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Category: Commitment to Community

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Obermaier's colorful churches
An example of Obermaier's colorful churches, with the Wiphala, the Aymara flag, and the Bolivian flag out front.

Right now, I am sitting in a sustainable ecolodge that runs completely off of sunlight and local donkey power, on the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world and largest in Latin America. As I look out my window, my gaze travels across fields and hills that have held the same terraced stone walls since the Incan Empire, then across miles of the perfectly blue water of the lake,  to the far golden and indigo rolling shores of the Altiplano, and finally stops at the incredible snow capped peaks of the Cordillera, one arm of the Andes Mountains. The Island of the Sun is simultaneously claimed by Aymara, Quechua, and Incan myths, as well as local Catholic mixtures of those, as the birthplace of gods and humanity. Sitting here, I can understand why; we are so high up and the distances so great around us that the massive dark cloud formations jump across the lake like a stop motion video, creating a constantly changing pattern of rain and shadows and brilliant sunlight on the water-scape.

The program ends the day after tomorrow, after which I will spend ten days travelling around as much of this country as I can, and then I will go home. Since this will be the last post I write about research  in Bolivia, I decided to start it the same way as I started my first: full of the descriptors of a travel blog. We are in the evaluation week for the program, and as such our Director, Carmen, decided to send us to el lago for a nice send off. We have all now finished our Independent Study Projects, our papers, and our final presentations in front of the SIT community in La Paz. Last week I accomplished one of the most important and hardest things I have ever done: I wrote 42 pages in a academic Spanish, a language I could barely speak 4 months ago. ...continue reading "Padre Obermaier: Spacialized Conflicts of Power in El Alto"

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By tokyostyle101

TOMODACHI Summer 2012 Softbank Leadership ProgramEvent planning in Japan is certainly not the same as it is in the United States. Posting bills with event details cannot take place without the approval of three offices, an electronic method of information dissemination does not exist and I had to use a fax for the first time since I was eight.

This technologically advanced country has some very interesting bureaucratic processes that perhaps Americans would see as unnecessary and inefficient but is seen in the Japanese eye as a way to ensure quality effort and care is put into everything. Thus far, this has been one of the biggest challenges I have faced with planning events for my work with TOMODACHI. ...continue reading "Study Abroad and Diplomacy"

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By ecirrincione

I am now coming into my last two weeks volunteering with the Mubarrat Um El Hossain. This week in class we are busy doing class presentations and we will have our final exams next week. I am excited for it, but I hope that they will prepare! It is hard because we do not have that much time together.

Teaching English was the volunteer opportunity that I was hoping to get; I have such a passion for language and I know that English is in high demand. When I arrived in Jordan, I noticed how eager people were to practice their English with me. The amount of students that tried to get into the class also confirmed my belief that it is important to teach English. ...continue reading "2 weeks left!"

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By hfirlein

A few weekends ago, my housemates and I went back to the township of Strandfontein to visit the informal settlement that we had made food for previously. This time, instead of making the curry, we delivered and served it to the residents of Klapteinsklip. We stopped at Auntie C’s to pick up curry and fat cook, and then drove about ten minutes away to a small, one-room community hall. Children had gathered outside, and while a few people went inside to set up the food and chairs, my housemates and I sang a few American summer camp songs with the kids. They were pretty shy at first, and we looked a little crazy, jumping around and singing, but eventually they warmed up to us and joined in. The Macarena was especially popular! ...continue reading "Every Little Bit"

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By bbuck92

Valpo Surf ProjectA Challenge in my project, which talks extensively about stewardship and caring for the environment, has been the simple act of defining the "environment" or "nature" that the Valpo Surf Project seeks to protect. In the search for such a definition I turned to an activity I read about during my research for the project.

In the introduction to “In Search of Nature” writer William Cronon describes an activity which helped him and his co-writers to work toward an an understanding of nature in its many forms. This “Found Object” activity, in which every participant brought an object or memory to the discussion which to them best represented “Nature,”  gave Cronon and his roundtable points of reference to the various understandings and preconceptions of nature that the group held. ...continue reading "Defining “Environment” in the Valpo Surf Project"

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By ecirrincione

I have decided to extend my stay in Jordan to a year long stay; Jordan truly has become like home for me. I am incredibly connected to the people and Amman, I couldn't imagine leaving.

I am still volunteering at the Mubarrat Um El Hossain, and we are entering our seventh week of classes! I am beginning to really feel connected to the girls. They are always so eager to learn and ready to absorb new information. I try and keep the class light because in my opinion, no one wants to learn when they are bored! I hope I am having a positive impact on them. I will really miss them at the culmination of this volunteering experience. The staff at the Mubarrat has also been incredibly helpful. I feel like I can talk with them about anything. I am really grateful I found this experience. ...continue reading "Updates from Jordan- Protests and Pronouns!"

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By hwscott

Two days ago, I gave my ISP presentation proposal in front of the other students in the program, my professors, and other SIT La Paz community members. I am now officially in my Independent Study Project period, living on my own (not actually - still with my host family but with slightly different arrangements), and doing my research. I am researching a priest named Sebastian Obermaier, and his influence and perceptions of him in El Alto. So a lot has happened since my last post! ...continue reading "The Power of One Priest in a Revolutionary Aymara Stronghold"

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By tokyostyle101

Minami SanrikuIt`s weird to go from Minami Sanriku to Tokyo. From a place where weeds grow in the cracks of the barren, concrete foundations of buildings gone to a city over-inundated with buildings and flashing lights.

I spent the past four days in Minami Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture of Northeastern Japan. Minami Sanriku was a coastal town. In fact the whole town center was right on the water or on the river that lead to the ocean. That`s why the town is almost non-existent today.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 2:47 pm. I was told you couldn`t even walk because the ground shook so hard. It only took 20 minutes for the tsunami to reach the coast line of Tohoku (Northeastern Japan). In that 20 minutes students returned home from school, many people were trying to figure out if their family members were ok. The Tsunami warnings were going off, but people didn`t know what to make of them. It just didn`t seem possible that the waves would be so high. But they were. At their highest the tsunami`s waves reached 15 meters. Taller then most buildings in Minami Sanriku. The town is set right between two small mountains, but the sides are steep and only the most nimble could hope to climb them quickly. ...continue reading "Tohoku Ganbatte: Minami Sanriku 11/3-11/6"

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By hfirlein

Last Saturday all 11 members of York House traveled to Strandfontein, a township just up the coast from Muizenberg, our favorite beach, about 30 minutes south of Cape Town.

As volunteers, our job for the day was to prepare food for around 150 residents of the informal settlements of Klapteinsklip. The CIEE volunteer coordinator, Earl, dropped us off at the home of Auntie Charlene, or Auntie C, a retired mother of two (and very proud grandmother!) who donates her time every day to help the people of her community. Her house was warm and inviting and it was clear that she is one of the most well-loved women in her community. She runs a convenience store on her porch to supply the people in her neighborhood with basic pantry goods, and the few who stopped by that morning stayed to chat with her for a bit. ...continue reading "A Lesson in Curry and Compassion"

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By bbuck92

Valpo Surf ProjectWork with the Valpo Surf Project has taken a serious academic turn as I make headway with my research project. With many hours of readings done and hours spent with the project volunteering I have focused on connecting the my academic work with my experiences with the NGO. After reading much on the subject of what constitutes nature and stewardship, themes that have much to do with the VSP experience I zeroed in on the subject of environmental citizenship. While the VSP promotes "stewardship" in general what I hope to suggest in my project is that the VSP becomes advocates of environmental citizenship. Just what constitutes an environmental citizen? According to the author John Barry, within the understanding of republican citizenship, that is active citizenry, an environmental citizen is an advocate for preservation, conservation, and sustainability, in all his or her civic activities. Most interestingly this citizen practices resistance. ...continue reading "From Environmental Stewardship to Environmental Citizenship"

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