Wow... it's been a long time since I've written here (and I'm not going to start now!) Just enjoying a lazy Christmas Eve morning before heading to work.
I believe that the official countdown can begin... 60 more days!
Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
No Pets!
Just a quick random thought here...
When we first arrived in Iraq, they sat us down in a small room and explained the rules to us (General Order #1, which is actually many orders, but whatever) One of the rules was "No Pets". To a casual observer, this makes a lot of sense. The animals here are disease-ridden, mangy, and wild. Keeping one as a pet would be unsanitary at best, dangerous at worst.
Well, then comes reality, which is that the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines here are homesick and some of them miss their pets. While I don't expect that one would find many pet dogs in the CHUs (containerized housing units), there does seem to be a lot of "adoptions" going on. The most visible offense concerns a small family of geese, including a small brood of goslings.
They're cute, they take your mind off of work/war/missing home. So, although it took me by surprise how often I saw people hand feeding the little disease factories, after a few weeks, I sympathized with the offenders.
Unfortunately, those cute little goslings have reached an adolescent stage (they grow up so quickly!) and are now ugly terrors, trained to chase after anything with two legs and deep pockets.
Oh, well... the distraction was nice while it lasted.
When we first arrived in Iraq, they sat us down in a small room and explained the rules to us (General Order #1, which is actually many orders, but whatever) One of the rules was "No Pets". To a casual observer, this makes a lot of sense. The animals here are disease-ridden, mangy, and wild. Keeping one as a pet would be unsanitary at best, dangerous at worst.
Well, then comes reality, which is that the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines here are homesick and some of them miss their pets. While I don't expect that one would find many pet dogs in the CHUs (containerized housing units), there does seem to be a lot of "adoptions" going on. The most visible offense concerns a small family of geese, including a small brood of goslings.
They're cute, they take your mind off of work/war/missing home. So, although it took me by surprise how often I saw people hand feeding the little disease factories, after a few weeks, I sympathized with the offenders.
Unfortunately, those cute little goslings have reached an adolescent stage (they grow up so quickly!) and are now ugly terrors, trained to chase after anything with two legs and deep pockets.
Oh, well... the distraction was nice while it lasted.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
First Mass E-mail
Reporting from Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq
So, I sent out a mass e-mail last month and I've been meaning to post it and start writing on here a little more. Here it is (slightly edited for mass consumption):
Roughly a year has passed since my last mass e-mail and I really couldn’t have gone through more of a transition than the past year has taken me through. First, thanks again to everyone that helped support the Rural Education program in India. The fundraiser was a great success and with your help we were able to sponsor one of their schools for an entire year. I receive updates from time to time and their program continues to grow and gather interest in India and abroad.
So, I sent out a mass e-mail last month and I've been meaning to post it and start writing on here a little more. Here it is (slightly edited for mass consumption):
Roughly a year has passed since my last mass e-mail and I really couldn’t have gone through more of a transition than the past year has taken me through. First, thanks again to everyone that helped support the Rural Education program in India. The fundraiser was a great success and with your help we were able to sponsor one of their schools for an entire year. I receive updates from time to time and their program continues to grow and gather interest in India and abroad.
After graduation, I took advantage of the gap in my orders and spent nearly 6 weeks in Europe, seeing the sights and visiting friends, it was just what I needed after a stressful year of grad school... Returning to the states, I moved to Norfolk and began my training as the Assistant Navigator on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, only to find that the ship was about to start a long refueling and overhaul period. You’ll remember that I was confused as to why they wanted a helicopter pilot driving a ship – compound that with a ship that doesn’t have any water under it… (Actually, maybe THAT IS why they gave me the job!) Well, despite being handicapped by a lack of water, I managed to spend some time at sea and earn a qualification as an aircraft carrier Officer of the Deck. Shortly after returning to dry land, I was informed that I was the lucky winner of a one year vacation in Sunny Iraq! Needless to say, I was thrilled at the chance to put my life on hold for a year, but not given much of a choice, I made the best of it and started my preparations.
It’s been a long journey, but after six weeks of packing and unpacking, marching and shooting, planes and buses, swamps and deserts, I’ve arrived safely in my new home for the next year: Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq.
First, I just wanted to thank everyone again for all their well wishes, prayers, thoughts, and kind words as I went through this process. Knowing that I had your support made it that much easier as I was leaving everyone behind. In truth, despite some austere living conditions, the training that I’ve been going through hasn’t been bad. The most common complaint has been that there’s a lot of time spent waiting around. The Army calls it “White Space”, which is not to be confused with “Free Time”, “Down Time”, or “Personal Time”… OK, I digress.
As I was saying, the training was pretty good. We started off at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and between simulator rifle ranges (huge video games) and the real thing, I probably shot over 500 rounds on my M9 and M16, and, as a bonus, it turns out I’m a pretty good shot. Looks like all that time at summer camp as a kid paid off! Besides shooting, I also had an opportunity to drive Humvees, assault buildings, rescue wounded soldiers, and, of course, march around the base! After leaving the beautiful swamplands of South Carolina, we found ourselves in the Kuwaiti desert. Even in early March we hit triple digit temperatures a few times. Our time in Kuwait was mostly spent acclimatizing to the time and climate. We had some paperwork to do and a day of convoy training near the Iraqi boarder, but it was otherwise uneventful. It was even relaxing if you consider sleeping on a cot in a tent with 30 other guys relaxing.
This video is a funny look at the training. It was filmed a few years ago, but still hits the essence of what I was doing. (I’m not in Baghdad to look for explosives though… more on that in a minute) The official video is a little more “motivational” and not quite so funny unless you consider the irony of it all.
I arrived at Baghdad International Airport (or BIAP in Army lingo) on the 13th after having been given 6 hours notice to pack up all my stuff and get on a plane. It was only a 2 hour flight from Kuwait, but sitting in the back of a cargo plane wearing body armor makes even a short flight seem interminably long. Fortunately, since we’d arrived early, I had Sunday off to explore before starting work on Monday.
The base is fairly nice, as nice as you could expect for a the forward headquarters of an invasion force. The US Army took advantage of Hussein’s private compound and communication systems to create a functional headquarters. Because of that it seems a bit schizophrenic at times, with huge elaborate palaces next door to portable buildings and makeshift barriers. On my walk to work every morning I leave my CHU (Containerized Housing Unit, which is about as lovely as it sounds) through a serious of blast walls and walk along a dirt road until I get to one of the canals. From there I wander along the paths created for Iraqi leadership that wind along several manmade lakes and between a few more palaces. My office happens to be about as far away as possible, in the house that my friends and I suspect Hussein would put his “friends” that he was considering for summary execution.
As far as my job goes I would have to classify myself as a “Warrior Accountant”. Warrior because I’m always wearing a gun and accountant because, well, that’s what I do. I work for General Odierno’s Comptroller and try to keep the Army from spending too much money. I’m tasked with “preserving the treasure of our nation” and it’s quite a challenge. Those Army guys love to buy stuff. Last week I processed around 250 million dollars in requests, no big deal… Of course it really couldn’t get too much more like Office Space than this, I don’t think I would survive the scrutiny of the Bob’s (“So you take the requests from the customer?”, “No, my secretary does that.”)
At least I do feel fully employed, which is more than some of my friends are saying as they sit around waiting for work to come. One of my challenges is that I don’t have much personal time, I work 7 days a week, 10-11 hours a day, with 2 half days. It does make the time go by fairly quickly though, I can’t believe that I’ve been here for over 2 weeks already! The unexpected highlight of my time here is the frequent 5Ks which are fun to run and have the added bonus of getting me out of work (culture of fitness and all that...)
I really don’t need much of anything here. The Post Exchange is relatively well stocked. Being at the headquarters for the Army does have its benefits. I’d love to receive your mail though, and I promise that if you write, I’ll write back (I’ll even try to get it out before I leave Iraq!) If you really are interested in providing aid and comfort to me and my fellow deployed Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, and Marines, please consider donating to either the USO or the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. They’re both great organizations that help military members in times of hardship and distress. They are both full of hardworking and helpful volunteers that make great efforts to make the lives easier for everyone serving.
I love you all and miss you. For all my family about to celebrate Easter, I wish that I could be there with you and look forward to rejoining next year! I’m sorry that I’ll miss Sabrina and McKenna and Mille and Zach’s graduations (they must be from Junior High, right? I’m not that old…)
Oh and as far as the subject line goes, it just rained for the last two days, turning all the fine sand and dust into mud. It sticks to everything and apparently takes several days to dry up. Surprises every day!
You’re all in my thoughts and I’m looking forward to my return home to see everyone again (343 days left!)
Stephen
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Off to Army Camp
Reporting from Camp McCrady, Fort Jackson, South Carolina
I made it. I am now firmly ensconced in the US Army, or rather the South Carolina National Guard. After a week of pokes and prods, waiting in long lines, and sitting quietly, I can now expect more of the same!
For those of you who aren't familiar with South Carolina geography, I'm sleeping under the green arrow below:
Other than an infuriatingly slow bus trip, the day has been uneventful. I was impressed first thing this morning by a group of well-wishers as we boarded the buses. Apparently they're out there every week giving the sailors heading overseas a smile and a pat on the back. We each received a small care package loaded with delicious junk food, home baked cookies, and a note from a local 4th grade class. The cynic in me found it slightly comical, but I suppressed that impression and tried to appreciate the good natured outpouring of support as just that.
There were some heart-wrenching moments as young mothers and fathers said goodbye to their children, including a new-born infant, and families parted ways. This is a clear reminder of one of the greatest sacrifice of the men and women being sent over seas: lost time with their families. Whether going to the relative safe locations of Kuwait or Qatar, or facing danger in Anbar or Helmand, all these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines will miss out on countless irreplaceable moments in the lives of the families and loved ones. I know that, for me at least, this is the most difficult aspect of the deployment.
Now we're just back in sit-and-wait mode, the next event doesn't happen until tomorrow afternoon. The weeks are heavily scheduled, but we should have some time to relax and head into Columbia next weekend, which I hear is the New YorkCity of the South...
I made it. I am now firmly ensconced in the US Army, or rather the South Carolina National Guard. After a week of pokes and prods, waiting in long lines, and sitting quietly, I can now expect more of the same!
For those of you who aren't familiar with South Carolina geography, I'm sleeping under the green arrow below:
Other than an infuriatingly slow bus trip, the day has been uneventful. I was impressed first thing this morning by a group of well-wishers as we boarded the buses. Apparently they're out there every week giving the sailors heading overseas a smile and a pat on the back. We each received a small care package loaded with delicious junk food, home baked cookies, and a note from a local 4th grade class. The cynic in me found it slightly comical, but I suppressed that impression and tried to appreciate the good natured outpouring of support as just that.There were some heart-wrenching moments as young mothers and fathers said goodbye to their children, including a new-born infant, and families parted ways. This is a clear reminder of one of the greatest sacrifice of the men and women being sent over seas: lost time with their families. Whether going to the relative safe locations of Kuwait or Qatar, or facing danger in Anbar or Helmand, all these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines will miss out on countless irreplaceable moments in the lives of the families and loved ones. I know that, for me at least, this is the most difficult aspect of the deployment.
Now we're just back in sit-and-wait mode, the next event doesn't happen until tomorrow afternoon. The weeks are heavily scheduled, but we should have some time to relax and head into Columbia next weekend, which I hear is the New YorkCity of the South...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Op-Ed
Reporting from Cambridge
Just wanted to note that an opinion piece I wrote in the Harvard Citizen was published this week. The text is below in case the link changes.
“Che du… Cha de wu… cha du vu…” The children laughed heartily as I blundered through the phrase that they were trying to teach me. I’m confident that they considered me a bumbling idiot, not even able to parrot such a simple phrase.
Just wanted to note that an opinion piece I wrote in the Harvard Citizen was published this week. The text is below in case the link changes.
“Che du… Cha de wu… cha du vu…” The children laughed heartily as I blundered through the phrase that they were trying to teach me. I’m confident that they considered me a bumbling idiot, not even able to parrot such a simple phrase.
Just seventy miles away from the economic miracle of Bangalore, India, with its gleaming IT campuses reminiscent of Silicon Valley, lies an obscure rural valley experiencing a miracle of its own: the Rishi Valley Education Center. While Rishi Valley may not have the media appeal of companies like Infosys and other upstart IT companies that are changing the way the world does business, it is having a profound and fundamental impact on the Indian educational system.
The mission of the Center is simple: provide a quality, village-based elementary education for rural children in multi-grade, one-room schoolhouses. However, as is often the case, significant cultural and economic barriers complicate achieving this simple goal.
In a region where most live on subsistence farming and every family member must contribute, education frequently becomes a low priority for parents and children alike. The realities of survival in such a poor area make it difficult to convince the community to embrace education. Additionally, students often live miles from the nearest government school with no option other than to walk miles each day to attend school.
Furthermore, the educators at Rishi Valley found that the families frequently required their children to be out of school for extended periods that did not conform to the standard educational schedule. These students, upon returning to the classroom, found themselves lagging behind their peers and consequently lost motivation to continue.
In response to these problems, the husband and wife team of Y.A. and Rama Rao created an elegant solution that they call “School in a Box.” The curriculum is modular, with simple graphics of plants and animals, color-coded by subject area, to depict the progress and level of the students. These graphical “achievement ladders” are simple enough for both children and illiterate adults to understand, leading to an increased level of parent participation. The self-contained lessons provide the teachers of the one-room schoolhouses with enough flexibility to support up to 25 children spread across five grade levels.
The Raos believe that in a society with such strong communal bonds, it is vitally important for the entire community be involved in the schools. To encourage community participation, they developed a program of math and science fairs, organized by the schools, but run by the students themselves. We, the HKS India Trekkers, were lucky enough to attend one such “Math Mela” over the winter break, and we were amazed by the turnout. It seemed as though the entire village attended. Eager students wearing sashes saying “Can I help you?” quickly split us up and took us to the various stations where we had to guess the metric measurements of sticks and weights of different foods. Each station had a student that graded our attempts to use Tangrams, measure our height, or use an abacus-like counting device. Despite some communication problems, we performed fairly well on our student-issued report cards, although there may have been some grade inflation.
In less than two decades, the program has made amazing progress, expanding from a handful of village-based schools to 15 across the Rishi Valley. The Center has also worked with regional governments in India and other national governments to bring the “School in a Box” process to one-room schoolhouses in other parts of the world.
Thus far, the results have been astounding. Graduates of the program are well received in the government middle schools and high schools, outperforming their peers in traditional elementary school programs. In this impoverished area where as many as 25 percent of school-aged children are considered child laborers by UNICEF standards and schools consistently underperform their urban equivalents, this success is encouraging. If India is to maintain the economic momentum it has achieved through enterprises like Infosys, the level of education provided to its youth must continue to improve. Innovative programs such as this offer great hope.
The Rishi Valley Rural Education program operates on an annual budget of less than $50,000, but struggles to raise even that meager sum. Luckily, even from Cambridge’s ivy-covered walls, we can help.
Just $2,500 runs one village school for an entire year. Please help the students of the HKS India Trek reach this goal and attend the fundraiser at Tommy Doyle’s on April 2nd at 8 pm. The minimum suggested donation will be $10 at the door, but please consider giving $15 - enough to fund a student for an entire month. We look forward to seeing you there - the students of Rishi Valley need your help!
Oh, and the phrase that I finally managed to repeat successfully? “Cha-du-vu, kor-e-ka.” It means, “I want to learn.”
Monday, January 19, 2009
Reflections
Reporting from Washington, DC.
I'm home! (almost)
I just wanted to wrap up my trip with a couple of thoughts.
Travel Agent: If anyone is looking for a great travel agency in India, I can't recommend SITA highly enough. They were great: didn't miss a transfer , were flexible for a group looking for a non-tourist agenda, and set up a great group of travel guides. While I don't think its necessary to have a full service travel agent while in India, it certainly helps.
Denial: In our meetings with Indian government officials, I was frequently impressed with how well they understood the gravity of their situation and the incredible hurdles they are facing to bring India from the "developing" to the "developed" column. In a country with nearly four times the population of the US and less than one-tenth the income, they have challenges beyond compare. That said, there is a large segment of the population that does not recognize that India is not there yet and those are the people that are clamoring at the door of world prestige, but forgetting of all the indigent and helpless people of India that they are cruelly standing on.
I was dismayed to read an op-ed in India Times last week that was complaining about India's portrayal in Slumdog Millionaire. It said that it portrayed India in a negative light, with all the poverty and homelessness. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I understand that this movie really was one of the triumph of human spirit and that the Indian people were featured highly in it. Unfortunately, the sentiments expressed by the author, a prominent Bollywood director, seem to me all too typical of the upper classes. They have found it relatively convenient to forget that India has a population nearly the size of the US that lives on less than $1.25 per day (the World Bank definition of extreme poverty.)
This may be a stinging indictment of India's wealthy and probably unfair to many of them that care deeply for the economic problems of their fellow countrymen, but even after a week it seemed clear to me that this denial was pervasive in the press.
Leakage: One of our first meetings in the country was with 1298 Amulance, whose founder discussed some of the issues that they were having with "leakage", a euphamism for employee theft and government graft. They were solving the problem with technology, increasing monitoring of ambulance movements to prevent moonlighting with company equipment. At first I didn't think too much of this, but by the end of the trip I realized that India has an epidemic of leakage and 1298 has an uphill battle. The corruption ranged from the billion dollar Satyam scandal to fifty rupee taxi ripoffs. While it is clear that these issues have direct negative impacts on the economy they also have further ranging implications: they create intangible barriers to commerce. Whether it's multinationals no longer wishing to do business with large Indian companies or tourists (like us) that tired of getting slowly and constantly ripped off, India is losing business to this culture of corruption and must take more concerted action to solve the problem.
People: I said it a few times, but wanted to reiterate that the Indian people are amazing. Living in a place with such hardships and remaining optimistic is not an insignificant accomplishment. They are generally friendly, even in a place like Mumbai where personal space is at a premium and it would be very easy to become agitated and rude. The tragedy in Mumbai also provides another aspect of the Indian's generosity and kindness of spirit as they all pulled together to get through the past few difficult months. They are the country's greatest resource.
I'm home! (almost)
I just wanted to wrap up my trip with a couple of thoughts.
Travel Agent: If anyone is looking for a great travel agency in India, I can't recommend SITA highly enough. They were great: didn't miss a transfer , were flexible for a group looking for a non-tourist agenda, and set up a great group of travel guides. While I don't think its necessary to have a full service travel agent while in India, it certainly helps.
Denial: In our meetings with Indian government officials, I was frequently impressed with how well they understood the gravity of their situation and the incredible hurdles they are facing to bring India from the "developing" to the "developed" column. In a country with nearly four times the population of the US and less than one-tenth the income, they have challenges beyond compare. That said, there is a large segment of the population that does not recognize that India is not there yet and those are the people that are clamoring at the door of world prestige, but forgetting of all the indigent and helpless people of India that they are cruelly standing on.
I was dismayed to read an op-ed in India Times last week that was complaining about India's portrayal in Slumdog Millionaire. It said that it portrayed India in a negative light, with all the poverty and homelessness. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I understand that this movie really was one of the triumph of human spirit and that the Indian people were featured highly in it. Unfortunately, the sentiments expressed by the author, a prominent Bollywood director, seem to me all too typical of the upper classes. They have found it relatively convenient to forget that India has a population nearly the size of the US that lives on less than $1.25 per day (the World Bank definition of extreme poverty.)
This may be a stinging indictment of India's wealthy and probably unfair to many of them that care deeply for the economic problems of their fellow countrymen, but even after a week it seemed clear to me that this denial was pervasive in the press.
Leakage: One of our first meetings in the country was with 1298 Amulance, whose founder discussed some of the issues that they were having with "leakage", a euphamism for employee theft and government graft. They were solving the problem with technology, increasing monitoring of ambulance movements to prevent moonlighting with company equipment. At first I didn't think too much of this, but by the end of the trip I realized that India has an epidemic of leakage and 1298 has an uphill battle. The corruption ranged from the billion dollar Satyam scandal to fifty rupee taxi ripoffs. While it is clear that these issues have direct negative impacts on the economy they also have further ranging implications: they create intangible barriers to commerce. Whether it's multinationals no longer wishing to do business with large Indian companies or tourists (like us) that tired of getting slowly and constantly ripped off, India is losing business to this culture of corruption and must take more concerted action to solve the problem.
People: I said it a few times, but wanted to reiterate that the Indian people are amazing. Living in a place with such hardships and remaining optimistic is not an insignificant accomplishment. They are generally friendly, even in a place like Mumbai where personal space is at a premium and it would be very easy to become agitated and rude. The tragedy in Mumbai also provides another aspect of the Indian's generosity and kindness of spirit as they all pulled together to get through the past few difficult months. They are the country's greatest resource.
Lessons on the last day
Reporting from Bombay Airport
Lesson 1 - If you’ve hired a full service travel agency, use it! We came to a consensus that sitting around in the airport for fourteen hours was not the best of plans, so we made arrangements to stay in a hotel until it was time to check-in. When we arrived, the SITA representative meeting us at the airport was mildly concerned that we’d set ourselves up for failure and, in fact, the hotel didn’t have the van space to take us all. Fortunately, SITA already had a bus for us! In the end, everything worked out, just something to remember for the future.
Lesson 2 – You can’t buy a plane ticket at the airport after 26/11 (Mumbai Terrorist attacks.) I made the mistake of showing up to the airport without a copy of my itinerary, which is even required to get through the front door. I made a lame plea to be allowed in and the guy refused, but it turns out that they had a copy of the passenger manifests anyway. They eventually let me in, but only after some grief.
Lesson 3 – Dominos delivers, even in Mumbai.
Lesson 1 - If you’ve hired a full service travel agency, use it! We came to a consensus that sitting around in the airport for fourteen hours was not the best of plans, so we made arrangements to stay in a hotel until it was time to check-in. When we arrived, the SITA representative meeting us at the airport was mildly concerned that we’d set ourselves up for failure and, in fact, the hotel didn’t have the van space to take us all. Fortunately, SITA already had a bus for us! In the end, everything worked out, just something to remember for the future.
Lesson 2 – You can’t buy a plane ticket at the airport after 26/11 (Mumbai Terrorist attacks.) I made the mistake of showing up to the airport without a copy of my itinerary, which is even required to get through the front door. I made a lame plea to be allowed in and the guy refused, but it turns out that they had a copy of the passenger manifests anyway. They eventually let me in, but only after some grief.
Lesson 3 – Dominos delivers, even in Mumbai.
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