Camp Champions Blog

We are very excited to announce that Camp Champions will sponsor a series of youth development seminars this November featuring renowned child psychologist Michael Thompson. Dr. Thompson is the author of New York Times bestseller Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys and is recognized as an international expert and speaker on children's social and emotional growth. Through his work, Dr. Thompson has also become an unapologetic admirer of summer camps!

Fools come in many forms.

I have a lot of pictures to share, so you will get fewer words.

I am not sure what type of blog I want to share, so I will do a three part offering.

We are in the Pokhara airport waiting for our flight to Kathmandu on a dual prop plane.

We are flying Dragonair to Kathmandu.  Our adventure in China has come to a close.

It seems like a great time to summarize my thoughts on this fascinating country.  I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about what to say about China.  I know I cannot find a unifying theme.  Instead, our 24 days here have been a collage of images, thoughts, smells, tastes, sounds and toilet options.

This blog is my effort to share this collage.

Communism

Mao must be flipping in his grave.  China is a Communist country just as surely as I am a kitten.

Here is the evidence.

China embraces entrepreneurship and wealth like few places I have ever seen.  We saw improvised stores, vendors in parks, street guides, knock-off markets and Chinese QVC.  You can buy anything and everything, from huge pearls to beautiful ethnic robes to works of art to Gucci bags.  It is for sale for the person willing to haggle and spend.

Every town is festooned with billboards touting Western brands.  Status is a mobile phone.  Marc Jacobs and Sephora and Estee Lauder are everywhere.  In fact, so is Playboy, though we saw no evidence that they know what that brand signifies.

We saw people lining up to worship at the god of wealth.  We saw idols with coins in their mouths and no tail end (so that the money cannot go out).  We watch Good Morning Asia with a 30 minute segment on investment with two men talking earnestly with glasses of unconsumed wine in front of them.=

Mao remains an icon, but his views no longer hold sway.  Sure, you can buy his Little Red Book almost anywhere, but it is usually next to the chopsticks, throwing stars and samurai swords.

Here is my favorite tidbit on communism: apparently young people are joining the Communist Party . . . for the political and networking connections.  Apparently, becoming a Communist is a great business move for a free market fanatic.

Atheism

This is a tricky one.  Roughly 70% of the Chinese list themselves as atheist.  Communism is atheist by definition.  The Russians were adamant to stomp out religion, destroying sites and banning religious gatherings.  China seemed lukewarm in its abolition.  The Muslim Quarter and its Mosque never missed a beat.  Buddhist and Daoist shrines continued unfettered.  Christianity was discouraged, but not wiped out.

Now, Shanghai gears up for Christmas.  Hong Kong seems to celebrate the season with every opportunity.  Sure, their enthusiasm is clearly driven by the commerce aspects of the season. The moment Thanksgiving ended, the Christmas trees were up and every variety of Christmas decoration available.    Yet there is an odd difference.  The omnipresent Christmas carols are piped from every speaker, but there is a mild difference to American stores – the carols include the religious ones.  Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful and Away in a Manger are the choices, not Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town or (dare I even name it?) Jingle Bell Rock.  I find this interesting.  I understand the fact that US stores are committed to religious inclusion so that they only play secular music.  But why would China embrace the religious songs?  I really do not know.  But it is so odd for a nation that officially repudiates religion.

I will admit that Hong Kong is different from the rest of China, but I saw similar trends in the mainland.

Hong Kong Changed China More than Vice Versa

In 1997, England turned Hong Kong over to China.  The deal was consummated a decade earlier when China was only dabbling with liberalizing its economy. Many people worried that the economic status and vigor that the city-state had developed would be destroyed after its reacquisition.

It seems the opposite happened.

First, the Chinese made several critical decisions.  Hong Kong would have separate laws and government.  It would not adopt the Yuan, but maintain the Hong Kong dollar.  Private companies would remain private.

These policies were not out of kindness, but instead out of a desire for “hard” currency – currencies like the dollar that trade freely and have international value.  In the 1980’s, the Yuan was without international value.  It might be undervalued now, but at least it can be exchanged.  In the 80’s, China needed hard currency if it wanted to buy anything that it did not manufacture itself.

Hong Kong became China’s ATM.  They decided that they liked it.  They then decided to make Shanghai the next Hong Kong.  Deng Xipeng (sp) committed the country to a plan to make the economy freer without providing other freedoms at the same time.

The appetite for dollars remained strong.  In fact, I suspect that the policies that have resulted in China holding over $3 trillion is a result of this hunger for US currency.

Economic Freedom Without Political Freedom

This is a hard phenomenon to comment on.  Many commentators seem to believe that the internet and economic freedom would result inexorably in a deep hunger for great personal freedom.  The protests at Tiannaman Square seem to suggest this.

Yet I am not so sure.  I think that eventually China will need to liberalize politically, but I also think that the Chinese crave monetary success much more than political freedom.  This balance is different from what we see in the West.  They will be willing to trade freedom for success much longer than we ever would.

Four Kids Make Us Fourtunate!

As I have documented, Susie is a star for bearing 80% of a basketball team.  Since China adopted the One Family, One Child policy, large families are simply a marvel. Our large size made us celebrities. Whenever we found ourselves being photographed, we chose to embrace the opportunity to meet new people.  In every city, we engendered smiles and laughs.

I, however, did find the sexism of many of our new friends somewhat annoying.  On several occasions, we had people look at our 2 boys and 2 girls and then say to Susie, “Two boys, you so lucky!”

Grrr.

Old Habits Die Hard

The older Chinese cling to their ways.  They practice their Tai Chi daily.  They still spit enthusiastically.  They seem to be wearing the same outfit today that they wore years ago, but they each seem to adhere to a different look.  Some still wear their Mao shirts.  Others are wearing suits (even on amusement park flume rides).  Perhaps my favorite is the pajamas.  Some Chinese women wear PJs everywhere – Hello Kitty, pandas, whatever.  You can see the younger generation rolling their eyes, but the PJ crew cares not.

This underscores the massive generation gap.  The younger generation talks on their mobile phones while the older set talks while playing cards.  The kids wear Abercrombie and Fitch as they pass veterans in Mao shirts.   One group eats chicken feet as the kids eat KFC.

Personal Space, We Do Not Need Any Personal Space

The Chinese are comfortable being close – really close.   In subways, in queues, in noodle shops, on the street.  They like it close.  We had a trouble modifying our territorial bubbles.  Ultimately, we did OK, but the Sleeper Bus was too much for us.  We just were not ready for a return to the womb.

Uniform Education

We hear a lot about the rigor of Chinese education, but I saw a huge emphasis on uniformity.  To start, every student wears a uniform.

At 8AM every morning, all students in China line up in the same way and perform the same exercise routine to the same recording.

I suspect that this might be one of the reasons they have less civil disobedience.  Duty and respect and conformity have long been hallmarks of Chinese culture.  It is not just a part of the totalitarian regime, it goes back to Confucius.

As a result, you have a people that can accomplish amazing things once they put their collective minds to it (the Great Wall, massive economic growth, leadership in green energy equipment), but it is not well-suited to develop innovative or revolutionary ideas.

Hygiene Might Not Be Their Scene

You are never really prepared to see a 2 year old walk to a bush, squat and (how should I put this) do their business.  And business is good.  The little ones do not have diapers, just pants with slits from the front to the lowest point of the pants to the back of the back waistline.

As adults, the facilities remain oddly foreign.  I have documented the squatters/holes in the ground.  Some of the facilities in the rural areas were simply shocking.  One of our favorite observations is that most of the squatters were built by American Standard.  I just love this.

Ultimately, China has made a huge impact on us, but we are not sure what the impact is.  We loved the people, but I am not sure we understand them.  We have seen beauty that is unmatched next to public incineration pits, squalor and trash.

We have seen communism that is not communism.

We saw a spiritual people in a country with record levels of atheism.

We saw that population control measures transform the way people see the world.

We loved our time here, but it is time to go to Nepal!

Steve Sir

Welcome back to that Baskin Travel Blog.

For any readers that are new to the blog, welcome! I hope to make a daily record of our Crazed Baskin Adventure. I am currently sitting in a plane bound for Beijing, China with my wife Susie, and four children - twin 14 year-old boys Wiley and Liam and daughters Terrill (13) and Virginia (10). We will be in Asia for 11 weeks and then go to New Zealand for 3 weeks.

The family is separated due to the vagaries of the Hainan Airlines reservation system. Susie managed to cajole them into getting she and Virginia next to each other. All of us are in middle seats except for me. I am in a bulkhead aisle only after the realization that my entertainment system was on the fritz.

I think this early and minor adversity will not be an issue. The boys assured us that they would not watch any of the inappropriate movies (Hangover 2? Really?). Of course, the one movie I watched had even the mildest curse words edited out. If they did the same thing to the “Hangover 2” track, I think it will effectively become a Silent Movie.

Back to the blog.

This is not a luxury junket. We will be staying in hostels and riding overnight trains. We will trek in Nepal and have home-stays in Vietnam. In short, we will be acting like college backpackers, except without the luxury.

We finished a similar 8-week trip through Europe. During it, we covered 11 countries and bonded a great deal. If you would like to get a feel for that trip, please feel free to look through the blog archive.

As a sane individual, you might ask why we are doing this.

At times, I wonder the same thing, Here is the main reason.

As camp directors, Susie and I spend our summers with our camp family, full of exceptional teammates, counselors and campers. We, however, do not get to take summer vacations with our own children.

We are thinking of this as a heapin’ helpin’ of summer vacations all linked together.

One day in 2010, we were talking about our lack of summer trips as well as the fact that all 4 kids were switching schools in a year. That led to the idea – lets pull them from school and give them an education through travel. We are now living that experiment.

Before we begin to describe this adventure, it might be worth sharing a few thoughts from the first trip.

Happily, we are still alive and speaking to each other. The former is expected, but the latter is somewhat remarkable to me. I marvel at the positive approach the entire family brought to each leg of our European journey. We spent dozens of hours in a car with 6 people and our luggage. We stayed in apartments the size of a large bedroom. We required teenage boys to wake before noon.

In other words, we were taking some risks. As it turned out, they were all “reasonable risks” (to borrow some Camp Champions parlance). It was not leisurely, but they did not mind, In fact, they developed a healthy approach to the trip: “its travel, not vacation!” I think I want to make a t-shirt that says this.

We learned a great deal, not only about each other, but about history, culture, arts, beauty and kindness. We consistently found people that were helpful and simply nice. I found this a wonderfully encouraging discovery. Sure, everyone was not nice everyday, but on the whole, people seem inclined toward decency.

Of course, I think part of this stems from our deciding to expect people to be positive. Over the years, I have found that people who expect others to be nice are rarely disappointed. Similarly, those that assume the world is full of jerks seem to find jerks just as readily. I am not sure if this is because each group only sees what they expect to see or if they actually bring out the best or worst in others. I suspect that it is a combination. When people approache me with the honest assumption that I am a kind person, I find myself striving to meet their expectations.

In any event, the people we met helped infuse our family with a renewed enthusiasm for not only travel, but humanity as well.

I cannot imagine a better education for them during that 2-month period.

The trip did make our month back in the States a little tricky. After 2 months in Europe with limited technology and full daily agendas, the transition back home was odd. They rediscovered sleeping late as well as the remote control. We did go to our major Texas cities to see our campers and parents, but we had an unusual amount of idle time.

We also found that some of the tensions that had formed in Europe were blossoming in the idleness of Texas. Their tones were getting a bit raw. They found it hard to resist the occasional barb.

You might wonder if this is the right warm-up for a 14 week journey. Susie and I wonder too.

Yet I remain optimistic. I have a basic faith that they will be great travellers and family members once again. Ironically, the kids seem to act better in the face of challenges than in the face of ease. I suspect there is a deep insight in this observation. Perhaps ease is a disease. Perhaps we are meant to strive more than be comfortable. Perhaps it is too late on a long flight to wax philosophical.

We will see as we explore even more foreign environs on this trip. I suspect that the kids will soon say, “this is not vacation or travel, it is an adventure!”

Steve Sir

Hello, Alum!!

I love unexpected surprises.

We went to the Eiffel Tower today.

As a lifelong iconoclast who has eschewed touristy locales, this was a trip I took reluctantly.  I lived in New York for 2 years and never visited the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.  I like the unexpected discoveries rather than the road most traveled.

But my girls wanted to see the Tower and I am more a daddy than I am an iconoclast.

I am glad we went.

I enjoyed the visit not only because it is a ridiculous feat of engineering, but also because I learned a critical lesson.  When you are 46, the lessons come less frequently than when you were a teenager, so I appreciate insight when it happens.

Before I describe my insight, let me share a few interesting facts about the tower.

Gustave Eiffel - A Serious Overachiever

Gustave Eiffel was a bridge builder that won the competition to create the centerpiece of the 1889 Worlds Fair, which was also a celebration of the 100th year since the French Revolution.  One of the designs he beat out - a huge guillotine.  That would have been a bit awkward I think .

In any event, Eiffel was a very focused and intentional individual.  He designed the tower in-house and built the parts in-house as well.  He delivered the Tower on time and under budget.  It was over 1000 feet high.  Prior to its construction, the highest structure in the world was the Washington Monument at roughly 550 feet.  The US had wanted to be the first to 1000 feet, but they were beaten by an entrepreneurial Frenchman.  On the top of the Tower during the Fair, he met with Thomas Edison who was promoting the phonograph.