My Friends
They're kinda spread all over the world.....I feel lucky to share the same planet.
*Updated: May 2008*
I met Arman Perez here in Cebu in 2007. He is an overall great guy, as well as a dedicated activist and the Cebu Secretary-General and Central Visayas Regional Coordinator of Bayan Muna, a leftist Philippine partylist group.
Read Arman's Multiply blog.
Bea Hanzeli was my clinical instructor during my P.T. internship at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle in 1986. Her high competence coupled with a slightly cynical, humorous take on medicine and life got me hooked, and we've been friends ever since. She finally bought her Seattle dream house several years ago, and seems pretty happy there. Bea and her partner Bruce have been together for...more than ten years now? They always keep me laughing.
Beth Pforr, my mom and friend. She lives in Brentwood, California.
Read her STREETBUZZ INTERVIEW.
Carlos Espinosa. I arrived at Jose Marti Airport in Havana in January 1993 with a big group of activists from the U.S. and saw a little old scraggly-bearded guy in a broken electric scooter, looking a little desperate. We talked and he said he was trying to find somebody who was coming on our plane....but wasn't here now. Anyway, I got his address and Carlos Espinosa from Sacramento became my best friend during my three month stay in Cuba. He was madly in love with all things and people Cubano, and he helped me to survive and understand that incredible place. We kept in touch later; he's simply one of my MAX favorite people of all time (I think a lot people feel that way about Carlos.)
One of them would be Gail Ryall, Carlos' long-time love and best friend. She's a generally wonderful person.
Gail says: "Retired children's librarian, labor history storyteller, activist for peace and workers' rights, delegate from the California Capital Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women to the Sacramento Central Labor Council, and circulator/volunteer journalist for the People's Weekly World (Communist Party.) Still missing my soul-mate Carlos."
Carlos died in August 2004....we both miss him a lot...
Chris Martin: what a moman! She's been a good friend since she let me stay at her apartment at the FOCSA Building in Havana in 1994. She lives in a condominium in University Place, Washington and works as a program developer for Pierce County Community College.
Read Chris's STREETBUZZ INTERVIEW.
I've known Dave Clark since 2001, when we were both staying at McSherry Pension House in downtown Cebu City. Dave has been coming to the Philippines for twenty-odd years. We usually meet up at least a couple times a year when we're both here in Cebu; we just had lunch last week and as usual he had great stories and insightful comments to make about the Philippines.
Read Dave's STREETBUZZ IINTERVIEW.
I became friends with Daymeg Lepiten and Fionah Bojos in 2004 when i made a website for their NGO, PhilMedia (Philippine Center for Media Advocacy.)
Unfortunately, I had a falling out with Daymeg in 2007 while we were trying to work together in a new NGO she started (which failed to materialize.) Well, friendships come and go.
Read Daymeg's Streetbuzz Interview.
I've remained friends with Fionah. She completed law school in 2007 and passed the board exam; as of March 2008 she is a new attorney in the Philippines. Congratulations, Fionah!
Top: Daymeg and Fionah
Bottom: Nikko and Nikki (Daymeg's children.)
Dennis Abarrientos is the Cebu Secretary-General of Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights, a militant human rights organization. Dennis is a tireless and devoted human rights activist as well as a lvoing husband and father. I met Dennis in 2007 when I contacted him about making a website for Karapatan here in Cebu.
Check out his blog, Human Rights Defenders
Don (doesn't want his last name used on the Internet) is my neighbor and good friend here in Cebu. He has lived here about four years and still likes the Philippines. We went to Cambodia together in February 2005. Makes me laugh!
Doug Barnes is a good friend and the most effective activist I've ever known. He's a long-time member of the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), a national socialist-feminist party headquartered in Seattle. I worked with Doug for years in the Seattle-Cuba Friendship Committee. He now works at the Seattle Public Library while continuing as a active FSP member.
I have learned a tremendous amount from Doug, I'm very grateful to be his friend and to have had the opportunity to work with him.
Read Doug's Streetbuzz Interview.
Emelyn Zarate is my longest-term friend in Cebu. We met in 2001 when I would have my regular morning coffee at the Golden Crust Bakeshop on Colon Street, where she worked as a saleslady.
In 2006, she graduated from the University of the Visayas with a Bachelor's degree in Education, then passed the teachers board exam the same year. Now she's living back home in Hilongos, Leyte and working as asubstitutue teacher while she waits to get hired as a regular public school teacher (the bureaucracy is slooooow in da Philippines.)
Emelyn is also waiting for her fiance Dennis to pass his engineering board exam and get hired, so they can get married.
No mere pig mask can disguise the plutonium core that powers Eric Rehm: brilliant scientist, loving dad and husband, committed political activist, enthusiastic kayaker. And he's NOT a joker......
I met Ernst Leuthner here in Cebu in 2001 and we became fast friends, exploring Cebu City together.
Ernst returned to Cebu in 2002 and found Erma. They got married and he brought her home to Austria in 2003. Erma is originally from Bantayan Island off the north end of Cebu Island.
Erma had a cute baby boy, Benjamin, in November 2006. They came back to Cebu in March 2008 and here they are in my house.
Read their Streetbuzz Interview.
Gail Noble-Sanderson and her husband Terry.
Gail is the best supervisor I ever had (Skagit Valley Hospital, 2002 to 2003.) But this human dynamo is so much more than a good "SUPER"visor. In addition to her main job as Director of Rehabilitation Services at Skagit Valley Hospital, she also runs the hospital's Children's Therapy Program, teaches speech pathology part-time at Western Washington University in Bellingham, is producer and host of the Skagit cable television show "HealthQuest TV", and does childcare for two grandaughters one day a week. Oh, and she frequently has time to send me e-mail here in the Philippines. I feel a little dizzy, guess I better lie down fer awhile.
Read Gail's Streetbuzz Interview.
Gary Forbes, my former Java programming teacher and now one of my regular friends here in Cebu. Originally from Phoenix, he settled here about 14 years ago and has been busy teaching and doing computer programming and computer animation, and trying to survive in the harshly competitive world of global software outsourcing. Here's Gary with his "adopted" son NJ, and NJ's mom, Judy.
Gary's website
George Hall and I worked as busboys together at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley in 1972-3. George tried to teach me how to climb, and dragged me up Royal Arches and the Snake Dike on Half Dome (two pretty damn exciting climbs!) George went on to climb the nose on El Capitan, then attended to college, worked as a mainframe programmer at UC Santa Cruz, and got married to Dayoan Rivera. A couple years ago they retired in their mid-fifties to a beautiful cabin in the Northern Sierra Nevada to spend summers smelling alpine wildflowers and winters skiing.
George says: "For 4-6 months of the year, this is how our home looks (yes, all that white stuff in the photo is snow). We ski 1/2 mile from the nearest road to reach our home. We love it!"
Honey Me Navasquez, aka "Princess Gilok" (gilok means ticklish in Bisayan) is my girlfriend. I love her a lot!
She is presently enrolled in the HRM (Hotel and Restaurant Management) program at the University of Cebu and studying hard. Her dream job is to work as a front-desk clerk at a nice resort, either in the Philippines or abroad.
She's also a talented singer.... love songs look out, here comes Honey Me.
Joe Lamantia cashed his first retirement checks from the United States Social Security Administration in 2003 and used the proceeds to move to Central America.
He's currently sharing his life with a hot-blooded 22 year old Nicaraguensa in Grenada, Nicaragua.
Joe continues to publicly rant (on a frequent basis) at the festering herd of malignant jackals inhabiting Washington, D.C.
I met German Johannes Lutz on a pumpboat on the Visayan Sea in 2005.
He came back to the Philippines for an internship and to visit in February 2006, and here he is bravely eating a balut (fertilized duck egg) at my house in Cebu.
He finished a Maser's degree in economics in 2007 and in the same year published his thesis as a book, Opportunities for Global Poverty Reduction / The Role of Policy Makers, Corporations, NGOs, and
Individuals. He's a dynamo!
Johannes is now (2008) working as a Disaster Planning Specialist for World Vision in Singapore.
Larry James and I go back to 1981, when he rented a room in my Bellingham house. Now he's out on Vashon Island building cabinets and using Linux and riding ancient motorcycles.....and he's still with Christie (below, with the sheep.)
.
Larry's website
Lenny Williams and I became friends when we flew from Seattle to San Diego with a load of old computers in 1995. The computers were intended for the Cuban Ministry of Health as part of an INFOMED civil disobedience caravan to challenge the U.S. Government blockade of Cuba.
Lenny piloted a U.S. Army LCM (Landing Craft Mechanized) 60 ft. tank lighter at the Lingayen Gulf landings north of Manila in January 1945, helping to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese. Lenny says: "We were all prepared to land in Japan when they dropped the bomb and ended the war."
Here's Lenny with the roadster at the Bonneville, Utah salt flats in 1954.
After the war Lenny married Gladys, they've been together ever since and have 3 daughters and 4 grandchildren.
Here's Gladys with Lenny's roadster about 1950.
In February 2003 during the lead-up to the Iraq War, Lenny and Will Eickholt came up to Mt. Vernon to visit and stand on an I-5 overpass with "No Iraq War" signs for a couple hours one bitterly cold Saturday.
Will is on the left, Lenny on the right.
Lenny says: "Will and I went to the big demonstration in Seattle Center and I had my photo taken with Jim McDermott."
Lenny's Website
Lenny's Streetbuzz Interview.
Lenny later introduced me to Wenmei Kang, the Chinese woman I worked for in China last year. Lenny has also spent time in China.....amongst many other countries.
In 2008 at age 84, Lenny was downhill skiing at Crystal Mountain and got nailed by a speeding snowboarder. Lenny got a broken femur and hip prosthesis out of the deal. He says he's giving up skiing, but I'm not so sure. It's not like him to give up so easily!
Marcy Bloom and Domenick Dellino:
PERPETUAL LOVEBIRDS....
"We've spent the holiday season the last three years with our friends in Mexico. Someday, we hope to consider retiring there, at least part-time. We're also considering trying to make extended stays in other parts of the world (maybe if we read this on the Internet we'll really believe it and it will happen) Ha!"
"Hey, anyone want to consider a 'house-trade?"
Marcy retired in 2006 from eighteen years as Executive Director of Seattle's Aradia Women's Health Center. " So far she's a busy retiree: writing her book and numerous newspaper and journal articles, working at a nearby animal shelter, taking care of a housefull of demanding cats, and some travel.
Dom "continues to climb the corporate ladder at Washington Mutual (Bank) while leading the Puget Sound chapter of usability professionals and turning his energies to help the Seattle homeless. He still rides his bicycle on a daily basis as if Lance is on his tail. He expects to break his personal records for the 'Chilly Hilly' (33 miles in Feb), 'Reach the Beach' (100 miles in May), and the STP (Seattle to Portland-200 miles in July). Our four cats send Chris all their love and our affection! Chris, we love you! You have to print that too!"
Read Marcy's Streetbuzz Interview.
Read Domenick's Streetbuzz Interview.
Marilou Gallarde is another Filipina dynamo. She's presently teaching in the Social Work Department at the University of the Southern Philippines (USP) here in Cebu City, but that doesn't even begin to explain her life.
Read Marilou's Streetbuzz Interview.
Mary Kwart just (2008) re-connected with me after 30 years.
"After working at Yosemite National Park as a maid and waitperson at the Ahwahnee Hotel (where I met you) I had a thirty year career fighting forest fires with the US Forest Service, National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service in Colorado, Northern Californa and Alaska. I hope to finish the Pacific Crest Trail soon."
"Attached is a photo from my deployment last year for a month to Australia to help fight forest fires. The wombat was rescued from its mom's pouch after she died in a car accident and raised by a local. I was a Situation Unit Leader at Swift's Creek, Victoria, helping gather fire intelligence and making maps."
Mary Miller says: "Pick one. These are from a 3-day backpack trip in 2001 at Glacier Peak. And the next one is from a recent trip on the Main Salmon River.
"I am also sending along this wonderful Barbara Kingsolver quote and wish you a very
happy holiday season and joyful new year."
"Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long
run. The daily work - that goes on, it adds up. It goes into the ground,
into crops, into children's bellies and their bright eyes. Good things don't get lost. ~ the very least you can do in your life is to figure out what
you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire
it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so
simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to
go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither
the destroyers nor the destroyed. That's about it. Right now I'm living in
that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides."
~ Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
Michael Driis is my neighbor here in Cebu City. I met him this year (2008) and we've been doing a lot of "soroy-soroy" (strolling) together lately. He's really the first guy I've met here who enjoys just wandering around aimlessly in different neighborhoods the way I do, so we have a great time. A Danish expat and great guy!
I met Nia Roesli on a mail-order bride site in 1998. I visited her at home in Java, Indonesia, in 1999.
She's now married with two kids.
L: Nia and husband Dennis.
R: Daughters Asia and Ashlee.
Pam Barton and I became friends in Seattle in 1985 when I was starting P.T. school in Seattle. At the time, she was still trying to decide what to do with her life.
Later she moved to New York, graduated from medical school and became a doctor, got married, had a son, and is now living happily with her family in New Jersey. WOW!
People for a Peaceable Planet (Peaceniks in the Skagit Valley.)
In 2003 we weren't able to stop the Iraq War from happening, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
As of April 2008, the group is still actively working for peace. They have a radio show and they are on the web here:
PPPlanet
Ruth Pelz rides her bike to work at the Burke Museum in Seattle almost every day, just as she has for the past 10 years.
Activist, artist, baker, bicyclist, cross-country-skier, gardener, hiker, kayaker, swimmer, traveler, visiting scholar hostess....Ruth, I'm always in awe of you.
(Left): Therese Ogle "with her energetic 7-year old Riley in November 2004. "She tries to remember to kiss her partner John first, when she returns from a trip, but Riley usually wins. Several weeks after this picture Riley lost his battle with bone cancer. Therese and John buried him at their beach cabin on a grey rainy day he would have loved."
(Below): Therese, John and Roby, Christmas 2007.
Todd Jacobs was my first tenant/roomate at my 719 NW 90th Street house in Seattle. He tolerated me for 4 years! Now he's in Shoreline with his partner Lynn and their daughter Molly.
Transportation and urban planning, Thelonius Monk, big speakers, storage lockers, Grand Junction, Canyonlands, creative play with cute and demanding 8-year olds, and IDEAS!
Tom Warner: It's almost impossible to describe Tom; perhaps most significantly he's a deeply passionate long-time Seattle revolutionary activist. I worked with him for years in Seattle, first in mutual support of the Sandinista revolution in Nicargua and then doing Cuba solidarity work.
Read Tom's Streetbuzz Interview.
Violet Jandayan from Candijay, Bohol. She's one of my best friends in the Philippines.
I've watched Violet search for the right guy and the right job and the right place to live for the past couple years, and I'm happy to report that she has found herself a great gig: she is managing a small bar / restaurant in the beach town of Alcoy, about 100 km. south of Cebu City. The resort owner hired her and turned the small business over to her just before he left for his annual sojourn back to Germany several months ago, and so far she is really making a go of it. I'm so proud of her.
She hasn't found the right guy yet... but with her beauty and incredible attitude, I feel confident she will.
(Left) Wenmei Kang runs a private business, New Universe Translation Corporation, in Kunming, China. Lenny Williams introduced me to Wenmei via e-mail, and then she hired me to do piece-work proofreading of translations when I went to Kunming in April 2004. Wenmei is an absolute dynamo, deftly juggling numerous enterpreneurial balls simultaneously. She's also good to her staff and has a very bright son, Kevin. Wenmei was a gracious and generous host and employer to me during my stay in Kunming. Wenmei at work (Below) Wenmei with her parents at her mom's birthday party.
Will Eickholt, activist man-o'-the-sea. Will held some kind of distinction for having had his 40-foot sailboat "Hatuey" confiscated by the US Coast Guard and US Treasury Department after illegally using it to transport donated powdered milk to Cuba in violation of the "Trading with the Enemy Act." After about two years of harassment by the Federal Government, Will eventually got his boat back. Here's Will (right, smoking a $40 Cuban cigar) with Lenny Williams (left) in Mariel Hemingway Marina near Havana in 1997.
Will passed away in February 2008.