Breaking Barriers Through Travel Fellowship 2012-2013

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Here it is FINALLY please spread  the word, if you didn’t know , I promised we would announce the ‘2012-2013 Breaking Barriers Through Travel Fellowship’ in August , well here we are. Its a fellowship that allows you to travel and expierence South East Asia, specifically Thailand. There are no requirements for this, all that is required is a paragraph on why you would like to come and volunteer in orphanages and help build homes with Habitat for Humanity. Please take a look at our first fellowship and the hard work that was done in the 2011-2012 Fellowship : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.492600776606.259559.574271606&type=3…. If you are unemployed (with a little savings) just incase you want to country hop, PLEASE APPLY. If you want to travel and see truth for yourself and have NEVER left the USA or the country where your at right now , PLEASE APPLY. If you are a single mom with children and is concerned about nutrition and child development, PLEASE APPLY. If your a young man and confused about what subject to major in at the university, PLEASE APPLY. If you are concerned about your health and well being particularly when it comes to food, PLEASE APPLY SEA is the hub of fruits and veggies…No this isn’t TOO GOOD to be true, this is our passion and LOVE and we want others to travel because we BELIEVE it opens faucets in our brains for development. My passion is honed from working at my mother’s travel agency in which she operated for over 15 years. I feel blessed that I was given the chance and able to visit MANY countries and now I want to give that away BUT you must serve humanity by giving your time to the needy and building a home. Please e-mail and send a paragraph of why you want to travel to South East Asia- travel4truth@gmail.com or get me on FB @ Heidi Ajlani for  travel updates. The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. 

Having been to over 60 countries worldwide, I still have these quotes on my mirror:

“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” -Glenn Clark

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” –  Lao Tzu

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” –  Seneca

“Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.” – Mark Twain

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
 Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway.” – MT

Breaking Barriers Through Travel Fellowhip

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The 2011 Fellowship has been completed by Hazami Barmada. Application and Information for the 2012 Travel Fellowship coming soon .

What is the Breaking Barriers Through Travel Fellowship?

A travel fellowship that allows you to come to Thailand to help build homes with Habitat for Humanity and  work with local and international orphanages and schools .  This is a fellowship that WE have created to allow ‘international relations’  by  ‘doing it’ first hand. This fellowship requires you to pay ‘no money’ unless you want to take side trips and buy souveniers in South Thailand or other surrounding Asian countries.  Other international organizations out there want you to ‘pay’ to volunteer and even work  with no ‘pay!’ LOL! Not this fellowship. This fellowship is an ‘ international relations class 101’  helping you to travel and see the real deal, not from the book ‘kind of  fellowship’ , but a ‘life  experience ‘taking you to the  heart of South East Asia ! Requirments on the way……

อุปสรรคงานผ่านโปรแกรมการท่องเที่ยวคืออะไร?

โปรแกรมที่ช่วยให้คุณมาที่ประเทศไทยและช่วยสร้างบ้านสำหรับอยู่อาศัยและช่วยให้คุณสามารถทำงานกับเด็กกำพร้าและโรงเรียนที่ออกในประเทศ นี้เป็นโปรแกรมที่เราได้สร้างขึ้นเพื่อให้ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างประเทศโดย’ทำมัน’มือแรก โปรแกรมนี้คุณจะต้องจ่าย’ไม่มีเงิน’ถ้าคุณต้องการที่จะใช้เวลาเดินทางและของที่ระลึกด้านซื้อ องค์กรอื่น ๆ ออกมีต้องการให้คุณจ่ายเงินให้อาสาสมัครและได้ทำงาน! โปรแกรมนี้ถูกออกแบบที่จะเป็นเหมือนเป็นระดับความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างประเทศ 101 ในวัฒนธรรมของเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้! 🙂

U.S. President Jimmy Carter in Chiang Mai, Thailand

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Habitat For Humanity Worldwide and Globally
Nearly 3,000 Habitat for
Humanity volunteers dedicated 166 homes in Thailand, Vietnam, China,
Laos and Cambodia. The houses were built or repaired as part of
Habitat’s annual “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project,” where the
former U.S. president and first lady helped raise awareness about the
need for affordable housing and building homes in partnership with
low-income earners.
 
“We are grateful to the
Carters and the thousands of volunteers who’ve worked to make simple,
decent and affordable housing possible,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of
Habitat for Humanity International. “Their work this week will help
Habitat increase its efforts in this region to serve even more families
in need of improved housing conditions.”
 
Celebrity volunteers included
global movie action star Jet Li, who signed an agreement with Habitat
for Humanity to help build and improve homes in China in 2010-2011.
 
Also seen working on the Thai site were Japanese football player Hidetoshi Nakata; from
India, Bollywood superstar and Habitat for Humanity India supporter
John Abraham, along with actor R. “Maddy” Madhavan and Pooja Bedi, and,
from Sri Lanka, actress and broadcaster Jacqueline Fernandez; South
Korean TV actor Lee Seo-Jin; and Habitat for Humanity Thailand’s
goodwill ambassador, singer and actor Rattapoom “Film” Tokongsub.
 
In Chengdu, China, Hong Kong actor/director Daniel Wu was one of several Hong Kong celebrity volunteers to build.
 
“I also am pleased to announce
that next year Habitat’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project will be
held in the United States, Oct. 3- 8, to coincide with World Habitat
Day,” said Reckford.
 
World Habitat Day occurs on
the first Monday in October each year as a time to reflect on the state
of towns and cities, and the basic right of adequate shelter for all
people. 
 
The day was designated by the United Nations and is annually observed by Habitat for Humanity organizations around the world.
 
Habitat’s Carter Work Project
is an annual, internationally-recognized week of building that brings
attention to the need for simple, decent and affordable housing in
partnership with low-income families. President and Mrs. Carter have
faithfully given one week of their time each year since 1984 to help
build Habitat homes and raise awareness about the need for simple,
decent housing. The Carter Work Project has been held in India, Korea,
The Philippines, Mexico, South Africa, Hungary, Thailand, Vietnam,
China, South Korea, Laos and throughout the United States.



The islands of the Gods in Bali

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Legong and Kecak Dances


When and if you ever visit the Islands of the Gods in Bali you must see one of the very many different dances they have at the many temples that surround Ubud. These dances have been practiced and handed down from ancient times. Sometimes the dances depict a story or just an animal or nature. Like the aboriginal chicken dance the Kecak dance uses the nature of the monkey’s call.  Art and  dance hold culture and themes that are played out and expressed in the Bali style. What a style it is. Funny, they still pray and make a procession for everything . They make offerings to the gods when they open a store, begin the day or have the first sale. I asked one lady why  she was offering a Marlboro cigarette to the god (s) on his/her/its plate . She told me, “It’s not real cigarette,it’s a special cigarette .”
 
Nevertheless, these moments and actions is what makes Bali what it is, a Yogi’s heaven and an artists’ rain forest hide out getaway! I will go back!

The Legong “JOBOG” dance story is based on the story of two brothers , Kings Subali and Sugriwa , who were turned into monkeys. At the beginning of the dance the two brothers , represented by the Legong, are living peacefully together. After some time we see the two monkeys ( this has happened because of
acts not shown in the dance; Princess Dewi Tara had brought a powerful magic and the brothers wanted that magic but her father had thrown it away into the river and whomever jumps in that river turns into a monkey). Greedy as they are the two brothers jumped in for the magic and “poof ” they became monkeys. When they look at each other as monkeys they become confused and forget they are brothers and start a brawl.

Finally, when neither one wins or looses , they become tired and recognize each as Subali and Sugriwa . This story is from the “Ramayana Epic.”

Most dances in Bali that are of ancient origin come from the Ramayana Epic.

The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, the other being  Mahabharata. It
depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal
servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king.

The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana “going, advancing”, translating to “Rama‘s Journey“. The Ramayana consists of
24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas), and tells the story
of Rama (an incarnation of the Hindu
preserver-god Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon (Rakshasa) king of Lanka, Ravana.
Thematically, the epic explores themes of human existence and the concept of dharma.

Verses in Ramayana are written in a 32-syllable meter called anustubh.
The epic was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Indian life and
culture, primarily through its establishment of the shloka meter. Like its epic cousin the Mahābhārata, however, the Ramayana is
not just an ordinary story: it contains the teachings of ancient Hindu sages and
presents them through allegory in narrative and the interspersion of the
philosophical and the devotional. The characters of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman and Ravana (the villain of the
piece) are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India.


The Green School in Ubud, Indonesia

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Visiting schools in Indonesia…Obama’s Madrassa in Jakarta and the Greenschool in Bali…

Sample Curriculum from Greenschool in Bali

Unit Design: Thematic Unit on Rice – Part 1 (Part 2 will lead into Rice Field Ecology: the Creatures and Critters of the Rice Fields in Bali)

Subject: Across subjects to include: English, Science, Physical Education (Movement, Dance, Gross Motor Games), Balinese, Indonesian, Visual Arts, Mathematics, Cultural Studies,
Social Studies, Music

Grade: Kindergarten
Time Period: 2 months

Unit Goals:

  • Integrated learning (aesthetic, imaginative, tactile, musical, mathematical and literal) about rice in Bali with a focus on rice from seed to harvest, varieties of rice, tastes, types of foods, cooking with rice and creating offerings made from rice, stories, songs and games about rice. Enduring Understandings:
    Rice is a central part of life in Bali and as such can be seen growing all around and is a main food source and material source for offerings. There are many stories about rice which influence dances, the visual arts and perceptions about rice and rice farming in Bali.

    Content/Knowledge

  • Direct experience with the rice planting, growth and harvesting process
  • Learning how to cook rice and cook rice dishes
  • Experiencing the taste, smells and textures of different rice varieties and different rice dishes
  • Stories and myths about rice to nurture and engage children’s imaginations with rice as a focus
  • Artistic expression with rice as focus (looking at painting and drawings of rice paddies, Dewi Sri, the rice plant)
  • Children’s own expression with rice as focus in drawing painting, movement activities and games
  • Observing shadow play about rice and creating their own puppets and performing with musical accompaniment
  • Songs, chants and poems about rice – language/vocabulary development, aesthetic/ imaginative development with rice as a theme

    Skills

  • Tactile/sensory development through cooking – simple cleaning, stirring, tasting rice dishes
  • Work/caring for each other through serving, table setting, collecting dishes and washing
  • Mathematices – simple counting and measuring activites in rice cooking projects
  • Rice farming – direct experiences with planting, caring for and then harvesting rice
  • Visual expression – aesthetic- painting (non-toxic acrylic) – painting from the imagination (inspired by a story or shadow play)
  • Visual expression – scientific observation – from observing rice grow (drawing)
  • Literal/literary expression and development – vocabulary development through singing, chanting poetry in English
  • Familiarity with simple words in Indonesian and Balinese
    through singing, chanting poetry
  • Motor skill development (fine and gross) – through movements with rice as a focus
  • Fine motor skill development through creation of shadow puppets
  • Verbal expression through shadow play performing
  • Musical expression through songs and chants and musical accompaniment of shadow play (percussion practice)
  • Sense of rhythm of nature (rice growing process/rice seasons), bodily (movement with rice as focus), musical (percussion, songs and chants).
  • Cultural awareness development around rice as culture by learning the harvest rituals and celebrations around planting growing and harvesting rice in Bali and taking part in our own ritual for rice planting, growing and harvesting
  • Social Studies – meeting a rice farmer and learning about tools they use, how to plant and care for rice, experiences with rice farming

    Learning activities:

  • Seeing/observing rice planting and growth at various stages
  • Touching, cooking and tasting different varieties of rice
  • Making different foods with rice
  • Making and learning about offerings made from rice
  • Listening to Balinese folktales about rice and the story origin of rice in Bali
  • Learning and singing songs, chants and poems about rice
  • Learning and exploring simple movement patterns inspired by rice (the planting/growth cycle or taken from stories, chants or poems about rice)
  • Planting rice and monitoring it’s growth
  • Seeing paintings of rice paddies, rice and Dewi Sri, Goddess of Rice in Bali
  • Drawing and painting inspired by stories, songs, chants poems about rice and the rice planting/growth process
  • Games with rice as the thematic focus or with rice as a material used in the games
  • Counting with rice, measuring rice for cooking
  • Seeing a shadow play about rice and making puppets and performing with rice as the main theme of the story Resources
    Rice folktales (Bali and Indonesia)
    Shadow puppet play and puppet-making (Me and My Shadows)
    On site rice cultivation – Pak Chakra
    Rice offering making (Ibu Dwi)
    Rice songs and chants (created by Susan)
    Rice movement and dance pieces (created by Susan – yoga/danskinetics)
    Organic rice – red and brown – Sari Organic, Ubud
    The Ecology of Java and Bali
    The Flora and Fauna of Bali

http://wwww.greenschool.org/


Establishing a School in Cambodia !!

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Finally, let’s help bring success and the best for all the people involved. I’m finally sitting on the Board of Directors in helping establish a school, I truly hope this gives me the incentive to do the same in Iraq!!!!! Getting back to work.!
 
Hands on International Relations and here is our Mission Statement:
 
The Sustainable Village project was started by a dedicated, experienced and motivated group made up of nationals and internationals, wanting to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life in Cambodian rural villages by providing not only health care and education, but also water and facilities, quality homes, good food, environmental protection, social responsibility, cultural integrity and future sustainability. 

Here is our Vision:

In the future we hope for a better quality of life in the villages of Osdao, Thnout Tret, Steng, Kompong Rokar which will be sustainable. We hope to use our program as a development model for other communities that would benefit from our activities.

A Typical Day 

The day starts at around 5:30- 6:00 for Khmer kids and begins with helping with the morning chores. This may include, cleaning the house, fetching water, feeding animals, running errands or helping with younger children. After cleaning up and a short breakfast of rice porridge, children are off to school for 7:00 o’clock class. School includes many of the same subjects that children throughout the world take. At 11:00 school lets out for lunch or in our case extra classes at Our village school. At noon children eat lunch with their families until 2:00. This time is an important social occasion in Khmer households where families interact and perhaps rest at the hottest part of the day. After lunch it is back to public school until 5:00. At 5:00 class begins again at Our village school and lasts for one hour. Then back home for a night routine of different chores and preparations for the evening meal. Khmer households eat late to escape the heat and usually are in bed early. But with modernization there is sure to be more evening activity, like television, for households that can afford this luxury appliance.
  
Family Ties
A marked feature of youth in Cambodia is the tight bond with family members.  They love each other very much.  Mothers and Fathers have high expectations for their children and there are strictly defined roles for both genders.  Girls are expected to work around the house, and boys around the farm.  Their free time is constrained to prevent unwanted gathering and improper behavior.  We strive to respect the expectations of parents in their cultural values. 

Here is our Commitment :

It is a challenge to try to balance youth desires, parental cultural values, and our goals, but we know we must achieve this in order to have sustainability. For example, a student wants to leave the farm, move to a city, go to a university.  But we know the community must retain its integrity both in population and function. 

We understand the lure of modernity and are not bold enough to think that we can stop it, or wish to place barriers in the way of our youth, but we do encourage responsibility to the community.  We also pride ourselves on being sensitive with the issues of globalization.  For this, all our volunteer teachers are Khmer, sharing the cultural heritage of their students.  However, in endeavoring to improve our teaching environment, foreign teachers will be brought in.  Outside influences are enticing for youth and we will attempt to balance this with a strict mandate for all foreign visitors to be culturally sensitive to the values and beliefs of the community.  We hope to protect our youth and develop them in ways that fulfill their wants and desires, at the same being respectful of their heritage, and in so doing, we will achieve our goals as an organization.  http://www.villagesustainable.org/

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Save, Recycle and Plant #8

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The more I see what is being taught in the East compared to the West, the more I lean towards the East. I really don’t remember ever learning how to conserve energy, water, or recycle in the West. I am sure there are all kinds of so called "GREEN" classes in the West , however, conservation is not embedded in the culture as it is here; at least not in a creative way. It’s amazing to see the students recycle plastic bottles and used phone cards into beautiful ornaments such as a wind chime. It’s also refreshing to see these kids hand wash clothes in buckets and plant trees. It’s a part of the curriculum. Water conservation, energy conservation, recycling and planting. How conventional!!!  I encourage anyone who travels to a foreign country to always visit schools. Visiting schools gives you insight on the society at hand, what they value, how they think and what their school of thought is. As you may know there are many different schools of thought and that is why travel and education is so important!!! It’s more than a way of life, it’s a cherished value.We are all so different but the same. As the saying goes, "Same same but different." Educating and being educated is so rewarding!!! Imagine all the art work you get to take home.
 
Save something today
Recycle and play
Plant your way
 
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Where Life and Death Dance Together

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Our trip took us back to North India into Calcutta across the border into Nepal and then back into Varanasi, India. I call this Where Life and Death Dance Together   for many reasons. The Hindus believe if you die and get cremated on the Ganga, a holy river of India, your soul will be purified eliminating the circle of life sending it straight to Nirvana. Therefore, you will not be reincarnated into a tree, leaf or bird but will pass this process and go to heaven. This is one of the main reasons Hindus prefer to be cremated (purified by fire) on the Ganga. If the family of the deceased is fortunate enough, they will be able to use sandalwood for the procession. The deal is they  want to break the cycle of reincarnation and just go to Nirvana. All the while this is happening ( bodies being burned on wood and people dipping into the river for rebirth) the people have boats set up along the Ganga at sunset and dance the night away. Its like they are dancing and beating to  the dead bodies souls .  

 

The Ganga Ghats, which is believed to liberate one from all sins, encircle more than 100 ghats along the Ganges. Varanasi, India is considered one of the holiest places in India. Dipping into the Ganga, it is believed that people are cleansed physically, mentally and spiritually, therefore, washing oneself from all sins (rebirth). Hence,Varanasi unites life and death. Death, the fire to purify your soul..Life, the occasional dip into the holy river to wash your sins. For thousands of years people have been making a spiritual pilgrimage to these Ghats to offer their morning prayers to the rising sun. The most popular Ghats at Varanasi are the Dasaswamedh Ghat, Manikarnika Ghat, Harischandra Ghat, Kabir Ghat and Assi Ghat.  

I have never witnessed anything like it, people coming from all walks of life to a town thats only sole purpose is to  burn bodies 24/7 and hoping to get into heaven. Witnessing this procession had an affect on me and made me think about how vital it is to show a low estimate of one’s importance: humility. I was in shock and awe most of the time while in Varanasi. You have to wake up before the break of dawn to witness the washing of the sins. Waking up to see this at 5 a.m. was not easy. We tried to witness this and went and saw no one  at the ghats, so we went to the lobby of the hotel, The Radisson. 

 

I am Fasinataed with Bollywood and all the musicical movies they produce. The dances, the moves , the yogic poses while dancing, the music, the colors, I mean I loved Slumdog Millionaire! In India there are a select few personalities/actor/actresses that have a monopoly on movies and commercials. I learned from the Hindu Times , that the biggest Bollywood personality and humanitarian Amitabh Bahchan’s mother had just passed away. My curiosity immediately kicked in, was he going to submit to humility and take care of his mother’s remains as best as a Hindu knew how? My curiosity led me to question Mr. Bachchan’s humility. This promted me to ask if Big B was in town. Yes, he was as a matter of fact he wasn’t only in town  he was in town staying at a 4 star hotel , all the posh 5 star hotels were sold out. It’s Varanassi afterall. “Yes, he is  staying at the Radisson!!”

 

What? Big B…..I had to witness how a Bollywood actor stoops to humility. Yes, we saw him at the Radisson along with his son and his son’s beautiful wife. I had seen many movies for Aishwarya Rai and was amazed by her grace and humble appearance. We were among a few select people to be able to meet them at the Radisson. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan looked utterly distraught holding onto his mother’s remainings. Following Mr. Bachchan was his son and Aishwarya Rai. The 65 year old man was walking barefooted in the streets of Varanasi with the upmost humility. 

 

Yes, humility is a cure even for the biggest Bollywood personalities. How wonderful to see a man and his family with nothing on but white drab clothing and a humble face. Although the setting and meeting was very intimate, the circumstances did not allow me to pick up the camera and pose for pictures. However, it was great to be 2 feet away from the biggest influence in Bollywood and ALL of  India.  Those you have traveled to Inida know how vast , mysterious and wonderous it is.

These personalities are full of Life  which is evident in their success; however, had an appointment with the reality of a Death  of a loved one.  

 

Who would of known, out of all the cities in India we ran into the MOST influential personalities in Varanasi. 

I leave you with another famous Mark Twain quote about Benares also known as Varanasi:

 

“Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, even older than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together”-Mark Twain 

 

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H.A.