9/11/21

 9/11/21

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hope you liked the photos.

Sept 2016

THIS IS A PEACE CORPS BLOG>>>> but I also used it for other stuff when I got back.

If you want to read about my service time start here June 2014

 after our four months of hell training ended I and was finally stationed to my site on Santo:

•   > http://david-bekkerus.blogspot.com/2014/04/santo.html

and then it goes through until August 2015.

• http://david-bekkerus.blogspot.com/2015/08/week-73-so-long-and-thanks-for-all-fish.html

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September 2016 has been great...

Saw my favorite band perform Sleigh Bells #AlexisKrauss perform at the fine line Sept 2nd

This is from 2012 at First Ave:

August 2016

Summer is flying by fast, but it has been productive.

I joined a new gym, made a few oil painting of the bridges over the mississippi river, and my six month contract has lasted far longer than expected might even turn into a perm position.

Soon I will probably help people build some of the haunted basement, and or just volunteering at the Soap Factory. I wish it was like it was in the past but those days are gone.

Things are pretty boring in the USA but boring is not the end of the world.

Here's few photos from the last week:

July 2016

July...

So much up in smoke as in the 4th of July...

#StoneArchBridge

I went down to the Stone arch and watched fireworks...

Ran into Bryan and Kate and their Family... so we played volleyball with a virtual net and waited until 9:55 when they launched the first volleys of fireworks. It was a fun night.

June 2016

  Northern spark is the thing that might spark my year... went to the training last night and Saturday I am helping Elle at the farmers market promote the festival.

   Met some really cool people there as well hope that it become a way to make some new friends. Been a while since I had them in the USA.

   Also almost as excited about the projector I got, I can host some movie nights for my Peace Corps Fam that returned Bryan and Kate. Excited to see them again. Even though they are like years younger than me they played the role of parental unit in Luganville Santo.
 
Oh I got to meet a really cool signer in a band I love the Kills:

May 10th 2016

   Most of the Peace corps from my group (g26) are back home in the states now. This is good. It means that the chapter on that story in my life is finally closing. I wish it had been a wonderful experience from beginning to end but there were moments of joy. I think about that place still, the challenges of it, and compare it to the ease of life I have now. I liked the moments of chaos where there was activity, but hated the stagnation of poverty and bored when it was the slow times.

   Being in that sort of environment and now being back in the USA, life feels kind of too predictable too safe, at least for me, might be more challenging for some but I make a decent wage and have a nice home... so is that enough, should I be happy with that?

   I think I want to see more of the world. To also be in that new place with a living wage. I did not enjoy abject poverty of the Peace Corps. Time will tell where this new adventure will be, but I would like the temps to be a bit more moderate than the extreme cold of Minnesota, and it would be great if there were a few pockets of city life and yet retain parts of the more primitive unplugged past.

 

April 10th - 2016

Not sure if anyone reads this anymore. I am not serving overseas anymore I am just a boring state sider at the moment work, eat, sleep nothing really exciting here are some examples:

I bought a new mattress called the Helix... first bed I have owned that is mine in two years. I slept last night. It was excellent.

Also I have a book called Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany. It's decent. I was made aware of this author by a friend who barely talks to me but who cares.

The Soap Factory had its Gala for the HB last night. I did not go. In the past I would have gone when I thought I was part of that, in the present I saw nothing.

My Boss is in Thailand for two more weeks. While he is gone I hope we can finish a project... I fear that it will stagnant because when the boss is away sydrome.

Working on a new sci-fi story. I posted in here if you seek, you'll find.

Winter seems to not given up yet. Another week of cold, another week of boring.

Mayday stuff is going on. Perhaps I will get involved. People. Talking to people. I guess that is needed.

Jan 21st - 2016

Jan 21st 2016

Already mid month of 2016 time moves quickly.

I moved back into my condo over the weekend and now am starting to finally settle back into MN life. It's been pretty cold here, but I survived the transition from the tropics to the tundra just fine.

My Brazilian friend invited me to visit her, she is moving out to live in the rain forest for the next couple years. I want to go see that. so I have to try and save up a few bucks for that trip.

Got a haircut the other day from Kozy.

Might hangout with her this Sunday, she's really funny

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Jan 2016 - Cold Snap

On January 10th, I partially moved in to my condo after having been transient for the last two years.

Sadly on the same day I being rebooting my life in Minneapolis, David Bowie one of my favorite  singers, actors, ideological crazy role models dies. I used to always say that there is a secret army of David's (David Bowie being our leader) and that we will someday rise. Now we are without our leader.

The temps are pretty obnoxious this week and last hovering around -10 degree, worse when you add in the wind chill. Ugh... right now would be a nice time to be stuck in Vanuatu hanging out with my g26er's who begin their COS (close of service) conference this week. Guess from what Brian a fellow PCV tells me, some people beside him and his wife Kate, actually miss me. heh... nice. I always assumed I was not really one of them, accepted or part of the main group. I was G26.5 a team of one.

Well the good news is my work it's going great. Team lead is a smart guy. It makes things a lot easier being there when you have a good lead.

Vanuatu experience of my 20 month stay: photo collection, enjoy

I made a power point: 50 pictures (even though I hate power point) to show what my experience in Vanuatu looked like over the 20 months I served.

This shows all the highlights skipping past all the lows.

Wish I could have had more of the good times versus all of the bad times... but that is what makes the experience interesting I guess.

Almost x-mas

Days are flying by can't wait until I move back into my condo and start living my life again on my own terms.

It's been okay and all returning home from Santo and ending my Peace Corps service but life in the USA for me tends to be pretty boring. Seems like the only real challenge in living in the states is the dating game. Doesn't seem all the interesting really. I wish I was building something, an art project or a school library something that has meaning. Guess I am just biding my time until I venture off again and find something meaningful to do. But first I have to stay put and dig my way out of the hole I dug living the poverty lifestyle of Vanuatu.

I wish there were more days back then that were highs versus lows, but the days when you can hop on a boat full of timber and work on a crazy build project on a remote island are not a normal way of life... those few glorious moments were definitely exciting. Wish I could have shown more friends those wild days but at least a few got to join me.

My brother is in town again for the holidays. It's nice seeing him again and goofing off like we did when we were kids. Hope these next couple weeks are enjoyable. And then after that I will be moving back into my condo... guess all is going fairly well.

Mid-December

Finally feels like winter now and its only 28 degrees but the wind makes it feel 17 and it's going to get so much colder before it's over. I must be in Minnesota I am talking about the weather.

I had several strange dreams last night. One was about working at the Soap Factory but the layout of the building and the things we were doing were out of context of what volunteer work would entail there. We were (three of us) moving around scrap metal and there was one volunteer who was asking if he should take something like looked like a table? I tried to say no that seems ill advised but he did so anyway and soon thereafter he was met by some unpleasant looking fellows that attacked him for stealing the table. Not sure what that all means in terms of hidden meaning in dreams. Probably nothing.

Made me think for a while though... mostly about the recent board led meeting at the Soap Factory held on Dec 1st. I never got up in front of the crowd of 100+ people, to tell them my thoughts. Not sure anyone would care to hear what I would have said. I just listened. It seemed rather pointless to say anything really.

They presented the meeting as if its intent was to find solutions to its current problems. That notion is a farce. The board proceeded to spin a story about how and why they got to the place where they are now, broke and forced to shut the doors. Their story is two fold: Part one of the reason for closing, the director being a part time temp, means they failed to qualify for a large grant which was something they depended upon to function for the winter. Part two the: building costs related to the HVAC, bathroom construction and so on put them in the brink of defaulting on loans. That these extra costs came to them as a surprise being forced by the state to install the HVAC system and was only given a two month notice, that it needed to be done.

Both of these reasons are non-sense and attempts to save face for the board by blaming other people. The Soap Factory has been told by the state for decades it needed a HVAC... to say this came with only a few months notice is dishonest at best. Secondly the grant loss, that may have caused some financial disturbance but it was the boards poor decision to not search ASAP for a permanent director. Hiring a part time interim director was a foolish decision in general, let alone its impact on one grant.

What that meeting really was to me was the wake, and by this I mean as in:  a watch held over the body of a dead person prior to burial and sometimes accompanied by festivity. Instead of a dead person, the death was of the organization. Unfortunately this wake service was held six months to a year delayed because the Soap Factory (SF) as I knew it, was no longer in operation. Let me explain why I feel this way. As 2014 unfolded there was a mass exodus of leadership at the SF. The director left, the program manager Lillian transitioned to run the basement then left after that project, Mitch the building manager left as did Dani the volunteer coordinator and Tana the Deputy Director, gone. This vacuum of leadership could not be filled by anyone very easily, even though Colin (Building and Installation Manager) and Kate (Program Manager, Exhibitions) are terrific and did as much as humanly possible, it would have been nearly impossible to expect anyone to know the legacy of the 25 year old org and help navigate it without some senior leadership to guide them. This is why not having a passionate permanent director was devastating blow. Not being able to make strategic decisions to generate revenue, having a 16 hour a week leader basically, sunk the ship. Additionally in 2014 they decided to kill the volunteer program, a catastrophic error. Why? Because by removing the most passionate people from helping do work at the SF removed a core piece of the reason to be there. Those volunteers were the life blood of the SF. And killing that program drained them of life. It also was the source of much free labor that now had to be contracted out and paid for by a very small bank account. Having the hundreds of volunteers present and involved the SF community had additional benefits such as word of mouth for evens, gone... addition revenue from those passionate volunteer to attend events, gone. There are other impacts as well, such as volunteer contributing ideas, networking with other artists and other factors.

All that was left when I returned in 2015 was a building with heat and a haunted basement that was constructed by paid workman. Not nearly a shadow of what it was in 2013 when I left for my tour in the Peace Corps. All in all... I think things are pretty dire at the Soap Factory. The lack of leadership in the board of directors, and their Temp Director with now all staff laid off, how can things turn around? Who is willing to give an organization money knowing they have no one they should trust to give that money to spend? It is a very sad wish things were different but at least we had our wake.

December 2015

Man it's Almost December now... the temps feel like winter now 29 degrees.

I don't really miss Vanuatu even though it is nice and warm there. I think it's because it's too warm like a sweaty armpit warm and no shower clean enough to enjoy washing the stink off in. But I would like to see Cuba. An island nation that like Vanuatu is in a time warm but there's is a 1950 semi Godfather like time warp. It sounds like a magical place at least for the short term until American's flood the place with money and turn it into a large gap, abercrombie, starbucks, apple everything looks the same hell that first world nations have become.

The holiday season is the worst time of the year... vapid commercialism, consumerism and it's mostly pointless except to drive the stock market up for the crash in January.

Hmm... I wonder how people are doing in g26 and g27. Those are the Peace Corps still serving in Vanuatu that I sort of knew. Not that they think much of how I am. But I am curious. Hope they are doing well.

My family has all been staying at my parents house over the Thanksgiving Holidays. My Bro his kid Mila and myself and the mom and dad. Lotta Bekkerus under one roof. It's been fun. Probably won't ever happen again. My parents are getting older, and Mark might not get a chance to do this again for years. But it was quite special and think everyone had a good time.

November - New job and stuff

Oct-Nov

The weeks sort of fly by and I log less and less in the blog. I suppose when I was in Vanuatu there was so much more free time to write and getting back home means doing more stuff and less sitting on the computer writing. I strangely miss those moments but also I was frustrated then and writing more about the hardships than about fun times. I guess it was never a perfect fit for me being in Vanuatu but it was good to be out of my comfort zone for a while too.

When I got home I figured I would throw myself into building at the Soap Factory and being around my group of friends there but that did not come to be. Most had stopped coming as the volunteer program ended, the staff changed dramatically, and the new younger volunteer made the old crew feel less welcome. I think there were some there (Haunted Basement vols) that did not want me to steal their limelight (i'm not sure) and so I let them have their fun but it was their loss because I could have contributed a lot for free but oh well. Better to move on. I had fun working with Mitch building things and getting some money as well. But it is sad that the Soap Factory is closing its' doors as it is in the throws of trying to figure out its direction in so many ways. I hope that they will find a full time director, and staff that can restart the ways in which the old org inspired us so deeply.

The best thing that came to be recently is I got the job at Catholic Charities... and I never expected that. I signed up to help in a volunteer capacity and it turned into a job offer instead. How lucky can I be? The people there are really nice and the work is meaningful helping the less fortunate get out from a bad place. I like that aspect a great deal.

Experimenting with some reporting tools such as Tableau: https://public.tableau.com/profile/david.bekkerus#!/

Also reviewed some cool stuff from a tool I learned about from Nic Karr aka peace corps a reporting tool used to show how life expectancy and wealth per nation has changed over the last 100 years at:  http://www.gapminder.org/. A great tool but not available for personal use.

House projects

Been working outdoor most of the last couple weeks helping Mitch fix up both his house, and Lillians.

I really like working with Mitch. He's been a lifesaver, and probably over the years he's been one of my best friends. Hope we can complete fixing up his 4 plex this week and help him sell that property.

Other than that... I am sometimes posting knee jerk reactions to my readjustment. Sorry if I come off harsh at times. I am just not always in the best of moods when I write on my blog.

Fall days

Things are strange when you first return home after being gone a while.

I think I expected everything to be like it was when I left for Vanuatu but things have changed, I have changed. I think I need to let that go, the season of fall is an ironic time to return symbolic of letting the old me, my way of thinking fade and start a new chapter.

week 7-10: Time slipped

week 7   Sept 28-Oct 4 - slow week
week 8   Oct 5-11 - more of the same
week 9   Oct 12-18 - same same same...
week 10 Oct 19-25 blah... but i got to visit a friend in Eau Claire... that was fun.

The good news is that I think I am close to landing a job... that is the first step in my recovery process.

1) Job
2) car
3) home
4) live again

Lets hope that maybe someone will want to hangout with a returned peace corps vol in the near future ... betting that once I am working, have money, a car and a cool place... I am sure things will improve.

That is the funny thing about serving... you leave for a bit and most people forget about you, so you start over. Friendships in the USA a lot of them are not so deep. Lesson learned.

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Woohoo... Landed the job. Soon I can start making my life matter again in the states.

week 6 - American life

Sept 21-27

More of the same old same old... but getting closer to a job and stuff so that is good.

Watched some of the new rick and morty and a show called the house of cosby's pretty funny.

Week 5 - Quick summary

Monday-Sunday (13-20)

Ever since being back having a blog seems mostly pointless... the only reason people read this was because I was in a funky place (Vanuatu) and working a strange job (Peace Corps) now I am just a bum back in the states.

What is interesting about hearing about my working on some small projects here and there? They are pretty common things. But maybe I should start a new one... life in the static state. Nothing seems very challenging here... wake up, eat, go outside and do stuff and go home. repeat... maybe once I start a new job and move back into my condo my social life will return but being away in the south pacific definitely had an impact. I saw a world that is fading from existence... one being impacted by global environmental change, social change and so on... maybe some for the better some for the worst. Nowhere is left that is untouched by western influence. But it was interesting seeing a place that was only softly impacted. It will be vastly different in 10 years, maybe completely different in 20... but such is life.

week 4 - Replug into the matrix

(07) Monday

It was a mostly boring memorial day... took a few photos:

Loring park

Wrote a little on a short story... not sure it is any good or not might post it later.

I guess since returning from the Peace Corps, no one really gives a shit about my blog so it might be pointless to post anything.

(08) Tuesday

Going to build some shit today with my friend Mitch. Might rain but who cares.

(09) Wednesday

Slow day just biked around mostly.

Foods

Then back to the soap to help with lighting

(10) Thursday

Got out of the dog house but not sure I want back in now. Best to help people that want your help versus being made to feel a fool by foolish people.

(11) Friday

Helped Mitch building his shed but then the next door neighbor decided he did not like how close it was to his property line so we paused to consider how to move it.

Hung out with Lillian at some art opening.

(12) Saturday

Did a bit of BBQ with the fam and made some burgers. Tonight have a little get together with some friends.

Went to the heart of the beast and celebrated Kat's birthday...

(13) Sunday

I did pretty much nothing all day