Los Angeles Traffic

This week I have been getting used to driving around L.A. and finding out where all the streets are. On Thursday I made the mistake of going down Santa Monica Blvd. during rush hour. I have never seen traffic so crazy. Traffic was so backed up that even when there was a green light it was impossible to move. Finally I got off Santa Monica onto a less busy street, but to get home I had to get onto another busy street where we hardly moved in five minutes. Everyone is always talking about how bad traffic is in L.A., but really I don't think I realized how bad. I had seen traffic this bad, but only after things like concerts or bad construction. In L.A. it is everyday everywhere.

Impressions of Los Angeles

Rob and I are now in L.A. for the summer. We were planning on leaving Thursday morning but we got back from Salt Lake late on Wenesday and still had a lot to do on Thursday morning. Plus, I still wasn't done with all my papers so I was frantically trying to finish them all since they were due on Wenesday. We finally decided we weren't going to make it out on Thursday and left on Friday about noon. We stopped in Las Vegas for lunch (In & Out Burger) and made it to Los Angeles by 9:00 local time. Rob's aunt was surprised we had made it so fast. No one was home when we got there because they weren't expecting us for another while, so we called their cell phone and they came home.

The whole trip to L.A. we had sunny weather, but as we entered San Bernadino it suddenly became really cloudy and we have not left the clouds since. I guess it is cloudy because of the ocean and will be until the begining of July.

I really like Rob's relatives. In the house there is only Uncle Steve, Aunt Wendy, and their son Woody. They also have a son, Daniel, who is on a mission in Peru but will be coming home this summer. Steve and Wendy have worked really hard to make the extra bedroom look nice for us. The rest of the house is remodled, but the kitchen and the hallway down to our room is not. I think it is really funny that they have this nice house in a pricey neighborhood, but the kitchen is tiny and looks the same as it did in the sixties. They don't ever really cook here, only on Sundays. We even use paper plates and cups instead of real dishes. I must say, it is really nice just to throw away the dirty dishes; it makes for a fast clean up.

On Saturday we took the bus downtown because that is how Robert is going to get to work so we wanted to try it out. The bus drops him off right by his building and it is an express bus so it doesn't take too long. I will driving up to my internship, but it isn't too far either. I don't have to get on the freeway at all. I just take Palm street over to Sawtelle Blvd. and take Sawtelle up to my office building. I think the only hassle might be trying to find a parking spot since I will have to park on the street.

Microcredit

Microcredit is a relatively new form of international aid that helps people from poor countries by giving out small loans to individuals to fund small business. This system started in the 1970s with Muhammed Yunus, an American trained professor of economics, who began giving the first micro-loans in his native Bangladesh. Initial reactions to this enterprise were very negative, with arguments such as the poor would not be able to save or would default on the loans. Today microcredit institutions have overcome those arguments and are now loaning money to five million people. Recently the film Small Fortunes: Microcredit and the Future of Poverty made by BYU’s Center for Economic Self-Reliance aired on PBS and discussed the pros and cons of microcredit.

Businesses funded by microcredit aren’t elaborate by any means, but they allow the receivers of the loans to perhaps double their income. In many cases this takes the receiver from a step away from starvation to a respected and prosperous member of the community. Every month the receiver pays back a portion of the loan with the money they are receiving from their new business.

The loans themselves are small and interest free, so no one is going to make a profit from the business of micro lending, but it has potential to help every poor person who can come up with a business plan. The businesses are things like making market bags out of old cement bags or raising chickens. They are things that don’t require a lot of capital to start, but the people who receive the loans don’t have that little amount of capital to start the business on their own.

This kind of aid is useful because it is not just a handout. The people are required to work hard, give back the money they borrowed, and become self reliant. Surprisingly, almost all the loans do eventually get paid back, even though there is little that the lenders could take away from the receivers if they defaulted on the loan. This system also re-supplies itself so it helps many people, not just a few. The money goes out, comes back in, and can go out again.

Although initially microcredit began by giving loans to both women and men, now about 96% of all the loans at the Grameen Bank and the majority of loans at other institutions are given to women. Lenders found out that women are more likely to actually repay the loans, while the loans to women also have a more direct affect on the family. Women are the primary caregivers to children, so when their situation improves the situation of the children improves as well.

Living Maya

The film “Living Maya” was an enlightening portrayal of what it is like to make an ethnographic documentary. The film was essentially a “making of” for the film itself where audience is able to see how the film makers chose their site, enter the field, and interact with the people they film. I really enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes work that goes into making a very low budget ethnographic film like this. It gave me insight into what really goes on and reminded me of what happens when anthropologists go out into the field to study other cultures.

The film makers had an idea of what kind of village they wanted to film, so they talked with their friends about the villages in the Yucatan. They then spent several weeks driving around to different villages to see which one was the best one. When they found the village they wanted to work in they gathered the men together (the women weren’t allowed to attend the meeting) and asked for permission to make a film there.

This reminded me a lot of when I went to Guatemala. The town that I studied in had BYU students coming there for 10 years. I was a pretty pampered anthropologist in that regard. The people knew what I was there for and were pretty willing to talk to me. The year I went however,the field facilitator put one student in a small, very remote town where no BYU students had ever stayed. Professor Hawkins went up there with the student and asked around if they would allow the student to stay. The family they talked to said that they would have to have a town meeting about it, but he could stay there in the meantime. A few days latter they came up to him and told him that he could stay.

I also really liked the part of the film where the women are talking about the filmmaker in the kitchen, with him right there. The women are speaking in Mayan so the filmmaker doesn’t know what they are saying, but someone went back and translated it and put in subtitles so the audience can tell what is going on. I know this happened to me everyday while I was in Guatemala. I was able to tell from my limited Maya capabilities a little of what was going on, but when I asked they would deny that they were talking about me. So I thought the film was very realistic with what it portrayed.

Hear Yourself

Today I stumbled upon the Inquiry Conference site and found that the audio for the 2006 presentations is now available online. Feeling somewhat curious, but a little aprehensive, I scrolled down the page and clicked on my own presentation. It was a very weird feeling to hear myself giving a presentation. It's not like hearing someone else give a presentation because all the memories come rushing back. Even though I was just listening, I was not an idle bystander. I felt like I was back up there, nervous and frustrated with myself for not being able to get the words out right. (When I got up to give my presentation my words just wouldn't come out. I stumbled and pronounced words wrong.) Listening to myself on audio recording was really just too much for me because I felt like I was giving the presentation again. I couldn't do it, so I stopped listening.

You can listen to the presentation at http://kennedy.byu.edu//events/inquiryconf.php.

Computer Meltdowns

My laptop has been acting really weird latelty. I will turn it on and it will be fine for a while, and then the screen will go black. I figured out that if I shine the desk lamp onto the screen I can see what is there. So the lights go out I guess. Last week Rob opened his laptop and the plastic around the screen broke, so he can't close it anymore. Then yesterday he tried to use his computer and it wouldn't let him open any programs. He opened it in safe mode and was able to move most of his files onto an external harddrive. This afternoon he spent an hour and a half on the phone with Dell customer service, but so far nothing has happened. Luckily, we still have our desktop computer, which besides from being old, is usable. Rob tried to turn it on yesterday and it wasn't turning on. Then I noticed that the screen and the printer had power, so I suggested that he check the power cord on the tower. Yup, it was just unplugged.

View of a Highland Family Compound

Inquiry Conference

This is it. Today is the day of the Inquiry Conference. In three short hours it will all be over. Will I have made it through alive? Well, most likley. I am really nervous about it though, and am doing my best to go through my presentation so I know what I am doing when I get up there. It's just so surreal. It is one of those feelings of "I can't beleive this is finally happening." Like when you get married, and you're like, wow, I'm getting married. This is on a much smaller scale, but feel like, "wow, I'm presenting at the Inquiry Conference." Wish me luck!

An Interview and A Talk

I had my interview with Reading to Kids on Friday. It went really well. I enjoyed talking to Jessica, the program director, and finding a little about how the program works. At the end of the interview she told me that she would like to have me intern with them this summer and I told her I would love to intern. So I just need to send in a writing sample this week so she knows what kind of writer I am. A lot of running a non-profit group involves fundraising and grant writing, so I will be doing a lot of that. I really think right now that working for non-profit groups would be something I would like doing as a career. I have thought about getting an MSW(Masters of Social Work) or an MPA (Masters of Public Administration). In non-profit work everyone does a lot of everything, so someone who is well rounded is something that they look for. I have hope that my experience interning with Reading to Kids will give me a leg up on the competition for non-profit jobs in Utah, since I will have experience in all aspects of non-profit work.

On Thursday I got a call from one of the counselors in the Bishopric. He started out “I know this is short notice so you can say no if you want to…” You always know what’s coming after that. He asked me to talk about receiving personal revelation in sacrament meeting on Sunday. I had things that I had to get done on Saturday, that didn’t get done, but at least I have given a talk in church now and I won’t have to worry about it for another while. Plus, the three day notice didn’t give me very much time to worry about it.

This morning Robert and I woke up at the same time. I started getting ready for church and Robert got a bowl of cereal and went straight to his computer. At about twenty minutes until church started Robert had still not started getting ready, so I told him “You know, we actually have to be on time for church today.” He started to get ready then, and he had to finish putting on his tie and tying his shoes in the car. He says that he puts getting ready of until the last minute because then he wastes as little time as possible getting ready. If he only has ten minutes to get ready, then he will only take ten minutes. If he starts an hour earlier though, it will take him an hour.

My talk went well. The last time I had to talk in church I couldn’t see the clock, so I went over, and then everyone else had to cut their talks short. So this time I made sure I could see the clock and I finished in about ten minutes. I also tried to talk slowly, because I notice that when I get up and talk to people I usually get nervous and talk really fast. Robert said that it didn’t seem like I talked too fast, but that I did say umm too many times. I know I have to work on that. I need to give my presentation to Robert and have him throw a water balloon at me every time I say umm.