Things/Places in Seattle I want to try

1. Cantinetta-Wallingford
2. Molly Moon's-Wallingford
3. How to Cook a Wolf-Queen Anne
4. Kappo-Fremont
5. Ocho (Tapas)-Ballard
6. Cafe Argento-Capitol Hill
7. Roxy's Diner-Fremont
8. Ballard Locks
9. Green Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant-International District
10. Hana Restaurant-Capitol Hill



I'm tired. This will have to be an ongoing list...

Great ideas

Today I was thinking about saving the world. Maybe not the typical daydream theme, but for those out there like me and many of my friends, it’s a theme that occupies our every day thoughts. While contemplating this daunting task, I started thinking about the things that need to be tackled to achieve the goal of making the work a better place for people to live in, curing cancer and AIDS and ending war, to name a few. But what are the actual things that would make an individual’s life easier?

I once read an article in the New York Times (see below for link) titled “Preventable Disease Blinds Poor in Third World.” It described the excruciating chain of events that transpires in many underdeveloped countries due to something as simple as an individual not having access to soap and water to wash their faces. It describes a disease called trachoma where someone’s eyelashes begin to curl inward due to bacteria that accumulates in the eye often carried on the legs of flies that land in their eyes. Because of this new inward position, the eyelashes begin scraping the cornea as the individual blinks, resulting in horrific pain and eventually blindness. The article goes on to explain how this disease affected one woman whose husband left her once she was blind and deemed not useful, whose children decided to stay with their suffering mother to help her pluck out her eyelashes to reduce the pain of them raking her corneas, a decision which resulted in them having to earn a living instead of going to school and getting an education. In this instance, sanitary facial wipes or a simple surgical eye procedure would make the biggest difference in these peoples’ lives. And that’s something we can do. That’s something I can do. There are small, cheap solutions for everyday grievances for the world’s poor. People like you and me just have to think them up!

That brings me to the real topic of this posting. Great ideas. I once had a great idea. Well, I thought it was. I was six and in a stroke of genius, decided I was going to invent the Global Money Magnet. No, this is not some hedge fund financial guru. This is a gigantic magnet that attracts all money, regardless of origin and the material of which it is made. I would then take this magnet into space and hold it over the world and it would collect all the money dropped on sidewalks or buried under dirt. I would then take all that money and give it to people in need. While my idea never really left the ground due to some logistical problems (a magnet attracting all metals AND paper being one), there are many people out there that are coming up with equally as genius, and possibly more practical, ideas.

Below is a list some of these small ideas that people have come up with to make large changes in the world. These people used the resources, skills and talents that they had and are making a real difference. So, while AIDS and war are definitely worthy of our attention, there are still other evils out there that, unbeknownst to us now, we actually have the solution to if we just give it some thought.

So, here it goes. My list of great ideas…according to me.

1. Life Straw

First one my list is my favorite. I first read about the Life Straw in 2006 in the New York Times and the idea has stuck with me ever since. It's something that is easily shippable to foreign countries, cheap, easy to use and will have real, immediate results. How much better can it get?! According to their website, half of the world's poor suffer from waterborne disease. On top of that, nearly 6,000 people (mainly children) die each day from the consumption of unsafe drinking water. This amazing little gizmo (which is now available to wealthy hiking REI-regulars) can be worn like a necklace and requires no electrical power. In addition, it is easy to distribute to underdeveloped countries where waterborne disease threatens lives the most. Through its system of filters, the life straw removes 99.999% of waterborne bacteria and 98.2% of waterborne viruses. Users simply place the Life Straw in any water source and suck like they are drinking from a straw. When done, they just blow into the Life Straw to clean out the filters. That's it. And I'm fairly certain I read somewhere that each one only costs about $2-$3. Simple, but genius in my opinion.

For more information: http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw.htm

2. Hippo Water Roller

The next on the list was one I came across last year. A group of my friends and I thought it was such a great idea that we pulled our money and purchased two to be distributed in a village in Africa. This ingenious device is the Hippo Roller, a barrel-like container rolled along with a handle. For many, finding water every day is a daunting task as they have to travel for miles to find it and then carry it back on their heads. This limits the amount of water each can carry meaning each person must make more trips. In addition, carrying water on the head puts a huge burden on the neck, spine and knees over time. The Hippo Roller, however, holds up to 24 gallons of water and, when pushed, only feels like about 22 pounds, resulting in more free time and less physical problems.

For more information: http://www.hipporoller.org

3. Motorbike Ambulance

Third on the list I just recently came across. It is the Motorbike Ambulance and is pretty much as its name suggests. In Southern Sudan these motorbike ambulances have been introduced in the hopes of reducing the rates of maternal mortality which takes the lives of one in six women in this region, a region which has one of the worst rates of maternal mortality in the world. This region severely lacks the resources and ambulances to transport people from remote areas to healthcare facilities and the motorbike ambulance hopefully will have the ability to help the situation.

For more information: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=83727

4. Kiva Loans that Change Lives

In the spirit of Muhammad Yunus, Kiva.org is a person-to-person micro-lending website. Kiva posts profiles of people around the world in need to small loans and then someone can choose the person to which they wish to give. Then, when the loan is up, the money is returned to you! Just like that! I love this idea, because, like most Americans out there, I will most likely always have at least $25 in my bank account. Instead of letting it just hang out there, why don’t I loan it and then get it back in six to twelve months? This very well might be the most genius of all these genius ideas.

For more information: http://www.kiva.org/

5. Slum Cooker

Last year I took a class on Soils and Land Use. For my final project, I researched land use in shantytowns around the world, having spent a lot of time in various impromptu settlements in a few different countries. That’s why the Slum Cooker immediately caught my attention. Kenyan designers have built this clever little cooker that uses the trash in shantytowns and refugee camps as fuel to feed the hungry, provide hot water and destroy toxic waste, as well as stunting the ongoing devastation of nearby wooded areas. This first prototype is able to cook potatoes, rice and tea on the eight hotplates above the furnace while meat and bread can cook and bake in the oven. In the back of the cooker, trash dries on racks to later be placed in the furnace.

For more information: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LQ080409.htm

6. $100 Laptop

What I love about the One Laptop per Child is that it embraces my belief in a child’s right to an education. As the website states, “The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.” For much of the world’s poor, education is put on a back burner to the more pertinent issues of survival. But by giving a child a laptop, we are showing these children the importance of an education and providing them with a tool to pursue it.

For more information: http://laptop.org/en/

7. Treadle Pump

Now, this is a good idea. The Treadle Pump is a pump that is human-powered to lift water from up to seven meters deep. It works much like a stair-stepping exercise machine and is driven by the operator’s body weight and leg muscles. They are 50% cheaper than motorized pumps, are easy to build, and simple for all ages, even children and the elderly, to use. Thanks to the treadle pump, farmers are able to cultivate crops during the off-season and bring additional land under cultivation.

For more information: http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/idei#


To read the New York Times article I referred to, check out this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/world/africa/31blind.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=eyelashes,%20Carter&st=cse

What am I getting myself into?

Today I was talking on the phone with my mom, telling her about my first day of training for my AmeriCorps VISTA position as Education and Technology Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee, a resettlement agency that assists refugees. She was asking what I had done. What had I done? It really was a blur. A big, confusing, hectic blur. I honestly can't recall anything that my good friend, and the person I'll be replacing, Elizabeth told me! She introduced me to everyone in the office and kept referring back to each of them and I was having such a hard time keeping everyone and everything straight.

Then, I was supposed to have a meeting with my direct supervisor at 11:00am, but by noon, Elizabeth and I gave up waiting so we went to the other office where I will spend the majority of my time. Everyone was out of that office assisting refugee families, so it was just Elizabeth and me. At one point, Elizabeth was taking a call and the phone rang again. She motioned for me to answer it. What?! Me? I answered, praying it would be something easy. Instead, it was a school nurse who said, "One of the refugee children has run away." I thought to myself, 'Oh man, what am I getting myself into?!"

After dealing with that minor catastrophe, Elizabeth got a call from one of the bosses asking her if the two of us could do 'an airport pickup' since they were pretty under-staffed today. This entailed picking up two refugees that would just be arriving in the U.S. for the first time and taking them to their new apartment and taking them to the bank to get them some pocket money for food for the weekend. When I told my mom this later on the phone, she said, "Oh, how fun!" She definitely didn't understand the enormity of the situation. She then asked me if they were here to study abroad. "No Mom! These are refugees! These people are leaving their countries because they have a 'well-founded fear of persecution'!" I feel like I've explained this to her a million times, but it hasn't stuck. She just doesn't get it.

So, at 2:40pm this afternoon Elizabeth and I went to the airport to pick up these two girls; refugees from Bhutan that first fled to Nepal and then were approved to seek refuge here in the U.S. Since they were older children, 20 and 21 years old, they had to apply to be refugees without their families but luckily their two uncles had been placed in Seattle the week before.

After a mix-up with flight numbers, Elizabeth and I finally found the two girls sitting on a bench at baggage claim clutching the only belongins they had in the world; a small bag with their documents and one duffle bag between the two of them. They were tiny and looked no more than 12 or 13 years old. And I have never seen anyone look as utterly terrified as those two girls. It definitely didn't help that Elizabeth and I weren't their when they first arrived. Within seconds of seeing them and the looks on their faces, my eyes welled up with tears and one rolled down my cheek. "Pull yourself together Carrie!" I thought. But I couldn't. These girls were about my age and, really, the only reason our situations were so different was because of the places we were born.

Their English was very limited, but while Elizabeth was pulling the car around, I tried talking to them even though I was completely at a loss for words. What can you say to someone that has been through what these two girls have been through?! They just left their country and everything and everyone they know, flew for 24 hours and are now in this completely foreign place scared out of their minds. One of them told me that she was so nervous that she thought she was going to vomit. Elizabeth was taking a little while, so I grabbed one of those Seattle Tourist brochures at the airport to show them some pictures of Seattle. They were obviously beyond exhausted, but the uncomfortable silence was killing me. I then found a map of Seattle and pointed at the airport to show them where we were. Then I pointed to the general area where they will be living, Tukwila. I then pointed to Fremont/Ballard where I live and one of the girls said, "Wow, you live really close to our house!" Well, not exactly.

Elizabeth finally pulled the car up and we loaded the girls in. Elizabeth told them to put their seat belts on, but she was received with blank stares. We both got out and showed the girls how to use a seat belt. After withdrawing some money for them from the bank, we took them to their two uncles' apartments who had arrived with their families the week before. When we arrived at the apartment, all these beautiful Bhutanese children came running out to hug their cousins. We helped the girls take their things inside and then after making small talk with their uncles for a little bit, announced we had to leave. The two girls got up and gave us each a big hug, thanking us again and again.

The whole experience was so powerful. I have read so much about refugees, but here I was, the first one to greet them when they entered this country from who knows what kind of hardships. And not that the hardships are about to end anytime soon. Not only did they have to learn to fasten their seatbelts, but will soon have to learn to navigate through a culture so vastly different from theres. Everything will be a challenge; buying groceries, figuring out the kitchen appliances, using the bus, not to mention learning English, getting a job, doing bills and learning the little cultural norms that are so engrained in the rest of us that we don't even notice.

But at the end of the day when my mom asked me, "So, what do you think? Are you going to like the job?", I thought about the seemingly insignificant act I had done today and the gratitude I had received and thought about all the opportunities I will have in the coming year to directly help people and make their difficult situations just a little bit easier, and I had nothing else to say but, "I think it will be the most rewarding experience of my life."

(The picture is a sign for the International Rescue Committee (the IRC))

Global Education

The other day I was babysitting for these two girls while their mother was off at a kindergarten tour for her five-year-old. When she came back, we talked for a little bit about the experience for her. She was pretty frustrated over the concerns and comments the other parents had made: they wanted to make sure their children would get a good snack or a nap-time. Instead, she went on the tour to see if this kindergarten would instill in her children the love for education that she had experienced as a child. How lucky are we that we get to CHOOSE which school our children can go to, basing our decision on such trivial things as afternoon snack options and the comfortableness of the nap-time set-up. How ridiculous must we sound to so many others around the world.

This really got me thinking about my own love affair with education. For me, like so many of my friends, this love affair started when I was very young. Instead of watching television, my parents read to me every night. Besides playing in the woods, books were my form of entertainment and I had bookshelves lining all the walls of my bedroom filled with the most beautiful, new, expensive children's books. Then, when I was old enough, I finally began reading on my own and my entire family celebrated this achievement. After this, I formally started school, which for me was a dream. I remember wishing for summer to end so I could go school supplies shopping and see all of my friends again. My family still reminds me about how two weeks before I started fifth grade, I had laid out my outfit for the first day of school-right down to the underwear, socks, necklace and barrette! I loved school-I loved learning, I loved my teachers, I love my classroom, I loved seeing my friends everyday, I loved doing my homework, everything.

Since this time, though, I have had the privilege of going to many countries around the globe and realize that my love affair with education is definitely shared around the world. But these children have never been given the chance to experience it the way I have. They never have had the thrill of running up to the front doors of school the first day the class list is posted to see which friends will be their classmates for the year. They never have had the excitement of picking out new Elmer's glue, Crayola crayons, spiral notebooks and scissors on a hot August day in Target. They never have had the opportunity to choose between home ec, shop, band or choir. For them, education is something they have to fight for every day.

These children will never experience these joys although, according to UNICEF, education is a basic human right. Like all the rest, it is universal and everyone is entitled to it regardless of gender, race, religion, ethnicity or economic status.

In the different countries that I have been to, I have had the opportunity to experience hands-on just how difficult the right to education is abroad and the extremes children go to just to receive a basic education. While I was in Ecuador, I interned at the Center for the Working Boy. This organization provided schooling for Ecuadorian boys that were forced to work during the day by their family and their impossibly difficult living situations. I found that if these boys did not work, poverty in Latin America would increase by 20%. Their families' survival depended on them. These 6, 7, 8 year old boys that I met at the Center for the Working Boy worked for six hours in the morning and then went to school for another six hours, commuting 2 hours each way from the slums they lived in on the far outskirts of Quito. I couldn't believe the extent they went to just to be able to learn.

Last night I finished a heartbreaking book about more boys that were willing to do whatever it took to receive an education; the Lost Boys of Sudan. One passage really hit home for me. This was written by Benjamin who was about 12 and in a refugee camp in Kenya at the time:

"Things got worse when the UN cut back the rations and I soon learned how it goes in a refugee camp. There is food and there is education. The education is fine, but the food is not enough. You have to choose between education and food. If you don't want an education you can make a business for your survival. If you want education you have to take the little bit of food that is given by UNHCR and eat only once a day. It is your choice whether you eat in the morning and sleep in the afternoon or just stay hungry for the whole day and eat later. My cousins and I managed this. We went to school and ate once a day in the evening. But reading was really difficult because when you read there was a certain cloud because of hunger. It's black when you look at the words in the book. The black covers the words and you can't see because of that color in your eyes from the hunger" (They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, page 276).

I was astonished that these children choose education over food, but similar sacrifices are made my children every day. To them, education is something precious and the more I experience around the world and read here at home, the more I am motivated to bring more education to children around the world in my lifetime.

(This picture is of a school for the Lost Boys of Sudan in a refugee camp)

Writing a book

This post is so timely because last time I wrote a post about how I always set myself up with goals that are almost unachievable and here I am today telling all out in cyberland (ok, I'm actually the only one that reads this) that I am going to write a book. I couldn't go to bed last night thinking about it, what I would include, the title, everything. I want to write about how I grew up abroad-from first loves in Spain, to getting the wind knocked out of my by harsh realities in India and Mexico, to heartbreak in Ecuador, to learning about friendship in Argentina. One of my biggest problems with writing is that I feel so vulnerable, and this would be writing at its most vulnerable! But I'm going to do it. I was just reading this article online about writing your first book and it advised to 'deliberately write badly, but at least write'. Also, it states,

"If you want to write, kill the magic: a book is just a bunch of writing. Anyone can write a book. It might suck or be incomprehensible, but so what: it’s still a book. Nothing is stopping you right now from collecting all of your elementary school book reports, or drunken napkin scribbles, binding them together at kinkos for $20, slapping a title on the cover, and qualifying as an author."

So, I'm going to do it. No one ever has to read my book. And if nothing ever becomes of it, at least I will have something to pass on to my children and grandchildren to they can get to know me a little better. Lastly, what I find to be the most reassuring piece of advice from that article is this:

"Remember that until you say you’re finished, you can break all the rules."

(http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2007/how-to-write-a-book-the-short-honest-truth/)

A goal a week

Like so many people out there, I find myself making this huge, lofty goals (normally around New Years): this year I'm going to exercise every day, write a book, save the world. Instead, I'm going to try something new. I'm going to give myself a goal for a week; something I have to do every day. I'm going to put it on my Google Calendar every day and have it send me email reminders to make sure I'll follow through (sad that it takes that to make me actually do something!). Here are the ideas I've come up with:


1. A week of actually drinking eight glasses of water a day.


2. Stretch for 30 minutes a day.


3. Read the newspaper every day for a week.


4. A week of not buying coffee and donating that money to an organization like Kiva.org.


5. Finish a book in a week.


6. Speak Spanish every day for a week.


7. A week learning about Photography.


8. A week learning about American Government.


9. A week reading a classic book.


10. A week doing situps everyday.


11. A week wearing clothes I haven't worn in a year.


12. Watch a classic movie sometime during the week.


13. A week of exercising every day.


14. A week of putting on lotion every day (I hate lotion).



15. A week reading the bio of a famous person every day.

This week I'm going to start with stretching. I'll write back to share how it's going. Wish me luck!