It has been quite a while since I've been involved with VILA, but I never stop thinking about my experiences there, and how special and important they are to me. Just recently, while working in DC this summer, I ran into Robin Pam, a volunteer with me. It was really great to see her, and to catch up a little bit, and it definitely reminded me of my time living in the shelter in San Roque. I also recently re-established contact with Paul Tuqueres from Casa de la Ninez. He always sends me wonderful emails, brief but touching, about life at the shelther and about how all the kids miss us and think about us all the time.
After coordinating for VILA the summer after my sophomore year I went to Tanzania to work with an organization that does HIV education in rural areas. Upon my return to campus, I took a class--World Food Economy--that synthesized these two experiences for me. It discussed how the root of much of the poverty in the world--both rural and urban--is subsistence agriculture. Farmers in rural areas in developing countries live day by day with barely enough to get by. The lack of opportunity in rural markets often stimulates significant rural to urban migration, producing a host of urban poverty problems we all know so well from our work in VILA. In addition, agriculture is the major consumer of environmental resources world-wide, and is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. This class inspired me to work in this field, and I continue to do so now. I am currently getting my masters degree in Earth Systems at Stanford, with a focus on sustainable agriculture and rural development in Sub-Saharan Africa. After I graduate I guess I'm off to work in the real world--who knows what I'll do, but I hope it will be full of adventure!
Wow, its interesting to write your life's narrative in this way...as if it were all so linear. I would love to hear what everyone else is up to, so if you have a second, write a post!
Thanks,
Nicole
