My wife is a native Philippine naturalized
American citizen.

I met and married her in the Philippines -
22 years ago.

I am bi-racial - black and white on
both parents sides of the family.

And I am working for a NP Latino / Chicano
support service.

I grew up in a predominantly black community
in Minnesota - "Selby - Dale" area - Twin
cities. It was more black than it is now.
It is now, thanx to an influx of Vietnamese
refugees in the mid to late 70's far more
Hmong.

Going to Highline Community College here,
I've been exposed to people of many different
countries and cultures - European, Indian,
Asian, Philippine, African, Caribbean, and
more.

For the record, I think it's a GREAT thing and
have said so on several occasions in the process
of my entry into service for Americorps and to
my current service NP - El Centro de la Raza.

And I am aware that no one knows exactly what it's
like to walk in my shoes anymore than I know what
it's like to walk in theirs.

But, thanks to my wife, I have some insight into
life in the Philippines and Filipino life here in
America - in the Pacific Northwest, and before
that, in Southern California.

A world I did not and would not have more than
the most cursory of understandings of, I have,
because of my experiences with my wife and
because she takes the time to act as translator,
interpreter for me.

Likewise, I can be translator / interpreter for
what my experiences are as someone who
is bi-racial, which in and of itself is not special.
So many of us are. I just happen to be bi-racial
of the two most polarized ethnicities in America -
black and white.

I am grateful that, at El Centro de la Raza, where
the dominant language is Spanish, they have
graciously extended a welcome to me - "su
casa es mi casa" - their house is my house.
With patience and persistence I am being allowed
a window into the experiences of Latino/a,
Chicano/a life / history in America in the Pacific
Northwest.

At the beginning of my service, at the PSO, I asked
of a panel of current Vistas, "Someone once said,
'Every man is my superior in that I may learn from
him'. In that vein, we go off to our respective NPs and
offer our services, but, what do you, have you learned,
taken away from your service from those you've
served?"

In my service, I am learning that hospitality is
cross-cultural. Each culture in its own way. In the
Philippines I was invited to parties simply because
they were having them. At El Centro de la Raza,
I've been to a mini Tejana concert by Los Texas
Maniacs. While I don't fully understand Spanish,
like any language, it has it's rhythms. It's musicality.
As I learned of Japanese over three years on Okinawa
island in the Marine Corps. As I have learned of
Tagalog, over 25 plus years with my wife and before
her on numerous trips to the Philippines. And Korean,
on training operations in South Korea.

I may not understand what's being said. But, smiles
are universal, as is sadness, despair, and hope, anger
and frustration, as well as empathy and compassion.

I hope to, at the end of my term, be able to report back,
that not only did I make a difference in increasing the
capacity and ability of my NP to do their job, I will also
be able to say I made some friends and shared a warm
and welcome window into a culture which up to this point
I had only experienced largely from the outside looking in.
I hope to be able to report back, what I have learned and
waht insights I have gained for what they're worth.

If I'm luck enough, I hope to continue my service with them
after Americorp. If not, I hope I'm lucky enough to find other
gainful employment either with Americorps or some other
service organization. I've got my eye on what Barbara
Ehrenreich of "Nickel and Dimed" and "Bait and Switch"
authorship has currently got going to attempt to address
employment issues of the disenfranchised:

http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com

But that's down the road. I have no idea if she has any openings
or use for me, but, as a fifty something, still very much in the job market
and at the lower end, she is addressing issues very much relevant
to where my life and circumstance, anc others, comparably, is now.

I'd like to be able to contribute something useful towards her
ends, if I could.

I'm certainly having a GREAT time where I am now.

Ours is a very easygoing, hardworking, collaborative crowd and
we all care very much about El Centro de la Raza. As I'm sure
many of you do about the NPs you are serving.

I am a child of the civil rights movement. I was alive when John
and Robert Kennedy were assassinated - and when Martin and
Malcolm were assassinated.

I'm not so sure I still believe in the civil rights model of the 60s.
But, I am absolutely optimistic that this current generation of
increasingly intermingled and intermarrying 20 and 30 and
40 somethings will usher in a new generation of tolerance and
understanding that I have been lucky enough to see in my lifetime,
but, will not live long enough to see the promises fulfilled.

I have every confidence that the end of this century will be nothing
like its beginning. It will be, I hope, so much better.

And I'd like to think that the kinds of people and work that's being
done through Americorps and NPs like El Centro de la Raza and
others addressing the needs of an increasingly multicultural community
are helping to bring about that difference.

But, what do I know?

Take care. Hope you're having fun.

:-)

Hello to all! It has been a very long time since I have blogged! Things here in Tennessee are going fine, although busy! I spent the entire month of December and most of February making fudge to raise money for the STAR Center. The fudge seems to be a very popular item, as well as a great gift to give or to receive. We raised about $15,000 with 2 fudge sales (one for Christmas and one for Valentine's Day). With each fundraiser, we included the option to have the fudge delivered to a person's home or place of business, and I recruited volunteers to help with delivery. For anyone who is interested, here is the recipe:

Heat 2/3 cup evaporated milk, 1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine, and 3 cups sugar over medium high heat, stirring constantly.

As the mixture begins to boil, set a timer for 4 minutes. After your 4 minutes is up, remove the mixture from heat. Stir in 2 cups chocolate chips until well mixed. Add 1 jar marshmallow cream and 1 tsp. vanilla, and stir until well blended (You have to work pretty fast because the fudge sets up quickly).

After all ingredients are mixed together well, pour the fudge into mold of your choice. If using small molds, the silicone ones work best. We made star-shaped for Christmas and heart-shaped for Valentine's Day. Instead of using small molds, you can also pour the fudge into a 13 x 9 inch pan and cut it into smaller pieces. After the fudge is completely set, remove from the molds and enjoy!

For another flavor variation, we made peanut butter fudge the same way but with peanut butter chips instead of chocolate. We also made white chocolate raspberry with white chocolate chips and raspberry flavoring in place of the vanilla.

Comment from Laura Hanley on March 9, 2007 - 1:40pm

Wow, what an awesome sounding recipe...I'll have to try it, for sure.  Thanks for sharing!  That's awesome that you were able to use fudge as a successful fundraiser for your org.  How creative!

Today, I wask asked to wach a PBS program because we'd like to utilize some of the digital story-telling styles they used for the summer.

About maybe ten minutes into the program, they started to talk about poutine, what it looked like, and how it was made.

At this point in time, I know after I'm done with Americorps (well, my fifty year break before I join SeniorCorps), I'm never going to be normal or hold normal conversations.

Comment from danielle martin on March 7, 2007 - 1:32pm

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-1371-8372/life_society/canadian_food/clip5

[for those CTC VISTAs not at the MA area meeting last week, poutine is apparently a favorite food of AJ McGuire (fries with cheese curd and hot gravy on it), and a new favorite word of mine. Check out the poutine MySpace page.]

-Danielle

Comment from Julie Bohnlein on March 7, 2007 - 2:40pm

It was actually from "Postcards From Buster" which is a children's program starring Arthur's rabbit friend. He goes to different places and intermixed with the cartoon is footage of different things in the area. This one took place in Montreal, where he also visited a hockey rick and a dance studio.

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in my first "sprint". In a sprint, a bunch of people get together and work on an open source project for a few days. In my two days (and one night :p) of sprinting, I learned a lot, met some awesome people, and contributed to the start of a project. I highly recommend sprinting to anyone who gets a chance to do it.

However, one thing I noticed when sprinting was the difficulty of getting to a point where you can make progress on a project. For example, before you could work on my project, you had to download and install particular versions of six different tools. And then you had configure your system properly (set environment variables and run scripts and such).

If there were nice installers that worked for all platforms for the tools, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. But there are often not installers, and all the tasks multiply -- you have to install other things to allow you to install the things you actually need. Here is the Windows install page for one of the tools my project required, for example.

(There are perhaps the most issues in getting set up on Windows, maybe because most open source developers are not using Windows so they sometimes don't bother to document for it and they sometimes don't have an easy way to test things on Windows. But I think this is a serious issue. Most people are using Windows. If we want anyone to be able to join open source development efforts, we have to make it possible for people to start contributing on the platform they already have.)

I was able to get the stuff I needed running after a few hours because there were people around who I could ask for help when I got stuck. And luckily my pretty-old (from before college) laptop did not collapse from the weight of the tools. But what about the person alone in their apartment who just wants to contribute? And what if they only have a dialup connection?

It's not like people who have trouble getting the tools setup don't have anything to contribute. But we aren't letting them get to a point where they can. I mentioned the issues in getting started to some other sprinters and they said "Yes, the barrier to entry for open source development is high." But no one mentioned anything that is being done about it.

What can we do to make it easier to contribute? Produce better documentation? (Lack of documentation is already a big problem in the open source world.) Set up more ways for programmers to connect to one another in person? Make better operating systems so tool setup goes more smoothly?

Am I the only one who doesn't necessarily always fill out online forms from top to bottom? The way some forms are designed makes it seem so.

For example, visit the free Basecamp account signup page. At the time of this blog post, if you fill in item 3 and then fill in item 2 with something different (and then click in a new field to have the change to item 2 "sink in"), what you have entered for item 3 is replaced.

There should be a check for this. I've seen this problem on other sites too. (Though it is kinda fun to pick on the, in my opinion, mostly well-designed Basecamp.)

There has been a lot going on in my neck of the woods (San Diego, CA).

Work:
For one thing, my company, the Pangea Foundation, was just granted a contract to develop databasing software to be used in the Home Again Mississippi project (I think that is the project; If not, you get to see a cool webpage with stories). It is really such an honor that a company as small as ours was chosen to do such an enormous project. Unfortunately, though, we only have until March 30th to finish (people need homes!) and we just found out we got the job yesterday! Craziness! The gist is that there was some sort of insurance/state relief decision made where select people are each being given $100,000 to rebuild/repair their homes. However, the state of Mississippi has no way to track who needs it, at what stage they're at or any of the other details that go along with it. So along comes Pangea to the rescue! They saw some of our other systems and have heard about our great tech support and training assistance (ya baby) and felt we were the company for them. It's so exciting! Our software will hopefully expedite the process of all of the people getting the funds they need to rebuild their homes. Woot!

Second, Laura and I went to a Cultural Proficiency seminar last Friday that was very interesting. Many of the counselors who we are working with on our new AP Tracking system were there so it was good to network with them in addition to learning about cultural differences and how to overcome them.

Third, the mentoring program for which we have been working on a tracking system has been growing by leaps and bounds! It used to be just Wednesday mornings but then there was a waiting list to get involved! So now there is a Thursday morning session as well! (That was a lot of exclamation points, I apologize.) We help Karen, the program director at our office, get things organized and input all of the new data for the programs. It's been fun and I'm glad it's growing.

Moving away from work onto daytrips and fun times:

Laura, Mike Denegal (former VISTA leader) and I took a daytrip to Tijuana on Sunday.

It was way too much fun. Here's a link for pictures. Check them out! It was cool because we took the trolley from our office which was only $5 roundtrip and were able to just walk across the border, thereby missing all of the traffic and wait times! Everything is pretty cheap down there and there is a lot going on. If you ever make it to San Diego, it’s totally a fun thing to do.

Laura and I have also been taking some free classes at one of the continuing education campuses here in San Diego. We started off with HTML and then moved onto Dreamweaver (all the way through intermediate!) and Photoshop. It’s so cool to be able to learn new skills and expand horizons! There is totally one of those guys who can’t keep his hand down in lecture and likes to argue with the teacher (you all know what I’m talking about) but besides that, class is awesome.

Otherwise, fun things I’ve been doing include going to cheap local concerts, watching movies and baking. Oh yeah, and doing Tae Bo videos with new and improved Billy Bands (yeah, I’m weird)! You guys are going to see Laura and me at the conference and be like, “Dang, those girls are svelte.” Just kidding…

Thought provoking life questions:

I came to the realization the other day that my VISTA term is nearly half over. What that really means is that my year of procrastination that was to be used for deciding what I wanted to do with the rest of my life is nearly half over. I feel like I haven’t come to any real conclusions. I really like technology and when I work at it, I can learn and accomplish a lot, but I’m no techy genius, unlike many of my fellow VISTAs out there! I just don’t feel I have a ton to offer sometimes. I majored in business and I am pretty good at that – organizing, planning, implementing, etc. I could draw you a pretty nice supply/demand graph any day of the week. However, I’ve found that really putting things into practice is often difficult. All I really know is that I want to be useful and I want to help people but I don’t know in what area I can do that most efficiently. I know I don’t want to go back to school. I should probably move away from San Diego for an adventure and growth but it’s just so comfortable here for me. My family is here, my friends are here, I know my way around (Anyone who knows me well knows that is huge because I have absolutely NO sense of direction). So yeah, anyone out there in the same boat? Have any suggestions or ideas?

Hope everyone is doing well and that no one has frozen over with the recent weather. Looking forward to seeing many of you in April at NTEN!

Comment from Carl Seifert on March 6, 2007 - 1:59pm

Thats pretty sweet about the new contract for Pangaea. I think you guys are giving them the support they need to grow, even if sometimes it seems like you aren't doing much. I take it that that contract is the reason you were in meetings all yesterday...which again, is a good thing.

Awesome on the html, dreamweaver and photoshop classes...free is an excellent price indeed. I also am finally learning the basics of HTML after fooling around with Dreamweaver a couple of years ago, i've made webpages, but didnt know the nitty-gritty html stuff, so i'm learning the code basics. Also you heard about my training in Macromedia Flash here in old town alexandria, which is so sweet. If only we could actually purchase the software....[looks into the distance dreamily].

I also understand your existential and career contemplation, but i think you already have more of a plan than you give yourself credit. Go crazy, be adventurous and use that americorps resume and networking for your benefit. Heck...move out to DC, its a great area and lots of fun stuff to do. And lots of jobs that are interested in supply/demand graphs.

See ya in April.

Carl Seifert
Computer C.O.R.E.
Alexandria, VA

Anyone else starting to think about what you’re going to do after done with your CTC VISTA term of service?  (I’m only about 5 ½ months in…) I’ve been trying to figure it out since day one practically.  Don’t get me wrong; it’s not because I hate what I’m doing and am counting the days until I’m done.  Far from it, in fact!  I love what I’m doing, I love the people I’m working with, I love where I work, the list goes on!   

Part of the reason why I chose to be a member of the AmeriCorps VISTA program for a second year is because I didn’t know what I wanted to do after completing my first year.  Sure, I had a much better idea, but the options were so numerous, and I didn’t feel ready to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life career-wise.  So I decided to take another year to try to make up my mind (among other things), but wanted to continue to make a difference while learning something new.  (My first year as a VISTA member was spent managing volunteers, planning events, creating publications, and doing research for the homeless coalition in Indianapolis…COMPLETELY different from what I’m doing now so I can’t even compare the two.)   

Learn new things I have.  I honestly never imagined that I would have any sort of technical position because I didn’t have the background (I graduated with a degree in audiology and speech-language pathology), but here I am testing software and providing technical support, to name a couple things.  And I’m finding out it’s not so bad.  And a few HTML, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop classes later, I’m finding out it’s really pretty neat. 

So where does that leave me?  (This is my fourth time starting this paragraph.)   Although I’m at no professional level or expert, it seems like I have more options.  If I recall correctly, I think it was Jimmy Buffett who said “Indecision may or may not be my problem.”

Comment from danielle martin on February 22, 2007 - 10:33am

Hey Laura,

Ever think of being a VISTA Leader? ;)

No but seriously, I just had an email exchange with Ray who's finishing in June about this same thing. And I've been thinking about how the Project can be better about end of service support (and alumni relations too). There's lots of stuff on the Corporation's website (see http://encorps.nationalserviceresources.org/resources/moving_on/laa_movi...) but it's so generalized, it's a bit frustrating.

But my gut feeling is that most of the CTC VISTAs I've heard that have moved on but are still in the field met their future employers as a VISTA - either folks get a job at the org they served at or met someone in their work that hooked them into a project. So keep your eyes peeled and your networking skills honed now!

-Danielle

There is an issue that I have found interesting since I first discovered it in one of my communication classes at Grand Valley State University. It was a realization. And the beginning of one of my disagreements with the world. It has come up twice recently with different people. So it is on my mind again.

The textbook was saying that in any communication that there is an Intended message from the person creating the message (by talking, writing, making a movie, etc) and there is a Perceived message that the listener/viewer receives. And the shattering moment for me, they aren't always the same. I know it seems pretty obvious now, but i was young, right? Psychologically, I think I have a strong desire to be understood, so this revelation was kind of sad to me.

Both the text and my teacher seemed to be saying that the Perceived message of the receiver WAS the message. They said that was the important component. I disagreed. My argument was and is that the Indented message IS the REAL message, if the Perceived message differs from the Intended one then the perception is incorrect.

That doesn't mean I blame the receiver of the message for getting it wrong. Many messages are poorly communicated. Or translated. During the Cold War Nikita Khrushchev was quoted in the west as saying, "We will bury you." What he was saying in the context of his culture and society was, "We will out last you." But in the west the implications of the word 'bury', made it seem like a threatening statement.

No one can blame the already scared masses for the misunderstanding. Yet, the message that Mr. Khrushchev intended is still THE actual message in my book, even if the whole world misunderstood.

That's why I believe it is very important to be clear and concise and honest. To mean what you say. And to know the meanings of the words you are using. I'm not a perfect communicator by any stretch of the imagination. But I strive to be.

Now there are lots of times that in order for someone to really learn something, they have to discover it for themselves. Just telling someone something flat out doesn't always get the message across. This is true of students. To really engage students, to get real learning you have to lead a student to water. And it's up to the student to drink or not.

You don't give a student a piece of literature like, Macbeth and sit around saying how great it is, telling them all the little things Shakespeare has put in there. You have to let them think it out for themselves, or they are just going to glaze over and be bored.

There are other instances when people are not ready to hear certain information, usually for emotional or psychological reasons. And similarly just telling someone something that they likely do NEED to hear doesn't mean they'll hear it. You have to lay out the evidence.

When someone has just broke up with a lover, flat out saying, "S/he is never coming back," isn't a wise choice, because the person is just going to go into denial and not listen. It's better to give examples of similar situations and subtly relay facts like, "s/he has a new girl/boyfriend," and let the person come to the realization of the truth on their own. You have to hope the person will take a hint, because there's no forcing something like this.

These things can and do fail. Students often hate Shakespeare (I did 'til I saw 'Much Ado about Nothing'). Friends continue to live in denial about their ex-lovers (I know I do). Sometimes communication fails. But if we don't try our best to communicate truthfully and honestly with those around us then we've failed before we've started.

Peace
Rich T. Anderson

Comment from Mike Moore on February 20, 2007 - 7:56pm

The only way to determine whether or not
anyone can be trusted is by trusting them.

At some point that means letting one's guard
down and letting them in.

On the other hand, just because the invitation
has been extended and the door of opportunity
left open - doesn't mean there will be a rush
through the entrance.

We can all try to be trustworthy, worthy of
love, worthy of kindness, thoughtfulness,
consideration. It's not enough to try to
BE the right person. And in truth, maybe
there's no such animal.

We can only be ourselves in the process
making ourselves happy - exercising selfishness
in the most self affirming way.

Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see
in the world."

Not as much about being someone worth loving as
much as loving and forgiving ourselves and granting
permission to be ourselves - without apologies.

A fireman I once knew had on his whiteboard the
comment, "If a dog could speak, we might be so
surprized by the fact that we might not notice
he had nothing to say."

We all have something to say - something worthwhile
to say.

Our very existence grants us meaning, and purpose,
and value.

When we understand that about ourselves, we are on
the path to understanding that about others, and
from that understanding comes the birth of better
communication, better coexistence, ultimately a
better world.

Mike

P.S. Just in case the point got lost, I liked what
you had to say. It got me thinking.

Comment from danielle martin on February 21, 2007 - 12:48am

Hey Rich,

Are these misunderstood communications related to your VISTA work or just life in general? I just ask because I think it might be an interesting topic for discussion...how to be UNDERSTOOD as a VISTA (versus as just a regular ol' staff or member).

-Danielle

Comment from Ben Sheldon on February 21, 2007 - 1:44pm

The thought experiment I had in Social Psychology (or was it the Psychology of Sociology?) was:

If you are interacting with someone who truly dislikes you, but does a perfect job of concealing this from you, does it matter how they truly feel?

The answer was Nope.

People communicate to create specific external change or affect action. In order to achieve the desired action, you must make sure that your message is received properly. In the example of Kruschev, the issue is not within the message itself, but in the communicator (Kruschev) not being aware of the language/cultural differences of his audience. Because of this, the resulting action was not the intended one.

For effective communication, once you've identified that you have something you want to happen, the very first thing you must do is identify your audience (which means anything from their needs to their lifestyle to their current emotional state) and from that design your message so that the resulting action is what you intended.

If you think of communication as resulting in intended action, in some cases, being clear, concise or honest is not optimal. For example, in some situations you are culturally expected to be dishonest (when negotiating you must overstate or understate your position), verbose (poetry or prose) or ambiguous (when dumping someone).

Of course, I do agree that many of these situations would be made easier if everyone was clear, concise and honest. But if you think of this as an outcome, being clear, concise and honest in those situations might be not produce the intended action of getting everyone to be clear concise or honest, or even the secondary goals: getting a good deal, being published or avoiding emotional distress and physical violence.

Also, when working with children, or anyone really, it's not about leading them to water, it's about making them thirsty.

Comment from Mike Moore on February 21, 2007 - 3:09pm

Based on your explanation, isn't that
fundamentally about leadership?

Communication is also the sharing of information
and nothing more.

If I tell you the sky is blue and that's what
you hear and confirm in your reply - that's
communication no more, no less, message sent,
message received, message confirmed.

"If you are interacting with someone who truly dislikes you,
but does a perfect job of concealing this from you, does it
matter how they truly feel?"

It may matter, to you, simply because, from your premise,
you don't know that they "truly dislike you" because they're
doing a perfect job of concealing that from you.

You may think they care, when in fact they don't and you
don't know that.

Ties in to what I said about trusting people. One can
lose sleep, time and effort looking for a litmus test
for trust.

Comparably, legally speaking (and perhaps socially as well),
example, Miranda Rights. As long as it has been demonstrated
that an individual has been read their rights using methods
reasonably determined to be adequate, should they deny
understanding becomes an arguable point. Likewise, if we
act in good faith in our communication, in what can
reasonably be described as clear, honest and direct, from
that perspective, the duplicitousness or dishonesty of the
person we are speaking to is their responsibility. Beyond
that, it's a matter of to what extent their duplicitousness
or dishonesty impacts our lives or goals. The more remote
the impact, the less, it would seem, the necessity for care
or concern. If on the other hand, we are being held
accountable for collaborative results of which they are an
integral part of the potential success or failure - that's
an entirely different matter.

If you choose not to reply, that's communication
too - of a different sort.

"Making someone thirsty" isn't just about
communication, it's about provoking action.

Comment from Richard T. Anderson on February 21, 2007 - 5:20pm

1. I love Social Psychology!

2. I don't think all communication is goal driven. I try not to be manipulative in my communications. Though certainly there is a time and place for that.

3. Back to Mike's comment about making the world we want. I want a world where everyone is clear, concise, and honest. All the games and drama, I can do without.

4. you are right, one needs to insight thirstiness when teaching. Any ideas?

5. Danielle, while I posted the blog here as it relates to communication, the reasons behind it where personal rather than professional. Still it is a good topic for those that are having trouble as VISTA's.

Thanks,

Rich

Posted some Espanol links gleaned from
local library queries as well as local Espanol
Yellow page listings:

The Link to the Links Post

I specifically looked for links in Espanol for
Local (PacNW, Seattle, Rainier Valley), Statewide
(Washington State), National and International links -
most notably a fairly large collection of regional
online newspapers.

I'd like some feedback - good, bad, or indifferent,
as well as any links you think should be included.

Hopefully they'll prove useful. If so, feel free to
pull them down and claim them as your own.

Thanx.

Mike