The “4th of July” on the “5th of November”

So little did I know that it would be the 4th of July on the 5th of November… Most Americans are at least semi-familiar with the film “V for Vendetta”… I remember watching it with some of my college friends during my freshman year at VCU’s in West Grace… It wasn’t quite to my taste (I remember it being quite creepy), but there was plenty of greasy Chinese food and laughter to go lighten the mood… Haha It was the story of the “Gunpowder Plot” to blow up Parliament on the 5th of November… I had no idea then, that the anniversary of the 5th of November was actually quite a celebration in modern-day England!

In Oxford, the 5th of November was reigned in by massive bonfires, never-ending random firework shows, and burn 25ft effigies of Guy Fawkes (one of the more infamous “Gunpowder Plot” conspirators… I actually have to admit I feel bad for the poor guy, because more than 400 years after his failed attempt to destroy Parliament and dethrone the King, he is still being ritualistically burned every year in celebration… I mean to the guy’s credit he was put to death after the whole affair 400 years ago; don’t you think he deserves some peace already… Haha :)

But in England it’s quite the affair. The celebrations have continued all weekend… Last night rather than heading to yet another large bonfire, I decided to try out the Asian Food Festival with some friends for a little reprieve from Guy Fawkes and his effigy… It was delicious food and turned out to be a pretty good deal for a yummy meal! As we were leaving we actually stumbled onto an amazing fireworks show… (I swear they were everywhere!)

This afternoon, I am happy to report that after 2 days the burning effigies seem to have finally all been put to rest for another year… Haha It was a gorgeous crisp autumn day this afternoon, so I took another long bike ride… I managed to get myself thoroughly lost in the Jericho district, and then downtown near the train-station, before finally stumbling across the Oxford rowing docks… It actually turned out to be kind of a neat little excursion… I hadn’t seen the infamous “rowing practices” that everyone seems to attend religiously around here… It was a very quintessential Oxford  moment… Haha

 

Well that’s all for now… I’m off to a friends housewarming party and then most likely in for a quiet night at home reading! :)

With Love from Oxford… –Mary Elizabeth

Gaining a Little Perspective…

So I’m back at the beginning of my “mid-week” weekend… One more week and one more tutorial essay behind me… Yay! I’m now half way through with Michaelmas Term! I’ve really come to enjoy the tutorial essays… But this week’s topic, which I only handed in the essay for today, actually got underneath my skin a little more than usual… And I think it was because, for the first time in my graduate studies here at Oxford, it was a medical anthropology topic that I could personally relate to my own experiences abroad…

This week I studied ‘structural violence'… Yeah, I know what your thinking… More academic jargon… Well trust me, I can relate… As of last Friday the term meant nothing more to me than it probably does to you… But after a weekend spent buried in reading, and reflecting while desperately trying to find the words to write (what turned out to be a rather difficult tutorial topic prompt on under-nutrition and infant feeding) it is finally sinking in…

Structural violence (without going into what I assure you are piles of books on the topic) is essentially an academic theory that states that we (you and I and everyone born to a life of economic and political privilege) have an interest in promoting inequality in the world. Your first reaction, like mine was, may be defensiveness… And then I kept reading…

Time and time again I have come back to the same meaningless, “beat your head against a wall” conclusion when I come home from another medical trip abroad… No matter how hard I try, I have never been able to understand why I was born rich. I don’t understand why I was born white, or to well-educated parent’s who loved me and had enough food to feed me. It seems so unfair and pointless to imagine that such random occurrences are left to fate or the Gods. But what has lingered with me this week, is that structural violence says they aren’t random... That’s not “just luck” or “just the way the world is”… Life isn’t “just naturally unfair” because some kids like me get to pursue the education of their dreams while others die before the age of 5 of malnutrition… That is what is so haunting to realize.

The world wasn’t just made this way. We made it this way. Structural violence does point the blame. Not at individuals (so we can all stop trying to dodge the bullet we’re all so defensive about), but as a collective society. As a society that allows and even promotes inequality by buying cheap goods at Walmart that are made off the backs of impoverished people in sweat shops (and yes, I say this in full humility as someone who has greatly missed having a Walmart down the street )… We do it by arguing semantics when people are dying, by turning the TV off when we see something a little too upsetting (but it’s okay to let our children watch rated R movies, listen to racist/sexist music, and see sexy TV ads with half-naked, exploited women on them, right?)… We distance ourselves from “them.” The others… Those primitive, dirty, or “exotic” people… Or perhaps even worse, we romanticize their images as the quintessential “starving kid in Africa” or the “poor Haitian flood-victim”…

The reality of their lives is nothing more than an image, a foreign concept we can’t relate to. And I find myself in the same frustration that I always have when I return home from abroad. How do you describe a lived reality that is so desperate and so different from that of your own? How do you make the people you love (your friends, families, and maybe even strangers) understand how high the stakes really are? How do you explain suffering so extreme that witnessing it changes your life, and causes you to put off medical school and suddenly pursue a degree in Medical Anthropology? (Maybe my own personal life-twists now make a little more sense in context? Haha)

When I read about structural violence this week, it was not merely a distant academic theory. It was reality. It was the lived experience of the men, women, and children whose images I can’t erase from my own memory. And I don’t know how to make other people see that. I don’t know how to change a system of blatant human cruelty and inequality that is so ingrained.

And so I write, even though I’ve been writing all week… And I feel a sudden sympathy for all the human beings who have come before me, and also felt the burden of such realizations… I admire the writers, and activists, and poets, and physicians, and martyrs who have had the courage to do what was right, in the face of overwhelming resistance… People who could have turned off the TV, or stayed in their comfortable homes, but chose not to despite it all. People who understood that ignorance is no excuse for letting such atrocities occur unchecked. But surprisingly enough, perhaps it is youth or naivety, I have hope… I yield to someone much wiser who once said,

"I remain a rationalist and an optimist... If man has been able to create the arts, the sciences and the material civilization we know in America, why should he be judged powerless to create justice, fraternity and peace?" ~Dr. Ladis Kristof

And that sounds like a dream worth living for… <3

My “Mid-Week” Weekend… <3

So I have to admit, I was a little disappointed at first when I realized that my tutorial essays are due every week on Tuesday afternoons. Because this inevitably means that I have spent every weekend since beginning my course, buried in a library or my favorite hide-away cafe reading and writing… Don’t get me wrong, I have come to love those days in an odd sort of way… The topics in my course are amazingly interesting and I’ve enjoyed drinking it all in… But while my flat-mates went biking through the English country-side this last Saturday, the most exciting new place I found was the “ethnographies of pain” section of in the Radcliffe Science Library… Haha Not quite as mysterious and elusive as the restricted section in Hogwart’s Library, but still I enjoyed exploring it all the same… Haha :)

So because my tutorial essays are always due Tuesdays and I don’t have my tutorial “grill session” until Thursdays, I have a mid-week weekend… I have to admit I hated this at first, but I’ve actually  come to really enjoy the fact that while everyone else is working and busily headed to classes, I get to take off on a country bike-ride,  take a long nap or sit in a cafe and read for fun all afternoon…

I was so angry at missing the gorgeous weather that we were graced with this past weekend (while I was stuck inside), that as soon as I saw the sun come up this morning, I decided I wasn’t going to let it  slip away… (And trust me, the days are getting shorter and MUCH colder all the sudden, so sunlight has become a valued commodity!) So I took off on my bike (Yes, that’s right my friends… I now fancy myself a rather competent city-bike rider… I have conquered my fear! I now ride with the best of the buses and no longer even have to repeat “Stay left, Stay left” continually in my head… Haha :) early this morning and made my first WIN of the day! FARMER’S MARKET! YAY! The site of fresh fruits and vegetables abounded, and the prices made me oh-so happy inside… It’s hard not to support the little man when 1) he is as nice as the vendor who sold me a gigantic bag of cherry tomatoes and 2) they seduce you with a bag full of fresh picked apple for 1 sterling pound!… (And yes, they were as good as they sound… Trust me, I’ve had 2 today already… Haha)

I spent the rest of my afternoon sitting in a quite hide-away restaurant reading (for fun not work) for a few hours, and when it hit sunset I tried a new trail out on the Eastern border of Oxford… I love that the city goes from bustling to pastures so quickly here… You’re never more than a few blocks away from fresh air and cattle… :) It was a gorgeous sunset, and I managed to catch a few great photos…

All in all it was the perfect “mid-week” weekend! :) And now it’s back to work… Haha

With Love From Oxford… ~Mary Elizabeth

The Grand Ole’ Tradition…

I spotted a picture of my graduation from VCU this past May, and it seems strange to think that I have now officially traded my graduation gown for a gown of an entirely different kind! I didn’t quite “get” the sub fusc outfit until this past Saturday… Because this past weekend I got to wear it to my first formal event since coming to Oxford… My matriculation!

Matriculation is the age old ceremony that every student in the history of the University has undergone… As the Vice-Chancellor  explained at the ceremony, there are only two defining “rites of passage” in the life of an Oxford scholar: Matriculation and Graduation.  At Matriculation, you become an of official member of the University of Oxford… Every person to ever study at the University, if even as only a visiting student, must undergo Matriculation… Once you are a member of the University, you retain your membership for the rest of your life. And you can never repeat Matriculation… It is literally a once in a lifetime event.

We (I and the 8 other graduate students living in my house) woke up at an ungodly hour for a Saturday morning and put on our official sub fusc. It seemed slightly silly, until I was surrounded by thousands of other “new” students dressed identically later that morning… Then it was just surreal… Watching hundreds of students   walk two by two, in sub fusc through the historic streets of Oxford is a true sight to see… But now imagine getting to be a part of it. I had to pinch myself several times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. It was a truly amazing experience. Oxford sure knows how to dream up some time-less traditions to seal the bond between generations of academics.

The whole ceremony (after all the official college photos and ‘pomp n’ circumstance’ march to the Examination Schools) was only about  15 minutes long… And a good part of it was in Latin… (Yes that’s right… To the rest of the world it’s a dead language, but you know Oxford… They can’t stand to be outdone… Haha) The Vice-Chancellor was, of course, inspirational and left me with goose bumps thinking of how privileged I was to make this University a part of my own life-story… It’s such an amazing opportunity for me, and such an incredible legacy to be a part of…

I ended my weekend of traditions with an afternoon at the local Oxford Beer Festival, a night at the “Sexy Sub-Fusc” Bop at my College bar, and a Sunday full of reading and writing a tutorial essay! Typical Oxford, I guess… Although it’s only Week 2 of Michaelmas Term, I’m already buried in my coursework… And despite the overwhelmingly long reading lists, and ambiguous tutorial essay prompts, I’m loving my Medical Anthropology coursework… It’s amazing how much I’m learning, which I guess is the point! Graduate school here is both everything, and nothing like I thought it would be…

Well I’m off to bed after yet another long day spent working in my now ritual writing spot… I’ve fallen in love with this little cafe on North Parade St, just a block away from my house and department… Far away from the hubbub of the city centre… There’s something to be said for working where you buy your caffeine fix! Haha :)

With Love from Oxford… ~Mary Elizabeth

And thus it begins…

Today is the second day of Michaelmas Term at the University of Oxford… And thus my first week as a graduate student! I had what mom likes to call a “God wink” a mid last week, right in the middle of my departmental inductions in the Social Policy programme… I found out through a twist of fate, that there was a last minute vacancy in the graduate Medical Anthropology programme! As it turns out, one of the guys living in my house was one of the 8 students in the programme… Through talking with him and reading up on the subject in my spare time, I’d already become convinced that I was pursuing the wrong degree… But I chalked it up to fate and convinced myself that, while social policy wasn’t the best fit for my research interests, I still had a PhD down the road to really focus in Reproductive Anthropology… Not two days later, I called the programme to see if I could sit in on a course, and before I knew it I was being interviewed for a last minute slot in the programme! It was a little unnerving making such a large decision so last minute, but having now sat through a week of their faculty introductions and lectures I have no doubt  made the right decision… It’s amazing how perfectly I fit in the programme; it’s as if I’ve been circling around this field for the last two years…

As I soon discovered, the Medical Anthropology programme is VERY small and tight knit, which I love… We have a total of 13 students between the MSc and MPhil students, and only 3 primary faculty… All of which are already on a first name basis with the students. My peers come from a range of backgrounds in medicine, the social sciences, and humanities, but most of us don’t have formal training in medical anthropology. I seem to be the only graduate student with specific interests in studying conceptualizations of reproduction and reproductive technologies in developing nations, which leaves the resources and faculty in the “Fertility and Reproduction Institute” almost entirely to myself while I’m writing my dissertation later this year!

I’ve also realized that my programme seems to be one of the more intense in the University… While the other grad students living in my house haven’t even been to a class yet, I’ve already submitted my first 10 page tutorial essay. We had a reading list of more than 30 books and articles a week before the term even began (yesterday)! So needless to say, it’s been busy already! But I’m loving being back in classes, and so far I think the topics we’re studying are absolutely fascinating… So I can’t complain too much!

In what little spare time I have, I’ll manage to finally submit my Fulbright Grant application this week! So prayers that I’ll get funding to go back to Kenya next year for a year of research are welcomed! Haha

I think that’s all for now… Even though I just turned in Week 1’s tutorial essay on medical pluralism this morning, I’m already on to the reading list for next weeks essay on bioculturalism and epidemiology!

With Love from Oxford… ~Mary Elizabeth

Joining the Tradition…

Yesterday was my International Graduate Student Orientation! And it was surreal… I was all calm and collected walking into the historic Oxford Examination Schools on High Street… Up the marble staircases and into the most beautiful room with vaulted ceilings, chandeliers (I swear this room could’ve rivaled Versailles for  beauty), and about 300 other soon-to-be graduate students… That’s about when it really hit me… I’m actually going to be studying at Oxford…

The Vice Chancellor of the University was the first speaker of our day long orientation, and he was nothing if not inspiring… He pointed out, rather accurately, that we were a representation of the world. An international melting pot of some of the most brilliant young minds of our generation… He said that while Oxford has a history that dates back to 1200 AD, it isn’t the cathedrals or glorious buildings that make the University. It is the students and faculty. It is the minds that work tirelessly day in and day out towards a  common goal of contributing some little bit of new knowledge to humanity… That will be done in part by us... He told us that we would be asked to think more deeply and creatively than ever before… And that it was our obligation to give ourselves to that process… To be open and questioning.

Perhaps most memorable of his talk was the way he described Oxford. He said that there are many prestigious universities around the world, but Oxford prides itself particularly on being a “centre of  knowledge OF the world, and FOR the world.” Our composition as a graduate student body is more than 60% international with students from nearly every country on earth… We are OF the world. And we have come here with a common goal to better the future of humanity by creating/discovering new knowledge… We are FOR the world. I personally loved that image… :) It made the reality of this experience (where I was and what I hope to achieve while I am here) come to life for me.

During our lunch break I wandered around the city centre a little bit… I had my first Cornish Pie… Which it must be said was absolutely  delicious! I have been pleasantly surprised to find I really like the food here, and most especially the veggies! Every day I’ve eaten some sort of cabbage or collard greens at my College and I’m shocked that I’ve loved them! Haha While I was wandering through the city with my delicious Cornish pastry… I found my way to a little hidden market that was amazing! It had great fresh fruit/flower/meat vendors and lots of little shops that seemed a lot cheaper than what I’d been finding… Finally someplace the locals seem to frequent!

I spent the evening out with some of my roommates and a few other grad students we’d met at the orientation… I even met a student  from Malaysia who is going into Biomedical Engineering! So we were able to talk shop over dinner and drinks… It was great to rambl e about science again with someone (all the students in my college are in the social sciences or humanities); it reminded me how much I miss the medical sciences already…

Today I spent a quiet afternoon wondering around the city… I finally got my sub fusc (traditional Oxford dress code)! I couldn’t wait to come home and try it all on of course! Haha And then I wandered through a few museums… Which are all free!!! I love this town! Haha It’s supposed to be raining most the weekend (not like it’s really stopped since I’ve been here of course) so I’m going to try to make my way over to the Museum of Natural History and Anthropology tomorrow. There’s supposed to be a great exhibit on Africa that I can’t wait to see… :)

I think that’s all for now…

With Love from Oxford… Mary Elizabeth

One Good Deed at a Time… <3

I often feel overwhelmed by the feeling that I am so tiny and insignificant to this world, that I can’t possibly make a difference… With all the pain and suffering I read about, it’s sometimes discouraging, to say the least… And then I remember that I don’t have to do it all at once… Sometimes it just takes a single baby step in the right direction…

Well today, thanks to an amazing humanitarian organization called CARE, I was able to take another baby step by exercising some personal agency… CARE is a non-profit NGO that focuses on fighting poverty by utilizing the most under-valued resource in most developing countries… WOMEN. CARE is currently supporting a much needed bipartisan bill called the International Violence Against Women Act (S 2982 and HR 4594)…

James Martineau once said that “we are each of us responsible for the evil we might have prevented.” So don’t let this kind of evil continue unchallenged. Through the CARE website, I was able to send a simple letter to my senators/representatives in support of IVAWA (which I’ve posted below)… And you can too! Consider it a little good-deed for the day… :-)

It’s really simple… Just go to https://my.care.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=471&s_src=redlinkadvo093006pm&s_subsrc=fbadvo&utm_source=redlinkadvo093006pm&utm_medium=fb&utm_term=askrep&utm_content=IVAWA&utm_campaign=sm_redIVAWAask, put in your address and information, and send a letter of support. Just to get the process started I copied the personal letter I sent in below… Good luck!

 

I will never forget the first time I sat face to face with a victim of domestic violence. Her name was Sarah. We were only a few years apart in age, yet our worlds were wildly different. I was an enthusiastic American biomedical engineering student reveling in the opportunity to provide medical aid abroad; she was a young Kenyan mother of two whose husband thought she had was less valuable than his small herd of cattle. The memory that is seared in my mind is not merely of the massive lashes and scars that covered her back. Over the time I spent holding her hand while a nurse treated her wounds, she never said a single word. Her face, however, told me volumes. It told a story of hardship and neglect; of lost chances and limited choices. And the only thing that I still cannot find the ability to reconcile, is that that could have been me.

As a young American woman, I have been born to incredible wealth and privilege. I have been born into a country that affords me freedoms and protections that I aspire to one day deserve. I am constantly reminded, however, that my good fortune to be born into a loving family and within a free democratic nation is not universal. Sarah was never afforded that option. She did not ask to be born to a society that considers her a bargaining tool for cattle, or to a family that would force her into an unwilling marriage, or to a husband that believes his actions are justified because, as he told me, "she is only a woman." She is not just a woman. She is a human being with hopes and dreams. A person with the ability to feel love and loss. She is member of a global community that has a moral responsibility to protect her if she is too weak to protect herself.

As your constituent, I am writing to strongly urge you to co-sponsor the bipartisan International Violence Against Women Act (S 2982 and HR 4594).

The International Violence Against Women Act, or IVAWA, is a landmark piece of legislation currently moving through Congress that would increase the effectiveness of U.S .foreign policy to address violence against women and girls worldwide. IVAWA would create a comprehensive strategy to address violence women and girls globally, integrating efforts to prevent and respond to violence within U.S. foreign assistance programs and supporting local organizations working to address violence against women and girls.

During these challenging economic times, IVAWA is a smart and critically important bill; it will make foreign assistance programs more effective and efficient, increase transparency and accountability, and set clear methods to measure outcomes and better track U.S. funds.  

The time to act is now. Women and girls around the world, like Sarah, are waiting for the U.S. to take a stand with them to prevent horrific acts of violence. I urge you to co-sponsor IVAWA and vote for the legislation when it comes to the House and Senate floors for consideration in the coming weeks. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.