I don't know where to begin. This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Over the past 10 weeks/73 days/96 screenings, I have met some incredible people, and was inspired day after day, screening after screening.
Before tour began, I really had no idea what to expect. I had heard some stories, and rumors of great contacts, but still didn't really know what that looked like. But how quickly I learned.
There were many happy times, many times where I almost died from laughing, many inspirational moments, a few sad ones, quite a few frustrating ones, but it's the fantastic ones that stick out to me the most. We spent some of this morning going through all of the amazing people who let us sleep on their floors, couches, and beds, trying to come up with one not as wonderful person, but we were unable to complete that task. Everyone was just too nice to us (not that it is an issue!).
Tour Recap:
We started week 1 in San Diego, and for our first screening, we didn't even have the documentary that we were supposed to have. The high school kids were still all very receptive of the work that we were doing, and were pretty cool to hang out with. Our second screening was with the lovely people over at Invisible Children (who are doing great work themselves!). It was the first time that the documentary had ever been shown, and it was pretty rough, but at the same time amazing, knowing that there was more to come soon! The third and final screening in SD was at the University of San Diego, a chapter school, with some pretty sweet people running the chapter!
From San Diego, we drove 6ish hours overnight to Phoenix, Arizona for an early morning screening at a high school. Those kids were also extremely receptive, and ended up donating a lot of money towards TheHundred. We were told afterward that most of those donations were probably the lunch money of those students. What a sacrifice! Wow. We did quite a few high schools in the Phoenix area that were like that one. The University of Arizona in Tucson was also a good one-- the crowd may have been small, but it was mighty! The 10 people who showed up really cared & were passionate about human rights.
During our time in Arizona, we made a quick trip over to New Mexico to visit my lovely hometown, Los Alamos, where we showed the film at the high school to several history classes throughout the day. I hate to admit it, but my expectations were pretty low going into it, and I was afraid of being disappointed. However, the students at LAHS definitely rose to the occasion! We met some super awesome students, and at lunchtime, four teams were able to raise over $250 for TheHundred! Wow. That night we screened the documentary to my home church, where another small, but mighty crowd showed up. It was really wonderful to see the response from people there!
After heading back to Arizona for a day or two, we drove up to Utah, somewhat overnight, slept in the van at a rest stop, and then finished the drive to arrive at Utah Valley University, where we were greeted with even more amazing people! Who knew the western part of the United States could have so many? (haha) We screened the documentary to a few high schools, as well as Utah State University and University of Utah. We had some crazy times walking around Salt Lake City, and even visited Temple Square.
We then drove up to Twin Falls, Idaho, where we stayed in a farmhouse. It was so much fun! The only downside were the bugs, but we survived them, so I guess it was alright! The people at the church there were super friendly and very generous.
As soon as we finished our last screening in Idaho, we embarked on a loooong overnight drive of 13 hours to get to Canada by noon the next day for a high school screening! We would have made it in time, but were stopped at the border for 2 1/2 hours. It was frustrating at the time, but definitely made for a great story for the remainder of tour. Canada was super sweet... and busy! Jane put her all into booking Vancouver (and she did great)! I only wish I had been able to see more of the city-- but we did get to do some sightseeing. We drove through Stanley Park, saw all sorts of bridges from all sorts of angles (West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Regular Vancouver, Burnaby). It was gorgeous, and I'm definitely going back for a real vacation someday. The people there were pretty cool too. They were understanding when we were late because of our little hold-up at the border, and the people that we met were all super nice & were very interested in what we were doing. Jane's mom fed us a lot (of Korean food, of course), which was delicious!
When our time in Vancouver, BC came to an end, we drove down back into America, had no trouble at the border at all, and then headed into Seattle! Normally (apparently) Seattle is super rainy and miserable, but the weather was really nice pretty much the whole time that we were in the area. We stayed with another Nomad's dad the first night, and while we were there, we played ping pong, pet the chickens, and saw cute pictures from when Caleb was tiny. We had some pretty sweet screenings in WA as well. UW was a fun one, as was Whitworth University (Morgan & Amy are cool people). I'm sure we went a few other places, but they are escaping me at the moment. Pastor John showed us around the culinary side of Seattle (burgers, coffee, ice cream), and then we did a screening for his youth group in Tacoma later in the week.
I took a few days off when we were in Portland, and Sean and Jane did some fun screenings, as well as set up a table at Kollaboration (a showcase for talent among Asian young-people, which happens to be run by one of the co-founders of LiNK). So that was sweet. Oregon seems like quite a blur, but I do remember going to Rogue River HS and University of Oregon, both of which were pretty awesome! We also stayed with a former Nomad, which is always a fun time, listening to crazy tour stories and just having someone who can relate to what we were going through.
From Oregon, we headed back down into California! Northern California & the Bay Area were good to us. We met some really sweet people, and were inspired by the response to the issue, especially at the smaller screenings. One that sticks out in particular was in Mammoth Lakes at the high school there. There were 7 people in the little classroom at the library across from the high school for an after school screening-- but they were all very interested in what we had to say. It was inspiring to see such a small group of people in such a small town that is fairly isolated 10 months out of the year (when it's not ski season) who were so excited about doing something to change the world. Throughout our time in the Northern half of the state, we met person after person who was passionate about the issue, which re-inspired us every time. As our time in Northern California came to a close, we went to one last thing- a benefit concert, where we met some more cool people, including a Christian rapper by the name of Mickey Cho. He was such an inspiration to us, and really got us ready for our time in LA. Sean purchased a CD from Mickey Cho, and he signed it, saying "to LiNK! Awesome working with ya'll! We'll change this world!" Wow. So incredible.
As soon as that concert was over, we drove about 4 1/2 hours to Santa Barbara to spend the night with one of Sean's old roadie friends, Devon. She was so sweet & pretty much forced Jane and I to sleep in her bed, since she knew what our sleeping arrangements were normally like. The next morning, we started our crazy week of 18 screenings! That's almost twice as much as a normal week (who booked that, I wonder...?). But somehow we survived that-- probably with the support and amazing-ness of the people that we met at each of those 18 screenings and lots of coffee. :)
The last three weeks of tour seem like such a blur. I was in charge of booking that portion of tour, so I was busy making contact with everyone, ensuring that the screenings would be the best quality possible, and finding housing every night that made sense so that LA traffic wouldn't kill us each morning (though it did anyway).
Like I have said many times, this tour has left me inspired beyond belief. I would like to thank each and every person we met for making this such a great experience for me. I would also like to thank everyone who donated anything from 1 penny to 1 $2500 check. The West Nomads were able to raise over $16,000 towards TheHundred, meaning we raised the funds for SIX North Korean refugees to be brought out of hiding and relocated to a safe country! How awesome is that? So thank you, Western United States & Canada (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California)!
:)
