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Slowly but surely I'm getting back into the groove
Well, it's been nearly 2 weeks since Orientation has been over and like I said before the transition has been rough, but I think I'm finally getting my life back into some sort of schedule. It's always hard the first couple of weeks, but it's especially hard when you have no time to organize before the school year begins. Besides classes, I had to start my other job as an Information Ambassador at University Information in Wilson. Also, I am the Alumni Committee Chair in my fraternity Phi Sigma Pi. Not to mention on top of all of that I have Water Polo practice 4 days a week I still have to keep up with. Getting back into swimming shape has proven harder than I first thought. But all in all, life has been great and everything is starting to fall in line.
Besides my Capstone class I talked about earlier, my classes this semester are not too GIS intensive. In fact the only other class I am taking that is geography related is a class called GEOG 450, Sustainable Housing in Developing Countries. For the last week and a half, we have been brainstorming in groups we formed the first day of classes about what kind of features we would like to see in a house that would be easy and cheap to build in a developing country. We're concentrating our efforts on the country of Haiti, and more specifically on the island of La Gonave which is about a 3 hour sail west from Port-au-Prince in Haiti. After hearing about the conditions that these Haitians must live through, it truly makes me feel blessed to live in VA and be able to go to school so easily. The people of La Gonave are desperately poor. Our Professor Dr. Tacy goes there once or twice a year and tells us about what life is like. I've heard of places so impoverished that they can't afford food, but it is different when you really talk to someone who has lived with these people, and watched them suffer like they do. Sometimes I feel so bad when I spend money on something when I realize how much this could buy in La Gonave. Well anyway, our goal is to be able to build an easily replicated model home for all the citizens of La Gonave to copy and use on their own. We're hoping that we can also help them in other areas, such as making more fresh water accessible to the citizens. On Wednesday morning a priest who lives on La Gonave, who is a Haitian citizen, came in and helped explain to us more about what it is like to be a native on the island. He told us what they need the most are things that I unfortunately take for granted, like food and an education. After meeting the priest this morning I have a real desire to go to La Gonave now and try to help. The more I think about this class, the more grateful I am that I go to JMU because otherwise I would have never had the opportunity to learn about La Gonave.
If anyone has any ideas on ways to help the citizens of La Gonave please e-mail me. I hope to go sometime soon, and would appreciate any support on how to help.
Talk to you all later!
Posted by Simeon on September 8, 2005 11:36 AM | Link | Email Simeon
