Tag: westtown school

Home Again

On By Rachel in Ghana 2013In Heritage Academy, Ghana 2014Leave a comment

April 5, 2013

Last day of teaching at Heritage
Last day of teaching at Heritage

It’s several days into spring term and I’m steadily adjusting to life back at Westtown. Everything feels so surreal – graduation is just around the corner and then my classmates and I are off to college. But in this whirlwind of activity, there remain things I have taken from my experience in Ghana that will never go away.

  • The amenities we take for granted are luxuries and we should always be thankful. Air conditioning, hot showers, flushing toilets, reliable electricity – these seem like miracles.
  • Middle schoolers in any culture are extremely difficult to control. But even if you feel like giving up, remember that they are good kids at heart and really do want to learn.
  • Get anti-malaria pills from a trustworthy source.
  • Stick ten teenagers in a guest house during a power outage and a hacky sack becomes a godsend.
  • Nothing goes according to plan – but it’ll turn out alright in the end.
  • It’s never too late in the year to meet people and really appreciate them. (And share lame jokes and tell embarrassing stories.)
  • Teacher Kwesi was right, I’m not Bill Gates. And while I certainly don’t think I changed the world, maybe a lesson stuck with one student or a comment I made helped another student connect the dots. Our group was thrust onto a new continent and into a new way of life. I didn’t just leave my comfort zone on this trip; I was catapulted into my “oh-my-god-new-experiences-but-let’s-try-not-to-panic” zone. That’s more than enough for me to feel like my time in Ghana was worth it.

The Pain In Spain

On By lynettea1In UncategorizedLeave a comment

The sun did rise as it’s supposed to on the second day of the Camino, but it was never obvious, obscured as it was by ominous clouds. We set out from Portomarrin at  7:30 in the morning, stopping for a few moments for cafe con leche or orange juice and a small pastry in town. And it was uphill from there. The next few hours were always steadily -and sometimes sharply- up. By the topographical map of the Camino, 15.8 km of our 25 km trek that day was ascendent.

The pain came early on this day because of this constant rise of the trail. Hamstrings  (dubbed stringos de jamon by the students- maybe you had to be there…) were stretched to their limits. Shoes soaked by rain and mud exacerbated the already painful blisters from the day before.  And then there was the rain: the steady, pelting, freezing rain. As we trudged through it I kept thinking about Forrest Gump describing the rain, “We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin’ rain and big ol’ fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.” Yea, Gump rain it was.  I used little things like this to keep my mind busy and to keep myself from getting too discouraged. I’ve been around students long enough to know that stress can be highly contagious.

Continue reading “The Pain In Spain” →

Buen Camino

On By lynettea1In UncategorizedLeave a comment

IMG_2364

The first steps on the Camino are toward obtaining the pilgrim’s passport, a document that is stamped along the way to show that you have actually walked to the cathedral in Santiago and not, say,  taken a taxi. Was it a sign that the first church we came upon in Sarria was closed? We’ll see. We wandered through the streets and came upon a convent that answered our ringing of the bell. We purchased our pasaportes de peregrinos and the caretaker carefully impressed the stamp that signified the beginning of our journey.

Our start was a slow one. The students stopped to admire the beautiful vistas and buildings in Sarria, organizing themselves for group photos. In spite of the late start, our packs felt light and spirits were very high.  We were ready for this. Vamos!

IMG_2366

The trail quickly ascended and the rigors of the Camino began to reveal themselves almost immediately. The air became misty. The crisp morning temperatures became more frigid. The physical abilities of each person of also made themselves known. After about an hour, we were not walking as a group, but in small groups with those whose paced matched our own. The Camino is, in one way, how we imagined it would be: surrounded by verdant fields, hugged by medieval villages, traversing lovely forests. It’s also something completely different than any of us could have imagined. Continue reading “Buen Camino” →

Follow that star to Bethlehem

On By Thinh in the Middle EastIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Ramallah, March 10th, 2013

In the Christmas concert of my sophomore year, the choir sang an a capella tune called “Follow that Star,” which told the story of how the three wise men followed the guiding star of Bethlehem to come see the newborn Jesus. The song started with the tenors singing “Follow that star to Bethlehem…” on repeat for four times, the later with higher notes and more urging tune than the previous. It was a lovely song; and even though I could not remember how the rest of it went, “Follow that star to Bethlehem” stuck in my mind. I wondered when I would be able to follow a star to Bethlehem and see the history for myself.

I finally am able to “follow that star” all the way from Jerusalem to Ceasarea to Nazareth to Bethlehem during the past days of my Senior Project. We spent the past two nights with local host families in Beit Sahour, a small town close to Bethlehem, and spent the day visiting different people who wanted to share their perspectives on the conflict with us, as well as seeing religious sites. Continue reading “Follow that star to Bethlehem” →

In Which I Am Frowned Upon by German Society For My Poor Choice in Footwear

Let me preface this post by pointing out that as of today in Berlin, it is bone-chillingly cold. The last few days have been positively spring-like, but last night took a turn for the worse and snow has been coming down in flurries every few minutes. As of now, snow covers the ground and everything on it, and it doesn’t show signs of stopping.

Since I arrived I have been taking note of many cultural differences between Germany and the US, but I haven’t experienced them firsthand until today. I brought with me two pairs of Embassy-appropriate shoes, and chose to wear the more sensible of the two, a black pair of loafers which unfortunately exposed the top half of my foot. I saw nothing wrong with this, except for the knowledge that my feet would be a little uncomfortable during my walk from the apartment to the train, then from the train to the embassy and back again that afternoon. Continue reading “In Which I Am Frowned Upon by German Society For My Poor Choice in Footwear” →

On By sophieberlinIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Hello from a whole new world…

On By Claudia NIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Thursday, March 7, 2013.

Hi everyone, my name is Claudia. I was out of the country for the two weeks before Senior Projects, so I never made an intro post. I am living at home and working with the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington, DE for my Senior Project. I went in offering to do whatever they needed me to do and I ended up assigned to one of their Family Resource Coordinators. I have been helping her with whatever she needs me to do with managing her clients.

The work is totally different from anything I have done before. The actual tasks are, for the most part, simple. I do a lot of photocopying and file reviewing. The context, however, is totally alien. Westtown exists in a bubble of privilege. It doesn’t matter where you come from originally; when you arrive at the school you are one of the privileged few. We are incredibly lucky to have that opportunity, but given that I come from a stable nuclear family with enough money to live comfortably, I had never really seen what that meant. Poverty and unemployment are hot topics in the current economic situation, but news coverage is an abstract. People living below the poverty line, people who live hand to mouth, people who wonder how they’re going to make rent next month. Such people have never been a concrete reality for me, until now. Continue reading “Hello from a whole new world…” →

The Green Line

On By jundazhu2013In Israel/Palestine Trip 2014Leave a comment

Location: Ramat Hashofet, Israel

Monday, March 4th

The Green Line, officially called the 1949 Armistice Line, is not actually a green line painted between Israel and Palestinian West Bank. 1949, in Rhode Island, several Israelis and American Ralph Bunche drew the line based on geography; Israelis then planted trees along the border therefore gave it the name the “Green Line”. But today, on a tourist map bought in Israel or a map in an Israeli geography textbook, the Green Line is nowhere to be found. Instead, a fence is built nearby.

In the beginning, the fence was built along the line, but it diverges to include more Israeli settlers. We stood on the top of a hill over the town Anin. Hundreds of residences cluster in the valley and on the side of the hills. On the hills not far from Anin, there are a couple Israeli settlements on the other side of the fence. This is where the fence diverges with the Green Line. In between the two lines are Israeli settlements and Israeli Arabic communities that can no longer be in contact with families in the West Bank.

Anin

Continue reading “The Green Line” →

Settlements

On By jundazhu2013In Israel/Palestine Trip 2014Leave a comment

Sunday, March 3rd

Location: Azzahra Hotel, East Jerusalem

Flight for Property Right IMG_0262 Overview of Old City The Dome The West Wall At Old City

When talking about settlement, most people would think of Israeli Jews building residences and settling into Palestinian areas. But settlement can also mean cultural invasions. This morning, with a tour guide who is a Muslim born in Jerusalem, we strode through the Old City and covered the Islamic, Jewish, Christian and Armenian quarters. Each quarter has its own culture and religion; each cultural group tries to present themselves in the most prominent way. Christians have the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the site where Jesus was crucified; Muslims have the Dome of Rock with the Koran carved on the inside walls; Armenians also built multiple churches; and Jews pray at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Each group wants more power. There is constant fighting among religious extremists, but the most controversial issue is the idea of rebuilding the Jewish Temple at the Western Wall. I realized that Israel-Palestine conflict is only part of the big conflict. Continue reading “Settlements” →

Day #1: Jerusalem and Bedouin Camp

On By rachelwortmannIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

 

Today began with breakfast from 7:15-8:00 AM. The meal was held right downstairs off the hotel lobby into the restaurant area. When we first arrived last night we were brought fresh fruit baskets to our rooms and were offered orange juice upon entrance. This morning there was a modest buffet of traditional Israeli breakfast foods including soft cheeses, humus, pita (which seems to be part of EVERY meal) egg omelets, and most importantly a coffee machine. I enjoyed cucumbers and carrots as well.
After breakfast an older gentlemen in a striped button-down shirt, blazer, and corduroy pants greeted us in the lobby, ready to take us on a walking tour of the Old City. Our tour guide, Mohammad, started down the street, as we hurried along to keep up. The entire morning was spent walking in and out of streets within the Old City. One of the highlights of the morning was visiting the Western (Wailing) Wall. Continue reading “Day #1: Jerusalem and Bedouin Camp” →