Features Editor:
John Liebhardt
johnliebhardt@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, March 7,2002
Animated reality
Whether chemically altered, philosophical
or dreamy, viewers will enjoy ‘Waking Life. ’
Paqe11
Around the
davs
■ Eugenean Rosetta Russo will
talk about her travels and
volunteering around the world
By Jen West
Oregon Daily Emerald
Trekking with gorillas in Ugan
da, hiking up mountains in Nepal
and climbing glaciers in New
Zealand may sound like an adven
ture straight out of Hollywood,
but for one lone woman, it became
a reality.
In Sept. 2000, Rosetta Russo be
gan traveling east from Eugene and
just kept on going, volunteering for
days or weeks at a time in different
countries around the world, until
she returned to Eugene in June
2001. Her travels took her from the
United States to Uganda, Kenya,
Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Indone
sia, Australia and New Zealand.
Russo will share her world trav
eling experiences for the Interna
tional Resource Center’s series
“Travel Talks” at 7 p.m. Thursday
in the International Lounge.
The “Travel Talks” are part of a
program the IRC began in February
to bring travel topics to campus,
IRC coordinator Anne Williams
said. She said she met Russo in
Sept. 1999 while volunteering at
the Child Advocacy Center, and
when the idea for the “Travel
Talks” program came about, she
said she immediately thought of
Russo’s solo trip around the world.
For some travelers, “volunteering
is a nice way to go,” Williams said
— it offers a different kind of expe
rience from the normal vacation.
Russo said she began planning
her voyage when a friend told her
about volunteer opportunities in an
orphanage called Makindu Chil
dren’s Center, located in a small vil
lage in Kenya. Though she did not
officially become a volunteer for
the center, she spent three or four
days playing with the orphans.
Although the kids didn’t speak
English, she said, they were used to
interacting with foreigners using fa
cial expressions and hand gestures.
Despite the poor economic and ed
ucation levels in the underdevel
oped countries, she said she was
surprised at the number of people
who spoke English.
“English is a universal lan
guage,” Russo said.
In Nepal, Russo said she worked
at a camp called Friendship Club
Nepal for two weeks with 30 other
volunteers from around the world
to build steps from a village in the
mountains down to the main road.
She said the existing trail was often
washed out from heavy rainfall.
There was no electricity and no
running water in the village, she
said, but at night, the villagers
would play drums, and they would
teach her their cultural dances.
“It’s not just all hard work,”
she said.
Williams said Russo’s trip was
especially appealing to the “Travel
Talks” series because she is proof to
other potential travelers that un
conventional trips are possible,
even for women on their own.
“She did it all by herself,”
Williams said.
Russo said she left the United
States by herself, but she always
met other travelers and locals in
the inexpensive hotels, guest
houses and local families with
which she stayed.
“I was never really by myself, be
cause there’s a whole world of peo
ple” out there, she said.
Turn to Travel, page 8
‘RESET lets readers peek behind the curtain
■The revived UO Press
reissues a classic collection
that looks at the Northwest’s
‘most important writer’
By Jen West
Oregon Daily Emerald
Few readers have the opportunity to
explore the road authors take on their
way to creating great works of literature.
“KESEY,” a book that reveals Ken Ke
sey’s writing process through a compi
lation of manuscript notes, photos,
drawings and poems, has been reissued
as part of the revival of the University of
Oregon Press. The University’s literary
magazine, Northwest Review, original
ly published the book in 1977.
Last year, the UO Press began search
ing for books from the University cam
pus that hadn’t been published in sev
eral years, and they came across
“KESEY” in their search, said acting di
rector Tom Hager.
“He was a fabulous person as well as
a great writer,” he said. “This book gets
across a lot of his personality.”
“KESEY” introduces the reader to
the author’s creative process and shows
UO Press celebrates
return to publishing
The University of Oregon Press has
been revived and is celebrating by
reissuing backlisted books produced
by the University.
The UO Press began operation in
the 1920a and published more than
100 books and journals. Budget cuts
in the 1970s caused the press to be*
come inactive for the next 25 years,
according to acting director Tom
Hager. The University’s literary' mag
azine, Northwest Review, continued
publishing a small number of books
in the interim, he said.
“KESEY” — a compilation of Ken
Kesey’s notes, drafts and artwork — is
the first of five Northwest Review
books that the UO Press is reissuing as
a part of the revival. Other books from
Northwest Review include “Dia
the progression of his works, such as
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
and “Sometimes a Great Notion,” in
draft form.
“Kesey hadn’t done much to preserve
the papers,” said John Witte, editor of
logues with Northwest Writers," ''Pi
oneer Letters" and "Warnings: An An
thology of the Nuclear Peril," all edit
ed by John Witte and “An Anthology
of Northwest Writers 1900 -1950” ed
ited by Michael Strelow.
Hager said he wanted to revive the
UQ Press as part of the University’s
125th anniversary. Together with
journalism Professor Duncan Mc
Donald, they published a new edi
tion of "Atlas of Oregon” through the
UO Press.
"It signaled the press’s return to ac
tive publishing," Hager said.
Since the release of "Atlas of Ore
gon,” the UO Press has begun reissu
ing books that had been out of circu
lation for many years. More
information on the backlisted titles
can be found at www.uopress.com.
' —Jen West
the Northwest Review. He said when
the magazine had approached Kesey
about the book back in the ’70s, they
found most of his notes and early drafts
scattered on the bottom of his chicken
Turn to Kesey, page 8