Tag: Education

Student Debt

You want to cancel debt
But you haven’t fixed the problem yet
Will you take away the sports centers
The luxurious salary of tenured professors
The constant updates and new computers

Our debt piles up
While campuses expand
Education inflation
Loans on demand

What does an 18-year-old know of debt
Their brain hasn’t formed yet
Tricking kids into an expensive education
Before they’ve got the information

Can you cancel the problem without a solution
Will you also forgive the exorbitant institution?

Erase the debt, erase the problems
It’s easier to erase them than to solve them

How will we change the education system
For we must change, everything is different
What we now pay doesn’t get us what we want
An education no longer pays the bills
Our debt stays with us until we write our wills

A student comes out with no opportunity
For what do we pay this enormous fee?
When it’s all on the internet for free
Perhaps college should teach financial security
Critical thinking skills could come in handy
How can you cancel debt without reducing the cost
It seems the point has been lost

Wipe the slate clean
For the American dream
You’re forgiveness doesn’t mean a thing
When the colleges are still charging

More than we can pay
Another student takes a loan every day
Just to get through
Without a thought of what this will do
You’ll never to be able to buy a house someday
But all of this we won’t say
A mountain of debt
An unsustainable way

To grow up
To start a future
Does college really pay?

We are paying till the day we die
We can kiss the college dream goodbye
The universities are getting rich in front of our eyes
Do you see what our debt buys?
A stuck generation
Don’t cancel the debt
Cancel the lies

Make the colleges pay the bill
For they are participating in the problem still
Getting fat checks from wealthy alumni
Dedicating buildings, while the rest of us stand by

First make the cost go down
Address the hole we have not stopped digging yet
Until then we will continue to drown
In student debt

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I Think I Can

What did I get myself into? How did I end up here? Providence, Rhode Island. Brown. Reoccurring thoughts cart-wheel through my busy mind as I kick up crispy orange/yellow leaves scattered about the old New England campus. The truth is – it’s hard. I’m struggling. When I’m having a hard time, I don’t write. Because what if you knew that I doubted myself? That I questioned if I’m smart enough and capable enough to be here? Maybe I am if I believe I am. Some days I do and others I don’t, but I show up anyway. Continue reading “I Think I Can” →

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The Road to Providence

What a strange feeling to have an unfamiliar home. To unpack all your worldly belongings in a space you’ve just seen, and call it home. I’ve had this idea I’ve nurtured for a year, plans I’ve made, a picture I once saw from a thousand miles away, and accepted as my future home. I’ve unpacked all the pieces of me as quickly as I could, as if the faster this unfamiliar space becomes adorned with my belongings, the swifter I’ll adjust and become comfortable. That’s not how this works you know, can’t fool a pro – I’ve done this before. Comfort, along with familiarity comes with time, the former is fleeting, the later lingers, mutates, and can remain in some ways even for a lifetime. Continue reading “The Road to Providence” →

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Barbed Wire

Barbed WIre

Barbed wire. Fences and barbed wire. A cement court surrounded by imposing fences and barbed wire. A policed metal gate opens up to gravel, concrete, metal containers and barbed wire. A military truck dumps crates of bread on the slab of concrete surrounded by barbed wire – breakfast. Children run around on the gravel, playing on rocks in the confined, fenced-in camp. All I see is barbed wire. Surely this is a prison. No? A refugee camp you call it. Hotspot, a prison to some – Syrians, Kurds, Palestinians, Iranians, Pakistanis a refugee camp to others. A border, separation.  Continue reading “Barbed Wire” →

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Joburg

Gritty, dirty, urban- a city that has its past written all over its streets. I walk down streets that resemble Harlem in New York, just broken down and without the diverse faces from around the world that make the urban hub so unique. I step over cracks, around trash, curiously looking at the empty buildings, the familiar graffiti art that adds character to the run down brick. I notice a guy following me, telling me about his penthouse down the street. He has been to New York once- Brooklyn, but can’t tell me where. I quickly duck into the only restaurant I’ve seen to lose my pursuer. Continue reading “Joburg” →

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Muzungu at Maramba Market

“Muzungu!” I know that word. I want to look up- to look at the people calling to me, the stalls with clothes, vegetables, fruit, spices, but I look down at my feet, at the dirt ground. I think I might fall on the small, uneven rocky path I’m sharing with hundreds of other confident locals (who don’t need to look down when they are walking). I’m like a ghost walking through the village market. People stare at me, talk to me, follow me, a man stops so close to me that I have to stop abruptly, almost running into him. Continue reading “Muzungu at Maramba Market” →

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Waves For Water

Here’s the scoop: Cape Town, South Africa is in a pretty serious water crisis. Not just Cape Town, but countless communities around the globe are experiencing a water crisis and live without clean drinking water. Drinking unclean water causes a variety of issues to include cholera, diarrhea, nausea, lung irritation, skin rash, vomiting, dizziness, and in some cases death.

At the moment, Cape Town has less than 120 days left of drinking water. The dams are at 27% and because of this level 3b water restrictions are in place. Think fines if you are caught washing your clothes at home, if you take a shower longer than 10 minutes, water your lawn, run your dishwasher, or really just waste water in any way. Pretty serious.

To add to this, many communities, such as the township communities of Capricorn in Cape Town, don’t have clean water at all. Children have permanent runny noses, skin rashes, and diarrhea because they don’t have clean water. Some kids don’t drink water at all. Germs spread like wildfire when there is no water to wash hands, clean up, and drink. Water is a key component to quality of life.

I attended a film screening in Muizenberg recently as a response to this water crisis called Waves for Water. Essentially, a famous surfer had a bit of a life crisis and invented a water filter that can be used in communities that do not have clean water. One water filter can provide 100 people with clean drinking water for up to 5 years. Great investment, right?

The filter costs about $50 and comes with a demo/ training information. The goal is to provide access to the filter in all communities around the world without clean water. I’ve committed to helping daycare and school centers in Capricorn gain access to drinking water. Here’s what you can do- get involved, make a donation, or purchase a clean water filter.

Yes, I provided links- you are welcome.

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Azola

I had already taught 2 classes, been bitten by a slobbery baby, gotten my hair pulled, braided, and tied in knots, and it’s my last kids yoga class of the day- I’m out. I finally get all the kiddos to make a circle (ten minutes later) when I feel a little hand grabbing my leg. I go to brush the hand away so I could teach, a little annoyed, and then saw the culprit. Continue reading “Azola” →

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The Truth About Education in Tanzania



“Mwana unleavyo ndivyo akuavo”


As you Bring A Child Up, So He Will Be


 


Imagine you are in grade school. You are about 12-13 years old, have just completed your primary education, and are about to transition into a new and exciting period of your life as you enter secondary school or high school if you are a student from the United States. You will be going to a new school and do not know what to expect, you are feeling nervous excitement. It is your first day of school and to your surprise, your classes are taught in a completely different language! You’ve had some lessons in this foreign language, but you certainly do not speak it, nor can you read it. What would you do in this situation and who could you turn to for help? Imagine how limited your opportunities would be if your education ended abruptly at the high school level because of a language barrier. This is your reality if you are a student in the Tanzanian education system. A system set up only for wealthy children to succeed and less than 30% of average students to achieve secondary education. Continue reading “The Truth About Education in Tanzania” →

			

		
	
	

					
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