Culture Shock 01: Waste

I have wasted so much water and electricity upon my return. However, nothing disgusts me more than the waste found here!

I love fashion and art. I understand how the pursuit of either of these can be wasteful more often than not. However, I have never found any art so offensive as this. Especially, in light of the millions of people all over the world who didn't have anything to eat today. I hope these artists are donating something significant to the World Food Programme or something equivalent. While there are definitely pieces of art I have disliked for aesthetic reasons, I have never been disgusted by art.

Today, I was disgusted by art. Tasteful fashion is disrespectful when the raw materials go to waste. Clothes made of food are art when they don't rot and become wasteful, but even with GMO food products, the best outfits won't last for very long.

Candied jewelery that we ate as kids is one thing (not to be confused with that worn by Kandi Kids); meat dresses are another, especially when they are left to rot!

SIAO

Some of the few things I did buy from SIAO. Its just so hard to decide and all the things I want to buy are large and require shipping. Some future SIAO.

The World Map Project

So, for some reason the internet is painfully slow at the bureau. I am typing this in notepad while I wait it for it to pick back up again.

World map project is a popular project started a few years back by a PCV in another country. She got the idea to paint the world map in her community and it picked up from there. I am really happy that I helped CLM out on this project because I learned a lot. I think she might be happy that I was there, too (especially since I provided all the brushes that we used for doing detail work - i.e. almost all of the painting). I am really glad that I brought my paint brush set, but I think they are pretty much ruined for the acrylics that I want to use (since we used a latex-based paint). CLM was lucky because they had already painted the blue square in the 3e classroom and there were examples in all of the other classrooms. Even parts of Antarctica and South America were traced. We spent most of the first few days cleaning the wall, redrawing the grid lines and then (re)drawing the countries. After we realized that the brushes that CLM had were too big, I went home and came back a few days later to do the painting. We actually only took one day to do the painting thanks to a couple of students. We finished all the countries in the morning and then redid the ocean blue and touched up the countries in the afternoon. I think it looks pretty darn good, even though I free-handed the flag and the compass. CLM is going to go back and label the countries at some point.

I am hoping to do the same thing in my village and CLM is even going to hook me up with some of the paint that she has left over. The director and I have discussed a little bit about the positives and negatives of different locations in the village. While in the classrooms would be the easiest place to do this (and also the easiest location to maintain), it is probably the least accessible location to the community. I have some ideas of where else might be good, but the problem is if it is an outdoor mural, natural deterioration with time, and hence the need to maintain the mural.

I posted the pictures in my gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/pictureandrea/WorldMapProject.

I can't figure out how to SSH into the new UGCS. Is the address still to.ugcs.caltech.edu? And if I am using a MindTerm facility (like the one at http://www.netspace.org/ssh/) will it work? I vaguely remember that there was a MindTerm applet on the UGCS website, but that no longer seems to be there. Help? I want to make some basic text changes, update the FAQ and links page, and also fix some links due to the UGCS migration (because obviously the quickie cgi scripts (especially for the art page) I have no longer work thanks to the change in folder names).

OK, here is the selfish part of my blog. I feel slightly guilty asking for it, but I am exercising my right (or addiction) to preservatives as an American. I can get Laughing Cow cheese and Starkist (in water) and corned beef and Oats in the big city (that's actually pretty darn good, even if I'm isolated I can get these things) amongst other canned goods. I still feel pretty solid muscle wise at least in the legs though. AKA, things I wish I could eat:

• Slim Jims
  
• Beef, pork or chicken(canned or dried, it's all good)
  
• Seasoning/sauce packets for cooking stuff (e.g. Easy Mac, Knor Lipton PastaSides, gravy and other assorted items)
  
• Summer sausage
  
• Easy Cheese (yes, canned cheese is amazing) or parmesan cheese
  
• Hot Sauce and condiments from fast food joints in general (I like Del Scorcho from Del Taco and of course Cholula)
  
• Dried cuttlefish
  
• Refried beans or at least a good refried beans and tortilla recipe
  
• Nuts that are not peanuts
  
• Kashi Tiny Little Chewies
  
• Dried fruit
  
• Chocolate (preferably individually wrapped or even M&Ms)
  
• Instant mashed potatoes!!!
  
• I hear bear creek soup is good
  
• Maple syrup (though I probably shouldn't be rotting my teeth anymore
  
• A shampoo bar or two (mom)
  
• The recipe for monster cookies
  
• Instructions on different stiches.
  

I am seeing the dentist tomorrow because my teeth have started looking like I am smoker (no, don't worry I have not picked up the habit). I bought a mirror on Saturday and saw myself for the first time in about a month. It was kind of scary. I am getting skinny as you can see in the pictures, but don't worry, I am still in the healthy BMI range.

Packing Is an Art

So, I knew I had a lot of stuff, but really! Packing it has trimmed it down a lot. Especially as I keep downsizing in bag size to fit into the baggage requirments. I have a large pack (the REI Mars - small size), a medium-sized rolly suitcase, a carry-on backpack, plus a carefully stuffed bike helmet with my toiletries (really just tons of floss, a hairbrush, and a small tube of toothpaste). Against many recommendations, I've gone with the rolly suitcase because of its hard frame so I can put my heavier stuff inside for the plane flights and not worry about it bursting out from poor manhandling (one of my bigger fears because of recent experiences). In a land of unpaved roads, I know the wheels won't survive, but I have a plan involving duct tape and swapping the contents of my pack and my suitcase.

I'm sure a lot of you are wondering what I've packed:

- Clothes (less and less with each down-size)
- Lots of underwear
- 1 hat
- 2 pairs of sandals, my cheapy Nike Frees (already sporting duct tape courtesy of my orthotics), pair of not-terrific sneakers, and my orthotics
- Linens, laundry bag, work gloves
- Sharp pointy objects
- Bright shining objects (of battery-powered and hand-crank variety)
- Camera/Laptop/iPod/calculator/associated electronics junk
- A power inverter/assorted cables
- A big, fluffy sleeping bag (and also the bane of stuffing into my luggage, but I really didn't want to buy a thermarest or a new one that was a smaller stuffsize)
- A sleeping bag liner
- Toiletries in liquid and (mostly) bar form (including the shampoo, I'll let you think about that)
- Cooking utensils (minus the frying pan, that's either being shipped or I will attempt to bargain it off of a PCV who's on their way out)
- A screen tent (the Bug Hut II from REI)
- Some canvases and business cards for painting
- Paintbrushes, art pens
- Stationery and writing utensils
- My flattened basketball and a tire/basketball pump
- Lots of ziploc bags...

Things I had to take out...

- Clothes
- My acrylics. They were about five pounds worth... actually... now that I think about it I think I've downsized enough to repack them... I may actually bring them after all... and not have to have them sent
- The frying pan
- Books, lots of books
- My yoga ball + pump
- Tupperware

Why did I...

- Choose the basketball over the yoga ball... I love basketball, end of question.
- Bring the paintbrushes if I'm not bringing the paint... I have hope... and maybe I'll be able to squeeze a few bottles in.

Well, it's lunch time... maybe I will try to rearrange some more and downsize a little bit more so I can fit in my paints. That would make me very happy.

Moving Woes

So, I moved from California to New Jersey and since I own a lot of books, I shipped them media mail. Well, unfortunately two of the boxes never made it. I received two new boxes with a few things I've never seen before. Two of my newer yearbooks didn't make it. More unfortunate, one of my favorite paintings was in there.


I hope someone finds it and returns it to me.