Written as a requirement for some extra credits in my undergrad…
This is the life history of Travis Finseth. I get to talk about myself the whole time and you can’t do anything… except stop reading! My life has been quite a ride, so strap in for a read. I hope that I manage to write this well enough that people will actually read the whole story. I was born in Denver, Co April 25th, 1976, so that means I am 26 as I write this. I have one sibling, Malia, born in December 1980. My parents are still happily married, a rarity these days, and are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. My father, Terry, owned two auto parts stores in the Denver area. My mother, Michele, was a homemaker and part time business manager for D.I.Y (Do It Yourself Auto Parts). We lived a privileged life in the heart of the American middle class. We attended our Lutheran church (Christ the Savior) faithfully, although I didn’t enjoy it too much. I was trouble by the minute, always causing strife, and frustrating my parents to no end. They tried all kinds of discipline, counseling, and other forms of behavior management; to no avail. They kept the faith and somehow I actually turned out all right (by most accounts!). I attended Dalton elementary school, and I bet that all of my teachers remember me well, but not fondly!
We made the family decision that it was time for a change of lifestyle.
We lived in Denver until I was 12. At that point my parents came to Malia (6) and I with a life changing opportunity. My parents had considered mission work before we were born, but had not felt called specifically until then. They asked us what we thought about moving overseas to work with Habitat for Humanity. I couldn’t believe that my dad was willing to give up the Porsche for a TRAG (a 3 wheeled vehicle with a bed on the back like a truck). We made the family decision that it was time for a change of lifestyle. At this point we sold everything we had, except for a few of the most important things; the Porsche was dropped off at Grandpa’s house in California. We went to Americus Georgia, headquarters of Habitat, for International Partner training. We spent three months cross cultural training, learning the theology of a hammer, and adjusting to some minor culture shock. Americus was a good experience for me. I was enrolled in a local school, and actually excelled in my classes. I worked with my parents some afternoons, building houses. one time I assisted Jimmy Carter (who is a long time Habitat spokesperson) build a doorframe. Meanwhile we traveled to Atlanta every other week to get vaccinations, no fun what so ever. We also started our bi-weekly chloroquin treatments for malaria.
Our first mission was to the Solomon Islands. We were to help start a Habitat project on the 25mi wide island of Santa Cruz. The Solomons are a chain that comes off of Papua New Guinea eastward, just north of Australia (get your world map out). At Habitat we were able to see a couple of pictures that had been sent back. It was quite a change from chilly Denver, to only 12 degrees from the equator. I remember the humidity and heat that hit us like a wall as we got off of the plane in Honiara. Honiara is the capital of the Solomons, just a three-hour flight away from Santa Cruz, via a bi-weekly flight on a twin-otter that seated about eighteen. Sometimes they would send out the 5-seat beachcraft instead. We took a trip over to a village in Malaita for language training in Pidgin English. The Solomons consist of 3000+ islands, with twice as many languages and dialects. The first explorers/missionaries established Pidgin as the best form of communication. one of villagers in Malaita gave us our first parrot (Namu). We then spent a couple more weeks in Honiara, buying six months worth of supplies, kerosene, and mosquito nets. We dropped all the stuff on a boat and then flew in to the island that was to be our home for the next four years.
Santa Cruz (Nendo) is a very beautiful island in the absolute middle of nowhere. The reef and water are spectacular. The villagers are nice, but simple, living in sago palm leaf houses. Most are sustenance farmers who sometimes take extra food to the market. Lata is the big village (+-50 houses with a couple shops, vehicle repair shop, post office and soccer, basketball and netball courts). There is a radio station sometimes, and houses have electricity most of the time. My mothers favorite saying, “we moved from LATA(America- Land of Total Availability) to Lata Santa Cruz, the opposite”. Down from Lata is a very beautiful bay with villages scattered along the edge. We lived our first six months in a village about half way down along the bay, in a bible translators house. We lived without electricity. The house had nice wooden floors and leaf walls, and roof. It even had the luxury of an indoor toilet and shower. Our landlord, Thomas and I became good friends, although he was thirty some years older than I. He taught me all the basics of island living: How to wield a machete, from carving to coconuts; How to build my first bow and arrow set, spear and gillovati, and the basics of spear fishing. I started with a small strip of rubber an umbrella wire, notched at one end and sharpened at the other, spearing itty-bitty fish. He also showed me how to build a slingshot from the right shaped tree branch to cutting a bicycle tube in strips for the elastic sling. We fished a lot, hunted flying fox, and he ate, I couldn’t get past the smell! He also taught me how to chew betel nut (mild narcotic). He was my best good friend.
Santa Cruz (Nendo) is a very beautiful island in the absolute middle of nowhere. The reef and water are spectacular. The villagers are nice, but simple, living in sago palm leaf houses.
Our family unit grew closer and closer together as time passed. Malia and I were home schooled for the next 4 years. Malia did very well, doing two years worth of work in one. I did well also, but did not spend the extra time studying. We would get up early with the sun, and be done with schoolwork by noon. I would spend the rest of the day spear fishing or just snorkeling looking for shells. I often played soccer on the beach with the village kids. Dad and I would go play basketball in Lata at least twice a week. The family also spent every Wednesday working on Habitat houses. We eventually built a stilt house about ten feet from the water, up on the point of the bay, in a village called Luova. There is a stunning beach that runs all the way around the edge of the village and miles down the edge of the island. We could get in the water right in front of the house and the current would carry us out and around the point. It is some of the best diving in the world. I have seen or speared an amazing array of fish including giant grouper, manta ray, stingray, hammerhead, tiger, blacktip reef shark and huge lobster. I started a small shell collection. The pastor of the Anglican Church in Luova was from Tikopea (Polynesian Island further out than Santa Cruz). He worked with dad and Habitat. on returning from a trip to his home, brought me a baby frigate bird. We named him big bird because of his white downy baby feathers (resembling Sesame Street). Being a seafaring bird, he needed fresh fish everyday to eat. I raised him until he could catch his own fish. As an adult he had a six-foot plus wingspan. He would glide out and land on my head while I was spear fishing, or land on the boat to steal some fish. Big Bird was the most graceful and beautiful pet I’ve had. He eventually grew up and flew off into the sunset.
We left the Solomons for a vacation in 1989. Our three-month trip was an education to say the least. We visited Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Thailand, India, Nepal, Hong Kong, Macau, and the Philippines. I remember each country vividly. Their cultures are so strong. I also remember ravaging a McDonald’s Big Mac in the Singapore airport immediately after landing. I didn’t realize how much I missed the American fast food restaurants. We experienced a healthy dose of reverse culture shock. Whenever I encountered a language barrier with English (which was often), I automatically switched into Pidgin. It was hard to break that habit. Every city was so enormous and built up.
We left on Dad’s birthday, and flew from Honiara to Papua New Guinea, and then on to Singapore. Singapore is an amazingly clean city. A lot of the land that the city is built on has been reclaimed. The government rules with an iron fist. They impose thousands of dollar fines for spitting, chewing gum, jaywalking, or smoking on the elevator. You can’t buy a pack of gum anywhere in the whole city! It is a very unique city with tons of shopping and great food. Thailand’s night market was really cool, offering everything from remote control cars to basketball shoes (the important things for someone at that age!). While in Bangkok we rented motorcycles and went up into the mountains to see an incredible Buddhist temple. Traffic in Thailand is incredibly crazy. It’s similar to walking on a sidewalk. People, cars, tuk-tuk’s, semi’s and motorcycles cruise down the road in whatever place presents the quickest route. It doesn’t matter if that route happens to be on the sidewalk across oncoming traffic. Dad and Malia rode on one, and Mom and I rode on another. As we pulled up to the first intersection, mom tried to stop the bike with her feet! Luckily we avoided an accident. Dad decided it would be better if I drove and she navigated. It worked pretty well. Of course I was only 14 at the time.
India was one of the most unbelievable places I can remember. It is a country of extremes. It is the dirtiest, humid, dusty, sticky, parching country on earth. There is almost no middle class. You are either very rich or very poor. Pressure “sales children” are taught how to make the deal almost as soon as they are able to walk. You will have a trail of people following you constantly trying to sell, beg or steal every cent out of your wallet. It takes a lot out of you trying to deal with the throng everywhere you go every day. Even when it is time to rest, you can’t because there is a good chance someone will be going thru your bags while you sleep. With millions of people and very little sanitation, it is not uncommon to see someone take an immediate left and pee on a wall. Don’t even think about drinking the water. In the cities like Delhi there are squatters living in every possible place. The garbage dump is one of the best spots because of a guaranteed source of income, and food. on the other hand you see some of the best architecture in the world. The Taj-Mahal was absolutely amazing. Filled with ornate carvings inlaid with semi-precious stones that disperse light throughout. This is after the British Army came in and took the current crown jewels from the latticework surrounding the inner sanctum. Another amazing artistic structure was the Bahai Lotus Temple. There are hundreds of amazing temples scattered all over the place. We also visited the northern Indian towns of Shrinagar, and Gulmarg.
The Taj-Mahal was absolutely amazing. Filled with ornate carvings inlaid with semi-precious stones that disperse light throughout.
After seven searches at the airport, we flew to Nepal. Nepal seemed to be a lot safer and cleaner, however, the rest of the family immediately got sick from the water. We continued on, and saw some of the most spectacular mountains on earth. The Himalayas rise up into the clouds, and then poke their peaks out above the highest cloud. A guide pointed out K-2 and Everest, but they are not individually spectacular, as you would expect, because the rest of the range around them is nearly as high. From Nepal we flew down to the Philippines. There we met a bunch of other Habitat for Humanity “partners” (missionaries) for a weeklong retreat. It was good to meet many of the other people working in the Asia-Pacific area. The Philippines are beautiful islands with beautiful people. I really enjoyed the visit and the relaxation. We flew back to the Solomons via Papua New Guinea.
Life continued peacefully on Santa Cruz until the end of our term. We helped build more than fifteen houses. During our term we visited many of the other provinces in the Solomons. My parents helped start a few other Habitat projects. on our visits we would always go through Honiara, and I would always bring a load of seashells that I collected to sell at a local tourist seashell shop. I grew my shell collection to more than 1500 shells of all sizes. I also spent time combing through shells at the market, looking for gems. My dad and I started playing basketball with a group in Honiara in the middle of China Town.
After our first three-year term was up we went back to the U.S. for a sabbatical. It was great to see family and friends again. We flew across the U.S. and back visiting Georgia, Washington D.C., California, Colorado, Washington, Idaho, and Disney World in Florida. on our return journey to Santa Cruz, we stopped in Australia as tourists, and then Fiji because interest in Habitat had been expressed. I really liked Suva a lot because the city was much larger and there was a good group that played basketball. It was also much more modern than Honiara. Suva had the perfect balance between first world and developing countries. Fiji is a real melting pot of culture. University of the South Pacific is located in Suva, and is the only College in the South Pacific. Fiji’s population is almost half East Indian. Indians were brought in as indentured servants to work the sugar cane fields. Sugar is Fiji’s second largest source of income (tourism being first). So Suva is a bunch of different cultures mixed together. The rest of Fiji also has a strong cultural identity. Fiji has had a lot of problems as of late because of the different cultural issues. There have been multiple coups and government regime changes. The indigenous Fijians are fighting to keep their land, while the Indians just want to have their fair share. Luckily during the times that we were in Fiji, all was peaceful.
Because of it central location and opportunities for growth within the country, Fiji was chosen to be the central location for this office.
We did make it back to the Solomons and lived in Honiara for a few months. Habitat asked mom and dad to become regional project developers. Because of it central location and opportunities for growth within the country, Fiji was chosen to be the central location for this office. We moved to Suva in 1991. I started public school again at Suva Grammar. I also played as much basketball as possible. Through sports and school, I joined a great group of friends that was dubbed “the gang”. We all played basketball and participated in various other sports. Dad and Malia played a lot also. I played on the Veterans team with dad and other Americans and transplants. We had a great time and even won a few of the leagues. We took our Veterans/Rookies and White-Fire (women’s) club teams to Tahiti for a tournament. once we were eligible to play (two years residency), dad and I both were invited to play for the Fiji National team. We took a couple trips around the pacific. I went with the Fiji Under-21 National team to Darwin Australia. We also played in the inaugural Fiji games. My team won a Gold Medal! We still spent a lot of time out in the ocean. Dad and I were certified SCUBA divers. We filled an awesome fish tank with incredible coral and fish directly from the ocean. Tubeworms, brain coral, live shells, clown fish, mantis shrimp and even a baby octopus occupied our tank. My shell collection grew to more than 3000 shells. Malia and I both did well in school. Our group of friends grew very close and I can distinctly remember the happiness that we shared. Tiri, Warren, Earl, Sione, Ravi, Robert, Tifere, Teri, Claire, Todd, Helen, Sheena and others are still great friends and I miss them dearly. I have made it a goal to live in Fiji again. I switched to the International school the second year. The school year runs the opposite time of year, as do the seasons in the southern hemisphere. By this time I was a junior in high school. In August of 1994 I was half way through the school year. My grades were fine, but I was struggling with the amount of study time required by the International baccalaureate program. Four hours a night was too much, and cut into my basketball agenda! I had been trying to talk my parents into letting me return to the states to play high school basketball for a couple of years before going to play in college. They finally agreed when a friend of the family wrote and mentioned that they would be interested in hosting me if I returned. I moved back to Denver for the start of the school year in August 1994. I played average basketball through my career at Denver Lutheran. I had a 3.5gpa. Looking back I realize that I experienced quite a bit of culture shock in Colorado.
The best part of my return to Colorado was that I met my wife Jaime at Denver Lutheran High School. We started dating about two months after I returned to the states. We have been together ever since, just like peas and carrots. After high school I was not sure what I wanted to do. College was a first priority, but I didn’t believe in going into debt to pay for it. I had a couple of different offers to go play basketball, but none for athletic scholarships. I was disappointed with the results of my high school career and was disillusioned with the politics involved. It had become more of a job than a game that I enjoyed. While I was in the process of making a decision that summer I took a job with an old friend at a daycare for kids. I met Mark Jencks through his wife Alina, who also worked at the daycare. Mark worked for ICG a small telecom company in Colorado. He offered a position as a telecom technician. I decided to try this job for a year because it earned as much or more money than most college grads would expect. I started a 3-month contract at ICG in August of 1995. I was actually working at ICG for a contracting company called Aerotek. My time at ICG was not entirely successful. I had trouble grasping the new telecom concepts along with technical deduction. It did give me enough experience to secure another telecom job. While I waited for Aerotek to come through with another contract I worked at Gart Sports. Finally, after a couple of months I was offered a position in Jackson Mississippi with LDDS WorldCom.
Jaime and I moved down to Mississippi in the spring of 1996. I had spent some time in Georgia with my parents at Habitat for Humanity training, so I knew what to expect. I started work at WorldCom and excelled. Jaime had never been to the south and didn’t know what life would be like. It took her a while to get used to the lifestyle, but she has adjusted pretty well. She worked as a travel agent, and then was also hired on at WorldCom. We are both very comfortable in Mississippi and enjoy the benefits of raising children in the south. We both still have a desire to move overseas at some point whether for mission or business work.While Jaime was a travel agent we did quite a bit of traveling as you can imagine. We visited Denver a few times, and also traveled Europe: Germany, Italy, France and Holland. We also visited the Caribbean and Bahamas. We visited my parents in Rome. They left Fiji in 1998 and moved to Sudan with the Presbyterian Church. After spending roughly a year in Sudan, it became too dangerous. They then moved to Rome, Italy, and have been there for past six years. We were interested in moving overseas, and went for an interview in Hong Kong, China. When negotiations fell through, we settled down fairly comfortably in Mississippi but realized that education was still a priority, so we both enrolled at Belhaven.
Fatherhood has been a fun and rewarding experience. I look forward to each moment that we spend together.
I’m not sure what exactly peaked my interest, but during the summer of 2000 I started taking online tutorials on building WebPages. I learned how to build basic pages, register my own domain name and FTP files to a remote server. I had a couple of friends in the WorldCom Intranet I.T. department. They gave me the necessary programs to develop complicated websites and graphics. My first website was www.dmocean.com. Although version 2 is up at this time, it is still easy to see that my knowledge of web architecture was in its infancy. I used the site for pictures, art and experimentation. My real interest has always been in graphic design. I constantly doodle while at work, and have always thought of myself as an artist. I also started learning how to use Photoshop, which is my primary graphic design program. WorldCom’s demise had begun and I was not sure if I would be laid off next. I developed a business plan to build websites for individuals and companies. The Internet is an enigma for individuals and small businesses. It allows companies to operate with little overhead, and is extremely profitable because of the expertise needed to build and run an Internet business. It is also a self-disseminating tool that can be used to learn everything that makes the Internet itself work. I built a new website to run my business from: www.nuzu.net. I named my company Nuzu Net Media. It has been successful, although it’s not quite a full time occupation at this time.
Recently we were surprised with the conception of our son Reed. Reed was born on April 29, 2003. We have been truly blessed. He is a very calm and happy baby. I pray that he is nothing like me when I was little! Fatherhood has been a fun and rewarding experience. I look forward to each moment that we spend together. I have learned that having patience is a virtue. I am fascinated by his constant development. He seems to be completely different from day to day. My experiences have taught me to trust the higher authority. He has blessed me with a great foundation and history. I have not struggled and have been rewarded with a loving and close immediate family and a wonderful wife. We know that God has a plan for our lives, and we trust Him. He led us to Lakeland Presbyterian Church where we have been surrounded by great friends and a loving Christian environment. Our future holds many exciting things. We are still considering moving overseas on a mission, and have been in contact with a couple of different mission organizations. Our original plans had been to go after graduation from Belhaven, however with the blessing of our son we have postponed the move. I am sure that God will send us on our way when He sees fit.
