My bags are packed, and my wings are ready. Nepal is right around the corner. I have an 18 hour layover in Bangkok before I get to Kathmandu on 31 Aug, so Bangkok is gonna get a little Richard Rigby, Jr. for a little while. I have about 100 lbs worth of books, Bibles, paper, pencils, dental supplies, and more to give to the schools and orphanage that Hope & Home sponsors, all courtesy of family and friends. Thank you so very much for all that. I can't wait to give it away. I also want to say a big thank you to all my sponsors out there. I have raised $2,740 of the $3,000 it will cost to make this trip possible. $200 of that has already been spent on English Language and Grammar books for children trying to learn English as a second language, and I plan to help Hope & Home by donating $540 to help the orphanage with whatever needs that they need met. God is so good, and I can't wait to give you guys updates on my experiences over there.

Summer Fun

After a long, hard summer in the caddyshak at Vaquero CC, it was time for some real fun. I threw my bike in Ghost, and we headed out to the Palo Duro Canyon for a night and a morning. It was some sweet biking, and I only had one wipeout. After stumbling across a fellow horned frog, I arrived at the canyon's main event, The Lighthouse Formation.

It was a little too steep for me to climb, so I climbed its neighbor and took in the views. All that hard work was worthy of a good, hearty snack, and fortunately I'm not allergic to tarantulas.

YUM YUM!

Then I said, "So long, Texas!" I crossed the border to see my New Mexican friend, Meg. She's way out in Gallup, which by the way is great place. The people in her neighborhood sleep with their front doors open 'cause it's so safe, and the weather's great. Neither of us went to church that week, so we thought we'd make up for it by making a pilgrimage to the mecca of Gallup, Church Rock. We brought her sick dog, Akaroa (It's KiwiFrench), along, too, hoping for some healing so I wouldn't have to wake up the next morning with her sneezing in my face.

So I said, "So long New Mexico. Here I come Colorado!" I'd never been to this mysterious land before, but doggone-it it's pretty. I met up with my friend Michael and his family in Durango, and we boarded a train to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere, where we headed for the Chicago Basin. And let me tell you, this place is like the Disneyland of Outdoors. Now, I've never been to Disneyland, but I think it has more rocks and waterfalls than Disney World, so I think I hit the nail on the head with that literary tool. I climbed my first 3 14-ers (14k ft.) ever. Now, though many of you out there think I'm an expert when it comes to mountains, I'm not quite there yet (Give it 443 more hours and 23 minutes). But, I must say, the mountains in New Zealand were pristine , but these things in Colorado were like Wild Monsters! They look they don't care whose in their way, they're gonna emerge from the earth and stake their claim whether you like it or not. In more understandable terms, they have big boulders. Anyways, it was an amazing time - Cheers to Haveman Family! Here are some pics...

Welcome to Colorado!

Man those Mtns are Tall!

All aboard!

The Haveman girls!

The beautiful Chicago Basin

Twin Lakes

Sunlight Pinnacles & Mount Windom

All Hail, The Domain of Wind!

Superhero Pose

Sunlight Pinnacles

The view from Mount Eolus

True Cliffhanger

We were trapped

Like I said, those mountains were tall!

Bienvenue!

Welcome to the blog of Richard Rigby, Jr! Most of you are viewing this in response to the fundraising letters that I sent out for my volunteer trip to Nepal. I would first like to say thank you very much for your help. I will try to keep you updated through this blog as often as possible, but frankly, I don't think I'll be able to access the internet all that often because I will be in a remote village. I will try to send postcards to all of you out of appreciation for your prayers and support.

For those of you who aren't caught up, I am leaving August 29 for Nepal to volunteer teach in a village school for at least 2 months. I return November 29, so I will leave the last few weeks to do some exploring on my own. The education system is pretty bad there right now because it is difficult to get teachers in the remote villages, which are many, and government funding for public education is pretty poor. Ergo, I am raising money and collecting goods for the program that I am volunteering with, Hope & Home (http://www.hopenhome.org). These includes goods such as school books (english grammar, math, health, and science), novels, paper, and pens/pencils. The program also sponsors an orphanage, for which I am also collecting dental hygiene goods, clothes, games, and colouring books.

I am extremely excited for this trip. Having grown up doing a lot of world traveling, I am very interested in different cultures. I studied abroad in New Zealand last year, and I honestly knew next to nothing about the home of the All Blacks before I went (only that there was a course named Cape Kidnappers there, which I wrote a poem about. I'll share it with you sometime). It turned out to be possibly the most wonderful experience of my life thus far. Ergo, I am now interested in doing more world travel and immersing myself in other cultures. When the study abroad program took our group to Tonga (South Pacific, next to Fiji) for a week, we visited a school, and I had so much fun with those children, that I feel that volunteer teaching in Nepal would be a great way to spend some time abroad.