Learning Letter

Dear Sean,

This course is so unique and so beautiful.  When I was looking up what textbook I'd need for this class and saw that it was just 5 young adult books I was very curious as to what I'd be doing in the class and what we'd be learning.  All I can say is that this class opened my eyes.  The museum display made me think about who I am and what makes me, me.  The border issue project was unbelievable for me because I'm not a huge political fan and so I tend to avoid the news because frankly I get confused and don't feel like any of it is important, but doing this project and hearing everyone else's projects made me realize that there is a lot going on around the world and it does effect me and it is something that I need to be aware of.  It was really interesting for me to do research on random countries and really get myself involved in what was going on in a country and what makes a country so unique.  It was all very eye-opening.

The graffiti wall was I think my second favorite assignment in the class because it made me realize the big themes around the world affect children and it's not just politicians who have to manage worldly issues.  Thinking about each book and then remembering the main character and what they went through and comparing it to myself was really hard for me.  Here I am in America, enjoying playing in my fenced backyard playing tag or whatever with my siblings with no cares in the world at age 10 when kids around the world are either leaving their family in order to leave and become something to benefit their family, or running for their lives from people trying to take advantage of them or kill them at the same age as me.  These hardships aren't just from history books, they are happening here and now all around the world.  It's really sad that what we complain about is something extraordinary to people in other countries.  The discussions we had in class were hard, but really good for me.  I finally feel the need to look up what's going on and try to get involved as much as I can.

Participating in the discussions and the projects made me realize how in order for me truly help the world, I have to be involved and really stay educated on the issues and actively participate in order to leave my mark.  I have a hard time thinking deeper and asking questions to extend discussions or conversations just because I'm typically trying to just wrap my brain around what's on the surface of the discussion, but I found myself more and more thinking deeper and deeper throughout the course.  I feel like this course really opened up my eyes and made me realize that it's not just me and my bubble, it's me and a magnificently huge world, and it's my job to explore it and stay familiar with it.

My plan of action...I have quite a few ideas, but I think what my heart keeps settling on is being active and going on as many mission trips as I can.  My goal is get my BA in fall 2015, get my Master degree by spring of 2016 and then going on either 3-4 month long missions trips, or one 3 month mission trip to a country/place that needs help.  Needs builders, educators, friends, financial help, etc.  I want to be there for someone else and help someone get through a struggle. I need to look into it more, but I've contacted a few missionaries and they have sent me information and I've started looking into it.  I want to travel, experience as many cultures as I can, and bring hope to people of all ages as much as I can.

Thank you so much for teaching this course and allowing us the opportunity to experience the world in such a unique way.  There's a huge road ahead of all of us, but one by one, we will get involved and lend a helping hand and it all starts by opening up eyes, which is something you have truly accomplished.
Thanks :)

Graffiti Wall Explanation

For my graffiti wall I chose to write seven major words that encompassed the themes we talked about during this class.  Surrounding the words were the titles of the books and some other small theme words that correlated to the seven chosen words.  My seven main words are:  struggle, adventure, family, innocence, companionship, survival and responsibility.
STRUGGLE= I chose struggle because in Sold, Crossing the Wire, Revolution is Not a Dinner Party, and A Long Way Gone there was struggle.  Struggle had a different meaning in each book but overall, each of the main characters in the books all had to struggle through some sort of challenge that was thrown at them.  Everyone all around the world suffers through struggles on a daily basis.  Some people struggle through living each day, where some struggle to be motivated to do things.  Overall, struggle is a huge part of culture for everyone.
ADVENTURE= In all of the books we read this term each character had some sort of adventure.  Some characters traveled, some were faced with mental obstacles that made them adventure through maturity, and some had to adventure because they were forced into it.  Traveling is such a blessing.  When traveling because it's to save your skin, it may not seem like a blessing, but to just travel to see the world is 100% a blessing.  It's something we take advantage of and sometimes under-appreciate.  Everyone needs to go somewhere and experience someone else's culture and be able to see the world through their own eyes and not through a magazine or the internet.
FAMILY= Once again, this theme was found in all of the books.  The main character either was losing family, doing something for family, or only had family.  Family is what shapes a person.  People have to overcome challenges and that does shape them, but family whether blood-related or just "adopted"  is what can hold or break a person apart.  All of the characters in the book were affected by their family in some way, and the same is true for all of us.
INNOCENCE= With all of the characters in this book being under 16 years old there was a sense of innocence that I felt while reading these books.  All of the characters were young and naive and didn't fully grasp what obstacles were in front of them until they were knee-deep in the problem.  It's reality, kids are involved in worldly issues, and they don't know the extent of what's going on, and all they see is pain and they don't understand it, it's heartbreaking, but it's reality.
COMPANIONSHIP= I really felt this theme in Sold, Crossing the Wire, and A Long Way Gone.  In all of these books the main character formed relationships with other people and it helped them get through what they were struggling with.  This theme makes it apparent that human beings need to be social, and they need help.  Nobody is perfect, and we need people to be able to fall back on, other than family.  The friendships in these books were beautiful and so innocent, and it was the bigger issues in the world that tore the friendships apart.
SURVIVAL= I felt this theme in all of the books except Kampung Boy and that might be just because Kampung Boy didn't have a heavy issue in the book and the boy really didn't have to overcome much of an obstacle until the end of the book.  In all of the other books obstacles were apparent in the beginning and lasted until the end of the book.
RESPONSIBILITY= This theme was in all of the books, and is such a huge obstacle that every person around the world must overcome.  What makes this theme hard is that all of the characters were so young and had to become responsible or they would lose their life or respect.  That's a huge weight on such a young person. I thought middle school was tough, but to think about being that age and being sold into sex slavery in order for my family to get some money, I can't imagine having to overcome that burden.  Or being 12 years old and seeing gory, bloody war all around me and being okay mentally as an adult.  That's really rough.

All of these themes are apparent in the books and the topics we discussed.  They are what I thought of while reading each of these books and what stuck out the most when reviewing my feelings and thoughts on these books/discussions.  Kids are so amazing and to think that so many around the world have stories similar to these books absolutely breaks my heart, but it's good to be informed and to remember these themes.

A Long Way Gone

Like everything else in this class, this book was an eye-opener and a huge heart-wrenching story.  Ishmael is an incredible person.  I can't imagine going through something as horrific as what he went through and still be able to live and function later.  I suppose that's just survival instincts kicking in that allow a person to find the courage to go on, and to live throughout all he lived through.  At the very beginning of the book when he said that he was only 12 years old when the news of the war came around.  I thought of myself at 12 and trying to imagine how mature I'd have to be to cope with the thought of war around the corner, I know I wouldn't have been ready.
Ishmael wasn't raised up to be a warrior, he wasn't raised up to mature faster than most boys, and he certainly wasn't raised up to be able to cope with what he had to endure.  When he described his first flush of injured people my heart broke.  It broke for him, and it broke for the people that were directly involved.  I feel so shielded and protected, as if nothing bad can happen to me, but in reality war could start any day, and more than likely the people that were injured, killed, or brought into the war thought the same thing.  The lady with the baby on her back just killed me.  I can't imagine what that would do to a person psychologically to know you have to run for your life and your baby and your baby ended up shielding you... gah..
When Ishmael and his brother's group of boys wandered aimlessly for food and refuge I also ached for them.  I can only imagine how scared people were and how afraid of outsiders they would be.  The fact that their group of boys were still able to find food amazes me!  I know people have to do what's necessary, but it still was incredible to see how brave these boys were, or how naive they were.
Another part towards the beginning of the book I kinda related to was when he stayed in the jungle for a month or two, I can't remember how long he was in it now, but the fact that he was able to stay sane, after seeing what he saw, not having anybody to talk to, and really not knowing what to do with himself.  It's quite impressive that someone that young could survive with no training.
When Ishmael and his soldier family dealt with their experiences by taking drugs I was just in complete shock, I didn't know what was going to come next.  For me, I thought, this poor boy...he was so innocent and then was dragged into Hell on Earth basically.  It just killed me.
As a future teacher I constantly worry about how I am going to deal with "broken" kids.  Kids who come from abusive pasts, or currently being abused.  I worry I won't know how to help them cope, it's my biggest fear in becoming a teacher, but it's also the number one reason why I am becoming a teacher.  For Ishmael's case, I kept asking myself throughout the book, how I as a teacher, would ever be able to help him cope with his past and be able to move on in a positive way.  I remained speechless, I guess God would give me the words I need if the time came, but to think about the people who worked directly with these child soldiers, my heart goes out for them.  I can't imagine what they have to hear, see, and cope with on a daily basis.
This war didn't end to long ago, yet it feels like I'm talking about the Civil War, I suppose that's how humans cope with things, we throw the hard memories and occurrences as far away as we can.  If it didn't affect us then we don't want it to affect us now.  Experiencing Ishmael's childhood through this text, I don't think I will ever forget this war, or the people in Sierra Leone who were affected by the cruelty of it.

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Where is Sierra Leone?  It is located in Africa, between Guinea and Liberia
How big is it?  It is 71, 740 sq. km.  What does that mean?  It means it is roughly the same size as South Carolina!
What's the population?  There are 5,743,725 people living in Sierra Leone.  In South Carolina there is 1,136,557 people, BIG difference in population.
What's the weather like?  Between  May and December the weather is very hot, humid, and rainy, but between December and April the weather is very dry.
How do you communicate there?  The common languages in Sierra Leone are English, Mende, Temne, and Krio.
Popular religious belief?  60% of the country is Muslim, 10% are Christian and the other 30% is mixed.
What's the government type?  Sierra Leone is currently a constitutional democracy.  The legal system is a mix of English common law and customary law
Men vs. Women-  Women typically are ranked lower, but they are referred to as Sierra Leone's backbone.  The men do the physical labor while the women do everything else, like:  planting, harvesting, nursing, cleaning, cooking, etc.  Women don't get educated as frequently as men do, but overall both genders suffer nowadays because everyone is living in poverty and everyone is suffering due to the decade long civil war...

Sierra Leone and the Civil War between 1991 and 2002

"Sierra Leone was meant to be the shining light of Africa; it had all that was needed to engineer economic and political prosperity. It was also the first country to have the first University in West Africa: the Fourah bay college. These Factors ought to have made Sierra Leone a living paradise; instead, it became a living hell. As history as shown before, war can diminish even the most mighty to nothing."

This war began in 1991 because of the "resource-curse" and because of Charles Taylor.  The resources in Sierra Leone are:  rainforests,  clean water, arable lands, and gemstones.  Diamonds and the unstable government provided the perfect opportunity for anarchy to arise. To fund the war they used the mining of the diamonds which were later referred to as the "blood diamonds"  Who was Charles Taylor?  He was at one point a Liberian President, but he was also a brutal civil war leader and is now facing trials in the international criminal court for instigation of murder, rape, and terrorism in Sierra Leone.

In the midst of this war, the rebels were known for murder, rape, mutilation, and recruitment of child soldiers.  By the end of this brutal civil war, the death toll was estimated at 50,000 people.  In the 2006 U.N. Human Development Index, Sierra Leone ranked second from the bottom.

"Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party"

This book was incredible!  It really helped doing research on the revolution before opening this book up.  Although the book refers back to the revolution constantly, it doesn't really explain all of the events that took place or who Mao was and what his goal was.

The author of this book wrote this book regarding her own experience during the revolution which makes this book all the more powerful because as a reader, I know that the emotions I feel and am reading about were real.  Parts of the book were fictionalized, but I truly believe Ying tried to keep the story as close to hers as she could.

This book was a fairly quick read, the chapters were long, but overall it was easy to get attached to Ling, her family, and her childhood experience.  Within the book the reader experiences happiness, sadness, anger, love, hope, and despair!

While reading this book, I found myself getting extremely frustrated for Ling.  She so badly wanted her questions answered and everyone close to her was being taken away or was hushing her.  That would just kill me!  I can't imagine having to experience the loss and the depression she did before turning 10!  That just baffles me!  What's really sad is that this actually happened, there were probably a lot of kids that had to deal with the pain of loss and hopelessness at a young age.

I was very impressed with how even though Ling had just about everything ripped away from her she stayed strong for her and her mother.  Ling stepped up and took on roles that no child should have to, and she excelled in them.  While being bullied at school, she still went, and she still tried to stay positive, that is just incredible to me!

What I will take away from this book is that even in the midst of darkness, people can find the hope and courage to carry them and their loved ones.  Ling was probably one of many "heroes" who had to endure Mao's craziness, but her story is published and can be appreciated by people everywhere.  Hope can always be found.

China and the Chinese Revolution

Quick Facts on China

China = People's Republic of China, PRC for short is actually the formal name of China.
Capital = Beijing
Population = world's most populated country!  There is roughly 1.3 billion people living in PRC.  The population density is roughly four times greater than that of the United States.
Religion = Most people practice Buddhism, but other religions found within PRC borders are:  Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Christianity.
Fun Facts- PRC is known for having the world's longest continuously used written language and longest continuous civilization.  One in every five people are Chinese. White is the Chinese symbol for mourning while red symbolizes happiness.

The Chinese Revolution in the Late 1900s

The Chinese Revolution began in 1966 and was launched by China's communist leader Mao Zedong.  His goal was to reaffirm his authority over the Chinese government.  The three main things that caused the uproar was The Great Leap Forward, The Great Chinese Famine, and The Four-Clean Ups Movement.  He used the youth to fight off the officials; this attack was later called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.  The students called themselves the Red Guard.  They tore down temples, denounced teachers, and rooted out traitors.  Mao in the meantime had closed down schools, encouraged students to join the Red Guard and help persecute teachers and intellectuals.  Torture became very common.  Mao had to disassemble the Red Guard in 1968 because the army was clashing with them and in 1969 he signed a peace treaty.  Although Mao signed the treaty it is said that the revolution didn't really end until Mao's death and the arrest of the Gang of Four.
Mao died in 1976.  Following his death was a power struggle, it was still controlled by the Communist Party, but it had started to adapt to capitalist economic policies.  The overall death cost of this short revolution was nearly 70 million people.
      The aftermath:  China is now afraid to become a democracy because of the authoritative challenges that have surfaced in the past.  During this revolution China ended its birth control plan and with that change population boomed and the economy fell.  The Chinese youth were denied education, and ended up suffering mental and physical damages.  Overall, China's culture greatly suffered from this revolution

US Immigration

         Before taking this class I knew of immigration and had only had one experience knowing of someone who was working on getting their green card.  My friend was interested in him and she didn’t know what to do when he told her about his struggles in becoming “legal.”  So besides just hearing a little bit of information from that situation I had no idea what the process was like. 

         Reading Crossing the Wire provided me with more information on the matter which was really helpful.  I hadn’t ever thought much about why people cross other than coming to the “land of opportunities” so hearing about the financial need of just some of the characters in the book made me realize that for the most part, our population doesn’t know anything besides the biased opinion of our government which is that people crossing borders are unwanted aliens.

         Then hearing Greg talk about what he does was also really fantastic.  I had no idea what the waiting process was for people looking to get legal status in the US.  I also found it really interesting to hear about how many people Greg helps on a regular basis.  I know there is a large Hispanic population in Tri-Cities, but here in Spokane/Cheney area it didn’t seem like there would be that many, but that just shows how much I really don’t know. 

         I decided to look at a map that displayed where most illegal immigrants are in the US just to have a better picture of where people go and why.  http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2013/02/map_illegal_immigrant_population_by_state.html this website provided a very interesting map that colored the states darker for more populated and lighter for less populated states of illegal immigrants.  Texas, Nevada, Arizona, New Jersey, and California were the darkest of the 50 states.  Nevada was the most populated out of those five, which I found interesting.  This map was based off of 2010 numbers though so its possible things have changed.

         Another great website I found was http://www.tolerance.org/immigration-myths.  It was basically addressing 10 common things we hear and that are false.  I found them very interesting to read because the writer included statistics that proved that these phrases we hear are actually false.  For example, we hear that immigrants bring violence with them.  Not true.  Our violent crime rate has actually dropped 34% since 1994.  Between 1996-2006 the nation experienced lowest crime rates in the states that had the highest immigration growth rates.  This was just one example this website provided. 

         It’s amazing to me to go from not knowing to seeing the truth behind it all.  We all feed off what the news and government portrays issues and in reality we know that politicians are wrong and are liars most of the time, and let’s be honest, the weatherman is typically wrong 90% of the time.  Yet, because we don’t know what the real facts are, and because we don’t go investigate it for ourselves, or at least not until we are stuck in the situation, we continue to listen to the lies.