Author: Mark Crocker

I  recently heard this story from some friends of mine.  Jayme and her husband Lynn work in Southern Africa with HIV/AIDS orphans.  I find their story inspiring at the best of times, but this story shares a really valuable insight about how we need to receive from the poorest of the poor.

There are so many reasons why you cannot volunteer overseas – it costs a lot of money and time,  it will interfere with your career path, relationships and family – these are true.  But there are also reasons why we can.

Which choice wins? Whichever reason you listen to

Here is Jayme’s story:

We were asked to stand in a line, still, eyes shut. He told us there might be people putting things on us—dressing us—but we weren’t allowed to move, weren’t allowed to say anything.

Little did I know how hard this request to stand still, stand still and just receive, would be.

He told us that no matter what we must accept what they were going to give to us. We must accept it so that they can receive their blessing.

An amazing 3 days lead up to this point. A group of Canadians, mostly newly graduated doctors—some of the most highly educated people in the world—together with a group of volunteers from a slum in Zambia—some too poor to pay the $6 a year to send their child to primary school. Two groups thrown together by God, serving each other, learning from each other, freely giving and freely receiving.

It was the last night of this 3 day event together when James made this request of us, this small request: to stand still and receive.

Eyes closed, we heard singing, yelping, shuffling of feet, and when we opened our eyes they were standing in a line in front of us. Smiling widely, James started speaking again. He told us that they had talked about what they wanted to give us to show us their gratitude. This expression of gratefulness was a surprise in itself, they were the ones walking the hard miles every day in their communities, visiting the desperate, trying to encourage the broken, building a school and road to the school and gardens for the kids, and… They were the selfless ones that had taught us so much about loving our neighbor. And now they had decided to give again, from what they had.

They came forward and started dressing us.

Gertrude came towards me, took off her own Zambian cloth wrap and wrapped it around me. Then she took off her head scarf, and dressed me in it. Loveness followed her and gave me her shirt…it just kept coming. It was overwhelming I thought, too overwhelming… and then came the dress. Loveness who had just taken the shirt off her back, Loveness, a mother of 5, with no income, spending all her time and energy cooking for orphans in her community.

Loveness, who had the sincerest smile. She came to know love through this community program. She had turned her life around. Kicked out of her rented one room because she could no longer afford the rent after falling ill, almost to the point of death. Loveness made her living as a prostitute. She was found by James and Sukai through her starving and desperate children. Now she is not only healthy, she is beaming because of the love inside of her. Now she spends her days cooking for other vulnerable children. It is hard work with no credit. She said to me once that if she was doing this for man, she would have given up a long time ago, but she does this for God. I could tell by the smile on her face and the light in her eyes that she wasn’t just saying it—Loveness.

This was the Loveness standing in front of me now pulling purple silk out of the package tied around her waist. And with the most genuine smile and a special light in her eyes

like it was Christmas or something and she got the best gift of all

… she pulled this beautiful silk dress over my head. Could this be the most precious thing that she owned?

I felt like some one had just spilled the most expensive perfume on me. I will spend my life trying to give as much as she gave me that night.

Follow Jayme and Lynn Chotowetz (as I do) at unhushed.com

Mark Crocker

how many people have HIV/AIDS?

A. 100 000 000

B. 10 000 000

C. 10 00 000 000

The scope of the HIV/AIDS issue is so massive that numbers become meaningless. I have heard them hundreds of times, told others on numerous occasions, and yet at this moment as I type – I cannot remember how many zeros to put at the end. Is it another 10 million orphans by 2020, or 100 000 a month? I am sure I could do a quick google search and discover the most recent UN figures … but that is not the point.

The numbers are too massive for me to comprehend, and I am significantly involved in the issue.

For most, the numbers become meaningless information. A number so big that no one can relate or to possibly engage with the issue.

The only way in which I feel I might truly face the realities of the AIDS pandemic across Africa is through some sort of participation. There are many ways to do so, but here is my favourite:

Hands at Work in Africa. The individuals that make up Hands work very hard at starting Home Based Care initiatives in the small communities across the continent. Home Based Care does what it says, it keeps orphans in their homes while mobilizing the community to care for their needs.

The incredible advantage to home-based care is that it does not further separate orphans from extended family members

Children remain closer to their aunts and uncles, grandparents and friends. Secondly the cost to maintain a child in their home environment is far less than the cost to remove them to an orphanage. At present, Hands At Work is caring for over 14 000 children at a resource level that would not care for 1400 in an orphanage.

It does not hurt that George Snyman, the director of Hands at Work, is an inspiring fellow. A former IT guy, a white South African, he one day went for a walk – across the bottom of a continent. Over the next few weeks and months he visited the mud huts of hundreds of individuals and faced the realities of AIDS not as a concept, but as individuals. If you watch this video you can hear the story for yourself. Heather Yourex, a Canadian Mid-Term Volunteer and Journalist recently put this together:

One by One from Heather Yourex on Vimeo.

Forget about how many people live with HIV or AIDS. Do you know one person with the disease? What is there name?

Mark Crocker

If you have even wondered when a country is too dangerous to visit, you are not alone.  I recently discovered the Australian government travel website where they posted some pretty dire warnings about travel into Canada … CAUTION***

• We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in Canada because of the risk of terrorist attack.
• The wind-chill factor can also create dangerously cold outdoor conditions beyond the thermometer reading.
• The province of British Columbia in western Canada is in an active earthquake zone.
• Forest fires can occur in Canada.

Terrorism, cold weather, earthquakes and forest fires! Should an Australian put life and limb at risk and come over here? When I first read the warnings they seemed a little over the top – it is almost too easy to poke fun at the overactive imagination of the poor government worker who had to research and write the warning to his fellow Australian countrymen. In my imagination, I wonder if he has some bitterness towards Canada, maybe when he was younger he came over to work as a liftie at Sunshine Ski Resort and couldn’t find a girlfriend?

If you want to get serious about dangerous places, it is pretty easy to retaliate with the fact that seven out of the ten most venomous snakes in the world live in Australia, most of their country is scorching desert … or that Dingo’s Eat Babies! But maybe I am getting distracted from my point – which is …

What risk is acceptable when travelling?

I work with thousands of people who need to judge the real risks when they travel, we go to places that are never advertised in the window of a travel agent. These global hotspots actually can be deadly.

Risk is all about perception. Even if your intended location has been the calmest place on the planet for a few decades, the one Immutable and Infallible Law of Travel is, as soon as you book your ticket, the news will immediately report a major catastrophe at your destination

It happens every time. Maybe it is because we are suddenly paying attention to that part of the world, or maybe you have done such a great job in promoting your mission to others that they are now collectively listening for news in that region of the world. Whatever the case, these new-found dangers sometimes cause travellers to second-guess their participation in the international adventure. People drop out due to fear.

How often does fear keep us from the adventure?

Of course you need to weigh the risks for yourself.  No one can do that for you.  It is in no ones interest to promote a naive, gung-ho cowboy attitude. There are real risks in travel: accidents, disease and violence do happen.  A  friend of mine took a team on his first trip overseas, and one of the team-members drowned in the sea during a day off. A recent volunteer found out that they returned home with Malaria. I was on a call with a volunteer within hours of the death of his colleague, he died in his arms.  The fact that ‘it could have happened here’ is not too comforting to a grieving family, because it did not happen here, it happened over there – somewhere foreign.

If you are travelling you need to consider risk. How much are you willing to lose? More importantly, why are you going? Safety and security matter ( a lot) but are they the identifying reason why we do what we do. They need to be in the mix, but should they be the reason we chose to stay or go? I want to be the kind of person that steps into the risk, don’t you?

By the way, I promise I will blog details when the earthquake separates us in BC from the rest of Canada, if you will let me know how the wind-chill and dangerously cold temperatures are working out for you.

Mark Crocker

Here is an series of emails that I sent home to Supriya a few years ago when I was in Sierra Leone. I like how they remind me of the realities of travel. The ebb and flow of strange customs and basic differences, the joys and frustrations. Makes me wish I was back there …

Arrived, safe and almost sound.

My appreciation for air travel was again diminished as I traveled from Calgary to Toronto, beginning with the surly Customer “Service” Agents shouting at people lining up in the too small waiting area. Although I arrived 2 hours before the flight and was the second person in the lounge, I still had a seat near the back (although I was able to change for a window – being a night flight) soon after we took off, I began coughing as a very sharp odor came wafting forward, I thought it was the disinfectant or something, but was soon proved wrong.

My seat companion also began coughing, and after a couple more episodes, I turned backward, to the woman behind me, and asked if she was spraying something. She told me that she needed to use these essential oils, but it was okay, because they were natural. I tried to reason with her, my seat companion joining in – natural or not, they were causing respiration failure – but she would have none of our reason – not for her.

I am not sure how to describe the stench, somewhere between sandalwood and methane … with notes of cat pee, vinegar, and pepper thrown in for good measure.

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My friend Lynn in South Africa just sent me this article from “the Globe and Mail” (I think). Very interesting development in the world of development …

For those who may be unfamiliar with Mohammed Yunus, he developed the Grameen (bank of the village) in Bangladesh in the 70’s. After obtaining his degree in Economics in a US university, he had moved back to his native Bangladesh to work with the government on billion dollar policy and five-year plans. Walking through a local village one day, he was struck by the discrepancy between his work and the realities of poverty in the community. After some investigation he realized the the grand total to relieve a couple of dozen people from an uneding cycle of poverty was about $40 … and that is when he made a chaoice that has made all of the difference. Rather than simple charity, he loaned the money out to this percieved ‘high-risk’ credit-starved group, at interest. They repaid.

Today, the bank that he began with that simple step, has billions of dollars in asset and has refused donations since the mid-90’s. Men and mostly women who take advantage of the loans have personally experienced a dramatic reduction in child mortality rates, improved housing as Grameen standard homes stand against huricanes, definite improvement due to personal economic choice and possibility. The rate of loan return is at 98.15%.

Yunus and the Grameen organization co-shared the Nobel prize a couple of years ago … evidentally they had their sights set on the poor in America as well …

here is the article …

Yunus sees big answers in microcredit

TAVIA GRANT
June 11, 2008

Muhammad Yunus, banker to the poor and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, believes the best way to bring microfinance to the developed world lies in the heart of the banking world – New York City.

Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank opened its doors in Queens six months ago, distributing start-up business loans of $500 (U.S.) to $3,500 to women, many of them low-income Latin American immigrants. It’s early days, but repayment rates so far are 100 per cent and the number of clients has grown to 225 from 165.

The concept is simple – give those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to affordable credit a chance to start small businesses such as, in New York, child care or beauty salons. Groups of borrowers meet weekly and make regular repayments. The concept has mushroomed throughout the developing world, but is relatively untried in richer nations.

“New York is the world capital of banking, but it doesn’t do banking for its nearest neighbours – those who live under the shadow of the skyscrapers,” Mr. Yunus said in a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail.

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The problem with trying to understand another culture is that we do not even know what the differences are between people. It is a great idea to ask questions, but if you ask the wrong questions, you won’t be much better off in your understanding. If you travel internationally, or someday want to do so, these 11 questions are a great way for you to begin understanding people from other cultures.

Use these questions with a person from your host culture, do not use the questions to ask a fellow visitor or expat – the whole point is to find out our unknown assumptions. Go to the source. Ask someone from the local culture directly!

Cultural survey

1. Who wears shorts in your home culture?

2. What is appropriate “finger food”? Why?

3. Who should you sit with? Who not?

4. When do you smile? Why? When is a smile appropriate?

5. What does it mean when someone belches?

6. What does it mean when you laugh in public?

7. What does it mean when you are not asked to sit down?

8. What does it mean when the agreed time to meet arrives and there is no one there but you?

9. What significance would you attach to a face-to-face conversation when you find yourself constantly backing up?

10. Why do people stop talking in a crowded elevator?

11. Who else should I talk to about this? Introduce me!

Got any more questions you like to ask?

Mark Crocker

I used this material recently for a class I taught at Vanguard. All too often we think that racism is something that other people do, yet I wonder if there is more to the story. I ran across this article recently, and it truly opened my eyes to the reality of the systemic nature of racism.

Racial Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

This is an adaptation and paraphrase of the work of Peggy McIntosh

“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”

As a person of the majority population, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage. I had not been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, my racial privilege, which puts me at an advantage.

Daily effects of majority privilege

Can I count on most of these conditions?

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
3. When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
4. I can be sure that my children will be given school materials that testify to the existence of their race.

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How smart are you?  How do you know? If you think of yourself as smart it is probably because you have done well on your exams in school, maybe you have even filled out an IQ test and have applied to Mensa.

The problem with tests of course is that they can only measure what you know about specific questions. What happens when we ask the wrong questions! How do we know what questions to ask? Ask the wrong question and you cannot measure much of anything.

Here is a great quiz I shared with a group travelling overseas. The quiz helps point out our cultural assumptions about intelligence.

Anyone out there a cross cultural genius? These questions have been taken from a selection of Western and Australian-Aboriginal intelligence tests.

The Western Test of Intelligence

1. What number comes next in the following sequence: 1 2 5 6 9 10 ___________

2. How many weeks are in a year? ___________

3. Filthy is to disease as clean is to __________

4. Three of the following may classified with pool. What are they? (circle your answers)

• lagoon
• swamp
• lake
• marsh
• pond

5. Which items may be classified with clock? (circle your answers)

• ruler
• thermometer
• rainguage
• tachometer

6. If BAD is written 214, how would you write DIG in the same secret writing? ______

7. If Mary’s aunt is my mother, what relation is Mary’s father to my sister? _______

8. Why does the state require people to get a license in order to get married?
________________________________________________________

9. What is the thing to do if you find an envelope in the street that is sealed, addressed and has a new stamp?
________________________________________________________

10. Why should you keep away from bad company?
________________________________________________________

The Australian-Aboriginal Test of Intelligence

These items relate to the culture of the Edward River Community in Far North Queensland [Source unknown]

1. What number comes next in the sequence, one, two, three, __________?

2. How many lunar months are in a year?

3. As wallaby is to animal so cigarette is to __________

4. Three of the following items may be classified with salt-water crocodile. Which are they? (circle your answers)

• marine turtle
• brolga
• frilled lizard
• black snake

5. Which items may be classified with sugar? (circle your answers)

• honey
• witchetty grub
• flour
• water-lillies

6. We eat food and we __________ water.

7. Sam, Ben and Harry are sitting together. Sam faces Ben and Ben gives him a cigarette. Harry sits quietly with his back to both Ben and Sam and contributes nothing to the animated conversation going on between Sam and Ben. One of the men is Ben’s brother, the other is Ben’s sister’s child. Who is the nephew? (circle your answer)

1. Sam
2. Harry
3. Ben

8. Suppose your brother in his mid-forties dies unexpectedly. Would you attribute his death to (circle your answer):

1. God
2. Fate
3. Germs
4. No-one
5. Someone
6. Your brother himself

9. You are out in the bush with your wife and young children and you are all hungry. You have a rifle and bullets. You see three animals all within range – a young emu, a large kangaroo and a small female wallaby. Which should you shoot for food? (circle your answer)

1. Young emu
2. Large kangaroo
3. Small female wallaby

10. Why should you be careful of your cousins?

The answers are past the click …
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I just facilitated 3 international guests in a meeting with the Centennial Rotary Club of Calgary. While we were there, I met another visitor, a gentleman from Germany who explained to me that his company was in the process of developing an early warning system for SE Asia in the case of another earthquake induced Tsunami.

He gave me some very interesting statistics.

The quake opened a gash under the ocean 1200 km long. It opened the fault at a rate of 10 000 km an hour, it permanently shifted the two plates the distance of an 8 metre step. The wave formed was only 1 metre high, but it was 100 km long. The tremors shook Europe by an average of 2 cm in height.

Incredible power and devastation. He went on to say that they knew of the quake in Germany within 15 minutes of it’s start, yet most of the devestation happened in coastal areas, 3 hours later. There were no mechanisms for warning the people.

It is too easy to bring in the wrong cultural understanding …

“American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name means “killer” and was not popular on the hazardous roads in the country.”