Website!!

What you are looking at right here is the website I designed for Wema Children's Centre! It is still in the works, but I am pretty excited! (Click on the image to make it bigger) Check out the whole website at:

http://web.me.com/ledasaro/Wema_Childrens_Centre/Home.html

In addition, we are working on getting non-profit status, and setting up donations. Once we have that set up, we will begin looking for sponsors and writing grants. A lot of excitement will be happening in the next few weeks! I'll keep you posted :)

Skiing in New Hampshire

You know, family is pretty great :)

My Dad came and visited my brother and I this weekend, and today we went cross-country skiing in New Hampshire. You know, as a general rule, people like things that are rare. We like gold, antiques, and we generally only appreciate nature once it is in danger of going extinct (hence one reason why people list eagles as their favorite animal, and not pigeons). However, the one exception in life is family and friends. Being around them is what makes us like them even more (usually). However, not seeing them for a while does make you appreciate them even more. I really love my Dad. He is a pretty amazing guy, and he has been an amazing father. Thanks for a great day Dad.

Quidditch

In the Harvard Horntails first ever international team, we emerged victorious in our game against the fierce Finland!

However, the Finnish team was probably better suited to to climate.

playing outside for 3 and a half hours in 25 degree weather was brutal! I wore my jersey over my coat, and I still froze. The snitch threw snowballs to keep from being caught, we all huddled together and there was lots of hugging, and all in all, I think Quidditch is a better summer sport! However, we all had fun :)

Film For Social Change

I am taking a class called African and African American Studies 109 "Film for Social Change" and for our midterm assignment, we had to find someone to interview about their job.

Everyone has a story. However, everyone certainly does not have the same chance to tell their story, and some people are outright ignored. Walking across Massachusetts Avenue everyday going to class, a middle-aged man sits, leaned against the hard cement stairs with a plastic cup in his hand. “Help the Homeless” he says to me for probably the hundredth time this year. I divert my eyes, look down, and keep walking, feeling that pang of guilt in my stomach. I watch as other do the same, one girl stepping up to her knee in ice-cold water in an attempt to move herself farther away from having to confront this annoyance. “Well, maybe next time!” he says cheerfully. “Have a good day!” he says to the next person. And this happens everyday to him. Even when a customer does give him money, it is a brief interaction, a shoving of money towards him, a taking of the paper without eye-contact and a mumbled “thanks” before hurrying away.

Then, I met Ken O'Brien. He runs a homeless book stand in Harvard Square, and suddenly all of that guilt just disappears. Ken's bookstand is a place where, homeless or not, people chat and exchange smalltalk, united by the love of books. "Hey Ken, hows business?" people ask as they walk by. It is a place where tourists stop, and where students and natives know well. It is an icon of Harvard Square, and yet it has been an enormous struggle to keep it here. Ken has been arrested twice over a two month period for selling books without a permit, and through years of court battles and issuing of permits only to be later invalidated, he has finally reached an agreement from the city to leave him alone. In the spring until fall, he buys and sells thousands of books and employs other homeless people. In the winter he has to close his bookstand and turn to an-handling, (pictures 3 & 4) but even then, people remember him and the good relations continue.

Thus, I was really excited to interview him and hear his story, and working in the studio was amazing! With state of the art cameras and lights, you feel like a real professional! I interviewed Ken for almost an hour and a half, and I will create a short piece about his job and life. I'll keep you posted! What a cool day.

Spring is Coming!

You know that feeling, the changing of seasons? That smell that spring is on its way that instinctual feeling of excitement from the damp smell of the warm spring wind? Well, I smelled it today, and it was wonderful.

The groundhog did not see his shadow, and so far, the prediction of an early spring seems to be playing out. My friend cynthia and I walked all around in the 55 degree weather, bought ice-cream, and just sat in the sun, absorbing the rays like any mammal loves to do.

Also, I wanted to thank my friend Hilary for making for me a hundred little rainbow origami balloons to put on a light strand. We put them around the "fireplace" (of course we aren't actually allowed fires because they are worried we'll burn down the ancient buildings). They are so pretty!

Happy Valentines Day!

Believe it or not, my adventures in my sophomore year, our 365 days together are about half way up! We started August 25, and in a few days we are at our 6th month mark. With 178 pictures out of 365, we are just about half way there too!

On another note, Happy Valentines Day! I organized a Date Auction with Rebecca for Kirkland House, with all the money going toward Breast Cancer Research. I bought balloons and we made paper hearts, and played romantic music, and auctioned off over a dozen volunteers for dates. I participated too, and I was bought for $27 by a tutor. Although the idea of auctioning off people at first seemed a little too reminiscent of slavery, it was actually really fun, and we raised about $400. Pretty good :)

Also, my friend Meredith from the Kenya trip wrote all about it in two newspapers. Check it out!

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/16/children-orphanage-school/

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/study-abroad/110119/orphanages-kenya-aids-orphans-kenya-orphanages