yerba mate

Privilege to Survive

2010-08-26T22:30:00.003-04:00

On Monday I had a nasty run in with some sort of stinging bug - and because I live in a community with medical facilities, I have health insurance, and I had people around, it was a small thing, a minor incident. But had I not had any of those things the outcome could have been different, there would not have been the nurses or the doctors, the epinephrine, the IV, the ambulance to take me to

The Good Times

2010-05-16T09:58:00.002-04:00

For those who have been reading this lately - you may have noticed that I have been a little down on teaching and education. So I decided to write about the good times. This past week I had a day that was every teachers nightmare, the students were mocking my attempts to tell them what to do and then of course doing whatever they wanted which included breaking a few things in the classroom,

Prison School

2010-05-14T17:19:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I decided to watch some Democracy Now! while baking some cookies. I listened to this report on racism, brutality and humiliation in California prisons. I had to stop what I was doing and listen more closely and gasp over and over as the words in the report matched those we use every day at school. I hope this will become more clear in the post. As I said to a friend last night at

Which Side Are You On?

2010-05-03T22:26:00.002-04:00

The other night I had the honor and privilege of being at a benefit where Bernice Johnson Reagan, founder of Sweet Honey and the Rock, Civil Rights Leader, and Cultural Activist spoke. She told stories about her connection to the Highlander Center interspersed with songs.One story she told was of a woman whose husband was leading a strike - there were some local people angry about the strike who

They Tried To Warn Me

2010-04-14T21:38:00.003-04:00

While getting my M Ed, people told me that dealing with the requirements, standardization, etc. of teaching were going to be hard. They told me it would be harder than I could imagine, that it would make me want to stop teaching...and part of me tried to believe them, but the arrogant part thought that I could rise above any administrative bureaucratic stuff. That I would simply shut the door and

Or does it explode?

2010-03-12T20:34:00.004-05:00

What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry uplike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore--And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode? - Langston Hughes* A friend recommended to me that I make this post more of a conversation, so consider it unfinished, but also consider yourself

Love Rant

2010-02-21T17:50:00.003-05:00

Who hasn't written one of these, about a love lost or found, a betrayal or a connection? This one is about definitions of love, of me, of we. Of a love that goes beyond Valentines hearts and wedding rings. No, i am not hating on your partnership, just offering up another vision, another way of having a life overflowing with love that flows between more than two people, flows through more than

Honest Moments

2009-06-26T21:30:00.002-04:00

I wrote this several months ago in response to my discomfort with myself. I need a moment of honesty - I thank those who have been honest with me in reading the poem and in many other moments of my life.The boys leaning againstthe wall seem familiar withthe place. Cops swarming "Move offthe corner! No loitering here!"The memory of my students' stories..."The I-pod was right there. I could have

Choosing Human-ness

2009-05-27T17:43:00.002-04:00

(I am going through and finishing old posts, this one was started months ago and is simply a reminder of something I think we all know, and the image, well, I agree with that message as well)I was having one of those afternoons today when nothing seemed to be going right. I showed up in the wrong place for the thing I needed to do, got lost going to the other place, didn't have the right stuff,

No Words

2009-03-08T17:10:00.002-04:00

sometimes there are no wordsor is it too manythe flood of anguishthe pain that goes beyondanything that could possiblybe captured in the boxes ofwords we hold in our mindsfor me there is no depthto the word peace - it iswhite doves and olive branchesnothing so strong as to bringa revolution that somehow holdsjustice in its sweeping armspeace is long flowing skirtsand flowery meadows, it isKum bay

Base Ten

2009-01-22T21:40:00.002-05:00

Here is another reflection - I have been trying to write in verse lately (as you can see it is only moderately successful). This is a little late in being posted as I have been without internet.Base 10Because most of us are bornwith 5 fingers on each of 2handsAnd some of us die with thesameWe measure things in 1s, 10s, 100sand 1000sFor the rich and famous of theUS of A, 1 can keep us riveted

We were THOUSANDS

2009-01-12T23:57:00.004-05:00

Recently I went to a huge protest in Washington DC about the violence happening in the Gaza Strip. This was my reflection:I got caught up inthe joy on young girlsfaces and for a momenttheir smilesmade me feel hopemarching some how togetherI did not feel aloneWeWe were marchingand there was hope inour numbers fierceindependence in our chantsan independence not basedin individual desirebut in a

Thoughts and Laughs from the Past

2008-11-11T22:24:00.002-05:00

I recently finished a masters degree from an international service sort of school. As a part of the finishing up process we were given our admissions essays back. I read mine over with great trepidation, fearing the arrogance and idealism of my youth (all of four years ago:)) Instead I found the seeds of my then eminent change in how I saw the world. I won't burden you all with the whole

Guest Blog from Lu

2008-10-17T23:02:00.002-04:00

So my housemate, Lu, sent me and several other people this email yesterday. I asked her if I could paste it in here as a guest blog post and she said yes. I love it for its frankness and the revelations - enjoy.....I'm only writing about this because if I could have coffee with any of you, I would tell you about it in person. But by the time I see you again, life will have gone on and there

Stinky Elections

2008-09-20T09:18:00.003-04:00

So I didn't want to write about the elections. I will frequently turn off the radio or change the station when there is yet another round of analysis. Also, in my recent reading of A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn repeatedly makes the argument that electoral politics creates a government safety valve for the people's anger against the inequality and injustice that exists in

Because I didn't raise my hand high enough...

2008-07-31T20:18:00.002-04:00

... and because my bike ride home wasn't long enough, get ready for some angry ranting on free trade. I just attended a showing of the film Maquilapolis. One I highly recommend seeing if you get a chance. The film itself was great. It was produced by a group of women in Tijuana Mexico and a few directors from the United States. In beautiful (and disturbing) images and strong narrative it

Do something that doesn't work....

2008-06-15T00:06:00.002-04:00

I was having a conversation with my mother the other night. My mom is great. She has this amazing ability to draw wisdom out of others. It is really quite magical. Anyway, we were having the often had conversation about how social change really happens, and how, as an individual, we can contribute towards social change. She asked me what she should do. First I told her to join a community

The Hidden Face of Foreign Aid Work

2008-05-31T12:33:00.002-04:00

There are so many things that could be said about this article. But I will focus on the main points. That of the non-profit world existing as a profit making industry. And yes, some will argue in countries that are void of sustainable economies, any industry is good. But we must ask who this industry really benefits and who it does not. If our foreign aid dollars are going into sushi and

In Response...

2008-05-29T20:33:00.002-04:00

So shortly after reading and posting that last article, I came across a recent interview on Democracy Now! with Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health and the author of several books addressing social justice and health care. I found the discussion pertinent to the other article and wanted to share. In this particular section he talks about the system they developed in Haiti and how it in

The Wealthiest Country in the World?

2008-05-29T18:06:00.002-04:00

On my daily rounds of BBC news, this item caught my eye. I wish that I was surprised, but I am not. Medical charity helping US poor By Jonathan

The Real Story

2008-04-24T20:21:00.003-04:00

The food riots taking place around the world bring up some important points that few are looking at. Putting the blame on higher fuel prices, drought, and low food production, few news sources are looking at the impact of global trade and the bullies of global trade. Both of these articles take a closer look at the history behind the food riots in Haiti. Important things to know before we flip

A Long Times Silence

2008-04-16T17:08:00.002-04:00

Apologies to all for the long silence. Part of me has been waiting for something to write about, and it hasn't come. Most of my mental energies have been devoted to writing a thesis and figuring next year out. So I will write and see what comes to my mind.I have been thinking a lot lately about happiness, or contentedness. Happiness seems to be considered a higher state of being here in the

International Day of Women

2008-03-09T12:53:00.003-04:00

Hey all, I know it has been a while, but I wanted to send a shout out to all the women out there. Some people are against celebrating these days and months when the rest of the year is still devoted to the white ones who are men, but I will take what i can get for now. Please peruse some of the blog poetry from the Global Voices competition. GV is one of my favorite blog logs - I recommend

The Most Frightening of Journies

2008-02-08T21:38:00.000-05:00

I took the wrong bus on my way home tonight and just missed the one going in the opposite direction. While waiting for another, i reached in to the pouch of my hoodie for the James Baldwin book I had put there for just such an occasion. While trying to find enough light to read by a gentleman joined me at the bus stop - he asked what i was reading and i shared. The conversation that ensued was

The People's Dance

2008-01-21T11:10:00.000-05:00

So last weekend i had the wonderful experience of going to The People's Dance Party. It took place at a community rec center and had been put together by a group of people who like to dance but don't like clubs. We were a small group but represented many ages, skin colors, and abilities. No one, except for maybe a seven year old boy, was a very good dancer. Everyone had fun. Afterwards I

Chairs

2008-01-21T10:22:00.000-05:00

Do you remember those long days in highschool of squirming and shifting in the hard plastic, metal or fiberglass chair while looking longingly at the teacher's cushy plush chairs? This "chair hierarchy" can be found in most schools including colleges and universities where students will unquestioningly spend hours in discomfort while the teacher or professor lounges in luxury. This is one of

Makeup Confessions

2008-01-03T20:05:00.000-05:00

So I did it. I spent a ridiculous amount of money on makeup. My first "real" batch of makeup at age 27 almost 28. Why is this a confession? Because ever since high school I have held very firm principles against makeup. It was at that time that I started to understand makeup to be yet another part of the consumer machine that drives this country. Actually, I think i just wanted to be

The Humans...and the not humans

2007-12-19T17:25:00.001-05:00

I recently accompanied my school director to the hospital deliver homework to a student who had gone into labor pre-maturely (the student had requested the work! totally blowing all stereotypes of either teen moms or inner city youth who are not motivated to do school work) Prepared with a special number to identify the student we walked in and asked the lady at the front desk where the birthing

Boundaries and Borders

2007-12-06T20:21:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading my friend Kate's blog entry about separation and walls. She is experiencing a lot in her first few months in Haiti and writes about it all beautifully. Her latest post has got me thinking about what those around us encourage and justify and what feels right, or maybe is right based on our principles. I am constantly confronted with this in my journey (or maybe it is

Shock School

2007-11-23T23:15:00.001-05:00

This is one of those things I would rather not have to post, I would rather it didn't exist. But it does, and so do hundreds of other schools that might not use electricity, but use methods just as frightening and damaging. And until they cease to exist, it is our job to expose them. A big thanks to Mother Jones for exposing this one.Rob Santana awoke terrified. He'd had that dream again, the

the "mess" in DC's parks

2007-11-03T20:33:00.000-04:00

so I just picked up last weeks Washington Post's Sunday Outlook section which serves as an expanded weekend editorial. On the last page is a short editorial, couched by two large pictures, one dipicting "tourists" in Lafayette park in the middle of a bright sunny day, and the other "homeless" in Mcpherson Square on a dark winter night. The author of the editorial argues that DC needs to clean

2007-10-28T18:14:00.000-04:00

Call the Police one afternoon while running in my blue shorts, orange top and white skin I heard a man sitting across the street in is gray pants, red jacket, and black skin yell across the street CALL THE POLICE! CALL THE POLICE! ONE OF OURS MIGHT COME AND TRY AND RAPE YOU CALL THE POLICE! And i wondered about the nature of pre-emptive

Interview with Amazigh Blogger

2007-10-22T19:09:00.000-04:00

I had to share this great interview with a blogger I much admire. It was written for global voices, a great website for keeping up on what is going on in the global blogosphere. Enjoy!...Blogging was always a dream for me. It is attached to free and independent expression. I come from an area where red lines are still red. Blogging is one of many ways I chose to express myself without having

"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" is what?

2007-10-17T18:01:00.000-04:00

I don't even know where to start. If you work on a campus where this is being organized please do something! The following is an article, there is also good analysis at defendcriticalthinking.org. Are You Ready for ‘Islamo-Fascism Week’? “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” is still three weeks away, but the event and a similar campaign from Young America’s Foundation are already setting off campus

Let America...

2007-10-13T08:50:00.001-04:00

Hello All,So in the midst of my blogger silence, I thought I might put a few other voices out there. In doing research for a racism unit, I came across this piece of writing by Langston Hughes. Enjoy....Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the

Guest blog by De Wai

2007-09-18T23:56:00.000-04:00

The little town of Brattleboro is always lost inside its own self --a great self by the way- and survives all kinds of transitions.For humans this would be called something like frustrations, anxieties, fears... here it's transitions. One of these transitions was a big storm that hit the town and lasted 15 minutes. After the storm was still a transition that lasted longer then

Lost

2007-09-16T08:50:00.001-04:00

Apologies to all my readers for being away so long. I have moved since the last post, visited family, and started a new teaching job. All big exciting and wonderful changes.More importantly I have found myself struggling and working to live and act out many of the beliefs and principles I have posted on this page. It is an exciting challenge, though at times overwhelming. What I have learned

More on "Saving" Africa

2007-07-31T22:55:00.000-04:00

This article published in the Washington Post on July 15th nails it. For those of you "Save Darfur"-ians out there, take a deep breath, open your big heart, and listen.This is a great piece of writing and is creating a lot of discussion.Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa By Uzodinma Iweala Sunday, July 15, 2007; B07 Last fall, shortly after I returned from Nigeria, I was accosted by a perky

Sweat

2007-07-10T23:47:00.000-04:00

So I wrote this post sometime last week thinking it was a little silly, and not well written. I asked the friend who got me started on all this blogging business if I should really let myself blog every thought that comes to my head, his reply was something like this... i am thinking a blog is a description. etymology. a cripted, coded idea that you want other people or yourself to see through

photos

2007-07-06T23:54:00.000-04:00

I recently ducked into an exhibit of photos that a woman had put together after a trip to a hospital in Rwanda. The pictures were mostly of very thin Rwandans lying in hospital beds with different tubes or bandages attached. The commentary on the photos described the impoverished condition of the people, the high level of HIV, and the womans struggle between feeling the need to stay and help,

Jim Crow 2007 Style

2007-07-05T08:19:00.000-04:00

I have been following this story for just over a month and am appalled. This is the most recent truthout.org article. There is also a BBC story from just over a month ago... In a small, still mostly segregated, section of rural Louisiana, an all white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial of a fight

The Wrong Question

2007-07-01T22:28:00.000-04:00

In a recent phone interview, I was asked if I thought all students should be held to the same standard regardless of race or class background. This is a loaded question. My immediate response was "no." In the same classroom I may have one student who comes from an upper-middle class family, whose parent is a college professor. The student has a computer in their room, receives support from

Caterpillars and Standardized Curriculum

2007-05-29T16:05:00.000-04:00

the other day i was helping some folks with some crafts at an outdoor event. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, there was a nice breeze, good people. The craft I was working with was block printing t-shirts. There was a mother there with her two kids, maybe around age 8. She really wanted to do the t-shirts and seemed to think the kids should want to do it too. At the same time,

Teaching Courage and Action

2007-04-20T23:25:00.000-04:00

Liz Davis, a drafting teacher in a Washington DC Middle School has turned her classroom into a center of self-discovery and activism. She is a small woman, with a commanding presence. At the beginning of this year when she found herself in a basement storage room that hadn't been used for fifteen years, with a decaying rat in the corner and asbestos from demolition efforts in another part of the

Dignity Defense in an Offensive World

2007-04-11T22:38:00.000-04:00

A New York Times article covering a press conference held by the Rutgers women's basketball team today showed more defense than offense. While the headline "Rutgers Women Show Anger, but Agree to Meet Imus" brings back stereotypes of angry black women, the article itself spends more print on defending the worthiness of African American members of the team by highlighting grade point

Drugs, Imperialism and Supremacy

2007-04-01T08:06:00.000-04:00

In a recent conversation about how individuals who are confronted with contradictions in the ideology that dominates the United States, a friend brought up the use of prescription drugs as a way of suppressing anxiety, lifting depression. When those who have been a part of the middle class find themselves falling into the ranks of the working class and can't explain why using the "bootstraps"

Grocery Store Clerks and Hair Nets

2007-03-26T12:07:00.000-04:00

The summer after I graduated from college I took a job stocking shelves at our local supermarket. For the most part i enjoyed the activity of the job and the atmosphere of the store, however, I also felt shame for working there. I felt that as a college graduate and the daughter of middle class parents I should be beyond such low-skilled labor. My interactions with my friends at the store and

Revolutionary Love

2007-03-16T21:53:00.000-04:00

Sometimes someone else just says it better. This is a note in Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, chp 3, enjoy...I am more and more convinced that true revolutionaries must perceive the revolution, becase of its creative and liberating nature, as an act of love. For me, the revolution, which is not possible without a theory of revolution - and therefore science - is not irreconcilable

What I'm Reading...

2007-03-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

.Just wanted to spread news about a good book. I am currently reading Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami. She is a Moroccan woman currently living in Oregon and this is her first book. I am approaching the half-way point. It is based in Morocco and opens with a boat of people migrating to Spain. It is an easy and enjoyable read that brings up some interesting issues. Nothing

The View from Under the Rock

2007-03-11T13:20:00.000-04:00

So this is the one week anniversary of this blog!!! Very exciting. Though it has been a short time I have thought a lot about this little corner of the great world wide web that I get to share my thoughts on. The questions I ask myself revolve around things like "What do I know to be writing in a blog?" "What do I have the authority to write about, and what don't I?" These questions led me to

Racial Profiling in Brattleboro?

2007-03-07T19:08:00.000-05:00

This is an editorial I wrote recently (never published, it was too long) about an incident that happened here in Brattleboro VT, a small liberal, mostly white town...I got a call from my house mate yesterday telling me that she and a friend of hers got stopped by the Brattleboro Police while walking home at 5:30 in the evening. They were asked for their names, and then to show the officer

Kneading Dough and the Discovery Channel

2007-03-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

On a recent test I gave to a ninth grade world geography class I asked the students to list five things new they had learned about Africa (the region we had just studied). One student's response was "that Africans aren't cannibals." When I saw it, I smiled and wrote down next to it "I am so glad you learned that!" A little strange you may think, but on one of the first days of the unit I asked

Painful Protests

2007-03-06T01:00:00.000-05:00

Last month I found myself on an overnight bus to Washington DC for UFPJ's January 27th protest against the war in Iraq. We were on a bus filled with students from UMass Amherst, Smith, and some other area schools. To pass the time, the coordinator of our bus MC-ed an open-mic for all those who wanted to share political views or musings. During the time several people identifying as socialists,

Rigoberta Menchu

2007-03-05T21:46:00.000-05:00

Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Prize winner and now presidential candidate will be speaking in Amherst. Check it out

Labor's Response to la Crisis

2007-03-04T22:13:00.000-05:00

Here is a great story about how Argentine's are responding to the economic crisis of 2002/2003.Argentina's “Recuperated Workplaces” What happens when a group of workers take over their workplace and try to run it without private owners, professional managers, or the government? 10,000 workers in 200 workplaces in Argentina are trying to find out. Read More

Anger

2007-03-04T17:05:00.000-05:00

I recently had a friend ask for reflections about anger and politics, the following was my response...Thinking about what makes me angry lately I am finding it in seemingly very small things, small things that are large. I find it in places where I feel I cannot be fully human. Freire speaks of our current world order (one that has worsened since Freire's time with neo-liberal policies of

Origins of the name

2007-03-04T13:22:00.000-05:00

Yerba mate (Spanish) or erva mate (Portuguese) (Ilex paraguariensis) is a species of holly (family Aquifoliaceae) native to subtropical South America in Argentina, southern Paraguay, western Uruguay and southern Brazil. The infusion called mate is prepared by steeping the dry leaves (and twigs) in hot water rather than boiling water like black tea or coffee. It is slightly less potent than coffee