Entries this day: Amazing_Rochelle Dream Japanese Work

Amazing Rochelle

1:02pm JST Thursday 27 July 2006

I got this email from Rochelle, one of the amazing people I met in Palestine:

Hello to all on the list Serena and I created for our travels to Occupied
Palestine...

As most of you know, after returning from the middle east, Serena and I
embarked on a two and a half month journey around the states to talk about
our experiences and to show photos and and tell stories from our four
months and the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom,
justice and peace.  We spoke to fifty audiences in churches, community
college classrooms, social justice centers, and more.  It was a great
experience and a powerful way to transition back to America after
witnessing such insane US supported injustice and violence.  Thanks to
each of you who helped us make that tour possible. It fills me with such
sadness to see the current situation in the Middle East worsen and to see
so many more innocent civilians murdered as Israel expands its violence
into Lebanon.  It equally pains me to see the US Congress respond with
such support for Israels military actions and policies that are bringing
no one closer to peace. The crisis in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon never
would have come to pass without the uncritical economic, military, and
diplomatic support that the United States provides Israel.  I am inspired
by those (many of you in fact) that continue to work tirelessly for a much
needed change.

I am writing this e-mail to let you all know that I decided to continue my
travels and am currently in Mexico with plans to volunteer in the
indigenous communities in Chiapas. I hope to continue south into Central
and possibly, depending on funds, into South America.  What is occurring
in Latin America today truly gives me hope as the resistance to
neoliberalism is growing, from the Zapatistas in Mexico, the MST in
Brazil, and other popular movements throughout Latin America.  The
elections of left leaders in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile,
although there are many criticisms of their leadership, is still an
inspiring change.  The people are reclaiming control over their resources,
their economy, their jobs, etc...  The incessant growing inequality caused
by neoliberalism can not continue and I look forward to traveling and
learning from these amazing movements. Palestine will remain deeply
embedded in my heart and I look forward to expanding my understanding of
how interconnected the struggles in Latin America are to those in the
Middle East, to those in the United States and to those around the world.

Which brings me to the purpose of this e-mail, I am planning to continue
to write occasional e-mails to this list with updates from my travels
focusing on the global movement for social justice and observations of
various struggles.  If you are not interested in receiving these e-mails
(on average no more than once a week) feel free to unsubscribe from this
list by simply sending an e-mail to
globalsolidarity-unsubscribe at lists.riseup.net
(no hard feelings I promise I know how overwhelming e-mail can become :)
I hope Serena will continue to contribute to this list as well.  She is
spending some time in the States and I hope she too will travel south in
the near future.

In solidarity...
rochelle

And I think, "wtf am I still doing on my ass in Japan????"

If you want to get on this amazing rock star's list, I'm sure globalsolidarity-subscribe at lists.riseup.net will do it.

Dream

10:36am JST Thursday 27 July 2006

A guy came over to buy a gas range appliance that I hadn't used. There were actually two of them available, one for 100 dollars and the other for 200. He asked why I didn't want them, and I was like cause I never use them. They actually wern't even mine, but Jesse had basically abandoned claim to them, so I took responsibility for dumping them.

The guy looked familiar when he came over, so I let him in no problem. He immediately went into my room and claimed that a box which had ben dropped off today was his. I couldn't prove that it wasn't, and I had no information either way, so I let him take it. Then he saw the sale price on the cooking stoves.

- - - -

Had not made plans to meet my new student again next time, so I needed to contact her, but when I got home, the washer and dryer had been replaced with two washer/dryer units. I noted that they were both basically the same and asked my mom if they were basically evaluation models, and we would give one back soon. I liked the one on the left better because it seemed to have a bigger washer basket, but it turns out it was actually smaller, though I am sure it couldn't have been because its radius was wider than the other one, and radius affects volume squared, though depth affects only 1 dimension of volume.

Japanese

6:50pm JST Thursday 27 July 2006

Called Ayana to get Japanese lessons hooked up with her. Hopefully tomorrow. She said she would call me back.

6:53pm JST Friday 28 July 2006

She still hasn't called me back.

Work

10:48pm JST Thursday 27 July 2006

Work at EV today. One lesson was 80 minutes long, but the woman was 25 minutes late. Her English is really really good.