truk rambles

I had a good time helping with Rhodes Cajunfest 2008, held on November 1st. It was an exhausting, long day, which started about 6:30 AM. I didn’t get home until after 3:30 PM, and it was pretty much total work, all the way through.

That’s not to say that we didn’t have fun; actually, we had a blast. Bud Richey, the Rhodes College Assistant VP of College Relations, has organized this event for 4 years now. The was the first year without the assistance of Joby Dion, who was sorely missed.

If you enjoy good, free food before an exciting football game, you could do worse than to watch the Rhodes College homepage next year for the announcement of the time/date of Cajunfest 2009! You might just be able to watch me cook some shrimp…

Thanks to Christina Huntington for the great photo!

Following in the footsteps of last year’s Memphis Walk, in which we treked from the cobblestones at the Mississippi River to the first decent pub we encountered in Collierville, nearly crossing the county in 8 hours of walking, this year we decided to head south. On Saturday, Richie, Robert, and I took off from the cobblestones again, but this time, we headed south, beside the river and then turning inland, down historic Main Street, then down Highway 61 and eventually Elvis Presley Boulevard (Highway 51), ending up in Southaven, Mississippi.

The weather couldn’t have been better. Clear, dry, with lots of sunshine, the sky was a glorious blue bowl, cool in the morning but warming to nearly 70 by mid-afternoon, with a gentle northeastern breeze. After setting out at sunrise, the first few miles passed quickly, as we skirted the river along Riverside Drive and then bounced up bluff to intersect with a deserted Main Street and some coffee at Bluff City Coffee. Our eyes freshly opened, we continued down Main Street, past the Arcade Restaurant, to take a left at Carolina (past the Active Bolt and Screw Company – you’ve got to love that name) and then a right onto 3rd Street, better known as Highway 61.

Highway 61 (also known as the B.B. King Highway) is famous around the world as the road that brought famous delta bluesmen to Memphis and points north, eventually making blues known around the world. Today, a large part of Highway 61 doesn’t betray much of its properous past, but it is still a very interesting road, featuring a liquor store inside of a metal cage, some burned out restaurants, a massive tire dumping ground, teddy bears tied to a pole, the world-renowned Interstate BBQ (mmmm!), and Nonconnah Creek.

Looking for a more direct shot into Mississippi, we wandered through the industrial wasteland that is Brooks Road (before most of the seedy hotels begin), discovering a carriage house from 1891 that has been covered to a bar, a car dealership specializing in tiny, 3-wheeled work vehicles, a sign that randomly simply stated “Thank You,” and a body shop that looked like a converted strip club.

Taking a right and heading south on Highway 51, we quickly entered the home of the cult of Elvis, reaching an apex at the hallowed ground of Graceland, where we dodged tour vans and helped fans snap pictures of themselves at the front gate. Heading further down the road, we entered the surprising prosperous community of Whitehaven, where the busy retail trade resembled anything but a struggling economy. Nearing the edge of Memphis, houses became more recessed from the road, revealing the few remaining spots of agriculture and a kid riding a dirt bike next to an abandoned 98 cent store.

Southaven, Mississippi. was poorer than we imagined, but we still managed to see a few cool things, including a Delorean, a Vixen 21, and a Pacer, as well as a place offering “unclaimed furniture.” Taking a left at Goodman Road, we hiked on toward Interstate 55, searching for a place with a decent pint and a place to get off of our aching feet. After some milling around and directions from guys holding up an advertisement across an intersection and talking to each other on cell phones, we finally happened on the Fox and the House Pub and Restaurant, tucked away in a strip mall behind a larger strip mall, where we sipped Red Ale and watched Ole Miss lose to the #2 team in the nation, Alabama.

All in all, it was a fun and relatively short walk, only taking 5 and a half hours to walk from downtown Memphis to the Mississippi state line. For most of the walk, there were sidewalks, but every convenience for pedestrians basically dried up by the time we entered Southaven. Every person we met along the way, no matter which neighborhood, was friendly to us, and despite some concern about the possibility of encountering abandoned and wild dogs, we only saw 4 dogs the whole day, and each of them wanted nothing to do with us.

This is a walk I can highly recommend. If you live in Memphis and want to take a really interesting trip without really leaving home, you could do far worse than just picking a direction in the city and heading out with some friends. You will gain a completely new perspective, something you just can’t get from a car or a bike, and you might acquire a newer, broadened sense of community and place.

Click here to see more photos from the Memphis Walk South

It has been a busy couple of months, but I’ve been working too hard to have anything decent to write in this space. I tend to lie pretty dormant in the winter, which in Memphis can be mercifully short (usually only 2 months long, or so).

I have been experimenting with a few things worth mentioning, though. One of those is kiva.org, which is a site that allows you to loan money directly to people around the world that need it. The idea is called microcredit, and while it has been around for a long time, what is relatively new is that it is now possible for individuals to easily (via the web) to pool their efforts and loan money directly to other individuals and groups.

Kiva.org has been around a few years now, and while it has gotten a fair amount of press (including a mention in President Bill Clinton’s book Giving), most folks are still unaware that such a thing exists. How does it work? Well, the kiva.org site is full of requests from people all around the world that need a relatively small amount of money loaned to them so that they can expand their business or accomplish a similar short-term goal that will result in them being able to pay back the loan and, hopefully, make their life better and improve their community in the process. After creating an account on kiva.org, you can select the projects you wish to fund through a loan.

In most cases, depending on how much you want to loan, you may be loaning money to an individual or group on the other side of the world in partnership with several other people doing the same thing. For example, the total amount of a loan provided for a person in Ukraine may be $1100, but you may only be putting up $50. You decide how much you want to put up for the loan. A PayPal account is required to provide a loan, as that is how the money is provided for the loan overseas, as well for how it is paid back.

It is important to note that you are not paid any interest for your loan but that interest (about 21%) is charged to the person or group that takes out the loan. All of the interest goes to pay for the Kiva Field Partners, which are the folks on the ground the various countries around the world, investigating the validity of the loan request and facilitating the dispursel and collection of loan money. As the Field Partners have a great motivation to ensure that money is only loaned to people who can pay it back, as it is the only way that the Field Partner makes any money, the repayment rate on the loans is near 100%, meaning that they money that you are loaning is pretty safe. (Like any loan, however, there is a risk that you could lose the entire amount you are loaning. Only loan an amount you can stand losing, if the worst happens.)

Kiva.org isn’t without its critics, but I found the entire process of loaning $50 to a group of Ugandan women, called the Namugongo Group, very straightforward. Through the kiva.org site, the Field Partner will keep me up-to-date with how the loan money is used and let me know when repayments are made, which could take up to a year. By doing this, I am able to personally help make a change in the lives of others half-way around the world, people I’m never likely to meet. I’m also probably not out any money, as it would likely just have set in my PayPal account making a tiny bit of interest. The money will eventually come back to me. And, if I’m lucky, maybe a little karma, too.

I have a lender page set up, where you can find out more about the individuals and groups I choose to fund:

http://www.kiva.org/lender/truk

If anyone reading this is interested in an invitation to join kiva.org, drop me an email through the Contact page. (An invitation is not required to join Kiva, but I will get credit for an invited person actually joining Kiva.)

Kath and I just returned from our annual Christmas road trip, where we visit family living in Cleveland, MS, and Jacksonville, AR. We had a great trip and enjoyed everyone’s company.

It was wonderful to see everyone, even if we only get to see most of the folks once a year.

This was our nephew Jacob’s 2nd Christmas, and now he is really getting into it, ripping into presents (with a little prodding – maybe it seems like something that he would normally get into trouble doing?) and throwing paper like a champ.

View more photos from the Lambert-Pennington Christmas 2007 here

Kath loves birthdays and bowling, so why not combine the two? We had been bowling for Kath’s birthday 5 years before, and it was so much fun the last time that I tried to duplicate the success. Previously, I had thrown her a surprise party, with a good bit of help from our friends. This time, my goal was to throw a reverse surprise party.

What is a “reverse surprise party?” Well, you wouldn’t be the first to ask that question. A reverse surprise party is where, rather than structuring it so that the person being surprised arrives to find their guests already at the location of the festivities, they arrive first and do not expect any guests. The surprise is that the guests actually do arrive, preferably all at once, as a big surprise.

Well, Kath’s party didn’t really live up to what I was hoping. I just found out that the surprise is all in the arrival, and the more grand the arrival, the better the surprise. Because I didn’t give them better directions, Kath’s guests arrived gradually, and the only surprise was wondering who was going to be the next to show up.

Oh, well.

At least the bowling was fun. A good crowd showed up that Sunday afternoon, cake and ice cream was enjoyed by all, and bowling names were picked with earnestness.

And, I’ve got five more years to figure out how to throw a better surprise birthday party.

Click here for more pics of the party