Global Young Leaders Conference Europe

This summer, I spent three weeks working as a Faculty Advisor for the Global Young Leaders Conference, a fantastic organization that works to install international leadership skills in youth. GYLC brings together outstanding young scholars from round the world for a 12 leadership conference; in their European conference, scholars visit Vienna, Prague and Budapest. Students take in an evening of international music in Vienna, enjoy a Hungarian puszta, take a dinner cruise on the Vlata River in Prague and visit the Mauthausen Concentration camp; students also hear all while hearing from learning speakers in the international community and conduct Model United Nations during the conference.

Hurricane Katrina--Three Year Anniversary

As Hurricane Gustav threatens the Louisiana coast, New Orleans residents find themselves battling flashback to Hurricane Katrina. On this day three years ago, nearly 25,000 people found themselves trapped at the Louisiana Superdome without food, water or shelter and in squalid conditions. Another 15,000 were stranded in similar conditions several blocks away at the Convention Center (Michael Brown, acting FEMA director, would not even know about the horrific conditions there until tomorrow). Refugees, desparate for food and water, attempted to flee New Orleans by walking across the Crescent City Bridge to Gretna; one that bridge they were met by an armed police force who fired shots and forced them to turn back into the hellish conditions from which they came.

But today marks the three year anniversary. The city has attemped to move beyond the tragedy of three years ago, but results are mixed. Some neighboorhoods have rebuilt and regained their population. Others, such as the Lower 9th ward, remain vast wastelands with only a handful of brave residents.

The New York Times, in yesterday's edition documents the checkerboard-like post-Katrina recovery with an excellent interactive article.

"The Patchy Return of New Orleans: A walking tour of three neighborhoods last month offered a glimpse into the uneven nature of post-Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts throughout New Orleans. Though in some estimates the city may have recovered up to 70 percent of its population, about 65,000 residences – more than a third of the total – remain blighted."

On my recent trip (mid-June) to New Orleand, these photos were shot in the Lower 9th ward. They document the same checkerboard effect the New York Times noted in their article.

There are still miles to go before this city returns to pre-Katrina strength. As Gustav prepares to strike the northern Gulf Coast, one can only hope that New Orleans is spared the same onslaught it suffered nearly three years ago to the day.

An Amsterdam New Years!

One December 29th I landed in Amsterdam for a quick trip, just in time for New Years festivities.

A New Years in Amsterdam!




Places Visited: Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Brussels and Bruges.

Iceland, December, 2007

On December 26th I set off on a 11 day excursion through Western Europe. Icelandic Air allows free stopovers in Iceland, so I landed in Reyjkavik with only 48 hours to see and learn about Iceland. The four things very visitor must do: 1) See the Northern Lights 2) swim in the geothermal pools 3) tour the Golden Circle and 4) experience the Runtur. I did it all.

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Get your own

Iceland Travel Tips:
1) Be Prepared: Iceland is *expensive* by backpacker standards. A slice of pizza? $8.00. A beer? $15.00. Dorm bed: $40. The airport shuttle? $25. Gallon of gas? $8.There are no cheap-eats, no place cheaper to sleep. Just prepared yourself, mentally and financially.
2) The hostel is on the outskirts of town, a far distance from the active downtown area. There are few things nearby.
3) This is Iceland's Friday-night version of Mardi Gras. The Icelandic youth head to friends' houses for a pre-party drinking celebration, then totter down to the locals bars around midnight. The party continues well into the morning, possibly 6 or 7am or so, when the drunken youth head home. The streets are packed as hundreds of individuals drunkenly stumbled from the bars. Then runtur was in full force as I stood, bleery-eyed, in front of my hotel at 5AM Saturday, awaiting my airport shuttle. And this goes on every single Friday, making Iceland one of the hottest party spots in Europe.

Travel Tips: Nicaragua

Part of the reason I started this blog was to provide travel advice on countries I have visited. Part 1: Nicaragua

Nicaragua: TRAVEL TIPS


Backpackers and tourists are just beginning to explore Nicaragua. Last year (2006) , for the time in country's history, tourism was the highest producing economic sector. Here are a few travel tips:


Best Guide Book: Moon Handbooks Nicaragua (2005) by Randall Wood and Joshua Berman. Both are former Peace Corps volunteers who have extensive knowledge of the country . Lonely Planet El Salvador/Nicaragua gleams over valuable information and offers mediocre travel itineraries. Take the good travel book with you!

Budget for backpackers:
Hostel/Hotel: $7 to $10 a night
Food: $3/meal
Bus tickets: $2 for a 3 trip

Suggested Itineraries/Highlights (3 weeks):

• Granada! Beautiful colonial city. Allow two days. Food? Check out Telepizza (calzones are only $2.25). Hostel? Try Monkey Hut
• Isla de Ometepe: two active volcanoes to hike.
• San Juan del Sur: southern Pacific beach town
• Leon: Granada's colonial rival and located in the northwestern corner of Nicaragua
• Esteli: the third-largest city, located in the northern highlands, has a progressive feel and is a great hopping off point for the Nicaraguan mountains
• Selva Negra, the ecotourism farm in Nicaragua rainforest
• Corn Island, located off the Atlantic coast, has a British/Creole influence. It's like a mini-Jamaica in Nicaragua.

Managua: A quick word of advice. There is a great deal to see and do in Nicaragua and would advise leaving Nicaragua's capital as soon as possible. Managua makes up for its' few tourist sites by offering massive amounts of urban sprawl and crime. From the airport, it is possible to take taxis directly to bus stations. Avoid Managua, if at all possible.

Buses: The bus system is cheap and relatively efficient. Express buses are usually charter buses; second class buses are usually discontinued American school buses. Bus schedules are not posted; just ask the locals.

Border Crossings: Unless you are extremely versed in immigration procedures or hold a high degree of Spanish, I highly recommend taking the TicaBus between countries. Its employees cross borders daily and are familiar with border-crossing procedures; this allows for an efficient and speedy exit and entrance. The TicaBus runs daily between Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Volcan Masaya

Volcan Masaya is a dormant volcano on the outskirts of Manuaga. It towers over the countryside and can be seen for miles. The volcan spews out massive amounts of sulfuric gas which can be seen for miles.

Chontales, Nicaragua

Recently I traveled to the department of Chontales for a five day visit to a current Peace Corps Environmental Education volunteer. Chontales is a beautiful, mountainous region that is known for cows and cowboys, and ouijada cheese A few photos from my trip.

Juigapla is the capital of the department of Chontales; it is roughly three and a half hours from Managua. The journey bus ride costs rougly $2.

The Rock of Cuapa is a rare tourist destination in Chontales; be prepared for a long, hot, rolling walk across the Nicaraguan countryside. This is a remote area of the country with beautiful hills and mountains.

Women´s Rights

The roles of women in Nicaragua

Nicaraguan women face a number of difficulties. Gender roles and stereotypes are very prevalent in this country, and women are often treated as second-class citizens in this society. Machismo rules and women often lose.

Men are the breadwinners of the family, while women´s roles tend to be inside the home. the daily lives of amas de casa )housewives) consist of cleaning, hand-washing clothes, cooking, helping children with homework and tending to the needs of their husbands. Sons are encouraged to participate in activities outside the home while daughters are expected to be take a family position similar to their mother´s role. For these daughters, when they attempt to move beyond their assigned gender roles, they are chastised with a ¨You can´t do that.¨ This passive rearing discourages many girls from attending school and exploring the greater world.

In addition, 75 percent of Nicaraguan women are single mothers. Many men are farm-laborers who spend many months away from home. Other men seek work in nearby Costa Rica or attempt to illegally immigrate to the United States in hopes of finding a well-paying job. Over a 1 million Nicaraguans work in Costa Rica and the United States. These forces the separation of many families in Nicaragua and women are left raising children on their on. In addition, it is not unusual for men to have children with a number of women. A man may take a wife and have a family but also maintains a number of girlfriends and mistresses. This family structure is often acceptable by women and encouraged by men.

Also, few economic opportunities outside the home exist for women. Many are wholly dependent on men for their economic livelihood. Those that do work often run pulperias...mini-convenience stores, baking or vending items. All decisions concerning money are made by men. It is not unusual for a father to head to a bar after work and leave his family home alone. Alcohol abuse is rampant in Nicaragua. In addition, social norms dictate women are not permitted to drink.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, I find myself challenged every day by these gender roles. to a degree, as a outsider, I am expected from a number of these roles but as a volunteer, I also need to respect the traditions of a country. This is a fine line to tread and a difficult situation that all volunteers experience.

Photos from a nicaragua public school

a typical classroom in Nicaragua. I volunteer in this school twice a week. notice the gaping holes in the paint and open windows. there is no air'conditioning in the schools and on hot days, students carry their desks into the courtyard to work. and there is no electricity from 8 am to 2pm, and that means no running water. The school only has latrines. and no cafeteria. students in grades 1 through 3 attend from 8am to 1pm and then go home. students in grades 4 through 6 go to school from 1PM to 530PM...in the same classrooms as the younger kids. There are no textbooks and teachers must copy everything onto the classroom board. These teachers earn roughly $100 a month for their work, or roughly $5 a day. Students are required to wear uniforms, but many wear dirty, torn uniforms that are held together by safety pins. Parental involvement in students' lives is virtually nonexistent.

recess at the school where i volunteer. there is no playground, just a concrete courtyard. During recess, the students simply flood this courtyard to talk. A few boys try to play games with a deflated, old basketball.









student desk






the teachers "desk" and file cabinet. This is nothing more than a table and a plastic chair









the classroom. there are two fifth grade classes at the school. my class has 38 students. Yes, 38..in one classroom. The idea of doing participatory education is almost absurd; how can one find an activity for 38 students?! Moving 38 students around a classroom is chaotic. I can understand why teachers lecture for hours on end; it makes for easier classroom management.

dia de la independecia

september 14th is independence day in nicaragua. here are a few photos from the celebration in my town of Masetepe. The day started with a parade of children through the streets and conclude with ballet folkorico at the town square (where two Peace Corps trainnes and I retained VIP seating were introduced to the crowd as the official representatives from the organization...hopefully, no one will find out this is only training!(










the children performing a native dance





native dance























drummers in native dress










Night in Nicaragua.

Daily Routine

Mass at the local Catholic church

Life in Nicaragua:

Now that training is in Week 2, a daily routine has developed for me. I wake up at 5AM when the buses to Manuaga begin to roar through town (with the drivers yelling MANUAGAMANUAGAMANUGA!!!). At 6:30AM I finally roll out of bed and take a cold shower. There is no such thing as hot showers in Nicaragua, but who wants one when it is 80 degrees and humid (and this is the winter!). I eat breakfast with my host mother (usually rice and beans, sometimes pan dulce) and head to the classroom, which is currently my patio. Language classes begin at 8AM (with three other students) and lasts until 12PM. We break for lunch, and I usually eat with my host mother and father (again, rice and beans). Classes begin again at 1PM and we spend the afternoon practicing Spanish. Sometimes we visit the schools and talk with the children or visit the mayór´s office. Classes usually concludes at 4PM. After 7 hours of Spanish lessons, I am throughly exhausted (and, as one person described, wanting to cut my tongue out!) I crash in the family´s hammock for an hour or more and head off for a quick walk (or, in today´s cahse, to the local Cybercafe). Dinner is 7PM and is usually gallo pinto (fried rice and beans...how did you guess?). After that, my host family and I crowd around the big screen television for an hour of the hottest telenovelas. By 8PM, exhaustion wins and I head to bed.

photos de nicaragua

Poverty is a way of life here.

Taxis

Rain from Hurricane Felix

Sunset in Manuaga

Peace Corps Nicaragua

On August 29th, I arrived in Managua, Nicaragua with the Peace Corps. After a two day orientation at a hotel in Managua, I packed my bags and headed to Masatepe, a town near Masaya, to meet my host family and begin training. This process will last for 11 weeks, and then I will move to the community where in which I will volunteer for two years. Three days a week I will have language training; two and a half days I will have technical training on environmental issues and classroom teaching.

In my host family, I have a host father, mother, and grandmother. We definitely life well compared to other Nicaragua families. I have my own room and bathroom, and the house has satellite television on a big screen TV. Due to an nationwide energy crisis, the electricity regularly winks out. At my house, there is no power between 8AM and 2PM on Monday and Wednesday and Saturday. That also means there is no phone service. In addition, the water goes out. On most days, we have water from 4am to 7am and 2pm to 8am. On good days, we have water, phone and electricity and the same time. if we are lucky. buena suerte!!

Katrina Anniversary

As the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, Time examines why New Orleans still is not safe and why another disaster could sink the city. The article turns fault to the shoddy planning US Army Corps of Engineers and coastal erosion. Louisiana is losing its' precious wetlands, which absorb hurricane storm surges, at the rate of a football field every 8 minutes. In addition the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MrGo) channel, which was built by the Army Corps to provide a direct, deep shipping route from the Gulf to New Orleans, allowed flood waters to speed towards the city. Finally, the mass media understands what New Orleans citizens have known for years.

"The most important thing to remember about the drowning of New Orleans is that it wasn't a natural disaster. It was a man-made disaster, created by lousy engineering, misplaced priorities and pork-barrel politics. Katrina was not the Category 5 killer the Big Easy had always feared; it was a Category 3 storm that missed New Orleans, where it was at worst a weak 2. The city's defenses should have withstood its surges, and if they had we never would have seen the squalor in the Superdome, the desperation on the rooftops, the shocking tableau of the Mardi Gras city underwater for weeks. We never would have heard the comment "Heckuva job, Brownie." The Federal Emergency Management Agency (fema) was the scapegoat, but the real culprit was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which bungled the levees that formed the city's man-made defenses and ravaged the wetlands that once formed its natural defenses. Americans were outraged by the government's response, but they still haven't come to grips with the government's responsibility for the catastrophe."

More here:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1646611_1646683_1648904,00.html

T-minus 8-days to staging

The post-Peace Corps invitation paperwork is in; it's now time to pack. With only 8 days left to departure, it is crunch time. There is a growing pile of "must-pack" items in the corner of my room; each day it grows larger with new additions. A few of the more interesting items: 10 passport photos, silica gel packs (to ward off moisture), rechargeable AA and AAA batteries, an inflatable globe, duct tape, a few favorite spices and a box of Oolong tea. There are still a dozen items to pick up, such as Nalgene water bottles, headlamp, a 4MB flash drive and a pocket knife. Only 8 more shopping days left!!


Staging
Peace Corps Nicaragua's Staging begins on August 27th in Washington, DC. Staging is a two-day event in which all Nica 45 volunteers must attend in order to be familiarized with Peace Corps policies and regulations. In addition, volunteers receive their first round of shots and malaria vaccinations during staging. There should be about 35 members of Nica 45, all Agricultural or Environmental Education volunteers.

(By the way, the name "Nica 45" is the moniker given to my fellow trainees because we are the 45th class in Nicaragua. Clever, no?)

What's Up Next?
On August 29th, the Nica 45 volunteers fly to Managua, where they will be greeted by the Peace Corps in-country staff. After another two days of orientation, volunteers are placed with local families in Jinotepe and three months of language and occupational training begins. When training is complete PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) are placed then placed at the sites where they will volunteer for 24 months. My Internet access should be fairly regular so expect updates every one to two weeks for the next few months.

Visiting
I welcome all of you to visit! Peace Corps volunteers get a month of vacation time each year, so any time you wish to travel you will have a free place to stay and a free tour guide in Nicaragua!

"How I Spent My Summer Vacation"

8 interesting things I did this summer:
1. Met the Iraqi UN Ambassador outside of UN Conference Room 4.
2. Learned to drive like a Bostonian
3. Found Nemo in the Great Barrier Reef.
4. Killed a kangaroo with a tour bus.
5. Had my luggage lost three times by three different airlines (Delta, JetBlue and USAirways).
6. Got 300 students sitting inside the World Bank to admit the institution was corrupt.
7. Won the GYLC National Delegations Rally! Go South Africa!!!
8. Won $5 in Vegas.

In short, I spent 15 days in Australia, 3 in Las Vegas, 15 in Boston, 7 in DC and 7 in NYC.

Summer is now over--It's time to turn towards fall and Peace Corps Nicaragua.

Australia, June 2007!

15 days on the East Coast of Australia. What more could one ask want?!

Sunset at Bondi Beach, Sydney's most famous oceanfront property.

Cuddling with the kangaroos

Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef
There's opera in this building.

The Southern Ocean

Daintree Rainforest beach

A short list of my favorite Aussie terms:
"that's mint"== good, great, fine
"No worries"
"G'day!"

On June 18th I flew to Australia for a 15 day adventure and took in three cities: Sydney, Adelaide and Cairns, with a side trip to Kangaroo Island. A few travel tips: traveling in Australia is relatively easy. Flying between cities is highly recommended; while Quantas is a relatively expensive airline, the service is top-notch. Dream of holding koalas; the practice is illegal in most of Australia's states (studies show koalas that are passed and held by tourists suffer health problems). Cairns is a beautiful, yet touristy, jumping off spot for Great Barrier Reef activities.

Peace Corps Nicaragua: It's Official!

Country: Nicaragua
Program: Community Environmental Education, Nica 45
Job Title: Environmental Education Promoter
Dates of Service: November 17th, 2007-November 17th, 2009
Orientation Dates: August 27th-August 29th, 2007
Pre-Service Training: September 1-November 16th, 2007


To quote the Peace Corps literature, the project of this assignment is "To facilitate the sustainable management of communities' natural resources through education and community action in order to conserve the local environment and improve people's livelihoods." The focus of this project is elementary schools and local youth groups to help communities "identify and understand local environmental issues, and to empower them to take action to help protect and/or improve their local environment." In such, volunteers are assigned to three elementary schools in a community and teach environmental issues to students while helping teachers infuse environmental education into their curriculum. Volunteers also aid in planting tree nurseries near school grounds and work with NGOs to provide environment focused activities based on community needs. The Peace Corps focuses its efforts on the 5 states on the Pacific side of the country and most environmental education volunteers live in small towns of 500 to 2,000 pepole

A bit of a switch from the Agricultural placement, but interesting nonetheless.

Next up: calling PC to accept this assignment and then completing a new passport application (PCVs receive diplomatic passports), aspiration statement and a revamped resume.

Peace Corps Status Report

There have been a number of questions via email/phone/carrier pigeons about my current location and status in the world. For the curious, I am in North Carolina and waiting Peace Corps assignment. My departure date is August 2007 and will head to Latin/South America

For the average Peace Corps applicant, the average wait from nomination to departure is 9 months. For me, it will be 18 months.

Here is the timeline:
January 06: Application submitted.
February 06: Nominated to Peace Corps service. Legal clearance obtained
March 06: Medical clearance begins. A minor medical snag slows down my clearance
June 06: Medical clearance!!
July 06: An academic snag, this time with my thesis, delays my grad school graduation and delays my departure date from September 06 to February 07.
October 06: With much reservation, I accept a Peace Corps placement to an Early Elementary Education program in Paraguay. There, teachers have few educational resources and the goal of the assignment was to increase didactic teaching methods.
December 06: After heavily thinking, I asked to be removed from the placement. Lacking a teaching degree, credentials or any experience with small children, I felt Early Elementary Education was not the best use of my talents. In addition, Paraguay is a bilingual society with most people relying upon Guarani as their primary language and Spanish as the second. Peace Corps bolded the line "If learning Spanish is your reason for joining Peace Corps, you should reconsider this assignment" three times. Since that is one of my goals, I realized it would be very difficult to master Spanish in Paraguay. I asked for a transfer to an placement on an agricultural program in Latin/South America, but not in Paraguay, but it would not depart for seven months.
August 07: Tenative Peace Corps departure


The request to move to an agricultural assignment surprised a few people, including me. But agriculture is the backbone of many developing economies and, as such, holds an invaluable place in the world. In Peace Corps, agricultural volunteers traditionally serve in the most rural and remote areas (and, it is rumored, have the best language skills). So this should be an interesting learning experience.

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea

In 1993 Greg Mortensen attempted to climb K2in Pakistan, which he failed to summit. Weary and exhausted, two of Mortensen's porters took him to their home village to nurse him back to health. As he recovered, he asked to see the village school. Embarrassed, they showed him an open field where students scratched their lessons in dirt. Mortensen vowed to bring them a school--and he did. And then 55 more. Today's Mortensen's schools have educated more than 24,000 students (14,000 of which are girls) in an areas where few children had opportunities for education.

Sometimes, you find yourself and your purpose in the unlikeliest of places.

Greg Mortensen book signing at Leavenworth, Washington on April 14th, 2007.