Caltech

LiNK

Last Friday, to end World Fest, Amnesty International, SASS (Social Activism Speaker Series) and ISP (International Student Program) paired up to host LiNK.  LiNK, or Liberty in North Korea, is a group that helps refugees from North Korea.  You can read more about them http://www.linkglobal.org/ if  you are interested :)

Every spring, LiNK sends Nomads across the US to screen their movie, Hiding, and raise awareness about the human rights violations in North Korea. 

Hiding (you can see the trailer at http://www.linkglobal.org/take-action/tours/tour_about.html) is about North Korean refugees hiding in China.  It was pretty interesting.  There was one person who they interviewed in South Korea.  Please don't take me verbatim on this {my memory isn't that great!} but here is the gist of what he said.  He had been in the North Korean intelligence for a while, and had been fully in support of the the North Korean government.  He hadn't known anything else, he said.  Even in his missions, he hadn't known anything about the other countries he was working in.  Eventually, he saw that it was different in other countries.  He saw that, in those countries, you could say and work where you wanted to.  You could eat more.  He defaulted, but only after having been in the North Korean military for 12 years.

Can you imagine that?  Being in a military for 12 years supporting your country, without ever having known an alternative.  It's so true, though.  Even when I go to Germany, I notice things about the US I never would have otherwise - and Germany and the US aren't nearly as different as, say, the US and North Korea!  Actually, one thing that I really like about Caltech is the amount of people from other countries who are willing to talk about their experiences and ask you about yours.  There's much more diversity than in my home state, New Hampshire!  [FYI, NH is one of the least diverse states in the US; it doesn't take much to beat that :)] 

Mostly, though, the movie followed a group of three LiNK members and five refugees escaping China.  Basically, the Chinese government currently has a deal with the Korean government that they will repatriate any refugees found.  The LiNK members said that China does this because they don't want to have to deal with the flood of refugees they would probably otherwise get if they stopped this. 

The movie also talked a little about the situtation in North Korea.  Currently, the government is led by Kim Jong II, whom the population is forced to worship (of course, because it is the atmosphere in which they were raised, for many of them, this is not by force; for the others, though, it is by force).  There is little freedom of the press.  In the 1990s, there was a food crisis; over one million people died of hunger because of failure of the Public Distrubtion System and natural disasters. 

Now, 33 percent of the population is estimed to be malnurished.  The World Food Programme estimates that 6.2 million North Koreans are short of food.  The movie talked about North Koreans who would cross the boarder to get food and medication for their family.  It was possible to bribe the guards because they, too, didn't have a lot to eat.  One refgee talked about how he was forced to leave his family in North Korea because he was too hungry.  He just left for school in the morning and didn't come back.  Even though hunger is such a big issue there, NGOs suffer from discriminatory food distribution and transparency issues and many are slowly decreasing their support. 

There are political concentration camps in North Korea.  As verified by testimonies of North Korean defectors and satellite images, there are now five major camps.  The North Korean government is systematically committing crimes against humanity according to Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, our Nomads told us, but because citizens in countries like the US aren't thinking about this as a voting issue, politicians have no incentive to raise the topic.  That's why they became nomads, they said. 

Many refugees which fled to China or Japan are hiding underground.  Those who escape to countries like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and Mongolia often have the attention of seeking asylum.  Women and children refugees often face exploitation or sex trafficking in China.  Some refugees have been resettled in the US, but most prefer to go to South Korea because the culture and language there are similar to that in North Korea.

After the movie, the Nomads were talking to us about the refugees which go to South Korea.  [As a note, they generally don't get there over land because of the no-man zone between the countries, covered in mines, but by escaping to other countries first.]  South Korea has a good 10 week integration program.  The government has a lot in place to help the refugees.  However, the refugees often didn't get much of an education compared to the South Korean population.  They struggle finding jobs.  They generally end up in the poorer end of society, and sometimes face discrimination.  LiNK works with the refugees they have helped until these are self-sufficient, but many refugee families still face many difficulties.  

After the movie, we had a Q and A session with the three nomads who came to Caltech, and then a reception.  It was interesting to hear from the nomads; one of them, HB, was originally from South Korea but said that watching Hiding still really impacted him -- even living in South Korea, he hadn't really though about the North Korean refugees and their struggle to get somewhere safe in the way that movie did. 

There's lots of film-screenings on campus on a bunch of topics, and its pretty easy to organize one too.  Actually, my biggest problem is that screenings and speakers tend to be at the same time!   They're a really nice way to get to know more people who have similar outside-of-class interests as you and take a break from studying :) 

Food Fest!!! Culture Fair!!!

Last week was World Fest.  That's a week of events put on by the Caltech Y, the International Student Program, the Diversity Center and a bunch of other groups. 

There were tons of booths with food - I think there were like 30 tables or something, which means -- 30 types of food!  I ate so much!

 

*The Romainian food, already mostly gone*

Each table had like 4 or 5 kinds of food, ranging from appetizers to deserts, so we got a huge spectrum of foods.  My favorite "food" was the mango lassie from India and the tomato and cucumber salad from Romania.  I also liked the pizza from Italy, the bean dish from Columbia, the pad thai and the Chinese noodles. There was so much stuff, and I really liked a lot of it!!   There was a bunch of stuff I had never had before, too!

 

*Singapore table!*

 

*Boba, yummy rice, moshi and info about the recent disaster in Japan*

So, I was most excited to see this:

 
*A food waste container!!*

Caltech sustainability worked with the Y and ISP, who organized this event, to get these containers there.  They also supplied recyclable plates and utensils.  At least it wasn't going in the trash :) 

It was a great chance to catch up with a lot of people too - so many people were there!  I saw a bunch of the ASB people again, and a lot of frosh!

 
*The entire Avery courtyard was decorated with flags!*

After food, we had a cultural show.  There were a lot of awesome events:

 
*Salsa dancing club!*

 
*More Salsa!*

 
*fun!*

 
*Pretty plant in courtyard*

 
*Bollywood dancing for 10 minutes - they were really good dancers!*

 
*Really cool instrument*

There were a lot of other events, but I didn't get pictures of them.  There were tons of people too:

 
*It was really sunny.*

After the cultural show, the Caltech Y also showed a movie, Women Rebel.  It is about the revolution in Nepal, especially the women who participated (40 percent of the participants were women).  The filmmaker came and talked.  I had to leave early for bio recitation, but the Y got a copy and I want to watch it soon!

World Fest Week also had a bunch of other events.  I am blogging about another one, LiNK, too!  The food fair / culture show was really fun and I had a great time / dinner!

Caltech Waste Management / Sustainability Lunch Talk

So I first labeled this Caltech Waste Management, and then I realized that that isn't a very appealing topic.  Who wants to read about trash?!?!   Sustainability makes it sound so much better.  Actually, grant proposals with the word green in them are more likely to get funded than other similar proposals.  Sad, huh?  Anyway, this Tuesday, I went to a Waste Management Panel lunch. 

 
*the flyer*

It was interesting. I care a lot about waste (the trash does go somewhere, after all, and that is a huge issue that  our society needs to deal with constantly!), and I still remember being really upset the first day I came that I couldn't find any good recycling bins in the dorm I was staying in!  [Don't worry, there are recycling bins and lots of them!  They weren't labeled at that time (they are now) so I just hadn't recognized them.  The upperclassmen told me where they were very quickly though :)].  My cross country coach, Susan, said I shouldn't worry about recycling versus throwing in the trash, because Pasadena has its trash sorted anway.

Was that really true?  I didn't really know, but I found out yesterday.  So, it's kind of true.  Pasadena requires that waste companies who pick up trash here divert (into recycling) 60 percent of the trash they recieve, or they are not allowed to service the area anymore.  On the other hand, it is still better to recycle!  Not all the recylable goods that go through a sorting plant are recycled, and some also get contaminated with other trash. 

So, what does Caltech do?  We had a few different people in the panel. 

The first person to introduce herself was a consultant for Caltech.  She works with lots of businesses and big organizations / educational institutions like Caltech to help them become more sustainable.  She knew a lot about the big picture of what was going on here, and listening to her was really interesting.

Then, Tommy from Athens spoke.  Athens is the company that takes away Caltech trash.  Caltech trash gets put into trucks and driven to their trash-sorting facility nearby.  Then, it gets taken to an energy transfer plant.  This plant is a "0-landfil program;" they burn the trash and generate electricity with the heat mechanically and then compost the ash. 

Next was a representative from Allen's Company.  This is the company where Caltech sends its recycled goods.  Last year, Mrs. Emerson (the director of Caltech Buildings and Grounds) said, Caltech made about 48 thousand dollars by recycling.  The rep said that, the more we sort our recycling, the higher value the recycling and the more money Caltech gets back.  Basically - even if some of the recycling that gets thrown in the trash gets diverted, it's still more economical and more resource-concious to recycle!  Last year, 1038 tons of recyling were collected at Tech.

Finally, Jennifer from Athens spoke.  She is working specifically on food waste.  Last year, she began working with the major dining halls on campus on putting food waste in seperate containers.  This waste is sent to the Athens composting plant.   They take all food waste, including bones and citrus skins.  Jennifer trains the staff in our facilities.  The program started in October and 53 tons of food waste have been collected for composing since then. 

This is where I got interested.  53 tons of food?!?!  That's so much!  I asked if most of this food was still eatable, i.e. if it had been on a plate or not (food on plates obviously cannot be served to other people).  Even though I am super-glad Caltech started this composing program, I want the food that isn't being eaten but still servable to be donated.  Caltech used to have a program like that but it stopped because of some legislational changes.  Mrs. Emerson said that  the majority of the food waste is still servable.  I actually contacted an organization a while ago to talk about getting Caltech's food donated (this organization picks up the food and distributes it), but haven't had a chance to go through the legal documents they sent me and sort through everything.  I asked Mrs. Emerson afterwards though, and she told me who I should talk to about this so I will definitely be doing that before summer vacation!!  The world has a lot of food resources, and distributing them so that, instead of composting unused ones, they can be given to people who have hit hard times would be super-good -- the food took a lot of energy and water to grow and ship after all! 

We wanted to know about the hiccups in recycling.  It was contamination, the panel agreed.  If a paper plate was thrown in with banana peels and pizza, it probably couldn't be made into something really worthful in the recycling process.  Also, recycling does get shipped to other countries across the pacific and processed there.  That's a problem.  Because ships are travelling back anyway to the countries we are shipping trash too, and would otherwise go much emptier, it isn't as bad as it sounds but...   lots of room for improvement. 

Also, education was a huge problem.  Getting people to know how to recycle and where to put there trash is a big part of it.  ESW, a co-sponser of this event (engineers for a sustainable world), actually doubled up with the graduate student council this fall to improve this on campus.  We have clearly labeled recycling bins now, and we are still working on it.  The biggest educational barrier, one panelist said, was getting people to see waste as a resource and not "the end of the pipe." 

So, this is a really brief summary of all the awesome stuff that was said.  I had had questions about the waste at Caltech since coming, and this really cleared up a lot of them.  I definitely feel more prepared to help make Caltech use our waste as resources now :)  Yay!  I'll let you know how it goes :)  

 

Hollywood Hike

Hi Everyone!  I hope those of you who came enjoyed pre-frosh weekend!  I enjoyed meeting my pre-frosh and showing her around campus!

 
*view of the Hollywood sign at the beginning of our hike.  It really needs to say Caltech again :)  The last time was so long ago!  Now that would be something worth taking pictures of!*

Right after the pre-frosh left, I went to a hike with the Caltech Y.  It was a sunset hike to the Hollywood sign.  There were 14 of us, and we drove to the base of the trails in Hollywood and then spent about 2.5 hours hiking. 

 
*group picture.  The sun was in a bad direction for pictures :(*

The group was super-diverse.  We had people from France, England, Italy, and a bunch of other places.  All techers, of course :).  There was a good mix of UGs, grad students and post-docs too, and we had some really interesting conversations about international and US politics, the fact that 5% of Americans own half of our wealth, and athletics in different countries. 

 
*group picture number 2.  The Hollywood sign is right under us...*

We hiked to the top of the Holllywood sign, and that was a really flat trail with little elevation gain.  [This was a very easy hike.]  A large part of the "trail" was paved for access to the antennas over the sign. 

 
*I'm sorry I didn't rotate the picture, but this is the sign warning Caltech students not to do anymore awesome pranks on the sign*

 
 *You can see the sign!  and LA!*

Nicole, our group leader, had looked up trails in the area before we came.  Apparently, there was another 0.4 mile trail to the adjacent peak, and we wanted to get there before sunset.  After a little going-around-a-fence (we didn't actually go anywhere bad, we just had to walk around the fence!), we hit a much more rugged and overgrown trail.

 
*This was the not-so-overgrown part of the trail*

There were lots of beautiful wildflowers, so I just put a bunch of pictures below here: 

 
 
 
 
*There were a lot more!  It was really pretty!*

We got to the top of the second peak just in time for sunset! 

 
*I love these colors :)*

 
*I took this picture on our way down.  The lone tree was pretty awesome.*

 
*Another pretty flower!  Not a very good pic though...  The stick covering it is annoying :(*

The hike down went well.  We never actually hiked in the dark, because there was still some sun shining over the mountains and because of the very bright full moon.  I talked with a grad student about chemistry, and the trip down went by really fast!  It was a super-fun hike!  I was even sore the day after - I really need to start doing more exercise again!  (I got injured during swimming this winter.)  I hope you enjoyed reading about the hike :)

 

*The trip down*

Caltech Y Friend's Dinner: The Logistics of Fighting AIDS

I'm taking Bi1 right now.  Bi1 is one of the ways to fulfil our biology requirement if we don't want to major in biology and aren't terribly enthusiastic about getting all the dry bio basics.  I didn't think I was going to like Bi1, but I'm actually enjoying the class a lot.  The focus of the class is HIV and other viruses.  We're learning about proteins and the mechanisms of the central dogma right now (replication, transcription, translation), but the focus is definitely on giving us useful concepts rather than making us memorize stuff.  Everything is open book, so we really don't have to memorize everything.  Rather, Professor Bjorkman is giving us a general view of how viruses work with a focus on HIV / AIDs.  It's really interesting so far, because it has a ton of chemistry invovled!

If you have a chance, you should watch this clip from TedXCaltech.  It's Professor Bjorkman talking about a potential cure for AIDS, and it's COOL! 

http://tedxcaltech.com/speakers/pamela-bj%C3%B6rkman

Here's another link we watched for one of our homework sets, and I just really liked it:

 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nathan_wolfe_hunts_for_the_next_aids.html

So, you're probably wondering why I labeled this post as a Caltech Y event and just wrote so much about my biology class.  The Y Friend's dinners are a perk for those involved with the Y.  Basically, there is one each term.  It is the Y's way of thanking our board members.  It's at the ath, which has really good food, and there's always a really cool speaker. This time, our speaker was Jim Kolker (https://www.caltechy.org/support/events/friends/).  He has been Chief of the HIV/AIDS Section at UNICEF's New York headquarters since 2007. Prior to joining UNICEF, heserved as Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), which leads implementation of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). He also had a diplomatic career with the US Department of State, as ambassador to Uganda, Burkina Baso, Deputy Chief of Mission in Denmark and Botswana. 

 
*Mr. Kolker is the one on the left*

The talk was really cool!  I learned a lot about AIDS.  I always thought AIDs was associated with poverty and lack of education, but actually, in sub-Saharan Africa, it isn't.  In Mr. Kolker's words, AIDs isn't caused by poverty but it does cause poverty.  After people, previously self-sufficient, get AIDs symptoms, they often aren't able to work as they used to anymore.  The most at-risk groups are actually people who travel professionally a lot.

Mr. Kolker showed a world map describing the new cases of HIV/AIDs in each country per year and color-coded to show which had decreasing new cases per year, which had a steady amount of new cases per year, and which had more cases per year.  In sub-Saharan Africa, the amount of cases per year was generally going down.  In the US, India, the former Soviet Union and other developed countries, the number of cases was remaining steady. 

 
*This isn't exactly the map he showed us, but it's similar.*

Why were the rates in these countries steady?  You would think countries like the US, european countries, and India would have the resources to decrease the new amount of HIV infections each year.  Mr. Kolker said that it was becase we have stigmatized populations.  In the US, for example, many new HIV infections are drug users.  If drug users go for treatment, they are looked down upon.  There are potential legal consequences.  The same goes, in other countries, for men who have sex with men {incidentally, he said that many of the HIV cases studied where men presumably had sex with men as the cause of transmission were by men who also had female partners and were often married}. 

 
*a bunch of us (staring right into the sun :)) who attended the Friday group discussion.  I'm the one wearing the orange shirt :)*

The talk was really cool, and people asked very interesting questions afterward.  On Friday, the day after the talk, Mr. Kolker also had a discussion with a bunch of students (me included :)) about our questions about HIV and what he does.  At the end, we started talking about some of the work being done at Caltech against AIDs.  One of the students at this talk is in a lab working on making mice with human immune systems.  That way, she said, they could track AIDs movement in the mice and then, when they did get a rare human sample, know where to look.  I don't agree with this practice (mice abuse!!) but I understand why it is helpful with AIDs research.  There's also other stuff going on, like the TedXCaltech video I put above showed. 

 
*a picture where we aren't staring into the sun :)*

MAD Day: Rosemary's Children Services

One of the biggest Caltech Y events each year is MAD Day.  Make a Difference Day takes group of 5 to 15 students and sends them on a service project somewhere in our community.  Projects this year included Beach Cleanup, Rosemary's Children Services, Chancellor's Place (a retirement home), the Santa Monica trails, two canyon clean-up trips, Lifeline for Pets, the Gibbons Center, Trash for Teachers and a bunch more.  About 200 people participated! 

 
*beach cleanup group ready to go*

I organized the Beach Cleanup trip with another leader, Richard.  Organizing the trips is really easy.  Basically, we start planning in January by calling sites and see if there is anything we can do to help them on MAD Day.  The Y-MAD Day coordinators give each site coordinator a really easy check-list to follow, and anyone can lead a site. The Y provides food and screened shirts, and our board members drive us to the sites.  After MAD Day, we have a big barbeque for all the participants. 

I was going to pick up trash from Huntington Beach, about an hour from campus, with my group.  I was all excited to go, but on Friday, I strained a muscle in my ankle and couldn't go on the beach trip.  Richard took the group, and I helped out at the Y for a while in the morning registering people and getting them to vote for a MAD Day grant (http://www.truehero.org/projects/vote.cfm?orderby=group&&page=4 -- MAD Day is the second choice and you should totally go vote for us :) ). 

 
*signing up!*

At 10 am, then, my (new) trip left to go to Rosemary's Children Services.  Rosemary's Children Services is a non-profit that helps abused and neglected children in our local area.  They have a few homes for teenaged girls ages 13-18, and also offer adoption and foster parent services.

 
*getting food for the trips*

We were working at their boutique thrift shop, where we sorted and priced a lot of clothing. We were really suprised at how cheap a lot of the items were - there was some really nice stuff that had been donated!  Our biggest sucess of the day was a castle, which we built, set out, and sold an hour later! 

 
*having fun sorting stuff!!*

After sorting through so much clothing that the racks in the shop had no more room, we distributed flyers to local stores.  The thrift store is relatively new, so not a lot of people know about it yet. 

 
*group pic!  Notice the filled racks!*

After lunch, we headed back to the Y.  My roommate came back from Trash for Teachers, a company that goes around to other companies asking for their unused materials, very suprised that companies waste so many resources.  I'm really glad that we had a group go to see that.

 
*FOOD!  If you've read the ASB blogs, you should recognize a few of these faces :)*

After a short break, we met up again at 4 for our barbeque.  At the barbeque, I saw a bunch of the people I had met during ASB (read my old blogs :) ) again, and it was really nice to catch up!  I even helped make the meat burgers.  I'm a (very strict and argumentative) veg, so I had no idea when the burgers were ready.  I learned, though; I'm just not sure that's ever going to help me :)  Who needs to eat meat?!!?  Anyway, it was a really fun day and a good break from studying!

 
*SMILE!!!!*

Starting in the Lab!

Hi everyone!  Are you excited?!?!  I hope you are!!  PREFROSH WEEKEND this Thursday! And we already had a bunch of pre-frosh come visit this Friday - I hope you guys all enjoyed it! 

This term, I started working in a lab.  I'm SURFing with Professor Gray, in chemistry, this summer.  Incase you haven't heard yet, SURF (Summer UG Research Fellowship) is a 10 week period where we work in a research group at Caltech or another university.  Each student gets $6000, but more importantly, gets research experience and learns a lot!  And hopefull has lots of fun!!

My mentors are Maraia, a 3rd year grad student, and [Dr. :) he just got his PhD :) ] Jeff, a post-doc. They're awesome!  They've been showing me around the lab this week, and they're just super-helpful -- you'll hear more about them through term!

My SURF Project is researching the impact of driving force on the rate of electron transfer between various Ru-based photosensitizers and cytochrome P450, a protein.  Basically:  P450 is a very important protein, in particular enzyme, for metabolism and other important functions in humans and other living things (not so interesting).  It is a very good catalyst for certain organic reactions (much more interesting!) and being used as such in another lab here (also very cool!).  My mentors and I want to understand how P450 works as a catalyst, in particular, how and under what conditions electrons move in P450. One of my mentors, Maraia Ener, already did some preliminary studies where she used a method where one can attach a photosensitizer (something that excites when light hits it -- you will learn about this in the chem core classes if you haven't already:)) to the protein.  I am going to make a photosensitizer with different ligands (things bonded to the central ruthenium atom) and see what happens as these ligands, which have different measurable properties, change (SUPER-COOL!!).  Then, this will help us get a better understanding of the catalytic cycle of P450.

I'm starting work this term, so that I can get used to the lab / figure out where the filters, 500 mL round bottoms, and the Ru(II)Cl2*2H2O is!  So far, I've made some ligands and the linker to attach the protein and photosensitizer is drying as I write.  Chemistry is really pretty!  Making the linker took me through a bright orange-juice consistency, a pale yellow flocculated liquid, a bright yellow solid that didn't want to dissolve (heat, heat, heat!), and a really beautiful ruby-red solution, almost like pomegranate juice.  Maraia showed me the protein I'll be using, the P450, and it's also a very pretty red!  I'm sorry I didn't take pictures, but I was wearing lab gloves most of the time!  Safety first!

I've learned a lot of really cool tricks.  One of the most useful things is probably something Jeff taught me: using the sonicator.  I've had a lot of solid precipatated to the sides of containers I needed to get it out from.  And while scraping is great, it can take awhile. The sonicator, basically, sends waves through the container and the precipiate loosens so that it is much easier and faster to scrape off.  Yay! 

This week, I'm going to be taking NMR spectra of the stuff I've made.  That's one of the most important parts, because we want to be sure that we actually made the stuff we think we did.  I'll finish making the bridge for the protein and photosensitizer, and on Thursday, I'll be giving a fifteen minute presentation on what I've done so far and what I plan on doing this summer. 

If you are interested in research, there's tons of profs here and even more graduate students to work with.  My mentors are very helpful, and I've learned a lot since writing the first draft of my SURF proposal this winter (it is supposed to be like a grant application). I can't wait for this summer!!  And to meet all of the prefrosh coming this weekend!  Don't forget T-shirts - it's SUNNY!!

ASB: IRC [Day 4]

Hi everyone!  Oh no, last day of ASB!  And I didn't take any pictures for you guys! 

Still, we finished ASB with a bang!  Today, we got to interact with the refugees through formal mock interviews and talk to a few of the incredible people at IRC.

After the usual breakfast routine, we began interviewing a group of refugees enrolled in the Early Employment Program.  It was very interesting.  I've never had a formal job interview, so asking them questions was somewhat awkward.  I get very nervous for interviews - this was a mock interview and I was the interviewer, and I was STILL getting nervous!!  I really need to work on this!!!  Career center!  The refugees, on the other hand, all had great body language and confidence.  They have improved a lot in the last few days!

Even though I felt like a somewhat incompetent interviewer, they all said it was very helpful.  I was talking to one of the refugees after, and she said that, in her country, interviews didn't include "power-words" but rather focused on education and job history.  It was virtuous to be modest, not to brag and flaunt ourselves as we do here (I guess you can tell which type of interview I prefer…).  Talking too much about your achievements was even considered rude.  Even though a few of us had never had a job interview, we have lived in American culture long enough to have some sort of an idea as to what is generally expected and I hope that we gave the refugees advice and practice that will help them find a job! :)

After the interviews, we had the opportunity to speak with Thomas Hill, the IRC Glendale Director.  Mr. Hill graduated from college with a degree in poetry and plans to become a professor.  He worked in Russia with the Peace Corps for two years, during which he realized that he didn't enjoy teaching but really enjoyed work with non-profits.  For the next eight years, he worked in IRC refugee camps in Chechnya.  He became Executive Director of IRC Glendale in March 2010. 

The people who had left before finishing their two years with the Peace Corps in Russia, Mr. Hill said, were those who had come expecting to change the world. Those who came ready to take baby steps, he said, were much more optimistic. We had a Q and A session, and one girl asked how he felt about working in the refugee camps and seeing people live in such horrible situations while himself having a house, a TV, and other luxuries.  He shrugged a little, asking if we thought that those refugees he was helping would give up their TV for him.  It was too easy to get worn out, he said.  In disasters, as in the 8 day war between Russia and Georgia, you worked full time for the first three weeks, but at some point after that you just fell asleep.  I sympathize with this question but I understand the answer, too.

We also asked about disaster relief.  After disasters, Mr. Hill said, there were tons of volunteers.  Most of these volunteers were unnecessary, he said.  A disaster was not a time for any pair of hands to learn but a time for qualified experts to work. The first thing you did in a refugee camp when more latrines were needed was to hand the refugees a shovel.  The teachers in refugee camps were themselves often refugees; the people were incredibly resourceful.  They needed food and water, especially directly after a disaster, but were otherwise able to do the day-to-day jobs required for the camp to function. 

Another guy in the group and I are interested in developmental work.  Mr. Hill said suggested we look at the Sphere Project (http://www.sphereproject.org/ and http://www.sphereproject.org/content/view/27/84/lang,English/).  He also suggested beginning with a term in the Peace Corps or, for those of us who aren't US citizens, with VSO (http://www.vsointernational.org/). 

1/197 people in the world are displaced, Mr. Hill said, including IDPs.  IDP’s, or internally displaced persons, are (like the people who had to leave New Orleans during Katrina) people displaced in their country because of disaster or other conflict. 

 The most important part of helping a community, he told us, was to make sure that we were recognizing the community’s needs and not our goals.  We asked about faith based organizations and their ability to do this; he said that, though he sometimes felt the emphasis on faith distracted from the work, the large religious organizations were still very professional and able to identify community needs.  It was the small "mom-and-pop" organizations that sometimes didn't.  In the US, at least, faith based organizations weren't allowed to discriminate against refugees based on religion, either.  Because they resettled refugees according to a federal contract, they were held to the same standards - no discrimination because of faith, race, gender, ect. 

Even though the UN tried, Mr. Hill said that it wasn't always effective - even when they knew about a problem.  For example, many refugees escape to Turkey before coming to the US.  Turkey doesn't do much while they are there, just tells them that, for being illegal, they have to pay a fee everyday they remain in the country.  While they are in the country, Turkey can't do much about it except figure out how much money the people have.  When they are in the airport, the UN has no power.  Before letting the refugees leave on their flight, Turkey forces the refugees to pay the fee.  Because most of the refugees are desperate to leave and know they will not have many other chances, and because they are closely watched in their visit and the governments asks them for as much as they are able to pay, most pay this fine. 

One of Mr. Hill's goals for IRC Glendale is to bring in more non-US tied refugees.  After a quick lunch, we had the opportunity to speak with two Eritrean refugees who were non-US tied.  Both of these refugees came to the US unable to speak English.  They are taking ESL in Glendale, and though they have only been here two months, they were already able to speak with us in English and answer our questions. 

Both young men, they came from the same refugee camp.  One of them had come to the camp when he was 12 or 13; the other a little later.  They went to the camp to escape mandatory service in the army in their home country.  One of them walked to the camp; the camp was a six hour walk from his house, he said.  In the camp, they went to school, but only until 9th grade.  There wasn't a lot of food.  They would get wheat from UNICEF, who organized the refugee camp, and made bread from it.

They boys left their families behind.  That was the hardest part about coming to America, they said.  One boy had left behind his father, and the other his parents, his brother, and his sister.  Because their families lived in rural villages, there was no mail service or email with which they could communicate, only cell phones. 

Still, both boys said that coming to America and being here was happiness for them. They were asked at the refugee camp if they were interested in coming.  3,000 of the 6,000 who applied to come to the US were able to. They liked American food, especially hamburgers.  Speaking with these men and hearing their willingness to talk about their experiences was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

After these refugees left, we talked to their case worker for a while.  This case worker had a very interesting story to tell.  Though he had been born in America, both of his parents were Palestinian refugees.  Because of their experiences, he wanted to work with refugees.  He began working for IRC in the US, but decided he wanted to work in refugee camps abroad. He had family in Jordan, so he stayed with them while, independently, working in a refugee camp nearby.  This refugee camp had been there for forty years, and was already something of a well-defined community.  There was a poor part of camp, and a rich part of camp.  The Jordanese government never accepted these refugees as people.  They were not allowed to work legally, but they were resourceful and found ways to live. 

The bathrooms in the camps were channels in the middle of the road.  Each family had a path to the road.  When it rained, the crap literally flooded into the area.  People were sick a lot, and some of the worst diseases were those most easily prevented.  He slept in various parts of camps.  One of the refugees, a car mechanic, slept in his work garage amidst the oil and smoke - sometimes, the case worker would stay there. 

In the camps, people were resourceful.  They survived.  It was survival mode, where the government (often rightfully) did not need to be obeyed and life went from day to day.  It was different from the IRC's mission here, which attempts to bring people out of the survival mode and into the thinking mode.

The two refugees we talked with earlier in the day had spoken about Hyenas when we asked them if anyone in the camps had pets.  They hadn't understood "pets," so we replaced the word with "animals."  Yes, the men said, there were hyenas.  What he hadn't said, the case worker told us, was that these hyenas aren't just around and howling.  They eat the refugees. 

After four months of helping here and there, refugees and experience convinced him that he could do more for these people as an advocate in the US than compromising his health in the camp. The real problem in the camps wasn't the level of education or the sanitation - it was the lack of opportunity.  Because the government did not recognize the refugees as people, they had little chance of getting out of the camp.  The case worker came back to IRC Glendale, where he "isn't just your usual case worker" (Olga) and is actively working with local communities to raise awareness.

It struck me at some point while he was talking that this was the second story to yesterday’s perspective on Israel: the war out of the refugees' perspective. His story was definitely an inspirational note on which to leave IRC.

After we got back to Caltech, I was able to go to a movie screening here on campus.  The movie was screened by Transition Movement LA through one of our clubs, Net Impact.  Transition is an international movement which began in England as a response to our dependency on oil.  The organization aims to reduce dependency on oil by mobilizing people's fear into actions.  They attempt to enable people to shape the future they want to see.  The movie about this organization was really about optimism.  It was about the importance of doing what we can to shape the world the way we want it, because otherwise, it will be shaped by others into something we don't want. 

The refugees we talked to this week are optimistic about their future; they are taking classes, taking jobs they are over-qualified for, and taking other hits on the road to the future they want for themselves.  A lot of them are already very well educated and don’t fit the “please donate money” charity image I used to think of.  The two men we talked to want to become a lawyer and a nurse, respectively; they're studying for the GED and taking CNA courses. We can (and must) also take steps towards the world we want to see - the world where there is no more war between Palestine and Israel, where boys don't have to leave their families as the only means to evade forced fighting, and the world where people can think instead of just surviving. 

Sorry to end on such a sappy note :)  But that's what I took out of the trip.  Knowing that a problem exists is just less powerful than talking to people who lived through the problem first hand. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my posts about ASB!  It's a really great program from the Caltech Y, and everyone who went on the Owens Valley trip and the IRC trip took a lot out of the experience!

ASB: IRC [Day 3]

Hi everyone!  I know this is getting old - but if you haven't, you should skim through my other ASB entries to get the context for this one!

After the usual breakfast routine, we headed to IRC again.  This morning, we were very fortunate to be able to talk with some refugees! 

 

Hearing about the countries where they are from first-hand painted a very different picture of these places than the news.  I talked with two women from Tehran, Iran.  They were very honest about their experiences and the country, which was particularily special because, as they told us, saying anything against the government in Iran would probably make you lost your job (at best) or be hanged. 

What I am writing in the next few paragraphs is what they told us:

They were both of Armenian descent and Catholic.  Their families moved to Iran 500 years ago.  I asked them why they considered themselves Armenian after such a long time in Iran (after all, most Americans' families moved here far after that but they still consider themselves Americans), and they said that it was because they mainly married into other Armenian families.  The women both lived in an Armenian neighborhood in Iran. 

If women left their house without wearing a scarf (to cover all of their hair), they were either killed on the spot or brought to jail and killed there, the refugees said.  Even Christians had to wear a scarf.  If someone was brought to jail, they could be killed without justification.  Students had to be particularily careful; it was dangerous to protest anything.  Both women were wearing tight jeans - in Iran, they said, the prohibition of both skinny pants and any skirt was enforced by the police.

On the other hand, women are allowed to go to schools and universities.  They are allowed, technically, to pursue any career and rise to any level of that job.  Much as in the US, though, women are still underrepresented in the upper tier of jobs. 

In the university, a religion class was mandatory.  The women were asked if they would like to change their religion to Islam.  It was a hard question, one of the refugees said, because if you said yes, you would have to undergo a process you really didn't want to do, and because if you said no, the professor could potentially fail you out of your university.  The professors had a lot of power, and it was not allowed to critique them. They were paid by the government, and even in private universities, it was unacceptable to correct them even if they were blatently wrong. The women asked us if we were ever allowed to correct professors, and they were suprised when we said we could really just ask the professor if he was sure something was correct, and that the professor would generally correct him or herself - and certainly not be offended by the question, but try to make sure the students understand. 

Even though the professors had so much power, they were also under control of their government.  One of their professors dissappeared after mentioning that he didn't think the current president was the best man for the job. The universities, the schools, and every other aspect of society was spied on by an FBI-like agency, the refugees said. People were indirectly connected to the government everywhere, and many people were afraid to speak about their opinions.

Dogs were considered filthy.  One of the refugees really missed her dog.  We figured out that we have the same breed of dog, and she showed me a picture of hers.  She is very worried about him, who she had to leave in Iran, because dogs are considered filthy there. Legally, if police see someone walking a dog in the streets, they are allowed to shoot the dog.  In her university, she had Muslim friends who would not visit her house because she had a dog. 

We talked about various other aspects of Iran and their trip to the US as well, but those are the stories that stuck out most for me.  I definitely learned more talking to these refugees than by listening to the news.  One of the refugees strongly disliked CNN; the picture painted of Iran in our news was often just not correct, she said.  Of course, the stories of two people aren't a complete picture of Iran, but I definitely feel like I gained a better understanding of the country by hearing them. The refugees were all very nice, too, and many of them were not much older than us.  I only wish we had been able to speak with more refugees!  We'll still be talking to more tomorrow though :)

 
*After leaving IRC, we drove up to the Griffith Observatory and .... WE SAW A COYOTE!!  I was super excited and pulled out my camera very quickly (luckily it wasn't in the trunk!).  I love animals!!!*

We "hiked" above the observatory on this really flat trail which gave a few great views of the HOLLYWOOD sign.  It was raining, though, so to my disappointment [who doesn't love hiking?!?!] we turned around after the group picture:

 
*Group picture -2.  It's really about time that sign got changed to Caltech again.  Apparently, LA was really mad about it last time and there's lots of security (hey, we're techers, we can find some way to change the sign without breaking a law, right?).  I really do think it makes a great tourist attraction to change the sign :)  At least those tourists will have a unique picture. Go Tech!*

We entered the observatory at just the right time - we were three minutes early for the Tesslacoil demo.  The guide was asking who had heard of Thomas Edison (everyone) and of Nikola Tessla (she was suprised that most people had).  As she made the coil light up, she began explaining AC versus
DC current and why Edison's plan for energy was more marktable than Tessla's, and why Tessla's didn't work well.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla if you are interested in what the guide told us. 

 
*I tried to get the shutter to open longer, but I was too slow*

 
*The foucault pendulum in the observatory.  Used to show that the earth must rotate (yay phys 1a!).  Another good chat about religion while waiting for everyone to meet.  I even got confronted by a random women :)*

We had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Glendale.  After eating, we got to have .... CAKE!  It was Michelle's 20th BIRTHDAY!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!!  I even had a slice to celebrate (I usually don't eat food with too much sugar and not enough nutritional value :(  )!!!

Back at the hostel, we played a really fun game: telephone pictionary.  Basically, everyone gets as many pieces of paper as there are players.  First, everyone writes a sentence on the first piece of paper in their stack.  Everyone passes their stack, and draws a picture for the sentence they received.  This goes around until people get their original sentence back.  Actually, some people didn’t recognize their own sentence when it came back around and kept playing!  It’s really funny, especially if the sentences are about people in the group.  

 

 

*I'm not sure how I got from fighting a bear to being a pregnant lady fighting two gangsters...  I don't remember this.  :)*

After a few rounds of the game, I spent some time talking to another hostel guest I had met the night before.  He was from Israel, and had just spent the last five months travelling.  Our conversation was about as interesting as talking to the refugees during the day. 

The person I talked to had graduated high school and spent three years serving in the Israeli military.  It was usual for men to graduate HS, serve, and then travel for half a year, he said.  He plans to study electrical engineering beginning next fall. 

Having already talked with other people in the group about the gender (in)equality of forcing only men to serve in the military, I asked if women had to serve.  He said that they had to serve for only two years, while men had to serve for three. I thought this was unfair; he said that studies have shown that women aren't able to deal with war as well as men.  [As a very convinced feminist - I think the term should be equalist, not feminist - I still think it is unfair to force men to fight one year more than women. There are men who can't deal with being a soldier, too.]  It was sometimes possible to avoid military duty while studying -- but generally, if you refused to fight for three years, you spent three years in jail instead.  His brother had spent three and a half weeks in jail for refusing to fight after finishing his three year service.

I didn't know much about Israel, so he gave me a short summary.  Israel is a "Jewish democracy."  He admitted that this was not really possible; a country could inherently not be both Jewish and democratic.  The majority of Jews in Israel are either Orthodox Jews or Reconstructionist Jews.  The Orthodox Jews believe that all of the historically described territory (the land of Israel) belongs to the country of Israel, and therefore often move into Palestinian settlements.  The law dictates that the military protect them. This policy is favored, politically, by the right, who was in the majority in the last election and is currently in power. This is very dangerous and a huge cause of conflict; these people, who sometimes blatantly leave the country of Israel ("going beyond the green line" - the country boarder as decided in historical conventions - if you are interested in specific details, googling it gives some pretty good sites) often directly provokes Palestinian attacks.

These attacks then "justify" retribution on the Palestinians, he said, much as suicide bombers made them toughen up their safety standards by having even stricter regulations on the Palestinians in Israel and at its borders. (Jewish) Israeli safety must come first, regardless of the cost of Palestinian lives, he said.

I asked about the Palestinians already living in the country of Israel, and about the prospect of peace.  He doesn't believe he will see peace in his lifetime - even when he is 80 years old.  According to him, the Palestinians will not stop fighting because their government is unstable and there is no stable, powerful group to talk to.  Because Palestinian culture values family ties more than national ties, he thinks that the years and years of suppression and the Holocaust which unite Israel (the Jews of Israel, at least), will continue fighting Palestine. 

As to the Palestinians already in Israel, he mentioned that some of them have something called the Blue Card, which enables them to vote in Israel (kind of like citizenship?  I didn't quite understand the purpose of the Blue Card as opposed to giving them citizenship).  They are represented by 12 percent of parliament. He had never asked, he said, but he thought that they would probably refer to themselves as Israeli (nationality) and Palestinian (ethnically).  I asked if, historically, since he had said that their family ties were much closer than their ties to their country and government, it would have been possible to peacefully integrate Palestinians in Israel into the country from the start.  He didn't think so. 

When I asked him if the suppression of Palestinians in Israel and the view that they pose a danger to the citizens isn't a little like the beginning of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in general, he said there was a huge difference.  The extermination of the Jewish population during the Holocaust was planned and deliberate; the deaths of Palestinians are defensive. 

I can't quite get myself to agree with that.  From everything he said about ethnic Palestinians, I really got the impression that more effort is going into fighting them than making peace with them.  When a 23 year old can't envision peace by the time he is 80 years old - that speaks of stubbornness, an unwillingness to compromise even if the Palestinian government, contrary to what he said, were stable and strong enough to control its population.  The Palestinian people in Israel sound a lot like the refugees we have been working with in the last few days. 

I should point out that I am only writing my opinion, not fact, and that I would be hear other opinions about this (I have never studied Israel extensively, and to understand countries, peoples and conflicts, we really have to be willing to learn more all the time as we go along -- human conflicts are so hard to understand on a macro versus micro scale that we need to keep re-informing ourselves and re-evaluating our opinions constantly).  

At the same time, when I talked to another freshman here who was wearing an "I support Israel" t-shirt a few weeks ago, I asked him why.  He cited the good food and the fact that it is Jewish.  I have no problem with good food; I don't have a problem with connections between church and state as long as people of each religion are treated equally (i.e. a true democracy).  I just think that these elements, which he liked about Israel, could still be had along with peace and equal human rights.  When I asked the Israeli I met in the hostel if he thought that a Palestinian and an Israeli could get along (I suppose this was a poorly worded question, as I hadn't yet asked about the identity of ethnic Palestinians who live in Israel, but he answered anyway) in a non-conflict situation, he didn't think so.  If they didn't know each other’s nationality, perhaps, but otherwise, there were simply too many stereotypes and too much history.  Everyone in Israel, he said, knows someone who was killed in a suicide bombing or in the war. 

The longer the war goes on, the more people will lose loved ones and friends; the longer the war goes on, the more people will be displaced and legally be considered refugees. 

I find it interesting that I happened to meet this guy and talk about Israel just as I was volunteering at IRC.  I think that's what I am really getting out of this trip - I am really realizing how much more I learn by talking to people than by reading the news.  Hearing people's opinions (people who are familiar with a country and its people) makes it much easier for me to understand a situation.

How obvious, right?  It's just hard to talk to people about their experiences in day-to-day situations.  It’s personal, and a lot of people are hesitant about sharing things that really matter to them.  At the same time, I've really come to see how valuable it is to do just that - so that we don't have only the press to believe, and so that different people can explain their different opinions.

ASB: IRC [Day 2]

Today, Liz and I woke up early to walk around Hollywood.  It was raining a little (by NH standards, it was just a little foggy), which was very refreshing.  We were trying to get to Runyon Canyon Park, but got lost instead.  It was still a very nice morning walk through local residential areas, and I felt very awake after getting back to the hostel and showering.

After eating breakfast at IRC, we finally got to meet some refugees!  They were enrolled in the Early Employment Program and had class today.  The Early Employment Program attempts to give refugees financial self-sufficiency as fast as possible. It targets refugees during their first four months in the US.  Those who demonstrate a strong willingness to work early in the resettlement processes are provided with comprehensive job search and placement services, vocational ESL classes, financial assistance, and the opportunity to be mentored by a volunteer.  This program helps both refugees and asylees.  Asylees are like refugees who came to the US before applying for a permanent legal status (generally, though, they did come into the US legally!).  That is, they come to the US on a student visa or work permit.  If they feel it is not safe for them to return to their home country after their visa expires, they can apply for asylee status.  After a long process, if they are given asylee status, they are allowed to remain and work in the US infinitely. 

 
*Michelle, Peter and one of the refugees*

We practiced interview questions with the refugees and gave them feedback.  We asked things like “tell me about yourself,” “what is a mistake you have made and how did you learn from it,” and other typical job interview questions.  I was very surprised with the qualifications of the refugees we interviewed.  One of the women we interviewed had been the manager of the shipping and processing department in an international shipping country.  One of the refugees was a highly qualified IT rep, and another had a degree as an accountant. 

 
*Neha and Shruti with one of the refugees.  This refugee is actually a (very good) computer programmer, and she is looking into finishing her degree somewhere like Caltech!*

I always had the “annual report” picture of a refugee child in my mind – which is probably true for many refugees, but not for the ones we talked to today. 

 
*the picture organizations use to get your money.  Not that other refugees don't need help, either.*

Some of them had been in the US for a few months, while others had just come.  We didn’t have much time to speak with them about their experiences yet, but we will be doing that tomorrow. 

After lunch, we helped Olga sort some of the donations she has received lately. 

 
*getting stuff out of storage*

Caltech students will be coming again to IRC Glendale on April 9^th for MAD Day.  MAD Day, or Make a Difference Day, is hosted by the Caltech Y each spring.  Student leaders choose sites and contact organizations to encourage Caltech community involvement in the greater Pasadena community.  This site will be helping IRC with their first “rummage sale.”  The sale is intended to sell donations cheaply both to refugees and community members to generate funds for the refugees and to give the local community a chance to learn about IRC Glendale.   Some of us were also thinking about having a drive to collect more items to sell / give to the refugees before MAD Day. 

 
*sorting and folding*

Once we finished sorting and counting all the donations, we drove back to the hostel.  During our hour of free time, some people went shopping in Hollywood while others showered or hung out in the hostel.  

 
*I took the picture with the writing upside down and flipped it.  It really messes with your sense of dimension!  I just can't help but fell like I took a picture of the ceiling!*

 We met for dinner at In and Out (to everyone out there who, like me, never had In and Out before coming to Caltech: In and Out offers about the same menu as McDonalds, minus the salad). 

As a group, we went to see an Indie Concert in Aemeba, a huge Hollywood music shop.  We were a little late, and ended up missing most of the concert, but Neha was still very happy with her record find:

 

*yay*

After leaving the store, we headed back to the hostel for bonding, shopping, exploring, and sleeping time.  I was really glad that we got to talk to refugees today!