Charity of the Month: Heifer International

04 Friday Jun 2010

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A couple days ago I realized that a new month was upon me, and you know what this means: a new opportunity to highlight an amazing organization! I was running low on organizations that I was personally aware of, and although I could have done a google search to research organizations around the world, I decided to reach out to my facebook community to see what suggestions they had. I was so happy to get suggestions from several people, and thanks to them I have found some really cool organizations that I will be highlighting over the next few months.
For this month I have decided to go with Heifer International, an organization suggested by Jessica. A little bit about her: our first year in college we walked down the streets of Del Playa in Santa Barbara, arms linked, laughing about how alike we were and how we should have been twins, except for the small fact that she’s asian and I’m guatemalan. No biggie :) Turns out she’s even more awesome than I thought: she is personally involved in several charities, Heifer being one of them.
Have you ever thought about buying a heifer for a family who is starving?

How about a llama for a poor farmer in Peru?

Maybe you’ve thought about buying a flock of chicks to donate to a family. Maybe not, huh? Well now you can. Turns out the mission of Heifer is not just to give people food, but to make them self sufficient by giving them the tools needed to help themselves. You give them something they can use to live off of for years to come, to create income and food for their home, to feed their malnourished children. And you can help.
Through Heifer, you can purchase one of these meaningful gifts, or you can purchase a “share” of it if you can’t afford the whole thing on your own. How cool is that??
It gets better. If you want to go a step further, you can create your own Heifer Team to fundraise money. The website gives you all sorts of ideas on how you can raise money for the organization, so you are not going into this bling. You can also join an existing team if you do not want to start one on your own.
You can also donate to a project instead of purchasing an individual gift. Heifer is involved in projects all over the world, so I won’t list them all here, but I encourage you to check out their page and see if there is any specific project that may be dear to your heart, and worth a donation.
I also encourage you to check out their success stories so you can see exactly how this organization is making a difference in people’s lives.
Thank you Jessica for letting me know about this great organization. I definitely look forward to contributing to it in the near future.

Positive Outlook: retry

04 Friday Jun 2010

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Sooooo, story of my life, money is in short supply. As our rent was due today, it was a rough day, financially speaking. A special thanks to a little angel who helped us out big time today.

There are so many things up in the air right now, that it’s hard to find stability in something. On my way to tutoring tonight I just kept telling myself: you could be worse, things could be worse. I freak out and obsess over our lack of money, but I know I need to focus on the love and stability that we have. I need to remember there are people dealing with much worse than financial troubles, and people who live off of much less than I do. So maybe we need to downsize, so what? People live with less. People live. And these people are happy.

Playing House

01 Tuesday Jun 2010

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So last week, Jeff’s parents took off to Florida to visit some relatives, and they asked us to watch Zoe, the most adorable and awesome dog ever. Last time we watched Zoe, it was a little difficult to be going back and forth to their house, so this time we decided it would just be easier to move into their place for the week, instead of Jeff (or I) having to drive over to their house in the morning and at night to be with her and feed her and the cat. What a wise, wise decision.

I was feeling like a little kid again, playing all grown-up-like. Look at us, married couple with a cute little dog, and a house with a front porch swing. It was awesome! We were able to have friends over and not feel cramped (and it’s awesome to not have to hide this fact from your parents anymore), and enjoy the amenities of a full kitchen, dinning room, and….CABLE!

This is how unaccustomed to these amenities we are: Sunday night we watched the series finale of Lost, and then wanted to watch the Jimmy Kimel special that was on after that. So we got into bed and turned on the amazing TV that Jeff’s parents have in their room. By 12:15am we were beyond exhausted, and both of us had started to snooze through the “interviews.” So we looked at each other, laughed, and decided it was a lost cause, we were just gonna turn off the TV and call it quits. As Jeff was about to turn off the TV, it hit me: HIS PARENTS HAVE DVR!!! Holy crap, we can go to sleep AND still watch the show, TOMORROW. Holy crap, having technology at your fingertips is amazing. We also got to host a Saturday brunch in the backyard, which was ridiculously nice.

Anyhow, reality hit us on Saturday when we moved back into our apartment. I’m not gonna lie, we missed our place, but it was nice to know what it’ll be like to have an actual house. It gives us something to look forward to!

Prepare for landing

23 Sunday May 2010

Posted by in career, Haiti, life, thoughts, work

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Yesterday was two weeks since I returned from my trip. I think I’ve mentioned before that my body did not react so well to being back to full and comfortable amenities. I started getting the chills as soon as we entered the air conditioned airport in Haiti, and those later developed into a sort of fever on my connecting flight from JFK to LAX. I spent most of Sunday in bed, drifting in and out of sleep. If it hadn’t been mother’s day and the need to see my mother on such an important day, I probably would have stayed in bed all day. I also took Monday to finish recuperating, which was a good thing. A little more sleep, and unbridled access to kleenex was what I needed. I think I still have a few friends in my tummy from Haiti, and I guess I should get that checked out soon. But the idea of going to a clinic and paying for medication (without insurance) doesn’t give me much motivation to go.

The other thing I’m struggling with since coming back is mostly concerned with my career: what I want to do and where I’m going. I honestly think I knew what I wanted to do since I was 10, living in Guatemala. I always wanted to work in a capacity where I could help countries like Guatemala improve their situation, but I never really believed in my ability to do so. Going to Haiti made me realize that performing that kind of work, where you’re directly helping people recover from something traumatic and effecting change (even if on a small level) is exactly the kind of work that makes me happy.

I remember my first night at the HODR camp, our very first meeting. There was a fellow named Ben who was giving his good bye speech. He seemed to be quite a force to be reckoned with. You could tell right away this was an individual who had made a lot of friends, someone who had touched a lot of lives, and someone who had been deeply moved by what he saw in Haiti. I will never forget the words he said that night (aside from his key phrase about being f—g epic, which I believe will live on in the HODR basecamp for the entirety of the program): he spoke about going home, and making his time and his experience in Haiti his “reality,” not his escape from reality. I’m not gonna lie, I thought it was a little cheesy at first: I’m sure everyone has that thought, and I’m sure most people go back home, re-join their old “reality,” and move back into the routine of their normal lives. But after spending my 10 days in Haiti, I totally understood that desire to never forget, to never let yourself slip back into the mundane routine of living as part of the machine of society back home, forgetting that there are people who are living on far less, and in terrible conditions.

After I graduated college, I took a year off to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew at the time that a Master’s degree would probably be more beneficial, but the idea of writing a thesis paper freaked me out, so I though going to law school would be the “easier” academic route. Ha. I failed to consider the prospect of writing over forty pages in research papers, not to count all the practice essays written for bar prep. Live and learn, huh? This isn’t to say I regret going to law school, I’m sure the degree will come in handy, and I met some amazing people that I know will be a part of my life for years to come.

So as Jeff nicely put it, he was still waiting for my plane to land about a week after I landed. My mind has just been constantly thinking about how I want to make Haiti my “reality.” I know the general direction I want to go in, so I’ve been looking into jobs with NGO’s that work in the area of international development, but it seems that in order to get a job there I should have been putting in my time interning and working for free about 8 years ago.

So after two weeks, I think my mind is mostly back. I’m still trying to figure out how to get to where I want to go, and where exactly I want to go. I just know that change has to come from this experience. It might not be in the immediate future, but it’s coming! I honestly believe that everything happens for a reason, and I think this trip was to remind me of what I really want to do, and to give me hope that there’s a way I can achieve that. Where there’s a will, there’s a way…..right?

Music as the Soundtrack to Life

17 Monday May 2010

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So instead of sharing new music with you guys, I’m going to share some old music that has provided some intense moments in my life lately.

 
Let’s start with the more cheesy of the two soundtracks of my life lately:
 
(Upon review of the actual video, it makes me really uncomfortable. Why isn’t Alicia Keys sitting down at the piano? Does she really have to stand and look so awkward?).
 
 
Ok, so instead of watching the video while you listen to this song, try picturing being cramped into a little car, about 97 degrees outside, with a large backpack over your legs, driving through the streets that lead the way out of Leogane, and back to reality. Yep, our driver had some tunes in his car. This song, for example, played several times. About the third time it played, the four girls in the car asked the driver to turn it up a little, and we tried to belt it out as much as we had the strength to. I can clearly remember seeing the ocean and beach to our left, watching the palm trees whiz by, admiring the beauty of this devastated country. And to the right: the greenest mountains you can imagine, and sugar fields as far as you can see. It was one of the many surreal moments I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. Hearing this song while watching all of this around me, and the lyrics started to get me all emotional after a bit:
 
New York

 

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you,
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York
 
It just reminded me that anything is possible. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. There’s nothing you can’t do. It doesn’t have to be in New York, obviously, but at that moment in my life, those were the lyrics I needed to hear. And the background to that didn’t hurt either.
 
This second video, I’m actually shocked I haven’t posted on here yet. My soundtrack: Bon Iver, Skinny Love.
 
 
My life moment: I was on my second day back at work from Haiti, feeling highly unmotivated, with about fifteen minutes left of my lunch break. The last thing I wanted to do on my last fifteen minutes was to go back and sit at my desk (where I was going to have to be sitting for the next 5 hours or so), and I didn’t feel like hanging out in the break room either, so I had a moment of genius. I had my phone on me, headphones in the car, and a pair of flats in my trunk: a fifteen minute walk it is! Best. Idea. Ever. I put on this song, and started walking away from the office. It was incredible how just a few steps and a couple beats changed my attitude. Plus, everything in life just LOOKS better when it’s accompanied by music, including watching kids get into their parents car (I hope that was his mom…), random people walking across the street, and people just going about their business. The weather was perfect, the song choice was impeccable. On the walk back, I opted for a little Devotchka, and it was pretty ridiculous. Right as I was walking down the street to my building, with trees lining over the sidewalk making a perfect path for me (it’s a small/older town, super cute actually), the drumming on the song was picking up for its big finale. It was like a personal motivation: you can take the last few steps Alex, just keep walking, you’ll make it through this afternoon. And the next. I know it sounds silly, but it was awesome.

Charity of the Month: Hands On Disaster Response

15 Saturday May 2010

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My regular readers were probably expecting this months pick, with “Haiti this” and “Haiti that” (I promise I’ll start branching out again soon!), but yes, for this month’s Charity of the Month, I have decided to highlight a little bit about the organization that I went to Haiti with.


Who They Are:

HODR is a US based non profit which began unofficially in 2004, and was officially established in 2006 as a direct response to the need for help in devastated areas. Since then, HODR has helped disaster areas recover in Thailand, Indonesia, Haiti, many locations across the United States, and most recently Haiti, to name a few. I can personally speak to the amazingness of the people that you will find volunteering for this organization. I expected my experience to be rewarding because of the work we were doing, but I never expected to meet so many amazing people, all with one common purpose.

What They Do:

HODR basically gathers volunteers that are willing to do some hard physical labor for free, in areas that have been severally affected by natural disasters. They take volunteers, and through these volunteers are able to provide direct assistance to disaster afflicted areas. In Haiti, for example, the biggest projects are rubble removal: clearing large mounds of rubble off of slabs of land, so the owners of the land can move their tent onto their own land rather than on the street, and eventually start to rebuild their home. Aside from rubble removal, however, HODR is performing a huge variety of projects, including mapping out the water system for the town of Leogane, building temporary school shelters so children can return to classes (this includes making and painting the furniture that goes into these schools), helping setting up tents for displaced people, working on a research project which details how the mayor’s office functions and how it can function better, and most recently: trying to create a physical location where NGO’s can coordinate with each other.
(Completed rubble site at Boisonnier)

How you can get involved:

There are so many ways you can help. The most obvious way is by donating money to the organization. Your donation can go a long way. If I’m not mistaken, most of the funds going to the Haiti relief fund are going towards buying materials to build temporary school shelters for children. How great is it to know that your money is allowing children to move on with their lives, to keep being a child for just a little bit longer, to attain an education that will help them have a brighter future? Pretty great :)

Another way to donate is by attending Campout for the Cause II. Scott, one of the volunteers who was down in Haiti while I was there, is one of the organizers of this event, and it sounds pretty amazing. It’s a weekend of camping, listening to music, hanging out, and what you pay goes towards several organizations, including HODR. Check out more information here.

Finally, and my personal favorite, is by actually going to Haiti and volunteering your time. I know it sounds impossible to do, we all have responsibilities: bills to pay, mouths to feed, TPS reports to turn in, but believe me, it will be totally worth it to leave it all behind, even if just for ten days (although I would recommend at least two weeks!). I won’t lie to you and tell you it’s a five star hotel; the living conditions are difficult, but you come home to your bunk at the end of the day, and you’re happy with the work you’ve done. I haven’t had greater personal satisfaction than what I experienced while I was down there. Project Leogane was recently extended up until January, 2011, due to the need for help in the community, so you have plenty of time to get your affairs in order and put yourself to work!















(Loading up for work, and sunrise on the rooftop)

Introducing: The G-Fresh!

12 Wednesday May 2010

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Before you get any crazy ideas, I’m talking about the perfect Subway sandwich. I’m sure someone at some point has gotten this perfect combination, but I wonder if they’ve ever gone the extra mile: give it a name. Well…Jeff and I did. I stumbled upon this combination, and can’t order anything else now. It’s delicious and feels extremely healthy (disclaimer: I don’t know exactly how healthy it is, but it sounds pretty darn healthy).

So here we go:

  • -Black forest ham
  • -on white (I guess you could go the extra mile and go wheat…)
  • -pepper jack cheese (key ingredient)
  • -lettuce
  • -tomato
  • -avocado (another key ingredient)
  • -cucumber
  • -green bell peppers
  • -salt and pepper
  • -oil and vinegar

Add to this some Cool Ranch chips, and you’ve got a stellar lunch or dinner!


Tell me this doesn’t look delicious!
ENJOY!

Haiti Wrap Up

10 Monday May 2010

Posted by in Haiti, life, work

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So I’ve been a little reluctant to write this blog, simply because I don’t want to accept the fact that my trip is done. But here we go….

The People in HODR
I can’t even begin to describe how amazing the people in HODR were. What is great is that there are people from all walks of life, from all sorts of ages, interests, political ideologies, cultures, etc., and they’re all their with the same purpose and intent. As different as we all are, I think there is a certain personality trait that everyone has in common. Most people you know are not too excited about going to a third world country to have bucket showers and eat the same food everyday, and sleep on a wooden bunk. But everyone in HODR is happy to do it, because they see the bigger picture, and they get a personal satisfaction of what they do. During one of my talks with a fellow HODR, we were talking about how silly it felt when people in the US told us how proud they were of us for going on a trip of this sort. I honestly felt/feel guilty when people say this, because I feel like I got more out of this trip than anyone else I may have gone to help. And I think most people who participate in works like this feel the same way. Not to say that everyone was perfect; everyone has their own personality and maybe they don’t connect with everyone, but for the most part, everyone there was doing an amazing job at helping out in whatever way they could.
The People of Haiti
I’ve mentioned this in prior blogs, and it’s the fact that the Haitian people seem quite content to sit back and watch us do work. There is some resentment among the Haitian people for our presence, but I think that’s mostly based on the wrong assumption that we’re getting paid to do the work that we’re doing. I’m sure to them it sounds crazy that a person would agree to work for free; I don’t blame them. But there are definitely people who are thankful for the help that is being provided, and that’s what really matters.
If I had to describe the Haitian people in one word, I might use “loud.” There were definitely times that I could not tell by the sound or tone whether someone was in a good mood or not, because they always seem to talk pretty loudly to each other; I would have to guess the gist of the conversation by looking at facial and hand expressions. There were definitely a few times were I felt I was getting cussed out, and I guess it’s better that I didn’t know what was going on. But they are also such beautiful people. There is something about their skin tone, and the bone structure of their faces, that make them absolutely beautiful. I could probably spend a whole week just taking pictures of them.
The Situation in Haiti
The situation in Haiti is a difficult one. I wish I could say that my work down there really helped out and made a difference, but the reality is that the clearing of one rubble site is nothing compared to what needs to be done. And it’s not just about cleaning up the mess that the earthquake left behind, but instilling certain capabilities that seem basic to us, like running water or a trash collection system. Haiti doesn’t have trash cans, and from what I could tell, no system of disposing your trash. Everyone burns their trash, or dumps it in the local canal or water way. Not necessarily great for sanitation.
The other big challenge right now is communication between the UN, NGO’s, and the government of Haiti, including local government. In Leogane, for example, the mayor’s office stopped attending cluster meetings because they don’t believe their thoughts or opinions are given any attention, and because they feel they are not being told enough about what the NGO’s are doing in Leogane. Cluster meetings are basically a way for all the NGO’s to get together depending on what specific area they are working in, and to communicate with each about what is being done. I think involving the local government is a double edged sword: I think they definitely need to be aware of what is going on in their cities, but it’s also difficult to know how much to involve a local government that is plagued by corruption and which isn’t very efficient on it’s own to begin with. Interesting fact, which I’m not sure if I’ve included in a prior post, but there are people that work in the mayor’s office who have not received a paycheck since December. I guess a few of them have second jobs, and that’s how they make a living, but they keep working at the mayor’s office in the hopes that someday soon money will start coming through the pipeline again, and they’ll get paid for the time worked.
My Final Thoughts
These last couple days back home have been difficult. It’s hard to analyze what you just went through, and see how much you will let that impact what you do with the rest of your life. I don’t want my experience in Haiti to just be something cool that I got to experience, I want it to be something that changes my life for the better, and helps me achieve my goals. Hanging out with people that work at the UN and UNDP was definitely an eye opening experience. They told me they love their jobs, but it’s not an easy job. I know the life I want would not be an easy one, but I can’t tell you guys how ridiculously happy I was every day that I was there, just living life day to day, helping people out a little at a time. It’s hard to come back home and let yourself get carried away by the realities of your daily routine. It was nice talking to Abby today and knowing that I’m not the only one that feels this way: we don’t want to get carried away by our routine, but want to find a way to make what we saw our new reality. We’re actually trying to find a way to make it back there for a longer period of time in a few months. I really hope it works out.
My return hasn’t only been challenging emotionally and professionally, but physically as well. My body has definitely had a more difficult time adjusting to the weather and food back here than it did in Haiti. Not sure why… It’s finally starting to feel a little bit more normal, which is great because I can’t really afford to take any more sick time from work!
All in all, I feel so blessed and lucky to have had this amazing opportunity, and I hope it is just the beginning of something amazing. I can’t thank Abby enough for giving me this opportunity, and for allowing me to share this experience with her–it would not have been the same any other way.

Haiti Day 9 & 10: Friday and Saturday

09 Sunday May 2010

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This was the day I was waiting for: finishing up our site! It’s crazy that it fell on the same day as our last day here, but I don’t think I could have asked for a better project to end my stay here on. The morning started a little rough, there was some disagreement about the pace at which we should be working, but Breanne helped sort that all out and we were back to normal. The difficulty with the site today was that there was still work to be done, but it was all in one area, which meant you couldn’t really have everyone shoveling in the same tight spot, which meant some of us had to find random little projects to work on. Our project leader was Tim, who’d been the project leader for the last couple days, and he was absolutely amazing. There were a lot of girls on this site, and he was super patient in teaching us sledgehammer techniques. Over. And over. And over, again. Like I said, this man had patience. I did get to master my chicken dance technique quite a bit today: basically climb up a pile of rubble, hold on to the top, and kick your feet down so the rubble will fall to the bottom and people can shovel it into the wheel barrow. Best job ever.


We packed up for lunch and went to wait for our tap tap to drive us home. We waited. And waited. Then finally decided to take action. Since our site is pretty close to our home base, we ended up just walking back instead of waiting half an hour for it to show up. This meat the people of Leogane got to see about 10 or 12 white people walking through their crazy streets pushing wheelbarrows and carrying shovels. I’m sure they were stoked.


We went for a final walk through the town at lunch, which was awesome. I actually hadn’t walked more than to the corner where Little Venice, aka Rubble Bar, aka Gutter Bar, was located, so it was great to see a little more of the place where we were working. And I stocked up on some cookies to snack on during the afternoon session :)


We ended up having a pretty slow afternoon, since there wasn’t too much work left to do. We did mostly housekeeping, cleaning up areas that weren’t completed, then we got to have a picture session with our group and the locals on the cement slab that we had cleared. It was an amazing feeling. Oh, and one of our volunteers, Eric/Kevin, found out he has at least 3 girlfriends there. These girls were all over him, it was hilarious. The reason I call him Eric/Kevin is because his name is Kevin, but I was calling him Eric for about 2 days. No wonder he didn’t turn around whenever I talked to him.


We got back to our camp early, which meant showers and a drink before dinner! We headed to Little Venice for a beer, which turned into two since we were celebrating the completion of our sight, and also a little goodbye party since there were three of us leaving. Abby, Brianne and I were constantly thinking about our goodbye speech through dinner and the beginning of our meeting (at the meeting, new people are introduced and people that are leaving get a chance to say goodbye to the group). Thankfully we survived our speeches: Abby had a great line about loving 95% of the people there, and not liking the other 5%, but respecting them. (The next morning I heard someone talking about “the five percenters,” so I think Abby started something!) Abby and I were just a taaaaaaaad emotional, so we had to leave right after the meeting to hold back our tears with a beer. Friday night was absolutely amazing. We were surrounded by so many amazing new friends, which I didn’t expect to happen on this trip. It was definitely a bitter sweet night. More sweet than bitter.


I woke up with this morning (Saturday) with a huge sadness in my heart, but so much happiness that I actually made it down here, and that I did all the things I wanted to do while I was here. I can’t thank everyone enough for making this dream a reality, and a damn good one at that! There were a few people who came by our bunks while Abby and I were packing, to say their goodbyes. Abby and I got lucky in getting some prime real estate locations in the favellas (there are tents and their are bunks; I guess the bunk area is lovingly termed the favellas). We stumbled upon two empty bunks on what we later learned was Fourth Avenue, and we later later learned that we had amazing neighbors. To Christa, Reuben, and Jake the Snake, you guys are awesome. I can’t thank you guys enough for being as cool and funny as you are. Shawn, you may not have had the blessing to live on Fourth Ave., but you were an awesome rooftop neighbor!


Back to Saturday….we packed up our stuff, and got to see everyone off to work since our shuttle wasn’t picking us up until 8am. Once again, the drive from Leogane and through PAP didn’t fail to take my breath away. It’s absolutely incredible to see the condition most of these people are living in. Anyone would be humbled and silenced beyond belief. We were able to figure out the madness outside the airport, and got checked in without any problems. Abby and I had a good three hours to wait to board our plane, since we took an earlier shuttle so we could split the cost with a couple other girls that were leaving today. And now I’m sitting at JFK doing a little more waiting, since our connecting flight is delayed due to high winds. I guess my journey hasn’t officially ended, but for all intents and purposes: Haiti Mission Accomplished!


I think I’m going to have one final entry on some general stuff about my trip, which I’m really looking forward to writing and sharing with all of you.


To all the people at Hands On and those that helped me get there, I can’t say this enough: THANK YOU.


UPDATE: our connection flight ended up being delayed FOUR hours, but we made friends with some people that were on our flight so it wasn’t too bad. What was crappy was having a sore throat, achy body, and slight fever on the flight home. It’s almost 2pm and I’m still lounging in bed trying to feel normal. I guess that might take a few days, huh? :)

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