Friday, March 11
The big day is finally here. Tyler finished his exams a few days ago, and found out his grades just before I picked him up from school. I finished my last conference call in the morning, so off we went to the airport.
Our JetBlue flight left JFK airport pretty much on time. Every seat was filled and Tyler and I almost immediately noticed that this was not like any other flight we had ever been on. It was like a huge party, with the passengers excited about their trips. Although there were clearly some Americans heading for the beach, most of the passengers were speaking Spanish and seemed like they were heading home. The crowd was speaking rapid-fire Spanish and the rat-a-tat-tat of their conversations infused the flight with an energy we felt the whole week.
When we finally landed in Santo Domingo, we met up with some of our fellow Yalies, and shared a ride with them downtown. Although some of our group was flying in on Friday, most were coming in Saturday.
When we arrived downtown in Santo Domingo, we learned that the big, electric keyboard we had sent down was held up in customs. Even though it was used, the customs officers were valuing it as if it were new. We would have to go to the FedEx office the next morning to get it out of customs. We were disappointed, but felt we had a plan to rescue it in time to get on the 2:00 bus to San Juan de la Maguana with the rest of the group.
Jose from Cambiando Vidas heard about our problem and offered to help. "Call me tomorrow," he said, "and I will take you to the airport to get the keyboard." Jose had an air of calm and confidence, so I didn't think we had anything to worry about.
With the customs plan set, Tyler and I went to our hotel and got a quiet dinner. We went over the plan for teaching the piano again and called it an early night, very excited and a bit nervous for the week that laid ahead of us.
Friday, March 25, 2011
The Yale Alumni Service Trip
What made us decide to go to the DR in the first place?
It all started at the AYA Assembly last fall, where the work of some of the leaders among Yale alumni was highlighted. During these presentations, Mark Dollhopf showed a video of the Yale Alumni Service Corp's work in Monterrey, Mexico last year.
As Lisa and I watched the video, we both remarked that a trip like that would be great for our oldest son, Tyler, who has taken a few years of Spanish and has a desire to see the world.A little while later, we received an e-mail announcing the trip. We went to the trip website, checked it out, and started to figure out if we could make it work.
I was, I admit, a little apprehensive at first. Would this be too much for me and Tyler to handle? What could a 14 year old do on such a trip? Armed with these questions, I called Joao Aleixo, who works in Yale's Office of International Affairs and who was kind enough to support the trip to the DR. Joao was very knowledgeable and very helpful, explaining to me what to expect, what the accommodations would be like, and what kinds of projects we might work on. Joao didn't sugar coat things, which I later appreciated, and made clear what the challenges would be. He also explained the physical beauty of the area we would be visiting and the warm, welcoming nature of the people we would be meeting. Armed with the information on the website and Joao's background, Tyler and I decided to sign up.
When we signed up, we offered to teach English or, if we could figure it out, piano. (Tyler was willing to donate one of his electric keyboards to the cause.) Over the course of January and February, we had a few conference calls with the education team to figure things out. Our team leader, Darlene Cimino-DeRose, helped us figure out how we would pull off a piano program and suggested (thank goodness) to bring down small, portable, and battery-operated practice key boards, so we could teach more than one child at a time. Over the next couple of weeks, we looked for Spanish-language piano books, and order some through Amazon. So, piano teaching it would be!
Once we had the books and hardware in place, we started to think about how we would teach a group of kids. We settled on a plan to teach four to six kids at a time. Tyler worked with his piano teacher to sketch out what these sorts of lessons would look like. Tyler then spent time figuring out the vocabulary he would need to use to teach the lessons he had planned and then he spent some time teaching me the basic piano skills I would need to teach. By the time of our departure, we had our plan in place (or so we thought).
Importantly, during our conference calls, Darlene, and Chris Goodrich, a Cambiando Vidas person who also happens to be a Yale alum, stressed flexibility. "Go with Plan A, be prepared to try a Plan B, and you should even have a Plan C in mind," they told us. "It could very well be that, within a day or two, you hit on a Plan E or F that actually works." Being a confident sort of guy, who believed in the plan we had developed, I was confident that we might need a Plan B, but certainly a Plan C, D or E would not be necessary. Boy, was I wrong!
Another thing we did to prepare for the trip was to check the CDC website and visit our doctors. Would there be a risk of malaria? (Yes) Was there a risk of cholera? (Probably not, but cholera could come over the boarder from Haiti.) Should we bring anything special to wear? (Yes, as it turns out that there is bug-resistant clothing. And, the cultural norm in the DR is for men to wear only pants. Despite the heat, shorts simply aren't what a man wears.)
The other preparation I did for the trip was to read the novel that was suggested to us -- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Some might think it odd that they would suggest fiction to prepare us for a trip like this. As a literature major, I thought it was perfect. After reading the book, I thought the suggestion was inspired, because it offered an insight in the psyche of the Dominican people, into the reason why the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo still echoes through that nation's consciousness decades after his death, and into the kinship the Dominican people feel toward each other. If you haven't read it, do. The writing is gripping. The story is compelling, if sad. There is a reason that this book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
So with that preparation, we were off to the Dominican Republic.
Tune in later for the post about our trip to the DR!
It all started at the AYA Assembly last fall, where the work of some of the leaders among Yale alumni was highlighted. During these presentations, Mark Dollhopf showed a video of the Yale Alumni Service Corp's work in Monterrey, Mexico last year.
As Lisa and I watched the video, we both remarked that a trip like that would be great for our oldest son, Tyler, who has taken a few years of Spanish and has a desire to see the world.A little while later, we received an e-mail announcing the trip. We went to the trip website, checked it out, and started to figure out if we could make it work.
I was, I admit, a little apprehensive at first. Would this be too much for me and Tyler to handle? What could a 14 year old do on such a trip? Armed with these questions, I called Joao Aleixo, who works in Yale's Office of International Affairs and who was kind enough to support the trip to the DR. Joao was very knowledgeable and very helpful, explaining to me what to expect, what the accommodations would be like, and what kinds of projects we might work on. Joao didn't sugar coat things, which I later appreciated, and made clear what the challenges would be. He also explained the physical beauty of the area we would be visiting and the warm, welcoming nature of the people we would be meeting. Armed with the information on the website and Joao's background, Tyler and I decided to sign up.
When we signed up, we offered to teach English or, if we could figure it out, piano. (Tyler was willing to donate one of his electric keyboards to the cause.) Over the course of January and February, we had a few conference calls with the education team to figure things out. Our team leader, Darlene Cimino-DeRose, helped us figure out how we would pull off a piano program and suggested (thank goodness) to bring down small, portable, and battery-operated practice key boards, so we could teach more than one child at a time. Over the next couple of weeks, we looked for Spanish-language piano books, and order some through Amazon. So, piano teaching it would be!
Once we had the books and hardware in place, we started to think about how we would teach a group of kids. We settled on a plan to teach four to six kids at a time. Tyler worked with his piano teacher to sketch out what these sorts of lessons would look like. Tyler then spent time figuring out the vocabulary he would need to use to teach the lessons he had planned and then he spent some time teaching me the basic piano skills I would need to teach. By the time of our departure, we had our plan in place (or so we thought).
Importantly, during our conference calls, Darlene, and Chris Goodrich, a Cambiando Vidas person who also happens to be a Yale alum, stressed flexibility. "Go with Plan A, be prepared to try a Plan B, and you should even have a Plan C in mind," they told us. "It could very well be that, within a day or two, you hit on a Plan E or F that actually works." Being a confident sort of guy, who believed in the plan we had developed, I was confident that we might need a Plan B, but certainly a Plan C, D or E would not be necessary. Boy, was I wrong!
Another thing we did to prepare for the trip was to check the CDC website and visit our doctors. Would there be a risk of malaria? (Yes) Was there a risk of cholera? (Probably not, but cholera could come over the boarder from Haiti.) Should we bring anything special to wear? (Yes, as it turns out that there is bug-resistant clothing. And, the cultural norm in the DR is for men to wear only pants. Despite the heat, shorts simply aren't what a man wears.)
The other preparation I did for the trip was to read the novel that was suggested to us -- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Some might think it odd that they would suggest fiction to prepare us for a trip like this. As a literature major, I thought it was perfect. After reading the book, I thought the suggestion was inspired, because it offered an insight in the psyche of the Dominican people, into the reason why the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo still echoes through that nation's consciousness decades after his death, and into the kinship the Dominican people feel toward each other. If you haven't read it, do. The writing is gripping. The story is compelling, if sad. There is a reason that this book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
So with that preparation, we were off to the Dominican Republic.
Tune in later for the post about our trip to the DR!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Just Back from Yale Alumni Service Tour, Dominican Republic
Dear Friends,
Our son, Tyler, and I just got back from an amazing trip to the Dominican Republic that was organized by the Yale Alumni Service Corps, in conjunction with a group called Cambiando Vidas. I have a lot to say about this trip . . . it was one of those experiences that, it is safe to say, was life-changing for Tyler, for me and for many of the participants.
In the DR, Tyler and I joined about 90 other Yalies/friends/spouses/kids (including classmate Kathy Edershein and her son, Teddy). We worked in an area called Las Charcas de Gabarito, which is outside a small, mountain city, San Juan de la Maguana. We served an impoverished, mostly agricultural community not far from the Haitian border. Part of our group built a house for a Las Charcas family. Another part of our group ran a medical clinic. Kathy's group consulted to local businesses. Our group taught kids in a local school -- Tyler was a piano instructor, and I was his assistant. And, on one day, we all went door-to-door to distribute information about cholera, which people fear will soon hit this area.
Because internet access has been in short supply for me, I could not blog about this experience in real time. Instead, I will use my notes from our trip to start blogging tomorrow about our trip day-to day. I hope you enjoy the posts. If you don't want all the details, here is my quick summary of what we took away from this experience:
1) This was an amazing trip. We met a great group of people who went down to help. The Yalies/friends/etc. who went with us were an engaged, alive and diverse group. I was blown away by their energy, creativity and enthusiasm.
We met an even greater group of people when we got there. The people of Las Charcas were warm and inviting, eager to learn and incredibly friendly. The kids we taught were bright and engaging. They touched our hearts. Tyler and I both left having been touched by their grit and determination to make their lives better. If you have ever considered a service trip for yourself (or your family), I would encourage you to check out the Yale Service Corps and Cambiando Vidas.
2) This sort of trip isn't for everyone. Like any movement of 90 people, there were some logistical glitches and some waiting. We also did a lot of on the job training; Tyler and I both learned enough this week to greatly improve the work we did. (We ended up teaching piano to dozens of kids, some of whom ended the week playing with both hands and starting to read music. Knowing what we know now, I think we could have gotten even more accomplished.) And, our surroundings were humble. For instance, the hotels we stayed in were clean and safe, but were certainly not high end travel. And the neighborhood in which we worked was a poor, rural area. That is a lot for some people to handle, so if you consider a trip like this, it is important to go into it with your eyes open.
3) It's going to take me a while to process fully what we just experienced. I will try to tell you the stories of the kids we worked with and the families we met. I will even try to add some color commentary here and there. What I am struggling with is to explain why things were they way they were. How can a group of kids I meet in school in the morning, all in clean, pressed uniforms, with smiles on their faces and plenty of good questions and obvious ability, be the same kids I see outside of very humble homes without potable water or plumbing, with chickens and pigs running around the yard in the afternoon? How can it be that a whole community with hundreds of families that is just 20 minutes from a city has no idea when (or if) they are going to get electricity to their homes and school on any given day? And, what is going to become of the kids we taught, who were every bit as bright and inquisitive as the kids my children go to school with in Greenwich, Connecticut?
So, please stay tuned. I look forward to telling you about our travels.
Our son, Tyler, and I just got back from an amazing trip to the Dominican Republic that was organized by the Yale Alumni Service Corps, in conjunction with a group called Cambiando Vidas. I have a lot to say about this trip . . . it was one of those experiences that, it is safe to say, was life-changing for Tyler, for me and for many of the participants.
In the DR, Tyler and I joined about 90 other Yalies/friends/spouses/kids (including classmate Kathy Edershein and her son, Teddy). We worked in an area called Las Charcas de Gabarito, which is outside a small, mountain city, San Juan de la Maguana. We served an impoverished, mostly agricultural community not far from the Haitian border. Part of our group built a house for a Las Charcas family. Another part of our group ran a medical clinic. Kathy's group consulted to local businesses. Our group taught kids in a local school -- Tyler was a piano instructor, and I was his assistant. And, on one day, we all went door-to-door to distribute information about cholera, which people fear will soon hit this area.
Because internet access has been in short supply for me, I could not blog about this experience in real time. Instead, I will use my notes from our trip to start blogging tomorrow about our trip day-to day. I hope you enjoy the posts. If you don't want all the details, here is my quick summary of what we took away from this experience:
1) This was an amazing trip. We met a great group of people who went down to help. The Yalies/friends/etc. who went with us were an engaged, alive and diverse group. I was blown away by their energy, creativity and enthusiasm.
We met an even greater group of people when we got there. The people of Las Charcas were warm and inviting, eager to learn and incredibly friendly. The kids we taught were bright and engaging. They touched our hearts. Tyler and I both left having been touched by their grit and determination to make their lives better. If you have ever considered a service trip for yourself (or your family), I would encourage you to check out the Yale Service Corps and Cambiando Vidas.
2) This sort of trip isn't for everyone. Like any movement of 90 people, there were some logistical glitches and some waiting. We also did a lot of on the job training; Tyler and I both learned enough this week to greatly improve the work we did. (We ended up teaching piano to dozens of kids, some of whom ended the week playing with both hands and starting to read music. Knowing what we know now, I think we could have gotten even more accomplished.) And, our surroundings were humble. For instance, the hotels we stayed in were clean and safe, but were certainly not high end travel. And the neighborhood in which we worked was a poor, rural area. That is a lot for some people to handle, so if you consider a trip like this, it is important to go into it with your eyes open.
3) It's going to take me a while to process fully what we just experienced. I will try to tell you the stories of the kids we worked with and the families we met. I will even try to add some color commentary here and there. What I am struggling with is to explain why things were they way they were. How can a group of kids I meet in school in the morning, all in clean, pressed uniforms, with smiles on their faces and plenty of good questions and obvious ability, be the same kids I see outside of very humble homes without potable water or plumbing, with chickens and pigs running around the yard in the afternoon? How can it be that a whole community with hundreds of families that is just 20 minutes from a city has no idea when (or if) they are going to get electricity to their homes and school on any given day? And, what is going to become of the kids we taught, who were every bit as bright and inquisitive as the kids my children go to school with in Greenwich, Connecticut?
So, please stay tuned. I look forward to telling you about our travels.
 | |||
| Some of our Las Charcas students |
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Yale Service Tours - Yale Alumni Travel Programs, Community Development, Volunteer Work
Every time I get the typical Yale Travel brochure, my reaction is the same. These people do not get me. At all. I do not have three weeks to float down the Danube discussing German literature. I do not have two weeks to cruise the Aegean Sea with a Yale professor who will explain everything to me. And, even if I had that kind of time, I certainly can’t spend the $75,000 it would cost to take my family on such a trip. These brochures make me nuts.
A few months back, though, I received an e-mail about a different kind of Yale Travel program. This one was interesting to me. The Yale Service Tours are more manageable trips . . . with one this year scheduled for our kids’ Spring Break. So, our son Tyler and I are going to give one of these trips a try. I am excited about it. And, nervous. Mostly excited, though. We’ve been assigned to the Education Team, which means we will be working in a school. I will let you know how it goes.
Yale Service Tours - Yale Alumni Travel Programs, Community Development, Volunteer Work
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Yale Day of Service
Many of our classmates took leadership roles with regard to the Yale Day of Service.
One classmate, Darcy Troy Pollock, kicked things off a bit early, with a project she spearheaded on May 2, when Yale alums joined forces with Big Sunday volunteers and P.S. Arts to create an arts fair for the students of Will Rogers Elementary, a Title One public school. Some 100 students enjoyed making sock puppets, painting rocks, creating mobiles, getting their faces painted and much more. It was a big boost for these children, who recently lost a beloved principal, and an incredibly fund day for all! (P.S. Arts ia a non-profit organization dedicated to improving children's lives by restoring arts education to underserved public schools.)
I would love to hear how people got involved on the Yale Day of Service.
One classmate, Darcy Troy Pollock, kicked things off a bit early, with a project she spearheaded on May 2, when Yale alums joined forces with Big Sunday volunteers and P.S. Arts to create an arts fair for the students of Will Rogers Elementary, a Title One public school. Some 100 students enjoyed making sock puppets, painting rocks, creating mobiles, getting their faces painted and much more. It was a big boost for these children, who recently lost a beloved principal, and an incredibly fund day for all! (P.S. Arts ia a non-profit organization dedicated to improving children's lives by restoring arts education to underserved public schools.)
I would love to hear how people got involved on the Yale Day of Service.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Yale Day of Service
May 15 is the worldwide Yale Day of Service. You can visit the Day of Service website at http://www.yaledayofservice.org/ to see what projects are taking place near you.
I would love to hear about any projects that are being headed up by members of the Class of 1987.
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