Women Empowered
I keep forgetting to post about the book I helped write with Phil! Well, it's a photography book profiling women in indiegnous communities around the world who are doing extraordinary things to rise above their circumstance. Phil worked on the profiles of these women with the help of CARE International, a simply wonderful organization that tries to solve the problem of world poverty by empowering women.My job was to go through his notes on each woman and pick out the things I thought would be the most interesting/important to relate and write the draft of the "blurbs," as we called them (the 100 word descriptions of each woman that accompanied each picture). I also helped write the short context statements and captions on the pictures and found quotes/statistics for other pages. In the end, I served as an editor as well - it's been really interesting to see the book publishing process from start to, well, middle (and soon finish)! The book will come out on March 7, 2007 for International Woman's Day.
It was an incredibly inspirational project...there were times when i'd lose sight of the big picture and get caught up in the tiny details, but then i'd remember that what i was writing/editing was the story of a woman who stopped genital mutilation in her city, or another who stood up to her rapists, or another who ran a clandestine school for girls during the Taliban rule. I'm so grateful i was able to be part of this prject and can't wait for it to come out!
Here's the URL for the book: http://www.philborges.com/book-women.html Enjoy! | posted by Cheryl, 9/25/2006 02:01:00 PM | 0 comments |
International Talk like a Pirate Day!
Here are some pics from a little get together Anna, Mike and I sponsored in honor of "international talk like a pirate day" on Tuesday night! Pictured here are Ben from London (visiting for the week), Mike, Byron, and George...George won for best costume, hands down! To see the transformation, look at the pic from last week about the Pullalup fair and compare...it's not even like the same person! Did someone say Jack Sparrow?
Mike uses some sort of georgian tusk to pour his rum into...always ingenious, that Michael! No wonder they hired him at Microsoft. 
Brian and I looking chill in our costumes...thank you George for lending me the extra hat!
Adrienne making her best "yaaaaaaar!" face and Brian peeking out from behind her hat... 
| posted by Cheryl, 9/21/2006 05:04:00 PM
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Pullalup Fair!
So, this Saturday a big group of my friends from dancing and I went to the Pullalup Fair (along with new friend George)! I had been excited about it for weeks, but upon arrival I was a tad overwhelmed...I had sort of imagined myself at the fair without the thousands of other people, you know? Funny how the brain works. Anyway, once I got over that, we had a smashing time!Pictured below are Anna, Jo and Darla on one of the numerous rides (my favorite was the swings...yeah, i know, i'm such a daredevil!). Second, we have Darla and Brit taking a little break outside the food court. Lastly, we have George making an adorable sheep face!
I was really struck by how many children were taking care of the animals, and how much pride they had in their work. It made me think about a topic I come back to again and again these days: how the feel-good parenting trend had sort of allowed children to become complacent, when if we push them they can become productive members of society (that was an ugly sentence but you know what I mean). I think kids have so much potential, and by trying to protect them from getting "hurt" parents are probably hurting them in the end. When I saw these kids from farms taking care of the animals ( and i know i'm stereotyping and generalizing here ), I was struck by how proud they were of themselves, and how skilled and independent they appeared.
Anyway, that was just my observation from the day...now i'm back to work, but just wanted to share these pics with you all before i could forget!
| posted by Cheryl, 9/18/2006 10:33:00 AM
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25 years on earth...
Happy Birthday to me! Click here to see a video of my "birthday dance" at the Century Ballroom last Sunday...I hope to have another birthday dance tomorrow night as well! They're my favorite; basically, everyone gets in a big circle and the birthday boys/girls come in the middle and the DJ plays one song where the objective is for as many people as possoble to "cut in" on the person dancing without messing up the rhythm of the dance (and while also looking good and being creative). Yay, birthday dances!This birthday has been...wow, overwhelming, in many ways (more than i can name in this format), but mostly just...good. Time is so strange...to think that I've lived a quarter of a century, I'm not sure I can really digest that.
I have to break it down into maneagable parts: I've lived the equivalent of: my 4 years at Vassar about 6 times; 8 times the 3 years I had braces; 40 times the amount of time I've spent living abroad in Australia/Belize. I've played soccer for twice the amount of time I've known how to drive a car (well, not including bumper cars). I've probably read the equivalent of 50 books a year (depending on whether or not you include the "babysitter's club" series, hehe). I've been alive for a little less than 3/4 the amount of time my grandma's been married, and a little more than 1/2 the amount of time email has been ubiquitous...
I love breaking things down like that, but it can get tiresome for the reader so I'll stop now. I don't think birthdays have any big intrinsic meaning, and that's one of the things i love about them - there's no presense beyond the simple objective of celebrating someone's life. For me, birthdays are always a funny thing, because although I see why it makes sense for them to be about "me" (and i often get in silly moods where i get all self-depricating and "me me me"), to be honest, a celebration of my life is really a celebration of everyone whose lives have touched mine...we're inextricably linked.
I suppose that's why we have "birthday parties" - it's not so much about the individual, but the individual in context...or, perhaps we just need an excuse to party. I'm not sure! What I do know is this: there are some things that are not useful to overthink, and birthdays are definitely one of those things!
I'd like to just provide one example of birthday goodness before signing off: it's a longstanding tradition in our family to "give our thanks" every night at the dinner table, meaning that all through my childhood we would go around the table and say something we're thankful for. Whenever it's someone's birthday, we say something we're grateful for about the person who's birthday it is.
2 weekends ago, my sister and her husband are in town from Spokane (where she's finishing senior year and he's working at Starbucks); we had a family waffle breakfast this morning and, to my surprise, we decided to do the birthday thanks in advance!
There's so much to say, but i'll just focus on one thing; my dad said that he's thankful for my "irreverent" sense of humor (he's always been my #1 fan, first to laugh at my jokes or observations on life). He went on a big of a tangent about how I've been a bit anxious the past couple years, trying to figure out what to do with my life, etc and have taken myself a bit too seriously at times; he said he's really grateful that I've mellowed out and lightened up a bit, which has allowed my innately irreverent personality/humor come through.
It made me think about where i was last summer, and two summers ago (right after college), when i kept on saying, "what am i going to DO with my life?" etc...the big difference now, interestingly, ISN"T that I've found an answer; I'm far from it, as always! The difference is that I'm involved in activities that preclude me from even asking the question...does that make sense? It reminds me of some existential stuff I read in high school, about how people find their meaning through involvement in projects outside themselves...
Anyway, i'm happy for where I am, AND of course grateful as always for my amazing family. And, after a week at the cabin with some awesome friends, I have to say that I'm just full to the brim with good vibes right now...I have such a solid base in my pre-existing friend/family circle, yet have been exposed to some new faces lately that make me excited about the future as well.
Well, as much fun as it is to write about myself, I hope I find something else to write about soon - I'm afraid this blog is becoming a bit too solipsistic! Cheers to my friends, family, etc. Cheers to life. I'm so freaking lucky.
| posted by Cheryl, 9/12/2006 03:14:00 PM | 0 comments |
Birthday weekend!
I can't write much at the moment, just wanted to put up a few pictures from my birthday weekend! The one of Anna and I is from the Century Ballroom last Wednesday when we showed up wearing the same thing...the second is of Alicia and Dinh at our family cabin on the Oregon Coast where I had a few friends over to celebrate the weekend...the last is from a GORGEOUS campfire we had on Saturday night where we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores! I took it on "illustration mode" with my new Casio Z750 digital camera....
| posted by Cheryl, 9/11/2006 04:23:00 PM
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