A new trip!

Nakuru, Kenya Volunteer Project

Tom Bode

thomasgbode@gmail.com

503-341-4507

Project Overview

I will travel to Nakuru, Kenya, through the Experiential Learning International organization where I will volunteer for eight months. I will leave in early October, and will spend until January working with a locally run microfinance organization. In January, the local school year will start and I will teach literacy and math to primary-age students at the Pistis Education Centre. The Pistis Centre is a locally run religious organization that provides housing and education to local children.  About half of the students at the school are orphans.

Project Objective

My objective is to volunteer for institutions in Kenya that are working to alleviate poverty. I will educate young Kenyans so that they are better able to escape poverty and improve their lives. I will also assist with the daily operations of the Pistis Centre, which functions as an orphanage for a large number of children. 

While the school is on break, I will work for a Kenyan microfinance organization, which facilitates economic development and self sufficiency in very poor areas of Nakuru. Microfinance organizations offer people without credit the capital necessary to start a business. This process of developing the economy has several advantages over large, top-down aid projects that do not develop economic institutions at a lower level.

Personal Motivation & Objective

I want to volunteer in Kenya because I will be directly helping impoverished people in a way that will reduce the cycle of poverty. I will be volunteering for programs that are proven to reduce poverty and increase quality of life. This project will also be a meaningful personal experience - I will make a large investment of my time and effort in other people who I will likely never see again, because I believe we all have some responsibility for the condition of other people. To help those significantly less fortunate than myself is to acknowledge this responsibility and act on it. This project will create memories that will remind me of that obligation for the rest of my life.

Personal Background

I was born and raised in Oregon. I was active in the Boy Scouts where I enjoyed exploring the outdoors and began to volunteer in community service projects. I was awarded Eagle Scout rank in 2004. I graduated in 2009 from the University of Oregon cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science. During that time I spent a term studying abroad in Singapore. I have volunteered with the SMART program, which places volunteer readers in elementary schools to work on literacy one-on-one with first, second, and third graders. I have held several jobs since graduation and am currently working for a startup vacation rental company company based in Portland. I intend to enroll in law school shortly after returning from Kenya.

Project Budget

This is an approximate budget of the cost for this eight month project:

Round trip airfare between Portland and Nairobi, Kenya	$1,500
Program cost (includes room & board)	$3,622
travel insurance	$650
international health insurance	included in my current coverage
daily living expense ($10/day)	$2,400
incidental costs (pre-departure expenses, unexpected in-country costs, etc)	$1,000
Total	$9,172

Request for Support

I am asking for your financial support for my project in Nakuru, Kenya. Your contribution will ensure that I am able to complete all eight months of this project and that I will have sufficient funds to do so in a safe way. Approximately 90% of the program fee goes to Kenya, where it helps support the institutions I will be working with and compensates my homestay family for providing my room and board. Your financial and moral support of my project means a lot to me, and I will acknowledge your support whenever I can.

Fees paid to the Experiential Learning International organization may be tax deductible as the organization is a registered 501(c)3.

Links

Experiential Learning International: www.eliabroad.org

Wall Street Journal article on microfinance in Kenya: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303644004577523460028810528.html

Eugene

Winter term is almost over - only one week of classes left. I've enjoyed experiencing Portland, Eugene, and the United States as a traveler returning home. I have a new appreciation of what we have here and what we don't have.

I've gotten myself involved this term with several groups on campus. I'm enjoying the UO Investment group more and plan to continue that through next year (including their trip to NY in the fall!), I'm working on a team running for student government this spring, and I'm the new president of the Honors College Student Association. This term I'm creating the prospectus for the economics thesis that I will write next term.


Because I have loads of work to do for the end of the term, I've played around with the resources offered UO students and made website for myself. Check it out: uoregon.edu/~tbode

Even though I added a second major, Political Science, on my return to the University, I will still be graduating 15 months from now in June 2009. I hope to have the time, money, and traveling partners to take another international trip - destination: South America.

Home

The trip home was long and tiring. Nothing more needs to be said.

I slept 16 hours straight my first night home - I was very tired. The second night, however, I went to sleep at 11pm and woke up at 2am, wide awake. I eventually gave up and read a book, cleaned my desk, unpacked, and now I'm interneting and it's 6am. I'm tired now, so I guess the plan worked.

My final trip to Borneo was amazing. I climbed the mountain, did the wildlife adventure camp - observed two wild orangutans and a 15 foot python - and went scuba diving at Sipadan Island, the #4 scuba dive spot in the world. Do the Google search. I saw 3 sharks, lots on really big sea turtles, and thousands of really colorful little and big fish.

I'm not going to say any more about Borneo. For one, I want to go to bed, and two, I'm home now, come talk to me. I have lots to say.



That's the end of this blog, thanks for reading.

Kinabalu

Kinabalu National Park, 2:18pm, 7-12-07

The rain begins just as I put on my shoes to leave for a guided walk of the botanical gardens. Unfortunate. However, the room that Matt and I are saying in ("Hill Lodge #4") is nice and quite big. There is a writing desk, a couch, and lots of floor space. Its design is kind of like an uberdelux yurt. It's raining much harder now and it's cold too. Frankly, I'm not looking forward to walking through this tomorrow (or the next day, or the next...). But as my dad said it's raining at home too, so while my location is changeable the weather is not.

Perhaps I spoke too soon. After making tea, the rain has stopped - for the moment at least. I will prepare my clothes and go to the gardens. I suppose I'd better familiarize myself with cold rain once again.


Two days later
After two days on Kinabalu, I can hardly walk up the stairs to my room. The trail is 6 km the first day, then 2 more to the top and back to the bottom on the second. Most of the way is steps. And the reward was abstract at best. We got to the summit at 5:30am this morning. There was a heavy fog, a strong wind, and a cold rain. Conspicuously lacking was any sort of view.

The hike down was nice though, as it cleared up some and the barren granite landscape was cetainly unusual and grand. I took pictures, but I have no way to get them to onto the computer that I'm using at the hostel.

Tomorrow we take a 6 hour bus to the east coast of Borneo to the city of Sandakan. From there, we will spend several days in the jungle around the Kinagatangan river. It's like a jugle wildlife safari, I hope.

I can put up pictures when I'm waiting around in airports on my way home.

I just finished my last final!  It's amazing how finishing finals always feels so good.  I'm now waiting to get a foot massage. Life is good.

Almost done

Today is Sunday.  I have a final paper due tomorrow, an exam on Tuesday.  Wednesday, I pack.  Thursday the 6th, I leave for a ten day adventure in Borneo.  I return to Singapore on December 16, when I will occupy my last day with another concert, a trip to the Singapore night safari, and maybe a movie.  I spend whatever's left of that night at the airport, and board my flight home at 7:20 am.  I have a two hour layover in Tokyo, Japan, then fly at 5:20 pm to San Fransisco, arriving at 9:20 am of the same day, eight hours before I left for S.F.  I wait six hours, then board a flight to Portland, where I arrive at 6:03pm on United Flight 0554.  Hopefully someone will be there to pick me up (hint).

The most interesting part of all of that will undoubtedly be my trip to Borneo.  I'm paying an absurd amount of money to be escorted to the top of Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in SE Asia - it's taller than Mt. Hood.  After that, I take a bus east to the city of Sandakan, which serves as home base for an exploration of the Kinabatangan river.  The goal: see a lot of monkeys.  (There are also pygmy elephants!)

I'll publish pictures of that fun event after it's happened.  Then, my trip and this record will be over.  On balance, I'm glad I'm going home.

(now to go write that essay...)

SSO

I haven't been up to much exciting recently. Finals week is bearing down and I'm frantically throwing assignments at it hoping it will pass painlessly.

Last night I went to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. I've never been to "the Symphony" before, but I liked it. Tickets are only $12 for the cheap seats. It turns out a lot of people like that price, because the second balcony where all the cheap seats are was sold out and the good seats on the floor were empty.

pictures from Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Singapore

eeehhhwwww

I took three months, but the wildlife here is finally getting to me. There was the cocckraoch, first alive, then dead, in my bathroom. Tonight's encounter was closer to home, but not as gross.

I decided to go running. I took off my shorts and picked up my running shorts off the hook. There was a leaf inside. Oh wait, it's actually a lizard. I jumped, it jumped and hit under the frisbee. I got a picture before it ran under my door into the hall.



PS There is a large winged ant thing under a coke can on my desk. I keep forgetting and moving the can, so I don't know if it's still there. I'm not going to check.

The Right Honourable Tony Blair

This afternoon I went to the public lecture by former Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blair. I went with a British guy, so it really saw a very "Anglo" experience. Tony (we're buddies now - first names only) talked mostly about "The Crisis in Global Governance: Challenges and Solutions." But I thought the most interesting thing he talked about is how isolated he was as Prime Minister. Until he left that job this June he did not have a cell phone. He had also never sent an email.

I was pretty far away

There was a Q&A session after his speech. I went up to one of the mics with a question, but they ran out of time and didn't get to me. I wasn't too disappointed, because right after that there was a reception in the foyer with free food and drink that was actually really good.

Cockroaches

I walked into the bathroom this evening and found my nemesis vanquished.
See the spot in the middle of the floor? That's how tiny my nemesis is when it's not running on walls...

I am convinced that the several cockroach sightings in my bathroom were all the same roach, which is now dead. I am ecstatic.

GO DUCKS

I spent Wednesday through Friday of last week in Hong Kong with my parents. It's beautiful city - I later learned that Hong Kong means fragrant harbor. And it really is. Soft green hills rise out of the ocean and the mist in a very Chinese way. The city proper is built right on the edge of the harbor, where the hills meet the water, creating a wonderful crescent of skyscrapers. The weather reminded me strongly of a foggy summer day at the Oregon coast - very tiny raindrops, a flat gray sky and flat gray water, with a pleasant (not too cold) breeze. It was definitely a change from the tropical heat and humidity of Singapore.


My parents seemed like they had a very good time in Asia. I'm glad; I feel somehow responsible for how it behaved while they were here. On a related note, I thought it very funny that their hotel in Bangkok was in the middle of the red light district...

On an unrelated note, this Friday I'm going to a public lecture by Tony Blair here at NUS. This confirms that NUS is filthy rich. Not that I'm complaining. George Bush spoke here last year. I've met three students who were invited to stand on the stage with him and got pictures taken with him. I don't know anybody at home who's met George Bush. I guess world leaders just like Singapore.

Short choppy sentences. Time for bed.

GO DUCKS

Guest Author, Tom Bode Sr.

(Tom Jr. is looking good and in fine spirits, the Singaporean life style has not dulled his wit)

‘Little India’ is a section of Singapore, alive with people, vehicles, and goods-for-sale. Every street corner is unique, generations of building and repairing has let its concrete identity organically grow.

We stroll the tourist stalls near the main streets. Small cakes, trinkets, postcards, and plastic Buddhas. Tom Jr. is guiding us past the tourist area into where Indians live, work and shop. We walk in front of, in back of, and through stalls of everyday street food: headed fish wrapped in banana leaves, grilled lamb and beef kabobs, and little plastic bags of who-knows-what. Aisleways are so cramped sometimes you just stop and reverse course. All around is the aroma of the flower threaders mingled with pungent incense and the general commotion of venders rushing for the day.

Under Tom’s persistence, we cross a bland alley and enter a concrete covered area curiously known as a wet market. Why? It will be explained later. The narrow lanes between the venders are even more crowded than the street and crammed with small frame Indians. The eldest of them showing the imperfections of life in their faces. Here a hardened man deftly trims his beef and lamb, there another hacks at unknown flesh. Now whole fish are neatly displayed side by side, cold on the ice. The smell, the noise, the faces all blend. We crisscross ourselves to the tropical vegetables. Sellers with overflowing buckets of cabbages, okra, long beans, their hands hard at work trimming. Here we are, finally near sweet eats, a bowl of dragon fruit, purple with scales of leave, creamy flesh with small black seeds. Bananas of all varieties hang from hooks, here on the floor giant pods of jack fruit. Another cut open to release the smooth yellow finger of meat. Coconuts trimmed to sit upright, and provide its milk. Swirling sounds and color and aromas and commotion. This is Asia! Intense, never ending, always working.

We snack on lime juice, coconut and jack fruit. Why wet market? Because after the trimming and cleaning the owners hose off their goods and the shaded concrete floor is sloppy with water.

Chinese Food

Yesterday, my professor returned my essay on the Cambodia trip. It was a short essay, just four pages, and is worth 10 or 15% of our overall class grade. Just a filler assignment.

But the feedback on the paper was what I would expect on a final assessment. There was a lot of it, too. My professor engaged with the ideas, disagreed or agreed with me, commented on the writing style, called me out on poorly made points, and then wrote a one page explanation of my grade. I'm astonished that he did all that for such a relatively worthless assignment.


The grade also surprised me. My expectations were based on the 200 level (non-honors) classes I've taken at Oregon, and I was expecting an A- or an A, with a one or two sentence explanation. I took two 400 level classes last year and I got almost no feedback that impacted my writing (freshman year was better in that regard). And generally, most of the feedback comes one the final paper, when it is no longer useful in the context of the class.

Here's a class (or a professor, or a university - I don't know) where the entire term is a learning process. Specific critiques he gives me now I can assimilate and use on my final paper. It's completely obvious that this is the way classes are meant to work, and sad that I'm so surprised.

***
Tomorrow I'm flying to Hong Kong. I'll meet my parents there and stay through Sunday, though they're leaving Friday. I'd be more excited if I didn't have another essay due (same class) the Monday after I get back. I'll take my laptop to H.K. and pretend I'm on a business trip, like everybody else there.

I'm expecting good Chinese food.

Conversation in Class

"Where are you from?"
"The US"
"Which part?"
"State of Oregon - heard of it?"
"No..."
He draws a map.

"How about yourself - where are you from?"
"Guess. Here, I'll give you a hint: We fought a big war with the US"

awkward

I got it first try though...guess I know my history.

Americans in Singapore

It's 8:00pm Sunday. I just finished making my powerpoint for my presentation tomorrow morning on American expatriates in Singapore. To research this project, I spoke with a American professor at NUS who's been here for 18 years and doesn't like it at all and I visited the Singapore American School where he coaches the baseball team. I talked with some of the students and their parents.

I was astonished with much of what I found. The American community in SIngapore is well established and structured in such a way that there is minimal contact - almost none - with Singapore and Singaporeans. Walking around the campus of the Singapore American School, I felt like I was back home:


And both the students and the parents had no inclination to blend in or embrace Singapore. They create a little America based around the school and the American club. The students don't speak like Singaporeans, have never ridden the bus, and don't consider it home. It seemed like everyone on the baseball team was wearing a t shirt with the name of their home on it: state, university, or country.


They come here for one reason only: to make money. The financial, IT, and oil industries want American talent, and offer high salaries with lots of benefits (free tickets home, upper class life style, club membership). They come and work here for some years, then go home. Some stay, but they still want to go home someday.

I thought that wasn't acculturating very much. But relative to the rest of the Americans here, I'm practically a native.

Parents

Mom and Dad are in town. They're stunned like I was when I first arrived in Singapore. I'm taking advantage of that and tour-guideing them to all the places too expensive for me to go on my own. Today we went to the aquarium: feed the rays from your hand, pet puffer sharks, and walk through the aquarium tunnel. Popular with everyone. For dinner we went to a seafood center and got the chili crab, a "Singapore delicacy" that seems more popular in guidebooks than with locals. Maybe because it was really expensive - oh well, I wasn't paying. (thanks dad!)

I've got a super busy next 12+ days: tour all day Friday (tomorrow); conduct interviews Saturday afternoon, then in the evening go to an event at the US ambassador's residence (!) with the vice provost of the UO who's on an Asia tour and wants to meet the UO students here; Sunday I put together a presentation for Monday with a group; Monday give the presentation; Tuesday hand in a paper that I will somehow finish (another 3000 words....) between now and then; Wednesday I go to Hong Kong to meet up with the parents again - I'll return Sunday afternoon, just in time to write the paper corresponding with the presentation on Monday. Then I have a week to write a 10 page (single spaced) economic policy brief for the following Monday....

Mom, Dad: don't worry. By the time you read this it will all have been done already.

The only reason I'm up now is laundry.

Here're some picture to redeem this post that is actually a public to-do list:

My dad vacationing in the South Pacific.




A shark at the aquarium. Look at all those teeth...

Schooool

All of a sudden I have assignments due. I have survived this far in the term doing almost nothing and now at the end they spring all these papers and projects on me. I never saw them coming!

Speaking of coming, my parents. They're taking a package "Taste of Asia" trip around SE Asia - with a stop in Singapore! They'll be here this Thursday and Friday, then they fly to Bangkok for three days, then to Hong Kong for three days. I'm meeting them in Hong Kong next week. Very exciting! Of course, you can reasonably expect pictures 6-8 weeks after... Just kidding. I'll try to be better about putting up photos from my trips. I'm still working on the second half of my Indonesia trip. I've got good pictures and bad writing. Oddly, while I care about the latter, you may be more interested in the former. Oh well - I've got the post button, you'll just wait.

Here's a good picture from Cambodia that I didn't post:


That's a tarantula, meant for eating.

It may interest you top know that although I was in a restaurant in Cambodia, the tarantulas were from a province in China known for good tarantulas. The menu said so.

Days 3&4

This is another part II post. You can read about the first part of my trip to Java below.

After the first day in Jakarta, we spend the night in the Monica Hotel - the only hours of horizontal sleep I got the whole weekend. The next day began at five when we met the van and driver that we'd rented for a trip to the local volcanic plateau. I woke up at 4:55, so I forgot to bring my camera. The traffic on the way up was light so the trip took only 3 hours. The plateau is settled by farmers and is much more beautiful than the city. Sorry, no pictures. The ride back to our hotel took 5 hours, a period during which I lamented again and again my inability to say "toilet" in Indonesian.


That night, we left at 10pm for a bus ride to the base of Mt. Merapi. We joined a handful of other adventurers, and started climbing the mountain at 1am, with plans of making the summit for sunrise. The hike was not too long, but typical of the hiking trails of that continent, it was very steep and had eroded badly. The mountain itself is the most active volcano in Indonesia.




It's colder than it looks there. Also, that's volcanic steam, smelling of sulfur, not just clouds.



The top of the mountain was beautiful, as was the hike back down through the Indonesian morning.





We were exausted when we got to the bottom, but still had a long day ahead of us: a domestic flight back to Jakarta, then another flight back to Singapore. It was the longest 4 day, 1 night trip of my life!

This is Matt and a Frenchwoman after our hike off the volcano. Look at the facial expressions to really appreciate this picture.

Java, Indonesia

I'm sorry I've been late with stories from Indonesia. I'd like to say that I was waiting to get pictures from the other cameras on the trip, but really I've just been lazy.

So. Indonesia.
We flew Friday morning into Jakarta, the capital. Jakarta is the dirtiest, most crowded Asian city I've seen so far, significantly beating Bangkok - that's saying something. It's huge, sprawling miles out from a loose center area, has terrible roads, lots of slums, lots of pollution, and lots of bad smells. In a way, this was good, because it supported our plan to leave Jakarta that night for the (hopefully) more pleasant city of Yogyakarta.

Our intention was to explore Jakarta for part of the day, then buy passage on the night train to Yogya. I was astonished when the rest of the world didn't align to our plans. As it turned out, Saturday was Hari Raya, the holiday marking the end of the muslim fasting month of Ramadan. When a month of fasting during the day and abstention from fun ends, everybody goes nuts. (Indonesia, by the way, is the world's biggest Islamic country, with 88% or 210 million muslims.) As in, they all want to travel. At the first bus station (not the cheapest, not the most expensive) we were told that seats for the 8 hour ride to Yogya were sold out, but we could buy a standing ticket for the same price. We declined, then took a series of taxis around the city discovering that every other bus or train was completely booked. At one of the train stations, there were so many people in line that the local news station had a crew covering the story.

In the end we booked seats on a minibus (a 9 seater van) for about $30 US. After watching "The Office" in a local restaurant for a couple of hours, the van picked us up. We had to get three more passengers, we were told, then we'd start going to Yogya. Surprise surprise, traffic was TERRIBLE Friday evening before the biggest holiday of the year. Also, out driver didn't know where he was going. So we spent between 3 and 4 hours driving around Jakarta before we finally left the city.

We did get to see a lot of the celebrations. There were fireworks, music; I saw one group of people doing the proverbial "dance in the streets." There were also a lot of trucks covered in people with drums that drove around making a lot of noise.

I didn't get a lot of sleep in the van, which was too bad, because we didn't get to Yogyakarta until 8 am the next morning. Yes, a 14 hour van ride.

Yogyakarta was nicer that Jakarta. But the real attractions lay outside of the city. We booked a driver and a car through a tourist agency, and over the next three days saw some old temples, beautiful countryside, and volcanos. The temples were really amazing, unless you have just been to Angkor Wat, and then they're ho hum. They were ho hum.

Perhaps betraying my casual indifference towards these archeological wonders, I took many pictures, which I will now share.

This is Borobudur temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Today, it sports many colored umbrellas, even when it's not raining.


Matt and Tom, traveling the world together. Someday in the future, children will play "Where is the world are Matt and Tom" and "Find Tom and Matt" and have no idea who Carmen and Waldo are.


This is (was) also a temple. I imagine this is what most everyhting looks like until it gets rebuilt to attract tourists.


This is a different temple - it's not built on a hill. Ignore the scaffolding on the right...



Apparently something was bothering me.


Can you tell which one is Vincent, the friendly Frenchman that set up this trip? This trip was unique for me in that our group were the only foreign (or at least white) tourists there. Several people wanted pictures with Vincent - one man even gave him a baby to hold and pose with.


I even had my own taste of celebrity! I don't know her name, but she wanted a picture with me and I think she likes me!

End day 2. The second half is longer and taller. Stay tuned...

Gifts

They take good care of us here at Prince George's Park student hostel. Just this evening, my cluster leader (the same guy who brings around the mail) came and gave me an oral digital thermometer and am aerosol can of insect killer. The insect killer is for mosquitos, and the thermometer is for me when I get Dengue fever. Apparently there have been incidents recently, though I haven't heard of them. The management also "gasses" large parts of the complex with thick chemicals that kills mosquitos and makes being here unpleasant. I feel loved.

This weekend I'm going to Java, one of the islands of Indonesia. I'm going with Matt, two people from France, and one from Canada. We're flying into Jakarta, the capital, then traveling around the island to see some nature parks and temples. The trip will be 4 days, a Friday morning flight to a Monday night flight. I'm way more excited than I sound.

You know what that means: picture to come.

EDIT: The thermometer is in Celsius. Useless to me.