Kelsey Timmerman's Blog, page 32

7 things I learned traveling with 7 co-eds in Guatemala

I traveled with 7 awesome co-eds from Winthrop University. I was the only dude on the trip. Here’s what I learned:

1) If I don’t wear my glasses, I almost look like I could be in college…if it weren’t for my hair line.

2) The Oakley’s that I’ve had for a decade are out of style, while the fluorescent Ray-Bans from my youth are back.

3) I’m old enough to be a college freshman’s father.

4) Girls spend less time trying to be cool and more time laughing and snorting. For instance, if you throw in a couple of dudes, we probably wouldn’t have had a 100% participation rate in singing along to cheesy 80s videos at a pizza place in Antigua.

5) Seeing with your heart is more important than seeing with your eyes.

6) I want to be the kind of parent that raises a daughter with a desire to see the world and make it a better place.

7) Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you. Whatever that means? I think it means that they didn’t stop smiling the entire time.

Thanks to Lauren, Fatima, Ali, Marie, Briana, Anita, Callan, Jen, and Kelly for making me feel like one of the gals. I really enjoyed watching you see the world and embracing Guatemala.

And remember…

Freshman finds that beauty lies in poverty in Guatemala

This guest post is brought to you by Callan Gaines, a sophomore at Winthrop University and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. She’s an artist studying interior design and has a laugh that can be heard over the zip of a zip line.

Her post reminds me of something designer Bibi Russell told me in Bangladesh: “Beauty lies in poverty.”

When traveling abroad, it is awesome how much you can learn about yourself and this incredible world we have.

My first trip abroad was to the beautiful Latin American country of Guatemala. Things here are vastly different from the United States. I knew that Guatemala would have much more poverty, but it all became so real when I got the opportunity to see it in person. Yet, the poverty of Guatemala is one aspect that can actually added to its beauty.

With poverty comes a sense of humility and gratitude which is rarely found in my own home country. While the people have far less than most Americans, they are much more selfless with the little things they have. When we visited the rural village of Ceylan, there was an amazing feeling of community. The incredible power of a smile or hug was so evident in this impoverished village, despite the fact I couldn’t speak the language of the Ceylan people.

It was an experience which I know has changed my life.

While it is tempting to be overwhelmed by the world’s poverty and countless issues, it is important to realize we all have the opportunity to help others. No single person can reverse world poverty, but we all can influence those around us in positive ways. Traveling abroad is certainly a great way to begin.

Callan Gaines is a sophomore Interior Design major at Winthrop University in South Carolina. (link to facebook)

Men study abroad and volunteer less than women

I’m on a trip with Winthrop University in Guatemala. I’m the only dude.

A few theories as to why this is the case:

1. This trip arranged and led by Kelly Campbell at the Village Experience was billed as a trip with Kelsey Timmerman, and the ladies love me.

2. I’m told that about 70% of the students enrolled in Winthrop are girls. So that means our group of 7 would only have to have two dudes to strike the right proportion.

3. Dudes suck.

Yeah, so number one is ridiculous, but I had to say it. Guatemala is the big seller here.

We’re left with a combination of 2 and 3.

I think what we’re witnessing here, and what I witness visiting countless universities, and volunteering in my community is that dudes are just way less engaged.

Nationwide women represent two-thirds of students involved in study abroad programs.

Data from the Department of Labor shows that 29.5% of women volunteered compared to 22.3% of men, and a story in Duke’s newspaper offered some interesting finding as well:

The under representation of men in study abroad also corresponds to DukeEngage programs. In 2011, 59 percent of student participants were female and 31 percent were male. Peer institutions with civic engagement programs resembling DukeEngage reported similar numbers, with women comprising two-thirds of participants, DukeEngage Executive Director Eric Mlyn said. He attributes the discrepancy in DukeEngage specifically to male attitudes towards charity work.

“There is a sense out there that civic engagement work may not be the kind of career preparation that men think they need to undertake to get the kind of careers that they want,” Mlyn said. “But I think that the keen, cross-cultural experience we’re giving to students is in fact just what potential employers want—whether that’s Peace Corps or J.P. Morgan—and we need to do a better job of getting that message out there.”

Whether as local citizens or as global citizens, women are just plain better glocals.

I’m trying to represent my gender well, as the sole dude on a trip with seven female students and two female leaders, but it ain’t easy. These women are pretty impressive.

What’s your theory on why guys are less engaged glocals?

Traveling with Students in Guatemala

The other day I was digging through some old writing goals–circa 2005.  One of the questions that I attempted to answer was, “What is the greatest good my writing can accomplish?

My answer went something like this:

“To introduce readers to people they wouldn’t normally meet, places they wouldn’t normally go, and issues they wouldn’t normally think about.” 

I’m so honored to get to do this from the page and stage.  Now, thanks to a partnership with The Village Experience, I’m on a trip in Guatemala with students from Winthrop University who read WHERE AM I WEARING? as their freshmen common reader experience.  Over the course of the next week we’ll meet garment workers, coffee farmers, and visit fair trade cooperatives.

For many of the students this is the first time they’ve been out of the country. I get to see the wonder in their eyes, the light bulbs going off above their heads, and be a witness to their world expanding. 

In case you were wondering what we’ll be doing, here’s our itinerary…

Day 1 – Arrive in Guatemala City. Transfer to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Antigua to check into hotel. Welcome dinner in the evening.

Day 2 – Walking tour of Antigua in the morning. This ancient city will immediately capture your heart as you stroll along the cobblestone streets and visit historical cathedrals, convents, and ruins. Stop for lunch. In the afternoon, local pueblos to learn about culture, coffee, and weaving. Return to hotel in the evening for dinner and overnight.

Day 3 – Spend the morning in Guatemala City. Enjoy a city tour including stops at places such as Mercado Central, Casa MIMA, Parque Central, and Catedral Metropolitana. Enjoy lunch in town. Return to Antigua for a meeting with the owner of Los Gigantes Fair Trade Company, Siggy Bataille. Learn about the multiple artisan groups she works with around Guatemala, visit her retail store, and shop away!

Day 4 – Spend today in the rural villages with local community development group, Vamos Adelante. Vamos Adelante provides education, health, and nutrition services to poverty-stricken individuals in over 24 villages in the region of Esquintla. Learn about their new micro-enterprise program and help with food distribution to the elderly. This will be a day you never forget as you connect with local Guatemalans and learn about the obstacles to overcoming poverty. Enjoy lunch in the village. Return to hotel in the evening for dinner and overnight.



Day 5 – Depart in the morning for gorgeous Lake Atitlan…surrounded by 3 mystic volcanoes. On the way, stop in Chichicastenango for a visit with fair trade group, Market 127. Learn about textiles, weaving, and the importance of preserving local culture and traditions in artisan work. Check into hotel in Panajachel. Free evening for dinner and exploration.

Day 6 – Spend a leisurely day on a boat ride on Lake Atitlan. Stop at fishing villages dotting the lake to meet locals and see traditional Mayan cultures. Visit San Juan La Laguna to meet with several women’s cooperatives involved in painting, weaving, dying, and soap making. Proceed to Santiago Atitlan to learn about the mysterious Mayan character, Maximon. Enjoy time in San Pedro to see the interesting church on the top of a mountain. Lunch will be in one of the villages. Return to hotel in the afternoon. Free evening for dinner and exploration.

Day 7 – Visit Reserva Natural de Atitlan in the morning for a zip- lining adventure. Enjoy eight zip-lines ranging from 295 feet to1050 feet along waterfalls, canyons, the valley, and the coffee grove forest. The Nature Reserve is committed to the sustainability of Lake Atitlan and its biodiversity. This privately funded project is an economically viable alternative to the traditional uses of land and natural resources in the area. Over 200,000 trees have been planted in the valley and the efficient wood burning stoves have been installed in neighboring

communities, along with recycling initiatives and the use of solar energy and biodigestors. In the afternoon, depart for Antigua and check into hotel. Farewell dinner in the evening.

Day 8 – Depart in the morning for airport in Guatemala City to catch international flight back to the United States.

This trip is going to be awesome. Maybe I’ll have some of the students to some guest blog posts.

On Indy Style TV

Where Am I Eating? A Journey Through the Global Food

Thanks to the fun folks at Indy Style TV for interviewing me about Where Am I Eating? and helping me acclimate to Guatemalan heat.

A few random thoughts:

1) I probably shouldn’t have started and ended the interview with my bitter beer face.

2) I will never be not amazed by the angularity of my nose.

3) I went on after a fellow who talked about how to wash and care for home windows. Hard to be more useful than that guy.

4) Not sure where their coffee came from, but it tasted like arm pit.

5) Weathermen are real! They just don’t live in the TV set.

6) I wish I could’ve spent the whole time just talking about Solo, the slave I met in Ivory Coast, or Juan the banana farmer, or Flor the coffee farmer.

Part II: A slave in his own words

After I met Solo on a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast, and learned a bit of his story, I asked if we could talk somewhere where we wouldn’t have an entire village listening to us. We sat in his bare room, and he shared part of his story. At times he was speechless. We were constantly interrupted by his master. This is what he said…

There are about 160,000 Solos (Forced Adult Laborers) in the Ivory Coast cocoa industry. The cocoa farmers themselves have trouble making a living, let alone paying workers, so they hire guys like Solo. One farmer told me that if he earned about one-half of one penny more per chocolate bar he would be able to provide his family with the life they deserve.

I’d pay half-a-penny more if I had the chance. How about you?

Why should we expect big chocolate companies to do better? Why should we buy Fair Trade chocolate? We should do it for all of the Solos out there and all of the cocoa farmers who grow a key ingredient in one of our most cherished foods: chocolate.

Part I: Meeting a slave to chocolate in Ivory Coast (video)

I met a slave when I visited a cocoa farm in Ivory Coast researching WHERE AM I EATING.

His name is Solo.

Shortly after we first met, a villager began recording Solo teaching me how to harvest cocoa.  (As a writer, it’s rare that I capture such poignant moments on video.)  I began to ask Solo about his life, where he was from, what he gets paid, when certain disturbing facts came to light:

1) He called his boss “master”

2) He had worked 4 months and hadn’t been paid

3) He told me that the donkeys are treated better than he is because at least they get fed when they don’t work

4) He asked to leave and wasn’t allowed to

5) Solo is a slave.

Here’s the video of us working in the cocoa fields:

After we worked in the fields, I asked if we could talk alone. I captured the audio of our conversation. I’ll post it tomorrow.

Today, I’m opinionated

I’m popping up in stories at a variety of places and for a variety of different reasons today.

—

On CNN on Scouts

John Sutter interviewed me about the Boy Scouts of America’s possible decision to allow gay scouts, but ban gay scout leaders in his well thought out essay on CNN. He quotes me:

The group’s attitudes on gay rights are “more out of style than the scout socks,” said Kelsey Timmerman, a former Eagle Scout who mailed his badge back to the organization because of its discriminatory policies.

“I never wore those damn socks,” he said, laughing.

If you want to know my thoughts on this whole issue, read John’s, that’s pretty much where I stand.

—

On Bon Apetit on Food

Sam Dean’s intro to the interview:

As more and more of the food we eat gets imported from all over the world, it’s getting harder to get concrete answers to those questions. But that didn’t stop Kelsey Timmerman from trying. His new book, Where Am I Eating?, took him to the apple juice capital of China, the banana fields of Costa Rica, Ivory Coast’s cocoa plantations, Colombia’s coffee-growing mountains, and Nicaragua’s lobster fisheries. What Timmerman found in each country, and each farm, was all over the map–while China’s apple farmers are living through a boom, slavery is thriving in the Ivory Coast–but it all ends up in our local grocery stores, scrubbed clean of any story.

We highly recommend checking out the book, but thought we’d ask Timmerman a few questions about why he got himself into this undertaking, what he found on the farms, and how that’s changed the way he eats.

—

On Local Media, on Earth Day

My buddy and League of Extraordinary Writer, Sam Hoyt, covered our Earth Day party / book launch at the Downtown Farm Stand in the Daily News. I so enjoyed the event. Thanks to everyone who came out, and a HUGE thanks to the Farm Stand. I can’t think of a better way for Muncians to learn about their food than to step into the Farm Stand are start talking with one of the folks who work there. I’m always learning something new, like Chicago style hotdogs with jalapenos are amazing.

The Star Press did a story on the event and featured a local beef farmer and a girl who agreed with me about the hotdogs — she said they tasted like “heaven.”

—

On What’s Cooking on exploding Chinese watermelon. (I’m the Kelsey/Kelly Zimmerman guy they’re talking to.)

—

It’s great being heard. The more my voice gets out, the more I can share the stories of the farmers I met, and that’s what I’ve been put on this Earth to do.

Earth Day Happy Happy Joy Joy Time

I can’t believe tomorrow is almost here.

Earth Day 2013 marks the perfect day to start spreading the stories of the people I met on the global food adventure that became Where Am I Eating?  These stories need told, and I’m honored to do it.   I just hope I can do them justice.

Farmers let me into their lives to share their stories, and now it’s time to do that. I’ll be calling into radio programs all morning. Here’s my schedule.

From 3-6 PM I’ll be hanging at my book release / Earth Day open house party at the Downtown Farm Stand in Muncie. I write about the Downtown Farm Stand in the book, so, again, it’s the perfect place to celebrate. We’ll be giving away trees and you can buy cheap beer, wine, and books.

At 7 PM I’ll be enhancing some integrity (or degrading it with my underwear stories) as I speak with students attending the Committee for Integrity’s awards program in Muncie.

I’m sharing a sneak peek of EATING with subscribers to my email list. Sign up below…

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My global food adventure coming to a dial near you…

I have a busy morning of national and regional radio programs tomorrow.  If you get one of the shows below in your area, tune in to hear me talking about Where Am I Eating? I’ll be the one that sounds like a mix of Joe Dirt and Matthew McConaughey. 

TIME

MARKET

STATION

PROGRAM/CONTACT

AIR

7:48-7:59am
National
Information Radio Network

News/Talk
Daybreak USA

 
Tape


10:30-10:40am
Chicago, IL
WBIG-AM

News/Talk
The Big Wake-Up Call

 
Live


11:15-11:20am
Sonoma, CA
KSVY-AM

News/Talk
Mornings in Sonoma

 
Live


11:40-11:50am
National
CRN

News/Talk
What’s Cooking

 
Live


1:20-1:30pm
Denver, CO
KLZ-AM

News/Talk
Experience Pros

 
Live