Be Excellent to Each Other

One Semester Down, Decompressing in Colorado

2011-12-21T11:27:00.002+07:00

Final papers, hours and hours spent at the library, procrastinating and wasting time mindlessly browsing the internet, listening to music and trying to find anything to do but finish said final papers. That was pretty much the story of the last few weeks. It's now a few days before Christmas and I'm in Colorado, relieved to be done with my first semester of graduate school. I'm anxiously waiting to hear back on the grades for three out of my four classes as I sit here at my mom's house, exhausted. My friend Nik flew out to New York City and we drove to Colorado with my dogs. The trip went really well, car had no issues, dogs pretty much slept the whole time, and we only made one long stop, for a two hour nap at a rest stop. 34 hours or so to drive from NYC to Denver, pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Glad it's over though, my body hurts from being in a vehicle so long.

I'm looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks catching up and relaxing with family and friends, decompressing, and recharging before I head back to NYC in early January. It feels good to be home, now to see about relaxing. :)

Brooklyn

2011-11-29T12:41:00.002+07:00

Here's a few pictures I took a couple of weeks ago in Brooklyn when I had some friends visiting from Colorado.

Trying not to lose my mind...

2011-11-26T02:14:00.002+07:00

Aside from Phnom Penh, I've never lived in a large city before and certainly not one even close to being as large as NYC. This city has a lot of ups and downs but has really been wearing on me lately. The noise, the people, the general hustle and bustle, it's all been contributing to a stressful past few weeks. As the semester winds down, as I scramble to finish readings, study for quizzes and prepare final papers, I find myself very much looking forward to spending a couple of weeks in Colorado during the winter break. It will be nice to spend time with friends and family, to be near the mountains, to enjoy the fresh air and quiet, and to relax a bit before my second semester begins.

I've been meaning to write a longer blog post but I don't have much time. I need to get back to reading and studying.

Awesome Video - Genki Sudo + OWS

2011-10-29T22:03:00.004+07:00

I posted this on Facebook so most of my friends and acquaintances will hopefully see it but I figured I'd share it on my blog as well. This is such an amazing video and song. :)

Also, just saw this video via a friend on Facebook and loved it, hahaha. Brilliant!

Photos - Occupy Wall Street, WTC Construction

2011-10-28T05:34:00.002+07:00

Still working on getting my act together as far as blog posts go but thought I'd put up a few pics I took a couple of nights ago. After class a friend and I wandered down towards Ground Zero (if we can still call it that?) to take a few pictures. Of course we ended up at Zucotti Park as well and I took a couple of pictures while we walked by.

Occupy Wall Street, Worries, Fears - First Encounter Thoughts

2011-10-15T21:29:00.008+07:00

I haven’t written on my blog in quite a while and I still need to get my final blog post up about the Kenya trip but I wanted to write about this particular topic while it’s ‘fresh’ in my mind and I suppose in the minds of anyone who pays attention to current events. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests, or movement, began a few weeks back and being a current resident of New York City, I had to get down there to check things out. The protests had been going on for probably a week and a half or two weeks before we made it down so I’d had plenty of opportunities to read news articles, opinions on facebook, blog posts, and the media’s variety of coverage on OWS.

Last Friday I was in the downtown area to meet with my advisor and afterwards I wandered in the direction of the World Trade Center where I planned to wait for my girlfriend and a friend before we went in search of the protests. Being unfamiliar with the downtown area and not really knowing where I was going or where Wall Street was, I walked right into Zuccotti Park and the main group of protesters on accident. I had my headphones on but my attention was drawn to the loud beat of drums and I looked up to see a crowd formed around some musicians and a group of young men dancing. Admittedly, it took a few minutes to register that I had found the protesters. I started noticing signs, flags, a variety of political t-shirts, tarps, and as I began walking around more, laptops, cameras, tarps, tents, air mattresses, and enthusiastic people opening up to anyone willing to listen. I stood off to the side of the park for a while, taking things in and it wasn’t long before I was approached by a young man, maybe a few years younger than me, who asked if I’d sign a petition in support of a single payer healthcare system for New York. I’m cool with that so I signed his petition and chatted with him for a minute, and then wandered further up the sidewalk along the park. The further ‘up’ I went, the louder it got and the more signs I saw. I also started to notice a number of reporters and news vans around and even a lady who appeared to be ‘dressed up’ as Sarah Palin, interviewing protesters. I checked out some artwork on the corner and continued to people watch. I noticed economist Jeffrey Sachs standing a few feet away talking to some of the protesters and a couple of reporters. I had to do a double take but later confirmed that it was him. In my Global Civil Society course we’ve reviewed some articles by Sachs on development and aid and his work has come up in a couple of my other classes.

I eventually met up with Hanna and Erica at the other end of the park and we walked towards the center of the park where Sachs conversed with a number of protesters via the ‘human microphone’ method. We listened for a bit, took a few pictures, and wandered around some more. We didn’t spend much time there but I observed enough to know that sometime soon, I’d like to go back with my camera, take more pictures, and talk with some of the protesters (perhaps my first foray into journalism?). Here’s some of what I noticed and some of my thoughts on what I witnessed: A variety of flags, from pink and rainbow heart designs declaring love for all and peace to red flags with Che Guevara’s likeness, upside down American flags, flags with whatever message the creator was trying to portray. Signs, cardboard, poster board, notebook paper, posters, drawings, cartoons, caricatures, hastily scrawled messages of anger, frustration, calls for justice, demands for jobs, frustration with Obama and other elected officials, support for universal health care, ending the multiple wars we are currently engaged in, protecting the environment, ending global warming, and so on and so forth. I also saw a number of signs and t-shirts expressing support for presidential candidate Ron Paul, which I found rather interesting. I didn’t get a chance but the next time I certainly will, but I wanted to ask some of the Ron Paul supporters about their thoughts on other protestors’ calls for universal health care, free education, student loan debt relief, etc. A part of me wanted to laugh at the irony but my idealistic side found appreciation in the diversity of these protesters, in the fact that though many have called them disorganized, delusional, and misguided, there were a lot of different people from different ends of the political spectrum putting their differences aside to basically tell Wall Street and the world, they are pissed off with the way things are and they want change. Real change I’d imagine, not the bullshit many were sold on three years ago.

I admit I had my doubts and misgivings at a lot of what I witnessed, due to a lot of mixed messages, a number of messages that seemed rather foolish, and perhaps misguided anger. Quite a few people seemed to be there with what some would call rather generic messages of "end all wars", "save the planet" and I can understand some of the criticisms of the lack of coherence or direction. People in support of bigger government, mixed in with people in support of ending the fed, Ron Paul supporters, people with signs praising Obama, a lot of it threw me off and that's why I'd like to spend more time down there and ask questions, get a better feel for what people are thinking, etc.

As someone who’s had difficulty finding a job over the past few months, I can sympathize with those who are coming out of college or graduate school and are unable to find work. There are plenty of jobs available, argue some of my friends. There may be jobs available in a number of fields but some of us either just aren’t qualified for those jobs or we just aren’t getting hired. As someone who’s applied for hundreds of jobs over the past few months and only landed three interviews with no job offers, again I can sympathize. The same friends who argue about all these available jobs say that people shouldn’t go to school to get ‘worthless degrees’ or should go learn practical skills in order to get jobs in skilled labor. As someone who tries to remain realistic and firmly grounded, I can appreciate that more people need to be willing to go into blue collar jobs, skilled labor, and jobs that will help our infrastructure and economy to grow. I have applied for jobs in manual labor, jobs that have nothing to do with my education, entry level jobs in a variety of fields and done my best to express to potential employers that I am willing to do almost any type of work and that I am not ‘above’ or ‘too good’ for the jobs that some may turn their nose up at. I’ve considered pursuing a number or qualifications and skills in order to make my resume more practical and diverse all while trying to keep my goals and dreams in mind and focus on my studies. These cost money of course and given the cost of my current degree program, it might be best for me not to take on any more debt. People are quick to call the protesters lazy and tell them there are plenty of jobs available and it’s very easy to criticize when you have a job, when your industry hasn’t suffered as many cuts. Is the U.S.A. not supposed to be the land of opportunity? Why criticize and make fun of those who can’t find jobs in the fields they’ve put years of study and work into? I don’t appreciate free loaders or those who abuse the system but when qualified, educated people are unable to find work, why bash them?

Sure I’d be as cynical as anyone if I had a friend pursuing a higher education in underwater basket weaving but isn’t part of the American dream (if it still exists) being able to pursue your dreams, to do what makes you happy and make a living? I admit I was moved by Mike Rowe’s (host of Dirty Jobs) message on CNN i-report about how there are a few hundred thousand jobs in skilled labor that can’t be filled because there just aren’t people with those skills. Yes, we need people with more diverse and ‘practical’ skills but when millions of Americans are out of work and unable to find jobs, EVERYONE should be concerned. Whether you believe that unemployment is the often touted 9 percent or as high as 15-16 percent, American citizens should be concerned and more sympathetic.

When I sat at my cousin’s graduation earlier this year and watched hundreds of graduate students receiving their diplomas at the University of Denver, the majority of which were in International Studies, Psychology, Sociology, etc. the question ‘what the hell are these people going to do now?’ kept running through my head, a great thought given that I had just recently decided to pursue my M.S. in Global Affairs at New York University and would be starting in three months. My misgivings and second thoughts about whether this expensive degree program is a smart move have continued as I’ve applied for jobs and heard nothing back, as I’ve watched the progression of the angry, unemployed masses at Occupy Wall Street and as I’ve tried to picture the knowledge I’m currently acquiring evolving into a future career. I’ve considered looking into the possibility of pursuing a dual degree, pairing my MS with a Masters in Public Health (in hopes that the practicality and diversity will offset the costs in the long term), I’ve considered pursuing an EMT certification, trying to land a job with a construction company and pick up some more hands on skills, learn to use some different equipment, and even the possibility of going back into the military as an officer, though I have my misgivings and anticipate an ideological struggle in that option.

I have always been good at adapting and adjusting to changing conditions and I know I’ll figure things out eventually. While I will hold on to my cynicism, realism and my constant questioning, I will still have sympathy and concern for those who (provided they are putting forth the effort) are unable to find work or get by in these increasingly tough times.

As mentioned above, I hope to get down to the protests again soon and do some more ‘investigating'. In the meanwhile, here's a cartoon I borrowed from a friend on facebook that I found pretty relevant:

http://i.imgur.com/FIZuV.png

Thanks for reading, more to come!

Two Weeks in Kenya, Part 2

2011-09-07T01:37:00.004+07:00

Ok I've procrastinated long enough on writing this blog post and seeing as how I started my first semester of graduate school this week, I figure I better get this done before I get too busy.

At Fisherman's Camp we were a hundred feet or so from Lake Naivasha, which was beautiful, and we were surrounded by massive trees, which were full of monkeys and large, rather evil looking birds. I wandered around the camp site a bit, took a lot of pictures, and enjoyed the view of the lake from the dock. We enjoyed a delicious and nutritious meal of tuna sandwiches, peanut butter and nutella sandwiches, and chips. In the evening we hung out at the camp bar/restaurant and enjoyed a few beers. As I was getting up to hit the bathroom, an Australian traveler pointed out to me that a hippo had come up from the lake. I probably did a quadruple take as I stared at the massive gray beast moving around near the electric fence. I quietly made my way closer to the tent and viewed the animal while slightly hidden behind a tree. I was standing fifteen feet or so from a hippopotamus in the wild. The only thing separating me from this small car sized animal was a thin electric fence, maybe four and a half feet high. I stood and watched the hippo as it walked up to the fence, tested it a little bit, and then lay down in the dirt. I tried to take pictures but it was too dark and I didn't want to freak the hippo out with my flash. After watching it for about 10 or 15 minutes, I made my way back to the bar with a huge smile on my face. I probably haven't mentioned this on my blog but hippos are one of my favorite animals. :)

After a night of cramped, uncomfortable attempts at sleeping, We woke up early the next day, took a boat ride out onto Lake Naivasha and saw a group of wild hippos relaxing in the water. We couldn't get too close but it was pretty cool seeing hippos again in the wild. After the boat ride, we rented bikes from the camp site and rode a couple of miles to Hell's Gate National Park. Previously I had seen CTG’s pictures from Hell’s Gate and it had looked impressive but biking into the park in person, seeing sheer rock walls climbing hundreds of feet, fields of zebras, and just a vast, rugged but beautiful stretch of land in front of me, it was breath taking. We followed the dirt road through the park and rode past herds of zebras, warthogs, and gazelles as we made our way to the spot we’d be camping at for the night. After enjoying the ride to the site, taking a few hundred pictures, scarfing down some pb and chocolate sandwiches, we hopped back on our bikes and made our way to the Hell’s Gate gorge. On the way down to the road we spotted a giraffe wandering around amongst the zebras, so naturally I rode closer to take some pictures. Jordan and CTG rode ahead and when I got on my bike to catch up to them, I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. As I was quickly pedaling down the road, a couple of zebras were crossing into the road. As they saw/heard me coming near, they stopped in the middle of the road, when I was about 20-30 feet away, they trotted out of the way. As I started to pass them, they both went into a full sprint, running in the grass next to the road, maybe 10 feet away from me. I rode next to these galloping wild zebras for close to a hundred feet before they turned off into the field. I can’t really find the words to accurately describe the feeling but I know that I had the biggest smile on my face and it just felt so surreal. It was definitely one of the most memorable moments, not only of the entire trip, but of my life.

Moving on from my amazing zebra race, I caught up to CTG and Jordan and we eventually arrived at the gorge entrance. The site, which consisted of some picnic tables, bathrooms and a ranger building or two, was crawling with large baboons. Baboons were constantly coming up to where people were, trying to snag a snack, then the rangers would chase them away, only to have them reappear soon after, a little further away. We spent a few hours walking down through smooth rock walls, streams, water falls, pools of water, past large groups of Kenyan school children, and multiple hot sulfur water streams dripping down from the tops of the canyon walls. The gorge was really nice and in spite of getting stuck in the middle of a few groups of kids trying to climb down the steeper ledges, we had a good time exploring. We made our way back to the camp site, slept the night, and woke up to a gorgeous sunrise peaking around the hills into the entrance of the park (look at the pictures!). On the way out of the park we saw water buffalo, more zebras, and warthogs trotting around in the grass.

From Hell’s Gate, we made our way back to Fisherman’s Camp, returned our bikes, and then made it to the city of Nakuru, after one bus and one matatu ride. In Nakuru we sampled more Kenyan cuisine, which mostly consisted of fried chicken, brown rice, and little fried, triangle shaped dumplings called samosas. It was pretty good and at the little café/restaurants, you get a lot of food for very little money. Cold cokes or sprites were almost always the beverage of choice. We set up a safari tour of Lake Nakuru and spent the evening relaxing in the hotel room. Early in the morning our guide picked us up in a small jeep like vehicle that kinda looked like a Suzuki Samurai and we made the 15 minute or so drive out of the city, towards the park. I’ll try to finish the last blog post about the Kenya trip as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, here are a few pictures from Fisherman's Camp and Hell’s Gate and if you haven’t looked at the Kenya photo albums, be sure to take a look!

Also, I changed the layout and the main picture on the blog. The pic I took in Nakuru on the way back from the park. I switched it to sephia on the camera and I thought it came out pretty good. Let me know what you think, thanks!

Two Weeks in Kenya, Part 1

2011-08-23T23:51:00.005+07:00

On August 1st, my good friend Jordan and I arrived at JFK international airport to embark on a two week journey to Kenya. In true American fashion, we decided to hit the McDonald's for a late pre-flight lunch. From the U.S. to Frankfurt, as well as from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa, we were on Lufthansa Air flights, which was really nice for the most part. I'd definitely fly with them again internationally. We did end up with some slight delays because of the weather but we were lucky enough not to miss any of our connecting flights. En route to Kenya I finished a really interesting book titled "Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower", by Michela Wrong. It was a fascinating though disturbing book about corruption, inequality, tribal/ethnic differences and how they've tied into Kenyan politics over the past few decades. Perhaps I was immersing myself in cynicism prior to even entering the country?

After taking an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, we deboarded the plane and went in search of passport control and my checked bag. As we were attempting to enter immigration/passport control to officially enter the country, we were stopped by a lady who asked to see our vaccination records. Jordan had researched necessary vaccinations months prior to our trip and on the website, it says nothing about needing to present vaccination records to get into Kenya, unless you are coming directly from a country where Yellow Fever is a problem. It also said that Ethiopia is one of those countries, but if you are only going into the airport, you don't have to get the vaccination or have your vaccination records. Jordan, who is course always more prepared than me, had her records and presented them to the lady. The lady turned to me and asked me about mine. I explained to her that I didn't have them but I had not come from a country that had Yellow Fever. We politely argued with her over what she was telling us versus what's actually on their website and after a few minutes she basically told me to go ahead but next time I come to Kenya I should have my vaccination records. Needless to say, I shook my head in amazement as I walked on to get my visa stamped. It didn't take long for me to revert to 'in developing country' mode.

Chris, better known as CTG, was waiting for us at the airport but before I could greet him with a glorious embrace, I had to find my checked bag. I stood at the luggage carousel and waited...............................and waited, for a good 30 minutes or so before I started talking with a few other people who I noticed also anxiously waiting, about the fact that our bags appeared to be nonexistent. Eventually we were helped by somebody who worked for one of the airlines or the airport, and we filled in paperwork for missing luggage. The gentleman assured us the luggage was not lost, it was just missing and that it would turn up. Luckily, I had brought most of my expensive and important stuff in my camera bag, as well as a change of clothes in my extra small backpack. I reunited with CTG and Jordan and before hopping into a taxi, we exchanged some money.

Our taxi ride to the hotel wasn't too long and we were pretty tired from 24 hours or so of traveling. We caught up with Chris a bit and discussed our options and concerns over the missing bag (which in addition to my clothes, sandals, toiletries, etc. also held two liters of oh so delicious root beer, root beer which poor CTG hadn't had the pleasure of tasting in a long time). CTG had our trip planned out day by day so we made some adjustments and decided to do a few things in Nairobi the next day, that we originally weren't planning on doing until right before we flew back to the U.S. The early part of our day on August 4th was spent wandering around the city, lookin for food and drink, and searching for a local airline office where we could purchase tickets needed towards the end of the trip. We ate lunch at an upstairs cafe overlooking the street. Lunch consisted of beef stew, rice and some vegetables. It wasn't spectacular but it certainly wasn't terrible. Kenyan food has a lot more flavor than Mongolian food but not quite on the same level as Khmer food. :)

Moving on, we managed to land our plane tickets, just barely and soon after we received a phone call that my bag had arrived at the airport. Needless to say, we were all relieved. After picking up my bag from the airport we had dinner at what is apparently one of the most famous restaurants in Nairobi, called 'Carnivore'. Carnivore is set up similar to a lot of Brazilian meat/steak houses in the U.S. You pay for your dinner, sit down, and they bring you skewer after skewer of different varieties of meat and you eat as much as you can. The meal was a bit pricey (for us at least, I think it was somewhere between 20 and 30 bucks) but we wanted to see what the hype was all about and it came highly recommended by my friend Jessica, who had traveled in Kenya previously. The restaurant was full of tourists/foreigners and was bustling. After having some beers at the bar and waiting a bit for our table, we sat down, ready to gorge. Over the next hour and a half we were served some salad and side dishes, bread and some potatoes, and then tried a variety of different meats and cuts, including crocodile, ostrich, bull balls (AKA rocky mountain oysters, which oddly enough I never tried in Colorado), camel, lamb, and different cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and I believe goat. The majority of the food was delicious and we left satisfied, but we planned to eat the majority of our meals at cheaper establishments for the rest of the trip.

The next day, CTG let us know he had a surprise for us. After securing our plane tickets we hopped in a cab and went for a ride. After driving around for a little bit we made a stop at a giraffe preserve outside of Kenya. Depspite the school bus full of obnoxious tourist kids (and by kids I mean, these kids were probably all in high school) throwing food at one giraffe's face and repeatedly screaming it's name while trying to get a picture of it licking them, it was a nice experience. After the giraffe visit we had the pleasure of visiting an elephant/rhinocerous orphanage. The elephants, of which there were many, were obnoxiously cute and fun to watch. Here there was also an obscene amount of tourists, hugging the rope to get up close to the animals and pretty much ignoring the workers who were trying to explain a little bit about the orphanage and the animals. Basically the orphanage rescues baby elephants and rhinos whose parents have been poached or hunted and takes care of them until they are old enough to be out in the wild on their own. There was also one rhino but he was huge, not quite as small as most of the elephants. Below are a few pics from the orphanage.

The rest of my Kenya pictures can be viewed at these links:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.633251806863.2125758.72206395&l=a83178afd5&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.633430773213.2125820.72206395&l=2d77a737f1&type=1

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.634112102823.2126064.72206395&l=b56d541d94&type=1

After enjoying part of the day with awesome animals, we took a matatu (large van with a crazy driver, stuffed full of people and stuff, very similar to our mikr vans in Mongolia) to a campground called Fisherman's Camp right on Lake Naivasha. More on that and the rest of the trip as soon as I can get through my notes and pictures. :)

Matt Becker, African Adventure 1.0

2011-08-01T09:36:00.003+07:00

I'm sitting at home, AC on full blast, pretty tired after a fun but exhausting weekend, mostly spent drinking beers, catching up with friends from Peace Corps and making new friends and acquaintances. It's been about two weeks since we moved into our apartment in New York City and I'm about to leave again, this time for a two week trip to Kenya. Like most of previous travel experiences, it never really hits me that I'm going somewhere until I'm on the way there. Right now, I'm sitting here thinking 'I'm going to Kenya tomorrow. Cool." but tomorrow when I'm on the plane it's going to be more like "Holy crap! I'm going to Africa! To Kenya! Awwwweeeesssoome!".

I've lived in Asia for over two years, been to the Middle East briefly and I've traveled extensively around the continental United States. I've never been to Africa but so many countries on the continent have interested me, have made we want to go. I think that as I've spent the last few years working in development and education, and as I've decided to make the transition into human rights, humanitarian assistance and conflict resolution, I've always known that I'd end up in the Middle East or Africa at some point. This is only a two week trip, mostly for pleasure, to visit a friend who's there with Peace Corps, to experience something new and different for a short time before graduate school starts but in a lot of ways I feel like it's just going to be a preview, a small view into a country that I could end up working in sometime in the not too distant future. I'm reading a book right now, called "Our Turn to Eat", about Kenya, which came highly recommended by Chris, my friend who is there now. It's pretty interesting so far and it's helping to educate me on some of the current woes Kenya is facing, perhaps to understand the root causes of many of the country's struggles with corruption, before I arrive there.

I've been back in the U.S. since September and I've been itching to do some international travel for the past few months. My bags are packed, I've finally got a a nice camera with which to document my trip and my friend slash traveling companion Jordan is here. Jordan has never been to Africa either but has traveled in Europe. We're both nervous and excited and we're both happy to know that we have a good friend and a great host/travel guide to show us around the country he's been living and working in for almost two years. I have about 40 gb worth of memory cards in my camera bag so you can believe I'll be taking and posting up a lot of pictures of this adventure.

24 hours from now we'll be on the first of three plane rides that will take us to Kenya. I can't wait. :)

Washington Heights: No Habla Espanol?

2011-07-24T06:40:00.004+07:00

Just under a week ago, Hanna and I signed our lease and began moving into our new apartment, in Washington Heights, upper Manhattan. The first few days I walked around our neighborhood, I heard a lot of Spanish being spoken. By a lot, I mean I heard significantly more Spanish than English. Our friends Dylan and Elaine, also former Mongolian Peace Corps volunteers, took us to a great Dominican restaurant a block away from the apartment and told us that our neighborhood is known for being predominantly Dominican. Interested in learning more, I hit the always reliable and informative Wikipedia :D and read a bit more about Washington Heights. Here's one tidbit that seems to accurately describe my new hood:

"Today the majority of the neighborhood's population is of Dominican birth or descent (the area is sometimes referred to as "Quisqueya Heights"), and Spanish is frequently heard being spoken on the streets. Washington Heights has been the most important base for Dominican accomplishment in political, non-profit, cultural, and athletic arenas in the United States since the 1960s. Most of the neighborhood businesses are Dominican owned, driving the local economy. Many Dominican immigrants come to network and live with family members. Bishop Gerard Walsh, former long-time pastor of St. Elizabeth's Roman Catholic Church, located in Washington Heights, said that many residents go to the neighborhood for "cheap housing," obtain jobs "downtown," receive a "good education," and "hopefully" leave the neighborhood."

If this isn't the perfect opportunity to pick up another language, I don't know what is. If every minute of my time is not taken up by my graduate studies, I'll have to see about getting some lessons in Spanish.

It's been obnoxiously hot in NYC the past few days. By obnoxiously hot I'm talking Cambodian hot. It's been in the high 90's, hovering around 100 degrees and higher some days and of course, it's incredibly humid. NYC is already humid enough but we live between the Harlem and Hudson rivers so I can't imagine that helps. The dogs are doing well for the most part, adjusting to the craziness of living in the big city. We have a park right down the street, which is pretty nice. I'm pretty sure that we are the only people in our neighborhood with dogs other than chihuahuas and pit bulls, so Zack and Jack get a lot of looks from the neighborhood kids, some excited and curious, some terrified.

I had a ton of thoughts I wanted to write down in more detail as part of this blog post, thoughts and observations from living here for the past (almost) week, walking around my neighborhood, the madness of driving in the city during rush hour, etc. but I am experiencing a serious brain fart and I really need to eat dinner. More profound and thought provoking blog post coming very soon. In the meanwhile, here's a few pictures from the past few days.

The Poconos, New York City, Nomad, Vagabond

2011-07-13T21:44:00.005+07:00

After two and a half days of driving, we arrived in Pennsylvania to spend some time with my mom's family. Nebraska, Iowa, and Indiana were obnoxiously hot. Zack was my copilot, he was pretty calm for most of the trip but didn't do a whole lot of driving, mostly sleeping in the passenger seat. :) The cool water of Fairview Lake in Paupack was a welcome change from being couped up in a vehicle driving across the torrid midwest summer.

The last two weeks or so have been interesting and fun. I was able to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins, my siblings, my grandma and my mom. Hanna met almost all of my mom's side of the family, we spent a lot of time by and in the lake, swimming, boating, relaxing. Zack seems to be enjoying PA for the most part. The humidity seems to have helped keep his nose from getting too dry and he seems to have an extra bounce in his step when we go for walks. The first day we had him at the dock, he launched himself into the lake in pursuit of my aunt Cathy's dogs at the next closest dock, seemingly not realizing that once he fell into the water, he'd have to swim to get anywhere. He looked panicked for a second, swum in a circle, and turned right back around, the terrified look in his eyes screaming at me "MATT MATT MATT GET ME OUT OF THIS WATER HOLY CRAP!!!!". It was surprising and amusing to witness.

I came into New York City last week to meet Hanna, meet up with some of my good friends from Peace Corps, and check out an apartment that we are trying to get into. Hanna found a nice place in upper Manhattan that we put in applications for and we've got our fingers crossed that we can possibly move in sometime this week or weekend. I've been spending a few days in the city, going back and forth between a friend's place and my aunt Peggy's house in Long Island. I'm a nomad, vagabond, call me what you will, at the moment and really looking forward to getting settled into an apartment in the city so I can do some more exploring and hopefully find some temp work.

New York City is, in one word, crazy. There are people everywhere, there's something going on on every street corner, there is so much to see, so much to listen to. It's so much louder and more fast paced here than in Colorado. I take the subway everywhere so I'm constantly watching people, wondering about them. There is so much diversity here. It's so amazing to me how many different ethnic groups have such a large presence in this city. So many people from so many different walks of life, all living crammed into one city. It's incredible.

I've taken a lot of pictures, I've asked a lot of questions, I've eaten a lot of good food, I've caught up with friends from Peace Corps Mongolia, I've been lost, I've gotten on the wrong train, I've met some new and interesting people and it's only been a few days. I'm doing my best to stay optimistic and curious. I'm here for at least two years, going to make the most of it.

18 days until my trip to Kenya. Can't wait. Here's a few pictures I took over the past week.
Driving across the country. Sunset in Ohio.

Fairview Lake, Paupack PA, view from my aunt's dock

Few random shots in New York City

All Packed Up and Ready to Go....East Coast Here I Come

2011-06-30T07:30:00.003+07:00

I'm sitting in my old room at my mom's house looking at piles of boxes containing all my stuff while I try to find the words to express my feelings about leaving Colorado again. Tomorrow is my last day working at Mission Possible, my last day to spend time with friends, my last day in Colorado until who knows when. I've been in Colorado since September and it's been nice. I've enjoyed being able to spend quality time with friends and family, showing Hanna my favorite places in Colorado, introducing her to my friends and family, and just being home. There have been ups and downs but I'm glad I stayed as long as I did. Colorado will always be home for me, though I foresee a future of lots of moving and traveling around the world. I get stir crazy often and I think between spending time in Pennsylvania with my family, exploring New York City, traveling to Kenya, and starting school at NYU, I will have more than enough to keep my stir craziness in check over the coming months.

The past few weeks have flown by but it's been nice. I was able to catch up with a lot of old friends, spend quality time with close friends and enjoy Colorado's beautiful summer. Whenever I'm driving and I look at the mountains, I realize how much I'm going to miss it here. It's funny how we take certain things for granted and don't really appreciate their significance until we don't have them anymore. I have no doubt that I will visit Colorado as often as possible while I'm living in New York City but there's so much I'm going to miss. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous about living in a city as massive and fast paced as New York City, but I'm trying to be as optimistic and open-minded as possible. There will be new people to meet, places to see, foods to eat, experiences to have and it will be nice having Hanna show me all of her favorite restaurants and spots, introduce me to her friends and family, and show me how to get around the city. I'm anxious but excited for this move, for this new experience.

Tonight I'm hanging out with friends, tomorrow I work my last shift and I will be having dinner with some of my friends, then Friday morning we venture east. We'll be staying at my sister's place in Iowa Friday night, then driving as far as possible on Saturday and barring no problems, arriving in Pennsylvania on Sunday. It will be nice to see a lot of my mom's family since the last time I saw most of them was on my break from Mongolia two years ago. I'm excited to go swimming in the lake, enjoy the summer and catch up with my grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins. It will be a great segue from Colorado to the east coast. Hopefully next week I will be able to venture into New York City and take a look at some apartments with Hanna. Ideally, I'd like to find some temporary work so I can make a little bit of money before I leave for Kenya, but we'll see what happens when I get there. I will probably start putting in applications for part time work and go wander around NYU's campus to see if there's any leads there. 12 credit hours as a graduate student will be very tough, no doubt, but I'd like to work while I'm in school. Fingers crossed.

More blog posts to come as I move forward on this next journey of my life.

Peace Corps, Third Goal

2011-06-28T03:48:00.005+07:00

The Peace Corps has three main goals. Straight from the Peace Corps website, here they are:

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.returned.thirdgoal.whatis

Third goal activities are basically meant to educate Americans about the peoples, cultures, etc. of the countries that we served in as Peace Corps volunteers. On a small level, I've engaged in this goal by talking about my experiences, telling stories and educating friends and family about Mongolia and Kazakh and Mongolian culture in short exchanges. Up until recently though, I didn't do anything official or on a larger scale to educate Americans about Mongolia and Peace Corps in Mongolia. A few months ago, my best friend's sister, who works as a teacher and also works with a Girl Scout troop after school, asked me if I'd be interested in helping her Girl Scouts earn their World Citizens badge by teaching them a little bit about Mongolia and what I did with the Peace Corps there. Of course I agreed and Hanna agreed to help me out.

We prepared a short presentation with some activities and brought some of our souvenirs from Mongolia to share with the girls. I prepared the information and slides anticipating that the girls were mostly in fifth grade. To my surprise most of the girls were quite a bit younger so I had to make some adjustments in how we presented the info. Despite the confusion, the presentation went pretty well. First we talked a bit about Peace Corps, its history, its mission, where volunteers work and what they do. Next we asked the girls if they knew where Mongolia is or if they knew anything about the country. None of the girls had ever heard anything about or knew anything about Mongolia but we were pleasantly surprised when one of the girls was able to point out Mongolia on an unmarked map. :)

We let the girls check out our Mongolian schwag, out of which the Mongolian wrestling hat and the Kazakh caps generated the most interest. We provided them with some basic information about Mongolian demographics, cultural norms and differences and even taught them some Mongolian numbers and phrases. At the end of the session, we played a 'Jeopardy' style game and quizzed the girls about information we provided on Peace Corps and Mongolia. The girls did well and seemed very pleased with themselves.

Overall the presentation and activities went well, though in the future I'd like to be better prepared. The girls seemed to enjoy meeting with us and hearing what we had to teach them and it felt good to finally engage in a more official third goal activity. I'd like to do some more of these in the future and of course, Peace Corps or not, I'd like to teach Americans about other countries I plan to travel to and work in, in the future.

Here are a few pics from our session with the Girl Scouts:

Shaquille O'Neal's Retirement

2011-06-02T10:47:00.002+07:00

Shaq announced his retirement today, after 19 seasons in the NBA. I grew up watching Shaq in Orlando and Los Angeles and from when I first saw him play, he was my favorite player. I followed him from his rookie year until his last season with the Lakers. For a few years I didn't really pay attention to basketball but I always remained a Shaq fan and loved it when even as he was moving out of his prime, he won his fourth NBA championship with the Heat and had some incredible games with the Suns. Though I'm not a Boston fan, I was hoping he'd have one more solid season and help them win a title but it appears as though injuries and so many years in the league have finally caught up to the Shaq Diesel. He'll always be my favorite player and in my opinion, the best and most dominant center in NBA history. Here's a cool video tribute with some great Shaq hightlights:

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T04:23:00.004+07:00

http://politicalwire.com/images/5-30-11.jpg

Couldn't agree more. Happy Memorial Day to those that have served and to those that continue to serve. Here's to hoping that those who choose to serve are taken care of and not sent to their deaths for questionable causes. Remember that Memorial Day is for more than just barbecues and days off of work.

Boulder

2011-05-23T12:01:00.003+07:00

Hanna and I spent the weekend in Denver and Boulder, visiting some friends and enjoying a lot of great food and drink. We had some delicious pho with our friend Lisa, who just returned to Denver from Cambodia. If you are ever in Denver, Pho 95 off of Federal is a great place to get some good Vietnamese food. It sucks that we have nothing like that in the Springs.

After spending a few hours in Denver and me getting an MRI (left knee, as always) at the VA hospital, we headed up to Boulder with our friends Ridge and Anna, who were both Peace Corps volunteers in Mongolia as well. No need to go into the details of a hard partying weekend in Boulder but here's a few pictures I took while we were walking around.

Colorado Springs Graffiti

2011-05-23T11:26:00.007+07:00

Every day since I started working at my new job, on the way home I see graffiti on a large warehouse looking building near Bijou and I-25. I always thought it looked pretty interesting and wanted to stop and get a closer look, maybe take some pictures. A couple of days ago I had some free time so I decided to stop by and take a look. I looked around, snapped a few pictures, and it seemed like the building used to be some sort of art gallery or studio. It looked a bit abandoned and run down but there were signs that it was maybe still in use. Anyways, here's some of my favorite pics of the graffiti artwork on the building.

I really enjoy graffiti style artwork, especially when it's very detailed and intricate, not just 'tagging'. This is some of the best I've seen in Colorado Springs.

A few photos

2011-05-20T12:17:00.002+07:00

Here's a few shots I took over the last couple of days. They come up pretty small by default on the blog but if you click on each photo, you can see a slightly bigger version. Nothing spectacular but I thought they came out pretty good.

Birfdaiye fun and excitement, the emergence of a new hobby?

2011-05-18T02:12:00.007+07:00

For the readers who don't know, yesterday was my birthday. I don't find birthdays to be typically exciting because I'm just another year older (and wiser, I hope) but it's nice to have an excuse to spend time with friends and family and to celebrate. Though I'm not overly materialistic, it's nice to receive gifts, especially if its something that I probably wouldn't be able to afford on my own and that I really want.

While last year's birthday in Thailand was pretty amazing, this weekend was awesome. I played nine holes of golf with my dad and my good friends Tino and Andy, drank some beers and enjoyed myself. I'm not good at golf but I had a great time. To make it even better, the previous night I finished and submitted all of my work for school. It was well timed but I didn't realize just how well timed it was until I arrived at home on Saturday after golf.

On the way back home from Gleneagle golf course, I fell asleep pretty quickly, due to staying up late to finish school work, waking up early for golf and drinking a few beers during and after the golf action. I woke up as we pulled into the driveway, groggily made my way to the front door and walked in to the house, behind Tino. As soon as I walked in, I saw my cousin, who I wasn't expecting to see, then I looked around the room and saw my dad, a large group of my good friends, and my best friend Ben, who was supposed to be in Iraq as far as I knew. Needless to say, I was really surprised seeing so many of my good friends and family waiting for me at the house, decorations, food, drinks, etc. Hanna had somehow coordinated this surprise barbecue party without me having a clue. I spent the rest of the day catching up with friends, eating good food and drinking margaritas. The evening consisted of Mortal Kombat, partying with friends, beer pong and flip cup, then a brief excursion to the bar down the street. We also managed to witness a minivan slam into and knock over a street lamp, run over a utility box and drive into an empty dirt/grass lot, but that's a story for another day.

Hanna and my dad bought me an amazing gift, pretty much the only thing I've wanted for the past few months, a DSLR camera. It's a Nikon D3100, which is supposed to be good for beginning photographers. So far I've really enjoyed playing around with it and learning how to use it. The picture quality is vastly superior to any point and shoot I've ever owned and I'm really excited to learn more about photography, and to be able to take better quality pictures when I am in places like New York City and Kenya soon. I don't really know why but I always said that I didn't want to get into photography because I thought there was just too much to learn, too much competition, and that the equipment was too expensive. I love taking pictures and I always have, but up until the last couple of years, I was never too concerned with the quality. Now that I've seen just how big of a difference having a legit camera makes, I want to learn more. It really makes me wish I would have had such a camera while I was in Mongolia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. No need for regrets though, I just need to move forward and take advantage of what appears to be an emerging new passion. I will definitely post up more pictures as I learn better how to use the camera and hopefully gain a better eye. I have some friends who are pretty impressive photographers so I will definitely be bugging them for advice and resources. Here's a pic of what my camera looks like:

I've got a little over a month before I move to New York City, a couple of months until my trip to Kenya and just under four months before I begin my first semester at NYU. I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done, continue working out regularly, continue learning French, and to learn a lot more about using my camera. Until next time, cheers!

Freedom....for now

2011-05-14T20:16:00.002+07:00

Last night I submitted the rest of my materials for my last course and I'm officially done with my first semester of grad school. It feels good to be done but a little frightening to know that I have two more years of this.

Well, at least I'll be studying the things that I'm most interested in. :)

Off to play golf today with my dad and two of my good friends. I haven't played golf in four or five years so I'm sure it will be a disaster, but fun.

Almost finished O_o

2011-05-11T11:44:00.004+07:00

Yesterday evening I turned in final papers and gave presentations for two of my classes, both of which I'm officially done with now. I have to complete and turn in assignments for one more class before Sunday, then I will officially be done with my first semester of graduate school. It's been pretty challenging and I've struggled with procrastination and staying focused but I think I did pretty well. I'm looking forward to relaxing, or trying to at least, for a month or so. Late June, early July is when we'll be moving to New York City so I'll have quite a bit to organize and take care of before then. We've got the move, then the oh so fun process of looking for jobs/internships, I'm going to Kenya for two weeks, then school starts in September.

Now I need to focus on finishing up the rest of my assignments in the next few days and do my best to avoid distractions via the NBA playoffs and the new Mortal Kombat, which is pretty awesome by the way.

Videos worth watching (in my opinion at least) :)

2011-05-06T08:44:00.003+07:00

"Representative Steve Simon (DFL Hopkins/St. Louis Park) says a proposed Minnesota constitutional amendment is largely about religion. He says if sexual orientation is innate as science is showing us, and not a lifestyle choice, then God created gay people. He asks how many gay people must God create before we accept that he wants them around."

Couldn't agree more.

One of my favorite songs put in a well done amateur vid showing off some cool tricks with a unicycle (I think that's what it's called?).

One of my favorite videos of all time, worth watching over and over again.

Back to school work!

Anticipation of the 1st Semester...and more on bin Laden

2011-05-03T10:18:00.005+07:00

Today I was able to enroll in my first semester of classes at NYU and get a better idea of what I'll be starting with in September. As a new student, I'm required to take three classes in my first semester so while keeping those in mind, as well as the backgrounds and credentials of the professors, and times/days of the courses, I put together a schedule that I feel will be challenging and interesting, give me access to professors with knowledge and experience in fields that I am very interested in, and hopefully allow me to work a part time job.

My courses will be Analytical Skills for Global Affairs, International Political Economy, Global Civil Society, and International Relations in the Post-Cold War Era. I'm excited to begin these classes in a few short months, once I'm (hopefully) settled in New York City.

As I scramble to get everything done for my current courses at UCCS, the semester is quickly coming to a close (less than two weeks left, holy crap). I have been thinking a lot about what I've learned over the course of the semester and what I've gained from my one semester as a public administration student. I feel it's been very beneficial and that I've learned a lot about myself, areas that I need to work on, management, time management, stress reduction, and the importance of planning effectively. I also learned that graduate school requires a lot more reading, a lot more writing, a lot more time spent in the library, and a lot less bullshitting. Even though I will not be continuing in the MPA program at UCCS, I am really glad I started and am completing this semester. I feel like it has prepared me a lot more for what it's going to be like as a full time graduate student at NYU. Keep this post in mind for future reference when I'm trying not to lose my mind while working on my thesis.

Apologies before I go on in this blog. I will undoubtedly write more about the bin Laden circus over the next few days or weeks, but it's only because I feel it's necessary, given the media coverage of American jubilation, flag waving, and excitement over the news of bin Laden's death. A friend and former Marine buddy recently commented on my cynical Facebook status update about bin Laden's death and the costs. Basically the gist of it was that I could have waited a few days before questioning our valiant efforts in killing bin Laden.

Above picture courtesy of Rob Shore, Mongolian RPCV. http://www.thedandybird.com/

My immediate response was that I think it's incredibly important that we question these things as soon as possible. I'm no conspiracy theorist but I'm always wary of what I hear, especially if it comes from any mainstream media 'news' source. I feel that questioning what we see, hear and read is pivotal in the learning process. Part of me understands the excitement of Americans over bin Laden finally being brought to justice but part of me also finds it disturbing and worrisome. It's hard not to think that this accomplishment and the media circus that follows is not just another shiny distraction to excite Americans and turn their attention from the fact that we are still borrowing money to fight wars in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, as we continue to build upon our already massive debt.

Call me a terrorist or communist but the idea of American exceptionalism, in my humble opinion, reeks of hypocrisy, arrogance and dillusion. I believe that America as a nation has many great qualities and that there have been and still are great Americans who've accomplished amazing things. I will always be greatful that I was able to grow up in a nation where I didn't have to live in fear of being killed because of my skin color, ethnic background, or spiritual beliefs, where I was able to receive a good upbringing, a reasonable education, access to countless resources, good food, countless sources of fun and recreation, good medical care, and I was able to complain endlessly when I didn't get my way.

All that being said, Americans need to recognize that the world is becoming smaller as improved technology creates new, advanced methods of transportation and communication and as the global population continues to expand. If Americans expect to continue to be a leader and a major player in the global community, we had better realize this quickly. We may have been the 'leader of the free world', the world's melting pot, one of the world's first and most successful democracies (or constitutional republic) and been able to live lives of excess and privilige (well a lot of us, not all) for decades, but if we don't adapt, it will not continue. Our increasing disregard for the lives of anyone other than our own citizens (and Western Europeans occasionally), makes us increasingly polarizing. When we see Arabs or Muslims celebrating the death of an American, we react with disdain and disgust, yet there are flag waving, red, white and blue rallies being held in D.C. and NYC (and other places in the U.S. I'm sure) to celebrate the death of bin Laden. You'd think we just won the World Cup. When American or European civilians are killed, it's terrorism. When Arab or Afghan civilians are killed, it's collateral damage. When Americans are killed in retaliation to the killing of innocent Arabs and Afghans, it's STILL terrorism. When WE retaliate against the deaths of innocent Americans, it's just us fighting terrorism and preserving freedom and democracy, keeping the world safe, and avenging the loss of our innocent civilians. Americans are apparently the only ones allowed to defend ourselves and avenge the loss of innocent lives.

Much of the rest of the world doesn't suffer from the same memory loss that Americans do. At the risk of being pessimistic and paranoid, what happens if we default on our massive debt? What happens when the dollar is no longer relevant? You think that if the U.S. ever becomes a third world country that the rest of the world will suddenly forget everything that we did under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy and fighting terrorism? The rest of the world hasn't forgotten what we did during the Cold War, what we did under the guise of fighting communism, so I doubt they'll forget what we have been doing over the past couple of decades.

I have heard it plenty of times before and I'm sure people will continue to claim that my criticisms indicate a hatred for the U.S.A. I will continue to argue that I only criticize because I want to see improvement, I want things to be better. There are a lot of things I love about the United States of America and there are a lot of things I want to see improved upon here.

More on this soon, homework calls. In the meanwhile, here are a couple of interesting articles on the death of Osama bin Laden:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/02/dont_get_cocky_america

http://www.desertlamp.com/?p=10108

The Death of Bin Laden: Worth the Costs?

2011-05-02T11:52:00.006+07:00

On my way back from the library tonight, I received a text message from Hanna, letting me know that Osama bin Laden was killed. I was a little surprised, since bin Laden has been a non issue recently, despite the fact that the actions of his organization almost ten years ago were the catalyst for our never ending 'war on terror'. I turned on NPR and caught the end of President Obama's address to the nation. As I drove home, listening to the president, part of me felt relief and a bit of excitement, but a bigger part of me started to reflect back on what it took us to get to this moment. It's very difficult to not be cynical about this bittersweet 'victory', if that's what we can call it. Mad props, no doubt, go out to the American servicemen and women who worked towards his demise and those who finally carried it out. What keeps running through my head though, is whether or not it was worth the cost.

It's been almost ten years since the attacks of 9/11 and needless to say, a lot has happened since then. Even though our actions in Afghanistan in the 1980's and the resulting blowback, as well as our other actions in parts of the Middle East and Africa, were directly related to the September 11th attacks, I am one of many Americans who believe that invading Afghanistan was the right thing to do. We needed to hit Al Qaeda and the Taliban hard. We seemed to start out on the right track, ousting the Taliban from power and hunting for Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda homeboys.

It didn't take long before things went awry. I don't think it's necessary to go into too much detail about the buildup to the Iraq war and the justifications, as that's been battled back and forth countless times over the past eight years. That being said, it's hard not to look back and wonder how much more quickly we could have killed bin Laden if we hadn't been engaged in our grand Iraq adventure. The 9/11 attacks resulted in the deaths of roughly 3,000 people, maybe more depending on your source. It's terrible that those people died, not taking anything away from that. Also depending on your source, somewhere between hundreds of thousands and millions of people have been killed in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, as a result of the war on terror, not to mention the number of people turned into refugees. Five years ago, the number of servicemen and women killed, involved in the war on terror, passed the number of people killed on 9/11.

The deaths of thousands of American servicemen and women, the deaths of hundreds of thousands to millions of Iraqis and Afghans, a few trillion dollars (that we had to borrow from China), and increased hatred and vitriol towards the United States and its citizens, all over the world.

I posted the above (or pretty close to it) as my most recent Facebook status update and a friend just asked 'how many more would be lost without the effort?'. I can't say for sure, nobody can, whether or not more Americans would have died if we hadn't launched the war on terror but if you compare the numbers of casualties on 9/11 (combine it with any other terrorist attack against Americans if need be) to the number of casualties as a result of the decade long war on terror, I think you can come to a pretty reasonable conclusion. How about if we had never invaded Iraq? Hindsight is 20/20 but perhaps Saddam Hussein, were he still alive today, would be in the midst of being ousted in another Arab revolution. Just a thought.

Sure there's no doubt that Osama bin Laden was a nasty man who did some terrible, terrible things. He needed to be captured or killed, I agree with that. Was it worth the costs though? Why did it take so long? How many more terrorists and extremists were spawned as a result of our decade long 'war on terror'? Everyone will have an opinion on this, and of course the major media outlets are going to be thrilled to have a big story to spin and exploit and rave about for a couple of weeks until Lindsay Lohan gets arrested again. I just wanted to put some thoughts down while they were fresh.

Music I enjoy

2011-04-25T10:02:00.000+07:00

Idiocracy...on our way?

2011-04-24T13:40:00.003+07:00

I try not to spend too much time watching tv but I do like to watch basketball, as well as Comedy Central, on occasion. The tv is often on in the house though (as well as at the gym) so I can't help but catch advertisements, commercials, etc. Every time I see an ad for a new reality show (Mob Wives? Really?) I can't help but wonder if we are just inching closer and closer to Idiocracy.

Scary.

Books and Books and Books...and Time Effectiveness

2011-04-22T10:38:00.007+07:00

A couple of days into my combined stress reduction and time management exercise experiments/school projects, I am pretty pleased with the results. Avoiding time wasters like Facebook and messageboards has allowed me to spend more time at the gym, more time reading, more time writing and even freed up some time to watch some NBA playoff games.

I'm finishing up the books 'First Things First' and 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People', both of which are for my Management Development class. I was a bit skeptical of the Covey materials at first but I've really gotten into them and I think there is a lot of great information in both books. I would recommend them for anyone who's interested in becoming a better worker, student, friend, etc. or learning more about time management. I have been following my plan for the past few days, with a few misses but I feel good about accomplishing small goals and I'd like to do my best to turn some of them into regular habits, as well as trying out some others.

I had started reading 'Stones Into Schools' by Greg Mortenson but given the recent accusations that came out in the 60 Minutes special, I've been waiting to hear more information. I have checked out a few random stories online since the story aired and I found this one to be interesting and somewhat hopeful:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=4&partner=rss&emc=rss

I first read 'Three Cups of Tea' when I was in pre-service training for Peace Corps in Mongolia. I found it to be an incredible story, very inspirational and very beneficial to my idealism. In addition to people like Samantha Power and Rory Stewart, I found Greg Mortensen to be an incredible person, someone who accomplished feats similar to what I dream about. I was pretty upset and disappointed to first see the allegations but like anything that comes from the mainstream media, I took it with a grain of salt and I'm patiently waiting to learn more. In the meanwhile, I just started Rory Stewart's 'The Prince of the Marshes', about his time in Iraq. I really enjoyed Stewart's account of his walk across Afghanistan, 'The Places In Between' and a couple of chapters in, I'm already enjoying this book as well. If you haven't heard anything about Rory Stewart, I highly recommend 'The Places In Between', as well as some of his articles in magazines like The Economist.

I've also started a book called 'The Primal Blueprint' by Mark Sisson, a text recommended to me by my friend Ryan, from Peace Corps. Hanna and I are both reading it and considering trying out some of the diet and exercise recommendations. I'm skeptical of diet fads or exercise routines but I'm open to reading about different approaches and giving them a shot. I love and hate reading about personal fitness and nutrition because it's so hard to figure out who or what to believe, there is so much conflicting information, and it's such a profitable industry, it's hard not to think that anything you try is just profiting some scam artist. More on this as my reading progresses and I try different things out. :)

Playing basketball and working out for a few hours a day definitely feels good but I believe that I need to try some new things and be more active (especially outside) in order to reach my fitness goals.

No alcohol and no fast food for a few days feels nice as well, though I admit, I have been wanting a cold beer while watching basketball. Persistence, discipline, mental strength, I must focus. :)

Other thoughts for the day:

Every crime show on tv is pretty much the same. And...there's a MILLION of them. WTF?

Today when I was at Souper Salad, 'Africa' by Toto came on. It made me even more excited to go to Kenya in a few months.

There's a guy in one of my classes who earned a bronze medal in wrestling at the Beijing Olympics. Pretty cool, nice guy to talk to. His name is Adam Wheeler, look him up.

I hate writing cover letters. I remember discussing this with my friend Chris in Cambodia, extensively and cynically. I take all of this time to prepare my resume, which details my education, job history, etc. and then I have to write a letter explaining to a company or organization why I want to work there, to talk up my job experience, and explain why I'd be a good fit. I think I've written about two hundred cover letters in the past eight months. Even more frustrating is when you have to fill out an application, detailing your job and education history, AND submit your resume. Are both of those really necessary? If I give my resume, I shouldn't have to fill out an application that has the EXACT same information.

I'm starting to ramble. I'll write more when I'm focused and have something worth writing in detail about. :)

Kenya? Yes Please.

2011-04-20T02:11:00.002+07:00

It's official. Tickets to Kenya in August? Purchased.

My good friend Jordan and I will be spending two weeks in Kenya in August, visiting our friend Chris (currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer there) and enjoying all that Kenya has to offer.

This will be my first excursion to the African continent and I am really excited. Moving to New York City in the summer, spending two weeks in Kenya traveling with good friends, then starting graduate school at NYU. Awesomeness. Short post but just wanted to share, especially since I'm currently avoiding Facebook. :)

Stress Reduction + Time Management

2011-04-18T11:52:00.003+07:00

Though I am transferring to NYU and will be moving to New York City this summer, I am still taking my public administration courses at UCCS and finishing the semester pretty soon. Even with my reduced work hours at the new part time job, I've done far too much procrastinating and have allowed myself to get behind in some reading and projects for my classes. I'm currently trying to remedy that and a big part of that is the course work for my Management Development class. I attended three weekend class sessions at the beginning of the semester but I have until mid May to finish all the assigned work. The work includes a Stress-Reduction Exercise and what's called a 'Quadrant 2' Time Management Exercise. The purpose of the stress reduction exercise is to identify five things I'm willing to do in order to reduce stress in my life and find a way to measure them over the course of a few weeks. The purpose of the time management exercise is to plan out my life over the course of about a month and focus on 'quadrant 2' activities, which Stephen Covey identifies as important but not urgent. I'm working on both of those right now and I'm sort of mixing them together. I'm planning out this week and working on prioritizing and getting the most important tasks done first and I've also made a list of things that I will be doing from today until next Sunday that are aimed at reducing my stress levels. Here's what I will be focusing on for this week:

1. No internet time wasters (Facebook, messageboards or forums, etc.). My time on the computer will be limited to responding to important emails, documenting my progress on these projects, typing other papers or researching for school, and maybe a little bit of news browsing.

2. No fast food, no soda, no alcohol. Also will be watching my calories, cutting back on foods with high fat intake, and eating smaller portions.

3. I'm going to wake up 20-30 minutes earlier each morning to start my day with some light exercise (pullups, pushups or crunches) and to take my dog Jack for a walk, before I go to work.

4. I will go the gym for a minimum of an hour each day (I've been doing this pretty regularly as of late but I want to make sure I continue and also focus on getting more out of my workouts). I am trying to lose weight and continue to get in better physical shape.

5. A minimum of 2 hours of reading each afternoon/evening for school. If I have more time to read books not required for my classes, great. If not, what's important is that I stay caught up on my school reading.

6. One French lesson per day. Hanna and I started the French language Rosetta Stone program this week and I want to make sure I'm doing lessons daily. A lot of the places I'd like to work when I finish my graduate studies will be much more easily accessible if I know a second language, such as French or Spanish. We decided on French. The lessons are about 30-40 minutes each so if I'm managing my time effectively, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to keep up with this.

These exercises or attempts at increasing my time effectiveness/stress reduction (and potential for getting an A) are also tied into another project I'm working on for my Organization Management class called a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). My BHAG is focused on personal fitness, losing weight, maintaining a healthier diet and getting back into basketball shape. I won't go into too much detail right now but I have a few goals outlined that I will be focusing on. Working on these activities, as well as other papers and projects for my classes, will require a lot of focus, concentration, discipline and effective time usage. I'm going to record my progress, do my best to avoid excuses and see how things go. Basically I'll be doing school work while doing a lot of things to better myself.

Writing on my blog, while often an activity that helps me reduce stress, could be considered an internet time waster for the purposes of these projects, so I'll cut this one off before I get too far off track. :) More to come soon, thanks for reading.

Oh so true

2011-04-09T10:57:00.003+07:00

http://i.imgur.com/FHlzx.jpg

One of my friends posted this on Facebook. I enjoyed it.

Stop Talking, Start Doing

2011-04-07T05:46:00.004+07:00

For those of you who haven't seen the short CNN video on Narayanan Krishnan, I recommend you take a couple of minutes to check it out. I love seeing things like this and I'm not too 'manly' to admit it brought tears to my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiC_9RHTvsA
Not able to embed the video but copy and paste the link. It's worth a look. :)

On a messageboard that I post on frequently, someone posted this video and a friend of mine made a couple of comments that basically said 'Don't just talk about it, do something about it' and 'Too many people talk about how horrible this and that is, but do nothing about it. All Talk'. I gave him a little bit of crap about it and he commented back to me that I am a 'doer', so he wasn't referring to me as part of the 'all talk, no action' crowd.

Assuming that there was no sarcasm, I was flattered. It did, however, make me think about what I've been doing over the past few months. I am happy to be taking classes right now, to be learning, reading, and writing and of course as I've mentioned before, I'm happy about my new job. I'm excited to be doing work that I feel helps people out, to be in a nonprofit environment and to be learning things I think will be useful in the future. I have struggled with some things over the past few months though. When I was working at my previous job and even at my new job, I still feel like I could be doing a lot more with my time and that with all my talk, all my concerns, frustration and far too often, anger, there's a lot more I could be doing with my time. I often think of things that I'd like to do or hear friends make suggestions that I get excited about and interested in but the important thing is to actually make them happen.

Using time effectively is something I feel I struggle with and I'm working on changing that. Some of the material I've been reading for my Management Development class has been very interesting and eye opening and focuses a lot of using time effectively, learning the difference between urgent and important, etc. I highly recommend Stephen Covey books, pretty interesting stuff. One of my favorite quotes is 'Be great in act as you have in thought'(Shakespeare I believe) and I try to keep that in mind as often as possible. Day dreaming, imaginative idealism produces some (in my mind at least) great ideas and goals but they mean very little without any action.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. An opportunity recently presented itself at a nonprofit called 'My Play Date', which is where Hanna currently works. It's basically an organization that works with kids who have developmental disabilities. From what Hanna has told me, a lot of the kids have varying levels of autism and aspergers. She really seems to enjoy her work there and always has interesting stories about her day when she comes home. She told me that they are looking for some extra help, preferably males. I thought about it for a bit and while I do enjoy the free time that my part time job affords me, I decided to apply and see if I could work some extra hours during the week. I filled out an application, had an interview and this Friday I'm going in for an observation. With my current work schedule and school work load, I told them I could only really work about ten hours a week, which they are fine with. If things go well, I'll be starting that next week, working a couple hours here and there in the afternoons. I've had almost no experience working with disabled children, mentally or physically, so I think this will be interesting and challenging. The pay is not much and while a few extra bucks is never a bad thing, I'm doing it for the experience and to learn something new. Obviously because we are moving to NYC this summer, it will be short term but I figure it's worth it.

Even though I've struggled with my idealism and optimism in the recent past, I feel it has made quite a comeback and I've realized that I need to work in fields where I'm helping people, where I'm doing something to make the community or the world, a better place. I like money, benefits and stability/security, sure who doesnt? It's not what motivates me though. I'm all about the experience and I want to experience new and interesting things, while helping others. My recent reflections and realizations have helped me select what my concentration will be as a graduate student, Human Rights and Humanitarian Assistance. :)

I'm sure many others have felt the same way but when something terrible happens around the world, whether it be a tsunami, an earthquake or genocide, I feel helpless to do anything. Sure we can make donations and I'm sure that often money raised during and after disasters helps a lot of people out but it's hard to be trustworthy about where your money is going and it just doesn't feel like it's helping that much. I've had a strong interest in human rights and genocide prevention ever since I read Samantha Power's 'A Problem From Hell' as an undergrad and I feel that this is a field in which I could learn a lot, experience a lot, and hopefully help a lot of people. I figure with that as my focus at NYU, and some smart networking, volunteering and taking any sort of related job opportunites in these fields, I could work towards some great career opportunities.

I have more to write about but delicious home made Korean food courtesy of the girlfriend awaits!

The Gay Bar..and other profound thoughts of the day

2011-04-04T13:34:00.002+07:00

1. Hanna and I went up to Denver and met up with a number of my friends, some from Colorado Springs, some from Denver, some RPCV's, some from Castle Rock, etc. We had a good group of people, many of whom had never met before. We did some bar hopping, played some games, drank some beers, ate some delicious pizza and had a grand ol' time on Broadway. Everyone got along. At one point in the evening, on our quest for further greatness, we ended up going to a....wait for it *gasp* gay bar.

Now I consider myself a pretty open-minded guy and I feel that over the past couple of years I've become increasingly open-minded. I have made a lot of new friends in my experiences overseas and a number of them are gay or bisexual. It doesn't bother me and I recognize that gay/homosexual peeps are no different than anyone else. We all want the same things, we all want to be loved, to be accepted for who we are and we don't want to be harassed or oppressed because of how we live our lives.

That all being said, I was appalled by what I saw in the gay bar. These people, the gays, were out of control. They were drinking alcohol, dancing, flirting, laughing, and engaging in all sorts of fun. I couldn't believe it. As I watched these people engaging in their debaucherous behavior, I couldn't help but think to myself....'We can't allow these people to marry, they would ruin all that is sacred and beautiful about marriage. Straight people would never engage in this sort of behavior'.

Wait, what? O_o

Sarcasm aside, in my first excursion to a gay bar, I think the most licentious thing that I saw was a man in some crazy leather strap outfit working up a sweat on the dance floor. Looking back, it probably wasn't any more provocative than what the majority of girls wear out to the clubs here. I admit, before I made friends with more gay people, I was guilty of saying 'I don't have a problem with gay guys, as long as they don't try to get on me'. I've learned how ridiculous that sounds and now if I hear one of my more obviously insecure/homophobic guy friends say something like that, I laugh and shake my head. I'm pretty sure that the majority of men in that club knew that I wasn't gay and I'm certainly not arrogant enough to think that they all wanted to man rape me.

My name is Matt Becker. I'm a straight male and I survived my first gay bar experience, unscathed.

2. Whenever I'm driving and Lady Gaga comes on the radio, I want to swerve my car into oncoming traffic.

3. Today for breakfast, I ate an omelette that was about the size of my head + three pancakes. I finished all but 2-3 bites of the omelette. I was both impressed and disgusted by myself at the same time.

4. Today I farted....................in the library.

No oil? No humanitarian intervention.

2011-04-03T01:49:00.002+07:00

We are supposedly bombing Libya and have CIA boots on the ground to prevent a humanitarian crisis, to prevent the slaughtering of the rebels, etc. etc. etc. Just saw on CNN that the Red Cross is reporting 800 massacred in Ivory Coast.

Too bad they don't have any oil. Maybe then we'd offer some 'humanitarian assistance'.

Digusting.

Things that entertain me

2011-03-28T01:32:00.001+07:00

Sitting in the library at UCCS, attempting to work on a legislative history paper for my policy process class, A.D.D. is kicking in.

Decisions, decisions

2011-03-26T05:42:00.003+07:00

After much consideration and weighing choices, I have made the decision to attend NYU this coming fall. I think that both University of Denver and The New School are great institutions and I know that I'd have great experiences at either school but the NYU Center for Global Affairs is where I want to pursue my masters degree. University of Denver, while a great insitution, was ruled out because Hanna was accepted into Columbia and I had two great options in New York City. New York City and Washington D.C. seem to really be the places for students and professionals in international relations/studies, development, and the like. I love Colorado and it will always be home to me but in order for me to move forward professionaly and academically, NYC is where I need to be. I mailed my tuition deposit check today (found it a little strange that I couldn't pay by card online or over the phone) and Hanna and I have decided that we will more than likely be moving to NYC in early to mid July.

Logistics and the actual move will be a pain in the ass, especially with two dogs coming with us. Once we get that all figured out, I'm looking forward to exploring a new city, having new experiences, meeting new people, and starting my M.S. program in Global Affairs. I still haven't spoken to my advisor at UCCS yet but hopefully I can meet with him sometime this coming week. Unless I come across a large sum of money sometime soon, it will be pretty much impossible for me to continue my MPA at UCCS. The classes I'm currently taking in management and policy process are interesting and intriguing but my heart and my passions are in global affairs and international relations. Perhaps one day in the future I will finish an MPA for from this summer until I finish, my focus will be on global affairs at NYU.

I was thrilled to find out that in addition to my good news and Hanna's good news, our good friend Cristiana was accepted into Columbia for nursing, my friend Anna was accepted into Columbia to study international affairs and my friend Ryan was accepted into Duke to work toward his MBA. March seems to have been a month of great news, no complaints here. I'm very excited for the next few years and very happy for my friends' recent success as well.

The new job is going well. I am still waiting on my background check to come back, still need to be sworn in as a court officer and I need to become a bit more familiar with the procedures before I can do assessments on my own but I'm learning a little more each day. My coworkers are friendly and helpful and I have witnessed some interesting cases thus far. The only thing I will really regret about moving to NYC this summer is that I will have to leave my new job. I'm sure there will be a number of interesting job opportunities and internships available in New York City but I'm not looking forward to the job hunt again. As much as I'd love to be nothing but a full time student, I'd prefer not to accumulate astronomical debt over the next couple of years so I'm fine with working at least part time while I am in school.

I should be working on my legislative history project, as well as other writings for my classes, but once again I find my A.D.D. has taken over and I'm doing anything but that. Time to start focusing. Oh, one more thing. I have been in occasional correspondence with the Peace Corps volunteer who replaced me at the children's development center in Olgii, a guy named Justin. From the last couple of emails I received from him and my former director, Doman, it seems like they are getting the ball rolling on having a new children's 'palace' or center built and they are still in need of some of the funds. I told them I'd like to see about helping raise some money so I will get back on the blog with more details soon. I am hoping to do some work on that, as well as some work with my good friend Travis Hellstrom (AKA Hellstorm) on a few things. For those of you who don't know Travis, he's a Peace Corps volunteer leader in Mongolia finishing up his third year and an all around super hero/humanitarian. If you haven't seen it yet, check out his website and blog at www.advancehumanity.com. Off to be productive! More to come soon!

New York City Bound

2011-03-17T12:48:00.002+07:00

Just a few short hours after I found out that I was accepted into NYU, Hanna received her acceptance to Columbia! That was her top choice and she was really worried about getting in(I knew she would). Pretty crazy to think that in a few months we will be moving to New York City for graduate school. Hanna is going to be working towards an MA in international education at Columbia's Teachers College, which is a one year program and I will either be at NYU studying global affairs or New School studying international affairs, both of which are two year programs. I have a few weeks to make my decision so I will definitely be weighing a lot of options.

I don't know whether or not I will be able to continue my MPA at UCCS after this semester but I will talk to my advisor and see what my options are. I'm also not sure if any credits from this program will transfer into either of the programs in NYC but we'll see. Outside of finishing this semester, training at Mission Possible and getting ready for NYC, I am going to try and work on some interesting projects with my good friend Travis Hellstrom, who is still in Mongolia as a Peace Corps volunteer leader. I had a chance to catch up with him tonight and as always, he inspired and motivated me in many ways. I just need to focus on managing my time better and hopefully I can get some good things done over the next few months. More to come!

NYU!!!

2011-03-16T05:19:00.004+07:00

This week has brought so much in the way of good news. Less than 24 hours after finding out about my acceptance into The New School I just found out I was accepted into the MS program in Global Affairs at New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. I was pretty shocked and surprised, as NYU was my top choice. I had to read the acceptance message/email 4 or 5 times just to make sure I wasn't delusional. I feel very privileged and I am excited about the prospect of studying at the NYU SCPS Center for Global Affairs. According to the Foreign Policy Association, it's one of the top programs in the U.S. Here's a bit more information on the program.

http://www.scps.nyu.edu/areas-of-study/global-affairs/graduate-programs/ms-global-affairs/index.html

Hanna is still waiting to hear back from NYU and Columbia but hopefully since I got my notification today she will hear back from both soon. If we end up going to New York, it will be hard to decide between The New School and NYU. Anyone have a few hundred thousand dollars you wanna give me? :)

Perhaps with my recent wave of good luck I should buy a lottery ticket.

Back in CO, still alive. More good news - The New School

2011-03-15T07:42:00.003+07:00

After a week of fun in Portland, one night in Seattle visiting friends, and a lot of delicious food and beer, I flew back to Colorado today. Ben and I had a good time, he was successful in passing his tests for the Portland PD and I was able to visit Seattle for the first time. It was rainy and overcast in Seattle and most of the time in Portland but it was still a great trip. I need to spend the next few days recovering/hitting the gym and getting reading and work done for school. St. Patrick's Day is on a few days, hoping I will survive.

I was surprised and excited today to receive another graduate school acceptance letter. I was accepted into the Masters of Arts Program at The New School in NYC to study International Affairs. It seems like a really interesting place to study and a great program. The possibility of going there is very exciting. I'm still waiting to hear back from NYU and Hanna is still waiting to hear back from NYU and Columbia, before we make our decisions.

http://www.newschool.edu/internationalaffairs/

Some interesting lists that The New School made in the Princeton Review (via Wikipedia, an always reliable source):

"Dodgeball Targets" (#1)
"Great College Towns" (#1)
"Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular Or Nonexistent" (#1)
"Class Discussions Encouraged" (#1)
"Long Lines and Red Tape" (#1)
"Students Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton Politics" (#2)
"Least Religious Students" (#2)
"Nobody Plays Intramural Sports" (#2)
"Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians" (#3)
"Most Politically Active" (#7)
"Town-Gown Relations Are Great" (#11)
"Gay Community Accepted" (#13)
"Most Liberal Students" (#16)
"Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid" (#18)
"Lots of Race/Class Interaction" (#19)

Portland

2011-03-12T08:05:00.004+07:00

Ben and I have been in Portland for a few days now and it's been fun. The weather has been a bit overcast and rainy, which I guess is typical for this time of year but it hasn't been too chilly. Ben passed his tests today and has the physical portion tomorrow. I'm procrastinating on my homework and stressing out about UCCS sticking it to me with late fees even though I've done everything I needed to do and I was just waiting on them to dispurse my financial aid. Oh the joy.

We've hit some great breweries out here, enjoyed some views of the Columbia and the city and did quite a bit of driving all over the place. Per recommendations from my friend Murf we found a great brewery called 'Rogue' and tried some great, new beers. Depending on how long Ben's test is tomorrow, we might try to take a trip up to Seattle to visit my friend Jennie. I've never been to Seattle and I've heard good things about it from a lot of people so I'd definitely like to go.

In other good news, Hanna was also accepted into Josef Korbel at the University of Denver to study international development. Needless to say we were both excited about that. We still haven't heard anything back from the New York schools but maybe next week? Fingers crossed. Possible trip to Seattle. Next few days in Portland. Back to Colorado on Monday, starting my new job on Tuesday. No more phone calls with terrible, miserable customers. Life is good.

I hate celebrity obsessions but this video of Charlie Sheen 'winning' and 'bi-winning' is f'n hilarious. I can only hope that if I ever become famous I don't turn into a coked out, drunk, bat shit crazy douche bag. Way to be a good influence on your kids Charlie, way to go. Keep winning.

Done!

2011-03-07T06:13:00.003+07:00

As of today I am no longer employed at my technical support/customer service job. Leaving today, knowing that I no longer have to listen to miserable, terrible, ignorant, overprivileged, assholish customers bitch and whine about every little problem with their phone, cable and internet(or their own inability to handle the responsibility of paying their bills).......what an awesome feeling. Words cannot describe it.

I will flip burgers before I will ever work another customer service job again. Can't wait to start my new job with Mission Possible. More to come!

Things that make me ashamed to be an American...

2011-03-05T13:22:00.001+07:00

Absolutely disgusting. I have a terrible taste in my mouth and I am honestly disturbed by this.

Mission Possible + No More Customers!

2011-03-05T12:25:00.002+07:00

Since I gave my notice of resignation at my current work today and for the most part its common knowledge that I'm leaving, I'll go ahead and post some more information about my new job opportunity. Sunday is my last day of dealing with miserable, terrible, no good customers on the phone and on March 15th I will be starting a new job with a local nonprofit organization called 'Mission Possible'. It's a part time job with the possibility of going full time. I'm fine with part time because I really need more time, so I can finish the rest of this semester strong and not have to worry about losing my mind dealing with assholes on the phone. My work title is going to be 'juvenile assessor' and my primary responsibility will be to perform risk assessments on kids who get put in the Spring Creek corretional facility, ages 10-17. I'll be assisting in the legal/judicial process in assessing whether or not kids will be at risk to be repeat offenders. It seems like a really interesting job opportunity and I am excited to start. I can feel some of my idealism coming back, we'll see if that continues. ;)

Working 20 hours a week and doing something that is actually related to the type of work I've done the past few years as well as the work I'd like to continue to do in the future will be a lot less stressful than working in a call center environment and having to listen to people bitch and moan all day. I'm sad that I won't be working with some of the good friends I've made there but I'll be keeping in contact with them and harassing them into hanging out with me outside of work.

In other news, congrats to Hanna for landing a pretty sweet job at a local nonprofit working with developmentally disabled kids, as well as a part time tutoring job and some other interviews. Congrats to Ben Rexroad for getting a provisional job offer from the Santa Fe police department. Ben and I will be taking a road trip up to Portland, where he will be testing for their police department and we will be enjoying the city and hopefully spending time with a few friends. Should be fun. Pictures and stories to come.

Bad News, Good News

2011-03-04T10:22:00.003+07:00

Today was a day of bad news and good news. This afternoon I received my results for the Foreign Service Officer exam, which unfortunately, I did not do well enough on to get selected for the oral assessment/interview portion. I admit I was a little disappointed but given that I spent maybe a total of 3 or 4 days preparing and studying, while working full time and starting graduate classes at UCCS, I'm not letting it get to me too much. I missed the score necessary to be selected for the next part of the process by seven points. I am not too distraught about it, because my intent was to get a feel for the test and see how I did the first time around. I might consider taking the test again next year after more preparation but it depends on how things are going with grad school.

On to the good news. About an hour and a half later, I received an email notifying me that I have been accepted to the Masters of Arts program at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Needless to say I was very excited, as well as surprised. My dad did his Phd and JD at DU, my stepmom did her JD there, my cousin Shanae is finishing up her MA there now, my undergrad advisor Dr. Hazan did his Phd there and my friend Brian is finishing up his MA there as well. From all of these people, as well as other friends and acquaintances, I've heard many good things about the Josef Korbel school at DU. I feel very privileged to have been accepted and I'm very excited about the possibility of studying there.

We're still waiting to hear back from schools in NYC, both for Hanna and I, and we're waiting to hear if Hanna was also accepted into DU before we make decisions about where we'll be attending school in the Fall. To complicate things further, I'm enjoying my current MPA classes at UCCS and I'd like to continue in this program. I'm looking into the possibility of doing a short term study abroad in Europe and I'm going to sign up for at least one summer class. If possible, as I think I've mentioned previously, I'd love to get both my MPA and an MA in international studies but we'll see where things go once I know what my other options are.

In other good news, a new job opportunity has become available that I'm very excited about. I'm keeping the details on the down low until I know more but I will update the blog with more on that as soon as possible.

Two awesome songs that I'm loving right now.

Thanks for reading, more to come!

Bieba Feva

2011-03-02T05:21:00.002+07:00

Here's a music video and song put together and performed my friend Mike Farrell (and I believe his brother, Zach). Mike and I worked together a few years ago. He's one of the funniest guys I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I wouldn't be surprised to see him become a pretty famous comedian/actor/musician one day, haha. Keep up the hard work and craziness Mike!

Back up

2011-02-21T13:27:00.001+07:00

Okie, got my original blog fixed and back up. Very busy at the moment with school and work, more to come.

Fox Hunting With the Golden Eagle (Bayan Olgii)

2011-02-21T12:53:00.001+07:00

My good friend Agii was the local coordinator when the BBC came to film a bit on Kazakh eagle hunters, pretty cool video.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00dwd5x
Same vid but this is the link from BBC.

Also, a friend from Arizona, Pat Phillips, a river raft guide, started doing river tours in Mongolia with the help of Agii while we lived there. Here's a link to his site, pretty cool stuff, check it out.

http://www.mongoliariveradventures.com/MongoliaRiverAdventures/Home.html

The Grind

2011-02-21T12:52:00.000+07:00

I started classes last week and I'm still trying to decide if working 40 hours a week and taking 9 credit hours of graduate classes is the smartest idea. So far I really like my classes and I feel like a lot of the material is very important and going to be very practical short and long term. I'm taking a Management Development workshop, Organizational Management and Change,, and Policy Process and Democracy. For the most part I seem to be the youngest person in my classes and most of my classmates are already well into their careers and many work in some type of management or upper level administrative position. I've met some nice, interesting people, my professors seem to be pretty knowledgeable and experienced and the material, for the most part, is interesting. I am probably going to be doing more reading and writing this semester than I did during any semester as an undegrad. Just gotta stay focused and not get burned out too quick. :)

In other news, my work's HR department was none too pleased about my work rant blog post. I stood my ground though and didn't back down. I told them writing is how I vent and express my thoughts and emotions. As most noted, I changed my blog address, just in case, but will not be censoring myself or hiding my thoughts on crap like that. I'm keeping my eyes out for other opportunities, hoping for some decent part time work so I can focus more on school and do my best work this semester. In the meanwhile, this will do.

In other news, Hanna is in Colorado now and it's been really nice having her here. In between work and classes I've been trying to spend time with her, show her around Colorado Springs and go to the gym as often as possible. This will be quite a bit easier if I'm able to work part time. More on that if anything worthwhile comes my way.

While I'm happy to be back in school and I feel fortunate to have a job, a place to live, clothes on my back and food on my plate, I've been getting real antsy and stir crazy lately. I am going to Vegas for my good friend Tino's birthday in a couple of weeks but I've been really itching to do some traveling. I might check out a study abroad information session tomorrow to see if the MPA program has any short term study abroad programs I can do at the end of this semester or during the summer. Even if it's only a short term thing for a few weeks, I would love to be able to go study in Europe or South America temporarily. If I can find anything worth applying to, I'll post more about that later. :)

More to come, thanks for reading.

Save the Drama for yo' Mama

2011-01-18T22:56:00.002+07:00

Apparently someone at my work found it necessary to point out my blog to upper management and HR and it was being passed around. I will probably either get fired or get a stern talking to today when I go in to work. Save the drama for yo' mama. More to come.

-Matt

Customers..The Most Miserable People on the Planet (plus a lot of F bombs)

2011-01-16T15:42:00.005+07:00

As most friends, family, acquaintances and blog followers know, I came back to the U.S. in September after spending almost two and a half years abroad. I have a college degree, experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, experience as a teacher in Cambodia, experience as a supervisor for UPS, and I'm a veteran of the Marine Corps Reserves and Operation Iraqi Freedom. On top of that I've worked an obnoxious amount of other random jobs since I turned 16. Needless to say, I have some experience in the working world.

Anyways, getting back on track, when I came back to Colorado I had plans to chill for a few weeks (months maybe?) and enjoy the company of friends and family before I started working again. After hearing from numerous friends and acquaintances how bad the job market was, I started applying to jobs much sooner than originally planned. Luckily, I was able to land quite a few job offers and interviews within a short period of time. Nothing spectacular but jobs nonetheless. I had to turn down a few jobs due to low pay and no benefits and I was denied jobs (cough cough Progressive) because, I shit you not I was told this, I seemed more passionate about helping children than about customer service. I had some laughs but kept looking. Eventually a pretty good company offered me a job and I took it because the pay was decent, the benefits good and it seemed like a good company to work for. Obviously for someone with my interests and experience (at the risk of sounding pretentious) it wasn't ideal but I wasn't going to complain, it was a job. I took the job and began my training. I met some cool people in my training class, got along well with most of my coworkers and had a pretty good experience.

When I got out of training and started working, things went really well. I had the fortune of being surrounded by some really cool and helpful people. I get along really well with all of the people on my team and I've made some pretty good friends at work. I wouldn't say that I'm spectacular at my job but I think I do pretty well and I'm learning more and more every day. I try to learn from my mistakes, I do my best to be a good employee and I honestly put forth the effort. This is my first experience working in a call center environment and as anyone who's ever had to deal with customers knows, it can be pretty stressful at times. I've worked customer service jobs where I had face to face interactions and while it can suck at times, dealing with customers over the phone is far worse.

*this is where the filter comes off...parental advisory: explicit lyrics and honesty ahead*

Much like the internet, but probably not as extreme, people on the phone, both men and women, grow balls like they would never have in person. As many of you have probably witnessed, the evil, ignorant shit that people will post from the anonymity behind a keyboard, is often mind blowing and very disturbing. It's slightly less terrible when they are on the phone. On a daily basis I deal with some of the most ignorant, miserable, assholish, trashy people you could imagine. As I sit here thinking about how to word this accurately, I find myself at a loss for words. There is literally no possible way I can describe some of the people I deal with that would make you understand what it's like. If you are a coworker, you know. If not, you can only imagine.

If I were to count how many times a day I deal with customers who have the highest services available from our company but are absolutely incapable of paying their bill on time each month, I'd lose track two or three hours into my shift. I'm a sympathetic guy, no doubt. I was in the fucking Peace Corps for fuck sake. I am also a guy who believes in personal responsibility and living within your means. If you are living off of an unemployment check that comes once a month and you have a cable/phone/internet bill that consists of the highest speed internet available, all of the fucking cable channels available, and unlimited phone features + premium channels like HBO,Showtime, etc. for $16 a piece a month, making your total monthly bill around 200 fucking dollars, and you are so behind that you are incurring late fees every month and having to ask for your services to be restored due to non payment, maybe....just MAYBE, you should consider downgrading your fucking services. If the only thing you do with the internet is mindlessly browse, check your email and update your fucking Farmville, you probably don't need the same internet speed that World of Warcraft/hardcore gaming nerds use. Save yourself ten-twenty bucks a month, downgrade your speed and wait a few fucking seconds for your stupid fucking Youtube clip to load.

300 channels? Who the fuck needs 300 channels? What could you possibly watch in a given day, provided you have a job and other priorities besides sitting on your lazy fucking ass, that would require you to have 300 fucking channels? I hardly watch tv and when I do, I flip between ESPN and Comedy Central. If I had 300 channels, I wouldn't even know what to do. If your A.D.D. is so fucking bad that you need 300 plus channels, you might as well just get rid of cable and spend all your fucking time on the internet.

Porn. Where to begin. It's two thousand fucking eleven. There is free porn on the internet. If you are too fucking stupid too realize that and find it, you deserve to pay hundreds of dollars each month for your services. Who the fuck orders porn movies on PPV for $13 a piece? Seriously? If you run up 60-70 dollars worth of porn on your cable bill because you are too stupid to look for the absurd amount of free shit on the internet, and then call me to bitch about it and pretend like you ordered it on accident or your 3 year old son ordered it, you deserve to be punched in the face....multiple times, and then charged for it, you stupid fuck.

On top of the people who are incapable of paying their monthly bills, I get to deal with the people who are incapable of going through the most simple of trouble shooting steps without groaning, whining, moaning and bitching about something. Look, I understand that it sucks when your internet isn't working or when your cable is out and you can't watch the big game. I lived in fucking Mongolia for almost two years. Sometimes my internet (yes, they have internet in Mongolia and no, Mongolia is not in Africa idiot) went out. I survived. I read books, I exercised, listened to music and I wrote a bit. Mind blowing, I know. I even managed to survive without elecricity at times. Incredible. Hearing the reactions of people who find out their cable or internet won't be fixed for two days (two fucking days), I can't imagine that they'd be able to survive without electricity for two hours. Common reactions have included:

"You mean I'm not gonna have cable for two days? What am I going to dooooo?"(usually in a whiney, bitchy ass fucking voice)

I'd love to react with: "Pick up a fucking book or go exercise you stupid fucking fuck", but unfortunately I need a paycheck and dental benefits for now.

This is often followed by "Weeeeelllll, can I get a credit or something?"

I'd love to react with: "Ya know, I lived in countries where people went without electricity, heat and food for days or weeks at a time, they didn't get 'credit' for that. Suck it up and quit your bitching."

When you tell someone that you're going to have to send a technician to their house and that there are no appointments available for two days, you'd think you just told them you murdered their dog. It's fucking pathetic.

I have a lot more venting/writing to do about the miserable people I deal with at my job but I will leave that for another day. I am not going to take the time to check for spelling or grammatical errors on this blog post...at least not until I'm sober tomorrow. I also don't apologize for the ridiculous amount of f-bombs in this blog post. More to come.

Masters?

2011-01-08T14:26:00.003+07:00

As I mentioned in recent posts, I've been in the process of applying for grad schools for the past few weeks. I took the GRE a few weeks back, was rather disappointed in my scores, but I did well enough for some of the programs I applied to. I've still got two applications to finish and submit and I'm hoping to complete those this weekend (fingers crossed, focused).

While most of the programs I'm applying for start in the Fall semester (2011), I managed to get everything done in time to be considered for the Spring 2011 semester at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS). I'm happy to say that I was admitted and I will be starting classes for my Masters in Public Administration in a couple of weeks. Public administration is not my first choice, as my passion and what I really want to study more than anything is international relations/global affairs, but I feel like this will be a very beneficial program. At the risk of sounding like I'm writing another graduate application statement of purpose, I know that having an MPA will increase my education in the oh so important areas of leadership and management, as well as my understanding of other types of administrative work, nonprofit management, economics and finance, and public policy/the democratic process. I feel very privileged to have been accepted into the program and I'm looking forward to being back in the classroom soon. < Keep this in mind in March or April when I'm writing blog posts about how my brain is melting due to too much studying and reading.

I haven't signed up for my classes yet officially but once I get my registration materials I should be able to sign up next week. I'm going to take two classes, so I'll be full time and I'm going to continue to try and work full time at my job. If it gets to be too much I might have the option of switching to part time at work. I'm gonna test the water the first few weeks and see how it goes.

I should know about the other schools and programs in March and depending on where (if any) else I get accepted and how the classes at UCCS go, I'll decide what to do for the summer and fall. If I get into a program in Denver or New York, I should still be able to take online classes at UCCS and work on both my MPA and MA. Now isn't a bad time to be a student so I figure two and a half to three years in school working on two masters degrees can't be that bad.

In other news, life is good for the most part. I'm done working overtime for now and just trying to focus on reading and working out as often as I can, as well as trying to catch up with friends and spend quality time with friends and family. I've got some ideas for some 'life projects' I want to try out in the next few months. More on that later. :) My good friend Sam is in town from Alaska right now. Needless to say, my liver has been taking some damage the past few days but it's been fun. I'm looking forward to seeing my health increase tenfold when Sam flies back to Alaska. Love ya Samson.

As also mentioned previously, I was hoping to take the Foreign Service Officer written exam this year and as luck would have it, I was able to register and schedule and I'm taking the test in Denver on February 9th. I've got a study guide and I'm hoping to brush up a bit on my history and politics over the next few weeks. Looking forward to seeing how I do on that and determining whether or not a career in the Foreign Service is realistic for me.

Just wanted to get a quick update in, will write more soon when I have some time. Thanks for reading.

Lil Wayne line of the month: "I been fly so long I fell asleep on the f*cking plane'.

God I love that guy.

GRE, Grad Apps, I hate math, etc.

2010-12-24T05:59:00.004+07:00

Over the past two months or so I've been doing my best to try and prepare for the GRE, which I took today. The test wasn't quite as horrible as I was expecting but the quantitative section(or math as it is so often called) was pretty bad. I have done quite a bit of math practice with my friend Kirsten, a mathematics major, and Hanna, who is just one smart cookie in every subject. The math problems I encountered on the GRE were not what I expected and I found myself perplexed at many of the problems. Looking back I probably shouldn't have even attempted to answer some of the questions but it's over and done with, nothing I can do about it now. I got a decent score on the verbal section, higher than the national average and apparently good enough to still be considered for the schools that I'm applying to. I finished up my application the the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs(UCCS) for their Masters in Public Administration program and I'm still finishing my statements and applications for The New School(International Affairs), New York University(Global Affairs) and the University of Denver(International Studies). I'm hoping to have those finished up in the next few days and hopefully won't be distracted too much by the holidays and the extra hours at work I signed up for.

I'm probably going to sign up to take the Foreign Service Officer written examination in February and I also need to finish up my application for the El Pomar Fellowship here in Colorado Springs. The next few weeks, provided I can finish my applications as soon as possible, should be somewhat relaxed. I want to do some reading, hit the gym as often as possible, and then start studying for the FSO exam. I should know sometime soon if I'm accepted into UCCS and the other applications it looks like I'll have to wait until at least March. I'm excited about the prospect of going back to school but the application process and the GRE have been quite stressful.

In other news, I'm reading a really interesting book called 'The Food Revolution' by John Robbins. I'm only a few chapters in but it's focus is how plant based and vegetarian or vegan diets can lead to a much healthier lifestyle and can also be really good for the environment. I never would have considered the possibility of trying out a vegetarian or vegan diet in the past but this book is slowly convincing me it might be worth looking into. :) We'll see though. Right now I'm just trying a month with no fast food and no soda(starting today, ha!) so we'll see how that goes and then I'll look into some other possible challenges or endeavors. Kind of a short post but I just wanted to write something while I had some time. Happy birthday to my mom today!

Act of Kindness or Enabling?

2010-12-15T04:36:00.004+07:00

Today I was on my way to the gym and at the corner of Briargate and Academy, I saw a man standing on the side of the street holding a sign. The sign said something along the lines of 'I'm hungry, please help. I'd rather beg than steal'. As I sat in my car waiting for the light to change, I thought to myself that maybe I should do something to help this man. There's a Burger King across the street so I thought, maybe I'll grab this guy some deliciousness from the BK Lounge and help a little bit. Even as I was pulling into the parking lot I found myself wondering if it was just good intentions flashing through my head and whether or not I would actually follow through. I thought back to one of my favorite quotes, attributed to William Shakespeare, that says ''Be great in act as you have in thought." It's a quote that I often remind myself of whenever I find my imagination wandering and thinking of all the great things I would like to do or would like to believe I am capable of. So as I so often due, mostly because of my A.D.D., I wrote a note to myself that said 'Buy BK lunch for panhandler', left it in my passenger seat, and went in to the gym to work out.

After about 45 minutes or so of working out, I walked out to my vehicle, sat down and noticed the note again. I decided that if the guy was still there, I was gonna buy him some Burger King. I saw that he was still here, pulled into the Burger King drive through and ordered a Whopper value meal. I figured, almost everyone loves a Whopper, so why not? I parked my car just past the drive thru, waited for the crosswalk light to change and walked across the street to present this man with a Burger King lunch, in all its glory. The man didn't seem particularly surprised or excited but he did seem thankful and appreciative. I didn't really talk to him for very long, as I needed to get home to shower, change and get ready for work. I hope that he enjoyed the Burger King as much as I know I would have.

The point of this blog post is not necessarily to brag about my random act of kindness or to try and bring attention to my Burger King lunch for panhandler buying skills but more to sort of bring up a question that I have spent a lot of time contemplating over the years, as I'm sure many other people have. If you give something, whether it be food or money, to a panhandler, is it an act of kindness, is it an act that enables them and allows them to continue receiving free stuff (or 'hand outs' as some would say), or maybe both? Did this man who I bought lunch for actually need it or was I duped? I'll probably never know but I know that I feel better about having made the effort than I would if I had ignored him completely and did nothing.

I find some form of this question running through my head almost every single time I see someone on the street or a street corner who is homeless, impoverished, and/or holding up a sign expressing their particular dilemma. Do you give money? What if you give money? There's the possibility that the person you are giving money to could use it for drugs, alcohol, etc., as we hear so often, and of course there's always the possibility that the person who is begging doesn't even need the money but is just preying on the sympathy of strangers. While I have become increasingly more cynical in the recent past and I'm not quite the optimistic, idealistic dreamer that I once was, I still believe in doing the right thing when given the opportunity. I can often be skeptical and while I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt, it's a struggle at times. Also, depsite my lack of traditional religious and spiritual beliefs, I do, to a certain extent, believe very much in Karma. If I have an opportunity to make someone's day or in some way, their life, more pleasant, I will do my best to take the opportunity to do so.

Anyways, maybe getting a little bit off topic but I'm curious as to what other's peoples thoughts are on giving to panhandlers. How do you approach the situation? When is it ok to give something and when is it not?

This may have been a bit rushed but I wanted to post something while it was fresh on my mind. I'd like to see what sorts of responses or comments I get and maybe I'll write more about it. I'm also going to paste this on Facebook, as it's a much more popular venue for 'commentary'. Thanks for reading. More to come. :)

Your Tax Dollars at Work?

2010-12-10T23:32:00.003+07:00

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/wikileaks_reveals_us_tax_dollars_fund_child_sex_slavery_in_afghanistan#share_source

Just got this from my friend Jessica. U.S. Tax dollars given to American security contractors in Afghanistan are being used to fund child sex slavery and trafficking. This is an outrage.

The Case Against Christmas Presents

2010-12-07T17:09:00.002+07:00

I'm going to write an update again soon but I just wanted to post this link to what I thought was a great read. I got this from my good friend Travis Hellstrom, very interesting and worth taking a look at. :)

http://zenhabits.net/bah/

Also, here's a good song/video that I took from my friend Tabassum.

Consume consume consume, waste waste waste

2010-11-30T14:56:00.004+07:00

This latest blog post was inspired by a somewhat frustrating/disturbing/annoying interaction I recently had with a coworker. I don't want to go into too much detail but basically I made a comment that Americans need to learn to live within their means, to not be so wasteful and that it's pretty disgusting and disturbing that our country has people who eat enough in one day to feed a large family, yet in too many areas of the world, people go without. This comment was translated into me apparently saying that Americans should 'go without' because others in the world don't have enough. **rolling eyes** Anyways, on to the more important stuff, enough time has already been wasted on this...

Oh wait, here's a disclaimer of sorts. I don't believe for a second, that because I've spent time overseas in the developing world, that I'm somehow more enlightened or special than the rest of the world. I do believe, however, that my experiences have given me a somewhat unique perspective and due to this, I feel obligated to make occasional commentary on matters that I feel strongly about. :)

If someone were to ask me what I got the most out of my experiences in the developing world, I'd probably say, very broadly, that I learned a lot about myself, which is very true. Going into more detail, I'd say that one of the most important things I learned is how to live with less. As someone who has put themselves in astronomical debt in order to have nice 'stuff', I understand what it's like to live outside your means. For a number of years I was motivated by very little other than the desire to be wealthy and have lots of nice things, especially cars. Priorities changed, I made some smart moves, put myself in a good position, learned my lessons and headed overseas. Living overseas certainly had it's challenges, as any returned Peace Corps volunteer (or current :-P ) will tell you but you adjust, you make due, you adapt. In no time at all, you learn to live comfortably without the things you are used to. Care packages certainly help quite a bit but I know of people who received very few or none and managed to survive. Not owning a car, not having insurance or car payments, not being barraged with various types of media telling me what I needed or what I should have, certainly made living frugally a lot easier. Sure there were times where I wished I had access to a massive grocery store with eight hundred different types of potato chips but it wasn't so bad. Having a wonderful site mate who loved to try new recipes on my taste buds certainly helped too, but overall I definitely learned that there are a lot of things available in this world that I do not need to survive. In many ways, it's been one of the most important and refreshing lessons I've learned in my 28 years.

Being back in the U.S.A. for almost three months has been interesting and challenging in a lot of ways. I will be the first one to admit that the temptation to buy all sorts of stuff that I don't need is ever present. Seeing all the new cars that have come out over the past three years, seeing the prices on cars that I wanted a few years ago come down, and just seeing fast/nice/fun cars on the road again has me drooling, daydreaming and constantly browsing autotrader. That's just the beginning of it. Fast food, snacks, aisles and aisles of every food imaginable in the grocery stores, sales on all sorts of things from electronics to clothes, all of these things offer temptation, they urge me to buy, to consume, consume, consume. It's difficult at times but I think for the most part I've done pretty well. I've avoided eating fast food regularly, avoided going on any unnecessarily large shopping sprees and most importantly, I've avoided putting myself into any serious debt. The freedom that I had overseas left me with a fear of contracts so it took a lot for me to get a cell phone (pay as you go at first, then managed to get a no contract plan through a good, generous friend who works for a cellular provider) and it was nerve racking (or wracking, depending on who you believe) to take out a relatively small loan to get a vehicle, then sign up for insurance. I'm doing ok though, doing my best to live within my means, plan for the future and to 'get by'.

Ok, trying to stay focused on the topic at hand and not go off on too many tangents. One of the most difficult things to swallow, coming back to the U.S., is how even in times when (as the media so eloquently puts it) the U.S. is in an economic crisis, the culture of consumerism seems to have lost very little steam. Black Friday was a perfect example of this and I'm glad, especially after reading posts on Facebook from those who work retail, that I didn't go near any stores or shopping centers that day. Now, I'm not expert on finance and economics but it seems as though a huge part of why our economy has been so poor the past few years is due to excessive greed and an inability to live within our means, an inability to grasp the idea that a shit load of debt is not a good thing. Of course the incredibly irresponsible media only exacerbates (GRE word) the situation on a regular basis so should the majority of Americans be expected to ignore the messages they are being blasted with regularly and say 'Hey, wait a minute. I don't actually need some of this stuff. I don't actually need to own some of this useless crap to be happy."?

I don't believe that I am innocent of engaging in mindless consumerism, even after my 'period of enlightenment' overseas ;) :P but I am doing my best to live within my means, live responsibly and I'd like to continue to be the sort of person who sets a good example for friends, family, coworkers, and anyone I come across. It's difficult, especially in a place where the idea of 'consume, consume, consume!!!' is encouraged and wasting is not discouraged nearly as much as it should be, but as privileged human beings who share this world with billions of others, we should do better. We should make a concentrated effort to say/show that it's not ok for us to, just because we can, mindlessly consume everything in our paths, throw away what we don't want, and ignore the fact that there are so many, both in our own communities and around the world, who go without. Call me a socialist or communist or whatever you want but I'm a firm believer in, as my blog title says, 'Being Excellent to Each Other'. If you have a lot of something or too much of something that you don't need, why not give it to someone who doesn't have enough?

Even as I'm writing this, I'm looking around my room and realizing that I have way too many clothes, things that I don't even wear, that I could probably donate to Goodwill. I have even thought about swinging by Goodwill or the Salvation Army at some point to piece together a few outfits instead of buying new, expensive stuff from retailers, only stuff that I'd need of course. ;)

It's almost 2 in the morning and I feel like I'm losing track of the points I wanted to make, the order (if I really had any to begin with) that I wanted to go in so I'll stop for now. I'd like to write more about this in the future, as well as some other topics I feel have been pushed to the front of my mind, now that I'm living in the U.S. again but I'll see if I can make some notes or an outline next time so I can stay focused and on point.

Anyways, I guess the point that I was trying to make with my incessant rambling and ranting is that we need to learn to live within our means, consume responsibly (whatever that means) and help one another in times of need, to keep those less fortunate in mind. It's the holiday season, the peak season of shopping madness and crazy 'you'll never see a bargain like this again!' sales. Instead of buying a 500 inch plasma super ultra high definition television, maybe go with the 400 inch and donate a little money to charity, to a local nonprofit of some sort. OR, you could buy the 400 inch tv AND donate an hour or two at an organization that needs volunteers, maybe a shelter or soup kitchen. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna make an effort to do some volunteer work this holiday season and you should too. :)

Ok, I've gone on too long. More to come soon, thanks much for reading.

A long time coming...

2010-11-07T00:11:00.007+07:00

Hanna came to Colorado a couple of weeks ago, it was awesome. Also, it's been awesome spending time with my family and friends. Ok here goes...

It's been far too long since I updated my blog, even though I haven't really been involved in anything too exciting since returning to the U.S. Apologies to friends, family and anyone else who has enjoyed following the blog. I've been back in the U.S., in Colorado, for about a month and a half. Life, for the most part, is pretty good. I haven't really experienced too much in the way of culture shock since I returned, except maybe the price of beers at bars or restaurant. We were definitely spoiled by fifty cent draft beers in Phnom Penh. Even after being home for almost two months, it's still a struggle to hand over the credit card after looking at a bar tab that is way overpriced. Enough about beer for now.

It's been so long since I've done any writing, it's difficult to figure out where to begin or what to write and comment on. America...oh lord. After almost two and a half years abroad, mostly in the developing world, America is something else. The first things that hit me were food portions and fat people. Food portions in the U.S. are ridiculous. I can still remember being at a cafe, at a casino in Palm Springs, my first week back. I ordered a chicken fried steak and eggs and the plate was almost as big as my torso. It was HUGE! That was just the beginnning. I think after about two or three weeks in the U.S. I had put on 10 lbs. I'm trying to hit the gym every day, in hopes of dropping the return weight and getting into better shape. Another thing that's hard to not take note of in the U.S. is the absurd amount of fat people. Living in Asia, you don't see nearly as many fat people, and when you do they usually fall into one of two categories: A. Rich, corrupt businessmen or government officials or B. American or British tourists. Even those have nothing on people here. It's mind blowing coming from a country like Cambodia, where there are countless people starving, malnourished and dying because they have no food, to a country where people eat enough calories in one day to feed an entire family, a country where there are contests to see who can eat the most of one thing or drink the most of another thing. Needless to say, it's fucking disgusting.

I will probably rant more about fat and wasteful Americans later but on to other things. When I first got back to Colorado, I had plans to chill for a month or more, maybe do some in state traveling, but numerous comments from friends and family about how bad the economy and job market are, led me to start applying for jobs immediately. Luckily I managed to land quite a few interviews and job offers within my first couple of weeks. Unfortunately the sorts of jobs that I wanted to do, didn't pay very well and/or had limited benefits. My older brother Justin gave me a referral for his company, WOW! (Wide Open West), an internet, cable and phone provider that had openings for tier 2 tech support/customer service reps. I managed to land a job with them and while the work itself is not ideal, it's a job with decent pay, good benefits, and I work with some really great people. I spent about five weeks in training, made some new friends and met some cool and interesting people. While I really have no desire to do anything in tech support or customer service long term, the company is really great and I could see why people would want to work there for a long time. I am keeping an eye out for other jobs in the nonprofit, government and education sectors, but I'm ok for now. In addition to working, I've been trying to focus on studying for the GRE, which I will be taking in December.

Studying, especially for a standardized test, doesn't come easy to me so it's been a struggle. I've had the support of my wonderful girlfriend Hanna, who is a much better and more focused student/studier (is that even a word?) than I am and does her best to keep me focused and to provide me with helpful and useful links, practice tests, and tips. I've also received tips and encouragement from many of my good friends and offers from some to help with the studying (especially math O_O ). I've just started my new work schedule so I'm trying to balance my free time between working out, studying for the GRE, reading and working on my grad school apps. I'm applying to a couple of schools in Colorado, as well as a couple of schools in New York. I might also be applying for a leadership fellowship here in Colorado that seems really interesting. It's been a bit stressful trying to juggle all of this, especially with being away from Hanna again. If things work out as planned, she'll be coming out to Colorado for a while in January and we'll see where we go from there when we find out which grad schools we've been accepted to.

I've been bad about communication with friends lately and it's kind of bugging me. I haven't seen as many people or caught up with as many people as I'd like to since I got back and I've been bad about making calls, sending emails, meeting up with people. I think if I can focus on my short term goals, mainly preparing for the GRE and finishing up grad school applications, it will be much easier for me to start some semblance of a social life again.

I have a lot more to write about and apologies if this post seems really bland or poorly written. I haven't done much writing since I got back and I really need to get back into it, especially as I work on my statements of purpose and writing samples for graduate school. I'm glad I finally posted something though, and I will start maintaining the blog again as often as I can while I continue working towards grad school and what will hopefully be the next steps in my career. Thanks for reading. :)

Also, my friend CTG, in Peace Corps Kenya, has some great projects going on. Check out this site to see what he's been doing and hopefully contribute some money. Every little bit counts.

http://www.manysmallpeople.org/

Good News from Agii and Aiman!

2010-09-15T12:55:00.002+07:00

I'm very happy to let everyone know that I received good news in my last few email exchanges with Agii, regarding his sister Aiman's brain tumor and surgery. I should have posted this earlier but I've been distracted by friends, family and the greatness that is Colorado for the past few days.

Agii informed me that Aiman's surgery was a success, with the doctors removing 98 percent of the tumor and discovering that it's benign so no gamma knife surgery is needed. She is having trouble swallowing food and speaking but is recovering as expected and should be back to normal within the next month or so. Because of the money we raised and help from Laura and Scott, Agii didn't have to sell his home, his jeep or his business property to pay for the costs and has informed me that he is back to his normal routine of teaching. A huge thanks from Agii and myself to everyone who contributed and offered support and also to Travis Hellstrom, who made the whole process much easier by being one of the kindest and most supportive, helpful people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

I will update again in the not too distant future. I'm currently house sitting, trying to catch up with friends and family, and looking for a job.

Vietnam part 2

2010-09-13T05:09:00.003+07:00

So I've finally returned to the U.S. and am currently in Colorado. Being in Cambodia without internet access, then traveling to California, then coming to Colorado..these are my excuses for not keeping the blog updated. :) I'll write more about my trip home and my feelings about being back in the U.S. as soon as I get caught up on Vietnam, uploading pictures, etc.

After a couple days in Da Lat, we took a bus to Nah Trang, a more touristy, coastal town. The bus trip was only a few hours but the scenery on the trip was incredible. We were driving down windy mountain roads, jungle everywhere, cliffs with waterfalls dropping hundreds of feet. The only way I can think of to describe it was to say that it felt like we were in Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs of course. Despite the views, the bus ride wasn't particularly pleasant, featuring a typical Vietnamese driver who drove too fast, took corners to fast, hit the brakes too fast, so yeah, we were thrilled to listen and smell the result of his driving skills as a few of the other Vietnamese passengers took advantage of their sick bags. Good times.

Nah Trang was a beautiful town, much more touristy and catering to travelers with travel agencies, guesthouses, hotels with great beach views, a variety of delicious restaurants, and even a really cheap gym/fitness center. The beaches weren't too crowded and the water was a beautiful bluish green color. We spent some time on the beach, spent a lot of time eating at different restaurants and just relaxed for the most part. Looking back, Nah Trang was one of my favorite parts of the trip and I wish we would have stayed there longer.

From Nah Trang we took a train overnight to a town called Hue. Hue is known for having a citadel which has a bunch of famous monuments and temples. We wandered around the outside of that area and didn't find much to do before hopping on an evening train to Hanoi. Our entrance to Hanoi wasn't the most pleasant as we arrived to pouring rain early in the morning and were greeted by guesthouse owners who believed that they could charge us anywhere between 18 and 27 dollars, during the non touristy season, for rooms that were clearly worth 10 or less. We eventually found a decent hotel that was willing to negotiate with us and gave us a decent rate. Needless to say I didn't get a great first impression of the capital, the biggest city, and northern Vietnam. The next few days in Hanoi consisted of us being rained on, having a hard time finding a nice place to have a cheap beer, and aside from a delicious French restaurant named 'Cafe de Paris', finding a decent place to eat. It was around this time that we decided it wouldn't make sense to go to Laos and that we should fly back to southern Vietnam instead of spending another 24 plus hours on the train. We landed some pretty cheap tickets through Jetstar and set about planning our trip to Ha Long Bay.

I almost don't want to write about the trip to Ha Long Bay because I don't want to remember how maddening and ridiculous it was. We arranged a trip with a tourist agency for a really good price (first mistake) that would consist of a bus ride to the bay, a boat ride and one night on the bay, meals, a room on the boat, and a couple of stops at some scenic areas, kayaking, etc. The trip was going ok until a number of us purchased some beers on one of the islands to bring on to the boat. The prices for beers on the boat were absurd and when you are trying to travel on a budget, you take advantage of cheap beers whenever you can. The boat 'manager' explained to us that we would be charged for bringing the beers on the boat and when we explained to him that we had not been informed of that supposed 'policy' he told us we wouldn't be getting our passports back unless we paid. This is where the boat experience started going downhill. There were some great moments, doing some kayaking in the beautiful water, surrounded by massive rock islands covered in greenery, one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen, jumping into the water from the top of the boat, and late night karaoke and drinking games. The rest of the trip consisted of the manager and crew being incredibly rude and abrasive towards us and the other passengers, arguments about paying for drinks that either were never purchased or had already been paid for and being mislead about air conditioning, fans, food, etc. I took a lot of great pictures though. :)

After another day in Hanoi, we flew to Ho Chi Minh, spent some time buying gifts and souvenirs, and boarded a bus back to Phnom Penh. The last few days in Cambodia were spent with some friends and shopping at the market for more gifts and souvenirs. On the night of September 5th, Hanna took off for Los Angeles and the next day around noon I did the same. I've copied links to my two Facebook albums with pictures from the Vietnam trip below. I'll be back on to write a bit more soon. In the meanwhile, please enjoy the pictures. :)

Vietnam part 1 (Ho Chi Minh, Da Lat, Nah Trang, Hue)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098492&id=72206395&l=2f6ece7e9c

Vietnam part 2 (Hanoi, Ha Long Bay)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099409&id=72206395&l=23c8e08b63

Vietnam part 1

2010-09-03T14:28:00.000+07:00

Apologies for how long it took me to make this blog post but over the past two and a half weeks, I didn’t spend much time online or at a computer. On August 17th, Hanna and I left for our planned trip to Vietnam and Laos. We arranged to take a boat down the Mekong River, across the border and then to take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City, aka Saigon. The boat ride, while very loud, was pretty nice. Being on the water was pretty relaxing and I took a lot of pictures. After a few hours on the boat, leaving Cambodia required dealing with the always delightful Cambodian border police. I had overstayed my Cambodian visa by two days and the charge for overstaying is ‘officially’ five dollars a day but in this particular instance, the border police mentioned something about 30 dollars in ‘fees or taxes’ or some such nonsense. After a bit of arguing, pleading and notifying them that we are English teachers and don’t have much money, they finally conceded and let me get away with paying only what I was required to pay. I could probably spend a few paragraphs ripping on how corrupt and shitty the police and border police of Cambodia are but it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Anyways, after crossing the border, making it through Vietnamese customs with no problems and some more time on the boat, we arrived in the town of Chau Doc, where we stayed the night in a guesthouse on the river. We wandered about the towns for a few hours, had some great food and took some pics. The next morning was spent eating breakfast, going on a boat tour to check out Vietnamese floating fish farms, and checking out a local village, mosque and some other sites. The few hours during lunch and after were spent on a bigger, more comfortable boat that slowly continued it’s way down the river. We eventually took a bus into Ho Chi Minh City, which was surprisingly much more developed that I expected. After wandering around a bit we managed to find a cheap guest house and went in search of food. We spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh, enjoying the amenities that have not been afforded by Phnom Penh the past few months, especially the movie theater. We saw both “Inception” and “Salt”, both of which we really enjoyed, while munching on some delicious and much missed popcorn. Ho Chi Minh is a pretty nice city to spend a few days in. There are some great sites to see, some museums worth checking out, especially the ‘War Remnants Museum’, which really gave me a much more accurate picture of just how costly the Vietnam War was. We walked all over the city and I took hundreds of pictures, which I will try to get uploaded to Facebook or Photobucket as soon as possible.

Based on information we’d heard from friends who’d traveled in Vietnam previously, Hanna and I expected Vietnam to be more expensive than Cambodia. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually quite a bit cheaper, especially with the low cost of ‘pho’ at a number of restaurants, often available for a dollar or a bit more. Travel across the country proved to be pretty cheap and easy as well, with a number of bus, train and plane services all over the country. Unfortunately, this leads to there being far too many travel agencies, many of whom have no problem ripping off foreigners, claiming to provide the cheapest available bus tickets while charging quite a bit more. Luckily, we figured out quickly that it’s much easier, smarter and cheaper to buy tickets directly from the bus companies when possible. Another thing I noticed about Vietnam, at least southern Vietnam, which I will probably touch on further, later on, is that the Vietnamese seem very indifferent to foreigners and tourists. Aside from the people who actually work in the tourist industry or street vendors, many Vietnamese people don’t seem to care much about people visiting their country. They are also a bit cold and less friendly. While in Thailand and to an extent in Cambodia, people are very friendly, open and quick to cater to foreigners and travelers, the Vietnamese just kinda go about their business and don’t pay much attention to foreigners. Anyways, more on that later.

From Ho Chi Minh, we went to Da Lat, a mountain town a few hours north, by overnight bus. Da Lat came highly recommended by our friend Chris, who is also working in Phnom Penh and did some traveling in Vietnam. After arriving early in the morning, checking into a guesthouse, passing out for a few hours, and eventually waking up to explore the city, the first thing we noticed about Da Lat was the lack of foreigners and businesses catering to foreigners. In most even somewhat popular tourist destinations, it’s easy to quickly find the ‘touristy’ areas, filled with t-shirt and souvenir shops, travel agencies, and restaurants and cafes offering western and Vietnamese food. It took hours of us walking around and exploring the city of Da Lat, which was quite beautiful and modern and reminded me very much of a mix of some mountain towns I’ve been to in the U.S. and European towns I’ve seen pictures of, before we found the touristy area, which wasn’t all that touristy. The roads were very windy and twisty, up and down, with businesses and apartments closely pushed together, surrounded by hills and mountains, beautiful green forest areas, rice paddies, and gardens. I took a lot of pictures in Da Lat but the photos do not do the city and surrounding countryside justice in the least.

Ok, I’ve been temporarily distracted by my desire for lunch. I will continue with more about Da Lat and the rest of the Vietnam trip, along with some pictures, asap.

Heading to Vietnam

2010-08-17T00:20:00.002+07:00

As of today, I'm officially done with work in Cambodia and on 'vacation' until I return to the U.S. and (hopefully) find a job. Hanna and I are leaving by boat tomorrow for Vietnam, will spend a little over a week there, then head into Laos for a few days, then back to Cambodia for a few days before leaving for the U.S. of A.

I'll be taking a lot of pictures on this new adventure and will try to update the blog a few times and upload new pics when I can get to an internet cafe. Posts about the new adventure and part 2 of my last post, coming as soon as possible.

In Search of My Lost Idealism part 1

2010-08-06T12:38:00.003+07:00

Over the past few months, as previously mentioned, I've felt my once strong idealism and optimism, dissipate and slowly, unfortunately transform into bitter cynicism and pessimism. It's taken me a while to recognize the negative effects that this has had on me, my interactions with others and my work ethic. The more I've realized how unhealthy my recent pessimistic attitude has become, the more I've tried to make small changes, talk to people, and read, in hopes of finding some sort of new inspiration or reclaiming my lost idealism. I feel as though I've made some small progress and it has certainly helped having people like Chris Turnbull-Grimes, my good friend who is serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, and Travis Hellstrom, who is starting his third year in Peace Corps Mongolia, as a Peace Corps volunteer leader, to share my frustrations and thoughts with. Hanna understands where I'm coming from and I know that she shares a lot of similar feelings and frustrations and needless to say, we are both looking forward to doing some traveling in the next few weeks, enjoying life as tourists for a little bit, instead of as volunteers or teachers. I just finished reading a book by Tracy Kidder called "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World', which came highly recommended from both Hanna and CTG. The book reminded me very much of "Three Cups of Tea", by Greg Mortensen, another book I read a while back, when I was still in training as a Peace Corps volunteer that inspired and motivated me. It's inspiring in so many ways to read about people like Greg Mortensen or Paul Farmer, who have done so much good in some of the most challenged places in the world but it can also be discouraging. It's hard not to look at the work of men like them and question your own actions, your own abilities, your own contributions. I do my best to not have many regrets but I sometimes wonder if I could have done more with my time in Mongolia, more with my time here in Cambodia, if I was just harder working, more patient, more motivated.

I try not to spend too much time dwelling on these thoughts because I know they will only discourage or depress me further. I do my best to focus on the present, the not too distant future, and the long term. I know now that a career in development and education is not something I'm interested in but I also know that I will continue to live a life of service, in one way or another. I know that even though I won't end up as a teacher or development worker, I am not opposed to the idea of volunteering my time, donating to charities and causes I feel strongly about, fund raising for important causes, and doing my best to contribute positively and responsibly, to whatever community I live in.

Today I spent some time talking to my friend Travis about the differences between people who try to make a difference and live a life of responsible service and those who just kinda go through the motions and seem to worry more about missing their favorite tv show or the latest iphone application, then doing anything to help their fellow human beings or contribute in any meaningful way to their community. Travis mentioned talking to people about the latest movie they saw (8-10 bucks for tickets, 6-7 bucks for popcorn, 3-4 bucks for a huge coke) and how uncomfortable and awkward most people get when seriously asked to donate money to a good cause, even if it's only five, ten of fifteen bucks. This of course sounded very familiar to me as I've spent the past month or so trying to raise funds to help my friend Agii's sister Aiman and their family, who are going through a medical crisis, one that could easily bankrupt a middle class American family, let alone a family living in western Mongolia. People are often quick to raise their hands or pledge support in helping out for a good cause but when it comes time to open their wallet or donate their time, it's proven again that talk is cheap. People seem to be much more inclined to donate money than time, which is ok I suppose, as long as the money goes to the right people/places/causes. Unfortunately, people are less likely to contribute money unless they know they will get a tax break or something else out of it. As Travis pointed out, 'that's not a gift, that's an exchange'.

I'm not accusing anyone in particular or pointing any fingers nor am I(in my opinion) being a hypocrite. I don't like admitting my own faults, my indifference and laziness at times, my hesitations but I do it, I try to do it as often as possible. I'm so far from a saint and I have made huge mistakes, hurt people, ignored problems pretending they aren't my own, and worried about things that many would call unimportant or trivial. As Hanna has said many times in the past "I am my biggest critic". Ok..getting off topic. More on this later possibly.

Living overseas, not necessarily in the worst conditions but certainly in less splendid conditions than I lived in the United States, has opened my eyes to the unnecessary excess of the American consumer culture and the misplaced or selfish priorities of people not just in the U.S.A., but all around the world. In some ways I understand it, I understand that (depending on what you believe I guess) we only have one life to live, we can't spend all our time helping others or forgoing things we enjoy or giving up our money to charity. It's perfectly normal to want to have things we enjoy. I'd be lying if I said that in the months leading up to my return to America, I've spent many hours daydreaming about all the foods I miss, what type of smart phone I might buy, what kind of car I want(if I ever get a job), among other things. I'm the first one to tell my friends and family that it's important to do what makes you happy, to take time to indulge and relax when stressed out, to pursue a career in something you will not enjoy, to not give up on long term goals and dreams. I firmly believe that in order to live a life as happy and stress free as possible, we have to occasionally indulge ourselves, eat things we like, partake in activities that we enjoy, relax, take vacations, call in to work occasionally because we just don't feel like going, etc.

But I also believe in personal responsibility, hard work, and giving some of your time (and occasionally, your hard earned money) to help those less fortunate than yourself.

I'm kinda losing my train of thought at the moment and I need to rest...so I'll just say 'to be continued' and follow this up soon with part 2. Disclaimer: I wrote this on the fly so forgive me if it's a little unorganized. And as I sign off, here's a couple of(in my opinion) very relevant quotes from "Mountains Beyond Mountains":

"The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world."

"The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money."

Update: Money En Route

2010-08-06T08:47:00.002+07:00

Here's the latest on the small fund raising I've been doing to help out my friend Agii's sister Aiman, and their family...

As of today, we raised $1,030 dollars, which I just transferred to Travis Hellstrom. As soon as Travis is able to withdraw the funds, he should be able to start transferring them to Agii's bank account. Hopefully, this money will help out at least a bit, allowing Agii to not go bankrupt and/or sell everything in order to pay for his sister's medical care. I sent Agii an email a few days ago but haven't heard a response to I may try and call him soon. I heard through Scott Burt (my friend and former site mate), who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Olgii and works with Agii, that Aiman and their older sister had made it to Almaty, Kazakhstan, that she had to undergo a lot more evaluations, she will have the operation soon and that doctors seem optimistic. As soon as I hear back from either Scott or Agii, I'll post another update. I just wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone that made a donation. Thank you to Jordan, Cathy, Eric and fam, Ryan, Sean, my mom, Nik, Andy and Debbie, Melissa, and my dad and stepmom. Also, a big thank you to Travis Hellstrom for being my 'man on the ground' in Mongolia, for being an awesome help and friend. Hope I didn't forget anyone! Thank you so much for your generosity and for recognizing that this is very important to me in so many ways.

When I get back to the U.S. in a few weeks, I'll see about possibly setting up something more official, depending on how everything goes. Again, thank you.

More updates and pictures to come as soon as possible!

Angkor Wat Photos and A Small Community Project in Mongolia

2010-07-31T15:38:00.003+07:00

As promised, above are a few pics from Angkor Wat. Here is the link to my Facebook album with more pictures from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086780&id=72206395&l=4610d3b14e

I forgot to mention this and post the link in my last blog post but my friend Travis Hellstrom (Yes, THE Travis Hellstrom who is helping me donate money to Agii and Aiman) is looking for help on a project he's working on in Mongolia. Here's the email with a bit of information from Travis and the link to his site where you can learn more and help if you'd like. :)

"Hello my family and friends,

I want to share a project with all of you that I helped start which means a lot to me - one that I know will be a huge help to our small community here in Mongolia and change lives for years to come. It's a community fund for social businesses which helps people bring themselves out of poverty and improve their community from the grassroots. It's like Kiva.org without interest.

It works because people come together to share a little of what they have to help those who don't have much, and then that money is repaid and shared again and again. We have raised a lot, but still need about $1,000 more and I wanted to ask for your help. I understand it may be hard to give much - as a Peace Corps Volunteer I live on $140 a month and I know I wish I could give more - but if you can even give $5 it will make a huge difference. The beautiful thing is that donations will be used over and over for decades. And even if you can't give, if you could just share this with people you care about that would mean a lot to me.

Thank you all so much. I've never asked for money before and I'm not very good at it, but I've never believed in a project as much as I believe in this one. To learn more please visit www.advancehumanity.com/projects/socialbusiness and email me anytime at travishellstrom@gmail.com. Thank you for your consideration, I hope we can chat soon!

Thank you!
Travis"

http://www.advancehumanity.com/projects/socialbusiness

travishellstrom@gmail.com

Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring...Banana Phone!

2010-07-31T14:04:00.002+07:00

An update AND a great song from fantastic back in the day artist Raffi! If you've never listened to 'Bananaphone', you are missing out.

Where to begin..where to begin. I often find myself putting off my blog updates, procrastinating over and over until eventually I force myself to sit down and type up an update. It would probably make more sense for me to write snippets a few times a week, collect my thoughts, edit them, and then paste them to the blog, but that would be too easy.

A couple weeks ago, our friend Brian came to visit Cambodia after finishing his service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia. The first weekend he was in town, we took the five or six hour (I was passed out for most of it) bus ride down to Sihanoukville, a beautiful beach town and popular tourist destination, and spent a couple days enjoying the beach, a nice, cheap guesthouse, and some much needed time away from Phnom Penh. I'll get more into why time away from Phnom Penh has been much needed, a bit further down in the post. Anyways, it was a nice couple days away, the food was good, and spending some time near the coast is always nice. During the week we took Brian to some of our favorite restaurants, enjoyed a bit more beer and unhealthy food than usual, and spent a lot of time sitting in the apartment, doing nothing, because as Brian would say, "It's bloody hot." It HAS been pretty hot lately, even for Cambodia. April and May were supposed to be the hottest months and while they were pretty hot, the past few few weeks have had some days where the heat is almost unbearable. I've been in some hot weather (29 Palms, Iraq, Kuwait) but the heat and humidity here just suck all the life out of you some days. Taking a nap in the afternoon almost makes things worse as waking up becomes a sweaty, exhausted struggle.

The next weekend we spent two and a half days in Siem Reap, with the intention of taking Brian to see the beautiful temples of Angkor Wat and spending some relaxing time in Siem Reap, a much more relaxed, cool and fun town than Phnom Penh. Our plan was interrupted by a first night of drinking far too many delicious beverages at the Island Bar in one of Siem Reap's many night markets, preventing any of us from waking up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning. Resigned to spending the day in town and putting off Angkor Wat until Sunday, we set about doing some shopping. We managed to pick up a few souvenirs, trinkets, gifts and what not and then found ourselves standing in front of a Mexican restaurant advertising (if I can recall this correctly) "the best Mexican food in Siem Reap" along with 50 cent draft beers, dollar margaritas and dollar tacos. Seven hours and 48 dollars later, we pretty much had to call it an early night. Fun and delicious? No doubt. Smart? Debatable.

Once again, our inability to resist cheap drinks had thwarted us. Needless to say, the next day we were struggling again. Hanna, having been to Angkor Wat twice, decided to stay back and Brian and I decided to grab a tuk tuk and take the short tour of the temples, so that he could at least see it and make it seem like his trip to Siem Reap was productive. ;) To me, Angkor Wat was just as impressive the second time and I was able to take some great pictures and see a few things that I didn't see the first time(I'll put some pics up in my next post!). We came back on the night bus with some type of 'sleeper' compartments instead of chairs, which was a bit more comfortable than the usual buses. The weekend in Siem Reap was great and I wish I was able to spend more time there. If you plan a trip to Cambodia or stop in on part of a bigger trip, you should spend more time in Siem Reap and not bother too much with Phnom Penh. Everything that is worth doing in Phnom Penh can be done in two or three days, if that.

Speaking of which, I'd just like to say that the novelty of living in Phnom Penh wore off a long time ago. I have found myself becoming increasingly cynical, angry, bitter and frustrated with the city, the people, all the things that are 'wrong' with the city and it's not exactly doing wonders for my over all disposition. Some of these frustrations find their roots in the details that I posted in my blog post "Cambodia, two months later" on June 27th. It gets old having to make comments or stare back at the countless men who leer disgustingly at my girlfriend as we walk or run anywhere around the city. Men here have absolutely no shame and it's not limited to one particular group, it's pretty much every single guy in the city, poor, rich, young, old, well dressed overachieving businessmen, teenagers dressed like Japanimation characters, skeezy, dirty tuk tuk and moto drivers, etc. Even lams (Buddhist monks) have no self control and will shamelessly oggle (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=oggle)Hanna (or any girl wearing shorts, a skirt, a tank top, etc.) until I give them the trademark Matt Becker look of death. Shit, it doesn't even matter if they are wearing something remotely revealing or not, men will stare anyways, it's pretty disturbing. If it was just me that was bothered, I'm sure it might be partially chalked up to some type of insecurity but it really bothers Hanna and makes her uncomfortable.

I also find myself straining not to scream at every other tuk tuk driver or moto driver who thinks that either A) if I ignore their repeated calls, I must not be hearing them and they should yell louder or B) my response of a firm 'No' or 'No, thanks' means they should continue to ask me if I want a tuk tuk or moto, if I want to buy marijuana, cocaine, or heroin, or if I want to go get a 'massage'. Annoying and aggravating most of the time, also a bit creepy.

Both Hanna and I have had enough of Phnom Penh so we recently made the decision to quit our jobs early and do a bit of traveling, outside of Cambodia, before we head back to the United States of Awesomerica. The tentative plan is to head to Vietnam around the 17th of August and spend a week or more there, depending on how much money is being burned, then to head to Laos, spend a few days there, and then back down into Cambodia for a few days before flying back to freedom land. I'm very excited to see Vietnam and Laos. Hanna has been to Vietnam once before but never to Laos. It will be fun and interesting to visit two new countries before coming back home.

In other news, we've reached almost 800 dollars to donate to Agii and Aiman, which I'm very excited about. I'm hoping to reach a thousand before I transfer the money next week but we'll see. :)

I am currently reading "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure The World" by Tracy Kidder and just finished up the 2006 book "Losing Our Democracy: How Bush, The Far Right, and Big Business Are Betraying Americans For Power and Profit' by Mark Green. I'm still running in the mornings, six days a week, working out with dumbbells and doing a lot of calisthenics in my free time and trying to catch up on news and movies. I just started watching the miniseries "Generation Kill" about Marines in Iraq and it's pretty good so far. I read the book it's based on a couple months back and really enjoyed it. If you haven't checked out either, I highly recommend them.

Hopefully this blog post wasn't too all over the place. I'll put up some pics from Siem Reap and a link to another photo album asap. My new main picture is from the Bayon temple at Angkor Wat.

Donations for Agii and Aiman

2010-07-28T15:17:00.001+07:00

Hey friends and family, faithful readers, etc.,

I'm writing another quick post, not to be a nag, but just to see if anyone is still interested in donating to help out my friend Agii, his sister Aiman, and their family. I am waiting on a couple transfers this week and will be transferring the money to Mongolia by no later than next week, hopefully. I want to do it all in one big transfer, to make sure we're paying the minimum in fees for the transfer/ATM withdrawal, etc. I'm waiting to hear back from Agii on the results of the procedure and I will send an update email, write a FB note and will update the blog as soon as I know more.

If you are still interested in donating, please let me know through a message on Facebook or an email (matthewbecker82@gmail.com).Every little bit helps and thank you very much to those who have donated already. We've raised a little over six hundred dollars so far and while in the grand scheme of things it doesn't seem like much, every little bit we can get to help them out will make a difference. Unforeseen medical emergencies can bankrupt Americans very easily so I'm sure you can imagine what kind of stress and financial hardships this could bring to someone in Mongolia, with very limited access to affordable, quality medical care and significantly lower working wages. Thanks for your time.

New posts to come very soon, along with some new pictures!

Another Update, Email from Agii

2010-07-16T16:12:00.002+07:00

I received an email from Agii today, updating me on what's going on with Aiman. I'll just past the email here, mind the mistakes, English is his fourth language ;)

Dear Matt,

First of all I'd like to thank for your kind feelings to my family and your effort trying to help me when I was in desperate situation. Your quick response made me and my family feel confident and think positively even the situation was not promising.

You know that I've been doing research for more than a month with a few results.
I contacted several hospitals and doctors in Korea, Thailand, India, Russia, Turkey, China, US and Kazakhstan.

Korea and Thailand gave positive responses but were too expensive for me to afford.
India is still being contacted but last decisions aren't made yet. If there is a better cance in India there is a possibility to fly from Almaty to India.

The only place which gave the most positive response is Kazakhstan and my sister is flying there next week.
Doctors also strongly recommend to do gamma radiation after the surgery and it is easy to go to Moscow from Almaty. ( there is a Gamma knife center in Moscow.)
Aiman and Marua ( my elder sister, a doctor who is taking care of Aiman ) is flying from UB to Kovd on the 17th and they will fly to Kazakhstan on the 21st of July.

Generally the surgery cost in Kazakhstan is estimated for about $10-12 thousand and gamma radiation in Moscow is about $10,000 not including travel expenses and accommodation.
But the doctors will tell if there is real need to go for gamma radiation or not after the surgery.

I am not flying to Kazakhstan myself ( I was going to go with Aiman in case I needed as a translator), but my elder sister speaks Russian, she graduated university in Kazakhstan and quite familiar with medical system there, also she definitely can take care of Aiman (girls) better than me.
Aiman's condition is getting worse and now she has difficulties in dressing herself. But her baby is in good condition.
I will inform you with the results of the surgery.

I strongly believe with all of your kind feelings and wishes my sister will be back to her routine life in a couple month.

Thank you and all the best.
Agii

I'm glad to hear Aiman will be on her way to get treatment but I still want to contribute as much money as we can to possibly help them with the costs of the operation, the gamma treatment if necessary or at the very least, to help with some living expenses after things are done. Thanks for reading.

Update, Still Waiting on Donations, Good News

2010-07-16T14:22:00.002+07:00

Hey everyone, just a quick update on what's going on with the fund raising to help Agii. I've received one more donation since my last update, from my friend Ryan, who's a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, finishing up his last months in the country. Just keep in mind that Peace Corps volunteers make chump change (a few thousane per year) and if one one PCV can make a small donation, plenty of you can afford to make one as well. :) I'm still waiting to hear back from some family members and friends but I did receive some good news from my friend Lauren, who was a Fulbright scholar in Olgii, studying eagle hunting and Kazakh eagle hunters. She was in Olgii for a while and did some other traveling around Mongolia for her studies and work and my site mates, local friends and I spent a lot of time with her in Olgii. While she was living near Deloun soum, a small town south of Olgii, she lived with a family whose child had a cleft lip. Through donations from family and friends, Lauren was able to raise a few thousand dollars to pay for transportaion to UB, an operation, and medical care for the child. Because the whole deal cost less than originally anticipated, Lauren has quite a bit of money left over, something like a couple grand, maybe more. Because Lauren is also friendly with Agii, she has decided to donate the remaining funds to help Agii and Aiman and their family out.

Lauren is in Olgii until until the 23rd and in the meanwhile is trying to find the best way to get those funds to Agii. Hopefully she'll be able to withdraw the cash or make a transfer to Agii's bank account in the next week. I was very excited to hear that Lauren can donate so much to help them out and hopefully, that money plus whatever I can raise will make a big difference in getting the proper care for Aiman and making sure Agii's family doesn't have to give up everything in the process.

I'm still taking donations to my Paypal account, probably going to wait another week if I can, before making the first transfer. If you have anything you can donate, please do, every little bit will help. Thank you.

In other news, our good friend Brian is coming into Cambodia tonight from Mongolia. He just finished his Peace Corps service and will be spending close to two weeks here before flying back to the U.S. to be with his wife and family. We're heading to a beach town called Sihanoukville tomorrow morning to spend the weekend and are planning on heading back to Siem Reap next weekend.

I took on more hours at work and I'm teaching TOEFL ibt classes in the mornings and evenings. I switched classes and now I'm teaching the some of thesame students I had last term, a group I grew pretty close with and had a lot of fun with. I'm teaching them the next level of TOEFL at New World Institute and teaching another group in the mornings. It's nice because it gives me something to do for a few hours in the morning, I still have a lot of free time during the day and I'll be able to save a bit more money before I come back to the U.S.

Just wanted to throw in a quick update before the weekend. We'll only be gone for a day and a half, should be back home by Sunday afternoon. I'll update again with more pics asap. Hope everyone is doing well.

Cambodia: The Khmer 'Riche'

2010-07-10T09:52:00.004+07:00

http://cambodiacalling.blogspot.com/2010/01/exit-khmer-rouge-enter-khmer-riche.html

I just found this post/article written on another blog about Cambodia, from January of this year, about the children of the wealthy, unbelievably corrupt, so called "elite" upper class of Cambodia. Interesting read, albeit disgusting and disturbing. How do you get rid of this type of corruption? How about responsible aid distribution? What does that even mean? I don't know. This is just one of many reasons I don't see myself working in development work ever again, it's all but hopeless. The more I've read about this and similar situations in other parts of the world (especially the Middle East, check out "Sleeping With the Devil"), the more I lose my faith in humanity.

Update on 'request for help' (Agii)

2010-07-08T08:12:00.002+07:00

I just copied and pasted this from an email I sent out recently, regarding the situation with my friend Agii, who's sister has a very serious, life threatening brain tumor.

Hey friends, family, blog followers,

I originally sent this email to the people who emailed me back or wrote in response to my blog post about my friend Agii in Mongolia, who's sister has a life threatening brain tumor. My good friend Travis Hellstrom, who I trained with as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, has agreed to help me out in getting some funds to Agii. I worry that there isn't enough time to set up anything really 'official' or more professional, so there won't be any tax benefits to come with this donation, but I hope you can still donate some money. Because it's in Mongolia, our only real option at this point is for those who are interested in donating, to transfer money to my Paypal account. After I receive the funds in my Paypal, I will transfer them to Travis' Paypal account. Once he has them in his Paypal account, he's going to transfer them to his American bank account, withdraw them from an ATM in Mongolia, then deposit the cash in Agii's Khaan Bank (local Mongolian bank) account. If I set up a 'donation' account on Paypal, Paypal takes a 3% fee so I'd like to avoid that.

I know this process sounds a bit complicated and maybe unprofessional but I can assure you, this is our only option at this point, especially given the seriousness of the situation. I am donating $100 to Agii, which I just transferred from my bank account to my Paypal account. I will evaluate my money situation again soon and see if I can donate more. I don't know that I can raise enough money to buy his sister a plane ticket or not but I think at this point, anything will help. Agii has already expressed to me that he is willing to sell everything he owns in order to help his sister.

Please feel free to email me back if you have any questions. For those who don't have Paypal and would still like to donate some money, email me and I'm sure we can work something out where you could maybe use a friend or family members' Paypal account. My email address for my Paypal account is matt98ta@yahoo.com. If you transfer money to my account, email me or send a message to let me know.

I'm going to make another blog post about this to see if I can find more people interested in donating and brainstorm with Travis on other ways to raise money and transfer it to Agii. I will probably also make a guest post on Travis' blog as well.

My email: matthewbecker82@gmail.com

Travis' blog: http://blog.advancehumanity.com/

Thank you for reading and thank you for anything you can donate to help a great friend of mine,

Matt Becker

UPDATE: So far we've raised $450 to donate to help Agii !!!!

Koh Chang Pictures, Angkor Wat Story and Pictures, etc.

2010-07-03T17:37:00.005+07:00

I added a new album of photos, a little late, from my birthday weekend in Koh Chang, Thailand.

http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b3/matt5058/My%20Birthday%20in%20Koh%20Chang%20May%202010/

A couple weekends ago, Hanna and I took the bus up to Siem Reap to spend a nice weekend. The bus ride was about six hours, overnight, so we arrived in Siem Reap pretty early in the morning and hired a tuk tuk to help us find a guesthouse or hotel to stay at. We found a decent place pretty quickly and prepared to enjoy a nice weekend away from Phnom Penh. The first day was pretty lazy, mostly spend wandering around the town of Siem Reap, avoiding annoying tuk tuk drivers, eating good food, enjoying 50 cent draft beers (after a month of not drinking any beer), and just relaxing. We checked out the night markets, some restaurants and bars, played pool, and even got a "Dr. Fish Massage". Basically you pay a couple bucks, sit down with your feet in a pool or aquarium and a bunch of tiny fish nibble at your feet for 20 minutes. It tickles and feels really good, it's almost impossible not to laugh and smile. The fish basically eat the dead skin off of your feet. Also, the 'massage' comes with a free beer. Heck of a deal if you ask me.

The second day in Siem Reap, we rented bicycles and rode the 5 or 6 kilometers from the town to Angkor Wat. We spent the next six hours checking out the vast array of temples, riding the bicycles from temple to temple, just enjoying and appreciating the beauty and history of the whole experience, taking pictures and stopping for a cold drink or some fresh fruit here and there. The whole experience of riding bicycles around one of the seven wonders of the world was so surreal, just absolutely amazing and beautiful. It's difficult to find the words to accurately describe the experience, but I can easily say that it's one weekend that I will always remember. Despite my frustrations and inability to understand/accept the many problems in Cambodia, I still believe it's a beautiful place to visit and I think anyone who has the chance, should definitely take a trip to Angkor Wat. We are considering going again before we leave the country. Here's a link to my Facebook album of pictures from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083243&id=72206395&l=45d954d660

Speaking of leaving, I've booked my travel arrangements to come back to the U.S. I'm coming back in early September, spending a week in Los Angeles before flying back to Colorado. I've been to the U.S./Colorado twice in the past two years since I left but neither trip was very long. I feel like, after being away from the U.S., my family, my friends, my dogs, and just life back home for so long, I need to come back for a lot longer this time. I legitimately feel homesick and eager to be back in Colorado for the first time in over two years and I am excited about spending more time at home while I plan my next moves in life. More on that as the time gets closer. In the meanwhile I am going to continue to teach part time, work on reaching my personal fitness goals, read, and enjoy life. More posts and pictures to come, as always.

Work news, reflections, etc.

2010-06-27T18:18:00.003+07:00

Just a quick note before my next blog post: I have received a few emails in response to my post about Agii’s situation, with generous offers to donate money, I’m just waiting to hear back from a friend in Mongolia who I hope can help me. As soon as that’s figured out, I should have a way to take donations to give to Agii and his family. Also, I’ve taken hundreds more pictures that I have yet to post and/or upload to my blog so I will try to put some more up or at least put up the links to my Facebook albums.

Continuing, here’s another update on other things that have been going on in Cambodia. As previously noted, I wasn’t particularly happy teaching at the private school during the days and as the days went by, I found myself increasingly miserable and no longer enthusiastic about teaching. I dreaded going to school most days and I had a really hard time motivating myself to prepare for lessons, to even care whether or not the students learned anything (not than many of them cared, especially the 10th grade students). One day I just decided I’d had enough and I informed my principal that I’d no longer be teaching at Sovannaphumi school. He was a bit surprised and disappointed but was understanding. After I notified him he asked me to stick around for one more week while he looked for a replacement. I agreed and spent one more week teaching before I happily finished my last day. The past couple months, in addition to my time spent in Mongolia, have made me realize that I have no desire to be a teacher ever again. At first it was fun, I’ve had good experiences and I’m glad I’ve been given the opportunities I’ve had and I’ve met some amazing students, teachers and friends, but teaching is not something I will ever do again once I leave Cambodia. I no longer have the passion or patience for it and my experiences have lead me to a new found respect for all the good teachers around the world, especially my teachers growing up that had to put up with my nonsense.

These thoughts and reflections have lead me to further thought on development work, something I always thought I’d be interested in and passionate about. Admittedly, my experiences in Mongolia and Cambodia have had me reevaluating which direction(s) I want to take my life. For the longest time I always though I’d finish Peace Corps, get a masters in international relations and go work overseas as a Foreign Service officer, USAID officer or some other similar career field. The more free time I’ve had to think about my future (especially since I just recently turned 28), the more soul searching I’ve done and I’ve also realized increasingly that I’m not sure if development work or even international aid/diplomacy is something I am interested in continuing/pursuing. I feel in a lot of ways that I’ve lost my motivation and my once strong idealism has been crushed, leaving me lost and unsure of where I want to go and what I want to do with my life. This is not to say that I’m in some state of emotional disarray, just that I’m trying to find my way and in the next few months/years I am interested in trying new things, experimenting, and learning about and studying things that I’ve always been interested in but was maybe too afraid to pursue in the past. Right now I’m reading some books on personal fitness and health/well being, trying to learn more about exercise, weight training, physical and mental health, and I’m taking much of my free time to work out. I’ve been working with dumbbells, a jump rope, Taebo and Pilates workout dvds, jogging early every morning, doing a lot of pushups and crunches, and making changes to my diet to improve my overall health. I don’t know that I’d ever learn enough to become some type of personal trainer but it’s definitely something I find fun, interesting, and of course healthy and I’d like to continue to learn more and focus on spending the rest of my life living an active and healthy lifestyle. I figure since I’m here for a little over two months and I’m only going to be working part time, I’d like to take advantage of all this free time to focus on my personal fitness, learning as much as possible so I can continue and learn/experience more when I get back to the U.S.

I have some ideas that I’m interested in trying out and pursuing after I leave Cambodia (and I’m sure I’ll discuss them in more detail in the near future) but in the meanwhile I’m going to continue to teach at New World part time, focus on my personal fitness, and read as many books as I can get my hands on. I just finished “Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude” by Robert Baer, a very interesting, albeit disturbing book, about the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia. I have been slowly working my way through Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and am also alternating between Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s “Motorcycle Diaries” and “Hunting Down Saddam: The Inside Story of the Hunt and Capture” by Robin Moore. Oh and I just started reading "The Body Sculpting Bible for Men" a pretty interesting book on fitness/exercise/bodybuilding.

Last weekend Hanna and I made a weekend trip to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, which was one of the best weekends of my life. I will write more about that trip and put up some pictures in my next blog post. In the meanwhile, here is a link to one of my Facebook photo albums, with 135 pictures from the past two months in Cambodia.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2079259&id=72206395&l=bb8e7c154a

Cambodia, two months later

2010-06-27T13:55:00.002+07:00

It’s been a while since my last blog post and the main reason for that is my concern over my inability to put my thoughts and feelings from the past two months accurately into words. After countless hours lost in thought and struggling with what I want to say exactly and how I want to say it, here goes.

When I first came to Cambodia, I had a great impression of the country and the people. It was new, it was interesting, and it was so different from Mongolia. I wish I could say that my feelings haven’t changed drastically, but unfortunately that is not the case. The more time I’ve spent in Cambodia, the more I’ve learned about the country and the more I’ve learned about the country’s vast and disturbing problems, through interactions with locals and other foreigners who live here, through the limited work I’ve done and through my own observations.

Just one more thing before I continue: While I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia, I chose to put my words on my blog through a sort of ‘filter’, one because of me being a Peace Corps volunteer and trying to maintain a certain sense of professionalism and two because for a period of time, albeit a short one, Mongolia was my home and I of course wanted to present as positive an image as possible to my friends, family, and people back home. I tried not to focus on the negative so much and my frustrations with my work, the people, the culture, the country, etc. As I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer and I feel more comfortable writing about certain subjects, I am not going to filter my words or hold back my thoughts about Cambodia and future travels/experiences.

As I started to mention above, my impression of Cambodia has changed drastically over the past couple of months. I have learned so much more about the country, the people, the culture, and problems. Cambodia is a very poor country, with a GDP ranked somewhere between 132 and 155 out of the almost 200 recognized countries, depending on which source you rely on. When you walk around Phnom Penh, there are signs of development everywhere, cell phone and mobile provider shops on every street, travel agencies, nice restaurants and bars, shopping malls, and countless convenience stores, small businesses, arts and craft shops, and NGOs. It’s also not uncommon to see massive, oversized Hummers and Toyota and Lexus SUVs, pushing their way through narrow streets crowded with motos(scooters that most of the population rides around the city on). I have seen countless Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and Land Rover vehicles cruising around the city, in addition to the occasional Porsche (we’re talking brand new vehicles, cars that typically run 90 to 120k in the U.S.), on the same streets where numerous impoverished families beg for money while holding their malnourished children. Walking down many city streets you can find massive villas owned by Cambodia’s wealthy elite class, homes that would easily cost millions back in the U.S. Take a turn onto another street and you can walk past virtual shanty towns, crowded with large families or public parks where homeless Khmers convene and sleep. The contrast between the poverty of much of the city/country and the wealthy elite upper class is very obvious the more you walk around the city. The more you see, the more signs there are and the more obvious it becomes. The people who have money seem very determined to show it off here, with ‘designer’ clothes and ridiculously large, expensive and unnecessary luxury SUVs that crowd the streets, and of course the massive, lavish villas surrounded by gates lined with concertina wire.

In addition to the incredible disparity in wealth distribution, there are reportedly over 3,600 NGOs operating in Cambodia. I haven’t found a source for this online but I’ve been told this by a few teachers and NGO workers who’ve been in Cambodia for a few years. Everything I’ve seen and heard points to this being pretty accurate. Also from what I’ve been told, many of these NGOs are corrupt and/or incompetent, often just a shady business set up under the guise of an NGO name to increase profits and ‘credibility’. Before I came to Cambodia I was very interested in looking for some work or volunteer work with an NGO but the more I’ve learned, the more I’ve become disenchanted with the idea of NGO work, especially here. This is not to say that there aren’t some good NGOs doing good work in Cambodia, it’s just been really frustrating and disturbing to learn more about it.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing to learn about and/or witness in Cambodia is prostitution, sex workers and ‘the virginity trade’ and just the way women are treated in general. Because of poverty and limited work opportunities, many lower class women are forced to work as prostitutes. Prostitution is technically illegal in Cambodia but you can see the signs of it everywhere. Cafes, massage parlors, clubs, karaoke clubs/restaurants and hotels are all used as covers for brothels or available prostitution ‘services’. Both Khmer men and foreigners frequent these facilities and it’s not uncommon to see many of these ‘clubs’ packed from 4:00 in the afternoon until very late at night. I’ve been propositioned numerous times by girls who are clearly ‘working’ walking around the streets of Phnom Penh, by myself and even when walking with my girlfriend. At first it was kinda funny, reminding me of jokes I’d heard or of stereotypes portrayed in many movies about Southeast Asia. The more I learned about the ‘trade’ here and how things work, the less funny and more disturbing it became. From what I’ve heard and witnessed in films documenting the intricacies of the Cambodian sex trade, prostitution is treated as the same type of problem as sex/human trafficking. Apparently, Cambodia was under pressure from the U.S. to crack down on trafficking in order to receive some support of aid and the Cambodian government’s response was to treat prostitution and sex trafficking as the same problem. Because of this, ‘legitimate’ brothels were closed down and women who worked as prostitutes were forced to go more ‘underground’ and work at these institutions that act as fronts. Women were arrested and fined just for carrying condoms in their wallet or purse, leading to more prostitutes having unprotected sex and contracting various diseases, including HIV. Also, these women are treated very poorly and are often abused by their customers and those in charge of them at ‘work’.

The ‘virginity trade’ is another thing I learned about initially through a documentary on Cambodia. Apparently many Khmer men (this isn’t just limited to a certain class) believe that having sex with a virgin will make them more attractive and allow them to live longer. Because of this so called ‘cultural’ belief, many men will pay hundreds to thousands of dollars to sleep with a virgin. Wealthy men will do this frequently and the less wealthy men will save for months or years just to have an opportunity to sleep with a virgin. These virgins are typically young women who come from very poor families and are usually in desperate need of some quick cash to help their family or pay for treatment for a sick relative. In other cases, these women are tricked into it by a ‘friend’ or family member. Needless to say, learning of this made me sick, angry and frustrated. This, in addition to learning more and more about the way Khmer men view women and their ‘cultural norms’, has left me very disenchanted.

Similar to many countries/cultures in the Middle East, men are allowed to have sex and sleep around before marriage and nobody cares. Women, however, are expected to remain virgins until marriage (doesn’t this seem very odd in a country where men pay to sleep with multiple virgins?) and are considered to be tarnished or damaged goods if they are sexually active prior to marriage. “Men are like gold, women are like a white cloth” (an old Khmer proverb). When soiled or tarnished, a white cloth is not easily cleaned. Gold on the other hand, is easily cleaned(disturbing and disgusting? I couldn’t agree more). If a woman is raped, it often isn’t reported because the woman will be blamed and it will bring the woman’s family shame. I’ve heard about this happening in Turkey and other areas of the Middle East but also in Cambodia, if a girl or woman is raped, she is encouraged to try to marry the man who raped her to save her family from shame. Now, as I’ve done some traveling and lived overseas for a couple years, I am one to often do my best to understand and respect other cultures and their norms but I draw the line in places where women are treated as second class citizens, under the guise of ‘cultural norms’ and/or religion. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the most developed countries in the world, the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, Korea and Japan, etc., women are treated with respect for the most part and are given equal opportunities and equal rights. While I still believe that corruption is probably the biggest obstacle to developing countries making significant progress, I also believe that a society that educates its women, treats them as equal to men, and gives them the utmost respect, is a society that will progress and evolve. As long as certain countries continue to treat their women like shit, under the guise of culture and/or religion, they will continue to remain undeveloped. (I know that some people might nitpick about certain details and say that women are not all treated as equal to men in the developed world, but I would encourage those people to spend time in the developing world to understand where I’m coming from.)

I have more to say and I will continue in my next post, as soon as possible. I also will continue to post pictures and write about my experiences living here, as I will still be here until September. If you have any commentary or questions, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Sad News, Request for Help

2010-06-20T20:49:00.002+07:00

I have been delayed in writing my newest blog update but I need to make a different post in light of recent sad news I've received from my good friend Agii in Olgii, Mongolia. His younger sister Aiman, who just recently gave birth, has a brain tumor. Agii and I have been exchanging emails back and forth over the past week and it seems to be pretty serious. She needs to get an operation as soon as possible and the doctors in Mongolia can't perform the necessary operation safely. Agii is in contact with doctors in Korea and trying to look into doctors/hospitals in Thailand or Germany. Because of the high transportation costs, the high cost of the procedures/medical work, Agii might have to sell his jeep, his home, and his private learning institute to try and cover the costs. I am going to donate some money to help him out and I'd like to see if any friends, family members or followers of my blog would be interested in donating some money to help. I am in contact with some of my friends who are still in Mongolia about how I can get the money to Agii, maybe through something like Paypal and then transfer it from a Peace Corps volunteers' bank account to Agii's bank account. I'm trying to get the details worked out on that but I just wanted to put up some info and see if anyone is interested in donating some money and helping out a great guy. Those of you who've been following my blog for a while have seen numerous posts about Agii and the work him and I did together. He's a great guy, he was one of my best friends in Olgii and I really want to do whatever I can to help. If you are interested in helping out in some way and would like to donate money, anything would help really, please email me at matthewbecker82@gmail.com and I'll get back to you asap with details on how we can get some money to help Agii, Aiman, and their family out. Thanks.

-Matt

Finally, an update!

2010-05-30T11:48:00.003+07:00

**Above pics and the new collage at the top of the page are all from the past few weeks in Cambodia and Thailand.**
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I would write about my experiences in Cambodia thus far and I’ve been procrastinating over and over on writing this blog post. The longer I’ve waited, the more has happened and the more I have to write about. I feel it’s quite a challenge to write and portray accurately in words, the sights, sounds, smells, and just the experiences and feelings of being in this country. First I’ll write a ‘bit’ about what’s been going on with work and what not, then do my best to describe the country and my feelings about it so far in my next post.

As I wrote in my last blog post, many weeks ago (I apologize), I found a couple jobs within a week of being in the country. For the past few weeks I’ve been working at a private school named Sovannaphumi and a private English learning institute called New World Institute. I am a primary school teacher at Sovannaphumi (I’ll refer to it as SPS) and I teach three different 6th grade classes, two 10th grade classes, and eight (yeah, eight) different kindergarten classes. When I first started the job I figured it would be similar to the way that Hanna and her coworkers teach, with me having my own group of students that I teach every day, one group in the morning and one group in the afternoon. At my school it couldn’t be more different, with me moving from class to class and teaching each class no more than a couple hours a week and all the kindergarten classes, only one hour a week. It was fun at first but over the past couple weeks it has become more stressful and I have been contemplating leaving the school and looking for work with a different organization, no longer in teaching. I had an interview and meeting with a local NGO that works in social enterprise and helps victims of trafficking, for a position as a grant writer, something I do have experience in, but they are looking for someone to fill the position long term. As I am only here until September, it will be difficult to find short term work other than teaching, but my contract with Sovannaphumi is up in early July and I will be working there until then, save the money I make, and see if anything comes up after that.

My other job, as a TOEFL instructor at New World, is pretty fun and I enjoy it a lot more than Sovannaphumi. I work there in the evenings, teaching two classes every night Monday to Friday, one group of 28 students who are really fun, smart and charismatic, and one smaller group of 7 students who are really quiet and shy but very smart. The work at NWI (New World Institute) is fun and very relaxed, with an easy to teach curriculum and students who are there because they want to be. I will definitely continue to teach there part time until I leave Phnom Penh. I make decent money at both jobs and even when I stop working at SPS, the money I make at NWI will allow me to still live somewhat comfortably, especially with Phnom Penh’s low cost of living. When I see how much money we spend on groceries during the week and how much we get, I sometimes think about how lavishly someone could live in this country if they had a real career/well paying job like something in the Foreign Service. We spend about 20 bucks between the two of us for a week’s worth of groceries and that includes fresh fruits and vegetables, oatmeal, cereal, eggs, milk, bread, and other things. It’s pretty crazy. The times that we end up spending the most money is on weekends when we go out to one of the many delicious restaurants around the city. You can get a great Khmer meal for a couple bucks and there are some fast food style places for cheap with burgers, fries, fried chicken, milkshakes, etc. and there are some western style bar/grill/restaurants that tend to be a bit pricier but have really good food.

Outside of work and eating, I try to spend as much time as possible working out and reading. I have been using my dumbbells and jump rope when I have free time, we’ve been swimming a few times, and today I used a really nice hotel’s fitness center and pool, which was really nice. We’re looking into buying a package deal where you can spend one amount and use the gym 12 or 20 times over a period of time, which seems like a pretty decent deal. One of my personal goals over the next few months is to get into the best shape of my life while I’m here. I have been slacking a bit and I haven’t been working out as much as I’d like but with how much I work, it’s hard to stay on track. I think with being able to use a gym/fitness center on the weekends, it will be easier to reach my goal and come July, I’ll have a lot more free time to do the things I want to do, i.e. working out and reading as much as possible before I come back to the U.S.

During one of the first weekends I was in the country, one of Hanna’s teachers’ assistants invited us to go to Sihanoukville, a town by the beach, southwest of Phnom Penh for a couple days. We went with her and her family, taking a five hour van ride down and spending a day and a half by the beach, swimming in the ocean, getting some sun, and eating a lot of fresh seafood. We tried a delicious fruit we’d never had before called ‘mangosteen’, ate more shrimp than I’ve ever had in my life and really enjoyed ourselves, spending some good quality time with a Khmer family. On the way back we stopped at a river/picnic site and ate some more, did some more swimming and exploring and I of course, took a lot of pictures. A couple weeks later, for my birthday weekend, Hanna, myself and a few friends of ours went to Koh Chang, Thailand. Koh Chang was a place that Hanna and I really enjoyed on our trip to Thailand and this time we went when there were a lot less tourists and we stayed on the more popular, less isolate white sands part of the island. Being that it was my birthday, Hanna made the trip part of my birthday present and covered all of my expenses, which was really, really nice. We ate a lot of good food, did some more swimming in the ocean, got some sun, and spent some tine at a really nice waterfall in the jungle. My birthday, which was on a Monday (in Phnom Penh), was really nice too, as we went to a nice private pool, had some good Mexican food, and I had a massive sub sandwich, and custom birthday cupcakes. Needless to stay, it was a wonderful birthday that lasted a few days. Thanks Hanna. 

I’ve taken hundreds of pictures since I arrived in the country and I’ve seen a lot of things that I still need to take pictures of. I need to remember to bring my camera everywhere I go. I have put a decent amount of pictures on my Facebook account so anyone who is on my FB friends list should check those out. When I have some more time online, I’ll see about putting my Cambodia and Koh Chang photos in one of my Photobucket accounts. Pics and new updates coming as soon as possible!

Delays and Apologies

2010-05-20T15:04:00.002+07:00

Just wanted to make a quick note to apologize for the lack of updates lately on the blog. I have been very busy and I don't have regular access to internet. I have been writing a lot lately when I have time and making notes of things, taking pictures, etc. so as soon as I can put a nice detailed blog post together, I will put it up soon. Life is busy but good for the most part! :)

-Matt

Cambodia

2010-04-30T11:02:00.000+07:00

After a little over a week enjoying the company of friends and family in Colorado, I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last Tuesday. Hanna greeted me at the airport and we took a ‘tuk tuk’ to the apartment Hanna moved into recently, where we will be living the next few months. I knew it was a bit foolish but before I arrived in Cambodia, I had this idea in my head of Cambodia looking similar to Bangkok, Thailand. I knew that Cambodia is not as developed as Thailand but I was still surprised by the lack of massive skyscrapers, freeways, and the impressive infrastructure that amazed me during my time in Bangkok. I still found the sites, sounds and smell of the city to be very interesting as we made the half hour ride to the apartment.

Through emails and Hanna’s descriptions I had an idea of what our apartment was like before I arrived but I was pleasantly surprised when I first entered the apartment. It’s very nice, spacious and comfortable. It’s close to twice the size of my apartment in Olgii and a very different style. Everything is ‘open’, which is a bit hard to explain, so I’ll put up some pictures (asap). The apartment is on the third floor and has a main living area with some chairs, stools, tables, a bed which we use as a couch and a television. Ahh yes, television: that amazing marvel of technology which I have been living without for almost two years. I didn’t watch a lot of TV when I was back in the U.S. but after living without one for so long, I have to admit that it’s hard not to lose a couple hours watching one of three (THREE!) National Geographic channels, especially since I haven’t started working yet.

My impression of Cambodia and the Khmer (pronounced Kuhmai) people has been very good thus far. I find the people here to be absolutely wonderful. Everyone seems to have a happy disposition and the Khmer people, young and old are quick to greet you with a big, warm smile. This does wonders for my own disposition and I find myself frequently in a happy mood as I wander the streets of Phnom Penh, even with the ridiculous heat. ;) All of the people I’ve met through Hanna, both Khmer and foreigners, have been friendly and fun to interact with. I went to Hanna’s school a few times and spent time observing her class, helping whenever I could and her first grade students are incredible. They are cute, sweet, smart, and fun to be around. I was blown away at the fact that these children, aged six to ten, could understand pretty much everything Hanna and I said, and responded accordingly in excellent English. The kids refer to me as ‘teacher Matthew’ and always seem excited when they see me. Hanna seems to really enjoy teaching them and she has a great relationship with her students.

Although it’s been nice to relax, enjoy Cambodia and enjoy time with Hanna, I came here to work. I made contacts with a few organizations before I arrived in Phnom Penh and I’ve turned in my resume at a few places over the past few days. I am in contact with a small Canadian run NGO called ‘Action to End Exploitation’ and if things go as planned I should be doing some volunteering with them over the next few months. They work to help women and children who’ve been victim sex trafficking or who’ve come from brothels. It’s a small organization that currently has some local staff and one American volunteer, who I will hopefully be meeting with this week to see how things work. I also recently found out about an internship opening for the UN, working in human rights, starting in June or July. I submitted my resume for that position, which is something I’d really love to do, but I also need to finish filling out an application form and submit that. I’ll be finishing that up tonight. I made contact with an organization called ‘New World Institute’(NWI) which is a private English learning and TOEFL test prep organization. Hanna is friends with the director of studies and I ended up already teaching a substitute class last night, then got a job offer to teach in the evenings. Today I had an interview with a private school and ended up getting a job offer to teach young adults in the mornings and afternoons, starting part time. The hours are really convenient, the pay is pretty darn good, and it seems like a great school. I am going to take the job and I will start the day after tomorrow. I am excited about this great opportunity and I am looking forward to beginning work. I think with the hours at this job, I’ll still be able to do volunteer work and keep myself very busy and productive. The private school, named ‘Sovannaphumi School’ (I’ll refer to it in future blog posts as SPS to make things easier), also asked me to teach a extra hours in the late afternoons/early evenings so now I need to decide if I’m going to take those extra hours or take the evening classes at NWI. I have to figure things out in the next few days and I will do my best to keep the blog updated regularly as things progress. My internet access is currently limited to whenever I have time to visit the internet café and Hanna and I are looking into whether or not getting internet for the apartment is worthwhile. Stay tuned for updates and pictures. :)

Fun Times With Friends, Enjoying Freedom

2010-04-17T11:21:00.003+07:00

Downtown Colorado Springs with Ben and Tino

Hitting the driving range with some friends

Zack :)

Jack, it's been really nice seeing my dogs :)

Getting together with old friends. Murf, Derek, Tim and Ben

American Deliciousness

2010-04-17T06:39:00.003+07:00

'2nd Degree BURN Doritos are HOT!

The amazing (and often pretty ridiculous) variety of delicious food awesomeness in America, especially after living in Mongolia for so long, is almost mind blowing. O_O

Sad Goodbyes and an American Detour

2010-04-17T06:10:00.006+07:00

Spending time with my friend Bek and his family

Gifts, recognition, thanks and goodbyes with my coworkers

At the Olgii airport with Nurbol, Doman (my director), and Sabit

Enjoying the good life in UB with my friend Ridge

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd try to get an update done before I leave for Cambodia. The week before I left Olgii was surprisingly emotional and tough. After I notified Peace Corps of my decision, I told my work and some friends and word spread pretty quickly. I found myself meeting teachers, students, all who I'd had good relationships with, having lunch and tea with friends, being invited to meetings and meals at friends' homes. It was very overwhelming and the reaction that I received from those who I'd come to know, was a lot of sadness and confusion. I was asked multiple times why I was leaving early, why I wasn't staying until July as everyone originally knew. It was difficult explaining my decision but after speaking with them, most seemed to understand and respect my decision. I guess until this week, I didn't realize how much of an impact I'd had on so many people in the community. Many of my students bought me gifts, some took me out to lunch and dinner, all asked for my email address and messenger ID, made comments about how much I'd helped them and thanked me countless times. The week leading up to my departure from Olgii was the most emotional week of my entire 22 months of Peace Corps service in Mongolia. I was also asked countless times when I'd be returning to Olgii.

I left from Olgii and headed into Ulaanbaatar to get all of my outprocessing done with Peace Corps and to figure out how I was going to make it to Cambodia. All of my Peace Corps related stuff went well, with minimal problems but a lot of paperwork and meetings. During these few days I attempted to get my Mongolian exit visa for my personal passport but ran into some problems. To make a long story short, it just worked out better that I took the Peace Corps flight home to Colorado and now I will end up going to Cambodia a bit later than planned. I flew to the U.S. and and after a long day, 23 hours or so of travel, arrived in the Denver airport, greeted by my dad and stepmom. It was really nice to see them and to be in Colorado, to be in the U.S., to be home. Over the past week I've been back and forth between Castle Rock and Colorado Springs, spending time with my family and most of my close friends. It's been really nice to see people I've missed for a while. Because the visit was so last minute, I haven't been able to see everyone I'd like to, but I'll be around longer the next time I come in and I should be able to spend more time with more people. :) I also have a few good friends going to school and working in other states or countries so I look forward to doing some traveling later this year and visiting them.

Anyways, I'll need to cut this short soon so just to let everyone know, I'm leaving Colorado for Cambodia this weekend. Sunday, April 18th I will fly from Denver to San Fransisco, San Fran to Taipei, Taipei to Phnom Penh and on Tuesday morning Hanna will (I hope :-P ) be meeting me at the airport for my first excursion into Cambodia. As I wrote before, Cambodia is a place that I have wanted to go for a long time and I'm really excited about this opportunity and of course to be reunited with Hanna.

I know that I had a lot of ups and downs, plenty of frustration and disappointment but I don't regret my decision to join Peace Corps and go to Mongolia. I don't regret it one bit. I learned so much during my time here, about Mongolia, about Mongolian and Kazakh culture, about the people, about teaching, about development work, about life in the developing world, and I learned so much about myself. I feel like I have grown in ways, over the past two years, that I never could have grown in had I stayed in the U.S. and worked some 'regular' job. I'm better for my decision to join Peace Corps and I feel with the knowledge, experience and humility that I learned in Mongolia, I can bring a lot more to Cambodia as a teacher and a development worker and to any other countries I head to in the future.

As soon as I get settled in Cambodia and start working, getting life there figured out, and have some time, I will start writing new posts about my experiences in another new country. In the meanwhile I'll see about posting up some pics from Colorado. Hope everyone is doing well. :)

As one adventure begins, a new adventure is about to begin

2010-03-30T20:34:00.004+07:00

I’ve taken a lot of time to myself recently, trying to decide the best way to explain my decision and let my friends and family know how or why I came to the conclusion that this is what’s best for me. I have always been the one who encouraged loved ones to make changes when they are no longer happy, to take risks or make big changes, most consequences be damned, to make themselves happy. I’ve always been one to be supportive of the idea of never compromising or accepting less. In reaching my decision, part of my thinking was that actions do indeed speak louder than words and what kind of person would I be if I refused to do what I constantly encourage others to do. In this post I will do my best to explain why I recently made the decision to end my service as a Peace Corps volunteer a few months earlier than planned and move on to work in Cambodia.

My experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia for the past 22 months have been up and down, often riding different waves of success and failure, small and large. Like most young idealists who make the decision to join the Peace Corps and devote two years of their life to helping those less fortunate and gaining invaluable experience in development and (depending on your work assignment) education in the developing world. From the moment I first typed in the words ‘Peace Corps’ on Google, I found myself fascinated by the idea of leaving the U.S. and giving up two years of my life to make the world a better place in some poor, exotic, developing country. As I went through the months long application process during my senior year as an undergraduate, I found my dreams and ideas of what Peace Corps service would be like were becoming even more grandiose and exciting. I was a little unsure of what to think when I received my invitation to Mongolia but I was excited nonetheless. Over the months after receiving my invitation, leading up until graduation, I became increasingly stir crazy and ready to leave. I had my country and my assignment and I was determined that I would make the best of my given situation, I’d positively affect the lives of students and all who I came across in my assignment as a community youth development volunteer and life skills trainer.

Training was an interesting and eye opening experience and the excitement of being in Mongolia, living with an amazing host family in a small village, far outweighed the fear that came with so many unknowns. Upon finishing training and learning of my permanent site in the Kazakh region of Bayan Olgii, I was still excited and still idealistic, optimistic, ready to work hard and make big changes.

It didn’t take long before frustrations in dealing with a host agency that wasn’t sure what to do with me, an inability to get any projects started other than putting together some English classes, and the downs that come with the harsh, cold, and depressing Mongolian winter had me wondering if I had made the right decision. My first year was made even more difficult by the facts that I am no linguist and I had nobody in my office who spoke or understood five words in English. My frustrations weren’t helped by seeing my site mate Laura’s almost immediate success in her workplace and hearing about the successes of other PCV’s in similar fields as mine with different agencies throughout the country. I came close to giving up and found myself looking for work in other parts of the world, feeling I could put my skills and work ethic to better use in somewhere like Afghanistan or Iraq. Eventually as the summer of 2009 approached, I managed to make some new friends and connections and found some moderate success in expanding my lessons, preparing the first English Olympiad with Agii, and managed to break through language and cultural barriers with some of my coworkers, finally brainstorming different project ideas. Summer came and along with it, my trip to the U.S. and a lot of time spent in UB, enjoying the good life with other volunteers and good friends. While in the U.S., I had a good time but it didn’t take long before I was anxious to get back to Mongolia. Mongolia had become my home, even if only temporarily and I felt more comfortable in Mongolia than in the U.S. I’m sure it didn’t help that I was only in the U.S. for three weeks and spent a lot of time running around trying to see a lot of people but the feelings were not something I took lightly. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and I became more optimistic about my second year, began thinking big again and finding my idealism again.

Then of course, the reality of work in Mongolia struck not too long after I returned to Olgii. Three weeks in the summer resulted in no work being done, as seemingly everything shuts down in the summer. I tried not to let that phase me and did my best to attend our group’s mid service training with a positive attitude. Positive encouragement from Hanna about my ability to do good things my second year was a big help, even with her being thousands of miles away in New York City. I found some new motivation and success in planning a project (the learning center) that I had wanted to begin from my first few weeks in Olgii. My work and the student council were very enthusiastic and open to the idea, offering suggestions and being very involved in the planning process. This kept me going and kept my hopes up about my ability to leave something good behind in Bayan Olgii, something that would positively affect the community, give children a great, new resource, and give the children’s center a better idea of the types of projects they could undertake to improve youth development and education in the community.

As many of you who have followed my blog regularly know, the waiting process on the grant funds was very long and frustrating and a project that was supposed to begin in early December before my trip, didn’t begin until late February, early March. Progress was quick at first and it surprised me, bringing me renewed motivation and determination once again. Despite some initial success and speedy progress with the project, I found myself becoming increasingly bitter and frustrated with the fact that I was the only one from my agency working on the project. One of my coworkers helped with the labor and some things here and there but after a while he was difficult to get a hold of and left for UB for other work. I appreciated his help very much but it was very frustrating trying to get a hold of him and meet with him. I don’t blame him because he has a newborn baby at home and a family but it's hard to stay motivated about working on a big project when those who are supposed to be working with you and supporting you don't show the same enthusiasm or work ethic. I appreciate everything he did for the project and to help me though. Nurbol, my good friend who has helped me out frequently in the past, helped whenever he could but he isn’t even an employee of the children’s center and was volunteering his time. These frustrations, on top of other personal, internal struggles I’ve been having, lead me to start wondering if I should look into other options. I was excited about the project but I began to wonder increasingly if it was becoming my project and not the community’s or children’s center’s project. In order for this project to be successful and truly sustainable, I needed to pass it on to the children’s center, the student council and the community.

From the time I returned to Mongolia from Thailand up until the past few weeks, I spent countless hours weighing my options, thinking things through, and trying to decide what is best for me in the short term, long term, personally, professionally, and in regards to my mental health. I spoke with my parents, my closest friends, Hanna, and my closest friends in Peace Corps and expressed my feelings, my doubts, my worries, my frustrations. My friends, family and loved ones were very supportive and understanding of course and I’ve received positive reactions and strong support from those who I’ve made aware of my decision. I notified Peace Corps of my decision to resign and I spoke with my work, Laura my site mate, and Nurbol, discussing our options as far as the continuation of the project after I leave. Laura will be taking over control of the remaining funds, as a Peace Corps volunteer has to be involved in that process for Peace Corps projects, but it will be my agencies’ responsibility to make sure the project is a success. If the project is going to fail, as so many similar projects in this country seem to do, all my staying will do is prevent the inevitable. If it’s going to succeed, my work, the student council, and the community need to make it succeed. I’ve done my best to help lay a foundation, however small it may be, and it’s now their job to see it either succeed or fail.

I am trying to leave the project as responsibly as possible, making sure that the children’s center, the student council and Laura have everything necessary to fix any problems that may arise. I’m leaving a guidebook and information on what I believe is the best way to utilize the new learning center and I’ve donated a number of resources from exercise equipment to art supplies, that I feel will best be used in the center. I really appreciate Laura’s willingness to help finish things up when I leave. I am hoping that she will have to do very little and that the children's center will take charge and make this project work, make it successful, but only time will tell.

There is a large part of me that feels some regret in that I’m leaving early and leaving the project unfinished but there is a larger part of me that says it’s time for me to move on with my life. I will still be in contact with friends, students and acquaintances from Olgii via email and Facebook and I am still interested in doing whatever I can from afar and helping in any way possible. I will be helping in grant writing and project preparation for some countryside water projects and will do whatever I can to help Agii with his dream of opening up a new private school in Olgii, so I don’t doubt that one day I will find myself here again.

My new adventure will bring me to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where I will begin working as a teacher in mid April. Teaching is not something I want to do for a career but I like the idea of teaching on the side or part time while doing other work and I am not opposed to teaching in places like Cambodia, which is very much in need of teachers. I have gained some great teaching experience in Mongolia and I feel like I can be a great teacher and I have a lot of experience and knowledge to provide to students in Cambodia. Cambodia is a place that I have been interested in for years and this is a great opportunity to live there, get some new work experience, and explore the country and culture. While I’m there I plan on doing some volunteering and working with whichever organizations can use my help. Ideally I’d love to find some work more related to human rights, international relations, political science, etc. but I will do whatever I can to help and gain experience. It’s very convenient that Hanna is working and living there now and it will be really nice to be with her and do as much as we can for Cambodia together. Of course I will continue my blog and make new posts about my work, adventures and life in Cambodia and I will take plenty of pictures.

It’s impossible for me to summarize everything that I’ve experienced as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia and everything that I’m thinking and feeling right now, especially in a blog post. In the not too distant future, when I've had more time to think about my experiences, I'd like to write them down in more detail and share them with friends and family. Also, I think at some point in the future, when I have a lot more experience in different fields, different countries, and I have more diverse, developed and mature insight, I’d like to possibly write some longer, more detailed and comprehensive essays or maybe even a book. Who knows? Time will tell where these new experiences and life take me. I'm open to trying new things in new places and I'm excited for what opportunities will arise.

Anyways, I feel like I’ll start going in circles if I continue with this post. I am finishing up some details on my project, getting ready to leave, and saying my goodbyes to everyone in Olgii this week. On Saturday I will fly to Ulaanbaatar, next week I’ll be doing all of the necessary out processing for Peace Corps and the following weekend, barring any problems, I will be flying to Cambodia. More to come. :)

Nauryz Photos

2010-03-28T09:48:00.003+07:00

Nauryz (Kazakh New Year)

2010-03-27T10:21:00.002+07:00

I forgot to make a post about Nauryz, the Kazakh new year, which we celebrated this past Monday, March 22nd. The holiday is celebrated on that one day every year, unlike the Mongolian new year celebration which lasts for up to a week. There is a big parade near the main square with gers set up, booths selling snacks and toys for the kids, and a number of interesting/funny photo backgrounds with props for people to take Nauryz photos with their friends and/or family. After the parade, people spend the rest of the day visiting friends and families at their homes, usually spending no more than 20-30 minutes visiting, catching up, eating whatever snacks and food are available, drinking tea, and having 'koje', the special soup made only for Nauryz.

Laura, myself and the other volunteers who were in Olgii visiting spent some hours wandering all over town, on a Nauryz day that unfortunately brought very cold and windy weather, visiting teachers and other friends of mine and Laura's. It was nice seeing a lot of our friends, introducing them to our Peace Corps friends who were visiting Olgii, and drinking enough koje that I thought I might fall over at one point. The day was exhausting but fun. I'm a little busy now so I will put some Nauryz pics up on my next post. :)

Bayan Olgii English Teachers' Seminar

2010-03-26T08:40:00.003+07:00

The past two days (finishing today) we have been holding the Bayan Olgii English teacher's seminar at Laura's school, with over 80 teachers from around Bayan Olgii province in attendance. The seminar has been a bit hectic but it seems as though everything is going well and the teachers are enjoying themselves and learning a lot about new and alternative teaching methods.

I taught sessions on grammar teaching the first day, pronunciation the second day, did some ice breakers, and today I will be teaching a session on forming and running extra curricular English clubs. I have a lot of experience with this last session so I'm looking forward to giving the teachers new ideas on how they can run their own clubs and extra curricular (see fun) lessons for their students.

We have four other Peace Corps volunteers from different provinces teaching in the seminar as well. It's nice to see friends and see the teachers learning from new, interesting sources. I haven't taken any pictures but if I take some today or can get ahold of some of Laura's pics, I will post them up.

Making More Progress

2010-03-20T01:19:00.004+07:00

So the last two days have been a bit frustrating but productive. The computers arrived from UB, intact and in a reasonable amount of time. The search for computer desks didn't go quite the way I wanted it to, as finding four matching computer desks in Olgii proved to be pretty much impossible.

A few stores had decent computer desks but none of the stores had more than one of the same kind of desk. I wanted to have four matching (or close to it), quality, affordable desks for the computers but after two days of trips to numerous stores, confusion over what was available and prices, and lots of haggling, we managed to find four desks, none of which match, but all seem to be decent quality and the prices weren't horrible.

Today we brought the desks to the center and managed to set up the computers for the most part. Three of the four computers seem to be working fine, with one appearing to be in need of reformatting. I'm hoping I can get my computer guru of a mother on messenger or a skype call to help me fix the fourth computer, so we'll see how that goes. The other computers I set up with antivirus software, antispyware, antimalware, 'Mario Teaches Typing' software and an English learning software program. Next week, when everything is (hopefully) set up correctly, Nurbol and I will be going over what I put on the computers and showing the children's center workers and student council members the best ways to handle the computers to avoid problems.

I also put a number of American movies and some music on the computers, so students can take those with a flash drive if they want. I have had a number of students ask for American movies and music so it will be nice to provide them with access to these. We picked up a couple of rugs and we went to a guy's house who specializes in custom wood furniture. He's making eight chairs for the computer desks and the table for us. We'll hopefully be picking those up tomorrow. At some point we need to pick up a printer and figure out prices for internet access. Other than that, I need to buy a few small things, bring in some supplies and resources from my apartment, and start cleaning up, making sure all the details are in order. If things go as planned the center should be open and available for kids to use by the end of next week or early the week after. As I won't be here much longer, I'm hoping this will be a great resource for the next Peace Corps volunteer to expand on and take advantage of when he or she gets here in August.

I will update more and add pics later when everything is finished and looking the way it should. :)

Kazakh Wedding Music

2010-03-15T17:04:00.002+07:00

Laura and I made a brief appearance at a local wedding on Sunday, the groom being the brother of our friend Armana, who's in town for a few weeks with her husband Joe and daughter Leila. Joe lived in Ulaanbaatar for three years as a math teacher and Armana, who is from Olgii, also worked there, when they met. They were married in 2008 and lived in Olgii for half a year, where Laura and I became good friends with them. They went to the U.S. for Armana to have the baby and Joe has been a grad student at Harvard for the past year. It was really nice to see them again after over a year and we're hoping to spend some more time with them this week.

I recorded a short video of the wedding song, check it out. :)

Computers On The Way

2010-03-14T15:28:00.002+07:00

Today I received a few text messages from Nurbol in UB, notifying me that he had purchased the four computers and they would be leaving on a van or bus from UB to Olgii today. Hopefully this means they should get here before the end of the week, barring any problems along the way. As soon as they get here, we can purchase computer desks, get everything set up and I can start installing necessary software. I'm excited because once we have the computers set up and ready to go, we can use the rest of the project money to purchase some more desks and chairs, a printer, and a few other miscellaneous items we need, and finish up cleaning and decorating before we open the center up. I need to work on the details of the guidebook/manual for my coworkers and give them to some friends to translate into Kazakh or Mongolian. If I can get this done as soon as possible, it should make the last couple weeks of the project go very smoothly.

Nurbol took the TOEFL test in UB yesterday and he said he feels good about how it went. He should hear back the results in two weeks and if he gets a passing score, there's a very good chance he will be going to study in Hungary. I'm hoping for the best for him, I know he'll do great as a student in Europe.

The English olympiad is over, things are moving forward on my learning center project, and coming up next is Nauryz, the Kazakh new year, and Laura's big English teacher's seminar. I have to finish preparing a few more details on my lesson plans for that but I'm confident about what I have planned so far and I'm excited to meet more teachers from around the aimag (province) and to see some of the Peace Corps volunteers that will be visiting Olgii for the seminar. Laura is kinda freaking out and stressing about the seminar because it's a pretty big deal and she's been working really hard on it for a while. I know that she's going to do fine and the seminar will be a success. She's a great teacher and I know she really cares about helping out Olgii's English teachers, providing them with new resources and an increased understanding of how to improve their teaching, lesson planning, classroom presence, and overall understanding of the English language and how to teach it.

My Students' Hip Hop/Dance Performance

2010-03-14T06:10:00.001+07:00

Here's my newest video, it's the hip hop/dance performance my 11th grade students performed for their team introduction at the English and general knowledge olympiad last week. There's more details in the video description, hope you enjoy it. :)

English Olympiad

2010-03-12T23:36:00.005+07:00

Laura and her 11th grade team.

Laura and Erkegul, the English teacher from Darin and a friend of mine. Erkegul was actually a French major in college but she's one of the best English teachers in Olgii.

My students, the 11th grade team from Darin.

Explaining something :)

Making new friends while preparing for the competition.

Yesterday and today we had the 2nd English and General Knowledge Olympiad, where 9th, 10th and 11th grade students from nine schools around Olgii competed in English usage, general knowledge, math, and computers. A lot of effort was put into the competition and without the help of Laura and Agii (English teacher and a good friend of mine), none of it would have been possible.

I was only part of the initial planning/brainstorming session for the math and computer sections of the competition but I was very involved in the planning for the English and general knowledge section. I also served as the host/announcer, which was fun. Ashlee, Lauren(Olgii Fulbright scholar and eagle hunter extraordinaire), Botagoz (Olgii's English methodologist) and Marjan (from World Vision) served as the competition judges. Each of Olgii's nine schools, six public and three private, sent teams of four students, one team for each grade, 9th, 10th and 11th grade. After giving a brief (many entertaining and creative) team introduction, the students were quizzed on general knowledge questions covering geography, science, history, and other topics. English usage sections included grammar, vocabulary, idioms, and proverbs. There was also a performance section, where teams and individuals sang songs, rapped hip hop lyrics, and some included dance routines.

Between sessions, students in the audience were given the opportunity to answer sample questions and were awarded books if they answered correctly. The students put a lot of effort into preparing for the competition and Laura and I were very proud to see teams of students, that we had taught and prepared, do very well. The students, especially the girls, are very competitive and there were emotions running high when the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners were announced. Quite a few of the students were in my classes last year and some are in this years' as well, so it was interesting seeing them all competing. I was very proud of them, especially my 11th grade girls, many of whom I met when I first started teaching in Olgii. :) I know that they have bright futures ahead of them if the continue to work hard and apply themselves.

After the competition was over, Agii and I were both pretty exhausted and drained. The power was on and off all day today, delaying the competition and making people restless. Despite the delays and two pretty long days, I feel like the competition was a success. The students really seemed to enjoy it, many students earned prizes, all of the students got free books, and certificates were raining from the sky (Mongolians/Kazakhs love cerfiticates). Agii and I went to dinner and had a beer, discussing the days' events, talking about what can be improved upon for next year, etc. Agii is a rare breed, a smart, hard work teacher who genuinely cares about his students, his community, and wants to make things better. Him and I have some long term plans that we feel will really help Olgii out, which I will elaborate on further in a future post.

Besides the English competition and preparing for Laura's upcoming English teachers' seminar, there wasn't much going on this past week for me. Nurbol is in UB and will hopefully be purchasing and shipping the computers for the learning center tomorrow. IF things go as planned, next week we'll be setting up computers and buying the rest of the furniture for the new center. I'd like to have it open and available for students to use before April if possible. I think with the current funds and resources available, it's going to be a great place for kids to spend time, study, use the computers, and feel comfortable and safe. I'll try to post some more pics from the competition up next and possibly a video. More to come. :)

Hahahahaha

2010-03-09T14:33:00.000+07:00

I want to be as happy as this guy...all the time.

Pictures From Today

2010-03-05T18:47:00.003+07:00

Check out the sweet green apple clock. Stylin'!

Altinbek and Nurbol trying out the new couch. Surprisingly comfortable. :)

Started decorating, gonna need quite a few more maps and posters to finish decorating the entire room, we'll see what we can come up with in the next few weeks.

Before I showed up with a broom and a bucket...

After :)Not perfect but it's looking better. We'll be putting down some rugs and rearranging things once we have everything we need, it will look great when it's complete.

Good News and Some More Progress

2010-03-05T13:46:00.002+07:00

So after all the drama of finding out that World Vision apparently couldn't help us with the project, Agii went back and asked again, asking if they could give us SOME support or funding, even if it wasn't the amount we originally asked for. Surprisingly, they said yes and we now (apparently, keeping fingers crossed) have the money necessary to provide prizes and we're pulling together some books that Laura and Agii have to give as consolation prizes for the other students who participate. In addition, Lauren, the Fulbright scholar who lives in Olgii with us, is providing some extra funding. With the combinbed funds from these two sources, the books from Agii and Laura, and help with certificates (and maybe 'medals') from my work, we should have everything covered. It's a nice feeling knowing we can still go through with the project, just a day or two after thinking we might have to cancel it. :)

In other good news, I cleaned up the learning center today and Altinbek, Nurbol and myself made a trip to the market that ended up being more productive than I expected. We picked up a good sized rug, a nice sturdy table (still need chairs for it), a couch with two matching chairs, a clock, a trash can, and a dustpan and brush. Also, the wall is finished so I started hanging up some maps and posters to decorate. The wall outlets are finished and appear to be working with no problems. Nurbol leaves on Monday to go to Ulaanbaatar. He's going there to take the TOEFL test (good luck Nurbol!) and will also be purchasing the four computers that we will be putting in the center. We decided that purchasing them in UB is a smarter idea because it will save us a pretty good amount of money that we can put towards more resources for the center. Next week I will be looking for chairs, small tables and desks, and a few other miscellaneous things we'll need. Things are going well and hopefully everything will be set up and complete before April.

This weekend is going to be a busy one, as Laura and I have to finalize the details for the competition and I have to get my sessions and lesson plans ready for Laura's huge aimag (province) wide English teacher's seminar that's coming up. I am teaching a few sessions and Laura is putting outlines of each session on a resource cd that each participating teacher will receive. There are over 80 teachers coming, along with some more Peace Corps volunteers from across the country and Laura is putting a lot of work and effort into this, so it's a pretty big deal. It should be fun though, I'm looking forward to helping out and meeting some more teachers from around the aimag.

On top of all this, I am back to teaching again, taught most of my regular classes this past week. Erkegul, the English teacher at Darin school, asked me if I could pick up a new class and start teaching the 7th graders there next week. I said I might be able to (I'm sure I'll end up doing it) so we'll talk about the schedule this coming week. Thursday and Friday we have the olympiad and Nauryz, the Kazakh new year, is coming up, so I'm not sure what the school schedules will be like for the next couple weeks. The good thing is that many of the Darin 7th graders are my 6th grade students from last year at the children's center. I saw some of them a few times this week and they were pretty excited to see me. It should be fun to teach them a bit more before I leave.

I will put some pics in my next post, probably later tonight if I have time. I added all my pics from yesterday and today to my Facebook project album so take a look.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075189&id=72206395&l=9b738f88ad

As I said, this weekend and the next couple weeks will be very busy but I will try to post an update if anything exciting or interesting happens and I have some time. :)

Disappointment

2010-03-03T19:56:00.002+07:00

Disappointment and frustration. These are the two words that best describe what I'm feeling right now. Marjan from World Vision messaged me and told me that our project budget wasn't approved and that they can't help us. We already gave the information to the schools and for the past week, teams have been preparing for the competition. I even helped my 11th grade studens in preparing for the competition a bit, yesterday for about forty minutes after class. World Vison told us they would help us but apparently the regional manager didn't approve. I'm going to be meeting with Laura tomorrow morning and later with Agii to brainstorm and see if there are any possibilities to receive alternate funding or if we can make some changes and still go through with the competition.

Anyways, I uploaded a few more pics to my Facebook album for the project, they can be seen here.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075189&id=72206395&l=9b738f88ad

Will update when I know more.

Pictures from the past couple days

2010-03-03T17:51:00.005+07:00

The market, one shop opening up, while others remain locked with no workers in sight, at 11:00 AM on a Wednesday.

The wall, paint almost done.

Me in the room, in my shiny jacket. :)

The outlets and surge protectors. Chinese products, hopefully they will be good enough so that the center doesn't catch on fire. O_o

The eye in the sky. "Security" at the Olgii market.

The early bird gets the......nope, not here.

2010-03-03T16:31:00.005+07:00

As someone who at times considers myself to be a bit of a 'dude', I can appreciate a laid back attitude, occasional laziness, sleeping in, relaxing, and 'taking it easy'. As someone who's from the U.S. and has been a hard worker since the age of 16, sometimes working two or three jobs at a time, if necessary, to pay my bills and be able to afford what I wanted, I also appreciate hard work. I appreciate the fact that when living in the U.S., if I had a lot to get done, I could wake up early, go out and run all my errands, get things done, and complete any number of tasks/errands in a few hours. Living and working in Mongolia, especially as an American idealist with big hopes and dreams of making sweeping, positive community changes, adjusting to a culture that has a very "relaxed" attitude towards work, can be frustrating, to say the least. Progress can be minimal at times in Peace Corps Mongolia, as I'm sure it can be in many other Peace Corps countries, so we learn to take pleasure in small victories.

Since my grant money arrived, I was surprised at how quickly the project moved forward. In one afternoon we purchased almost all of the supplies for construction and after about a week, the construction is almost complete. Today I went to the bank with Nurbol, Altinbek, and my director Doman, and we withdrew all of the funds. This was done under the impression that we'd be buying a lot of the furniture and the computers today. Nurbol, Altinbek and I went to the market, with high hopes (at least mine were) about making more progress and purchasing much of the necessary equipement for the project today. We arrived at the market area about quarter to eleven and discovered that almost none of the shops we needed to peruse for furniture were open. Keep in mind, this is on a Wednesday. Now, I know that days start later here, that's just the way it is. But when you go the market, it's almost lunch time, and almost none of the shops are open, it's a bit disheartening. This would make sense to me, I suppose, if the market was open until like 7:00 or 8:00 but no, the market typically starts closing down around 5:00. The lunch 'hour' for most businesses or organizations (like my work, the post office, etc.) usually (and I use the term loosely) runs from 12:00 to 2:00. This combination makes for a very small window of opportunity to get errands, work, or any tasks completed. As any Mongolian PCV will tell you, a small list of tasks or errands (even grocery shopping) will take you to multiple stores, across town, and something that would take you an hour or two in the U.S., can take a day or more in Mongolia.

After wandering all over town from 11:00 to 2:00, checking out prices on couches, computer desks, computers, and chairs, I came home with absolutely nothing to show for it. Nurbol and I discussed our options and now I am torn between buying overpriced computers in Olgii, which in theory will help the local economy, or buying better priced computers from Ulaanbaatar and saving a pretty good amount of money that could go towards other resources for the project. This afternoon I tried to contact Altinbek, went to work to find him and had no luck. I was hoping to get a few more things done today but wasn't able to.

To make my day more interesting (see frustrating), Agii called me and told me he had to meet with me asap. I met with him five minutes later to discover that World Vision is hesitating on giving us the money for the Olympiad, the money they said they'd give us. Apparently the regional manager thinks that the money we want to give the first, second, and third place teams is too much and that it's not necessary for us to give books (really good, practical books the students will put to good use) to all the students. I went and spoke to Marjan, a friend of mine and Laura's who works at World Vision, and she explained that Demid, the local manager, is meeting with the regional manager and they will have the answer for us later today. So now we wait on their decision.

Sigh...long day. I'm going to post a few pictures and then will update when I know more about what's going on with both projects.

In the meanwhile, here's a couple of cool songs/music videos by Canadian hip hop artist Classified. I really like Classified and I've been listening to one of his albums over and over again on my ipod.

Bonanza Bananas, Random Pics, and Short Update

2010-03-02T09:30:00.006+07:00

It's a good feeling when I wander over to the market to do my grocery shopping and come across bananas, especially 'Bonanza!' bananas. :) I've been trying to be a lot more health conscious the past couple months and finding things like bananas, spinach, lettuce, etc. at the market really helps.

Often when I wander around Olgii, whether it's on a walk around town, by the river, or just the five minute trek to my work, I bring my camera. Often times in the past I'd see things that caught my eye, made me laugh and that I wanted to take a picture of, but I always seemed to forget my camera. Now I try to remember to bring my camera everywhere I go but it seems like whenever I have my camera, I don't see any of these exciting, funny or odd things. Strange how that works huh? So until something funny or exciting happens and I have my camera to catch it, you can just enjoy these random shots from around Olgii. :)

Today I met with Nurbol, Altinbek and my boss Doman, who just came back from Ulaanbaatar, and we discussed a few of the details on the project. The paint will be finished today, we'll be cleaning up the room a bit and hopefully, if things go as planned, we'll go to the market tomorrow and start buying furniture. I want to get the furniture and computers set up, make sure everything works with no problems (electrical basically) and then start getting the computers ready by installing language learning software and preparing them for the worst Mongolian children can throw at them by installing anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-malware software. The sooner I get all of this done, the sooner I can hold some meetings and training sessions with my coworkers and the student council about how the center can be used in the most effective and best possible ways. My biggest concern, when finishing this project is that it will fall victim to what the countless other resource room/library projects done by PCV's over the years; the infamous Mongolian locked door. Basically, different organizations and schools throughout the country are notorious for keeping resource rooms, gyms, libraries, etc. locked and they never get used for what they are meant for. Why this is, I have no idea. Hard to understand, hard to explain, and very frustrating to witness. Let's hope that with the proper training, information and explanations, the children's center will use this resource effectively and keep it open and available to children on a regular basis.

Oh yeah, also, the last pic above is a ger in the main square, across the street from the Bayan Olgii parliament building. It was set up, over a month ago, by the Mongolian democratic party to protest and call for the governor's resignation. They are accusing the governor of corruption (no surprise there) and have listed all of the positions in local government jobs which are filled by the governor's relatives. In talking with my local friends, I've learned that Bayan Olgii has a reputation as the most corrupt aimag (province) in Mongolia. It's very unfortunate and sad.

More updates to come. :)

More Progress, More Pictures

2010-02-26T16:35:00.003+07:00

Yesterday and today were both productive, continuing with the construction of the room. We got the glass cut and put the windows in, finished up securing the rest of the wall, strengthened the supports in some areas, etc. We still have to finish the siding around the windows to keep the glass secure, make sure everything is strong and fits well, clean up and then start painting. I'm meeting my coworker Altinbek on Sunday and we're going to try and get some more done before the week starts.

Here's a link to my Facebook album that has all the pictures of the progress so far:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075189&id=72206395&l=9b738f88ad

If you have any trouble viewing the pics in this link, send me an email or leave a comment and I'll see about uploading the pictures to Photobucket or Flickr. More pics to come soon. :)

Supplies, Construction, Progress, Exhaustion

2010-02-24T22:31:00.005+07:00

I'm completely exhausted, barely able to keep my eyes open as I write this blog post, but I am happy. The last two days have been fantastic, much better than I expected. Yesterday, Nurbol, Altinbek and I, went to the market and bought almost all of the construction materials for the project. We were there for over two hours and I could barely feel my hands but we got most of what we needed. That was satisfiying enough in itself. Today, I went into work at 9:00 AM and Altinbek and I started building the new wall that basically creates the new room. At 12:00 we had about a quarter of the wall up and the layout for the rest of it sort of figured out. I was impressed and suprised. For lunch I walked the mile or so to the other side of town where Nurbol lives. After surviving a near attack by his shaggy (all bark, not much bite), I had lunch with him and his sister, prepared by his mother, who is very sweet and kind. I transferred about 35 of my movies onto his computer and then we headed back out into the cold to walk to the children's center. We got there, met briefly with Altinbek and headed to the market again, this time to pick up the door and door frame and some new screws. From about 3:00 until 9:00, we worked hard, getting almost the entire wall up. We still have to put the glass in for the windows, secure a few areas, cover one more small area above the door, and then it's on with the paint.

We've discusses a few options and Nurbol suggested asking a local art teacher (who is known to be an excellent painter) to help paint some sort of mural or design on the outside wall of the new room. We're going to talk to the children's center workers and the student council and see what they think and figure things out from there. Once the construction and paint are done, we need to clean up and make sure the electricty is as problem free as possible. After that, we'll be buying furniture, decorations, flooring/carpeting, computers, and a printer/scanner.

I'm very happy with how fast and smooth the process has been so far(since we got the grant money) but we still have a lot of work to do and lots of training sessions, classes, and meetings even after that. I feel a fire and energy in me that I haven't felt in a while. It's been frusrating waiting impatiently for this project to come together but now I'm finally seeing things moving and it feels really good. I know that this is going to be an amazing resource for Olgii's children and I am going to work as hard as I can over the next few months to make sure it's completed perfectly. I'm exhausted after a long day but I know that I will fall asleep with a smile on my face and wake up motivated and ready to go tomorrow.

I'll try to write a better blog post tomorrow or this weekend when I'm a bit more rested. More details and pictures to come. :)

Rants and Ramblings from.....Kenya and Cambodia?

2010-02-22T17:32:00.003+07:00

My friend Chris, from Fort Collins, Colorado, is a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, working as a math teacher and working on water projects. I've been reading his blog, getting caught up, and really enjoying it. Doing work in the future in Africa is towards the top of my list of things to do and reading his blog is making me want to really go to Kenya more and more. Check it out.

http://ctgrants.wordpress.com/

Also, I posted this under my friends' blogs list but again, here's the link to Hanna's blog. She's working hard in Cambodia, teaching and working as a leadership resident for a women's dormitory (Harpswell Foundation). I'm looking forward to joining her there as soon as I finish up here. :)

http://hannathink.blogspot.com/

Not much new to report right now. I was able to withdraw the money for supplies and materials with no problems on Saturday. My coworker Altinbek, who I'm supposed to go with to buy the supplies at the market, was nowhere to be found. I'm hoping he magically reappears tomorrow so we can get things moving.

Laura is back after a week from Hovd and it's nice to have her back. I spent some time in her library today, chatting with her and the other teachers, preventing the computer from being destroyed by a Mongolian flash drive that had 190 viruses O_O 190! , and catching up. I also met with my friend Bek today. We are trying to get the ball rolling on a couple of clean water projects for some small countryside soums (towns) and he's my main man. March will be a busy month, getting back to teaching, getting things ready for Laura's aimag (province) wide English teachers' seminar, getting the details finished for the English olympiad, and of course, working on my grant project.

I received two packages today from my good friend Andy and I now have enough Girl Scout cookies to last me the rest of my time in Peace Corps Mongolia. I'm reading a couple books right now and I've been spending some of my free time playing Diablo 2, a computer game my dad sent me last week. It's been addictive and fun playing a computer game for the first time in almost two years. I just gotta try not to spend too much time playing. :)

Pics and updates to come!

Finally

2010-02-20T10:15:00.002+07:00

Well I have good news. The grant money was finally deposited into our account, two days ago. :)

I had a meeting with my boss, a couple of my coworkers, Nurbol and another friend of mine, Kulshat, who used to be an English teacher. The meeting went well for the most part, with some confusion and disagreement about some details on the project, but after an hour or so we got everything hashed out and it seems as though everyone involved is pretty much on the same page. My boss is going to UB this week so today I need to go and withdraw some of the money for construction materials. One of my coworkers, Altinbek, and I need to go on Monday or Tuesday to purchase the materials so the labor can begin as soon as possible.

I will be taking pictures as things progress. I'm excited to finally have this money available, after months of waiting. I'm excited to finally be able to get this project rolling. If this works out as planned, it will provide students with a safe, comfortable area to hang out, study, work on homework, and have access to computers with internet and learning programs. There's a lot of work to do in a short period of time so I should be a lot busier in the next few weeks, plus I'll be starting teaching again Monday after the week long break. I'll keep the blog updated with pics and posts about how things progress. Hope everyone is doing well back home.