Australia: Friends at Friends'

Part of the adventure of traveling is the guesswork involved. Where to go? Where to stay? How to meet people? Such questions haunt most travelers, and lead many (though seldom Jan and me!) onto “the road more traveled.” It’s gratifying when, occasionally, our best-made hunches actually pan out!

Jan and I knew we wanted, and needed, to be in Australia for a period of about six weeks. We decided to spend the majority of this time in Hobart, Tasmania—largely because of Quaker connections we hoped to find there. We are not disappointed, either in Hobart (which is an absolute gem of a small city—one of Lonely Planet's "Top Ten Cities"!), or in the connections we’ve made through the Friends’ School (yes, THEY have an apostrophe) and the Friends Meeting on its campus. 

I have attended Meeting the past two Sundays, looking out on lofty Mt. Wellington (named for the original “Iron Duke” and dominating the Hobart landscape), hearing familiar messages of peace, justice and love delivered with a new inflection, and making friends with new Friends over tea.

For three weeks, we’ve lived just a five-minute walk from the Friends’ School (founded in 1887 and today serving more than 1300 students, making it the largest Quaker school in the world, I believe). The new Principal is Nelson File, a Philadelphia-area Quaker who formerly taught at Friends Central but spent most of his career (prior to coming to Hobart in January) at international schools in Delhi and the Middle East.

Nelson welcomed me and gave me at two-hour tour of the campus—actually two campuses that are connected by a footbridge. One reason this school is so large is that some of its students are only six months old! The Friends’ School has an extensive “Early Years” program that runs from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM, five days a week. They also have boarding facilities and a fitness center, open to the public seven days a week, whose slogan is “Be who YOU want to be.” The school motto is “Nemo Sibi Nascitur.” (Mike, isn’t this “Nobody is born for himself”?)  Like CFS they have no entrance exams, and teachers work hard to provide many different ways for students of all ages, interests and abilities to be successful, creative, and kind. 

Also like CFS, students and teachers here are on a first-name basis. Students at the Quaker school in Hobart seem very comfortable in their skins—even as they wear straw hats (to protect them from the sun here in the skin cancer capital of the world) and a variety of uniforms (many of the blazers sporting piping as playful as the kids are). A Grade 5 class of students that Nelson and I visited were deciding (using the Mac that each student is issued) what worthy cause to donate class money to. This is exactly the activity I remember doing with Christel’s advisee group when I subbed for her not long ago!

The teachers I’ve met at Friends’ School Hobart seem exceptionally friendly and down-to-earth (as most Aussies are), and they have an easy sense of humor in the staff room. Quite a number have been here for decades—another similarity between our school communities. Today I met with Tammy Giblin, head of the arts faculty. She has been at Friends’ for 20 years, and I could readily tell that she is a gifted, dedicated, and well-loved teacher. She and her performing arts colleagues are getting ready to put up the big musical they do every two years with older students. This year it will be the Elton John Aida. They do it in downtown Hobart, at the Theatre Royal, Australia’s oldest theater in continuous operation. 

Jan and I loved seeing The Phantom of the Opera there last night. This 1840s theater is a miniature Paris Opera House, and we saw an excellent, full-blown, all-Tasmanian, professional production—with the Friends’ School’s own music teacher beautifully conducting the 30+-piece orchestra.

I talked with Tammy about shows that both our schools have recently done, including Footloose, Bye Bye Birdie, and The Wizard of Oz. She told me about the IB students she works with most closely, in addition to the talented teens who join the cast because they love drama as much as they do science or Australian Rules football, and the dedicated kids who have been in four Theatre Royal productions during their years at Friends’! Clearly, teachers at both our schools take similar delight in nurturing students’ growth in ways that suit individual needs and character.

I gave Tammy and Nelson information about Ariel’s Way, to consider at an appropriate time with their colleagues and students. Both seemed appreciative of what the show is about and of the groundwork that CFS productions put in place. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this play could build a bridge between—or, at least, add an apostrophe to—two school communities who may exist a world apart but whose ways have opened and evolved, over time, such that they occupy similar niches? Like deer and ‘roos, groundhogs and wombats, Friends and Friends’ have survived and thrived in the separate, but related, world each school inhabits.

Australia: "The Sapphires" Sparkles

You may have already seen it. If you have NOT seen it, though, go get it on Netflix, or wherever. Rent it tomorrow. It’s the best film about music I’ve ever seen. Really.

It’s a 2012 Australian film, based on the true story of four aboriginal girls—and their white, hard-drinking, piano-playing manager—who wind up being a huge hit playing for U. S. troops in Vietnam.

The Sapphires is a beautifully made film. It’s got a happy ending, but this movie also has social, emotional, historical, and cultural depth that makes it much more than just a “feel good” experience. Plus, the music is spot-on faithful to the styles of the era—and very well produced and recorded. It's my kind of show!

You will love it, too, I promise, even if you may wish, at moments, for subtitles. Watch for the character named “Hendo” (though this blogger of the sometime-same name was determined NOT to go to Vietnam on his national government’s timetable!).

Check it out: The Sapphires (directed by Wayne Blair, from a stage play by Tony Briggs, and featuring Chris O’Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, and Miranda Tapsell). It will warm your heart, and give you a little taste of the culture in which we're right now so appreciatively immersed.

Australia: Where We Live, and How

Most writers and travelers are thrilled to have an audience. Even Kierkegaard, who imagined his audience as one solitary reader, yearned to be read. Some readers of this blog have asked about my everyday life while traveling. Others have asked for a tone less professorial. This posting responds to both requests; however, the latter request will be honored starting one paragraph AFTER the next.

One of my favorite writers is Henry Thoreau, who boldly thought that his own personal experience of a simple life in the woods might have meaning for others. Both Walden and his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, spill over with everyday details about what Henry did (as well as what he thought). His most interesting writing focuses on choices Thoreau made—month-to-month, day in and day out, minute-by-minute—about the life he led. With Henry Thoreau as my inspiration, I will share more details than you might care to read about where Jan and I have stayed so far, and how we have dealt with life’s necessities.

Read on, dear reader, with indulgence, for I have failed to unravel the mysteries of Japanese and Korean toilet seats; I have learned that the “morning shower” is a culturally conditioned concept, and I have walked through entire apartment rooms devoted primarily to the air-drying of newly washed clothes! Read on, and sense the overwhelming gratitude that a Starbuck’s with free wi-fi can elicit. Watch over my shoulder, for I have pointed at lifelike, 3-D replicas of food to order in a Japanese restaurant! These are the sorts of details that have occupied my attention on this trip, and I fearlessly report them in this blog!

Not counting California and Hawaii, where Jan and I lived in the type of luxury most Americans are accustomed to (except with way better scenery), the “HUG Your Baby International Teaching Tour” is choosing accommodations based on two key principles. First, we choose to be close to the places where Jan (or I) have professional contacts. In Seoul we stayed at a multi-million-dollar (but not yet air-conditioned) high-rise apartment that our host, Dr. Heasook Kim, had recently purchased but had not yet occupied. In Takamatsu, Japan, we lived in one of the six western-style rooms of Kagawa University’s “International House.” (A Starbuck’s, located in the University Hospital, was just a five-minute walk away!)

In Tokyo we stayed in a “semi-double” room in the annex of the Capital Ginza Hotel, just another five-minute walk away from St. Luke’s Hospital and School of Nursing. (The apartment was so small that easygoing, generally drug-free Jim required Xanax to help him settle in!)

In Australia, we first lived in one of the four, small flats that comprise “Friends House,” on the grounds of the Quaker Meeting House in the upscale Toorak neighborhood of Melbourne. In this lovely, rainy city, the odor of Australian “Carpet Fresh” triggered asthmatic reactions for both of us.

Thus, we had to move—and chose a seventeenth-floor, corner apartment (with a fabulous city vista!) and easy access to the loading dock of the giant convention center where Jan was speaking and I was staffing the HUG Your Baby exhibit table.

Now we are in Hobart, fighting the chill, English-style, in a beautiful, brick Victorian house (1908). It’s just a—you guessed it—five-minute walk to the Friends’ School (the largest Quaker school in the world), and an even shorter walk to the wine shop and the grocery store (a Whole Foods ambience on a more compact scale).

Our second principle is to live simply (for persons of our age). We try to fend for ourselves as much as possible.

Changing the drive belt on Jan’s scooter is an example of self-reliance that both Thoreau and our sons would appreciate! (In fact, we tried to "channel" Jon and Dave for this undertaking!) Because the scooter is a necessity, not a convenience, for Jan we confessed to significant anxiety when we first cut the frayed scooter belt. A second trip, to a nearby upholsterer, was needed to repair the scooter's seat, while we waited. (People are universally kind to us when Jan is scooting!)

We have not sought to carry our personal preferences too much with us. (Morning coffee is one exception. Good Internet access is another.) Our focus is on teaching and learning, and recording what we learn and experience. We avail ourselves of public transportation, which is excellent in Japan and Australia. I walk—A LOT—while Jan scoots. My waistline is starting to show the positive effects!

We do sometimes dine out with colleagues, but our rule of thumb is to avoid restaurant meals, for the mot part. We remind ourselves that we’re running a traveler’s marathon—on a budget—with Europe (and its high prices) at the finish line!

We are very happy to find ourselves occupying a spacious apartment in Hobart, enjoying a full kitchen, a warm and sunny sitting room, a spacious bedroom (with a king-sized bed and electric blanket), and a bathroom with plenty of hot water. Plus we have a lovely view of hilly suburbs in the middle distance and mountains beyond. All for $70/day (plus an extra charge for heat, which is why we go around indoors wearing most of the layers we own--some "woolies" bought at a local thrift store). Jan wonders how to do laundry, when we are wearing all the clothes we own!

Hobart is a livable and lively city with beautiful harbor and mountain views. Glorious buildings, from the halcyon days of the British Empire, liberally sprinkle streetscapes. Good food emphasizes local agriculture. Friendly people. No traffic jams. Decent, clean bus service. It's a perfect place to pause and reflect, and to choose what more to share with you, dear reader!

Australia: Our Sister Country

Australia and America are sisters. Their histories chart parallel courses. Seafaring Europeans "discovered" both continents (after each had been inhabited, for many centuries). Settlers, primarily from the British Isles, colonized both lands—and in the process exterminated or isolated native populations that had been settled there since the Stone Age. Abundantly blessed with natural resources, both Australia and America saw their populations surge with land grabs and gold rushes, and both have cities that came of age, architecturally, in the nineteenth century. 

(Victorian and Edwardian buildings remain, for Jan and me, the crowning glory of what was in many ways an ignominious historical period.)

At the dawn of the 21^st century both Oz and US are democratic, multicultural societies, with lots of open spaces, burgeoning local foods movements, and citizens who both value the outdoors and insist on good roads for getting there—and pretty good communications systems for reaching folks who choose to travel or live out there.

Australians like their sports, just as Americans do. Cricket, rugby, and soccer are on TV a lot here—but the big sport (at least in Melbourne, where it was founded in 1859) is Aussie rules football. Athletically, this brand of “footy” is the biggest show on earth! Eighteen players on a side compete inside a giant oval as large, in area, as several soccer fields. The object is to kick the ball through goal posts (there are four of them on each end of the pitch) that tower twice as high as their America counterparts. Kicking, running, passing (by punching the ball), jumping, catching, marking, and teamwork skills are equally emphasized.

No pads are allowed, but tackling is permitted, and solid hits are applauded. (Aussies routinely bemoan the fact that today’s “rules” permit much less roughhousing.) It takes nine refs to manage a professional contest—a game as big and tough as the country itself. At halftime kids take the pitch.

Travelers to Australia quickly learn that this country-continent is a big place, almost as big as the continental US (though its economy is somewhat smaller than California’s).

Australian people look and dress quite like their American sisters and brothers. Not many people of African descent live in Hobart and Melbourne; one sees shades of white and brown rather than of black and white. Australia has its controversial immigration issues, as the US does, but on the whole Australia has been much more welcoming to immigrants than the US has tended to be. Entire television and radio stations are devoted to foreign language programming. The call to prayer can be heard in every city, if you know where to tune in. The current prime minister speaks Chinese, and the previous one was a woman. Not only are Australians more kind and considerate than Americans tend to be, Aussies are also more honest than Americans are about facing their past.

The Australian government has formally apologized to its Aboriginal population for many centuries of brutal policies. Transportation of prisoners (which also happened in the US, but who knows about it?) is openly recognized, as are the sad stories of stolen children and of war orphans shipped across the seas to increase Australia’s population.

Today Australia has a good educational system, an excellent transportation system, and a much better public health system than America’s, by far. Australians can’t believe that Jan and I (two healthy though aging Americans) pay $1250 a month for health insurance. Health care is still, basically, free for Australian citizens. It’s the government’s job! Some people add supplemental, private health insurance (for nicer glasses, better dental care, or shorter waits for a hip replacement), but that only costs a couple hundred bucks a month.

Midwives deliver most babies for a routine cost of, wait for it!...zero dollars per family! But publicly financed benefits don’t stop there. There are national, 24/7 breastfeeding, nursing, men’s, drugs, and counseling hotlines. The better features of civilized life are accepted as natural rights here, and as a result the Australian social safety net is sturdier and, these days, stretches wider than ours.

My working hypothesis is that everyday life so often seems saner and better in Australia primarily because the role of government is conceived differently here. I think the crux of the matter is that in Australia voting is a civic duty; it is compulsory (has been since 1924), as it is in countries as different as Brazil and Singapore (and twenty others).

Elections are held on Saturdays, and if you don’t vote, you’re fined. Four days prior to Election Day a "media blackout" is in effect to prevent unanswered, fraudulent ads. There's no "Swift Boating" here! Australians may complain about the quality of the candidates and the platforms that major parties put forward, but Australian elections are a far cry from the shenanigans I’m hearing about in North Carolina! Aussies can’t believe us. They used to admire us.

A fully enfranchised citizenry doesn’t put up with the games that American politicians (and the wealthy who would sway American elections) play. Perhaps that is why Australia is often at the top of the list of countries whose population is satisfied with their quality of life. Melbourne and Hobart consistently top the list of “most livable” cities in the world. How come?

Political campaigns are short and to the point in Australia. Public health, transportation and education are sufficiently funded, while military expenses are low. Teachers are paid more, and doctors less. Vacation time, parental leave, and reasonable working hours are valued and protected by law. All taxes and fees are included in the price of goods sold. Rupert Murdoch has been taxed offshore. You can’t live here if you’re that greedy! Gun ownership is low, and so is the murder rate. Melbourne’s best baseball player had to go to Oklahoma to get shot in a drive-by homicide.

Australia is an ancient, wide-open, friendly, cultivated, diverse, welcoming place. It’s been a pleasure to be a guest here, and Jan and I regularly pause to wonder why more things of public consequence can’t be done in America the way they are in Australia. Maybe we ought to start by making voting the duty of all, rather than the prerogative of the privileged few, greedy power-grabbers who mistakenly think the rest of us admire them, or should do.