Yale Information

Dear Family & Friends of Putney's Global Action programs,

Our Global Action groups have almost finished their time in country and are looking forward to their time back at Yale to present their findings to the entire Global Action community including friends and family of participants. We are all looking forward to this event! Come prepared… the weather may very well be rainy during our time at Yale. Bring an umbrella!

From July 29 to August 3, please direct all communication to the Yale Global Action Office at pstgaia@gmail.com or (203) 436-0557.

If necessary, Global Action directors Diego Merino and Melissa Extein can also be reached on their cell phones, below:

Diego Merino cell: (917) 254-3327
Melissa Extein cell: (561) 504-6325

Below is a follow-up to the blog update you received in June regarding specific information for the second session at Yale.

Presentations: Each presentation typically lasts about 1 hour. The location of all presentations will be at Davies Auditorium at Becton Center, 15 Prospect St.

August 2:
9:00 am: El Salvador
10:30 am: Cambodia
1:00 pm: China
2:30 pm: Madagascar
4:00 pm: India

Final Picnic: There will be an informal picnic immediately following the India presentation (roughly 6 p.m.). This is a chance for parents to meet their child's leaders and other group members, hear stories, and congratulate the groups on their hard work in-country. This Final Picnic will be held at Berkeley College.

Note on Group Dynamics and "Yale Magic": We understand that parents want to spend time with their child after being apart for a month, and we encourage you to come to the presentations and the final picnic. However, your child's program doesn't end until the morning after the presentations! A key part of the Global Action experience is the close relationships students form within their group, and with other Global Action participants in the larger community created at Yale. From past experience we can tell you that they are anxious to participate fully in all presentations and in other activities organized by their leaders. If even a few students are missing from these, the sense of community is lost. Therefore, we ask that you do not take your child away from the program early, or schedule separate time with your child prior to departure. We appreciate your help in maximizing the students' experience at Yale!

Departure Details: Staff members will accompany the students departing by plane, train, and bus to see them off the morning after the presentations. For those students getting picked up by parents - please check in with a staff member before you leave so we can account for everyone!

Lodging & Parking: For those planning to travel to attend the presentations and wishing to stay in New Haven, we recommend any of the hotels listed below. For an interactive map to locate Berkeley College, Davies Auditorium, and close parking please visit: http://business.yale.edu/map/.

The following hotels are within walking distance from our campus:

Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale
155 Temple Street
(800) THE-OMNI
(203) 772-6664
www.omnihotels.com

Courtyard by Marriott at Yale
30 Whalley Avenue
(800) 321-2211
(203) 777-6221
www.courtyardmarriottyale.com

New Haven Hotel
229 George Street
(203) 498-3100
www.newhavenhotel.com

Important Information:

• Davies Auditorium at Becton Center, 15 Prospect St. (location of presentations)
• Berkeley College South Court, entrance on College St between Wall and Elm Streets. (Global Action accommodations - location of Final Picnic and pick-up). Access Berkeley South from College St between Elm and Wall and then follow the signs toward the Berkeley courtyard. You'll know you're going in the right direction if you're walking toward the huge cathedral-looking library, and Berkeley South will be on your left.
• (203) 436-0557, (office telephone for Putney's Global Action at Yale)
• pstgaia@gmail.com, (Global Action email for questions during Yale)

Voloina, Tamatav, and on to St. Marie

The GAIA Madagascar group has just arrived in Tamatav, the second largest city in the country, after a two week stay in the Maroantsetra region (where there is no internet!).

We spent over a week in the rural village of Voloina, learning to make compost and plant trees, building cookstoves, painting at the community center, hiking through the mud and getting to know the lovely people who live here. While here, our students had daily lessons in Malagasy which prepared them for a two day homestay with local families. Some students enjoyed it so much that they opted to continue their stay with the families after it was over. Here, students also began working on independent projects, subjects of particular interest to them.

Tomorrow we are off to St. Marie, an island off the east coast of Madagascar, to spend our last few days in country. They will be filled with lots of reflection on the experiences we have had and the new global awareness that the program has given us all.

-Maya and Joe

Lemurs, crocodiles, camelions, and more

Greetings from Tana!

The last two days have brought us to an array of different landscapes. Yesterday morning we all piled into the van, drove through the narrow, windy streets of Tana, and experienced the beautiful Malagasy country side. After gazing out of the window and soaking up our surroundings for two hours, we arrived at a butterfly farm. We were all fascinated by the crocodiles, camelions, and butterflies. Of course, the cameras were flashing!

We then continued on to Anasibe National Park. We walked for about twenty minutes and arrived in the thick of the eucalyptus forest. After exploring for a bit, we found a river-- of course, we all ended up swimming and splashing around in the refreshing cold water. Dinner in Vohimana was a delicious Malagasy meal with rice and chicken. After playing a few games, we were all exhausted and retired to our rooms to sleep.

This morning, we all woke up bright and early to head to Vohimana Reserve. There we went on some amazing hikes through the rainforest! We saw several types of lemurs and other wildlife. Despite the rain, energy and spirits were high when we headed back to Tana. There, we warmed up and enjoyed a pizza lunch. Tonight the group is having dinner with a few Malagasy doctors over which the doctors will talk and our students will ask questions of them.

Tomorrow we rise bright and early to travel to Maronsetra, the village where Maya lived during her stay in the Peace Corps, and our home for roughly the next two weeks. It is likely that we will not have internet access until we get back to Tana. We look forward to telling you all about the next part of our adventure then.

Goodbye for now!

Maya, Jose and the Madagascar group

Hello from Antananarivo

After a series of smooth travels via plane, we touched down in the chilly capital of Antananarivo (Tana) on Sunday night and checked into our hostel nearby. The next morning, our students enjoyed their first Malagasy lesson then we were off to explore the city. First, we visited a local home for children called Akany Avoko (check out the website, www.akanyavoko.com) to learn about the alternative technology they are using. We shared our first Malagasy meal with the children living there. Later that afternoon we talked with USAID about their recent work on climate change and the impact it is having on local livelihoods here in Madagascar.

Yesterday we visited the former Queen's Palace, enjoyed traditional Malagasy song and dance by Antandroy performers (a tribe from the deep south) and even danced and played instruments with them! Then we met with the Wildlife Conservation Society and learned about conservation issues on the ground, and had a private screening of Digital Development Communications' "Voyage of the Vezo". We topped off a great day by having our first guest dinner.

Today we are off to visit Andasibe National Park and see the largest extant lemur, the Indri Indri.

The group is getting along really well; everyone is having lots of fun and learning so much! Until next time.

Yours,

Joe and Maya

The group has arrived

We've received word from the leaders that the group has arrived in Tana.

News from Yale

Hello friends and family of Global Awareness in Action World Issues participants! Our time at Yale has flown by since the students' arrival on Thursday afternoon. We've used this time to set the stage for the challenging, emotional, and exhilarating trips that all the students departed on this past Saturday to India, China, El Salvador, Madagascar, and Cambodia.

On Thursday, after a general orientation and icebreakers, the students split up into their country groups to plan brief presentations for their peers about the countries to which they are traveling. After the welcome BBQ dinner, students divided into special groups called "Yalepods," which are made up of three or four students from each country group. The pre-presentations, which students gave to the rest of their Yalepods, highlighted where they are going, the themes of their trip, current issues in their destination countries, and their personal interests and goals for the program. After the presentations, each Yalepod spontaneously broke out into some impressively thoughtful discussions in reaction to what they had just shared with each other, and took enjoyable walking tours of the Yale campus.

We began Friday with a keynote address to the whole group by GAIA Director Diego Merino. Diego urged students to immerse themselves in their country's realities and dedicate themselves to understanding them, as a foundation for being able to take meaningful action to help address the world's most pressing problems. Next, students immediately got a chance to learn about and discuss issues to prepare them for their trips through six leader-led seminars, of which each student chose two. The seminars were: Is Money the Answer to Development Problems, Buy an iPod or Save a Baby, The Global Economy, America's Place in the World, Born in the USA: Race, Class and Gender Privilege, and Urbanization in the Global South. In the seminars, students did role-plays, simulations, read articles, had discussions, and in general enthusiastically got into some of the major issues that will cut across all of the GAIA trips this summer: poverty and wealth inequality, environmental degradation, privilege and responsibility, theories of development, women and gender, and more. Students were excited and engaged in the seminars and the discussions from them spilled out into the rest of the day!

We continued the day with a group viewing of the film "Life and Debt," a documentary exploring the impact of International Monetary Fund policies on workers, farmers and the poor in Jamaica, and followed the film with lively discussion in our Yalepods over dinner. After dinner, we had a round of ice cream sundaes, then a lovely closing ceremony with all 80 students circled on the lawn outside Berkeley College, in which each student in turn lit a sparkler and said one thing they were very excited about for the trip. The day concluded with an enthusiastic five-way yoga ball soccer tournament in our bare feet on the wet lawn!

Everything has gone smoothly at Yale, the energy has been very high and leaders and students are excited to get to their countries! You will be hearing from them soon, when they arrive in-country, and then there will be periodic updates coming about their adventures and activities.

And last but not least, a huge shout-out from Diego and Melissa to the amazing staff of leaders who worked so hard to make the Yale I portion of GAIA Public Health a success: Jessi Duston, Sammy Sass, Shereef Zaki, Joe Block, Julia Tong, David Fuente, Andrew Marantz and Harry Khan! Their passion for their countries and global issues, skills as leaders, and their excitement to share their experiences with their students are what will make this program unforgettable.

By Saturday night, Diego heard from all five groups that they made their flights successfully. They're off!