Yale Information

Dear Family & Friends of Putney's Global Action programs,

Our Global Action groups have almost finished their time in country and are looking forward to their time back at Yale to present their findings to the entire Global Action community including friends and family of participants. We are all looking forward to this event! Come prepared… the weather may very well be rainy during our time at Yale. Bring an umbrella!

From July 29 to August 3, please direct all communication to the Yale Global Action Office at pstgaia@gmail.com or (203) 436-0557.

If necessary, Global Action directors Diego Merino and Melissa Extein can also be reached on their cell phones, below:

Diego Merino cell: (917) 254-3327
Melissa Extein cell: (561) 504-6325

Below is a follow-up to the blog update you received in June regarding specific information for the second session at Yale.

Presentations: Each presentation typically lasts about 1 hour. The location of all presentations will be at Davies Auditorium at Becton Center, 15 Prospect St.

August 2:
9:00 am: El Salvador
10:30 am: Cambodia
1:00 pm: China
2:30 pm: Madagascar
4:00 pm: India

Final Picnic: There will be an informal picnic immediately following the India presentation (roughly 6 p.m.). This is a chance for parents to meet their child's leaders and other group members, hear stories, and congratulate the groups on their hard work in-country. This Final Picnic will be held at Berkeley College.

Note on Group Dynamics and "Yale Magic": We understand that parents want to spend time with their child after being apart for a month, and we encourage you to come to the presentations and the final picnic. However, your child's program doesn't end until the morning after the presentations! A key part of the Global Action experience is the close relationships students form within their group, and with other Global Action participants in the larger community created at Yale. From past experience we can tell you that they are anxious to participate fully in all presentations and in other activities organized by their leaders. If even a few students are missing from these, the sense of community is lost. Therefore, we ask that you do not take your child away from the program early, or schedule separate time with your child prior to departure. We appreciate your help in maximizing the students' experience at Yale!

Departure Details: Staff members will accompany the students departing by plane, train, and bus to see them off the morning after the presentations. For those students getting picked up by parents - please check in with a staff member before you leave so we can account for everyone!

Lodging & Parking: For those planning to travel to attend the presentations and wishing to stay in New Haven, we recommend any of the hotels listed below. For an interactive map to locate Berkeley College, Davies Auditorium, and close parking please visit: http://business.yale.edu/map/.

The following hotels are within walking distance from our campus:

Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale
155 Temple Street
(800) THE-OMNI
(203) 772-6664
www.omnihotels.com

Courtyard by Marriott at Yale
30 Whalley Avenue
(800) 321-2211
(203) 777-6221
www.courtyardmarriottyale.com

New Haven Hotel
229 George Street
(203) 498-3100
www.newhavenhotel.com

Important Information:

• Davies Auditorium at Becton Center, 15 Prospect St. (location of presentations)

• Berkeley College South Court, entrance on College St between Wall and Elm Streets. (Global Action accommodations - location of Final Picnic and pick-up). Access Berkeley South from College St between Elm and Wall and then follow the signs toward the Berkeley courtyard. You'll know you're going in the right direction if you're walking toward the huge cathedral-looking library, and Berkeley South will be on your left.

• (203) 436-0557, (office telephone for Putney's Global Action at Yale)

• pstgaia@gmail.com, (Global Action email for questions during Yale)

Our Journey in Photos

When we showed up at the orphanage in Kampong Chhnang, they had an elaborate Apsara dance prepared for us….

So we practiced our "elaborate" American Soulja Boy dance to perform for them.

Kheng also learned the Soulja Boy (from Sarah and Nat).

Lily and Erin chill with some monks at a wat in Kampong Chhnang

Betsy eats a cricket!!

Annabelle poses with her new friend. (This child is not about to go into surgery; we thought that the painting would be easier with dust masks, until we realized how hot and annoying they were.)

Similarly, we thought that gloves would help us with the painting…

Until we realized that they worked better as balloons.

Gabby models her two $3 x-rays

Natalie, decorated with paint splatters.

Peace!

Caroline takes Birdie on a Perch rather seriously…

The children do not.

Christina, Barr and Betsy painting at the Friends school.

Lunch with Pat (notice Weiner's nanners).

Lindsey gives her cyclo driver a break

Barr plays with a girl at the A New Day Cambodia center

Sarah enjoys a ride down the waterslide at the Phnom Penh Water Park with a girl
from A New Day Cambodia

Dancing at the Olympic Stadium for exercise in Phnom Penh!

Isabel shows off her traditional Cambodian music skills

Dinner with Kheng at Two Fish restaurant in Phnom Penh

Nat catches a short ride on the back of Shanti's bicycle in Phnom Penh

On to Siem Reap . . .

Today we travel from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap for the last leg of our trip. We have had a fabulous time in Phnom Penh. Shanti lives here, so she and her friends have given us a lot of inside glimpses into the NGO (non-governmental organization) scene.

Our most in-depth work has been with Aziza, a tiny international schoolhouse in the Dai Krahom slums. These slums are being threatened with illegal eviction, so the residents are organizing to take control of their neighborhood. We have been to Aziza almost every day since Kompong Chhnang. Here, we have taught English, taught (and learned) a number of songs and games, and even gone rollerskating with some of our student friends (which was too crazy for words, but I will say that no one got hurt). Our students helped the older Aziza students design posters for their garbage awareness campaign. We also worked with the leadership program, a truly inspiring example of how Cambodians from all corners of society are hungry for knowledge and a shot at upward mobility. Together with the Aziza students, we designed and printed a t-shirt, which will be on sale at Yale (all proceeds, of course, will go to the leadership program).

In addition, we have continued our mealtime speaker series. Recent speakers have included the founder of 'Fair Fashion Cambodia', a socially responsible business that employs formerly trafficked women; a Cambodian who works in international peacemaking and reconciliation; and an American lawyer who works inside Cambodia's Ministry of the Interior.

Now, a few personal snippets:

Natalie Gibney has let go of many of her attachments to America, but she continues to challenge every guest speaker with the same opening question: "What's your favorite football team?" When they don't respond, she pretends they are Patriots fans and makes fun of them anyway.

Even though no one on the trip has lice (we promise), Christina continues to freak out every time someone mentions the word. Christina is also looking forward to being our unofficial tour guide in Siem Reap.

Gabby has gotten over her share of medical scares on this trip. Most notably, we thought she had broken her hand playing volleyball; but, after two $3 X-rays and some magic Chinese oil, everything turned out to be fine. Gabby is now an expert on Cambodia's healthcare system, and holds the group record for most prescriptions. Also, she looks fly in her jingly pants.

Betsy (a.k.a. Pepsi) has charmed many of our lunchtime speakers with her probing questions and insightful glances. She may not be the best rollerskater in the group, but she had a fantastic time at the Olympic Stadium. She has also managed to stay caffeine-free for the entire trip.

Sarah was a dancing machine at the Olympic Stadium. She also founded the famous skipping races at Hun Sen park. Even though she was forced to leave her several dozen pairs of leggings at Yale, Sarah has maintained her perky attitude throughout the trip.

Annabelle has been entertaining the Putney masses with her "talking with her mouth closed" act. (It's actually really cool.) When she is not spending time with Li'l Wayne via her iPod, Annabelle enjoys interacting with children, seeking out vegetarian food, and asking to go to Pencil.

Weiner (a.k.a. Izzy, a.k.a. Wee-Wee, a.k.a. Nannerface) has developed a reputation as the sage of the group. Whenever she has something to say at group meetings, people listen with rapt silence. Usually, the silence is rewarded with a nugget of wisdom. Sometimes, though, she just talks about how much she loves bananas.

Nat Morin dove in to the Aziza community quickly; within our first few hours there, she had already pledged her hand in marriage to several of the older students. Her encyclopedic pop culture knowledge has come in handy several times -- in teaching the Soulja Boy dance, for example, or whenever someone forgets the lyrics to a song from Mulan. Still, Nat starts an unfortunate number of her sentences with "This one time, at Chinese camp..."

Lindsey has been our social chair. When most of us are ready to turn in, Lindsey usually wants to hang out with a new Cambodian friend -- without her, for instance, the roller skating trip would not have happened. On the down side, her snorting laugh is becoming a bit of a distraction.

After a bout with staph infection, Erin is feeling better. Erin is one of the most ambitious travelers here, in the sense that she never passes up an opportunity to go anywhere, at any time. Her interest in the arts has led her to develop a lot of friendships, especially at the orphanage in Kompong Chhnang. Her trip was perfect until her sandal broke yesterday.

Caroline bonded with the two Texan ex-pats at dinner last night, but other than that she has been very patient with her bi-coastal peers. Her insights at group meetings, especially in the last few days, have challenged us and enriched our discussions. She is still angry that she was not allowed to swim in the filthy Mekong.

Though we have perfected a full repertoire of impressions of every member of the group, the Lily impression remains elusive. We're not quite sure what that means. Lily has shown impressive energy and enthusiasm through all our projects -- except the one day she had to take a Benadryl after a parmesan scare. She has also made some fantastic contributions to the group journal. Her "free free free" song, co-written with Kheng, has become one of the greatest hits of the trip.

Barr (a.k.a. the Beast) is the resident dance pro of the group. At the Aziza party last Saturday (one of our many sweaty dance parties with Cambodian kids), Barr claimed that she didn't have the energy to be the life of the party yet again. Three hours later, we had to drag her off the dance floor.

Working with children in Kompong Chhnang

We're back in the big city!

We spent most of last week (July 9-14) working with an orphanage in Kompong Chhnang. As the town is not a stop on the standard tourist circuit, we attracted a lot of stares and got a good dose of non-homogenized Khmer culture. To wit: in the market one morning, most of the group (10 out of 13, according to my count) ate fried crickets! Still, Kompong Chhnang is a province capital and fairly sizable town, so we did enjoy a few amenities. When a few students found themselves craving some comfort food, we were able to scrounge up a lunch of baguettes with peanut butter and jelly.

Our work at the orphanage was physically demanding and highly rewarding. We were asked to paint the entire girls' dormitory, interior and exterior, using rollers on bamboo poles. Our progress was slow at first, thanks to the unrelenting heat, our limited skills as housepainters, and the somewhat disorganized setting (think 60 children playing amid piles of newspaper).

By the end of the four days, however, our skills as painters and self-motivators had improved greatly. We learned to work together as a Putney team, and to cooperate effectively with the children from the orphanage. In fact, the "chore" of painting quickly turned into a bonding experience, and our work partnership with the Kompong Chhnang children quickly turned into friendship. When it came time to decorate the interior walls with animals, vines, and butterflies, we found -- after some prodding -- that the orphanage kids were highly skilled artists!

Meanwhile, consistent with our broad Global Awareness in Action focus, we had intensive daily discussions about our work -- discussions about what community service work means in a global context, what it means to be a cultural ambassador, whether generosity can overlap with self-interest, and so on. Every single member of the group has made invaluable contributions to these talks.

We finished our painting in only three days, so we dedicated the last day to a field trip -- with all 68 of the children from the orphanage in tow! We drove to the nearby rice fields (Natalie Morin, Isabel, Caroline, and Lindsey all waded in the mud to try planting) and saw local potters at work. Then we relaxed by a lake, ate a pack lunch, and went on a fairly strenuous hike -- at least, it seemed strenuous in 100-degree heat and flip-flops. Then we returned to the orphanage for a celebratory final-night feast (roasted pig and Coke!) followed by a dance party with the children. They taught us some Apsara dance moves and we cranked dat Souljah Boy.

Now we are back in Phnom Penh at the Townview. We visited the genocide memorials at Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek -- not a fun afternoon, but edifying for everyone. We have also started working with other children's organizations in the city, including Friends and Aziza. (Since the Aziza students are older and speak more English than the kids in Kompong Chhnang, we are planning some more creative projects with them.)

We have also set up a series of informal mealtime speakers. So far we have heard from a U.S. Marine who works at the embassy, a Cambodian American who works in village political reform, and an Australian who works with the Work for Food Programme.

Goodbye for now,
Andrew and Shanti

Phnom Penh via cyclo and tuk-tuk

We're here! We left New York Saturday night and, after an epic flight, arrived in Phnom Penh on Monday morning. The group was stoic about the grueling schedule (the on-demand movies didn't hurt) and arrived smiling, if a bit bleary-eyed. But there was no rest for the weary on Monday morning; after dropping off bags at the hotel, we hopped on 13 cyclos (bicycle rickshaws) for a tour of the city. It is monsoon season here, but the cyclo drivers were prepared with tarps, so the rain was not a problem. After the tour we had a nice, pseudo-Western dinner and then, finally, the sleep we had all been craving.

Today, at Shanti's apartment, we gathered for a group orientation. We discussed issues of safety, health, and culture shock, and brainstormed about our goals and expectations for the trip. Then we hired a few tuk-tuks (motor-taxis) to take us to Friends Restaurant for delicious tapas. Friends is associated with ChildSafe International (http://childsafe.com/), a group that fights against the abuse of children. All the employees of Friends Restaurant are former street children who have been trained in cooking. We then visited the Friends center, where Cambodian volunteers teach street children English, math, the arts, sewing, cooking, welding, and other trades. We will work more with Friends when we return to Phnom Penh.

In the afternoon we drove to Arn's house. Arn is an amazing person. His story is hard to put into just a few words; you can learn more about him from the film "The Flute Player," if you haven't seen it already. To put it very briefly, Arn was a child soldier under Pol Pot. After being orphaned in the genocide he moved to America, studied, and returned to Cambodia to preserve the traditional and contemporary arts. Arn played the flute for us, showed us a Khmer hip-hop video he's working on, and led a frank and moving discussion about Cambodia's future. On the way home, the students used phrases like "role model," "eye-opening," and "something I'll remember for the rest of my life."

All is well here!

Goodbye for now,
Andrew and Shanti

The group has arrived

We've received word from the leaders that the group has arrived in Phnom Penh. After a brief stop at their hotel, the group headed to Shanti's apartment where they spent some time getting to know each other and talking about the experience ahead. Next, they headed out on a three hour cyclo (bicycle rickshaw) tour of Phnom Penh. The group ate a delicious dinner at a Chinese restaurant and not long afterwards everyone was in bed, exhausted! All is well.

News from Yale

Hello friends and family of Global Awareness in Action World Issues participants! Our time at Yale has flown by since the students' arrival on Thursday afternoon. We've used this time to set the stage for the challenging, emotional, and exhilarating trips that all the students departed on this past Saturday to India, China, El Salvador, Madagascar, and Cambodia.

On Thursday, after a general orientation and icebreakers, the students split up into their country groups to plan brief presentations for their peers about the countries to which they are traveling. After the welcome BBQ dinner, students divided into special groups called "Yalepods," which are made up of three or four students from each country group. The pre-presentations, which students gave to the rest of their Yalepods, highlighted where they are going, the themes of their trip, current issues in their destination countries, and their personal interests and goals for the program. After the presentations, each Yalepod spontaneously broke out into some impressively thoughtful discussions in reaction to what they had just shared with each other, and took enjoyable walking tours of the Yale campus.

We began Friday with a keynote address to the whole group by GAIA Director Diego Merino. Diego urged students to immerse themselves in their country's realities and dedicate themselves to understanding them, as a foundation for being able to take meaningful action to help address the world's most pressing problems. Next, students immediately got a chance to learn about and discuss issues to prepare them for their trips through six leader-led seminars, of which each student chose two. The seminars were: Is Money the Answer to Development Problems, Buy an iPod or Save a Baby, The Global Economy, America's Place in the World, Born in the USA: Race, Class and Gender Privilege, and Urbanization in the Global South. In the seminars, students did role-plays, simulations, read articles, had discussions, and in general enthusiastically got into some of the major issues that will cut across all of the GAIA trips this summer: poverty and wealth inequality, environmental degradation, privilege and responsibility, theories of development, women and gender, and more. Students were excited and engaged in the seminars and the discussions from them spilled out into the rest of the day!

We continued the day with a group viewing of the film "Life and Debt," a documentary exploring the impact of International Monetary Fund policies on workers, farmers and the poor in Jamaica, and followed the film with lively discussion in our Yalepods over dinner. After dinner, we had a round of ice cream sundaes, then a lovely closing ceremony with all 80 students circled on the lawn outside Berkeley College, in which each student in turn lit a sparkler and said one thing they were very excited about for the trip. The day concluded with an enthusiastic five-way yoga ball soccer tournament in our bare feet on the wet lawn!

Everything has gone smoothly at Yale, the energy has been very high and leaders and students are excited to get to their countries! You will be hearing from them soon, when they arrive in-country, and then there will be periodic updates coming about their adventures and activities.

And last but not least, a huge shout-out from Diego and Melissa to the amazing staff of leaders who worked so hard to make the Yale I portion of GAIA Public Health a success: Jessi Duston, Sammy Sass, Shereef Zaki, Joe Block, Julia Tong, David Fuente, Andrew Marantz and Harry Khan! Their passion for their countries and global issues, skills as leaders, and their excitement to share their experiences with their students are what will make this program unforgettable.

By Saturday night, Diego heard from all five groups that they made their flights successfully. They're off!