December 1, 2009
Dear Friends:
Empty nest syndrome has finally hit! One indicator is that now that the kids have departed, we are getting serious about fixing up the house. Jessica tells me we shouldn’t talk about renovating while the economy is in the tank and so many are out of work…and she has a point. But my response is that this is simply long-deferred maintenance—it’s only been 21 years--and, besides, we are simply doing our bit in support of the Obama economic stimulus.
But with the kids away, we also appear to have the energy to deal with contractors, choices, and the actual work itself. And have places to temporarily store items needed to be moved out of the affected rooms. Little do Kate and Alex know how much their sacrosanct abodes, for sustained periods in the fall, resembled satellite Smithsonian annexes, filled with two decades’ accumulations of furniture, boxes, and miscellaneous detritus. But the rooms are now clean and the results downstairs appreciated by all: a new kitchen (with room finally to open the stove and the refrigerator at the same time!), painting walls and refinishing floors in the dining and sun rooms, new hallway carpeting, miscellaneous insulation upgrades, and installation of blinds in selected windows. It’s too bad that insulating Kate’s drafty built-in chest of drawers has taken so long—for many winters she had the thrill of putting on cold socks every morning.
Piecemeal renovating is a slippery slope, as experienced renovators well know…fix up one thing, and the room immediately adjacent looks shabby.
So, in spite of ample progress, much work remains to be done.
On that theme, back to the kids. As foreshadowed above, Kate, after three years of post-graduate exploration of professional opportunities, departed in August to pursue a degree in Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is particularly interested in the reference and people side of library science. The University of Texas at Austin had also pursued her, giving her a most difficult decision. Her choice, influenced by both family locus and professional opportunities, has enabled her to visit home and grandmothers regularly while staying financially self-sufficient through an ambitious combination of fellowships, work, and in-state tuition through the Academic Common Market between NC and VA. It’s been a heavy workload, as she balances a full load of classes with jobs, but she has still managed to develop a vibrant social life through the library school and her housemates. We miss her greatly but are glad to have her close.
Alex is currently in his final year at Middlebury, with graduation set for May 2010. He is a Geography and Environmental Studies joint major. One class he took this fall involved a group project drafting an analysis—economic, environmental, etc. -- of the College’s innovative wood chip heating plant. Following his fall 2008 semester in Valdivia, Chile, Alex spent January 2009 traveling in Southern Patagonia—a trip that included visits to the Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine trekking circuits. Some of you may want to add him as a friend on Facebook to see his outstanding, and carefully selected, series of photos of the Patagonian Andes and Tierra del Fuego. Beginning this fall, Alex has been dedicating more and more of his time suffering graduation angst and preparing for life after college, drafting a CV highlighting his impressive GIS skills and employment with Middlebury professors, with a view toward working rather than pursuing grad school, Peace Corps, or the like.
Both kids are concerned about the economy and the uncertain job outlook, but for Kate it’s a year and a half further out.
Meanwhile, Jessica and I have too much work.
Jessica continues leading interdisciplinary teams of World Bank staff and consultants, focusing on land management issues. One project, in Tajikistan, has over five years contributed to 44,000+ families receiving small grants for agricultural and sustainable land management investments in upland areas. In a separate project in the same country, after a slow start, farmland restructuring is finally beginning to accelerate, with over 5,000 families receiving land use certificates in 2009 and thereby gaining more control over farm management. In the neighboring Kyrgyz Republic, as a result of two sequential projects, over 2.7 million properties (92% of all private properties) are now included in an efficient and transparent land and real estate registration system. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, field work on the first country-wide forest inventory since the 1960s has been completed, (more than 60% of the country's land area) and other improvements in forest management and governance systems have been made. A new project is also underway in Bosnia, under which the percentage of the country covered by protected areas and “high-conservation-value forest” has already tripled, from less than 0.6% to about 1.8% (9,200 KM2). Local political turmoil in all three of these countries, and worldwide economic problems, have made efforts this past year even more challenging than normal.
To alleviate her overloaded work program, Jessica "handed over" a sixth project (Kazakhstan forestry) to a new team leader early last year, reducing her portfolio to “only” five projects. Even with this welcome change, she has found she has little time and energy to spare for non-work activities.
Keith continues to manage Bikes for the World, collecting and shipping donated used bikes to support education, health, and employment programs in Africa and Central America. Following record shipments in 2008—10,300 bikes coming in through more than 80 community events and individual pick-ups and drop-offs, going out in 23 distinct overseas container-shipments and smaller location donations—production decreased by about 10 % in 2009. While the economy may have had something to do with it, 2009 may have just been a return to normalcy after an extraordinary 2008, and the program has undoubtedly hit a ceiling without making substantial structural changes, two of which are anticipated in the next couple of weeks—hiring an office manager and setting up an office away from the house, to remove some of the administrative burden from Keith’s shoulders.
Vacations took us in different directions this summer. Kate undertook a solo month in England, staying with family friends and traveling and sightseeing on her own. Remaining family members headed west, starting in the Kootenay Rockies of southeastern British Columbia. We stayed in a delightful B&B (we highly recommend the home-made granola and fresh bread), using it as a base of operations for some wonderful alpine day hikes seasoned with good weather (and preceded each day by challenging drives in our trusty 4WD rental, up windy and cliff-hugging and occasionally washed-out forest roads, to the high-altitude trailheads). For the last three days of the stay, we attended a very sociable multi-generational reunion of alumni of the Argenta Friends School, where Jessica had spent her Junior (and last) year of high school…leading Keith to constantly remind her that she is a ”high school drop-out”.
Following this first week in Canada, we headed southwest crossing the inter-montane desert and the US-Canada border arriving in the dry leeward foothills of the North Cascade Range. Although valley temperatures were in excess of 100 degrees F over the week, trailheads were at much higher elevations and the hiking temperatures tolerable, if we brought ample water.
Travel is an annual theme. Besides the above, Keith attended his 40th year high school reunion, and was honored to have Bikes for the World selected as the class’s service project. He found wrenching on bikes in the rain a great way to catch up and interact with classmates in new ways.
As a family, we spent more and more time at our 88-year-old mothers’ homes, taking advantage of north-south travel bringing Alex to and from Middlebury. Both kids visited their grandmothers independently, and Keith’s mother Jean joined us flying to Florida over Christmas.
Christmas-New Year’s combined two things one should normally not do – driving and snow. The week before Christmas, we drove 1400 miles from Arlington to Orlando FL and back, the week after we drove 1000 miles up to Middlebury and back. We hit the jackpot with snow on both journeys, escaping Arlington plowing through 20 inches of the stuff, and in Middlebury the first weekend of 2010 – where we enjoyed cross-country skiing and seeing a well-prepared community continue operating during its biggest snowstorm ever.
This may have been our last vacation/visit to FL, as Jessica’s sister Bethany’s family is preparing to relocate to the Roanoke VA area. In fact, the extended Mott family appears to be establishing a critical mass in southwestern Virginia. Over the last several years, niece Mary Mott and boyfriend Jake have been living in the Blacksburg area and attending Virginia Tech. Now Bethany has taken a marketing position with a start-up radio station in Roanoke, and husband David and the boys plan to follow after the school year ends in May. Brother Jeremy Mott is now in an assisted living community in Roanoke, suffering from Parkinson’s, and wife Judy will be moving to the area shortly.
Wishing all of you peace and prosperity in 2010,
Keith, Jessica, Kate, and Alex
Dear Friends:
Empty nest syndrome has finally hit! One indicator is that now that the kids have departed, we are getting serious about fixing up the house. Jessica tells me we shouldn’t talk about renovating while the economy is in the tank and so many are out of work…and she has a point. But my response is that this is simply long-deferred maintenance—it’s only been 21 years--and, besides, we are simply doing our bit in support of the Obama economic stimulus.
But with the kids away, we also appear to have the energy to deal with contractors, choices, and the actual work itself. And have places to temporarily store items needed to be moved out of the affected rooms. Little do Kate and Alex know how much their sacrosanct abodes, for sustained periods in the fall, resembled satellite Smithsonian annexes, filled with two decades’ accumulations of furniture, boxes, and miscellaneous detritus. But the rooms are now clean and the results downstairs appreciated by all: a new kitchen (with room finally to open the stove and the refrigerator at the same time!), painting walls and refinishing floors in the dining and sun rooms, new hallway carpeting, miscellaneous insulation upgrades, and installation of blinds in selected windows. It’s too bad that insulating Kate’s drafty built-in chest of drawers has taken so long—for many winters she had the thrill of putting on cold socks every morning.
Piecemeal renovating is a slippery slope, as experienced renovators well know…fix up one thing, and the room immediately adjacent looks shabby.
So, in spite of ample progress, much work remains to be done.
On that theme, back to the kids. As foreshadowed above, Kate, after three years of post-graduate exploration of professional opportunities, departed in August to pursue a degree in Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is particularly interested in the reference and people side of library science. The University of Texas at Austin had also pursued her, giving her a most difficult decision. Her choice, influenced by both family locus and professional opportunities, has enabled her to visit home and grandmothers regularly while staying financially self-sufficient through an ambitious combination of fellowships, work, and in-state tuition through the Academic Common Market between NC and VA. It’s been a heavy workload, as she balances a full load of classes with jobs, but she has still managed to develop a vibrant social life through the library school and her housemates. We miss her greatly but are glad to have her close.
Alex is currently in his final year at Middlebury, with graduation set for May 2010. He is a Geography and Environmental Studies joint major. One class he took this fall involved a group project drafting an analysis—economic, environmental, etc. -- of the College’s innovative wood chip heating plant. Following his fall 2008 semester in Valdivia, Chile, Alex spent January 2009 traveling in Southern Patagonia—a trip that included visits to the Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine trekking circuits. Some of you may want to add him as a friend on Facebook to see his outstanding, and carefully selected, series of photos of the Patagonian Andes and Tierra del Fuego. Beginning this fall, Alex has been dedicating more and more of his time suffering graduation angst and preparing for life after college, drafting a CV highlighting his impressive GIS skills and employment with Middlebury professors, with a view toward working rather than pursuing grad school, Peace Corps, or the like.
Both kids are concerned about the economy and the uncertain job outlook, but for Kate it’s a year and a half further out.
Meanwhile, Jessica and I have too much work.
Jessica continues leading interdisciplinary teams of World Bank staff and consultants, focusing on land management issues. One project, in Tajikistan, has over five years contributed to 44,000+ families receiving small grants for agricultural and sustainable land management investments in upland areas. In a separate project in the same country, after a slow start, farmland restructuring is finally beginning to accelerate, with over 5,000 families receiving land use certificates in 2009 and thereby gaining more control over farm management. In the neighboring Kyrgyz Republic, as a result of two sequential projects, over 2.7 million properties (92% of all private properties) are now included in an efficient and transparent land and real estate registration system. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, field work on the first country-wide forest inventory since the 1960s has been completed, (more than 60% of the country's land area) and other improvements in forest management and governance systems have been made. A new project is also underway in Bosnia, under which the percentage of the country covered by protected areas and “high-conservation-value forest” has already tripled, from less than 0.6% to about 1.8% (9,200 KM2). Local political turmoil in all three of these countries, and worldwide economic problems, have made efforts this past year even more challenging than normal.
To alleviate her overloaded work program, Jessica "handed over" a sixth project (Kazakhstan forestry) to a new team leader early last year, reducing her portfolio to “only” five projects. Even with this welcome change, she has found she has little time and energy to spare for non-work activities.
Keith continues to manage Bikes for the World, collecting and shipping donated used bikes to support education, health, and employment programs in Africa and Central America. Following record shipments in 2008—10,300 bikes coming in through more than 80 community events and individual pick-ups and drop-offs, going out in 23 distinct overseas container-shipments and smaller location donations—production decreased by about 10 % in 2009. While the economy may have had something to do with it, 2009 may have just been a return to normalcy after an extraordinary 2008, and the program has undoubtedly hit a ceiling without making substantial structural changes, two of which are anticipated in the next couple of weeks—hiring an office manager and setting up an office away from the house, to remove some of the administrative burden from Keith’s shoulders.
Vacations took us in different directions this summer. Kate undertook a solo month in England, staying with family friends and traveling and sightseeing on her own. Remaining family members headed west, starting in the Kootenay Rockies of southeastern British Columbia. We stayed in a delightful B&B (we highly recommend the home-made granola and fresh bread), using it as a base of operations for some wonderful alpine day hikes seasoned with good weather (and preceded each day by challenging drives in our trusty 4WD rental, up windy and cliff-hugging and occasionally washed-out forest roads, to the high-altitude trailheads). For the last three days of the stay, we attended a very sociable multi-generational reunion of alumni of the Argenta Friends School, where Jessica had spent her Junior (and last) year of high school…leading Keith to constantly remind her that she is a ”high school drop-out”.
Following this first week in Canada, we headed southwest crossing the inter-montane desert and the US-Canada border arriving in the dry leeward foothills of the North Cascade Range. Although valley temperatures were in excess of 100 degrees F over the week, trailheads were at much higher elevations and the hiking temperatures tolerable, if we brought ample water.
Travel is an annual theme. Besides the above, Keith attended his 40th year high school reunion, and was honored to have Bikes for the World selected as the class’s service project. He found wrenching on bikes in the rain a great way to catch up and interact with classmates in new ways.
As a family, we spent more and more time at our 88-year-old mothers’ homes, taking advantage of north-south travel bringing Alex to and from Middlebury. Both kids visited their grandmothers independently, and Keith’s mother Jean joined us flying to Florida over Christmas.
Christmas-New Year’s combined two things one should normally not do – driving and snow. The week before Christmas, we drove 1400 miles from Arlington to Orlando FL and back, the week after we drove 1000 miles up to Middlebury and back. We hit the jackpot with snow on both journeys, escaping Arlington plowing through 20 inches of the stuff, and in Middlebury the first weekend of 2010 – where we enjoyed cross-country skiing and seeing a well-prepared community continue operating during its biggest snowstorm ever.
This may have been our last vacation/visit to FL, as Jessica’s sister Bethany’s family is preparing to relocate to the Roanoke VA area. In fact, the extended Mott family appears to be establishing a critical mass in southwestern Virginia. Over the last several years, niece Mary Mott and boyfriend Jake have been living in the Blacksburg area and attending Virginia Tech. Now Bethany has taken a marketing position with a start-up radio station in Roanoke, and husband David and the boys plan to follow after the school year ends in May. Brother Jeremy Mott is now in an assisted living community in Roanoke, suffering from Parkinson’s, and wife Judy will be moving to the area shortly.
Wishing all of you peace and prosperity in 2010,
Keith, Jessica, Kate, and Alex
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