Susanne 5. Please tell us about that special New Year’s Eve on December 31, 2004. What did you experience and how did it change your direction?
On New Years Eve, December 31st 2004, I spent the evening completely detached up in the high mountains in a little village in Switzerland surrounded by a group of kids whom I had just met a few days before. I was just starting out in a new place, right after my most recent move. I came here to teach skiing & snowboarding for the winter, and I was going to be working with many different groups over the season, and in many different places all throughout the country. This was to be my first group of the season, and little did I know our lessons would involve much more then just skiing. They showed me who I was again, and from that point on it all changed.
That day I stood them up on top of that mountain on the first day of the New Year, right at sunset, and made them all stop what it is they were doing. No more horsing around for a minute, no skiing; not a sound. I said to them “Take a look over the horizon, take a look at the sun setting over those peaks over there, and take a minute to take in all it is you see above that deep valley. Do remember that you are here because someone sacrificed a lot to make it to this point, and that there is nothing out there that could ever stop the world from taking it all away. Be grateful for all that you have, and be grateful for all those who love you and care for you. Think of all the people who would lay their life on the line to make sure you’re safe & healthy, and do know that I would do the same in a heartbeat if it came to it. Remember the people you love & thank them for being there, let them know you care about them too, and remember that there’s nothing in this world more powerful then the love & affection of the people around you. The only way to measure a man’s riches is not by the material possessions he or she may have, but by the relationships one maintains. Remember what’s important, and focus on it.”
“Some of my passengers & I on Amantani island in Lake Titicaca, Peru. That’s my job!”
That day I saw a group of a dozen 15-yr olds look up high, and as the tears slowly ran down their faces, I thanked them for what they had taught me in just one short week, I thanked them for the reality that literally hit me upside the head just two days previous when I came close to loosing the use of both my legs. We hugged & a few of them said some very powerful words, and we were on our way for our final run of the day.
That night around the dinner table, hardly a word was said. I believe every single one of those kids sat there thinking of the people who put them there, and how it is they were going to show them how important they are to them That night I feel I hit a nerve not only in my back, but also in their hearts. I called them the Legends, and ever since then I’ve thought about that sunset every single day. That sunset is the one that brought me back to who I was before, and that was the sunset that was going to free me of my evils.
I made a resolution that year to only move forward in life – never look back with regret for the things I didn’t do, simply remorse maybe for those I did. I chose to live every day to its fullest, and to make sure the people I love & care about are kept close. I decided to do whatever it was I could to improve my future; to change the things I had control over. I’ve made many changes in my life that I had never thought of before. I spent a ton of time working on my own faults, and I also spent a ton of time working with kids whose problems were the kind I might not have been able to solve, but at least I could put it all into perspective for them and help out as much as I could. Lending your ear to someone can sometimes make the entire difference between a good choice or a bad one. I wish I taken the time to talk to someone before I ran away so many times in my life.
“That pic was one of our first on an epic snow day with our first TACKERS group in Anzere. The kids who were so happy to see the snow were Australian transpant recipients who had never seen snow before.”
6. You also worked for an organization called TACKERS. Please tell us more about that organization and what you did for them.
That’s when I started working with TACKERS. Transplant Adventure Camps for Kids: it stands for something I have great difficulty putting into words. I spent weeks skiing, snowboarding, dog sledding, snowshoeing, scuba diving & golfing with a bunch of kids who looked death straight in the eye & decided that they were not going to give up so easily. They had fought, and they were our survivors. Every single one of those kids has had a huge bump in the road to overcome, and they all faced their worst fears & gave it all they had. They were the real heroes in this world, and that’s where my learning curb took a hit for the height. I had spent months in Europe working with so many different kids from all over the world who had way more to teach me then I could ever teach them about Skiing & Snowboarding – they gave me my life back & I owe them so much.
TACKERS is a non-profit organization based in Anzere, Switzerland. The organization is run by Liz Schick, and the aim is” for the children to develop their independence by trying new sports such as skiing, snowboarding, dog sleighing, scuba-diving and para-gliding and to develop a support network to help their families and each other”. If you would like more info please visit www.tackers.org, and if you have any intention of helping us setup a North American chapter, please email me or Liz!
7. You are doing things to prevent Inca artifacts from leaving the country. Please tell us about that.
There exists a very lucrative black market in Peru for such items as Inca Mummies & pre-colonial ceramics, gold & silver. These artifacts are being smuggled out of the country illegally into the private museums & businesses of some corrupt international art dealers & collectors alike. I knew about this phenomenon before I came to Peru many years ago, but this last arrival brought out many intriguing leads, and I decided to start doing something to actually prevent all these artifacts from leaving the country. Looking at the current state of the situation, one might notice that the very people who annihilated the Inca & pre-Inca Civilizations many years ago are ironically the same “collectors” who are gathering up the leftovers of their forefathers’ shameful work.
“Our entire first TACKERS group”
In the eyes of the government I am helping retrieve priceless and irreplaceable artifacts for the right reasons as their are donated to local museums to make sure they remain part of the Inca & pre-Inca heritage. The agreement with the museums also includes a two-year loan of a Mummy to international museums for restoration & local exhibition before they are returned to Peru in air-tight exhibition cases.
Although I face a minimum 30-year sentence if caught, receive regular threats from some of the people who usually “buy” the items I save, and practically have to beg for donations to be able to keep this going until I can formalize & legalize the operations, I don’t think anything could stop me. Luckily I have good contacts with the local armed forces & am very good at clandestine ops, I do believe I will be able to slow down the loss of such cultural treasures, but without a formal license and some financial help, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stay afloat… Again, anyone with any leads or any interest please don’t hesitate to contact me!
8. Then you moved to South America and started working with a project for street kids. Please tell us more about that.
After an emotional rollercoaster of a winter season, I followed the cold winds to South America where I reconnected with my sister – whose energy & outlook on life I desperately needed by then. I came here & signed my life away not knowing what I was in for, and that’s where the real adventure started. I soon enough became very fond of our project in Cusco with the street kids (www.planeterra.org/InkaPorterProject.php), and I started spending a lot of time there with my passengers.
Some of our kids come from broken homes & very poor families, they spend most of their days in the Plazas & tourist areas selling cigarettes, chocolates, postcards & other little things… Our organization gets them off the streets & enrolls them into school if they make a few simple changes in life, and we also help them with school supplies, homework, assist in finding uniforms for school, and teach them a few skills to be able to generate some income for them & their families such as leatherwork, arts & crafts and shoe repair.
The kids are great & they just love having visitors, so now there are many other people (not just G.A.P passengers) who are dropping by to help out. We have a psychologist who is there to talk to the kids also, and we provide them with two basic meals per day. The feeling I have every time I walk into the apartment where we are temporarily housing them is just overwhealming. Our program is growing at great speed, and we need to find a new location for the project; we need to buy a house to be able to take care of our kids in emergency situations, and to allow our program to grow. That’s when we decided to do something big… We decided to hit the summit, and for that we were prepared to confront our worst fears & most dreaded moments. That day I decided to turn a regular mountain climb into a fundraiser for our kids.
“Last day after an epic skiing & snowboarding season in the Swiss Alps. I’m on my way by train to Torino (Italy) to catch a flight to Stanstead, England to then connect to a flight from Heathrow to Calgary… Anything goes to get there cheaper! I guess I’m a true Canadian anywhere I go: skis, snowboard & the trusty Stetson always follows…”
