Ice Buckets and Rocket Fire

I wasn't particularly inclined to write about the time I spent in Israel. I flew in during a period of heightened tensions, during which Hamas was firing rockets into southern and central Israel and Israel was retaliating with airstrikes on Gaza. The ground operation in Gaza began a few days into my stay.

Spending time in a nation at war was an incredibly impactful and memorable experience...but I didn't feel it was my place to write about them. Unlike my cousins living in central Israel, I don't have young children who need to run for cover during the red alerts. Unlike many of my friends, I didn't know any soldiers who lost limbs in the war. I didn't need to go to any of my friends' funerals during my visit. And unlike everyone I visited there, I was scheduled to leave and continue on to destinations with missile-free airspace. I have a host of personal and political opinions surrounding my visit, but I was just passing through. I don't think my sentiments carry the same weight as those of my friends and family who are continuing their daily lives living under fire. So I don't feel it's my place to write about them here.

But there's one thing I do want to write about, and that's ALS. Israel was a late addition to my itinerary, but I was grateful to add it because it gave me an opportunity to visit a cousin of mine who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease back in 2011. I spoke with my cousin's wife, Rachel, about all of the changes that they've had to make since the diagnosis. She talked with me about the process of attaining a motorized wheelchair, a new accessible van, and installing a ramp. (Their building doesn't have a lift) The government usually pays for or reimburses for these services, but while they work with the bureaucracy, the family still had to find crafty ways to come up with the large cash outlays that are needed to pay for the accommodations.

My cousin David taught Judaic studies for many years, a subject he was very passionate about. He was still teaching up until a few months before I came. When it was too much of a hassle to leave the house, students would come to his home and he would give seminars from his apartment. He was still very active until recently, but now he's not speaking and he communicates with a computer and a sensor attached to his nose. He also gets uncomfortable quickly and uses the computer to call to family members or aids to help him shift position. (Think of a Fur Elise ringtone playing every 3 minutes, all day) Because there's no lift in his building, David can't make it to shelter during code red alerts, so a family member or aid stays with him and they hope for the best.

I was happy to see the ALS ice bucket challenge go viral in the days after my return to the US. I, like many others, was concerned that many of the people who took the challenge (or even donated) didn't know much about the disease or the way it affects ALS patients and their families. I hope this short post can help teach a little more about what people with ALS and their families experience on a daily basis.

My brother challenged me earlier this week and even though I feel financially exhausted after this trip, I didn't think twice about donating to this cause. My ice maker is also broken, so if anybody wants to have me over and help me dump a bucket of ice water over my head, let me know!

Despite the tension, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Israel and hope that the next visit takes place during a more peaceful time. I finally made it to Stockholm about 6 days behind schedule. That's a story for another post.

You can learn more about ALS and donate here.

Into Africa

A friend of mine from university is an international student from Cape Town and though she is working in New York over the summer, her mother was there to greet me at the airport. They treated me to a meal of lamb chops, quinoa salad, and roasted vegetables before sending me to my host, an aunt of theirs who lives in a neighborhood on the Atlantic called Sea Point.

I loved Cape Town. I loved that I could see the mountains from every part of the city, I loved being within driving distance of two oceans, and I loved that I could watch paragliders fly off the Lion's Head from the front lot of my building. I may have also eaten my way through Cape Town. The grocery stores had excellent pastries and I took advantage of the delicious lamb and curries available in the city.

One highlight was the opportunity to tour a wheelchair factory and speak with mechanical engineers who design durable and inexpensive equipment. Cape Town is not the most accessible city and conditions are all the worse for the residents of Cape Town's shantytowns, or townships. Moreover, Cape Town reminded me of the influence a parent's education has on the healthcare that his or her children will receive. Parents with more medical knowledge are often slow at, or do a poor job of finding good healthcare for children with disabilities. For example, in Brazil I spoke with rehabilitation centers that had to teach children to communicate for the first time at 4 or 5. The rehabilitation center I spoke to in South Africa encountered children who didn't learn to communicate until they were several years older, often because parents did not understand that the children with disabilities were ever capable of communicating.

Despite the struggles, I found South Africa to be a beautiful and fascinating county that I would love to return to. Attached are some photos from a safari I took in a game park outside of Cape Town, thanks to an awesome birthday present from my parents!

Shock

I'm back after some wifi deprivation in South Africa. After Singapore I headed to Kuala Lumpur on the infamous Malaysia Airlines.

I made it off the plane in one piece.

But Malaysia was my biggest culture shock to date. I'd venture to say that most streets in Kuala Lumpur smell like curry and durian, a spiky fruit that is supposed to have a delicious flavor but a putrid smell. (Durian are forbidden in public transportation and many buildings) It was also my first time in a Muslim country, and I started to feel like my light skin and lack of hijab made me stick out like a sore thumb.

Coincidentally, I was right near the Malaysian Association for the Blind, so I was able to see many people with disabilities out and about in my neighborhood. The streets are full of high stairs, broken walkways, and steep holes, but I was surprised by how well the locals were able to navigate the streets. My favorite organizational visit was at a center that provides wheelchair repairs, employment training, and transportation, among other services. The array of services were impressive, but I was more impressed by the energy among the employees. They had so much to tell me throughout the tour and interview that I had trouble keeping up with them. As the taxi pulled away, I caught a glimpse of them laughing and zooming around in their wheelchairs in the front yard.

The circumnavigation is always an adventure, but I hardly expected that it would take me to a war zone. I'm writing from Tel Aviv, which has been under fire for some time now. The streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have been surprisingly empty because of the number of soldiers deployed and the number of citizens who choose not to leave their homes unnecessarily. It's not the experience I expected, but it's raw and it's real. I'll write more about Israel and South Africa in coming posts.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from a highlight of Malaysia, the famous Batu Caves.

Deeper Into the Unknown

And by "the unknown" I mean Malaysia.

Barefoot Hospitality

I'm getting ready to leave Singapore. What an interesting city! It's a clean, modern, and developed city with a unique blend of Eastern and Western culture. Eating and shopping are the national pastimes and wearing shoes inside the home is a taboo.

The research here has been quite interesting as well. This is one country that could really benefit from an educational campaign about disabilities. There's a general lack of awareness about the needs of PWDs. One employee of a disabled persons organization mentioned she doesn't think the locals understand that wheelchair users can't use the escalator, which leads to a lack of courtesy, such as people refusing to make room for wheelchair users in lifts.

The truth is that no matter how accommodating legal systems or public spaces are towards people with disabilities, no one can experience their full effects without some public cooperation. A wide lift is no good if people won't let a person in a wheelchair in and an accessible bathroom stall is no good if it's used as a storage room. (A real problem)

On another note, I recommend anyone reading this invite themselves over to my apartment in future years, because all of this travelling has made me want to be a better hostess. I have a lovely host family here that was supposed to have me for a weekend and ended up inviting me to stay for the rest of the trip. Now my standards for hosting are set. If you want meals and rides and wifi and a comfortable bed my place is going to be the place to be.

Moving On

Australia has been beautiful and I will have to come back here to see more of it. The next leg begins today!

As Pro-Colonialist as I'm Going to Get

The flight to Australia...what a whammy. I went from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo to Santiago, got delayed in Santiago, flew from Santiago to Auckland, got off the plane, went through security, and then re-boarded to continue to Sydney. Safe to say, after about 36 hours in transit I feel like I can handle anything else the traveling life throws at me.

One of the books I took on the trip was about Captain Cook's explorations, and the trip down here gave me even more appreciation for his accomplishments. It was an agonizing day and a half in transit and when I landed and heard the English language again, it made me realize how powerful the British Empire must have been to sail to and set up a colony all the way down here. It also made me appreciate what it meant for the American Colonists to overthrow such a powerful government.

On my first full day here I scheduled an interview about four hours after I landed. That's not something I would do ever again. The professor I spoke with was incredibly compassionate for my jetlag, but needless to say, she didn't see me at my best. I headed to Bondi Beach afterwards, bought a delicious mini vegetable pizza, and ate it while watching the waves. I then headed sluggishly back to the hostel.

On my first non-jetlagged day I headed to the harbour to see the opera house, the Harbour Bay Bridge, and the ever-charming Taronga Zoo. They were all amazing sights, and I recommend everyone see them. But I have to say, the zoo caught me off guard. It was way cool. My favorite section was the Australian walkabout where I got to see some of the best local animals including kangaroos, koalas, and venomous snakes. And after staring at the inside of a cabin for the better part of two days, it was rather nice to be in open air and walk along the snake paths and listen to singing birds instead of the humming of the engines.

 Sydney is a much more accessible city than Buenos Aires or Rio, though it's not without its faults. I'm impressed by the wide sidewalks, the curb cuts, and the sound indicators at the intersections. If you're operating a tram (stroller) or wheelchair, I would advise against using the subway, unless you're the kind of person who gets a thrill out of riding over the massive gap between the train and the platform.

I finished my last interview today with Every Australian Counts, an amazing campaign that was extremely successful in raising awareness over disability related issues and pushing for new legislation. They modeled many of their strategies from the Obama campaign. Though they had a limited budget, they were diligent about polling and subjecting their campaign materials to market research, a technique which appears to have been effective. There was also something special about meeting a small group of people who brought about big change. After learning that less than 10 people were able to push the government to triple the amount of money it would spend on people with disabilities, my summer feels pretty unproductive.

I'm brainstorming a way to spend my last full day here before heading to Singapore. As of now I'm leaning towards a beach walk and a return to Bondi to buy another schnitzel burger. I don't think there was anything particularly Australian about it...but damn, it was good.

The Long Haul

Soon after my apology for not blogging more often came an accident that prevented me from blogging at all, the crashing of my 3 week old computer. I've had to purchase a new one and now I'm back online. I also have newfound sympathy for my friends who refuse to own PCs.


That aside, the trip to Australia went about as smoothly as 36 hours in transit could. My flight from Santiago to Sydney was delayed for a few hours but the other passengers on the plane were lovely and I spent the extra time in the airport with new friends drinking fresh squeezed raspberry juice from the airport bar. It may have been the best drink I've ever had. (By regular standards, not airport bar standards)


It's been refreshing to hear English again, and my friends keep teasing me to speak in an Australian accent here and see if I can convince anyone that I'm a local. I've been too shy to attempt this yet. My Australian accent is my only party trick, and if I find out it's no good, there will be dreaded ill effects on my self esteem.


I will write more about my interviews and travels here in a later post. I'm wishing everyone a wonderful weekend from down unda!

The Mother of All Flights

3 flights, a layover in Brazil the day before the World Cup, and almost 2 days in transit. What could go wrong?

Linguistically Challenged

I'll begin with an apology for not blogging more often. I've gained a great deal of respect for the people who write regularly. The good news is that I haven't been writing because I haven't had a lot of down time and things have been pretty easy here in Argentina.

There was something refreshing about arriving in Buenos Aires. It's a rather secure city and I have a lot of independence here and freedom to explore. I also took a step up in my ability to communicate. In Brazil I was able to tell people that I don't speak Portuguese, and in Spanish I'm able to say....very little more.

Buenos Aires has a complicated bus system in which the fare varies depending on the passenger's destination. I try to just tell the driver that I'd like to pay the maximum rate in order to avoid the quick banter about destinations. This interaction can go one of two ways. I can ask the driver to charge me $2.70, pay, and move to the back of the bus, or I can ask the driver to charge me $2.70, have the driver ask me something in Spanish, give him a blank and confused stare in place of an answer, and then let him decide he's not going to get a proper response and will have to charge me $2.70 anyway. The second situation produces the same ultimate result as the first one, except I get to look like an ignorant and uneducated American who arrived in Argentina ill-prepared to communicate with anyone.

So Argentina is humbling, if nothing else.

About a week before I left, I was introduced to an attorney who worked on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was able to introduce me to several activists in Argentina. After speaking with a series of contacts, I managed to arrange interviews with some wonderful activists here. When I tell people I've come to Argentina to study the way people with disabilities are being treated, people often advise me to not expect much. However, it's been quite interesting to see how organizations here have worked against government bureaucracy and a troubled economy in order to bring about change. This is no paradise for PWDs, but organizations here have used a lot of interesting models and to me, Argentina has reinforced that there is something to be learned from every destination.

A lovely highlight of this trip was a spontaneous trip to Iguazu National Park. The park sits on the border of Argentina and Brazil and is home to the second largest set of waterfalls in the world. I don't think enough North Americans know about it and I highly recommend a visit here. There are some things in life that pictures can't capture.

Do beware of the coaties, they look like a cross between a raccoon and a wolverine and they will summon their pack and charge at your food. I actually think the park has used them to their advantage in order to develop a very lucrative business model. They charge inflated prices at the park food courts and restaurants, then the customers go out to the picnic tables to eat their snacks. The coaties swoop in and grab the food, scaring the customers and eventually prompting one of the food court employees to come out with a coati scaring device (a plastic water bottle on a broomstick) which clears the picnic tables and gives other park visitors the mistaken impression that the tables are safe. So the people who have had their food stolen need to buy another round of overpriced snacks and other park-goers can feel a false sense of security eating in coati territory. And the cycle continues.

The hefty journey to Australia begins on Sunday. I'm going to get well acquainted with the Pacific airspace.

I look forward to spending the few days gorging myself on steak and enjoying the wonderful people here. To receive more regular updates follow me on twitter @MadelineList.

Rio's Bad Rap

Travel blogs and friends alike gave me a slew of warnings about going to Rio de Janeiro. The city is certainly not as safe as many traditional vacation spots in the US or Europe, but it's certainly a place worth seeing and with proper precautions I think most travelers can have an exciting and fulfilling vacations to the city. I wanted to come out and write about some of the safety steps I took because tourism has been low there lately, even with the World Cup fast approaching, and people deserve to know which warnings are real and which are exaggerated.

I took precautionary steps that were not the "normal" steps most people would take for Europe. I didn't wear any jewelry (though many locals did) and I didn't carry more money than I needed for the day. I carried a decoy wallet with a couple expired credit cards in it in case I was in a situation where I was forced to hand it over, and I purchased a cheap decoy watch in case I had to hand something over when I wasn't carrying a purse. I didn't end up needing to use the decoys but I'm glad that I carried them. I also carried extra money and credit cards in an inside pocket and researched how the locals would dress in Rio to make sure I didn't stand out as a tourist. It's also important to get good directions before heading to any new destination and to be careful to not pull out a map in public or look overtly confused. I was careful not to speak English in public. I didn't pull out my camera unless I was in a secure area and didn't pull out my phone in public, though a lot of locals were comfortable doing that.

Locals gave good advice on how late it would be safe to stay out and it's always helpful to look to the locals to see what they think is safe. If I saw other young women on the street carrying purses and walking their yorkies, I felt pretty comfortable. It's also good to pay attention to whether or not locals are pulling their wallets out in public. I didn't learn this until I arrived, but a large portion of thefts in Rio are committed by males under the age of 18. That gives you a good idea of who to be wary of. There were some neighborhoods, like Lapa, where the samba clubs are, that I researched and chose to avoid because I was traveling alone. I may have made a different decision if I had someone to accompany me.

I can't say any one of these things played a hand in making this a smooth trip, some of this depends on good luck. I know there are some people who had a bad experience in Rio despite taking precautions, but I'm convinced that many of the horror stories came from people who made textbook tourist mistakes. Rio isn't a war zone. Don't let the additional safety precautions stop you from visiting a spectacular city!

To hear a real time rendition of my impressions, follow me on twitter @MadelineList.

Leg 2!

Palm Hearts and Sugarloaves

Welcome to Rio de Janeiro, a beautiful city with a whole lot of problems. The city is home to over 6 million people and will soon experience an influx of visitors as sports fans from all over the world come to witness the World Cup and later the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The trip opened with a huge treat, a visit to one of the seven wonders of the natural world. I took a cable car to the top of Sugarloaf mountain, which provides a spectacular view of the harbor, as well as a distant view of Christ the Redeemer.

I was awestruck on Sugarloaf, and I must admit that pictures don't properly capture the majesty of the place. The view also made me wish I had paid more attention in high school earth science and could understand how the mountains I were seeing were formed. I hope you're happy Mrs. Oshry.

My research began in ANDEF, located in Niteroi, a suburb of Rio. Even with my embarrassingly limited Portuguese, I managed to buy a ferry ticket to meet my contact Dani on the other side.

I loved our drive through the hills of Niteroi. It was a refreshing break from the rush of the big city, and as we bumped through the streets I felt like I had traveled from a bustling metropolis to a jungle town built into the side of a mountain. ANDEF is located on the edge of Niteroi, and Dani and I had a quick lunch there before we began our tour.

ANDEF offers a huge variety of services. One major part of their service is training and job placement for people both with and without disabilities. The job training program helps fund the sports programs, which are also available for people with and without disabilities. Dani walked me past the pool, the basketball court, the soccer field, and the dance studio. The facilities also serve as training centers for many successful paralympians, who are displayed proudly on banners in the offices. 

ANDEF felt like the summer camp I never had. There were smiling faces all through the cafeteria, the offices, and the fields. The organization's president says that people are drawn to ANDEF because "they are winners". Indeed, it was easy to feel that the people there had something to be proud of. The integrated dance troupe (half members with disabilities, half members without) were kind enough to show us the routine they had been working on. The number ended with one member doing a handstand in his wheelchair. I was floored. 

The organization is one that draws some of the most talented people with and without disabilities, so it was easy to feel the sense of empowerment that reined throughout the grounds. Watching warm ups for a game of blind soccer while the sun set over the hills of Niteroi, I felt like there was little the people around me couldn't do.

Of course, the standard of living for people with disabilities is strongly connected to economic prowess, and poverty is a major issue here in Rio. The next day I left my westernized hotel in Copacabana to visit a social services center in a much more impoverished neighborhood. The center is one of 6 around the city that provides free services such as physical therapy, speech therapy, and music therapy. They try to act as an early intervention for children living with disabilities. The centers also provide important education for parents who may not know how to properly care for their children with disabilities. One therapist told me that she sees children with disabilities who are 4 or 5 years old when they first learn to communicate. The services offered are essential but in a city of this size more resources are definitely needed.

I did promise I would write about food. On Friday night I visited a friend of a friend of a friend who had me over for dinner. She served the biggest first course I have ever seen in my life. My favorite dishes were artichoke heart salad, sesame studded tuna skewers with teriyaki sauce, and roasted eggplant. For the main course we had fantastic beef, potatoes, roasted okra, and roasted hearts of palm. I didn't even realize that they could be eaten if they didn't come out of a can. But you know what they say, once you go roasted palm you never go back. 

There are only a couple more days left in Brazil and I'm trying to enjoy some quality time on the beach and hopefully visit Tijuca Park. Argentina is coming up on Tuesday!

Departure

For leg one I'm heading south. Way south. It's gonna be a long day.

Beginnings

Hi all,

Monday will be the start of what promises to be an amazing journey, sponsored generously by the Circumnavigators Club Foundation. I'll make a circuit of the planet, visiting 8 countries over the course of 10 weeks. During the trip, I'll be conducting a study on the welfare of people with disabilities in each country, in effort to investigate low-cost methods to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

In the United States the average person will have at least one disability by the age of 69. (72 in Canada) The blog is titled "This is Personal" because the way society treats people with disabilities will affect every single one of my readers at some point in their lifetimes. This is a topic that you need to care about.

The blog will cover stories of travels, people met, places visited, and food eaten. I'll post pictures whenever I can. Knowing me, there will also be some comical moments along the way. You might laugh at me and not with me. I'm prepared to accept that. In a sinister attempt to educate my readers, I'll also work in information about disability studies. For those interested in a constant stream of my musings, follow me on twitter @MadelineList.

Now I'm going back to packing and other trip preparations. Stay tuned for more updates on Monday!