• Tweet

Katy (left) with Morocco Exchange Students, Couscous Association, Amzmiz, Morocco, 2010

Today’s guest post is by Katy Rosenbaum.  Katy holds the rank of “almost a Melibee intern” – which is a story for another blog post! Our recent conversation sparked the following reflection. When she shared it with me, I simply had no choice but to share it with Melibee readers.  You’ll understand why when you find yourself nodding your head and thinking that you too need to share this piece. 

As a program leader for Morocco Exchange, I worked extensively with university students who were studying abroad in Spain and came to Morocco on a four to five day cultural immersion program. The days were long and carefully programmed, and the experience—though short—was quite intense.

On the last night in Morocco, we would always have an integration or reflection session where students shared and began processing the experience. Inevitably, the topic of re-entry came up often.

“It’s been such an amazing experience! I don’t know how to cope with going back to Spain and the normalcy of classes there.”

“This has been so powerful that I don’t know how I can explain it to people when I go back to the States. They won’t GET it.”

“I’m worried that I’ll forget things when I go home and don’t know how to deal when things go back to normal.”

My responses became almost habitual. I’d encourage them to use each other as resources to keep processing their experiences in Morocco. I’d nearly beg them to keep in touch with the Moroccan students or homestay families that made such an impression on them.  I’d give them handouts with ideas about other opportunities like volunteering abroad, joining the Peace Corps, or even traveling with Hospitality Club or Servas. We’d discuss that re-entry can be harder than the culture shock process when they first came to Spain or Morocco, and I’d do my best to encourage them to use their resources and make a plan.

But I knew that that probably wasn’t enough. There are many orientations and resources for how to cope with the stressful parts of going abroad, but it can be much harder to support students and prepare them for re-entry.

When I reflect back my own powerful and transformative experiences abroad, it becomes clear that I developed a variety of positive and negative coping mechanisms for re-entry.

My first meaningful experience abroad was a three-week program with People to People Student Ambassadors to Western Europe. I was 16, and had just finished tenth grade. The whirlwind experience was mind blowing. I had my first homestay with an amazingly generous family in the small village of Samoens, France; a few of us got lost in Paris during the Bastille Day celebration on the Seine, my friends and I tried unsuccessfully to hand wash laundry in a Barcelona hotel with disastrous results, I proudly managed to have a few limited conversations in a language other than English, and I felt like each day was more incredible and amazing then the day before.

1999: Young Katy and friends washing clothes in their Barcelona hotel tub.

The crash coming home was inevitable, and it was rough.  To combat my longing to be back in such an invigorating atmosphere, I made a scrapbook: I typed up the journal I had kept every day, printed all my photographs, copied maps, and put everything from museum and train tickets to used candy wrappers and receipts in two large books. I probably spent several hours a day for over a month pouring over it all, trying to capture the moments, the tastes, the experiences, and the exhilaration.  I played the same four CDs I had bought in Spain and France non-stop for over six months, and memorized an entire French musical… even though I had never studied French!

I also threw myself into learning French over the next year, since the homestay family and the kind people in Paris had burst every stereotype about the French I had ever heard. Their hospitality and understanding of my limited vocabulary made quite an impression, and I delved in, devouring French movies, French music, and anything I could get my hands on involving French culture.

My first coping mechanism as a teenager was to funnel my energy into creating a way to preserve the memories that were so important, and to immerse myself in the language and culture as a way to connect back to those few amazing weeks.

A few years later, I studied in China for a semester during my junior year of college. Towards the end of the semester, I began to feel anxious just thinking about re-entry. I knew it would be hard.

About two weeks before flying back to the States, I called my mom.

“Mom?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Well… I decided to do something. And you’re going to think I’m crazy, but, trust me. I need to do it.”

Silence. “Um… okay.”

“The day after my flight lands… I’m going on a road trip to follow my favorite band for four days. Alone.”

Silence.

“You’re… taking a road trip… ALONE… to follow a band? The DAY after you come back from a SEMESTER in CHINA??!”

“Yeah! It’s going to be great!”

It was great.

Rather than focus on China, I pushed myself to the limit with something that I enjoyed and loved, but was out of my comfort zone. I was able to take the experience of constantly challenging my norms and what made me comfortable in China, and bring it to the States. I suppose to some people, road-tripping to follow a band might not be all that odd, but for me, it was quite out of character and that made it exhilarating.

And that exhilaration made coming home a little easier.

Katy serving as a health education volunteer in the Peace Corps, Morocco, 2009

Today, I am still stuck somewhere in the re-entry phase after living abroad. I returned to my hometown after four years in Morocco last July, and though it’s been almost a year, I still haven’t quite processed everything. Because of life circumstances, I’ve had to hit the ground running—applying for jobs, starting a new job, living in my parents’ basement, moving to an apartment, marriage, adjusting to married life, adjusting to cross-cultural married life, buying two cars, dealing with my husband’s immigration journey, supporting my husband through culture shock process, and creating a social network—all in the period of eight months! Needless to say, I haven’t had the time to really understand how being back in the States is effecting me.

Katy introducing her husband to the joys of American culture in Raleigh, N. Carolina.

I forget about the need to process until it hits me when I least expect it. I forget not to throw in an Arabic word that doesn’t have an exact equivalent in English. I try to talk about events or moments that have so much unfamiliar context that I can’t really tell the stories effectively.  I forget that not everyone wants to hear any more than the 30-second elevator spiel about Morocco. I struggle to not become preachy when I see things here that use excessive resources.

But the hardest part of processing are the struggles I have with defining and understanding my own identity: when I don’t feel comfortable with situations, attitudes, or philosophies that were ingrained in me since I was a child, but can’t outright reject them either because they are learned, ingrained, and a part of my history.

And that’s when it hits me. Re-entry is a process, but also a revealing journey.

Sometimes the journey is fast and relatively easy, and some of the typical coping mechanisms are enough. For many people, doing presentations to groups of interested people, keeping in touch with new friends abroad, talking with students who were on the same program and are processing at the same time, journaling, writing articles or blogs, or using the energy to volunteer, create, or learn things related to the experience are all important and helpful ways of integrating back into American life.

But when these mechanisms didn’t make it any easier to work through re-entry, I found it helpful to embrace the challenges of the journey as a true learning experience about myself.

I’ve learned to be grateful for the awkward and uncomfortable moments in my home country.  By questioning and examining these moments and struggles, I’m able to learn more about who I am and what I believe and can break away from who I have been socially conditioned to be.

And that’s what I want in my re-entry process. I don’t want to distract myself, or to try to recreate the highs or intensities of being abroad.  If going abroad is about an intense experience or a prolonged high, I may as well save time and money and find an adrenaline rush in the States.

I want to struggle with what it means to be an American who has lived outside American norms and doesn’t quite feel comfortable in either place. I want to discover what I believe when freed from a few things that my home society has conditioned me to believe.

When I see my re-entry in that light, the journey can take as long as it needs to. I can be comfortable knowing that for every awkward moment I have and every time I feel conflicted, I will learn about myself and have a small glimpse of who I am at my core.

About the Author: Kathryn (Katy) Rosenbaum’s love of exploring cultures and language stemmed from an early age when she kept a “foreign treasures” drawer under her bed with maps, stamps, coins, and even candy wrappers in foreign languages. This interest in knowing “The Other” continued as an adult, and after working with immigrants and refugees in Atlanta at a women’s health clinic, Kathryn joined Peace Corps Morocco as a health education volunteer. She stayed in-country with Morocco Exchange, where she developed, managed, and led short-term cultural immersion programs for U.S. university students. Kathryn recently moved back to Raleigh, North Carolina and is currently working on a grant project out of N.C. State that partners with local communities to improve access to healthy, affordable foods and places to be active. She is constantly seeking opportunities to encourage students and young adults to experience studying, volunteering, or working abroad.

• Tweet

“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was formed to ensure America’s freedom to travel.  Instead, they have made air travel the most difficult means of mass transit in the United States, at the same time failing to make air travel any more secure.”  And so begins another strong blog post by my colleague Steve Moore.

Steve is a retired FBI agent and someone who does not hold back when he believes in something or someone. (Just ask Amanda Knox, the American student who was found to be wrongly accused of murdering her British roommate while studying abroad in Italy.  Steve’s pro bono work on the case proved to be an important source of support for the Knox family.)

He goes on: “TSA has never, (and I invite them to prove me wrong), foiled a terrorist plot or stopped an attack on an airliner. Ever.”

I don’t think the TSA has taken Steve up on that offer yet.  They must still be looking.

We are international educators and students of life.  We travel.  A lot.  Unfortunately, we are subject to ridiculous attempts to out would be terrorists on planes.  How?  By practicing the fine art of fear.  Fear, you know, that other four letter word.  The one that governments use to facilitate the expansion of already massive agencies to look at our shoes, our belts, our change, our underwear and bras – and to remind us that fear is “necessary” in the 21st century.

Frankly, I’m more afraid of the food in the airport lounge killing me than I am of terrorists on airplanes. Perhaps TSA should shift their focus there and explore some of those food vendor contracts?

Steve Moore, retired FBI agent and Melibee Global consultant

Steve continues:

“The entire TSA paradigm is flawed. It requires an impossibility for it to succeed. For the TSA model to work, every single possible means of causing danger to an aircraft or its passengers must be eliminated. This is an impossibility. While passengers are being frisked and digitally strip-searched a few dozen yards away, cooks and dish washers at the local concourse “Chili’s” are using and cleaning butcher knives.”

Knives.  That can get on planes.  (Although having said that, in my humble opinion, too many passengers eating too much Chili’s could take down a plane – ok, well maybe just the seat.)

Steve’s argument continues with this in your face statement:

“Approximately 99% of what the average traveler carries on a plane would be considered contraband in a maximum security prison, due to the fact that it can easily be converted into a weapon. Toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks, pens, pencils, anything with wire (iPod headset), any metal object which can be sharpened, etc., etc. is a potential weapon. Carried to its logical end, TSA policy would have to require passengers to travel naked or handcuffed.”

Naked or handcuffed?  Ewww. Enough said.

Now, if you think Steve is really being theatrical with these statements, let me share this gem with you:

“Former Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner dropped this bomb, ‘The ability of TSA screeners to stop prohibited items from being carried through the sterile areas of the airports fared no better than the performance of screeners prior to September 11, 2001.’”

We stand in line, sometimes for an hour, for no proven increase in safety.  We allow ourselves to be virtually strip searched and patted down.  We can’t take our $4 bottle of water past security.  And women, especially, will relate to this: TSA – you’ve taken countless tweezers from us.  COUNTLESS. Why?  So I won’t pluck the pilot’s brows in flight or practice my unscrewing skills on the bathroom or plane door?

I wonder if the TSA should drop the S…and simply change their names to T&A - after all, with those screening machines they’re assessing the threat of those more of that then any weapons.  (I can just hear it now…”We have a potentially lethal D cup in row 1 and a very risky A approaching in row 5 that could take down at least the seat on a plane.”)

If you’re frustrated by travel these days, you can read Steve’s entire post on he ridiculousness of the TSA at his website, G-MAN case file.  And feel free to check out my previous Melibee rant on the TSA here.

(Note:  Steve Moore is Melibee’s safety consultant.  He is available for consulting engagements as well as presentations/training on study abroad safety and life in the FBI.  You can learn more about him here.)

• Tweet

Steve Moore

Safety planning cannot be compromised due to budget cuts or lack of funding for an entire study abroad office.  Today’s interview is with Steve Moore, Melibee’s safety and emergency planning expert.  Steve provides three tips that are absolutely necessary for your program abroad, regardless of the size or location.

If you are interested in learning more about safety and emergency consulting or Steve’s presentations, please click here or email me at info@melibeeglobal.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Tweet

Today’s guest post is by Steve Moore, Melibee’s Safety and Emergency planning expert.  Read Steve’s commentary about the U.S. State Department and its implied role in assisting American citizens abroad.  (Steve is available to speak at organizations through Melibee.  Click here for more information.)

It’s an anguished cry we hear too often on the news. But it’s a cry even more heart-rending than simply the chilling screams of a victim. It’s a cry that causes us all to examine what is right and wrong, and what is good within us all and what is evil. It’s a cry that shakes us to the very core. The cry?

“They just stood by and did nothing! They saw it happening and didn’t lift a finger to help!” 

“They just stood by and did nothing….” While a woman was beaten and gang-raped in New York. As looters demolished stores in London. When a teenage girl was abducted in Tennessee. While a man drowned near San Francisco. Somehow, the fact that nobody intervened in these incidents didn’t just add to the evil, it multiplied it.

The excuse given by the “watchers” is so simple, obvious and native to all of us that we understand it innately:

“I could have been killed!”

We all instinctively understand the fear of losing our own lives. But even with that completely understandable excuse, we somehow expect more. We expect that for once, the individual will be treated as more valuable than the group. That risk to many will be trumped by the value of that single, usually nameless victim. And we hope to God that we would not stand by and watch, too fearful to act.

It is somehow instinctive to people in every culture to hope for this type of unselfish behavior, to laud it. It somehow makes us all greater. It somehow brightens the world and creates a glimmer of hope in the goodness of our fellow men and women. That inexplicable need to save the helpless individual even at risk to one’s self, or even many, makes our world more tolerable.

Navy Commander Jesse Taylor is the father of a close friend of mine. Commander Taylor was a high-ranking officer on the aircraft carrier Oriskany in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Viet Nam War. He had several children and was on his way to the rank of Admiral in the Navy. On November 17, 1965, Commander Taylor was informed that one of his pilots had been shot down in North Viet Nam. The pilot appeared to have ejected very low, and was hanging lifeless from a tree in his parachute. Rather than declare the pilot dead, Commander Taylor saddled-up an A-1H Skyraider, a propeller relic designed during World War II, and flew out to check on “his” pilot.

Why the Skyraider when Taylor was checked out on Phantoms and other jet aircraft? Because the Skyraider would allow him fly past the scene low and slow to determine whether the pilot was alive or not. With the vicious anti-aircraft fire present in the area, Taylor would not ask another pilot to do this. And he would not leave anyone behind, even if some believed him to be dead. He could have decided from the safety of the deck of the carrier that the pilot was probably dead, and it wasn’t worth risking other pilots or planes to rescue him. But it was not in him to leave a man behind, or put others at risk doing something he felt was his duty. Upon arrival, Commander Taylor made repeated passes attacking anti-aircraft positions, then made a pass below tree-top level under withering enemy fire to check on the pilot. But he didn’t get a clear look at him. He told his wingman that he was going down again.  This time, he was even lower, mere feet off the grass and well below the trees. He saw clear evidence that the pilot had died, and pulled up sharply at the end of the clearing. But it was too late; his plane had been hit.

A small fire began to grow on his wing. The pilots around him advised, then pleaded for him to get out of the aircraft. He did not. He continued out toward the ocean and the carrier as the growing fire raged on the wing near his fuel tanks. He never made it to the sea. The burning wing crumpled, and Commander Taylor was unable to get out of the plummeting aircraft. No one knows for sure why Jesse Taylor didn’t bail out when he could have. Some have speculated (I think correctly) that he did not want to become the next pilot on the ground which would mean his friends would have to risk their lives to save him. Commander Taylor lived by the belief that others were of more value than himself, and died demonstrating that belief. I admire him. I am in awe of him. In my wildest dreams I would have his courage and his honor.

Military men regard it as unforgivable to leave a man behind, and honor those who refuse to do so. Taylor was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for bravery. Today, a U.S. Navy Frigate bears the name “Jesse Taylor.” They don’t name ships after people who let others perish in order to save their own lives.

Tragically, Americans throughout the world have been left behind by the U.S. government in the last few years, and it continues to this day. The reason is again understandable, maybe even innately so. But somehow, we expected more.

In Italy in November, 2007, Amanda Knox, a U.S. student from the University of Washington, was arrested for the “rape and murder” of her female roommate. Though the DNA of a known burglar was found inside the victim, and no credible evidence of any kind linked Knox (who was not even at home the night of the murder) to the crime, she was held a full year before charges were levied against her (by an unstable prosecutor who has since been sentenced to prison for malfeasance.) She was the victim of heinous acts and illegal interview tactics including deprivation of food, sleep and water during an all-night interrogation during which she was repeatedly struck.  She then underwent what journalists and observers called “a kangaroo trial,” “a framing,” and “a railroading.” A fair evaluation of all the evidence proves that she had nothing to do with the crime. But she was convicted of course, and sentenced to 26 years in an Italian prison.

And the State Department stood by and watched.

They sent cable after cable to Washington describing the trial, but not once did they intervene in any way. Asked about Amanda’s case the week after the conviction, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that she was not familiar with the case. Knox has now been in prison for four years, and the State Department is still watching. And if they have done anything to help Amanda, it has apparently been both ineffectual and hidden.  I want to make a clear differentiation here: There are many, many good career men and women in the Department of State. I know them, I admire them, and I respect them. I have worked with them for weeks and months at a time, even serving a term position as an Assistant Legal Attaché at a U.S. Embassy. It is not the State Department career staffers who are largely responsible for this; it is the policy-makers, political appointees.

Like the bystanders in New York that watched the woman nearly beaten to death, the State Department has a valid, legal, understandable excuse for not intervening in the Knox case: “It is not in our best interest.”

To be fair, the State Department represents ALL Americans, and has a responsibility not to let a single American life negatively impact the entire country. In every single movie about submarines, a flooding compartment (with living men in it) has to be sealed off to save the rest of the boat. The concept is obvious. I understand that. But I’m glad I will never have to give that order, or be the one to close the hatch. Essentially, the State Department “closed the hatch” on Amanda Knox.

In Knox’s case, it’s simple math. The U.S. needs the world to believe that our continuing actions in Iraq and Afghanistan are widely endorsed by the community of nations. The U.S. military is large enough to successfully complete the two operations alone, but it is crucial to the U.S. for other nations to participate if only (and it is only) to show that the U.S. is not acting unilaterally. One of these nations, not coincidentally, is Italy. They are not militarily necessary, but they are necessary from a public policy standpoint. Italians have lost sons in Afghanistan, and the sentiment in Italy is against their continued involvement.

It is the State Department’s job to keep Italian soldiers in Afghanistan. How then, would going toe-to-toe with their counterparts in the Italian Foreign Ministry over Amanda Knox benefit the U.S., and by extension, you and me? It wouldn’t. In fact, it would drastically hurt the relationship between the two countries and quite possibly put the Italian participation in Afghanistan in jeopardy. “Close the hatch!”

So instead of doing something, or even commenting on the victimization of Knox, (including her denial of access to U.S. Consular Officials,) the State Department simply says that the Italian judicial system meets western standards and should be allowed to proceed to its conclusion. (This would take an estimated 8 years.) Not once did the State Department comment on any allegations of mistreatment or abuse of Amanda. They would say only, “We are closely monitoring the trial and have confidence in the Italian judicial system.” Which, of course is another way of saying, “We’re standing by watching, yet doing nothing.”

But the Knox case is not an aberration, sadly.  Two hikers are still being held in an Iranian prison, and were recently sentenced to 8 years for “violating Iran’s borders.” The State Department has so far written some really super-nasty letters to Iran, which inexplicably have not resulted in the freedom of the hikers. Then, just a few days ago, Jason Puracal, an American citizen living in Nicaragua, was convicted of “drug-trafficking” in Nicaragua on absolutely no evidence, and in fact, much evidence that proved his innocence was simply disallowed by “the judge,” a man who never attended law school and who was assigned to this one case for inexplicable and suspicious reasons. The State Department, of course, dutifully stood by and watched. From working in Embassies, I know that the State Department staff and officers feel hamstrung by Washington’s policy decisions.

The U.S. Department of State’s very mission statement explains why Americans are being “hung out to dry” in front of kangaroo courts around the world. The mission statement goes for more than 2,300 words, but it starts with just 10. The mission of the State Department, it says, is to:

“…Create a more secure, democratic, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community.”

It’s a great statement, but in the room created by the statement, this is the elephant in the corner. Nowhere in the 2,300 word statement are “individual” American’s mentioned.  The only time the words “protect the innocent” are used is in the context of motivating the United Nations to protect the innocent people of the world.

I don’t disagree with much in the State Department’s mission statement. But it completely ignores its responsibility to protect individual Americans. Imagine that your local fire department would only respond to “big” fires. What if they refused to respond to house fires because it could impact their ability to respond to a possible high-rise fire? I know from hard experience that diplomats and diplomatic staffers are evaluated, graded, and performance reviews based on their ability to engender cooperation and agreement with their “host” governments. They are NOT evaluated (at least positively) on whether they rescued an American victimized by the “host” government’s courts. That’s viewed as “meddling.”

As an example, during my time as an Assistant Legal Attaché, my performance was judged by how well I was able to maintain a cordial working relationship with the police of the host-country. I served a short stint at an Embassy in a country which was a tourist destination. When an American got drunk and combative with police, was arrested and then missed his cruise ship sailing, where do you think my priorities were? To get him bailed out and on his way as fast as I could, damn the locals? No. My job was to “get-along with the locals,” not rescue Americans from their own folly. The inference was clear: There was no incentive at all to help Americans at odds with the host government. Not for me, not for my career, not for the Ambassador or his career, and not for the State Department.

Again, let me point out that there are individual heroes in State, but it’s in spite of, not because of the political appointees. Ambassadors are appointed politicians, not career diplomats.

The message is clear. When overseas, American’s had better take care of themselves. The Embassy isn’t going to go one step beyond what they are required by law to do, because it’s a bad career move. As an example, I give you the situation involving one of their own.

In January 2011, “Raymond Davis,” a technician at the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, felt that he was being set up for an armed robbery by suspects following him around town on two motorcycles. This is a common crime in Pakistan. Eventually, Davis stopped the car and confronted the four armed men on the motorcycles and a gun-battle ensued. Two of the Pakistanis were killed. I’m not going to comment on what purpose Davis actually served in Lahore, whether that was his real name, or why he was armed. Anyone is free to speculate. But regardless, the evidence supports the suspected robbery theory. I served several times in Pakistan—armed—and I am familiar with the dangers.

After the shooting, a mob formed, and Consular personnel literally rescued “Davis” and brought him back to the Consulate. Davis was immediately labeled by the Pakistanis as a CIA Agent and charged with murder. In order to calm tensions between Pakistan and the U.S., the State Department ordered the Consulate in Lahore to turn Davis over to the Pakistanis. Can you imagine his sense of betrayal?

Then, the U.S. government immediately demanded his release. You can’t make this stuff up.

One wonders what kind of treatment that the State Department expected Davis to receive at the hands of the Pakistani ISI intelligence services, who would immediately take custody of Davis. It is inconceivable that the State Department would do this to one of their own, knowing that a fair trial was not possible. Can you imagine the effect this has had on State Department morale? In the “big picture,” it was more important to the State Department to turn over one of their own to the Pakistanis than it was to ensure his safety. Frankly, had I been in Davis’ situation, I would have made sure that it was in the best interest of the U.S. government to keep me, even if it meant shooting one of the bastards who were trying to hand me over to the Pakistanis. At least then State would feel the need to have me tried in the U.S., and I’d get a fair trial.

If the State Department does that to their own people, what are they going to do for your children when they get arrested overseas on trumped-up charges overseas?  Exactly.

The cavalry isn’t coming.

Edmund Burke was an Irishman elected to Parliament in the late 1700s. His life was marked by fights against capital punishment and religious prejudice, and even advocated against the tax laws that caused the American Revolution. But he is most famous for his statement, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke would not have gotten good performance reviews at the State Department.

In the “big picture,” abandoning individual Americans for the “greater good” really destroys its own argument. Other countries see it as weakness, it undermines America’s integrity in front of foreign governments, and it makes individual Americans feel less safe and insignificant to their own government. As long as individual Americans are sacrificed to small-time thugs and tyrants to appease the gods of diplomacy, American foreign policy will be impotent and will be perceived as immoral and cowardly—by other nations and by their own people. If you don’t care about an individual American with a name and a family, how can the public believe you care about a vast, nameless, impersonal mass of Americans who can be easily dismissed? The siren song of sacrificing an individual for the good of the group works well on submarine and lifeboat movies, but in real life, it always fails. Ask the Mayans.

We understand why the administration feels the need to do what they’re doing. It’s logical. It’s diplomatic. It’s dispassionate. But somehow, we thought that the greatest nation in the world might have somewhere, someone with the talent to both advocate for innocent Americans and still achieve the goals of the country. Americans seem to excel in every area of life. We are told that nothing is impossible. Yet we don’t have the statesmanlike talent in this entire nation to save an innocent life without shipwrecking all of our diplomatic efforts? You kind of expect that in the world of diplomacy, the U.S. would have the “All Star Team.”  But apparently not. We understand the reasoning; we just expected more from the home team.

But whether it is negligence, diligence or impotence, the U.S. Government’s care and protection of its own citizens abroad remains in a State of failure.

About the Author: In an FBI career that spanned 25 years, Special Agent Steve Moore rose to supervise the Los Angeles Al Qaeda squad, and later, the LA FBI Extra-Territorial Investigations squad which was charged with the investigation of acts of terrorism against U.S. persons or interests for all of Asia and parts of Pakistan. He was the case agent on many high-profile FBI cases including the bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan; the bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia; the white supremacist shooting/murder spree at the Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles in 1998; as well as the Los Angeles component of the attacks of 9/11, after which he testified before the congressional 9/11 Commission.

In conjunction with the United States Attorney’s Office, in 1999, he obtained the first conviction of a threatened Anthrax attack in United States History. Steve was awarded the 2001 ‘Outstanding Counterterrorism Investigation’ award by the Los Angeles FBI office, and nominated for the FBI’s national ‘Outstanding Terrorism Investigation’ award the same year. Three years in a row he was presented with the United States Attorney’s award for excellence in investigation. As an FBI undercover Agent, Steve conducted covert surveillance of white supremacist organizations and conducted classified foreign intelligence-related undercover operations.   As a member of the FBI’s Rapid Deployment Team, he was assigned as lead investigator on the FBI’s terrorism response team at the Athens Olympics in 2004. He has served as (term) Assistant Legal Attaché, and has lectured on investigative techniques and terrorism at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Bangkok, Thailand, as well as the Pacific Training Institute in the Philippines. Additionally, he has taught and organized counter-terrorism training and investigation conferences around the world.

Following his retirement from the FBI in 2008, Steve was selected as the Deputy Director of Public Safety for Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and served there for two and a half years.  Steve was responsible for security on the Malibu campus, all U.S. campuses, and the safety of the students at Pepperdine’s six overseas campuses in Europe, South America and Asia.  He developed programs to monitor international situations of concern, and served on university threat assessment teams.  He worked closely with the International Programs department at Pepperdine, and worked to create innovative security and safety programs.

Steve is currently a private investigator, and is on the board of advisers for the “Special Investigative University,” SIU.  He is also involved in pro-bono advocacy for innocent persons accused of crimes in U.S. and foreign courts.  He has recently appeared on the “Today” show, “Good Morning America”, and “Anderson Cooper 360”.

Steve is the son of a United Airlines executive and by the age of 18 had traveled through most of the world, seeing it through the eyes of a teenager.

• Tweet

Sometimes I must digress and share something that makes me laugh out loud – and this song called “Cheap Flights” had me in stitches today.  (Warning – if you are offended by Irish swear words, pass on this post.)
ENJOY!

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Tweet

Photo by Carrie Wagner

I didn’t realize, until I met Carrie Wagner to interview her about her book “Village Wisdom:  Immersed in Uganda, Inspired by Job, Changed for Life,” that I have been following Carrie’s international career for nearly two decades. While Carrie was in Uganda, I was a graduate intern in Lugano, Switzerland along with Carrie’s childhood friend, Bonnie. Bonnie received Carrie’s letters and shared stories about her friend in Uganda with Habitat for Humanity International. Nineteen years later, as I sat down to conduct this interview with Carrie, I felt that I was meeting an old friend.

Carrie’s book is exquisite. It is chock full of photos, letters and journal entries from her three years in Uganda. The book also includes vibrant photos from a recent trip back to the village. She and her husband Bob (who served in Uganda with her) traveled back last year with their two young sons, who are just beginning to carve their own paths as global citizens.

As I read about the personal transformation that took place during her three years abroad and the years that followed, the hurdles she and Bob faced in Uganda, the challenges within the community, the cultural learning, the beauty of the people she befriended and the inspiration of her friend and colleague Job, I literally wept.  It was hard not to well up as I told Carrie how much her book and her friend and colleague, Job, inspired me.

Needless to say, it is with heartfelt pleasure that I introduce you to Carrie Wagner – author, photographer, trainer, speaker, educator – as well as mother, wife, daughter, Christian and more!  (Please note that this interview was a very authentic conversation between two very passionate educators – and like great conversations, it was not short! This video interview is part 1 of 3.  Parts 2 and 3 will follow soon!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can purchase Carrie’s book here. (A portion of the proceeds go to Job’s village in Uganda.) It is an incredibly honest book. She does not provide a flowery cushion through the tough parts of her experience; they are graphic and very real.  And because of that, her book and journey are that much more meaningful and inspiring.

I am honored that Carrie has agreed to join the Melibee Global speaker series.  Please read more about her workshop here and contact me if you’d like information about how to book her.  And please stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of Carrie’s interview – they’re coming soon!

• Tweet

Tenured Professor of Economics at Colby College (USA), Philip H. Brown, resigned in late January 2011 after evidence surfaced that he had taken semi-nude photos of at least one female study abroad student. He allegedly took the photos via a hidden bathroom camera while on a “Jan Plan” winter session course in China.  The study abroad students had been blogging from a shared lap top during the trip and accidentally discovered the photos after losing a blog posting and searching for it in the computer’s “garbage bin.”

Brown hid the camera in a black medical kit that he insisted stay in the women’s bathroom so that all students would know where to find it if needed.  The students found the camera hidden in the black kit after discovering the photos on the shared lap top. The students notified the university and Brown was placed on academic leave, by phone, WHILE the group was still in China.

Media reports indicate that Brown admitted to a similar act of violating students’ privacy while abroad the previous year.  He is now under investigation in Maine, but has not been charged at this time.  Evidence is apparently still being sought from China.

Colby’s President, William Adams, wrote a letter to the campus community addressing the issue the day after the trip ended.  One must credit him for squashing rumors and addressing the situation head on.  Sadly, this is not always the case.

This again raises the several issues for faculty study abroad programs:

1) Selection of faculty: Most universities do not have a formal policy in place about HOW to choose faculty for such trips. Additionally, most faculty who do go abroad are not trained specifically in expectations for leading a group. Obviously, we shouldn’t have to state that you should not film your students in the bathroom, but it raises the age old question of how many faculty and staff should be sent abroad with a group in case of an emergency.  Funding, or lack thereof, is what usually drives this decision.

2) Emergency planning: Who is in charge when something like this happens abroad?  How do you handle an employee who is being accused of such a heinous act from thousands of miles away?  This all goes back to emergency planning – as the source of the emergency, albeit rare, can be your own employee and how you handle the situation can and will impact the well being of your students for years to come.  In addition, how you handle the situation will impact the legal case that will follow an experience like this.

3) Pre-departure training: I have yet to see a training that includes a discussion of what to do if something doesn’t seem “right” with your professor.  Many schools do talk about what to do if the professor is injured, gets sick or even dies – but what do we tell students about how to handle a faculty member who drinks “too much,” is late for activities or worse yet – is caught leering at students?  Are we bold enough to have this conversation? Do we need to talk with our legal department about how to handle this sensitive matter?  This is especially difficult when the professor may be incredibly popular at home – as apparently was the case with Brown.

4) “Local” laws: How do local laws impact your ability to investigate and perhaps prosecute in a case like this?  Media reports state that evidence is still being gathered in China and that evidence has been collected in Maine (USA). However, what if the students had gone to the local authorities in China? (Perhaps they did?) Could Brown have been arrested by Chinese authorities?  How carefully do we need to train both the faculty AND the students about the local laws, especially in unique circumstances like this?

5) Human Resource Training: How many of our campus HR trainings about faculty and staff expectations, sexual harassment, etc actually cite study abroad programs?  Do we need to loop back with our HR teams to ensure that our language is clear so that no faculty or staff member ever thinks that he/she can get away with something inappropriate simply due to distance?

Note: I am waiting for Colby College to return my call. I will write about this case once I have more information from them.  Meanwhile, I’d be curious what your thoughts are about this situation. Obviously, this type of behavior is more of an indication of the individual than the institution. This post is not meant to blame Colby or any college who has dealt with this issue. I’m interested in knowing how much these types of issues concern you in your work?  As a faculty member, how do you feel about these questions being posed? Please comment on the blog posting so that a conversation can take place across the globe and not just on one listserv. (You do not need to register to comment.)

• Tweet

Today’s guest blog is by John Doherty. John had contacted me after reading Melibee and asked if he could submit a post for review. We spoke a bit about the angle that he could use to share his experience abroad. I really liked where he went with this piece, which expresses how his exploration of his spirituality inspired him to venture abroad.

Chalet Les Melezes, the original L’Abri Fellowship chalet in Switzerland. © John Doherty Photography

Traveling for the purpose of spiritual enlightenment is a long-established rite of passage for many young people. During the height of the hippie movement in the 1960s and 1970s, young American travelers often voyaged East through Europe to India and other countries, seeking spiritual enlightenment and answers to their questions. Often their search included using illicit drugs and experimenting in unique ways, but all had one attribute in common – they were seeking their “truth.” They wanted to, as Henry David Thoreau once said (and the Dead Poets Society repeated), “suck the marrow out of life.”

This is reason why the community in Switzerland where I lived was founded, to provide, as they said, “honest answers to honest questions.” The ethos was, and still is, that there are no bad questions when it comes to seeking truth. The founders, Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer and his wife Edith, believed that the Bible is true and speaks to all of life. They decided to open their home to travelers, to come and stay and ask questions and live life in the Alps. Over time, more and more people flocked to the community, including my father in the mid-1970s, to ask question of this Christian “guru”, as he was known. Schaeffer wore Swiss knickers, had a long white goatee, and a sharp mind, ready to answer and dialogue with the questions asked of him.

This is just one example of a place where travelers and so-called “seekers” ended up. I met a land developer, a British man, who traveled through the Far East, specifically China, India, and Indonesia in the 1970s, visiting mosques and Hindu temples, asking questions and searching for enlightenment. He has since started a successful land development company, first in the UK and now in Switzerland. He continues to question and seek, engaging in conversation with myself and other students from L’Abri.

Others have come directly through the community. Dreadlocked hippies, straight-laced pastor’s kids, others experimenting with drugs -  all were traveling to find themselves, to ask questions about life, to try to make some sense out of this crazy world in which we all find ourselves.

St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome, Italy © John Doherty Photography

Why travel? This oft-asked question has no easy answers. Personally, I started traveling to find myself. Along the way I’ve seen incredible world sites, met some captivatingly interesting people, and expanded my view of the world and what is possible.

I encourage you to do the same. As you travel, meet the locals. Meet your fellow voyagers.  I read about a man called Nomadic Matt on CNN, who said “travel makes you confront the fears you do not want to confront.” So I have to ask you: “Are you ready to take that step, to confront those fears, to take a chance at enjoying a fuller life?”

Stop reading this. Go travel! And share your experiences with all of us so we can continue through this journey called life together.

Guest Blogger, John Doherty

About the Author: John Doherty writes for an online college website. He helps people find online degrees from accredited colleges during the day. During his free time, he shoots lifestyle photography , writes, and works on entrepreneurial projects. He can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/dohertyjf.

• Tweet

Egypt.  It IS the news. But when you’re a study abroad adviser who had sent students to Egypt for the spring semester, your mind is focused:  Safety.  Their safety. Comforting and advising parents. Working with the partner institutions abroad.  Communication, even when there is no internet.

I have reflected on this situation during this past week and here are my thoughts:

1) Emergency Planning: Did your institution have a documented plan in place before the events in Egypt unfolded? If so, did you follow your plan, convening your safety and emergency planning committee to assign action steps? Once your students are safely out of the country and either returned to your home campus or reassigned to another spring program abroad, have you scheduled time to review how your process worked?  Are there tweaks that need to be made?  Team members that you need to include in the future? If you didn’t have an action plan, how did you handle this emergency situation? Do you now plan to prepare a process for the future?

2)  Relationships: These are necessary for a smooth transition through an emergency.  These relationships include internal partners (your safety and emergency planning committee as well as anyone who touches the registration/financial aid/advising processes, counseling center, public relations, etc) as well as external (your partners abroad, your vendors, your community, State Department contacts, local press, etc.)  I cannot stress enough how important it is to have formed these relationships BEFORE an emergency.  Whenever possible, you do not want to be introducing yourself for the first time during the emergency.

3) Rely on the wisdom of your NAFSA colleagues: Thankfully, through the list serv, we have received invaluable information that helps us to do our jobs effectively and with confidence.  Know that our colleagues around the country, and the world, will lend a hand when we are in need.  Take that hand and remember to be grateful after things calm down.

4) Don’t forget: about your international students and scholars, as well as immigrants from this region of the world. They need support too.  Remind your senior administration, Human Resource team and other colleagues of this.  Ask your counseling service to provide information directly to this population.  While they may not fall under your immediate “jurisdiction” we must not forget their needs as they are part of our community.

5) Educate others: Use this opportunity to document your learning.  Take notes about what you could have done to prepare better or what you’d do next time.  Bring this to your safety and emergency planning committee meeting.  Ask your boss if you can present the unique requirements of your work to faculty and staff during professional development opportunities on campus.  Write up a proposal for your next conference and share your learning. (And if you don’t have a plan in place and need help formulating one, feel free to reach out to me at Melibee via the contact form.)  Situations like these also create opportunities to develop programming around this region of the world.  Pull in your subject matter experts to create a teachable moment for your campus and community.

6) Your well being matters too: Being a study abroad adviser, program administrator, faculty leader – these are some of the most rewarding jobs in the world.  We believe in our work and are deeply passionate about it.  And we will give out our home and cell numbers and let people call us at all hours during times like these.  Our families know that we are “on call” and they expect to be a bit neglected or to share in the stress of the experience.  It is important work and sometimes we have to stop and acknowledge that it is draining to be on the hot seat, ultimately feeling quite responsible for the well being of another person who may be in harm’s way.  Remember that your well being is important during these experiences AND after.  Most campuses have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).  USE IT if you feel that you are a little overwhelmed, shaken up, or simply need to share what you maneuvered through in a confidential environment.  Take a day off after you know that everyone is ok.  Treat yourself to that hot bath, good book, day with the family. Whatever helps you to refill your tank to be ready for the next adventure in study abroad!

I hope these reflections are of help to those of you in the trenches at the moment. Please do share your feedback, ideas, suggestions in the comments section of this posting.  (You do not need to register to comment.)

Needless to say, at times like these, I am honored to be part of such a caring community.  Thanks for reminding me, once again, why I love my job today!  And most importantly, we are all thinking about a peaceful and swift resolution to the situation in Egypt.

• Tweet

Word Lens logo

I recently wrote a post offering gift ideas for international travelers. In that post, I mentioned that an application could be purchased for the iphone to translate words on menus and signs, a perfect gift for study abroad students and travelers.

Today, I discovered “Word Lens.”  This application instantaneously translates from Spanish to English/English to Spanish WITHOUT being connected to the internet. There is a $4.95 fee to download the entire program.  There are future plans to roll out the app with French, followed by Italian and then Portuguese.  (The iphone pic translator mentioned in the post above translates more than just Spanish/English.)

Here is a short video that illustrates the application:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of course, the best way to know what these signs actually say is to LEARN the language, and obviously, I’m much more of an advocate of that!  However, for those who are new to languages and especially for safety reasons (the example given in the video was the shark bite!), this could be a very handy tool.