Global Volunteers

Global Volunteers:

Partners in Development

This organization is private for nonprofit. I especially like the idea that it is "nonsectarian", meaning it isn't based on your religious beliefs. It is a one-to-one service project. You travel to any of the countries on their web site.

Helping in Minnesota with the immigrant population

http://www.globalvolunteers.org/   You serve the people when you arrive, their leaders will direct you to what the people need. You pay your own way and volunteer to help others through your talents and service. You work in their country and respect their community leaders. You might be helping children to read, building a  house, teaching English or even holding a baby!

Global Volunteers has 2.300 volunteers in 185 teams in projects in 20 countries. Some people call it their "volunteer vacation." Some projects are for a week only and some are for two and three week service-learning programs. Global Volunteers has been around for 25 years. They are based out of St. Paul, MN. Their mission is to, "Wage peace throughout the world by helping to establish mutual understanding between people of diverse cultures through short-term volunteers." http://www.globalvolunteers.org/

In my email interview, I asked about single travelers. They said this type of volunteer is common. You will meet people who share the same interests as you. Most volunteers with Global Volunteers are solo travelers. I asked if there wer opportunities right in the United States and was very surprised with the answer. There are opportunities in Montana, West Virginia and right here in Minnesota. I was interested in the Minnesota program, so I asked more about it. It turns out it is in Austin and Worthington, MN. You would help immigrants in these farming communities. Hormel foundation in  Austin, also assists with funding. You might help with teaching basic English, taking care of children, teaching internet skills, helping with landscaping. It all depends on what they need. You might even get to build a playground. You stay in apartments or cabins and share your room with other volunteers. You eat your meals with other volunteers. You pay for expenses. The costs pays for their food, lodging, transportation and administrative costs. You can deduct these expenses from your taxes. The costs range from 50.00 to 3,000.00 depending on where you are going. Global Volunteers is an accredited charity, they use 97% of all funding from the tax deductible service program fees.

"Be part of the solution, not part of the problem"

“Dear fellow volunteers: I was curious about the true value of my Global Volunteers tax deduction, so I prepared my individual taxes this year both with the Global Volunteers charitable deduction and without. I realized that deducting the program fee, airfare, travel insurance and visa would net me almost $1,500 more than without that deduction! I always heard about the value of the tax deduction, but I really didn’t think seriously about it until I analyzed it this way myself. I’m looking forward to using the refund for my next service program this year. It’s like recycled money! I’m off to China again in a few weeks. Can’t wait!"
- Esther Schak

Since I was interested in the migrant population of Latinos to Minnesota, I found a recipe that my grandparents had saved. They used to live in Colorado and their neighbors wer Hispanic. They often would have dinner with them. Here is one of her original recipes:
Sopa (Bread Pudding) by Francis Tafoya
10 slices of toast (white bread)
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 longhorn cheese
cinnamon
1/4 cup nuts (pecans)
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
Place broken slices of toast into 9x9 dish, add thin sliced cheese, rasins, nuts, cinnamon. Place sugar in pan on low heat; let turn brown, add water boil until dissolved (syrupy). Pour on top of mixture; cover with foil. Place in oven and simmer for 1/2 hour. More cheese may be added.

You Tube Video Sites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ4m7WXLbP4&feature=autoplay&list=PLA714A2840E1A3C40&index=3&playnext=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zikdfb-9Zo&feature=autoplay&list=PLA714A2840E1A3C40&index=4&playnext=3

http://www.globalvolunteers.org/

artifacts of a subculture

Three of the artifacts from the subculture that I am looking at are:
5th graders technology items such as the smart board, netbooks, IPads
School items : books, pens, desks, paper, lockers, crayons, markers
Outside objects: balls, jumpropes, footballs, other objects that they play on or around
some of the these objects I know a lot about such as books, pens and papers, and computers, but the smartboards, what are those?
I know about balls for playing baseball and football, but what about 4 square and some of the social games they play outside?
I hope that knowing something about some of the artifacts a 5th grader uses will not affect my interpretation of them until I actually go and watch them for a day in their environment.
The artifacts in their lives are important to them especially the outside items, as recess is important. It seems like the way they dress, some of the school supplies they have will say a lot about where they fit in and belong. I will hope to see this in my observations. I could research somewhat about the technology now being used in a typical elementary classroom and what some common playground games are. I could research the developmental level of a 10-11 year old.
The three most important things this artifact tells me about this subculture are this is a new generation of students who are learning in different ways than I did when I was in 5th grade because they now are learning in new ways in a modern world, yet I think I will find some of the same games played on the playground that I played there over 15 years ago.

#3 Reader's Journal A Long Way Gone P. 166

"When I was a child, my grandmother told me that the sky speaks to those who look and listen to it. She said, "In the sky there are always answers and explanations for everything; every pain, every suffering, joy, and confusion." That night I wanted the sky to talk to me."

I find this group of sentences so powerful, it just shows that the author through all his suffering and bad memories, still holds a place in his heart for the good memories. At first he can't remember the good times with family, but slowly it comes back. How wonderful of a gift for those of us who had grandparents who loved us as Ishmael's grandma loved him.

She was so wise to look to the sky for advice and wisdom and to pass it on to her grandchildren. Even war can not erase what is good in someone's life. Ishmeal can always hold what his grandma taught him to his heart and all the gunfire and killing can not take it away.

I had a grandma who passed away when I was in junior high and I loved her so much, she was simple like Ismael's grandmother, and I mean that in a good way. She didn't care about material things, she just cared about me and my brother and we felt her love and still do. I'm so glad Ismael had a grandma. I think Ismael will find his peace again in the sky above.

Reader's Journal #2 A Long Way Gone

"I see that you look very sad. Your forehead used to glow naturally when you were just a child. Your parents and I used to discuss how unusual that was. We thought it was because you were happy all the time. Your mother said you smailed while you slept. But when you started your troublesomeness and were angry, your forehead glowed even more. We didn't have any other explanations for your forehead and how it related to your character. And here you are, it isn't shining anymore."

This passage show what a wise man Gasemu, Ngor Gasemu was. He could see the change in Ismael. When he speaks of troublesomeness, he means that depression has hit Ismael. He sees a boy who went from a happy glowing soul, to lifeless. He can tell that all the happiness is gone or hiding somewhere. I like when he says, even when you were angry, you had a glow. It means that a person who has feelings, either happy or angry, at least has feelings. To be angry or sad, it better than no feelings at all. I think that is what depression is, it is a nothing world, where you are like the walking dead. Ismael is at this state in his life. A forehead that doesn't glow, eyes that show nothing. These are all signs of what the war has done to him. He is no longer an innocent child, he is an empty shell, so no wonder the army can mold him. I really think later in this story after he arrives in America and starts the healing process, his glow to his forehead will come back. I hope so. We all need a glow on our forehead!

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

"One of the elders stood up and added to what my father had said: "I pray to the gods and ancestors that your family will always be together, even when one of you crosses into the spirit world. To family and community." The old man raised his open hands in the air. My father came over and stood by my mother and motioned for Junior and me to come closer. We did, and my father put his arms around us. The gathering clapped and a photographer took a few snapshots."

This touched me and was so powerful, because everything about it said, "family." My family means more to me than anything in the world, I so related to this passage because I have one brother and a mom and dad that I am very close to. I could just see the connection going on for Ishmael, how powerful to love that strong and to have such a delight in your life, as a loving family. How awful to have it pulled away from you, it must have took his heart and his soul. I thought of how Ishmal must have to believe what the elder said about the family always being together even when they, "cross into the spirit world." This is so important because Ishmal no longer has his family in the flesh, but no one can take his memories and their love away. When the elder prayed this over his family, it came to be true, for I think his family in the spirital world saved him many times over from death and knew there was something more powerful for him on this earth. Just to picture his whole family with their arms around each other makes one almost want to cry. It would be one of his last sweet memories of family. He had a very strong father and Ismal takes after him by being strong and going on with his life. It just made me think harder about my own family and that fear of ever losing any of them. I just can't comprehend his pain of a loss of all of his family. That passage really touched me.

1st draft of essay School Bullying Causes and Effects

School Bullying
Causes and Effects

When people hear news, about a school shooter or that a child was bullied, they often ask the question, why? How did it get so far and what caused a person to become a bully or even to resort to killing others or taking their own life? When children are sent to school, society wants them to feel safe and be in an environment to learn, not to be afraid of their peers. There are many theories as to why someone would resort to killing and what can be done about it. There are people who think in black and white and want to blame the school shootings/bullying on the media, the parents, drugs, the schools themselves, gun laws, or the idea that these students were bullied themselves. It is an issue to be explored, especially since research is now being developed about what can be done to prevent a school shootings and bullying. One also has to look at the victims of bullying and how their lives are changed forever.
Children from stable families with both parents raising them would never become school shooters, correct? That is really what a lot of society thinks, just have great parenting and the rest will fall into place; this subject is way more complicated than that. Peter Langman, PH.D., who is a clinical director of KidsPeace. (A web site) At his inpatient hospital he helps adolescents in crisis and wrote the book, Why Kids Kill, Inside the Minds of School Shooters. He states that a mental health issue is the focus to prevent bullying and school shooters, and should be looked at by researchers (Langman, 17). He separates school shooters into various categories. He believes
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that there are three types of school shooters, “psychopathic, psychotic, and traumatized” (Langman, 18). If this is so, the exploration of these types of personalities might help professionals, especially those in the school systems, mental health areas and law enforcement to look for these signs and prevent school shootings/bullying.
To understand just how bullying gets started, one needs a definition of bullying. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, it simply means to treat someone with abuse and to get what you want through force or coercion. (Merriam-Webster, web). If you have power over someone, or the victim even perceives that you do, this is a form of bullying. It can be through cyber bullying, cell phones, notes, leaving someone out, telling lies and rumors, making fun of their looks or race/religion. Yet, it can also mean outright threats, with violence; such as hitting or beating someone up. Also, just the bullying without it going to the extent of a shooting is harmful to the victim and the bystanders. There can be long lasting effects that remain with the victims into adulthood. It is a fear for your safety. This last statement is the one to remember, because if you are being bullied, you are afraid.(Merriam-Webster,web).
Some of the myths of why kids kill can be explored because there is some truth to parts of the theories. One that stands out is the myth that school shooters were bullied and went out to seek revenge. This is easy to believe because if one if mad enough and has had to take abuse for many years, they could easily “go off the deep end”. If this is so, Langman refers to the school shooters that he researched and if they were being bullied, they did not shoot the victims who


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had bullied them. Shooters, such as Kip Kinkel and Andrew Golden were the bullies, not the victims and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold from Columbine threatened others and were violent. (Langman, 13). Some students are daily victims of bullies and of these students, they all do not resort to school shootings. Indentifying signs of potential school shooters can prevent future violence and reduce long term effects of bullying. To understand the signs of potential school shooters, one has to look into the past and study those students who have resorted to killing others in a school setting. Also, the long term damage to the victims can also be prevented if one looks at the various bullying programs and if they work or not.

A quick list of issues that have provoked disagreements.

1. Issues that provoke disagreements in my hometown or community: Should children be sent to the charter school or to the public school? Will flood mitagation help with future flooding? Should there be a middle school? Why haven't local school districts met AYP?
2. Is Normandale an "easy" college? Should teachers get merit pay? Why does tuition continue to go up? How useful is an AA degree?
3. Should we allow gays to marry? Will there be social security left for my generation of people in their 20's? What do we do with our elderly population? Should people have a right to die of their own choice? Is organized crime that much different from some of the ways our government is run? Is it moral or ethical to have a large number of children? Are DWI laws too tough? Why can't we smoke in a bar? Should you spank or not spank your children? Why does America seem to jump into war as a solution for our problems? How safe are nuclear plants? Is organic food better for the nation or the world as a whole? What causes grades to slip or students to fail to graduate? Why are public employees having to carry the economic hardships of our nation's debt on their shoulders? (Wisconsin) What about private business taking a cut too? Should female drug users be allowed to be steralized? Does being bullied lead to the victim turning into a school shooter?
Biology: Many issues about abortion, HIV and AID, also stem cell use and contraceptives.
MN History: Issues with the rights of American Indians in the past and to this day. Issues of manifest destiny and taking of land, breaking of treaties.
English Class: We have explored many issues through our papers including simple things like reviews about what we like best in this world. More serious issues of our families or personal lives have been looked at. Reading of a book about boy soldiers and the child sex industry in India.
Logic: Logic is logic, can't say what issues have been explored!