The 1st time scared the heck out of me. To send your 14 year old off and have no communication with him for 3 weeks, it was an exercise for me and for many of the mothers. It was a learning experience in trying to let go to a certain extent and know that they were safe.
He said for the Thai people, #1 in their life is their religion, then it's their family, then it's community. There isn't so much worry about stuff, the way that it is in America. This is a 14 year old talking much wiser than his years. He appreciated the ability they had to be appreciative of everything that they had and be joyful. So when he came back and was getting used to being here again, there was a lot of talk about how spoiled we are and selfish we are and how family and community aren't as integrated into our lives.
I thought it was great. To have him come back and express all of these things, it was moving for me to have him understand, at least for that moment, what was important in life. And it was about family and community. And also to a certain extent a spiritual understanding of the world. That's what so wonderful about the program, it gives the kids an experience of a lifetime and hopefully will influence the way they look at issues in the future. So I'm a strong proponent of it.
I thought it was more important or just as important to travel" than school. "If we all had the opportunity, all of us in the world, to see each other's cultures there would be a different world. We would appreciate each other, have more patience with each other. I don't think there would be war. It sounds simplistic, but I think you really do get a clear understanding of ourself as well as other people when you travel.
To me there's no richer experience in life than travel. So I think it's incredibly important.
Robbie garners an amazing amount of loyalty with the kids that he teaches, that he mentors. And I trust him. I think he's the perfect person for that. It was real stuff, it wasn't book stuff. I was just really impressed with the kind of teaching that Jim Roberts does, and the kind of respect and loyalty that he garners among students.
I know that the city council is extremely dedicated to making sure that the kids' programs are continued. I have serious concerns about it, not necessarily for the real young kids. The 16-23 year olds in this community, we need more support for them. It's sort of a gap time that is really critical to having them feel supported but not smothered, feeling valid. To me that's where we need more work. We need to work hard. We're aware of it. We're doing a youth summit, we're working with the county on that. And it's certainly our intention to work harder, particularly in that age group. Certainly with the Y or CARA, which is the other organization that's formed, we intend to focus on this in terms of the potential of a joint city/county recreation initiative. And we are dedicated to starting that this year. We're trying to figure out how better to serve the needs of that population.
I think that's a bit different and the reason is that it's not a program. What the expedition experience allows in freedom within a community. There's still a net there for them, but there's a lot of freedom. And the kids have to live up to what's expected of them. It's different than 'let's put on a program, and you guys do this.' They're creating it and that's what so special about the Expedition Club, and that's why it is one of the few that really works and the kids are really excited about it and they have to raise money for it—because it is about them. And yeah, we need to take a lead from that kind of program and figure out how other programs for that age group could be delivered and organized." Or expand on Ex club's platform? "Yeah, it's a really good idea. A lot of the kids get excited about that and do it year in and year out. And yet we have a difficult time figuring out what to do in this community. There's always that bond. How to inspire the kids to come together here and do the good work that they're doing. It's not at appealing as flying off to another country. It's a different thing. How can you have that kind of passion about a thing and have it be here? That's the trick. And I don't know the answer.