Reflections and Catching Up

I remember when I was a DA, maybe the first week that we arrived at IICD and Jenny, who is in Belize right now, told me "really enjoy your time as a DA because once you start your team you will be SO busy". I didn't think much about that comment, I think because I was already so busy and I honestly couldn't imagine being much busier. Now that we have started our team and are a third of the way through the training period, I really understand what she meant.
This past month has flown by so incredibly fast. We have had intense and enlightening investigations in Benton Harbor, gone to an inspiring MLK day march/rally in Detroit, studied the various countries that make up Central America, read about and studied poverty in the US, had a building weekend where I learned how to re-tile bathroom floors, and have now spent a week in Atlanta are half way through our first fundraising trip- just to name a few of things we have done so far.
Fundraising has been quite the adventure so far. Brian and I had a really hard time finding a place to fundraise at first and while the Hyun Jung and Sunny J were at there Korean mart I was stressed about not being able to do my part. We finally found a great little store Aldis that Brian mentioned, and I was so happy to finally be doing it! For the first couple of days however, we weren't meeting our team goals and I was really stressing out about it but we just kept pushing through doing the best we could. Finally Friday came and we got to go to new stores- H Mart and Gwinett International Farmer's Market. This past three days at these stores we not only made our team goal each day and made up for earlier in the week, we even exceed our goal for the first week. Now, going into our second week we are AHEAD! I honestly can't believe it. Everyone kept telling us,'anything can happen in fundraising' but until you really experience it you have no idea.
Today is our rest day, and boy did I need it. It is both energizing and completely exhausting to stand for 10 hours talking to people, describing what you are doing, putting yourself out there- we really worked our butts off. This time to rest, sleep in, lounge around, read-is really needed.
I am glad to have this time to reflect as today not only marks the half way point of our first fundraising trip but is also the end of our first month of the training period. I have so enjoyed all of the challenges and experiences we have the honor and pleasure of taking part in so far and I look forward to all that has yet to come.

Fundraising Atlanta Update and thoughts on the Peoples Love

Just got back from our 4th day in Atlanta and third day fundraising! Actually today I drove around looking for stores to fund-raise at (semi-successfully). Andra and Anthony were located at an Aldi store and Hyun Jung and Sonny J at a Korean store named Assi.

These past few days standing in one spot for 8-10hrs a day have been tiring for all of us but also very fulfilling. I'll just reflect though on a few of my experiences for now.

I've been at the Aldi's store in Atlanta fundraising and first I'll tell you a bit about the store. Aldi's is a chain in Atlanta that offers cheap food etc. People of all stripes go there and it is not a small place but probably a fifth of a normal Krogers store. The workers there are all doing the same duties; stocking, checking, cleaning and smiling. Aldi's refuses to use plastic bags and there are no shelfs like those at Krogers, all of this lets them sell their products at a cheaper price and also be 'green.' But best of all it seems they truly respect their employees!!! Amazing!!! The employees along with having equal duties also get a comfortable chair to sit on while working, I always thought grocery checkers needed a chair or at least an option to use one and when I saw this I was ecstatic. Now that I'm finished with that I'll go over the patrons of Aldi's.

Like I said before they are of all stripes. White, Black, Brown, rich, poor, Republican, Democrat, close-minded and open-minded. I would say around 3% of the people don't acknowledge us, but we still say thank you and have a nice day in a calm, happy way. Most people don't contribute and say 'not today.' But we do have many that contribute and give us praise for throwing our bodies and souls into other peoples problems. One man that contributed said "Be careful, Central America is a great place to die, are you ready for that?" I replied "yes" with a big smile.

Some times we get more negative responses from people for being out their. Such as a woman saying that all the women in Central America are sluts to Andra, but while she cut her head off in her own head she acknowledged the lady with kindness and didn't let the old racist hag get to her.

Some of the most memorable contributions were those which were given by children from their mothers. The little cuties would usually shyly skimmer over with their heads down and throw a dollar in the bucket and then run back to mama.

Also we met many missionaries, those Christians can really throw their souls into the suffering of others, needless to say we had many great conversations with them.

Overall my feelings right now are sore but strong physically and mentally tired but clear. Working and talking with people who you want to contribute to your cause is a humbling experience. I would say the main feeling I'm having during the day and right now as I write this is an intense energy mixed with gratitude and love. Constantly talking with people about what I will be doing in Belize and hearing about experiences other individuals have had in poverty stricken areas make me so grateful for what my family has provided for me my whole life, a house, support and so much love (I miss them so much).

I can say this is another experience that I've had since when I started the program in late October that is truly life changing. You think fundraising would be a pain and hard, well it is, but it's also so much more then that, it's a challenge and it's gratifying, eye opening and humbling, if I had the choice not to fund-raise like this and didn't, I'd be missing out on so much. That's enough for tonight after all Team Parrot still has ten more days in Atlanta. Much love to everyone who we have seen and to my two families(Winkler's and Lowe's).

Team Parrot in Atlanta

Team Parrot(January 2011 Belize Team) has made it to Atlanta! Today we searched for areas to fund-raise and found a mostly Korean places (there is a major Korean community there) but we got a few other agreements.

At the end of the night a nice store manager at Arby's gave us all a food donation and thats mainly why I'm posting this. Thank you so much we all really appreciate it and I hope you get on our blog to see this haha. But seriously it's kindness like that that makes me ready and energized for the next day.

So far Atlanta is a beautiful place especially because of the weather. Mostly though it just looks the same as anywhere else haha, box stores and many M's BKs TBs KFCs and the like, but we still haven't seen real Atlanta, downtown Atlanta.

Quick thought; people always tell me "under socialism everything would look the same, do you want that?"....do we live under socialism now, because if thats true all those people have answered their own question???

December Newsletter is Posted Below

Oooops posted a bit late (by us)! It features an article by Andra and myself. The next newsletter will be out real soon and it will have an article by Andra about our Benton Harbor investigation.

Fundraising Preparations and Thoughts

Only three more days until we leave for Atlanta to fund-raise for our fight poverty expedition! We have been doing a lot of prep work; getting in touch with local stores and making agreements to fund-raise in the front(no luck for stores owned by corporations yet, but we have had luck with Latino and Korean stores), getting in touch with churches, preparing posters in English, Korean and Spanish, preparing mentally and discussing with other volunteers what to be ready for and a few other tasks.

I am feeling confident in what we are about to do. The money we raise goes to us and pays our way to Central America and sends our team to projects in Belize. I used to work for a non-profit named Clean Water Action(CWA) we fund-raised door to door but the money went to liberal lobbyists and lawyers who made a great salary, had comfortable homes and comfortable lives who's actions probably were only directed by big companies anyways. I always felt uncomfortable with them because I knew that the money the people gave me would have no impact in the betterment in lives of those who needed help.

But with IICD I think I will feel comfortable fund-raising because I'm fundraising for myself and a cause which will have a direct effect on those who could use a crutch to keep them going in their everyday lives, not pigs in Washington. My insurance for people will be that I care for those in poverty and will prove to the world that I do, through action. If not through action then what, through words? My problem with the everyday hippie making a living going door to door is that she/he may not comprehend what their raising funds for, in fact in CWA we really didn't and we weren't encouraged to. At IICD I know what I'm fundraising for, I know I'm not begging, I know I fund-raise to create and sustain sustainability here at IICD Michigan and there in Central America.

I really look forward to going to Atlanta and taking on this major challenge. From what I hear I will feel tired, energized, mad, happy, weak and strong but what nearly every person that I have discussed fundraising with says at times you will feel overwhelming feelings of love.

Investigation as a Method of Learning

This is what our training period is all about. We just practiced this method with an investigation in Benton Harbor so that when we do our 1 month investigation period throughout Central America we are prepared.

Investigation as a Method

Our Task List For 1st Period (Training Period)

**Wherever it says 'Brazil', just replace it with 'Belize'.
Fight Poverty Task List- 1st Period

Guatemala and Costa Rica Presentations

Guatemala Presentation

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Costa Rica Presentation

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Nicaragua and Panama Short Presention

Please excuse my blatant subjective opinions in the power points texts. Going through the history of Nicaragua was very stressul it is clear why they are so poor and still suffer today for the same reasons they've been suffering for the last century. I gave this presentation to our January Fight Poverty team, each team member gave 2 presentations on 2 Central American countries. We had relatively 6 hours to complete the presentations so please excuse my grammar.

Panama pp blog

View more presentations from unionmade.

Nicaragua pp blog

View more presentations from unionmade.

Oooops here's the Nicaragua presentations sources:

http://countrystudies.us/nicaragua/3.htm

http://countrystudies.us/nicaragua/11.htm

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ni0042)

http://www.narconews.com/darkalliance/drugs/start.htm

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/nu-nicaragua

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1850.htm

January Belize Team BEGINS!!!

Yesterday was the first day of our January Belize Fight Poverty Team (FPB). The members are myself (Brian), Andra, Hyun Jong, Sonny J and our team leader Anthony. We started by going over the Fight Poverty manual and starting Espanol class. Today we all gave an autobiography, it is important to get to know each other in depth to begin to strengthen our relationships for our future adventures.

I think one of the biggest challenges and one of the most essential will be to learn Spanish. Although Belize is 50/50 Spanish and English I hear most of the people speak Spanglish. Also for our investigation in which it sounds like we will be flying to either Costa Rica or Panama then traveling around Central America, Spanish is the main language.

Our future plans for FPB will be more Spanish classes, investigations in poverty stricken America (specifically Michigan) and fundraising preparations.

President Chissano speech regarding ADPP

Below is a speech by the former President of Mozambique to a school named ADPP (Humana People to People run). It was very uplifting to read this speech tonight and is a great example of being modest while making significant change.

http://www.drh-norway.org/TextPage.asp?TxtID=169&SubMenuItemID=116&MenuItemID=55

Former President Chissano of Mozambique: I wish to congratulate ADPP HUMANA
Speech given by the president at ADPP (Ajuda de Desenvolvimento do Povo para Povo - Humana in Portuguese) HUMANA Mozambique 20th year birthday

President Joaquim Chissano- "Do you know who is Birgit? Birgit will you please stand up. This is her. I don’t know what her age was in 1982, but when I met her she was very young. I don’t want to know her age but when I met her she was very young. Now 20 years have passed. I looked at her when she received me at the entrance and she continues to be very young.
This shows that ADPP, who is 20 years old, also continues to be very young, with great strength. ADPP started with strength and maintains this strength. The first idea of ideas that I have here, and this I am now going to say, is that ADPP should always be youthful, ADPP should always have great strength and ADPP should always be energetic.
I did not come here today to give many ideas but to praise ADPP for the work they have achieved during the last 20 years. When ADPP started this work this was evidently the idea of foreigners and a few foreigners at that, to work with the people, to mix with the people. ADPP wanted not to be an organization of foreigners but a Mozambiquan organization run by Mozambicans, with the participation of Mozambicans. I wish to say that this is now the reality. For I have heard here that today ADPP is run by 80 Mozambiquans and only 25 permanent staff who are foreigners ad some of these foreigners are more Mozambican that foreign.
For example, Birgit here, when she arrived in Mozambique was a foreigner now she is Mozambican. There are also others who like Birgit worked with us during the Liberation struggle and came with the same spirit to Dar-es-Salam in Tanzania, working with us with schools, working with us with information and finally came with us, after independence, to Mozambique, and became Mozambicans.
This organization, ADPP, appeared in Mozambique in ’82, but this was not new for us, as we were together in the Liberation struggle. Groups of youths from Europe and from America came to work with us, these groups being called support groups. These support groups had shown support during the Liberation Struggle in various forms, in the areas of teaching, of health, sending medicines to us, sending from their countries school books, books and pens, sending blankets made from bits of cloth, cloth that had been thrown out from clothes factories. Having groups that take these discarded clothes and make them into beautiful blankets, then sending container loads of these blankets to us.
They also assisted us to know our country whilst in exile. This and the spirit grew and transformed into ADPP. Thus it was it 1982 we received ADPP with open arms and with the knowledge that this in fact was a very positive thing. 20 years later I can confirm that it is in fact a very positive thing. As we have heard here, from theatre plays, from songs, from speeches that this positive thing continues with ADPP in Mozambique. We came here today to congratulate ADPP and to express the desire that ADPP continue with their success in the future.
One idea I would like to give, as you have asked me for ideas, is that ADPP should work to raise their profile with the general public, with our institutions both public and private because it is my belief that very few people know of this location where we are now, also very few people know of the seven teacher training colleges. Birgit has just informed me of the seventh teacher training college, I knew of six and when I was road here I said "ADPP has six schools or six IMAPs or six teacher training colleges which is equal to that of the state". Working together in collaboration and working with the same objectives but when I got here I was informed of a new teacher training college, so that ADPP now has seven. This is not well known here as all your other activities are also not well known. Even less well known is what the Humana representative had to say. When we here in Mozambique talk of Humana very few people understand who or what Humana is.
Work is needed to correct this lack of understanding. I am today even more convinced of this than ever because when I was coming here in the car I was reading this newspaper, I will now read you a passage from today’s newspaper ‘Noticias’; Noticias says ADPP etc etc … when ADPP was formed its purpose was to sell used clothes. This is the idea that the newspaper is giving to the people, that when ADPP was formed it was formed for the purpose to sell second hand clothes but when ADPP was formed they where not selling second hand clothes. When ADPP was formed it was formed to work on literacy, in the rural areas, in the area of Matutuine and started to build schools and teach.
Finally in the ‘80’s ADPP came to this present location where there has been a multiplication of training courses, in the areas of agriculture, clothes making and catering. There are former students who have left here and gone on to work in restaurants or opened their own little restaurants. Maybe there are many already doing this. When I visited here, in 1989, all these courses where in the process of being formed. Therefore these courses are preparing people to be self-sufficient. The sale of second hand clothes started as a form of fundraising to support the other activities.
Today ADPP is creating a higher education institute and therefore this first higher education institute is a continuation of the work that started with primary schools. Visit school building sites and you will find that they are run by Mozambiquans, building blocks and constructing schools. I have seen this for myself. I have visited teacher training colleges in various provinces, the latest to be inaugurated was in Angonia, no, it was in Lichinga, a very big school. I have also visited a school in Inhambane as well as a school in Nhamatanda. In many cases these schools and colleges have been built in institutions that had been abandoned or under used and in other cases completely new structures have been built. All these activities deserve our praise. I repeat that I like the fact that ADPP continues to be youthful with a special example of solidarity at various levels that ADPP may increase its activities for Mozambiquans, for the communities. Good ….. ADPP is full of imagination and therefore will know how to take initiatives to adapt to the rhythm of the economic development of our country, to the reality of it and to make the necessary adaptations.
Today we have many graduates, some of which do not know what they want to do, they graduated and afterwards didn’t know what to do. ADPP is certainly interested in these people joining the solidarity movement of people to people as they say for the people. The important thing is not to add the "P", what is important is to have the spirit and to act in such a way that in reality the people do not approach ADPP solely to ask for help, as they see the function of ADPP is solely for handouts but that the people approach ADPP as a source of inspiration so that the people can resolve their own problems, to inspire solidarity, so that the communities will be inspired in this work of solidarity and resolve their own problems. The city of Maputo has many problems and it is the duty of the communities in the city to find the solutions to these problems. The city of Matola has many problems and it is the duty of the communities in the city to find the solutions to these problems. And it is in this spirit of solidarity of people to people by the people, and it is for the people to develop the people for the people.
I wish to congratulate ADPP for the fact that they have taken the name of Mozambique across many frontiers through the work of the volunteers that have come here to work, many nationalities have come here, Koreans have come here, Americans and Brazilians have come here. I don’t know how many different nationalities have come here, nearly all. When they return to their countries they take something of Mozambique with them, this is a solidarity movement for Mozambiquans but it is also an international solidarity movement. This international solidarity, this feeling of solidarity with the world that we Mozambicans have, has been made stronger due to the fact that it helped us in our victory in the struggle against colonialism.
Today we need to maintain this spirit of solidarity. It is not what others do for us but our sentiments in relation to other peoples that will make the respect we deserve. We need to have solidarity within ourselves, we need to be united and we deserve the confidence and solidarity of the world to achieve victory. This is what is happening in our country right now. We need to know how to raise the flag very high, the flag of international solidarity. Humana is doing this work, through all its initiatives and ADPP, Mozambique will never tire of taking this solidarity forward.
Birgit has told me that we are hungry and I don’t want to miss this offer of lunch by ADPP, I was invited for lunch and so I will finish here so that we may all have lunch. I hope to return for more celebrations and another lunch in 20 years time, with Birgit, always youthful and with ADPP, always youthful.
Thank-you very much."

Another Adventure Begins

So it has been a while since we have posted anything- We had the privilege (thanks to our very generous and loving parents) of flying home to spend time with our families and friends over Christmas and New Years and took a break from the blogging to soak our few days with them. It was very bittersweet to leave home again- it will be the last time we see all of the people we love and care about and who have and still are supporting us so much. It is really hard to think about not being able to call them up whenever I want and get some long distance love and encouragement. I suppose that is part of the adventure and the challenge; to be tested on how well I can survive on my own, how strong am I really? What are my abilities and how far do they really stretch? What do I have inside of me to push me through?Although this an overwhelming and somewhat terrifying experiment, I am also really excited and grateful for even having the opportunity to find out the answers to those questions. A while ago when we first got here and were getting acquainted with the life at IICD and as a DA, I wrote a post about challenges and how important they are and now that we are back IICD has made sure that we will be consistently presented with new ones!

When we arrived back at IICD last night, we were greeted by the friends and people we had gotten to know before we left, as well as a few new faces- our two team mates Sunny J (Korean man) and Hyun Jyung (Korean woman, she is wanting an American name so if you have any suggestions shoot them our way!) as well as a new DA Rebecca.

This morning we started the day as normal: breakfast, morning course about the solar panels that the teachers built over break, and then good ol' mobes. As Mobes ended however, we wandered past the promotion room, our normal home base, and in to our new room, one filled with loads of information to be learned, questions to be pondered, answers to be discovered, adventures to be had, and, of course, challenges to be exceeded.

We are both looking forward to all that awaits us and to continuing to share it with all of you!

What would the world be like if it were a small community of 100 people?

Moringa- The Miracle Plant!

This plant has some amazing properties- it grows in Latin America and in Africa and is used by various projects because one little branch can offer so much!
The program doesn't include the notes from the presentation but hopefully you can still get an idea of how great this is.

Moringa!

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Composting- A Magic Trick

Today was another GAIA action day, where we participate in activities here at the school that help us to be more sustainable and with the water tank finished (for now), and the weather as cold as it is, there isn't a whole lot that can be done. However, the tasks for today were extremely valuable. We started with a little over view of composting and how it works, and then went out to tend to the compost that we have here at the school.

My parent's had composting off and on at our house, but I never really cared much about it- all I knew was that it was stinky, and that was enough for me to let my parents handle it themselves.
Being here at IICD and continuing to learn more about our planet's conditions and the future that we face, I am becoming more and more aware of how necessary sustainability is, as well as how easy it can be to start making changes, and how important it is to make the changes now, not later.
There are bins that you can buy from home improvement stores, but I would bet you that building your own is cheaper, and more fun! Our compost here at IICD is above the ground, but you can also dig a pit and your composting underground. We have three compartments: the first one is where all of your food scraps go. You can put all organic material in here (not organic as in organic produce, but as in material that will break down) including egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags, leftover food, and even cooking oil. The only reason you should not put something in the compost is dependent on where you live. Cooked food can attract animals that is something you should consider when you plan your compost. The only maintenance that is required with this pile is to occasionally go in and chop up the food. By breaking it down into smaller pieces, it will break down faster. You want to this pile to remain moist and juicy.
The second pile, you want to layer this moist food with dry material. For this you can use recycled newspaper, shredded paper, all of the dry leaves from you yard, the grass you collect when mowing, and any other branches or twigs you have. Now, instead of having to pay to get all of this stuff thrown out or taken away by the city recycling, you can put it to good use in your yard! You layer the dry materials with the wet mush and then leave it. You want to keep it covered so that it can stay warm inside. Over time, it will break down and compact, and you can keep piling more and more.
The third pile is where you put this dry wet mixture after it has broken down and mixed together. It sits in this third bin to finish the process, and to be stored until ready to use!
Today, after we chopped and transferred, we brought buckets of the compost inside and layered it with the regular soil and planted some vegetables and beans in pots to have for the winter. We also looked up what vegetables like to grow together, and planted ours accordingly.
Compost soil is so dark and rich- it looks like the stuff people buy in the stores for a lot money- but better! When we have gardens, the plants use the nutrients from the soil to grow. So when we go to plant new stuff, we need to put nutrients back into the soil. Rather then paying money for someone to take away your food scraps that will go sit in a landfill, and then go spend more money for "good soil", why not save all of that money and use the food to enrich the soil for the new food!?
I know it is winter, and most people are happy for the excuse to not think about their gardens for a while. But now is the perfect time to build your compost and start collecting food. Although it won't break down while its cold, once it starts to warm up, the process will begin and by the time you are ready to plant in your garden, you will have this beautiful nutritious soil to use!

Here are some picture of the process:

Compost

Regular Soil (with water on it)












Compost Soil! Rich and Luscious!













Our indoor garden!

Our Garden Plan- So we know what we planted, where!

Thursday and Friday Promotions in Kalamazoo and South Bend

These past two days Andra and I have been venturing out to promote IICDs open house on January 22nd and our programs in Kalamazoo, MI and South Bend, IN. The areas we focused on were the university's, libraries and local businesses.

The first day we went to Kalamazoo, it was a gorgeous city with three universities literally right next to each other. The biggest of the three is Western Michigan University and we spent nearly 2 hours around the campus posting at all the various kiosks outside and a little inside the building, but those weren't the prime spots. It was kind of miserable because it was below freezing and also because Andra gets below freezing around 60F and she's not a happy camper when she's cold at all haha.

I think one of the highlights was going to a local all Spanish shop and using the very little Espanol I know to ask "Donde esta la Biblioteque (Library)." Very gratifying. After that we posted nearly half the material in a local giant community college, there was nearly a board to post on every twenty feet.

Today was amazing as well. South Bend is a beautiful city but a bit banky and suity if you know what I mean. But even though it was mula snob heaven there was some sincere looking places we went into to talk with the employees and post our materials. A few coffee shops , some restaurants and a little Irish bookstore in which we purchased a few old cheap books mostly which discussed the theories of Herr Charlie Marx.

The highlight though was going to Notre Dame University, my god it was so beautiful it nearly made me want to go to church again!!! We spent nearly three hours promoting in all the buildings, site seeing and taking pictures (which should be up). At one point we walked into what seemed to be the mother ship of all the structures, with gorgeous gothic architecture with a giant gold dome and a golden maiden mounted on the nipple of the golden breast. Inside there was a celebration, not sure what it was for. When we walked in there was murals on the walls depicting the savior and godfather of all humanity, Christopher Columbus (no sarcasm of course). Singing rang through the halls "all blah blah to the mountain over the hills and everywhere!" It was beautiful, it was a choir on the third floor of the innards of this mother ship. We entered into the festivities immediately and savagely tore through the amazing, delicious pigs in the blanket, fried chicken, fresh veggies and cold punch. We were starving to say the least. Then we went up the stairs, more food! Then up one more flight to the angels who bellowed out to the heavens! And guess what MORE FOOD!

It was a truly amazing day, I should say more but I'm very tired and need sleep. So until next time, solidarity towards all and to all a good night.

Update on the personal ban of High Fructose Corn Syrup

Oh goodness, what is there to say other than my idea of having 28 days of freedom from HFCS being in my body has utterly failed.
I mentioned in the blog post that I wrote when starting this challenge that one of the hardest yet still rewarding things was going to be having to read the labels of all of the food I eat. Well, I was right about this being a challenge- in numerous ways.
First of all, reading the labels of things that I was used to just consuming unconsciously was quite the task, one that I only remembered to do part of the time, rather than all of the time. For instance, I went and made a sandwich, and reached for the 100% whole wheat bread, feeling proud that I had chosen the healthy option and had so easily passed over the moist, soft white bread that was sitting next to it. I ate my sandwich with enjoyment, confident that I was HFCS free with my turkey and cheese. I was happy in my ignorant bliss until someone pointed out to me that my lovely sandwich did in fact have high fructose corn syrup in it, and it came in my delicious whole wheat bread!
Of course it does. I should have remembered that if its processed and prepackaged, it usually contains HFCS, even if it is something we wouldn't consider a "sweet" food.
The second challenge occured when I went to restaurants or when I am not the one preparing the meals (which is quite often since we all take turns cooking). In these situations I am not in control of what ingredients get put into a dish, and therefore I have no way of figuring out if HFCS snuck its way in to the meal while I wasn't looking. There is really not much to do about this one, unless you can somehow ensure that the kitchen in which your meals is being prepared doesn't contain any processed foods which, in this day and age, is nearly an impossible task unless you don't ever eat out, and unless you have 100% control of the food shopping and have time and money to dedicate to making it possible.
There are still some positive changes that have come out of this, so let's try to look at the glass that's half full:
I have become, and am still becoming more aware of things I am putting in my mouth, and how they effect how I feel and how my body functions differently depending on what I provide it with.  I have been reminded of how delicious (and nutritious) REAL bread is, and I have saved a lot of money by trying not to eat out.
This adventure still continues, as I try to feed my body and soul with things that will support its healthy functioning and its ability to thrive, not just survive.

Busy Bees!

That's what we have been for the past week- busy, busy bees. So, here's little update on what we have been doing!

Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday we hosted a Development Conference, where the IICD Massachusetts school came here to IICD Michigan and we had two days full of presentations, workshops, etc.

The main purpose of the conference was to evaluate the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN. We had presentations about each of the eight goals and how far we (the world) have come in trying to meet them, and how far we still have to go. Here is a link to the website so you can check it out-

 UN Millennium Development Goals

It was great to see that there are goals set to try to overcome the lack of basic needs and rights that exist all over the world, however, you also have to look critically on the accomplishments that have been made and the accomplishments that have not been made. Some of the presenters did a great job at looking at the statistics the UN has provided and trying to figure out whether they are misleading, or why hasn't there been more progress made. The truth is, we have the money, the technology, and the resources to provide the whole world with food, clean water, health care, treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, etc. The problem is the willingness of those capable of providing all of these things, to do so.

We also had a great presentation from a doctor who worked in Africa for many years at one of the projects called TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) (you can visit the Humana People to People website to learn more about this project ). Because it was World AIDS day, we did some educational activities around HIV/AIDS, and then she talked to us about her work in Africa. It was truly amazing to hear the statistics of how many people become infected each year, how many people die, and how successful this projects is in controlling the spread by getting people to get tested and getting the people who test positive hooked up with treatment and support.
Of the 33.4 million people that are living with HIV, 22.5 million of them live in Sub Saharan Africa. Africa has more than 14 million children that are orphaned because of HIV/AIDS, and 2.l children are infected themselves.
As part of the work they were doing, they started to breakdown the ingredients of the Antiretroviral medications, and after a lot of research they developed a mixture of aspirin, selenium, and vitamins, especially B. The Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory, and when a person had HIV, the body is fighting off infections, it produces the inflammation but when your body is constantly doing this, it can be really toxic. The Selenium controls cell division, and the B vitamins get used by the immune system to protect the cells.
They harvested plants that naturally contain these ingredients, including plants that contain salicylic acid, which is the active ingredient in Aspirin. They then dried them and made capsules. Because the access to Antiretroviral drugs is limited for these communities, they only give them to people who have AIDS, and those whose CD4 count is higher can take these capsules and it has been proven to extend their lifespan for 6 years.

We also had a presentation about the GAIA theory, and about environmental sustainability. The theory says that our biosphere and the physical components of the earth are closely integrated. It looks at symbiotic relationships that exist throughout the world, and how the earth maintains conditions for its own survival, just like the human body. The sun gets hotter every year, and yet the earth is able to maintain its temperature with natural processes- that is until us humans  disturbed this system. The earth is only able to combat half of the effects of what we attributing to through our use of fossil fuels. We then had a group discussion on what kinds of things we can do ourselves to become more sustainable, as well as things we can bring to our projects. The truth is, we have reached peak oil and although we won't run out soon, we are now on the last of the supply and our lives will have to change in order to accommodate. In the US, we consume 25% of the world's resources, and we only make up a little less than 5% of the world's population. We are so dependent on oil for so many things in our lives, and it is time to start facing the reality that we are the ones whose lives will change the most drastically without oil. We need to go backwards in time, in order to move forward. We need to start learning how to grow our own food, collect rain water, etc.


These were my personal highlights of the conference, although there was so much more information, and fun crammed into those two days. It was great to meet the participants at the Massachusetts school, and to come together as one unified movement to discuss the world's conditions and what concrete things we can do to contribute to its growth and development.

Here is our program for the conference, so you can see some of the other things we were doing:

The conference ended on Wednesday, and Thursday was spent cleaning and restoring our environment after the two busy days, and preparing for our next adventure of the week: heading to Detroit for a building weekend with Georgia Street Community Collective.

I believe I have mentioned GSCC in a previous blog post, I think to tell everyone to check out their website and blog because they do extremely amazing work. Mark, the founder, grew up in this neighborhood but moved away and then came back after ten years to a place with broken down homes, empty lots of land, and trash everywhere. The only place to get food within walking distance is a liquor store, and as people cut through these empty lots of land to get food, they left trash everywhere. So Mark took over these empty lots of land and put community gardens in, so as they walk to the liquor store to get food, they could pick some fresh produce to add to their meal. Now they have multiple gardens throughout the whole neighborhood, an orchard, a little playground, chickens, and even a goat. They also took over a foreclosed building and have been restoring to make a community center to have gatherings and events, classes, movie nights, etc. They also took over a foreclosed home and are turning it into a library and computer lab that the community can use.

A few weeks ago some of us went to Ann Arbor to raise money for GSCC to put in insulation in the community center for the winter, and this past weekend we went to help them put up the drywall. It was truly an amazing experience- not only did we learn how to do drywall and finished the entire building in those two days, including sanding and retouching, and re-sanding, but we did it for such a great cause. Being from the US, I hear so many things about Detroit and about how bad the conditions are there but I really couldn't have imagined the things I saw. It was really shocking to see so many broken down homes, some that people were still living in, and empty lots of land collecting piles of trash. It literally looked like a war zone.

There was a reporter from the Detroit Free Press there, following Mark around and taking pictures for a piece they are doing on the neighborhood. He told us that this neighborhood has the most homicides of anywhere else in Detroit, just within a few small blocks. We all left Detroit feeling like we had really worked hard for something really important, and that we wish we didn't have to leave yet.

I personally feel extremely passionate about this work- right before we left to come to Michigan, I had this epiphany idea of wanting to open a community center in really bad neighborhood and hold classes and have after school programs and community events- everything that GSCC is doing. I am so grateful to have been a part of that work, even for one day, and I really look forward to the work I do with them in the future.

So, I hope this gave you a little taste of what we have been up to the past couple of weeks, and why there have so few blog posts lately. More pictures will be posted soon, so check back!

We only have a couple more weeks before Christmas break, where we can go home and see our families for a few days and then when we return, we will be done with promotions and will officially start our team! Woo-hoo!

More to come soon! Happy snow days!

Andra

Thanksgiving in IICD

Yesterday was a wonderful day, full of community cooking and dancing especially by the Development Action team (Andra, Brian, Anna, Lilly, and our team leader Bia). There was two tremendous turkeys, green beans, stuffing, various Korean foods and every bit of it was scrumptious.

During dinner Andra started by recalling a family tradition where everyone around the table says what they are grateful for, obviously this was very heart warming especially because this Thanksgiving was also a celebration for the September Brazil/Belize Fight Poverty team that is leaving next week. Oh ya! Before dinner the the dining room was all decorated with candles and balloons (pictures will be up soon) and they formed a walkway to greet the September team to the dining hall. Upon there entrance the Africa team started singing "Hey Jude" it was so beautiful and sad *crying* haha.

After the dinner I presented the history of Thanksgiving. I only found out that I would yesterday so my preparation was very limited and I spent most of the day preparing for it (Below is a short outline of the presentation). It went very well. After that Trina (our Headmaster) gave a ten minute speech with song "Lean on Me" to tell the September Team that they could lean on IICD while there gone. Also that to make the best of their experience they need to throw themselves out of their comfort zone and into deep water to really learn, suffer with and help the community they will be living in.

It was a great experience but I missed my families very much. So I though this would be a great time to throw a shout out to the Winkler's who I know surely had a loud, exciting and loving Thanksgiving, it's always like that and something I love and miss very much. And to the Lowe's thank you for having me in your family, I love you all so much! I miss everyone, especially during the holiday's and I'm so happy I'll be there for Christmas!

I want to give a special shout out to my Auntie who has always been a shining light in my heart, thank you so much for sending IICD the cookies every person fully enjoyed them and the containers you sent them in are being put into use as we speak!

Below Thanksgiving Presentation Outline:

+Today’s Thanksgiving (tg) in middle class America- the tradition- the love and the misconceptions

A classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS_R8eL_7WM

Macys balloon tg commentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APjZtqmzY3o

+Traditional view on the origin of Thanksgiving

Bland stereotypical tg just about original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFDSobNnfQs

+Squanto and the Patuxet Extermination. 1605-1621

The Natives Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTuFKisYnm8&feature=related

+Some Comic Relief

Immigration with our founding illegals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJKpNlw0ef8&feature=related

+A Freedom Fighters words from Prison

Leonard Statement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s49BeBKMGoI

My Article About Serving Community Lunch in Dowagiac

Here it is, we will also be posting the actual newsletter when it is done. You can find past newsletters on the bottom of the right column under Further Reading.

At IICD, we spend a lot of time learning about the countries we will travel to and how we can help the communities we will be working with while we are there. We also recognize, however, that much help is needed in the communities here in the U.S. We have built relationships with many non-profit organizations that are doing truly amazing work in areas like Detroit, and we have also just teamed up with another great project happening right here in our town of Dowagiac.


A few of the local churches have come together and started offering free lunches to the community. They all pitch in buying the food, hosting the event, and securing volunteers to run it. At the end of October we were invited by one of the members of one of the participating churches to come and help out for one of these lunches. A group of us volunteers got up early Saturday morning (our usual day to sleep in a little bit) and caravanned into town. We arrived at the small but sweet St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, ready to cook.

Although the desserts were cooked and brought in by various members of the church and some of the prep work was done ahead of time, it was up to us and some of the church volunteers to prepare the rest of the meal, serve it to the community, and clean up afterwards. We made scrumptious Sloppy Joes and vegetarian Sloppy Joes, a fresh salad with lots of vegetables, and french fries which we fried ourselves! Once the food was ready to be served, we had volunteers to serve each of the dishes, some clearing and resetting tables so that more people could come and eat, some that were responsible for bringing more food out as we ran out, and others to sort the recycling and trash when people were finished. It was quite the system, and a very successful one at that, thanks to all of the volunteers’ hard work and cooperation.

It was really an amazing thing to be a part of. The volunteers from the churches that were there were so nice and so grateful for us being there and we all worked really well together, despite not knowing one another and coming from different backgrounds. I think we all felt a sense of camaraderie and togetherness as we worked together to pull off this really important event. The people who attended the lunch were of all different ethnicities and backgrounds and ages, and it was really humbling and fulfilling to have the opportunity to offer something to them. We served over 100 people, not including the volunteers themselves, and for some it was probably one of the only meals they ate that day. It was really a great feeling to be able to be a part of providing a hot, complete meal to people, and then to be able to sit down and enjoy it with them, all together as a community.

I think all of us got a lot out of the entire event, even the long clean up at the end. This was the beginning of a new tradition for IICD and we will be continuing to help out with these community meals once or twice a month. It is so important to be a part of change all over the world, locally and abroad.

Water Tank Article Part 1

Below is my first article for the IICD Newsletter, and I'm sure Andra will post hers promptly:

Today the world’s resources are being depleted on a mass scale. Our reliance on electric and water companies to provide us with the resources we need to live takes away the need to rely on ourselves and our community, therefore depleting the important need to be self-sustainable. At IICD we are committed to sustainability and a healthy environment around the world and at our school, dorms and gardens in Michigan. With this mantra IICD Michigan has been recycling at home since its foundation and in neighboring states on a mass scale with clothes collection.

In this last year there has been a push to go farther and produce our own energy and to store natural rain water to feed our gardens. This first step is to build a water tank that will feed our garden which will then feed us and also our neighboring communities when we go to the farmers market. So below is part one of the steps we have taken to make this vision a reality.

At IICD we realize education comes from learning and doing, this is obviously very empowering and is the driving force in making change for yourself and the community you live in. So of course we as a community have been building this tank for nearly three weeks not including the tremendous effort it took to build a five foot deep hole in the ground which is also six feet wide. Currently we are nearly half way finished. The steps we have so far taken are as follows:
Building a wooden base whose purpose it is to hold the cement and also to hold the skeleton of rebar (metal poles) which strengthens the concrete walls (but that explanation will come later).
Bending and fitting sixteen rebar poles into L shapes. Then connecting the sixteen rebar’s with multiple rebar rings to strengthen and hold the form. After this was completed it looked like a mini prison cell.
Placing the wooden mold in the pit and fitting the rebar cage in the mold. This is when we started to mix the concrete and pour it into the hole, but just enough to where it didn’t surpass the top of the wooden mold.
The walls were the next step. This consisted of particle board cut into thirty-two pieces all eight feet tall by approximately six inches wide. We had to secure the boards together with U shaped nails and screws across metal strips. This reinforcement will be vital for when we pour the concrete into the wooden walls.
Our next step will be to build another wall but with less of a diameter which will be the inner wall, then the concrete will be poured, then the first tank will be finished!

Nearly everyone in the community has chipped in to build this great structure. The measurements and brains behind the operation has been from Anthony one of our teachers. We still have more to do and surely it will be covered in the next newsletter.

This tank is just one of two to be built until we can fully harness rain water to grow our vegetables. We should have the tank finished in a matter of a week or two and will not be able to start the next one until spring. Of course the winter won’t stop the activists at IICD from struggling to become more sustainable and the next project after the water tank will be to start to build our own SOLAR PANELS!!! Then GE will have to pay us for our energy!!!

Viktor's Conclusion (Power Point of his Belizean Mobilization)

Viktor's conclusion

View more presentations from brianwinkler87.

More Than Corn in Our Hair

Recently Brian and I watched a movie called King Corn. Its a documentary that I accidentally came across in IICD's movie library while I was trying to find Food Inc. The movie follows two young men who decide to grow an acre of corn to see first hand the process of corn farming and where the corn goes after  visiting a scientist who, after sampling a strand of each of their hair, finds that they are basically made up of corn. The movie discusses farm subsidies and the incredible amount of corn that is produced in this country. This large amount of corn is then used in, well everything. It goes to feed cattle which is bad for them and ultimately bad for us when we consume the meat. Beef that comes from cattle that is fed corn is around 9 grams of saturated fat where beef from cattle fed grass is 1.3 grams of saturated fat and ground beef or hamburger meat contains 65% of calories as fat.
A huge part of the corn produced gets processed into High Fructose Corn Syrup. This is made my breaking down the corn into practically nothing, adding a lot of dangerous chemicals, and coming out with a product that can be produced at really low cost, thanks to the subsidies that pay for this large amount of corn to be produced. It has no nutritional value, and is put in to so many foods. At one point the two men in the documentary go into a gas station and have a hard time finding a product that doesn't contain HFCS.
Most of the corn grown in this country cannot be consumed as it is, it has to be processed in order to be edible and it lacks many nutrients because it has been genetically modified to be grown in a certain way for a certain purpose.
I really recommend watching this movie yourselves, it is really enlightening and really well made.

Here at IICD, I have had so many conversations and so much education about food and nutrition and both Brian and I have been eating relatively healthy food, at least when we don't go out (fast food is bad!).
After watching this movie, and realizing how much corn is in everything we eat: meat, candy, crackers, soda, etc., I started to feel a little disturbed; I would like there to be more than corn in my hair!
So, I have decided to try to tackle this dilemma one step at a time, starting with the most evil form of corn: High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Starting today, Brian and I are going to try to go 28 days without eating anything containing HFCS. After watching this movie, we were both really disturbed by how much corn we consume without actually eating corn. We agreed that if we did the test on ourselves, we would really love for there to be more than corn in our hair. 
Because HFCS is in so many things and does nothing for you nutritionally, but does spike your blood sugar, eliminating this from our diets is a healthy decision. It is also a good way to consume less corn. It will be a challenging mission however, because HFCS is so many things, things we wouldn't even expect it to be in. This will force us to read the labels of foods carefully before we consume them and I hoping it will further enlighten us both about what we are putting into our bodies.
These days, its so easy to just pick something up and put into our mouths, not even questioning what is in it or what effect it has on us. We would love to invite anyone else who is interested in becoming more aware of what we are consuming and to try to eliminate some of this nutrient-free corn from our diets, to join us in this endeavor.I think it is so important to at least be conscious of what we are putting in our mouths!


Now, let's be clear- we are not eliminating sugar all together- we are only eliminating one type: High Fructose
Corn Syrup. If you do want to join in, lets share ideas with one another on how to satisfy our love for sweets with things made from real sugar or other sweeteners like honey, yogurt, or fruit.
I personally have been really hooked on dark chocolate- I love it because it actually has some health benefits to it, and I can eat one little square and be completely satisfied! I just bought a Pear and Almonds chocolate bar that is to die for! and no HFCS!

We will keep you posted on how it is going, and please let us know if you want to join in!

The Miracle of Google Translate, and its down falls.

The promotion room consists of our team leader Bia, Lauren who works here, Anthony and Mette the two teachers, and then the DAs ( those of us who got scholarships and are doing promotions to work them off). The two other promoters that we are working with are Ana Paula from Brazil and Lily (English name) from Korea. They also happen to be our suite mates and the two people I am closest too here at IICD, despite the fact that they speak very little English. Although they are learning and quickly improving, Ana and I especially rely on Google Translate to have conversations. We have had much success with this method, sharing about ourselves and our lives, discussing what brought us here, etc.
Ana has also become my work out buddy and we attend Anthony's hard core aerobics classes together on Thursdays and Sundays (there is one on Tuesday too but I miss it because of clothes collection). Last night when we returned to the school, I was trying to ask Ana if she still wanted to come to the class tomorrow(today). She said yes and then asked me a question which I didn't quite understand. So, we whipped our computers and turned to good ol' google to help us. When she typed her question in Portuguese, the English translation popped up next to it, asking something about if I wanted to be calm today. I asked if what she meant was if I wanted to just relax today, pressed translate, and got the most unexpected reaction.
"NO, NO Andra!!" Ana yelled. I was completely taken aback and right away I knew Google translate had let us down.  I still didn't know what I had just asked her but I was pretty sure that when I typed " do i just want to relax today? is that what you are asking?" that wasn't the same message that Ana received. We both started laughing, realizing that there had been a clear miscommunication and that whatever she thought I said to her wasn't what I meant.
Talita, another Brazilian who speaks pretty fluent English came into the room so Ana told her the message she received from me and boy did it change. Talita explained that Google had told Ana that I was asking if she wanted to come to bed with me. Not the message I intended.
We both laughed hysterically, and the rest of the people in the room joined us. I feel like we learned a valuable lesson: Although Google Translate helps in many situations, it cannot replace person to person to conversation, and that "direct" translations are not always so direct.
Thank goodness we all have a good sense of humor.

Where I Need to Be

These past few days have offered opportunities for some truly amazing conversations both between just Brian and me, as well as with some of the staff here at IICD. It has offered a much needed reflection of why I have ended up where I am right now. I don't say 'much needed' because I was doubting whether I should be here, but just the opposite of that- because I have been feeling that this is exactly where I should be.
It is really refreshing to be in an environment that promotes individualism but within a community- where people are appreciated for their own knowledge and ideas and talents and that everyone shares and contributes with everyone. No one is worried about protecting their good ideas out of fear of someone else making money off them, instead we all share and learn together as we do it. No one is exempt from hard work and yet by everyone contributing a little bit, we all  have plenty of delicious, nutritious food to eat, a beautiful building and campus that is becoming more sustainable and self reliant, and we are able to give so much to others.
Everyone is challenged physically, emotionally, intellectually, and in every other way you could possibly be challenged. And we all support one another in embracing those challenges, knowing this is the only way to learn, and to grow. This is truly an environment for thriving, not just living.
Its a challenge even to accept the challenges for what they are- to realize that even the littlest of things is truly an opportunity to change and to want that change. Change is almost always scary, and almost never easy. Every day I am here I feel not just accepting of these challenges but welcoming of them, wanting them, awaiting them, and to be so very thankful for them. Rather than avoiding certain situations and taking the route that is comfortable, I am searching for the unknown, for the things I have never tried and never wanted to try.


I found a spider smushed and stuck to the bottom of my foot, inside my sock that I had been wearing all day and laughed-yes laughed about it! In the same 24 hour period I had a huge wolf spider hitch a ride on my towel and join me in my shower, and tried to pick a scab off of Brian's back not realizing it was a tic, and then removed the tic, pulling it out and being painfully aware that it was a living thing that was half way inside of his skin and half out. Completely disgusting. I have had to cook meals for large groups of people who all have different tastes, being terrified of burning it, not making enough, making way too much, and making something completely disgusting.
One of the biggest challenges I have faced while being here so far is the constantly changing environment. Usually I am a little shy and reserved when I first meet people, and I look forward to spending time with them as a group and as individuals and that is when I become more confident, more comfortable, and start to open up and show more of who I am. Here, groups of people are arriving and leaving ALL of the time. The groups are always changing, not allowing me to do my normal adaptation routine. I am having to work on getting to a place where I can feel comfortable in all different groups with different dynamics, much faster than I am used to. Sometimes it is me and 5 Korean girls, or me and a bunch Brazilians- sometimes its a huge group and other times its only 3 or 4 people.
These situations also challenge me to face stereotypes-some that I knew I had, and others I am just now becoming aware of. This too is quite an interesting process. Often when I think of stereotypes it is a negative thing. There is good reason for this of course, because stereotypes are generalizations and you just can't put everyone into any one group. I thought that stereotypes were all bad, and therefore must all be wrong. While I don't want to generalize and I always want to remember that there are exceptions and contradictions to EVERYTHING in life, it is funny to come face to face with a stereotype, ready to move past it because I believe it must be false, only to find that it is actually true in many cases! It is then a whole other challenge to move forward with this finding in a compassionate, understanding, and loving way. This requires some processing of course.
There is really nothing routine or ordinary about the life we are living for the next year and not even two weeks in, I can tell that this will be an experience to remember.

GAIA Action Saturday

Today was the first GAIA Action Saturday(GAS) for myself and Andra. GAS is a day in which everyone in IICD works doing upkeep of the complex. For example today I helped with chopping up all the various goodies that go into compost, stacking and storing the picnic tables for winter and working on the water tank. Nothing is as satisfying for the soul as hard labor!

Once everything is finished the rest of the day is ours to work, play, explore or sleep. I think I will satisfy my needs by walking endlessly to wherever I please once I'm finished with this post.

Lately I have fallen in love with Woody Guthrie, he was a hobo, socialist, and known around the world for his most famous piece "This Land is Our Land". Below I will post some of my personal favorites. I think his music is inspiring and for those who are less educated in the history of the USA(not the slanted views we learn in primary school) it's important to listen and research into the struggles he sings about. We owe everything to those Americans that stood up, struggled, died or survived in the face of oppressive circumstances (and the few who still do or the youth that will in the future). Woody was a hobo and an American jewel who sung about those struggles. I plan to be a part of those few, I guess it's not a choice but a living consciousness that any critical individual can obtain on various levels when you open your mind to knowledge and the infinite ways of analyzing situations in the world. I'm going to work on a presentation to give to the school about this American jewel, I'll post the power point on the blog for the world to see as well.

It's nearly been two weeks since I arrived here! I've been leaning a lot about myself and my abilities. I really miss my family (Winklers and Lowes and all the doggies) and I can't wait to see everyone around Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDd64suDz1A&feature=BF&list=QL&index=21 (About Colorado strike)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbulO_FB2ZI&feature=BF&list=QL&index=19

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNKg54bvObQ&feature=BF&list=QL&index=4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcKwGS7OSQ&feature=BF&list=QL&playnext=1

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=EDS00Pnhkqk&p=C425022EBD3EACB0&playnext=1&index=4

Check it out!

Hey everyone! Check out the September and October Newsletters- they are posted under Links for Further Reading on the bottom of the right side.
Also, check out IICD's new website at http://www.iicdmichigan.org/
at the very bottom there is a logo that says GSCC- I HIGHLY recommend that you click on that link and visit the website. Its a non profit in Detroit that is doing some amazing work. IICD has a great relationship with them and we do volunteer work with them sometimes. I literally can't wait to go! there is also a music video posted on the left side of the page that was shot at the community garden and below it is the making of the music video which is really good too.
There is another logo that says YDB, click on that one too.
There is just so much good stuff!
Check it out!

More to come soon!

Clothes Collection

Brian and I have been given a new responsibility- doing the clothes collection for GAIA!
Every Tuesday for the next two months that we are here doing promotions for the scholarship we received, we will be in charge of collecting the clothes from all of the drop boxes and then taking them to the thrift store that buys them from us. Here is what the whole journey looks like:
Tuesday morning we leave by 7 am (we are going to try to leave by 6 because, as you will see below, its a LONG day and we want to finish earlier). We drive from our school to the GAIA warehouse in Chicago. From here we pick up the truck (pictures shown below, better ones to come after next week!) and the keys for all of the boxes and leave our van there. We then drive to Fort Wayne, Indiana and drive to, I believe, 28 locations where we have boxes and we empty the bags of clothes into our truck. A full box holds around 300 lbs. of clothes and at many of the sights we also have to pick up mattresses, couches, and even toilets that people leave there. We obviously can't use these but we have to take them with us and empty them into the dumpsters so we can keep the area looking clean.
After hitting all of the sights, we stay the night in a Motel 6 who we have a relationship with and who has agreed to give us a special rate of $35 a night. The next morning we get up and drive to Merriville Indiana, where we unload the bags of clothes into "skids", big cart things on wheels, at the second hand clothes store there. They weigh each skid and GAIA gets paid per pound of clothes. From here we have to drive back to Chicago to empty all of the trash we collected along the way and to return the truck. Then we take our van and drive back to the school.
This past Tuesday was our first run and we ended up leaving the school at 7:30 in the morning and didn't get into our room until 8:30 that night, and we didn't get back to the school until around 5:30 Wednesday evening so its a pretty long two days of work. It was pretty fun though and very satisfying. Its hard work throwing bag after bag into the truck and cleaning, etc. To give you an idea of how many bags of clothes we collect, this last trip our total weight was 4,800 lbs.
It was great to put in a good days worth of hard work, knowing it was for a good thing. The money that comes from this helps to keep the school running because the tuition we pay is so low and doesn't cover everything, and it also supports GAIA which works on sustainability in impoverished countries.
This time, because we had never done it before, Anthony came with us. It was really great to have someone sort of show us the ropes and all of the driving gave us a great opportunity to have some awesome conversations about the world, and about the organization and all of the work it does and the obstacles it has had/has to overcome.
It was a very successful trip and I think we are both excited to do it again next week!

IICD/HPP Program (Part 3)

Teachers in the Villages

Throughout Africa there are millions of children who don't attend primary school simply due to the fact that there isn't any to go to. In Mozambique, Angola and Malawi HPP has setup many schools for these children. Teachers who have gone through teacher training colleges get mobilized to areas in which there aren't schools to literally build schools from the ground up.

The teachers mobilize the surrounding community by starting classes with little material or funding. As students get organized and the community rallies to the call for knowledge everyone chips in to construct make shift schools and eventually progress to permanent foundations for schools. HPP wants teachers to create their own development which is the mantra that is eventually passed on through example into the community.

Teachers use the Modern Determination Method(MDM) to teach the school children. MDM consists of three parts: Studies-tasks are given to students that are designed by the teacher (2/4 of the school day), Courses- teacher led sessions (1/4 of the school day) and Experiences- formulating the individual students thoughts and feelings (1/4 of the school day). MDM's mission is to teach the student to be the creator and produce of her/his development.

The Daily Doings at IICD

Here is a little glimpse of what our daily schedule is like:



Monday-Friday we have breakfast at 8 am, Saturday is at 9, and Sunday we have brunch at 11.
 
At 8:30 During the week we have morning program- each of the team leaders and teachers take turns with this and they cover various topics. On Fridays instead of having a presentation, we have a community meeting. This is where we figure out who is doing what for school Friday and address any questions, debates, issues, or suggestions that pertain to the whole community.
 
At 9:30 we do MOBS- I am not sure what this stands for but basically it is 30 min of cleaning. Everyone gets assigned a task for the week from cleaning the bathrooms, or the classrooms, to tending to the garden or emptying the compost pile.
 
At 10 on Monday-Friday is work time and this lasts until 1. On Saturday is GAIA day, where we work on things for the environment or to make our buildings more efficient and sustainable.
 
At 1 we have lunch everyday and afterwards we go back to work until 5. On Friday's we have school days where we work on projects to fix up the school. this takes place in the after lunch instead of the usual work time.
 
At 5 work time is over and we have Sports time, basically it is free time but sometimes Anthony, one of the teachers holds aerobic classes and if its nice people go outside and play soccer or basketball.
 
A 7 we have dinner and then we have an evening program which can be a movie or documentary, language classes, a debate, or just free time.
 
Sundays are our free days!! Woo-hoo! Groups can suggest different activities and go out to a movie, or out to eat, or whatever people want to do!
 
 
So, are you confused and/ or overwhelmed?? ME TOO! I'm sure by next week I will be a little more used to it but there are CONSTANTLY changes to this schedule. For instance, this week, we had community meeting today instead of tomorrow and Saturday we are going to a local church to cook and serve food to the homeless community rather than doing the GAIA day. I am looking forward to this activity- I am going to be writing an article about it for the November newsletter! Brian will be writing an article in the newsletter as well so we will be sure to post it on here once it comes out!