Here at Invisible Children, we have a motto: Jump first. Fear later.
Over the past few weeks, the UK Roadies have definitely proven that the saying can come to life. Several of us were last-minute additions to the tour...jobs were abandoned...apartments given up. Yet here we are, working as hard as we can in order to get this tour rolling. Despite the set back that is detainment...then refusal of admittance...our team still whole-heartedly believes that this tour is going to take place. I will go to London, if only to keep the name of my blog in tact!
I know that a lot of you have gone to invisiblechildren.com and have looked at different media that IC has created. I will say...they do a niiiiice job. There is one particular piece of media that was added today that has breathed new energy into our semi-disheartened UK team. And although we had seen it before, somehow it just get us going even more today!
There are a lot more videos to be found at this address...if you want to see what IC is up to...I suggest you have a little look!
http://www.invisiblechildren.com/media/videos/
Our transition to London time starts tonight...wish me luck!!!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Rachel goes to London...for lunch.
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Let me tell you all a little story...unfortunately it's more of an autobiography...
On Saturday morning...around 9:30 am, Brandon (top left), Michelle (bottom left), myself (bottom middle), Johannes (bottom right), and Charley (not pictured) set off in a 15 passenger van headed to Los Angeles from San Diego. Everything was running perfectly on schedule, we were feeling good.
Upon arrival at the airport, a nice man offered to load our bags and boxes of merchandise up onto a cart and escort us to the check in area. By the end of our time, he was calling us by name and very excited to know that we were off on a mission! We hung out for a while in the food area...then met up with Kimmy (top right) and Jedidiah (top middle). At that time, we parted with Charley, who was on a separate flight from the rest of us...she's British...you'd love her.
We got all loaded up on the plane and set off to cross the big pond! The flight was nice...the food was impeccable...the service was unprecedented. Jed, Kimmy, and I all took ourselves some Tylenol PM (aka TPM) and slept for the vast majority of the flight. Upon arrival in London, I was thrilled to realize that it was not nearly as cold as I had been anticipating...but that would prove to be neither here nor there...unfortunately. Because just moments later, I would be stuck in no-man's land...not in the US...not in the UK...but we were stuck in Terminal 5. Dun dun dun.
Read on if you think you can stomach it...
When going through customs, we all went to different officials, some seemed nicer than others. My guy really liked me and I promise I was going through...then he got all hesitant and jumpy when Jed's official got hesitant and jumpy. It was an epidemic...it spread like wildfire. Before we could say
I know it seems as though this experience had to have been a nightmare...however, the group as a whole kept each other's spirits high...and actually an unnatural amount of laughter took over us for the following 25 hours. It only took them 5 hours to decide that we needed to be returned to sender. Luckily, they gave us chicken sandwiches (I use the term loosely) and little water shots before our big send off. How kind. The reason for our detainment was that there had been a change in law in late November saying that any kind of work (volunteer or otherwise) required a work permit in order to be allowed in. Yes, we could have lied and said we were traveling, but who would have thought that six volunteers trying to raise awareness about child soldiers in Northern Uganda would be unwelcome in a fairly friendly country?
The head hancho came out and announced, "It's not good news...but you do have thirty minutes before your flight to the state takes off. Unfortunately, we must check your bags, send you through security, and get you off to Chicago...did I mention you were going to Chicago?"
After rushing through the madness that is security, we found ourselves...all six of us...locked in a metal cage in the bag of what I like to call a militarized mini-van. Cameras and all. The three stooges that were navigating (they would not be offended by me calling them that, I assure you) literally had us driving in circles around airplanes trying to figure out which one we were actually to board. Once we arrived, we boarded the plane, and off we went...Chicago bound...
Kimmy and I laughed the entire way, it seemed, because we still could not believe what had actually taken place. Two airplane meals later, a small bottle of wine, and some more TPM, we found ourselves in Chicago...looking at the snow. At this point, all we could do was look at it...we hadn't actually inhaled fresh air in aboooout two days. Of course I bought an "I <3 Chicago" pin before hoppin' on yet another flight.
Back in LA...we grabbed our luggage...or what was left of it. Fortunately, our bags made it safely, our merchandise...not so lucky. Waaa waaaa. We left the airport around midnight and loaded up once more in a 15 passenger van headed back to San Diego.
So here we are, Kimmy and I, still laughing...a little bit of anger thrown in the mix...and still confused about what the heck just happened! We were in London...why are we here now? Not to mention the confusion that is my internal clock...what time zone am I in? We spent our day at the office. I'd like to say that we were productive...but that would be a lie. We were zombies.
Our plan to get back to London...and PAST Terminal 5...has yet to be determined. We're working on it, but are open to suggestions. Anyone happen to know the Prime Minister. Or the Queen?
One plan we do have set is that we're adjusting back to the London time zone. Tomorrow we will go in to the office at 9am with the rest of the Roadies...finish the day around 6...then head back to the office around midnight in order to be able to reach schools via telephone instead of email. We'll get to sleep in and work a half-day during the day...then back to the office at night. How can you not pity us? :) The funny thing is that we're all still ready to be in London and would board another flight now, if given the chance.
The End.
My favorite moments of the adventure:
1. the Tuscan chicken dinner on flight #1...when we were still impressed with airplane food.
2. the croissant breakfast on flight #1...still impressed.
3. NOT the bland chicken sandwich at Terminal 5. Unimpressed.
4. Having a document that states: "Your removal from the United Kindom is imminent."
5. Thinking Jed's iPod cover was ACTUALLY a hymn book...for hours. Oops.
6. playin sudokuuuuu.
I know yall don't understand these...but please know that Kimmy and I are laughing very hard...and it's helping to override the anger...consider it blogging-therapy. Thanks for listening.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Some would call it a late night...
It's 3:09 am here in San Diego. And yes, some would definitely call it a late night. However, the UK roadies, as well as the New Zealand/Australia roadies are calling it "just another day at the office."
Our work day went from 9am-7pm today, along with the domestic roadies. But due to the time difference (8 hours) between San Diego and London, we have yet to talk to any of our contacts on the phone! With that in mind, from 11 pm to 3 this morning, our teams have been basically pretending that it is day time. When we work during the day, a significant amount of our time is spent trying to arrange screenings, either by email or phone. Tonight we chose to come in late as well so that we can talk to actual people on the other end of the phone. How great it will be to live in the same time zone as the wonderful people we are communicating with!!! (And much easier on our sleep schedule!) Luckily, the kind-hearted and compassionate staff here at Invisible Children have noticed our dedication to our job and are letting us come into the office tomorrow at 11 instead of 9. I really am working alongside the most dedicated, determined, creative, loving, and driven people I have ever come in contact with. Some (or most) may seem a little off their rocker at times...myself included of course...but each person genuinely and deeply cares about what IC stands for. Can't ask for more than that!
With only a couple of days until our group heads off to London, I'm beginning to realize that I haven't gotten to know as many of the domestic roadies as I was hoping. We live in separate houses and the vast majority of our time at work is spent laboring over a laptop or fighting with a calling card. But the UK roadies, our UK staff, and the NZ/Australia roadies are more than enough to handle! Haha...stories to come!
My eyelids are getting heavy, and I'm having difficulty hitting the right keys...this must be my hint to get in bed! Promise to divulge lots of information about my teammates as soon as I can find the perfect words to depict them. :)
P.s. The picture at the top right is actually of the roadie house...I live just across the street in the intern house...but you get the gist!
P.p.s. As I'm writing this, I'm saying everything in a British accent. Working with two girls, Charley and Charlie, and a guy named Simon who are all from England has obviously taken over my brain...or rather my voice box. I'm getting good though...you would all be impressed!
Our work day went from 9am-7pm today, along with the domestic roadies. But due to the time difference (8 hours) between San Diego and London, we have yet to talk to any of our contacts on the phone! With that in mind, from 11 pm to 3 this morning, our teams have been basically pretending that it is day time. When we work during the day, a significant amount of our time is spent trying to arrange screenings, either by email or phone. Tonight we chose to come in late as well so that we can talk to actual people on the other end of the phone. How great it will be to live in the same time zone as the wonderful people we are communicating with!!! (And much easier on our sleep schedule!) Luckily, the kind-hearted and compassionate staff here at Invisible Children have noticed our dedication to our job and are letting us come into the office tomorrow at 11 instead of 9. I really am working alongside the most dedicated, determined, creative, loving, and driven people I have ever come in contact with. Some (or most) may seem a little off their rocker at times...myself included of course...but each person genuinely and deeply cares about what IC stands for. Can't ask for more than that!
With only a couple of days until our group heads off to London, I'm beginning to realize that I haven't gotten to know as many of the domestic roadies as I was hoping. We live in separate houses and the vast majority of our time at work is spent laboring over a laptop or fighting with a calling card. But the UK roadies, our UK staff, and the NZ/Australia roadies are more than enough to handle! Haha...stories to come!
My eyelids are getting heavy, and I'm having difficulty hitting the right keys...this must be my hint to get in bed! Promise to divulge lots of information about my teammates as soon as I can find the perfect words to depict them. :)
P.s. The picture at the top right is actually of the roadie house...I live just across the street in the intern house...but you get the gist!
P.p.s. As I'm writing this, I'm saying everything in a British accent. Working with two girls, Charley and Charlie, and a guy named Simon who are all from England has obviously taken over my brain...or rather my voice box. I'm getting good though...you would all be impressed!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
San Diego...definitely warmer than Texas!
Hi everyone!!!
First of all, I know this is super impersonal to be writing a mass email. However, I'll dive into what has been consuming my time and I'm sure you'll understand!
Second of all, I am SO glad that I made the snap decision to come. Upon my arrival in San Diego, I quickly regretted my decision to dress according to Dallas weather instead of California weather. As I stood outside of the airport waiting for the Invisible Children van to pick me up, I began drowning in a pool of my own sweat. Luckily, Jedidiah and Tiffany from IC picked me up and blasted the air conditioner to help me out. Thank goodness for a vehicle with a working AC. The IC office is only a few minutes from the airport and we went straight there...who needs any rest right? I immediately met all the staff, immediately forgot all of their names, then headed off to be with the Roadies. I was definitely anticipated a diverse group of humans, however, I will say that this group exceeded any expectation I had. We have Australians, New Zealanders (I don't think that's what they're called...but we'll go with it), Scots, Irish, Brits, Canadians, a few from south of the border and of course all of us Americans. There are only a couple other Texans and some roadies have affectionately begun calling me 'Dallas'. I tried a couple of times to say I was from Lubbock, but after blank stares and lots of shrugs, I stuck with Dallas. I guess it works.
At the office, we spend our time doing many things. The bulk of our time this week consists of us researching universities and secondary schools in London (did I mention I'm on the London team?!?!!) and attempting to establish contacts at the schools in order to book a screening. It can be a little interesting calling a school in London and attempting to explain (in my Texas accent) what Invisible Children is and why on earth we are coming to the UK to travel around, but I think they are liking my accent and love when I use the word 'yall'. We have been doing this during the day time, which means that everyone in London is sleeping, so we speak mostly to answering machines. But one night this week the UK roadies are going to have a late-night calling session so we can talk to actual humans...luckily they are letting us sleep in late the next day! Speaking of setting up screenings, if any of you have friends or anyone over in London that could maybe help us set up a screening...I would be forever indebted to you. :) When we're not making phone calls, emailing, or researching, we have training sessions in which a staff member dives into a specific topic and pretty much drills information into our head. For example, our session today was over the complete history of the different programs that IC has begun in Uganda. At the end of the sessions, they will ask questions that audience members could potentially ask and give us a chance to answer them. It's actually been very beneficial for all of us and it's very nice to get used to talking in front of massive quantities of people (there's probably about 70 roadies total). The wonderful thing is, though, that since we are all working for an organization that we believe so confidently in, everyone is very encouraging and has the "we're on the same team" attitude. I have not felt inadequate, despite my arriving a week late, nor have I felt that anyone lacks confidence in my ability to catch up quickly. It has been a very positive environment, and for that I am incredibly thankful...because I am EXHAUSTED!
We work from 9-6 each day (give or take an hour or so), then we come home! Home consists of two houses that are across the street from each other in a town outside of San Diego called La Mesa. In one house are the international roadies (that's me) and the interns who will stay in San Diego and continue work in the office. There's probably 30 of us I would guess. There are 8 girls in my room, 4 sets of bunk beds, but it's actually quite comfortable. And across the street, the rest of the roadies stay! About 50 people living in one house...let's just say I'm glad I'm with the smaller group. It has been so much fun getting to know everyone's background stories and hear their accents. I'm determined to perfect my British accent so my friend Charlie has been helping me with it. She says I'm not too bad, but apparently I sound "too posh"...haha of course...to me that sounds like a wonderful thing!
All of us UK roadies head off to London on Saturday. The whole group, which includes the Ireland/Scotland team, Wales/England team, and the Greater London (me) team, will stay in London in one flat for the next few weeks and continue training and setting up screenings there. Around Valentine's day the other two teams will hop in their vans and drive off into the countryside...team London Domination as I like to call us will stay in the city and bounce around from school to school! I'm going to wait to tell you all about my teammates until I know them a little better. I really want to paint an accurate picture for yall...just give me a little bit of time. :)
I can't wait to keep yall posted on everything that is going on with this tour and I really hope that this blog is going to be an effective way of doing that. I never thought I would be a blogger, but I guess I could be worse things!!! Thanks to ALL of you for your support and encouragement...I miss yall already!!!
Dad...stop mentally correcting my grammatical errors.
First of all, I know this is super impersonal to be writing a mass email. However, I'll dive into what has been consuming my time and I'm sure you'll understand!
Second of all, I am SO glad that I made the snap decision to come. Upon my arrival in San Diego, I quickly regretted my decision to dress according to Dallas weather instead of California weather. As I stood outside of the airport waiting for the Invisible Children van to pick me up, I began drowning in a pool of my own sweat. Luckily, Jedidiah and Tiffany from IC picked me up and blasted the air conditioner to help me out. Thank goodness for a vehicle with a working AC. The IC office is only a few minutes from the airport and we went straight there...who needs any rest right? I immediately met all the staff, immediately forgot all of their names, then headed off to be with the Roadies. I was definitely anticipated a diverse group of humans, however, I will say that this group exceeded any expectation I had. We have Australians, New Zealanders (I don't think that's what they're called...but we'll go with it), Scots, Irish, Brits, Canadians, a few from south of the border and of course all of us Americans. There are only a couple other Texans and some roadies have affectionately begun calling me 'Dallas'. I tried a couple of times to say I was from Lubbock, but after blank stares and lots of shrugs, I stuck with Dallas. I guess it works.
At the office, we spend our time doing many things. The bulk of our time this week consists of us researching universities and secondary schools in London (did I mention I'm on the London team?!?!!) and attempting to establish contacts at the schools in order to book a screening. It can be a little interesting calling a school in London and attempting to explain (in my Texas accent) what Invisible Children is and why on earth we are coming to the UK to travel around, but I think they are liking my accent and love when I use the word 'yall'. We have been doing this during the day time, which means that everyone in London is sleeping, so we speak mostly to answering machines. But one night this week the UK roadies are going to have a late-night calling session so we can talk to actual humans...luckily they are letting us sleep in late the next day! Speaking of setting up screenings, if any of you have friends or anyone over in London that could maybe help us set up a screening...I would be forever indebted to you. :) When we're not making phone calls, emailing, or researching, we have training sessions in which a staff member dives into a specific topic and pretty much drills information into our head. For example, our session today was over the complete history of the different programs that IC has begun in Uganda. At the end of the sessions, they will ask questions that audience members could potentially ask and give us a chance to answer them. It's actually been very beneficial for all of us and it's very nice to get used to talking in front of massive quantities of people (there's probably about 70 roadies total). The wonderful thing is, though, that since we are all working for an organization that we believe so confidently in, everyone is very encouraging and has the "we're on the same team" attitude. I have not felt inadequate, despite my arriving a week late, nor have I felt that anyone lacks confidence in my ability to catch up quickly. It has been a very positive environment, and for that I am incredibly thankful...because I am EXHAUSTED!
We work from 9-6 each day (give or take an hour or so), then we come home! Home consists of two houses that are across the street from each other in a town outside of San Diego called La Mesa. In one house are the international roadies (that's me) and the interns who will stay in San Diego and continue work in the office. There's probably 30 of us I would guess. There are 8 girls in my room, 4 sets of bunk beds, but it's actually quite comfortable. And across the street, the rest of the roadies stay! About 50 people living in one house...let's just say I'm glad I'm with the smaller group. It has been so much fun getting to know everyone's background stories and hear their accents. I'm determined to perfect my British accent so my friend Charlie has been helping me with it. She says I'm not too bad, but apparently I sound "too posh"...haha of course...to me that sounds like a wonderful thing!
All of us UK roadies head off to London on Saturday. The whole group, which includes the Ireland/Scotland team, Wales/England team, and the Greater London (me) team, will stay in London in one flat for the next few weeks and continue training and setting up screenings there. Around Valentine's day the other two teams will hop in their vans and drive off into the countryside...team London Domination as I like to call us will stay in the city and bounce around from school to school! I'm going to wait to tell you all about my teammates until I know them a little better. I really want to paint an accurate picture for yall...just give me a little bit of time. :)
I can't wait to keep yall posted on everything that is going on with this tour and I really hope that this blog is going to be an effective way of doing that. I never thought I would be a blogger, but I guess I could be worse things!!! Thanks to ALL of you for your support and encouragement...I miss yall already!!!
Dad...stop mentally correcting my grammatical errors.
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