Blogs from Washington, United States, North America - page 202

The Challenges of HIV/AIDS to the Urban Poor 1. Which issue did you select? Why did you select this issue? Why do you think this issue is important to study? I chose the issue of challenges to the Urban Poor due to HIV/AIDS. I chose this issue because it is something that I am very interested in, as I hope to major in microbiology and someday study the virus. I feel this issue is important to study because it is a huge problem in Thailand as well as around the world. The problem with HIV/AIDS is even more a problem for the Urban Poor as they do not have the money to combat the disease. By showing the world how the disease affects people around the world by studying this issue, we can hopefully raise awareness ... read more

I watched the video Stolen Childhoods located here and could not believe what I was seeing. 1. How many children in the world live in "virtual slavery?" According to the video, for 246 million children, life is nothing but work. This number is an estimate, but I think we can agree that even if this number was halved, it would be too many. Most of these children do not attend school and are paid very minimally for their hard work. 2. Why are employers interested in child laborers? The simplest answer is that it benefits their company to hire child workers. Children follow orders from authority better, work harder while on the job, and are cheaper to employ. All of this cuts costs for the employer and increases productivity for the business. 3. How does this ... read more

Seattle "SURPRISE!!", I exclaimed as I walked through the door to great Dan, a childhood friend from Oklahoma. Dan and I grew up together until the mid 80's when his family moved to Pennsylvania. Although they were states away in Chadds Ford, our families would still get together for vacations, weddings, or just to hang out. My parents and his had known each other since their college years and had a lot of history together. At one point, our familys even co-owned a boat in Oklahoma to accommodate weekly outings on Kaw Lake. 2 years had gone by, since I had seen Dan and his wife Miho at their wedding reception. Dan had been in Japan teaching English in Kumamoto and met the perfect girl, and the rest is history. 4 years ago, I had even ... read more

We visited Sequim, Washington and the surrounding area on an extended weekend trip during July of 2007. I did not write a day by day account of this trip, so below I will provide a brief summary of the places we saw and things we did. Sequim is located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State along the Dungeness River near the base of the Olympic Mountains. It is most famously known as one of the driest spots in Washington, only receiving an average of 15 inches of rain each year. Because of the lack of rain, the city has attracted many retirees, including Mike’s grandparents, who call Sequim home for six to seven months each year. Our reason for visiting the area was of course to visit his grandparents, but I also wanted to see ... read more

Caught the ferry to the Olympic peninsula and drove through the drizzle all the way to the Olympic Coast and a park campsite a few miles from the Pacific….and what luck, we saw that our campsite was adjacent to another family with a baby! Back to back nights…what luck. This baby turned out to be a delight, however, as we didn’t hear a peep all night. The campground really emptied out the next morning, and we went for a couple hour stroll along the beach as the sky cleared. Many huge rocks offshore made for a pretty amazing vista, as did the huge accumulations of driftwood logs. Lauren was adroit at finding starfish washed up along the shore, although they all seemed to be dying. We then drove into the town of Bend and checked things ... read more