Around the World

Having Hope?

2008-07-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

After my time in Peru, Romania, Tanzania, Mongolia, and India, I’ve reached a point where people no longer look different, food all begins to become the same, languages are simply a way of expressing aspects of life that are all too visible, and the only thing that is different is the number of cultural and social characteristics that impede development. The impoverished and oppressed of Romania may have slightly fairer skin than those in India, but the children still have the same enthusiastic spirit in meeting a foreigner and the struggling parents still have the same tired look. In Peru they may eat heaps of white rice with a side of potatoes generally in a cream sauce while in Mongolia they eat the same but with soy sauce, in both cases they lack sufficient nutrients and as a result, the children are shorter by Western standards. In Tanzania they express themselves in Swahili and in Orissa, India, in Oriya, but in both places, the community members are telling me about their needs and asking for money. The situation of poverty is essentially the same all around the world: the family struggles to make enough to feed the sizeable family and the children are forced to help with the workload so everyone’s focus is survival. Thus, it becomes the discrimination, the political atmosphere, the traditions that make each country distinct and that make India possibly the hardest country to change.

Varying levels of negative stereotypes, corruption, and inefficiencies exist in all five of the countries, but India slaps on one more, the caste system. In this intricate hierarchy of four major castes with innumerable sub-castes your rank defines crucial aspects of life. For example, the only people who can sweep floors must be members of the sweeper sub-caste. Thus, if you are not a member of the sweeper sub-caste, you’ve never handled and refuse to ever handle a broom. The simple task of sweeping the floor becomes a concrete definition of where you are in society. It’s no wonder that for such a richly endowed country, the people remain so poor.

India’s wealth is not unknown to the rest of the world. Their precious metals, silks, and IT boom are part of the reason why the marginal rich can live so lavishly. The large mansions cleaned and guarded by at least 10 subordinates with a nice car parked in the paved driveway and a well-maintained yard enclosed by an architecturally pleasing wall is an crude juxtaposition to the world on the other side the wall: dilapidated small buildings, uneven dirt roads, neglected cows, bicycle rickshaws and cars from the 60’s and 70’s. How can someone live in such a house and ignore the reality of what is just outside the door? It’s absolutely unbelievable!

After so many visits to observe the educational situation in Ruchika’s impoverished communities, I was starting to become depressed about helping India. Yes, the children are getting some semblance of education, but it’s simply insufficient to bring them out of their current situation. They will continue to take on jobs in the railways stations, scavenge for recyclables, or sell wood and agricultural products. Then I saw the government school that the Ruchika shelter children attend and the students were running amuck while the teachers were negligent and I became even more depressed. Where is the quality education? Yesterday I got my answer while visiting the Ruchika Preschool and High School, independently run apart from Ruchika Social Service Organization (RSSO). The children there were simply excelling, even by Western standards. At the tender age of 2 and 3, they were already being taught English on top of Oriya, were being trained in respect and responsibilities, and were encouraged to express their individual creativities. All children deserve that same level of education with teachers that are invested in each an every child--I simply can’t understand how Ruchika can be providing this type of education to the “haves” and a wishy-washy education the “have-nots”! But as with all things in India (and around the world), I guess it boils down to money. Ruchika pays their slum school teachers and train platform teachers 1000 rupees per month (that’s about $23), while the teachers in just the Ruchika Preschool are paid 3 to 5 times that amount! (To give you an idea, common laborers make about 1,500 rupees per month.) No wonder the slum children can’t get quality education.

BUT, I have to have hope that India can change. Knowing that they are capable of high education standards leads me to believe that one day every child can receive such an education. (…However, in my conversations with RSSO staff members (who make only 2,000-5,000 rupees per month, disregarding the salary of the top few staff members who make about 15,000 rupees per month) concerning education and injustices in India, they always laugh and say that such change will not occur, the caste system will not be absolved, and the people will always look for ways to make more money by exploiting fellow Indians, at least this will be the case during our lifetime. One staff member said, “You know, people die just hoping.”)

Poverty

2008-07-18T01:27:00.000-07:00

I thought I saw my share of poverty before today: the adobe houses of Peru, the primitive kitchens of Tanzania, and the trash filled mazes of the Mongolian slums. However, nothing compared to the narrow corridors and malnourished children here in India. After visiting the Malagodowm Street Children Project we took a tour of the slum. Now I finally understand how 1.2 million people fit in this seemingly small city.

Weaving my way through the hanging laundry, the environment was completely overwhelming. After peering into the half open doorways, I would guess that no room was larger than the size of a king-size bed; yet, an entire family lives in one room. We're not talking about the modern-day father and mother with a few children type of family; we're talking about one father, three wives and an average of 8 children all cramped into this small space to eat, sleep, and basically live. I couldn't imagine being confined to such a space. The streets along the slums were not much better: barely wide enough to allow me to pass, filled with trash and wet with dirty water. The houses were continuous--packed tightly one after another. In truth, I can't even really call them houses, simply a continuous string of rooms each overflowing with women and children. At times, I wanted to escape. The people were crowding me, the air was filled with smoke coming from the houses, the walls of the houses to my left and right were closing in on me and the roofs were coming down on me, forcing me to duck lower and lower. It seemed like every corner we turned, the world became smaller, more compact, and more populated.
How do we battle such a poverty? Sitting in the classroom filled with poor street children, there were just as many, if not more standing outside peering into the doorway. In this one slum Ruchika has 10 schools, but it's obviously not sufficient capacity for even half the children living there. With their 300 teachers and innumerable schools and projects, Ruchika still can't help ALL the children in Bhubaneswar. I couldn't help think, "And this is only in Bhubaneswar. What about the rest of India?"

Whoa. History

2008-07-06T03:55:00.001-07:00

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/05/asia/AS-Mongolia-Election.php

Japan is awesome.

2008-07-05T00:59:00.000-07:00

A few years back the Japanese came to help them not only build a library, but provide alternative energy via wind turbines and solar panels--Go Japan!!!!!

Lovely Mongolia. Lovely Children.

2008-07-05T00:43:00.000-07:00

The beauty here spans far beyond the green mountains that envelope the city and dominate the skyline...the children here are absolutely wonderful!

I've been living in a traditional "ger" (Mongolian house) for the past week with the children at Achlal (www.achlal.mn) who have been left by their parents. It's surprising the transformation they must have gone through as a result of living together and being at Achlal with teachers who care deeply for each and every child. The children here are so responsible, performing their dailiy tasks as a unit.

There are two things this school does well:
1) Provide responsibilities for the kids:
Vulnerable children need responsbilities. Not only do they feel like an important member of the team, but it helps shape their behavioral problems. At times, their violent street-mannerisms come out, but from the interview, I found out that actually many of them have reformed drastically since they arrived.
2) Create an environment that is conducive to creativity and imagination:
The school is colorful and creatively decorated with paintings, mosaics, and posters. The children have music class, painting class, and crafts courses, including how to make wool felts the traditional way. During the interviews, the children always voiced that they enjoyed these activities the most at school. For grades one through four, these types of stimilating activities are truly the best!

The sunny side of Tanzania: Boko and a few other encounters

2008-06-25T01:48:00.000-07:00

Though the last post painted a negative picture of Tanzania and my experiences here, it is an incomplete picture.

During my week and a half at Boko One-Stop Secondary School, I experienced the most heartwarming hospitality from everyone. Just their willingness to help me in such things as getting water from the well showed me that though they may have little, their give all that they are able. I can not say that I was impressed by the education at the school and here in Tanzania, (just the opposite in fact, I was terribly dismayed) but nonetheless, the students are eager to learn. They constantly ask me questions about America and about the subjects they are learning in school. Considering their backgrounds—orphans, abandoned, abused, impoverished—they see light in every opportunity and “want so much a good education.” They are lacking good teachers and people who treat them as equals, as valuable members of society and I wish so much that I could have stayed longer to share everything I have to offer. There is simply not enough teaching occurring at an institution that is meant to teach the children. What do I mean by this? Example: Sometimes teachers don’t even go to class. Even making mandaazis (donuts), they did not know that it is a waste to use baking soda and baking powder in preparing the mandaazis and that it is essential to have live yeast in order for the dough to rise. Actually, before Aaron and Kaitlin came into the scenes on behalf of Ark, the students didn’t even make mandaazis, which they now sell for 50 schillings each to make a bit of profit and to provide food for breakfast.

(Me and Donata, the donut-making girl)
(Making some mandaazis in our kitchen)

At Boko, they are only given two meals a day (at 2:00pm and 7:30 pm) and each meal consists of ugali (this maize-based mush) and boiled beans. I ate every meal with them and was saddened at the site of ugali at every meal. Still, the students are grateful, grateful to be fed at all. By Western standards of course, this seemed unacceptable to me since 1) breakfast is the most important meal of the day and they were not provided such a meal and 2) you need to get vitamins and essential minerals from vegetables and fruits and they had none. But even this situation is better than the situations of many students in Tanzania. Can you just imagine? Some schools give a brownish ugali, which is a lower-grade maize than the white one we had.

I’m happy to see that Aaron (from Australia, Masters in International Development) and Kaitlin (from US, Masters in International Education) are there now and starting to get things into shape. The children deserve to have a chance to get further in life and I’m positive the two of them are the best on the ground team that Boko can have! It’s such a difficult situation though because in truth, it would be best for the own community members to make efforts to better the situation of their children, but some of them just don’t care. That’s not to say that none of the staff at Boko are dedicated to the students, but that they are not enough. One such person is Rodgers, who has been an Ark child since he was young and has a personal connection to struggling youth. Another is Mary. Oh Mary. She was my roommate at Boko and simply a lovely person. I observed her nursery school (at Boko they have a Nursery school to help the surrounding community) and her children are astonishing. They are learning so much English through songs and pictures and games—this is the kind of interactive learning that all nursery schools need in Tanzania! Right now I am with Mary at the Capacity Buildling Workshop help by Ark Foundation in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Probably the best part of being in Bagamoyo: no ugali and beans! Haha

One last positive note, I met an attorney assistant Jean, during my brief trip to Arusha to visit the UN International Criminial Tribunal for Rwanda. He was able to explain the cases more to me and give me an inside look. On the negative end, I can tell from the responses of the judges during the session I sat through that the entire case is so politically loaded and definitely weighted towards the prosecution (UN community) side. You know, the case I was watching has been going on since 2004, and it’s actually one of the shorter cases. Other cases have been going on for more than 10 years now. Crazy eh?

(Pictures were brought to you by Mama Rhoi and Aaron and Kaitlin.)

The past two weeks of Tanzanian inefficiency and disregard.

2008-06-25T01:44:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that the robbery has really dampened my experience in Tanzania because it has exposed me to all the negative aspects of the society. After trying to get a hold of the boss of Akana Hotel for the past two weeks for some kind of reparations for the robbery, he finally met me one hour late, after I called him from the cell phone of one of the guests of the hotel. That’s right, the employees wouldn’t call him for me, they said there was no money on the hotel phone and they didn’t offer their cell phones. “Why?” you might ask. It’s because they are afraid to call their boss because then they are the bringers of bad news: “Ke Wu is here at the hotel waiting for you.” Mama Rhoi, from the Ark Foundation has spoken to him on my behalf already and he asked that I call him and meet him. So actually, after a week and a half spent at the Boko One-Stop Secondary School, I went to Akana Lodge to meet him. He did not show up and no one could reach his phone. That means when I met him yesterday, this was the second time I physically stood in Akana Lodge waiting for him. Is this what is considered proper treatment of hotel guests? I’m absolutely appalled and disappointed by someone who seems to be highly regarded in the tourism industry. (Akana Lodge is not his only business.)

So by now, you’re wondering how the meeting went:
Well, to start off, he answered his phone 3 times during our talk, interrupting me each time. And after his initial greeting, he accused me of making bad friends when I first arrived and that’s why they “personally targeted me.” HA! That’s a laugh. The only person I met when I got here was the personal driver, Rogers, for Ark Foundation. He took me directly from the airport to the hotel, where I slept till dinner time, which was when my things were stolen. I couldn’t even identify the two men who stayed—I don’t know what they look like, I never met them. I was appalled that the first thing he tried to do was put the blame on me. He said it was my fault I didn’t ask for a safe…how in the world was I to know there was one when none of the workers offered? He also didn’t believe me when I told him that my travelers checks were cashed. He said it’s not possible for the company to know overnight so it must have been stolen beforehand. I informed him that travelers checks have a number, so though the physical checks have not yet been mailed to American Express, they know when a check number has been cashed and have that information right away, though they don’t know where it was cashed. Moreover, he said it was not the hotel’s responsibility! Excuse me?! NOT the hotel’s responsibility?! The men didn’t even write down their identification and this was due to negligence of the hotel. They have been at the hotel two times before and they didn’t write down identification information then either. You know why we can’t catch the two men? We don’t even know what their real names are!!!! Thus, it is absolutely unprofessional of him to say the hotel is not responsible. They didn’t even follow expected procedures to ensure the security of their guests. I was SOOO angry and frustrated that I couldn’t speak! He said to me, “Here is my suggestion, if you don’t have money, go back home to America.” Excuse my language, but WTF?! I am doing a research project in an effort to better society and his suggestion is to quit and go home. Absolutely unbelievable! When he saw me crying out of frustration, he said, “I know some rich Americans in the tourism business, maybe I can fundraise for you.” And on the phone he told the other person, “I’m with someone who is distressed right now, do you know any rich Americans?” WHAT?!
He was EXTREMELY rude and absolutely unprofessional. I felt so disrespected and finally understood the frustrations of the younger Tanzanian generation. In their interviews, they told me that they were treated as children (and we’re talking about mostly 18-22 year olds): completely disregarded and undervalued. Even Mama Rhoi said that a big cultural barrier here is the generation gap, meaning that either you are a child, or you are an adult and the adults treat the children like they are nothing. That was how I felt, I felt like I was treated as a stupid child who made a stupid mistake. In light of this, maybe I can say that it did at least enlighten my research and allowed me to understand a little more of their culture, but this experience was definitely the blackest so far. As much as it was a learning experience for me, it will also definitely be a learning experience for him because he has underestimated the power of the younger generation…

The past two weeks of Tanzanian inefficiency and disregard.

2008-06-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

P.S.

2008-06-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched a rat scurry across my bed while I was sleeping in it.

Ah Africa.

2008-06-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

I am here in Tanzania now, at the Boko One Stop Secondary School in the town of Boko near Dar Es Salaam. I have been here since Tuesday, June 10 and thought I would give an update of my trip. An unfortunate event has recently befallen me. While staying at a well-recognized hotel with grounds security, I became the victim of an organized robbery on the first night that I was here in Africa! In the hour and a half that I was in the dinning area eating dinner and watching a movie, my electronics, including my camera, cell phone, and most unfortunately, my voice recorder along with my money, which was about $1,300, $700 of which were travelers checks, were stolen from my locked room. We suspect that the two men who stayed in the room across from me were the culprits. They checked in the same night, after me, said they would stay for two nights, but never returned during the night after leaving to “find some dinner.” By the time I was able to report stolen travelers checks, I found out that they already cashed $400 of it. This suggests they have allies in the banking system since they obviously don’t have the identification to prove that they are me. So here I am now, with no camera, no voice recorder, and significantly poorer. The worst part of it is the voice recorder since all my interviews are on there. Luckily I have Peru interviews saved on a portable drive, but all the interviews from Romania are lost.

On the upside, I am enjoying my time with the students here. Since this is my third country, I can really start to see the comparisons in the education systems and the recurring themes that to me are the main reasons why the education systems are failing to turn out a literate society and failing to rid the mass poverty. The children here, in Romania, and in Peru, are incredibly driven children who have been raised in unfortunate situations of poverty, and here, an environment of death (from AIDS). With insufficient encouragement at home, the majority of them go to school only to face the same lack of encouragement from their teachers. However, it’s too hasty to assume that the teachers are to blame because their original pedagogy training breeds a continuation of the traditional methods of teaching, which neglect the students. But there is hope, and there is gradual change towards a better future.

The meaningful interactions I have with the kids I’ve encountered on this trip thus far make me wonderfully grateful for this opportunity! No matter where, children are still children and simply want someone to talk to and someone to laugh with. I like to think that at the same time that they are impacting my life, I offer something in return, whether it is a small glimpse into a world outside of their own or a friend they can remember for life.

Major Breakthrough! (okay, not really)

2008-06-06T06:20:00.001-07:00

I was looking around the office yesterday thinking about how they have this large GATTACA poster on one wall and another Ethan Hawke poster in their conference room. It seemed strange that a GATTACA poster was on display in this office, but meh, it's a good movie, so I thought nothing more of it. It turns out, Leslie Hawke, one of the founders I interviewed a few days ago is Ethan Hawke's mother! Yea, MOTHER! Crazy huh?

An Impressive Approach

2008-06-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

I'm really impressed by the methodology the organization in Romania has taken in tackling education.

They first researched the educational policy here in Romania and discovered that there is a law stating that all children starting at the age of 7 or 8 need to attend school. However, as could be expected with a developing society, this law is hardly enforced. Their goal now is to see that this policy is strictly abided by and currently work with the lowest wrung of society. They provide a combination of family counseling, after school programs and supplies, as well as their most important contribution, professional development. Exactly like in Peru, many teachers here fail to enter the classroom with a successful pedagogical approach towards at-risk children. This organization has developed an integrative methodology that they have been teaching to teachers. However, it is financially unsustainable for this organization to continue to train all the teachers when 1) this should be supported by the state and 2) the training is not mandatory and can only be received on a voluntary basis. Yet, this organization manages this hole as well by creating partnerships with the local government in places like Bacau, Romania to have them administer the training and ensure that their teachers are entering the classroom with the mindset of wanting to interact with their students and ensuring the students are applying critical thinking within the classroom. They produced a very interesting report that compares the Roma (gypsy) situation in Romania to the situation of African Americans in the United States. The comparison points out lessons to be learned from the history of the United States and is meant to be presented to the Ministry of Education here in Romania.

A commonality that I'm starting to notice in underdeveloped and developing countries is rote learning within the classroom. Teachers write and dictate and students copy. There is no room for experimentation, discovery, and intellectual development. As a result, many students drop out of school since the alternative is to make money for a family that is struggling to sustain itself. I found out from teachers in Peru and here in Romania that they learn theory in professional school and the only practice they receive is limited to observing another teacher. Thus, the cycle persists.

I have only ever had interactive teachers that have probed me and questioned me, so the intellectual being I am now is a product of their work and collaboration. I can't imagine what I would be like if I grew up copying everything written on the board and accepting everything told to me! It's not to say that there are not great teachers here as well, but it's distressing thinking that the majority of the teachers here are so poorly trained. I guess one of the universal problems with the profession is that it is so poorly funded; there is just not enough money in education. We have research and exemplary countries that prove that more money into education (given that it is correctly allocated) only betters the country as a whole, yet this problem remains.

Though seeing more of the world has only dismayed me about the universal situation of education, I am even more adamant now that it's development will solve the world's problems. I know that education is not always the highest priority on political agendas because there is such as slow turnover rate, but it is the worthiest investment any government can make!

What's with this hate thing?

2008-06-04T11:28:00.001-07:00

I'm a little confused by good people.

I visited the Ovidiu Rom center at a local elementary school in sector 5 yesterday. Catalin, a Roma staff of the organization was my personal translator and showed me around. Afterwards, he invited me to have dinner with his Roma fiance and her family. The family, the fiance--everyone--was wonderful. We laughed, we joked, we ate.

He eventually asked me where I was originally from and I told him China. He told me there were a lot of Chinese in Bucharest and they all lived in an area known as Europa. He then laughed and looked at his fiance and told me that she doesn't like the Chinese people here. I asked why and they explained that Chinese people kill other people and hack them into pieces before stuffing them into bags! (Hm, hopefully I've altered that mentality a bit now that they've hung out with a Chinese who doesn't kill.) When they asked me more about the US and my life, they were surprised to find out that people of different ethnic backgrounds could be good friends and even more, they could date!

So I was thinking through this: The Romanians HATE the Roma people. The Roma people HATE that the Romanian people HATE them. However, the Roma people HATE the Chinese. Can there be just a little less hate please?!

Is there a trend?

2008-06-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I interviewed one of the co-founders of Ovidiu Rom and was impressed to find out that the evangelicals are making headway here in Romania. She was telling me that they are reforming the gypsy ("Roma") males by giving them moral guidelines for life, e.g. don't smoke, don't drink, make sure to take care of your family and especially your children. Before the evangelicals, the Roma population had no moral standards to abide by and were not making progress as a group of people (her words, not mine). This of course, reminded me of an article we read in Dr. Burke's class about the evangelicals in Brazil. I was so delighted that I had this background knowledge upon which to converse further about the cultural situation here. She was telling me that the the Roma people lack respectable representatives for the people. What happens is that after a Roma person progresses past an impoverished situation, he/she will renounce their Roma ethnicity in order to assimilate into the Romanian culture. This, of course, reminded me once more of the exact same article, where the African population in Brazil were finally making headway because members of their population were attaining seats of power, such as the African politician noted in the article. The major difference between the two countries that makes African Brazilians successful and the Roma unsuccessful is that the African population is easily detectable simply based on physical features. On the other hand, the Roma population consists of members spanning a range of skin tones and hair colors. Therefore, those of lighter skin color can easily blend in with the European portion of society.

Maybe this conclusion comes a bit hasty, but I am starting to feel that there are universal components to helping overcome poverty.
1) Need to educate the group.
2) Need a set of values, some sort of guidelines that the group believes in and is willing to live by and grow from.
3) Need examples--people from the group who have progressed beyond the majority situation--that the group can look up to.

The In-between

2008-06-02T20:44:00.001-07:00

I've caught something. I don't know what it is, but I've been stomach sick since the plane ride leaving Lima. Cipro isn't working, but maybe it's just a time factor.

On another note, the Madrid Barajas Airport is the LARGEST airport I have ever been in! I had to take a bus that runs every 30 minutes and gets on the highway to get from terminal 2 to terminal 4. Then at terminal 4, I had to walk through the entire terminal, which was several stories high, get on a metro that took me to a satellite portion of terminal 4, which had three letters worth of gates (with numbers that went to at least the forties). It's crazy HUGE!

So now I'm here in Bucharest, Romania. I have yet to meet with the organization here, but an interesting conversation occurred when I first arrived:

My taxi driver and I got to talking and he eventually asked me if I have faced any racial issues in the US concerning the fact that I am Chinese. I replied no and he continued by telling me that they have problems here concerning different "behaviour." He said a group of people called the "gypsies," who were mostly of Indian background, steal everything here in Romania from the Romanian population. They steal water, they steal electricity, and there is no legal consequence for what they do. He complained that no one did anything to get rid of these "gypsies." I told him that I've learned a little bit about this "Roma" population and he replied that he really hates the new term for them--it suggests that they are Romanian, when they are not. This term, he speculates, may have been derived from the term "Rom," which is what the Romanians use to call them. He says they are really awful people and he wishes they would go away because they are threatening the Romanian population when the Romanians have done nothing threatening to the "Roma" population. (Hm, fascinating.)

Then we briefly touched upon the Ceauşescu regime and he seemed adamant about the fact that Ceauşescu really formed this city, even though it was through extravagant means and he doesn't understand who is writing stories about the regime, but a lot of them are lies. (A little prideful?)

I am so sad.

2008-05-31T16:27:00.000-07:00

I left Huaraz last night and now I am completely in disarray. I miss the children SOOO much! They make me wonderfully happy and now, I can not see them anymore :´(

I think if there is one downfall to this project: having to leave the amazing people you begin to become attached to at every country you visit. So I guess, here is round one of five.

Home for the Poor

2008-05-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

It becomes difficult to image just how poor the families are until you are finally there, standing inside their house. You could list all the details--adobe bricks, one room for cooking, sleeping, eating, basically everything, no electricity, not enough water, which is obtained from a public tap, no bathrooms, and always more than six inhabitants--but they remain insufficient. You have to see the corrugated-tin rooftops with tires holding them down, you have to see the small size of the one room, and you have to speak to the mothers and fathers, whose faces bear the wear and tear of years of hard work and pain.

This is the reality for the kids. When they are not at Seeds, not at school, and not on the streets working, this is where they are. There is one family in particular that has corrugated-tin siding for their house, a structure struggling to hold itself up. Thanks to Seeds, they are building a new house, one out of adobe bricks. Soon, they will sleep safely knowing that the walls of their new home are safe and secure. However, that is only one family, and only one of their many problems.

Too many times we take for granted the basic elements of our life. I do not remember ever thinking to myself: when will I run out of water today? Or even, how will I get enough money to feed myself for today? All of our basic necessities have been taken care of by our parents when we are young and by ourselves when we are older. However, when you are the mother of four children and only washing clothes for 3 soles per day, you do not have even enough to take care of yourself, let alone your family.

I did not forsee the pain I would feel simply talking to the parents. Living amongst so much poverty and pain, the children still manage to come to us day to day with smiles on their faces and an eagerness to love and learn. These children remind me that no matter how difficult life becomes, you can always find happiness. I am truly inspired every time I see them!

Another beauty that hurts?

2008-05-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

These past few days reminded me of a book we read in Latin America class with Dr. Burke: A Beauty that Hurts: Life and Death in Guatemala by George Lovell. During class, Dr. Burke asked, "Why is this book called A Beauty that Hurts?" I think the answer applies here to Peru as well...

Like Guatemala, the country is filled with a natural beauty. Just around the city of Huaraz, the Cordillera Blanca mountain range parallels the majesty and grace of the renowned Swiss Alps. Aside from the snowy white mountain tops, the area is laden with serene lakes and exceptional lagoons, like the Querococha Lagoon I visited today. Standing in the middle of a field, staring out into the picturesque landscape, I couldn't believe that amongst such beauty, there exists so much suffering and pain.

As crippled women and hungry children pass me in the streets, I can see it in their expression: sadness, pain, defeat. This is a city where the rich live in luxurious houses enshrouded by pine trees and the poor live in adobe houses with corrugated tin roofs secured with old tires and rocks and generally have no access to electricity and running water. Between these two extremes lies a miniscule population of middle class. Seeds of Hope works with the majority, also known as the poor.

When I think of the "poor" in the United States, they are the ones with minimum, or less than minimum wage pay. They are the ones who need food stamps to feed their families. They are the ones who can only afford second hand items from places like the Salvation Army. However, this poor would be considered rich compared to what the families of Seeds of Hope face. I visited two homes the other day with Gladis, our part-time social worker and I simply don't understand how people are surviving under such conditions. How can the rest of society simply turn a blind eye toward all this poverty?!

The second house we visited was located under a bridge. I know for a fact that on a daily basis tons of Peruvians pass over this bridge and none ever stop to do something about the poor family living below. Four children and one mother live in this one room adobe house--one room to eat, to sleep, to wash, to do everything. What about the father you ask? He left the family for another woman, for another family. He left. HE LEFT! How can a father simply leave four children to nothing, to hunger? The mother can only wash clothes for a living, making 3 soles a day. That equates to a little over 1 US dollar. Yes, that's about 1 US dollar for a family of 5 people!! To give you an idea, 3 soles is how much two bottles of drinking water costs. On top of that, there is a 1 meter tall wall along the bank of the water and now the government wants to increase the height. If they go through with this plan, the adobe house will be completely destroyed. Then where will the family live? (Well, the government surely doesn’t care!)

It is absolutely outrageous and despicable how little people can care!! Maybe I’ve simply lived in my own world, but I really expected more from humanity. No child should be brought up under these conditions, absolutely none! It’s reassuring to know that there are some people, like the staff of Seeds of Hope, that aim to do whatever they can, but with limited funds, you can only go so far. Why? Why isn’t the government helping its people? Why? Why aren’t the rich donating an unnoticeable part of their wealth to create a noticeable difference in some else's life? WHY?!

My baggage is lost. I think it´s fate.

2008-05-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

After the long haul from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Panama City, I finally made it to Lima. Everything was going smoothly--check-ins, transfers, flights--but when I reached the baggage claim at Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chávez my luck turned around. Karma right? It can´t always be smooth sailing.

I waited one hour for the conveyor belt to go around and around, carrying an eclectic blend of bags, backpacks, luggage, and boxes. Among that mix, my Maiden Voyage was nowhere to be found. Yes, it´s lost somewhere. (Luckily, I always carry a set of clothes in my carry-on.) I even made sure before and after my Phoenix to LA flight to ask if my baggage would make it to Lima, "Of course!" they said. Moral of the story: never trust airlines--they lie. Alright alright, maybe that´s not the moral. New moral: if you are changing airline carriers, don´t have them transfer your baggage for you, do it yourself.

While I was standing in line to check-in at Copa Airlines for my departure from LA, the young man in front of me told me his baggage fell out of the car trunk while going over a speedbump and he was not aware at the time. He´s going to Colombia for over a month. During his previous international flight the airline companies lost his baggage in transit. I think meeting him was a sign. Or maybe, it was simply a reminder that worse things can happen. My bag is at an airport somewhere hopefully making it´s way onto an airplane headed for Lima, but his remains in the middle of some street.

By now, I´ve made it to Huaraz from Lima on an overnight bus. It´s ridiculously breathtaking here.

Huaraz is in the highlands, completely surrounded by mountains:

This is the view in front of the house the volunteers stay at while working with Seeds of Hope (www.peruseeds.org):

Yep, there´s a lovely garden in the foreground.

And here is the house:

Ah, home sweet home for the next two weeks.