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The Journey to Bombay

Mumbai, India


We arrived in Bombay the night before last. Traveling here was somewhat unusual because of my medical condition... See I had been staying in New York on the upper west side in my cousin Georgia's beautiful apartment for a few days before we were scheduled to leave. It was a wonderful place to get my head and belongings together, hardwood floors, lots of afternoon sun, an overstuffed couch, and a comfy loft bed. I do two things when I am stressed out 1. Grinding my teeth in my sleep, and 2. Go walking in my sleep. I never felt like the sleepwalking could be a serious threat to my health, the worst things that ever happened usually involved waking up in an odd place, like under the coffee table, or in the bathroom. Well, at about 4 AM, on the morning before we were scheduled to fly to India, I ended up walking off of Georgia's 10 foot loft and landing with a crash on my right ankle. Being awoken in this manner was terrifying. I was completely confused and disoriented, and I tried to stand up but found I couldn't. My right ankle was in a lot of pain and I wasn't sure whether I was having a nightmare or not. So I crawled back to up the stairs bed and went back to sleep. I woke up at 7, assured that my injury was not a dream, and promptly began to lose it. There was lots of crying and phone calls to family. After a lot of agonizing, I decided that I had to go on with the trip, with or without the ability to walk. So Katie came over and dressed my ankle, Kristen came over and helped me pack, and then Jerry took us all out to eat and acquire crutches, and then dropped us off at the airport. And I got to ride. In a wheelchair. All the way through security and to the gate. It was honestly the most pleasant experience I've ever had at the airport. The flight was relatively painless, and when we landed I got to ride in another wheelchair all the way out to the parking lot. It was a surreal way to arrive in India people moved out of the way for me, there was much less jostling and shoving then usual.

Our driver decided to take the scenic route to our hotel--through the slums. The whole way he was winding us up in classic Indian taxi-cab driver fashion with the old "You can't trust anyone in India, everyone in India is out to get you, everyone will pretend to be your friend, but they are not your friend, everyone wants your money, you cannot under any circumstances trust anyone in India, except me." I am familiar with this particular song and dance, and while it may become exhaustively annoying after a month or so in country, I actually found it sort of nostalgic and amusing in my jet-lagged state, so i sat in the back of the car and didn't say much.

The slums can be shocking to someone who has never experienced them, especially with western eyes. miles and miles of jumbled-together structures and lean-tos made of materials ranging from tarp and corrugated iron, to cement. Open sewers lined good portions of the road. People slept on the median. This was India at it's most difficult and visceral. I was a little confused as to why our driver would take this particular route to Colaba, Every other time I'd taken a ride to or from the airport we went along marine drive which is actually quite beautiful. At first I thought it was maybe a short cut. Then our driver stopped at a wine shop to get some whiskey, "for after", he assured us. It took us much longer than it should have to get to our hotel--well over an hour, but we finally made it. Poor Kristen was shell-shocked. She had been sitting up front the whole time as we raced through narrow slum-lined streets at 100 km per hour. She'd born the brunt of our driver's paranoia-inducing pitch. She was understandibly frightened and ungrounded. It was an unfortunate intruduction to one of my favorite cities in India--I tried to reassure Kristen and Katie that Bombay was actually an amazing multi-faceted city, that we had only seen one of it's realities. I think they believed me. We tried to sleep at a 10 hr. time difference. We were all exhausted. by genevieve

permalink written by  reedkr29 on October 24, 2008 from Mumbai, India
from the travel blog: You are coming from
tagged In, We, Arrived and Bombay

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The Gateway Corridor, Port Angeles, WA - 5/4/10

Port Angeles, United States




Show number two on the books for the "new and improved" We As Human and MAN was it a COLD one! Unfortunately, we didn't have all of the help that we had at the Panida (GREAT group of helpers by the way! Such a blessing!), so we spent the entire afternoon setting up in the FREEZING cold and rain. We did however meet a few interesting characters throughout the day. The pavilion that we played at was right next to the bus station, so all day long we had people walking past our set to catch their bus. Justin C. (Vocals) and Dave (Bass) had a couple encounters with some dudes who were anything but shy. Just a word to the wise, DON'T ask Dave if you can play his bass! We were, however, able to glean a good amount of knowledge from one particular gentleman who informed us that the sun is a large hydrogen bomb that is continually self refueling. This same gentleman plays every type of music everyday on his 4, 5, and 6 string basses, and a good guitar tone is attainable through a tree, a building, a light post, and a good 4x12 cab (all at once of course). =0)

Port Angeles is neighbors with Sequim, WA (like "Squid" with an "m" instead of a "d") which is the hometown of our very own lead guitarist Justin Forshaw. He really stole the show too I might add! The guys fingers (yes even when freezing cold) are BLAZING FAST!!! He has quite a fanbase in his hometown.

At the end of the day, it was a GREAT show with some GREAT kids! And of course we brought it!

The show was put on by a local church (thanks Ed!) and there were games followed by the concert. Our new friend Bo was a great help and even hung out with us afterwords at the Kokopelli Grill!

Those guys were great for sponsoring us with a free meal after the show! I hope to make it back to P.A. soon! It was SOOOOOO stinkin' pretty!

Also, a HUGE thanks goes out to Justin F.'s friend George for giving us a place to stay for a couple nights. Such a huge blessing!




permalink written by  Jake Jones on May 4, 2010 from Port Angeles, United States
from the travel blog: We As Human Tour/Show Blog, Spring 2010
tagged We, Port, Angeles, Washington, As, Human and Gateway

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Calvary Chapel Youth Room, Spokane, WA - 5/5/10

Spokane, United States


Back to back with Port Angeles, this show OFF THE HOOK! We had some AMAZING pizza which was cooked FRESH in the brick oven just for the youth and bands! We had a blast, and the fans were GREAT!!! There was a great team of people helping out and sponsoring the event.

The group ahead of us were just a great group of dudes called The Avenue. They came PACKING some sweet equipment and instruments.

We were thrilled to play inside again after the previous show in Port Angeles in the cold. I'm sure the van was happy to get a nice little break from the 7 hour drive we endured to get to Spokane!

They had a SWEET green room that allowed us ample space to relax, pray, and enjoy some great snacks. Steve even munched on some peanut m&m's (my favorite) which totally could have gotten him in trouble (he's on weight watchers!). So I took a pic as photographic evidence!

Overall, it was a great show and we were honored to rock some faces and they seemed to be happy to have us!




permalink written by  Jake Jones on May 5, 2010 from Spokane, United States
from the travel blog: We As Human Tour/Show Blog, Spring 2010
tagged Music, We, Spokane, WA, Band, Chapel, Washington, As, Human, Calvary and Show

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Relaxing in Sandpoint, ID - 5/6/10

Sandpoint, United States



So, after a semi-long drive and the show in Spokane, it was nice to just take a day to hang out! Of course we took the time to sleep in, but after getting around we enjoyed a nice lunch at Joel's (AWESOME MEXICAN FOOD!!!) followed by a bike ride through the park and downtown Sandpoint!

Kelly was nice enough to let us use her families vintage bike collection!

Kelly, Dave, Justin F., Josie, and myself quickly hit the beach and discovered some great photo-ops!

The scenery was beautiful, and it was all the better to share with the ones you love!

We hopped back on our bikes and soon found something that was a shock to me! All this time I thought the statue of Liberty was in New York, but BOY was I WRONG! There it was! Right off the beach in Sandpoint Idaho! For some reason, I always thought it was so much bigger!

Our ride took us to a nearby Starbucks (had to re-fule!) and a drive through convenience store. Has ANYONE ever heard of a drive through convenience store?!?! It was a nice relaxing day topped off by my wife's (Josie) wonderful green chili enchiladas and S'mores by the fire! Yes, it was S'morefest 2010, and I was there to enjoy it!

Everyone was nudging closer to the fire as it got later and colder.

Couldn't have asked for a better day off!




permalink written by  Jake Jones on May 6, 2010 from Sandpoint, United States
from the travel blog: We As Human Tour/Show Blog, Spring 2010
tagged We, Sandpoint, Idaho, As, Human and SMores

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The Rock, Bonners Ferry, ID - 5/7/10

Bonners Ferry, United States



After a nice relaxing day, it was back on the road for We As Human! We didn't have to travel too far though. Bonners Ferry is only about 30 minutes from Sandpoint. Upon our arrival, we were surprised to find that our original venue (The Rock) was going to be too small, so we were going to have to play in a big grain storage facility!

At first thought, we were a little bummed. We thought, "who's going to come out to a grain silo in Bonners Ferry to watch a rock concert???" While the fork lifts proceeded to clear out a place for us to set up, we decided we would head out to grab a bite to eat!

Lo and behold, we found the Badger's Den. Complete with wifi, and a TANNING SALON!!! The food was actually pretty good, and we were blessed to enjoy complements of the bands good friend and former bassist, Joey!

After a quick bite, we headed back to the rock where we hung out with the local youth group!

Once the "venue" was cleared of all the grain, we started setting up. Once we started to work, I began to recognize some familiar faces from the show at the Panida in Sandpoint. One of which was Adam. This dude was such a blessing to have help. He even still bore some battle scars from the Panida show. I won't give out many details, but if you pick a fight with a lighting rack, you had better be ready to defend yourself!

It wasn't long before things were ready to go, and the kids started coming... and coming.... and coming some more!

Before we could even realize what was happening, the place was packed with kids who were ready to rock and hear the good news!

The intro rolled, we flipped our amps off standby, and proceeded to rock Bonners Ferry. Tina Marks (the "band mom") showed up and took some GREAT shots of the crew. She's such a blessing.













permalink written by  Jake Jones on May 7, 2010 from Bonners Ferry, United States
from the travel blog: We As Human Tour/Show Blog, Spring 2010
tagged Ferry, We, Idaho, As, Human and Bonners

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Nuart, Moscow, ID - 05/08/10

Moscow, United States


So It's been a while, but there were two more shows to conclude the Spring tour of our 2010 Tour blog. I will keep the posts short and let the pictures do the talking. This was at the Nuart Theater in Moscow, ID. It was us and The Nameless. Fun show. We roamed Main Street before the show and found some hilarious suff!!



permalink written by  Jake Jones on May 8, 2010 from Moscow, United States
from the travel blog: We As Human Tour/Show Blog, Spring 2010
tagged We, Moscow, Band, Idaho, WeAsHuman, As and Human

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