Didn't see that coming

I have plans. I have a lot of plans, actually, and some of them are quite opposite of eachother. I'm fairly convinced I'm going to carry out most, if not all, of these plans even through the contradictions. I was feeling pretty content and excited about the future course for my life.

Then I'm pretty sure God laughed in my face.

Again.

This may or may not ammount to anything, and equally, it may not change anything. But here's Sarah's newest option: Cambodia.

Yes, it's way off in Southeast Asia. No, I've never even considered Cambodia before. I've never thought about Cambodia before. I don't speak Khmer (pronounced kuh-my) but apparently I'm learning it now. By learning it now we mean that I know three words and I can't keep them straight. Spoken Khmer, I've been told, is fairly simple to learn. You don't have to congegate verbs (which killed me in Spanish. And French.) and the grammer is pretty straight-forward. The written language, however, has four lines to every letter. In a way they kind of stack four letters on top of eachother for each letter, and then each main letter can have any variation to the three above or below it.

Yeah....... that's kind of what I said.

Anyway. Why Cambodia, you ask? Good question.
There is a man in Cambodia who has started an orphanage for children living on the street. I don't know much about the country yet, but it went through a terrible civil war when the Khmer Rouge took over in the 70's. It destroyed the country and killed so much of the population, forcing many families to labor camps, then Refugee camps, then various other countries around the globe. It's been awhile since the war, but the government is still corrupt. The orphanage gets no government assistance or any other kind of assistance, for that matter. The kids are taught a trade and sell the goods they make and with the money they are able to buy some basic food. It's nothing fancy but it's the best this man can do in caring for these kids who have no one.

Enter, two social workers who love to travel and take on a challenge. My supervisor happens to be related to this man who runs the orphanage. She and I have bonded quite a bit this semester and share a passion for missions, social justice, administration, and people. She wants to go back in December for the first time in 31 years. This is far from finalized, but we're dreaming big here. We started talking about the possibility of making this orphanage a non-profit organization. She would love the company and support while she travels.

What more do I need to hear?

A Lesson in Power

Draining.

That's the best way to describe my day. Good, full, interesting.... draining.

I was sitting in the backseat on a way to a meeting at the hospital with two colleagues of mine, both immigrants working in the professional world. Both educated, smart women. The conversation started with buying used cars and quickly turned into a conversation about racism. Both of these women who I have come to know and love this semester had numerous stories of blatant racism when buying cars, renting apartments, and reporting vandalism to the police. I was enfuriated. I was also silenced. What can you say when you, as a member of one of the most privileged classes in the world, are faced with stories like these? Sure, I was empathetic, I was on their side, but I couldn't do anything.

I've taken race relations and power & privilege classes; I've heard these types of stories. They've always made me mad, but now it's my friends we're talking about. And it's not okay. I may be in one of the groups of "power" as a middle class white American, but I felt powerless today listening to these women share their experiences. They've lived through war, communism, horror, refugee camps, and now as citizens in America they are still discriminated against.

"They think I'm stupid just because I'm an immigrant."

It breaks my heart. It drives me to action. I long for a time when social justice is not a noun, but a verb.

The semester where I learned how to throw a party

My internship has been a wonderful experience this semester. I could go on and on about what I've learned about program management, policies, chairing committees, staying awake through board meetings, and being asked to speak at the SASW meeting later this month. Wait, what? Yeah, more on that some other day.

But today I learned how to throw a party. I even got out of seminar (read: 3 hours of how does that make you feel?) to help plan and host this party. It was my agency's annual staff celebration for a job well done. IMAA's incredible staff had gone above and beyond all goals in 2009 and we needed to celebrate. Instead of taking the whole team to Hawaii, the executive director left us in charge of a Hawaiian theme party luncheon.

My supervisor and myself. I don't do theme parties, but when your boss (and therefore you) are the one hosting, you kind of have to. It was fun though, and the food tasted even better than it looked.

And if I do say so, it looked amazing.

Not shown: spring rolls, egg rolls, fried rice, sticky rice, chicken wings, fresh coconut, punch, sauces, and some sugary fried desserts that were pretty amazing. I probably won't have to eat for the next three days.

What a great group. We had a lot of fun and ate alot of food. I think the staff was really encouraged, and we got to forget about the snow and ice outside as we cranked the heat up to 75 and enjoyed a sunny lunch room.

Tomorrow is Vietnamese New Year and I'm headed back to Rochester to staff a booth and see the Lion Dance (I'll let you know what that is after I know) and eat lots more wonderful food.

Then I have Sunday and Monday to catch a movie and relax a little before the craziness begins again. Oh yeah, and write a speech for that engagement later this month.