My Vote My Voice

By Joanne Lloyd-Triplett
Today I exercised my right to vote for the first time since becoming a citizen. It had never really occurred to me previously that my voice wasn’t being heard; after all does one vote really make a difference? Well now that I think about it, yes! And certainly in Louisville where we have a huge international population for a city of our size and it continues to grow at an astonishing pace. I can’t help wondering how many of my fellow immigrants don’t have a voice either. Never has the phrase ‘No Vote No Voice’ meant as much as it did when I filled in my voting slip this morning. There is a big difference between not having a voice and not exercising it, perhaps the lesson here is that you treasure something more if you’ve gone through a difficult process to get it – I waited 5 years for my voice and I intend to make it heard.
As the local Chamber of Commerce steps things up to attract educated immigrants to Louisville through it’s ‘Greater Louisville International Professionals’ arm I am excited at the prospect of true international representation at the polling stations, after all this is ‘Possibility City’!

A little about my travels

As I am starting to settle back into the school mode, I have been preparing myself for the coming semester. I have been traveling on and off through Europe for the past two or so months, and am just now returning to some form of normalcy (though some friends and I are off to Barcelona for a friend's birthday at the end of the month - some birthday party!). The way that most German universities break up their year is as follows: the summer semester, from about the middle of October through the middle of February; and the winter semester, from about the middle of April through the middle of July - with short breaks and vacations within the semesters, of course! But, this system leaves the students with a substantial block of time (mid Feb. through mid April) to travel, prepare for the upcoming semester, take exams from the previous semester, work or a whole slew of imaginable other time-occupying activities! Aside from my job duties at the university, I was very happy to be left with a great deal of time to travel and enjoy the convenience of living in Germany (within 5 hours of pretty much everything!). I was lucky enough to have a few friends of mine come over and visit during this break. A great friend of mine from high school and fellow business student, Eric Chapman (University of South Carolina) came over and visited for about a week and we trained to Brussels and Bruges in Belgium, and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, were we met up with a friend of mine from Texas, Katie. After this we went to Stuttgart (in southern Germany). It was definitely really wonderful seeing two of the three Benelux countries (the third is still to come)! It was a very enjoyable experience and wonderful to see my friend Eric again, but I would definitely like to return to Belgium! Two days after Eric left two friends of mine from UofL flew in and visited for about a week - my friends and coworkers at the Office of the President Megan and Britney. I showed them around Mainz and then we were off to Paris, Strasbourg and Munich! We met up with our friend and other coworker, Patrick in Paris. Patrick is doing the year long exchange in Montpellier, so this is the first that the four of us have been together since sometime in August, so it was a very surreal experience. The four of us all reunited, and in Paris of all places! So that was quite an experience, no doubt about it - and it was great to see my friends again! It was really great to have a few weeks with my friends - the first time I have seen any one from home in a long time, and as I am not going back to visit, it is going to have to last me until August! After we returned, two friends and I went on a road trip to Vienna and Bratislava - well, we started off for Croatia, but road trips are all about spontaneity and enjoying the ride! It was a very interesting trip - and we met a few very interesting people in Bratislava... but you will have to ask me about that in person when I return! Before my friends came and visited I did a little traveling - Berlin and Hamburg, to name a few. Before christmas I went to Morocco and New Year's Eve I spent in Venice - that was a pretty amazing experience! I have been working pretty diligently for the university - I am a Mitarbeiter at the university's International Office (Abteilung Internationales) and I receive a scholarship to help cover my expenses, which is really helpful and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Most of my job entails translating or proofreading documents for the International Office or the President's Office. The largest task I am responsible for is translating a website for international students to come out soon for the next year. I think that it is going to be a valuable resource for students who will be studying in Mainz in the future (I wish I had it!). Either way, I have been putting in some extensive time and effort translating all of the documents - it is a lot harder that you might imagine! Especially when the original documents have very Mainz-related terms (dialect, for instance!). Ok, well I have written enough for now! Liebe Grüße, justin

Travel, Travel, Travel!

Well... My semester break is coming to a close - and quickly! I have had the last month and a half off from school, which is our big break between the winter and summer semesters. I will be the first to say that I have been trying to make the best of my time! Throughout the last 6 weeks I have been all over: Berlin, Hamburg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Stuttgart, Paris, Strasbourg, Munich... and that is not the end of it I will be off again tomorrow, hopefully - though I am not sure in which direction (I am thinking east...).

The plan, tentative as it may be, is to head off to Budapest this week, return on the 31st, and then head back out on the 2nd. I would like to head out to Croatia and Slovenia, but heaven only knows where I will really end up! For the rest of the month of April, as classes begin, I plan on being in Mainz - except for a brief trip to London with my friend Pat (who is studying through Sister Cities in Montpellier this year).

Except for all of the traveling things have been... well, still pretty exciting, now that I think about it! I have been working quite a bit lately at for the international office at my university - I have been translating a substantial number of documents for a new website that we are creating for international students, and I am pretty excited about the progress we have made! Not to mention the wonderful experience I have had getting accustomed to a German working environment - though, my office is probably more of an exception to the rule, rather than the rule itself... Either way, I really find it rewarding and interesting.

On a personal note - I met Noam Chomsky yesterday! If you are not familiar with him; he is (arguably) the most famous living linguist (81 years old) and a very well respected political critic. He revolutionized the we understand languages... anyway, he came and gave a guest lecture at my university, of all places, and I was lucky enough to meet him afterwards (although, I was far to intimidated to say anything intelligent).

Nonetheless, I will get back after I am a little more settled in the new semester! After all, I have barely been home 5 days in the last month and a half!

yours,

justin

Shopping in Ghana by Joanne Lloyd-Triplett

Car Shopping - As far as I can tell, there is nothing you can't buy from the 'comfort' of your taxi window in Accra. Let me set the scene - it's 100 degrees and I climb into a white and orange taxi (one of many that has been vying for my business, honking and waving) but only after bartering with the driver over the cost of the journey - a very important step to take and a mistake you need to make only once. We pull off and I roll down the windows hoping for a breeze, I don't worry about reaching for the seat belt; there isn't one. The initial panic I felt about this gave way as I realized the speed would never exceed 10mph due to both the amount of traffic and the state of the roads. As we navigate the pothole filled dirt roads it seems that there are no rules on which side of the street to drive - it seems more governed by which part of the road is navigable with drivers weaving in and out of one another, left to right and right to left, almost like some kind of traffic conga line. Each time we come to a stop throngs of people rush out into the road all vying for attention and business, some of the things for sale: toilet roll, gum, Cd's, plantain chips, a large clock(!), flags, t-shirts, water, juice, carvings, cloth. The list goes on. As the traffic pulls away again they jump back to safety at the side of the road, waiting for the next opportunity to make a sale. This was possibly my favorite thing about Ghana, being right in the hustle and bustle of a busy city.

Tourist shopping - I found that you can't go to Ghana without buying some type of carving, the talent is just amazing and by the end of the week I was beginning to worry about how I would get everything I had purchased back home. My first encounter with the local craft work was just past Independence Square along the beach - we stumbled upon a row of shops (or wooden shacks) each full of beautiful handicrafts. Masks, in all shapes and sizes - some covered in beads, others in hammered metal, drums, walking staffs, spears, wall hangings, small statues; The Thinking Man, Mama Africa, elephants, giraffs. Some large statues were stand out in front of the shacks - 6 feet or taller, calved from a single tree trunk. The artists were sat under a line of trees that ran infront of the shacks, carving new pieces. At the end of the row was the National Cultural Center, a large open building full of stalls, here you could buy clothing, paintings, jewellery, hand woven Kente cloth, more wooden carvings, anything really. This was definately more of a tourist trap and competition runs high with people pulling you this way and that to come and look at their stall. On the beach there was a nice breeze but here among the indoor stalls the heat is stiffling and the atmosphere a little overwhelming; I barter over a couple of beautiful paintings and two stalls selling traditional Ghanaian clothing compete for my Kenyan friends attention - this all culminates in several other stall owners gathering round and joining in the conversation. Someone begins to fan the air as we surely look close to fainting, we make our purchases and stumble back out to the breezy sand.

Back to Reality by Joanne Lloyd-Triplett

With great sadness and a heavy heart I returned home from Ghana to Kentucky; as a friend aptly put it "Africa grows on you quickly". One positive note about being home is reliable internet and so i'll continue my blog from where i left off last:

Backgound: I should have mentioned this earlier - why I'm here. Sister Cities of Louisville, KY received a $115,000 grant from Sister Cities International (SCI) funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to carry out projects in Africa that will alleviate the living conditions of the urban poor. Seven cities in the US have been initially chosen to work on this grant with their respective Sister Cities in Africa. This week we have all gathered in Accra, Ghana to finalize project plans, often times sharing ideas with other African cities and brainstorming together - the atmosphere is one of cooperation with everyone striving for the same goal. Generosity is abound with even technical drawings being shared between groups. More practical and mundane is the training on local laws, procurement and tender processes and most intense of all - monitoring and evaluation reporting. Next week I will travel to Louisville's Sister City, Tamale to visit the sites where our projects will take place; naturally this is the part of the trip I am looking forward to most.

Feb 4th 2010: This morning I woke to no water. Thankfully the hotel was kind enough to bring me a bucket full, I imagine from the large tanker outside that has hauled in water to the hotel each day since i have arrived - I chalk it up to just another first and get on with it. I do wonder though what the local population is doing for water during what turns out to be a citywide shortage.

Things are more serious today in training and tensions run high as things get complicated; semantics are the order of the day and there is much disagreement - time for a coffee break. I should mention the coffee - granulated. I haven't had granulated coffee since i left Great Britain 5 years ago, it's actually surprisingly good. Perhaps it's the nostalgia or just the fact that this is the first coffee i have had in 5 days (surely a record), either way I'm getting a second cup.

At lunch I'm excited to try Banku - a traditional dish. The consistency is somewhat like mash potatoes but more gluey. You pull off a ball and using your hand as a scoop, use it to pick up some of the okra & fish stew. It takes some getting used to but eventually you get the hang of it. It's delicious.

More afternoon training and everyone is ready for the group outing SCI has organized - we gather in reception, huddling around the AC unit before heading into the humidity and blistering heat. Dinner is a short drive away, past the presidential palace, the sports stadium and several other sites. We are treated to a lovely Chinese meal (although I am a little disappointed that it's not more Ghanaian fare) followed by speeches and a few more speeches. We arrive back at the hotel one short - apparently they got into a rock star party in the back of the restaurant ?? Thankfully they made it back with many interesting stories & a pile of CDs!

Shrove Tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Pancake Day in England. You can bet that this evening most of Louisville's English Sister City residents in Leeds will be forfeiting dinner for pancakes. The tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday comes from using up ingredients restricted during the ritual fasting associated with lent, such as sugar, fat and eggs. These pancakes are more like French crepes with the filling drizzled on and rolled up into a tube. The most traditional filling is a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar which is still the way i make them - it instantly takes me back to my own childhood in the UK. The days leading up to Pancake Day are full of TV adverts for lemons and those handy plastic squeezy lemons. If you would like to have a go at making them yourself and celebrating along with Leeds, a recipe is below. You can also read more information about Shrove Tuesday Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday

The ingredients:

2 cups plain flour (about 230g)
2 eggs
2 cups Milk
Pinch of salt
Butter for frying

Sieve the flour into a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour and crack the egg into this. Begin to slowly add the milk to the bowl as you whisk. Finally add a pinsh of salt.

Place a frying pan over a reasonable heat and add a knob of butter or oil if preferred. Make sure that the fat has melted and is hot before you add the pancake mixture. If there is too much fat drain away the excess.

ladle some of the pancake mixture into the pan. As you are doing this swirl the pan around. This ensures that the pancakes are thin but that the pan is evenly covered.

It will only take a minute or two to brown and then you will need to flip, toss or turn your pancake over until that side is also brown.

Pancakes are best served straight away and hot. Add your filling - lemon and sugar or you can be creative - jam, nutella etc.

Enjoy!

Africa continued, by Joanne Lloyd-Triplett

A word on Internet Access: As a group we have been coming to terms with the local internet access, or lack thereof. As each day passed it became more and more common to see white Americans walking around the hotel, laptop outstretched in front of them, trying to pick up a wireless signal. Greetings changed from ‘good morning’ to ‘have you been able to get online?’ with the local dialect greeting response of ‘naa’ instead being a resounding ‘no’. As word spreads that the internet is working there is a spurt of activity as everyone races to their laptops.......
AUPAP Day 1 & 2:
Today things became more intense as the heavy work load of the grant becomes a reality. Not only are we to complete a detailed proposal for our water project but we must backstep and create a Terms of Reference document along with an Action plan detailing how we arrived at our apparent pre-mature stage. We are too eager it seems to get to work – first we must write. We are also brought up to speed on creating the tender; discussing local laws and observances that may come into play as we work towards an open bidding process and evaluation procedures. As we navigate our way through the grant speak and technical red tape it becomes clear that we are in a great position, not only with our team here in Accra, Mohammed Haroon and Kaleem Jehanfo but also with our local Tamale connections in the TAMA. With approving nods from the Washington and Accra offices we dive in to our paperwork load with enthusiasm and even find time to outline plans for the next proposal – a Womans dormitory with a toilet and shower block. Things are starting to take shape.
Day 2: Woke up feeling rather delicate, perhaps a good idea to skip breakfast and concentrate on fluids for a while. The mood this morning is one of concentration; each city group huddles in corners of the conference room; discussing, planning, writing. The Tamale-Louisville group is feeling particularly confident after our achievements yesterday. By midday we are almost at a stopping point in terms of what we are trained to complete. Perhaps there will even be time for some sightseeing this afternoon - the hotel walls are becoming a little boring and after all, we're in Africa!
Tomorrow; monitoring and evaluation – a sigh can be heard around the room….