“A pair of local researchers has won a prestigious award for global innovation that highlights some pretty incredible students at Rice University making a difference in the world. …
“Conditions associated with premature birth, often related to breathing problems, are responsible for about 30 percent of neonatal mortality [in Malawi]. In the developed world, these conditions can be treated using bubble Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine. But these CPAP machines cost $6,000 and are out of reach of most hospitals in Malawi.
“So five engineering students at Rice, in the 2009-10 school year, built their own bubble CPAP machine out of spare parts. … In the last two years they’ve found a manufacturer and tested a machine that costs just $400. Thanks to a grant from USAID, the machines are now being distributed to more than two dozen hospitals in Malawi.
“Again, this was developed by undergrads at Rice, and it’s just the vanguard of technologies that the professors and their students are rolling out of the design kitchen.”
I am so proud to be a Rice Owl :)
School cleaning time, the usual four kids are vacuuming, water the plants in the English teachers’ room like they do every day. One of the girls suddenly starts causing a ruckus, kicking and whining at one of the boys, for some unknown-to-everyone-including-the-boy reason. My dear boy is just standing there, confused but smiling like he always does. On one of her kicks, she hurts herself and ends up on the floor, rolling around dramatically in agony. One of my co-teachers walks in then; the scene is awfully incriminating (the boy standing cluelessly with the girl aegyo-crying in pain at his feet). The scene is at the same time hilarious. Boy looks exasperated, has no way to explain himself. Co-teacher pulls boy out by the ear. Girl gets up, dusts herself off, ain’t no thang.
Lolz this is Korea.
Was walking back to the English teachers’ room and what do I come across, but a hallway of ten of my boys doing push-ups, duck walks, and quadzillas. This is Korea.
Today, I had one of the most rewarding moments of my short teaching career in the waning, sleepy afternoon minutes of my last class of the day. We did similes and acrostics in 2-2, and while this class has one of my brightest students, it also has some of my most behind but most eager—and what joys they are—wonderful students. They wrote so many beautifully simple yet profound poems today.
King
Oh!
Really
Emergency!!
Amen…
-KOREA, Hoe Don
What I got out of this was validation that kids are brilliant, that they don’t need to have superior skill or a bank of vocabulary to produce art, and that all they need is an outlet, a spark to energize their learning. I think for the first time since I arrived, I saw my dear boy actually, truly, enjoying English. The notebooks this week are little treasure troves. I can’t wait to dive in!
Sometimes I find myself thinking that trivialities, like these sorts of animated gifs, may not warrant a reblog, but today, these little bundles of joy have undergone reappraisal, and I have concluded that, yes, they warrant a reblog, because everyone deserves to lol at least once a day.
(Source: catbushandludicrous, via mcfong)
I recognize now, after reading the facebook status of a former ETA on his last moment in Korea, picture sitting in the airplane looking out and all, that I am dreading the day that I have to say goodbye to this country and its people and culture. It’ll be like leaving Rice was, bittersweet and difficult. I know that when I do come back, it won’t exactly be mine anymore. I won’t exactly belong here anymore. And that’s a really somber thought.
I am inspired by National Poetry Month and the color in my kids’ words. This month should be about creation and inspiration and freedom of expression.
(Source: towritepoems, via tokyoroseamour)
I am back! And not looking forward to the internet sucking me dry of attention and time.
