I spent my childhood in Wabash (and took innumerable visits in the last twelve years), and this was one of my top ten favorite mornings in my hometown. Maybe it had something to do with flying above the trees with the wind in my hair. Remember, I'm a converted adrenaline junkie...when the wind is just right.
This is a promotional video for the clean-up efforts of the Wabash River Defenders.
The upcoming term in Argentina will mark my 52nd country, and every once in a while I'm perplexed that this whole world obsession and world tour started from a town of 11,000 in rural Indiana. I talk about this town often–one I haven't lived in for 12 years to the week–and it's a weekend like my last one that confirms its hold on me. I continue to have those awe-inspiring moments in a place I thought I'd adequately covered.
Clean Out The Banks! Wabash group photo
Clean Out The Banks! is an annual event in Wabash, Indiana conducted by a volunteer group known as the Wabash River Defenders. If you were at Paradise Spring at 7:00am last Saturday, eating free donuts and preparing to wade in the silt, you're likely a member...or a donut enthusiast.
This year's 365 participants engaged in a community event for the benefit of their environment while spending time with that environment on a beautiful day. Being a recent student on the effects of community, I was eager to witness my first River Defenders event and document it for distribution.
The river stretches 19.2 miles across Wabash County from east to west, so my fellow documentarian, Chelsea, and I didn't have to drive far to reach the many scattered clean-up crews.
Walking along the river in Lagro, we found an ATV or mountain bike track that looked like serious muddy fun. We passed by many groups of fishermen heading to the water. One of the teams had a kayak, and its slender shape reminded me of rowing sculls torpedoing down the thin and shallow river. My imagination was probably stretching the water possibilities on this Mississippi tributary, but the flanking land offered no such limitations to outdoor enjoyment.
Lindsay flying over Wabash County in an antique airplane
After a couple hours of tracking teams' progress, I was extended the opportunity to admire Wabash County from above on an antique open cockpit airplane from 1927. I couldn't stop relating myself to Snoopy. It was a beautiful aircraft, and it lifted effortlessly above the forests and farms to find the snaking river.
Lindsay and an antique airplane in Wabash, Indiana
In the past couple years, I've had some very active shoots on land, while treading water, and even underwater with wild animals. Prior to this flight, I'd never had the chance to film from the air. The 90 mph winds pulled at the camera, but I had it strapped tightly around my hand, my arm anchored to my body. It was tough to shoot around the wings and stabilize with the turbulence, but the adrenaline rush from the open cockpit helped me achieve some awesome moments on film.
I wasn't at all surprised that such a plane existed in a hangar at the Wabash airstrip. The town is full of eccentric characters who collect distinct items, create unique artwork, build hidden bars in their basements, and wrangle community support for every facet of life, culture, and sport. A trip home can be comforting in its predictability or reveal a unique opportunity unfathomable hours prior.
It was this mid-morning flight that determined the angle of my documentation, supplemented by the mini-revelations along the banks of the Wabash. I spent the majority of my childhood outdoors, but my backyard was only a small indication of what my surroundings held. I won't always have an antique airplane ride to jostle my pre-conceived expectations of a place, but this one surely helped.
I'm currently in the process of editing a promo for "Clean Out Our Banks!" and will post once live. Here's a news package from WTIU of the event.
With every assignment, my job is gaining more meaning and thrill, becoming increasing moving and educative. From researching Frida Kahlo to cutting videos on Nelson Mandela, I've been diving further into pivotal, global issues. And though - technically - our upcoming trip to Haiti is a freelance assignment to document a medical non-profit, I'm going in the capacity of a filmmaker and an indirect educator. For the past month, I've been taking in knowledge of old Saint-Domingue like a sponge, and I'm hoping to include you, my ever-enlightening audience, in this pursuit of awareness.
Normally I publish my community outreach on Sundays, but as tomorrow is a holiday, I thought I would switch it up a bit...just this week.
Far from simply a rascal, North Korea's dictator is one paranoid character, with due cause, and has recently been noted for traveling with ridiculously extreme caution...and luxury.
His precautions make sense, I guess. He's not the coolest man on the planet. And even he knows it...
Am I going to get one some red list for blogging about this article? Yikes. And speaking of North Korea, did you know American tourists are now allowed to travel on the guided tours just like non-American Westerners can. I sure didn't until earlier this week. Would you go given you were in the Asia area and had some free time? Comment below!
Charles wrote a quality piece this week at Vagablogging about non-Western hospitality that pointed to our often short-lived hospitality at home. We're taught to shower "pleases" and "thank yous" at everyone we encounter or interact with, and paired with gratitude and proper body language, this is the upmost level of appreciation we can muster.
But what if your in a culture that doesn't accept your onslaught of gratitude and undeserving attitude?
What if they just want to give you the hook up without receiving sainthood-status in your eyes? I think many Americans are incredibly kind and hospitable, but is Charles right? Do we not know how to accept or deal with non-Western hospitable nature based on our own belief that hospitality is somewhat short-lived?
A fresh bar every time, a couple hand washes, and you're done with it. What happens to a bar of hotel soap once you've checked out. It usually joins its 2 million brothers in a landfill, but Clean The World has decided to change this around. Intelligent Travel fills us in on the lathery goodness.
Still a devastating threat to children in developing countries, diarrheal diseases cause some 1.6 million of the 1.8 million childhood deaths that occur each year, according to the World Health Organization. Suitable drinking water sources, regular hand washing habits, and proper hygiene practices can eliminate these entirely avoidable fatalities.
Thank you, Vagabondish, for this eye candy from Norway's coast.
This is quite a doosie of an article: The Absurdity of Spiritual Enlightenment
Found this interesting simply because I've been studying Mexico's interesting approach to Catholic veneration: Say a Little Prayer for...Death?
Check out Jenny's new interview with SoSauce. Who is Jenny? Well, she's my new boss, silly!
May 6th, 2010
What on earth am I doing to you this week?!? Am I crazy?!?
Monday: The Nakavika Project Outtakes video Tuesday: Journeys of a Lifetime in May Wednesday: The Triple Importance of Cinco de Mayo Thursday: The First Hour of 2010 in the World Friday: Urgency and a Broken Hip Not to mention the Consume & Update on a Saturday?!?
I've been told it's much more thrilling to stay current with what I'm talking about, as opposed to the flashbacks to Fiji. And now that you know my big news for June, I've got to tell those Fiji stories mad fast, because while in Mexico you'll want to know what's going on in the moment!
My twitter is present day, my Youtube isn't far behind, but my blog for some reason is still experiencing New Year's 2010! Don't worry. The crazy schedule this month will make it all better.
As you can tell, I have many interests (personal travel narratives, reviews, inspiration, World Traveler Internship, ProjectExplorer, etc.), and I'll be writing about all these topics in the near future, hoping to find a balance and order with all of them, including their expression in multi-media form. If you have any ideas on how I can make my blog easier to follow, contact me!
1 Minute or Less Moments: This week on my Nomadderwhere Facebook Fan Page, I've published raw video clips of some fun moments with the kids and on the carrier with some of the boozing fellas.
Nomadderwhere's Facebook Fan Page