My Father, My Hero

When I was eleven my father passed away and tomorrow marks the 12th Father's Day without him. In honor of the holiday I wanted to offer some words of thanks and love for him. To start I think y'all need to know the story of who Zvi Minc was.

My dad was born in Israel to a survivors of World War II. His father, a pain-in-the-neck man who despite his many flaws was a powerful figure who fled Poland when the Nazis approached, joined the Red Army and after the war fled Russia to settle in Israel. His mother, a woman I barely knew, a survivor of Auschwitz and crippled by bad health including diabetes that progressively ruined her ability to walk and made her blind. My dad was their oldest son and the 1st of 4 children. While they never were happy that he and his family lived in the US, their pride in my dad were beyond obvious. My grandmother died 7 months after my father. It might have been here health, but from the wailing during the entire week of the funeral, a broken heart would be a very valid diagnosis.

After growing up in the kibbutz, he went off to the military with hopes of flying in the Israeli Air Force. While his sight was good, it wasn't good enough and in the end he was assigned to be a mechanic for the Air Force rather than a pilot. While a turbulent time in Israel, his service ended before the Yom Kippur war and as young Israelis have been doing for decades, he traveled to the United States. While he and his current girlfriend went with a group to tour the Poconos Mountains, he met my mom a fellow kibbutznik, and their courtship began. After briefly dating, Israels neighbors surprised it by attacking on Yom Kippur and reservists all around the world, like my dad, headed back to Israel to do their part in defending their country. Corresponding while they were apart, ultimately they decided to get married.

While there is much more I can say I will fast forward at the kind of father he was. Eventually, after settling in Dallas, my dad decided to start his own business using his experience as a mechanic and a job he had as an appliance repairman. As the owner and sole employee of QuikService, my dad was very successful: he did quality work, at a low price and treated his clients with respect. They thanked him with numerous referrals and fierce loyalty. He went to work early, but routinely he would be done by three so he could go play tennis or racquetball with friends before coming home in time to spend the evening with his family.

I often wondered why he didn't work harder and really follow the "American Dream". With how much his clientèle loved him he could've easily gained more clients, charged a little more and found a way to earn more profits. The answer is very simple: he was happy with what he did and he found a better way to spend his time.

That's why, despite being gone these 12 years, my dad continues to teach me a valuable lesson and is a hero of mine. He knew the value of working hard and doing his job right to support his family. We were never lacking something we needed and even got some of things we wanted. We were able to travel to Israel often among other family vacations. He always had time to play games, help us with schoolwork and show us endless affection. He was compassionate, but always firm in one thing: we had to the best we could do to improve ourselves primarily through education. For a man who never took a course in college, he was extremely well read and self education and because of this knew how important it was for his children to do well in school.

If that's not a life lived well, I'm not sure what is. He was successful in his own way, while enjoying life and being an incredible father. I miss him every day and though he's gone still love him dearly.

Thank you Abba for everything.

My dad during one of our few trips to Israel together shortly before his death

My dad and my mom, very much in love, during that last visit

My dad and I, not sure when and where.

He was a cute kid... hope I got some of the genes!

The Big Graduate School Decison!

As anyone who is connected me through Google, Facebook, Twitter or that novel realm of real life knows, I’ve been struggling with my decision on where to go for graduate school. Last Monday I attended the first of my two admitted graduate student visit days at American University. From my pre-application research and visits I had a strong feeling that American was my top choice and overall the visit day reaffirmed this.

After a long day of engaging in enthralling conversations with professors, current students and other potential incoming student I was sold. Throughout the day politely, but repeatedly various employees of the university reminded us if we pay or have paid our deposit we can get first priority in the registration process. Trying to be responsible I shunned their tantalizing offer and put off a commitment until visiting George Washington University on Friday.

I figured this second visit day would be primarily a formality and told myself unless GW really impressed me, I would drop my 400 dollars to American and begin to plan the next two years in the far northwest of Washington DC. Well surprise surprise, GW managed to do just that. While American still had my heart, GW enticed my brain with their emphasis on job skills and more robust career services.

Torn between these choices I did the only rational thing I could… ran to the Trader Joe’s near the GW campus, stocked up on snacks and proceeded to locked myself in my room with a quarter. With George’s head gracing one side of the coin and an eagle, American’s mascot on the other… it was easy to know which side indicated which school. I was tired on Friday and it was late by the time I got home so I only managed to flip the coin 37 times with 21 of those in favor of GW. Despite work on Saturday and Sunday I was able to squeeze in far more flips per day: 163 on Saturday with 90 for American and 147 on Sunday with 80 toward GW. After a short work day yesterday I ended up with a grand total of 562 with a spot on 281 for each school. I perhaps definitively proved the 50-50 probably of getting heads and tails with a quarter, but obviously some higher being was telling me I had to make up my mind in a less irrational way.

If you’re reading this the suspense might be killing you as it has me for the past few days, so I’ll get serious and let anyone who might impatiently want to know already: I have decided to go to the School of International Service at American University enrolling fall 2010 and probably graduating sometime in 2012 or 2013.

In the end how did I come to this decision? Well after consulting everyone I could and make an elaborate comparison chart ranging from curriculum to professors (including whether or not they’re foodies) to location to my thoughts on the mascots and girls of both schools. As mentioned above the choice came down to a program I liked far better, but didn’t give me overwhelming confidence about the job hunt versus a program that was acceptable, but did far more to reassure me my lovely degree in international development would produce some type of income. For my lovely chart, American was the clear winner and almost everyone who was kind enough to look at it knew I had made my decision already, but of course I continued to agonize for a few more days.

Finally after speaking to a few DC contacts who work in the fields I am interested in, I was comforted that there was no significant difference of job prospects and both programs are highly respected. After sleeping on it a few nights and all this input, I decided that regardless of the resources available the onus will be on me to find a job and if I’m going to be investing in a graduate program I want it to intellectually fulfill me as well as providing me important practical skills and contacts.

I’m going to follow-up with a post about all those people I want and have to thank for this process, but I wanted to express why I made my decision more for my own benefit, but also for those who were curious. There is definitely much more to, but I’ll spare you for now.

The new School of International Service building. This is where I will be living for the next two years

Am I Grown Up? 6 Months In DC Update

Six months from today, on a sunny Friday afternoon at the end of August I arrived in Washington DC in an effort to practice my conviction and find work set in my activist passion. While it hasn't been an ideal ride, I've learned a lot, made a handful of good friends, a few I would even dare to say great, and in the end I have more or less begun to carve out an "adult life' for myself. Since I haven't done this in any substantial way since moving here, I figured I would give y'all an update. If you want to know why and how I decided to come here two weeks after returning from Uganda (and quitting a job) you can check out my slightly dramatic entry Here goes nothing....

The internship

Immediately as I landed in DC, I had a voice mail for an internship with a legislator's office on the Hill, so I quickly rushed to my friend Cassi's place, researched that representative and had my first interview since my renewed job search! First night in DC and one interview down, not bad right? I was exploring a few options aside from a straightforward job hunt including AmeriCorps, another GI-NET internship and the Hill. In the end that first interview amounted to nothing, but my first Monday in DC, I had another interview on the Hill yielding an internship starting the next day. Until December I answered phones, opened and inputted mail and provided tours at the Washington D.C. office for Congressman John Boccieri.

While in Uganda my continued struggled to decide whether I was better suited and more interested in advocating toward greater international development, promotion of human rights and an end to genocide or if I wanted to contribute through research on those goals. Quickly through my experience on the Hill, I realized my niche would ultimately be research. That being said, and while I may have offered my fair share of groans over opening mail and answering phones, it was definitely a wonderful experience being on the Hill for three months. If anyone at the Boccieri office reads this, thank you for that experience!

Housing

Rewind, so I stayed with my friend Cassi when I first arrived and for that she is someone I am hugely grateful for making this move possible. On that first Sunday, through a friend, I found a room in a house in north Silver Spring (along the DC metro red line for all those folks not familiar with the region) and while the house was a bit further out then I would have preferred, the roommates seemed nice and it was a brief walk to the rail. Before my first week was done, I had moved in and over the months have maybe myself a cozy room with extra furniture provided either by roommates or the landlord.

Job number 1

So that internship ended in December and since this is a full 6 months update you might be wondering what am I doing now, aside from living in my room in the big blue farmhouse with borrowed furniture. By the end of my first month here, I got hired to work part time at the National Abortion Federation hotline. So while I'm celebrating 6 months in DC, I am coming up soon on my first six months there. I might've never imagined I'd be working on a pro-choice hotline, but its been an incredible experience. I have always felt strongly about my pro-choice and feminist beliefs and aware that financial restraints continued to de facto make it impossible for women to exercise their full reproductive rights. Not to mention low income women who are unable to exercise these rights further feel the economic squeeze when they have an unplanned and perhaps sadly unwanted extra mouth to feed.

Can't say counseling is my strongest talent, but I've heard positive feedback from co-workers and patients. I hope its sincere because overall I love the job and really hope I am making at least a small difference for the women (and men) who call into the hotline. I can't go into too much detail for confidentiality reasons, but I've helped counsel dozens of people who have had been victims of domestic violence, been raped, conflicted morally about their decisions to have (or have had) an abortion and/or simply caught in an unexpected situation and overwhelmed by the fact they are pregnant. I have had to struggle with women to help them get funding for a procedure that irregardless to your or my feelings they believe is necessary for them to take care of their existing family, finish school or to cope with the difficult circumstances surrounding the pregnancy.

Throughout all this, I want to toss out a big thank you to the women (and men, I'm not alone!) at NAF for helping me survive and hopefully succeed at this job, but for also for becoming some of the great friends I mentioned before. Although we sometimes to cry from the horrendous situations we're confronted with or scream at the absurdity of the system we and these women are living in, y'all have some much passion for the work along with joy to the office. I have had many profound conversations associated with reproductive health, but also with my passions in international development with y'all along with many many laughs over absolutely ridiculous things. I have learned so much from everyone and from this and though I doubt I will be doing work directly connected to the work of NAF, long term, I will always proudly fight for women's rights particularly reproductive justice.

Job number 2

A few weeks ago you may have heard about (or shared in experiencing) the insane blizzards that hit Washington DC. Go figured, the life-long Texan who spent the bulk of his time outside of Texas in equally balmy Israel and recently Uganda comes to DC and experiences his first winter and it blizzards... a few times. Most people kept telling me DC winters are quite mild when I arrived. When it started to snow the first time in December, I was told this is rare for DC and that same weekend I got stuck in downtown while at the hotline and spent the night on my friend Danny's couch. (Danny, again: thank you, thank you, thank you!)

During the most recent blizzard I was at home and stayed at home so I didn't end up on a friend's couch, but we did lose power and with it our wonderful friend: heat. By the end of our snowy weekend I could see my breath almost everywhere in the house despite drinking gallons of hot tea (luckily our gas stove survived the outage) and wearing half my wardrobe.

Why am I talking about all this during the section called "Job number 2", well I wanted to add in the mention of my first real winter, but also during the fun indoors time I was beginning to hate, I got a phone from Clare at TrakServices. On a whim and out of necessity I sent my resume to a temp agency that kept advertising on a job list I subscribe to. She asked me to come interview that following Monday, the next day I was offered my first assignment and Wednesday I started. While temp work doing mainly data entry sucks (I tried to be articulate, but sucks really is the best word for it), the additional income is really fantastic.

So what now?

For a few reasons, when I arrived to DC, I started to work on my grad school search and application process. I guess a mix between job impatience, my total academic nerdiness and my renewed vigor for international affairs I wanted to get myself back in school! Starting tomorrow (March) until the end of April I should be finding out about grad schools. Meanwhile I am still seeking out and applying to various subsidized, free or paid programs overseas including a Peace Corps application I foolishly keep putting off. I keep considering directly volunteering with a local organization overseas and most seriously been thinking of returning to Uganda out of a slightly higher familiarity. I'll write more about that soon!

Of course the job search continues, though while I wait to hear from grad schools I have cooled the hunt greatly. Through more experience overseas and/or school I hope to be able to get work in international affairs for a few years and with that experience enter a PhD program to ultimately teach and research how development can be practiced in order to prevent conflict. You can read some more about that here, but I'm sure I'll be writing more about it soon.

Obviously a lot more I could write about and perhaps I will, but for now I should go to bed. Working two jobs requires me to sleep when I can! Ask me questions if you want to and I'd happily answer them and please visit DC. I may be busy with everything, but I'll make time to give you a personal tour of the Capitol among other things. There's always a couch/bed for any of you wherever I am.

Thanks for everyone who wished me well or who have helped me during my time here. I could write a whole long entry on who I need to thank and why... which I may very well do soon, but for now if you read this just assume yourself sincerely thanked!

Decade Goals

Things I want to accomplish by 2020. If any of these are common goals and you want to team up... let me know!

1. Go back to Africa at least once

2. Go to Asia or Latin American

3. Survive a triathlon

4. Write a cookbook

5. Get something published

6. Receive a masters degree

7. Go on a road trip

8. Have a successful garden

9. Cook a 5 course gourmet quality meal

10. Volunteer/work in a refugee camp for at least a week

New Blog Title: Being Chased By The Flame

I have sat down with the intention to write this post many times over the last month, but the normal procrastination kicked in. I've promised myself not to get up until its done tonight and unfortunately for the both of us the longer I have waited the more I have to share. I'll try to be brief.

As you heard or read (on this blog), I was supposed to start a job with US PIRG immediately upon my return from Uganda. During my time in Africa my strong interest in human rights, development, conflict resolution and many other things international were cemented even more firmly into my identity. Toward the middle of the seven week program I began having serious doubts about the job with PIRG. Eventually I tentatively decided I would head to Boston and give the job a chance.

The first few days of training in Boston seemed to drag on and the entire time the thoughts I had while in Ramogi grew louder and louder that while I agree with the issues PIRG worked on, I did not belong there. On Saturday morning, August 15th, three days after returning from Uganda and arriving in Boston those thoughts caught up to me. I had what most would call a break down and I suppose it was, but I'd like to call it a moment of realization.

Nearly from that first day I was already contemplating whether to stay at PIRG or find a way home to Texas and on the previous day, August 14th, my phone died. Regardless of the outcome of this internal debate... I need my phone. Believing I had lost my phone charging, I left the hotel toward a nearby Radio Shack. The charger I needed was not there, I headed toward the AT&T located between Radio Shack and the hotel, being a Saturday though the store was opening later and I had to wait.

Not being able to resist the charm of a book store, I decided to kill time at the Border's a few doors down. As I almost always do, I headed up to the history, politics and contemporary issues section of the store to find my familiar home among books about Africa, ethnic conflict, development and genocide history. Rather than finding exciting ideas to turn about in my head, all the books I saw from the new to those I owned all seemed to reinforce the same idea firmly implanted in my thoughts... "What am I doing here? I shouldn't be here."

Despite being short on cash and contemplating quitting a job I had barely begun... I decided I needed a book. One that might help bring clarity to the situation and perhaps guide me to the right choice. Struggling between a few titles, inspiration struck. I needed to buy Samantha Power's newest book: Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World. After nearly 20 minutes of searching both with and without help, I almost gave up on finding the book until I rechecked the biography section and found it under P for Power.

Riding the escalator down to the first floor with my book-in-hand I mused to myself... Sergio Vieria de Mello might have been chasing the flame in his career, it seems in my life the flame is chasing me.

The next few things I did might have been irrational and partially motivated by a combination of jet lag and reverse culture shock, but I am happy with the choices made. On autopilot I went to the AT&T store, got rerouted to the mall located adjacent to the hotel, finally found a charger and immediately sat down next to an outlet. Once the phone was had some charge I called my mom and told her I was coming home. Walking back to the hotel I made phone calls to my brother, my sister and to my friend who helped me with arrange a flex ticket I had bought through her to get back to Dallas. Back at the hotel I quit the job and began sorting out the next few steps.

For the first time all summer I looked forward to returning home... I needed familiar surroundings, family and a week worth of sleep. That being true I also couldn't put my mind at ease returning to a hibernation state in Dallas. As Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man puts it: "Hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action" and I was hungry to pursue more overt action.

With Texas not an option and resources to low to get back to Africa, I had only one place to go to satisfy the possibility of working on international issues: Washington DC. August 28th, 12 days after quitting my job and leaving Boston, I arrived in DC.

A few days later I began an internship on Capitol Hill and moved into a house in Silver Spring, Maryland. I'm looking for work while applying to professional graduate degrees among other opportunities such as Peace Corps.

Things aren't ideal, but they're an idealist paradise. Options and opportunity are everywhere. The flame is certainly chasing me and I'm happy to be running!

Ramogi Resource Center

Written 6/27

The center is a gorgeous facilty focused around a main house where Apollo lives wit his family which inlcudes rambunctious boy named Isaac who has quickly become our unofficial masoct. The quest rooms are located in four wings: Toronto (where the men sleep), New York (where the women sleep), Milan and an almost complete one named after Apollo's mother. He warmly described her as a strong and compassionate woman.

The rooms are much nicer than we expected: we share with only two other people, have beds with sheets, blankets and bathrooms with FLUSH toilets. We even (on most days) have lights after sundown. On our first night the door handle snapped so the bathroom door won't stay shut on its down, nothing to complain about overall.

The center also includes a beatiful gathering spot built more traditionally with a thatched roof, an outdoor kitchen, farm land and various animals including a cute dog named Tiger. Much of the food we eat is grown here and despite our fears the food is wonderful.

The center is located near the heart of the village and right next to the Ramogi Primary School, Ramogi Early Childhood Development center and the Protestant Church. Almost immediately we're swarmed by children who want to play with us, learn English and teach us Dipadola (the local language). Kenya is less than 20 minutes walk which provides for an extra excitement when gazing at the already breathtaking view.

On the Bus in Uganda

Written 6/25

Currently sitting outside the very comfy Sohpie's Motel, the place we spent our first night in Uganda. The staff was extremely friendly, breakfast delicious and the rooms equivalent to US 3 star standards. Overall a great welcome.
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This morning we met some of the staff from the Uganda Orphans Rural Development Program, the NGO we are working with in Uganda. These few staffers are riding with us from Entebbe to Ramgoi and immedaitely their dedication and passion shines through along with their warm smiles.

We first stop in Kampala in order for the group leaders to buy snacks from the ride and for us to exchange money. The city is very similar to what I imagined in a developing country. Simultaneously signsof growth and moderity along with sings of subsistence. Goats, chickens and cows are seen all over, but so are vehicles (mostly motorbikes carrying 2 or 3 riders) are also abundant. Many Ugandans are on foot while others zoom by alll the stores and billboards. Coca-Cola, unsurprisingly, is as popular here as it is everywhere else in the world.

These signs extend well out of the city. The road we're on is lined with stores, resturants and gathering spaces. It seems every few minutes another building is brightly with colored with ads for Coke, paint, cell phones, cooking oil and even investment banking! Billboards are a constant sight as evident by the GIANT Bell Beer (a local brand) ad in what we could only describe as the middle of nowhere even in Ugandan standards.

About halfway through the drive we pass over the Nile in Jina, not from where it originates from Lake Victoria. After passing a police check and slowing down by some men who try to sell us corn via the windows, the stores slowly become fewer and structures more characteristic of developing communities. We even spot a few baboons in a heavily wooded area along the road!

Finally we turn off in Tooro, the roads degrade into semi-passable conditions and we're definitely no longer on a highway, Entebbe or Kampla. We're clearly in a bustling city nestled in a rural district nonetheless. Apollo, the executive director of UORDP, boards our bus . He is a strong looking man wearing a large glowing smile and a suite. After a quick hello we depart for Ramogi.

Flying Over Africa

At the moment I am 365 km above the border of Sudan and Uganda, about 20 minutes from our landing in Entebbe. It's a very unique experience flying in a plane with people en route to East Africa. While there are a few Ugandans on the plane and perhaps a few tourists, the overwhelming majority of passengers are volunteers, aide workers, NGO staff and a few researchers.

Next to me, for example, is a woman from a teaching delegation from a church in Connecticut en route to South Sudan. Traveling in itself is an incredible endeavor in my opinion, but I can't think of another destination other than Africa where the plans of so many are focused on the host community and not themselves.

En Route to NYC

Originally written 6/18

I decided to go to New York a few days early to see friends and family and it seems I picked the "perfect" day. The day started yesterday since I only briefly napped last night. Aside from expensive, hard to find malaria pills and my mom's car battery dying, Tuesday the 17th was a good day. The problem though was that packing for Uganda was even more time intensive than I had anticipated. I barely had time to finish my post-Uganda packing.

In typical Minc fashion, my mom and I arrived at DFW five minutes too late for me to check in my bag so my 8:40 flight turned into a 10:30 flight w/connection and many delays. Happy to say I am writing this on the tarmac in Philly at 5:30 EST and will be in NYC shortly.

A Thank You Reflection

I wrote the following as my Thank You Letter to people who donated to my trip. I thought I would post it on here for all of you since it is also a reflection on my trip and even though you may have not donated monetarily if you're reading this you deserve a thank you for being my friend.

I have been thinking lately about what the opportunity to go to Uganda means to me in order to better understand exactly why all the generosity of my friends has struck such a powerful emotional chord with me. A few weeks ago when discussing my trip with my mom she commented about how fortunate I have been as a child of a widow graduating from college with fairly low debt. She was making the point that perhaps going to Uganda should be seen as financially out of reach for me. While she certainly has a valid point, I know I am beyond privileged to have had many of the great experiences and opportunities I have managed to have thus far in life.

The more I think about it, the more I can see that a quiet determination has led me to the right choices to accumulate the past experience that may ordinarily not be available to a single mother average yearly earnings only slightly above the poverty level. Being in Plano as a stubborn teen probably contributed to this determination, I tried to explain to my mom that because I was in an unfortunate situation that shouldn’t ruin the chance to do things that would benefit me personally and professionally.

In the past I used this stubbornness or determination, whatever it may be called, to go to conferences, summer camps and even college without driving my mom or myself into heavy debt. I was fortunate enough to receive financial aid and scholarships to most of these activities. I even chose to intern in DC last summer ignoring the fact that I would deplete a good chunk of my savings doing so. It is horribly unfortunate that even great students have to sacrifice interning or traveling abroad because of financial constraints.

In the end, I also sacrificed traveling abroad so that I could spend a summer in DC. I do not regret it, last summer was an invaluable experience filled with great work and great people. Thanks to the AJWS Volunteer Summer, I may end up having the chance to have some version of the student travel abroad experience in Africa doing work that, as mentioned before, will be benefitting me personally and professionally.

I try to live my life by one of my favorite quotations from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: "It's winner take nothing that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by playing in the face of certain defeat." We are all trying to make the world better in our own ways and I truly believe by playing in the face of certain defeat and by supporting one another we experience Uganda, build a school for HIV/AIDS effected orphans, end genocide, and all the other ambitions we each have as individuals and as a group.

I Have A Future!

I've been holding off on this post for a few weeks since I wanted to make sure things were solid before making all the details public, but after four months of applying to many hundreds of jobs and going on about half a dozen interviews, I finally have a tentative plan for now until August 2011 and figured some of the more curious people out there might be interested.

Now until mid-June: I'm working to save for Uganda and beyond (more below) at a CD store called CD Source in Dallas (Lovers and Greenville for those who live or visit here). I highly recommend visiting and shopping there even if I'm not working there. It is by far one of the best places I could imagine to work retail. Great people, huge selection and fun atmosphere. They buy used CDs and DVDs so if you need cash or would like to exchange CDs or DVDs you no longer use for ones you might, stop by! www.myspace.com/cdsource.

I need to make the decision ASAP, but I may cram for the GRE and take it briefly before leaving. Speaking of leaving...

Mid-June (perhaps June 18th-23rd, for sure 21st-23rd): I'll be in New York City. The 21st-23rd I will be with AJWS for orientation before departing for Uganda. I'm hoping to go a few days early to see friends, maybe audition for Who Wants To Be a Millioniare (I'm a loser, yes) and who knows what else....let me know if you'll be up there!

June 23rd to August 12th: Uganda!!! (well plus travel) If you notice that not just 1 or 2, but 3 exclamation points worth of excitement. I think I'll post a separate entry on Uganda and more details, but here are the basics:

I'm going with college students and perhaps other recent grads and we will be working in a rural village in eastern Uganda close to the city of Tororo in a village called Ramogi. We will be building a school for orphans served by Uganda Orphans Rural Development Programme. These orphans have been effected in some way by the HIV/AIDS crisis.

I'm sure I will go into length about this in my more detailed post, but I still need a bit more help to ensure this plan is a reality. If you can spare anything please visit https://donate.ajws.org/03/service. Please make sure to include my name, Uganda and Volunteer Summer. I estimate if I can raise another 1,000 dollars I should have no problem at all going. At this moment I'm fairly determined to go either way, but your help would be incredibly appreciated.

August 12th-August 20th? (Unsure exact dates): As soon as I return to NYC from Uganda, I will be rushing up to Boston to join with the US Public Interest Research Group training for new fellowship associates. For more information on the job visit this site. Essentially I will be either a field associate helping to run an office and working on many issues or an issue associate, still at a field office, working on one specific issue. I hope to see some of my Boston friends while up there and get to see Boston since I've never been. Perhaps a visit to Tufts Fletcher School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government!

August 20th-August 31st 2011: When I leave Boston I may have some time off, but very soon after I will be starting at a PIRG office somewhere in the US. Of course I will blog about it when I get there as well as I reach out to any of you who might be living there. I'd love to add more details, but I don't know any at the moment!

______________________________________

That's the next 2+ years in a nutshell. As mentioned, I will try to do better with the blog about both Uganda and my job with PIRG as well as life in general. After August 2011, I will try to work in human rights advocacy, do some traveling or get some Hill experience. If no opportunities appeal to me or I strongly desire to, I will being grad school. I may also stay with PIRG. Of course more on that stuff 18+ months.

I want to thank you all for the love and support in the past, in sorting out this stuff in the present and for the well wishes for the future. I will continue to do my best to keep in touch regardless if I'm in Uganda, Boston or Texas and I hope you do the same.

Weebale (Lugandan for thank you),
Leran

My Message to the STAND Leadership Team

I made this for the STAND Leadership Team, but everyone is more than welcome to see it. While I made it with that collective group in mind, I feel this way about practically all my friends in the anti-genocide movement and even many of those outside of it. I included my "transcript" but I didn't follow it strictly.

I just got an e-mail from Charlotte and it almost brought me to tears. I think it was notes from our the last o-team call I was on, it was o-team answers to what they like about me. I have been meaning to make a video for all my STAND friends and like many things I have put it off over the last 2 months. After reading this e-mail, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.

I love you all more than you will ever know. I mentioned this at the NSC, but after my father passed away when I was 11, it always felt like I was searching for a home and this search for a second family was always behind my decision to join an organization. In college I began to join causes and do things purely out of passion for the objective.

Even though I came to STAND out of my desire to grow as a member of this movement and to have biggest impact I could in order to help end genocide, I was greeted by the warmest, most intelligent and most passionate group of my peers I think I could ever have met outside of my home chapter. You truly have become that second family I have always consciously or subconsciously looked for.

I have been blessed with the insanity of activism and because of it I have had the opportunity to organize people, plan events, raise money and advocate for causes in the past. While I had a lot left to learn and still do, when I joined STAND I had already gained a lot of invaluable experiences. STAND provided me with so much more than how to plan a successful event or lobby legislators, it provided me with a cause that I can own and that owns me. The work I did in high school and freshman year was important and I still feel a lot of passion for those causes, fighting genocide has made me feel far more empowered and fulfilled than I could ever imagine being. I know I don’t have to explain too much that fighting genocide isn’t just something I feel is important in my heart or rationalize as necessary in my mind, but a synthesis of those two urges.

I think for that reason, no matter how awkward I can be and how short of time I’ve known most of you, that I feel so strongly connected to all of you. STAND might be where we come to help end suffering in Darfur, but I believe with all of myself that STAND is where many end up finding their home. I was and would be a committed activist, but STAND has allowed me to grow up and focus my activism.

I’m rambling and eventhough I typed this out, I’m having trouble expressing what I want to express. All I can do is say thank you to all of you for becoming my friend and working together on this cause we all care deeply about. Many of you came before me and laid the groundwork, welcomed me warmly and helped retool me for this cause. Others of you joined at about the same time or after me. Thank you for being my support, my family and colleagues in this struggle. We all get frustrated, but I know together we can keep it up and that our efforts are helping, will help and will ultimately be successful.

I’ve kept in contact with most of you, but please please please do not let us venture too far away from one another. I will do my best to keep on pestering you guys from my g-chat addiction. We’ve done some amazing things together and regardless of where all end up, I’m sure our connection will continue to be one that brings about joy to one another and ideas that will change the world.

New Year's Resolutions

It seems a lot of people are posting their resolutions online. I decided I'll jump on the bandwagon in hopes that putting these out publicly will help me keep them longer. If anyone wants to team up on any of these let me know:

1. Get a job. This one isn't really a resolution, more like a necessity.
2. Call 1-800-GENOCIDE more. I always want to do more to help end genocide and I also hate not practicing what I preach. I want to call 1-800-GENOCIDE at least once a week. I really hope some people join me on this one. It's quick, easy and really helpful.
   
3. Exercise. I thought I should include a classic, but hopefully moving back to Plano will help me with this one. For almost 6 months I've been claiming I would do this "Couch to 5k" program that takes 9 weeks. So I think I'll aim to run a 5k by the end of April.
4. Update my blog more. I enjoy writing and I think it is a good creative outlet for me. I'm going to be cautious with this resolution though, I think I'll aim for one post a month.
5. Read 100 pages a week. I love reading, but now that I don't have to read 50-100+ pages a night for school it has been hard getting motivated. So much to read, so little time. I should easily be able to do 100 pages a week.
6. Study for the GRE. Grad school is definitely in my future and I might start as early as Spring 2010. Therefore I'm going to aim to study for the GRE at least two hours a week until I take it.
7. Learn to cook 5 Indian dishes. I wanted a fun one that I would feel fairly confident in accomplishing. Although it was 2008, I tried one last night so that already brings me down to 4 left.
   

I think that's it for now. Since updating my blog is one of those, I may provide some update about these. Maybe not. We'll see. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Leran's Post-Graduation Update

First of a few videos. Quality sucks, but I hope it works.

An Update to Gray: Life in Technicolor

Lately I’ve been thinking about a blog entry I wrote over a year ago simply called Gray. While I still very much identify the powerful emotions attributed to that piece, I wanted to offer a new interpretation to the vivid colors of life.

I began thinking about this idea when I was in Washington, D.C. over the summer. As I was leaving for DC I had pre-ordered Coldplay’s new album, Viva La Vida, and the soundtrack of my summer was dominated by that album. "Life in Technicolor", the album’s first song, seemed to be my song for the summer. The original, which is featured on the album, was an instrumental piece that has a very positive beat to it with troubled yet optimistic tone to it. It felt to me as the perfect way to both prepare for my day in a big often lonely city and wind down or reflect on the work of combating genocide.

As I’ve reflect more on this song and the ideas of my previous writings, I’ve come to the conclusion: life is the pursuit of color. When we’re born we are overloaded with color. Everything is new to us, nothing contains our curiosity and the world is filled with new things to explore. As we grow gray begins to enter our lives.

For me gray was the fact that my family history contains that great gray of human, the gray of genocide. The gray of the Holocaust mixed with its bastardized red of the Nazi flag and yellow of the Stars of David used to mark the soon to be dehumanized Jewish masses in occupied Europe. Or the deep dark grays left in my heart after my dad was taken away from me at the age eleven by an early and unexpected death. Or the grayness of modern day genocide mixed with the green of our hopes and the multicolored vibrant garb of many of its unnecessary victims.

In a more general sense gray is the day to day hardships we all endure. From as simple as home or fitting in at school or work to as difficult as making ends meet or watching a loved one slowly deteriorate because of a terminal illness. Gray fills our lives and we do our best to add color.

We all know and lament many of the unhealthy ways many take to adding color to their lives. Consumerism, drugs, alcohol and abuses of power are all ways to fight off gray or to add some type of color to our otherwise dark lives.

Fortunately we all also experience the rich color of life in all its positive and natural forms. While there are some nearly universal examples, I think the reason for color is a very personal and unique thing for all of us.

My blessing and my curse is that while I continue to pursue color like everyone else, I constantly see the gray of life. I believe we all should see some gray though for that is the blessing and curse of all those who consider themselves socially conscious. As we gain color in our lives we must remember that many live lives of gray and we have an immense power to bring color to the lives of others. Maya Angelou when she spoke at UT said, “We are all and can be rainbows in the clouds of others.”

For me I see the gray that drives me to activism, but those surrounding me: my friends, my family and that rich network of fellow activists all contribute to the wonderful color of my life. Perhaps this is true for many people, but I feel that my life has slowly gained its color from the gray of my adolescence. As I have gained more insight into my chosen path in life and I have surrounded myself with those supportive of that path, they have colored my life.

This summer when I first was exposed to “Life in Technicolor” my life was rich in color, but optimistically yet somberly my life was only filled with Technicolor type richness. About five months later with the friends I gained this summer, the reflection that comes with graduation, I see that the intensity and vibrancy of my life has increased. This is thanks again to my friends and to the work I have dedicated myself too.

I also credit this to a recent friend, someone who has quickly captured my heart in the short time I’ve known her. You see when Coldplay first released “Life in Technicolor” they shortened it and left out words they had written to accompany the instrumental. Just a few weeks ago they release a new EP: Prospekt’s March with the song “Life in Technicolor II” including the omitted lyrics with an extended instrumental. Around the same time, a wave of color entered my life by name of Allison. As cheesy as it is, she is the lyrics missing from the song.

When I used to listen to “Life in Technicolor” this summer it gave me a sense that my life was colorful and things were on their way to where I want them, but perhaps it was the city of DC or perhaps it was just my past of grayness: something felt missing. Now it truly feels as if both the song and the color of my life are nearly complete. As Chris Martin sings:

Oh love don't let me go
Won't you take me where the streetlights glow
I could hear it coming
I could hear the sirens sound
Now my feet won't touch the ground

I can still see the gray and I still very much live it, but color is very much part of my life. To everyone who may be reading this: “Oh love don’t let me go”

To my family: Thank you for helping me survive the gray. I know the loss of Abba was not easy for any of us and we all were filled with grayness. Somehow we all made it through and as the youngest, I hope I helped bring color to your lives, but I will forever be indebted for all of your attempts at preserving what color this angst ridden, scared, lost pre-teen had when his father passed away.

To my friends: Thank you for bringing color into my life and giving me the Technicolor life needed to survive. I have gained strength from knowing all of you from those who helped me make it through the awful years of middle school to those that road with me in the rollercoaster of high school and finally to the ones who joined me in journey of college and especially to the ones I met while on that journey.

To Allison: We both acknowledge how crazy we are to feel so connected so quickly, but thank you so much of being someone who understands grayness both from personal pain and by identifying the darkness in the world. I know I’ve said this often, but I really hope that what we have continues to blossom and help us see the true color of life. We both come from different shades of gray, both unsettling in their way and independently we had begun to gain color in our individual lives. Together it feels as the color that people with happier histories and more ideal lives can only dream of having, we have obtained. I cannot thank you enough for this gift of color and for adding rich lyrics to the music I had been listening to for quite some time.

"Nothing could be better
And nothing ever was"
-Coldplay's "Glass of Water"

Reflection

Tonight I was part of something truly and profoundly remarkable. While I engaged in this same activity roughly a year ago, it took my second trip through this experience to come to the realization I would like to share with you now.

Tonight I joined 150 of my fellow University of Texas students in the tedious, unglamorous and occasionally painful experience of preparing ten thousand white roses to be distributed tomorrow across the University campus. On face value there is a certain level of incredibility to this evening. 150 students coming together on Wednesday night in a town and a campus with near infinite choices of how to spend one’s night ranging from a studious night in the library to a wild night downtown to prepare roses for of all things: Holocaust remembrance.

While I might shrug this unbelievable event and chalk this success up to the advertised free t-shirt, free pizza and for those who desired: volunteer credit, this I believe would not do this phenomenon justice. Tonight, these peers of mine decided to spend an hour, two hours or for many the entire four hours to preparing roses. Many of these individuals have excitedly committed either before or after this evening that they will join many others to assist in passing out these prepared roses to go above and beyond their free t-shirt, free pizza or their required volunteer credit.

Why? Why have my closest friends at this school organize people I have known for years and people I have never met and may never really get to know decide to spend anywhere from one hour to twelve hours to months on a relatively thankless, tedious, unglamorous and occasionally painful experience in preparing roses for an oft depressing topic of genocide?

My answer: hope.

I am a leader of the White Rose Society, the group who has spent months planning tonight’s event, and last year’s event and the two years before that. We are an ever growing yet continually small group of students dedicated to eradicating genocide by working on promoting awareness, advocacy and aide on and around our campus. We work tireless with varying levels of success alongside tens of thousands activist around the world who are directly, indirectly and in most cases not at all affected by the crime they work to end.

Again I wonder why? Why do I, my friends and all these other people, many of which have no direct connection to the horrors of genocide decide to lose sleep, forget to eat and face challenges continue to fight strongly against genocide? Why do we activist continue to fight on even though the current genocide in Darfur rages onto it’s sixth with minimal progress made and prospects for Darfur as grim as ever?

My answer, again, is hope… and a certain degree of stubborn tenacity that endears me all the more to the activist mentality.

We tend to get wrapped up in the numbers. 6,000,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust among 3,000,000 other victims. Anywhere between 200,000 and 450,000 Darfuris have been murdered in the last five years. UNAMID is supposed to have 26,000 troops, but only has 9,000. We have pulled out 500,000,000 dollars from Texas pension fund money that used to fund the genocide. We have 200 members, we have 1,000 petition signatures, we have raises 200 dollars this week.

When we want we chose to focus elsewhere, we ask about politics. Did you hear what Barack Obama said? How about Hillary Clinton? Did your representative vote for the Sudan Accountability Divestment Act? Is the UT System ever going to divest? Will President Bush stick to his promises? Can we do more to pressure China?

Sometimes we decided to point the finger. The United States should do more. China is evading the issue. Omar Al-Bashir is playing his games. The rebel groups are bad guys too. The United Nations is ineffective. The African Union is too new and too inexperienced.

We can and many times we should use numbers to help understand the situation and to gauge progress. We can and many times we should discuss politics in order to search for solution and bring these solutions to fruition. We can and many times we should look to where the breakdown is and who is responsible for delaying progress.

What we lose in this process is the two simple and stark realities. The first: people are dying. The second: an unprecedented amount of people have chosen to care and do something about it. Numbers matter, politics matter and people are to blame. We have divested, recruited and counted the dead. We have politicked and lobbied. We have as academically, as journalist and as activist pointed the finger and have discussed in both overly simple and overly complex terms: who is the “bad-guy” we should all blame.

These are all significant and much needed elements of advocacy and discourse, but we need time to time remember about the people: the people who have died; the people who may die and the people who have thought to stop crimes against humanity. People like the original White Rose who for their efforts to speak out against Nazi crimes, were beheaded. And for their efforts our contemporary anti-genocide group has chosen to become living memorials of these brave activists.

The ten thousand roses are about those have died and those who may died, but also about those who live to commemorate: those who live to continue the fight against inhumanity; those who refuse to give up hope!

In the span of a day, my peers: friends, acquaintances and strangers alike contribute our time and our energy in remember that in a similar amount of time, ten thousand people could be murdered because of a racist ideology combined with a horrendous bureaucracy deemed them to be subhuman all because of a group these individuals may have chosen or not chosen to be part. We do this because we want to remember and we want others to remember. That is our task in name that is how we have chosen to describe such a task.

What we do not say is that this task is not solely about history or the now cliché sentiment of “never again,” but that this task is our attempt to proudly display our hope that one day we will pass out roses to remember and remember alone. That one day genocide will be a thing of the past and the past alone. That we will not have to promote a week of education and action with these roses, but that we will only commemorate those victims of an earlier era.

Until then we pass out our roses for hope.

The Update Part 1 of 3

As part of the end of year reflection, I have come to the conclusion that I want to do a few things:

1) Keep in contact with people better
2) Reflect on my life in a more written and significant form

So to do these two things I have decided I will push myself to post an entry on this blog of my month in review once a month. Only the highlights, significant observations or major decisions since I remain determined to not drone on about myself in this blog.


This entry though will be rather lengthy because I plan to launch this greater reflexive effort by sharing with you a recap of the last year. To do this properly I'll actually have to start last August when I first made the move to Austin to start attending the University of Texas at Austin. Bear with me over the next "17 months."

Fall 2006- I moved to Austin and into an apartment with my good friend Kyle. As many of you might know, I hit the ground running! With my idealistic tendencies, practically the first week there I prepared to register the Human Dignity Society as an organization.

I am surprised that I've only been living in Austin for less than 14 months because the Human Dignity Society already feels like a relic in my past. For those who may not have heard, HDS was one of my efforts at creating an organization. The mission for this one was to help bring people out of homelessness and poverty by extending assistance BUT by ALSO building a community around them, providing a support network, motivation and friendship. I wanted the group to film a documentary featuring the stories of the homeless and adding to the film their progress as we continued through our efforts.

The honeymoon period of organizing building attempts and being lazy around the apartment with Kyle ended and school started. Classes were significantly harder than anything at community college. Luckily I was a busy community college student and had some background in AP classes or otherwise UT might have eaten me alive!

Despite them being hard, two of them that first semester were two of the best classes I had ever taken. I had arrived in the intellectual heaven I been dreaming of. Finally I picked courses in topics I loved and two of the three lived up to every expectation and more. Twice a week I went from learning about Europe in the twentieth century with one of the most dynamic, passionate, engaging professors I've ever met to struggling through Spanish to finally being rewarded with my African American Social and Political Thought course with another incredibly engaging professors who seemed to create the most insightful thoughts about the African American struggle and literary work.

Diving more deeply into the psyche of Nazi Germany and discussing how viewing the crime of rape as a significant metaphor to the domination of slavery. I won't ramble on about the interesting bits of knowledge I learned, but just take away that I had found what I was looking for in my academic pursuits.

As I mentioned before I had started HDS and while it was not successful, (I will share more later) the effort allowed me to meet many incredible people and get involved with my current organization and my greatest passion yet. Through my lengthy pursuits on Facebook to find like-minded people I came across Anna Tabor. Anna was one of my closest friends last year at UT and when we met through Facebook we hit it off as friends. She liked my idea for HDS and I became interested in her work with the White Rose Society.

I have to admit partially because I had a small crush on her, but still mostly because I was strongly sympathetic with the anti-genocide efforts, I went to a meeting of WRS. After that first meeting I was hooked. The anti-genocide cause draws upon my passion to make the world better, my interest in human rights, has a connection to my filial past and provides me the excitement of the challenge to organize people around a cause that has become the hallmark of things I have been involved in since the end of high school.

Additionally my becoming an active member of the White Rose Society also helped me take the plunge into another organization that has been paramount to my life in Austin: Texas Hillel. My siblings, including my sister-in-law, strongly suggested over and over for me to try Hillel, at least for some free food sometime. As soon as I walked into the building for that first WRS meeting, I knew I had to come back. After a few episodes in that building I knew the people and the atmosphere were both things I wanted to be a part of. If you are another student reading this or if you are visiting UT, I recommend checking it out. A lot of my non-Jewish friends love it and it is a really open and welcoming environment regardless of who you are.

Not much else significant I can recall from the fall of 2006. I do remember that there was a point where I felt very overwhelmed despite overall feeling very well adjusted to my new life in Austin. As things became the most difficult I wrote the blog entry, Homeless that is on my old blog. Things started to improve after that, but I guess I cannot hide that the transition to a new place both geographically and in my life was not without it's turmoil.

I finished my first semester at UT doing well in my grades, meeting a lot of great new friends and finding two organizations that I could consider my home while in Austin. During the break I visited my sister and her family including my adorable niece, Maya.

I will take a break from writing so that I can hopefully be more coherent in my musings. When I come back though I will tell you about spring 2007, when my activism reached levels I only dreamed about when I was stuck at community college in Plano.