Feed on POSTS
Is there anyone out there in the interwebian atmosphere who would like to do me a solid? Like you’ve got some post-holiday kindness left within your credit limit and care to spare a few bucks so that I can keep up the photographic obsession that is my Flickr account?
You know, the space that has a whopping 7,646 photos for your leisurely perusal.
That’s where you get gems like this one, wherein I am a multi-colored belted Karate champion. (I haven’t a black belt on, because it would have clashed with the rest of the outfit.)
Or the absurd, perhaps induced by inhaling too many pollutants and sleep depravation.
The photostream is backlogged, but I’m starting to slowly get back into the habit of uploading. I still have a couple more weeks of Bangladesh to share, in addition to a trip to China with my folks, and various PDX-photographic-sundries. Help me out with another year, or two, before my account expires on Jan 3rd.
And hey, if you can do me this solid, I would love to send you a card with a couple photo prints inside!
Cheers.
Just another brief update to let ya’ll know that I’m still around, but reluctant to blog for a few reasons. I imagine that I might start writing regularly in this space again sometime deep into next year. Instead, I’ve been twittering like a twit, so if you need a fix of my Adoyzieisms in 140 characters or less, that’s the place to go. I’ve also embraced Facebook, for better or worse, where my youngest brother clicks “Like” when my status updates indicate that I’m having a bad period day.
Before the year is over, I’ll be sure to post a bullet-list of some of the stuff that’s happened since I’ve been home. It’ll be a good six months worth of rollercoasterness. Pull that safety belt tight.
In the meantime, here’s a video of my fitful sleepiness in Chittagong, Bangladesh:
It’s been nearly three months since I’ve last updated and I apologize for the lack of words from this end of the fiber optic cables.
Being back home has been beautiful in ways I cannot enumerate. But the business of re-adjusting and re-settling after that year and a half in Chittagong, working for an institution that stripped me of so much, has been daunting and more difficult than I ever could have imagined. And to think that my students are still there. And to think that there are a new batch of wide-eyed, young women that have been brought into a school that is propped up by a bright, but fading, facade. It’s heartbreaking and I continue to have restless nights of sleep, mumbling my way through nightmares where I’m trying to lead my girls out of a winding labyrinth without luck.
A month after the majority of us returned home, we received an e-mail from the school’s founder’s assistant asking us for our contact information. The assistant mentioned that they wanted to have our addresses on file because the founder was thinking of taking us on a retreat. I could imagine vividly how each one of our faces, in different corners of the world, scoffed at our computer screens.
Of course, like all of the other platitudes, there is no retreat. Just frustration and agony and a deep well of resentment.
But I’m trying to come to terms with it all, one day at a time. Some days are brighter than others. Some days are beyond dark. I imagine that I’ll be able to push through this like I did in Bangladesh.
Filed under: Big Bang
Our faculty of teachers made a group speech at the graduation ceremony, as a last message to our dear students. We spoke of characteristics that we’ve seen in them, and that they ought to cultivate as they continue their journeys. My portion of the speech was about strength. This was my message:
We know how strong you are, but there may still be people who will question your strength.
If anyone ever tells you that you are not strong enough to do something, you can say to them
Even if I am not strong enough to lift buildings and cars, I have the strength to lift communities and spirits.
Even if I am not strong enough to move mountains, I have the strength to help my country, and the world, move forward by fighting for equality and empowerment for everyone.
Even if I am not strong enough to break stone with my bare hands, I have the strength to break negative stereotypes of Asian women.
You say to them, I have a voice and the strength to speak up with it.
You say to them, I have my own ideas and opinions, and the strength to do what’s right.
You say to them, I am an Asian woman and I have the strength to exceed expectations and rise about limitations.
You say to them, I am an Asian woman and I have the strength to make dreams come true.
This is us (minus the five teachers that came months later), 16 months ago. We were something else. We were fresh. We were ready to charge into Chittagong and uproot and change and help to better those who wanted to be better. We were here.
We were many things, and most of all we were hopeful. We continue to be hopeful, but not without that same hope wrapped in layers of skepticism. We’ve fought, we’ve scratched and crawled, we’ve been hurt and scarred. But we survived.
This is us 16 months ago.
And we are all still here.
Filed under: Big Bang
A couple weeks ago the Bangladeshi government decided that it was in the best interest of their great nation and for the sake of energy conservation to begin enacting daylight savings. This also coincided with a new policy in our residential building where the laborers are supposed to stop hammering and pounding away after 10PM, because trying to rest while a circular saw is revving its way through two-by-fours just the floor above can be quite disconcerting if you’re trying to recoup from a day of working at our school.
The saving of daylight has been pleasant, its nice to wake up from my post-work nap and it’s still light out as I’m fixing dinner. I wonder if the laborers had a chance to enjoy more of the sunlight because it seemed that they continued to work by the sun as long as it was up, and even after it set, and pass the 10PM loud-construction-noise-curfew. Days passed and they kept passing their curfew with heavy pounding that seemed to come from all sides at once. Finally, our super (yep, there’s a superintendent now, because the important folk have moved into the building and us piddly little teachers didn’t deserve a super before their arrival), informed us that the workers had continued working because they hadn’t realized it was 10PM- they hadn’t set their watches an hour ahead. This was four days after the entire country decided to spring forward.
Let’s do the math: if it takes four+ days to get a crew of workers to grasp the concept of daylight savings time, how many days will it take for folks to grasp bigger, larger, looming ideas like gender equality, education as a means to eradicate poverty and that volunteer teachers are worth just as many pennies as salaried faculty?
We can save daylight- we can harness the power and energy of the brightest burning star in our galaxy. But for some odd reason we find it difficult to treat each other fairly- to offer decency.
Of the many awesome things I got to do with my students, I had the opportunity to teach a capacity building class about blogging. My students were fantastic and seized this new platform for getting their voices heard on the vast wilderness of the internet.
I just know that I’ll watch this video months from now, seeing them speak about how they found a medium have express their ideas, thoughts and opinions, and how it will make my heart ache with missing them and their evolution. At the very least, we’ll have the internet and if I’m lucky they’ll update me on their progress through these fiber optic wires. I will be able to witness their transformation from afar, much like you have done through my blog.
For more info: auwstudentblogs.wordpress.com/
This is quite possibly the most accurate search query that has brought a visitor to my blog:
nerdy teacher in front of class
