Through My Eyes

Better to Be a Woman to Commit a Death Sentence Crime?

2010-09-24T00:12:00.000-04:00

A thought-provoking article in the NYTimes today: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/09/23/us/AP-US-Womans-Execution-Virginia.html?_r=1&hp

I do not claim to support nor be against the death penalty, but if it is to exist, it should be fair and based on evidence of certain degrees of criminal activity - not biased based on race or gender (age is a different issue due to maturity, level of understanding, and capability, though one could argue that race and gender may be indicators for those same characteristics). In this article, the Associated Press (AP) seems to allude to this in the tone they take as they describe people's reactions to the woman's execution as horrible due to her gender despite her crimes.

As aghast as her crimes are, what surprised me the most was that there has been no execution of a woman in Virginia since 1912. The last female execution in the United States was in Texas in 2005. "Out of more than 1,200 people put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 have been women."

Once I return to the US, I'll post a quicklook at executions in the United States over the past several decades. It seems that the DoJ sites are either currently down, or inaccessible from Korea. It would be interesting to see the context behind female executions (e.g., number receiving the death sentence versus executed)

An interesting history of execution methods by Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/photo/2010/06/16/methods-of-execution.html

Goodbye Google in China?

2010-01-12T22:10:00.000-05:00

Google may shut down its office and service in China. (New York Times Article)

"Google" has gone from search engine to part of our everyday vocabulary. I would even go so far as to say that the term "google" has replaced more traditional phrases such as "searched for online" and "looked up online." How many times have you said, "What is that? I'll have to google it when I get home," or "Oh, I know all about that; I googled it the other day!" They have expanded from search engine to e-mail domain to blogger to online chatting to photo-sharing database to document sharing and more and have actually been successful in each of these endeavors. Anything that Google produces seems to have great expectations from the community, and people even seek out invitations for their invitation-only Beta programs. Google decided to expand their functions to Chinese-speakers by hiring Kai-Fu Lee, a previous Microsoft employee, who was credited for launching Google.cn in January 2006. The launch of Google.cn was a compromise between the Google and the Chinese government for a more open, but still censored internet and overall access to information. At the time, Google believed the pros to outweigh the cons. (Official Google Blog)

It seems that signs of trouble for Google.cn existed long before the Chinese attack on Google aimed at dissidents that was highlighted in the New York Times today (see first link in this entry). For example, Head of China's Operations Lee left the company back in September 2009 (New York Times Lee Leaves Article). Although his departure from Google was not given a specific reason, it seems likely that he was aware of Google.cn's instability and lack of success in catching up with the Chinese-originated search engine Baidu (Wikipedia Article on Baidu). Perhaps Lee left because he knew that Google would eventually challenge the censorship the Chinese government mandates or perhaps Google is now choosing to challenge the Chinese government because of the lack of Lee's leadership. Then again, there may be no correlation between Lee's departure and the current situation. Regardless, China's inhabitants find themselves in risk of losing access to one of the most popular, if not powerful, web tools and search engines in the world.

All this background information then leads to the core question of this entry: what should Google do? Here are some of the facts:

Google knew that they would have to censor their services when they first launched Google.cn.. They decided the pros outweighed the cons, and thus went ahead with the launch.
Baidu seems to be the only comparable search engine for China's inhabitants, and is in fact much more successful. It has, however, also been criticized for its censoring by the Chinese government and misuse for targeting dissidents.
The decision to question Google's presence in China came from the US offices "without the knowledge or involvement of [their] employees in China"
Human rights advocates that use gmail have lost their privacy from unauthorized access into their accounts, but many other email domains have also suffered the same attacks.

Given that Google knew they would have to censor their services before they even launched Google.cn, why are they now challenging the U.S. government? I can see several plausible reasons:

Google has not been as successful as they would have liked; they are, for example, still lagging behind Baidu. With the original leader in launching Google.cn gone and a new leadership in place, it is a good time for Google.cn to push their limits and reevaluate the original plans.
Google has become a powerful web presence in the world. They do not need to be in China, and thus are able to threaten China because they do not feel they have much to lose.
Google has become a powerful web presence and thus they feel there is no way China will let them leave China. Google is bluffing and is confident that China will not call their bluff (or they do not think they have much to lose even if China does call their bluff).
Google is more comfortable with the other options now available to China's inhabitants, and do not feel that their presence is necessary. Whereas, before, Google felt their potential contribution outweighed their lack of freedom from having to censor, they now feel China's inhabitants have other viable options and do not need Google.
Google thought they would be ok with censoring, but when they actually had to do it and then saw their gmail services being used to hurt human rights advocates, they started to feel guilty.
They changed their minds.

These are, of course, not all the possible options, but merely some that crossed my mind right off bat. In my next entry, I will ponder the same question Google must have asked in 2006 and is now asking again in 2010: "to censor but still increase access to knowledge or to stick to morals and not censor but decrease China's inhabitants access to information."

Increase in Terrorist Plots or Decrease in US Intelligence Effectiveness?

2010-01-07T21:31:00.000-05:00

I always envied those that seemed completely up to date with current affairs and in addition had a good grasp of historical events which they could use to better analyze and interpret current affairs and future implications. It has only been a few years since I have been reading the New York Times on a daily basis, supplemented by other news publications, essays, blogs, and even press releases. It may be because of this delayed start that I cannot answer my own question, or it may be that the answer is currently unknown or is classified information. In any case, it seems to me that many are blaming US intelligence and government for "failing" to prevent terrorist acts either due to failure to share information (such as the 9/11 attacks) or failure to accurately analyze the available information (such as the recent, thankfully failed, Northwest Airlines plot by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab).

Even in this New York Times article, Obama and his officials are reported to have (and even quoted in some situations) said the government failed to see Abdulmutallab's plot despite having the information right in front of them. I am not arguing that they failed; that may or may not be true, but if they said they did, who am I to argue. My question, however, is for this one failure, how many successes do they have? The CIA reports on their website that terrorist tactics will only continue to become more refined and will be targeted towards larger and larger masses of casualties. It seems from this report (and from logic) that the quality of terrorist attacks will increase with time, but what about the quantity? Have the terrorist plots increased? Will they increase in the future?

For the sake of discussion, let's say that the total number of terrorist plots have increased in the recent past. The US could either be doing better, worse, or the same percentage wise in identifying terrorist plots. From the existing criticisms, it seems to me that the implication is that the US is doing worse now than in the recent past. For example, if we were identifying 70% of terrorist plots in 1990, we could be identifying around 60% now, thus increasing criticism. I should also insert a caveat here that perhaps criticism has not increased, perhaps it has decreased or stayed the same. The implication, however, seems to be that we are not as successful as we were before.

Again for the sake of discussion, let's assume that the total number of terrorist plots have increased and the US is not as successful now at identifying terrorist plots as before. Given these assumptions, there seem to be three possible explanations: (1) the US has decreased in their effectiveness, (2) maintained their previous effectiveness, or (3) increased their effectiveness to preidentify terrorist plots. If the former is true, that is no doubt a point for criticism. If the second point is true, you could argue that we should always improve so we have failed. If, however, the latter is true, then the criticisms seem less justified. I understand that nothing can really justify life and death. If we aren't preventing terrorist acts, then we are failing to a certain extent. Is it, however, possible to prevent all terrorist acts? Given the unpredictability of human nature, limitations to large organizations such as the U.S. government and even our intelligence agencies, and increasing globalization of knowledge and technology, can all terrorist acts be prevented?

It seems most logical to assume that not all terrorist acts can be prevented. Once we have accepted that, it is time to set a realistic goal of what we can prevent. An idealist may argue (and I might agree) that even if you have an unrealistic goal, you should set it there and get as close as possible. Even in this situation, however, the smartest decision seems to be to set more realistic, intermediary goals. Perhaps the first course of action for our government should be to analyze the trends in terrorist acts over time and our effectiveness (and inadequacies) in predicting the different types of attacks. I find it hard to believe this hasn't already been done, and perhaps it is even publically available information (please do let me know if you have a reference to the publically available information!), but if it is, it seems that these analyses should be included in articles such as the New York Times articles above. What do you think?

How Do You Trust

2010-01-06T18:05:00.000-05:00

Humam Khalil Mohammed, the double agent who killed 7 CIA officers and a Jordanian spy in late December (here's the link to one of the New York Times Articles), was a trusted individual both by the Jordanian intelligence service and the United States C.I.A. According to Western officials, Mohammed was not even thoroughly searched prior to entering the CIA base in Afghanistan because of his importance as an informant and the CIA's trust in the Jordanian intelligence service and their subsequent trust in Mohammed.

A world revolving around suspicion and distrust is a sad and lonely one. It is, however, times like these when trust is taken advantage of that sets back all the progress to building up a relationship and easing rigid procedures and overly secure rules. It is an tricky balance between trust and acting smart to avoid being betrayed. It is often the culmination of any given individual's experiences which determines their ability to hold this balance.

It seems to me that while not all is fair in love and war any longer, we still excuse deception, murder, and other otherwise unacceptable malfeasances when it comes to war. The most common justification is that these wrongs are the better of two wrongs and in some ways are justified by the ends. Some may argue that it is not that the ends are justified by the means, but rather that there just is no better option, and so we must try to forget the means and focus on the ends. You can see our society's (and perhaps mankind's) acceptance of deception even in our games, especially those on war. Take the game Risk, for example. The entire game is based on alliances that are made in good faith with the expectation that the alliances will be broken as soon as it becomes beneficial enough for one person to break the alliance so they can win. On some occassions, these alliances last until the end of the game and players declare a mutual victory, but this certainly depends on the two players' personalities.

If you're not a fan of war games or involved with current events, you can think about things in terms of your personal relationships. Friendships and relationships with significant others are based on trust. Some individuals are quick to trust and may be called naive while others have an iron clad gate to protect themselves. Often, those with tighter gates have had negative experiences where they have tried to trust and been betrayed, only reaffirming that trust is a bad idea. These individuals often have difficulty becoming close to others as at a certain point, that gate gets in the way and if they start to feel they can trust someone, their experiences tell them they are just getting soft and have merely met an master of deception. The majority of individuals are probably somewhere in the middle where their trust must be earned through good times and bad, but they are not paranoid of betrayal.

Whether you frame trust in the context of war, games, or relationships, it seems that in an ideal world, complete trust is the best option. In the world we live in, however, is that even possible? If it is possible, is it the best option? Thinking about your own personal life, can you ever trust another individual completely? Or does everyone have a gate, merely of different strengths and transparencies. Even if you can trust an individual completely, should you? In that situation it may come down to luck of who you encounter in your life. There are definitely those that will take advantage of someone that is quick to trust, and Mohammed proved, there are even those that will take advantage of someone that is capable of gaining trust with. So where do you draw the line personally? How do you decide who to trust and to what degree? How do you decide when to suppress your suspicions and paranoias no matter how logical they seem to be? Once you make this decision, how does it translate over to groups of individuals? The same questions apply for all types of groups. Companies must decide who to trust with their secrets, governments must decide who trust with their national security, and military leaders must decide who to trust is on their side.

The case with Mohammed is an especially interesting one because he is not just a secret agent, but a double agent. The C.I.A. and the Jordanian intelligence service wanted Mohammed, and in fact may have trusted him more, because he said (and probably showed through his actions) he was willing to deceive Al Qaeda by posing as a foreign jihadi. The C.I.A. itself, and surely any other intelligence service, revolves around secret agents and double agents. When you are dealing with individuals that deceive people as their career - that have the skills, minds, and brains to deceive - how can you trust them? You may have even trained them yourself to deceive, so how do you trust that they aren't deceiving you?

Especially in our current war, long term deception is a recurring event. Hasan at Fort Hood, the 9/11 suicide hijackers, Mohammed, they were all long term deceivers that built up trust with the people around them before turning on them. In our personal lives, adultery and talking behind people's backs are now everyday events. They are looked down upon in theory, but rarely are people punished or have consequences for their actions. In a world like this, it is even more important to trust and to have faith in the people around you. We cannot let suspicion overtake our minds, or we will truly be living in a lonely world. How do you find that balance?

Portuguese Restaurant Owners: The Best Housing Guides for Tourists!

2010-01-06T02:32:00.000-05:00

Who would have guessed that local restaurant owners in Portugal are cooks by day and housing guides by night? Robert, my travel companion, and I were traveling to Sintra in the central east side of Portugal (almost directly east of Lisbon), but weren't sure whether we would stay the night there or travel south to a small fishing village for the night. We decided to play it by ear and were advised by the local workers at the hostel that we should ask one of the restaurant owners where to stay. We were skeptical and so sought out the obvious hostels and guidebook recommendations once we committed to staying in Sintra for the night (9pm the night of).

To our dismay, every place we went was either fully booked or out of our price range. One of the hotel receptionists was kind enough to let us use the hotel's computer to search for hostels and use their phone, but every affordable lodging that was listed was fully booked! We finally gave up to the grumbling of our stomachs and got a recommendation from the receptionist for a local restaurant with authentic Portuguese cooking. She noted, too, that the owner was exceptionally kind and would be willing to help us find housing.

We wandered into Ristorante Tulhas and was met by smiling faces. Despite it being quite late and the streets empty, the restaurant was half full. We were seated and while waiting to order, made note of the two individuals that seemed like the owners. One seemed more friendly with the customers than the other, so we waited for him, but he seemed to be responsible for the other half of the restaurant! Finally we asked the other gentleman who immediately referred us to his friend who turned out to be the owner. Antonio immediately became concerned that we hadn't found housing this late in the night and started thinking of places he could call to obtain housing for us. "I have a few friends," he said in very good English, "I will call around to my friends that have houses and see if they have room tonight. But it is so late... I hope they have something."

A few moments later, Antonio brought our dinner with a concerned face. "It is so late that everyone is full or sleeping. One friend has a room, but he says you need to be there in 15 minutes or the reception desk will close. But it will take you 15 minutes just to get there and you just got your dinner. It would be a shame for you to leave. I will continue calling around." We ate our dinner unconcerned, having slept in a bus station a few days before, we knew we would get through the night somehow, and after dessert we found ourselves to be alone in the restaurant with Antonio and two Australian girls that were visiting Sintra over the weekend from London where they were currently working (future post on why Australians are everywhere). Antonio brought over a bottle of one of his favorite ports in the restaurant bar and poured himself and each of us a glass on him for being his last customers. He sat with us and we talked about the differences in cuisine and traveling experiences. He then turned to Robert and myself and said, "Unfortunately I have not been successful at finding you a place to stay. I do have a small place of my own with lots of empty rooms. I have been thinking about opening up a hostel, but have not done anything with it. It is not much, but you are most welcome."

Robert and I said yes after a quick look at each other as the gentleman seemed so kind and between the two of us, we felt safe. He invited the two Australian girls to come with us for a drink of port at his home with his wife, but they had to go home, so we headed over with him which was only a few minutes away. His Portuguese wife and 7 year old granddaughter that was visiting for the week greeted us at the door. He showed us our room in the basement which had 4 other rooms, a private bathroom, kitchen, and balcony. It was a mansion! He gave us the entire basement to ourselves and even a key to the side door. There was yogurt, fruit, meats, bottles of water, homemade rice pudding, and more in the refridgerator which he welcomed us to and then invited us upstairs to the main part of the house for port. They insisted that we try the rice pudding his wife had prepared for a dinner party the next day which they insisted we come to. Unfortuantely, we had a tight schedule to keep, but we both still regret that we weren't able to join them. Antonio then pulled out some nuts and his favorite 1989 vintage port. Way out of our budget, it was truly delicious, and he couldn't offer us enough. We talked about the difficulty of learning languages, what it was like to live in Portugal versus the United States, the troubles of being in the restaurant business and never having a day off, and his granddaughter's education (especially of English) in the Portuguese school system.

After a good night's sleep, we explored the palaces that were a 10 minute walk from Antonio's home and returned back to say goodbye. We paid 50 Euros, the same price we had been paying at hostels, and were given fruit and bottles of water for the train and warm hugs. Antonio had already left for the restaurant, so we thanked his wife and headed over to the restaurant to say goodbye. The restaurant was bustling even for lunch, but Antonio insisted on taking a picture with us by the beautiful tile painting of his restaurant on one of his walls. We gave him tips on how he could start an official lodging business in either his home or one of his other two properties in Sintra, and gathered his information so that we could distribute it to the other tourists staying at our hostel in Lisbon.

Robert and I learned towards the end of our trip how wonderful it could be to turn to locals for housing. Granted, we got very lucky and not every situation would turn out the same way. If I had been traveling alone as a single female, I probably would not have stayed in a stranger's home no matter how nice they seemed, but given the situation, we definitely wished we had thought to do that earlier. For the same price as a hostel, we made a friend, had a chance to stay in a beautiful, historical home, tried local foods, had interesting discussions, tried a vintage port, and even got snacks for the train!

If anyone visits Portugal, I highly recommend contacting Antonio about a place to stay (you can say you heard about him from my blog!) or just to visit his restaurant. Ristorante Tulhas in Rua Gil Vicente, 4-6, Sintra 2710-568, Portugal, Phone Number +351 21 923 23 78. I do have his personal email so let me know if you're interested and would prefer email and I'd be happy to introduce you!

Traveling for Pleasure versus Traveling for Work

2010-01-04T23:43:00.001-05:00

I recently took a one week vacation to Portugal with the sole intention of spending quality time in a new place with a special person in my life. This was the first time in years that I had left the country with the sole purpose of having fun rather than to work on either a photojournalism assignment or development project. Even as I began planning for the trip, I realized that in addition to having a different purpose and therefore different logistical planning, it was a completely different personal experience. Both my travel companion and I were used to traveling on a slim budget and experiencing the country more from a local's point of view, but of course we wanted to see the main tourist attractions and taste the local foods.

The first difference I saw was the use of a guide book. I didn't even think of getting a guide book, because I had no need for it when I was traveling on task, but my companion bought the Rick Steve's in Portugal and we both literally and figuratively wore it thin. He had originally aimed to purchase the Lonely Planet copy, but ended up with Rick Steves because LP was sold out. We found the Rick Steve's quite good in its recommendations, but we did find several mistakes in prices and hours of operation despite the book being published only a few months prior to our travels. We used a combination of the guidebook and recommendations from locals to plan what and where we were going to eat and what and when we were going to see sights. It was nice to see the country's treasures and to know in advance the types of food that they're known for so that I wouldn't find out later and regret not trying it, but it was also much more hurried because we had so much that we wanted to do and see.

In contrast, when I travel for work, there is no guidebook. I find a place to stay and get my initial transportation and then rely on the locals that I'm working with to point me to food to try. In addition, because I'm usually working everyday with an occasional day off, I tend to stay in one part of the country going from my housing to work and back instead of traveling around seeing the different sights and tasting the different foods that the country is famous for. Through this form of travel, I get a better insight into what life is like for a local, although I am limited to the views of the economic and social classes that the locals I am working with are in.

For example, when I was living with Indian-Tanzanians in Tanzania, my experiences were completely different than if I had lived with black Tanzanians. Due to their society, the Indians tend to travel mostly by car and are rarely seen walking around on the streets. They tend to own the stores and send their children to private schools and have fairly stable internet connectiosn as well as more of a fusion diet. Alternatively, living with one of the political ministers in Uganda, he was a black Ugandan, but was a politician and thus of a higher socioeconomic class, drinking Amarula after dinner every night with hot water plumbing inside the house and fluffy beds. Obviously, I did not get a well rounded view of what life is like for the individuals that I hope to empower and help help themselves rise out of poverty. (A future post will center around doing what it takes to really understand the people that are in the most need and balancing that with your own safety and health.)

Traveling with a guidebook could have given us only a tourist's view of Portugal, but because of our unique interests, my companion and I went out of our way to get to know locals, get their input on places to stay, visit, and eat regardless of its popularity with tourists, and learn about their lives. As we were not limited to one location for work, we were able to meet a large variety of locals and even got a chance to stay with a local in Sintra (a town that came straight out of a fairy tale) in his beautiful home (more on this later). Due to a tight itinerary, however, we weren't able to spend as much time with the interesting people that we met. In addition, seeking out tourist attractions did put us in contact with other tourists which is always an interesting experience of its own.

Another main difference was housing. Traveling for work, I found one place to live and made that my headquarters during the entire time I was working in that area. Often I tried to find host families or longer term housing such as campgrounds, but traveling for pleasure and especially as a couple, we looked mainly for hostels a day before or the day of entering a certain town. It was only when all the housing in Sintra was occupied when we went to a restaurant and asked the owner for a place to stay and he offered us his "modest" home which turned out to be a beautiful home with a great view and perfect location.

A big pro for both types of travel was the food. In the case of traveling for pleasure, I had a chance to try foods that were popular in many different regions of the country and for various socioeconomic classes. In the case of traveling for work, I spent much more time with locals, so I had a chance to regularly eat home cooked food and also learn their unique ways of preparing food. In both types of traveling, one of my favorite things to do is try the street food (I only had digestive trouble with street food in India) and go to the grocery stores to see what is available and what the locals buy. Traveling to Ecuador for work, I went to the grocery store and bought one of each fruit I had never seen before to try. Traveling to Portugal, we bought the bread, cheese, meats, and snacks that the locals shopping at the store were buying and had a picnic in one of the castles.

Transportation was of course different because in one case we were traveling around the country and in another I was traveling to and from work in a much smaller area. In the former, we took the train, bus, local transportation, and more, whereas in the latter I stuck mostly to walking and the local public transportation.

There are many other differences as well, but in the end it seems that it is a combination of your purpose (and therefore your mindset) and breadth versus depth that make your personal experiences differ so greatly. Traveling for pleasure may give you more exposure to history, culture, other travelers (with fascinating stories of their own) and the country as whole, but traveling for work may give you a deeper insight into what life is really like in the country including food, work, transportation, and relationships between locals. Of course the two types of travel may be much more similar if the travel for pleasure takes place over a much longer period of time. Still, it seems that most that travel for pleasure tend to spend the majority of their time with other travelers rather than with locals, and in touristy or expatriat areas rather than in local hangouts or work places. Then the dilemma arises: given a limited amount of time and resources, what type of travel should I do?

Tranquility

2008-07-09T00:39:00.000-04:00

Survival

2008-06-30T01:58:00.004-04:00

Jess and I had the opportunity to explore el Museo Nacional del Banco Central today which tells the history of Ecuador. One of the things I kept wondering was why would anyone go to the jungle and decide that was the best place to settle down and build a community? While it is rich in resources and a good water source, there are dangerous animals, muddy lands, and thick vegetation that makes it difficult to travel, farm, or build. So if wanderers were looking for a good place to settle down and make a community... why would they choose the jungle? Why would you?

When 2+2 != 4

2008-06-30T00:46:00.007-04:00

My team project is to work on a healthcare infrastructure for the Quichua community on the upper Napo River in Ecuador. After flying to Coca, Ecuador, we took a 2-3 hour canoe (gas-powered) ride to Sani Lodge, one of the only indigenous-owned lodges in Ecuador. Sani Lodge is owned by the Sani Quichua community who has a community center about 30 minutes away from the lodge. To get there, we need to paddle a few minutes to a stream, then gas-power to a station where we switch to a larger canoe/boat and go a bit further to the community center. A cooking area is in the center with a school, building for community meetings, community clinic, and futbol (soccer) field complete with bleachers around it. They are in the midst of building a new structure to start producing chocolate. The clinic itself is small and was funded by an oil company when they made a deal with Sani to fund several projects in return for digging to see if there was oil underneath their land (but not to drill for it). The clinic was also given money to purchase medications and supplies which the community deposited into the bank and used the interest to extend the period of time they could purchase supplies. While basic supplies are covered solely by this fund, many of the medications are paid for by the community as it is used. However, Sani has all but run out of the funds to purchase supplies and cannot afford to stock up on medicine (as seen by the sparse and only cabinet in the center in the photograph to the right). The medications are sold at a cheaper price for about 2x the stock amount (versus 10+ x) by a Spanish-founded nonprofit group called Sandi Yura. Sandi Yura offers courses on healthcare to "los premedores de salud" (health volunteers) on different areas.

Jess and I brought Sani's promedor de salud (Blanca) medical supplies which we got donated by Wound Technology Networks (based in Hollywood, FL, USA) and backpacks for easy portablity (remember! Sani is in the Amazon and a lot of healthcare is done via backpack medicine - traveling quite large distances through the jungle or via canoe to the patient). We were pleased to discover that the promedor already knew how to use most of the supplies (all wound care, mostly first aid, supplies), but saddened to discover that her volunteer work was strained by lack of additional manpower, money, supplies, and knowledge. She explained that although Sandi Yura gave some courses, they were not enough for what the community needed, and pregnancy/maternal care and good sexual education/puberty education for children were greatly needed. We decided to talk to Sandi Yura directly about why they did not offer these courses and what we could potentially do to help, but when we had the chance to speak to the Spanish president, we found contradicting information. We were told that classes on maternal care, pregnancy, youth education on washing hands, sexual education, and teaching children on puberty were already in practice and that Blanca had already taken the courses and should be teaching them. She became very defensive and said that Sandi Yura was doing all they could and we needed to work with them. We asked what we could do and how we could help, but instead of giving us an answer, she replied that whatever programs we wanted to do, we needed to run by them first. We thought that working with an already established organization would be a good plan, so we agreed to contact one of the people she suggested (she did not want to talk to us about it herself). As soon as we ended our conversation with her and walked out of the building, however, a large group of the Sani community and leaders of other nearby Quichua communities (they had just had a meeting), approached us and had our guide translate the following. They explained that Sandi Yura did NOT in fact provide those courses and had a very very large fund which they received to help the Quichua but that they did not, in reality, see. Asking us for our help, and telling us they needed the projects we had spoken to them about directly, they expressed their concern about Sandi Yura and how they did not see any of the money.

Now from the above description, it seems pretty obvious that Sandi Yura was a corrupt organization. However, it is not that simple. Sandi Yura is a nonprofit group that provides all their services for free. A lot of their work is dependent on the promedores doing their jobs as well. As they train select individuals from the communities who are then responsible for teaching the rest of the community, a hiccup can occur anywhere along the way. In addition, a lot of the teaching the promedores do occur at town meetings, which Sandi Yura's president explained were often cut short due to impatience and not wanting to listen. As a result, it is possible that Sandi Yura is doing their job, but there is a problem in their delivery. In this situation when 2+2 does not equal 4, what are we to do? Our next step is to ask Sandi Yura for their budget, annual report, and exact programs they offer. Hopefully they will also have statistics on the number of promedores they train on each topic as well so that we can deduce where the failure of the program is occurring.

Child Labor

2008-06-23T01:32:00.007-04:00

Quito seems fairly well developed with widespread plumbing, well-paved streets, lots of small and large businesses, and a good public transportation system (observe in the photograph to the left the clean, shiny appearance of the public bus which costs $0.25). There are little to no beggers on the streets, police are widespread, waste is controlled, and everyone is dressed in warm clothing. You can almost convince yourself that you are in America. However, the children and senior citizens working in the streets rudely awakens you to the inequality between economic classes.

Before I go further, I want to mention that I am not presenting the full picture. There is a lot I do not know about the economic status of Quito and Ecuador as a whole. I only know the little I have studied and the even less that I have seen. There is also the large issue of things are not as they appear. In addition, I have been exploring the tourist traps (such as El Museo Casa de Sucre in the photo to the right - Antonio Jose of Sucre's house turned museum - a Venezuelan general that was key in Ecuador's independence) which of course will be more developed, safer, and cleaner than other areas (it is highly recommended that I not go out after nightfall and avoid many places due to the increase in danger - though both Jess and I have felt fairly safe).

Going back to development, it was really the children on the streets alone or in groups selling candy or polishing shoes instead of being in school or being at home with their families that got to me. Jess and I were walking through a park and heard a chorus singing. We followed our ears to a Christian young adult chorus wearing bright orange shirts, singing songs of worship in Spanish. Their bright shirts attracted our attention and we were listening to the music when we noticed a group of small Ecuadorian children sitting politely on the curb looking up at the primarily caucasian students singing praises of worship. As the choir looked out at the audience in front of them and towards the heavens, they did not seem to notice these children looking up towards them. As I took photographs of the children, their attention turned towards me and they headed over with their small toolboxes of shoe polishing materials. First, they asked for $1 for me taking a photograph of them. Then they tried to polish my sneakers. I gave them each a quarter for letting me take pictures of them and chatted with them a bit about the chorus. They told me the chorus was from America and they were singing about God. They loved the songs and were listening to them. The next day (today), I went to Old Quito and ran into many more children polishing shoes and selling candy. One little girl that I was not able to get a picture of to my regret (I am still getting reacclimated to feeling comfortable taking pictures of strangers in disadvantaged states and asking them questions about their lives - it is necessary for journalism and great for insight and development, but some associate it rude probing and that is a whole different topic altogether), tried to sell me candy. She said it was $1 (though I realized later that she must have only known how to say $1 in English), and the candy was well packaged, so I decided to give it a try. I gave her a $1 coin (the $1 gold coins are extremely popular), and she started giving me handfuls of the candy. I was surprised at how much I was getting and told her I did not need as much. She continued to give it to me, so I just asked what her favorite was and asked for that and then gave her some of it in return. Families must often send out their kids because they know how hard it is for people, especially foreigners that are not used to seeing children work on the streets, to turn down children. However, by buying things from these kids, am I only encouraging for them to continue working versus going to school? Or if I were not to contribute, would they starve? When you don't know, how can you make the best decision?

Refer to Jess's Blog for Fun Details on Our Tourist Travels

2008-06-23T01:29:00.001-04:00

http://jlee629.blogspot.com/ :)

And Off to Ecuador! Random Thoughts..

2008-06-22T10:49:00.005-04:00

These are just random thoughts I had during my flight. I will update with actual blogs in the near future :) the photos below may or may not match the writing... the picture of the cars/mountains is of Quito! quite developed.

Friday, June 20, 2008

10:00pm

Flight 931, American Airlines, Seat 11A

Travel Companion, Jess Lee, Seat 11B

Itinerary: Boston (Logan) > NYC (La Guardia) > Miami, FL (MIA) > Quito, Ecuador

Time of departure from Boston: 11am, Thursday, June 19, 2008

Missed connecting flight to Miami by about 5 minutes

Standby flight delayed

Missed connecting flight to Quito from Miami

Given free voucher to stay at Dadeland Courtyard Hotel 30 minutes south of MIA + $10 dinner, $10 lunch, $5 breakfast vouchers

Flying has never scared me because I started when I was so little. It was always very natural and I didn’t think anything of it. Choosing a seat is an interesting process. Noone usually wants to sit in the middle because you have nothing to rest your head against as you do on the window seat nor do you have extra leg room or ease of not having to bother other people to go to the bathroom as you do in the aisle seat. The window seat has another benefit of a great view, but then you have to bother two people to do your business. Growing up, I always wanted the window seat. I slept pretty much the whole flight, even when it was a long one to Korea (my mom says I used to sleep through meals so she’d try to wake me up because she thought I needed food). I loved looking out the window, especially during takeoff and landing. As I got older, I decided that the aisle seat was the best seat because I hated inconveniencing people, especially when they were sleeping or had drinks/food trays on their tray table. The worst is when you really have to go but everyone has trays and there is no good place to put your tray to fold up the tray table to get out! Granted, the best situation is when you get 1-2 seats in addition to your own. With an entire half row to yourself, I can curl up into a ball and sleep lying down. With 2 seats, you can share the middle seat with the other person, giving more elbow room and perhaps a place to rest your feet.

On this trip, I’ve had the pleasure of sitting at the window seat from NYC to Miami and Miami to Quito (dear Jess suffered the middle seat, though we will switch on the way back). I feel like I have been on a plane forever, as Monday morning I flew to DC and then back on Tuesday to fly out on Thursday and get delay after delay and then missed flight and then delay to still be flying on Friday! I’ve discovered the difficulty of taking photographs from an airplane window. Many of them are dirty, but beyond that, I seem to have extreme difficulty getting the photographs to not appear washed out. Of course there is always photoshop, but is there a trick? Perhaps I should use a smaller aperature… I’ve taken a liking to taking photographs of clouds from the ground, so naturally, I started taking pictures of clouds from the sky. Clouds are like snowflakes, none seem to be exactly the same. My favorites are those big fluffy clouds that seem like big comfortable down quilts or pillows. I just want to jump into them and be enveloped into heavenly goodness. Too bad that if I were actually to jump, I would end up permanently enveloped by wood and dirt. Right now, there is a full moon right outside my window which shines down on the clouds, slightly illuminating them. You can barely discern the clouds, it is like a sea of waves or whipped cream. The contours create shadows that make them more visible. Lightening strikes in the distance occasionally lighting up the entire sky. Seeing the lightening from above is brilliant. It is like seeing heaven when you see the lightening from the level at which it originates. The contrast between the part of the sky with lightening and the part that does not is striking. You are seeing two worlds at once. As the clouds change, it turns into a mountain of snow. When you see the wispier clouds, you can see the land below it. Right now we must be above water or jungle because there are no lights. Occasionalyl you see a small strip of light or even just one dot of light below. Such a contrast between flying over America. We must be flying over Central America right now. It has been about 2.5 hours in our 3.5 hour flight, so we are probably flying near Costa Rica at the moment.

Whenever I try to photograph the moon, it comes out extremely small, like a dot in the sky. I wonder about the moon. It lights up because of the reflection of the sunlight not because the moon itself shines… but if the sun is hitting the moon, wouldn’t the entire sky light up? For example, if you took a flashlight and shined it on a ball in a dark room, not only would the ball light up, but so too would the path of the light itself… I probably learned about this at one point… but I completely forget.

Behind us in line getting on the plane, Jess and I saw a few people wearing collared shirts that said something about global health. I asked what they were, and apparently they are part of a mission trip with about 25 doctors, dentists, and pharmacists to Ecuador to work with the Quichua community! They are going for one week and it is a mission trip by the Christian Association for Medical Professionals or something like that. The woman I was talking to also had her daughter with her who is in her 4^th year at dental school. The woman, however, did not seem to know anything about the Quichua and wasn’t sure how to pronounce the name. I suppose if you are going to a community for one week and just treating them as quickly as you can and doing routine things you don’t really need to know too much about the community. However, I think it is almost a sign of respect. Besides being fun to learn about other cultures, it makes you think of the group more at your level. It is so dangerous to think of the developing world as a group of people that we need to help and save. I had a job interview recently and as my resume is filled with international development interest, they wanted to clarify that I would not get to do international development work. I was a little confused because a lot fo the work they were doing was international and looking at global collaboration. I mentioned that international development to me was not foreign charity and blind aid, but rather cocreation and co-development. My interviewer then agreed that I would be doing some international development work. We talked about how the term and topic “international development” has turned so much to the idea of charity and giving. It sounds so great, but when a group does not have to work for something, they end up taking it more for granted and can end up relying on it. This becomes dangerous especially with political instability where it is not unheard of for political tension to cause a ngo to withdraw from a country. In addition, lack of co-creation means lack of culturally-appropriate development. What works in the US may not work well in a different country. In fact, it most probably will not. With medicine, it is a little different as for many diseases, the treatment is the same. However, you do have to consider the community’s own medical practices as well as any stigmas or beliefs against western medicine. In addition, it s great that medical professionals donate their time to go to developing countries for a week or for maybe even a month, but without a healthcare system developing within the country, they will always rely on foreign aid. There are so many different issues and problems tied around each other. You can’t solve one problem without working on another.

If You Died Tomorrow...

2007-12-04T03:45:00.000-05:00

... would you be satisfied with your life? Would you be more than content? Would you have regrets? Remorse?

It seems that very few have found the balance between striving for the future of their dreams and living fully in the present. If anyone. Is it even possible? This is a theme that came up several times in previous entries. Stepping outside of MIT, outside of high-paced America, I met so many that were living day by day. Some were forced to live day by day, struggling to get by while others had a little more luxury to look ahead but chose more to focus on the present. This frustrated so many of our students who wanted to work quickly and efficiently, focusing on the end goal and working to reach it... but their culture seemed so much more focused on enjoying the day by day. Taking one hour breaks for tea, another one or two hour break to just sit and enjoy the sun and each other's company. How many times at MIT do we just sit with a friend for several hours in the sun having a nice talk, maybe just sitting in silence, just enjoying being around them and the world around us?

Premeds are often criticized for being too anal, for being too focused on grades and resumes which in the end are for the purpose of getting them into the best medical school possible. Often (though some are blessed with natural talent, luck, and skill), this focus is necessary to obtain the best marks to achieve the highest success in the medical school process. However, is it worth it? When you want to be a doctor more than anything, you think it is, but then when you try to balance out your life geared for your future with your life in the present, your marks may begin to falter. When trying to find this balance, the general advice seems to be work hard, but remember to relax and enjoy what's around you. But this is such a delicate balance. I've been on both extremes, working too hard and forgetting the world around me and not working hard enough but loving life in the present. Is such a balance possible? Do they add up equally?

If you died tomorrow, how would you feel? What would you regret not having done? What would you regret not having said? When you live for tomorrow, what happens to today? but when you live for today, what happens to tomorrow?

Success can be measured in millions of different ways and varies from person to person. But can you ever have it all? Can you be successful on every level? Have everything to your heart's content? Many would argue 'no,' life must have its downsides for you to more deeply appreciate the upsides. However, some would argue 'yes,' with the right attitude and the right combination of motivation and relaxation, you can have it all. But then how much does luck have to do with it? Timing? Skill? Can everyone have it all if they find that magic balance? Or are there just a lucky few that have been born to have it all? Perhaps the trick isn't to have it all, but to be happy with what you have. To live life with no regrets, is not necessarily to have no regrets, but to not focus on them. Pushing the regrets out of your mind and enveloping your thoughts around what you do have, what makes you happy, the people that are around you.

How would I feel if I died tomorrow? How would Emmanuel feel? How would Lucus feel? How would the women in the camps outside of Delhi feel?

How would you feel if you died tomorrow?

Their Eyes were Watching Me

2007-12-04T03:43:00.001-05:00

I found this post.... it was while I was in Moshi with no internet :)

Everything I say, everything I do, people are watching and absorbing. Merely by being here, I am imposing my culture upon them. Abdullah invited us to his place for lunch on Thursday, and his wife taught us how to cook some Tanzanian food, very delicious, with fairly simple ingredients (though in America we would probably used canned coconut milk and meat that had not just been chopped off a cow).. Their next door neighbor and her small daughter (they say small instead of young) (her name was Mary) came over and Mary was fascinated by my camera.

I let Mary explore all the buttons and after that she just got fascinated about everything about me. She was playing with my hair, intently investigating the hair tie on my wrist, and investigating the bandaids on my hands (casualties of trying to cook with limited utensils). Mary started copying some of my actions, some really basic things I was doing like dancing with my 2 index fingers, or playing air keyboard without really realizing it… and then it hit me that things I do without even thinking affect someone. And things I do on purpose can affect people in different ways. How can you ever know how you’re changing those around you, whether it’s for the better or the worse? Noone (though some believe differently) ever wants to make things worse for anyone… though sometimes this may be a necessary casualty in their eyes of making things better for themselves

Quick Update

2007-11-06T13:51:00.000-05:00

I've lost the ability to sit and write for hours about my thoughts due to slight inconveniences called classes and exams. However, I would like to give you all a brief update.

(1) I began writing a column in The Tech (the MIT student-run newspaper) which runs every Tuesday (on Fridays when we have no Tuesday issue). Previous articles are archived on the website at http://www-tech.mit.edu/

(2) I will have a gallery opening at the Weisner Gallery on the 2nd floor of the MIT Stratton Student Center in the near future. It is planned for November 15, but may be pushed back until November 21 due to unforseen circumstances.

(3) The unforseen circumstances is that I acquired an infectious disease during my travels and am currently under examination to have it figured out. They are leaning towards Malaria and have given me antibiotics to make many of the symptoms bearable, but this was definitely unexpected.

(4) I am trying to write a book similar to the blog but more inclusive with the interviews I conducted and organized in a more comprehensible format. The book is theoretically to be completed by my graduation and if not then, for MIT's 150th anniversary in 2011. I hope to finish by my graduation.

(5) I have met with several amazing students that are interested in pursuing projects of their own. While I would direct you to the MIT public service center for more formal information about what they are looking for in designing a PSC fellowship, I would love to talk to anyone that is interested in different international development issues and to share ideas that I have for projects or to hear your ideas and try to give my input.

(6) I am trying to learn as much as I can about international development which includes both national and international political situations, different social issues and situations, policies, economies, and so much more. So please, contact me if you're willing to share your opinions/knowledge with me. Conversing can be so much more fun and beneficial than reading at times. :)

(7) I have received several anonymous comments asking questions. While I hope to get around to addressing them publicly on the blog, some are not applicable for an individual blog entry and I cannot guarantee that I will get to it by a certain time, so if you would like to hear back from me sooner, please leave your name and email address or other contact information so that I can answer your questions/continue our discussion.

Part IV (b): Welcome to Moshi, Tanzania

2007-08-20T02:00:00.000-04:00

About an hour and a half cramped bus ride (5 people to a 4 person seat) on bumpy roads for 2000-2500 tsh leads you to Moshi, Tanzania…it is a bit less scenic than Arusha, not as luscious green… it reminds me more of a typical American suburb, but the mountains that loom overhead, including Kiliminjaro which I hadn't seen yet due to clouds… wow. Majestic. Moshi is significantly smaller than Arusha in size and population, and Shirley and I were able to explore all of Moshi by foot in the matter of only a couple hours. Moshi is quite a bit hotter than Arusha due to its lower altitude, which is nice in the evening but a bit uncomfortable during the day. Though it is very nice compared to the heat of

India

Arriving in Moshi, I met host mommy, a nice Indian woman with 2 sons studying abroad in America and a 18-year-old daughter that was away in Dar at the time. Her English was not very good, but her smile and warm welcome made me feel right at home. We headed to the Kiliminjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC), where the wheelchair clinic is located. From there I met Abdullah, the “boss,” a delightful gentleman that has been confined to a wheelchair due to a motor vehicle accident several years back, but has explored with his mind and charming personality what he cannot do on foot. We went to go visit Peter, a local that had been testing the new wheelchair designs, designed for the rugged roads that throw automobile passengers against the roof (and I say this from experience – though the bump on my head serving as proof has since then subsided) never mind allow a person in a wheelchair designed for smooth roads and tile floors to get anywhere.

My trip in Moshi was fairly short as Shirley had planned a Safari for the two of us over the weekend, and then by her beckoning, lack of photographic opportunities (due to most of her work being on the computer), and a “you absolutely have to go to Zanzibar while you’re here,” I headed off to an island off the coast of Tanzania. But before I talk about leapords and paradise, let me tell you a bit about my experiences in Moshi. There is a Moshi Institute of Technology (MIT) which Shirley and I just had to take a picture of...

Where Would You Be Without an Education?

2007-08-20T01:55:00.001-04:00

Have you ever wondered how your life would be different had you never received a formal education? Would you know the things you know now? Would you know that the human body is made up of cells? How about that different species can't mate? How about that you shouldn't drink dirty water? How about how to build a hand tricycle for the physically disabled...

One man that we met in Arusha (sadly I forget his name at the moment, but I will find out) taught himself to design hand tricycles. He has no formal education, he received a little bit of training recently at the association for the handicapped in Arusha, but he created his own design... something that current MIT students are doing! How is it possible? In addition to being in a low economic class, he is physically disabled. There is a great stigma against the physically disabled that they are trying to counteract, but it limits your opportunities even more to be disabled. To the left is an actual photograph of him working on the bike chain of the trike. What would a man like this be able to do WITH an MIT education when he already does this WITHOUT a MIT education! And what will we all do with an MIT education. Is it our duty to make the most out of our education? Or is it up to us since we had to work to get to this position? Or is an MIT education even better than another education? In addition, how can there be such a big difference between people in their knowledge without a formal education? Some don't know basic logic or common sense because they have never learned to think in that way, but here are some that are engineering relatively complex modes of transportation for the disabled...

Pictures from Sibusiso

2007-08-20T01:55:00.000-04:00

Overdue pictures... photoshop had stopped working, but now it's all good! These are from Sibusiso, the ngo that is becoming self-sustaining and provides education/therapy to mentally handicapped children and their parents/guardians. They have a program for families that come from far away where the mother and child can stay in one of the guest houses/dorms for free for a month to get training. The first picture is of a mother learning how to give massage therapy to her child and the second is of a child playing in a very large sandbox. They have difficulty walking/sitting up by themselves, so they buried them in the sand to be able to sit up by themselves to play.

What Do You Want More Than Anything :: "Education"

2007-08-18T14:48:00.000-04:00

Lucus (one of the men at Mobility Care in Arusha) told me about a 12-year old boy named Emmanual who had to crawl around on his hands for 10 years of his life because his legs are stiff and bowed (they aren't sure why because he has never been able to get checked out). Needless to say, he can't afford crutches or a wheelchair, nevermind an education. Mobility Care found a sponsor for Emmanual when he was 10 to get a wheelchair, telling his mother that she had to send him to school in return for the wheelchair. He went for a while, but the other students would throw things at him and he would be left behind when they went to have fun or do things… and then they ran out of money and he couldn't go to school anymore.

Lucus was asking Tish and me if we could find a sponsor for Emmanual, and we explained that we would try, but that a system needed to be in place because there were surely more kids like Emmanual and we couldn’t find sponsors for them all if there was no stable program set up. So we discussed ideas for setting that up (if anyone is interested in pursuing this program/club/ngo please let me know), but I wanted to see Emmanual and talk to him in person so that I could come back with a more detailed story, and be able to really understand his situation.

Mobility Care builds wheelchairs whenever there is a sponsor, but sponsors had been scarce so there was not much work to do so we decided to go right then. We stopped by Mr. Daniel (the boss)’s house and Lucus' house. At Lucus’ house, we met his wife and the kids she babysits (to the right is a picture of a few of them and Tish... with a MIT shirt :) ).. his house was quite nice… spacious, clean, and the scenery around it is just gorgeous, and all natural. Mr. Daniel’s house was 2 small rooms… I wondered why his house was so much smaller and cramped than Lucus’ when he was the boss, and I found out later that he supports all his siblings on top of his family… including paying for his younger brother to go to teacher’s college…. His younger brother really wanted to be a doctor, he loves science, and apparently when he met with Tish one time, all he wanted to talk about was physics and biology because he had finally found someone else that knew as much (and more) than he did. Sadly he couldn’t afford to go to medical school, but teacher’s college is cheaper, so Mr. Daniel is paying for him to go there, and he’s going to work as a science teacher and save up to be a doctor. Apparently loans in Tanzania are very bad to get because they’ll come and take away your house and the interest is at ridiculous rates.

So after about an hour walk on a very bumpy, dusty road (of course not paved), we got to Emmanual’s house. If you can call it a house. The weather is nice and the natural scenery is so beautiful that even the small houses looked gorgeous and like they were part of some paradise landscape… but this one… there was one main house and then a small building next to it. The small building had 3 small rooms. One of those rooms was emmanual’s home. To the right there is a picture of two of his siblings standing at the door of their home.

Emmanual, his mother, his very drunk and abusive grandmother (she even hit me!), his aunt, and his 3 siblings all lived in this cramped space. I don't even know if they could all lie down. Their father is dead and their mother works breaking stones into little pieces to be used for construction which pays little to nothing. They barely have enough to eat, so school is a rare luxury. I asked Emmanual what he wanted more than anything, and he said and education. Not to be able to walk normally, not to be rich, not to have a home where he could actually have room to lie down comfortably… but to have an education. Thinking of all the kids in the states that complaing about having to go to school and drop out of school…. How unfair that the millions of children that want an education more than anything aren’t able to get it. How unfair that people can’t appreciate their education when they are offered it freely. He was very shy but very handsome, and he’s become pretty adept with the crutches (well not crutched, mobility devices that are basically two sticks with arm holes that he uses to support himself… the name of them is skipping my mind) that he got along with the wheelchair which he saves for special occasions (the terrain is so rough that the wheelchair, though much stronger than the ones in the US, would still wear out pretty quickly) and for when gets to go to school… but the crutches don’t even have padding on the bottom… (to the right is a picture of Emmanual with his supports in front of the building where his home is)

Motive versus End Result: What If Helping Is Hurting?

2007-08-17T02:50:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted to believe that noone is bad at heart. Noone actually wants to cause pain to anyone else, they merely make a mistake in judgment where their own desires consume them and make them forget or misjudge the degree of pain they may cause someone else. Or they feel they are faced with two bad decisions, and make what they feel is the better of the two. Another big problem is when they hurt without knowing they are hurting. What if you do something to help someone and it ends up hurting them? What really matters, the motive or the result?

One major thing that I’ve been questioning is whether by “helping” whether we’re actually helping. What if we aren’t? What if I’m contributing to increasing pain and suffering in the long run? Because in the end, is it the length of someone’s life that is important or the quality of it. And is it the actual quality in comparison to others’ lives, or is it the quality that you make of it. In other words… by changing the lives of certain societies that may be poor and dying of illnesses that are curable, we are changing other aspects, including, inevitably, their perception of what is possible. As they see more lives being saved and more opportunities.. more material possessions… won’t they just keep wanting more? Isn’t that a major problem with our society? So many people have so much, and yet they just want more. What if we’re turning them into us? I thought that perhaps by respecting their culture, being open and with my desire to absorb everything about their culture, I would not be imposing my own, but one particular conversation really made me think….

In Arusha, I was documenting a Mobility Clinic that makes wheelchairs and special chairs for children with cerebral palsy. There are 4 men and 1 woman, but the 1 woman was out sick for the first 2 days I was there. Unfortunately, they didn’t have many orders due to a lack of sponsors and a lack of a program to find sponsors, so they had a lot of down time during which we discussed problems, projects ideas, their lives, and the Tanzanian society. We were talking about women’s roles, which in Tanzania are mostly to stay at home and cook, clean, and take care of the children. While I plan to cook, clean, and take care of my children, I also plan to have my own career and really make a difference in more people’s lives than just those of my family. Talking to them about this, they were surprisingly receptive. Perhaps because they work with the 1 woman who I later met and is very curious, and full of desire to learn. They started out by saying that women should stay at home because otherwise, who will, and on top of that, if a woman makes money, she will have an affair. I argued that while that may be a big problem among successful, working Tanzanian women, I felt that was more a product of societies’ view on working women rather than a product of them working. I proposed to them a situation where wives worked and perhaps made more money than they did. I asked how they would feel, and they were quick to say they would feel less manly and would not be at all pleased. They would feel she had all the power. On top of that, the rest of society would look down on them as being less of a man, and not capable of supporting his family. And then I asked how the way they treated her would change. They realized that they would probably treat her poorly and pick fights, taking out their frustration and feelings of inadequacy on her. Then they agreed with me that perhaps society was the problem not the working woman (though I was sure to mention that the woman was wrong for having an affair). In a typical situation, I would have been pleased that the discussion (one among many like these, the rest of which I can also share with you when I get back if you wish) had ended with me making a good argument that had “won” the “debate,” but I realized that though I thought I was doing it for the better, and in fact really I was just having what I thought was an interesting discussion, I had basically imposed my views upon them. What if they’re right? What if by women working (or rather, more like by having both parents working) the quality of the society will decrease? Just because I don’t think it will doesn’t mean it won’t… after all what do I know?

There are other immediate problems that arise from our "helping." Noone would say that saving lives is bad. However, if we go into Uganda lets say, and save every life that we can, the natural selection process will be interrupted. The already overpopulated nation will be even more populated. Families that can barely afford to raise their living children and send them to school will have even more living children to take care of. Noone wants to say lets let these children die, but we have to develop all aspects in parallel which is no easy task. We must educate, empower, and (forgive the cliche) teach them how to fish instead of just blindly saving lives and treating diseases. Perhaps this is something everyone else already realized... but its something I recently discovered.. and it is no easy feat. There are very few organizations or individuals that work on all aspects at once and there are very few ngos that work together. Progress isn't being done in parallel, but rather at their own paces. I cannot emphasize enough how important parallel development is. Otherwise our helping may end up hurting.

btw, i know the pictures are kind of random, the first is of one of the men (luke) from mobility care spoking a wheel... and the second is of a coffee bean tree. yes, they grow on trees. and they're green. weird...

Iron Chef Tanzania

2007-08-17T02:48:00.001-04:00

or just Christina trying to cook in Tanzania... I’ve always loved cooking, but besides the easier things that you can’t really mess up like spaghetti, nachos, omellettes…. I usually use a recipe. Or at least look at a recipe at one point to see what kind of things go in and in what order and etc. However, measuring cups and spoons, recipes, leisure of ingredients… all a thing of developed countries and not used in

Tanzania

At Mobility Care in Arusha, there is one female employee that has been made the unofficial cook due to her gender. She is one of the few wheelchair technicians out there, and though the men accept her, they still just took for granted that Agnes would be the cook since she was the woman in the group.

Agnes was out on holiday and then out sick, so I offered to cook as a thank you for their warm hospitality! The first day I made French toast, scrambled eggs with tomato, and toast. Simple, but things they had never tried before. The next day I was a little more adventurous and when they asked me for a grocery list (for the market… forget cheese, spices, etc…. it was meat and veggies), I decided to try my hand at stew (I was using a Bunsen burner and a pocket knife…. Wasn’t up for making a main course with side dishes). I asked for tomatoes, green peppers, onions, carrots, beef, and maybe a couple other veggies.. I cut them up into little pieces, Mr. Daniel helped me out, having his first attempt at cooking… a result of our discussion the day before on women’s roles and how they like to get help from time to time to show they’re appreciated. I stewed the veggies and meat for several hours and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. Then I cooked the pasta in the stew and they loved it!

A few days later I cooked dinner (fried rice which taste not like fried rice because I had to cook the rice on the stove and it wasn’t day-old rice like it should have been… but it worked!) for Tish and her bf but the blades are dull and the cooking ware is very basic so my hands got a bit torn up, many bandaids – they loved the food though!

Home At Last

2007-08-16T08:46:00.000-04:00

I'm Home!!! Sad, but also happy to be back and excited for senior year. My apologies for such a long silence. Bad internet access, being very busy with projects/sightseeing/cultural experiences led to no blogging. HOWEVER. DO I HAVE THE STORIES FOR YOU!!!!

To come in the next few days: stories of the hospitable Chinese and cute children that love Korean Dramas, insights into our education system, questions of morals and whether doing good is actually doing good.. The wonders of red bean, the large korean population in Beijing, their obsession with the Olympics.. the ethics of illegal dvds, getting caught trying to bring fruit into the US, making friends on the plane... getting sick again.. trying shots of a Chinese liquor which combined with bbq and hotpot made me very sick.. but going to see the biggest buddha in the world anyway.. getting there and being so sick that i didn't care to walk the last few meters to see it.. though my awesome traveling companions convinced me to let them help me get there, and I did see it and even got some pictures. albeit i look dead in them.... :) losing my shoes, my bag ripping from the weight, finding Subway, meeting a United Airlines pilot on the streets of Beijing, swimming in natural hot springs and soaking in rose petals... dancing on a square with locals, climbing the great wall and flying down... and so much more.

promises to update soon. plus i'm back so if anyone's interested, call me up and i'll tell you stories in person and show you photographs! :)

Surreality of Time

2007-07-31T12:50:00.001-04:00

Many of you have experienced going out one night and partying to find yourself the next morning not remembering how you got to your bed. Or someone else’s if you were lucky. Or unlucky, depending on what you see upon wakening. I have not. However… my entire experience has that type of feeling. As if I just partied too hard, fell asleep, and I’ve only just awaken, when I have hours to myself to sit and reflect upon what has happened. It doesn’t feel like the experiences were my own, but rather like I cannot remember what has happened to me, or when it was I fell asleep, but my dreams were filled with these experiences. A fellow traveler I met commented that while traveling is a great experience, in the end, when you return, it is never really the most exciting… more so it makes you want to travel more and continue… a drug in its own way that forges a powerful addiction.

I’ve often felt this surreality of time… as if I’ve just woken and the life I’ve led is not mine, but one that I’ve observed in close detail. And then you begin to forget details… some are recalled later on as you try to entrance listeners with your experiences, some are recalled at random times as you turn a corner that fires a flashback of a corner turned in a past time.. but some you just forget. Even people you can forget (the trick of being unforgettable… deserves an entry of its own :) ). So then what are the experiences for? Actually living in a different cultures, seeing things with your own eyes, many crave it, need it, desire it.. but if in the end it feels as if you’ve observed someone else seeing it… is it as real as you think? Who’s to say that you aren’t dreaming right now, that everything you think and feel are figments of your imagination that you will soon wake from to realize that it was all just a dream… though if that were true, I would not want to be you, wasting my dreams on reading a blog. :)

When your life does not feel like your own, what do you do? How do you preserve those memories, those details? Some choose to blog regularly or keep a journal of some sort so they can return to their musings and thoughts at a later time. As you can tell by my delay in postings, this is not something I’m so good at. And this is summer. Videography, photography, scrapbooking, collecting souvenirs… all attempts to remember a past time. To keep your life from being forgotten… for if you forget it, who will remember it? But then perhaps that is the trick. Perhaps it’s not your own experiences that make the difference, but the experiences others have because of you. Men and women of power built pyramids and palaces to go down in the history books… a mode of immortality, a way to make sure that your life is remembered, a way to make sure that your life was not merely a fleeting speck in a galaxy of lifetimes. But I digress.

Returning to my main point.. if you wake up one morning with no recollection of the night before, did it actually happen? Of course. But what if you wake up alone and noone else remembers what happened either… yes, but then does it actually matter? If noone remembers what happened, are the drunken exploits of the previous night of any consequence? As long as you don’t pop out a being in 9 months or discover a nasty looking rash (which a friend pointed out could be covered up by claiming to have been thrown into the Charles River) what does it matter. To relate it to an age-old question: if noone hears a tree fall in the forest, did it actually make a sound?

NGO... Turn to Business for International Development

2007-07-31T12:42:00.001-04:00

"There’s nothing wrong with making a few locals very rich in the process of improving an entire economy.”

Sadly, due to the time that has passed since I heard this statement, I do not remember exactly who had said it… I believe it was Fredrik… but I cannot say for sure. However, it is an interesting statement which combined with Biyeun’s project, InterConnection Uganda, a business run by locals that helps the entire country, has got me thinking.

NGOs tend to depend very strongly on grants and donations which, while easy because the money comes with little strings attached, is dangerous because it tends to make the recipients more careless with how it is spent, the money is dealt with by foreigners rather than locals that know and have a solid binding (can’t think of the right word.. but you get the idea) to the welfare of their country, and it depends on other groups or individuals that can choose to or be forced to terminate their donation/grant at any time. Several branches of APDK, for example, became inactive after their primary donor abruptly stopped contributing due to political matters.

Sibusiso is a ngo that is well on its way to becoming self-sustainable. I had a chance to visit it while in Arusha, Tanzania. It means “blessing” in Swahili, and it teaches mentall disabled children and their families to help themselves. Though started by 2 very rich Europeans and still largely funded by grants, they have cows and other animals which they breed and take care of as a food source and for extra income (2 of the donkeys they have started fighting while we were walking out.. the male was trying to mate but the female had very much lost that lovin feelin). They employ previous patients as gardeners and cooks, and they have a lodge where visitors can stay with proceeds going to fund Sibusiso. However, it is never easy to become entirely self-sustainable… and even this is only becoming more self-sustainable because there is a business involved… so perhaps we should stop focusing so heavily on ngos and start turning our focus to investing in businesses that also work with international development?

InterConnection Uganda, for example, donates a percentage of its profits to education for students in Uganda, and a percentage of the computers it gets to schools all around Uganda. While empowering the workers, providing a cheaper way for people to get a hold of a computer, offering training, and being able to include good software for cheap (Microsoft Windows for about $3 I believe – a discount for developing countries), they are also contributing to the development of the country at large. What a great concept! A potential problem that I can see is corruption among the locals that run the business. It is easy to lose sight of what is happening around you if you get lifted out of it… and it’s often difficult to stay focused on your original goals when your own life becomes more stable.

Part IV: Welcome to Arusha, Tanzania

2007-07-29T15:33:00.000-04:00

Being only one of 3 people to get off the plane, it was not a long wait for my luggage or for visas. The airport was extremely small (one small building about the size of a big ranch house) with one landing field. However, I did see a humongous plane with the nose cone opened from the rest of the plane… apparently a private plane of some really rich dude from the Middle East! It was quite neat, but I wasn’t sure what the photo policy was at the airport… and I didn’t want to risk being whisked away into a foreign Tanzanian prison, so I resisted my urge to take out the camera and shoot.

I should mention that at the airport, I met 2 professional wildlife photographers working for the Jane Goodall Institute who were on their way to shoot gorillas on Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania that I may have the chance to go to as a slight detour next week. I was surprised to find they shoot only in film, and they did not carry too much equipment with them. I also kept on running into 2 gentlemen from the check-in counter all the way to the shuttle to Arusha… and then saw them again at Tish’s apartment later on, though I was on my way out and couldn’t stop to say hello. What a small (yet big) world!

Arriving in the town (they call the main part of the town “town”) of Arusha, I got off the (free) shuttle run by Air Tanzania to find a wonderful sign awaiting me and a smiling face behind it. I met Tish and we exchanged stories all evening, going out to eat fried chicken (cuckoo) and fries (chips) at a favorite restaurant of hers. It was delicious. The chicken is more chewy here than in the states for whatever reason… and fried chicken isn’t KFC-like fried, its more just fried without the batter. Very tasty (people seem to use the word tasty versus delicious). It gets quite chilly in Arusha because of its high altitude, so I had to borrow a silk cocoon-like bag from Tish to sleep in. I thought Africa was hot…. Boy was I wrong.

Arusha itself is an absolutely gorgeous area. The banana trees definitely add a je ne sais quoi, and the luscious green mountains and trickling brooks are the scenes you dream about or see in movies…. I didn’t even know where to start with pictures, because I saw all this driving to the workshop… and couldn’t really get out because the dala dalas (the bus/taxi of Tanzania - basically… cheap public transport that crams in as many people as will fit… and more)… but I tried my best to capture the beauty.

Tanzania overall is very peaceful and beautiful, and on top of that, it’s very stable in terms of development. There are still many things that could be improved and “developed,” but strangely it feels just as developed as the U.S., just different. It feels like Tanzania needs about as much work, maybe less, than the U.S. does, but it is still very different. The locals are proud to say that, “noone dies of hunger in Tanzania,” and it doesn’t get too cold or too hot, so noone dies from the weather. The poverty levels and unemployment levels are relatively low, and much progress seems to have been made in many different areas. The technology is far behind and everything is much less modern (including their views on roles of genders and persons with disabilities in society), but the progress on solving problems on disabilities and waste and poverty etc seem to be very well developed.

The people are amazing. Extremely friendly, and much less intimidating. They do not have a personal bubble whatsoever, which can be a bit too much at times, but I’ll be walking down the street and they just come up to you, shake you hand, introduce themselves, and just start an animated conversation with you. And everyone knows someone that happens to be walking down the street, so these exchanges are happening everywhere, and you just meet so many people, and they want to invite you over for dinner and buy you a drink and just hear all about your life! Such a big contrast from the other places I’ve been to where they call out to you or try to sell you things or harass you but few actually come up and introduce themselves just because they’re interested in hearing your stories and learning more about you. Though even here marriage proposals are rampant…. One person today was very persistent, showering me with compliments which is always a very awkward situation. Perhaps the good work that the foreigners working for ngos are doing here has something to do with their percept of foreigners. There are many foreigners that come for safaris and do waste money and act obnoxiously towards the locals, but they are often in their own groups and do not integrate themselves with the locals. So I think by us walking around the town, taking dala dalas instead of taxis, eating where the locals eat, and hanging out with locals, they know that we are here to work, and are much more curious and treats us like people and not like tourists.

My first day at the workshop, I was met with both exciting and depressing news... 2 dogs had recently had puppies... 1 family was doing extremely well... the puppies getting big and wriggling around blind.. crawling all over each other... but the other family, the mom just didn't know how to take care of her pups. I nursed one while I buried 5 dead ones... Then I put the one I had nursed back after washing it, drying it, and feeding it some millk.. but when I returned a few hours later, he was dead too...

Summary of Part III: Uganda

2007-07-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

I really got a chance to meet and become a part of the daily life of the locals while in Uganda. Meeting the vice president, the first lady, and other politicians combined with living with one of the ministers, I also got a chance to have an insider’s view to the political structure and happenings of Uganda. Being eaten alive by mosquitos, I resorted to spraying bug spray in my room… bearing with the smell for the sake of being spared bumps all over me… but I still ended up with over 30 bites. Very itchy.... and this random dalla dalla with live chickens attached to it...

I learned that the stereotypes and stigmas of Africa being a dangerous place is actually becoming a sort of self-fulfilled prophecy. Many people don’t come to Africa because they think it is dangerous, and thus the people that do come are often the more confident ones with perhaps more money to be more adventurous and daring. Or they are volunteers/workers for NGOs which I’ve already written are sadly often corrupted. However, because the locals continue see foreigners like these, it becomes more dangerous for all the foreigners because the locals begin to think of all foreigners as rich, obnoxious people that like to waste money and party. Then we become targets for getting attacked or robbed…. And then people hear about it and more foreigners are afraid to come.. and the cycle continues. It really is not a dangerous place. Yes, you have to play it safe, you can’t go out by yourself at night and you shouldn’t be flaunting expensive clothing and equipment.. but I’ve only felt threatened a couple of times, and really, I’ve felt the same threats in NYC. Some of the larger dangers are from if you get sick, as the medical care is not as reliable or dependable as in developed countries. However, the dangers that most people fear: getting AIDS, being robbed, getting raped… all are quite avoidable and probably just as likely to happen in the U.S. But you do need to understand the neighborhoods that you are in and play it safe. If the local women don’t think it’s safe to go out at night, it’s probably not safe to go out at night. If the locals fear a certain road, you should fear a certain road. And etc.

I learned about boda bodas.. motorcycles that are used for public transport, they were often used as escape vehicles during Idi Amine’s rule… people would jump on and yell “border border!” which stuck and became “boda boda.”

I obtained a phone from InterConnection to be used for the rest of my trip, which has been quite useful as I’ve had to be separated from my hosts on several occasions, and I learned how to count in Swahili…

I also learned that “mzungu,” which everyone yells out at you from the streets to get your attention, means “British.” When locals see someone white, they call them mazungu, because the British were the first whites to come in bulk to East Africa. That stuck and now a common word for any white person is mazungu. For some strange reason, I have been mistaken for a mazungu several times.. They often yell Cheenay, for Chinese, or yell out “Japan,” but I’ve run into a couple people who insist that I’m white, just with Chinese hair. I don’t see it…. Noone usually thinks I’m Korean, but I’ve never had anyone think I’m fully white either…

Overall, Uganda was an eye-opening experience where I met many people that I will continue to work with in the future. I gained a new mentor who has been through a lot and has much knowledge to share, and several new project ideas for Biyeun that we will continue in the states. I will not miss the mosquitos, but I was definitely sad to leave my hosts and new friends.

We Are (Host) Family

2007-07-29T14:44:00.001-04:00

For the first time ever, I stayed with a host family, albeit one that Biyeun has known for several years and has become very close with. Staying with a host family, I really became integrated into their lifestyles and got to know them on a whole new level. When you live with people, a different connection forms, even in dorm life, however imagine living in the same one-level house…. Sharing a bathroom and waking/sleeping/eating on their schedule. While it could become an inconvenience, for me it was a great opportunity to really capture and understand their lives, Biyeun’s experience, and become more Ugandan.

I would highly recommend living with a family of locals. It can be hard as it is not as private or comfortable at times as a hotel, but it is more cost-efficient (at times free though I brought a box of chocolates as a thank-you) and you get an experience and opportunity that you can’t buy. I was fortunate that this was the family of an Honorable of Uganda (a minister.. not religious, but political), and so the house was very nice (on Ugandan standards), clean, and there were orphan girls living with them and working as house girls in exchange for the promise of getting a free education after a certain amount of years. The family had 2 young boys, 2 and 5, and 1 girl cousin visiting. It was delightful to have children around, despite the screaming at 5am every morning when they would get up and want to wake everyone else up as well. Dinner was always around 11pm, 10 at the earliest and midnight when it was late. Everyone seems to eat dinner late in Uganda, my stomach wasn’t too happy with it, but they are very eager to feed you and the food is very good, so I ate every night right before going to sleep. Oh another bizarre thing... there are many many guards... every middle-class to upper-class house seems to have a gate/guard.. but its always the same guard, day in and day out. they live in that little brick room shown above... so are they bachelors? Are they ALL bachelors? That's a lot of bachelors.... or perhaps they just never see their family? I'd be interested to see the demographics of men who are guards for profession.

Another thing I should mention is try to stay with a host family with children near your age or with a family that you’re working with. The host family that I stayed with in Moshi, Tanzania is a family that Shirley found on facebook, and when the children were away, we were much less involved in their lives and it was more like living at a bed & breakfast, however, as soon as the host sister came back, we really got to experience the life of a Tanzanian young adult. Most highly recommended.

Back.. to Blogging

2007-07-29T14:04:00.000-04:00

Many apologies for not updating my blog in so long. A combination of lack of internet access in Tanzania, being sick, temporary writer’s block, minor crisis situations, and my blog getting locked because they thought it was a spam blog… not sure what that’s all about. Anyways, I’ll have to try and catch up as best as I can.

First a quick overview… I left Uganda on Sunday, July 15, and arrived in Kiliminjaro Airport in Tanzania right on time. I headed off to Arusha, Tanzania, and followed Tish to Moshi on Thursday to pick up a wheelchair, where, conveniently, Shirley was doing her project! With a detour to Ngorogoro Crater, Lake Myanara, and Zanzibar, I am now waiting in Kenyatta Airport yet again for a 6 hour layover which I just found out has been delayed another 2 hours.... yay for Kenyatta. They didn't want those fond memories of “let’s see how confused we can make you” to be without fresh ones. In the past few weeks, I’ve had amazing experiences, met equally amazing people, had powerful epiphanies, run into major technical difficulties, been robbed, seen incredible scenery and animals, and been on quite the rollercoaster ride. Oh and seen Ocean’s Thirteen in a Tanzanian Movie Theater… I didn’t realize how much I missed movies until I came out of the theater entranced by the screen… and this was not exactly an Oscar winner so you can imagine what I mean. It seems that I’ve been met with many extremes….. but all’s well that ends well. :)

I'm Alive... Internet/Power... Not so Much

2007-07-23T05:49:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update.... I apologize for the lack of updates. I have blog entries waiting to be posted from my laptop, but unfortunately due to bad internet connection, slow computers that don't like USBs, and power shortages that limit the amount of time computers can be on for in addition to my host family needing to use the computer... I have not been able to transfer my blog entries to a computer that has access to the internet (for some reason my computer cannot connect... IP Address problems I think). When I get to Thailand on Monday, I will do a massive update. Until then... I was in Arusha last week, went on a safari with Shirley over the weekend, and am in Moshi this week. Due to most of Shirley's work being on the computer, her, Tish, and Mario's amazing trip to Zanzibar, and wonderful MIT that wants me to have a great experience in addition to working.... (though I've definitely been having that all along), I have a chance to go to Zanzibar for the next few days leaving tomorrow morning and returning on Friday in time to document Shirley's last day which just happens to be the day when she'll actually be working with community members! Tanzania is an amazing paradise country with gorgeous scenery, friendly locals, delicious food, and a pretty stable economy. I will update you more on the issues that I've seen in Tanzania, and the great progress they are making as well as about the great times that I have been having. Living with locals and working very closely and one on one with locals is definitely a great way to become truly integrated into their lifestyle and to have the best experience you could have. :) Look forward to my updates!

Part III: Welcome to Nakawa, Uganda – Greetings from the First Lady and the Vice President

2007-07-10T14:04:00.000-04:00

Stepping off the plane into Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda, I noticed that the airport is very small. There’s one small building about the size of 2 houses, and that’s about it. There is one gate, that building, and a small parking lot no bigger than Kresge Lot at MIT.

The potholes here are crazy, and we play the “pothole” game, offroading to avoid the potholes because the bumpy dirt/grassy area is still smoother than the destructive roads. However, the weather is perfect, reminding me of San Francisco weather where its gets chilly at night, and perhaps a little warm during the day, but really its pretty much perfect. However, the mosquitos are definitely more abundant here than in Kenya or India, apparent from the 30 mosquito bites that I have already acquired.

The ruralness of Uganda surprised me as I’ve heard it being called the “pearl of Africa.” Driving into Kampala, the largest city of Uganda, it was like driving into the old downtown of Nashua, New Hampshire near where I attended high school… little to no tall buildings, no jam packed sidewalks or roads, plenty of space between buildings, and relatively clean air minus the dust and the random spouts of exhaust that clouds around me if a matatu (a mini bus that I believe I described in a Kenya entry) drives by me. Despite being close neighbors and soon to become one nation (I’m embarrassed to say that I just found out that Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and several other eastern and central African countries are uniting to become one country under one presidential power), Uganda and Kenya are drastically different in atmosphere, food, landscape, and citylife.

I’ve heard a lot of “I love you’s’ and “You’re so lovelies” which would be flattering minus the fact that I know they probably say it to every foreigner that passes by. I wonder why they say it though. Whether they think those are the only words I’ll know, or whether they want a U.S. Passport. Today I was told “I love you many times.”

They have these public transportation motorcycles called “boda boda” which came from “border border” from when Idi Amin (the old President of Uganda that was insanely corrupt and one of the most feared men) was in reign. People used to try to run away to the border to escape from his reign… and would jump on a motorcycle and say “border border”.. .so now they’re called “boda boda.”

Upon my arrival, I immediately was driven to the vice president’s house for dinner. The vice president of Uganda. Yes, of Uganda. The project that I am documenting is of InterConnection Uganda, an initiative to bring computers and internet access to all of Uganda. It is a private organization that works hand in hand with the government. Biyeun, the MIT student that has been a part of this project from its conception, has been coming to Uganda for the past 3 years to set up computer labs in schools, refurbish computers, and this year, to open up a computer refurbishment center. So we to a party at the vp’s house and I was welcomed by prime ministers and the vice president. There was delicious food and the vice president even began playing a drum at which point Biyeun began to dance. It was very relaxing and quite the experience to rub elbows with some of the highest officials on Uganda.

The excitement didn’t stop. On Sunday, my second day, I went to the State House (the equivalent of the White House to have lunch with the First Lady of Uganda. We were supposed to meet the President too, but he had to leave abruptly for Tanzania. I was overwhelmed to have this honor and a bit embarrassed at getting a chance to meet these high officials when I wasn’t actually involved with Interconnection.

So needless to say, the past couple of days have been a whirlwind, exciting and tiring, and my cold sadly getting worse, but hopefully getting better soon. I had a mango popsicle ice cream with real mangoes in it, chipote with omelette made by a food vendor which I was told should be ok (and I’m not sick yet), a samosa with beans inside… not smushed beans but whole beans… and nothing to hold them together, quite interesting really, and so much more. Ugandan food uses a lot of yams, plantains, rice, meat, plantains, and yams. Basically carbohydrates and meat. With vegetable garnishes. I was definitely spoiled by food for the president and the vp my first couple of meals, but in fact the vendor food is just as scrumptious, though differently so. I’ve also grown quite fond of the high-fibre digestion biscuits which I am convinced I owe my resilient stomach to.

Dowries: What Are Women Worth?

2007-07-10T13:31:00.000-04:00

My last day in Kenya I was inavited to have tea with the "head honchos" of APDK. I made a little speech about what I had accomplished during the week, what I hoped to do with the material I had gotten, my fundraising plans, and my personal future plans. Then we got into some interesting discussions about dowries.

In Kenya and in Britain (the national chairman is British), it is custom for the man to pay his wife's family a dowry. Apparently in Kenya, this dowry continues for the rest of their lives and the responsibility of supporting the woman's extended family should they need to be supported lies in the man's hands. The women in the room argued that dowries for wives made the wives appear as purchasable property in the men's eyes. This was an interesting view because I’ve only heard about women’s families having to pay a dowry to the husbands and the women feeling bad because they felt that the husband needed to receive something to take them, that they themselves weren’t worthy enough, and they were a burden to both their husband and their fathers.

We also discussed whether there should be dowries at all. I was explaining how in the U.S. that concept is pretty much extinct, but they were explaining how it bonds families together and makes it harder to divorce because so much relies on the marriage. It even makes divorce pretty much obsolete in the countries with dowries. They explained this as if it were a good thing... which it could be, but it could also backfire and restrict a woman from leaving a an abusive marriage because her families' lives depends on it.

Summary of Part II: Nairobi, Kenya

2007-07-10T13:20:00.000-04:00

Nairobi showed me the progress that developing countries are making and the high benefits of government cooperation. It also introduced me to a lot of new animal parts used as food and new animals used as food. Despite getting sick, it was a wonderful experience seeing an ngo that is well-established and on its way to becoming large and extremely successful around the country. The weather proved to be much colder than expected, but the cabin-stay and cooking over the fire was pleasant and hanging out with the locals was just what I needed to feel welcome and at home. I learned that tea is a great gift to give, and learned how important physical therapy and rehabilitation really are. I saw poverty and found a way to help, and even had a chance to try home-cooked food in the slums (I didn’t get sick, and it was extremely good… pilao.. yum). Nairobi was a success in my book.

Airport Connects More than Flights - It Connects People

2007-07-10T13:05:00.001-04:00

The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is the largest airport in east and central Africa. However, it is quite frustrating to try to fly out of it. First, there are no comprehensive signs that tell you where you should go, so you find a line, wait in it, and then figure it out once you get to the front. Usually standing with the mass leads to the correct location. Secondly, the airport functions as if its staff is on strike. Despite having a line curving around the entire enclosed area, the departure customs only had one staff member granting departure from Kenya. Third, they change the gates after you’ve checked in quite frequently, and do not inform you that it has been changed. There is no announcement, you just figure it out once you get to the gate you thought you were supposed to be at and they tell you to go to a different gate. Then sometimes the workers are confused and send you back and forth between 2 gates.. .each insisting the other one is the correct gate. Fourth, they have several flights board from the same gate and scheduled to leave at roughly the same time. Obviously if everyone actually tried to board at the same time there would be chaos, so instead they just delay one of the flights. Fifth, the gate number has nothing to do with the plane you are boarding, so once you enter the gate, you walk outside and walk across the airport to your correct plane. Sixth, they put you on the airplane for 2 hours and don’t tell you when the aircraft will take off, merely that it is dangerous to fly the aircraft and so they have to wait to fix it. Quite the ordeal.

Thankfully, these frustrating problems also brought several pleasant events as well as solutions. I had a chance to try a chicken pie and a mint pineade juice, both of which were scrumptious. The chicken pie was like a chicken pot pie without a plate… crust all around the chicken/vegetable mixture. The mint pineade juice was what the counterguy recommended, and despite its grass green color, it was delicious! From the name I would assume it was pineapple juice, lemonade, and mint.

I met a lot of interesting people in the many lines I had to wait in, meeting some that were on my flight and thus finding entertainment for the hours I had to wait. I met a young Kenyan man that works in China and speaks Swahili, English, and Mandarin fluently. He sells Jacuzzis and other large objects, but does a lot of international business. Intriguing. He insisted that I call when I got to China so if there is a jacuzzi emergency, I have his business card. Then there was an older Kenyan woman that was extremely chatty and not content with how the airport was being run, but was quite a delight to talk to as she kept many of us entertained in the line… and an elderly Caucasian doctor, Chuck, who graduated from Harvard med and now works for PEPFAR, the Presidents Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. I explained that I was going to take a year off before medical school and was looking for a job where I could travel, help the developing world, and save up for medical school, and he gave me his business card, saying he might be able to find me such a position! How perfect!!!! I will definitely look into this option.

Overall the Kenyatta Airport experience was quite pleasant, and I have to fly through there to get to Tanzania, which Chuck is also doing, so I may see him again! Ooh, and I went to the supermarket yesterday and ran into a couple that had been on my flight. It’s a small country.

CBR: Community Based Rehabilitation

2007-07-10T10:09:00.000-04:00

APDK also has a Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) program which serves as a mobile clinic and community outreach/awareness. I wanted to go out to the field (to the slums) with them once, but I kept on missing the chance. On Thursday, when I asked again, they decided to go out to the field to check out the workshops that were being held and the daycare they run so that I could see a bit of this program.

First we stopped at a government facility to wait for the field workers, members of the slum community that work with APDK. I had to use the washroom and I was lead down a path between some shanties and lead to a wooden outhouse. The smell was nauseating and it was dark, but at least they had litrines and private quarters (though the same outdoors, open air sewage system seen to the right); a step up from the slums in India.

We attended a workshop in the slums to educate parents of disabled children about empowering their children, getting them treatment, and getting over the stigma of disabled children being worthless and necessary to be hidden at home. We had to introduce ourselves, and they gave us a warm round of applause to welcome us and even sang us a song about disabled children. Granted it was in Swahili so I didn’t understand any of it… but it was still a nice gesture.

We then headed over to a nursery and school sponsored by APDK for disabled children. Mentally disabled children attend this school and nursery and are given a goal when they first arrive. The goal may be to be able to write or to be able to stand or to be able to read. They are also given a goal time to complete this goal by. Once the student has achieved his/her goal, he/she must leave the school which is no problem because by this time they are able to function regularly at a normal school. I visited the nursery where I had a chance to see some of the children (ranging between 3 and 9 I think) and volunteers, all mothers of children that at one point attended this nursery. The mothers clean, train, feed, and take care of these children while their parents look for work.

I had a chance to speak with the mothers about their lives and their problems. I asked them what they did in their free time, only to be met with a blank stare asking, “what free time?” I realized the error in my question, that free time is only for those with the luxury to have it. They explained that with taking care of their family, and especially of their disabled children who need to rely on them for everything, they didn’t have free time. That’s also what they found to be the hardest thing for them… knowing that their child needed them to survive… and when asked what did they want the most, they answered, “food for my children.” Their husbands look for work, and are only able to find work they are qualified for once or twice a week. With this small pay, they can barely feed the family, and often starve. Paying for rehabilitation or medication for their children is out of the question.

The unemployment in Kenya in 2001 was 40% according to statistics online, and I was told by word of mouth that it is currently over 55%. And not by choice. Not because they do drugs or waste money on alcohol… but because of the state their economy is in and the lack of a widespread education. This unemployment is hard enough for regular families in the slums, but for the families with disabled children…. They have no means of paying for rehabilitation which could make the kids able to support themselves after their parents die or even be completely normal, and they have no money for medications which can prevent these disabilities. Another interesting and sad fact…. Over 50% of the Kenyan population falls under the poverty line.

I racked my brain for a way to help, and thankfully, I came up with a plan while I was still there. I asked for the recipes of the food they served the children at the nursery, very simple and basic, and plan to make these dishes back at MIT to sell to the MIT community, sending all proceeds back to APDK to feed the disabled children and their families. We spend about $5 on a typical meal, and this converts to about 300 shilllings which converts to being able to feed more than 15 children. I hope to work with conferences throughout Boston to provide lunches for them with these humble but filling foods which will both make the conference attendees think about the blessing of the food they eat everyday, and be a source of donation: if they donate what they would have paid a catering service for unhealthy, sauce-filled sandwiches, chips, and cookies… if they would’ve paid $5 per lunchbox.. given that 100 people attend the conference, this is $500 which will feed over 1500 children. Or another way of looking at it… It will feed one child 3 meals a day for OVER 1 FULL YEAR. Just because you chose to have a simpler lunch for one meal of one day, a child will get to not starve for an entire year. How much easier can we make it for you?

Excitingly, one of my Sigma Kappa sisters is starting a club on neurological diseases at MIT. I proposed the idea to her to become part of the club’s mission, and she was interested, so I am working out the plans with her. I love the snowball effect that begins with just a little push and motivation to help out!

I love how everything connects together and seems to fall into place. I have explained APDK to some of the students working in India on developing a program for disabled children in the slums of India, and we will be communicating more in the future about what APDK does and how it can be adapted for India. This way they can build off of what works well, and will not have to start from scratch. They can get so much more done and can avoid a lot of trial and error. If we all work together, things can run so smoothly!

Neat Ways to Help Out

2007-07-10T04:28:00.000-04:00

This website allows you to loan money to poor workers to expand/start businesses. You lend them money, and then eventually you get it back. You lose nothing, and in the process, you help a whole family: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=about

This website gives you a way to donate money to a legitimate organization (though I'm not sure how legit), and gives 100% of your donation to the ngo of your choice. It also lets you search for volunteer opportunities throughout the world, many of which do not require pay or even give you a stipend: http://www.universalgiving.org/jsp/index.do

What You Dare Not Ask

2007-07-10T04:25:00.000-04:00

“The mentally disabled are better off dead.” Shocking statement, isn’t it? Don’t you want to just yell at whoever said that and accuse them of wanting genocide and being unfair to a large group of our population? Don’t you want to argue on the behalf of the mentally disabled?

In a well-intentioned attempt to be fair and just, our society has become afraid of even discussing certain topics. We’re afraid of discussing touchy subjects because we’re afraid of the conclusion. And often the most logical utilitarian conclusion (the one that benefits the most people the most) is not the most humane nor may it seem more just. Imagine, if you will, that you are the leader of a population of 100 people. You have the option of keeping all 100 people alive but sick and sad, or keeping 90 people alive and healthy by killing (murdering or sacrificing, depending on how you look at it) the 10 weakest. What would you do? Would your decision change if it changed to 50/50? What if you were the one that had to end the 10 lives.. what if you weren’t and didn’t even have to acknowledge that it happened… if you had “people” that “made it happen” while you focused on the 90 happy lives that you had cured.

Before I delve further, I want to put a disclaimer that I am merely musing about this topic. I am not stating my beliefs, merely making observations and using what seems to be logical thinking to state certain ideas that form. I personally believe that we, as humans, do not have the authority to end another human’s life. Nothing makes me better than any other human being, so who am I to decide whether someone deserves to live or die?

However.. going back to the previous example, for the sake of the majority, the minority can be sacrificed. This often happens in war where we call them “casualties of war,” innocent people that die so that millions can be saved. So what about the weak? If all humans suffering from genetic diseases were to die, or be killed, those genetic diseases would be obliterated. In theory. If all humans with the HIV virus were killed.. HIV would be eliminated and there would be no innocent children born with the virus through no fault of their own. Again, to clarify, this is NOT what I think should be done by any means. But can you see a glimpse of how someone may be able to reason that this is the solution and thus try to implement it not for malicious reasons but for the benefit of the masses?

The wonderful thing (and often confusing thing) about being human is that the world isn’t black and white. Thankfully, we don’t have to decide between just 2 hard decisions, we can use our creativity and cumulative learning abilities to come up with new and different solutions. Ways around the problem or ways to solve the problem. For example, with HIV, we’re searching for cures and teaching prevention methods.. But what if you couldn’t… what if you only had 2 choices… what would you do? What would be right? Or would one just be the lesser of 2 wrongs? Does that make the better of the 2 wrongs the better choice… and thus the right one?

Tea: A Gift for All

2007-07-10T04:24:00.000-04:00

On my last day at APDK, I presented a giftbox of tea from

India

to the National Director, requesting that the tea be served at tea time in place of the regular Kenyan tea that is served every workday. This was a terrific idea for a gift. The entire association was able to enjoy the gift which served as a token of my appreciation for their warm hospitality and cheery smiles every day. The national director was so touched that he organized a formal tea time with all the sub-directors and department heads and invited me to come give a mini speech. We had great discussions about dowries (which apparently the man gives to the woman’s family when asking for her hand in marriage.. more on this later), cultural differences between Kenya and the U.S., the need for more physicians in Africa, and more. All over

India

tea.

Just fyi for anyone who wants to present a gift to a group of people in the future…

Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) + Government = Non-Organization... but not in Kenya

2007-07-10T04:17:00.000-04:00

I met with the national director, Mr. Seifert, last week to get more information about ADPK and its history (everyone is so welcoming and helpful in Kenya that if I want to talk to someone or see something, they’ll make it happen). The association is really inspiring with its stability, future prospects, and affect and it has a great framework that would prove invaluable to other countries trying to start a similar organization.

I read the annual report, several grant proposals, and basically all the brochures and information booklets they had about APDK, learning about more of the technical aspects, but wanted to learn more about Mr. Seifert’s view and recommendations. From the readings, I saw that the Kenyan government had a huge role in the success of this NGO. Traditionally, governments and NGOs don’t work too well together because the government feels they have to compete for money or the NGO feels threatened by the government. However, Mr. Seifert felt that the key to nationalizing and stabilizing a program or association is collaboration with the government.

I think I agree, though I need to think more about this concept, but my initial thought is that without the government, there is only so much you can do and only so far that you can spread. You want to make a NGO self-sustainable, limiting the reliance on donors in case something happens to that relationship or the donor loses the means to contribute. This is hard to do if the government isn’t involved, and even harder if the government isn’t happy with the idea. As an executive member of the Christian Blind Organization which has hundreds of international developmental projects worldwide, Mr. Seifert spoke on their behalf and said the only way to make a national, sustainable difference is to collaborate with the government. In fact, many donors and organizations offering grants are changing their policies and only granting or donating funds if the proposal comes through the nation’s government. Therefore, many NGO’s are realizing that without working with the government, they often will not be able to work at all.

But then what happens to those countries where the government is not interested in helping its people? Especially not the "weaker" ones they find dispensable and "useless." India seems to be one of these cases where if you brought up the idea of starting a ngo working to help the poor physically disabled, the government would not look twice at the proposal. How then can you make a national impact?

Empowering the Disabled from Childhood

2007-07-10T03:54:00.000-04:00

While physical therapy is much more prevalent in the United States, it is often overlooked in developing countries where citizens with disabilities are often ignored and considered useless and not really worth anyone’s time. Kenya has overcome this stigma with the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya. The tricycles are merely one investment of this association which is a non-governmental organization working closel with the government’s Ministry of Health (more on this later). The chairman of the association is the vice president of Kenya and they have many government-employed staff.

The clinic consists of two different departments which are very small (the occupational therapy department which deals with training children on every day tasks and the physiotherapy department which trains the children on the basic essentials – strengthening their immune systems and such), each consisting of one room in one building which is also connected to the administrative office. Though small, this clinic makes a huge difference. They focus on children because they say that the younger you are treated, the more effective the therapy and the child can even grow up to have NO physical disabilities in their adult stage. The key is to catch the problem early on and get it fixed, but the fixing is a long and grueling process as well. The clinic is relatively cheap even for Kenya, about 50 shillings per visit depending on the problem. I met one 5 years and 2 weeks old boy named Jakes (yes, Jakes with an ‘s’) and his mother who let me photograph them during their rehabilitation session (he's the little boy to the left walking with the help of a green walker). Jakes has bowed legs and flat feet and cannot walk on his own. Over the past year, his mother says that his walking has improved tremendously. He can now walk with the assistance of a toy on wheels, or some sort of rolling companion.

The screams, cries, whimpering, and uncontrollable coughing echoes off the walls of the clinic. While waiting to speak with Grace, the head of one of the departments, tears came to my eyes as I observed disabled children all around me struggling to take a step or screaming at the pain of a therapist trying to straighten out their legs. There are many support devices designed to train specific muscles that will help the children stand or sit properly. Some children are oblivious and do not seem to care, others slouch down in distress, fully aware that they aren’t capable of changing the situation, and others scream with the discomfort of their bound limbs.

Polio is the leading cause of disability here, a disease that has been obliterated in the U.S. We have a vaccine against this disease so why are so many lives here in Kenya and in fact in many developing countries ruined because of it?

Giving Wisely

2007-07-09T09:17:00.000-04:00

A brief overview... worth a quick read. :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16283548/

Political Corruption: Do Truly BAD People Exist?

2007-07-08T11:36:00.000-04:00

What makes someone "bad." Some say it is who they are, something they cannot control and cannot change. Some say it is a result of environmental determinism, the combination of the setting and happenings around them that shape their character and mind. Others say that it is entirely controllable and you just need self-restraint and it is completely your own fault if you do something "bad."

Who knows what it is.. who can say for sure? I think it's a combination, but I often wonder as some seem to be more likely than others depending on the situation.

Selfishness and greed are prominent human characteristics that are at the core of many problems and conflicts. Wars, political conflicts, poverty, devastation, so much of it stems from selfishness and greed. I've had the pleasure of having some great conversations with Fredrik, a program manager for Microsoft Emerging Markets who travels around developing technology and implementing technology in developing countries. He has been to India several times, and we were talking about the reason for India's poverty, lack of a middle class, and slow development. Here is what I've learned/deduced from that discussion (to be taken with a grain of salt because it is of course my opinion and his, not the final hoorah.. there are many details that I will not include and do not know, which I plan to educate myself on in the future. I have always tried to stay away from political affairs because the corruption disgusts me, but I'm discovering that if I want to really help, I need to know about the political systems and find the non-corrupted parts to work with.).

There are several people in India that are richer than Bill Gates. After that upper upper class, there is the upper class consisting of actors and politicians that are very wealthy. After that there is the lower lower class. And little in between. Why is this? Part of it is due to religion which begins another controversy and headache of a discussion altogether. Many Indian citizens believe in a form of reincarnation. So if they are rich in their current life, it means they did something right in their previous life, and are being rewarded for their achievements. If they are poor in their current life, they were bad in their previous life, and thus are being punished in this one. This accounts for why the rich feel they don't need to and in fact should not help the poor, and why the poor are so set in the way they are and don't feel they can get out.

Now initially you may think the solution is to wake the people out of this conception that many may deem absurd. However, many more problems can arise by trying to change such a big part of their culture. People depend on their religion and the society is built up around it. Trying to change their view on this concept could have dire consequences. In addition, we don't have proof that they're incorrect. Perhaps their beliefs are true. Who are we to say they're false and condemn them for their beliefs? Then the tricky part becomes how do you solve the problem. A deeper problem exists still: what really is the problem? Are the rich people "bad" and don't feel empathy and don't want to help? Have they just not seen the poverty (which seems impossible because it is everywhere) and thus have not had a chance to feel the empathy? Have they seen it and want to help but feel that it would be wrong to do so? And then are they truly malicious? Do they only care about making money for themselves and getting more power? Why is the development so slow?

In the end, the best solution always seems to be one where everyone wins. The problem is finding this solution. In this particular situation, I see one potential solution that seems realistic (given there's someone that has the opportunity and the skill to do it). Going from the angle of convincing the people in power that they have power, they have money, but they do not have the acts that will make their names go down in history; they do not have the glory. Selfishness and greed are 2 sins, but the desire for glory is another... but can be harnessed to do good. If someone can convince the people in power that making the people of their nation stable and bringing them out of poverty will put their names in history books for eternity, making them the leaders of a developed nation... that would be (I would think) extremely tempting.

I do not want to believe that anyone can be truly "bad." People make mistakes, but I can't imagine someone doing anything purposely to hurt someone else. They may overlook something or not realize the effect it will have.. but purposely hurting someone? If they think it is the lesser of 2 evils, then they may be able to justify it... but someone who just likes making others feel pain... I can't believe that could exist. And for those few where it does... it's a problem of the wrong chemicals in their brain and their feeling of exasperation or something where they have lost hope or are not thinking straight. Where they think hurting the other persons is the better of two evils where perhaps the worser evil is themselves being hurt...

but then again... perhaps i'm being too idealistic. how can we ever really know?

Corruption and Human Nature: Is it Inevitable? (Part I)

2007-07-08T11:06:00.000-04:00

All human beings are sinners. Christian churches preach it, and many believe it. Some accept it and could care less, others take comfort in Jesus Christ saving them from their sins. But why this concept that sinning is inevitable? Because of human nature?

Nearly everything, if not everything, that we do is in our own self-interest. Even volunteering just for the sake of helping people (without the benefit of looking good on a resume or receiving some sort of compensation), is selfish because if it didn't make you feel good in some way, you wouldn't do it. I've heard countless times people saying it's stupid to do something that doesn't make you happy. No matter how "good" it may be.

But where do you draw the line? I recently discovered through conversation that many NGO staff make $50,000 US DOLLARS PER MONTH. PER MONTH!!!! They live in huge houses with 7 bedrooms and a heated swimming pool, staying in $400 hotel rooms and eating like kings... while all around them the people that money should be helping suffer. They must get some comfort in that if they weren't there the people wouldn't be getting any help. But really... how do they sleep at night? How do they live with themselves? I have woken up in the middle of the night infuriated after I heard this, and several times a day, I remember it and become angry and am searching for a solution.

$50,000/month = $600,000/year. WITHOUT taxes, because they're ngo employees. ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE.

How can people be so evil... putting on a facade of saving the world, and instead sitting in a bed of money relishing in luxuries that even those in the developed world rarely see. Did they know they would have these lifestyles when they started working in these positions? Or did they start out with good, honorable intentions and become corrupted by the corrupted system and the simple, easy way of swindling money. And how can they get away with this?

I want to make it clear that NOT EVERY NGO does this. I am currently looking into more information about which ngo's partake in this disgusting activity. It seems that a lot of the ngos that are sponsored by the government end up corrupt because they are only situated in the developing country to "spy" or to channel funds to their own economy. If you look up NGO corruption on google or NGO salaries, you will find a lot more information about this. Perhaps I was just ignorant or naive, but I never imagined that this would be happening. I have heard of some ngos being careless with how they spend money, spending too much money on advertising and getting big shot actors, but never something to this scale. Can you just sit there and let this continue? Never mind donating more money or finding more grants... for this organizations, just cut the salaries to even the average US salary, and the ngo will be able to expand exponentially and make worlds of a difference. How can they be getting so much and yet complaining that they need more money to be able to change the developing world?

I cannot accept that this is inevitable corruption and that it will be the way it is. Yes, more is being done in these countries because the ngos are there helping (in most situations, though in some the ngo hurts the nation more than it helps), but so much more could be done if people that actually cared were the ones that were working. If the money were being spent in the right way for the right reasons.. if a better system were in place to keep the ngos in check and to cut off their funding source if their budget says that 90% of the budget will go to paying workers' salaries.

Weather Forecast for Nairobi: Cold

2007-07-08T10:52:00.000-04:00

Nairobi was much colder than I expected, and I came down with quite the flu or cold or whatever this past week. My apologies for not updating my blog. Again. I'm still suffering, drugged up on dayquil and cough drops and ibuprofin so that I can go about my day as normal as I can... it would suck to have 1 day where I couldn't do anything because that's 1/7 of my stay... and if you think about travel time.. its 1/6 of my stay. so i'm keeping up, but i'm sleeping whenever i can and my head is a bit foggy so my writing hasn't been keeping up. I will update slowly but surely. :)

Rolling in the Right Direction

2007-07-04T08:52:00.003-04:00

Here in Nairobi, I am documenting Mario Bollini, a rising junior at MIT, who designed a new version of an existing tricycle for the physically disabled to make transportation easier and safer. We come to the base of the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya every day, getting up at 6:30am, leaving the campground at 7am, getting to the site at 8am, and working until about 5pm. The work being done here is very mechanical; they build, design, and test existing and prototypes of new tricycles. There is not as much interaction in the workshop with the population he is helping, but occasionally some of the clients will come to test out the new designs. Aside from the tricycle, I got permission to go into the rehab clinic to take photographs with the permission of the patient, which was an amazing experience and deserves an entry of its own. I’ve been able to help test the prototypes, building up my arms, and giving suggestions on improvements to the design. My interviews with the staff are going extremely well, as they both have a lot of positive feedback and ideas for future improvement.

The tricycles cost $200 in American dollars, but Safaricom, the most successful company (a cell phone company) in Kenya, buys them and donates them to the physically disabled. They are also given a loan to purchase a phone which they can use to bring in an income, and then they have to pay for their minutes. The tricycles donated by Safaricom are painted their signature lime green color and has advertisements on a big umbrella that shades the rider from the sun. The recipients seem overjoyed to get this vehicle which allows them to transport themselves further distances more safely than via a wheelchair (most raggedy and old from wear and tear – they were all donated used). Not only the tricycles, but in fact the entire association is a great sector of the government. It empowers the disabled by producing new devices, treating them in a rehabilitation clinic, meeting those that can’t reach the clinic through a mobile clinic, custom-making braces and shoes to help people walk, and giving out crutches. I have seen more physically disabled people in the past couple of days than I have ever seen in a lifetime. Some of them have always been disabled as a result from a disease such as polio, and others have become disabled due to accidents or developed disease. Many of the staff are physically disabled themselves which really adds to the empowering and I think is a huge reassurement and hope for those that come to be treated or helped.

Hell's Gate: Tales of Beauty, Adventure, and Sickness

2007-07-04T08:43:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a no-work day, so I went mountain biking with Samir and Mario. We took several buses to Navasha and then to Fisherman’s where we rented bikes and rode to Hell’s Gate National Park. I had eaten an orange earlier which I guess didn’t suit me because while we were riding to Hell’s Gate I got extremely nauseous and faint and couldn’t move. I was forced to get off my bike and I sat for a while, and then mustered up enough energy to get to the entrance of Hell’s Gate. Once there, I threw up a couple times, rested for a couple minutes, drank Kenyan Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic, a strong version of GingerAle) and then forced myself to continue. I didn’t want to ruin the day for everyone and I was determined to see Hell’s Gate.

It was definitely worth it. I threw up a couple more times, but wow. Majestic cliffs and mountains with those flat treetop trees… zebras grazing… getting completely covered in light brown dust such that your clothing is covered and your face is covered and your teeth are covered…. J the vast blue sky with clouds playing hide and seek with you behind the mountains. I saw zebras and wild hogs like pumba in their natural habitats! I walked so close up to them. But I couldn’t take a picture up close because they seemed to think it was a weapon. The bikes weren’t that great quality and we were riding basically in sand, so it was very very hard, and I’m STILL sore, but it was an amazing experience. We rode to the gorge and hiked through it, easy because it had not rained in a while so it was very dry. On our way back from the gorge we ran into nightfall and it was pitch black, and we kept on fishtailing in the sand, so when a truck drove up, we hitched a ride. It was a group of Christian men who were on their way back from church and were driving through the park (which is very expensive for foreigners, but very cheap for Kenyan citizens). I got to stand on the back of a pickup and feel the wind go through my hair and my fingers, blowing some of the dust off me. And the stars! Amazing, the most I have ever seen. The clearest night… stars everywhere, not a patch without them…

On our way back to Nairobi, we had to take a cab which turned out to be a much bigger adventure than I could imagine it to be. First some men tried to sneak into my backpack and then people tried to recruit us for the “bus”… it’s a small private van that is commonly used for transportation, but the driver seemed drunk as well so we declined. When we finally got a cab, we went for a little bit and then we stopped and our driver got out and went to go talk to the drunk guys that had been following the car. He came back, and the guys followed him so he got out and punched them. Then punched them some more and got back in the car. A whole bunch of guys were in the trunk part of the car (station wagon) and when the car stopped to drop them off, Samir had a pocket knife ready in case someone tried to hijack the car or rob us while we were in it. Apparently that’s a very common occurrence here. And driving at night is not very safe. There were no lights on the shoulders, so the darkness did not help us to feel safer.

Into the Eyes of Strangers become Friends

2007-07-04T08:41:00.000-04:00

Samir has been to Somalia, Mumbasa, Sudan, and many other dangerous areas, and has almost been shot while out on the field. He met an Icelandic girl at the campsite we’re staying at a couple weeks ago, and now they’re talking about their future children… interesting to me because they only knew each other/saw each other for about 2 weeks… and then it’s a long distance relationship… and they are planning on getting married and the girl wants 10 kids. They have incredible and astounding stories to tell. But it was weird to hear about how they think because it’s so different from what you would hear back in the

U.S.

well at least with the people I know. Samir is still at the campground with us, and has been very helpful in acting as a translator and bodyguard as he used to be a cop. His past is sad but he has done so well to rise from it. His mother was abused by her father and she married a British man in an attempt to get away from the physical abuse. However, her husband beat her too. In Samir’s words, “we haven’t seen my father in many years. And we’re very happy because of it.” I can’t even imagine… He also made a delicious, authentic Kenyan dish for us at Phillippe’s house (he started renting a guesthouse when he had the opportunity because it’s is a lot cheaper and he is staying for several months) last night with many many spices, chicken, and vegetables. It was made on a clay stove sort of device heated by a fire in the bottom and coal on the top part. We put it on a dead tree trunk (the night before we cooked hot dogs on this clay stove and the center of the dead tree trunk caught on fire so we got to see the inside of the trunk burn… it looked like a volcano getting ready to erupt). We sopped up the thick stew with French bread as we watched a movie on Phillippe’s laptop. I was curled up in a hammock with a warm blanket around me, and wow. It was so peaceful.

Phillipe is a 21-year old French-Canadian who just graduated from McGill and has served in the Canadian military. He has extensive travel experience and war-training experience and he carries around a machete in his bag at all times. I definitely feel safe with my two bodyguards. Phillipe seems much older due to his military and travel experience and both the boys treat me like their little sister which is quite nice and comfortable.

Welcome to Nairobi, Kenya

2007-07-04T08:27:00.000-04:00

The flight to Kenya was long, stopping through Dubai. I met a pro Holland football player (well European football, otherwise known as soccer in the U.S.) who I chatted with briefly and tried a falafel which I thought was the most authentic (compared to McDs or the French Bistro). I also wanted to buy a gift for the project supervisor I was working with in Nairobi so I looked around the airport and saw that dates seemed to be the big thing in Dubai. As I was looking, one of the salesmen offered me a free sample and let me choose which one to try! I chose the white chocolate covered dates with pistachio. WOW! It was delicious. I then chose a box to take as a gift and when I was paying for it, they offered me another sample! This time I chose the milk chocolate one with dates and some other nut inside. This one wasn’t AS good, but it was still quite delectable.

Nairobi is much more developed than the part of India I was in. It is much cleaner and much more modern. It even feels safer. There aren’t any tourists wandering around, so I find that myself and Mario, the student I’m here to document, are the only foreigners. But on the bright side, it means that we’re not getting ripped off too badly.

My first night in Nairobi was a success, Mario made 2 friends here, Samir and Phillippe, who were staying at the same campground for an extended period of time. Samir is 28 and is a professional photojournalist. They took me to visa, a restaurant that sells slabs of goat meat that you pick out and they hack up with a big machete. They cook it on the bone and bring it to your table where they cut it into smaller pieces. You take a cornmeal/water mixture dough, massage it into a ball, pick up a piece of meat and some fresh salsa with it, and eat it in one bite. It was absolutely delicious. I had never had goat meat before, and though it does NOT taste like chicken, it was very good.

It is very different here than in India in terms of culture and the environment, but also in the people I’m living with. In India I was with a bunch of girls and 2 Indian boys that were very conservative, and here I’m with 3 guys and working with basically all males in the shop. The campground has many foreigners but I am often exhausted by the time I get back and do not have the time or the energy to socialize much. The men in the workshop are impressed that I’m so handy, laughing at me as I helped fix the bikes and wowing at my hammering skills. I love making things so I’m very excited that I get to help build the tricycles (for the physically disabled… you pedal with your arms and not your legs). It is also different from India because I blended in slightly better there (some thought I was Tibetan or potentially north Indian) but here, Kenyans don’t seem to know about Korea as much, so they assume that everyone Asian is Chinese, though they know Japanese so that ask me if I’m that a lot. But I am the only Asian I have seen during my entire stay here. It is also very cold here in the mornings and at night (about 40 or 50 degrees F), which is a pleasant and dramatic difference from the humidity and heat of India. Another interesting piece of information is that apparently sex is very acceptable and open here. I expected Kenyans to be more conservative than Americans, but according to the locals, it is perfectly acceptable for the Kenyan girls to have many sexual partners and that it is very common and acceptable.

My free time is spent differently as well because its not as dangerous to go out when you’re with 3 armed guys and because they’re definition of fun is a bit different. In India I watched lots of Bollywood movies and went shopping, here we’re having barbeques watching action movies, and just having discussions around the fire. I made them guacamole and bbqued the hot dogs and buns and they cooked Kenyan food and made me a pineapple drink (a whole fresh pineapple blended into juice with a bit of vanilla…. (extremely good).

The food is amazing in Kenya. In India I ate meat once, but here meat is in everything. I have it in every meal and even in my snacks. India and Kenya seem to have a lot of similarities in food. They have samosas everywhere here, though they are made of meat instead of potatoes. They also have chipote which is basically like nan.. and chevra which is a snack that is like the Indian hot mix. I love the different flavored fantas and they drink tea in the same way as Indians with boiled milk instead of water and tons of sugar. It is quite a treat, though a bit too sweet for my tastes. I just can’t drink too much of it, but the locals can’t seem to get enough of it. One interesting food escapade was trying to order a dish that one of the community members had described as her favorite, and finding out that it definitely wasn’t that. Not knowing what it was, but pretty sure it was some sort of intestines, I forced myself to finish the dish, called Matumbo. I found out later that it was indeed goat intestines so was a bit grossed out, but the sauce was tasty and the intestines were very chewy but good considering, so I survived. I’m definitely trying a LOT of new things.

A Sedentary Lifestyle

2007-07-04T08:14:00.001-04:00

A close friend of mine from MIT is working for Google this summer and sent me a very thought-provoking email. He loves to travel and wants to do so as part of his career but is Course 6 (Computer Science) and was rudely awakened when a fellow Google employee mentioned how hard it was after graduation to change to a very “sedentary lifestyle.” He became aware that he was quickly falling into the trap of a sedentary lifestyle that so many (what seems like the majority) falls into. For many it is what they want, and for others it is because of a responsibility (usually family) that binds them to the steady job that keeps them at home. It is very easy to get caught up in a sedentary lifestyle, and I’ve always aspired to not fall into that trap. I also found that I was, not because I wanted to, but because I never found the right opportunity to get out of it, and this summer I’ve been able to get out of it. My friend has also been fortunate enough to realize what he wants in his future, and is at a stage where he can shape his own future into whatever he wants it to be...

However, this is a tricky situation, because as someone who wants to have a family, I need to have stability for my children. Men face this problem as well, but it is even more unacceptable for a woman to be the one that travels around. So in the end it seems it will depend on who I marry and what their values and goals are. But even then, how is it for the children? I do not want to send them to boarding school, and I think that growing up in different cultures will build character and make them stronger, but what if I’m wrong? For a long time I thought I could forfeit a family for the sake of traveling around the world helping those in need. However, being an only child and unsure of how I’m going to survive once my parents pass, I am more and more certain that I want a family. Trying to find stability for your family and to have quality family time to spend together often ties people down, and the companies are then pretty much forced to make more employment positions with stable jobs where you don’t travel much. A lot of men seem to complain about too many business trips where they have to be away from their family. It is seen as a negative if you have to travel extensively.

For many, a sedentary lifestyle is not a choice but a result. In America I would credit it to family ties and the hope for stability and the hope for a relaxing and comfortable retirement that motivates workers to go to their cubicles 9-5 everyday. However, in the developing countries, it seems to be because they have no other choice. In India, the community members, students, and staff had a strong passion for the broad cause they worked towards, but overall, it was much more they ended up doing what they’re doing because that’s what their grades and test scores led them to… and what else could they do? This seems to be more the case for women who do whatever they can or that they’re told they should do, either by their school or their family. The men are also restricted by test scores and original economic class, and seem very unpassionate about their particular jobs. Their passion to make a difference, to change their country is strong, but their passion for what they do seems to be much more lacking. They follow a calm daily routine and seem to rarely break free of it. But they don’t have any complaints, that is just how it is. How fortunate that my friend and I, and all of you, the readers, have the means to break free from a sedentary lifestyle if we wish to do so. The United States offers many opportunities and a much more diverse group of people. In addition, marriage is much more based on love and personal choice which allows you to choose the partner most compatible or more most perfect for you. This gives you a lot more freedom in making your future what you want it to be. We should all take advantage of this priceless opportunity to make of our lives exactly what we want it.

Summary of Part I: Delhi, India

2007-07-04T08:12:00.000-04:00

India was a great first experience in a developing country for me. The combination of my comfortable residence with the shocking, eye-opening devastation and poverty all around me, it was a great balance that allowed me to get well-adjusted to the new environment of being in a developing country. It was also a great start to my trip because of the people that I worked with. Every single one of the group members, mobilizers, Indian students, professors, and staff were delightful and the community members were inspiring and a joy to interact with.

The first experience of anything is something that you’ll remember forever because it is bound to have the largest impact on you. I’m glad that I chose India as my first as it prepared me for bad weather and shocking poverty and gently eased me into living in less comfort than what I am used to at home (it also helps that I can sleep pretty much anywhere and I love to go camping….).

Last Day in the Heat of India

2007-07-04T08:02:00.000-04:00

My last day in

India

was on Friday, and it was quite the last day. We went to 2 camps because the groups had been unable to go to one on Thursday due to rain, but we went without community mobilizers. The male Indian students were a bit shy at first about approaching the community members on their own without a middleman to introduce them, but they quickly got the hang of it.

On the way to Deepalaya and then the slums, I finally had a chance to stop on the side of the road where I had noticed a banana man earlier in the week. It was just a man selling bananas, but a week before, there had been what seemed like over 50 monkeys (no exaggeration) sitting in an arc around him. It was quite the site. My camera was in my bag because I was in the rickshaw, and I missed this perfect National Geographic worthy photo opportunity. I am still kicking myself. When I stopped on Friday, it was just not the same. There were more men, so the monkeys were around them but not in an orderly fashion as if just waiting for a chance to fight the banana man to the death… for the more than sufficient reward.

We went to B-Block and Nehru Camp. In B-block, I started wandering around by myself (feeling much more confident after 2 weeks of being in India). I found a group of young children using a long stick as a seesaw and the fork of a tree as the pivot. They were having a blast jumping up to push the other side down and bubbling with delight as gravity pulled them back down to the ground. There were also little children playing in the trash, looking for “hidden treasures” that would become cherished toys.
In Nehru Camp, we met a group of young men who looked about our age and many young children. There was one particular little boy who had light green eyes and light brown hair which was very curious to us as he was still Indian. His laugh and smile were very catching and the entire group of young men seemed to be entranced as well as they teased and tickled the little boy. We also met a young hip-hop dancer that showed off some of his suave moves. Another intriguing observation was a group of Indian children that looked more Tibetan or Phillipino than Indian. With tan but fairer skin and the facial features of a more eastern asian, we were surprised to hear that they were merely from northern India where the people looked more eastern Asian.

In the evening, after a grueling task of searching for a new, safe, nice, and fun restaurant, we went out to dinner to celebrate Jess’s 21^st birthday and my last day. The meal was great, and on our way out, we ran into children begging for our water bottles. Despite having drank half the water, the children still wanted them. Not being money, I felt comfortable giving it to them, and wished I could do more. Can you imagine having to beg on the streets for clean water as a child? How would that have changed your childhood? How would that have affected your achievements, your life, your future…

The cab ride home was fine on Friday, but on Thursday when we went to the market, it was very sketchy… I almost got kidnapped! I was paying the rickshaw driver from the curb which is at the same level as the rickshaw and he held out his right hand. I thought he wanted to shake hands with a foreigner in a sign of hello, welcome, so I took his hand. He grabbed it and pulled me into his vehicle, trying to drive away in the process. I snatched my hand back and jumped out and ran to the other girls that had gotten out before me. It was quite scary because it was extremely dark but all’s well that ends well.

My Apologies - Rare Internet Access

2007-07-03T04:46:00.000-04:00

My apologies for going missing for a while. I am not dead, or hurt. Though on Sunday I ate a bad orange and had quite a time regurgating the bare contents of my stomach but then gathered my strength to continue my trip to Hell's Gate. :) but more on that later.

Due to sporadic internet access, as well as a very hectic couple of days, I have not been able to blog, but I promise to update this in the very near future. I appreciate your readership and am ecstatic to know that my writing and photographs are making people think and feel thoughts and emotions they may not otherwise encounter. Please continue reading, and please leave comments and feedback (they do not have to be positive, but if negative, please make it constructive criticism so that I don't feel like a failure... :) ).

A very very brief update, I am now in Nairobi, Kenya documenting Mario Bollini who is designing better tricycles for the physically disabled so that they can be more mobile with more ease. I find Kenya to be much much cleaner and further developed than at least the part of India that I saw, and in addition, everyone speaks at least a little bit of English, so the language barrier is not as obstructing. I have been able to joke around with and really get to know some Kenyan citizens as well as a fellow Kenyan photojournalist. More to come...

Cultural Differences

2007-06-28T12:14:00.000-04:00

The past 2 weeks have flown by, but I have become so adapted so well to the environment that I feel as if I've been here for a long time. I have become really close to both the Indian and MIT students that are here and really love the company and conversations I have with the community members. Besides documenting their work, I have helped them out with theirs, become a part of the community, and become a part of the project. I participate in the brainstorming sessions, help out with the surveys, and go everywhere the group goes.

For the past couple of nights we have been eating dinner at the canteen, the university's dining hall. We made friends with a large group of Indian girls who were very cute and excited to see us. They were telling me how much they love ice cream and were astounded when I informed them I wasn't a big fan of sweets.... And they took delight in me trying to sing some songs in Hindi and trying to do the dances associated with them. They were also fascinated to learn that being skinny and tall is considered gorgeous in the U.S. For many of them, being in a university in Delhi was the first time they had ever left their homes - with OR without their parents. Most of them were studying to be airline hostesses.

I feel like when I get back to the US it will be a sort of culture shock, seeing all the waste and unappreciation... petty worries.. the luxury of toilets and toilet paper.. .and being able to eat whatever i want when i want (well, almost), being able to drink clean water without getting sick...

I find my interviews with the MIT girls very interesting. They're pretty informal because I've gotten to know them well, and I've spent a lot of time with them so a lot of things they mention I was there to experience. It seems like such a short amount of time when I count the days that have passed, but I feel so comfortable that it feels like it has always been this way. Some of the girls have been convinced by this experience that they do NOT want to be physician and others that they do NOT want to work in a developing country (that they'd rather work to help a developing country, but in america). They find the change is too much for them. I get the opposite feeling, where I'm even more convinced that my "calling," if you will, lies in traveling and visiting different people and helping them in person and making their words heard. (The tricky part is being a good mother and a good wife while doing this since I do want to have a family.)

I was able to also interview community members in the camps via translators. The main question I asked is if there is one thing they could change about their lives or their childrens' lives, what it would be. Their answer was predominately that they want their children to get a good education and "be something," but when asked more specifics, they didn't know what to say. They did not know what they would need to give their child a good education (besides money) and they did not know exactly why getting a good education got their kids to "be something."

From the results of the surveys the groups are doing, I gathered that 2 of the main problems in these camps are the waste disposal system (both of human waste and product waste) and of getting a good education. The community members do not realize that the quality of education matters. Overall, one of the greatest problems seems to be that people don't know how to fix the problems. They are of such grand scales that it seems impossible to fix. The Indian government has given up on trying to improve the living conditions of the camps, and instead have begun to build new camps to relocate the inhabitants. They are in such dismay that it would be more cost-efficient and effective to build a whole new camp. However, this is very slow and does not seem to be progressing. None of the people that I interviewed.. the MIT students, the Indian students, the NGO staff, the community members... none of them seemed to have any concrete solutions or even little steps that we could take to help improve the living conditions or quality of life. There are so many problems of such grand scales that it is a daunting task to figure out what CAN be done. And then to get it done. I hope to take one step into this and produce a comprehensible source from which many problems can be seen and potential plans for solution can be taken to be attempted (I apologize if the wording on that was a bit confusing.. I will clarify in a later post).

Interviewing the Musheer and Dharani, the 2 male Indian students in the groups was an interesting experience as well. They found the biggest problem they've encountered working on this project to be the gender difference. Any conflict or difference of opinion within the group they thought was due to the gender difference versus the cultural difference (India vs. America). The MIT students on the other hand thought the conflicts and difference of opinions due to the cultural differences. I brought this up during a delicious lunch of vegetable noodles, and the group came to a consensus that it must be the 2 combined. The cultural difference of the genders is a big part, as neither of the boys had EVER worked in the same group as even a single girl. The whole idea was new to them.

Lifestyles of the Flies and the Sewage

2007-06-28T03:10:00.000-04:00

Weekend Tourism

2007-06-28T02:39:00.000-04:00

A bit late due to internet issues... but a bit about fun on the weekend. Sunday was Julie's birthday so we surprised her with a lit up tiara and a chocolate cake and then took her out to dinner at Haldirams, a restaurant that has become a favorite of ours.

On Saturday, we visited some tourist attractions and had an amazing day with awesome food and architecture. We went to Agra Fort, the Taj Mahal, and Fahtipur Sikra. In Agra Fort, we even got to see the Sheesh Mahal (Glass Palace) which was the sultan's favorite wife's bathroom. It is not open to the public, but our tour guide said if we paid him extra we could see it, so we did, and it was amazing! The room is made up of reflective glass mosaics and if you shine a candle in one corner, the entire room starts shimmering with the light. Absolutely gorgeous. We also saw the dungeon where the sultan would put one or more of his hundreds of concubines if they "misbehaved."

The Taj Mahal was built by another sultan for his favorite wife who he had FOURTEEN children with. That was an astounding work of architecture and made me remember why I had almost switched to course 4 (Architecture).... the magnitude, the white marble, the intricate designs, the angles and curves.. definitely worthy of being a World Heritage Site.

We hit some bumps along the road on our way back to the campus (we had rented a cab complete with a driver for the day). We were driving along when we got stopped by the Indian police... a strange occurence since the traffics laws seem so lax and the driving is well.. chaotic. Apparently they stopped us merely because we were foreigners and they wanted to get money from us. Musheer and Dharani, the Indian group members, explained the corruption within the Indian government/police. The policeman started out by saying that we needed to pay 500 rupees, and then realized that the cab driver wasn't driving a van with the correct licensce, and so decided to charge us 400 rupees more. Apparently they would have just kept asking us more if we hadn't been with the Indian boys. In the end, we got to subtract that cost from the cab rental fee, and we were up another story, so all ended well.

Would You Switch Lives? Would I?

2007-06-25T06:06:00.001-04:00

Friday was painful. The heat was suffocating in the camp we went to, the flies were everywhere, the smell was nauseating, disease was widespread, pain screamed out at me from eyes of children, and scornful eyes burned into me from some of the older women who spit upon the foreigners marching in with their expensive looking cameras taking pictures of their poor state of living conditions. We were welcomed by most, but today was definitely a different experience. I guess I haven't been drinking enough water, because I nearly fainted, so I will start drinking more. But I just wish I could do something to help the people that are suffering. It is unfair that I was born into a life of loving parents that will most likely (and hopefully) live to see their great grandchildren, with plenty to eat - able to eat what i want when i want, a roof over my head that doesn't leak green toxic water... Most of the people in these areas don't live to be too old. Children crowd the streets, 4-7 children on average it seems per family... Women my age have children, and women slightly older have grand children. The legal marrying age isn't until 18, so they have children before marriage... but apparently the father stays with them for the most part, so that is an interesting cultural difference.

Drinking from bottled water as the kids ran barefoot through green, slimy water, wearing my fairly new, good quality clothing as they wore hand-me-downs that don't fit them quite right... dabbing the sweat off my face as kids with hundreds of bumps from skin disease run around as if nothing is wrong... Their eyes were just so sad. The camera made them smile, for some it even made them smile brightly, like those other smiles that I saw. But even then, there was something missing... And most of the eyes showed suffering. Just looking into them... I wished I could switch lives with them, give them everything I have.. and then felt worse because I didn't want to live there either. If I were given the choice to switch places with one of these children.. to give them a chance to live in the comfortable life full of opportunities that i've lived in... would I do it? What if I could trade 2 of them for 1 of me.. what about 3. I'd like to think that I would, but would I? Could I? And if I can't.. what does that say about me? Would you be able to do it? Some say because I'll be a doctor, its better that I stay healthy and that I get a good education... because I will be able to help more people that way. But what if one of those children that I could have switched lives with were going to discover the cure to cancer... or find the solution to world peace? Would I switch then? Would you? I would like to think I would... but would I - could I actually do it?

On a bright note, tomorrow we're taking the day off to visit some tourist attractions. Waking up bright and early to go see the taj mahal and some forts and perhaps some mosques. I'm excited, but at the same time.. The money that I will be spending on just one day tomorrow could feed an entire family for a month. I'll be spending their month's salary. in one day. for what? To see some tourist attractions for my own pleasure.. but then you can't just give them money... you have to "empower" them... but then what's empowering them? how can we be sure its not actually corrupting them. The kids were still cute today.. despite the tears in their eyes. They tugged at my clothing, calling me "dede," which is "big sister" in Hindi. That was very endearing. There were 2 children who kept on following me around but didn't want their picture taken. One girl about 8 I'd say and a little boy about 3. Their eyes seemed to beg me to take them away to where I came from... to let them get a taste of my life... I wish I could save the world. I've only seen a miniscule fraction of the suffering... I can't even imagine seeing all of it. It would be unbearable. And here we are in the United States, myself included, complaining about MIT's bland food, the lack of a flattering dress to wear to formal, getting a B in a class, or not having that tall, handsome knight in shining armor... having a hard bed, no enough closet space... not enough sleep, the list keeps going. How many times do we just stop and think about what we do have, thanking each other for their friendship, thanking our parents for all their time and effort, not to mention their lives devoted to us. Thanking our teachers for sharing their knowledge, thanking our fates for giving us plenty of clean food and water... and a roof over our heads.

My uncle sent me an interesting email after reading one of my posts about how sincerely happy the community members seemed to me. Here is an excerpt....

"I think I have a different perspective on the paradox that you mentioned that people appear happy and content with what they have. But I think what you maybe missing is a perspective of time. They appear to be happy--especially the kids. If the world they live in is all they have ever known, what would they have to compare to know even not be happy. Perhaps its the innocence that you see.

But what you will not see in your short stay is the misery they will experience over time. You will miss the suffering of husbands who lose their wives and babies during child birth because the care for complications is simply not available--child birth has traditionally been the main cause of death for women. You will miss the suffering of parents who lose their child because they can't provide simple medicines like antibiotics to cure them. You will miss the suffering of children as their parents pass away in their 30s, 40s, and 50s because low life expectancy due to poor diet, preventable disease, and harshness. You will miss the emptiness in young kids heart as they will never feel the joy of being loved by grandparents (think of Darren never having the joy of his grandparents) (Darren is my 5-year old cousin, his son, who spends a significant amount of time with our grandparents every day).

You will also miss the desperation created by poverty, where parents sell their children into slavery and prostitution to survive. You will miss the de-valuing of human life as death becomes routine.

You will miss the opportunity lost to humanities, both for India and World, as we may never get to know that one kid who smiles at you but who won't get the education leaving their potentials unfulfilled. Who knows, one of those kids could have grown up to be the one who found cure for cancer, solved vexing math problems, became a diplomat to solve the Middle East problem, or the next prophet who could deliver peace to Mankind.

Don't let their acceptance of their fate equate to happiness. "

I agree with my uncle's perspective on many aspects, there is a lot of pain that I will not see. I do not doubt that even that the community members that I saw and described as truly happy, suffer every day. It is not their acceptance of fate that causes their happiness, but rather that it helps them be happy. They acknowledge their problems, many even work to solve them (one for example studied in these horrible conditions and after many many years... he has only one exam left until he becomes a certified M.D.), but the difference I saw was that they were able to be truly hospitable and welcoming and shined in a way I don't often seen people shine. There are many ways to approach your problems. Most that I have seen sulk or accept their fate and sulk or work to escape their problems while sulking. I use the term sulk very loosely, either being sad and constantly having it bother them, complaining constantly and taking time away from trying to change it, giving up and just accepting it but not enjoying life... but they seem to accept their fate, work to live the best they can and at times to change their current conditions, but at the same time appreciate what they DO have. This ability to look at the bright side of things despite things looking dark in every direction is what astounds me. Even in just the heat and humidity, the stuffiness and filth... the energy is sucked out of me... And I'm only here for 2 weeks..

The Problems They Face

2007-06-22T11:15:00.000-04:00

After my initial epiphany described in a previous blog entry, I've had time to delve deeper into these issues. Priya and Minu, two of the Indian students that we are working with, explained to me that these community members are so happy not because they do not realize what condition they are in, but rather because they realize it, know they can't do anything about it, and so just make the best of it. Discussing this with fellow MIT students later on, there was an intense discussion about the American way of always striving for something better but never seeming to be content with what they have, and the way we're seeing in these communities where they're so happy with what they do have, but do not strive to get out of it. My view is that ideally, yes, you would have both. You would both be content with what you have and strive for what you don't have. However, is this possible? If you are content with what you have, why would you strive for something you don't have? And if you are striving for something... that means you want it but don't have it... and then can you be truly happy?

I want to clarify that I did not mean that the camp inhabitants did not need help. From our point of view, of course they need help. The stench of the camps is bearable, but very unpleasent, especially in the heat, and the flies that are attracted to all the garbage and the filthy water surround us and use us as their restroom every second. The flies are literally everywhere. We need to be careful that they don't fly into our eyes or our mouths... Can you imagine living in a place like that? On top of that, it is already a scorching 105-115 degrees F, the air is humid and stuffy, pollution and dust are dense in the air all around you, there are no bathrooms... could you even stay in a place like that for 1 full day? After several hours of photographing with a towel around my neck to wipe away the dripping sweat, I am exhausted. In today's heat, I had no energy left, my entire body felt limp, and my clothes were drenched in sweat.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to one of the camps with only 2 Indian students and 2 community mobilizers from Deepalaya. With only one foreigner in their midst, the community members acted much more naturally and seemed to feel more comfortable. There was one 22.5 year old girl who i connected with (she spoke some english) and she pulled me away from my group to her favorite spot on a ledge (with a group of children trailing along with us) and we joked around and talked about our different cultures and she translated other people's questions for me. We teased a boy that was taking a shower right behind us and I took some pictures as the little crowd that had formed started to laugh as the boy started posing with a wide grin on his facae. It just really felt comfortable and I felt so welcome; I fit right in.

Sadly, I also saw a lot more sadness yesterday. It was mostly in the children. I saw more sick children which partially explains it, but even the ones that weren't visibly sick just didn't have that sparkle in their eye. They seemed to realize and not like the flies covering them and the raggedy hand-me-downs hanging off of their shoulders. Their eyes showed experience and understanding beyond their years and the sorrow was heavy in their eyes... I wished there was something i could do. Sitting on the ledge, I told them about my goals to become a nonprofit physician working in developing countries, and that I would come back to see them again. They were delighted and told me they would look forward to that day.

I was surprised to find out later that this particular camp is one of the better-off camps financially. Perhaps this is why they had so much sorrow.. they had a taste of what money could get them... some of them had an old digital camera, one of them had a motorcycle... but little else.

Later on in the day, I also saw a family with 4 little children, probably ages 1-4, and a young mother (she looked no older than me). They were playing on a ramp of a construction site with dust covering their skin and torn up clothes. Their faces showed such anguish that I couldn't even muster up the courage to go up to them to get a close shot. It was worse because they were right outside a Mcdonalds where I was eating dinner... and I wanted to just buy all the kids meals, but i didn't want the mother to be offended so i just let it be. In retrospect, i wish i had bought even just one thing of fries to share. I think it might have been alright since i took a photograph... an exchange rather than an act of charity.

Today, we went to an area where the children seemed extra rowdy. They started to fight, physically, to get the photo taken, and it became dangerous so we stopped taking photographs. Julie had her point and shoot camera so she took pictures and then showed the kids the photographs (I decided that wasn't a good idea in this area, so I didn't let them know that mine was also digital). She was surrounded by kids in an instant and was overpowered by them. It was faintingly hot and everything seemed to go by like a blur... it almost seems like a dream versus a memory...

Frustration with Photographs: Trying to Capture the Problems

2007-06-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

Out of the hundreds of photographs I have already taken, I can count on one hand the ones that I am absolutely in love with. There are many that are interesting and well composed, but I am having issues with variety and with my subjects. I have hundreds of photographs now of happy smiling children, which i love, but i really want to capture the problems that are occurring, the problems that the students are trying to fix. There is a lot for us to learn from these communities which I will now refer to as "camps" versus "slums" (this term is less degrading and seems to be what the community members refer to them as), but there is a lot that we can do to help them out as well. They may be content, but they are still living in their own feces, suffering from Malaria, malnutrition, diabetes, anemia, angina, and so much more. (I will talk more about this in the next post to avoid one insanely long post.)

Capturing the problems that exist on camera is proving to be very difficult because (1) the people are so smiley and happy, (2) they're even more excited because of my camera and the foreigner in their midst, (3) the problems that this group is investigating is the effectiveness of the NGO, Deepalaya in providing education and healthcare to these communities, (4) many of the diseases that these community members do not have visible symptoms, and (5) the visibly sick children seem to be kept inside when we are around, only coming out if we stay in one place for a longer period of time...

Every time I have my camera out, everyone gets even more excited and even strike poses.. I consulted B.D., a previous photojournalism professor of mine and he suggested that i just need to stay with them and keep shooting until they get bored and then i can get the pictures of them actually doing stuff rather than posed shots... unfortunately because i don't have the freedom to move around on my own, this is difficult to do. Pete, a friend of mine from MIT, recommended that I use a long lens to "snipe" photographs from a distance so that I could get the community members in their natural setting. However, this is also difficult due to me sticking out like a sore thumb and obstructions such as wires, low power lines, laundry drying outside, random branches, and the like.

The last 2 communities that I've visited (today and yesterday… more on that later) have had many more sad eyes.. some that are so heartwrenching that its difficult to take a photograph of them as they look up at me in tears. I have not been able to cut out my feeling of impoliteness and completely just let go of any inhibitions, something that is necessary to get the most moving photographs at times. I am working on trying to take photographs of these subjects after making eye contact with them and getting a nod or a movement from them that indicates they understand and will not mind if I take their photograph. I find it difficult especially to shoot older community members because I do feel like I am invading their privacy or taking advantage of their poverty situation for the sake of my project. I am consoled to a certain extent because my purpose for this project is not to make money or to get fame, as I am getting neither, but rather to educate others about the issues and to motivate them to help fix these problems. Still, I was raised to show respect to my elders, mostly speaking when I’m spoken to (unless I’m very comfortable with them), and putting them on a bit of a pedestal, not to be treated as I would treat my peers. When speaking to many other photographers, they explain that respect is necessary, but that you have to just take the photograph and show that you respect them despite having taken a photograph of their life, rather than first getting their ok. This is an ethical issue that I have always struggled with and find harder to deal with because of the language barrier. When my subjects speak English, I am more comfortable snapping a photo without their initial permission because then I can explain to them and win them over with my (hopefully existent) charm… but with the language barrier, I don’t want to offend them and leave them feeling that way...

Am I Doomed?

2007-06-22T07:24:00.000-04:00

Heat makes one's brain function not quite up to par. In fact, it has been known to even make some delirious or cause hallucinations. In my situation, it made me forgetful. Dying of thirst, and assuming I didn't have a water bottle with me, I searched for a water bottle when we went to the market place, Lajpat Nagar Central Market, after we got out from work early on Wednesday I think it was? (Time passes by very strangely here, I feel so accustomed to everything and feel very comfortable, as if I've been here forever, yet time passes by so quickly and I can't believe a week has already flown by.) I went up to the food court we had eaten at the last time we had come to this market but I couldn't find a place that sold water bottles for a decent price (decent price in India terms... the "expensive" bottle that I was cheap to purchase was 12 rupees for about half a liter vs. the 12 rupees for 1 full liter that I usually find them for - still less than 40 cents for a bottle... but its all relative!) so I was looking at what other drinks were available and I saw iced tea... the photograph looked so good that I bought and started drinking it instantly, raving about the taste... only when the cup was almost empty did I realize that there was ice in the cup. and that the iced tea was probably made from powder and bacteria-filled India water that had not been decontaminated. At first staying calm, but slowly becoming more anxious, I asked Sony if there was anything I could do to try to prevent getting sick. She recommended that I drink a lot of bottled water to dilute the bad water, and so I began to search for water. As I searched I figured I might as well check my bag to make sure there wasn't any water... and of course I opened my bag to find a full liter.

I drank pretty much the entire liter in the matter of about 10 minutes, a big feat for me who rarely drinks one liter in several days... (though I've been much better about it here), and my stomach felt like it was going to explode, but it didn't so I continued to shop. The market place reminds me of a Korean market place. Everything is open air, but there are inlets and underground interiors in tight alleyways filled with kurtis, kurtas, saris, more americanized clothing, bangles, fabrics, spices, toiletries, and more! I bought a beautiful green skirt with gold trimming which I'm not sure if I'll end up ever wearing because its full length and poofs out.... but it was so pretty that I just had to get it! Plus I hadn't brought any long but cool pants or skirts which I need at times here, so at least I will wear it here. :)

A full day passed, and I felt fine, and now I think 2 days have passed and I have not developed jaundice as a far as I know nor have I had any intenstinal problems... in fact the sickness that I had been feeling from food earlier seems to have disappeared too, so I feel very healthy! It seems if there was any bacteria in that iced tea... I diluted it out enough. (knock on wood)

Epiphany: Are They Really the Ones that Need Help? Or Are We.

2007-06-19T07:02:00.000-04:00

Ever since I was little, I dreamed of growing up to be a real-live superman. Except a woman, and a physician saving the world from illness rather than a man in a red cape rescuing the world from Lex Luther. As I grew older, my desire to help others grew, and I find that I am the most content and enjoy life the most when I can help others. Volunteering in hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, and more, I always found a great satisfaction in being able to bring a smile to someone else's face, in enhancing their lives with my own. In a sense, it gives me a purpose for my own life, makes everything worth while. Despite the small acts of service I was able to give in my own community, I always dreamed of going out into the world to the developing countries where I heard and read of people suffering and in need, and really making a difference in their lives. I always dreamed that I could make the biggest difference by reaching out to these poor communities. However, my experiences today have showed me that perhaps the best way to make a difference isn't to focus so much on helping those that are in these developing countries, but learning from them, and bringing it back to my own communities. (The first picture is one that the chlidren took of me and some other students at Deepalaya. Its out of focus, but I was happy to see the picture.)

Granted I am not visiting the poor of the poor. There are many Indian citizens that live in shacks or lean-tos or even just under a tarp on the side of the road. And there are those that live in isolation on an island in the road, naked and deranged, unable to do much of anything at all. However, I have been visiting the slums where filthy, greenish water trickles through the narrow alleyways between the stone structures where people live. There are no bathrooms, people defecate on the side of the road and in the immense heat, the smell can get quite pungent. Children run around mostly in worn out clothing, often torn, or with barely any clothing at all. The photograph to the bottom left shows their playground, barren land with broken shards of brick and trash. Many are barefoot, and the interiors of their abodes are barren with little to no electricity. Despite these living conditions which would put many Americans in a depressed state, the people are so happy! They do not seem to "realize" that they are "in the slums," making me question if they really need any help at all. NGOs, caring volunteers, and myself go in with this concept that we're going to help these poor people living in these dirty places and not getting a good education. Yes, their quality of life may be enhanced significantly should they live in a cleaner area and get a better education, but then again, maybe not. We put so much emphasis on education. Perhaps this is because our society has turned into one where you can't be truly happy unless you have a good job and have a significant amount of money.. and you can't get to this position generally unless you have a good education. But really, the wide, authentic smiles from the adults, the children, and the elderly were smiles with sparkles in their eyes.. much more than most of the smiles I have seen in my entire life. How is it possible, I began to wonder, that these people who in our standards are poor and need of help, seem happier and more content with their lives than people with so much more possessions and opportunities in the United States?

At Deepalaya, a school walking distance of these slums, I wandered through some of the classrooms by myself while waiting for the project groups to finish their group meetings before starting off to the slums to talk to the community members. In one of the open spaces between classrooms, there were children of all ages crouching on the ground. One of the older ones spoke a little English and explained to me that it was a game. It seemed a lot like freeze tag to me. Sadly I only captured a couple pictures of these excited children as they soon became intrigued by my camera (I was able to get the photograph to the left, motioning for them to group together so that I could capture them in thanks for having captured me!). Carefully holding onto the camera to make sure it didn't get damaged, I started teaching the children how the camera worked through body signals. Due to the language barrier, it was a little difficult, but body signals work magic! Soon I had a crowd of children around me, both older and younger, wanting to get a turn taking a picture and looking at it. They took great delight in taking my photograph, and flattered me continuously with one English word they did know, "pretty." The older ones also knew, "How do you do?" and to shake my hand, doing so several times. The little ones brought me candy in appreciation and though I tried to deny it, they insisted and so I later shared my gifts with the project members. An older boy knew how to speak English fairly well, and was able to inform the children that I had to return to my friends for a project but that I would return the next day. The children followed me all the way to the door, waving goodbye, and repeating, "tomorrow?" over and over again, as I nodded yes in assurance. As I was leaving the school for the slums, I saw several of the children, and we had made that connection through the camera. They waved to me and through eye contact, gave me a huge smile with big sparkling eyes that I could read said, "Thank you, and please come back tomorrow." I can't explain the feeling enough... it was an amazing experience that I would never have dreamed would make me feel that way. The power of the camera to connect me to the children... and the way that with a look, I could understand some of the things they were trying to say (though of course, it was only a few things, and of course it is possible that I was incorrect..... but I highly doubt it, it was like instinct). One child lived in the slums we visited, and upon seeing me by his home, followed me around for a bit and then back to Deepalaya when we returned after talking to the community members.

In the slums, children and adults alike followed me with their eyes and their bodies, saying "photo," an English word they knew. Many of them would tap on my shoulder and point to themselves, asking me to take a photograph of them. I would comply and then show them the photograph, bringing a huge smile to their faces and giving them something to boast about to their friends. Some would push their friends in, indicating they wanted me to take a picture of their friend. Some held up their hand in front of themselves, laughing and being a bit bashful about being a subject. Again, I felt the similarities of just being human. I may as well have been back in the U.S. The willingness of the community members to speak to us and to welcome us into their homes was astounding. How many people in the U.S. do you know that would gladly welcome a stranger into their home and let them take photographs of them and their family? Not many.... How many would smile beemingly and make jokes (though i couldn't understand them, the Indian students were able to translate for us) with strangers?

I took a photograph an elderly woman who was sitting gracefully outside. She responded (via Dharani, one of the Indian students) that I should have come when she was in her teens when she was more beautiful to take her photograph. I responded that she was still very beautiful and thanked her for letting me capture her in my photograph. A man was selling popsicles off a cart, and teased me when I tried to take a picture by covering up the tin containers with the popsicles as I raised my camera, then quickly uncovering them with a mischevious smile as I began to lower the camera, and then covering them again as I was about to take the shot. He finally laughed and gave me a twinkling smile, pulling back the fabric so that I could get a picture. Later as I was leaving, he ran up and handed me a popsicle. I tried to refuse because I knew I could not eat it anyway, but he insisted, and so I accepted. None of my project members felt comfortable eating it either, so I gave it to one of the children on the streets once we had walked out of sight of the ice cream man. His ice cream cart was complete with a hand-bell that he rang to indicate to the children that he had arrived. I was told that it was about 1 rupee, but I saw him giving away the popsicles to the children without charge. Perhaps there was a tab, or perhaps he was just being Santa for a day.... but he definitely was bringing smiles to the childrens faces (or intense looks of concentration as they devoured the popsicles before they melted in the heat).

I also scared some children by accident. I stooped down to the level of some children that were scrounched down on the ground playing some sort of card game. They were so absorbed in the game that they must not have noticed me, for when one of them peeked over his shoulder and saw me, he jumped up immediately in shock, making the other kids jump up, grabbing their cards that had been on the ground, and running into the alleyway behind them. Slowly they began to peek out at me, and seeing that I was harmless, came out curiously. An older man pushed the children together, telling them to pose for a photograph. I took the hint and captured the beaming faces with my camera.

In a matter of a few minutes, I was able to bond with these children. I taught some of the older ones more detail about how to use my camera, not able to communicate via speech as the students that were able to translate were busy talking about their projects, but with body signals. I held the camera up for them and pointed to certain things and let them see how the photograph changed when I pressed a certain button. They were fascinated, and I was fascinated at our ability to communicate and to bond.

After today, I have to ask myself, are they really the ones that need help - Or are we. Our society has become so wrapped up in individual "success" where success means getting a high powered job, making a lot of money, having a steady income, having good food to eat, teaching your kids every instrument and every sport on the planet..... but more and more, the basic human lessons, those of respect, happiness of just being alive and being with those you love... those seem to be more and more forgotten. It ties in with our "work like there is no tomorrow" attitude I was speaking of earlier. As a whole, our society is very much get-everything-done-now-as-quickly-as-you-can, make-as-much-money-as-you-can, and more... but what happened to (forgive the cliche) stopping and smelling the roses along the way. We have to remind ourselves to stop and smell the roses.... but so many of these people that I've met recently smell the roses every step of the way. Despite their roses not being as clean or as abundant as ours. Perhaps that's the problem. Perhaps we have too much, and can only see what we don't have.... can only see what others have that we want and must work hard to get. I've always prided myself in not wanting too many material posessions or wanting a lot of money. I would be content if I was able to eat, be healthy, have shelter, and have a camera and a piano (ok, so the last 2 are not essentials and are pricey.... but that's all i'd need!) But then I think about all the things that I have so much beyond that... and about all the times I've been down about different aspects of my life. I definitely have not appreciated what I do have every day... often getting sidetracked by things that are going wrong in my life. But now I stop and think about all the good things that I have. And how good they really are. It is above and beyond what I absolutely need. It is above and beyond what these bubbly, happy people have... I hope I can bring back some of the carefree happiness despite hard conditions to MIT and other people around me. We have so much to learn.

Time Difference and Rain

2007-06-18T00:29:00.000-04:00

I just realized that either purposely or forgetfully, I left the time in Boston time. I have now changed it to India time. :)

We decided to stay on campus today because it is pouring outside and noone wanted to leave the building. It is questionable whether monsoon season has started or not. The newspapers say no, but many of the Indian citizens say yes. Who knows! But it certainly is cooler when it rains. The first rainfall was called acid rain and happened on Friday. It is called acid rain, and as tourists, we were advised to avoid contact with it for all the pollution and chemicals in the air are caught by this first rainfall of the season and can be dangerous.

I definitely wish that I had a waterproof case for my camera so that I could go take pictures in the rain, even if it IS just of the campus since it is too dangerous for me to leave campus alone.

New Delhi Project

2007-06-17T22:42:00.000-04:00

I am working with 5 MIT students and 4 Indian students, documenting their work and helping them out when I can. Jessica, Julie, Catherine, Yamilee, and Namrata (Sony) are the 5 girls from MIT working on these projects and Musheer and Dharani are the two male Indian students working with them. They are starting out by observing 2 different Indian NGOs and learning about how they work and how they decide how to best serve each of the communities. After observing these NGOs, they will spend their last couple of weeks setting up a new NGO based on what they feel (after their observations, surveys, and lessons) is needed in a particular community and how they can best serve it. At this stage in the process, they are observing Deepalaya, an NGO that works to enable self-reliance among children in the slums. I was lucky enough to arrive on a day when they visited one of the worst slums in Delhi. What surprised me was that despite the cramped spaces, dirty water, and infinite number of flies, their homes and themselves were very clean and the people were so welcoming and pleasant. It was hard for me to believe that these people were very poor, uneducated, malnourished, and living in the “slums of Delhi.” In some ways, I found these inhabitants more pleasant than the other Indian citizens that I’ve met. (The photograph to the left is of a free, open clinic that 2 physicians held at a Deepalaya school next to the slums. They had little equipment and a set amount of medications, but they were able to help make pain go away and assess what the patients problems were.)

There are several large cultural differences which I find hard to accept, the main one being the aggressiveness and forwardness of the people. There are no lines or right of way, it’s whoever makes it to the front first, and whoever can be the most forceful to get their way first. People blatantly stare and solicit, being very persistent and just hanging around until they finally give up and leave. There is a lot of cat whistling and honking, people defecating anywhere they please, and no women on the streets. What also surprised me is that there are few places that have been modernized. Speaking with the students about their experiences, a prominent response, and something I noticed myself was the lack of progress within the society. As one of the up and coming leading technological powers, we would expect India to have at least a portion that’s modern with women wearing more western clothing, tall buildings, modern architecture, and more technology. However, it does not seem like the society itself has had significant development. (The picture to the left is of a Henna artist at work on a tourists' hand. Henna artists filled the India Gate property, a great tourist attraction that we visited.)

Conversely, I find the culture exciting and captivating. From the movies to the outdoor markets to the food (which has made me sick, but was very good while on my taste buds..) to the enthusiasm that the students and staff I work with show, I feel honored to have this opportunity to immerse myself in this experience. The wildlife intrigues me and the people that I have had the chance to get to know and speak with have made me laugh and taught me so much. Their enthusiasm and overall wonderful, carefree persona are definitely characteristics that I can learn from. (The picture to the left is of a barber, working on the sidewalk. I took this photograph from the auto rickshaw, an open-air-pressurized-gas-powered-vehicle that I was taking back to campus.)

The MIT students also have an enthusiasm and passion that I hope to capture through my photography and interviews to show the other students and community members how exciting helping these other countries really is and how much you can learn both about yourself and other people. I began my interview process, just informal, very laid-back conversations about their motivation for this project, how they first got involved with international development, what they would recommend to other students, and of course their experiences. I will be writing about my view on their experiences and how I see them changing and developing during my visit with them. Everything moves much slower here than in the states; in the words of the professor they are working with here, "America moves as if there is no tomorrow. Everything must be done now, today, right away. But in India, there is a tomorrow. And a day after that. We like to be flexible, get thinks done at our own pace." However, despite the overall slower speed, the changes and the impact of the experiences on these MIT students is quick and very noticable. From habitual changes such as going from eating meat every day to not eating it at all to character changes such as slowing down and accepting that things can move at a slower rate and we must adapt and be patient, I can see the students growing and developing right in front of me.

I, myself, have already experienced so much in my first couple of days here. Me, the girl that hates it being hot, has adjusted to the humid climate, though I was lucky enough to arrive a couple days before the rain began, cooling the temperature down to about 100 degrees F. My stomach is still adjusting to the food; my first experience of getting sick from the food was last night, and though unpleasent, definitely not as bad as it could have been. The observation that has surprised me the most and really helped put things in perspective is what I've mentioned before - people in the slums with so little, living amongst flies and with little to no money to support their families, are so happy and so welcoming! The children are just like the children in the U.S. Despite cultural differences, they still run around giggling, teasing each other. They still love to be the center of attention, beaming and making silly poses in front of my camera and bursting into giggles when I put my camera down and give them a smile. It is as if we've developed a secret through my taking a photograph of them. The connection that I've been able to get through taking pictures of the people here is incredible. I've always felt that the more I understand my subject, the better the photograph turns out and the more meaning it holds both for me and an unbiased viewer. However, I think this is the first time that I've felt such a strong connection from taking a portrait photograph. It is like an unspoken secret or connection that the click of the shutter has created. Through our eyes, we have crossed the language barrier and the cultural barrier where the core of who we are is all that matters. The human connection is a strong one, and the power of the camera to create this connection has surprised me. I have been struggling a bit as well in trying to gage when it is appropriate to take the photographs. Had I been a freelancer not representing any organization, I would have felt a lot freer, but as a MIT representative, I feel more obligated to be extra careful about not leaving behind any negative feelings. This has gotten in the way of my photography, leading to only a few photos that I actually love. It gets better everyday, and hopefully in the next couple of days, my tentativeness to move around and get the angles that I want will subside.

Despite the Indian students assuring me that I should feel free to move around and take whatever photographs I would like, I do feel a bit intrusive constantly moving around taking photographs, afraid that they will feel like I'm taking advantage of their poor condition or that I am disrespecting them with my constant movements. Because I do not understand the culture completely, it is something that I think only time will cure. But I am rapidly getting better and growing more confident. Another problem is that I cannot take out my camera whenever I want to take a photograph. Due to crime and the lack of females on the streets, not to mention lack of people of my color, I am a prime target and am constantly harrassed to purchase this and purchase that, and have to be on the constant lookout for thieves. The Indian students informed me that yielding my camera in certain locations is dangerous at it makes me an even greater target, so sadly I have found myself not as able to snap the best photographs. It makes me wish I was able to shapeshift into different ethnicities and between genders. Being female, I feel that I am able to be better accepted in peoples' homes and to be able to form a connection with my subjects more easily without them being skeptical. However, it is definitely more dangerous being female.

Things I Wish I'd Brought with Me

2007-06-17T22:35:00.000-04:00

Movies (for down time, though we found a video store and are going to rent bollywood!)

Lock (to lock my things up and to lock my bags)

Stuffed animal (personal preference)

A bag with lots of zippered pockets to help not get things stolen

More hand sanitizer

bed sheets

more socks and undergarments

tupperware

granola bars, oatmeal, other stuff thats small but good for snacking/breakfast/when i'm sick

mini versions of all my friends that wanted to come.... though they may have died in my luggage. maybe i could have put them in my carry ons. :D

The UnsHEAThing of India...

2007-06-16T13:35:00.000-04:00

HOT and HUMID. From my first step off the airplane, I was faced with humidity in the bare airport under construction, not the usual airports I am used to. However, I had arrived successfully, and went through visas without any trouble (and quite quickly to my pleasent surprise!) While waiting for my luggage, I met a nice Indian woman whose daughter was clinging to her leg and started crying everytime her mother tried to detach her so that she could get her luggage off the roundabout thingy... to help her out, I handled her luggage for her, and while waiting for her second bag, we began to converse. She explained that she lived in Washinton D.C., but she had spent the past couple of months in Scotland where her husband was a guest finance professor at a university. They had just adopted their daughter from Guatemala and the little girl was going through withdrawal and strong insecurity issues, resulting in clinging desperately to her new mother in fear that otherwise she would leave her. It was inspring to see how the daughter was so comfortable and felt so protected by this fairly new stranger who had become her mother. I commended my new acquaintance on the obvious bond that had already developed between mother and daughter and wished them the best.

As the woman gathered her final bags and went through customs to find her parents, someone tapped me on the shoulder and i turned to find my friend Daniel from MIT! I had forgotten that he was flying in on the same day, so it was exciting to run into someone i knew. I had originally planned to document his work in Lucknow, India, but the community he was working with had requested not to be photographed, so we had cancled our plans. However, due to automobile transportation to RAI Foundation at Meadows where Daniel would also be staying for 2 days, we had planned to take same-day flights: and then forgotten to contact each other about meeting up. Luckily, we happened to arrive at similar times, and happened to bump into each other!

After exchanging money ($250 for 9910 Rupees) in the airport where the exchange rate is supposedly one of the best, and by far the most convenient, Daniel and I got through customs without a glitch and found a RAI Foundation staff member awaiting us with a sign! Stepping outside of the airport, we were hit with a wave of even stronger humidity and heat, but were relieved to find that the car had air conditioning. :)

As we were driving to campus, and in my first couple days here, I think what amazes me the most are the things that are so similar to things I've seen before. We went to a school assembly yesterday, and it could have been an assembly of a U.S. high school. except for the whole speaking in hindi and me not really understanding anything thing.... :) There are stray dogs walking the streets as in Korea (a certain breed that directly translates to "poop dog" is also found here!), and the traffic is not as bad, but the driving is crazy! Apparently they put lines in recently, but noone bothers to follow them and street signs and stoplights are rare. There is a lot of honking and "dipping" (known as "high beaming" in the U.S.) and these are used regularly to tell someone that you're going to pass them or to "get out of the way because I'm going to keep going and I WILL crush you to get by if I have to." The people wear different clothing and have different colored skin, but they take pictures in front of monuments, eat at McDonalds, gossip, and play basketball just like we do.

There are, of course, many new and exciting things. There are monkeys walking around the campus (the first one I saw, I yelled out, "Oh My GOSH! THERE"S A MONKEY RIGHT THERE," providing amusement for those around me who pointed out all the other monkeys that were casually strolling around). Cows randomly walk along the street, and shacks and lean tos can be seen between concrete buildings and more permament structures.

I am lucky to be in a room in the guesthouse of the university along with the students that I am documenting. I am in fact rooming with one of the students, Catherine, and they accepted me in right away as part of their group, incorporating me into all their activities and explaining what they have already learned. My best friend, Jess, is also here, so that's an extra bonus! The guesthouse has doubles with bathrooms and showers, cable internet access (not so reliable, but its here!), and AC! What a luxury. The room is simple but clean and much much more than what I expected. The doors are very interesting because they require a separte lock and key as a simple pole lock keeps the door closed. There is a television, but every channel has the same game on it... There is a refridgerator and a little store nearby that sells bottled water which we have been buying in bulk at 12 rupees per bottle. What a bargain! I will leave you now with some photographs as I am wiped out from a day of a bit of touring Delhi, but will tell you all about it in my next blog :)

India!

2007-06-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

Due to extreme fatigue, I am unable to write at this current time. But the fatigue is a good sign, for it means that I've had an amazing day of exploring and experiencing India firsthand! Here are a few photographs to hype up the blog entry to come about my arrival and first day in Delhi...

hope you like them! I can already tell that my photography skills are going to increase dramatically throughout this trip, the constant changes in lighting, photographing with respect, knowing what equipment to carry and how, becoming comfortable shooting in a new and different environemnt, and judging when it is and it isn't safe to be seen with the expensive equipment. I have learned so much already and have many thoughts to share... but all tomorrow. :)

oh and if you were thinking, why's she so tired its only 3 in the afternoon.... keep in mind that here in delhi it is currently 1:04 am. From Boston time, you add 9.5 hours. Why the .5? I'd like to know as well. :)

Amsterdam

2007-06-14T04:48:00.000-04:00

Once in elementary school, I learned a lot about Holland, but all I remembered was that their Santa put treats in wooden shoes that children left out. Then I saw part of EuroTrip which showed scandalous activity in Amsterdam. Sadly, I was neither able to confirm or disconfirm either of my previous “exposures” to Amsterdam. The airport, however, is quite nice. The carts are free, which made it much easier for me to get around with my heavy camera equipment. I explored the airport in my 3 hours, stopping at pretty much every “store” which got boring once I started seeing the same things over and over again… but I also found a museum and a casino! Due to heavy fog and mist outside, I was not even able to see some of the scenery around the airport, but I did find lots and lots of wooden shoes as keychains, magnets, plushies, and more! The bathrooms surprised me, as they were very small compared to other airport bathrooms I have been in: only 5 stalls in the women’s room! But the line wasn’t huge…. And there didn’t seem to be more restrooms than usual… perhaps Americans just tend to use the restroom more frequently, or perhaps the stereotype of women flocking together to the bathroom is actually a characteristic of American women.

On my flight over here, I watched Pan’s Labyrinth, Music and Lyrics, and Finding Nemo. I would recommend all three. The first was very well made, a deep exploration into a child's imagination, questioning whether the adults are too corrupt and discouraged to see or if the child consoles herself with her imagination. The imagery is vivid and the filmography is astounding. I found parts of it a bit scary, but then again, I am quite the scaredy-cat when it comes to any sort of creepiness. Music and Lyrics was a chick flick with a very nice soundtrack, a typical romance that girls dream of :). And of course Finding Nemo. Who hasn't seen it? Well, then maybe you should! Despite not having slept for about 24 hours at this point (not an unusual occurrence for a MIT student you may think, but it is summer… and I like sleep), I decided to stay awake and watch movies while I could because Northwest Airlines allowed me to select my own movies while many other airlines do not allow that. :D

I met an interesting couple on the plane who told me about an interesting experience they had in the airport; the conversation started because I saw the woman crocheting and this surprised me because my own crochet needle had been taken away in the security check in a previous flight. The couple told me (and they could have been pulling my leg for I tend to fall for things easily... hmm) that they had actually been caught by security, but they had stabbed the guard three times to show him that the crochet needle was not at all sharp or dangerous and thus should not be considered as a "sharps." Having been hit but not hurt, the guard let them through!

I also discovered something new, I bought a postcard from one of the stores, and they conveniently had a stamp so that I could send the postcard directly from the airport! Perhaps this is common knowledge, but I had seriously been contemplating where I was going to get a stamp! In addition, I solved my problem of not knowing what to get my hosts in each country. Being the second person to visit these hosts at the same time, I knew that the other students had brought MIT insignia gear as gifts for the hosts. Therefore, unique to my project, I decided to bring my hosts for each country a gift from the previous country I had been in! So I bought a box of gourmet chocolates in the shape of Holland's wooden shoes. :D I will give it to my hosts as I leave as a token of my appreciation.

And I'm Off!

2007-06-13T18:17:00.000-04:00

They recommend that you check in at the airport at least 2 hours prior to an international flight. My parents always arrive at least 3 hours in advance just in case. Now I am past security and outside my gate, waiting for boarding to begin. It is a very awkward time because I’m impatient to just get on my flight already so that I can get comfortable and fall asleep instead of having to keep an eye on my things. I enjoy traveling alone, I feel it gives me time to reflect and have some quality me, myself, and I time. However, it gets to be a problem when I want to use the restroom, take a nap, or do anything really. I’ve had layovers for several hours in the past, so I would hold on to my purse with my tickets and all that jazz, using it as a pillow almost, and hanging on to my carry on with my legs such that if anyone tried to steal it or open it, they would have to move my legs first. This works well despite that fact that at times I sleep like a rock so there’s a chance I wouldn’t notice, because the potential thieves figure I would wake up. I like to keep it that way J. I think one time, I asked someone else to watch my things while I ran to the bathroom. I didn’t get anything stolen and didn’t get arrested for finding a bomb in my bag, but in retrospect, that’s probably not such a good idea. I used to be very trusting of people around me, not needing evidence, but I think I’ve become more critical and wary of strangers – whether that be for better or worse.

You see all kinds of people in an airport that all have different ways of waiting. Some are super relaxed, putting their feet up on their luggage, looking as if they’re in the comfort of their home, reading that day’s paper. Others are obviously more rigid, sitting up straight, not daring to do anything, but nervously eyeing their luggage to make sure nothing gets stolen. There are many people on cellphones and laptops. I attempted to connect to the internet, hoping that perhaps the wifi had become free since my last attempt, but alas it was still costly. I wonder what percentage of the passengers using their laptops are actually paying for wifi, and which percentage are not? I compromised by writing this blog entry in word which I will later copy and paste into blogger. I found that you can change the date and time such that it can look as if I added this at the time I actually wrote it!

I left my phone at home as I would not be able to use it internationally any way, and I tend to be very good at losing things. Thus, I said goodbye to my parents before the security check, and they are probably still there, worrying because they did not get me an international phone in case of an emergency.

What I Packed

2007-06-13T02:29:00.000-04:00

A new laptop, photography equipment, a generic-you-don't-want-to-rob-me-this-is-just-a-raggedy-old-bag, a camcorder, and copies of all my documents! Musts for my project. I still have not decided whether to take the camcorder or not, as it was an extra part, and I am not sure whether I have space for it. However, the others are essentials! I was able to get an excellent loaner laptop from MIT (because its the summer and noone else trys to rent one apparently...) on which I installed Photoshop and made sure to transfer over essential databases and lists. To avoid leaving anything behind in my continuous travel, I made a list of all the things I'm packing (a bit ocd, but hey! it works!). I had trouble picking out bags because I needed them to be sturdy and durable, but seem cheap and undesirable to potential thiefs. Especially my camera bag. I was able to borrow a plain but compartmental and completely waterproof messenger bag from my photojournalism professor, B.D. Colen, which will serve my purpose well! So then on to my packing...

What I Packed

Three bags:

(1) A checked-in duffel-with-wheels containing clothing, toiletries, towels, a pillow case, chargers, sunscreen, insect repellant, a set of outlet converters, Malcolm X, Mountains Beyond Mountains, a First Aid Kit complements of Julie from Medlinks, an umbrella, a flashlight, a roll of toilet paper just in case, dvd-rs to back up my photographs, a tripod, 2 tubs of gatorade to replenish all the electrolytes I will lose in the 110ºF Indian humidity, and 2 big bottles of pepto-bismol because my friend, Jess, who is already in India, let me know that the pills did not work for her and requested a big bottle and suggested one for myself. This bag ended up being a troublemaker; the handle that is supposed to come out so that I can roll it was stuck and would not work! My father and I struggled with it in the airport for a good half-hour before it finally broke lose from the clutch and became free. Now I won’t have to be a hunchback. My other bags though….

(2) My camera bag, courtesy of B.D, complete with a Nikon D70 body, a Nikon D1H body, 3 lenses, 5 batteries (3 for the D70 and 2 for the D1H), 6 2Gb memory cards, a copy of my passport, a copy of my itinerary, and emergency cash. This bag is, needless to say, quite heavy, quite fragile, and worth “quite-a-lot.” This bag is what I am the most worried about and will keep a close eye on.

(3) My carry-on knapsack with my passport, flight tickets (all of them are paper copies except for my flight to India and my flight back to the US), chapstick, small lotion in a zip lock bag, medication, sketchbook, Sophie’s Choice, pens, pencils, a voice recorder for the interviews, the camcorder from the PSC, glasses, sunglasses, extra contacts, laptop and charger, and cash. I am bringing $250 in cash to be exchanged at the airport (Jess informed me that I would be spending about $5/day on food, $4/day on travel, and then shopping during breaks J plus the transaction fee when exchanging), $100 as emergency money, and $80 as emergency emergency money (in a different location J ).

I could have fit both my carry-ons into one of the bags, as both are half-empty, but decided this was not a safe idea for my camera equipment, and thus ended up with 3 bags which will hopefully not prove to be too much. I will be relieved of several items from my check-in luggage once in India due to things I’m bringing to students that are already there, so I may just put my knapsack into the check-in next time. It should come in handy in any case should have an opportunity/have time to climb Kiliminjaro.

(I thought that 1 big bag was too much, and was kicking myself later for not packing lighter, but delightfully found that even the students staying in a one-weather location had brought more! Yay! I didn't overpack!)

Final Itinerary

2007-06-11T16:10:00.001-04:00

Arrival at Location	Departure from Location	Location	Projects
June 14, 10:50 pm	June 30, 10:45 am	New Delhi, India	Rehabilitation Center for Mentally Disabled Children
June 30, 7:05 pm	July 7, 12:55 pm	Nairobi, Kenya	Tricycle Factory, Technology Center Networks
July 7, 2:10 pm	July 15, 1:50 pm	Kampala, Uganda	Computer Refurbishment Center
July 15, 3:00 pm	July 29, 3:40 pm	Kilimanjaro Airport, Tanzania	Marketing Project, Wheelchair
July 30, 11:25 am	July 31, 10:45 am	Bangkok, Thailand	24 Hr Layover
July 31, 2:55 pm	August 12, 10:00 am	Sichuan, China	Teaching Children
August 12, 12:25 pm	August 15, 6:30 pm	Beijing, China	Urban Hospitals

There are 2 p's in Preparation: Patience and Pain

2007-06-08T23:52:00.000-04:00

Shots have always made me shudder, and 4 at once was 4x worse. I received the tetanus, Hepatitis A, yellow fever, and meningitis vaccinations, 2 shots on each arm. Worse was that my arms stayed sore for 1 week! Two additional vaccinations were received orally: (1) the typhoid vaccination, a series of 4 pills taken every other day and (2) anti-malaria pills, to be taken weekly starting from 1 week before exposure. I was unable to receive the japanese encephalitis and rabies vaccinations because they require you to see the physician that administered the vaccination after 30 days, and I had gone to the travel nurse too late. MIT Medical does have a travel nurse who gave me all the information I needed about the vaccinations and gave me recommendations on what I should take. He also gave me an information packet including water treatment methods, things to watch over, and overall travel safety.

The pain from the shots was overshadowed quickly by the pain of getting visas. Not having ever needed a visa in the past, I naively thought that you sent in your applications in the mail and they sent you a sticker or a form. Unfortunately, getting a visa requires you to submit your passport to the consulate or embassy. Thus my trips to New York City and Washington D.C! NYC has consulate offices for nearly all if not all the countries in the world, but I have family, including a 5 year old cousin I don't see nearly enough, so my parents and I made the required visa search a family vacation!

Once in D.C., we went to all 5 embassies and found that the India embassy was extremely picky about what you wrote and the Tanzania embassy took 3 days minimum (compared to the 1 hour expedited processing time the Tanzania consulate in NYC had told me!) This was a surprise, but an important lesson. Next time I will either (1) start early and mail in for visas or (2) go to NYC for the visas. Waiting in line for between 1-3 hours just to submit my application and waiting 1-5 hours for it to be processed proved to be time consuming and required lots of patience. However, I did meet a lot of interesting people and found that if I started a conversation while waiting, the quiet, serious room turned into a lively one full of people with interesting experiences and eager to hear about others' experiences!

Needless to say, the originally boring search for visas turned into an interesting adventure. Walking from the Indian consulate, across NYC to the Tanzanian consulate, we made it 1 minutes before they were supposed to close. Thankfully they were extremely nice and processed the visa right then and there!

In the 2 weeks Prior to Departure

2007-06-06T00:11:00.000-04:00

Before my idea could blossom into reality, I had so much last minute work to do. I had done a lot of leg work to get funding and to flush out the goals and plans of my project, but I had to wait until the students actually doing the projects had finalized their plans to make my itinerary, purchase my plane tickets, and more. On top of that, finals week with 4 finals and 3 final projects did not bode well to preparing before the end of the semester.

So the semester ended and my summer began. First, I had to finalize my itinerary, I narrowed down more than 30 projects to 8 projects, 2 of which were dropped 2 days ago due to one project still not having an itinerary and another objecting to having photographs taken. This left me with projects in:

(1) New Delhi, India
(2) Nairobi, Kenya
(3) Kampala, Uganda
(4) Arusha, Tanzania
(5) Moshi, Tanzania
(6) Sichuan, China
and
(7) Beijing, China

Due to the way the flights worked out, it was cheaper for me (by $4000) to fly into Bangkok, Thailand for 24 hours on my way to China from Tanzania versus a direct flight, so I will be spending one day in Bangkok as well!

Currently, I am in Washington D.C. trying to get my visas because I found out too late that it takes too long to mail them in! I was going to go to New York City, but I have family down in D.C., so we turned it into a family trip! Unfortunately, every single one of these countries require a visa! For future travelers... it is best to put that your reason for visit is for tourism. I ran into problems at the Embassy of India which had complaints about my "school project" description as my purpose of visit. I also ran into problems with different embassies not offering expedited processing or the "expedited processing" being 3 days (Tanzania). Therefore, I will be going to New York City tomorrow where they have expedited processing of 1 hour for both Tanzania and India visas.

It was very interesting to stop by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History while I was waiting for my Uganda visa. I was born in Maryland and lived there and then in the D.C. area until I was 9, so I had visited the Smithsonian Museums extensively, but now I could relate so much more! They had an African exhibit where I read about the different areas I would be visiting and several photography exhibits displaying exquisite work which inspired me beyond words.

Now, before leaving next Wednesday, June 13, I must obtain the rest of my visas, pack up clothing and more importantly my photography equipment, meet with various advisors to finalize interview questions and ask last minute questions about emergency situations and etc, and get a loaner laptop because mine is full of bugs and gets overheated in 2 minutes in my air-conditioned house, never mind in the heat of African sun.

How It Began

2007-06-05T23:30:00.000-04:00

I have wanted to be a nonprofit, international physician for as long as I can remember, but this is hard to do without a medical degree. Or at least to do it well. However, a main part of wanting to become a physician rose from my desire to help others personally as well as to be able to start a snowball of caring. In my search for a summer project, I wanted to do something in developing countries where I had dreamed of working for so long. I also wanted to be able to make a difference to both my immediate community, MIT, and to the world. I never dreamed that my interest in photography would show me the way to the perfect project.

It didn't start off easily. I applied to a fellowship in India and was rejected, devastating me and bringing me down to feel that I was inadequate and unable to follow my dreams. If I couldn't even get this one fellowship, how could I become a physician and help the world? But being turned down from an interesting project opened a door for me towards the perfect project for me. A project that would let me make a huge, lasting impact on MIT, give back to the world, allow me to observe not one, but many different cultures, and give me an artistic way to approach many different problems.

The idea began as a seedling, a branch of my proposals to adjust and enhance the India fellowship by using my photojournalism experience to document the work being done by the fellowship participants and using it as advertising for the service organizations funding the rehabilitation clinics that were being formed. The seedling quickly sprouted as I realized that my photojournalism could go beyond advertising for the cause, but could also serve to celebrate the students' achievements, teach the MIT community about the problems in other countries, and motivate others to get up and volunteer themselves. Despite a lot of international development work being done by the MIT community, a lot of the work goes unrecognized by both MIT and the world around it. Here was a way to spread the word!

And thus the planning began. With about 1 month to raise funds and complete the planning process for my project, I met with deans, heads of departments, counselors, and more. The Public Service Center was the first to jump up to support me, Ms. Sally Susnowitz and Ms. Alison Hynd beind point contacts for me to go for guidance and assistance. I faced many obstacles along the way; there were holes in my plans and lack of funds at the end of the fiscal year. However, with persistance and a lot of editing and getting advice, I raised a total of $10,000 dollars from the Public Service Center, the Edgerton Lab, and the Deans of Student Life. Working with the Arts Department, I am currently applying for a grant that cannot be processed until July 1, and will be submitting an application to have my work displayed in the Weisner Gallery in the Student Center.

My work will be used in a view book produced by the Public Service Center to be laid out permanently in the student center, libraries, and various other centers throughout campus to provide a visual source that members of the MIT community can look through to see pictures of different social and political issues around the world and of MIT students doing something about it. In addition to the photographs, I will also be doing reporting and more opinion writing about my own experiences. The majority of the reporting will be done while I am photographing, interviewing community members as well as the MIT students about the issues at hand. The MIT students will also be interviewed for questions such as why they became interested in this cause and how they first started getting involved in working in international development.