Hey, I'm Craig Garbe. A 24 year-old undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo. But wait... Stop for a second. Think about that last sentence. I told you my name, my age, and my current occupation. From this, you might have begun to assume a lot about me. Perhaps you assumed I was from Waterloo, or at least Ontario. Perhaps you assumed some things about my family: that I came from a financially stable background, that I had a family that could support me through a university education. Perhaps you tacked on some other qualities to me, qualities that other mid-twenty year-old university students you know possess. Maybe you didn't. Maybe you're giving me the benefit of the doubt. Either way, what's important now is that I give you the correct information, before we get too far into this portfolio. The way that I approach culture, and the way I approach communication has alot to do with the context that I grew up in, and the experiences that I've had. As Hamera discusses in the article "Opening Acts", an experience removed from the context it developed in misses something of its essential nature. When we ignore the factors that have affected a person or situation's evolution, we risk missing an understanding of the influence those factors may have had. Therefore, I've designed this page to give you a little introduction into some of the areas that I feel have affected my cultural background and experience. So check out my background, my history, and what it means to be Craig Garbe...

BEFORE WE GET STARTED - SOME PRODUCTION NOTES There's a few things you should keep in mind as you check out this site that I just had to write here about or risk you missing out on them: Bibliographic Information: As you read through the articles, any time you see a parenthetical reference or an asterix (*), that means there is an accompanying reference to the material you're reading. I've put a link to the bibliographic page just after these notes, so simply return to the homepage and click on the link. On the biblio page you'll find all the references organized by the page and article title Picture links: As you navigate the site, you'll see a few pictures. Most of these pictures link to other pages I have created, or external websites, so make sure to click on them and explore the links. If your mouse pointer changes to a little hand when you hover over the picture, this means you've found a link Course Objectives: This portfolio was created to help me understand and reflect on my leanings so far this year. An important part of doing this is linking my writings back to the learning objectivs of the course. I've done this in two ways: 1 - On pieces of original writing created specifically of this website, I've bolded and highlighted sentences that connect to particular learning objectives in a special colour CULTURAL SELFAWARENESS - Blue SIMILARITIES/DIFFERENCES - Orange BARRIERS - Red CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES - Greeen 2 - On pieces of writing that were originally in-class submissions, I've found it better to return to the writing and reflect on what learning objectives I've come to understand through writing that piece. Sort of like a footnote system, I've added a button that links to another page that contains these reflections, whenever I saw necessary to include them. An example of the buttons is directy below these notes. That's enough technical junk for now. Time to get out and explore the portfolio... Link to the Bibliography Page

Click on the buttons to see the course learning objectives!

GROWING UP BC STYLE I grew up on the west coast of Canada, as our license plates call it: Beautiful British Columbia. Some of the most spectacular scenery in Canada is in BC, and as you can see from the pictures, my friends and I try to make the most of it. Summer in BC meant trips to the lake, camping in the forest, or good times with friends in the city. Winter meant all of the above, and also a little snowboarding thrown in for good measure. It also meant a lot of good times spent with friends, and the forging of some really special relationships. That guy beside me in the center photo is Rob. We've been through a lot together; when that picture was taken we were in the middle of a 4-day, 50km trek through some of the toughest terrain on the BC coastline. Friendships like the one I have with Rob, and the experiences I've had with my friends in BC had really shaped who I am. With my friends I've climbed mountains, travelled overseas, gotten high, stolen cars, laughed till I cried, and cried till it hurt. This beautiful province that nurtured me for the first 20 years of my life has been the staging ground for so much personal development, and my experiences here have probably played the biggest role in creating the Craig that writes this today. Growing up here taught me the importance of our natural surroundings, and developed in me an appreciation for the world outside of a comfortable home. It also taught me the value of friendships, and why they are the most important thing I'll never own.

MY LIFE IN 'PICTURES' When I was seventeen I got my first job--that is, what you might call my first "real" job. With a great co-op placement and a little luck, I landed a two-day contract as a Locations Production Assistant on the famously underrated Movie of the Week called "Holiday Heart" (starring Ving Rhames as a misguided transsexual; you might want to leave the DVD at Blockbuster and google a plot summary instead). Two days of work (and two days of missed school later) I was hooked. Lights, cameras, action: how could a kid refuse? After graduation I started full time work with a good crew of people. I enrolled in film school and finished a one-year diploma program. My background in theatre and acting during high school had wet my appetite for the motion picture industry, and it didn't take much for me to realize that this was where I wanted to be. A few years later, I still loved my job, but I was wondering if I was living up to my full potential. I had great contacts, a great income, and a career that made my friends envious, but I was wondering if it was enough. I wasn't ready to settle down, to admit that I had a career, and to buy a house in the hills, and it looked like if I stayed in that position I'd end up doing just that. So I cast off the material coils that had ensnared many of my fellow workers, and flew across the country to the University of Waterloo. My time in film taught me the danger of letting a career become your life. I worked with some of the most fascinating and intriguing people I'd ever met, but I also worked with people who had had their spirits crushed by the weight of financial burden and the stress of Hollywood producers. It taught me the importance of learning, and why a career isn't always the final goal.

SCOTLAND AND BEYOND... About the time I turned 19, I was living in Burnaby, going to film school at a college in Vancouver. While my school work was exciting and interesting, what was even more exciting was what happened in my spiritual life at the same time. It was during this year that I had a radical realization about my situation in life, and I decided that I was being called to change. Basically I accepted the grace of God, and decided that I would try and serve Jesus with the everything that I had. It was an amazing time of change for me, and one that I look back on very positively. About two years later, a lot had changed. I won't go into too many details, but suffice to say that I was a different man than I had been, and things were looking great. However, as I adjusted to my new life and a new relationship with God, I began to get comfortable. I started to lose some of the initial passion that I had approached Jesus with at first, and I felt I was being called to shake things up. So it was at that time that I sold my nice shiny 97' Jeep Cherokee and moved to Scotland to join a missionary group called YWAM (Youth With a Mission). I spent just over six months in Scotland from September 2003 to June 2004, and two months in Mozambique and South Africa as well. Our group did youth work, spoke in prisons, volunteered in orphanages, pretty much everything you can imagine, in addition to weekly classes and group activities. I've only just scratched the surface here, but I hope you can start to imagine how amazing a trip it was. Needless to say, this trip changed both the way I relate to God, and the way that I see the world. It removed me from my North American context for a while, and thus opened my eyes to many things I couldn't see before. Living in Scotland and beyond taught me the first things I would ever learn about living and communicating with different cultures, and why our world is so small, but also so amazing.

Click here to download a plug-in. NOW PLAYING: Artist: SHAWN MCDONALD Song Title: TAKE MY HAND As the stories on this page explain, a huge factor in my life has been my friends, my family, and my relationship with Jesus. This song is about accepting that without the help of those around us, many days we wouldn't be able to stand up ourselves. Sometimes we just need to speak up and say "I need you... I cannot do it on my own..."

Quote of the page: If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world. -C.S. Lewis