Davidson Summer Storiestag:blogs.davidson.edu,2009:/summerstories/542008-08-14T14:04:43ZMovable Type Pro 4.21-enSeeing The Lord in Babies' Eyestag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9582008-08-14T13:54:51Z2008-08-14T14:04:43Z by Becky Whitten '11 I returned yesterday from a week at Lake Champion, a Young Life camp in New York where I was volunteering with the support of Davidson's Staley Grant as a child caregiver during a week of...Bill Giduzby Becky Whitten '11
I returned yesterday from a week at Lake Champion, a Young Life camp in New York where I was volunteering with the support of Davidson's Staley Grant as a child caregiver during a week of camp for teenage mothers.
The camp was part of YoungLives, a Christian ministry to pregnant and parenting teen girls. My camp was the largest in YoungLives history with about 200 moms, their YoungLives mentors from home, over 100 childcare workers, and 170 babies! In Young Life you often hear people talk about organized chaos, but seeing camp function with 170 babies took "organized" chaos to a whole new level. We laughed during the week about the verse in 2 Corinthians that says, "If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God."
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Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. In one chapter Bell describes what I call Holy Moments, times when, as Bell says, "we cannot escape the simple fact that there is way more going on around us then we realize."
For me this week was full of sacred moments. Some I shared with others, like when we listened at the end of the week as girls stood up individually in front of the camp and declared that they has begun a relationship with the Lord. Other moments were cloaked in the ordinary. One afternoon I took a crying Tony outside and sat with him on the side of a grassy hill. The day was beautiful. I blew bubbles and Tony cuddled against me playing with the grass and reaching for the bubble wand, and I remembered Bell's descriptions of times when, for a moment, everything seems to be right in the world. Looking at Tony I said aloud, "This is holy." He stared back at me, broke into a huge smile (the first I'd seen from him in over a day) and threw his head back to stare at the blue sky.
In many ways the week was extraordinary -- where else do you see so many teen mothers and babies together in one place?
In other ways it was far from glamorous, full of wet diapers that leaked onto my shirt, wailing infants, and lots of baby drool. Throughout it all I was reminded of the story of Jesus healing the paralytic. This man who is paralyzed has four friends carry him to the home where Jesus is, then they climb onto the roof and physically dig a hole in it so that they can lower their friend down to the feet of Jesus. When Jesus sees the faith of the man's friends, he heals him.
Changing dirty diapers, bouncing babies on my knee, and pushing strollers, I felt like the friends, digging through a roof one handful at a time to bring a friend to Jesus. I volunteered in faith, and was a witness to broken lives beginning to heal as girls met Jesus for the first time.
By the end of the week I was exhausted, but on the trip home God reminded me how ministry is not something we can mark on a calendar with a beginning and end. I arrived at the airport to find that my flight was cancelled. I was at the back of a spiraling line of people waiting to make new travel arrangements. During the three-hour wait in line I made friends with the woman behind me. Sharing my week with her and the ministry of YoungLives was extra meaningful because twenty years earlier, she had been a teenage mother of two daughters.
While my travel agent was on hold for nearly an hour trying to confirm my new flight, I chatted with him and his colleagues, and he marveled to a co-worker that I was the first person who had not been annoyed by the wait but was actually laughing. He said he wanted to move to the South because people in New York weren't like that.
I was unable to get a flight out until the next day, but spending the night in the airport became an adventure when I ran into one of the groups that had just been at camp and were stranded for the night as well. I latched onto the small group of teenagers, their babies, and leaders, who, like me, are in college.
I thought my childcare was over for the week, but I ended up spending the night playing with and eventually putting to sleep a highly energetic three-year-old boy. I stayed awake all night, sitting on a hard plastic chair in the Newark baggage claim, with a baby girl asleep on my stomach. It was another of those moments that is far from enchanting, but beautiful just the same. A time when I knew without a doubt that I was in exactly the right place and that in the midst of something ordinary I was Christ's ambassador, as though he was making his appeal through me.
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"Ni Hao" (你好) Taiwantag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9522008-08-07T20:22:18Z2008-08-07T20:33:31Z by Alex Su '11 Despite the fact that I had visited China in a foreign language exchange trip two years ago, I never got used to the long plane ride. After many in-flight movies, two breakfasts, a lunch, and...Bill Giduzby Alex Su '11
Despite the fact that I had visited China in a foreign language exchange trip two years ago, I never got used to the long plane ride. After many in-flight movies, two breakfasts, a lunch, and 24 hours later, "Ni hao" (meaning "hello") was the first word I heard once I reached Taiwan this summer. I knew that word ever since I was little. For the first time however, I could say it to everyone I met. ]]>
With no recollection of my last trip to Taiwan seventeen years ago, everything was brand new to my wide eyes. The apartment I stayed in for three weeks was nestled among skyscrapers. While the sun was never as scorching as it is here in North Carolina, the humidity made fans an everyday necessity. The seasonal thunderstorm in the afternoon did cool down the temperature a bit.
Despite some inconveniences, I enjoyed Taiwan very much. During the first week, we stayed home to recoup from jet lag and spend time with my grandparents. My grandfather at age 82 listened to music online before surfing the computer every morning. My grandmother was bound to wheel chair due to minor strokes. She said grace before each meal and thanked God for a wonderful "lunch" no matter what time of the day.
After getting used to the diet, I was ready to explore Taipei. There were people elbow to elbow wherever we went. My comfort was challenged and I had to take a deep breath before I could venture into the crowds. My uncles and aunts drove us around to places to shop and eat. I had too much bubble tea to drink and Chinese pancakes to eat. We went to places like the National Palace Museum that houses 4,000 years of treasures and Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Square, also known as Liberty Square. By the way, one of my mom's friends is also an acquaintance of Davidson's Prof. Shelley Rigger, an expert on East Asia politics.
Then we began venturing out by ourselves on the subway. We visited Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. We could feel the pressure change in our ears while riding the elevators at the speed of 37.5 mph. The windows provided a majestic panoramic view of Taipei. The wind damper, with a diameter of 5.5 meters and 660 metric tons, stabilized the building in the event of typhoons and earthquakes. Speaking of earthquakes, one night, there was a 5.3 earthquake. Everyone was nervous except me, because it was my first and I didn't know any better.
Taiwan sits on the "Ring of Fire." Ever since I learned about boiling eggs in hot springs, I could not wait to see it in person. I realized we had arrived in the Yang Ming Shan volcanic national park from the strange, stinky smell of rotten eggs. A steep horseshoe-shaped crater filled with hot springs and fumaroles emitted a large amount of sulfur gas. We were allowed to get up close to the bubbling water, but were not allowed to cook eggs as visitors used to do. The scenery was beautiful. I walked through the nearby bamboo trail and enjoyed spectacular vistas of the surrounding mountains. For a moment, I felt like I was in the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
The weekend before I came back to US, my cousin took me to McDonald's for lunch. The fast food chain in Taiwan had added local flavor and tasted much more exquisite. For example, Burger King featured curry chicken wings on their menu.
We then met up with his church youth group friends to watch "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian." At first, the friends tried to have conversations in English, but were relieved to speak in Chinese after realizing I speak it fluently. I also noticed the movie "Get Smart" was strangely translated in Taiwan as "Is the Spy Capable or Not?" No longer was I ignorant of the Chinese language nor the treasure trove of cultural delights.
That's all for now, see you on campus.
Travel Experiences in Our Nation's Capitaltag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9502008-08-06T12:14:47Z2008-08-06T18:43:43Z Haas (center in black shirt) and fellow interns get a bird's eye view of Washington from the peak of the Capitol dome while accompanying Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (in front and to Haas's right, wearing white) by Lyndsey Haas...Bill Giduz
Haas (center in black shirt) and fellow interns get a bird's eye view of Washington from the peak of the Capitol dome while accompanying Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (in front and to Haas's right, wearing white)
by Lyndsey Haas '12
I decided to kick off my post-high school life by working as an intern in the U.S. Capitol for one of my (Alaska's) senators. In the office, I helped to write the "senator's opinion statement" on a portion of her web page, gave tours of the capitol to visiting Alaskans, and ran errands around capitol hill (i.e. got lost in the maze of tunnels and corridors that compose "The Hill").]]>
The internship, though, was designed to be more of an experience than to actually provide considerable assistance to the senator's office. I was allowed to shadow the senator for a day on two occasions, attended a party at the White House, toured the high-security legislative vault in the National Archives, sat on the senate floor, climbed to the top of the capitol dome, explored the "bowels" of the capitol from the senate office buildings to the Library of Congress... and was always excited to meet senators (Kerry, Lieberman, Biden, Cocker, Stevens, Hutchinson, Whitehouse...and many more) in the subway or elevators (when offered a ride in the Senator's Only elevators). I watched Jerry Lee Lewis sing "Great Balls of Fire" over the booms of Independence Day fireworks from the capitol terrace.
I had my share of disasters:
1. Getting lost with my tour group in the capitol crypt (then being shouted at by security when I led them up the wrong staircase)
2. Tripping to a grey-suited sprawl on my first shadow day, when I was desperate to make a good impression. I stumbled as I followed the senator around the corner, then lost my shoe... as well as my dignity.
3. (Twice!) breaking a shoe while out dancing, then walking home (the roundabout way: 7 miles) with one bare foot.
I nearly did not apply for the internship, but one of the things that influenced me to try was remembering the stories of friends I met at Davidson. When I visited campus last spring, I talked with Brian Aoyama, Katy Finley, and Alex Gregor about their experiences traveling over the previous summer. Although, Washington, D.C. is not China, Jordan, or India, it was an incredible experience. By the end, I had hundreds of pictures, each with a fond memory attached, and was even more excited (I would never have thought this possible!) to live a new life at Davidson.
Research in China Requires Creativitytag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9422008-07-30T12:57:00Z2008-07-30T13:03:25Z by Brian Aoyama '09 Greetings from China! I'm writing from Fudan University in Shanghai, where thanks to the aid of Dean Rusk, Abernethy, and Belk summer grants, I've spent the last seven weeks researching civil society, public discourse, and...Bill Giduzby Brian Aoyama '09
Greetings from China! I'm writing from Fudan University in Shanghai, where thanks to the aid of Dean Rusk, Abernethy, and Belk summer grants, I've spent the last seven weeks researching civil society, public discourse, and debate in contemporary China. ]]>
Underworld and Batman Begins asked me to clarify the relationships among Batman, Dracula, vampires, and ordinary bats. I gave up and drew a Venn diagram.
Some of the most interesting discussions have been about China's development policies and domestic security issues. Such conversations invariably turn to Tibet and Xinjiang, China's westernmost province. Xinjiang (the name means "New Frontier" in Mandarin) is home to the Uighur (pronounced WEE-ger) minority group, a people who bear no physical resemblance to the Han Chinese majority, speak a language that is closer to Turkish than Mandarin, and are overwhelmingly Muslim. Xinjiang is huge--bigger than Alaska--and because it contains 30% of China's oil reserves and borders eight other nations, it has tremendous strategic value to China.
Last week, I traveled through Xinjiang with a Chinese friend who lives in the province's capital and several other Chinese-speaking American students. We traveled from a nature preserve near China's northern border with Russia to Turpan, the hottest city in China, where the delicious grapes helped ease the agonizing 115-degree heat. Later, we traveled to Kashgar, where I spoke with Uighur university students outside of the Id Kah Mosque. We rode camels and hiked on foot in the Taklimakan Desert, and then traveled west toward the border with Kazakhstan. The weeklong trip was an invaluable opportunity to observe firsthand the development policies that we so passionately discussed in Shanghai.
What's next? With a bit of luck, at this time next week, I'll be in Lhasa, Tibet, as one of the first foreigners to visit the region since the March riots. The process for applying for a permit has been frustrating, as the new requirements are confusing and difficult to navigate, but I should hear an answer one way or another in the next few hours. Keep your fingers crossed!
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A Summer of Learning in Business and Brotherhood tag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9412008-07-30T12:17:02Z2008-07-30T12:31:47Z by Emily Powell '09 (in front, in the green shirt, with co-workers) This has been a crazy, unpredictable, and wonderful summer. When I visited my home in central Indiana the weekend before final exams in May, my summer plans...Bill Giduzby Emily Powell '09 (in front, in the green shirt, with co-workers)
This has been a crazy, unpredictable, and wonderful summer. When I visited my home in central Indiana the weekend before final exams in May, my summer plans still were unformed. However, within ten days, I had discovered, applied for and accepted a paid internship at a start-up automotive company in Anderson, Indiana. My job: to keep environmental sustainability in the forefront of my co-workers' minds, even as they travel the world to build their company.
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Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough, former dean of University of Virginia's Architecture School; Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken (of Smith & Hawken garden store fame) and Amory and Hunter Lovins (the co-founders of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the sustainability think tank in Colorado); and Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus (founder of the Biomimicry Institute).
I also interviewed each employee individually about their personal sustainability practices and attitudes (using a survey instrument I created). I sit in on design meetings, am introduced to visiting clients and investors, and report directly to the company's CEO.
During my third week on staff, the CEO sent me to Snowmass, Colo., to visit the Rocky Mountain Institute. While there, I interviewed analysts and consultants for their ideas about how to keep my employers on track in terms of sustainability. It was a great business opportunity for the company, and it was a priceless growing experience for me: first business trip, first rental car, first business meal, etc. It also was the first time I truly felt as if I would make it in the real world. In fact, I now realize I am well prepared for it. I made contacts I know I'll keep for years, and I learned a lot about current sustainability initiatives.
As the summer progressed, I continued to research the latest trends in "green" manufacturing and plant construction, and I gave more presentations - on my research and on the results of my staff interviews. I also attended an automotive-focused conference in San Jose at the end of July and visited an eco-friendly semiconductor plant in Richardson, Tex.
This job has been such a wonderful opportunity. I've learned about sustainability and about the business world. I've been right in the middle of the birth of a brand-new company (the vibe is so intense!), and I've become convinced that the environmental sector is the career path for me. I know I can do great things in this world if I connect with like-minded people, like the people I've met this summer.
And this job isn't even the biggest event of my summer; I also was able to come to the aid of someone very dear to me. In August of 2006, my only sibling, Ben, who was 16 at the time, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma (lymph node cancer). For the past two years, while I've lived a better-than-average life as a college student, he's been dealing with this disease. He's gone through several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment and suffered several relapses, while constantly wishing to be the "normal" high school kid he had been before.
In March of this year, the doctors discovered that I was a perfect match to serve as a stem cell donor for Ben. The goal was to harvest my white cells (stem cells) and inject them into Ben so that my immune system would take over and replacing Ben's within a year. With luck, my immune system would then fight and destroy the cancer.
I was very excited about being able to help Ben in such a concrete way. On May 20, I had my cells harvested through an apheresis machine and they were injected into Ben. Now, almost six weeks past the transplant, things are going great. It's a bit too early to know if the cancer's gone for good, but we're all hoping that Ben's battle is finally won.
I'm glad I stuck close to home this summer because of this situation. I can help my parents out around the house and spend time with them when I come home from work.
When I'm not working or spending time with the family, I attend a night course (environmental health science) at a local university, visit friends, or curl up with a book I've been meaning to read for ages.
However, despite the wonderful experiences I've had in Indiana this summer, I know I will be ready to return to Davidson for the school year.]]>
Ollaiyo! (Good Morning in Lubwisi)tag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9392008-07-28T13:40:02Z2008-07-28T21:15:56Z by Katie Morris '10 I am writing from Nyahuka, a small town in Bundibugyo district, Uganda (the Westernmost area, fairly isolated from the rest of Uganda due to the Rwenzori mountians). I have spent the past 8 weeks here...Paige Hermanby Katie Morris '10
I am writing from Nyahuka, a small town in Bundibugyo district, Uganda (the Westernmost area, fairly isolated from the rest of Uganda due to the Rwenzori mountians). I have spent the past 8 weeks here on a community service grant teaching HIV/AIDS prevention in local primary schools and trying to learn to relate to a culture so completely different from anything I know. ]]>
My day-to-day schedule varies greatly and I have had some incredible opportunities shadowing doctors in pediatric wards (a moving advertisement for DDT due to the sheer number of severe malaria cases), distributing food and goats to HIV+ mothers, giving out beans and eggs to mothers of severely malnourished children and attempting to organize a volleyball team for girls at a local secondary school. I'm also traveling around the area on boda-bodas (motorbikes) at speeds way too fast on some of the most beautiful but roughest mountain roads imaginable to interview caregivers of moderately malnourished children to gather information for a project evaluation of a nutrition program that began a year ago, learning the time intensive skill of cooking everything from scratch and gaining a great appreciation for the women of this area.
There have been many adventures that place me far from my comfort zone in homestays that involve sharing a 'mattress' with three others on the dirt floor of a mud hut with rats dropping from the ceiling, swimming across the Lambia river to have a picnic lunch in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, camping in the middle of Mweya safari park falling asleep to a lullaby of lion roars, landing in the middle of a storm on a landing strip that had a road running through the middle of it, and hiking (or maybe climbing/crawling/sliding/bushwacking would be better choices for words) through the Rwenzori mountains accompanied by 6 UPDF solders with AK-47s and ammunition draped across their bodies.
My time here has been an incredibly eye-opening experience that has brought me face to face with the realities of public health and development issues in Africa as well as what it's like to actually research and live in a place like this. I have become much more aware of complexities involved in aid work that are not accounted for in most academic classrooms.
Perhaps the best experience so far was my five-day trip to Mundri, Sudan. Mundri is located between Juba and Rumbeck and is populated by the Moru people. I was traveling with a water engineer who is moving there with his family in October. Much of the culture revolves around hiding from the scorching sun by sitting in circles under the shade of a Mango tree. While there I traveled from Mango tree to Mango tree listening to the Moru people's opinions on the Northern government, the CPA and their dire need for schools and teacher training. I had the opportunity to visit a "hospital" in the neighboring town of Lui where the staff had not received any payment from the government in over a year. They gave heart-wrenching testimonies saying they continued to work because they had a skill and there was a great need in the community (this hospital serves a population of around 800,000 but has less medicine than my well stocked pantry at home). They work "25 hours a day" and go home at night to dig in their gardens so that they might feed their families.
During my short time in Southern Sudan, it was clear to me how fragile the peace is and how broken the people and communities are from a lifetime of war. The realities of war are subtle but evident everywhere. Two children in the Lui hospital had their fingers blown off by hand grenades they found while playing in their backyard. There is a trickling return of Moru people who fled during the war but now find themselves alien to a society that stayed around, fought it out, and tried to preserve something of their people's identity. We almost missed our flight back because the one road was closed due to workers de-mining the area. Despite the existence of these difficult reminders of war, there is a very peaceful air in Mundri. The people are moving on, ready to rebuild. My time in East Africa has been at times lonely, at times frustrating, but for sure a rewarding adventure!
Otigalia Kirungi (Stay Well)
Excuse me, did you say 60 hours in a bus?tag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9282008-07-23T13:46:01Z2008-07-28T19:43:32Zby Kyle W. Konrad '09 With the help of a Dean Rusk grant, an auxiliary Bonner Fund, and a gamble as to whether or not one of Bush's stimulus packages would wind up on my door step, I traveled to...Paige Herman
by Kyle W. Konrad '09
With the help of a Dean Rusk grant, an auxiliary Bonner Fund, and a gamble as to whether or not one of Bush's stimulus packages would wind up on my door step, I traveled to South America to study the way student movements affected democracy by use of riots, petitions, strikes, and general chaos. I arrived in Bolivia the end of May to begin meeting with the source of my Bolivia research, Ramiro Orias, whose association with La Red Participación y Justicia and other NGO's, has opened more doors to my life than I could have ever begun to imagine.
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The political situation in Bolivia is complex to say the least and the sorts I have met with have been more than proof of that. Many times, I have gone into a phone booth, called a contact that I had picked up from elsewhere, said "Hola. Estás hablando con Carlos Konrad. Soy amigo de x. Estoy estudiando cómo se trata este tema de participación juvenil en el gobierno en términos del MAS o de la oposición." They typically respond, " Ya... ya ok. Ponte en taxi. Me esperes en esta esquina. Tengo jeans y camiseta roja. Ya. Ciao"
Despite the fact that I was foreign to La Paz, it never felt strange waiting in a dodgy part of town for a kid I had heard liked to burn down bars and cantinas to prevent middle school kids from starting to drink at a young age. Not exactly systemic, I thought. But, this is how the meetings went and it was great. He did not exactly seem like a terrorist. He seemed like you or me, except at 4,000 m of altitude with burned skin surrounded by poverty and immersed in a country without direction.
"What do you think of the President?" This was a constant point I made when I met with youth, professors and NGO's alike. Common consensus pointed to, "He's ok. But we're tired. We just want peace and stability. Death to the Yankees." I was never too flattered with the last bit, but such is life.
Two days before I was scheduled to fly to Lima and begin the long, but cheaper than flying, trek to Venezuela stopping in Quito and Bógota to meet with some folks Amnesty International had listed as threatened by political means for expression of belief, I was offered a job as translator and political consultant for an NGO in downtown La Paz working on reports for Washington with regards to Electoral Observation in Bolivia's most contested Referendums ever. I turned it down.
After a week of being stood up in Quito from meeting after meeting and regretting leaving that opportunity in La Paz in the first place, I called Ramiro. "Do you still need someone?" "Yes." "Ok, I'll see you in five days. Ciao"
And I was off. Eighty hours later in a bus, twenty of which spent with Luis Alberto Lira, Davidson in Peru's lifetime friend watching the Copa Europa final, I was back in La Paz at the same hostel and sadly enough some tourists had learned the hard way as to how La Paz can suck you in and never let you leave.
My trip went from 8 weeks as was the original plan to now pushing 12. I work 9-10 hour days, depending, and have reopened, deepened, and expanded my contacts with youth movements across Bolivia - I would even hate to say that I have lost the rest from across the continent (Facebook works brilliantly). I have recently moved into an apartment (90 USD a month), whose shower I shock myself with every morning. The internship that I thought would pay none is paying me a substantial amount, and it would appear that I will be getting some travel benefits, and may even get published. I even have my own extension.
In other news, not many Americans travel to Bolivia so I have acquired the hybridized vocabulary of a Brit and an Aussie with words like "Cheers," "Mate," "Bird," and "Chat" in everyday conversation.
¡¡Viva la Evocracia!!
We Are Breakthrough Atlantatag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9222008-07-21T18:01:53Z2008-07-28T21:15:01Z Laura Fontaine '09 (far left) and her theatre class of 7th and 8th grade students. by Laura Fontaine '09 We are the young people who make a difference." Every morning at Breakthrough Atlanta (BTA) begins with all 30 teachers...Paige Herman
Laura Fontaine '09 (far left) and her theatre class of 7th and 8th grade students.by Laura Fontaine '09
We are the young people who make a difference." Every morning at Breakthrough Atlanta (BTA) begins with all 30 teachers and 120 students on the plaza affirming our commitment to becoming our best selves and striving to make a difference. ]]>
Roughly six weeks ago, I joined 29 other college students from across the country as we embarked on a week and a half of training designed to prepare us to teach an academic summer enrichment program to traditionally underserved middle school students from some of Atlanta's roughest areas - as if anything really can prepare you for the emotional rollercoaster middle schoolers ride.
Our students have traded six weeks of summer lounging for 7:30am-3:45pm school days with dreams of rising from the struggling public school system to rank among the nation's top scholars, athletes, and performers. As teachers, our job is to help make those dreams reality. Each day we are tutors, mentors, cheerleaders, disciplinarians, stand-up comedians, and marathon runners. Best of all, we are learners, as our students push us to become more challenging and engaging teachers. I spend my mornings teaching English, my afternoons teaching Theatre and assisting in Spanish and College Preparatory classes, and my evenings grading papers and writing lesson plans late into the night. I never thought I would find a job that left me with less free time than I have at Davidson!
BTA's morning affirmation ends with the assertion that "we are people of humility, wisdom, nurturing, and forgiveness." Each day I find myself striving to make my life more completely reflect those words. I arrived in Atlanta expecting to be a young adult making a difference in the lives of some underserved children. In the joys and struggles of everyday, I find Breakthrough and the young people who attend the program making a difference in me.
Laura Fontaine '09
A Summer for Healingtag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9202008-07-18T19:28:13Z2008-07-21T15:37:59Z Katy (left) and her cousin, Kea McKibben. by Katy Sims My name is Katy Sims, and I'm writing to you from the 6th floor of the UNC-CH hospital. For those of you unfamiliar with the place, 6-East is the...Bill GiduzKaty (left) and her cousin, Kea McKibben.by Katy Sims
My name is Katy Sims, and I'm writing to you from the 6th floor of the UNC-CH hospital. For those of you unfamiliar with the place, 6-East is the cancer floor. For the past nine months, I've been receiving treatment for bone cancer.
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This summer, I complete my treatments. Sounds like a pretty boring summer, right? I've been busy, though. Between trips to the beach and mountains, my jobs life guarding and working at a hair salon (yeah, yeah. I know.) and treatments every two weeks, I've still managed to sleep 12 hours a night and visit the doctor at least once a week. This summer hasn't been in vain; I've met tons of new friends and have decided the course of my future. Although I hate to admit it, I've learned a lot from my cancer and have changed quite a bit. I can't wait to go back to school in the fall. If you see me around, feel free to say hey, ask questions, or share your story--I'm the one without hair!
A (Second) Homecomingtag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9152008-07-15T19:08:06Z2008-07-15T19:29:32Z (A few of the boys from the orphanage dressed in their school uniforms.) by Utsha Khatri '09 Namaste! My name is Utsha Khatri. I am a rising senior. I am spending my summer in Nepal. My parents moved from...Bill Giduz(A few of the boys from the orphanage dressed in their school uniforms.)
by Utsha Khatri '09
Namaste! My name is Utsha Khatri. I am a rising senior. I am spending my summer in Nepal. My parents moved from Nepal to the US a long time ago. Though I was born and raised in the US for most of my life, I have also considered Nepal my second home. I lived in Nepal for a few years as a young child. I also spent a couple summers in Nepal with my mother and younger sister during grade school. This summer, I am returning after 8 years.
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Both the country and I have changed a great deal in the last 8 years. Nepal has experienced a lot of political instability following a civil war leaving many people killed, displaced and jobless and many children orphaned. My first two weeks in Nepal I observed at a hospital. I went on rounds with a surgery unit, visited ill patients, observed HIV counseling sessions and observed during operations. It was very interesting to observe how the hospital system functions, what types of health problems Nepalis face, and learn about how HIV/AIDS affected the country.
For the last ten days (and the next 3 weeks) I am living and working at an orphanage. The orphanage, Papa's House, was founded and is run by Michael Hess, whose brother, Dr. Peter Hess, is an economic professor at Davidson. The children have been rescued from life-threatening situations and many have had their lives turned up-side down by violence inflicted by Maoists. At the orphanage, I help tutor children before and after school, play with the children and take them to and from school. I also teach English at a nearby, underfunded school during the mornings. My time in Nepal so far has been amazing. I have really enjoyed being integrated in Nepali society, even if only for a couple months.
Flexing His Legal Musclestag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9142008-07-15T18:02:46Z2008-07-15T18:48:04Zby David Orsbon '09 My name is David Orsbon, and I'm in the class of 2009, so this is my last summer as a Davidson student before pursuing Law School. In April of this year I found an secured an...Bill Giduz
by David Orsbon '09
My name is David Orsbon, and I'm in the class of 2009, so this is my last summer as a Davidson student before pursuing Law School. In April of this year I found an secured an internship with an interesting group called Mecklenburg Sentencing Services, or MSS, which works with the Mecklenburg County Courts to provide alternative sentencing methods for an offender. The purpose of MSS is twofold: 1) help the individual break out of their criminal lifestyle and behavior patterns by providing them with a sentencing plan that outlines the resources that will best help the individual; and 2) to prevent the individual from serving an unnecessary amount of time in the Meck. Co. Jail or State Prison, which saves Meck. County and the state of North Carolina tens of thousands of dollars.]]>
Part of my job this summer is to assist in managing the cases referred to MSS. This includes visiting the Meck. County jail to interview clients, administering tests to assess the client's situation and needs, and then developing a sentencing plan that is delivered to the court and outlines a recommended treatment to the Judge, District Attorney, Public Defenders, and Probation Officers.
The second part of my job is to collect, sort through, and analyze every case from both the 2004-2005 year and 2005-2006 and compile all this information into a single database that shows the rates of recidivism (the likelihood of an individual to receive another conviction in the future) in Mecklenburg County for individuals who receive sentencing plans from MSS.
This internship has been an amazing experience: I have learned that I feel at home in a "legal" environment, and that I want pursue law as a career in some shape or form. Most importantly, though, I have learned what it is like to actually help someone who may likely be in one of the bleakest moments in his or her life. The feeling I get is only comparable to what it must feel like to truly save another person's life.
A Human Rights "LINK"tag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.9112008-07-14T19:41:40Z2008-08-15T15:15:36Z Sarah Moore (left, representing her Davidson pride) and a friend out and about in Seoul, South Korea. by Sarah Moore '10 I am currently in Seoul, South Korea attending Yonsei University on a grant from the Dean Rusk International...Bill GiduzSarah Moore (left, representing her Davidson pride) and a friend out and about in Seoul, South Korea.by Sarah Moore '10
I am currently in Seoul, South Korea attending Yonsei University on a grant from the Dean Rusk International Studies Program. At Yonsei, I am taking Korean language and a North Korean society and politics course taught by the executive director of the US committee for human rights in North Korea. Through my professor, I have had the opportunity to attend conferences discussing the future of the Six-Party Talks on North Korean's declaration of its nuclear programs. I have also started to get involved with LINK (Liberty in North Korea). LINK is a human rights NGO focused on educating the world about the tragedies in North Korea and protecting North Korean refugees. Last week, I participated in a mock funeral demonstration for the children in North Korea in one of the most crowded shopping districts in Seoul. Later this month, I hope to teach English to North Korean refugees at LINK's Seoul office.
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Although school takes up a lot of my time I have had the opportunity to visit traditional Korean villages and hiked up mountains to view beautiful Buddhist temples. I am enjoying the food most of all eating kimchi three times a day!
Recently in Seoul, there have been riots called the "Beef Wars" in response to the South Korean government's decision to resume imports of American beef believed to be unsafe from mad cow disease. This has now snowballed into a protest against President Lee Myung-bak's leadership style and polices.
I am really interested in South Korean public opinion and I just had to go see the riots for myself so I went to City Hall at night and it was crazy. I got off the subway station and turned a corner and saw hundreds of riot police waiting underground for the signal to go up and stop the riots. There was lots of yelling, pushing, climbing on buses it was a bit scary. Then when someone next to me got hit by a rock and police started pushing people around me I decided to run back to the subway station. I have attend these riots multiple times and many local Koreans ask me why I keep going as it is dangerous, and tell me I could just watch it on TV. My response is always, "why watch it on TV when it's happening 15 minutes away?" They then always call me "michoso" which means "crazy" in Korean.
I will be in Seoul until mid-August then to Kobe, Japan for two weeks to see my family. Then off to Shanghai where I will be for the fall semester!
Encountering Filipino Perceptionstag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.8812008-07-11T16:08:48Z2008-08-15T15:18:07Z by Justin Eusebio '09 I am emailing from the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP), locally considered the "Harvard of the Philippines," where I'm doing fieldwork (thanks to a grant from Dean Rusk) on Filipino perceptions and health seeking...Bill Giduzby Justin Eusebio '09
I am emailing from the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP), locally considered the "Harvard of the Philippines," where I'm doing fieldwork (thanks to a grant from Dean Rusk) on Filipino perceptions and health seeking behavior regarding tuberculosis in surrounding urban communities. In the first few weeks, I've met and interviewed a number of government health officials and TB program coordinators. Sometimes it has been a real bureaucratic struggle, as I'm bounced from one office to another and then within an office a few more times. On the bright side, it should be smooth sailing from here, because I have scheduled all my focus group discussions for the remainder of the summer.
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The focus groups thus far have been fun. I interview men and women separately, and have become very aware of how the participants perceive me in different ways. Some of the male participants feel like I do not understand them completely when they speak in Tagalog (local language), and will stand up and act out their responses. The women groups have been entertaining because they act motherly towards me, and ask so many questions that I feel like I'm being interviewed! Overall, the combination of my youth and foreign status has really shaped their responses for the better, because they seem more didactic and unassuming towards me.
I've also been spending a good amount of time in the UP library. It's strange to say (high on the nerd scale), but I really miss the Dewey Decimal System! I really haven't begun to understand how they classify books around here but I usually just like to go ask the librarians since they can find that stuff much faster than I ever could.
Seeing Campus in a New (Summer) Lighttag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.8792008-07-10T17:49:54Z2008-07-28T21:18:02Z (l-r chowing down on taco night in "B" are Karen Kirk '11, Marybeth Campeau '11, Jessica Malordy '11 and Rosy Harvey '11.) by Jessica Malordy '11 My journey after school let out was not very far--I packed up my...Bill Giduz(l-r chowing down on taco night in "B" are Karen Kirk '11, Marybeth Campeau '11, Jessica Malordy '11 and Rosy Harvey '11.)
by Jessica Malordy '11
My journey after school let out was not very far--I packed up my belongings and lugged them down the hill to the senior apartments. Instead of going home to New York, I am staying here on campus, working in the music library for the summer.
I may not be traveling the globe, but the summer has nonetheless been an eye-opener. Summertime Davidson is a whole new place; from the construction to sports campers, not to mention the absence of students draped over the lawns. It took some time to get used to. However, now that I've adjusted to the relative emptiness, I am loving these months on Davidson soil.
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The trick is to make everything an adventure. For example, as a student without a car, shopping at Harris Teeter has evolved from a simple errand to a quest-like undertaking. By bike or by foot, figuring out how to transport all those groceries back to campus is always a challenge. I have moaned and groaned and then finally laughed with my best friend Johanna, who is living with me and two other close friends in B. We lugged groceries both up and down hill back to campus, first complaining and then finally declaring the experience character-building! "The summer we'll never forget!" I once found myself sprawled across the pavement in the middle of Patterson Court after taking a nearly disastrous fall off my bike. My first instinct was not to check the scattered groceries, but to look up frantically--were there any witnesses to my embarrassing crash? Of course not. Campus is empty!
As a dual citizen of France and the U.S., and a frequent traveler, I'm accustomed to making new friends on travels abroad. But this summer I've discovered that I don't need to go far to meet new people. Most of the students staying here for the summer, ranging from lake campus staff to research assistants to the Odyssey crew, are also in the senior apartments, and just a flight of stairs or a porch away. I've met people I wouldn't have gotten to know otherwise during the school year, and though summer residents number far fewer than the small student body, Davidson continues to prove that it is full to the brim of new and exciting people.
The latest adventure is my job. What started out as a simple summer job, sorting and inventorying CDs, and recording cassette tapes of senior recitals from the 1980s onto CD, has become more challenging now that both the music librarian and part-time assistant are leaving this summer. Monday July 14 will be my first day for opening, closing, and operating the music library entirely on my own. I'm pretty sure I'm up to it. I'm just hoping I get visitors to keep me company!
Staying at Davidson for the summer was one of the best decisions I've made lately. My friends from home couldn't understand why I'd want to spend my summer in North Carolina, but while I miss them and my family, I'm having a blast here with friends new and old, and getting to enjoy Davidson in a whole new way.
Preparing for a Semester in the Amazontag:blogs.davidson.edu,2008:/summerstories//54.8772008-07-09T14:35:11Z2008-08-15T15:24:35Z by Upasana Khatri '09 I'm home now in Silver Spring, Md., enjoying the sights and sounds of D.C. and taking advantage of the University of Maryland's enormous library. With the help of a grant from the Dean Rusk International...Bill Giduzby Upasana Khatri '09
I'm home now in Silver Spring, Md., enjoying the sights and sounds of D.C. and taking advantage of the University of Maryland's enormous library. With the help of a grant from the Dean Rusk International Studies Program, I've begun research both for my thesis and to gain a better idea of what I will be encountering in Amazonian Brazil this upcoming semester. ]]>
Privatizing Nature, Rainforest Cities, Alternatives to Deforestation, and The Amazon Caboclo.
I'm also preparing for my semester in Brazil by teaching myself Portuguese! I bought a CD collection, and managed to get through the first two pretty confidently. But the lessons have gotten increasingly difficult. I think I'll have to go through all of them at least twice, but I'll have at least a good introduction to the language by the end of the lessons. My background in Spanish has also come in handy.
As a Bonner Community Service Scholar, I'm teaching at a summer tutoring/activity center. That ends in August, after which I will be volunteering as a naturalist at a nearby nature center.
Well, that's all for now. Best luck to everyone and enjoy your summer!
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by Becky Whitten '11
I returned yesterday from a week at Lake Champion, a Young Life camp in New York where I was volunteering with the support of Davidson's Staley Grant as a child caregiver during a week of camp for teenage mothers.
The camp was part of YoungLives, a Christian ministry to pregnant and parenting teen girls. My camp was the largest in YoungLives history with about 200 moms, their YoungLives mentors from home, over 100 childcare workers, and 170 babies! In Young Life you often hear people talk about organized chaos, but seeing camp function with 170 babies took "organized" chaos to a whole new level. We laughed during the week about the verse in 2 Corinthians that says, "If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God."
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Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. In one chapter Bell describes what I call Holy Moments, times when, as Bell says, "we cannot escape the simple fact that there is way more going on around us then we realize."
For me this week was full of sacred moments. Some I shared with others, like when we listened at the end of the week as girls stood up individually in front of the camp and declared that they has begun a relationship with the Lord. Other moments were cloaked in the ordinary. One afternoon I took a crying Tony outside and sat with him on the side of a grassy hill. The day was beautiful. I blew bubbles and Tony cuddled against me playing with the grass and reaching for the bubble wand, and I remembered Bell's descriptions of times when, for a moment, everything seems to be right in the world. Looking at Tony I said aloud, "This is holy." He stared back at me, broke into a huge smile (the first I'd seen from him in over a day) and threw his head back to stare at the blue sky.
In many ways the week was extraordinary -- where else do you see so many teen mothers and babies together in one place?
In other ways it was far from glamorous, full of wet diapers that leaked onto my shirt, wailing infants, and lots of baby drool. Throughout it all I was reminded of the story of Jesus healing the paralytic. This man who is paralyzed has four friends carry him to the home where Jesus is, then they climb onto the roof and physically dig a hole in it so that they can lower their friend down to the feet of Jesus. When Jesus sees the faith of the man's friends, he heals him.
Changing dirty diapers, bouncing babies on my knee, and pushing strollers, I felt like the friends, digging through a roof one handful at a time to bring a friend to Jesus. I volunteered in faith, and was a witness to broken lives beginning to heal as girls met Jesus for the first time.
By the end of the week I was exhausted, but on the trip home God reminded me how ministry is not something we can mark on a calendar with a beginning and end. I arrived at the airport to find that my flight was cancelled. I was at the back of a spiraling line of people waiting to make new travel arrangements. During the three-hour wait in line I made friends with the woman behind me. Sharing my week with her and the ministry of YoungLives was extra meaningful because twenty years earlier, she had been a teenage mother of two daughters.
While my travel agent was on hold for nearly an hour trying to confirm my new flight, I chatted with him and his colleagues, and he marveled to a co-worker that I was the first person who had not been annoyed by the wait but was actually laughing. He said he wanted to move to the South because people in New York weren't like that.
I was unable to get a flight out until the next day, but spending the night in the airport became an adventure when I ran into one of the groups that had just been at camp and were stranded for the night as well. I latched onto the small group of teenagers, their babies, and leaders, who, like me, are in college.
I thought my childcare was over for the week, but I ended up spending the night playing with and eventually putting to sleep a highly energetic three-year-old boy. I stayed awake all night, sitting on a hard plastic chair in the Newark baggage claim, with a baby girl asleep on my stomach. It was another of those moments that is far from enchanting, but beautiful just the same. A time when I knew without a doubt that I was in exactly the right place and that in the midst of something ordinary I was Christ's ambassador, as though he was making his appeal through me.
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by Alex Su '11
Despite the fact that I had visited China in a foreign language exchange trip two years ago, I never got used to the long plane ride. After many in-flight movies, two breakfasts, a lunch, and 24 hours later, "Ni hao" (meaning "hello") was the first word I heard once I reached Taiwan this summer. I knew that word ever since I was little. For the first time however, I could say it to everyone I met. ]]>
With no recollection of my last trip to Taiwan seventeen years ago, everything was brand new to my wide eyes. The apartment I stayed in for three weeks was nestled among skyscrapers. While the sun was never as scorching as it is here in North Carolina, the humidity made fans an everyday necessity. The seasonal thunderstorm in the afternoon did cool down the temperature a bit.
Despite some inconveniences, I enjoyed Taiwan very much. During the first week, we stayed home to recoup from jet lag and spend time with my grandparents. My grandfather at age 82 listened to music online before surfing the computer every morning. My grandmother was bound to wheel chair due to minor strokes. She said grace before each meal and thanked God for a wonderful "lunch" no matter what time of the day.
After getting used to the diet, I was ready to explore Taipei. There were people elbow to elbow wherever we went. My comfort was challenged and I had to take a deep breath before I could venture into the crowds. My uncles and aunts drove us around to places to shop and eat. I had too much bubble tea to drink and Chinese pancakes to eat. We went to places like the National Palace Museum that houses 4,000 years of treasures and Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Square, also known as Liberty Square. By the way, one of my mom's friends is also an acquaintance of Davidson's Prof. Shelley Rigger, an expert on East Asia politics.
Then we began venturing out by ourselves on the subway. We visited Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. We could feel the pressure change in our ears while riding the elevators at the speed of 37.5 mph. The windows provided a majestic panoramic view of Taipei. The wind damper, with a diameter of 5.5 meters and 660 metric tons, stabilized the building in the event of typhoons and earthquakes. Speaking of earthquakes, one night, there was a 5.3 earthquake. Everyone was nervous except me, because it was my first and I didn't know any better.
Taiwan sits on the "Ring of Fire." Ever since I learned about boiling eggs in hot springs, I could not wait to see it in person. I realized we had arrived in the Yang Ming Shan volcanic national park from the strange, stinky smell of rotten eggs. A steep horseshoe-shaped crater filled with hot springs and fumaroles emitted a large amount of sulfur gas. We were allowed to get up close to the bubbling water, but were not allowed to cook eggs as visitors used to do. The scenery was beautiful. I walked through the nearby bamboo trail and enjoyed spectacular vistas of the surrounding mountains. For a moment, I felt like I was in the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
The weekend before I came back to US, my cousin took me to McDonald's for lunch. The fast food chain in Taiwan had added local flavor and tasted much more exquisite. For example, Burger King featured curry chicken wings on their menu.
We then met up with his church youth group friends to watch "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian." At first, the friends tried to have conversations in English, but were relieved to speak in Chinese after realizing I speak it fluently. I also noticed the movie "Get Smart" was strangely translated in Taiwan as "Is the Spy Capable or Not?" No longer was I ignorant of the Chinese language nor the treasure trove of cultural delights.
That's all for now, see you on campus.
Haas (center in black shirt) and fellow interns get a bird's eye view of Washington from the peak of the Capitol dome while accompanying Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (in front and to Haas's right, wearing white)
by Lyndsey Haas '12
I decided to kick off my post-high school life by working as an intern in the U.S. Capitol for one of my (Alaska's) senators. In the office, I helped to write the "senator's opinion statement" on a portion of her web page, gave tours of the capitol to visiting Alaskans, and ran errands around capitol hill (i.e. got lost in the maze of tunnels and corridors that compose "The Hill").]]>
The internship, though, was designed to be more of an experience than to actually provide considerable assistance to the senator's office. I was allowed to shadow the senator for a day on two occasions, attended a party at the White House, toured the high-security legislative vault in the National Archives, sat on the senate floor, climbed to the top of the capitol dome, explored the "bowels" of the capitol from the senate office buildings to the Library of Congress... and was always excited to meet senators (Kerry, Lieberman, Biden, Cocker, Stevens, Hutchinson, Whitehouse...and many more) in the subway or elevators (when offered a ride in the Senator's Only elevators). I watched Jerry Lee Lewis sing "Great Balls of Fire" over the booms of Independence Day fireworks from the capitol terrace.
I had my share of disasters:
1. Getting lost with my tour group in the capitol crypt (then being shouted at by security when I led them up the wrong staircase)
2. Tripping to a grey-suited sprawl on my first shadow day, when I was desperate to make a good impression. I stumbled as I followed the senator around the corner, then lost my shoe... as well as my dignity.
3. (Twice!) breaking a shoe while out dancing, then walking home (the roundabout way: 7 miles) with one bare foot.
I nearly did not apply for the internship, but one of the things that influenced me to try was remembering the stories of friends I met at Davidson. When I visited campus last spring, I talked with Brian Aoyama, Katy Finley, and Alex Gregor about their experiences traveling over the previous summer. Although, Washington, D.C. is not China, Jordan, or India, it was an incredible experience. By the end, I had hundreds of pictures, each with a fond memory attached, and was even more excited (I would never have thought this possible!) to live a new life at Davidson.
by Brian Aoyama '09
Greetings from China! I'm writing from Fudan University in Shanghai, where thanks to the aid of Dean Rusk, Abernethy, and Belk summer grants, I've spent the last seven weeks researching civil society, public discourse, and debate in contemporary China. ]]>
Underworld and Batman Begins asked me to clarify the relationships among Batman, Dracula, vampires, and ordinary bats. I gave up and drew a Venn diagram.
Some of the most interesting discussions have been about China's development policies and domestic security issues. Such conversations invariably turn to Tibet and Xinjiang, China's westernmost province. Xinjiang (the name means "New Frontier" in Mandarin) is home to the Uighur (pronounced WEE-ger) minority group, a people who bear no physical resemblance to the Han Chinese majority, speak a language that is closer to Turkish than Mandarin, and are overwhelmingly Muslim. Xinjiang is huge--bigger than Alaska--and because it contains 30% of China's oil reserves and borders eight other nations, it has tremendous strategic value to China.
Last week, I traveled through Xinjiang with a Chinese friend who lives in the province's capital and several other Chinese-speaking American students. We traveled from a nature preserve near China's northern border with Russia to Turpan, the hottest city in China, where the delicious grapes helped ease the agonizing 115-degree heat. Later, we traveled to Kashgar, where I spoke with Uighur university students outside of the Id Kah Mosque. We rode camels and hiked on foot in the Taklimakan Desert, and then traveled west toward the border with Kazakhstan. The weeklong trip was an invaluable opportunity to observe firsthand the development policies that we so passionately discussed in Shanghai.
What's next? With a bit of luck, at this time next week, I'll be in Lhasa, Tibet, as one of the first foreigners to visit the region since the March riots. The process for applying for a permit has been frustrating, as the new requirements are confusing and difficult to navigate, but I should hear an answer one way or another in the next few hours. Keep your fingers crossed!
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by Emily Powell '09 (in front, in the green shirt, with co-workers)
This has been a crazy, unpredictable, and wonderful summer. When I visited my home in central Indiana the weekend before final exams in May, my summer plans still were unformed. However, within ten days, I had discovered, applied for and accepted a paid internship at a start-up automotive company in Anderson, Indiana. My job: to keep environmental sustainability in the forefront of my co-workers' minds, even as they travel the world to build their company.
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Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough, former dean of University of Virginia's Architecture School; Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken (of Smith & Hawken garden store fame) and Amory and Hunter Lovins (the co-founders of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the sustainability think tank in Colorado); and Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus (founder of the Biomimicry Institute).
I also interviewed each employee individually about their personal sustainability practices and attitudes (using a survey instrument I created). I sit in on design meetings, am introduced to visiting clients and investors, and report directly to the company's CEO.
During my third week on staff, the CEO sent me to Snowmass, Colo., to visit the Rocky Mountain Institute. While there, I interviewed analysts and consultants for their ideas about how to keep my employers on track in terms of sustainability. It was a great business opportunity for the company, and it was a priceless growing experience for me: first business trip, first rental car, first business meal, etc. It also was the first time I truly felt as if I would make it in the real world. In fact, I now realize I am well prepared for it. I made contacts I know I'll keep for years, and I learned a lot about current sustainability initiatives.
As the summer progressed, I continued to research the latest trends in "green" manufacturing and plant construction, and I gave more presentations - on my research and on the results of my staff interviews. I also attended an automotive-focused conference in San Jose at the end of July and visited an eco-friendly semiconductor plant in Richardson, Tex.
This job has been such a wonderful opportunity. I've learned about sustainability and about the business world. I've been right in the middle of the birth of a brand-new company (the vibe is so intense!), and I've become convinced that the environmental sector is the career path for me. I know I can do great things in this world if I connect with like-minded people, like the people I've met this summer.
And this job isn't even the biggest event of my summer; I also was able to come to the aid of someone very dear to me. In August of 2006, my only sibling, Ben, who was 16 at the time, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma (lymph node cancer). For the past two years, while I've lived a better-than-average life as a college student, he's been dealing with this disease. He's gone through several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment and suffered several relapses, while constantly wishing to be the "normal" high school kid he had been before.
In March of this year, the doctors discovered that I was a perfect match to serve as a stem cell donor for Ben. The goal was to harvest my white cells (stem cells) and inject them into Ben so that my immune system would take over and replacing Ben's within a year. With luck, my immune system would then fight and destroy the cancer.
I was very excited about being able to help Ben in such a concrete way. On May 20, I had my cells harvested through an apheresis machine and they were injected into Ben. Now, almost six weeks past the transplant, things are going great. It's a bit too early to know if the cancer's gone for good, but we're all hoping that Ben's battle is finally won.
I'm glad I stuck close to home this summer because of this situation. I can help my parents out around the house and spend time with them when I come home from work.
When I'm not working or spending time with the family, I attend a night course (environmental health science) at a local university, visit friends, or curl up with a book I've been meaning to read for ages.
However, despite the wonderful experiences I've had in Indiana this summer, I know I will be ready to return to Davidson for the school year.]]>
by Katie Morris '10
I am writing from Nyahuka, a small town in Bundibugyo district, Uganda (the Westernmost area, fairly isolated from the rest of Uganda due to the Rwenzori mountians). I have spent the past 8 weeks here on a community service grant teaching HIV/AIDS prevention in local primary schools and trying to learn to relate to a culture so completely different from anything I know. ]]>
My day-to-day schedule varies greatly and I have had some incredible opportunities shadowing doctors in pediatric wards (a moving advertisement for DDT due to the sheer number of severe malaria cases), distributing food and goats to HIV+ mothers, giving out beans and eggs to mothers of severely malnourished children and attempting to organize a volleyball team for girls at a local secondary school. I'm also traveling around the area on boda-bodas (motorbikes) at speeds way too fast on some of the most beautiful but roughest mountain roads imaginable to interview caregivers of moderately malnourished children to gather information for a project evaluation of a nutrition program that began a year ago, learning the time intensive skill of cooking everything from scratch and gaining a great appreciation for the women of this area.
There have been many adventures that place me far from my comfort zone in homestays that involve sharing a 'mattress' with three others on the dirt floor of a mud hut with rats dropping from the ceiling, swimming across the Lambia river to have a picnic lunch in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, camping in the middle of Mweya safari park falling asleep to a lullaby of lion roars, landing in the middle of a storm on a landing strip that had a road running through the middle of it, and hiking (or maybe climbing/crawling/sliding/bushwacking would be better choices for words) through the Rwenzori mountains accompanied by 6 UPDF solders with AK-47s and ammunition draped across their bodies.
My time here has been an incredibly eye-opening experience that has brought me face to face with the realities of public health and development issues in Africa as well as what it's like to actually research and live in a place like this. I have become much more aware of complexities involved in aid work that are not accounted for in most academic classrooms.
Perhaps the best experience so far was my five-day trip to Mundri, Sudan. Mundri is located between Juba and Rumbeck and is populated by the Moru people. I was traveling with a water engineer who is moving there with his family in October. Much of the culture revolves around hiding from the scorching sun by sitting in circles under the shade of a Mango tree. While there I traveled from Mango tree to Mango tree listening to the Moru people's opinions on the Northern government, the CPA and their dire need for schools and teacher training. I had the opportunity to visit a "hospital" in the neighboring town of Lui where the staff had not received any payment from the government in over a year. They gave heart-wrenching testimonies saying they continued to work because they had a skill and there was a great need in the community (this hospital serves a population of around 800,000 but has less medicine than my well stocked pantry at home). They work "25 hours a day" and go home at night to dig in their gardens so that they might feed their families.
During my short time in Southern Sudan, it was clear to me how fragile the peace is and how broken the people and communities are from a lifetime of war. The realities of war are subtle but evident everywhere. Two children in the Lui hospital had their fingers blown off by hand grenades they found while playing in their backyard. There is a trickling return of Moru people who fled during the war but now find themselves alien to a society that stayed around, fought it out, and tried to preserve something of their people's identity. We almost missed our flight back because the one road was closed due to workers de-mining the area. Despite the existence of these difficult reminders of war, there is a very peaceful air in Mundri. The people are moving on, ready to rebuild. My time in East Africa has been at times lonely, at times frustrating, but for sure a rewarding adventure!
Otigalia Kirungi (Stay Well)