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Thanks for following me while I was in (and out) of the Philippines.. from now on I'll be Helenintheworld : )
13 May 2009
21 April 2009
Change is Inevitable: Blogging, cell phones, and my Dad's ties
I have resolved to finally change my blog address now that I've been out of the Philippines for about 9 months (even if I'm still in denial). I think I need to be a (slightly) more grown up blogger and would appreciate your suggestions for non-country themed blog addresses or suggestions for a nice classy and clean template that I can swipe. I'm leaning towards staying at blogspot and merging all former blogs (Helen in Morocco, Egypt and Philippines) into one. Thoughts?
In other technology-related news, I finally caved into the obsession with fancy phones and decided to upgrade, but I'm back at square one after realizing that it's highly unlikely any phone I buy here will work in the United States. Telecommunications is one area in which I despise American exceptionalism- everyone else makes it so easy! One phone, simply change the SIM card. Thailand, among many other countries, even lets you buy a SIM card before you've left the airport, making communication a breeze. Singapore, oh Singapore, even sells other countries' cell phone credit at its airport. I think the US can do better but for now I guess I'm sticking with my 20 dollar phone that just texts and calls, pondering my options and shaking my fist at the FCC and American phone companies. If any of you out there have gone through this and have suggestions I would greatly appreciate your global phone advice.
Last time in the good news category I only highlighted friends, but my family has plenty to share too!
Cousin Michael is having his Eagle Scout ceremony this weekend and is planning on enrolling at North Georgia College & State University in the fall - and cousin Marion recently decided she will be heading to The University of Florida on a full-ride scholarship! I'm so proud of both of them and am especially excited to have another cousin in Georgia and even though my alma mater officially hates the Gators, I'm also thrilled for Marion and will only be a requisite jerk on game days. : ) Closer to home my youngest brother Emory made it out of fraternity rush infierno alive and kicking and Gregory, in the spirit of perpetually postponing graduation, got a scholarship to study Indian languages in India next year. Go Smith kids!
Perhaps this isn't blog-worthy, but considering my computer backdrop is my family at Easter, I have to say my family looks really good (though they would look better with me there, naturally :)) My dad was even wearing a non-red tie, which was a shocker. As I recall, last Easter he moved into the light-red, almost pink category, but this year went crazy with a light yellow tie. Emory was looking fratastic in pink and of course Mom and Gregory also looked great. I was sick on Easter but this year I celebrated both Passover and Good Friday so I didn't completely miss out on Holy Week, but longed to bring pink dogwoods from my tree and put them on the flower cross at church.
In other technology-related news, I finally caved into the obsession with fancy phones and decided to upgrade, but I'm back at square one after realizing that it's highly unlikely any phone I buy here will work in the United States. Telecommunications is one area in which I despise American exceptionalism- everyone else makes it so easy! One phone, simply change the SIM card. Thailand, among many other countries, even lets you buy a SIM card before you've left the airport, making communication a breeze. Singapore, oh Singapore, even sells other countries' cell phone credit at its airport. I think the US can do better but for now I guess I'm sticking with my 20 dollar phone that just texts and calls, pondering my options and shaking my fist at the FCC and American phone companies. If any of you out there have gone through this and have suggestions I would greatly appreciate your global phone advice.
Last time in the good news category I only highlighted friends, but my family has plenty to share too!
Cousin Michael is having his Eagle Scout ceremony this weekend and is planning on enrolling at North Georgia College & State University in the fall - and cousin Marion recently decided she will be heading to The University of Florida on a full-ride scholarship! I'm so proud of both of them and am especially excited to have another cousin in Georgia and even though my alma mater officially hates the Gators, I'm also thrilled for Marion and will only be a requisite jerk on game days. : ) Closer to home my youngest brother Emory made it out of fraternity rush infierno alive and kicking and Gregory, in the spirit of perpetually postponing graduation, got a scholarship to study Indian languages in India next year. Go Smith kids!
Perhaps this isn't blog-worthy, but considering my computer backdrop is my family at Easter, I have to say my family looks really good (though they would look better with me there, naturally :)) My dad was even wearing a non-red tie, which was a shocker. As I recall, last Easter he moved into the light-red, almost pink category, but this year went crazy with a light yellow tie. Emory was looking fratastic in pink and of course Mom and Gregory also looked great. I was sick on Easter but this year I celebrated both Passover and Good Friday so I didn't completely miss out on Holy Week, but longed to bring pink dogwoods from my tree and put them on the flower cross at church.
16 April 2009
6 months by the numbers
This month has been a letter bonanza! Stories from Aunt Diane, Aunt Carol Ann, Mom,Cousin Katherine, Brother Gregory, Friends Annie, Sarah, Thomas - thanks to all of you for making my April a better month : ) . Several of the letters were written on or around March 8th, the date of my accident, and I like that nice sign from the universe that some of my loved ones were thinking of me during the most difficult couple of days here. If you don't know by now, I love letters and I have a good track record for responding, so send one my way if you'd like to add a stamp from Indonesia to your collection.
We've passed the month anniversary of my accident, the accident that made March pass by in a sort of dream. I'm much better now- I can sit with my legs bent and feet on the ground, walk almost normally and my last open wound has closed up and is no longer emitting blood, transcudite or yucky stuff. It's still awhile until complete recovery, skin regrowth, etc. and of course I've got a nasty cold to keep kicking me while I'm down (or, in Indonesian parlance- I've already fallen but the stairs are falling down on me). You would think I would take my down time to write up fabulous entries on the elections in Aceh or other fascinating things but the drugs make me feel too loopy : )
Fun fact: Phrase for ulterior motive in Indonesian is "A shrimp behind the rock."
Six months by the numbers:
Indonesian songs memorized: About 15
Times swimming with all my clothes on: 3
Bike trips outside the city: 6
Text messages sent:1555
Text messages received:1643
Unintentional pseudo dates: 2
Visits to the field: 2
Number of districts I've been in Aceh: 6 (NAD, Aceh Besar, Pidie, Pidie Jaya, Lhokseumawe, Bireuen)
Number of letters written: Approx 60
Hitler posters taken down from the wall: 1
Expat parties: 2
Books read: Approx 10
Estimated Indonesian vocabulary: 800- 1,000 words
Days on antibiotics: 19
Holiday-themed packages from mom: 5
13 April 2009
Half-way through, six-month review
I'm about to send off my PiA 6 month report- can you believe it's already that time? I can't! I got to reflect on the effectiveness of my work, cultural differences, travel opportunities and if I had "found myself" in Asia. I'm still not really sure what my expectations were for myself coming to Aceh so it's hard to say if my experience has lived up to them or not and what my goals are for the remainder of my time here. I know I'm a different person now that I've been in Asia for nearly two years, but I'm no longer so obsessed over what that means or how those changes manifest themselves. I think most of it is just getting older ; )
For your reading pleasure, my response to: What have you learned about your own values and worldview through living abroad? Were you hoping to 'find yourself'? Have you?
In general everything is all mixed up. It’s not that hard to imagine that moving from an evangelical South to a Catholic Philippines to a Muslim Indonesia makes you question a lot of your religiously-determined worldview; my ideas on feminism and human rights and development have also been challenged- sometimes confirmed and strengthened and sometimes I’m no longer sure where I stand.
If 'finding yourself' is 'knowing yourself' then yes, I've made some progress, although not all of it is fun. Living abroad shows you to yourself at all of your worst moments. The good ones come along too, of course, but I've seen myself at my most depressed, most lonely, most confused, least self-confident, and all my conceptions of myself as a hard worker, a go-getter, a patient and responsible person, a leader, etc.etc.- all of these have at one point or another, for a short or long time, gone out the window.
The beautiful part is that none of these realizations or experiences are stagnant ones and I truly believe I've grown from each of them. If at first I thought I was no longer a leader, now I can recognize the nuance of leadership and how cultural our conception of its value and manifestation is. If at first I bemoaned how slow I was to do things at work, I later was thankful for the time getting to know my coworkers and moving at their pace until I could add value to the work being done. If at first I felt so constricted and harassed by men and self-conscious about myself as a woman, I now feel confident in the line I’m walking between being true to myself and open to what comes my way while at the same time being respectful and sensitive to cultural differences. There are still plenty of difficult times and questions, but this tension and working through it is what creates a different me at the end of my time in Asia and that’s what we all want, even if we have to yield ourselves to it instead of plow through like Americans often prefer to do. : )
01 April 2009
So one day Las Vegas students will be taking down Hitler posters too
The hands of taqdir have struck again! Only days after I shared with you my excitement at removing a Hitler poster from the wall here in Aceh, I have another (greater) opportunity to keep the significance of the Holocaust alive, this time through young students in Nevada. Padmini, a college friend who is in her third year of Teach for America in Las Vegas, is seeking support to buy a class set of "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusa to help teach about the Holocaust. She writes on her Donorchoose.org page:
I teach seventh grade reading in Nevada. Over 90% of my students receive free/reduced lunch. Most of my students are English Language Learners with many students arriving to America within the last five years. My students have no idea what the Holocaust is. They are thirteen years old and live in America. How could this have happened? It's our responsibility as teachers and adults to ensure we never let this happen again, but yet, so few of our students have even inkling about the Holocaust. I cannot express to you the fear I feel when I think about that fact. Incredibly, the Holocaust and history in general is not taught in elementary school and in sixth grade. For many of my students, they become aware of the Holocaust at the end of seventh grade, which is covered briefly in conjunction with World War II. After that, my students probably won't hear anything or learn anything about World War II and the Holocaust until high school. As a result, most of my students have little to no knowledge about the true story of the Holocaust. What they will learn is the pop culture references that often belittle Hitler, but without any references to the six million people who were brutally murdered or how we can prevent human beings from doing this again. However, our school library doesn't have the funds to purchase a class set of The Book Thief for our class. As the state of Nevada has experienced serious budget cuts.
I teach seventh grade reading in Nevada. Over 90% of my students receive free/reduced lunch. Most of my students are English Language Learners with many students arriving to America within the last five years. My students have no idea what the Holocaust is. They are thirteen years old and live in America. How could this have happened? It's our responsibility as teachers and adults to ensure we never let this happen again, but yet, so few of our students have even inkling about the Holocaust. I cannot express to you the fear I feel when I think about that fact. Incredibly, the Holocaust and history in general is not taught in elementary school and in sixth grade. For many of my students, they become aware of the Holocaust at the end of seventh grade, which is covered briefly in conjunction with World War II. After that, my students probably won't hear anything or learn anything about World War II and the Holocaust until high school. As a result, most of my students have little to no knowledge about the true story of the Holocaust. What they will learn is the pop culture references that often belittle Hitler, but without any references to the six million people who were brutally murdered or how we can prevent human beings from doing this again. However, our school library doesn't have the funds to purchase a class set of The Book Thief for our class. As the state of Nevada has experienced serious budget cuts.
If you feel inspired to support Padmini teaching this crucial part of our history please give here. The website that she gives through is a non-profit that helps individuals like you and me give directly to classroom projects all across the United States. One thing I noticed after I gave is the remarkable transparency of where the funds will go, as well as the contributions of the organization itself, DonorsChoose. The project cost report for Padmini includes both the cost of procuring the books and cost to the organization:
This report details the labor performed by DonorsChoose.org to turn your donation into a live project. The project fulfillment fee supports this work and ensures "end to end" integrity on every student project. While the cost of fulfilling a student project remains the same, DonorsChoose.org offers a "scholarship" to the highest-need schools. Depending on a school's poverty
level, the fulfillment fee is 25%, 20%, or 15% of the total project cost. The vast majority of schools using DonorsChoose.org have high rates of poverty, so most proposals carry the 15% fulfillment fee.The organization adds an additional 15-25
I especially appreciate the detail below, which enumerates what staff work went into making these connections (and helps to justify the fulfillment cost) :
Mar 30, 2009 Donorschoose.org volunteer Kelly H reviewed the proposal essay to ensure that Ms. J fully explained the student learning that would take place, and emailed follow-up questions if anything was unclear.
Mar 31, 2009 DonorsChoose.org staff member
John C verified the project resources and calculated the proposal price tag.
It's great to see this kind of transparency that probably does not add much to their work but supports the overhead, though I like the term infrastructure better, that NGOs need to survive to keep making these connections happen. I wonder if Kiva, which already suggests a 5% donation with every loan, could adopt this model to reflect even further the work of volunteers and staff that make the loans possible.
31 March 2009
Cinta = Love
Last night, discussing relationships:
TTM (Teman tapi merasa) aka Friends but romantic, or, in American equivalent, Friends with benefits
vs.
HTS (Hubungan tanpa status) aka Relationship without status - American equivalent could range from "talking" to dating w/o commitment, may or may not include physical relationship.
The table was split between preference of HTS or having a pacar, or boyfriend/girlfriend, with some eshewing commitment, others lamenting the frustrations that come along with a HTS. General agreement that Aceh is a difficult place to have either. Dating is a bad word here, though ABG (anak baru gede- children newly big- adolescents), like ABG everywhere (and their older friends : ) ) know how to push the boundaries and skirt the WH (pronounced way ha- Sharia police). Plenty of dates happen, just without being called dates, or within the context of groups. Most flirtation seems to take place through Yahoo Messenger or by text, not so unusual these days.
For every individual a different story. Some of my Acehnese women friends have had boyfriends- one only spent time with him in the presence of her mother or occassionally in group settings. She expects to have her first kiss on the day of the wedding and there are many like her, though I'm in no position to generalize. One of my favorite stories is from New Year's Eve, which I missed while I was in the US. Apparently there were fireworks, and in one of the large fields in the center of town there were lots of couples watching and sitting close together while the outnumbered WH/Sharia Police gave up, unable to censure anyone since there were so many couples!
Perhaps there will be other times to discuss the WH and relationships, the expat world of romance, when the expat world and the local world collide in love and lust and countless other explorations of cinta in Indonesia, but for now I leave you with my new acronyms, thankful that I can just be 'sendiri tapi tidak kesimpian' (single but not lonely) and try to avoid the complex waters of TTM and HTS.
TTM (Teman tapi merasa) aka Friends but romantic, or, in American equivalent, Friends with benefits
vs.
HTS (Hubungan tanpa status) aka Relationship without status - American equivalent could range from "talking" to dating w/o commitment, may or may not include physical relationship.
The table was split between preference of HTS or having a pacar, or boyfriend/girlfriend, with some eshewing commitment, others lamenting the frustrations that come along with a HTS. General agreement that Aceh is a difficult place to have either. Dating is a bad word here, though ABG (anak baru gede- children newly big- adolescents), like ABG everywhere (and their older friends : ) ) know how to push the boundaries and skirt the WH (pronounced way ha- Sharia police). Plenty of dates happen, just without being called dates, or within the context of groups. Most flirtation seems to take place through Yahoo Messenger or by text, not so unusual these days.
For every individual a different story. Some of my Acehnese women friends have had boyfriends- one only spent time with him in the presence of her mother or occassionally in group settings. She expects to have her first kiss on the day of the wedding and there are many like her, though I'm in no position to generalize. One of my favorite stories is from New Year's Eve, which I missed while I was in the US. Apparently there were fireworks, and in one of the large fields in the center of town there were lots of couples watching and sitting close together while the outnumbered WH/Sharia Police gave up, unable to censure anyone since there were so many couples!
Perhaps there will be other times to discuss the WH and relationships, the expat world of romance, when the expat world and the local world collide in love and lust and countless other explorations of cinta in Indonesia, but for now I leave you with my new acronyms, thankful that I can just be 'sendiri tapi tidak kesimpian' (single but not lonely) and try to avoid the complex waters of TTM and HTS.
27 March 2009
Good News Friday
I'm back in Banda Aceh and feeling very nice, as long as I don't think about 6 more weeks without my bicycle and without yoga... I returned on Wednesday and around 6 I was just hanging out on the couch when Annie busted into the house in a panic- "Helen, my inner tube has come out blah blah blah, can you come outside and help me fix my bike?" I launch into action- this is easy, we can do this, if necessary we can just switch out our front tires since we have twin bikes, etc. etc. We go outside to have a look and to my surprise the front yard is full of my friends welcoming me back with balloons and yummy food and sanger, my favorite coffee drink laden with sugar and condensed cream. This is why I love Banda Aceh! I really have the greatest friends.
They arrived right when my coworker who is a nurse had shown up to help me change my bandage- I was so excited to show her how much it had improved since leaving for Singapore and she was excited, too! Today at work I cleaned and changed the dressing on my wound all by myself, under her supervision, so that in two days I can do it again at my house!
***
Great news! The Hitler poster at Intense Audio is gone! Now it's just John Lennon, Bob Marley and Rolling Stones for some peace, love and rock 'n roll and no more men "full of hate" who "killed a lot of people." One can never be sure of why it was ultimately taken down- I could have just been one voice among many but either way I'm so happy that it came down and that I got the courage to ask (and encouragement from Annie).
***
More great news- my friends are doing a lot of cool things these days and I just want to point a few out. Share your good news, too!
* Annie Lambla will be having her first international photo exhibit in Istanbul this spring featuring photographs from her life in Turkey last year. Hopefully I can share more details in this space at a later event, but I'm so excited and proud of her for this great accomplishment!
* More than a year and a half into her Peace Corps experience in Morocco, lots of opportunities seem to be coming to fruition for Anny. One awesome development is the launch of a website to market wool, pile carpets woven by women in the Souss Valley of Morocco. Check out the link to view, commission or order homemade carpets with proceeds going straight to the women and community that produced them.
* UGA Foundation Fellow Sarah C. will be working in Detroit this summer to help resettle Iraqi refugees. She's already written some great posts in preparation for this experience and I'm looking forward to following her accounts. One of my dreams of post-Philippines life was to work with Iraqi refugees in Jordan or Syria and so even if Indonesia is quite far I'm glad that I can still get a glimpse of this world through Sarah (and another favorite blogger Transitionland).
* Former Princeton in Asia Fellow and friend Angilee Shah has a great article "Colombo's Secret War on Terror" posted in the Far Eastern Economic Review that was also linked to on another one of my favorite blogs, Wronging Rights. Yay Angilee!
* High school friend Liz Clarke is fighting pirates with the U.S. Navy in Somalia. Read her interview in The Charlotte Observer here.
* Speaking of Charlotte, if you live there and are looking for an affordable house to rent near the cool places in Charlotte (i.e. near Central Ave.) check out Cristina's ad in Craig's List.
They arrived right when my coworker who is a nurse had shown up to help me change my bandage- I was so excited to show her how much it had improved since leaving for Singapore and she was excited, too! Today at work I cleaned and changed the dressing on my wound all by myself, under her supervision, so that in two days I can do it again at my house!
***
Great news! The Hitler poster at Intense Audio is gone! Now it's just John Lennon, Bob Marley and Rolling Stones for some peace, love and rock 'n roll and no more men "full of hate" who "killed a lot of people." One can never be sure of why it was ultimately taken down- I could have just been one voice among many but either way I'm so happy that it came down and that I got the courage to ask (and encouragement from Annie).
***
More great news- my friends are doing a lot of cool things these days and I just want to point a few out. Share your good news, too!
* Annie Lambla will be having her first international photo exhibit in Istanbul this spring featuring photographs from her life in Turkey last year. Hopefully I can share more details in this space at a later event, but I'm so excited and proud of her for this great accomplishment!
* More than a year and a half into her Peace Corps experience in Morocco, lots of opportunities seem to be coming to fruition for Anny. One awesome development is the launch of a website to market wool, pile carpets woven by women in the Souss Valley of Morocco. Check out the link to view, commission or order homemade carpets with proceeds going straight to the women and community that produced them.
* UGA Foundation Fellow Sarah C. will be working in Detroit this summer to help resettle Iraqi refugees. She's already written some great posts in preparation for this experience and I'm looking forward to following her accounts. One of my dreams of post-Philippines life was to work with Iraqi refugees in Jordan or Syria and so even if Indonesia is quite far I'm glad that I can still get a glimpse of this world through Sarah (and another favorite blogger Transitionland).
* Former Princeton in Asia Fellow and friend Angilee Shah has a great article "Colombo's Secret War on Terror" posted in the Far Eastern Economic Review that was also linked to on another one of my favorite blogs, Wronging Rights. Yay Angilee!
* High school friend Liz Clarke is fighting pirates with the U.S. Navy in Somalia. Read her interview in The Charlotte Observer here.
* Speaking of Charlotte, if you live there and are looking for an affordable house to rent near the cool places in Charlotte (i.e. near Central Ave.) check out Cristina's ad in Craig's List.
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