28 February 2008
Des Moines, IA by Dan Rohmiller
Posted by Up With People under: Des Moines-Iowa .
Des Moines, Iowa – our first city to spend an entire week in along the road. It’s hard to find a place to begin because of the huge amount of things we did! But I suppose the natural place to begin anything is just that – in the beginning! So that’s where I’ll start.
We began our trip to Des Moines by crossing the frozen tundra that is mid-winter Iowa. Being a farm boy from just outside Sioux City, Iowa, I was not too surprised by the sharp cold weather that has befriended us ever since we’ve arrived in the Midwest. Even though we were on the bus for most of the day (which was due to the heavy travel on Interstate 80), we still felt the cold air’s prickly bite at our only pit stop. I walked to a nearby gas station, which was only about three hundred feet from the bus, and I thought my face was going to snap off by the time I got there! Brrr! And, as fate would have it, the gas station was closed because of the winter storm the day before! Ahh! But, I was able to slip into an Arby’s next door, which saved my face from a certain doom of frostbite 
A bus ride that should have only taken a few hours turned into seven, and we were all thankful to arrive in Des Moines, Iowa. After our orientation meeting, we all split up to find our host families. I met mine after some tribulation, and myself and my roommate, Ultan Courtney from Ireland, found ourselves in the home of what could be described as a quaint, typical Iowan family. But let me tell you, were they EVER a blast!! It was my host dad Kevin with his wife Phoelisa, and their three children Shawn (9), Kyle (7), and Megan (2). All of their kids were some of the most well-behaved I’ve ever met, but we still had fun. The boys played Wii like they were pro’s, and Megan was just your typical 2 year-old – wide-eyed and happy about everything! Kevin and Phelisa were the easy-going type, great a conversation (which we took advantage of) and even better at hospitality. Ultan and I felt like one of the family.
Cast A spent all of Tuesday working with Kids Against Hunger, a non-profit organization that supplies food to impoverished nations in need. There were about 100 people there working on putting bags of food together – about 80 Up with People people, and 20 other volunteers from the Des Moines area. Our goal was to package 200,000 meals by the end of the day. We met and surpassed that goal – 251,600 meals! I can definitely tell you that the cast was excited and proud of the work we all had accomplished! I myself was right there with my cast in their feelings of elation, but I can tell you that my body was surely tired from it. Standing in one spot for most of the day, hunched over a bin of dried vegetables and vitamin tablets isn’t exactly comfortable. BUT, the end we reached was definitely worth it!
On Wednesday, Cast A took a tour of the Pioneer headquarters in Des Moines, listening to presentations about the international seed company and their role in reducing world hunger. We also got a tour of the laboratories, and got to talk to the scientists that work for the company. It was very interesting! After the tour, most of the cast went out on a cast outing to a roller rink, while the rest of the cast did a promo bit at a Des Moines mall. After all of this, we came back to our meeting place and had dinner, followed by a relaxing karaoke night – a chance to have unstructured socialization with each other. It was definitely welcome!
Thursday brought some Community Involvement for the cast. We conducted some “Stand for Peace” projects in local schools in Des Moines, as well as other work in local non-profits. For those who don’t know, “Stand for Peace” is a program that we do in schools for ages ranging from 8 years all the way to 18. Depending on the class’s age, we do different activities that encourage the students to think about ways they can help make the world a better, more peaceful place. Using an interactive approach, we use these activities to involve the students in the process – they begin to actively think about topics such as respect, power with versus power over, and pro-activity. It was a great experience for me, as it often is with community involvement. It is so rewarding to see a student process such an abstract concept as respect and correlate it was some so concrete as an experience in their life. You really see some of these students getting it – something that often happens at any age level. No matter how much I think I’m ready for anything, I’m always surprised by one student who has a sharp and thoughtful question/answer in a discussion. Sometimes when kids say the darndest things, it’s not funny. It’s insightful.
Friday brought our show day, which included the ever-fun set up process of the stage and rehearsal for the evening show. After all of that, we enjoyed a great performance for Des Moines, and we were able to donate all the proceeds from that show to Kids Against Hunger, which just adds to the great feeling you get from working with the organization earlier in the week. After the show, the cast did a great set strike along with a few interviews of potential students for Up with People. Saturday brought our free day/host family day which most of us used to tour around Des Moines and see some sights. I, personally, was able to check out a large mall and catch a couple movies with some other Up with People people, which definitely made for a relaxing day. Sunday brought heartfelt goodbyes and firm hugs from host families as we waved them away for the journey towards Muscatine, Iowa, the next stop on our tour. Des Moines, though a city constantly filled with busy activities, was nevertheless fun and exciting. And despite the cold weather, the cast has surely become impressed with the hospitality of Iowa – a place some of the international students would never have visited outside of the Up with People program.
Warm regards,
Dan Rohmiller
Sioux City, Iowa, USA