A BLOG TO BE TASTED!!!
If I was to ask any one of my colleagues in the states what their priorities are first thing in the morning when they arrive to the office, I can almost guarantee that most Americans, myself included, will answer: “Coffee!!!!!” Or perhaps the extra exclamation marks come from my frightening addiction to the old cup […]
Social Justice is the KEY
My co-fellow and I work with homeless youth that come through the doors of Covenant House, New Jersey. My main duty is to help these disadvantaged youth access healthcare. So when they first come to Covenant house, as a counselor, my objective is to build a trusting relationship in order for me to be able […]
Human Rights: What Do Politics Have to Do With It?
Nick Kristof recently wrote an article titled ‘Is Delhi so different from Steubenville’, which highlighted the parallelism between the recent horrific rape cases in India and the inaction of the American federal government to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). When I first read this article, I thought it was a bit extreme to […]
Answering the Hard Questions: Talking Our Way to a Violence Free World
“Do men in your country hurt women too?” a survivor of domestic violence turned to me and asked. As we exchanged long gaze, a sword of sadness pierced my heart. The short answer was yes. The long answer requires more than one blog entry, but I will try. The pain in a survivor’s eyes looks […]
A Painful Realization: I Can’t Help This Time
I’m able to do the work that I do because I can usually separate what is possible for me to do from what is not possible. Remembering the serenity prayer is useful, “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The courage to change the things I can; And, the wisdom […]
Allowing Ourselves Be the Subjects
In my work as Communications and Documentations fellow, it is my job to tell ACODEV’s story and the stories of the people we serve and empower. I observe, take notes and pictures, quite often asking questions and expecting answers. Recently, however, after distributing scholastic materials to children orphaned by AIDS in three remote villages in […]
Pause. Reflect. Reconnect.
The first months of my placement at Children’s Health Fund and the South Bronx Health Center were happily hectic. I launched into a busy schedule of group care at the clinic while familiarizing myself with the organization’s national initiatives. There was even a little glamour thrown in when my co-fellow and I got to participate […]
A Lesson From a 90 Year-Old Veteran of Normandy
“We used to hide in holes dug up by warthogs and porcupines to escape from Amin’s bombings and his marauding soldiers,” recounts my grandmother of the tragic days of Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda from 1971-1979. As a young man who came of age in the years following the aftermath of Idi Amin’s dictatorship in […]
Village Healers
Working in a rural part of Uganda, its pretty common to come across traditional healers. I’ve seen their signs on the road, heard their stories, but I never thought I would be one of their patients. My second week in Uganda, I felt like I was getting the hang of things. One evening, I was […]
Taking the time to (not) solve problems…
On an average week I spend eight to ten hours on a bus, commuting between work sites and into the capital city of Kigali. To be honest, I use to dread these bus rides—cramped, sweaty, four or five to a seat, bumping up and down on dirt roads for hours. The other day though, as […]