Greetings, Class 5!

To all of our wonderful classmates all over the world, this post is for you. Inspired by Dr. Singhal's video postcard from St. Lucia a few weeks ago, Patrick, Ryan, and I shot a video for our class yesterday from the pyramids in Giza. If you're NOT in Class 5, first check out Dr. Singhal's video postcard:



Now, check out Patrick's interpretation of it:

Pyramids!

Yesterday (May 27), Patrick, Ryan, and I went to the Great Pyramids of Giza! Yes!! I never thought I'd actually get to go there...it's like a boyhood dream. Pictures speak louder than words here, so here's the slideshow of our visit:



Now, for some commentary on the visit to the pyramids... First, it was a very hazy day - the sky was full of sand, which produced pretty low visibility from far away, which is a little too bad, because every other day we've been here, there's been a picture perfect blue sky with no clouds whatsoever. Second, I was disappointed in how dirty and poorly maintained the pyramid site was. There was a ton of trash on the ground all around the area. Third, there were a ton of "hustlers" (as Patrick described them) there - trying to get tourists to buy anything they could possibly get there hands on to sell. Cheap trinkets, Coca-Cola, Camel/Horse rides, taking pictures, etc. And worst of all, they were RELENTLESS. It takes them at least ten "No's" to finally get it. They were seriously among the most annoying people I have ever had the displeasure of encountering. One guy kept on pestering us for over ten minutes shortly after we entered the site, and I finally put a little more assertion and angriness in my voice to get rid of him. He proceeded to cry like a baby out loud to us about how snobby Americans are. I just looked at him and laughed....he deserved it.

Of course, all the other Egyptians we have encountered (basically anyone who is not trying to take advantage of a tourist) has continued to be unbelievably friendly. Seriously....good, good, people here.

After the pyramids, we had an awesome night again with our friends Mohammad and Lamis, who took us on a falucca (boat) ride on the Nile River. It was beautiful, and so peaceful.

Here's a shot:

Lastly, today (Friday) is our last day here. We fly out tonight at 10:45pm to our IPSP destination: Kenya. But we did get to have a little fun today as well. Mohammad took us to his athletic club to play some good old sports.

First, basketball. It was me and Ryan vs. Mohammad and Patrick. Patrick declared the game as Europeans vs. Africans. Alright, well the Europeans won 9-2 (the Africans surrendered early because they were out of shape).

Then, we played a sport that I am no good at all at: Soccer/Futbol. But still, it was so much fun. The four of us played a pick up game against these adolescent kids, probably no more than 12 or 13 years old. They were pretty good, but they're no match for four adults, so we won the first game. Then we mixed up the teams and just played for fun, with no score as a ton more people joined in to play, including one incredibly good kid who was probably no older than 8 years of age.

Check out this picturesque shot amongst the high rise apartments in the back. Never thought I would be in Cairo playing a pick up soccer game.

Overall, the athletic club was a TON of fun. Not only did they have sports, but it was a genuine community center on a very community-oriented day. Friday is the holy day here, and people rest and relax as well as praying, so there were a lot of people there doing all sorts of activities. Kids were drawing in an arts and crafts class, there was a music room where I peeked in and saw old ladies playing traditional Egyptian music on lyres, and there were people eating food and laughing and smiling and genuinely enjoying each others presence. The three of us were so impressed by what we saw at the athletic club, that it made us wish that we had better community centers in America where people of all ages came together and played together. Our conversation drifted to America's obesity problem, and Michelle Obama's new "Let's Play" initiative, and how much impact strong community centers could have on the obesity struggle (not to mention all the social capital and trust it would build among neighbors). Admittedly though, the people at this athletic club were far better off financially than the majority of folks in Cairo or Egypt for that matter...

Well....off to Kenya now! It's been fun, Cairo. :) Time to get to work.

Fun, Fun, Fun.

So who said this blog was supposed to be all about public service....or even Kenya for that matter? I'm having the time of my life in the capital of the Arab world - Cairo, Egypt! Can you blame me?

Recap of my 2nd day here....

1. First, Ryan, Patrick, and I went to the Egyptian Museum, which houses the world's largest collection of artifacts from ancient Egypt. Tombs, mummies, papyrus, monolithic sculptures, you name it - this place has it. It was really cool, and provided a good primer for our planned trip to the pyramids in Giza tomorrow. Unfortunately, they didn't let us take our cameras in, so I have no sweet shots to show you from the inside - which means you'll have to come to Cairo yourself to see it all! But, here's my pal President Clinton hanging outside of it.

And here's a more artsy one:

Also, my special comment on the museum: Like a lot of places in Cairo, it's kinda dirty and in disrepair. I'd like to come back some day and see it renovated and filled up with brighter light and better descriptions of the artifacts and their context.

2. Then we got in a taxi and went to the Khan el-Khalili marketplace/bazaar. If you've ever been to one of these places, you know the deal....restaurants and cheap touristy stuff to purchase as souvenirs. A big attraction for Westerners here, but still kinda cool.

Here's a short video as I walked down one of the alleys:




3. Lastly, I had one of the funnest nights of my life. Ryan has some family contacts who live in Cairo, and we hung out with them for dinner. We sat outside at a really nice hookah bar restaurant. I tried smoking hookah for the first time in my life. After a few initial coughs, it wasn't that bad, really. I had apple flavor. It got me a little light headed. Also, from conversation and observation, I learned that smoking is a huge thing in Egypt. Tons of people smoke cigarettes, and it is very popular to pass time smoking at the hookah bar. On the other hand, alcohol is not popular in Egypt due to the Muslim faith. It's a give and take. I also learned a lot of other interesting stuff - Egypt has had the same President for 30 years, and despite holding elections every six years, the outcome has apparently been rigged repeatedly for the incumbent. There's also a lot of other corruption here, according to our Egyptian friends, Mohammad and Lamis (who were just engaged to be married two weeks ago). For instance, if a couple were to be caught making out in their car, they could be arrested, but they could just as easily get off the hook by handing the police officer 100 pounds. 

Mohammad is an avid soccer (football) fan, and it just so happened that tonight was a hugely important Egyptian soccer game between Cairo's two teams (it was a quarterfinal match, and they're supposed to be huge rivals). So that game was projected live on a large screen at the restaurant and the place was packed with fans rooting for both sides. Mohammad, and by association, us, were rooting for the red team, but I forget their name. It was crazy fun, and people really got into the game. Best of all, the red team won 3-1. It actually made me appreciate soccer more and realize that it can be a pretty fun sport to watch.

Here's a picture of us watching the game:

 
Here's a picture of our group:

All in all, what a fun night! I really felt like an Egyptian tonight cheering on their sport and joining them in their night life a little bit. :)

A Guy in Cairo!

Patrick and I safely landed in Cairo, Egypt today! We got in at about 1pm local time, and had an awesome, adventurous experience navigating our way from the airport to our hostel. We had the option of taking a cab for 90 Egyptian pounds or taking a city bus for 1 pound and then a short 10 pound taxi ride from where the bus would drop us off to the hostel (1 pound equals about 18 U.S. cents). Being the frugal folks we are (read: cheapskates), we opted for the bus. And let me tell you, that option was like opting to dive head first into Egypt's culture instead of taking the baby steps into the shallow end if we had taken one of the nice air conditioned "official" Cairo airport taxis. So glad we took the head-first dive!

To explain - first, a picture:

We consulted with a tour guide person in the airport who told us of our differing travel options, and after we chose the head-first dive option, he helped us out by writing directions on this piece of paper. First we were to take the free airport shuttle to the bus station, and then get on either the 400, 27, or 356 bus to go to Tahrir Square, where we would then hail a cab to take a short ride to our hostel, located in Zamalek, which is an awesome little island in the middle of the Nile River.

So we took the shuttle bus to the bus station. Simple. From there on, there's no way we would have made it without the kindness of some awesome strangers. The bus numbers were all in Arabic, so we couldn't tell which bus was which. After some confusing dialogue with some people at the bus station who barely spoke English, we were able to get them to find us the right bus to go on. Once we got on, I still made sure to check with the driver that the bus was in fact going to Tahrir Square.

Next dilemma - this bus isn't like a city bus in New York City or Chicago or something, where there's an LCD screen showing you what stop is next....in fact there's no announcement of what the stops are, and even if there were, there's no way we could have understood what they meant. And to add on to it, the bus just kept on getting more and more crowded...to the point where I couldn't move my body because I was trapped by other bodies and my luggage on all sides of me. I just had to stand there and hang on to the pole above me as my arm continued to lose blood circulation due to gravity pushing it down. Patrick and I had also become separated on the bus by a decent distance, and could no longer see each other because of all the people in between us. We were the only Westerners on it.

So I was essentially riding by myself, separated from Patrick at this point. After realizing this and that there was absolutely no way for me to figure out when I needed to get off the bus, I tapped my neighbor on the shoulder and said, "How much longer until Tahrir Square?" About 30 minutes, I was informed. "How do I know when I get there?" He smiled, and then said something aloud in Arabic to the others in our general vicinity. Seconds later, another man nearby raised his hand and smiled at me. The first man pointed at him and said, "Follow him. He's getting off at Tahrir Square."

So I introduced myself to this second man. His name was Ayman, and he was an incredibly friendly guy. We were both standing for the longest time, but when a seat finally became available, he immediately pushed me towards it, saying "Please, take a seat..." He kept on giving me updates on how close we were getting, despite the fact that he couldn't speak English very well at all.

The picture below should give you an idea of what the bus looked like, although keep in mind that it was much more crowded at its peak. I was only able to take this picture after it cleared out and Ayman forced me to take a seat. 

Eventually, we finally made it to Tahrir Square, where I prepared to say goodbye to him and thank him for his help - me and Patrick's next step, of course was to hail a taxi, which I felt confident we could do on our own. But before I could thank him and say goodbye, he had picked up my 56 pound bag and was leading me out to the street. Me and Patrick hurried to catch up to him - he was moving so quickly and the streets and sidewalk were so crowded. He was insistent on hailing a cab for us, as if it was his mission, his big responsibility for the day. To get a cab though, we needed to cross the street to get to the other side. Without much warning, he said "This way," and jumped out into the street with my bag over his head (I was just carrying my laptop bag, Patrick was still carrying his heavy and awkward luggage). We were seriously playing "Frogger" in the middle of this packed street in Cairo to get to the other side. It was crazy....cars honking, etc. But we made it to the other side and in short order, Ayman had hailed us a cab and we presented the driver, who spoke absolutely no English, the note above, on which the airport tour guide worker had scribbled the name of our hostel and the address in Arabic...what a life-saver! Patrick and I gave many thank yous to Ayman for his incredible kindness and willingness to help us. As we drove off in the taxi, I waved goodbye to him and he kept his eyes locked on mine with his hand held on his heart. Within ten minutes, we were at the hostel, and checked in. Incredible.

A shot of my view from the passenger side of the taxi:

After we chilled in our room for a little bit, me and Patrick hit the town, and took a really long walk all around! And man, let me tell you, Cairo is so COOL! It has a ridiculous amount of trash everywhere all over the ground, but other than that....it's super sweet.

Here's a video I shot today showing a 360 degree view of the Nile River and surroundings from a bridge Patrick and I were walking over:



Also, a couple of shots for Joe Ballard:

MOTOR






CYCLES









BABY!!!!!





More shots in this slideshow:



That's all for today! SO MUCH FUN...so pumped! Ryan Ubuntu gets in tonight. More adventure tomorrow.

Bags Packed, Ready to Go! (And a new friend!)

Tomorrow, I depart for my adventure! Along with my friend and classmate, Patrick Banks, I will board a 6:30pm flight from JFK International Airport in New York City. 11 hours and 5,000 miles later, we will be in Cairo, Egypt!

Of course, Cairo has nothing to do with my International Public Service Project, but we figured we would take advantage of the opportunity to see a new part of the world on the way to Kenya. Along with our other classmate, Ryan Ubuntu Olson, who will meet us there, we will spend three days in Cairo - soaking up the culture, enjoying the food, and visiting the pyramids! Fun.

As you can see from the picture above, all of my possessions for the summer fit into two bags - a duffel bag embroidered with my initials that I received as a high school graduation present, and my trusty laptop bag. It is so liberating to be responsible for just two bags of possessions for the next ten weeks. I can go anywhere with these two bags....nothing's holding me back!

I'd also like to introduce you to another friend who will be accompanying me on my adventure - my very own Flat Stanley! Flat is the main character of a popular 1964 children's book, and has stuck around in popular culture ever since as a world wide traveling companion for thousands thanks to the Flat Stanley Project, which was started to promote cross-cultural understanding and literacy for schoolchildren throughout the globe. For the past few years, the Clinton School has partnered with Arkansas First Lady Ginger Beebe to bring the benefits of the project to schoolchildren in Arkansas. I'm pumped that my very own Flat Stanley will be sporting the lovely colors of the Kenyan flag - green, red, and black, as well as the yellow of the sunshine in Kijana's logo! And of course, he's looking good with not only the name of my partner organization across his chest, but a very powerful word, idea, and state of mind - Kijana, the Swahili word for Youth. That's what Flat, Patrick, and I are working for this summer - youth - which in my opinion, is the world's most valuable resource. It's not just a time in life, but a way and quality of life - the place where creativity, imagination, idealism, and fun come from. The world needs more of this thing called Youth. And Kenya needs more Kijana.

You'll be seeing more of Flat right here on this blog, but if you're hankering for even more, my classmates and I will be collectively sharing updates of Flat Stanley's travels throughout the globe on all of our projects. Click over to Flat Stanley Travels to see what's going on (and to see Flat's travels last summer with the Clinton School Class of 2010)!

Other than that, I've been chillin' in New York for the past several days, visiting my dear and amazing friends, Caleb and Samantha Hawley. They deserve a shout out - I couldn't ask for better friends. That's all! The next time I post will probably be from Cairo, so until then, stay beautiful!

Takin' it to the Streets (Worldwide)

My classmates and I are takin' it to the streets this summer. What's "it"? Public service! Above, check out the map currently on display at the Clinton School showing where each of us are going this summer.

Here's a zoom in shot of my picture, along with my Kenya colleagues Patrick and Ryan:

 For the full overview of all the projects, check out the press release below from the Clinton School detailing each of the students and what we're doing all over the world. To really make it connect, listen to the Doobie Brothers' classic hit "Takin' it to the Streets," while you read! :)

Students Completing International Field Projects

Thirty-seven graduate students will travel across the world this summer to complete public service projects as part of the Clinton School’s curriculum.

The students will visit 25 countries on six continents and partner with government, non-government and nonprofit organizations on International Public Service Projects (IPSP) in areas such as corporate responsibility, environmental conservation, public health, education, poverty reduction and economic development.

The fifth class to go through the Clinton School’s unique Master of Public Service (MPS) degree program, the students will travel to 13 new countries never before visited by Clinton School students. Those locations include Dominica, England, Ethiopia, France, Haiti, Indonesia, Israel, Panama, Peru, Pakistan, Palestine, Sierra Leone and St. Lucia.

With the addition of these locations, Clinton School students will have traveled to 47 countries to complete projects since the school opened in 2005.

“It’s exciting to see our students take the skills they learn here at the Clinton School and implement them into projects across the world,” said Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford. “We pride ourselves on educating our students through hands-on work, and these projects will be valuable to both the students and the organizations they’ll be working with.”

The IPSP is one of three, for-credit public service projects students complete in the two-year MPS program. They also perform group (Practicum) projects in Arkansas communities and final (Capstone) projects that culminate their Clinton School degree.

The students work with faculty members to identify, plan and implement their projects. They are expected to engage in a project that builds on the knowledge and skills gained in the first two semesters of classroom work at the school.

Project locations and host organizations are vetted and approved by Clinton School faculty. Students and faculty will remain in constant contact throughout the summer.

While most students leave the country for their international projects, traveling abroad is voluntary. Students may also choose to work for international organizations in Arkansas or in other parts of the country.

The students’ international project plans include:


Patrick Banks – Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative (Essaba Village, Kenya) – Banks will perform a needs assessment of science resources and skill levels at several Western Kenyan schools and use the information to design a science curriculum that is better-aligned to country and international science standards.

Cory Biggs – Rwanda Judiciary (Kigali, Rwanda) – Biggs, a concurrent MPS/JD student with the UALR law school, will work to lessen government corruption in Rwanda by researching and determining ways to reduce the impact of misconduct or negligence of official duties among public servants.

LaTrenia Byrd – InnoCSR (Shanghai, China) – Byrd will develop a corporate social responsibility (CSR) factsheet for Bayer China, a multinational health care, crop science and material science corporation. Byrd will work with InnoCSR, a consulting firm that specializes in the innovation of sustainable CSR practices.

Kimberly Caldwell – West Coast Community Foundation; Community Development Foundation Western Cape (Western Cape, South Africa) – Caldwell will work to identify ways for two Western Cape community foundations to collaborate. She will help create a shared fund from which the foundations can offer joints grants and present her plans to the organizations for implementation.

Ratnasari Dewi – The Nature Conservancy (San Antonio, Texas; Jakarta, Indonesia) – Dewi will work with Human Resource Department of the conservancy, an international conservation organization, to redesign an orientation program for new employees, especially those who work in the Asia Pacific and North Asia regions.

Elrina Frost – Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (Johannesburg, South Africa) – Frost will work with VOSESA to examine the impact that international voluntary service learning programs have on the volunteers involved as well as on the communities and organizations that host these volunteers in Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya.

Gralon Johnson – Glad Star Ministries, Inc. (Accra, Ghana) – Johnson will work with his partner organization, which works to reduce the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ghana, to create a more efficient, accessible and user-friendly client information database in its Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) program.

Valerie Hendrix – Bureau of Gender and Community Affairs (Roseau, Dominica) – Hendrix will work to promote a new gender equality policy on the Caribbean island of Dominica through a series of town hall forums. She will work with officials there to create a more gender society.

Ben Kaufman – TOMS Shoes (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) – Kaufman will work with TOMS Shoes, a company that gives a pair of shoes away to those in need for every pair purchased, to create a distribution plan to provide shoes in Ethiopia to children at risk of contracting a skin infection caused by exposure to irritant soil.

Mircha King – Labor Law Service Center (Shanghai, China) – King, a concurrent MPS/JD student with the UALR law school, will work with the center, the only organization that works to defend labor rights of the 4 million rural migrant workers in Shanghai, to create the capacity to become an independent, self-sustaining NGO.

William Jeter – Arkansas Agriculture Department (Port-au-Prince, Haiti) – Jeter will work with the department to develop a Haitian agricultural capacities assessment aimed at realigning the country’s struggling agriculture sector to help stimulate a prosperous agriculture economy.

Lindsey Johnson – Bo Hua Heart Hospital (Jilin City, China) – Johnson will work with staff and administration to develop strategies for public health education at a small, private hospital in northeast China that specializes in surgical procedures and seeks to ensure access for disadvantaged and minority populations.

Sarah Leer – PCI Media Impact (Castries, St. Lucia) – Leer will work to educate youth and children by developing school networks, both among the schools in St. Lucia and those on the other nine Eastern Caribbean islands. She will partner with Media Impact, which works to improve health, human rights and social advancement through creative use of media.

Mark Lienhart – The Mossy Foot Treatment and Prevention Association (MFTPA) (Addis Ababa and Sodo, Ethiopia) – Lienhart will collect information from MFTPA’s program for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation for Podoconiosis (Mossy Foot) patients in southern Ethiopia. The information will be compiled into a guide to be distributed to other interested partners throughout Ethiopia.

Jack Lofton – Arkansas Economic Development Commission – Film Commission (Little Rock, Italy, England and France) – Lofton will refine and update Arkansas’s production and location databases to utilize as tools to recruit international film productions to the state. He will meet with key film production companies throughout Europe during a two-week education and recruitment tour.

Mahmoud Mahmoud – Palestinian News Network (PNN)/Holy Land Trust (Ramallah, Palestine) – Mahmoud will assess PNN’s current standing in the field of independent media in the Arab world and work with PNN’s English language department to develop a program to facilitate volunteers and unpaid interns to work for the network.

Heather Malveaux – The Soul City Institute for Health & Development Communication (Johannesburg, South Africa) – Malveaux will work with one of the world’s top social and behavioral change programs to evaluate the process and impact of community dialogues surrounding the OneLove campaign, which aims to get men and women in Southern Africa thinking and talking about their sexual behavior in a time of HIV and AIDS.

Julie Meyer – African Prisons Project (Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda) – Meyer will conduct a resource analysis and needs assessment to help efforts to expand the African Prisons Project from its base in Uganda to Kenya and Sierra Leone. The project works to address both the lack of infrastructure and resources in prisons by building educational, health and recreational centers.

David Monteith – Shatil (Be’er Sheva, Israel) – Monteith will provide English-language services and teaching expertise to the regional offices of Shatil, which promotes social change and a healthy democracy in Israel by enhancing the efforts of existing non-profit agencies. He will also work to improve the advocacy efforts of local organizations supported by Shatil.

Adam Moreland – Nyaka School (Nyakishenyi village, Rukingiri District, Uganda) – Moreland will help develop a construction program to improve the living conditions of children at the Nyaka School, which provides free education and extracurricular activities to children who have been orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Rebecca Morrison – The Brotherhood of St. Laurence; HIPPY Australia (Melbourne, Australia) – Morrison will research evaluation processes at other HIPPY organizations across the world to find a program evaluation approach for HIPPY Australia, which works with families to prepare children for school and increase literacy rates.

Jeerawat Na Thalang – Rural Education and Development (READ) Global (Kathmandu, Nepal) – Jeerawat will help determine appropriate curriculum and content for literacy development training programs and organize training courses and evaluation processes for READ Nepal, an organization that empowers rural communities through education programs.

Ivanley Noisette – Bridge2Rwanda (Kigali, Rwanda) – Noisette will work with the Rwandan Ministry of Education and the Rwandan embassy to study the sustainability of the Bridge2Rwanda presidential scholars program and provide recommendations for the long-term success of the Rwandan higher-education model.

Erin O’Leary – Indicorps (Ahmedabad, India) – O’Leary will work with Indicorps, an Indian service organization modeled after AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, to create written guides for the program and its fellows to assist in conducting successful service projects and initiatives with the communities in which they serve.

Ryan Olson – Gay Kenya of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (Nairobi, Kenya) – Olson will develop human rights trainings surrounding the Yogyakarta Principles, which apply international human rights law to sexual orientation. Olson’s work will help his host organization advance the human rights of sexual and gender minorities throughout Kenya.

Nathanial Owen – Nyaka AIDS Foundation (Nyakishenyi, Uganda) – Owen will work to develop a fair-trade system to enable women in rural Uganda to sell their handmade goods in the United States for the foundation, which empowers communities impacted by HIV/AIDS through development programs.

Chanley Painter – Bridge2Rwanda (Kigali, Rwanda) – Painter will help complete an in-depth study including research and recommendations addressing how Rwanda can better prepare its best and brightest scholars to become competitive on exam scores and earn educational scholarships to American universities.

Kate Raum – Asylum Access (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) – Raum will help locate urban refugees and identify their legal protection needs for her the Tanzania office of Asylum Access, which works across the world to provide legal information, representation, advice and advocacy to refugees in their first country of refuge.

Sophia Said – Development Action for Mobilization and Emancipation (DAMEN) (Lahore, Pakistan) – Said will conduct a study to gauge the impact of DAMEN’s microfinance program on the social and economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs. She will also explore new strategies to improve the program and make recommendations based on her research.

Latif Salem – United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (New York, N.Y.) – Salem will assist UNDP in designing poverty reduction and economic growth projects; provide input to project documents, policy notes and issue briefs; and assist in conducting research on good practices and comparative experiences from UNDP country offices.

Debbie Sellnow – Children of Azuero (NIDA) (Las Minas, Panama) – Sellnow will work with her partner organization, a nonprofit dedicated promoting community health and empowering women, to educate Panamanian sex workers about the about the signs and preventions for sexually transmitted diseases.

Hallie Shoffner – PROMSEX (Lima, Peru) – Shoffner will develop a fundraising strategy and donor database for PROMSEX, a nonprofit that works to promote gender equality, empower women and eliminate gender-based discrimination and violence.

Anna Strong – The Comprehensive Rural Health Project (Jamkhed, Maharashtra, India) – Strong will work to grow organizational capacity and community impact for her host organization, which mobilizes communities to build capacity through grassroots movements to improve access to healthcare and freedom from poverty, hunger and violence.

Rebecca Swearingen – twocities art gallery (Shanghai, China) – Swearingen will work her host organization to collaborate with local art galleries, businesses, charities, and community members to build a plan for a community art event with the goal of fostering community between local galleries and business.

David Watterson – Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative (Bunyore, Kenya) – Watterson work with his host, an educational nonprofit, to develop a comprehensive plan for a new Model UN program to engage Kenyan and American secondary students in cross-cultural dialogue surrounding issues of global importance.

Judy Watts – PCI-Media Impact (Castries, St. Lucia) – Watts will assist her host organization with a radio project that focuses on climate change in the Eastern Caribbean. She will create a manual for outreach activities and design a measurement and evaluation strategy for the organization, which works to promote human rights through creative media.

Latonya Wilson – Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (Johannesburg, South Africa) – Wilson will work her host organization’s Socio-Economic Rights Program to assist in designing a questionnaire and conducting interviews with civil society and government around the role of constitutional socio-economic rights in policy making.

What's new with Kijana?

Wondering what's new with Kijana, my partner organization? Check out their latest newsletter below. Lots of exciting stuff going on! If you read through, you might just stumble across the names of two Clinton School students by the name of Patrick and David... :)

Kijana Educational Empowerment Initiative // Spring 2010 Newsletter

A Guy in Kenya: The Backstory

Welcome to my blog! Over the past several months, I've been doing so much planning and thinking about this incredible experience I am about to embark on - a ten week summer International Public Service Project (affectionately called an IPSP at the Clinton School). Here's a short video to catch you up on the backstory that has led to the creation of this blog.




















In short, in the words of the Clinton School's international field service director, Joe Ballard, the moral of the video is that, "Google is a powerful tool." ;)