Turing malaria into a positive thing: fundraising time!

So, I’m currently ill, and am not able to due much, but I am doing this:

So, it’s time for our Ghana Fundraiser. But, as I am typing this, I am fighting malaria…

Not in the humanitarian, handing out mosquito nets and medicine way, but in the malaria is in my blood way…. In the sweating and headaches and taking 15 pills a day way…

And so, I’m asking for your help. Even with me currently fighting this infection, the work of the Pathfinders Project and our current partner AFAWI, the Alliance For African Women Initiate, is still going strong. But to continue, we need your help.

Please consider supporting our cause. I am prepared to offer the following bonuses, in my malarial state,to incentivize your donation.

For just $10, I will give you a shout out on facebook /twitter.

For $25, I will send you information on avoiding HIV/AIDS (one of the other blood borne illnesses prevalent in this area), the very same information I have given to hundreds of at risk children here in Africa.

For $50 I will send you an explanation of how a little parasite is able to give me (and millions others every year) all of this malaria suffering.

For $75, I will write you a poem. Any topic, and any rhyme scheme or other way that you want me to write you a poem, you got it.

For $100, I will draw a cartoon explaining a biologic phenomenon just for you.

For $150, I will write a blog post about you, and how much your generosity means to me.

If you have any other suggestions of things you would like me to do, please message me at Ben (at) pathfindersproject.com>

Make sure to check it out, and donate at donate.pathfindersproject.com/ben

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The Z/Zed discrepancy

(This post was written as we were in our 3rd week in Cambodia)

So,

For the last few weeks, we have been in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and working with the Bridge Of Life School. We are teaching English to the students of this school, who speak Khmer (the language of Cambodia). There are two classes of students (each about 25 students), one working on conversational English, and the other on the basics, such as English letters. We have been working mostly with the students learning English letters, and it is proving a challenging environment for me.

Now, I became a certified (in the state of Minnesota) tutor my sophomore year of college, and I have a huge amount of experience in the area. But, I tutor mostly college level science (biology, chemistry, and physics), with some ACT prep and math thrown in there, but nothing like working with children this young. It seems like the average age of students learning English letters is ~7, and I haven’t tutored someone that young since I was that age myself. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that I haven’t tutored English before, much less English to speakers of other languages.

When I am teaching English to these students, I have to speak slowly and carefully, making sure to pronounce things as clearly as possible, so as to not teach them poor pronunciation. Not to mention all of the differences between their English and what I learned. Due to Cambodia’s history (originally a colony), they say Z as “zed”, not “zee” as I am used to…. And the first time a student looked at me with confusion when I said our 26th letter, I had no idea what I did wrong. I first thought that the student didn’t know the letter….

But then as I realized the problem, I had a minor freak-out….

I had already taught several children that that letter is Z(ee). I wondered how many children I had ruined…. Language is cumulative, and habits stick around. Could this incorrect information stick with this child? Could it spread? Would my volunteering, no matter how well intentioned, actually make the child’s education less effective?

Would this child be worse of because of me?

So…… Yea….

I am looking forward to teaching science instead….. Besides the fact that I know how science works, and I have experience in science education, it is something that doesn’t scare me.

Science education is already so strongly based on cultivation of concepts. The things you learn in elementary school are not correct. They are simply in the right direction. And every few years, you learn the things you though are not really the way things work…. And then a few years later you learn that again….. And again… And again….

And so it is not simply about learning facts, or concepts…. Science education is about learning to flow and understand, and to make sense of things that don’t make sense….

And I am good at that. I like that….

But not this “Zee/Zed” crap.

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25 Minutes

A 5 liter bottle for the house,

A 1.5 liter bottle for me.

Another 1. 5 liter bottle for Conor.

And another for Wendy.

Wendy and Michelle have “reusable” water bottles, so 700ml each for those.

That is roughly the amount of water we, the Pathfinders Pack, drink a day. And so that is the amount of purified drinking water we need to produce per day.

A total of 10.9 liters….. Plus drips and spills and mis-measures, so closer to 12 liters….

12 liters per day must be purified.

We use a SteriPEN provided to us by Michelle. This remarkable gadget uses UV to purify water, dismembering the DNA of the would-be pathogens with its 254 nm shine. The SteriPEN has 2 settings, one for 500 milliliters, and one for 1 liter. Our processing time sped up after I made a 1 liter “beaker” using an old 1.5 liter bottle, a 300mL bottle, a pocket knife, and math reminiscent of 3rd grade.

The SteriPEN takes 90 seconds for a 1 liter batch, and so purification for our 12 liters takes 18 minutes of pure UV light-show. 18 minutes of 90 second batches separated by pouring out the purified water into a more suitable container, and pouring in water from a jerrycan.

It works out to about 25 minutes to purify all the drinking water for a day.

Michelle and I do the bulk of the water purification, and so we will spend that 25 minutes chatting…. Or arguing….

More than once, I have been unable to sleep and will spend that 25 minutes in the middle of the night, listening to Skeptically Speaking, or jamming out to music to the light of the SteriPEN.

I may spend those 25 minutes reading wikipedia articles, or pursuing through lab reports or microbiology textbooks on my ipad.

And sometimes I will just spend those 25 minutes in silence, reflecting on the day, or myself, or my path…. And thinking…. Contemplating….. Dreaming….

25 minutes to keep us drinking purified water. 25 minutes to prevent the local bacteria from colonizing our guts.

25 minutes to prevent hours over the squat toilet.

A necessary 25 minutes…

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Modern Embassies

So,

The PathfindersProject trip is a long one…..

This trip is a year long, in 8 countries, and with more than 10 service location. So a lot of planning went into the trip…..

That being said, things change, and success favors the prepared and the flexible, so one of the precautions we took was to register our trip with the US Embassies in the countries we are going to.

One of several email notifications we have received.

This means that (since we live in the technology age) we get email updates from the Embassies whenever there is a concern, with information about the concern, including suggested safety precautions.

Now, this is a wonderful service provided by our government, and I feel it is very appropriately done.

That being said, they provide more services, such as apps for your smart phone (makes sense), a facebook page to like (seems a little silly) or even following them on twitter…

Now it’s not that I don’t think these services should exist (I’m sure lots of people gain from it, with almost no cost to upkeep) but I just think it is absurd that you can follow your embassy on twitter….

The Official Twitter page

Oh the world we live in… It is beginning to make me feel like a crotchety old man.

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Missing them….

So, today was our last full day in the village. We will be heading back to Siem Reap tomorrow afternoon. And after only a week in this village, a week without running water, electricity, Internet, and non-squat toilets, I have begun to adjust to this way of life…to adjust to sleeping on the floor under a mosquito net, with dogs barking in the night….

And I will miss it.

I will miss the stare of the villagers, who haven’t seen white people in long enough to make us a spectacle. I will miss the meals, made lovingly for us with good will, love, fresh rice, and dramatically oversized portions. I will miss having Chia translating the words of his friends, newborns and family to us, as they don’t speak any English at all.

And the monks and children that we teach English to, who have likely never heard a native English speaker before, and the huge smiles on their faces…. I will miss them the most.

I’m not sure if I will grow to miss the references to how I am the “Fat Man” (fat is a good thing here, so they mean it as a compliment) but I think I may.

I doubt I will miss the dogs barking and fighting all through the night (keeping me up) or the woven mats for sleeping, or showering with a bucket from a pot of rain water in front of the neighbors, or the squat toilet….

Oh squat toilet…… I will miss you least of all…

But then, who knows?

The mind is a fickle, silly, sentimental thing, which has a habit of remembering things too fondly….

Tonight, we had a going away party, and afterwards, the women who hang around us at home, and make us food, and watch us when we eat it gave us a gift. They represented the families who now have wells (and fresh water) thanks to our support. They gave us their blessings, and their thank you-s, and wished us good travels and a safe return, and told us to come back to this village someday. They told us they they may not remember our names, but they would remember us, our faces (my fat-ness), and they reiterated their gratitude for what we did for them.

I will miss them….

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Drawn To Pathfinders #1

So,

I used to do little drawings on post it generic yellow square sticky notes, and they make me happy. I didn’t pack any of those, so index cards will have to do instead…

Presenting: Drawn To Pathfinders #1

Cambodia is very hot and humid, so I normally wear this:

Bandana (for sweat), smile, Tshirt, shorts (cargo), Boots

This means at the end of the day, I look like this:

tan/burnt (depending on the day), Visible tan lines, modesty shorts, This pale

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First sickness (pt. 1)

So,

It happened…

I was the first of our group, and I’m sure not the last…

That is right, I got Traveler’s Diarrhea.

Now, for those who don’t know about this illness, Traveler’s Diarrhea (also known as Montezuma’s Revenge, Delhi Belly, and my personal favorite Turkey Trots) is a common ailment, the most common reported among international travelers. An estimated 10 Million people (between 20-50% of international travelers) suffer through this ailment every year.

And suffer they do….

The main symptom of Traveler’s Diarrhea is, you guessed it, severe diarrhea. As a medical condition, diarrhea is defined by having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day….

Now, I was quite a but more frequent than that, and it was not pleasant.

My studies taught me that the word diarrhea comes from from the Greek διάρροια, δια dia meaning “through” and ρέω rheo meaning “flow”, combined meaning “flowing through”. This is so very accurate to what my condition was.

Anyway, back to symptoms: Mayo Clinic lists the common symptoms as:

Abrupt onset of passage of three or more loose stools a day [Check]

An urgent need to defecate [Check]

Abdominal cramps [Check, but with that much defecation, it is inevitable]

Nausea [not really]

Vomiting [some, but only after I had a Pineapple Fanta.... It wasn't actually that bad]

Fever [none]

Now, I’m sure you will now ask, “Ben, if you weren’t feeling well, why did you have a Pineapple Fanta?”

Now, at the time, I thought I had just gotten too much sun/ low blood sugar, and I assumed that my craving for a citrus soda was it telling me I needed it.

I didn’t….

Anyway, back to diarrhea… (Not literally though)

Traveler’s Diarrhea is generally resolved after a few days, without medical intervention. Now, due to the specifics of my case, I elected to take a 3 day corse of antibiotics, but that wasn’t “necessary”, just well worth it.

In cases of Traveler’s Diarrhea, the most important thing is to keep taking in fluids (even as you keep losing them) and to attempt food when you can. In more severe cases, a Oral Rehydration Solution may be necessary. This is a drink usually made from a packet (there are several brands available) that replaces some of the other substances lot during diarrhea (salts, sugars, minerals, ect.). That being said, one can also mix a good version by mixing 2 tablespoons of sugar and a half teaspoon of salt into a quart of water.

Now, the next part of this post will go into the microbes responsible for this disease…..

Stay tuned!

-Ben (Currently in Siam Reap, Cambodia

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Jet Lag in cambodia

So, I'm here in Cambodia, an it is currently 3:26 AM local time. Which means it is 3:26 PM in LA where I spent the better part of a month training for this project, and 1:26 PM in Minnesota, where I was born and raised....
 Now, I have traveled in the states quite a bit, but this is the first time I have traveled abroad.... And so I'm feeling some jet lag. Now, some of this may be exhaustion from the 27 hours we were on planes/in airports, but this doesn't feel like exhaustion...
It feels like my body is disconnected from my brain, which is still blazing...
 But, luckily, I have someone to blame for this... Well, actually lots of people. I'm blaming the people who came up with flight. Without them, we would never have to face the discomfort that is jet lag.... Sure, we would also have a much longer travel time, our roads would be more crowded, and don't even think about the ways that flight has benefited medicine (medical evacuations anyone?) and society as a whole. But at least I would be asleep right now, instead of writing this at 3:35 AM in Cambodia.
 Now that I think about it, I am kinda tired.... If you want to learn more about the history of human flight, here is a good place to start, and if you don't, here is a picture of the anatomy of a narwhal...
 Be safe, and make good choices! -Ben (currently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

Thoughts Aboard Our First Plane Ride

So,

For the first time in our trip, I began to confront the privilege I normally have. 

In this case, it was the privilege of language, or the native tongue privilege. While flying to South Korea for our first group layover before Cambodia, the primary language was not English. The primary language on the instructions and menu and that the flight staff speak is not English..... And that is a new experience to me. 

That is not to say I haven't been to restaurants or had other experiences a where there wasn't English on the menu... I have.  

But now, and for the next year of my life, it is a constant struggle, and will be in many, if not most aspects of my life. 

Anyway, that's just a brief blip of a blog.... Expect more on issues similar to these, as they are an important part of how I experience the trip, as well as my growth from this experience.

Fundraiser is up!

My Pathfinders Project Fundraiser is up!

Visit it, read it, donate to it, and share it!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/send-ben-sweatervest-away

Fundraiser is up!

My Pathfinders Project Fundraiser is up!

Visit it, read it, donate to it, and share it!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/send-ben-sweatervest-away

!SweaterVest Award! for Most Unreadable Comment

So, as you may or may not know, the internet is filled with lots of interesting, uncommon, and outright odd people. I have decided to start to give awards to these people. Now you may ask, what type of award would I give someone. What would BenSweaterVest give to someone, on his blog the SweaterVestChronicles at TheSweatervest.com?

What type of award would I give......

That is correct! I have created The SweaterVest Award for Internet Achievements!