Come to the Rescue; Invisible Children

Recently I have been finding more and more information out about Joseph Kony. For those of you not familiar with Kony, he is the head of the LRA (Lord's Resistant Army) in Uganda who has abducted over 20,000 children since the violence began back in 1987 (my birth year). That means each week of my life since I was born on February 14, 1987, about 18 children have been abducted and engaged into violent campaign.

The LRA is a self-proclaimed Christian group that are fighting for a biblical based established of government. They want the laws to be govern through the Ten Commandments, which makes complete sense considering that they are going around murdering innocent people...and forcing children to carrying guns...


Every night, children, priests, and volunteers from outlaying villages gather to hopefully prevent children from being kidnapped and taken by the LRA.

After much hard work, in August of 2006, the Uganda government and LRA agreed to peace talks. Unfortunately, this broke off by January of 2007. Joseph Kony and the LRA still manage to rally children and continue violence.


This Saturday, April 25th, I will be "abducted" in Cardiff, Wales, along with thousands of participants in 100 cities across the world. We will stay in Cardiff writing letters, creating art projects, and seeking out media attention in an effort to petition the US, European, Canadian, Mexican, and Australian governments to develop a strategy and support existing efforts to rescue Kony's child soldiers. I will stay "abducted" at the site until I am "rescued" - this requires a certain amount of media coverage as well as the attendance of a celebrity or political leaders.



















If you are interested in learning more about this effort and have 36 minutes to spare, watch this touching documentary about three guys from California who have dedicated their lives to the effort. Invisible Children presents





http://therescue.invisiblechildren.com/en/#/watch/

Sorry, No Tonsils for Show & Tale This Time

Ever since 2nd grade, when Emily Bisbee brought her tonsils in a jar for Show & Tale, I always wanted to get mine taken out too, keep them on my book shelf next to my trophies and name them something like Franklin and Maurice. But nevertheless, it was never deemed necessary, and I am sitting here today with tonsils so swollen that every time I swallow I quince up holding my throat, making an Asian face from the sharp knife jabs in the back of my throat.
But there is a plus side. I am finally able to RELAX and settle down after a month of traveling and a week of getting my life back together in Swansea. And I have a lot to catch up on. The past month I have been doing a lot of traveling. My parents came for one memorable, crazy funny week, I stayed another week in London with my dear friend Gloria, and spent the rest of my time exploring England and Italy. From kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland to almost being "under arrest" in the G-20 protest in London, I experienced some crazy things. Like being caught in the middle of an Earthquake in Rome, to almost being arrested in Florence, and almost not being let back in the UK!

I now have time to lay in bed and catch up on my adventures. Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to try to fill in the gaps of my last month.

Oh! And today I experienced the magic of a Universal Health Care System for the first time! I went to the health center on campus, waited for a mere 30 minutes reading an old British Gossip magazine from January, learning that the majority of celebrity coverage had to do with Americans, got treated and handed a prescription, in which I went to the pharmacy, picked up my antibiotic, and didn't have to pay a dime for it. It was very comforting.

Irish Jig Offs Exhist...do leprechauns?

Although I never found a leprechaun, spending St. Patrick's Day in Dublin compares to nothing I have done so far living in the UK.

Hostel- Katie and I arrived around 6pm on the 16th and checked in to our funky little hostel, Litton Lane, in the heart of the city center of Dublin. The hostel was previously the recording and rehearsal studio for Van Morrison, U2, The Cranberries, and more, and had murals on the walls of these artists. The hostel window was also big enough to enjoy a cup of coffee on while overlooking the city.

Night Life- Katie was exhausted from the 13 hours of traveling and passed out, but I was too anxious being in Dublin so hit the streets solo style, and stopped in a Starbucks to read up on some hot spots for night life.

The Globe- Seemed to be a pretty spacious bar, minus that fact that it was full with two different crowds...young locals enjoying pints, coffee, free WiFi, tapas, newspapers, and live jazz....and then the St. Patty's tourists taking pictures and wearing green. Once it started to get later, the bar merged with club RiRi and was slammin' so I left.

The George- A really nice dance bar with a young crowd and DJs. There were statues of angels (which was pretty ironic considering it was a gay club) and greek-lookin' gods. There were chandeliers throughout the whole bar and upstairs there was a wrap around balcony overlooking the dance floor. Upstairs Also, off to the side a lounge with big red couches and a huge gold gaudy mirror the size of the wall. The club was really loud so I head outside to the back brick patio (designated smoking) and chatted up some local Dubliner's who describe St. Patrick's day "as just another day" and one of the girls claimed that she didn't celebrate, and that the only thing she did to celebrate was to drink, "but i do that everyday" she laughed. i then met a new friend drew, who of course was from America (because for whatever reasons Americans always gravitate towards each other)

St. Patrick's Day Parade- There couldn't have been better weather on St. Patrick's Day, as the sun-drenched Dublin streets were being filled with thousands of others (a reported 675,000...mostly tourists) all with the same thing in mind (securing a good spot to watch the parade). However, we were lucky enough to get almost all the way to the front (behind three guys with obnoxiously tall leprechaun hats). People were climbing trees, lamp posts, and statues to get the best view. Others watched from street windows.
After waiting for a painful two hours the parade began! The theme seemed to be surrealistic, which was right up my fantasy-pan's labrynth alley. From upside floating animals, to dancing butterflies, hippies, peacocks, creatures, and space-monkeys, the parade was widely entertaining but lacked somewhat of an Irish feel, minus a couple of floats. The parade was a lot more Global than I thought, with groups from Iceland, Germany, and high school bands from America. Overall, the parade was very creative and unique and set the day up nice for a pint of guinness (or two...or ten).
I have way more to say about Dublin, but I am staying busy and hope to continue to write more. Was in London the last couple of days with the rents and uncle and now am back in Swansea with them.

And to top it all off, Katie, her dad, Drew, and drank Guinness at a self-serve bar, and witnessed a dance off (irish jig-off). Check out the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnQNR21QJDU

Pancakes are for Fat People

Last week I got to experience Pancake Day (or Fat Tuesday if you will) the U.K. way. The proper name is Shrove Tuesday and is celebrated in Ireland and the U.K. to mark the beginning of the Christian season of fasting and prayer called Lent. The day is associated with the eating of fatty foods (like pancakes with chocolate on it). The point used to be for people to use up ingredients such as fat and eggs (which was traditionally restricted during Lent). And although I don't consider myself to be a Christian, I definitely view this as an opportunity to grow spiritually and to push myself to boundaries I have yet to reach (and to eat a lot of pancakes the day before). So, I have decided to give up soda pop. [Mm-hmm, soda pop, watch it fizz and pop The clock is tickin' and we can't stop (can't stop now)]

So, first I went to my friend Mike's for homemade pancakes and soon realized that these pancakes were very different than the pancakes I was used to back home. The pancakes here seemed to be bigger, but flatter, and a lot sweeter and drenched in chocolate or golden syrup. Then, later that night, my friend Tom from upstairs made Katie and me some pancakes which he bragged would be "the best pancakes in the world." And I have to admit they were pretty dang good. He even taught me how to flip the pancakes high in the air (it's all in the wrist) and by the end of the night I had deemed myself Jeph the Chef. Wockatow!