Up with People Cast A 2010 On Tour

Thursday, May 21^st, we had our Show Day in Kayenta in the Navajo Nation. In the morning we set up the stage and prepared everything for our show. After lunch we continued setting up the stage for one hour before we had our rehearsal. In the evening we had a great show. It was very special for the Navajo people because normally they don’t see a show like this in their town.

Friday, May 22^nd, we first had a workshop about global warming. After this it was time for classrooms where we interacted with high school students and taught them our “Stand For Peace” program. At 3 o’clock we performed a backing track show (BTS) for the students. The BTS was great, the students were very much into it, so our last day at the Navajo Nation ended in a powerful way.

Members of Cast A on the Hopi Reservation

Saturday, May 23^rd, we traveled to the Hopi Reservation. Many people of their community showed their talents in traditional singing and dancing to us, which was very amazing. We had a great opportunity to get to know these people. It looked like another world in the US, one that many of us were not aware existed. We also had a tour through one of their small towns. In the evening we had a traditional Hopi dinner which was very delicious.

Sunday, May 24^th, we performed a BTS for the community of Hopi. We were all very pleased to be able to do this for them, because they shared their life and their homes so much with us. The Hopi reservation was a very unique experience for all of us.

-by Andy Nijssen, Belgium

Rowin and Sisa at the military base in San Diego

San Diego may have been a last minute addition to the schedule, but it certainly was a great one!  On Thursday, May 14^th, we started the day with some Community Impact work and a backing track show (BTS).  We had the opportunity to perform at the Bob Hope Theatre at the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar.  American Idol was filmed in that theatre just one week before we performed.  The audience was small but it was a fun show in a great theatre nonetheless. In the afternoon, many of us had the opportunity to tour a KC-130 airplane and talk to several of the Marines while the rest of the cast went on a behind the scenes tour of an aquarium.  It turned out to be a memorable experience for both groups.

On Friday, May 15^th, the cast spent the morning at La Jolla beach.  It was a great break for everyone to relax whether that meant swimming in the ocean, walking around town, or even just sleeping on the beach.  That evening we held a free show for the host families. Saturday brought the opportunity for another performance, but in a very different venue.  We were lucky enough to perform at the world famous San Diego Zoo on the stage where the Sea Lions perform.  It was a very unique experience for all of us.

-by Kristen Eastman, Nebraska, USA

Let me remind you our trip to Mexico was canceled and our new destination was unknown, but like Forrest Gump said,  “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”  So in the scenario we opened our box of cities and out came San Diego, California.

San Diego

I can’t lie, this week was like vacation. Not to say we weren’t busy but no matter what we did it was usually sunny and 70 degrees with a slight refreshing breeze. We spent one full day at Mission Beach surfing and swimming, ending the evening with a beach bonfire and smores. Another day we performed at the world famous San Diego Zoo on the same stage the sea lions had their show right before, which was pretty humorous to see us all dancing hoping no one slipped and fell in the mote that surrounded the stage. After our show at the zoo we had the afternoon off to go see the animals, like the pandas and giraffes, my personal favorites. One of the days there we got to go to the mexican border and have an immigration debate which until now I never understood how important and impactful the issue of immigration really is in America. The same day we had the opportunity to meet foster children and have a discussion panel with them about the foster care system in the USA. It was very eye opening to say the least.

Aafke and Camilla at a baseball game in San Diego

Besides all these days the best day was saved for last. On our day off with our host family, Hans from South Dakota, Aafka from Holland, Camilla from Denmark, and I went to the Cincinnati Reds professional baseball game. it was so cool to see my home team from Cincinnati play in a different city, even though my team didn’t win it was still amazing. After the game we went to a place called ‘The Village’ where there were neat little shops, sailboat rentals, picnics, musicians playing, etc. It was so beautiful and fun, it made me truly sad to leave San Diego, my amazing roommates and host family. But, the journey goes on and it looks like the next piece of chocolate in our box is 107 degrees and called Tucson, Arizona.

-by Alex Lippert, USA

Our first days in San Diego were really nice with time in Balboa Park, a potluck on the beach and free time to enjoy sunny California. The thing that has been most interesting for me is to be so close to the border and learn about the issues there. We visited the Tijuanna Estuary Visitor Center and Border Field State Park. There we met a man from the border patrol who talked with us about border issues and a women from the state park who talked about the environment in the area. It was very interesting to hear and see the big issues with people crossing the border and the tragedy that so many of them die in the desert. When we went out to the border wall, we could stand there and look over to Mexico. It was hard to believe that the situation only a few meters from us was so different.

We continued to talk about immigration during the day and the week and it opened my eyes to the big issues we have in the world and the hard question of who should be allowed to be where.

Tove and Gregor during a mini show at the San Diego Zoo.

On Wednesday we split up in different groups for community service and I was in the group who did a minishow at high school in San Diego. We spent the afternoon and evening on the beach with potluck and a bonfire with our hostfamilies. It was a great time to get to know the hostfamilies more and learn about them.

- by Tove Alsegård, Sweden

Anthony, Alex, Kristen, Tove, Manuel, and Andy at Summer Camp

Cast A spent the last week at the Forest Home Summer Camp, outside of Los Angeles, California.  It was an amazing experience in so many ways!  We all worked on different projects around the camp, from painting and landscaping to remodeling cabins and cleaning facilities.  Everyone in the cast worked really hard and we got much more done than they expected us to!  The staff of the camp have been awesome to us, and have really appreciated our hard work.  They provided a great week for us, the cabins were nice, the food was great and the work was fun and productive.

Alex Vargas watches as fellow cast mates go down the zip-line at camp

This week has been one of the most fun weeks for me ever.  Having some time with the cast has been great, especially after Taiwan.  Being in such a fun and comfortable place made it much easier for us learning that we were not going to Mexico.  We kept our spirits high with all the activities that the camp had to offer.  We did the zip-line, climbing wall, swam in the pool and went for lots of hikes.  We also had a couple of volleyball tournaments, a heated international soccer match and mud wrestling in the camp’s mud pit!  This week has been an absolute blast, we are really looking forward to San Diego, as well as the rest of our tour.

- by Matt Aboussie, USA

Alex and Nouria at a temple

I strut down to the 85 Café, order my usual ‘hi caf-ay’ which means black coffee in Chinese, and buy a rice burger at the 7/11 for lunch. On the way back I dodge a high speed scooter or two, it’s a country where making it to work on time is more important than running over a foreigner, so you have to be alert at all times. My Slovakian roommate Sisa is waiting for me as I get back in then we walk to the street to catch our taxi to take us to the Taichung Catholic School for the Disabled, where we’ll be doing some volunteering with the kids for the day. Its just another morning in Taiwan.

We leave tomorrow and honestly a month ago I assumed I would be ready to leave but now this tiny island feels so much like home its really hard to imagine not waking up and eating breakfast with my non-English speaking family, saying “Nie Hau” instead of “Hello”, and going to the kitchen for dinner not having any clue what the food sitting in front of me is. Of course the challenges were hard, getting lost in the subway station in Taipei, not being able to call my parents, and eating pigs brain weren’t exactly the greatest moments in my life but each experience taught me something new about myself. However, the rewards are countless. That three hour hike and finally reaching the hot springs, seeing my host sister cry after our show in Taipei because of how touched she was by our songs, and seeing the smiles on the kids faces at the disabled school after we painted murals in all the dorm rooms are experiences I will remember my entire life. I am leaving Taiwan with a new family, a totally different perspective of Asain culture, and new knowledge about who I am and what I’m capable of. “Zia-Chen Pang-yao” or See you later, Friend!

Alex's mural for the disabled school

-by Alex Lippert, USA