Travel – Page 9 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

Learning and enjoying the language of dance

Her name is Deb Lysholm, and dance has always been an important part of her life. She learned – and loved – to tap dance as a child. Later, teaching dance classes brought her joy as well as income. Dance became her refuge and her escape during 23 years in a violently abusive marriage. And when she was working to rebuild her shattered life, she started to dream of building and running her own dance studio. Virtually everyone told her she was crazy, and that [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 31st, 2014|Columns, Travel|Comments Off

Cameras and courtesy provide common language

“Un…deux…trois.” English translation: “Say cheese.” That was the context, anyway, one afternoon last week as I stood near the waterfront, smiling and waiting for the woman with the camera to snap the shutter. I was in Barcelona, Spain, at the Mediterranean port where Christopher Columbus launched his journey to the new world. The location was both scenic and historic, and many of the people in the area were tourists taking pictures. I saw a young couple who were taking turns taking photos of each other, [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 24th, 2014|Columns, Respect, Travel|Comments Off

A difficult question, a simple answer

I still have difficulty answering a question that many people have asked me about my trip to Uganda last month: What did I do while I was there? I can list many of my actions and activities. Spending time with the young women in Ki-Mombasa that we are helping to break free from a life of poverty and prostitution. Distributing books, handmade dresses and teddy bears to the children. Speaking to several classes at a Catholic Girls School about discovering and developing their gifts from [...]

By bettyliedtke|September 19th, 2014|Columns, Making a Difference, Travel, Uganda|10 Comments

Bedtime routine is different in Uganda

My bedtime routine during this trip to Uganda: 1. Plug my converter into the outlet and charge my camera battery to be ready for the next day’s photos. 2. Turn on the water heater in my bathroom so there’d be enough hot water for washing up in the morning. 3. Brush my teeth, using bottled water for rinsing my mouth and toothbrush. 4. Pull the mosquito netting down and tuck it in around my bed, leaving an opening big enough for me to crawl through. [...]

By bettyliedtke|September 5th, 2014|Columns, Travel, Uganda|Comments Off

Return from Africa means coming – or going – home

I’ve just returned from my fourth trip to Uganda in the past three years. I’ve gotten to the point where landing at Entebbe Airport makes me feel as though I’m coming home. So much about each trip is different from the others, with different teams, schedules, plans and programs. But so much about each trip is comfortable and familiar. I know that after I retrieve my luggage, I will be greeted and warmly welcomed by people I’ve come to know as family. After hugs and [...]

By bettyliedtke|August 29th, 2014|Columns, Family, Travel, Uganda|4 Comments

A Ugandan dance troupe is coming to heat up Minnesota’s winter

Question: What do you get when you take a few dozen people who live just a bit north of the equator, and drop them off in Minnesota in the middle of January – and a January of record cold to boot? Answer: We’re about to find out. That may sound like the premise for a new reality show or the latest fish-out-of-water movie or sitcom, but it’s not. It’s what is going to happen tomorrow when around 20 members of the Uganda-based Kika Troupe visit [...]

By bettyliedtke|January 17th, 2014|Columns, Travel, Uganda|Comments Off

A weekend road trip leads to Thunder Bay

The bus left Rochester at 5:30 a.m. on Friday. It pulled into Bloomington – where I boarded – at 7:00. After one last stop to pick up a few more people in Duluth, we continued on to our final destination of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Actually, we had one additional stop, a brief one at the border crossing. We didn’t pick up any additional passengers there, but we did impress the Customs agent – or at least made him smile – when we sang the first [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 1st, 2013|Columns, Toastmasters, Travel|Comments Off

Counting the moves, and counting the years

My daughter called the other day. In addition to the things we normally talk about on the phone, she asked if I remembered how old she was when we first moved from the Chicago area – where my husband and I grew up and where both of our kids were born – to Roanoke, Virginia, the first of several moves that eventually landed our family in Minnesota. I couldn’t answer off the top of my head, so I had to stop and do some mental [...]

By bettyliedtke|September 20th, 2013|Columns, Family, Travel|Comments Off

A Lesson from Star Trek

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.” Die-hard Star Trek fans will remember that line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It’s what Spock tells Kirk after exposing himself to deadly radiation while repairing the damaged Starship Enterprise in order to save the ship and the rest of the crew. The flip side comes in the next Star Trek movie, when Kirk and crew violate orders so they can find and rescue Spock. When Spock asks [...]

By bettyliedtke|August 16th, 2013|Columns, Faith, Travel, Uganda, Values|6 Comments

Learning and relearning fills the time in Uganda

Some of the things I learned during this trip to Uganda: How to say “How are you?” “I’m fine,” and “Thank you” in Luo, the language of the Acholi tribe in Northern Uganda; What crocodile meat tastes like (better than boiled goat, in my opinion, but not as good as an ostrich burger); That wading in the Nile River is both humbling and refreshing; That a puppet waving from a bus window can make even stoic police and armed guards smile. Some of the things [...]

By bettyliedtke|August 9th, 2013|Columns, Faith, Family, Travel, Uganda|Comments Off

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