Work and Fun on the 4th of July Weekend

One of the best things about the enormous challenge that is the MDG book project is that all of the past and former students who are part of it are such great people.  It's pretty much impossible to get all, or even a majority, of the contributors in the same place at the same time, but whenever I know that a few who are alumni are coming to Burlington, we try to pull together an in-person meeting.  My two most stalwart teammates in last year's quest for 52 New Things, Siham and Leah had been away from Burlington for far too long, so when they decided to come up for the 4th of July weekend we knew a meeting was in order.

The July MDG meeting crew: Siham (Goal 5, Team Rwanda), Leah (Goal 7, editorial team), Amanda (Goal 5, Team Rwanda), Matt (Goal 8, Team Bangladesh), Michelle (Goal 1), and Annie (Goal 7, Team Bangladesh)

In addition to the 3-4 person teams that are working on individual chapters on the eight goals that constitute the Millennium Development Goals, there are four teams that have recently completed field research in four case study places that we are including in the book -- Ecuador, Bangladesh, the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Rwanda.  (Two of the students involved in the case teams have been keeping their own blogs -- Annie (Bangladesh) and Alyssa (Ecuador), which I hope everyone will check out as well). Over the fourth of July weekend representatives of three of case study teams were in Burlington, so we knew we had to call a meeting and take the opportunity to talk about commonalities and differences in our experiences, as well as check in on the general chapter work.  I'm going to ask each of the teams to help write a longer post about the four cases, but in the meantime I should note a few of the immediate things that jumped out to all of us.  Of the three teams that were represented, it seemed as though Rwanda was making the most headway in the goals.  As we talked through the interviews and observations we had made, the concept of government capacity loomed large.  Rwanda has done remarkably well in marshaling the relatively large amount of resources that have come, often from donor nations in recent years to make notable strides, particularly in the area of health.  The military occupation of the OPT and the poverty and lack of government capacity in Bangladesh have seriously hobbled both nations from making similar strides. The Ecuador team was still in-country at the time of our meeting, but we're all looking forward to comparing notes with them soon as well.

Leah, Siham and Chris demonstrating the most important Burlington past-time -- sitting on a rock on Church Street and people-watching while eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream

Once our work was done, it was time for Leah, Siham and I to make the most of a fabulous summer holiday weekend, and I think we did a fine job.  Last July we had a similar weekend when we visited the Rokeby Museum. This year, we didn't go to the Rokeby, but we did lots of other Burlington stand-by's, like the Farmer's Market and a little jaunt up Mount Philo.  Leah and I also took a turn at stand-up paddle-boarding, and of course, we went to all our favorite breakfast and dinner places and watched the fireworks at the Burlington waterfront. Just one more weekend reminder that it's hard to beat summer in Burlington!

Siham is not capable of coming to  Burlington without visiting her honey man at the Farmer's Market.  Chris tried to convince her that she needed that lighthouse candle but instead she bought the biggest jar of honey in the world.

Leah and I had a great time paddle boarding but learned an important lesson -- it's easy paddling out with the wind, much harder paddling against it on the way back.

I made Siham and Leah pose for this picture under the rock overhang because I had taken an almost identical one on last year's trip to Mount Philo.

Friends of the Earth Middle East: Giving New Meaning to the Purpose of Challenge 6

The more I travel the more I realize two things.  First, the world is full of opportunities, but most of the time we miss them because we're so preoocupied with other things, and second, people who think they can't make a difference when it comes to intractable problems need to travel a little more to find the people out there who are making that difference. Our experience with Friends of the Earth Middle East has been an amazing proof of both these points.

First, a brief recap is in order. Kate, Alexsis and I constitute Team Palestinian Territories and we've been travelling in Jordan and the West Bank learning about how people living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are doing in the quest of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  One of my major challenges for the year (Challenge 6, in fact), is to write a book on the MDGs with a group of about 25 Saint Michael's College students and alumni.  We have teams working on all eight chapters (for the eight goals) and we also have teams focusing on four cases studies.  (The other three are Ecuador, Bangladesh and Rwanda, andI'm hoping they'll guest-blog at some point on their experiences as well.)

One of the things we learned early on in our exploration is that water is the key to many aspects of development.  In case you've ever wondered, here's how much water there is in a cubic meter.

We've met with a number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Amman and the West Bank, and are grateful to them all, both for their excellent work, and for making time to meet with our little group and patiently answer our questions, many of which probably seem self-evident or elementary to them. But we owe a particular note of gratitude to Friends of the Earth.  The organization has not only inspired us all on a personal level, its staff has gone out of its way to facilitate both our understanding and our travel experience in ways that can only be classified as phenomenal.

The story actually began in Washington, DC over a year ago, when Kate was studying there and attending a panel on water issues at the Woodrow Wilson Center.  One of the speakers was Gidon Bromberg, the director of the Tel Aviv office of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), and his talk left a deep impression on Kate. This spring when we were brainstorming ideas of groups to contact regarding our trip, on Kate's suggestion we contacted the Amman office of FoEME, and it was, in fact the first meeting we conducted on the trip.  At the office several staff members as well as the Jordan Director, Munqeth Mehyar, made time to walk us through the in's and out's of both water policy and the challenges of doing regional work in this part of the world. They introduced to a number of different projects that FoEME are working on, including the Good Water Neighbor Project, which pairs neighboring communities in Jordan, the Palestinian West Bank and Israel to work on shared issues of concern regarding water and sanitation.  And they told us a particularly inspirational story about two local communities, one Palestinian (Wadi Fukin) and one Israeli (Tsur Haddassah), that went beyond even the original goals of shared water work to jointly successfully oppose the section of Seperation Wall that was scheduled to be built between their two communities.

Much of the success of the collaboration of Wadi Fukin and Tsur Hadassah is due to the tireless work of community activists for peace in both villages.  Here is Kate with FoEME Field Organizer Fida, and local Wadi Fukin activist Abu Mazen.

When they learned that we were travelling to the West Bank, they put us in touch with the Bethlehem office of FoEME, and from there things just kept accelerating.  The Palestinian office is the home base of any number of fabulous staff and interns, but most deserving of acclaim from our point of view is our new friend, Samiramis (Shamo), the energetic officer of government and public relations.  Introduced to use by Chelsea, an American intern from UC - Santa Cruz who befriended us our first night in town, Shamo not only facilitated our visits to the Auja EcoCenter, Wadi Fukin (the Palestinian village from the story above) AND the Tel Aviv office, where our work in a sense came full circle, when Kate was able to personally meet Gidon, who spoke in Washington, DC and our group was able to see all three coutry directors working together.  Along the way, Shamo also moved us out of our hotel and into her own home, where she served as an amazing personal host for the rest of our time in the West Bank.

Shamo not only opened up huge opportunities for us in our search for information about the MDGs, she also opened her own home to us.  Here she is answering Kate's questions at the Church of the Nativity, which is down the street from her home...

and here I am in her kitchen learning to prepare fresh grape leaves for stuffing from her mother.

A simple blog post can't really do justice to the work that Friends of the Earth Middle East is doing, but it's worth it just to scratch the surface.  The organization is unique in its 3-part horizontal structure that creates equal partnerships across the Jordan, Palestinian, and Israeli offices.  Pretty much everything they undertake is an incredibly heavy lift, from trying to rehabilitate the Jordan River (water source for all three areas) that has virtually dried up, to creating brand-new models for everything from eco-tourism (which we got to see first hand at the Auja EcoCenter in the West Bank) to water neighbor pairings.

Fadi and Mohammed show Alexsis and Kate the map they use to explain water issues to children who visit the EcoCenter.

The main building of the Auja EcoCenter.  Like the rest of the facility, it was constructed with an attempt to reuse materials and with a gray water system plumbing system.

The work can take a heavy toll on the personal lives of the staff of all three offices, who are sometimes viewed as disloyal to their respective countries for working across deep political, ideological and cultural boundaries. But what comes through loud and clear in all three offices is the strong commitment of those who staff them, and the successes they have already had in a place where they odds are usually stacked against them.

Alexsis and Kate, together with all three of the country directors, Gidon (Israel), Munqeth (Jordan) and Nader (Palestine)

Research is often all about trying to understand problems and then searching for solutions.  Friends of the Earth Middle East is helping all of us, and especially the people most affected, understand some critical problems, and facilitating solutions from those communities.  Their work gives meaning to both research and development, and we are grateful for their guidance, friendship and example.

Thursday Night in Bethlehem

So, it's been a week since my last post, and a whole lot has happened. Alexsis, Kate and I have been travelling first in Amman, Jordan and then in various places in the West Bank learning about how the people living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (actually only the West Bank since we can't go to Gaza) have been doing with regard to the Millennium Development Goals.  Along the way we've been greeted with incredible kindness and hospitaliy wherever we've gone, and so the next few posts will probably be a mix of serious (and sobering) discoveries from our research and attempts to offer a sense of the fabulous adventures we have had along the way. So, in the spirit of fun adventure, it seems appropriate to begin with the story of how we spent our first Thursday night in Palestine.

In a future post, I'll be writing specifically about Friends of the Earth Middle East, which has been the organization we've worked with most since arriving here.  But for now I'lll just say that by Thursday night we were being hosted in the beautiful home of our new friend (and Friends of Earth staffer), Samiramis (who everyone calls Shamo).  Americans are used to thinking of Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, but here it's Friday and Saturday so that Thursday night plays the role of Friday night in the states.  For us, that meant a social agenda arranged by Shamo in two parts: first an engagement party of the son of a close friend, and second, a very important viewing of the TV show that all Palestinian televisions were tuned to that night, New Star. 

About half our table at the engagement party was American -- all invited by Shamo.  Here she is, together with me, Kate, Alexsis and Chelsea, the FoEME intern who introduced us to Shamo.

The engagement party was a lot like a wedding, with LOTS of singing, dancing and food.  Here's the bride-to-be being hoisted up on a chair during a dance.

One of the hallmarks of Middle Eastern hospitality is a generosity with meals that is unbelievable. At the party we stuffed ourselves with mezze -- the plates of hummus, fuul, vegetables and salads that are served with pita bread here -- as well as cake and chocolates.  But just when we thought we couldn't eat another bite, they brought us all the actual diinner, which was chicken, rice and vegetables.  There was a live singer interspersed with Arabic dance music and lots and lots of dancing.  But around 11:30 we had to make our exit because we had another event to go to.

Apparently, the singing competitions typified by American Idol in the US are actually a global phenomenon.  The Palestinian version is New Star, and Thursday night was the grand finale where the winner would be selected from among three finalists. One of these finalists was George, the Bethlehem hometown favorite.  So, we went to the restaurant of George's family to watch the final episode and cross our fingers.

These posters are plastered all over Bethlehem.  But this one is special because it's hanging outside George's family's restaurant, where we watched the results of the competition.

Alas, although we faithfully stayed till the bitter end around 1 in the morning, George was destined to be a runner-up that night.  But happily, all three of the finalists will be on a tour in the US together, so do keep your eyes out for George, possibly coming to a town near you.

2011 New Thing 7. Free Cone Day

Last night I was downloading some pictures and realized I had recently done a blogworthy New Thing and it hadn't even registered.  Every community has its own local traditions that might be observed in other places, but not with the same meaning.  Here in Burlington, Vermont Free Cone Day (FCD) is one such event and, though I've lived here for a dozen years now, I'd never been.



The MDG independent study group hard at work: Alexsis, Ben, Amanda and Matt

 For the sake of any ice cream haters out there (for they would be the only people who don't know this), I'll recap: on April 12 Ben and Jerry's ice cream stores throughout the world open their doors to everyone and give free cones to anyone willing to wait in line for them.  For us Burlingtonians, this day has special significance, because our downtown is the birthplace of the Ben and Jerry's scoop shop and though the company got sold to Unilever some years ago (to our everlasting sadness), Ben and Jerry are still prominent Vermonters and supporters of the lefty politics that makes the political right wing of this country avoid our state like the plague.  Plus, on a good year April 12 is our first day of spring, since the one that the Weather Channel claims (March 21) is usually marked by some kind of blizzard here.

This year April 12 fell on a Tuesday, which is also the day of one of my favorite activities of this semester, my independent study meetings with Alexsis, Amanda, Ben and Matt.  Every once in a while a teacher gets lucky by having an astoundingly great group of students all in the same class. That happened to me in fall 2010 when I taught a new course on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for the first time.  As I've written elsewhere, and will be writing about again shortly, the interest of the class has blossomed into an amibitious book project, drawing in a lot of outstanding alumni, that we are pursuing together.  On Tuesdays I have been teaching two different independent studies with four of the students involved in the project.  Alexsis and Matt were not able to take the original class and so have been doing the readings from the course and meeting for the discussions.  Ben and Amanda were in the original class and signed on for an advanced topics version of the MDG experience.  All four of them have also been helping bring together the logistics of the project, which are about to get complicated in a hurry, because this summer, with major support from the office of the Saint Michael's College Academic Vice President, Karen Talentino, we are continuing with the writing and sending student teams to four countries to gather information.  That project will be its own post, but for now, I'll just say it's a lot of work to pull together, and it's been great to have the support of the independent study team.

When we met on the twelth it was a beautiful and sunny late afternoon, and we quickly decided that we could just as easily discuss our aganda standing in line on Cherry Street as around a table in Alliot Hall.  So, we crammed into my car, headed downtown and loaded up on ice cream.  Oh, and learned a new truism -- nothing says Millennium Development Goals like Ben and Jerry's.

MDGs + free Ben and Jerry's + warm spring day = the Perfect Independent Study Class

Serendipity 7. Start a Book During Alumni Weekend 2010

Sometimes people who've seen this blog ask me whether I plan to keep going with the New Things project after 2010. The answer is yes, with some modifications. The first is that, in accordance with the suggestion of my list co-originators, Leah and Siham, we're extending 2010 into 2011, and officially ending the year on the last weekend of February, 2011. That's the anniversary of our trip to Bar Harbor, Maine, when Siham and Leah launched their own lists. The second, much bigger change is this: instead of being 52 new things, next year will be 12-12-2. That means one new thing per month, 12 things from this year continued to next (rock climbing, skiing, ice skating and kayaking for sure -- eight more TBD) and two from the much more ambitious Life List. Most of the things on the Life List are really pretty hard -- like running a marathon and climbing Kilimanjaro, so I think two per year is probably reasonable. But as it turns out, I'm starting one of them early, and that is the subject of this post.

The first Life List project is Co-author a Book with Students and/or Alum. I've written one book by myself and done two others with co-authors or co-editors and the experience taught me that I much prefer the latter. But something I hate about working on books in general is that it's so time-consuming and takes me away from the thing I love the most about my job, which is actually spending time with students. So, I was thinking it would be an awesome thing to be able to do both at once, and it turns out that I can. I'm teaching a course for the first time this fall on the Millennium Development Goals (and anyone who isn't quite sure what those are can check out this web site: http://www.undp.org/mdg/) and couldn't find a text book. So, I had the thought that I'd love to write one with the students I've had over the years who are as interested in development issues as I am (and there are quite a few). I sent out a query and was overwhelmed by the level of interest, so we've decided to do it. The plan is to write a ten chapter book: introduction, conclusion and a chapter for each of the eight goals Each of the eight goal chapters will be written by three person student/alumni teams following a standardized template of content to cover. We'll have four country cases, also researched by student/alumni teams, that run through the book. And there will be a small editorial group that will help me with coordination and editing the book content.

Because we just had alumni weekend at Saint Mike's, we folded the first book planning meeting into the weekend's activities. Only about half the team could come -- some couldn't make it to the reunion, and some had work obligations. Kate ('11) and Annie ('13) had probably the best excuse. They're actually representing our Saint Mike's Student Global AIDS Campaign chapter in New York City attending events around the United Nations Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals as I write this -- how cool is that? But the group that was there brought all kinds of great energy and ideas to the table, and once we work through assigning the chapter teams, we'll be ready to get started.

Here are a few photos from the meeting, and from alumni weekend. In the group shot from the planning meeting are: Drisk ('09), Chris ('13), Samantha ('11), Claire ('11), Leah ('07), Alexsis ('11), Matt ('11), Nick ('10), Siham ('07) and Josh ('11). At the table are pictures of Nick, Drisk, Siham and Leah and of Josh, Matt and Alexsis, respectively. There's an unfortunately-dark picture of part of the editorial group -- Leah, Siham and Drisk, wherein Siham had stolen Drisk's world-famous tiger sweatshirt that is his guaranteed conversation-starter wherever he goes. And finally, there is a highly self-congratulatory picture of Leah, Siham and I sitting in everyone's favorite Saint Mike's spot -- the Word Garden (created through the inspired imaginations of my colleagues Mark and Valerie, and grounds crew director Alan). If you haven't been to Saint Mike's campus in the last year, you should take a trip just to hang out there for a few minutes and make your own little statement to the world, as we did.

This is a long post, and a pretty immodest one, but I don't think it's every day that twenty-something students and alum come to together to commit themselves to a year long totally volunteer project that will require a lot of work for which they will get no academic credit (beyond authorship, of course) or financial compensation. I think it says something pretty wonderful about Saint Mike's students and alum, and I am tremendously happy and proud to be working with all of them. We'll be having another formal meeting later in the year, which hopefully everyone, or close to everyone, will be able to attend and there will certainly be posts on the project, so stay tuned. And there are still a couple open slots on the project, so if there are students or alum that I missed the first time around who are interested, shoot me a message as soon as possible.