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‘That’s the thing about Christmas in Ghana’
by: Isaac Vanderburg - printed on 01-31-2001
It is an organic story, really. In 1969 two Peace Corps volunteers went to Ghana, West Africa. They taught English to the Twi-speaking children of villages called Aducrom and Laarte. They ate fufu and banku and redred and nkatiekwein. They did all the things that volunteers do: teach, travel, work, wander, laugh and cry. Of course, they couldn’t help but to love the kids they taught, love the work they did, and love most of Ghana in general.
Chile: Challenging immigration
by: Mono Vergara - printed on 09-12-2001
Between llamas and chinchillas, colorful hats and the dry altiplano, I was slowly going up the Peruvian Andes in an old bus. The sky was turning into that bloody color and the smell of hard working men was dancing on the tip of my nose. The police stopped the bus and we were forced to get out. I was about to have my first encounter with one of the most corrupted and bureaucratic police forces in South America.
VITW Stands Against Iraqi Sanctions
by: Tom Frieberg - printed on 11-03-2000
On Monday, November 11 the University of Portland Offices of Volunteer Services and Campus Ministry will host peace activists from the group Voices in the Wilderness. The group’s mission is to end United Nations economic sanctions currently imposed on Iraq (which have been in place for a decade, since the Gulf War). This is a valuable opportunity for the campus community to study and reflect on a critical issue involving ethics, US foreign policy, nonviolence, military dictatorhips and human rights, the merits of various ways to influence public policy, and more.
China’s Environment versus Economy
by: Jefferson Azevedo - printed on 10-10-2001
It is impossible to talk about China without taking into account the environmental problem. With a population of about 1.2 billion people – one out of every five human beings in the world – China alone has the potential to raise the greenhouse effect to levels far beyond scientists’ worst nightmares. And this is considering that its population, four times as big as that of the United States, uses only half as much energy and resources as America does.
Beer, wine, cigarettes and other dispatches from Spain
by: David Miller - printed on 02-28-2001
My flight from Portland to Madrid, Spain had a layover in Newark, New Jersey. As I had four hours to spend in Newark, I bought a premade, mushy Philly-steak-and-cheese sandwich and sat down to collect my thoughts. I was on my way to Spain to spend the next four months studying there, in Spanish, all in Spanish. It wasn’t like I hadn’t ever traveled before, I had. I wasn’t worried about that. It was the 15 credits of college courses .
Helping Alaskan honey buckets
by: Maia Nolan - printed on 04-10-2002
Spring has come at last to Anchorage, Alaska. After a record-breaking St. Patrick's Day storm that dumped more than two feet of snow on the city in just over 24 hours, canceled school for two days and left residents piling snowberms up to six feet high as they dug out, it was starting to seem like winter was here for good. Today, though, the sun is shining and a new, unfamiliar substance is starting to replace the ice: pavement.