Fly Away Again

Well, here I am, out in the world again. After a much needed two weeks at home for Christmas with my family, I find myself here in India for Winter Term. What am I doing here, you may ask? For the month of January, I am helping out some friends, Jack and Katie, with a documentary on health care alternatives in India, and doing a short Photovoice project.

I am spending one week in Mumbai, the 2^nd largest city in the world, photographing and filming with one of the coolest social businesses I have ever encountered, an organization that provides health care insurance and quality healthcare at fair costs for people living in the slums of Mumbai, called Swasth India. So far, it’s been eye opening and inspiring to see the work of two former computer scientists who decided they wanted to give up their comfortable lifestyles in order to help the poorest of the poor in their country have access to affordable healthcare in their communities.

Tomorrow, we will be pick up an Elon Public Health class as well as a Periclean Scholars class from the airport. (There are two Winter Term groups from Elon coming over here as well, so I will get to be part of the Elon group during my independent experiences.) We’ll head out on an overnight bus to Jamkhed, where we will stay for about 2 weeks at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP). There, I will continue to help Jack with the documentary as well as run a Photovoice project with my friend Annie. (The Elon classes will be working on various projects in the communities that CRHP serves).

From Jamkhed we will travel north to Delhi and Agra where we will see the Taj Mahal and other sights with the two class groups. I’ll continue to visit innovative health organizations with Jack to include them in the film.

It is great to be here in India. I’m learning so much after only a few days here, and my mind is spinning trying to compare and contrast this place to other Asian countries I have visited. This is my last big adventure before I graduate in May, so I am planning on soaking up every second of it, and as usual, sharing what I can with you : )

It makes a change

The first few days here have been great. I have definitely gotten used to the idea that I am actually in Honduras, and that I will actually be here for the next two months. This was honestly the least engaged I have been with a trip of mine before getting here. There was so much to do beforehand that had nothing to do with this experience, that I didn't process the fact that I was going at all, really. But now that I'm here, I have had time to realize what I am doing here and why, and so far, it has been going extremely well.

We have been able to spend lots of time with the boys, and I have been getting to know a lot of them. It is amazing how resilient kids are; I am amazed every time I get a chance to work with the ones who have suffered more than I could ever fathom. They are inspiring, and make me want to do everything I can to improve their circumstances.

I am really seeing how Kelsey and I are going to be able to do awesome things at ProNiño, teaching the boys photography and how to share their own stories with the world. I have only been here a few days, but already have so many goals and plans for this internship. There is a lot to be done here, and I hope that Kelsey and I can really make some changes that we feel need to be made. I can't wait to see what unfolds from this!


We are having so much fun documenting every second of this trip on our other blog (www.lensesarelouderthanwords.blogspot.com), which is why this blog might be lacking a bit.
So please check out this blog as well! Packed with videos, stories, etc., to keep you hooked and informed on what's going on down here!

Goodnight, travel well

Soooo I'm about to head off to Honduras where I will be completing my Human Services Internship for the next two months! I know it seems weird that I would be leaving school for half the semester, but the way we do it at Elon, is there are block courses, which means my internship class completed our other classes in the first half of the semester.

What will I be doing? My friend Kelsey and I will be working at ProNiño, an organization for former street kids, teaching photography and learning about how their NGO is run.

We are very excited and it is going to be an amazing experience!

I'll be keeping up with this travel blog, of course, but please check out our other blog at lensesarelouderthanwords.blogspot.com !!!

And as always, please pray for safe travels!

Love,

Meg

Up, up Stairway!

Back at Stairway!

Mine and Annie's trip to Banaue, Cambulo, Batad, and Sagada was AMAZING!!!!!

So much to write about it, so little time right now. Will post more later.
But here is a link to the first round of photos! Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2135037309319.118583.1647660015&l=b45b99cd06&type=1

If a picture’s worth a thousand words

Annie and I went up to Baclayan twice this week. I love it more and more each time I go up. The view is absolutely gorgeous. You can see the mountains as well as the ocean and the coves. Stairway just finished building one of the cubos (huts) up there, so Annie and I have been enjoying our merienda (snack) and sometimes lunch on the balcony.

On Wednesday when we went up, we presented Ate Susan, a basket weaver and the owner of the sari sari store up there, with the idea to do a photostory on the women and basket weaving process in Baclayan, in the hopes of eventually using it to market their products outside of Puerto Galera. She seems very open and excited to work with us. Hopefully we can get their products into the cultural and fare trade stores in Manila!

On Friday we met with her and a few other women from the community and completed a few assessments of the community, including an annual calendar and a community map. These will give us an idea of when exactly the women create and sell their baskets, as well as information about resources and the women's perception of their community.

We are pretty stoked about this new project and can’t wait to learn and document the process of weaving the baskets from start to finish, as well as learn better both the resources and needs of the community. We will start next week after Annie and I return from our trip to the mountains! Banaue, Batad and Sagada, here we come!

Little village baby, way up on the mountainside

So I’m back in the Philippines, and back at Stairway now, and can’t wait to get started back up on everything. This week Annie and I will be going up more often to Baclayan, a village about an hour long hike up the mountain where Stairway is building more facilities. After visiting a few cool stores in Manila, we began to think about how awesome it would be for the women in Baclayan to market their hand-woven baskets in Manila. As of now, the women simply wait for tourists to wander past their village in order to sell them baskets. This, however, is clearly not a reliable source of income for these women, so we are hoping to see what they think about creating a cooperative that could sell their products regularly.

The people who live in Baclayan are Mangyan people, part of an indigenous tribe here in the Philippines. They were forced to move from the lowlands up to the mountains and are continuously taken advantage of by the Tagalog people. A small example of an injustice that occurs is that the Tagalog people in Puerto Galera will buy the baskets from the Mangyan women at unfairly low prices in order to sell them to tourists for high prices. They make money exploiting the hard work of the indigenous women, who need the money much more severely.

We will be talking to one of the women, Ate Susan, first to see what she thinks about our idea.

Let the sun shine in. By the edge of the ocean, we can start over again

I’m leaving tomorrow to go back to the Philippines. It’s been a surreal two weeks at home, and of course, I am hesitant to leave my mom, the girls, and Michael. But I know that I need to be back in the Philippines right now. My dad was so proud of the work I was doing there, and I know he would want me to finish what I started.

I will be back in Manila in time to take the GRE on Thursday, which is a relief. I wanted to get the test in, so I’m glad I will get to do that. Luckily, Annie is also taking the GRE the day before, so I won’t be in Manila alone. I get in on Monday night and she will meet me at the hotel on Tuesday around lunch time. It will be good to see a friend right away, for sure.

Please pray for safe travels and peace for my family while I am gone.