Phone banking

I should be posting a response to a Journey of the Universe prompt but I’ll put that off until tomorrow morning and instead tell you about my adventures working the phone bank for Hillary for America!

This morning, I drove K into work (there’s a Metro SafeTrack thing going on right now that has closed several of the metro stations between home and work). Of course, it’s Monday morning and with Metro closed, there are at least double the number of cars on the street as normal. What takes 20 minutes in zero traffic, took more than double this morning. Ugh.

On the bright side, I didn’t have to jump right back into traffic - I parked at K’s work and just crossed the street to the Phoenix Park Hotel to join in the phone banks.

Having done some house calls on Saturday, I was feeling more confident about picking up the phone but still nervous. What made it so much easier for me was that this is the Get out the Vote time - I’m only calling people who are registered Democrats and expected to vote for Hillary. My role is to remind them to get to the polls, inform them about what they need to bring, where to go, and help them make a plan.

The set up was minimal - I checked in, had a quick training and then set up my personal laptop, brought out my personal cell phone, and started dialling the numbers that came up on the program. I’d expected a fancier set up with coffee, snacks, stickers, etc. I was honestly pretty glad to see that they were saving resources and relying on volunteers. It felt really genuine.

We were calling folks in North Carolina today. I made my way through 75 names in just the 90 minutes that I was there. Of course, the majority went to voicemail, so I only actually spoke to about 5 people.

One of the numbers I dialed picked up after the first ring but no one said anything. I said “Hello?” paused and “hello” again. Then I went quiet and realized I could hear someone making a presentation about cell membranes. Oops! Must have called someone in the middle of class and they accidentally picked up in order to stop the ringing.

The people I did speak to were great: The woman who was undecided but grateful to know her polling place; The excitement in the voice of a mother who said she and her sons were going to vote together tomorrow; The young man who said he’d already voted.

There was a nice diversity in the volunteers - an older woman who came in just after me and had a beautiful speaking voice struck up great conversations as she worked through the script. A young man behind me had a British accent and smiled so big whenever a call got through. A black man around my age sitting across from me was in charge of troubleshooting, working with callers to resolve their specific registration concerns. A woman my age who brought coffee in a large mason jar that she explained was wrapped in the sock that her grandmother knit for her but was too big for her foot.

It felt so good to be a part of the group. And even better to see the large group of people just arriving as I left. I hope that they continue to be successful and reach out to empower people to place their vote.

GOTV

Get out the vote!

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s an election on Tuesday. This election includes presidential candidates, of course, but there are also many state and local representatives and policies that we each have an opportunity to consider and weigh in on.

I’m a registered voter in Northern Virginia because that is my most recent official address in the United States. (I just missed the deadline to register to vote in the District of Columbia so I’m sticking with my Virginia address for this election.) I spent a couple of hours today previewing the ballot that I will see on Tuesday. You can do that too - just got to vote411.org and put in your address for personalized election information.

When you put in your address, the website will provide you with the address of your polling place, what you need to bring to vote (in Virginia, I need a photo ID), how to check whether you are registered to vote, and finally: a list of what races will be on your ballot.

There are 10 races on my ballot that include the presidential race, a congressional representative race, two constitutional amendments, the county board of supervisors, and school board, several local budget initiatives like selling bonds to build school and public transit infrastructure.

The website is great because it provides links to the candidates’ websites, link to the local government’s budget justification and explanation, and information from both the proponents and opponents of the amendments, etc.

For example, the Tax Relief Constitutional Amendment:

It’s non-partisan and informative. And it will help me keep my time at the actual ballot box pretty short because I’ve already reviewed the information and made my choices.

I made my choice for President many months ago. I support Hillary Clinton for President. I believe that she is intelligent, compassionate, experienced, and has proven her good judgment and readiness for the office. I will be very proud to cast my vote for her.

K and I volunteered as part of her “ground team” yesterday - canvassing local neighborhoods to help people make a plan to get to the polls. This is a huge opportunity and I want everyone to get out and vote. Even if we disagree about policies and candidates - I want your vote to be counted.  Take this opportunity to practice democracy rather than just benefit from it.

I have lived in Togo and in Lebanon where democracy is much shakier than in the United States. But the only way that we can ensure that democracy will continue to be strong is through our full participation. Voting, volunteering, speaking up about policies we like and don’t like, keeping our politicians accountable not just during the campaign but throughout their tenure.

Go Vote!

Before the Flood

(oops! I missed a day already! but this post is twice as long as my minimum word count so that should help make up for it)

K and I watched a new documentary called “Before the Flood”. It was put together by Leonard DiCaprio and is currently streaming on the National Geographic channel and on YouTube.

It’s a documentary with a very clear message about climate change, humanity’s role in climate change, and practical ways that we can make changes in our daily lives and in our national policies in order to mitigate some of the changes.

In 2014, Leonardo DiCaprio was designated as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change.

As the UN website states:

“Messengers of Peace are individuals who possess widely recognized talents in the fields of art, film, literature, music and sports, helping to raise worldwide awareness of the Organization’s ideals and activities. Through their public appearances, contacts with the international media and humanitarian work, they expand public understanding of how the United Nations helps to improve the lives of people everywhere.”

The United Nations often appoints celebrities as messengers or unofficial ambassadors for particular causes. It is a time-proven way of bringing attention to an issue the the Secretary General has identified as important. Particularly if that issue is facing opposition and is in need of popular support to make a change. Angelina Jolie is another example, she was a Goodwill Ambassador on refugee issues for eleven years, from 2001 to 2012. In 2012, she was given the new position of Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Her frequent visits and vocal support for refugees and displaced people has arguably made a large difference in public understanding and sympathy for these populations.

Before watching this documentary, I was not aware that Leonardo DiCaprio was involved in climate change issues. His involvement in the documentary seemed a bit forced and like simply a publicity stunt. But one that I was willing to check out because I believe in the importance of bringing the issue to the public eye.

However, watching the documentary and learning more about his background, I discovered that he has been involved in environmental protection for many years! The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation was formed in 1998 and has the mission:

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is dedicated to the long-term health and wellbeing of all Earth’s inhabitants. Through collaborative partnerships, we support innovative projects that protect vulnerable wildlife from extinction, while restoring balance to threatened ecosystems and communities.

The documentary was well done in that it certainly pushed the crisis and consequences of our current state but also provided some concrete ways to make a difference on an individual level and then practical policies to advocate for on a national level.

K and I decided immediately to:

1. Change our energy provider to a renewable energy source
2. Cut down on our beef consumption - with a goal of only one meal per week
3. Look for the possibility of buying a hybrid car (we’re currently in the market for a car, so this is a great criterion to add)

On the larger scale, many of the interviewees in the documentary spoke about the importance of public opinion - once public opinion strongly supports a move to environmentally friendly policies, our leaders will pursue them.

Reflection on the beginning of the universe

"The first moments of the universe are a great blossoming of astounding creativity. Reflect on the beginning of the universe and its relationship to the world in which we live today. What part of this story of our universe’s emergence evokes awe or wonder in you?" from Journey of the Universe coursera MOOC

Honestly, the part that most astounds me is how we, as humans, were able to craft and test theories so profound about the beginning of the universe. The depth of inquiry and expertise at mathematics evoke such wonder in me. As someone who tends to participate in academics on the literature and language side, I am awestruck by even the questions. How is it that human intellect can observe enough to begin asking these questions. And then learn and know enough to devise methods to find those answers.

The first interview I had after submitting my resignation was with the National Science Foundation. They had an open position as a public affairs specialist. I was very excited about the opportunity and had a wonderful conversation with the hiring manager and another team mate. As we talked, I believe that I was able to meet all of their interests except on one front: I didn’t have a science background. I didn’t even really have a demonstrable interest in science.

They explained that although the job didn’t require an experience in science, they found that the people who really succeed and enjoy their positions at the NSF are people who have always been fascinated by science, who keep up to date on new discoveries, who have side hobbies on scientific topics.

I know now that I could have given several great answers to their “interest in science” question:

• Work on sexual and reproductive health - I have five years’ experience!
• Interest in nutrition and food production - working with rice producers in Togo
• Climate change and environmental protection - did you know that I once had a singing gig on radio to promote recycling when I was a kid? Plus work on environmental protection in Togo
• Investment in girls’ education, particularly in STEM fields. Admittedly, my role was to promote other womens’ interest in science, rather than my own but I set priorities for scholarships, grants, and exchange opportunities that focused on building up women’s participation in STEM fields.

Me (far left) with the TechWomen alumni who put together a Hands-On STEM project encouraging young high school students to mentor middle school students. (Notice my working gear earrings?!?) Album

What I’m trying to say is that I am very interested in science but I haven’t studied it; I do not have the deep knowledge to know how to ask these questions about the origins of the universe. But I love learning about it and I’m so happy to expand my understanding, albeit superficially!

I’ll end with a fantastic quote from Vera Rubin, an American astronomer who helped prove the existence of dark matter.

"In a spiral galaxy, the ratio of dark-to-light matter is about a factor of ten. That's probably a good number for the ratio of our ignorance-to-knowledge. We're out of kindergarten, but only in about third grade."

—Vera Rubin

I love learning

I love learning.

It makes me so happy. I love to improve myself, learn a new skill, get new knowledge, even if it means that I’ve been wrong before.

This is part of why I’ve loved participating in MOOCs. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were an important part of my work in Lebanon. Each semester, we selected a MOOC on a topic that is relevant to our audiences and then publicized the course, invited participants to fill out an application for why they wanted to join, and recruited an alumni or other expert to facilitate a live discussion to enhance the online material.

It was great - we did topics like Journalism for Social Change, Entrepreneurship, American Government, and of course, several topics to enhance English language teaching. By combining the online content with an in-person discussion, we were able to achieve much higher rates of completion for the MOOC and serve our additional purpose of building a network of engaged Lebanese. It served several goals on our part - first of all, to build the skills of Lebanese people in these areas, and second to promote American universities. Because, of course, all of the courses we chose were created by American universities. It was a great opportunity to expose Lebanese to lesser-known public or small universities and colleges that they might not have considered previously.

But our audience was not just university students, it included many adults who were interested in working on their English skills and re-engaging with learning.

There is no reason we should not continue learning well after university.

Since I’ve been at home, I have enrolled in three Coursera courses, but I’ve decided to focus on just one for the moment, so that I can really enjoy it (and take care of all the other chores and joys of life).

my MOOC companion, Ripken

I’m taking the Journey of the Universe course. It’s an integrated theological-ecological-cosmological approach to looking at the origin of the universe and how humanity has shaped our identity based on our understanding of our origin. I love it.

I’m going to use some of the discussion topics from the course as prompts for my blogging this month.

Here’s the first one:

The first moments of the universe are a great blossoming of astounding creativity. Reflect on the beginning of the universe and its relationship to the world in which we live today. What part of this story of our universe’s emergence evokes awe or wonder in you?

What would your answer be?

I’ll post mine tomorrow for November 3!

A month of blogging

Hello friends and loyal readers!

After a very long hiatus from writing on this blog, I’ve decided to write every day in the month of November!

I had originally thought about participating in NaNoWriMo, but I wasn’t able to come up with any great fictional stories that I wanted to tell this year. So instead, I’ll be writing non-fiction. I’m going for a minimum 200 word count but won’t be too stringent if time gets away from me. The idea is to create something every day, stretch my writing muscles, and reconnect with family and friends.

As many of you know, I’ve left the Foreign Service and I am back in Washington, DC. I’ve got a job offer, but I’m still waiting for a start date, so I’m keeping that under wraps a bit for the moment. And in the meantime, I am unemployed and enjoying having time to nest and cook and reconnect with my wonderful partner.

I’m hoping to use this opportunity to write about the travel I did in Lebanon and answer people’s questions about being in the Foreign Service and choosing to leave it. If you have a question you would like to see a post about - please do leave a comment! I am always in need of a writing prompt.

Today’s blog is brought to you with the help of a delicious cup of Bengal Spice tea and pumpkin spice whoopie pie from the local Dutch Country market.

P.S. Happy Halloween and Welcome Winter!

J'aime Paris, je t'aime à Paris

K and I closed out the month of August in Paris. It was a gorgeous weekend full of laughter and tears and scrumptious, indulgent food.

It's hard to put into words how important, how essential it was to see one another after more than two months apart. And then how devastating it was to get on separate planes and travel in opposite directions.

But let's focus on the beauty of our cheeky long weekend in Paris.

I arrived in Paris at Charles de Gaulle six hours before K. I was looking forward to wandering through beautiful Terminal 2 and maybe getting a massage or even paying to access a first-class lounge. I didn't realize until we were all shuttled off the flight into a dark hallway that arriving planes drop off passengers in an entirely different area than the gorgeous halls full of duty-free that I was expecting.

We had a short, dark hallway, a quick line through customs, and then were spit right out into baggage claim.

What a disappointment!
I mean, seriously, CDG, I was hoping to spend a bunch of money in your airport while I waited for my partner to show up. I can't be the only one who's ever wanted that!

Luckily, things started looking up when I found a Paul's with seating overlooking the Grandes Lignes trains. When I heard a solo piano piece start playing, I was impressed at the choice of music in the train station. A trip, a pause in the music made me realize that it was live! I looked around and spotted a piano tucked underneath one of the escalators and a frumpy, wrinkled, young traveler playing those beautiful pieces.  It was a combination of classical easily-recognizable tunes and more contemporary pieces, some of them probably of his own composition. That was a lovely way to enjoy an espresso and a pain aux raisins.

After we finally found one another, K and I made our way to the hippest of the hip hotels in Paris, Mama Shelter.  Somehow we roused ourselves from our jetlag nap to make it out to a beautiful little grocery/restaurant that K had found called Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie where K had foie gras ravioli (who knew that existed?!?!) and then we wandered out into the rain and stumbled upon the glass pyramid of the Louvre.

We turned and, exclaiming with joy, found the Eiffel Tower, lit up and sparkling with its nightly light show. It was a magical start.

On Friday, we found the most delicious bakery just outside the door of the hotel. Fortified with quiche lorraine and another pain aux raisins (for me - they just don't make them the same outside of France!) we braved the metro system and made our way from the 20th arrondisement to the 8th arrondisement to check out the Palais de Tokyo. We loved the two major exhibits - acquaalta by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot - and l'exposition de Patrick Neu.  But unfortunately we were left disturbed and uninspired by the others. K lamented that she wished Sarah Urist Green from PBS's The Art Assignment were there, she would undoubtedly help us plumb the depths of the art we'd experienced and find something meaningful.

As it was, probably the most exciting moment of our visit for K was spotting the dead drop.

"I've been looking for these for almost a decade now!"

My favorite moment was getting to be the gondolier in the acquaalta exhibition. It brought me back to reading The Passion aloud with K on our New Year's trip to Williamsburg.

My favorite orange summer jeans didn't match the dark and brooding atmosphere.

To be continued...

Ramadan

I arrived in Beirut during the month of Ramadan, a Muslim religious celebration that includes strict fasting from dawn to dusk - from not only food, but from anything that passes the lips including water or even cigarettes.

Once the sun has set and evening prayers have been said, families and communities host huge meals called Iftar where people of all ages gather to break their fast together.

I was particularly lucky to be able to attend a Ramadan festival that recreated the beauty of the Old Souks. 

Whirling Dervish statue

I found a camel!

Themes of each night portrayed on the skirts. 

Abaya fashion show

The lantern (fanous) of Ramadan - a traditional symbol, made kid-friendly :)

Wedding dress fashion show

One month in Beirut

It's been nearly a month in Beirut now.

This city is gorgeous and fascinating. I feel so lucky to be in this part of the world and yet in a stable and prosperous city. Don't get me wrong - there are certainly aspects that show this isn't the US or Europe. In fact, right as I typed that, the electricity went off for the third or fourth time today.  But the sun shines so brightly that I hardly notice the blackouts most of the day.

I've already gone on a couple of adventures - excursions organized by the CLO (Community Liaison Officer). I'm hoping to go on at least two every month and explore as many corners of this beautiful country as I can.

Our first stop on our adventure a few weeks ago was the teleferique, a mountain cable car, that reached from Beirut directly up into the mountains. It was more than a little nerve-wracking as it shuddered over the iron wires.

But we made it!

And then continued walking up the hill to the gorgeous church of Notre Dame du Liban.

Of course, I took an iconic selfie from the very top of the mountain too :)

And we finished up a day in the heights by going to the deepest depths of the city - Jeita Grotto. 

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the caves, but there are beautiful professional images on this website. It was absolutely astounding and made me feel very nostalgic for my inspiring and gorgeous visit to Luray Caverns with K. I miss this amazing woman so much!

Camp UNITE .... in Arabic

In class, we've been working on short presentations on health, the environment, and education for the past few weeks. So one of my chosen topics was Camp UNITE. I recorded myself and added some photos from past years in order to make it more interesting. and voila!

Enjoy!

And please note that The UNITE Foundation is hosting a very exciting event on May 9th to celebrate the start of a new Camp UNITE in 2015 and to gather all of our supporters together to have some fun. Stay tuned for more information.

EDIT:  Just listened to this again and found 3 grammatical errors in the first sentence. oh well! It's the effort that counts, right? My apologies to anyone who actually speaks Arabic!