Engineers Without Engineers Without Borders

...and no, the title is not a typo



Jamie's having a bit of a hard semester. We found out early Feb that EWB-USA isn't approving any travel to Haiti. We decided that they were being reasonable, and since Meds and Food for Kids is swamped right now, we postponed the trip until the summer. We'll be nailing down the dates within the month.

We continued to process the paperwork to travel. However, when we talked to our project manager last Thursday, he asked us how we felt our project fits into the structure of EWB-USA. In EWB's model you find a specific community that wants help, travel to the community, and work with the community to implement projects that address their greatest needs. We are working with an NGO that helps a specific demographic across most of Haiti. In short, EWB works with a specific community; we do not.

Today we were notified that our EWB program in Haiti has been cancelled--you will no longer find our name on their website. This does not mean, however, our project is dying. We just won't be working with EWB anymore.

Anywho, it's a technicality that should have been identified earlier. I attribute it to lack of manning in the national organization, and that EWB national has been and still is inundated with requests for new projects and paperwork for existing projects.

Trying to help is hard. I empathize with EWB national. But I'm disappointed that all the time spent filling out paperwork and stressing about reconciling our "rogue" un-EWB trip last spring with EWB national. I'm annoyed about all the work we'll have to do to make this thing work outside of EWB, since we're a branch of our student EWB chapter.

Still, I'm optimistic. We've got some great people working on our project, MFK is a great organization, and there's a lot of potential for us to help. Maybe we will be able to get more done now that we're no longer under EWB-USA's care.

Haiti

Wow. Have things happened since I last talked with you. Everyone knows about the earthquake in Haiti (the factory we work with is far away from the earthquake and received no structural damage), of course. That has both tripped up and invigorated Wash U EWB's work in Haiti.
Beyond that, I took exams for last semester, spent a week at Urbana, spent a week in San Diego, and started a crazy busy semester, planning for summer, planning a trip to Haiti, and doing some homework from time to time as well. (Okay! Just kidding! I'm doing my homework I promise.)
I imagine the most interesting thing in my life at the moment is the Haiti Project. I'm leading 3-4 students with the help of a professor and two professional engineers to help a factory in Haiti run by Meds and Food for Kids. They address the needs of Haiti in a holistic way: curing children of malnutrition with a special peanut butter, employing ~30 Haitians to make the peanut butter, buying as many peanuts as possible from local farmers, and working with peanut farmers to increase crop yields and reduce mold. We were in Haiti when this video was being made. I confess, it made me cry:



The factory was unhurt, however civil unrest threatens the security of Cap Haitien. Refugees are flooding the area, and MFK is now living in temporary housing under the protection of the UN. We decided, due to increased security risk, the near impossibility of being approved for travel by EWB-USA, and the burden we pose to MFK and Haiti's infrastructure, that it is best to wait to travel to Haiti until the summer. We will continue our projects here in the States and will have even better stuff to bring them then.

Our design efforts continue. Among several other things we're doing, we're working with some students from St. Louis University to make a larger (2' high by 18" dia) chimney to carbonize peanut shells for charcoal. The design-prototype-test process is a lot of fun: it's really neat to see the ideas you've cooked up in your brain and on paper actually turn into a real object that works.

Because there is so much going on with this project, I've been forced to delegate. I had no idea when I bugged my mom about delegating tasks to people for Girl Scout Camporee, how terribly hard it is to delegate. It has been a new experience to ask people to help you on something and count on them to come through. The people working on the Haiti Project are awesome, though, and we've accomplished and learned a lot.

I have read too many blogs that apologize over and over for not posting enough and have resolved myself not to emulate. The truth is that at sometimes I am very busy, and at other times very lazy. But, I suspect, if you called me and asked me to post more, I would do it--even if not, we'd still get to chat for a while. :)

Charcoal

Two posts in one week! It must be a miracle. Actually I'm just doing a lot of cool things with the Haiti Project and wanted to keep you posted. :)

Today we traveled to a charcoal factory. Missouri produces tons of charcoal made from waste sawdust. Built in 1955, this Kingsford charcoal factory (Kingsford was actually started by Henry Ford--who knew?--it's named after his brother-in-law, Kingsford), is possibly the largest charcoal factory in the world.

Industral charcoal making is fairly different from our small-scale charcoal making. Both processes remove the non-carbon elements from wood or other materials, but the process at this factory is quite different. The sawdust is passed through a nearly 2000F furnace, where the non-carbon elements of the wood are gassified and removed. This whole process is exothermic, however, and the furnace is heated entirely by the wood inside of it (you have to get it started, but once it's hot, it stays hot). The sawdust comes out as carbonized, pyrolyzed charcoal fines. They then mix the fines with a starch (for us it's tapioca flour, for them it's cornstarch) and borax, and compress the mixture into briquettes.

The whole process was really cool. Kind of like How It's Made in person! Also, with all of the big machines and loud noises, it kind of felt like Universal Studios or Disney World.

Charcoal making can be very energy intensive, though. The sawdust needs to be dried from 50% to 5% moisture content; the starch has to be cooked before it is added to the charcoal fines; and the briquettes have to be dried. This factory, however, has equipment that collects the heat from the furnace (remember it powers itself!) and uses it for all of these drying/heating functions. Also, the system incinerates most of the particulates that come from the sawdust and keeps their emissions below required levels. The exhaust plume gives off no visible smoke. And given that we weren't being lead astray, the whole process seems pretty solid environmentally.

I'll have to link you to some pictures later--I just got back, and no one has put up pictures yet.

Hunger Banquet!

I went to a hunger banquet. And yes, although I am fairly sleep deprived, I wrote that right.

Put on by Students for Fair Trade (the same group that spearheaded the effort that got fair trade bananas on campus last year), and modeled after OxFam's program, we learned about hunger in the world and discussed the philisophical issues associated.

But! It's not called a banquet for nothing. As we entered, we drew a colored slip of paper. My red slip was "low-income" and put me sitting on the floor. There were two other groups as well--"middle class" in chairs to my right and "upper class" to my left. So... after a bit they announced we'd be eating. The "upper class" received a full meal, while the middle class received a plate with rice and beans and a cup of water. I got a half cup of rice and a cup of brownish water. :<

The whole experience was rather touching. I came the banquet hungry, and after the rice and water, I was still hungry. Though I went back to the dorm and ate again afterward, this isn't just a game. It's rather sobering to realize that sooo many people live like this every day. 58,000 people in St. Louis alone don't know where their next meal is coming from.

Around 1 billion people suffer from chronic hunger. It's powerful to be hungry. Joseph Conrad shows it in an interesting light in Heart of Darkness:

No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its sombre and brooding ferocity? Well I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of ones soul . . .

Tulips

Spring in St. Louis is beautiful. I know Mom is "oooh"ing over the tulips right now. I've been enjoying 50-70 degree weather (well, for the most part--it snowed two weeks ago). Things have been crazy lately, but I guess that's the way it goes.

We had our first build day for the solar peanut dryer yesterday. So far, we have a bunch of cut but unattached pieces of wood, some fun pictures (that I haven't been able to get my hands on yet--sorry!), permission to use the engineering shop, and a place to store our dryer-in-progress.

I got my guitar fixed. It got knocked over a couple times (don't know who would have done that...) and I finally managed to knock off a tuning peg. Still, I got it fixed at the music shop on the Loop for $14! Sweet!

I played second oboe in an oboe-oboe-English horn trio last monday at a recital. That went fairly well. Oboes in harmony are so nice!

Anyway, I don't really feel very philisophical right now. Things are just...busy. I have three more weeks of school and then I'm done. Two more weeks until finals. Two of my classes have no final, just final projects. The project would be really neat if it weren't for the fact that we're given very little time to work on them and each one is worth about a third of my grade! Here's a concept sketch for one of my projects:


Since the school year is coming to an end, I guess it's time to reflect. I really like college. It's a good feeling to be on your own, figuring out life for yourself.

I feel like I can cause things that I care about to happen. I'm very happy I've been leading the Haiti project with Engineers without Borders. Going to Haiti was an eye-opening experience of course, but I was amazed at how much I was pushed and stretched to get it in motion. I had to make many phone calls, and do a ton of coordinating, because it takes a lot of people to make such things happen. I've found a lot wanting in myself, but I think I've grown a lot this year as well.

I've made some friends here at Wash U. My roommate, Carissa, is awesome--we're rooming together next year! I still haven't settled down completely in a church, but I've made a lot of good friends through the church groups on campus.

Back to Normal

I've pretty much gotten back into the swing of things back at school. Mom and Dad are relieved to hear that I've gotten caught up on the work that I let slide prior to the trip to Haiti. My roommate's glad that I'm here to bake her pumpkin cake. I'm taking hot showers for granted once again.

Remember the fondue party I helped organize a few months ago to raise awareness about human trafficking and promote fair trade bananas? Well, starting last week, our dining service offers only fair trade bananas! This is an amazing accomplishment for Students for Fair Trade on campus. Fair trade bananas are virtually impossible to buy in St. Louis, but due to the dedication of about a half dozen students, and positive responses on campus to events like the fondue party, our dining service switched to fair trade bananas. Victory has never tasted so sweet!

In addition, last month Cadbury announced that it's best-known product is going to be fair trade certified by late summer this year. This is the first step made by a major chocolate maker toward fair trade. I hope this trend continues.

Our first Haiti Project meeting is tonight. We'll start working on tweaking the design for the solar dryer so that we can build and test one here in St. Louis. Here's the current design made in CAD software.

Haitian Style

Our trip in Haiti has exposed me to a lot of Haitian culture mixed with random comforts of home (like 2-ply toilet paper! Amazing!) For example, my diet for the last five days has consisted of two extremes: peanut butter sandwiches and granola bars one meal and foreign Haitian cuisine the next.
For breakfast and lunch if you’re at the house, you have to fend for yourself, which usually means granola bars or REI freeze-dried meals. Mmm. If you're at the factory though, you get rice and beans with a bit of something on top—veggies or fish. In the evenings, Nancy, the housekeeper, has been cooking dinner for us Haitian Style. What exactly is Haitian Style cooking you ask? Good question. Usually its rice and beans with legume stew: an assortment of unknown veggies with meat or fish all boiled together with spices and lots of oil. You can recognize it by the tell-tale orange grease residue left on your plate afterward—which makes it super tasty!

As a treat, however, tonight we piled in the Landcruiser and drove out to barbeque restaurant. After we got out of the car we ordered our meals at the barbeques in the back and were guided to a table outside the house. We two choices: chicken (pullet) and beef (bif). I got beef kebobs, fried plantains, potatoes, some other starchy vegetable, and, of course, rice and beans. Topped off with a ½ L bottle of Coke in a glass bottle, dinner was fantastic!

Another juxtaposition of weird and familiar is driving in Haiti. I've been in SUVs before, driving around town, but that's where the similarities stop. Traffic in Haiti is crazy. Traveling down a stretch of road, you will hit a 100 yd section of pavement, then bounce off onto a dirt road that looks like the rhythm section of a motorcross race. After a day of being bumped around mercilessly you learn to move with the car and not fight the bumps, just like you’re riding a giant, diesel-guzzling horse at a full gallop.

Because the roads are so bad here, and there’s a lot of traffic, everyone accelerates and decelerates abruptly. Once you get on a paved road, you step on the gas, and if someone slows down in front of you in the middle of the road (which happens often), you just race on past on the other side. You have to watch out for bicyclists and motorcycles that weave in and out of traffic six inches from the car and pretty much always carrying 2-3 people or other objects (among others we’ve seen a ladder held to the side and a gas cylinder in between two people).

One of our main tasks has been building the solar dryer with the house’s maintenance guy, Eddie. This afternoon he brought his children in to meet us. With the sign language that we’ve been using for the past two days to construct the dryer, he told us proudly this was his son Wedley and daughter Ginnie (10-11 and 6-7 years old is my guess). They were both quite excited to meet us (they probably heard stories about the silly Americans from their dad) and I even got a Haitian kiss (touching cheeks) from Wedley. Robin showed them pictures of her family and used her new French vocabulary (“Fis” and “Fille”: son and daughter) on the kids. Like any other time we try to speak to Haitians, we’re really not sure whether what we said made any sense at all. Anyone remember the guy in the bathtub from “All That” on Nickelodeon? I sometimes wonder whether instead of saying “put the board on after the glass” I'm really saying "the bucket is flamingo" or something like that.

We got some pictures of the kids, but I haven’t had any success uploading pictures lately, so I’ll have to show them to you once I get back to the states. It’s amazing that it’s already Friday, and yet I feel like I’ve learned and experienced more this past five days than I did in the past five months.

We're here!

Our first day in Haiti. Amazing! We've experienced so many things today. We started out at 3:30 this morning, waking up to get to our flight at 6:30. I'd say about 30 other people traveled with us to Haiti in a small-ish (definitely not a jumbo-jet!) plane. After a brief moment of panic and a couple question along the lines of "why in the world am I doing this?!", I got onto the plane, and we flew off to Haiti.

We arrived in Cap Haitien (pronounced "cap haysha") around 9:20, and got out of the airport about 20 minutes later. We were looking for a white Toyota Landcruiser and kept our eyes peeled. We ended up waiting a bit over an hour (FYI, Haiti does not observe daylight savings time, so a 9:00 arrival time actually means an 8:00 arrival time!), but got our fill of reggae music, motorbikes ("motos"), buses ("tub-tubs"), and people asking us for money, wanting to give us a ride, etc.

We were picked up by MFK's Haitian driver, Rhony (pronounced "ronnie"), who speaks no english (and us no French/Creole). We spent some time exchanging bits and pieces of english and french "bonjour!" "good morning!" etc.

We had the craziest car rides I've ever experienced: ridiculously bumpy roads, reggae music, brightly painted signs and busses everywhere, crazy drivers, and tons of people everywhere--and with us crammed into the back of the Landcruiser. At one point we had about 9 people in car, along with 7 5-gallon water jugs (full), 3 full-sized suitcases, and camera gear all packed in. Oh, and did I mention we stopped for groceries? We got a supply of milk, margarine, and coffee for 166 Haitian "dollars" which equals 580 Haitian Gordons (spelling might be off), or about US$29. (I'll have to explain the conversions later)

We then went to Justinien Hospital, the second largest public hospital in Haiti. The World Bank recently gave MFK a $100,000 grant to integrate their method of treating malnutrition with Haiti's public health system. One of the results of this grant is a malnutrition clinic in the pediatric ward of Justinien. Children come in to be checked for malnutrition. If they are malnourished, their parent or guardian will be given a week's supply of Medika Mamba, a nutrient-rich peanut butter that is extremely effective at curing malnutrition. After 6-8 weeks, 85% of these children will be cured of malnutrition and rarely become malnourished again.

We then took off for the factory, where after a yummy lunch of rice and beans, we toured the factory. It's amazing to actually see the factory, after working so long trying to figure out maintenance procedures for the machines. The factory has a lot of trouble with electricity and machines breaking or not working properly. Hopefully we will be able to help with some of the machine problems. The most pressing needs that we'll help with are creating a maintenance schedule for the factory, helping them with their networking troubles, and beginning (ideally completing) work on a solar dryer that can be tried out for the coming peanut harvest season. Who knows what we'll actually get done. It should be exciting, though.

Okay, one picture for the road. I promise I'll have better (and properly oriented ones) in the future. Enjoy!

I'm Off!

Well, off to Florida, at least. But this is the first step to getting to Haiti! I'll spend a couple days at home then go to Ft. Lauderdale to fly out on Monday. I'm leavin' on a jet plane..

Busy Busy

Things are going pretty well around here. I've never been so busy for such a long period of time, but I'm actually pretty happy. Several weeks ago, I got behind some in my classes, working on the Haiti Project, and since then I've been spending oodles of time catching up on work, and getting the Haiti Project in order. It's a good thing I can juggle, eh?

The weekend before last, Kristina and Eric (my cousin and her husband) visited my aunt and uncle in Illinois. They picked me up on Friday and we spent the weekend hanging out. We played games, ate lots of good, home-cooked food (including barbeque and beef and noodles!), and visited late into the night.
It's good to get a break from campus life--get in a few home-cooked meals and brush your teeth in your own bathroom. It's also great to visit with people that you love and have known for more than 6 months.

The Haiti project is progressing well. We're leaving for Cap Haitien, Haiti this Monday. We'll spend a week there assessing the factory's machines, teaching the factory workers to properly maintain the machines, and instituting a regular maintenance schedule. It also looks like we'll be trying out making charcoal out of unusable peanuts and peanut shells, to make use of the factory's waste products.

I'm taking my camera, so when I get back, I'll post some pictures from the trip. This should be exciting--one week from now I'll be walking around a peanut butter factory in Haiti!

Going to Haiti

Boy things sure have been busy around here lately. Our chapter of Engineers without Borders started a new project partnering with Meds and Food for Kids (MFK) in Haiti. A team of one professor and two students (including me!) will travel to Cap Haitien in Northern Haiti over spring break, March 9-16. There, MFK runs a factory that produces peanut butter to treat malnourished children in Haiti. At the factory, we'll help MFK implement a maintenance for their machines so that (hopefully) they will need less repairs and last longer.


We'll also be taking a look at a solar dryer that they are building to dry their peanuts. MFK buys all of its peanuts from local farmers (supplementing their economy!) at coops or from individuals. They get the peanuts at about 30% moisture content and have to dry them down to 10% immediately so that they don't mold. Right now they're looking at plans from ECHO! I've seen the dehydrator at ECHO that the plans are based off of. It's really neat to see things connect together like that.

After we get back, we'll work on redesigning the dryer, build a prototype, and test it here. We'll alter it as needed and send the plans back to the factory in Cap Haitien. If we can, we'll go back and help them build it.

I am one of the leads for this project, and I've been super busy putting all of this together. Two weeks ago, the trip was up in the air, but now it's pretty definite that we'll be going. After an insane week, we selected the team members and bought tickets to Cap Haitien yesterday.

This project has been a lot of work. This past week, especially, has felt a lot like the night before science fair--putting together my board and results late late into the night. The only difference is that where the science fair scramble lasts maybe 10 hours, I've been in scramble mode for the past five days straight! It is definitely worth it, though. This is such a great project and a great learning experience for me. It's been a whirlwind lesson in leadership for me--keeping a schedule, keeping the "big picture" in mind, being diplomatic when working with other people, keeping in touch, figuring out how to get information, holding meetings, you name it! So far, I've figured out some things that work and many more that don't...

I'm really excited about this project. Still, I'm hoping that things will quiet down a bit--I'd really like to spend some time on my beloved 2D spaceship game...

Snow...

It's snowing heavily outside right now. I just had a meeting across campus that turned out to be canceled, so I got to walk there and back in the snow! Its so beautiful. I understand now why we use the metaphor "white as snow" to describe our god's forgiveness. The snow is completely covering everything. Even though the roads and some of the paths were brown slush, now everything is covered in at least 2 inches of snow--unshoveled parts have more like four inches. There might even be five by the time I'm done writing this post!

Things are going pretty well at school right now. It was a bit hard adjusting back to college life. A couple days back in home and I had switched to Florida mode. I hadn't really prepared myself at all mentally for coming back, so when I rolled my suitcases into the room that Saturday afternoon, it felt surreal. After a couple of days, though, things got back to normal, classes started, and I switched back to "school mode."

We've started going full force on the Haiti Project, the service project our chapter of Engineers without Borders is doing. We'll probably be going the first week after finals are done this semester. In between now and then, we need to get travel paperwork approved, some $3000 raised, a maintenance schedule for the factory assembled, and arrangements for travel made. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. Our first group meeting will be this Thursday. We'll introduce the project in detail to everyone that comes, brainstorm funding options, and assign jobs. I'm the most excited about the assigning jobs part, because I really need to get some of the work off my back!
I can tell already that this project will be a great training opportunity for me. I'm having to make phone calls, send e-mails, call meetings, and make sure everything is taken care of. For the most part, I really like everything. Especially being in charge...

I'm about halfway through the book I got for Christmas, Lighting the Way, Nine Women who Changed Modern America by Karenna Gore Schiff. Right now, I'm reading about Virginia Durr, who contributed greatly to the movement that eventually abolished the poll tax. I've read about 4-5 of the subjects of this book, and all of the stories are quite amazing. The thing that strikes me the most is that these women were fighting things that were widely accepted by society. Lynchings, child labor, the brutal efforts of industry to keep labor unorganized, and many other social ills that the US once suffered from, were perfectly acceptable to the majority of US citizens. Often, these situations were ignored or approved of by the general press, the supreme court, congress, and the executive branch. It's heartening to see that despite all of the difficulties these women faced, the cause they worked for was eventually achieved. I think it is an excellent book, and not too hard of a read, either.

Now that I've talked (typed?) your ear off, it's time for some Engineers without Borders stuff then a snowball fight!

African Missions

Just a short post today--I found this article posted on ECHO's Facebook page and thought it was really interesting. Check it out here.

Fondue!

A few months ago, I presented some information on human trafficking at an Amnesty International meeting. I recommended that if Amnesty wanted to do something regarding human trafficking this semester, a good event would be to participate in Stop the Traffik's "World's Largest Fondue Party." The idea is to have tons of fair trade chocolate fondue parties around the world to raise awareness about human trafficking, raise money to support anti-human trafficking efforts, and to make a statement to chocolate companies about the importance of traffic-free chocolate.

Well, everyone at Amnesty liked the idea, and last night held a fondue party of our own to participate. We had it in one of the eating/hang out places on campus. We estimated that about 45 people stopped by during the night.



We teamed up with Students for Fair Trade, who were actually going to have an event promoting fair trade bananas (they're trying to get fair trade bananas sold on campus) on the same night! So, we had chocolate fondue and banana splits with fair trade chocolate and "whole trade" bananas from Whole Foods (fair trade certified bananas are nearly impossible to find in St. Louis).

We had flyers talking about fair trade and human trafficking for people to grab. In addition, Students for Fair Trade showed a British film on the banana trade, and Amnesty gave a powerpoint presentation on human trafficking in the chocolate industry and in general.

The event was fairly successful, although we did have some mishaps. The fondue kept burning until someone (I don't know who) came a half hour into the event and fixed it. Since we had burned about half of the chocolate, I think, we ran out pretty quickly. Also, the projector in the room we used was typically used for movies, and didn't have a hook-up for computers. Fortunately, I have the proper equipment to hook up a computer to a DVD player because Thomas and I have been hooking up my computer to our TV and DVD player at home all last year. Who knew all of those super nintendo games we played on my computer last year would be so useful!

I'm rather proud of the powerpoint presentation I made for the event, and I think I'll try turning it into a video and uploading it here for everyone to see! You might have to wait a bit, though--I do have exams. :)

Snow!

I thought I'd write a quick blog about my life recently. Nothing too exciting, mind you, except for some very cold white stuff we don't see in Florida much. Here I am enjoying the first snow of the season! Exciting! Yes, that little pick rectangle is my face, I promise.



I've been really busy lately (although I had a really nice break over Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's in Peoria). I'm a project lead for Wash U's Engineers without Borders newest international project in Haiti. I've been getting a lot of valuable experience with that. Right now, we're working on applying for funding, learning more about the machines that we'll be making a maintenance schedule for, and recruiting a professional engineer to come with us to Haiti (EWB national requirement). If any of you know any PE's that might be interested in coming with us (they don't have to live close to St. Louis--we can telecommunicate beforehand if we have to) or know any good resources for learning about diesel generators and powering a building with generators, could you let me know?

In addition, I'm helping plan a fair trade chocolate fondue and banana split party on Dec 10 to raise awareness about fair trade and human trafficking. Things are going well so far. It's really amazing to see it progress--we'll see everything come together soon!

I'm coming home on Dec 22. Mom and Thomas are flying up on my last day of exams, the 16th, and we'll drive up to Pittsfield to visit Grandma and Aunt Becky and Uncle Mark until we head back on the 22nd. Then I'll be in beautiful, warm Florida! And I'll be warm. Did I mention that it will be warm there? Ahhh, warmth..

Activities with Amnesty International

There is so much that goes on at school. Tuesday night I attended a presentation (from a group called the National Security Network)on the effects of torture at Guantanamo Bay and other places related to the "war on terror." Sponsored by Amnesty International, I went mainly to support my group, but I'm glad I went, because the presentation was very good. As far as I can see, the speakers were quite experienced with the subject and didn't try to "spin" what they said.

Especially because of the upcoming elections, I've gotten exhausted of listening to two opposite points of views and trying to figure out what in the world is the truth. Mom, Dad, and Thomas will know well that I avoid political conversation like the plaque, and I guess I do it because I hate trying to figure out what really is going on amidst all of the twisting of the truth. At the same time, I've been reading Scott Peck's People of the Lie, which (surprise!) talks about the and havoc deceit wreaks in people's lives. I'm going to be looking up some more of his books like The Road Less Traveled, as they come highly recommended to me from my family.

During the past couple of months, I've become acquainted with a couple of "alternative" media. At the activism workshop I went to a month ago, I attended a breakout session talking about activism through blogging. The blogging community is not controlled by anyone--sure, newspapers and organizations have blogs, but the impression I've gotten is that the majority of blogs are just individual people keeping an eye on the news.

Also, I went to a poetry slam last night. It, too, was sponsored by Amnesty International, and focused on election issues. For those of you who have no idea what a poetry slam is (like me until a couple weeks ago), it's an event where people get together and read/recite poetry they've written themselves. This is not like your high school English lit class, though. The atmosphere of was more like a cross between a poetry reading in a quiet cafe and a rapping competition.
The poems read talked about racism, the church, being black and Jewish, romance, corrupt politics, being overwhelmed at the enormous needs of the world, and even a rant about how short people are great. It was funny, inspiring, and saddening. It was nice to hear what's on people's minds and to get a peek into their lives through this "alternative" medium.

If you're interested in learning more about Amnesty International, they have a website: www.amnesty.org Check it out! :)

Activism Training

Today I went to a Student Activism Training. I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I am definitely glad that I went. The training is the same given to leaders at Jobs with Justice, a social justice non-profit with a chapter in St. Louis. The four-hour training gave practical strategies for more effective activism. The most important thing I took home was the idea that in order to get something changed, not only do you need to organize people to support your cause, you have to appeal to the person or people that have the power to make the decision you want. I feel that if I want to work on campus or elsewhere to change a policy, I now have a rough idea of how to go about doing that.

In addition to the 4-hour training, I attended a break-out session on social activism on the internet. The informal presentation (there were five people) most talked about blogging as a means to spread information and affect change as an alternate news source. Now, the blogging we talked about was not this type of blogging where I ramble on about my life (as much as I wish everyone were that interested in what activities I'm doing at school), but blogging that covers news, especially political events and issues. Blogging provides a unique avenue to unite minorities of people scattered across the country with similar goals. Bloggers can help call out biases in reporters and news stories, as well as keep news stories long enough for the mainstream media to latch onto something that had first been discarded as unimportant. The man that gave the presentation either started or works behind the scenes for one such blogging community for Missourians, Show me Progress Blog.

I think my favorite thing about the training was meeting all of the students that attended. The ~35 college students there (from 4-5 different St. Louis schools) were all working to change the world for the better. Different groups represented included Amnesty International (fighting human rights violations worldwide), the One campaign (working to end extreme poverty--you can check them out at www.one.org), Green Action, and Peace Coalition. Its so encouraging to be around people who care about the same things as me.

Well, now that I've brought tears to your eyes--either from boredom or sappy reflections--I hope everyone in Florida is enjoying the warmth. Its quite heartbreaking to waltz outside from a cold auditorium, expecting it to be warm and muggy outside, just to find that its cold outside, too! What a sad case I will be in a few months.

Activities!

It's Friday again. I've had a full week of classes now. I've also been to a cornucopia of group meetings. I attended a meeting for Amnesty International, where we talked about things we wanted to do in the coming year--address issues like zimbabwe, human trafficking (my idea!), women's rights, and Darfur. Each week, someone's going to make a presentation on some issue (preferably current) to keep us up to date on the issues. I think I'll probably get involved with that one, and Engineers without Borders. They're working on many different projects, and I'll probably help with one or two of those. I'll tell you more about that later. What's really exciting is that the things I learned at ECHO as well as the connections I made there will be helpful to the group's efforts. Engineers without Borders currently is looking for an international project to work on, and I'm going to see if anyone has any ideas at ECHO. It's really exciting to think that you can bring your own unique experience and knowledge somewhere and have it benefit the whole of a group.

In addition, there are quite a few Christian groups on campus. I'm still trying out different ones as well as churches to see which will fit me and my schedule the best.

I'm really liking school. I figured at first I'd be kind of bummed out and lonely, but that hasn't been the case. Sure, I miss home, but I've met a lot of cool people and the orientations activities (although often silly and involving waay too many ice breakers) has made me feel at home here. Still, I think I will leave this post with a picture of my beloved home in Florida.

Enjoy!

Trekkin' the "Trail"

Today I began a pre-orientation program at school. The three-day program is conducted by the school's Habitat for Humanity chapter. This morning, we walked "The Trail," which is a walking tour of St. Louis, visiting the spots that the homeless in north St. Louis frequent. The Trail is conducted by Centenary Cares, housed by the Centenary Methodist Church in St. Louis. You can see their website here. Centenary Cares is an all-day "drop-in" site which means that homeless can come into the facility and get a free meal, access telephones, bathrooms, and counseling. Most of their funding comes from federal money distributed by the St. Louis Affordable Housing Commission.
In addition to visiting Centenary Cares, we took a four-mile walk around St. Louis which took us past many buildings and places that deal with the homeless: A 24/7 drop-in site with showers, internet, phones, etc. A 12-story apartment complex run by the Salvation Army that allows people to stay there (no alcohol, drugs, or outside visitors) for $350 a month. A building of low-rent apartments that had been vacated by the city within the last year, because it was overcrowded and had major problems with violence, drugs, and prostitution. A park where homeless gather during the day--our guide equated it to your living room. A shelter that houses 60 men--they have to be inside by 5:00pm (unless they are working and their boss calls them in late) and out by 5:00am--where they are served dinner and provided a safe, alcohol- and drug-free place to sleep and spend the evening.
We learned that much downtown St. Louis is currently being renovated and previously abandoned or run-down (and low-rent) apartments are being turned into condos and apartments that are by no means affordable housing. This trend is squeezing low-income people out of their apartments and leaving them no place to stay. For example, the 12-story apartment complex run by the Salvation Army is not owned by the Salvation Army, and its possible that the owner will decided to sell it to be turned into condos. That will spell very bad news for the people living there.
What I heard today holds true with what I've learned through internet research and meetings at work with the local Affordable Housing Corporation, there's a lot of demand for affordable housing--but not enough homes to meet the supply.

Missions and Niagara Falls

Yes yes, I know I've been delinquent in my blogging. Sorry about that.
So you might be wondering what I'm up to these days, so I'll give you a brief summary of the past month. I spent a week at the New Wilmington Mission Conference (www.NWMCmission.org) where I heard a ton of awesome speakers, visited with family, and met with a lot of new and old friends. NWMC is such a great place where everyone wears nametags (no forgetting names that way!) and smiles at random people on the street. Plus, like ECHO, the people at Conference are fundamentally different from the rest of the US population. Most don't see material gain as a goal: many are missionaries who live on practically nothing. They are concerned about people in the whole world, not just in America.

Afterward, I went with my Aunt Susan and her foster daughter Maria on a road trip to Niagara falls. We wandered around the falls--which was AMAZING, by the way. The falls were beautiful, sure, but the falls showed the sheer power of that much moving water. At one point, we crossed over part of the river above the falls--fairly fast flowing rapids, but not spectacular. We walked along the shoreline toward the falls. We finally got to a concrete platform, and when we looked over the edge, there was the edge of the falls, about two feet from us! The roar and spray of the falls reminded me how much power is in nature.