UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

A few days ago, I accompanied the children to their school. All but two of the children here attend the same public school not very far away. I was under the impression that I was to follow them to school and teach whatever subject where teachers were lacking, so I assumed that the school was fairly small, new, or poorly developed. Instead, the school turned out to be a rather large building with a couple hundred students pouring in from nearby villages. With about two dozen classrooms and just as many teachers, I was more of a guest for the children to stare at rather than any real help. I observed the English teacher and did help teach a couple classes, but with little grasp of the students' prior knowledge and English level, I could only do so much. My greatest contribution was to make the children, who wanted to impress the sister (everyone in Nepal addresses each other as “sister” or “brother”) from America, behave well in the classroom. At one point, a Grade 1 English tea...

Goodness, it has been quite a while since I have blogged. I’m beginning to pack all of these last minute things into my schedule. On Tuesday, I ran an errand for my internship to pick up MetroCards for the clients all the way downtown on 21st and Broadway. I finally decided to try out one of those breakfast food trucks that hang out right outside of the buildings. I finally found the famous Anthora cup! Coffee was only $1, and it was delicious. That afternoon, I met up with my friend, Michelle, from my high school days to catch up and get French macarons at Lauderee with her and took a walk in Central Park. I came across the famous reservoir, and it’s HUGE. Fortunately, we managed to escape from the rain by the time we got home. Fast forwarding to Thursday, I finally had a chance to assist the economic stability workshop at STRIVE. We were helping the students in the class with how to attach resumes, search for their documents on their computer, and how to send an email to a po...

These past two days consisted of me shadowing and assisting the workshops which were mostly about maintaining a healthy relationship with one’s significant other. Yesterday, we explored the definition of conflict and how the participants can solve the conflicts that are going on in their own relationships. On a blank sheet of paper, the participants defined ‘conflict’ to be “a ‘misunderstanding" “miscommunication, “having trust issues", “being selfish" were a couple. An interesting one that was mention was “having no conflict is conflict because if nothing is being said about a problem, then there is no resolution. When examining why people get in conflict, the participants stated that there was a lack of communication, understanding, and clarity, or it could be a matter of ego, expression, and this desire to “push buttons". Using the definitions that the participants came up with, the class was supposed to pick a recent argument and explain how they felt, what mi...

Today was the first time I attended a fatherhood workshop! I was able to watch one of the coordinators host a workshop about healthy relationship building with one’s significant other. There were 4-6 other clients in the workshop. The main intention of the workshop is that it serves as a focus group in which the clients are able to speak about the issues that arise in their relationships with those around them. To start the workshop, the facilitator asked the clients to focus on the definitions of what they think a relationship is. One stated, “a relationship is bond with common ground and association that has long and trust with one another.” Another said, “how a person relates to you with a common interest and relate to one another". Some offered descriptions of what a healthy relationship entails, such as “trust and respect for one another" and “having a mutual understanding with one another is what forms a good relationship". The workshop also focused on discussi...

Two weeks ago we headed to Kampala for Barnabas’ best friend’s wedding. It was a long 12 hour, over-night bus journey to get to Kampala… especially while still struggling with malaria. There used to be a bus that left from Butogota (which is just a few kilometers from Bwindi) to Kampala, but it no longer operates so we had to travel to Kihihi (about an hour) on boda bodas to get to the bus to head to Kampala. By the time we reached Kihihi, we were so covered in dust that even our tears (from the wind blowing in our face) made mud. It made for some good laughs though. We reached Kampala at about 5:30 the next morning and went straight to Hotel Catherine to check in and head to bed. I was pretty sore from sitting in the bus for so long after getting injections in my bum and back for malaria treatment, and from having a fever, that I was ready to lay down in a bed. That afternoon, after some much needed rest, we headed into downtown Kampala for some shopping and to get some food. We wer...

Today marks the beginning of the “hot" days to come. Coming from Davis, 93 degrees does not seem bad at all, but when you add on the humidity, wow, it’s a whole another level of heat. I’m starting to get used to the weather here, but I noticed that the thickness and quality of the air are certainly affecting the health of those around me. Next door to STRIVE is a preparatory school, and right next to that is a dumpster-like area that I always pass by while walking to work. It’s definitely not an ideal place to have a dumpster, the stench is certainly unbearable. Prior to my arrival, I know that East Harlem always had a problem with air quality. As a result, there is a high asthma rate that exists in the area. A few of my co-workers had a hard time breathing and had to purchase asthma pumps to help them get through it. As for my work with STRIVE today, I actually accomplished quite a bit! I spoke to my supervisor last Friday about working more directly with the clients. She agr...

It has only been day 7 of my internship, but already I feel as though I have been fully incorporated into the organization. Yesterday, I had the chance to attend a block party in the Bronx hosted by the Bronx Defenders. Everyone in the community is invited to see what community based organizations are doing in order to serve the community and show what resources they can provide  for individuals. About 15 different CBOs came out and many of them were giving out free burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, freshly printed t-shirts. During the event I was helping to run the STRIVE booth and we were able to get several individuals to sign up to find out more information about our workshops. We will then be contacting them these next few days in order to invite them to sign up for orientation to attend these workshops we have to offer. I think one of the problems that STRIVE is hoping to address is to reach out to potential participants. However, with the help of social media and go...