A fellow classmate at Olaf, Subhash Ghimire, has entered a competition for a $50,000 grant to continue his work with Nepalese children impacted by the civil war that ravaged the country from 1996-2006.  This past summer, among other things, he established a summer camp in Arupokhari to help children overcome the scars of war and the caste system.  He also established the Sarswati Foundation in his mother’s memory and is now moving forward with plans for the Sarswati Peace School, for which he needs the grant.  Please visit the Dell Social Innovation Competition website to vote for his project here.  The voting ends March 3rd (Wednesday) so visit now!  You’ll have to register your email address first.

If you want more information about the work Subhash has done, check out this article.

Thanks for your support!

(Of course I want my warm, purely autumn days back before I’m ready to commit to winter but today was cool to see.)

Documentary-esq Video

Article from TreeHugger

BBC Interview

The Outcome – The Eluai Water Project

Enjoy!

So here I am.  We cut the carpet to be flush to all the walls and cupboards and radiators (a luxury saved for the probable last year of its use), we figured out furniture placement and electrical geography so as to maximize the space as much as possible, and I am left to go through all the… err… crap I’ve somehow accumulated (despite my best efforts these last 3 years) and to find everything a ‘place’ for the year.  I’ve been to staff dinner  (I’m on Residence Life Staff this year) and initial meetings.  And, best of all, I’ve already gotten to play sand volleyball on our beautiful dorm lawn.  I quite like my staff and I think we will have a good year together.  As for the rest of my friends, I’m feeling the absence of many and have yet to see the faces of those who have arrived/will be arriving next week.  It feels strange to not be off on another adventure this year.  I haven’t stayed on campus all year ever but that’s the plan at the moment… but of course that was the plan sophomore year and then Itasca happened to me so I guess we’ll see.

For now, I am the one at home whose happy duty is to send mail to those in faraway places and to those not so far away.  I’ll be here to witness our campus’ beautiful fall display and to soak up academic knowledge to my heart’s content.  I’m taking an odd smattering of classes this year: Greek and Roman Mythology, Religious Dialogs, Environmental Ethics, and GIS and Remote Sensing.  No doubt they will give me plenty of ideas to expound upon.  I’m looking forward to it.

http://grinnellianintanzania.blogspot.com/

Bottom line:  Tons happened in April, the slowest month of the semester.  Adventures were had, advice was given and received, tears were shed, laughter was enjoyed, sports were played, music danced to, tests taken.  People were seen, acceptances received, work done, planning completed… well almost.  (I have one tiny step left in the saga that is the acceptance of my CIS major.)

But for the sake of not being so vague, I offer you a story:

Once upon a time in April, I was working on an ethnographic research project on social class at St. Olaf.  My two project partners and I scheduled focus groups and coerced our friends into coming – a task that proved much more difficult than first expected.  People were hesitant to talk but once they got going, they didn’t stop!  We were left with pages and pages of comments, opinions, and observations of the dynamics of social class on this campus and millions of thoughts spinning in our minds.  As I went about my daily life – and continued to collect formal interviews – I found myself discussing the issue constantly.  It came up in conversations with friends because it was what I was doing and soon I found that everyone had hours’ worth of things to say!  I had conversation after spontaneous conversation on the subject because people’s minds and tongues were finally free.  This is a subject that many people analyze daily without even realizing it.  It can cause tensions and stress.  It is discussed without being discussed – talked around.   It is the elephant in the room.
Why is there a taboo surrounding the discussion of social class?  Why can’t we push past it and simply have a discussion?  Why do things have to be formal in order to allow for that?  I started asking these questions and got an overwhelming answer: “guilt and shame.”  People avoid the discussion of class for fear that they will be from different levels and one will be made to feel guilty and one will be shamed.  People are afraid that they won’t say the “right thing” or that they will offend someone else.  And yet, there is also resentment over unwillingness to discuss the issue.  People wish for a freedom of discussion so that uncomfortable moments can be avoided and proper respect given.   Bourdieu, a French sociologist, says that social structures that seem to be permanent are only perceived that way because of the great number of actors in the system who treat it and believe in it as such.  All it takes to topple a social norm is for the actors in the system to reject that norm – to change their actions.  So why don’t we?  Well… you try mobilizing that many people to talk about a subject so apparently sensitive for so long.  In the words of one of my interviewees, “it’s just not done in polite company.”

There are posts in the works but this whole adjusting-back-to-normal-school thing is a tougher exercise in time management than I thought!  Boy do I wish I were back at camp outside Tarangire right now.  I think I’d savor getting dressed in a 104 degree F tent…

BUT I’m not.  I’m here in the library at St. Olaf.  I should be doing my Stats homework as I wait for my next class to roll around – Ethnographic Research Methods (cause I didn’t learn enough lessons from my attempt in the field?!) but instead I’m zoning out.  I just took a Global Climate Change midterm.  Not so sure about that… heh.

Anyway, to keep you busy while I get some more interesting posts prepared, check this out: A Mirror of Nature: Nordic Landscape Painting 1840-1910 .  It’s a traveling exhibit that came to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts over a year ago now.  I went to it and, even though it’s not typically my favorite style, I quite liked it!  A favorite: Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

Enjoy!