Bula!

Bula my friends!!

I hope you are all well, and so sorry that its taken me a while to start this month off.

A lot has happened since we all said our see you laters in December 2012... I moved back to Fiji and was keen to transition out of the private sector. I finally made the transition in about March of 2013 and began working for a short time for the University of the South Pacific (USP). Below is a picture from my farewell party, it was very emotional as I had been there for over 2 years.. My boss wasn't in Fiji at the time, but my colleagues managed to get him to Skype in as a surprise :)

USP has 12 regional campuses in the Pacific and the work that I was involved with was mainly coordinating graduate research at the main campus in Fiji and throughout the regional campuses. Shortly after beginning work at USP, I was offered a contract to go back to Hawai'i and work for the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Program, so made the most of the time I had with USP. I spent almost 5 months there, and the final event we organized was the 12th Pacific Science Inter-Congress. A large-scale international conference with over 700 people attending and only 5 core people (including me!) supporting logistics! One awesome thing about my time at USP, I went to NZ for a week long workshop and met up with Rangi!!

Once the conference was over, I jumped on a plane for a one week holiday in Samoa before starting work again in Hawai'i... ;) Starting over in Hawai'i without all of you knocking on my door at Hale Manoa was hard when I first started out... My first office visitor was Dina! It took me about a month to find a suitable (and affordable!) apartment but once I did, I felt much more settled..

My work has been awesome! I really enjoy working with my core team and I really like the work that they do to support Pacific Island communities in the face of climate change. As you all know, it's something very dear to me and so the passion and drive was there from day one. From then until now, I've been home twice, to Samoa twice, and saw the White House in D.C. once, coordinated one large national event for the state of Hawai'i, and had my dreams come true by attending the annual Pacific Risk Management 'Ohana (PRiMO) Conference in March this year ;) As a professional, this experience has been one of the best I've had and I'm so grateful for the opportunity!!

Well, as my contract with the East-West Center comes to an end in December, I have news for all of those who haven't already heard... I'm getting married! Richard and I got engaged recently in Samoa when I was there for the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Conference.. He proposed in front of the Hokulea (see pic below, hehe)..

I am moving to Samoa at the end of this year, and we've just set a date for May 23rd, 2015! It's right around the corner and I am kind of having panic attacks but just trying to relax as much as I can.. If any of you have any advice for planning a wedding, I welcome it! I am off to London tomorrow for my cousin's wedding, I'm a Bridesmaid, so I guess I will get a little taste of what it takes to plan a wedding!

Regrettably, this may be my only post for the month of September, but just know that I do miss you all very much, I think about you all, and I sincerely hope that you are all doing well. If any of you are ever in my area of the world, you'll always have a place to stay with me :)

Love, Rach xo

Happy Labor Day [and Signing Off]

Aloha! I've enjoyed sharing with you all during the month of August and I'm pleased to introduce Rachel Nunn as our September host. A few updates before I sign off: 

Aloha Sub

Good sandwiches can be difficult to find in Honolulu. As someone who grew up in New York, this is something that I've thought about on several occasions. A few weeks ago I had the chance to visit Aloha Sub with an APLP alum. If you're looking for a good sandwich in a casual (emphasis) atmosphere the next time you're in Honolulu, consider this place. Yelp Reviews

A sign inside of Aloha Sub

G14 Arrival
APLP G14 along with PILP G2 and a total of approximately 130 new participants/students have now completed CBI and begun their respective EWC program.

APLP G14 Class Photo

EWC Presents at Rotary Club of Honolulu

I recently had the pleasure of attending a meeting of the Rotary Club of Honolulu at The Royal Hawaiian. EWC President Charles Morrison was the guest speaker. This event provided the Rotary Club with the opportunity to hear about the latest events and activities taking place at the EWC.

Dr. Charles Morrison speaks to the Rotary Club of Honolulu

Hōkūleʻa Worldwide Voyage
Dan Lin, APLP G11, is now sailing on Hōkūleʻa for much of the next month. A few of his friends and family had the opportunity to bid him farewell at the Honolulu airport in late August. 

Saying goodbye to Dan as he departs to join the crew of the Worldwide Voyage.

John Kerry at the EWC
US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke at the EWC on Wednesday 13 August to an audience that included elected officials, community leaders, and more than 100 EWC students. 

John Kerry speaks at Imin Center

Eat-the-Street
This is a Honolulu activity that I somehow missed throughout G12. Takes place from 4pm to 9pm on the last Friday of every month. Suggest stopping by if you happen to be in town when the event is going out. A family friendly atmosphere.

Met a few EWC fellows at the most recent Eat-the-Street

--

I've enjoyed reconnecting with a few of you through this process. I thought some of your might enjoy watching this just released one-minute video message titled "Ideas are Scary."

I wish Rachel all the best with her time as the September guest host for G12 Adventures.

Summer Travels and EWC Happenings

Visit to the Mainland
I spent the second half of July visiting the continental US: to reconnect with friends and family in California and Texas.

Echo Park in Los Angeles. The neighborhood,
slightly north of downtown LA, is rapidly gentrifying.

As the US economy recovers from the Great Recession, these two states are often cited as examples of opposing approaches to governance and economic growth. While most attention focuses on the success of Texas at present, and that could be well deserved, I came across a recent Washington Post opinion piece that makes the case for California. I had a great time in both states, although at this point I have stronger connections to California because of where I completed my undergraduate studies. 

Opie's BBQ in Texas Hill Country, outside of Austin.
Texas BBQ is well known, and Opie's is considered among the best.

East-West Center Education Page on LinkedIn

The EWC now has its own LinkedIn school page. This means, among other possibilities as the page becomes fully active, if you add "East-West Center" to the education section of your profile, the EWC logo will appear and you can easily network with other EWC alumni. 

Example of what your LinkedIn profile will look like (generally speaking) after
adding your EWC program affiliation to the education section of your profile.

Please visit the EWC company page and the newly created EWC school page (work in progress), and consider including your EWC affiliation in the education section of your LinkedIn profile. 

Hawaiian Islands Experiencing Intense Weather 
I'm writing as Hurricane Iselle is passing south of Oahu, after hitting directly into the Big Island last night, and we are expecting a second storm system, Hurricane Julio, to pass by the Hawaiian Islands in the coming days.

Tropical Storm Iselle approaches the Hawaiian Islands
Photo: Honolulu Star Advertiser

CBI on Monday; Secretary of State to Speak on Wednesday

More than 150 students/participants, including APLP G14, will begin their CBI experience on Monday 11 August. John Kerry is scheduled to deliver a speech at the East-West Center on Wednesday 13 August.

John Kerry, 68th and current U.S. Secretary of State.
Photo: United States Department of State

I will be away next week and look forward to sharing with you again during the week of 17 August. Aloha!!

August Greetings

An admission: one reason I selected this month was because I figured, whatever happens, I will have departed Honolulu by August 2014. That would mean that I could use this blog post to share with G12 about the new community where I am living. Well...greetings from Honolulu! I'm still living here...more on that below.

Around Honolulu: Hendrick from APLP G11 is involved in various entrepreneurial activities.
We are pictured here with Oko Guys, the Japanese food truck that he co-owns.

I pursued graduate coursework at UH Manoa in economics, accounting/finance, and urban planning through December 2013. During this time I also completed a marketing initiative for APLP staff. The project focused on increasing awareness of the APLP with top US colleges and universities. One outcome was that more than a dozen top US universities, including Princeton University (http://www.princeton.edu/oip/fellowships/others/) and the University of Miami (http://www6.miami.edu/uglobal/research/external/) decided to incorporate information on APLP into their website.

Around Honolulu: I've been trying to cook more frequently.

I purchased a one-way ticket off of Oahu to roughly coincide with the conclusion of my graduate studies and consultancy work. However, a few days before departure, I was offered an unsolicited full-time opportunity with the EWC president's office. I took the flight off of Oahu, but purchased a ticket back to Honolulu to begin work in a newly created role: Associate for Strategic Plans and Communications, Office of the President.

Departing Oahu: I did not expect to return to Honolulu
when I purchased a ticket to fly on the above plane.

In this new role I work on a variety of initiatives that focus on building understanding about the East-West Center with current and prospective supporters. I look forward to sharing selected thoughts and experiences with you throughout the month of August. 

Please stop by my office and say hello
if you happen to visit Burns Hall in the near future. 

Hi Dear APLPers!

Thanks for remembering my joke still. This time I would like to share some very COOL experiences during my last week.

Last wednesday, I went to Hangzhou for a 5-day environment friendly summer camp as a volunteer. I stayed with the children and other teachers in my friend’s environmentally friendly hostel. We did many interesting indoor activities, such as painting on the stones, using a piece of wood to make a key ring, and had a garbage classification competition. The most popular one is called True Man Library in the evening. We invited the experts to give workshop for the children. One night a veteran mountaineer shared many breathtaking stories with us, introduced the professional equipment, and trained us how to make knots. It reminded me of Yuan a lot. Another night, three musicians taught us to play ukulele, woo, we were in Hawaii at that moment! Where were you guys? ；）

We were learning how the make the basic knot from the mountaineer. It is called Eight Knot. It looks really like a “8”

Ukulele workshop.  Woo, we can play together!

We also had many wonderful outdoor excises. The children picked the vegetables in the family farm and cooked them at the dinner by themselves. Really delicious! We went to the Pit Park to learn basic geology. 

The colorful Five Senses Children Jungle in the Pit Park.

On the last day, we went to the top of a mountain that is around 800 meters height to fly by para-glider! I flew in the sky even though I had a fever. Since I didn’t have any fear, the coach taught me the extra difficult flare maneuver, that made me even more excited.

Fly Fly Fly!

Besides the unforgettable experience of summer camp in Hangzhou, I had the chance to enjoy two other exhibitions. One is called Celebrating 90 years of dreams by Disney; another is called Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden-- The Most Beautiful Dream of Qing Dynasty Emperor. Have you guys heard about Yuanmingyuan story? It was the most beautiful garden in the world during Qing dynasty of China (around 150 years ago)  and  it was destroyed by western army from eight countries and Chinese people. It is a very shameful history part of ancient China. The interesting thing is those two exhibitions are all about human’s dream. The former dream is warm, happy and wise; the latter dream was powerful, greedy and sad. Human beings need dreams to create the courage to explore the secrets of the universe, but greedy and selfish dreams could lead people to the hell. I am lucky to have a dream to make the world better by good education. What’s your dream?

What’s your dream?

A magical birthday gift!

Since I was super busy after the Hangzhou trip I almost forgot it is my birthday today. Anyway, I got a magical birthday gift from my students! Please look at the photos!

He is one of my 4 years old students. My teachers told me he has a problem to fall asleep during the nap time for the last 3 months since he came to our school. This noon I told him I am a Kungfu master and I could teach him Kungfu. First I asked him to sit up and play for a while silently instead of lying down. Then I asked him to sit cross-legged. I said: “Now let’s focus on our breath.” As I breathed deeply and slowly beside him, his breath went deeply and slowly also. Then I asked him to close his eyes. He sat by the position that shows in the photo for more than 10 minutes! I could really feel his mind calmed down and we both felt very peaceful.

I thought he might feel tried sitting so long, so I said: “Now you can practice another Kungfu position. Please lie down at right side, put your left hand on your chest, and close you eye, focus on your breath.” He followed my “coaching,” and fell asleep very naturally and peacefully after 2 minutes!

Actually it was my first time to use Yoga to help a young child to sleep. It works so well! I even got shocked by his reaction. I was deeply moved by the peace from the child’s heart.

It is really a magical gift for my birthday from him. If you guys have the problem to fall asleep, maybe you can try Kungfu to help? Or come to China to practice it with our children?;)

That’s all my stories for this July. Thanks for spending time to read them. Wish you guys would like them. Actually I still have many nice or worth things to share with you. But, the time flies too quickly, and my typing is sloooooow, when I am writing this right now, it is already the last day of July.  

So, let’s say Aloha to Matt, the Blogger of August.

Alooooooooooha Maaaaaaatt! How are you dooooooooooing? Where aaaaaaaaaare you now? Now I am moving my slooooooow typing to you. We are looooooking for your adventure stories. 

(Note: This has been posted on Duan's behalf, as she does not have direct access to the blog. - Ahila)

Ni Hao!

How are you, guys? 

We had a lot of rain during the last week so we have had a lot of cool summer days. The weather is so kind for our people in Ruichang and Wuhan. Not hot:-)

One night, our More Fun Education students had a very good outdoor performance for the Ruichang community. As their teacher, I was so proud to see their growth and progress, as well as cooperated with them for the show on the stage.

The 8 years old twins were preparing the comic dialogue in our dancing room. And the 13 and 11 years old students who are from More Fun Leadership Summer Program were practicing their show in our Children’s Town.

We very much enjoyed our show on the stage.

The photo with Lily & Sansan, the dream spirits of More Fun Education. We designed and made the costume. I named them and my mother wrote the story about them.

Last Monday I returned to Wuhan again, the 4th time in one month to meet a visiting delegation from The University of Queensland, Australia. They were a team running the Positive Parenting Program for 36 years. They had a meeting with Professor Feng and other education experts in Hubei University. 

We shared the outcome of our research and ideas of early childhood education and the importance of parenting. As Professor Feng’s assistant and one of the translator, I gave a talk about Chinese Parenting situation.  

Understanding their Australian accents was a challenge for me.

During the meeting, we received positive feedback and comments about about our research outcome.

Professor Feng and Dr. Sanders were giving the gifts to each other. 

The interesting coincidence was Dr. Sanders, the Director of Triple P, and Professor. Feng, both started their education research and running their program in 1978.

During the two days, I went to nearby places for having fun and continuing my Slow Journey for a while. My hometown is really nice, welcome for you all!

Wishing you all a happy summer!

(Note: Posting this on Duan's behalf as she does not have direct access to the blog. - Ahila)