How to be a Mormon Abroad...

I cannot say enough about this blog post, so I am going to let Nephi Henry, the author of it, say it for me.  It might not be a conventional source for a bibliography, but for my personal needs I think it is really rich.  I am just copying and pasting his insights about religion in India.  I found it very helpful for some of my own concerns and big questions.

"My crisis this summer: Is my God in India? Was my idea of God an exclusive, ethnocentric view, blind to whatever truths might be around me just because I wasn't in a place where my American God wasn't immediately available? In a lot of ways, the answer to that question was yes: I couldn't find much of anything in India that I could easily call God. I had learned to call God a Being I could contact and get in touch with when I was alone with my thoughts, in a quiet or remote place. In India that type of situation seemed impossible to find. God for me had been a Father, in some very literal sense of the word, and I was to be like Him. Nothing around me indicated that possibility at all. It had me distressed - until, that is, my final night in India. That night, almost exactly a month ago as I write this now, I came to understand that God understands and appreciates cultures, and reveals truth within cultural contexts to allow humans to live moral, beautiful lives full of light.

Inquiry Conference

The 2011 BYU Inquiry Conference is HERE!!!!

I am presenting at 10 AM on Friday to talk about my experience in Ghana, Africa last summer.  I am doing a very similar project in India, and it will probably make a lot more sense if you understood what I was doing in Ghana.  I am also participating in a panel discussion talking about some of the ethics of travel photography later that morning.

In addition, I have two photographs at the art show.  This one you see here is one of them.  There is a people's choice award that I am looking to get and need YOUR help! 

At the very least, there are some great keynote speakers that you should check out.  Hope to see many of you there!

Rachel

Email from Professor Burton: Checking in July 3, 2011

Here is part of an email offering more advice on connecting and the importance of social discovery from my field study faculty mentor, Dr. Burton.

Rachel:

When will you all be headed to Amritsar?

Are you finding other creative writers abroad? Not just in India? And I do want to encourage you to diversify your means of social discovery, particularly by thinking in terms of "marketing" your experience. If you haven't already, review my post on Social Discovery (http://digitalcivilization.blogspot.com/2010/11/social-discovery.html). And as you can, browse my recent students' blog posts relating to that from Spring (especially the ones where they commented on finding people to invite to our webinar or to read our eBook). I know this seems like I'm beating a dead horse, but if there is anything I would change in my teaching it would be accelerating this and expanding it. Social discovery is both finding and telling, so keep it up and keep me posted. Tried reaching out to various educators?

Check in again soon.

Dr. Burton

(From a church parking lot in Culpeper, Virginia)

Sent from my iPad

March 9, 2011: Time Log

240 min- writing up second IRB draft

60 min- finding and writing up reviews on two new sources for bibliography, Hamlet and Tibetan Folk Tales

45 min- writing weekly learning journal and this time log post

60 min- attending field facilitator training on March 7, 2011

60 min- emailing faculty and looking up potential course contracts (meeting with Professor Burton tomorrow.. wait... it is 3 AM... I mean in 12 hours)

More things that I do not remember in this state of mind....

Total: 465 minutes

March 9, 2011: Learning Journal 8

Remember that time Ashley told us that we were not supposed to lose sleep over our literature reviews and project proposals?  Well, I do not think she was referring to the IRB process.  It is almost two in the morning.  I have been sitting at this screen for hours drafting my second version, and when I finally finish this I am going to study for a Spanish test.  I write a disclaimer just so you know that this might not be the most coherent journal.  

I do have a lot to talk about from this week, however.  We had a facilitator training two days ago that Margaret conducted that looked at how each of us deal with conflict, stress, and communicate with others. Maybe my little stressed out rant is not so random after all.  This is one way I deal with stress.  I write.  However, you can also see that I am a serious perfectionist, and will continue to stay up however late to make sure that I never have a late assignment on my record.  I do not think this is healthy, and I do not recommend it.  Any suggestions?

Anyways.  Between all of us facilitators, we tend to be the kind of people who take on a lot of responsibility, even when it is not necessary.  In the context of a field facilitator, this could be a serious issue.  One of the things that they try and get into my brain is that I am not responsible for others experience, and I am not!  Still, what if someone decides they hate India and never want to leave the house again, or someone stays out too late, keeps breaking the rules after fruitless warnings, etc.  Surely I cannot let the weight of those personal problems impose on my own experience, but it is easy to articulate than do in practice.  I just want all of the students to have an amazing time.  I want everyone to be happy.  I want to be a good facilitator, etc.  But this I know will be something that I struggle with.  It was nice to get a lesson on it so that I can start preparing for that now.

As a part of this lesson, each of us did a bit of a personality test that looked at how we deal with conflict and react in stressful situations.  I am slightly addicted to personality tests if you know me at all, so I am going to happily record my results here. I wish I could say where this thing came from, but I forgot to make note of it and for whatever reason my computer is refusing to open up the attachment to find out.

From a list of categories, you were graded on a scale from 0-3, zero being not existent and 3 being the max.  I found that I had 2 points in withdrawing (which I can see sometimes, but I have zero points in avoiding, which is also really true.  I can thank my step-mom, my Okasan, for that one, so glad I learned to deal with conflict sooner than later.)

I also had 3 points for starting with heart (too true), learning to look, making it safe, mastering my story, and exploring others paths.

I got 2 points on stating my path and moving to action

No points with avoiding, masking, controlling, labeling, and attacking.

Which I think is a good thing.  I think that developing a good approach when dealing with stress and conflict is important because most people will not listen, and will just despise you for your criticism, if you go about it the wrong way.  There is a lot of stress that can go on in the field, and I just hope that I can find a balance with everyone where I can help them enjoy their experience but also have those conversations if they need to come up.

 We all have different styles of facilitating.  I am curious to see what mine will look like, but I am pretty sure that this lesson revealed a lot of it to me.

Tibetan Folk Talkes: by Frederick and Aubry Hyde-Chambers

Jack POT!  I have discovered an anthology of Tibetan folktales!  I am so excited!

This work is taken from the ancient oral tradition and is packed with imagination, color, and wisdom-filled stories that are for all people of all ages.  It includes the Tibetan creation myth (which would be really interesting to read all the way through), and also some of the famous Jataka tales and stories form the former lives of the Buddha.  Of course, the most popular being the one most closely associated with Tibet, the great epic of King Gesar of Ling, "the warrior who became a national hero."  I have only had time to skim so far, but I can tell it is going to be a great read.

It might not seem directly applicable to the literature I have been collecting, but if stories do make up our identity (the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves), then wouldn't these traditional tales be rather revealing about the Tibetan people, at least in some degree?  I tend to believe so.

 This discovery got me thinking about my own project and my own paradigm of cautionary tales, etc.  The Brothers Grimm for example.  When I went rock climbing with a friend last week she was telling me that these brothers got their stories from traveling all over the world and documenting their stories.  I have got to look more into this, because I feel like I am attempting this in some degree (except no the world, and not necessarily mythical stories, but rather the lived experience).  Anyways, I think I found my next source for next week. :)

Hamlet: By William Shakespeare

I never would have guessed that Hamlet would be something I would throw into my sources, but lo and behold I found a great quote that could be a great argument, or at least a hook for a literature review in my project proposal.  It currently sits in my IRB second draft, but I know they do not like the cute-y stuff, so we'll see if it there for the final draft. 

This quote comes in during the final scene where Hamlet is on the verge of death.  Horatio is really upset and threatens to take his own life when Hamlet says:

"If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,

Absent thee from felicity awhile,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain

To tell my story"

I guess it really just got me that this was one of his top concerns when he was on his death bed.  It had nothing to do with his unfinished business or messages to people (if there were any people he knew left by the end), but I think Hamlet knew the importance of stories.  This took me on a great stream of thought.  Why do we love stories so much as children?  Why did Jesus preach in parables?  Why are the gospels written by four different people on the same topic, but yet reveal very different perspectives?  There is some value to this.  Some method to the madness if you will.

Isn't it great!?  Hamlet always seems to have an answer to everything.

Shakespeare, William.  Hamlet.  New York: Bantam Books, 1980.  Print.