Saturday, May 18, 2013

Tembagapura... (April 2013)


I like this video.  It's only a little over 3 minutes long (took me like 4 hours and 3 attempts to upload), but it pretty well captures a good flavor of how strange our lives are here:  traveling in and out on helicopters, incredible green rain/cloud forests,  spectacular mountains,  a constant stream of ridiculously large unidentifiable heavy industrial equipment,  groups of Papuans chatting exchanging secrets,  children wandering 'n playing around,  firefighters walking around like they're Rebel X-wing fighter pilots,  my new boss scratching his head...  it's all mixed up and chaotic,  everything is happening simultaneously, overlapping, interacting, disorganized, changing, often sparking conflict.
I wish I could write a poem as good as this video.
I welcome your comments.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The Business Report

As many of you may know, last July I became the proud owner of Adventure-Based International, LLC. (www.adventurebasedinternational.com) This new business venture has only been possible with the support of my hard working and encouraging husband, as well as some funds inherited from Grandma Sangster who passed away April 2012.

Starting in January of this year, ABI was contracted by PTFI to implement adventure team building programs for one particular department. As the owner, operator and sole employee of ABI thus far, I have served as the consultant, program developer, trainer and supervisor for this project.

Once all of the contract negotiations and paperwork were completed and after returning from South Korea in January with a work VISA, I was finally able to "break ground", so to speak, on the project.

First matter of business, getting department heads involved, on board and behind the project:




The Needs Assessment with the department heads was fun, challenging and insightful for all involved!

Next was the program development and facilitator training phase:






The facilitator training included 6 training sessions, trainings for over 11 facilitators and 2 service-learning opportunities where facilitators led adventure team building programs for local teams.

Finally, the bread and butter, implementation of 8 adventure team building sessions for over 120 department employees!





 Currently I am wrapping up the review and reporting phase of the project before heading to Seoul next week for another contract.  With some luck and another work VISA from the Indonesian Embassy in South Korea next month Adventure-Based International, LLC should have another contract to continue training facilitators and implementing programs to more PTFI employees here in Papua!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement as I have stepped out on this journey of owning and operating a business. Stay tuned for more posts from our recent adventures in Northern Sumatra!



Saturday, February 23, 2013

Spinelli Times


 We live in the high jungle of Tembagapura - 7,000ft or 2,000meters - a cloud forest in a deep valley surrounded by mountains and rain, rain, rain. Tropical right? In December we started our vacation by going to the very hot and dry island of Sumba, located southeast of Bali. This is the island where D and I first met in 2001 and where we still have many friends from that time. Then we decide to spend Christmas and New Year in Hilo, Hawaii with the highest recorded rainfall in the 50 united states and very tropical! Finally, we ended our holiday with a taste of winter in South Korea.

Here are some highlights from our week in Sumba with friends:

East Sumba waiting for the rains to come...
Rambu Maru and her son Umbu Daiz. A fun evening of watching and playing badminton and pingpong!

D & Margareta at her husband's tomb in the traditional village of Prailiu, Waingapu.
This is the place and family that I had my homestay experience as a student in 2001.
The children of Puru Kambera village, the nearest village to where the student program was located in 2001.

Rambu Henjang and I wearing the traditional sorongs she made.

        Boiling water and roasting peanuts in Ata's kitchen. Their family home burned down a few                                               months earlier.
Breakfast our last morning with Henjang and Ata. May God's Kingdom come...

Snorkeling off the shore of Pantai Camara Pondok Wisata.

Highlights from Hawaii:


The Spinelli's in Hilo!
Octopus!


Mom and Dad Mitchell snorkeling in Hawaii!

Dave's Birthday Celebrations in Hilo!
Sparkles, YIPPPPEEE!
Thank you Mom & Dad Mitchell!
Climbing Mauna Loa New Year's Day
Brewing up something special for a very special guy!

South Korea:

Leslie: "Dave, what do you want to do for your 40th birthday?"
Dave: "I want to go to the DMZ between North and South Korea!"
                                       
                                                        Here we are at the line between North and South! Very tense indeed!                                                                                                  



Birthday celebrations are really exciting with the Lees in So Korea! 

Friday, February 1, 2013

Sad News...

It is not easy to follow our last blog, be it a very old one. Last week our beloved puppy, Kaus Kaki died suddenly. He had lived a very happy and full 4 months, bringing loads of joy and energy to our home and the lives of many in our community. He is greatly missed and fondly remembered:

Bye little buddy...

Friday, November 2, 2012

New member of Team Spinelli

Team Spinelli just got 50% bigger!  :-)
We are excited to introduce to you...  Kaus Kaki!!!
His name, Kaus Kaki, means "Socks", but don't call him "Socks".  He gets pretty pissed at that.  :-)

Here are some photos if his first day with us!  :)


Our first child!!!   :)

He's doing very well.  :)

And everyone wants to know what "breed" he is.  Ha!  So this is what we give them:



Friday, October 19, 2012

Coming in for a landing...

Every time we do this, either Leslie or I look at the other and say something like,
"What strange lives we lead."

Take a moment and check it out.  This was a crystal clear morning (which is kinda rare) and you can see a glimpse of our house from the air!  :-)  Enjoy.


And here's one earlier in that flight, shortly after take-off.  You can see the stark contrast between the flat jungle of the lowlands (the below video) and the steep mountains of the highlands (the above video).  Check this out: you can see the cockpit and Leslie too!  :-)


"What strange lives we lead."

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Kokonao Village

Last week I had an incredible opportunity to join 7 women on a visit to Kokonao Village and deliver food and school supplies donated by our community here in Tembagapura.  Kokonao is the home of a large dormitory facility run by the Indonesian Catholic church. The dormitory, Sisters, Father and staff provide a safe place to live and go to school for over 140 grade 7 - 9 students from remote villages.

To get to Kokonao we drove via taxi 1+ hours to the port of Timika. From the port we hired a boat to carry us and the supplies 3+ hours along the maze of rivers, out to the Arafura Sea and back to the mangrove rivers before arriving at Kokonao.



Posing outside of the boys dining area. We are NOT camera shy!

A walk to the end of town on the docks of Kokonao.
Some of the local flavor!
Fish heads anyone? Yummy!!! 

Me with the 9th grade class I got to teach English that morning!
Our last night we were entertained by the girls and boys from the dorm and their many talents of dancing and singing
Our group of traveling ladies at the beach nearby.