Mother of the Year??

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my Mother's Day. Well, at least one person thinks I'm a pretty good mom! Check out this hilarious link my friend Joanne sent me. Apparently, as televised recently on CNNBC (whatever station that is), the National Maternity Society has chosen me to be the recipient of their annual "Mother of the Year" award (!) I especially like the tribute from Obama himself. Too funny . . Well I better run - need to finish that how-to book on motherhood.

Servas vs. Couchsurfing: Key Differences

The more I look into Servas, the organization I posted about earlier, the more I like it and the more I see what a good fit this would be for us on our trip. We have now made our application to become members and our interview is Monday evening (June 1st). We'll let you know how it goes.

Here is an article printed from the Servas Canada website. This does an excellent job of explaining some key differences between Servas and The Couchsurfing Project. Our hope is that staying with locals all over the world during our year away will go far in opening the eyes, minds and hearts of our two boys. Speaking for myself, I look forward to a day, way in the future, when I will be retired and jetting all over the world to visit my wanderlust kids. I think that would be great. Anyway, here is the article. Read and enjoy . . .

Paul and Sandi Caplan own and operate a fascinating store, 'Novacks', in London, Ont, selling outdoor, outfitter and travel-related merchandise. Although not (yet) members of Servas, Paul has submitted an article to the Free Press summarizing the differences between Servas and CouchSurfers, a distinction many ‘outsiders’ fail to make. We reproduce most of it here for the reader’s interest and information.

"This article deals with a response to a previous article about "free" accommodation. The local coordinators for Servas were concerned with my statement that the CouchSurfing project was similar to Servas. While there are similarities, both having as their mandate the promotion of tolerance and cultural understanding, it is the differences that distinguish the two.

Servas was founded in 1949 by Bob Luitweiler as a peace movement. It is the desire and intention of Servas to promote peace and understanding between people by providing opportunities for a deeper more personal contact between different cultures. Servas is primarily concerned with the promotion of peace among nations and to this extent Servas International has consultative status as a non-governmental organization with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, with representation at many of the UN’s hubs of activity. The opportunity to host and be hosted is the vehicle used to further the original goal of Servas as a peace movement.

(…) On the other hand CouchSurfing was founded "when Casey Fenton got a cheap ticket to Iceland for a long weekend. With his ticket in hand, there was one problem: he had no place to stay and no desire to book into a hotel for the weekend. So, he came up with the 'brilliant' idea of spamming over 1500 Icelandic students in Reykjavik and asking them if he could crash on one of their couches. After exchanging emails with many of the students, he had several groups of friends offer to show him 'their' Reykjavik. From that point onward, it was all about crashing on exotic couches and cultural exchange. And, thus, the CouchSurfing Project was born."

Initially founded in 2003 to provide "free" accommodation, Couchsurfing has evolved. Its mission statement reads as follows: "CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding." The CouchSurfing website, however, is merely a venue for users to learn about one another and, if they wish, arrange stays with one another. There is no actual membership approved by CouchSurfing. It is a network rather than an organization and as such is not involved in the actual contact between users and therefore, has no control over the conduct of the users.

(To summarize,) the initial intent of Servas and CouchSurfing differs. Servas was founded as a peace movement and that still remains central to the organization. CouchSurfing began when someone wanted an alternative to a hotel and grew to recognize the benefits of cultural openness. Servas, as an organization, takes responsibility for their members by thoroughly interviewing and approving membership. CouchSurfing, as stated, is only a venue for those searching for a "couch" and takes no responsibility for their users. As the oldest hospitality exchange organization, Servas stands on its reputation while the reputation of CouchSurfing is evolving.”

So there you have it. I'm glad I stumbled upon the Servas site in my Internet digging. Should be interesting!

Travel Clinic Finale

We think we have had our last trip to the Travel Clinic. Yeah! The boys certainly don't want to go back. They received their final Hep A & B shots as well as Menactra. Actually all four of us were immunized for meningitis. We will still have to pick up our malaria prescriptions and prescriptions for a broad spectrum antibiotic to bring with us, such as Cipro. We were also shown a kit we could purchase with needles and syringes. Apparently it's a good idea to bring your own sterile needles and what-have-you, in case you ever have to have blood drawn for some reason in a developing country. This was not something I had ever even considered. The kit costs $14.99 so not a big deal. We will probably get one. If we buy it, we won't need it. If we don't buy it, we surely will. Isn't that always the way? So it's a little like insurance I guess.

The nurse also told us about a site called IAMAT, which stands for International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers. This looks quite good. You can pull up a malaria risk chart and see which parts of the world are most affected, that kind of thing. You can also access a database to find an English-speaking doctor in just about any country in the world. That could also be handy. I figure I should learn how to use that so that we never need it.

One really neat thing happened at the final travel clinic appointment and that was that Mitchell discovered a book in the waiting room entitled "The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores and Primates" by Richard D. Estes. Now this book is not really a kid's book. The only pictures are black-and-white line drawings, no glossy action photos of lions or elephants. Nevertheless, he was completely enthralled with this book and could not put it down. His 12th birthday is coming up this week so we have a copy for him, plus his own digital camera. I will have to make sure he doesn't read this blog for the next little while.

Only 8 weeks until we leave. Work is busy, of course, and we are in full swing finishing our basement for our tenants. So it feels like time is moving at warp speed. More updates to come . . .

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all my friends who are moms and, of course, to my own Mom! Where will we be next Mother's Day? Either Japan or Australia I think. Maybe I can dress up like a geisha and my sons will bow to me :)

As Mother's Days go, this one did not start out so well for me. We went to the 9:00am service at church and Jackson was refusing to go to Sunday School. Strange. He's usually fairly go-with-the-flow and does not give us a lot of problems, but he's been a bit more challenging lately. Hopefully just a phase. He told me "you're mean" and ripped off his Sunday School nametag in front of his teacher and threw it in the garbage. Not exactly the Hallmark Mother's Day moment we all want. I said, "you're on your own, kiddo" and left. I asked Ted to pick him up after the service. I sat through the service smarting and blinking back tears and thinking, hmmm maybe we should have spanked him once in awhile when he was younger.

Later at home though, things improved. Checking my e-mail, I discovered a funny electronic Mother's Day card from Mitchell. I should have known. Jackson will do all the crafts and cards they assign in school, but Mitchell doesn't have much of a taste for arts and crafts and these things tend not to ever make their way home. They are spinning somewhere in the orbit of the black hole otherwise known as his desk. A computer card is right up his alley. It was cute, had a corny tune, and contained the words "I love you". Just what I needed.

Then, wonder of all wonders, Jackson cleaned his room completely unprompted. He wanted to show me . . . wow! He said, "from now on I'm going to hang up my clothes when I take them off, so my room stays clean". Oh. My. Goodness!! But wait, it gets better. He pulled out his Jigsaw Jones novel (okay so I use the term "novel" loosely) and started reading it this afternoon. About a half-hour later, he came to find me to show me he is now on chapter 4! And announces he's going to read the whole thing all by himself. He's in Gr. 2 and we've been doing the shared reading thing since the beginning of Gr. 1. Most of the time he balks and says "no you read it, mom". I've been waiting for this day. And to think that it happened on Mother's Day!

And now here's a funny Mother's Day video to make you smile (as long as you don't have two sons, that is) . . .