You should have a boda-boda driver in your "top five" and other things I learned today 8/17/09

There is a point in any new experience where you feel relaxed enough to ease up a little without feeling comfortable. It’s after you pass the point of feeling like you’re not in control or could lose it at any second. Then, before you get to the point of comfort and are acclimated, you hit that stage where you get a little confidence, feeling like you can handle the challenges and you may actually like not knowing what’s coming! THAT is where I am and I love it!

I know enough to be ready for some really sad mornings hearing from concerned HIV positive clients worried about their children when they are gone or getting enough to eat. I know to expect hugs when I walk into the orphanage and to see kids playing with a few bricks, a stick and a mesh cage having as much fun as a little American boy who just got a new remote controlled car. I also know at all times where my flashlight, phone, and keychain light are so when the power goes out or my boda driver makes a wrong turn on the way back, I’m going to be able to see what I am putting into my bowl for dinner and skip over the giant pothole filled with mud walking towards my home.

(Photo: A fruit stand near my home. I learned you don't need a lot of anything besides creativity when it comes to entrepreneurship!)

What I don’t know are things like how to best help all the people I meet so obviously in need or even when I do, how to get the results I want! I still don’t know which store within two miles sells diet coke or where I can buy peanut butter and I also don’t know how in the world I am going to wash the pee out of my jeans from the pantsless twins at the orphanage staging a sneak attack before I could hand them off to someone else!

“Knowledge is Power” but it can also lead to settling. Settling for being comfortable rather than pushing yourself to the next challenge. Since I view myself as slightly lazy or complacent, I try to keep myself in a place where I am forced to learn new things every day!

A few things I learned today:

Wasuze otya means “good morning” when you don’t want to say oli otya which is “how was your night?” This is super useful when you are just passing someone who you don’t want to stop and converse with but you don’t want to ignore either. I learned this from Derrick’s 3 year old daughter. Technically I learned it 3 days ago but I just got what she was finally saying to me every morning.

A charcoal stove that is big enough to make chapatti costs less than the pan that goes on top. I bought a small stove today for the woman I want to help start a chappatti stand for herself. She needs to generate enough income to support caring for her grandsons and hopefully be able to visit her brother in the hospital. Even with bargaining, I only managed to bring down the price of the pan 500USH and it was STILL more than the stove!

I don’t like noodles for dinner. Or lunch. Or really ever. I have had enough noodles to sustain whatever part of my brain would ever crave them for years.

I really like the kids at the orphanage.

I also have favorites; Carlos, the kid who for whatever reason loves Spanish and wants to learn. I teach him a few words every time I come and he knows them the next day. He’s also really smart in general and just an overall great kid. Vic, whose real name is Victoria and whom everyone else calls Victor (because that’s somehow more girly than Vic?!?) or Victoria even though she likes Vic. Vic it is for me! Rebecca because she’s just really smart and I am so impressed with how eager she seems to learn. John Bosco because he’s three and the chillest three year old I have ever met. Plus he played catch with me. And his name is John Bosco. And finally the little Rachel (there are 2) who is the cutest kid ever. So sweet and adorable!

(Photo: Carlos, one of my favorites asked me to take his picture "looking smart")

Apparently you can tie a string around a finger and it will fall off. At least that’s what is happening at Bbiri clinic.

You can use a fork for anything. That includes making eggs, opening cans of instant coffee and later as the utensil to stir the muck up in the bottom of your cup.

And finally- it is good to make nice with at least one boda-boda driver. Geoffrey is now a valued contact saved to my phone. Even though the first time we met, he started asking me if I knew Jesus WHILE driving and WHILE turning around to hear my answers, he gives me a fair mzungu price to the orphanage and back everyday. Now, I no longer have to “compromise” with the others where they look at me straight in the eye and try to charge me 4 times what a local pays. Please.

All of these pieces of knowledge have different shelf-lives for usefulness but I still love knowing that I learned them!

(Photo: Brooke using a tupperware container as her "cup" and a fork as her "teaspoon" makes for some decent morning coffee!)

"You are doing WHAT!?" The explanation.

This post will (hopefully) provide a brief rundown of how I got to this moment and why I am heading to Uganda. I usually have a great memory when it comes to faces and stories I hear but the difficulty lies in placing what story went to whom. If you know me well, you have probably had more than one experience where I excitedly recant a "story I've heard" only to realize I am actually telling you YOUR story. Seriously this happens. I also have this problem when talking about my own experiences. I forget who knows what and again, MANY times I have had to apologize to somebody for failing to inform them of something kind-of significant like, "oh, I am moving to a foreign country" whereas somebody else has had the misfortune of hearing the same thing numerous times. "Oh my gosh I really love this one restaurant named 100 Montaditos. They have great food, it's cheap and...oh, I told you that already? 3 times? Oh. Well I really like it!" Thank you sufferers for your attentiveness to my 10-year old enthusiasm for small things like this.

So now I don't have to remember who I told what to. READ IT. Or don't. But here it is!

About a year and a half ago, I was working for Chrysler with no idea of exactly what I wanted to do other than that I had a huge passion for traveling due to previous short trips abroad. I also realized that during these trips, my favorite moments were ones where I learned about the people of the country and saw places that were not always considered tourist hot-spots. For example, while I was not able to spend a semester abroad due to basketball, I was extremely fortunate to visit Lebanon with my Uncle, cousin and some extended family after my senior year of college. That visit had a profound affect on me. I got to experience the real Lebanon. We did not stay in a hotel or hang out at the clubs in Beirut. We stayed in a small village which on the day we arrived, was in mourning over a young soldier killed in a helicopter crash. Of course they were happy to see us but they also were living their lives. I loved not receiving the fake reception smile or the brochure display to guide you on "what to see." I also remember driving (and driving is a kind word for what we did. Some of my extended Lebanese family sincerely believe they are of the same caliber as Dale Earnhardt.) through the towns seeing the different political banners and signs of strongly divided beliefs. One day we even had to leave early from a day trip visiting ancient ruins due to a firefight not too far away. Basically, I saw a beautiful country with incredible people whose suffering was still very apparent from their occupation by Syria 15 years before and their current struggle with Hezbollah. And most prominent in my mind was watching the news the week we returned and seeing the Beirut airport engulfed in flames. It had been bombed to bits. It really angered me. So many good people having to live their lives in fear and worry trying to survive. They are the same as Americans; hoping to improve the lives of the next generation but facing setback after setback. I knew then that I had a more specific desire than just traveling. I wanted to travel to see the REAL issues and areas of the world. I wanted to learn about why people and areas are they way they are today. That or be the next Indiana Jones. Jury is still out.

Another passion that probably helped in this pursuit is my love of history. I was the nerdy girl in school reading the "We Were There" series. For those of you who don't know these books (so basically probably anyone who reads this as incredibly, cool people will still hang out with me) it's a series of stories about different defining moments in history where they stick to factual events but fictionalize the account using little kids as the main characters. I don't think you will ever meet someone who wanted to be little Suzie tending wounds to the poor dying soldiers at Gettysburg more than me. (Is that the sound of "unfriending" via Facebook I hear?) 

Regardless of my odd childhood aspirations, I think everyone can understand a lot about the current economic/global turmoil if you know a little bit about the history behind it. It's amazing that as insane or incomprehensible as some "reporters" (read: television personalities) like to claim situations and groups of people are, if you understand the road leading to some desperate acts of today, you begin to see that awful as they are, they are not all acts designed by people who just don't like McDonald's or bikinis on the beach. A "Let's kill 'em" mentality will not solve the problem. I could go on forever about this...

Ok. So I started to realize in order to work overseas and get the opportunity to travel, it just miiight be beneficial to know a little bit of another language. Profound, I know. I just didn't know HOW to do it. That brought me to how I ended up in Spain. I originally planned to make a quick stop here to get TEFL certified (TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and then head to China to do 6 months-1 year as a teacher absorbing the culture and picking up some Mandarin. However, I also realized how important spanish will be/already is in the U.S AND I was able to find work in the summer right away. So with that, Madrid, Spain became my new home. 

The photos: Camp #1 in Cartagena, Spain. My friend Daniel as a "teacher" last year at a summer camp. This photo is NOT doctored or set-up. This is a true action shot of these kids at their feeding time like sharks around fish guts. Waiting to get into Terra Mitica, a theme park, they noticed he had galletas (cookies) and literally swarmed him. He just put up his arm with the cookie and the kids acted like he had Miley Cyrus tickets in his hands.

The second photo is camp #2 in Leon, Spain. As teachers, this was part of our required attire when we took the kids on a main road to the craft center (read; Local bar...I'm not kidding.) To my right are 2 other teachers, Amy and Sara. Sara and I clearly have different opinions when it comes to camp uniform...

The experience teaching here has allowed me to add another thing to my list of jobs I believe everybody should experience at one time in their lives. Teaching kids. When I say teaching kids

I don't mean play with kids or babysit them. I mean, put them in a classroom with all their boogers, pockets stuffed with "secret snacks" and cooties and try to teach them something. Something is really generic. That is on purpose. Try to teach them anything, anything at all. The best part? Just for fun, add to the mix that you can't understand a word they say...and vice versa. This is how I started my life in Spain. 

This is not for the weak-hearted. If I was completely unconcerned about becoming a social pariah, I would go up to any teacher I saw for children ages 4-8, put my arm on theirs and say, "Bless You" and walk away. I have only decided against this because I manage to put myself in enough awkward situations as it is without planning them.

While this "work" thing took up most of my time in Spain, I can't complain as it was completely my choice. You can absolutely make a living as a teacher and live rather comfortably doing a lot less but I knew I wanted to do some volunteer work and this costs money. Again, through hours of research I was quickly frustrated to find how expensive it is to be a volunteer. I felt extremely skeptical and realized I was really going to have to investigate to find a company or opportunity that had the right intentions. I also made the decision I did not want to go with a group which had a religious or spiritual agenda. Nothing against this type of work, I actually have several family members who have done things like this. However, I felt it was important for me to have no agenda whatsoever other than to do what would best help already active operations. I will be a blip in these people's lives and so I wanted to contribute to sustainable and ongoing processes without trying to introduce my own. I think if someone comes in with an education and relatively speaking, a lot of money, people will tend to agree or support whatever endeavors are attempted regardless of the effectiveness or long-term feasibility.

This is where GVN, Global Volunteer Network entered my life. www.volunteer.org.nz -check it out! Right away, they stood out. This was the only company I saw with a security deposit they were willing to pay back in full should you choose to cancel. They had a very easy to navigate webpage and they are endorsed by one of the greatest philanthropists in the world, Bill Gates. BGates? I was hooked. I sent a few questions in an email and the next day got a response. I started to get more excited and got serious about looking at their programs. There were a few things I was looking for specifically. I knew I wanted to work with people and I also wanted to go somewhere different and difficult. A lot of people have raised a GREAT point about how there are countless opportunities to volunteer in my own neighborhood. Detroit area? Really? I don't know guys, rumor has it that it's America's secret paradise... RIGHT so to that voice of reason I say I completely agree. I think it's essential to be supportive of your community and I think it is no more or less important what you do if you are doing something. However, not many people have the time or ability to go far. Things like mortgages, car payments, pets, children, or pets you treat as children sometimes make it much more convenient and practical to help out only in the neighborhood and do something like coach a youth team or have a recycle day. Or, one I hold in high regard and wish more people volunteered to do; picking up the dog poop (or bowel movements if you are Kirk Goddard)  left on the sidewalks by bad owners. That is truly an act of valor, ugh. 

For me, I think I am in a unique position where with my background in teaching and my willingness to adjust with frequent changes, I can hopefully make a positive impact during my experience in Africa. I am not naive enough to believe my being there will solve the problems of Uganda or perhaps even make a dent...right away. I believe the important thing is to do everything and anything I can while I am there to help. More importantly will be educating myself and others on the situation and perhaps get some ideas on igniting and bringing about change. By relaying the information back to the incredible people who will (hopefully!!) have a greater interest, I think it will encourage others to become aware of issues outside of previous knowledge learned from watching Amazing Race or Survivor. (I am pretty sure there are no hidden immunity idols but I will definitely let you know) THAT will be the difference. And finally, I am confident my home city of Royal Oak and the city of Detroit will be able to drastically improve because of the incredible people inside their city limits. There are enough incredible people who care and will provide verbal and financial support to bring about positive change. Luckily for me, I even know some of these people personally who have already made some incredible efforts and have inpired me! However, I am not so sure about the Wasiki District in Uganda. There financial resources and educational access are severely limited. Somebody may need to give them a little help and that's where I hope to help!

To summarize if you don't feel like reading the whole post, I challenge you to find someone who does not come away with a feeling of self-worth or gratefulness after doing any type of volunteer work. I have honestly never met someone in my life who walks away thinking, "well that was a waste of time I could have spent with my Wii." I am going about the volunteer route perhaps a little differently but with the same objectives as the volunteer collective. I hope to help others, help myself,  and in turn, pull the whole 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon thing where I know somebody who knows somebody and good acts contribute to more good acts...Since that explanation was terrible, I am posting this video that shows exactly what I hope to be a part of but does it a lot better than my own words.

Yeah. It's awesome. 

You know we are still in "La Crisis" when...

After arriving back to Madrid on Saturday night, I was completely moved out of my apartment by 2:00pm Sunday afternoon and on a train to Valencia with the world's largest suitcase of clothes summing up my last year of life.

Before I get into the title of this blog, I have to describe the life of a Spaniard. Now everyday, just like in the U.S, there are huge articles in the paper about the poor economy. Although I don't watch it, I believe it is a safe assumption to believe it's an important topic on the T.V. People are REALLY hurting here and there is a lot problems especially in the construction business, previously Spain's lucrative sector. However, if you were a tourist that decided to only check out the night life in a major city or actually, ANY city at all, you would never know there was a crisis hitting the world. Tapas and beer are what Coke and pizza are to an American; when all else fails, you don't give that up. The streets are always crowded with people and life is good. Sights like these lead me to my reoccurring thoughts of, "how do they afford this? Where are they cutting back?" Well, I have found the answer.

Back to my trip to Valencia. I took the Renfe which is the longer distance train service out of Madrid.  I can't remember the last time I was on a long train ride and I really liked it. There is a restaurant in the train where you can go and read the paper, order food and drinks, and talk with other people at the bar, charming. Now everyone is likely familiar with the massive cuts made in air-transit i.e paying for your softdrinks and even perhaps the little pack of peanuts! And of course, the brilliant executive from I believe Ryannair who wants to have pay-to-use toilets. Right. Clearly crisis mode. Keeping this is mind, I found it absolutely amazing as well as a clear indication of our current situation when near the end of the trip having been provided nothing for free, I see a train attendant (uh is that correct, an attendant?) with a big smile coming up the aisle with a basket in his hand. Awesome. I am hoping its a bag of pretzels and literally everyone is awake and waiting in the cabin. I see him handing out small gray packets that MUST be a chocolate or a mint since they are so tiny. Oh if we were only so lucky. This man has the audacity to pass out A (please annunciate the singular "A") jellybean. A jellybean. One. In plastic wrap. I also think it is important to note that this was not a large bean NOR an exclusive brandname like JellyBelly. No this was A (again, please emphasize the "A" to get the full effect) generic brand jellybean. It had to cost more to package them than the actual making of the bean. I attached a picture just so you can see what the crisis has done to the poor public transit system of Spain. Clearly, they are in a tough spot.

Anyways, arriving in Valencia was great. Currently I am working as a basketball coach for children at an English camp. Suffice it to say, this is the most fun and easiest work I have had in well, forever! I love it and I get the weekends off! This is also a great way to save up for my trip because included in this job is free room and board. I don't make a lot of money but all the money I make essentially can go towards things I need like oh...life-saving vaccinations for myself (still need the rabies shot) and contributions to enhance the lives of the people I will be working with. I am thankfully able to spend a little time now organizing and reading ahead for what I will be doing/experiencing and all I can say is, I continue to feel so fortunate to have the things I do. Even more importantly, the supportive people! There is a really incredible video online passed along to me by several people and I want to attach it as well. It's about empowering one girl and the effects it can have on an entire village and maybe even a greater area. Girls have proven to be the most powerful agents of change in the developing world if given a chance to receive an education. If you have a few minutes, it is definitely worth watching!

If thats lucky...

Today I quite possibly became the luckiest girl in Madrid. I'll explain; apparently there is a saying that if you get crapped on by a bird you are supposed to have good luck. Teaching English sidebar; Crap = "stuff" but be careful, it can also mean SHIT!" Yes, I took that verbatim from a lesson plan today about getting "stuff done."

Anyways, I am waiting for the local English second-hand bookstore to open to sell back my

 teaching books and with that money and 

generous donations from my friends and family, buy some books for the kids! As I am sitting on the bench, I literally hear what could have been a roar from the God's above my head. Well, that "roar" turned out to be a shower of shit that literally pounded the pavement in front of me like someone threw a large bucket of water over the side of their window TEN STORIES UP, no lie. Let's just say my bag, shoes, jeans and half the bench could now go back 20 years to the 80's and match the paint splattered style that I hope to God will never be cool again. That or we could have gone to Green Bay, Wisconsin where every person there has a pair of those outrageous pants in green and yellow to support their precious Packers. This was serious. Acting casual (per usual) I walked up to an elderly couple who were also waiting for the store to open and asked for some tissues. Keep in mind, I am speaking in spanish and I am so flustered I said "una pareja" pooped on me rather than "un pajero." Basically I think they thought I had just been seriously wronged by my boyfriend. Oh well.

On the bright side (right) that is the SECOND time in a month I have had a bird's poop land on me, the first being DURING a class on my head...true story. For those of you keeping track of my luckiness, add another time this year where a bird pooped on my jeans and finally several years ago while rollerblading in "mid-blade" a bird managed to find me. Seriously, I am set for life. I hope they decide to bless someone else as much as they have so kindly taken to me.

All this is before the most important part of my day and that was getting the COOLEST books for the kids in Uganda. Take a look at the pictures; I got a 3D Dinosaur book that blew me away. This book kept ME occupied for 10 minutes so I can only hope these kids will never put it down! I also believe I bought every single book with a person on the cover who was African-American (ok so that was 4 books) as I think it is important to have kids relate to characters in a story. 

I got to thinking about how children "relate" to characters in books and need role models when I started searching through the shelves for cool books to bring. I never thought about it and I bet you haven't either but next time you go to the bookstore, pretend you are shopping for a small child in Africa who has no concept of "mega-stores" or malls and relates the term fast-food to the animal he just couldn't catch for dinner. Now try picking out books that this child will find relevant, interesting, and helpful. It was a lot harder than I thought! It was a moment where I felt really grateful for what I had and I remembered all of my favorite books when I was growing up. I was obsessed with Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, and Babysitters Club. NONE of those books have any relevance to a child's life when growing up in a developing country with relatives because he/she was orphaned due to AIDS. That was a really unexpected moment for me that I think will occur a lot more frequently once I am there when it comes to appreciating my good fortune to be born in the U.S. I guess I am the luckiest girl...

To end the post, I had my final class with the 2 cutest little kids I teach, Javi and Luisa. Luisa just turned 6 and I guess she feels that when you turn 6, you are 1. too cool for pictures and 2. much too cool for English class! Fortunately, I managed to sneak a few pictures with her in them and attached one. Their mother, Marisa has been my spanish teacher when I have time on Saturdays and I will really miss their family! Muchisimi gracias para todos Marisa y bueno suerte con tu hija "super guay"