Posts with Category Glocal

Conor Grennan speaking in Muncie

I let Conor Grennan’s book Little Princes take my blog hostage a few years ago.   Now Conor is coming to Muncie this Tuesday (9/10) to give a public talk at Emens Auditorium at 7:30! And of course, while Conor is on stage at Ball State, a short bike ride from my house, I’ll be on a stage at Marietta College.

Conor is an awesome fella who I’ve come to know through his writings over the past decade. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting him at a conference we were both attending.  If you live anywhere close to Muncie, you should come and laugh at (or with) and be inspired by Conor. I promise you’ll do both.

The details:

Conor Grennan, author of Little Princes, September 10, 7:30 pm …

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Winthrop U student ponders American selfishness in Guatemala

Photo to go with Ali's gust post on my blog.

This guest post is brought to you by Ali Jensen, a junior at Winthrop University studying biology and one of seven students who traveled with Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and me to Guatemala. It was awesome to see Ali connect her passion for biology and medicine with the experiences we had on our trip.

Often times in the states, kids don’t always like the food their parents prepare for them. So usually the parents just make something else, or don’t make that particular food for their child anymore. Kids in Guatemala don’t have that option. They…

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Men study abroad and volunteer less than women

I’m on a trip with Winthrop University in Guatemala. I’m the only dude.

A few theories as to why this is the case:

1. This trip arranged and led by Kelly Campbell at the Village Experience was billed as a trip with Kelsey Timmerman, and the ladies love me.

2. I’m told that about 70% of the students enrolled in Winthrop are girls. So that means our group of 7 would only have to have two dudes to strike the right proportion.

3. Dudes suck.

Yeah, so number one is ridiculous, but I had to say it. Guatemala is the big seller here.

We’re left with a combination of 2 and 3.

I think what we’re witnessing here, and what I witness visiting countless universities, and volunteering in my community…

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50 percent of the nation disagrees with you

We live in polarizing times.

Has any generation not thought this?

Once you turn 30 you start to have “these kids and their…” moments. These kids and their Justin Beiber, awful cartoons, and 1,000-word per minute texting abilities. We look back on the days when we were young and our tastes were refined and we all got along. Of course, the generation ahead of us looked back and thought “these kids and their…” too.

The Red state Blue State divide. What’s the matter with Kansas? Obamacare vs. Death Panels. Muncie, my hometown, is no different. The Democratic party in town split. When the Democrat running for Governor of Indiana visited Muncie, he had to make two stops, one at the Democrat HQ and one at a…

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Win a Fair Trade Gift Basket!

 

UPDATE 10/8/12 : This contest is closed. Ali Jenson won! If you still want to comment on if you buy fair trade or not, please do, but you won’t win anything

This year I’ve seen Fair Trade preserving a culture in Colombia, and it sending kids to school in Ivory Coast.  That’s why I’m so

pumped to kick off Fair Trade month (October) by giving away a Fair Trade gift basket provided by Fair Trade USA (see below).

All you have to do is answer the following question in the comments below, or on my Facebook wall, or on Twitter using #FairTradeContest.

Have you ever bought Fair Trade? 

A YES or NO is sufficient for entry,…

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See Different

Take a moment to look at my site’s design. See that fancy Made in Label? The hand stitching? The clothing like tabs? The tape?

I love my site.

Justin Ahrens and his team at Rule29 designed it along with a whole lot of other promotional, materials, emails, brochures, and more. Their hard work has helped me reach more people with my stories. If I had to make a list of great things that have happened as a result of having a book published, meeting Justin would be near the top.

We traveled to Africa together with Life in Abundance to work on a documentary about life in the slums. Mainly I rocked my job as the intern to second…

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Who I Think of Each World AIDS Day

(I posted this last World AIDS Day, but when I hear AIDS I think Susan so I wanted to share it again.)

Meet Susan.

Susan is a single mother of six. I met her this past spring in Kampala, Uganda. She lost her husband to AIDS and later tested positive herself. Because of funding cuts at her clinic, she doesn’t receive the proper ARV treatment and no longer receives food for her and her children. She’s 1 of 35 million living with AIDS.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaHkE2LaR4w&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube] …

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Ashamed…I didn’t vote

I have a confession: I didn’t vote.

I did the research of who I was going to vote for, even scribbled their names on a scrap piece of paper, jammed it in my pocket, and drove to the…

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"I can't help everyone, but I can help some."

As much as I love meeting students at universities when I visit to speak, meeting the faculty is pretty cool too.

After a recent talk at West Texas A&M I had a chance to talk travel with a few faculty. One of the professors was a horse trainer who told a hilarious story about being invited to Saudi Arabia to judge racing camels. Another was Dr. James Hallmark, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs. James (we’re Facebook friends, so I’ll drop the formalities) told a rip-roaring tale about traveling in Turkey and how he thought he had been abducted by al Qaeda.

Following my visit, James wrote an editorial for the Amarillo Globe News about my visit. In Consider Where Our Clothes Are Made James writes…

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