Wednesday, May 16, 2012
5:47 AM |
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Well here I am writing this last blog post from Canada. My last post was from April 24th and I m not quite sure where all that time has gone. Time flew by. After we got back from Nepal, the last portion of the course was jammed packed; it was hitting home that our time in Bangkok was almost done. We had to wrap up all our assignments and prepare our individual presentations for our public seminars as well prepare a class presentation for the Rotary World Peace Symposium. It was a busy time, trying to cram in all the last minute things we wanted to do in Bangkok, spend time together with our new friends and welcome many of our Peace Fellows families to Thailand, who have come to see their loved one graduate and tour the country.
It was a busy time for the Rotarians in Bangkok as well as they were preparing for 35000 Rotarians from around the world to come for the Rotary International Convention. Bangkok came alive with Welcome Rotarian Billboards and signs everywhere throughout the city, it was really an impressive site.
The first week of May, which is also our last week was a whirlwind of activity, starting with our Public Seminar presentations on May 1st delivered in panel style, followed by a reception and our graduation; a bittersweet moment. So happy to have successfully completed the course but yet so sad to know that soon we will all be going our separate ways. On May 2nd we had our final farewell get together as a class, May 3rd, 4th and 5th we attended the Peace Symposium with our class presentation on May 4th. Our class topic was Mobilizing the Rotary Peace Fellows network to help with the final push of eliminating Polio from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The evening of the 3rd, there was a large reception at the Intercontinental to network with fellow past Rotary Peace fellows and Rotarians, the 4th we had a Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni dinner and the evening of the 5th was a reception for all Rotary Peace Fellows from Chulalongkorn University, here we were presented with Chulalongkorn pins by the University’s Vice-President. This was also our last formal even as a class and the good byes were hard.
The morning of May 6th was a hard day, it was suddenly very quiet around campus. Many of my classmates left for flights throughout the night. I myself was packing up to move off campus for my last few days on campus. Even the goodbyes to the staff at the residence and the parking guys who always greeted me with a big smile every time I came and went from residence were hard to say goodbye too.
This course has been an amazing experience in every aspect of it. The skills and tools I have learned in class, the experiences on our filed studies to Mae Sot and Nepal, the personal growth, the new friends from around the world, all of it was truly challenging and amazing. Rotary gives so much for people like me ready to take on their challenges; it is hard to imagine how to ever thank them for the experiences other than to continue to do good work and make ‘em proud!
One of our Instructors, Miki Jecevic during week 7 had told us to try and prepare for re-entry into our lives back home after this course, he told us, we will have been changed forever for this course and re-entry will be tough. At week 7 I could potentially see this, however at the end of week 12, I really had no idea how hard it would be until hit and hit hard.
I am home now and trying to reflect on my last three months and ready to apply what I have learned but at this point, only 4 days home I still feel like my heart is in Bangkok at the Rotary Peace Center.
Thank you to those who have followed my blog!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
10:43 AM |
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I am now back in Bangkok after 9 days of field study on Post Conflict Transformation in Nepal. Nepal is recovering after 10 years of 'civil war' and is still on the edge of some political tensions, we visited a number of organizations working to facilitate Peace talks between opposing sides and trying to develop the best government for the country. Some of our visits I found quite frustrating as it was clear some had their own political agendas; but others seemed to be doing some great work on the ground especially ones working with ex-combatants, many of which were considered child soldiers and trying to provide training to them and integrate back into society. While we were there we got caught in a middle of a bandh, which is essentially a strike. The police and military presence was quite impressive. during the bandh, you are not able to travel basically crippling the city. However, because we're we're in specially marked vehicles we were cautiously able to move throughout Kathmandu, which worked out well as our speakers were unable to come to us.
We also visited a project site funded by Heifer International which was an amazing experience. The Heifer principal is providing an animal to a family to generate a livelihood or income. The principal is simple but has more benefits that one could even imagine. In this case it all started from a simple goat. In order to obtain an animal the receiver has to get training first. In the village we visited we were met by approximately 25 women who now have their own women's organization and have a voice and are able to provide for their families and not rely on a husband. These women told us their stories of receiving their training and their first goat and how it has transformed them. Also they are from the lowest of the caste system and they said they have never been able to give anyone anything and now with their training and ability to have animals they can pass on the gift of a goat to another women In their community. One women said "my parents gave me life, but Heifer gave me a living and I am so thankful.' This by far was one of my favourite site visits in Nepal. But there were so many more that were great to. The days of field study are challenging, operating on 4 or 5 hours sleep and on and off a bus after driving on crazy winding bumpy roads and the bit of free time we have in the evening is spent trying to squeeze in some of the tourist type attractions of the local area. I have taken some great photos here in Nepal, but really I don't think you could take a bad picture here. I so much enjoyed the food here and the temperature here was just perfect and a nice break from the humidity in Thailand.
As we head back to Thailand today I can't help think of all the homework due this week as we are nearing the end of our course, not looking forward to it. (the homework or the end) the majority of our written assignments will be completed this week and then we only have one week after that to prepare for our individual seminar/presentations open to the public. As well our group seminar to be delivered at the World Peace Symposium. Plus I am still trying to cram work in with the Department of Special Investigations.
Friday, April 6, 2012
8:00 AM |
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I'm off to Nepal from April 7th to 15th for field study. Not sure how the Internet access will be or the time to access it for that matter. Be in touch soon!
Monday, April 2, 2012
5:39 AM |
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This past week has been a super busy one...although every week here is, they seem to be getting busier and going by much faster. It is hard to believe we are now over our halfway point in this course. It's cooking hot here and we are now officially in summer and it is only getting hotter and more humid by the minute, the nights don't even cool down. School work is going well and the workload is as strong as ever, plus we have to get prepared for the World Peace Symposium coming up the first of May. It is held every three years and this year it is being held here in Bangkok and seeing as we are the Peace Fellows for 2012 we have an extra big workload on top of our regular work. One of our projects for the Peace Symposium is a push for networking and using our contacts and the contacts of all the Peace Fellows world wide to help with the eradication of Polio. Rotary has been working at this task for a number of years and are now so close to the end with only 3 countries left to eradicate it from, however there are several challenges making it difficult, which is why we all need to come together to and use our resources to make this eradication happen!
Sent from my iPad
This past week started out with my weekend in Pattaya working with the Pattaya-Jomtien Rotary Club, then through the week after classes I worked with Thailand Department of Special Investigations, it has been a great opportunity and networking opportunity. They have requested me for more work, so I'm trying hard to squeeze it all in between school work and Rotary functions, too great an opportunity to miss! I then had a dinner cruise with our host counsellors on Friday night, and once again Rotary has gone over the top! It was a beautiful night and great view of the Grand Palace at night. After the cruise I then had a very brief nap before getting up at 3 am to head to Cambodia for the weekend. It was a whirlwind trip trying to see a whole country in a weekend. I seem to be operating on very little sleep these days but really trying not to miss any opportunity here. Cambodia is beautiful, I got to see Angkor Wat, one of the world heritage sites designated by UNESCO. I took some great pictures, wish I had more time there but doing what we can.
This week is shaping up to be just as crazy...today in class we are looking at Capacity Building in Peacekeeping. We are also trying to prepare for our field study in Nepal, which we leave for on Saturday for 9 days. Then the weekend after that I am hoping to cram in a whirlwind trip of Laos...but will see how Nepal goes first!
Anyways, just a quick update...all is going great and I'm loving living in Bangkok, it will be an adjustment coming back to my life in Jeannette's Creek! But I am looking forward to a new and renewed perspective of life.
Sent from my iPad
12:40 AM |
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Sleep can be hard to come by on this course...the trick is to get it in on any break you can, wherever you are...lol
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
9:16 AM |
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Pattaya, Thailand
Jomtien-Pattaya Rotary Club members awaiting the swimmers for the cross bay charity event
Police helping out with the event
Pattaya Beach
9:13 AM |
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Time is flying by, we are now in our 7th week here! It has been a while since my last post, which was during my Field study in Mae Sot. We made it safe and sound back to Bangkok on St. Patrick's day. I only had one day off to recover from the field study and then it was a full day of professional networking. I met with the Department of Special Investigations who are under the Ministry of Justice here. They focus on international crime and white collar crimes as well as corruption. Made some great contacts as well I have some opportunity to work with them while I am here. I then went to visit the Central Institute of Forensic Science. There are some interesting challenges here for the CIFS, one being the volume of unclaimed or unidentified remains. They still have approximately 500 people from the tsunami that have been unclaimed. Some of the challenges here is the large volume of illegal immigrants which makes identification of deceased difficult.
This past weekend I travelled to Pattaya to help out the Jomtien-Pattaya Rotary Club with the Cross the Bay Charity Swim. It is about a two hour bus ride from Bangkok and an interesting place! I spent the day Sunday giving out medals to the swimmers and helping out with the event. See if you can spot me in the pic and the news clip!
http://www.pattayapeople.com/default.asp?Folder=16&IdArticle=30356
http://www.pattayapeople.com/default.asp?Folder=16&IdArticle=30356
Sorry for the short post! so much more to fill everyone in on...hopefully will get a chance to catch up soon
Monday, March 26, 2012
11:28 PM |
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My new friend
Department of Special Investigations
Massive government building...here was the Central Institute for Forensic Science
CSI Thailand
Inside government building
11:24 PM |
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An amazing assembly put on for us while in Mae Sot by the Burmese children
We visited a clinic in Mae Sot for the Burmese. Landmines are an issue in Burma and due to the lack of funding and status of the Burmese in Thailand the clinic makes do with what they can for supplies.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
6:10 PM |
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Hmmm not sure exactly where to start here....this has been an incredibly busy, information overload, unbelievable experience, educational and draining week. Emotions have been all over as I look at my role in this global society. It has been an intense filed study with many visits to organizations both government and non government organizations. Each having a different perspective on issues here along the Thailand/Burma border. We have looked at refugee issues, human trafficking, migrant labour and legislation and enforcement around these issues.
Early in the week I had the opportunity to attend one of the processing centers for International Organization for Migration (IOM) here is were the refugees come for health screening and interview process for applying for third country resettlement. In a brief nutshell refugees generally have three options...1. Return home, which is not really an option as their country is still full of conflict and not safe 2. Local integration, also which isn't a viable option as the host country has to allow this to happen or 3. Third country resettlement. The main countries that are open for resettlement is the USA, Canada, Australia, and then to lesser amounts Japan, Netherlands, and a few others, but I won't list them all here. The process of resettlement is not a quick process and can take about a year except in a few emergency case it may be 3 to 4 months. The people go through a screening process to see if they will be accepted by a country. On the day I visited the processing center there were people in different stages of the process...they were usually picked up from the refugee camp and then brought to the processing center, here they would have to stay a few days to go through all the steps and then be bused back to the camps. It's not a facility that I would ever want to spend the night in but in many cases it's better than the camps...I can't even imagine.
At the processing center people are also provided with some cultural training of the the country they will be going to...this is only about 25 hours of training and includes language training. Some of these people have lived in camps their whole lives and haven't experienced the basic things we take for granted every day for example turning a light switch on, operating a stove, washing machine etc.. So as part of the training there are also mini kitchens and laundry rooms set up so they will know what to expect when they arrive in their new country. The day I was at the center I had the privilege to see off some refugees as they boarded a bus to Bangkok where they will then fly to Buffalo, New York. For me this was hard to watch, in one sense I admired their courage to pick up and leave their homes with nothing other then a few items of clothing that certainly won't prepare them for the cold. I admired their courage, but I couldn't help but feel sad as well for all that they are leaving behind and knowing somewhat what they will encounter in the US; it's going to be a whole new challenge for them. I really hope people can realize what some people have gone through to come to our countries. For me I think I have always thought I was somewhat aware, but seeing it first hand is something that I think has definitely changed me in some way.
The following day I actually was able to experience a refugee camp, but just from the outside. The camp is surrounded by barb wire, people are not allowed to leave without permission. However, there were many places in the fence were people would come and go and this is mainly to find work. There are guards surrounding the camp, but there seems to be some sort of tolerance for people to work as Thailand has a demand for workers. The people in the camps are not allowed to build any permanent structures despite this camp being there for 25 plus years. This means there house are made of wood and dried leaves. Recently one of the camps had a fire and lost about 20% of camp. There is no fire protection and seeing as the building materials are dry the fire burns and spreads quickly. There is also no formal waste disposal of any kind, houses are packed in. There is no land for anyone to have a garden and most rely on non-government organizations (NGOs) for food rations.
This is only the tip of the ice berg I could type all day if I had the time...
Human trafficking was also an issue we looked at and although it is a reality in almost every single country here it is occurring at a large rate as people are being taken advantage off that are coming here to find work. This fishing industry and sex trade are two of the main areas.
We went to visit a factory here in Mae Sot, there are many ceramics and textile factories here, many are not registered with the government and there was no way we would be able to get in and see one of them. We did get to visit a 'middle of the road' type factory, which is still somewhat shocking if you were to compare it to many of our factories at home. The factory visited makes sweaters to be shipped to Italy, most of the workforce is women. There is no benefits, breaks, sick days, anything of the sort; the conditions aren't great but better than some so I'm told. It really makes me think where the things I buy really come from. Some of the factories make the goods and the items are shipped without tags, then they are sewn on elsewhere which really makes it difficult to truly find out where the product comes from unless you actually follow it from start to finish yourself.
We visited some groups here that are non profit and working for the migrant labour force in legal issues. In Thailand the migrant labours can not form unions and are not covered by the health care system here or workers compensation. Some of these legal groups (similar to our legal aid system) work to fight these case in the Thai justice system.
Monday, March 12, 2012
6:36 AM |
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After our experience at the bridge we went back to the hotel where we were to have dinner with the Rotarians from Mae Sot. It was an unbelievable experience and I was moved to tears several times throughout the evening. The Rotarians, once again in my experience with Rotarians have gone above and beyond. They had decorated an area outside with a small stage, tables and chairs; there were paper umbrellas and lanterns hanging from the trees, fresh flowers everywhere, a big sign welcoming us to MaeSot and each and everyone of our flags were displayed! When they greeted us they presented us with a necklace made of jasmine and wrapped an embroidered scarf around our waists, there were girls in traditional Thai dress as well. They had a band and the girls in Thai dress performed throughout dinner. Dinner was a huge buffet and it was fantastic. We sat with the wife of one of the Rotarians and she told us how she had picked the menu herself and the flowers were from her garden. It was all so very thoughtful. We were also all presented with two cups and saucer set that are hand painted with Rotary Peace Through Service. We then had some singing and dancing...I got pulled up there by one of the Rotarians and had to dance in front of everyone, I was so red! But had a blast and then everyone soon joined in and we all sang together too. After all this we were then called to the parking lot to send up 30 'balloons' which were giant paper lanterns. The Rotarians had to travel to Chaing Mai to get them for us. We lit a round piece at the bottom of the lantern and then had to hold them up to keep the paper from catching fire until there was enough hot air to release them into the sky. As you release them you make a wish. I went and thanked each and every Rotarian that was there, their hearts are so big. They have done so much for us.
The evening was quite a contrast from our experience earlier in the day at the border, and really just made you that much more appreciative for what we have.
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