from Stockton, CA (by Conor)

It took Charlie’s dog, Poppy, a good nights rest curled up beside us, sharing the floor, to finally warm up to us. My sleeping bag felt too nice to leave for the longest time, until Poppy did the job my alarm clock couldn’t do and barked my brain alert from downstairs. It wasn’t long before Josh and I assembled in the kitchen and were met by Charlie, the Dominican Republic Vet we had been staying with, as well as Omar, a foreign exchange student from Yemen. Charlie began making what would turn out to be a delicious egg breakfast, as Josh and I sat and talked to Omar.  Having met him Omar a couple days ago, I was already impressed with the brightness of this high schooler. Our intrigue with the other was apparent, questions rapidly being exchanged back and forth. Omar was curious about soldiers who turned to compassion, not something he saw much of in the middle east. I was curious about how a young man from the middle east viewed the world.

In our conversation, Omar expressed a different kind of nationalism than most of us here in the United States have. “We’re all one people. What your country is doing to the Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan is being done to all of us. We all hate it.” I could certainly understand this viewpoint, I was almost expecting it when I asked, but  wasn‘t sure how he would respond to, “What about the Israeli and Palestinian conflict?” Omar’s constant smile disappeared momentarily when I brought this subject matter up, then simply said, “What the Israelis are doing to the Muslims is very bad.” Looking for more clarification on why he felt this way I asked more about it, and an impassioned Omar told me stories of Palestinians being pushed out of their lands and the tragic shelling of civilian areas of the Gaza strip. I asked if he thought things could change, and received an immediate and sullen, “No, I do not.” Omar went on to express that if his schooling didn‘t end up working out, he would perhaps do the honorable thing and go help fight the Israelis himself. I was a bit worried hearing this from a guy whose constant smile, even during much of this tough subject matter, made him impossible to dislike. It’s almost ironic, this common ground that so many young men in Israel, the Muslim Middle East, and America all share, is a myth handed to them saying that the only violence can solve the problems they face. I hope one day we can all look back together as old men, and chuckle at having been so foolhearty in this shared mindset. Not being able to accept that this young man lacked the imagination to avoid violent conflict, I asked if he thought things would change if the U.S. cut it’s support of Israel’s military. “Yes, that would change everything,” Omar replied, as he began to imagine out load peaceful scenarios where resolution might be possible with this obstacle out of the way. It was good to see Omar doing what I knew so quickly what he was good at, thinking. Omar had many other interesting social observations, as when he told us with bemusement that in Yemen, from the hours of 4-7pm there was no chance of finding anybody school aged indoors, everyone was out having fun and playing sports. Here in America, he admitted, with some disappointment, having already fallen into the American video game trap. To be fair, no one would go out and have fun with him, there were already inside playing video games.

After a nice long breakfast, the conversation turned to trying to compel Omar to come with Charlie, Josh and myself to a cider pressing at Cougar Mountain Farm. Sadly our efforts were to no avail, so with full stomachs, we set off without Omar to Charlie’s truck and Charlie’s truck carried us out to the farm. As we piled out of the truck, there was an intense game of two on two basketball playing out on a dirt court not too far away from a campfire and a porch covered with boxes upon boxes of apples stacked near a small cider press. As we slowly made our way around the group of people there, learning new names and having some nice conversations, Josh and I somehow found ourselves mixed into this backyard ball tournament. I think if Josh knew about my basketball prowess he would have never even entertained the idea of playing with me. He knows about it now though, and I’m sure he won’t play with me again. We lost badly to say the least, but I wasn’t heartbroken, I had apples to be working on. I went back to rinsing apples for the cider, and before long, I was tasting a cider which far surpassed any liquid I had tasted before. I definitely will spend my time with cider rather than basketball in the future. After some mechanical difficulties with the press, we took a break and took a little tour of the Cougar Mountain Farm. Originally formed as a hippie commune in the sixties, the farm was being transformed into a sustainable education center and community. Solar panels powered the house, and a newly plated orchard and a hill side of a wide variety of crops provided the food for the farm and for sale at the local market, and Noah, one of the farm owners, was creating a great permaculture with the farm. It’s always inspiring to see people living out a different life, one that involves care for those around them and the land one lives on. My words couldn’t do such things justice, but I would encourage everyone to go check out a local community or farm built on sustainability and draw in some of this amazing inspiration I was lucky enough to experience here. Checking out The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins might be another inspiring  option if you cant find such a place in your area. But before long, we had to pull ourselves away from our tour of Cougar Mountain.  We needed to make it into Coos Bay that night, and we had used up all of our time.

Charlie giving us the Cougar Mountain tour

Our stay in Coos Bay was short, but we had an amazing time with the people we did meet. While our host was giving us a tour of our place for the night, she put in a CD of lovely music by Lynda Cole, a local artist who happened to stop by almost on cue with the music.  She had an interesting story, and we gladly accepted her invitation to spend some time together the next day. In the morning we met again and Lynda took us to a beautiful coastal arboretum, treating us to our first real view of the coast. Smelling the salt in the ocean breeze finally drove in the point that we had reached the west coast. It was clear on a map we had reached the west for a while now, but I think it takes the ocean exciting one’s senses for that realization to truly sink in. We walked along the coast and around the arboretum discussing the healing power of mindfulness. Lynda had many intriguing ideas to share on the subject, and I was overjoyed to hear she just began an interesting combination of performing her music with mindfulness exercises peacefully performed between songs. After listening to her cd the night before, I imagine the experience to be an amazingly calming journey. After a little while, we parted ways and Josh and I continued on down the coast toward Bandon. Mindfully taking in the smell the ocean the rest of our ride created the feeling of being part of the ocean’s breeze, floating along the coast.

Finally there