Trekkies

(published 5/2/24)

The day after Cat and I left for the Philippines, Jack and Liza went on Trek! It was the first trek for our ward in several years, due to Covid. Cat and her fellow HS grads were invited to participate, since they'd missed the typical time when they would have gone, but Cat and I already had our Philippines trip planned when trek was announced. Cat was disppointed that she couldn't go (especially with Jack and Liza) and I honestly would have loved to go and be a chaperone also, but oh well.

Ironically, Jack and Liza weren't very excited about the prospect of trudging around in the blazing sun wearing Pioneer-ish clothes for the better part of 3 days. But in the end, they absolutely loved it.

The trek began early in the morning on Day 1, meeting at the church at 6:15 for a short devotional, then a drive to Mosida Handcart Trek Site in Elberta, UT (just on the west side of Utah Lake). The group started trekking at about 8:15 and continued for the rest of the day, camped that night, trekked all of Day 2, camped that night, and trekked until 2pm on Day 3, then drove back to Lindon.

You'll see that the trek site had markers posted along the trail, showing where specific areas represented real places along the trail west and explaining what happened in those places, particularly for the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies. There were a few places where the leaders created experiences to help the trekkies appreciate what the Pioneers did. There was a women's pull, helping the young women get a small taste of what it was like for Pioneer women to push and pull handcarts on their own while hundreds of men were away, serving in the Mormon Batallion. And at the end you'll see that they re-enacted the Sweetwater River crossing and rescue (albeit in extreme summer heat instead of a terrible winter storm).

They took breaks for devotionals, dancing, and Pioneer games. A talented cook in our ward made all the meals, and I understand there were no complaints about the food. In fact, I don't remember hearing any complaints about anything. In spite of the sun and heat and bugs and dryness and physical exertion, Jack and Liza both had wonderful experiences.

Liza with her trek family sisters.

Jack ready to go with his trek family.

Women's pull. Liza can be seen on the left of this handcart;
Jack is in the foreground on the right.

Men and boys were given the opportunity to carry female members
of their family across the river. It all started well...

But this is one of my new favorite pictures of Jack and Liza.
I love that they could laugh it off and have fun together.

I know I'm not doing myself any favors by writing about this 9 months after it happened, but I did try to ask them what they remembered and what the highlights were and they didn't have much to say. Luckily, Ben made a video for me while I was in the Philippines, where they talked about their experiences. (I asked him to do that because I knew they wouldn't feel as strongly about it or be as eager to talk about it if I waited to talk to them after I got home from HXP.) 

HXP - Cebu, Philippines (Part 1)

(published 3/26/24)

I got an entire two and a half weeks with Cat! We began our adventure by flying out of SLC on July Fourth, met up with our group in LAX, then all flew together to Taipei, then Cebu, Philippines.

Cat had been planning the trip for about a year and a half. HXP (abbreviation for "Humanitarian Experience") is an LDS-affiliated group that has organized trips for youth to dozens of locations in the US and abroad. Each itinerary includes a significant amount of time dedicated to humanitarian projects benefitting the community, but the youth also have opportunities to connect and bond by enjoying local adventures. There is also a strong faith-building component with group devotionals every morning and night, attending Church and activities with local wards, and a temple trip.

It was so much more than I expected. Truly an incredible experience. It was hard for me to be "on" for two and a half weeks, and try to connect with the youth, and document the entire experience for everyone by taking pictures and posting on Instagram. (That last task was a big part of my job since the youth hand over their phones at the beginning of the trip and Instagram is the only way their family at home knows what they're up to and that they're okay.) BUT I'm so glad I could be there with Cat so that I could experience it all with her and truly understand it.

We arrived in the afternoon and drove straight from the airport to the ferry station.
We took a ferry to Bohol for a weekend of getting to know each other and adventuring.
We spent the first evening at the beach, eating a yummy dinner and just hanging out.

The next morning we went on the excursion that made Cat choose this
location over all the other amazing HXP trips: snorkeling with Whale Sharks!

We took small boats from the beach out maybe 100 yards to floating
platforms where locals were flinging out fish and a few whale sharks
were enjoying a free breakfast at each platform. It was so cool.

After that we had lunch on a boat that looked like a turtle!

We cruised down a scenic river and stopped for a photo op with an indigenous tribe.

And then we tried tinikling for the first time!
It's harder than it looks.

In the afternoon we had a river paddle boarding adventure, with
lots of acrobatics and antics from the youth. It was beautiful and so fun.

The next day we saw the Chocolate Hills.

And walked through a tarsier sanctuary.

We left Bohol for our home base in Cebu on Saturday night.
On Sunday we went to Church, then did ministering visits in the afternoon.

On Sunday evening we decorated our hard hats so we would be
ready for the jobsite in the morning.

Hype to get started! Over the course of the trip we worked at three
different schools in Cebu, building nutrition centers where undernourished
children will get free healthy meals during the school day.

We had a fun FHE activity with the ward on Monday night,
with a devotional taught by Cat and Logan, then games.

There were school children around during the work day, and Cat and the
other youth made some friends, and sometimes the kids even painted with us.

We had SO MUCH RAIN and "Filipinos don't work in the rain," so we didn't
get nearly as much work done as we would have if it'd been sunny. But it was fun.

We had dedicated cooks who brought us a hot lunch every day,
which we ate in an empty classroom at the school.

There were lots of water fights...

Driving back to the home base after a downpour.

Without their phones, the youth had fun hanging out together whenever we
had down time at the house. We spent a lot of time playing card games,
playing basketball, doing hair, and singing/playing guitar.

We visited the local mall and had fun finding souvenirs
(and haggling) in the lower level permanent "market."

Treats at the jobsite! No complaints.

Building up the cinder block walls meant mixing a lot of concrete by hand.

...to be continued in Part 2...