. This led to the beginning of CAI, the Central Asia Institute, which Mortenson used to back the building of many schools. The book gives us great insight into the lives of these people from the region of the great mountains of the Karakoram in a way that no other book can. It is imperative that we Americans better understand this part of the world and its people, so I hope many, many people will read the book.
Read this book! I guarantee it will change the way you know these people from the areas of Pakistand and Afghanistan. Mortenson tells us that the way to defeat terrorism is never through violence, but through education, an idea that all the world needs to hear and understand.

Spring is here!

On the 1st of April, we drove to Denver. The picture at the right shows our car and the circle out in front of nephew Phil's house that evening.





The next day, the sun was shining and we were able to leave for Mexico. We spent two weeks there, returning late on the 16th of April. The picture at the right was taken on the next day, the 17th of April, from about the same place as the previous picture.
I sent a note to a cousin in Las Vegas, telling her about the snow. She wrote back to say that it had been up to 99 degrees Farenheit in Las Vegas, and she had used the air conditioning. So, is spring here? Or maybe even summer?

Asi Azul

Back a short distance from Punta Perla is a small town, Emiliano Zapata. We noticed the bright sign, Asi Azul, and stopped to eat. It was a great choice! The man who owns it is Vietnamese and he spoke good English as well as Spanish, French and Vietnamese and was very interesting to visit with. He started the restaurant only a month ago. A woman who I believe was his wife came out and talked with us. She had a wonderful smile, as nice as I have ever seen, and she was outgoing and pleasant to talk with. Our waitress, who was very quiet, was also pleasant. And we had wonderful Vietnamese food as well.
We needed a place to stay for the night. In the picture above, the building on the left is a motel where we got a nice room with two beds for 250 pesos or about 18 dollars.

Punta Perla

On Friday the 10th, we went south toard the coast. We went down fertile valleys and across high mountains on the way. At the end of one of the valleys, we stopped at Autlan for breakfast. The picture at the right shows the market there, which we visited after breakfast. One of the interesting things about visiting Mexico is the markets with their wonderful fruits and vegetables.

After reaching the coast, we turned north to go up to Punta Perla. Ana's brother, Arturo, has a house there which is just one block from the beach. They had set up big umbrellas on the beach. The picture at the left is taken from beneath the umbrella. It was a nice beach with inviting water.



And it didn't take the kids long to get into the water! Adelina is the one on the left.








Ricardo, with a cast on his broken arm, had to be careful not to get it wet. He couldn't get out in the water, but he really had fun digging in the sand with the other kids.

Tapalpa Market

We drove from Atemajac to Tapalpa. It is a beautiful drive, through fields surrounded by pine forests. The video shows a walk through part of the market.

Atemajac de Brizuela

We spent several days in the small village of Atemajac de Brizuela which is in the mountains south and west of Guadalajara. It is so very pleasant there, so much more peaceful and quiet than the fast-paced life of the big city of Guadalajara. Here, Arleta is walking down one of the quiet streets. All the streets are paved like this, with rocks. We met a number of wonderful, friendly people here.




Entrances, doors, are fascinating! One always wonders what lies beyond. What is the home like that lies beyond these doors? This entrance was entrancing! The vegation and the moss and the doors speak of a quiet place, a house that is truly a home, a quiet place to spend one's life.







We drove out into the countryside not far from Atemajac de Brizuela and found a small lake. Adelina shows off a bush of blue lupine along one side of the pond. Notice behind her that Atemajac lies on a hill




Don and Ricardo weren't far away.






Here are Ricardo, Adelina, Don and Arleta, near one of the big cactus "trees" that we find all around here. Notice Atemajac on the hill behind.






And it is nice to go to a restaurant, Herradura, and find a nice pizza to eat.

Guadalajara

The Templo de San Agustin sits on a corner in downtown Guadalajara.









From the front of the Templo, looking out toward the park, you see the beautiful vegetation and beyond that the twin towers which are the symbol of Guadalajara.








At the left of the picture of the Templo in the first picture above is a large building where our grandchildren, Ricardo and Adelina (and many other young people from Guadalajara) practice their music lessons. On Sunday the 5th of April, many of the music groups got together for a special presentation. This picture is of one of the choirs.

Springtime in the Rockies

We went up to Crested Butte on the 16th of March to see how spring was progressing there. The picture at the left, taken from Mt. Crested Butte, shows the town of Crested Butte across the valley, beneath the hills.




We drove on up the road to see some of the great number of ski slopes. Notice the ski lift at the center near the top of the picture. There is a lot of snow to ski on up here! Inside the frame at the right of the picture is a picnic table. Evidently, one could take a sandwich or something an ski down here and enjoy it.
We drove over to the old part of town. The picture below shows the old City Hall built in 1883, which is now on main street.

Ethiopia

Did we see the real Ethiopia? I suppose that depends on what one means by "real." Certainly we saw the ancient places, UNESCO World Heritage sites, and we learned much about the background of this ancient country. We saw the bustle of urban Addis Ababa, the street vendors, the animals, the taxis, the traffic, the great numbers of people, so many right in the street. But we mainly saw what tourists see, not the heart of a poor country with great numbers of needy people. Ethiopia has a large number of AIDS victims--this in a country which spends very little on health care for its people. We bemoan the current downturn in our economy and the great number of people losing jobs. Even so, we can little comprehend a country with little industry and not nearly enough jobs for its burgeoning population--a country in which relatively few people are gainfully employed. I'm sure it would take more time and discomfort for us to really know these disadvantaged people. I'm sure we were a help for the tourist industry which is important to the country. We did get to see many people. And we came away with a much better knowledge of the country and its historic past.
A book you should read:
There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Faye Greene, Bloomsbury, 2006
All of Africa suffers greatly from the AIDS epidemic, and Ethiopia is among the worst. Thousands of children have no parents because they died from AIDS or from complications of the disease. Melissa Faye Greene writes of one woman, Haregewoin Teferra, a middle class Ethiopian, who has taken in large numbers of Addis Ababa's AIDS orphans, has given them the love they need so desperately, and has helped some to be adopted by people in western countries. At many points, the book made me cry, and yet it also gave me a picture of one person with great courage who took it upon herself to make a differnce in her small place in the world. In doing so, she inspired Melissa Faye Greene, who writes beautifully and with great compassion, to give us a vivid picture of the problems and possibilities one can find among these desperate people. Please, do read this book!

Israel/Palestine

Sandy Tolan has written a book, "The Lemon Tree," which beautifully describes Israel/Palestine and the history that has led to the situation we find there today. The lemon tree was planted in the back yard of a house built by an Arab family. When the area became Israel, the family was evicted, and later, a Jewish family occupies the house. The lemon tree represents the deep connections that develop between the two families and in doing so, illustrates the very different beliefs about whose land it really is. Read this book. It won't give you answers, but it does show how people can be on opposite sides of this conflict. It shows better than any book I have read the pain caused by war and misunderstanding. Retaliation leads to retaliation leads to retaliation. Violence leads to more violence which leads to more violence. Is there a way out....? Today as Palestinian rockets fall on Israel and Israeli planes bomb Gaza, tanks and ground forces from Israel move into Gaza, and the story continues. Is there a way out....?