Spring Street Students in Asia
Here's why they're there ...
Fourteen students from Friday Harbor's Spring Street School are on a seven-week journey to Asia to learn, first-hand, about Asian life and culture.
The students have been studying the religion, culture and history of the region for the past six months to a year. This has prepared them for an intense process of learning through experience. The Sounder is giving them this space to share their experiences with you.
While their travels will take them through Thailand, Malaysia, and India, visiting cities like Bangkok, Calcutta, Varanasi and Agra, the students will also have extended stays in remote villages in Thailand as well as in Dharamsala, India. As part of their experience in these villages, they get involved in community service through projects in the schools and public health programs that have immediate impact in the community.
Additionally the students are conducting assessments of the villagers' assets and goals. The assessments will be used to identify ways to help the villagers in their work to improve their quality of life. Areas of student investigation will include water quality, power and communications. A team of experts in some of these disciplines is accompanying the students to support their pioneering research. The assessment project is a collaborative effort of Spring Street School, the Institute for Village Studies, The 1420 Foundation and Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Toes wiggling in the warm, white sand of an island called Koh Chang, nestled in the Gulf of Siam. My smile echoes in illuminated skin. I lean against a coconut tree trunk and gaze out at the aqua-marine water stretching to the horizon, which is slowly melting into a rosy pink and passionate orange. The wind is whispering secrets through my hair and the lullaby of the deep blue sighs a song in my ear!
I am very much alone in this moment, appreciating this sliver of solitude to fully digest the magnitude of Mother Earth as she draws her fullest majesty, demanding attention. As the night draws in, the clouds, held at bay by the fury of the sun, begin to creep closer, spreading to act as a hazy comforter to the sky.
As the first fat drops of tropical rain burst upon my salty skin, and the drumroll of thunder sounds far away, I, in complete humble awe and respect for the commanding essence of this corner of the earth, strip down to my bathing suit and dive into the waiting water, which swallows me whole, gladly reuniting with one of its daughters. For that brief second, enclosed in bathtub-temperature salt water, watching my bubbles float, like a chorus, up to the surface, my body and the need to breathe are forgotten as my soul spreads out, vibrating with the pulse of the ocean.
A split second later, my heads breaks the surface and I shake my body, flexing my muscles, replenished by the warm womb I now stand knee deep in. The tight embrace of salt water slowly dries to a light kiss, sprinkling my skin as I throw my head back, inviting the heavens to open and pour. The ocean and I entice the lightning to come down and dance with us in a wild, thankful, aimless appreciation for this earth and its wonders.
--Mariya Porten
Anybody who has ever been to India knows that every second is a challenge. Dirt and grime coat everything and raw sewage runs down the gutter of almost every street. Health and sanity run hand-in-hand as one is constantly trying to preserve both. From this perspective it is not so difficult to see why India, with all of its people and chaos, is considered to be one of the most emotionally and physically challenging places on this globe to travel.
With an entire nation of obstacles before us, the four high school girls in our group "Becca, Kim, Mariya and I" fought against the stereotypes and impressions that much of India has regarding American women. With hundreds of eyes constantly fixed upon us, we simply "existed," trying to stand out as little as physically possible while still striving to live every moment to its fullest potential. It became a way of life for us and, by the end of a month, the endless attention we received was no longer a hardship.
India has now come and gone. We are back in the peaceful and calm land of Thailand. There is a renewed feeling of comfort that exists as I walk down the streets of Bangkok, through the Erawan, a comfort that was rarely felt in India.
I am thankful for so much as I look back and reflect upon my experiences in India. While there were many people who made traveling difficult, there were just as many people who accepted and respected me for who I am. In spite of the hardships, India was a positive experience for me, the three other females in our high school and for our entire group. Some of us may return many times while others may never return, but the memories we have from our journey will remain with us forever.
--Derin Ross
What are we to do? Millions of people have been brutally tortured and murdered in the past. The killing continues today and probably will continue in the future. From Hitler and the Jews, to Milosovic and the Serbs, to Mao and the Tibetans, it's all the same. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, the occupation, what will it be called next?
Over 1.2 million Tibetans have died due to torture since 1950 due to the occupation. Over 6 million Tibetans remain in Tibet while 130,000 fled to Nepal and India setting up 56 camps ranging from 100 to 12,000 refugees living on small portions of land designated by the governments.
A Tibetan woman approached us with tears in her eyes, crying for help. She has been sent to Dharamsala by China to retrieve refugee children. She has made this most courageous journey over the 17,000 foot passes 6 times, soon to be seven, during the harshest of winter months. She told us that Tibetans are thrown out of their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs as they watch their homes being demolished. This is an outrage. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, described it best when he said, "As long as human rights are violated, there can be no foundation for peace. How can peace exist in a society where some members oppress their brothers and sisters and knowingly violate their fundamental human rights?
How can peace grow where truth is not allowed to surface and speaking the truth is itself a crime?" Don't we need to be true to ourselves, let alone everyone else, before we can be truly happy? Why can't we respect each other as human beings and be kind to one another?
This same Tibetan woman ended her cry for help by telling us that we are Tibet's voice for the world. She told us to share her culture's struggle.
So I write this article to you hoping that you will help me and everyone else involved in the struggle, fight for what is right: freedom, human rights, and the right to self determination. You never know if you will be the target of such ignorance and the target of the next crime against humanity.
--Jacob Dubail
Winter Wonderland
Snow-covered meadows feed
An army of icy swords
That cling to rock overhangs
And pull themselves toward frozen puddles,
Advancing with every drop,
Pausing only at night
To harden their armour
With hopes of winning the mid-day battle.
Bass Ackwards
With hopes of winning the mid-day battle
They harden their armour,
Pausing only at night,
Advancing with every drop,
Pulling themselves toward frozen puddles,
Clinging to rocky overhangs,
An army of icy swords
Fed by snow-covered meadows.
"The very thing that gives them life is that which takes it away."
--David Capron-Johnston
