Dick Burkhart and Mona Lee retired recently, but they won’t be resting in their rocking chairs. This married couple from Seattle will be bicycling around-the-world. They call it “Bike for Global Democracy”.   Click here for bios of the intrepid bikers and the purpose of their journey. 

The first trip took them up the East Coast.  The second was to India  For their third trip, they have taken their tandem bike to Brazil.

The following is Mona's first report.

Date: Thursday, December 30, 2004 06:33 pm
 
TRAVELING IN BRAZIL
WITH POUCO EXPECTATIONS AND MUITO JOY

We have only been in Brazil for two days so far, but my initial  reactions are joyous. That´s partly because this is such a great place and partly because, just before leaving Seattle,  I took the Art of Living Course at the University Heights Center.  The first thing they taught us was not to have expectations.  The instructor pointed out that, "Expectations take the joy out of life." So, for instance I didn´t necessarily expect our luggage to arrive on the plane with us.  After all, on a former trip to South Africa, my suitcase was five days late.

Continue with Brazil Report No. One

Report No. 2

Date: Monday, January 10, 2005 09:49 pm

A BETTER WORLD ALREADY EXISTS;
BIKING THE COAST OF SANTA CATARINA, BRAZIL

My husband, Dick Burkhart and I are traveling the southeast coastline of Brazil. Our mode of transportaion is a tandem bicycle, designed to be disassembled, packed in a suitcase, and taken by plane, bus, or train to wherever we want to go. When we get there, Dick reassembles the bike. Then we press all our stuff in the suitcase, which we pull behind the bike as a trailer. Our goal is to circumnavigate the globe (more or less) this way in a series of trips to promote the Earth Charter and global democracy. We talk to people and hand out brochures to popularize the idea of an elected world parliament.

We began this trip by flying to the city of Curitiba, the subject of my last week´s column. From there we took a tourist train through the verdant tropical coast range. The train went through tunnels, along the edges of cliffs and through dense forests abloom with red impatiens and purple hydranga bushes, wild and tall as the greatest pink rhodies of Washington State. Arriving at the coastal town of Paranagua in the State of Parana, we took a boat over to hike on the car-free Island Do Mel. This is your definition of a tropical paradise where, from a lighthouse promontory, we looked out over surf rolling into sandy beaches and lush green mountains rising up on all sides. If this landscape is starting to sound like Washington State, keep in mind that you must add about twenty or thirty degrees to an average summer day and hold that temperature throughout the night as gentle, warm breezes drift in off the ocean.

I was immediately charmed with how much the town of Paranagua reminded me of Germany, where I lived for six years back in the seventies. Old stone buildings with arched windows lined its cobblestone streets and promenade along the beach. A busy pedestrian foot bridge took us to a small island neighborhood of modest well-kept houses with shrubs and small garden plots. No cars were allowed. Venturing into a Paranagua side-street, we chanced to observe first hand evidence of a religious trend we had read about in the guide book. Evangelical Protestantism is reportedly on the rise even as Catholicism, Brazil´s once dominant faith, dies on the vine. Sure enough, an old colonial Catholic church across from our hotel was falling into ruin with weeds and shrubs growing in the cracks high in its crumbling walls. On the other hand, a Protestant store-front church half a block away was gearing up for a big performance. It was located in a former movie theatre equipped for light shows and amplified rock music. The front wall was painted sky-blue with clouds ready to display lighting effects simulating heavenly bliss. Maybe it pays to keep up with the times.

After we mounted our steed and headed down the coast roads into gorgeous Santa Catarina, I soon dubbed that state with two titles, the Vermont of Brazil, and the Germany of the Americas. There seems to be an unwritten zoning ordnance, or perhaps even a divine commandment in these places: Thou shalt not uglify Vermont / Thou shalt not uglify Santa Catarina / Thou shalt not uglify the Fatherland. Even factories and junk yards manage to look nice in Vermont and Santa Catarina. Attractive stone walls mask car body parts and industrial materials arranged in orderly rows.

We soon concluded that this southerly part of Brazil is by no means a "developing" or "third world" sort of place. In fact, it looks more prosperous than many parts of the United States. It has its own distinctive character, more reflective of European style prosperity than a culture of poverty such as India, where we biked last year. In fact, Santa Catarina is reportedly the most prosperous and egalitarian part of Brazil, perhaps of all South American. This is attributed to the fact that the area never experienced colonial style Portuguese settlement with plantations or slavery. Instead it was founded by German small family farmers, so there were never large land holdings.

This pattern of more equitable wealth distribution persists into the twenty-first century. Brazil´s European cultural attitudes are reflected in the way people react to the sight of our long bike-rig humming down the road. In India, for instance, people viewed an older couple traveling by "double cycle" with shock and wonder. When we handed them literature explaining that we are biking for a cause, they saw us as pilgrims on a mission of sacrifice.

By contrast, Brizilians react with thumbs up and comprehending smiles. After all, everyone else is out finding fun in some way or other, surfing, hang gliding, beach combing. They just figure we´ve discovered another great way to have fun. Why would we need an excuse? Fun, after all, is the meaning of life. Besides lush, green hills rising from expanses of shining water, its landscape a natural tropical garden, Santa Catarina brings back memories of the six years I lived in Germany back in the seventies. Its houses are mostly modern style brick covered with smooth white stucco. The pink tile roof tops enliven the towns and villages clustered along beaches or climbing the green hills beyond.

My Germany nostalgia was strongest on January 7, the day before my 66th birthday in the town of Barra Velha where we stayed in a friendly guest house near the beach. After playing in the surf for a long time and getting plastered with sand and sea weed, we sat on the beach and watched beady-eyed sand crabs scurry in and out of their holes and scuttle swiftly sideways across the sand. Teenaged boys on surfboards bounced hither and yon over the waves while little girls in colorful bikinis bobbed about on yellow plastic inner tubes. I felt like six instead of sixty-six.

The biking has been pretty good too. We´ve had to make hard choices between older road systems paved mostly with bumpy hexagonal paving stones as opposed to modern Brazilian freeways. Old roads take us close to life in the towns but leave us with sore rumps and flat tires. However, even though we would never willingly bike on a U.S. freeway, Brazilian ones are a pleasure. They have wide smoothly paved shoulders and spectacular views of the country side. Yet they are often not cluttered with too many signs or shoddy development. I can sit comfortably on the back of the moving bike and snap photos as we pedal along.

Best of all are the truck stops, gas stations and mini-marts beside the freeways. These establishments, like most of Santa Catarina, are amazingly clean and attractive. People come up to us and start speaking in rapid Portuguese. Fortunately, our old brains have been boning up rapidly with the help of a little work-book entitled, "Portuguese in Ten Minutes a Day". So we are able to explain ourselves in simple terms to people´s satisfaction. After all, the questions are fairly predictable from one country to the next. Folks want to know what country we´re from, where we´re going, how many kilometers we bike per day, how old we are, etc. This gives up plenty of opportunity to joyfully connect with Brazilians who pride themselves on being the most friendly people in the world. We always hand out our "Bike for Global Democracy" brochures translated into Portuguese.

We are now holding over for a few days in Florianapolis, a city living up to its name ,which means metropolis of flowers. Our host is a magnanimous young lover of life named Ricardo Oehling. He is a member of Servas, an organization of peace activists who provide homestays for one another traveling about the world. We are grateful to Ricardo and the people of Brazil for welcoming us into their beautiful summer vacation land in the month of January, 2005.

For their second trip, they took their tandem bike to India.   Be sure to click this link to check out the photo gallery.

Bike Trip Through India
Report No. 1
Report No. 2
Report No. 3
Report No.4

The first leg of “Bike for Global Democracy,” up the east coast of the United States from Miami, Florida, to Bar Harbor, Maine, has been completed.  Reports of that trip are available here.  Burkhart and Lee spoke in churches, book stores, and other venues along the way. Author Mona Lee included readings from her recent book Alien Child (Open Hand Publishing).   This unusual novel visions toward democratic global governance amid a setting of ordinary human intrigue and extraordinary psychic power. 

Burkhart and Lee cite the Earth Charter as the most eloquent international expression of Earth Community.  To realize this vision, Lee says, “We are part of a movement toward an elected Global Parliamentary Assembly and forms of citizen participation known as Deep Democracy.”

East Coast Bike Trip - 2003
Report No. 1
Report No. 2
Report No. 3
Report No. 4
Report No. 5
Report No. 6
Report No. 7
Report No. 8
Report No. 9
Report No. 10

Photo Album of East Coast Trip
Page One
Page Two
Page Three

Burkhart says, “Global civil society is mobilizing a growing backlash against the destructive forces of Empire. We invite people to join us in a creative movement toward Earth Community.”  To Burkhart and Lee the success or failure of this endeavor will define the 21^st century and along with it the rise or fall of humankin