Paga Crocodile Pond

Everyone likes to tour when in a foreign country, especially if the tourist attraction is bizarre or unheard of. Today we went to a very interesting place: Paga Crocodile Pond.

Paga is a place near Bolgatanga which is very close to the Burkina Faso’s (another African country) border.

Paga Crocodile Pond is a famous pond is filled with some of the biggest crocodiles in the world. According to history and some myth, one of the ancient crocodiles of this pond saved the life of the first man who settled in the area, by leading him to the pond to quench his thirst from a long journey.

After that incident, the man declared the pond be sacred and the crocs should be treated as royals. Up till now it's a taboo to harm or kill these reptiles. It is believed that the oldest crocodile is about 85years old.

Crocodiles are wild creatures but not the ones in Paga. These crocodiles coexist with humans and their friendly. Paga crocodile pond sanctuary is visited by millions of travelers from all parts of the globe. There are trained tour guides who perform some exercises before the crocodiles come out of water.

So, when we entered, we first had to buy a chicken to feed the crocodile. Then, the trained tour guides took us to a specific crocodile and then fed it with the chicken. While it was feeding we were allowed to grab the crocodiles tail and sit on it!

Paga is probably the only place on the planet where you can pose for your memorable photos, sitting and holding the tail of some of the biggest reptiles in the world. It was a very fun experience and a very good way to spend a day off! We also visited some museums next to Paga that relics from the old slave trading communities! It was a very fun experience and I learned a lot about slave life in the olden days.

Here are pictures of Paga:

Everyday is a new beginning!

Today’s blog entry is going to be very a special one, because I’m going to tell you a story of how one girl’s life is forever changed. You maybe thinking that I’m being “dramatic” or “cliché,” but that’s definitely not the case. This is a true story and I’m really proud to say that all it took to bring happiness to this one girl’s life is a single letter.

Meet Sana Idirrisu.

Before I tell you Sana’s story, I have to back up and tell you about this “letter.” While I was preparing for my trip to Ghana, I realized that I wanted my friends and family to connect with the Ghanaian people as well, more specifically to the patients that Unite for Sight was helping. And then a light bulb turned on in my head! I knew there was a simple way that I could connect two people separated by 6,539 miles – videos and letters! I immediately asked some of my Unite for Sight officers and members if they could write encouraging letters to some of the Ghanaian patients. Although, some of the officers were resistant to the idea, I received five letters that motivated the patient to seek help, had words of moral support, asked about their life in Ghana and also included a bit about life in the United States.

Today was the first day that I gave one of the letter’s to a patient: Sana. This letter was from Sai Alla – a rising senior at Saint Louis University and a member of Unite for Sight. Sai wrote with words of passion and asked the patient to seek help for her eye problem, to be fearless and to have faith in the end result. He continued to write about how important it is to just be strong, fearless and always seek the best from the situation. Sai wrote: “I can imagine how debilitating your cataracts must have been to your life and I hope from the bottom of my heart that this “magic” surgery will give you your life back.”

I gave the letter and the childhood picture of Sai to Sana and then recorded her responses on video while a translator helped us on the sidelines. Little did I know that the letter would impact Sana so much.

Sana is a 9-year-old Ghanaian Muslim girl that now lives at home 24/7 because of her debilitating eyesight. She has an immature cataract in her right eye (a clouding of the lens which impairs vision) and on top of that she has corneal ulcers on both of her eyes. Both of these conditions were caused from trauma about two years ago. She was involved in an automobile accident where she had glass and other sharp objects enter her eye and ever since then she has had bacteria feast on her cornea – leading to the ulcers. Corneal ulcers are extremely painful due to nerve exposure, and can cause tearing, squinting, and vision loss of the eye. Sadly, for two years Sana has had a very grim expression on her face due to the extreme pain she has been experiencing. She says that she has been looked down upon in her community because she does not go to school and neither can she help her elders. She said that she is a “little kid stuck in an old woman’s pair of eyes.”

As soon as she heard Sai’s letter you could see a smile slowly rise on her face. She began asking several questions: Is he a little boy like in the picture? Where does he live? Ask him what candies he likes and what he wants to be when he grows up! She was suddenly inquisitive, charismatic and jovial and her true personality came out. The past two years she lost that side to her and slowly transformed into a very quite and reserved kid. As soon as we told her that she would be referred to Tamale Eye Clinic and that the doctors would help treat her condition she jumped up and down and gave me a huge hug. It was a very long hug and I could truly sense how emotional she was. It was unbelievable. She told me to tell Sai that without him and the donors that paid for her eye treatment – she would never be able to get treated for her eye since her family is very poor. She also said that Sai’s words of encouragement were very near to her heart and that she wants to become a doctor so that she can treat the people of her village. Sana told us that the Village Chief had been suffering from stomach pains and that when she becomes a doctor when she grows up she will come back and treat him!

Sana also gave me her four most prized possessions to give to Sai: 4 bottle caps of different colors. Sana pretended that the caps were dolls and played with them everyday for the past two years she had been at home. Under each cap she wrote one letter of her name and told me to give it to Sai so he remembers her and he remembers to help out more people like her.

Yes, this is a true story. Shocking isn’t it? All these optimistic words came from a NINE YEAR OLD. A letter can go a long way and tomorrow will be a new beginning for Sana Idirrisu.

Ghanaian food

If there is one thing that you should know about me, it's that I get bored of things very easily. But,ever since I’ve gotten here, all I have wanted to eat is Ghanaian food. I'm in a Ghanaian food coma! My two favorite dishes that really make my taste buds jingle are Jollof Rice and Chicken Kebabs.

Joloff rice is common dish throughout West Africa, but its origin lies in Ghana. Its a very aromatic and flavorful rice meal. Its great on its own or even when accompanied with grilled meats. You can have a veggie, chicken or meat version of it.

Joloff rice with Kebabs!

Joloff rice!

Because I love food so much, I had to dedicate one blog post to food! As is true in most developing or middle-income countries, there is not a lot of variety in Ghanaian food. The thing that I miss most about food in the States is the variety. From what I understand, Ghanaian food has a lot more spice and flavor compared to many countries in West Africa. Food in Ghana mainly consists of rice or dough-type carbohydrates (fufu, banku), vegetables, fruit, chicken, and fish. They tend to use the same red pepper spice, Shito, in most dishes which makes everything taste similar.

There are a lot of delicious fruit and vegetables available in Ghana, though they are relatively expensive compared to other foods. I absolutely love the bananas, plantains, pineapple,mangoes, and avocado. You can buy plantains in all forms – fresh, fried, stewed, chips. I also love groundnuts (peanuts) that you can also buy in every form. Ghanaians eat a lot of yams as well. You can buy pretty much any kind of food on the street, which is very convenient. (So far I haven't been sick yet!)

Another thing to mention is that Ghanaians seem to eat and drink almost anything from a bag (sachets). I can imagine it’s because things melt so quickly in the heat. We drink our water from sachets, eat ice cream from sachetss, and you can even get alcohol in sachets.One of my favorite snacks is called Fan Milk. It is ice cream, frozen yogurt, or frozen chocolate milk that you suck out of a sachet. They are delicious and refreshing in the heat!

Sachets of Ice-cream and Water!

Savelugu - First Outreach.

I finally visited my first community today! Savelugu was about 10 miles away from the city of Tamale in a very remote area. We held the Unite for Sight outreach in a District Assembly Office and more than a 100 people came out to get their eyes checked, get glasses and eye-drops. Our staff today included:

1. Ali - Unite for Sight Tamale Coordinator
2. Dr. Daniel- ophthalmologist
3. Fuze - Chief ophthalmic nurse
4. Lina - Nurse
5. Daniel and Me - Unite of Sight Global Volunteers
6. Raza - The Visual Acuity Specialist

As people entered the office, they had to register with me. I recorded basic health information such as: name, date, sex, age, village. It was very surprising to me that many people did not know their age since their family did not keep track of their birth years. So, for many patients I had to estimate their age - a skill that I've gotten surprisingly good at now!

Next, Raza, a Unite for Sight Visual Acuity Specialist, screened people's eyes using an eye-chart. Each person would have to point in the direction the E faced. If all six lines were read correctly, the person would have 6/6 vision (perfect vision).

Fuze then diagnosed each patient's eye condition and recorded it. This way if a person needed a cataract surgery he or she was immediately referred to the Tamale Teaching Eye Clinic.

The final stop was the ophthalmologist. Dr. Dan gave some patients reading glasses if they had a hard time reading and others with itchiness or allergies were given Chloramphenicol eye-drops or Roncip-D eye-drops.

Here are some people patiently waiting for their turn in the whole outreach process!

Overall, I learned a lot about visual acuity screening today and how to administer reading glasses to people. There is a secret formula that I was taught: [((Age)-10)/20]. This gives you the power of the glasses that should be given to the individual!

African Beauties!

Today was my first outreach to the village, before I tell you about my experience I wanted to show you some beautiful faces of the village youngsters. I had too much fun playing with them, teaching them Indian and English songs and most of all I really enjoyed taking pictures of their innocent faces.

Here are just a few:

First Day At Tamale Teaching Eye Clinic and Operating Room!

Breathtaking; every single one of my experiences in a hospital as a medical professional has always been breathtaking. And today was no different at Tamale Eye Clinic. I seriously cannot explain the emotions I felt as I entered the Tamale Eye Clinic. All the sensations in my body were activated at one shot due to my anxiety and anticipation. My temporal nerve was pulsating, my heart was boom boom powing and at the same time I was having intense adrenaline rushes.

As soon as I was entered the eye clinic, I was greeted by Dr. Seth Wayne’s infectious smile and warm hug, instead of calming down – I was extremely thrilled. Dr. Seth Wanye is the only ophthalmologist for 2 million people in the Northern Region of Ghana. He is on Unite For Sight's Medical Advisory Board and I first met him in April when we invited him to Saint Louis University as a speaker. I cannot tell you how inspiring his story was to me. So far to date there are only three doctors that have truly swept me off my feet: Sanjay Gupta – the CNN Medical Correspondent whom I dream to be one day, Dr. Suman Pasupuleti – my cousin who inspired me to be a doctor and of course Dr. Seth Wanye – the selfless man who became an opthamologist to help his own people with the gift of eyesight. To really learn more about his story you should read about it here: http://www.uniteforsight.org/intl_volunteer/drwanye.php

After a whole day at the clinic from 8am-6pm I truly realized how special Dr. Wanye is and how passionate he is about being a ophthalmologist. He did a total of 36 cataract surgeries back to back without a bathroom or food break and neither did he complain one bit. He simply just smiled after each patient’s cataract was removed and would tell me about the history/personality of each patient.

Here is my day at the clinic in pictures:

Dr. Wanye first introduced me to these gorgeous ladies: Sr. Rachel and Sr. Cory from the Carmelite Monastery in Ghana. Sr. Rachel (on the right) had such a crisp sense of humor and was joking around with me the whole time.She told me that she was very nervous because she was about to get a cataract surgery today and didn't know how the experience would be. She moved to Ghana from the Philippines about 15 years ago to do missionary work and says she loves the hospitality and warmth of the Ghanaian people. She could not wait to see through her left eye once again and told me that once she had the cataract surgery, the first thing she would do is restart her passion of baking bread!

Here is my attempt to use a slit lamp to observe the cataract in Sr. Rachel's eye. She had a very dense cataract that blocked the light entering the lens of her eye.

All the patients with cataracts waiting for Dr. Wanye to perform the cataract surgery. Before each person has the cataract surgery they are tested for abnormal blood pressure and then given anesthesia for the surgery.

The Anesthesia Room where each patient's eye is numbed for surgery.

I'm getting ready for the Operating Room!

The Operation Utensils had to be sterilized by the Physician's Assistant before they were used for surgery.

Dr.Seth Wanye performing the first cataract surgery of the day.

I keenly watched on as Dr. Wanye performed a cataract surgery.

I have been talking so much of cataract surgeries and I just wanted to explain a bit about how they are performed. Here is the method that Dr. Wanye used:
1. Dr. Wanye first made a slight slit on the cornea.
2. Next, the cataract was taken out as a whole without being fragmented into the eye.
3. An intraocular lens was then positioned in the same place.
4. The eye was closed and bandaged.
The patient kept the bandage on for a day and then was able to see out of the eye again!

Today was very rewarding.Out of the whole experience I loved meeting the post-operation patients who were getting their bandages removed. Each patient had such a varying emotion when he or she could see again. Their appreciation and emotions made me realize that the 8 arduous years of fighting for a medical degree are so worth the wait and effort.

12 Hour Bus Ride to Tamale

The bus I traveled to Tamale in!

This is small bus station that I waited at before I boarded my bus to Tamale.

A street vendor at the bus station in Accra.It is very common for vendors to balance their products on their head.

Daniel: My Unite for Sight Co-Volunteer!

Buses have always been villains in my life. I despise long bus journeys due to many bad experiences with bumpy potholes, throwing up in plastic bags, trees falling in the pathway and incredibly horrible weather.

Surprisingly my twelve hour trip to Tamale was very comfortable and I learned a lot of random facts about Ghana. Oh, I completely forgot I first have to introduce you to my sidekick/ Co-UFS Volunteer that will be accompanying me on this entire trip: Daniel Yeboah–Kordieh. Daniel is a 21-year-old born Ghanaian that is currently a sophomore at Princeton University in New Jersey. Daniel attended one of the top high schools in Ghana : Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School and then for his last two years came to an international high school in New Mexico. He currently is pursuing a major in Chemistry at Princeton and wanted to get a taste of Public Health through this Unite for Sight program.

Daniel was the perfect companion on the bus and on this trip because he has such passion for public health, he knows enough about the U.S. culture and at the same time he has a lot of knowledge on Ghana and its conditions!

Here are just some of the things I learned on the bus trip to Tamale:

1.Ghanaians are never on time and are just like Indians – always running late. My bus ticket said that boarding time was 10 A.M. Guess what time I got on the bus? 1 p.m. Many people assured me that this would happen more than once and that if I don’t want to wait, I should always come late.
2. The people of Ghana are obsessed with the Bollywood industry. Bollywood stars are used for ads, the music is sold on the streets and many Ghanaian channels play Bollywood movies with Ghanaian subtitles. When people saw that I was Indian – they were trying to impress me by showing the Hindi they learnt from the Bollywood movies. The two Hindi words most people knew: Pyaar (love) and Nahi Nahi (No No).
3.The Ashanti tribe is the largest tribe in Ghana and one of the few matrilineal societies in West Africa. They are known for the splendor and wealth of their rulers; they are most famous today for their craft work.
4.Soups are the primary component in Ghanaian cuisine and are eaten with fufu (either pounded plaintain and cassava or yam), kokonte (cassava meal cooked into a paste), banku (fermented corn dough).
5.Soccer is a religion in Ghana. Everywhere you look people are wearing soccer jerseys, playing soccer, selling soccer balls, watching soccer and there are many statues of important soccer players.
6. As I looked outside my window and we passed the cities of Accra and Kumasi, I noticed that Ghana's urban centers were dominated by European-style buildings, a reminder of its British colonizers.

Daniel also introduced me to a lot of African Music Artists and I love the diversity of African pop,rock and rap.

Here is an African Song that I currently cannot get out of my head:

Click to listen: No One Like You - P-Square

Oi eh eh eh eh!!

Well anyway, I am almost in Tamale and I will write more when I reach there! Tomorrow is my first day at the Tamale Teaching Hospital with Dr. Wayne! I will get to shadow him and observe cataract surgeries!

Why Unite for Sight?

You know you are in a foreign country when you can’t sleep because of three things:

1.Jet Lag
2.Roosters Crowing at 5 a.m.
3.Excitement and anxiety that you are in another country.

My first night in Accra, Ghana was definitely a combination of those three things. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fall asleep. To my luck, the other volunteers woke up early as well and we started getting ready for our long day ahead.

Unlike the other Unite for Sight Volunteers, I was not going to work in Ghana’s capital city. I had to travel 12 hours in a bus to get to the Northern Region of Ghana to the fourth most populated and poor city: Tamale.

First of all, let me back up a little bit because many of you maybe wondering what Unite for Sight is and what I am doing in Ghana. Well let me explain…

For the longest time I’ve always had a dire passion for public health, communication and medicine and then I found the perfect organization for my interests: Unite for Sight. Unite for Sight, is a global eye organization that helps remove barriers to eye care locally and in third world countries abroad. It’s about helping others see eye to eye. This can be taking figuratively and literally. To me, eliminating barriers with eye care is about understanding cultural differences, dealing with fear, ignorance, and inadequate resources and learning how to communicate effectively. That’s why I wanted to come to Ghana Unite for Sight Medical Staff and volunteers as it will “open up my eyes” to many different perspectives of medicine, help fuel my passion for journalism/communication by doing a research project and I will also be getting hands on medical experience with poverty stricken situations.

I first encountered Unite for Sight when last year’s President of the Saint Louis Chapter spoke. There was one thing that caught my eye: the UFS logo. It’s two hands holding in the shape of an eye. It’s something that just made me reflect; the eyes and hands are very essential body parts since they give us our major senses: sight and touch. These two senses are what the organization is based on. Unite for Sight is a non-profit organization that provides free international eye care services abroad with partner local eye clinics including examinations by local eye doctors, diagnosis and care for all treatable conditions, education, and prevention. The organization interested me so much that I became a SLU Unite for Sight chapter officer: Vice President of On-Campus Fundraising and then Chapter President. I use these leadership positions to help people connect more to the cause of eye care, give them statistics, volunteer opportunities, training, resources and most importantly have them donate to the cause. As an officer of the chapter I recently became aware of the several global health programs UFS have available for students interested in helping with eye care. Personally, I was very interested in participating in the Ghana Unite for Sight Global Impact Fellow Program this August. This program interests me because it is the perfect combination of what I have been learning academically at Saint Louis University. I am Communications major, Biology minor on the pre-medicine track and love immersing myself in issues that concern global health care.This program will sharpen my skills, increase my passion and get me one step closer to my dream.
The Unite for Sight Global Impact Fellow Program that I am currently participating in is twenty days long and located in Ghana Africa in two cities: Accra and Tamale. In this program so far, I have had the privilege to participate with local ophthalmologists, local optometrists, and local ophthalmic nurses to eliminate patient barriers to care and to try to foster an environment that will allow for comprehensive year-round eye care for patients living in extreme poverty. I know that this program is beneficial because I will support and learn from the partner clinics' talented medical professionals through hands-on, structured training. Specifically, every day the staff and volunteers will be working together at Tamale Teaching Hospital and three eye clinics in Accra Ghana. We will also visit poor villages to give more than a 100 patients eye exams, diagnoses, eyeglasses, medication, or treatment each day. Additionally, since I have a special interest in medicine and ophthalmology Dr. Wanye and his ophthalmic nurses will provide opportunities to learn ophthalmic and optometric skills. In this trip, I also have had the opportunity to observe cataract and pterygium surgeries provided at the eye clinics. In my opinion, my favorite part will be the smile on each patient’s face as he or she receives a free eye surgery and can see again.

Along with the Global Impact Fellow Program, I am participating in an Global Impact Lab, which is a research project designed by UFS that focuses on the communication barriers of eye care. These barriers to accessing care are widespread in developing countries and require innovative strategies to overcome them. In order for global health programs to be effective, these complexities must be recognized, understood and addressed.
My research question is: What are the patient perceptions and patient barriers to cataract surgery in the Northern Region of Ghana?

I have three main objectives for my research study:

1. To figure out why people in Tamale refuse free cataract surgeries.
2. After identifying the main reasons - I want to determine the most prevalent reason of why people refuse cataract surgeries.
3. Finally, I will write a research report on my findings. This will help the Tamale Eye Clinic eliminate confusing messages regarding cataract surgeries and therefore they can cater to the Northern Region of Ghana in a more effective way.

My hypothesis is that there are many reasons why people refuse cataract surgeries: fear of pain, fear of dying, fear of medical professional, time, transportation, no perceived need, age, or even experience of others and that the most prevalent reason may be "that it is the person's fate to have a cataract."

So, that is a brief summary of my mission here in Ghana Africa with Unite for Sight. I will update you with more information as I go on each outreach!

Profile on Ghana

August 1st: Just landed in Accra, Ghana - the capital of Ghana! I am very exhausted from the long 16 hour journey, but I am finally here and I couldn't be more excited!! I am about to sleep soon because I have to wake up at 6 am tomorrow morning for a 12 hour journey to travel to Tamale, a region in the Northern Region of Ghana where I will be
working for Unite for Sight.

Before I go to bed - I just wanted all of you to get to know Ghana a bit better:

- Full name: Republic of Ghana
- Location: Ghana is located in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea, between Cote d'Ivoire and Togo
- Population: 24.3 million
- Capital: Accra
- Area: 2,098 sq miles (Slightly smaller than Oregon)
- Major languages: English, African languages including Akan, Ewe, Twi
- Major religions: Christianity, indigenous beliefs, Islam
- Life expectancy: 57 years (men), 59 years (women) (UN)
- Monetary unit: Cedi
- Main exports: Gold, cocoa, timber, tuna, bauxite, aluminium, manganese ore, diamonds
- Climate: tropical; warm and comparatively dry along southeast coast; hot and humid in southwest; hot and dry in north
- Major infectious diseases: degree of risk: very high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne diseases: malaria
water contact disease: schistosomiasis
respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
animal contact disease: rabies
- Motto: "Freedom and Justice"
- President: John Atta Mills
- Popular Sport: Soccer

Ghana, Africa.

It’s striking how music and movies can reflect phases and emotions in our lives. Songs specifically are such beautiful pieces of art and it amazes me how well I can connect with every lyric of a certain song.

My summer so far has been eye opening and there is only one song that can simply reflect upon it: Khaabon Ke Parinday from the Hindi movie: Zindagi Milege Na Dobara. The Bollywood film is a coming-of-age story about three friends who decide to live every moment to the fullest and to appreciate the simplest pleasures in life. The film title literally translates to “ We Won’t Get Life Back Again.” As the years go by, my undergraduate education is winding down. I’ve experienced many ups and many downs and so far have just been bogged down by exams, college drama and the very notorious + draining pre-med curriculum. This is the first summer where I’ve just realized how important it is to just to “sieze the day” and indulge in experiences that will shape your character, influence your views and impact the rest of your life.

Here is the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cscdqZUdgCk&playnext=1&list=PL7BF46599033C201A

Hindi Lyrics to Khaabon Ke Parinday:

Roshni mili, ab raah mein hai ek dilkashi si barsi
Har khushi mili , ab zindagi pe hai zindagi si barsi
Ab jeena hum ne seekha hai, yaad hai kal, aaya tha wo pal
Jisme jaadoo aisa tha, hum ho gaye jaise naye
Woh kal jaane kaisa tha, kahe yeh dil ki jaa udhar hi tu
Jahan bhi leke jaaye aarzoo, oho, ab toh...
Jo bhi ho so ho..

English Translation:

(I) got light and a realization…
now such a opportunity has rained in my path,
got every happiness, now a life (liveliness) has rained upon life,
now I have learnt to live,
I remember yesterday, when that moment came,
which had such magic,
I became like-new,
how was that yesterday,
heart says go that way only
wherever your wish takes you,
now,whatever happens..

I’ve been absorbing every moment of this summer, every ray of sunshine, appreciating every laugh and finally after a whole year of waiting… I get to participate in an experience that will truly “teach me how to live.”

Accra and Tamale, Ghana. Summer 2011. The day has finally come. Today, I’m sitting in the Detroit airport as I write this entry. I will finally am leaving the U.S. to go to Africa. For the past year, I’ve been working with a non-profit organization: Unite for Sight. Unite for Sight, is a global eye organization that helps remove barriers to eye care locally and in third world countries abroad. So, after spending time with the Saint Louis University Unite for Sight Chapter, I decided that I just had to get involved directly and help eliminate blindness. I will be in Ghana for twenty days and in the next few days, I will not only blog about the beautiful country of Ghana, but also the work and research that I will be doing with the Crystal Eye Clinic in Accra and the Tamale Eye Teaching Hospital in the Northern Region of Ghana. I will also tell you more about the generous work that Unite for Sight does!

So, stayed tuned and just always remember: Carpe Diem – “Sieze the Day.”

Amsterdam Airport – Lesson Learned: “You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover.”

** Disclaimer: I will not have access to internet everyday on this trip so I will be writing my blog entries in a journal and then typing them out wherever there is Wi-Fi. This means there may be multiple entries per day, but they are about several days of my adventure and experience. **


We are all guilty of stereotyping; some people more than others, but I’ll admit for the first time today I was pleasantly surprised when a person proved how wrong stereotypes can be. I just got off the plane and am sitting in the Amsterdam Schipol Airport while I write this entry. I must say, I had one heck of an interesting plane ride from Detroit to Amsterdam because of one guy: Anthony. He awkwardly introduced himself to me while the air hostesses were doing the repetitive safety training at the beginning of the flight and said “Hey, so is this your first long voyage?” And that one line was enough of a spark to start a conversation that would last almost 8 hours – the entire length of the plane ride. When I first glanced at him – the first thing I looked at was his tattoo covered arm and his three lip piercings. He was a scrawny guy, about 5’8 and probably weighed 120 pounds. He had Norse Mythology tattoos from the top of his right shoulder all the way to his wrist. My mind was beginning to form thoughts of “oh this guy looks tough, much like a punk or a troublemaker.” And just as I was thinking that he continued to tell me his three eclectic occupations: Student, future film maker, ex-convict. He said them so casually, and started conversing on while my brain was doing somersaults thinking: “Great. I’m on a plane and out of all the seats, I’m stuck sitting next to an ex-convict?!” He noticed that my face was frozen and puzzled when he uttered the word “convict,” so he began to explain his crazy experience with the law.

Anthony was locked up for 15 months because he was sitting in the car when his cousin robbed a convenient store without telling him. To make matters worse, his cousin told the police that Anthony was an accomplice, thinking he would get less jail time. I asked him immediately if he was angry at his cousin for what he did and for the unnecessary punishment he received. He replied very simply: “ This is life. Unexpected things happen. You just have to deal with them, forgive, but not forget and learn so that the mistake doesn’t happen.” That’s when I just started to realize that this guy may not be the punk that my brain first thought he was. He had much more depth and a very sharp intellect. Anthony continued to tell me about his life in prison – about how he really realized his love for film. He would spend days just thinking about the movies he watched and analyze the characteristics that made each movie special.

Here are some of the films that he named and recommended:
1. The Crow
2. The Nines, The Night of The White Pants
3. Weirdsville, Adam, Mozart & The whale
4. Definitely Maybe
5. Queen of the Damned
6. Garden state, (500) days of summer
7. Blow, One last day
8. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
9. Sweeney Todd
10. Wirstcutters: A love story, Candy, Trainspotting


After he gave me the list of his wide ranging variety of movies – I asked him what he felt made a film special. He asked me if I had seen (500) Days of Summer. I nodded with a grin on my face. (For all of you people out there that have not seen the movie yet, I recommend it very highly. Go out and grab the DvD immediately!) He said that he loved how realistic the movie was – that the movie was a “story about love and not a love story.” He believes that love stories in real life are just like Tom’s and Summer’s from the movie – never perfect. In life you don’t always get who you want, but rather who you need in that moment of time or phase of your life and the film captured this perfectly. The more Anthony talked, the more philosophical he was and it helped me to see a whole new perspective.
He told me that he loved film so much that, as soon as he got out of prison he joined the New York Film Academy to channel his creativity. After a few months, he found the school to have too many rules and realized that he doesn’t need training or channeling for art. It is a form of expression and” all you need to do is release the inner energy.” That’s when Anthony decided to become an independent film-maker and right now is making a documentary about the “Negative Implications of Social Networking” and will be submitting the film to The Sundance Festival in about a few months.

Very unexpected right? I definitely was surprised about his background, knowledge and passion about films, his strong philosophical grasp on life, his strong sense of humor and his charismatic attitude. Definitely not what I expected, but it made an eight hour dreary airplane to Amsterdam ride very fascinating.

On a very different note, in another two hours, I finally board the plane to Ghana – only 8 hours to go till I reach Accra: the capital of Ghana!!

Social Media Helps Create Health Awareness

This year at the eighth annual Unite for Sight Global Health and Innovation Conference, more than 2,200 people from 55 countries came together at Yale University on April 22 to present world-changing ideas and promote the use of social media.

The event, held in New Haven, Conn., was the world's leading global health and social entrepreneurship conference. The conference convened a wide variety of participants who exchanged ideas across all disciplines of global health, international development and social entrepreneurship.

Many notable speakers gave speeches on the progress of their global projects, while other participants gave new social enterprise pitches. These pitches ranged from bringing hemodialysis therapy to low resource areas to strategies that prevent maternal mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Although several different topics were presented at the conference, every speaker stressed the importance of using social media as a tool to spread ideas, efforts and knowledge.

Jeremy Levine, producer and editor of the film “Good Fortune,” commented on the importance of using social media for creating health awareness.

“Many public health leaders should use social media — TV, movies, reality shows, music, talk shows, Twitter, Facebook — to communicate information and create mindsets that empower people to make informed choices for themselves, their children and their communities,” Levine said.

Levine's work has been screened in dozens of film festivals around the world, broadcast nationally in six countries and recognized with several awards for production and human rights.

Another supporter of social media at the conference was Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group. Cook advocated “igniting change through social media.” He uses photography and blogging to emphasize how certain toxins like mercury can affect a person’s health and the environment.

“The research of our company brings to light unsettling facts that you have a right to know, but instead of using boring statistics, I think it is more impactful if I use a picture to tell a story,” Cook said.

Dr. Neal Baer, director of photographic empowerment at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism and executive producer of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” agreed with Cook on the importance of social media.

As a previous writer for the medical drama show “ER” and current writer for “Law and Order,” he uses his medical knowledge and creativity in order to create stories that engage the audience while educating them. He has covered a multitude of issues including rape as a weapon of war in the Congo, child soldiers, child obesity, HIV deniers, vaccine debates and more.

Through collaboration with Hollywood Health & Society — a program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center that promotes factual health information in TV shows — and popular television shows like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” Baer raises awareness for public health issues by consulting with doctors to ensure the material he presents is factual.

Baer’s approach to education does not stop at television. In addition to TV, he uses a wide array of other social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to promote health awareness. With almost 12,000 followers and 3,000 tweets he is able to reach a wide audience on a daily basis.

Additionally, he works closely with major public educators such as Nicholas Kristof in an effort to reach a wider audience. He ended his lecture at the conference, titled: Doctors as Storytellers: Using our Stories for Social Change, by challenging the audience to use social media in a way to impact the world around them.

“Everyone has a different perspective and a different approach to understanding some of the world’s largest pandemics and issues. Using social media is one of the ways we can truly have an impact on one another,” Baer said.

BSC vs. Bauman-Eberhardt Center

Tuesday brought the “Oath of Inclusion” for the 2011-2012 Student Government Association executive board and with it – new promises. One of these new promises and goals is the proposal for a new student center at Saint Louis University.
The successful Building Bridges team pivoted its platform on renovating the Bauman-Eberhardt Center into a new student commons. According to the SLU Building Bridges website, the new center would serve as “a place for students of all backgrounds to converge and engage in conversation.”
Matt Ryan, the president-elect of SGA, said that the big picture is to develop a student center focused on global citizenship.
“The center could be a great step for SLU as we take our next step forward in a global world. It would also embody our call in the Jesuit mission, which focuses on holistic education and constant growth," Ryan said.
The center would certainly model after the current union-like space on campus: the Busch Student Center. The BSC has 160,000 square feet of floor space. It contains seven restaurants, the campus bookstore, a mail-center, a bank with an ATM and countless other services and facilities to satisfy the needs of students on and off campus. The BSC, built in 1967, was originally known as the “Busch Memorial Center” and was primarily constructed for meeting spaces. Finally, in 2003 the BSC was renovated into the student space it is now.
This new student center will parallel similar buildings of local universities such as the Wohl Student Center of Washington University in St. Louis and the Millennium Center of University of Missouri St. Louis. Both universities have large student centers to accompany these smaller buildings. The large student centers boast the same type of amenities as the BSC, however, they still have these smaller spaces for students looking for laid back study and hang out spots.
Most students around campus agree that a new student center would be a useful addition to our campus. Sophomore Amanda Meyer said that she would like to see more common gathering space for students.
“The new student center could give us what the BSC now lacks in, which is one giant gathering space,” she said. “I would love to see something that was structured like the [John Cook School of Business] atrium. It should not be as laid back as the BSC, but not as uptight as the library.”
Courtney Anvender, current SGA president, said that the purpose of the new center would be to serve as more of a student commons than a student center. She stated that the Bauman-Eberhardt student center would not try to copy the current facilities of the BSC, but only add to them.
The current proposal is to divide the West Pine Gym in half. One half of the gym will be for speakers and another half will be modeled after the business school atrium. The building is also projected to host some new ethnic food options for all cultures, as well.
According to Anvender, since the idea is just a proposal, no one has a cost estimation or deadline for the project at this time.
Sophomore Hilary Korabik is a resident of the on-campus Village Apartments and finds that she rarely visits the BSC for anything other than a weekly meeting she has there.
“Although the BSC is central to campus, a lot of students live down on [the Vandeventer Avenue] end of campus and find that the BSC is a far way to walk in the cold or rain,” said Korabik. “The new center would provide a place for residents in the Village, Fusz, Marguerite and off-campus apartment buildings to converge, study and just hang out.”
However, not all students believe that this new student center is a necessary or practical addition to our campus. Junior Eric Marin said that funds should be allocated to more pressing issues like student security.
“I personally believe that this idea is not realistic. Although, it seems like a wonderful idea for the students, with the university’s tight budget I don’t think it will happen anytime in the near future,” Marin said.
Some students mentioned their concern for the likelihood of the proposal; they question if the SLU staff will actually carry out the projected plans. Chris Grabau, building manager of the BSC, addressed the students’ concerns.
“Anyway we can cater to the diverse needs to our student community, the better,” Grabau said. “I consider the BSC the front door of campus since there are a whole variety of services, but if a new student center was built, it would definitely add to campus life. I think this idea is feasible as long as it does not try to replicate the BSC, but add to it.”

Swoboda Changes the Face of Homelessness in St. Louis

The majority of people are homeless because they can’t afford a place to live.

During Tuesday’s Homelessness Awareness Speaker Presentation in the College Church, Jay Swodoba, executive director and founder of What’s Up Magazine, discussed what he sees as the main causes of homelessness in the United States. He also discussed what he believes needs to be done and what is already being done with street papers like What’s Up Magazine.

Swoboda set up What’s Up Magazine and The Homeless Empowerment Project in 2001 after he realized that he wanted to change the face of homelessness in St. Louis.

“What’s Up and The Homeless Empowerment Project represent a successful social enterprise that provides income opportunity to the poor, homeless, at risk or disadvantaged through publication and street sales of an urban issues, non-profit magazine, while providing a much needed voice to poor folks in the community,” Swoboda said.

The organization focuses on issues critical to the realities of homelessness, housing, healthcare and culture. Writers, artists, activists and musicians focus on these issues and publish their stories in the quarterly magazine.

“Our content combines social awareness and local entertainment in a way that encourages the entire diverse population of St. Louis to be socially conscious,” Swoboda said.

What’s Up employs people to help out in sales, advertising and production of the magazine. To be a vendor, an individual has to be homeless or economically disadvantaged. First, street vendors receive a badge, a city permit and ten free issues of the magazine. They are required to pay 25 cents per copy after the first free 10. Each copy is resold for a dollar, allowing each vendor to make a profit of 75 cents per magazine.

Since 2001, What’s Up has printed more than 350,000 copies, each generally 32 pages long. About 750 individuals have sold all these copies in these 10 years, allowing the sustainable model to raise more than $300,000 for the homeless.

Ed Little, a vendor, has had a lot of success with this model for homeless self-help and advocacy. He recently received The Keith Award – given to a special vendor every month for consistency or success in magazine sales - for purchasing over 550 copies of the last What’s Up Magazine issue.

Little told the audience of 20 how much What’s Up has changed his life, and he also described a typical day of a vendor in St. Louis.

 “About 100 people might tell you no. I say about 50 of them throw no’s up at you and roll their eyes … You don’t want to hear it. But, at the end it’s OK to a certain extent because in the end I’m able to take home a little something and I enjoy doing it,” Little said. 

Although, What’s Up empowers Little to take control of his homeless situation, it is only temporary employment. Swoboda said that the only way to fix homelessness permanently is to increase the minimum wage and create affordable housing.