From the Fall 2011 Caller

By Hannah Hay-Smith

I lived with an 18-year-old named Mhakbé, who attended the public high school. Every day she walked two miles to her overpopulated school, which consisted of three concrete buildings and a large soccer field. On my first day of school, we had morning track and field. Each exercise was a competition, in which the most and least athletic students in the class were revealed. The most competitive of these activities was the high jump. We jumped, one at time, over the elevated bar and landed on the mat below. If you successfully cleared the bar and stuck your landing, you passed on to the next round. The other students, along with the gym teacher, judged each high jumper. I passed the first two rounds, but in the third round I hit the bar on the way over. The class snickered as I joined the other girls who had already been eliminated. I felt annoyed that the teacher let us be publicly humiliated and realized that no Catlin Gabel teacher would allow our peers to laugh at us, as he did. It was a reminder of the differences between the two schools.

Catlin Gabel now makes it possible, through financial aid funds, for every Middle and Upper School student to participate in at least one global education trip abroad during their years at Catlin Gabel.

Catlin Gabel students helped paint a mural to welcome First Lady Michelle Obama to Botswana. The First Lady visited the Botswana-Baylor Centre for Children’s Excellence to highlight the organization’s efforts to develop a new treatment and counseling facility for HIV+ teens.

Thirteen students assisted local artist Lesedi to sketch and paint traditional Botswana figures, designs and backgrounds on a 30m concrete wall. The group also developed educational play activities for HIV+ youth awaiting treatment and counseling appointments.

In addition to the Baylor Centre, Catlin Gabel students provided support to the Maru-a-Pula Orphans and Vulnerable Children Fund, SOS Children’s Village, a health clinic in Thabala, and high school students in Gumare. Students met with Dr. Ava Avalos of the Ministry of Health and Thobo Mogojwe of PING (Positive Innovation for the Next Generation).

The Botswana-Baylor Centre is one of many partnerships between the Ministry of Health and international organizations, part of a coordinated, national effort to combat AIDS. Approximately 30% of all adults in Botswana are infected with HIV.

Each year, Catlin Gabel welcomes one Maru-a-Pula exchange student to Oregon. Catlin Gabel students are currently traveling through Botswana as part of the school’s global education program.

Further information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13910916
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/24/us-obama-botswana-idUSTRE75N6DA20110624
http://www.bipai.org/
http://botswanateenclub.wordpress.com/
http://maruapula.org/support-map/orphans-vulnerable-children-bursary-fund
 

All the fourth and fifth year Japanese language students in Yoko Iwasaki’s classes were selected for the Living Language Experience (LLE) Program, which builds bridges between classrooms and the Japanese business world. The 19 students were accepted into the program based on their outstanding Japanese language proficiency — the largest group of qualifying students in Oregon. Students had to pass the Oregon Benchmark Level 4 exam to qualify.

Few outsiders are given the opportunity to visit U.S.-based Japanese companies and observe their inner workings. The students interacted in Japanese with native Japanese business professionals to arrange their visits, tour the facilities, and engage in conversation about the products or services.

Rohan Jhunjhunwala, Gene Yamamoto, and Cole Williamson visited JAE Oregon, Inc., a manufacturer of electrical connectors.

Lizzie Medford, Danielle Shapira, Megan Stater, and Ramtin Rahmani visited Pacific Nutritional Foods Inc., a tofu processing and packaging plant.

Jackson Morawski, Anthony Eden, Will Jolley, and Koichi Omara visited Tokyo Ohka Kogyo America, Inc., manufacturers of photoresists and auxiliary chemicals.

Jesse Kimsey-Bennett, Cameron Boyd, Emrys Dennison, and Lauren Spiegel visited Pasco Corporation of America, a bakery, deli, and food service products manufacturer.

Alex Foster, Sabin Ray, Qiddist Hammerly, and Andrew Hungate visited Nippon Express U.S.A. Inc., a division of Nippon Express Group, the world's largest full-service freight forwarder.

Members of Shokookai, a Japanese business alliance in Portland, are interested in how the LLE program works at the high school level (colleges participate, too), and are eager to know what effect the experience has on students. To that end, Yoshio Oda from Epson Portland, Inc., and a board member of Shokookai, and Miwa Pierce, a Shokookai staff member, came to Catlin Gabel to attend student presentations about their visits to Japanese businesses. Yoko will speak at an upcoming Shokookai meeting.
 

Nineteen students and three chaperones from Martinique are hosted by the Middle School. French language students provide the homestays.

By Carrie Gotkowitz
Los Niños/Via International is a community development organization headquartered in San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. Our family has been involved with Los Niños for many years – my son Daniel's grandfather, Joseph Gotkowitz, started the microcredit program in the early 1990s. I was familiar with the Los Niños programs through contacts in San Diego, but had never visited any of the program sites. 

During spring break 2010, Daniel and I spent two days at the Los Niños program in Mexicali, Mexico. We visited a cactus farm, a beehive cooperative, a ladrillera (brickmaking business), and a preschool, which is the site of a xeroscape landscaping and playground installation project. We ate meals and slept at the Los Niños dormitory in Mexicali.

Los Niños Mexicali volunteers have helped with sustainable farming development projects, bridge building, xeroscape landscape installation, and playground construction. Volunteer work is directed by agronomists or construction supervisors. Los Niños provides Spanish language interpreters. Voluntourism trips include discussion and education on community health and nutrition, local and global economic forces driving migration, and U.S.-Mexico border relations. Volunteer and community contributions are used to fund projects.

Los Niños/Via International has a 37-year history in community development work. The organization focuses on family health and food security, nutrition, and ecology training, microenterprise and microcredit, community leadership education, and voluntourism programs. Los Niños offers voluntourism programs in San Diego, New Mexico, Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Los Niños International