A Great Illustration of Self Reliance

    I wanted to share something that a friend of mine wrote. Nephi Henry is in Dharamsala, India doing a field study for anthropology. His blog, Indiana 2 India, has a lot of great pictures and journal entries that he has posted. One in particular really touched me. In his latest entry he wrote about an experience with two young beggars.

"Finally, beggars. I think they know to come to McLeod Ganj because of all the Western travellers here, and the influx of these visitors is probably constant enough that many of the panhandlers probably do okay. After wrestling with the beggar question for a few weeks I've decided, thanks to Ben our local Great Mind, that I'm going to give to one beggar a day. And today I had already given when two adolescent boys, Indians, approached me and held out very dirty hands. Now this is always a very uncomfortable situation, but I knew that I meant the very best in telling myself I would make it a point to give to someone each and every day, and I felt at ease telling these kids that I was sorry, but I couldn't today. Tomorrow was a possibility, but not today. They wouldn't take no for an answer, as is the practice among Indians (and not just beggars, I've found - it's something cultural), and came up to sit next to me on the steps where I was taking some notes on my observations. They watched me write for a while and periodically pressed me to give them some money, meeting my refusal each time. There was some obvious disagreement between them as to what they should do next, and one of them just stayed seated next to me while I wrote as the other went back into the narrow street in front of us to continue begging. He did so for a while, to no avail until the monotony was broken by a tourist-looking guy who gave the boy two sticks of gum, one for him and one for his friend whom the tourist saw sitting next to me. The kid came from the street already popping his share of the booty into his mouth and handed my companion the other piece. I looked at the kid and said, "Don't chew that." He was puzzled. I put my fingers together to my lips (meaning 'food' or 'eating' in India) and then shook a slightly raised hand, palm showing, meaning 'no'. "Don't chew that." He didn't. He sat there and pondered over his earnings, toying with the wrapper. I continued. "You can sell it. Sell. Give gum to someone for money," and I pointed to the dozen-or-so people passing by. "Sell it." He looked confused, maybe understanding but hesitating nonetheless. I reached into my pocket and just hoped as hard as I could that there would be a rupee in there. There was. I pulled the coin out and showed it to him. "Here," I said. "I'll buy it." He understood immediately and quickly put the gum into my hand, taking the money from my fingers.

"When he did that I saw, just for a second, a real life in his eyes that hadn't been there before. They got really wide and just lit up. Maybe he was seeing this situation in a way he'd never seen it before. Or maybe he was just excited to have some money. Either way, I think begging - when done with the mentality that I, the beggar, am purely a victim with no chioce or agency or ownership or responsibility in what I do about this situation - can really deaden the humanity inside a person. Something about this interaction between the boy and me had was felt like an awakening effect on the kid - I could actually see it happen, just in a flash like that. (Most of the Tibetans I've seen begging, by the way, have somehow escaped that. They seem awfully at peace with what's going on in their lives - something that's surprised and puzzled and relieved me a bit these past two days.)

"I don't think I'm any kind of hero for doing this, but it felt like it was at least a creative and potentially productive alternative to just saying 'no', which is all I had been able to do before. And seeing that kid's eyes widen and light up like they did... I wonder what could come out of this. Something really good, maybe - like maybe he learned something important. Or maybe even something really bad, like that they should steal stuff now and try to sell it themselves. In any case, I hope you'll agree that it was worth a shot."

    I do think Nephi is a hero for doing this. When tourists, or even charities, give to the poor it creates a dependance in those people. They come to expect free hand outs when thy are in need and never learn to work for themselves, which is an essential piece of the puzzle of life. The Lord has commanded us to provide for ourselves: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Genesis 3:19) and "if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thess. 3:10).
    Not only does dependance develop, but also, as Nephi put it, the humanity inside a person is destroyed. A sense of helplesness and condemnation to a life of begging grows. It is absolutely untrue that anyone is consigned to a life of sorrow and helplessness. "Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many things of their own free will... For the power is in them" (D&C 58:27-28). "I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork... For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves" (D&C 104:14, 17).

    Thank you, Nephi, for a great illustration of the principle of self-reliance.

Home, Sweet Home

    Jones and I have finally moved into our "permanent" residence. It is nice to have a place of our own, although we are still working on getting everything we need. Over the past two weeks, we have packed and unpacked our bags more than 5 times. We stayed in a hotel two days, and in the temple housing for two days.

    At this very moment I am waiting in our apartment as our new armoire is being put together. Later today we will go to the supermarket to buy soap, sponges, trash cans, pillows, and more.

    The manager of the Employment Center, Irajá, took us out on Monday to look at a couple of available apartments. It was hard to decide where we wanted to live. The first apartment is close to the beach and ten minutes from the employment center. It is a decent, two-bedroom apartment, for the most part better than any place either of us had stayed in while in the mission field. It is also only a couple of blocks away from a large supermarket.
    The second one is actually in a hotel. Each room in the hotel is owned privately, so some people rent it as an apartment and others rent it as a hotel room. It was very nice, very clean, and had good security. It also had a pool, fitness room, and business center with computers and high speed internet. It was a little smaller and had only one bedroom, but the couch in the living room was a hide-a-way. It is on the same block as the employment center and ten minutes away from the beach. But it is in more of a commercial area.
    We thought long and hard and weighed the options. Both apartments were the same rent. We liked the idea of being close to the office, having internet in the apartment, and being in such a nice place. But we ended up deciding on the first apartment close to the beach because we had really planned on living in the culture rather than being tourists. Besides, it will be good for me to get away from the internet for a while; I'm too spoiled! ;-)

    Moving into the apartment has given me the chance to reflect on some other differences in our cultures. One of the most obvious things that has I have long been accustomed to is that very few houses in Brazil have carpet. This is most likely because of the humidity, which would explain why the houses that have carpet always have air conditioning also. It makes for easy clean-up of spills and washing the floor is easy because you just pour water all over the place, scrub, and sweep it over to a drain with a big squeegee.

    It is hard for me to describe the general differences without saying that it is just a lower standard of quality. That isn't meant as a criticism or a statement that should be understood as "the U.S. is better." We Americans (and English, and maybe even Spanish and Italians) have set a higher standard of quality for ourselves. That has it's positive and negative points. It makes for longer lasting, more aesthetically pleasing furniture. On the other hand, the Brazilian standard is more economical and practical. I mean, who really needs a heavy, hand-carved, oak dining room set when a light-weight, plain wood set serves just as well?

    Another interesting thing is that the bathroom has a little mini-shower right next to the toilet. What for? You guessed it: As Crocodile Dundee said so eloquently, "To clean the back side." Personally, I have no idea how to use it, but Jones loves it. I guess learning how to use it would save me the trouble of remembering to put the toilet paper in the trash can, rather than in the toilet.

My First CASP

    Last night, Jones and I began to teach our first complete Curso de Auto-Suficiência Profissional (Career Workshop in Portuguese). We have taught parts of the Career Workshop in English, and Jones taught a part of it in Portuguese, but this will be our first group all on our own.

    I was very nervous and unsure of whether I was prepared. Jones and I said a prayer together before beginning the course and that helped me feel better, and it actually went really well.

    Jones began with an introduction to the course, and I then guided them through the first two activities, which are the Coat of Arms and Skills List. (These are my two favorite parts of the workshop so far.) Jones then took over to finish up the first section. Unfortunately, we were already running out of time. Because of the work schedules here we didn't start until 7 p.m. We have to finish by 9:30 p.m. so that everyone can catch the bus and because it can be dangerous to walk through the city in the late evening.

    What I learned from teaching this first class is that the time goes by way too fast! We had thirteen students and we really try to help all of them finish each part of the activities, but there is always someone who lags behind. We also forgot to do some of the most important things in the beginning, such as establishing the rules of the course and explaining the Cycle of Self-Reliance. We learn as we go!

Culture Shock

    Jones and I have spent one full day in Recife, Brazil. I am surprised at how quickly I have begun to experience what is referred to as culture shock. In reality I don't feel that it's shock, because I've been expecting it. I would prefer to refer to it as a cultural adjustment.
    Some may be surprised that I say I have been expecting it; after all, I did live in Brazil for two years, shouldn't I be pretty well accustomed to the culture? Well, yes and no. By the time I left Brazil after serving a mission for two years, I was very well adapted. In fact, I felt strange returning home and found some things were peculiar and unfamiliar in the United States. The fact is that we forget a lot of the small things that make a culture after a while. I have already forgotten some of the nuances of Brazil and am rediscovering them.
    The other factor to my cultural adjustment is that I am in a completely different region of the country where there are different nuances and the language is very different. S?o Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, is the center of most large businesses, and is the central immigration hub. Hence, the culture seems to lean towards sophistication and propriety. Recife, on the other hand, is closer to the agricultural portion of Brazil and is also a tourist city. Their language contains more slang, idiomatic expression, short, oft-repeated phrases of agreement or complaint. It is also higher in tone and has a much quicker pace. It really takes some getting used to. I would equate the difference to a Californian in New York.

    I have been thinking a lot about this cultural adjustment. My friend, Nephi, is doing a field study in India and has mentioned a lot of the same phenomena on his blog. (I highly recommend a visit to his blog. His entries are longer, but he does an incredible job of describing his experieces.) He has been experiencing many of the same things.
    After so much thinking, I have come up with somewhat of a hypothesis that describes what I feel is the cause of the adjustment, and it has a lot to do with the language. While in the U.S. I would confidently say that I am fluent in Portuguese. I would change that slightly now, and say that I was fluent in Portuguese and hope to be again very soon. I, again, am very self-effacing and require a lot to be satisfied with myself, but I have been struggling with the language. Most of it is the difference in the accent and the lack of practice over the past two and a half years.
    My tongue is ready, and my brain knows what I want to say, but whatever part of the cerebral cortex that deals with other languages is having trouble pushing the information through to the frontal lobe that deals with the motor control of the mouth. I find myself having to stop mid-sentence to find where I am again.
    The fact that I am unfamiliar with the accent has the greatest affect, in my opinion. I don't know if there is any scientific research that will back me up, but I'd like to explain a little theory that I have tentatively entitled "Stage Presence of the Mind" (or of the subconscious). It seems to me that our feeling of presence, recognizing what is around us, depends upon many small signals or triggers. After a while we become familiar with those signals and don't notice them. Take, for instance, the smell of your house. I remember that, when I was young, I would go into the house of my best friend and notice a particular smell. I once mentioned this to him, in my childhood innocence, that his house smelled different. He responded by telling me that I was wrong, it was my house that smelled different. Of course we were both right. Each house had a different smell, but we became oblivious to it after being exposed to it for so long. But we recognize immediately when there is a change. As soon as those common signals are changed, we become unfamiliar with our surroundings and lose that sense of presence and feeling of comfort.
    Other examples would be the sounds around our house or work place, the ringtone of the phone, the types of cars on the road, the language spoken around us, etc. I had never realized how many things there are until paying attention to the process of culture shock. Some of the signals that I had become used to in the US that are different here are the following:
?The cars in Brazil are small. It's very different to see small cars zipping back and forth across the road, or even driving straight down the line of two lanes.
?There are no plugs in the sinks. This really threw me off guard when I went to shave one morning. How was I to shave without a sink full of water?!
?The language. Try to pay attention to how many bits of information you acquire just by eavesdropping. Where you are, what time it is, where you're going, who the people you're with are, etc. etc. etc. Because I have to put forth an extra effort to understand the language, I miss all of this added information that is picked up passively.
    I think that it is this lack of familiarity that really gets to us. We have to be more alert and spend more energy to understand even just a little bit of what's going on. After a while it gets tiring and we just want to feel like we know what is going on, we want that comfort of being familiar with our surroundings.
    While discussing this with my companion tonight, I came up with another analogy. To put it simply, cultural adjustment is like dancing to the beat of a different drummer. You expect a certain rythm, and for a while it seems to be similar, but then there's a small change that throws you off. You just have to regain the rythm and keep going, but it gets to be tiresome after a while.

    Well, that's enough of my theorizing. I hope it makes at least a little bit of sense.

Chegamos a Recife

    After a grueling gauntlet of three flights, my companion and I arrived safely in Recife and are staying the night in a very nice hotel across the street from the beach. Yes, I mean that literally. There is only a three lane street between us and the Brazilian beach! Here's proof!

    We flew from Salt Lake City to Dallas, TX Saturday afternoon. Then we boarded a flight to S?o Paulo which took about 10 hours. From S?o Paulo we took a three hour flight to Recife, Pernambuco. I have difficulty sleeping while travelling, whether by car, plane, whatever. I would say that I got about 1.5 hours of decent rest since Friday night (when I only slept 6 hours). I'm feeling a bit strange right now: every once in a while I feel dizzy (don't read that Mom), but I'm ok. It's just being tired and I want to get over the jet lag quickly so I'm going to stay up until about 9:00 p.m. local time. (We're four hours ahead of San Diego). For now, Nathan and I are just hanging out in the hotel resting.

    I ordered room service tonight. I think that's the first time I've ordered it in my life, although I delivered enough room service while I worked at the DoubleTree Hotel.
    Today was also the first day I've missed church since I was baptized, except maybe for illness - but I can't think of any specific instances when I missed church because of illness. I really don't like travelling on Sunday, but there was nothing I could do about it.

    I will let you know now that I will begin referring to my companion as Jones. We both have the same name, and it is difficult for Brazilians to say it, so we're trying to do everything we can to simplify. His friends call him Jones for some reason, so we'll start calling him that too.

    So, Jones and I were taken by Iraj? Soares through the city for a short drive. We stopped by the office we will be working in and also the Recife temple. I was astonished at how beautiful it is, even though it is much smaller to all of the other temples I've been to. I was able to get one or two good pictures of it, but I am sure I will be there again to get some better ones.

    Our plans for this week include finding an apartment, watching a session of the Career Workshop, homework, and preparing to teach the workshop next week. I'm so excited!

Afterthoughts

    It is now 6:45 Central Time. I am sitting in the impressive Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport waiting at gate D-36 for my flight to S?o Paulo. The frequency of Portuguese words that I hear has increased significantly. On the way to Dallas I sat next to a lady who lives in Santo Amaro, one of the areas I served in while on a mission.

    Looking back on this week of training in Salt Lake City I feel I have learned a lot and overcome some challenges. Nathan and I were able to spend some time with a Career Workshop trainer who also speaks Portuguese, albeit somewhat rusty. The trainers have all been very supportive and love to tell us how great they think we are. I feel that I have a lot to improve upon and hope to have some time to prepare for the first workshop that we will teach. I am more and more excited to get to Brazil and begin teaching.

    The one regret I have after this week is having eaten too much. Mimi, the lady in charge of the whole training process, has been overly generous with providing food for us each day at lunch and dinner. I shamelessly took advantage of it, of course. Last night was a great finale to a week of great eating as we all went to Chilli's and had one last Mexican/American meal. We ordered bottomless chips and salsa and boneless buffalo wings for appetizers. I had the Monterrey Chicken with Cheese Taquitos. Then... I noticed the dessert menu. I couldn't resist (and didn't even try to) the paradisiacal chocolate chip cookie with walnuts under a large scoop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate and caramel topping. It was incredible! Unfortunately, I was so delirious with gastric pleasure that I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'm sure the pictures I have posted so far will illustrate the spectacular suppers supplied.

    At the end of our last training session we received a visit from Jan Van Norman who is in charge of international programs at BYU. Nathan and I were excited to see him because he brought our Passports with our Visas. We had been very worried that we would not receive them in time.

Self-Employment Fun!

    Today was very enjoyable for me. We went over the self-employment workshop, which is similar to the Career Workshop but with a different focus. This supplemental workshop has not been revised to perfection but is still in it's developmental phase.
    For the self-employment workshop we each thought of a small business that we would like to start or that someone in the country we are going to might want to start. There were some really good ideas. I, of course, chose a chiropractic clinic since that is what I am studying to do.
    We began by deciding why we would have that business, what type of work we would be doing day to day, and who the targeted customers would be. We then developed some questions to use for market research. We also developed value statements to use in "elevator pitches", or short, concise descriptions of our business plan that would attract attention. Here are my items:

What is the business you want to start?
    A chiropractic clinic.

Why would you start this business?
    To help people and provide a better form of chiropractic care.

Describe the nature of the work.
    Provide traditional chiropractic care such as spinal adjustments. Instruct the patients in principles of nutrition, exercise, and ergonomic techniques to prevent injury and improve quality of life.

Who would your customers be?
    Families and individuals who want to improve their quality of life.

Elevator Pitch
    My name is Nathan Cashion. I provide integrated chiropractic healthcare. Chiropractic has improved upon traditional medicine by treating the causes of pain rather than just treating the symptoms. I believe that by incorporating proven chiropractic techniques, exercise activities, good nutrition principles, and other natural treatments I can help patients to prevent the causes of pain. Families and individuals can therefore enjoy a much higher quality of life. Why don't you come into the clinic for a free consultation?

    What was so fun about the self-employment workshop was that it helped me to see how many possibilities there are for each idea. In groups we would discuss ideas and brainstorm how they could become reality. One member of the group had a great idea for a electronic translation device that would connect you to a live translator whenever you needed help. As we shared some ideas it was amazing to me how quickly new ideas would develop.
    I think I was the only member of our group who actually enjoyed the self-employment workshop better than the Career Workshop. One reason for this may be that the Career Workshop is much more personal; it deals with an individual's skills and abilities rather than the possibilities of marketing a product or service. I still have yet to come up with more than one Power Statement from the second part of the Career Workshop.

(These business ideas should be considered intellectual property of the participants of the Internship. Please do not use them for your own benefit.)

    I have been impressed by the techniques employed in the workshops. We try to provide numerous activities that help the participants to interact with others and practice the skills they are learning. I think any teacher would agree that active participation is key to learning. One motto of the trainers is H3 which refers to teaching to the Heart, Head, and Hand. Doing so involves three key learning centers of the human being.
Here is an example of some of the activities and the boredom experienced momentarily on the second to last day of training.

Briefly - Today's Pictures

Here is a link of some pictures I took today while at the Church Office Building and Temple Square. Also some pictures of dinner at Buca di Beppo's.
Temple Square Photos

First Days of Training

    Monday was the first day of training for the ERS Internship, and boy, it was intense. There are fourteen BYU students and one elderly couple. We will be going throughout the world to Budapest, Hungary; the Czech Republic; La Paz, Bolivia; Chile; Brazil; and Austria.
    Our training has consisted of learning the history of the Church Welfare System, discussing the doctrinal foundation for the career workshop program, and actually participating in the Career Workshop. The following are some of my thoughts and notes from the past two days.

Day One
    Spent half the day discussing the history and background of the Career Workshop and Welfare program of the Church. This can mostly be summed up in the oft-told story with the moral, "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime." We avoid just giving money, food, supplies, etc. to the people who are needy. This creates a dependance and even an expectance of receiving help. Our purpose is to help the people to become self reliant so that when we go away, they can continue to prosper.

Coat of Arms Activity
    The Career Workshop begins with filling out a Coat of Arms that represents who you are. (You can download a copy of it here.) Participants fill out each of six cells with information about themselves. For me, the most difficult were the five positive words that describe you, three accomplishments, and your educational achievements. I especially have had difficulty thinking of the latter.
    I suppose that, in some ways, this workshop is similar to a visit to the psychiatrist or a support group. It requires a lot of self introspection and you are constantly outside of your comfort zone. You must put yourself (and your innermost feelings, values, and goals) out in the open.

Skills List
    The achievements listed on the Coat of Arms are then used to discover the skills that you have, which are later applied to your career goals. This also was very difficult for me. As a self-effacing, self-critical, seldomly-satisfied person, I find it very hard to accept that I have skills that are valuable and which can allow me to accomplish other great things.
    After a great deal of pondering, I've come through the following thought process. Many people are reluctant to convey their own skills because of society's disapproval of boasting and the like, but in reality what we are asking the participants to do is to truthfully express their abilities. I don't feel that this was what made it tough for me. I actually don't believe that the skills I have are valuable and/or applicable to other areas because I have very few specific examples of how I have employed those skills.
    When we try to show that these skills are applicable to other activities, I am doubtful because I have rarely done so. I easily discredit it because I can think of many other accomplishments which would utilize that same skill that I have not yet done. This leads me to the realization that what I need to do to believe is to try new things that would require a skill that I have. By succeeding in other areas I will prove to myself that these things are true.

Day Two
    Because of a lack of time I will briefly explain that today we modeled a few more activities from the workshop and then were given the chance to teach them ourselves. This again was very challenging because we were required to get up in front of the other interns and trainers and teach them something that they are very familiar with. I was hesitant and reluctant to do it at first, but by the end of the day I was frustrated because I only got to practice once. After the initial attempt, receiving feedback, and being able to go over it in my mind I had many ideas that I thought would be good to try. Unfortunately I was not able to test them out because we ran out of time.
    I look forward to practicing again even though it makes me so uncomfortable.

Here are some pictures from today:

A Week in San Diego

    I spent the week in San Diego and had a wonderful time.
    One of the best parts of being home was having the time to exercise each day. I ran for about half an hour and spent some time working out on my Dad's Cross-Bow.

    I loved visiting the Young Single Adult branch in Poway and seeing so many of my friends who warmly welcomed me home. Being able to attend FHE and Institute was also a special treat.
    On Thursday I went shopping for a new digital camera. I didn't have much desire to get a really good one; I really just want one to be able to put pictures on this blog and I may even leave it in Brazil with a former companion of mine. After hours of going back and forth between Fry's, Staples, Office Depot, and CompUSA, and meticulously noting the differences in tech specs and feel, I ended up buying one at Circuit City. I bought the Nikon CoolPix L4. It's small, light, reasonably priced, and pretty good quality.
    Later Thursday night I went shopping at Mervyn's with my mom and we found all of the clothes that I needed. Two more shirts, three pairs of Braggi pants, and two belts.

    On Friday morning I had breakfast at The Hamburger Factory in Poway with my parents. I spent the day in my mom's classroom at Mt. Carmel High School. I talked to the students about Brazil, taught them some Portuguese, and then did an activity from the Career Workshops I will be doing in Brazil. I showed them how they could use it to apply for scholarships. It was challenging to get their teenage brains interested, but was a good experience in the end. I certainly have a better appreciation of what my mom does everyday!
    After teaching, I spent the afternoon with Nate and Julia, who I used to babysit. It was so fun to see how much they have grown up. Nate sure has a good arm for football!

    Saturday morning I finally got to spend some time with my brother Andy while we had breakfast at the Original Pancake House with Mom. I had my traditional German pancake and finished it before my mom finished her single strawberry crepe. :-)

    I had lunch with Seth Spagnolo and his new friend, Elise, at the Mongolian Grill. It was great.

I left for Provo in the evening and was able to see my girlfriend, Shannon, briefly in the evening.

Well, that's enough personal stuff for now. Most of what I post from now on will have to do with the internship.

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