Silverdale to Sulaymaniyah

“If you visit American city
You will find it very pretty
Just two things of which you must beware,
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air”

I first heard this song by Tom Lehrer 30 years ago. Sometimes I think we have made great progress since then. Sometimes I do not. Recently I was torn between these two feelings in the space of an hour.

I headed out to Silverdale, Washington last week to see what a local Global Citizen Corps group was up to on this cold Sunday morning. I heard they were doing something about clean water and climate change, and I had a gift to bring them from their counterparts in Iraq.

As I waited in this lovely waterfront park, I gazed out to the windy sea and saw this surprising signage. Tom Lehrer’s song immediately revved up in my head. Just moments later, this song was interrupted and replaced by a loud and enthusiastic chanting coming from a crowd of 40 youth marching down the street.

They were marching the two miles from Island Lake to Puget Sound- from one polluted water hole to another, calling attention to World Water Day. And their efforts to raise money for purchasing incredibly low-cost water filters for families in Ethiopia.

They ended their march on top of a giant map of the world next to the sea, and stood in solidarity next to the eight countries where other Global Citizen Corps leaders were taking similar actions this week.

These young leaders all knew that if we do want to drink the water and breathe the air, it is going to take all of us across the globe, working together, to make it happen.

I offered them two gifts as we stood there on top of the world; a commemorative tea plate Iraqi youth asked me to bring to US youth leaders, and news that the Iraqi Global youth leaders had just planted 1300 trees and organized 2000 people to call attention to climate change.

I left the park a little chilled, but at least Tom Lehrer’s song was no longer rattling around in my head…

Voting in Iraq-an act of faith

The biggest issue that regularly confounds me each time I vote here in Seattle is finding a postage stamp. Despite this, I have become a strong believer in the mail-in ballot, mostly because I don't have to haul myself to the polls at 7am before I head off to work.

But, as I learned this week, voting in Iraq presents other challenges. I was talking yesterday on video Skype with my colleague, Mohammed, a Mercy Corps staffer for the Global Citizen Corps program about the recent Iraqi elections and wondering how it had gone. "Oh, it's gone quite well, very safe, only a few very small bombs went off".

Now I don't know about you, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea of safe "small bombs." Over 100 people were killed in these March elections in Iraq, so to me, it is a pretty big act of faith to march down to the polls, dip your finger in ink, and make your views known through the power of the ballot box.

But many, like Mercy Corps' Global Citizen Corps member Kardo (pictured) did. This desire we have to vote, to help shape the way we are governed, is very strong, it seems. And while I would hope I would do the same if I were in Kardo's shoes, I doubt I will ever get to the point of thinking of any bomb as "small".....

Crossing the Cultural Divide, even in Scotland

Dear family and friends,

As some of you know, I headed for Scotland last week with some reluctance. Having traveled more in the developing world, I have acquired a taste for the unusual, the more close-to-the-tidewater kind of travel that countries like Guatemala, Iraq, Lebanon and Belize provide than the more comfortable developed Western World. It seems to me there is more to be learned when you cross these larger cultural and economic divides. Yes, there is the increased food poisoning, hole-in-the-ground toilets, and bullet-whizzing risks you accept that some have been quick to point out, but with every flowering cactus comes its thorn.

When I announced I was headed to Scotland, it was clear that it was far down my list of places I would like to go. Jenny, Boots, Denise and Erica all called attention to my cultural snobbery and were quite animated about the rewards for traveling in such a place. “It’s part of your own family roots, there are castles, and history, plus the famed golf courses of the world there!” they enthused. I was not convinced, but did decide to be a bit more open to the possibilities here. I have not been disappointed.

First I found that it is as easy to get sick in Scotland as in my favored poverty-stricken countries. Within my first two days in Scotland, I was attacked by a back-bending cough and chest cold as painful an experience, I am certain, as it was for those afflicted by Scurvy in the famed Irish Potato-Famine.

I finally dug out some old unused Cipro antibiotics saved from my last trip to Gaza and threw them at the Kilted Demon that set up shop in my lungs. Today is Day Six of my Scottish Adventure and while I continue to keep a “Phlegm-Cup” close at hand, I don’t have to empty it nearly as often.

Second, I was surprised to see how much there was to be gained in bridging the cross-cultural divide as well. On Day Two I met up with one of our local youth leaders, Thomas from Scotland. He is here with 16 other young leaders from Lebanon, Jordan and the US for our first International Youth Leadership Summit at Mercy Corps. We got into a very engaging discussion about electronics and he pointed out to me the great advances being made in IPod technology.

“Look at this tiny IPod player, its only as big as a thumb drive, and holds 16 Gigs of memory”.

I was impressed by its tiny size and power and how it could fit so easily into your shirt pocket. Thomas went on to say, “With the new headphones that fit around your head, the sound is crystal-clear brilliant... And get this, its only 60 pounds!”

“Well, I like the idea of brilliant, crystal clear sound, but headphones at 60 pounds seems like way too much to me”, I cautioned.

“No, it’s not too much, it’s the best you can get anywhere”, he argued.

“But isn’t that a lot of weight to put on your neck?” I inquired.

“NO, 60 pounds, that’s the cost, man!” Thomas exasperated.

I have learned much more in my time here, including a whole new vocabulary of English words that I did not know existed, from “bidden-lay” (a person of the opposite sex that you live with), to “a Quizzy”, a type of questionnaire. The sheep are so plentiful here even a Texan would be fully satisfied. And in the summer, I was told by one bloke, the mosquitoes are so big they can rape a chicken. Fortunately I return home in a few more days so will not be able to verify this.

As I lay awake at 3:30am this morning,(my body’s “Just Say No” policy for Radical Time Zone changes), I was reminded that if you keep your eyes open in life, you can learn something new every day, and traveling only accelerates that process. Even in Scotland.