Chance Encounters (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781495470561)

Forrester Kennedy (aka Foo or James/Jaime or Abel) is an American born New York pick and shovel laborer and long distance hitch hiker turned itinerant junk peddler (old tires and scrap metal) and rubbish hauler. Besides wallowing in filth for over 50 years Foo spent 2 years as an expatriate truck driver in Sydney, Australia and over 3 years as a rural development Peace Corps volunteer in the bush country of Botswana. After returning from Africa he spent 3 growing seasons translating for migrant farm workers in the state of Virginia. Over the years Foo has traveled widely and wildly in North, Central, and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Islands of the Pacific. When not at home or on the road he has worked on short term projects with Laotian refugees in California; habitat restoration in Virginia; howler monkeys in Belize; dry forest wildlife in Jalisco, Mexico; two Navajo Nation construction projects; dinosaur fossils in St. George, Utah; bookmobiles in Antigua, Guatemala; turtle preservation in Suriname; two Katrina hurricane building programs in Louisiana; animal rescue in Kanab, Utah; trumpeter swan and wetland restoration in Wyoming; orphans, students, and migrant workers in Colima, Mexico; pre-European settlement patterns on Easter Island (Rapa Nui); an archeological project in Israel; an archeological project in the Palestinian Territories (West Bank); a Florida panthers service program; a Giant Panda Breeding Research project in China; a building project in Haiti; a Dinosaur Center Museum reconstruction program in Thermopolis, Wyoming; a community building project for the Roma/Gypsies in Romania; a preserving Virginia City/Nevada City in Montana program, a Woolly Mammoth Bone site excavation project in Hot Springs, South Dakota, and weekly for five years at Wildcare animal and bird rehab center, than for almost 10 years Foo helped feeding the homeless at the St. Vincent de Paul food kitchen in San Rafael. Presently he is a volunteer book sorter at the Mill Valley Library. Foo also served in the Israeli army at the Szifin-Psigot tank base. Foo has lived on the mountain on and off for over 45 years. He has 2 children and 7 grandchildren.