The Boys

I am blessed, along with everyone else who knows them, with two wonderful sons. 

My oldest is Brady.  He is 26 and this picture was taken when I visited him in Guyana in South America.  It was November, 2004 and he was in the second year of a two-year commitment to the Peace Corps.  Brady lived on the island of Leguan and taught reading and English to students in the 7th and 8th grades.  Leguan is situated at the mouth of the Essequibo River as it empties into the Atlantic.  The river is 26 miles wide and Leguan is right in the middle.  Imagine riding in a boat 13 miles across a river and only being halfway across.  We don't have rivers like that where I live!  Ours are merely streams by comparison.

Besides teaching, Brady was instrumental in starting a health club at the school which gave the children an opportunity to learn more about staying healthy and avoiding diseases, especially AIDS, which is as much an epidemic in parts of the Caribbean and Latin America as it is in Africa.  And Brady also married his love for basketball with his Peace Corps experience by organizing and leading the successful effort to build a basketball court next to his school.  Go to this link to see the court's construction from beginning to end.  We raised money in the States for the materials and Brady had all the help he could want from his fellow basketballers on Leguan to build the court.

Brady is back now and engaged to be married in May.  He and Alicia are working on a business plan to open a fair trade store in Lawrence, Kansas.  Lawrence is home to the University of Kansas and both Brady and Alicia are graduates.  I will keep you posted on their progress.  I have all the confidence in the world that they will be successful.

The boys are on my mind today (not unusual) because my youngest son, Blake is on his own global excursion this week. 

Blake is 23 now and this picture was taken last May when he graduated from the University of Kansas.  He has been incredibly active at KU.  He served on the Student Senate and ran for Student Body President.  He was not elected, but he and his team ran a spirited campaign and it sure was a lot of fun.  During his college years, he became interested in cooking and worked in a couple of restaurants learning the trade.  Today he works full time at the Lawrence Community Mercantile and continues to learn more and more about making great food.  He has cooked for us and he is learning well.  He has many other interests as well and one is political activism.  And that brings me to his adventure this week.

Blake is in El Salvador for ten days.  He is part of an alternative spring break sponsored through the Ecumenical Christian Ministries on the KU campus.  They arrived last Friday and spent a couple of days in the capital of San Salvador before trekking to the village of El Papaturro where they have been living and working alongside the families of the village.  They have also hiked, gone swimming and played soccer.  And all along the way they have learned more about the struggles that the people of El Salvador have endured and working to understand how such struggles can be avoided in the future.

I base all this off of an itinerary Blake left us as we have not been able to talk to him this week.  I cannot wait to hear his stories and his impressions and I will share them with you down the road.

Thanks for letting a proud Pops brag a bit on his kids.  There is no greater joy in the world than watching your children grow up.

Comments

[Hillary Starbuck]

Brady is the sub for my lit and comp teacher i also had him last semester for criminal justice.
I am in his class right now.
Just wanted to say you did a good job. He is my fav teacher

[brady]

Awww... thanks Hillary. And you are a beautiful, creative spirit. I've enjoyed very much having you in class and getting to know you.

[malicko]

hey Brady how r u just to say hi that was so nice of u to leguan on the net r u still in leguan