Participating in high-impact sports may help boost bone mineral density in older persons, according to a new study of male and female athletes.

The findings stem from a study of athletes aged 50 to 93 who took part in the 2005 National Senior Games, including 560 who competed in high-impact sports like basketball, road racing, track and field, and volleyball.

Ultrasound scans found those who participated in high-impact sports had better bone mineral density than people who participated in low-impact sports.

“Our study represents the largest sample of bone mineral density data in mature athletes to date,” said Dr. Vonda Wright of the University of Pittsburg Medical Center. “My colleagues and I were surprised to see that active adult participation in the high-impact sports had such a positive influence on bone health, even in the oldest athletes.”

A HealthDay report notes that osteoarthritis and other factors will keep some people from taking part in high-impact sports.

“With a multi-part approach and the appropriate use of high-impact exercises, individuals may be able to make greater strides against bone loss than the current treatment strategies imply,” Wright said.

Clearly, able-bodied senior citizens participating in these higher-impact activities can produce great results; the only thing lacking may be the motivation to do so. People who will give them that extra push can be found at companies like Home Instead Senior Care. Home Instead hires outgoing and energetic individuals who will not only present the best home care to our clients, but promote healthy living and will motivate your loved ones to get back in the game.
Home Instead Senior Care will provide outstanding caregivers to help your loved one with personal care, incidental travel, companionship, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and even meal preparation. To learn more, call 248-203-2273 or visit www.homeinstead.com. Home Instead Senior Care is the world’s trusted source of in-home non-commercial personal care and companionship for seniors. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. And remember, to us, it’s personal.

Participating in high-impact sports may help boost bone mineral density in older persons, according to a new study of male and female athletes.

The findings stem from a study of athletes aged 50 to 93 who took part in the 2005 National Senior Games, including 560 who competed in high-impact sports like basketball, road racing, track and field, and volleyball.

Ultrasound scans found those who participated in high-impact sports had better bone mineral density than people who participated in low-impact sports.

“Our study represents the largest sample of bone mineral density data in mature athletes to date,” said Dr. Vonda Wright of the University of Pittsburg Medical Center. “My colleagues and I were surprised to see that active adult participation in the high-impact sports had such a positive influence on bone health, even in the oldest athletes.”

A HealthDay report notes that osteoarthritis and other factors will keep some people from taking part in high-impact sports.

“With a multi-part approach and the appropriate use of high-impact exercises, individuals may be able to make greater strides against bone loss than the current treatment strategies imply,” Wright said.

Clearly, able-bodied senior citizens participating in these higher-impact activities can produce great results; the only thing lacking may be the motivation to do so. People who will give them that extra push can be found at companies like Home Instead Senior Care. Home Instead hires outgoing and energetic individuals who will not only present the best home care to our clients, but promote healthy living and will motivate your loved ones to get back in the game.
Home Instead Senior Care will provide outstanding caregivers to help your loved one with personal care, incidental travel, companionship, medication reminders, light housekeeping, and even meal preparation. To learn more, call 248-203-2273 or visit www.homeinstead.com. Home Instead Senior Care is the world’s trusted source of in-home non-commercial personal care and companionship for seniors. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. And remember, to us, it’s personal.

Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment [PDF]: How to maximise the impact of the open declaration? http://j.mp/4RxB9o

A quick post to give a shout-out to contributing local farmers in Connecticut.  I am on the Foodshare mailing list, and I got an email this week letting me know that its food industry partners – which includes local growers – contributed about 500,000 lbs of food in the month of November.  

Foodshare partners with many such food industry partners – from what I understand, this allows them to work in bulk and get food more cost-effectively than it would with single contributions (though those are also quite welcome and given by many (many) in the community!).  I’ve found local farmers are very much a part of it all: in the summer, for example, one farmer offered the agency a change to glean corn from his fields on multiple days, taking produce to allow a fresh local taste into its food supply.  I went on one of those days to participate, and it was a great experience especially knowing the broader involvement at work.

I think this kind of involvement from local growers is so important, and should be encouraged.  Do local growers participate in other ways in your communities? Are there “spaces” for them to do so?

3040712    ข้อพิจารณาในการส่งเสริมความร่วมมือของชุมชนและการสร้างเครือข่ายการประสานงาน    Issues in Promoting Community Participation and Networking

ความจำเป็นของการมีเครือข่ายประสานงานระดับชุมชนเพื่อประโยชน์ในการพัฒนาสุขภาพทักษะในการดึงคนและหน่วยงานที่มีความสามารถร่วมกันแก้ไขปัญหาสุขภาพในท้องถิ่นที่สร้างเครือข่ายประสานงานในการแก้ปัญหาสุขภาพ

(The need for community health development network; skills of bringing together the scattered expertise of individuals and institutions to help resolve particular problems; networking techniques for problem solving.)

(3040712 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 640

“Phnom Penh: Pointing to the importance to create a law about non-government organizations (NGOs) being drafted by the government, the Cambodian Prime Minister said on 24 November 2009 that previous problems caused by some NGOs encourage the government to create a law on organizations of different kinds, in order to ensure their proper operation, but this law will not affect the freedom of the NGOs.

“Examples raised by Samdech Akkak Moha Senapadei Dekchor Hun Sen during the 30th anniversary celebration of the partnership between NGOs and Cambodia, were of an organization which had been prosecuted in the United State regarding the adoption of children from Cambodia, which finally became human trafficking, and of another organization that sheltered under an NGO some years ago and had taken the British Embassy as its target for a terrorist attack, but this plan was suppressed in time by the government. [The terrorist] Hambali left Cambodia and was later arrested in Thailand, after the attack on the island of Bali in Indonesia.

“Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said, ‘These examples do not imply that the Royal Government is suspecting other organizations that are implementing good activities of participating in terrorism, but please do not forget that some organizations are doing bad things.’ Therefore, we need a law to control NGOs. He stressed, ‘I guarantee that it is not an action to restrict the freedom of NGOs, please believe me.’

“During the 1980s there were just less than 30 NGOs in Cambodia. But by 2009, there are 3,207 NGOs and associations, where 1,933 are NGOs and 1,274 are associations, that is why Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen observed that Cambodia is a heaven for NGOs that carry out different activities.

“The claim about the practicality of an NGO law was made, while an NGO law is being drafted carefully by the Royal Government; some NGOs expressed the fear that the Royal Government will exercise prohibitive controls over NGOs through that law. Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said, ‘I am aware that some NGOs that have acted correctly, and they do not care too much about this law, but some organizations protested loudly, and I wonder why they claim to promote the rule of law, but they want to act without a law.’

“Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen added, ‘Anyway, we will neither restrict the freedom to creat NGOs, nor take away the funding of NGOs.’ He added that some NGOs demand that the government has to be transparent, providing information, but they themselves do not have such transparency. The Royal Government wants to know where NGOs get the money from and how they use it for what. ‘Just this they do not want to tell, but they oppose the government. The Royal Government also wants to know how much capital is from government, from development partners, and from NGOs, so that we can know the total amount of capital to allocate each year in each sector, where at present, we do not control it and we are not aware of how many activities are contributed by NGOs. This point creates difficulties for macro management or other relevant tasks.’ Samdech went on to say that sometimes, there are some overlapping activities of NGOs, and what is more problematic is that some NGOs had expressed their voice absolutely in the same way as opposition parties. Such organizations protest more than others, because they feel afraid, just because the laws in Cambodia do not allow political parties to receive funds from foreign donors.

“Samdech continued to say that in the first stage of law enforcement on NGOs, there will be difficulties. Anyway, the Royal Government will make it function smoothly.” Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.8, #2107, 25.11.2009

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Deum Ampil, Vol.3, #3, 345.11.2009

• A Man Entered a House to Rape a 14-Year Old Girl when Her Parents Were Not at Home [the man was arrested - Battambang]
• The Laotian Prime Minister Will Arrive in Cambodia This Morning [to visit Cambodia officially on 25 and 26 November 2009]

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.8, #2107, 25.11.2009

• Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen Claimed that the Non-Government Organizations Law Will Not Block the Freedom of Non-Government Organizations
• The Cambodian Prime Minister Did Not Take Office by Robbing Power from Others like it Happened in a Neighboring Country [claimed Prime Minister Hun Sen]
• Three Top Drug Smugglers Were Arrested by Military Police in Takhmao [Kandal]

Khmer Machas Srok, Vol.3, #538, 25.11.2009

• If [Thai Prime Minister] Abhisit Vijjajiva Closes the Border, It Does Not Cause Any Trouble for [Prime Minister] Hun Sen, but for Khmer Citizens [who earn their living at those border crossings; but Prime Minister Hun Sen still announced his firm opinion that Cambodia does not care about the warning from Thailand to maybe close the border]

Koh Santepheap, Vol.42, #6814, 25.11.2009

• Samdech Deckhor Hun Sen: Now It Should Be Time to Create a Law about Non-Government Organizations and Associations
• The Former Singaporean Prime Minister [Mr. Goh Chok Tong, now a senior minister] Visited Cambodia [to study the current situation, especially different measures that Cambodia has been taking to deal with the global financial crisis and other future problems]

Phnom Penh Post [Khmer Edition], Vol.1, #25, 53.11.2009

• Prosecutors [of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal] Asked to Jail [Tuol Sleng former prison chief] Duch for a Long Period [for the torture and murder of many people]
• Oddar Meanchey Villagers [of 36 families] Sleep on the Ground opposite the National Assembly [they escaped from arrest by the Oddar Meanchey authorities over land disputes with Oknha and senator Ly Yong Phat]
• Netherlands Wants to Invest in Solar Power [in Cambodia, worth US$300 million]

Rasmei Angkor, Vol.16, #1477, 25.11.2009

• Fire in Boeng Salang Commune Destroyed Two Houses and a Car, and Other Property Was Totally Burnt [the fire was caused by an electric fault - Phnom Penh]

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.17, #5056, 25.11.2009

• Drug Smugglers Shot Police in Response, Killing One Policeman and Seriously Injuring Two Others [two suspects, husband and wife, were arrested - Phnom Prek, Battambang]
• Thai Former Prime Minister Mr. Samak Sundaravej Died of [liver] Cancer [both disputing countries, Cambodia and Thailand, expressed condolences over his death]

Sereypheap Thmey, Vol.17, #1819, 25.11.2009

• The Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s Position is Upheld [by the Appeals Court] over [the president of the Khmer Civilization Foundation] Mr. Moueng Son’s Case [the court sentenced him to jail for two years for disinformation, over his comment about fixing of lighting at the Angkor Wat Temple]

Have a look at the last editorial – you can access it directly from the main page of the Mirror.
And please recommend us also to your colleagues and friends.

Back to top

I speak often of the need to build  – or rather, rebuild – a participatory culture in classical music. It’s a reflection, or rather a reaction to what I perceive to be the current passive culture of “we play, you listen.”   Before Bell, Berliner and Edison started recording sound to wax cylinders or discs, music was something that had to produced live to be enjoyed. Composers frequently made piano reductions or chamber versions of their symphonic music to ensure the greatest number could experience it and enjoy it. Music making as a whole was predominantly an amateur activity, that is to say, something conducted by individuals out of love, as the etymology of the word amateur suggests, and most often in a social setting. People came together to share the experience of making music: in that era, only music surpassed letters (which in turn surpassed kisses) in the mingling of souls.

I’m not going to dwell on the social, industrial and technological changes (I forbear to describe them all as advances) that have brought us to the present. Suffice to say that at some point, music was wrest from the hands of the majority into the care and control of a monopolistic minority. I’m speaking now primarily about classical music, because the situation in terms of popular music has witnessed a remarkable regression. The recording industry as a whole tried and ultimately failed to impose a valuation on digital sound, defeated by the admittedly criminal but also socialist attitude that music should be a public property. As for the participatory element, the rapidity with which Guitar Hero and Rock Band were embraced suggests that the greatest fulfillment found in music is still through the active contribution to the experience, at whatever level is reasonably available. We want to be a part of something greater than ourselves, and these games allow us that chance, even if in illusory or fantasy form. It’s just further proof, if any were needed, that no man is an island.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band place a person in the heart of a musical ensemble for a relatively modest one-time expenditure, and offer a modifiable learning curve (i.e.: the difficulty setting). Consider this in comparison to the cost of a classical instrument plus the years of training it requires to develop proficiency. It’s expensive and time-consuming to become a good musician, which is why classical music has become the domain of the financially advantaged. That being said, I don’t believe for a minute that the relative ease with which you can join the Guitar Hero experience represents a competitive advantage for the game over art.  When all is said and done, it’s still just a game, it’s just a fantasy. The real experience of performing in an orchestra or choir, crossing nations or oceans on tour, bonding with friends and colleagues, remains much more accessible than being lead guitarist for an internationally successful rock band. The barriers are primarily financial, and to a lesser extent, attitudinal. El Sistema is a way to reduce, if not eliminate the barriers to these experiences, which at least in my own life are some of the richest and most profound I’ve enjoyed.

I don’t expect people to put down their iPods or game controllers. These are pleasant diversions, ersatz experiences for when we can’t have the real thing. But as the world is starting to realize, the “real thing” isn’t passive and solitary, but active and shared – and much easier to have than before. We’re going to try to make it easier still, so everyone can choose to participate in what is a source of the greatest joy to us Abreu Fellows. Pleasure is none, if not diversified.

The Wall Street Journal reports that 325 million visit Wikipedia each month.  But thousands of the online volunteers who write, edit and police it are quitting the site.  What will this mean for the brand of democratization that is Wikipedia? 

Wikipedia suffered a net loss of more than 49,000 editors, compared to a net loss of 4,900 during the same period a year earlier. It has been 8 years since Wikipedia began to provide the world, free access to knowledge.   So what is happening to the idea of participation?  Errors and deliberate insertions of false information by vandals have undermined its reliability. Executives at the Wikimedia Foundation, which finances and oversees the nonprofit venture, acknowledge the declines, but believe they can continue to build a useful encyclopedia with a smaller pool of contributors. “We need sufficient people to do the work that needs to be done,” says Sue Gardner, executive director of the foundation. “the purpose of the project is not participation”.

There may be a decline in volunteers but users are growing with a 20%increase in the 12 months ending in September 2009, according to comScore Media Metrix. Wikipedia contributors have been debating and discussing what is prompting the declines in volunteers.  Is it that many topics already have been written about?  Is it the multitude of rules Wikipedia has adopted to bring control and order to its  universe, especially infighting among contributors.  ”Wikipedia is becoming a more hostile environment,” contends Mr. Ortega, a project manager at Libresoft, a research group at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. “Many people are getting burnt out when they have to debate about the contents of certain articles again and again”.

Full article by Julia Angwin and Geoffrey A. Fowler can be found here

 http://hpb.online.wsj.com/article_email/SB125893981183759969-lMyQjAxMDI5NTI4MzkyMzM5Wj.html#

The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 640

“In order to promote gender equity and the empowerment of women, and to reduce all forms of violence against women and against children, and to increase the percentage of citizens with a clearer awareness about violence, the Open Institute held a women’s forum under the topic: ‘Best Practice of ICT Use to Combat Violence against Women and Children.’

“25 November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the Open Institute will participate in an international campaign ‘Reclaiming Information and Communication Technology to End Violence against Women’ focusing on all activities considered as violence against women and children which come from a wrong attitude and lead to crimes. This campaign will take place until 10 December 2009, which is the International Human Rights Day.

“The executive director of the Open Institute, Ms. Chim Manavy, told Deum Ampil that the Open Institute is an organization working on the use of Information and Communication Technology to contribute to development of equality between men and women. She added that the Women’s Program of the Open Institute, in cooperation with the Association for Progressive Communication, will organize some activities to participate in the 16 days campaign under the topic: ‘Take Control of Technology to End Violence against Women’ [a collaborative campaign to use Information and Communication Technology like mobile phones, instant messengers, blogs, websites, digital cameras, e-mail, and pod casts to promote the end of violence against women]. She went on to say that this campaign is going to be organized with the goal to publish the campaign to contribute to ending violence through the use of Information and Communication Technology in women’s organizations, by users of Information and Communication Technology, and the public in Cambodia, to raise awareness about the different forms of violence against women, as well as to address how important the use of Information and Communication Technology can be [to combat violence against women]. She went on to say that to learn about a rich collection of information about laws, rights, gender, and other documents regarding development, on can visit the Women’s Web Portal at the following Internet address: http://women.open.org.kh/; also articles and short texts related to women’s affairs can be sent to a discussion list at the following address: gender@lists.open.org.kh .

“It should be noted that the history of the campaign to use Information and Communication Technology to end violence against women dates back in the Association for Progressive Communication since 2006, and it is used as base material in many countries of the world.”Deum Ampil, Vol.3, #344, 24.11.2009

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Deum Ampil, Vol.3, #344, 24.11.2009

• 16-Day Campaign to Promote Gender Equality to Combat Violence against Women and Children
• [The Minister of Economy and Finance] Mr. Keat Chhon Asked America to Cancel the Debt Cambodia Owes [of more than US$300 million since the time of the Khmer Republic regime - 1970-1975]
• [Three] Robbers Robbed a Gold Seller Couple in Lvea Em District, Took 5 Chi of Gold Away [approx. US$690], and Assaulted the Husband Seriously [with a hammer on his head; then they escaped - Kandal]
• Russian Investors and the Odessa Bank of the Ukraine Are Interested in Investment in Cambodia [in mineral resources, energy, agriculture, and tourism]

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.8, #2106, 24.11.2009

• Lawyers and Government Officials: The Cambodian-Thai Relation Broke Down due to [Thai Prime Minister] Abhisit Vijjajiva’s Government [that used the Khmer Preah Vihear Temple for its policy - according to a forum held on 23 November 2009 in Phnom Penh]
• A Christian Church’s Teacher Was Detained for Raping a 9-Year-Old Female Pupil Three Times in a Toilet [Phnom Penh]
• Three More Houses Were Destroyed by Fire in Svay Pak Commune because of Electric Faults [Phnom Penh]

Khmer Amatak, Vol.3, #537, 24.11.2009

• A Siamese [Thai] High Ranking Official from the Ministry of Defense [who came to Cambodia] Requested Bail for the Siamese Man [accused of spying] or to Extradite Him to His Home Country

Khmer Machas Srok, Vol.3, #537, 24.11.2009

• The Information that Cambodia Will Have an Anti-Corruption Law Soon Is Welcomed [by the Sam Rainsy Party and by the political observer, Ms. Chea Vannath]
• [Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian] Mr. Son Chhay: The Management of Natural Resources in Cambodia Is Not Good, because the Parliament Dominated by the Ruling Party Is Poor in Checking and Monitoring

Koh Santepheap, Vol.42, #6813, 24.11.2009

• Japan Grants US$12 Million to Cambodia to Clear Mines and to Assist Mine Victims
• The Government Rejected a Thai Spokesperson’s Accusation that Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen’s Daughter Plans to Control Stocks of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service
• A Terrible Man Raped His Sister-in-Law and Stabbed Her to Death, then He Was Arrested [Koh Kong]

Meatophoum, Vol.53, #752, 27-28.11.2009

• Former US President [Mr. Jimmy Carter] Announced to Build 6,000 Houses for Khmer Citizens

Phnom Penh Post [Khmer Edition], Vol.1, #52, 24.11.2009

• The Authorities Destroyed [18] Sites Producing Mreah Prov Oil [from a large softwood tree, used as an ingredient to produce ecstasy] at the Kravanh Mountain Range Area in Pursat [the sites are controlled by Vietnamese experts who moved to Cambodia after Vietnam banned such products in 1999; however, it is not known how many people are responsible for those sites]
• 180 [Cambodian] Delegates and Athletes Will Attend the [25th] South East Asian Games in Laos

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.17, #5055, 24.11.2009

• The Hearings of [the former Tuol Sleng prison chief] Duch Arrive at the Last Stage [lawyers from both sides were offered time to give their final conclusion about the case, and the judgment is expected to be made early next year]
• The Seoul Women’s University of Korea Grants 20 Scholarship to 20 Cambodian Female Students Each Year [to study there]
• The Son of the Owner of the Fishing Lot 18 Shot a Worker Fishing there to Death [the perpetrator escaped - Kandal]

Have a look at the last editorial – you can access it directly from the main page of the Mirror.
And please recommend us also to your colleagues and friends.

Back to top

After an inexcusable delay here is the exercise for last week’s participation credit.  Read this blog entry list of 10 Technology Must-Haves for College and post a comment here with an addition or alteration to that list.  Is there something you could not live without that the authors have left off the list?  Is there something they include that you think is frivolous?  Post your comment by noon this Friday, November 27, to receive the one-hour participation credit for last week.

Voici un exemple d’un moment d’écoute qu’on peut organiser avec des enfants, afin de choisir un thème pour un mini-projet citoyen.
Hier een voorbeeld van een luistermoment voor kinderen. Tijdens een luistermoment wordt een thema gekozen voor een mini-participatief project.

At what point is stuff on the net (public domain) none of our business?  When should we avert our eyes and not read a little more?  What is the threshold from curious to stalking?

Recently, I met an interesting fellow at an alumni-networking event.  After an engaging conversation of shared interests, we exchanged email addresses. Later, I wanted to suggest an appropriate meeting place but could not recall where he had said that he lived, so I turned to the Internet to do a quick address search.

In about 10 minutes of searching, I did not find his address, but I learned more than I expected.  I found his age, his faith, his cousin’s family tree, and his wife’s blog.

Intrigued by my new friend’s wife’s blog, I read on.  It turns out, the stories (blog posts) were every bit as interesting and engaging as his conversation had been.  However, immediately following this confirmation, I felt unsettled.  Just how would I let on what I knew and how I knew it?  Had I usurped his privilege of introducing me to his wife’s blog?  Had I devalued the connection by barging in myself? Is this part and parcel of 21st century networking that I am not yet used to?

My experience was confirmed in Wired Magazine’s headline article this month, Vanish: “…ordinary people – really can gather an incredible dossier of facts about you.”  It is because of the combination of powerful search engines and extensive amounts of publicly available information.  It behooves us be aware of what information is defining us and to be thoughtful about what is defining others.

In old cultures where privacy was hard to come by, people learned to avert their eyes to allow for privacy and were admonished to mind their own business.  In addition, we were encouraged to live an honorable life because of public scrutiny.  Those old (long view) rules are evolving to deal with the connectivity and information richness of our lives today, yet still apply:

• Live your life impeccably.  Doing so, will mean never having to be ashamed, embarrassed, or held accountable for wrongdoing.
• Out of respect and kindness, engage the positive and disregard the negative.

Embracing the new:

• Take what you learn on the Internet with a grain of salt.
• Be judicious in how you apply Internet “knowledge.”
• Follow your instincts, yet pay attention to the evolution – norms are changing.

Bloggers expect that others will be informed, transformed, and educated through connection to our blogs.  Participating constructively is welcome and my new friend was fine with it.

Are you living life impeccably and engaging the positive?

Chers lecteurs, maybe it’s obvious that I’ve been avoiding mikwobo. But it’s not because I didn’t have anything to say — rather, too much.

(Since my latest update, I’ve taken 913 photographs. That was before I ran out of batteries, bought four suspiciously light, bright red Tiger Head Brand Super Quality Batteries Of Guangzhou, China, from a street vendor at midnight for 40 cents and was foreseeably disappointed by their potency.)

Still, I’ve been fumbling for a way to organize my thoughts. But now I’ve decided, what the heck. I’ll just freewrite and you can wade through what you wish.

I’ve stopped counting things people carry on their heads and started counting things people carry on their heads on motorcycles: mattresses, helium tanks, TVs, computer towers, an entire living room set of wooden furniture, and (so far, the crowing champion), a refrigerator and freezer at the same time.

The rainy season has officially ended, and it’s very dry. The wind turned yesterday, from a southerly sea breeze to a northerly desert breeze. This means the dust — mixed with the pollution from the perpetual traffic jams — is particularly bad. You can’t see the sun, and all the taxi drivers wear bandannas over their mouths.

I’m madly in love with piment, the spicy pepper that accompanies most dishes that looks like a teeny bell pepper. If you plan to eat piment or tomatoes raw, they must be soaked for twenty minutes in a solution of water and chemicals that turn the water purple. The soaking kills the soil bacteria that come from human waste.

Our electricity and water go out periodically, but it’s really no big deal. I’m fortunate that we have a well for drinking water. I was out with friends the other night discussing the song the restaurant was playing. After the power was cut off, my friend quipped: “Ah! That’s how you know you’re listening to real African music!”

It has become very clear how much of the prices we pay for things in the U.S. comes from overhead, packaging, branding and regulation. Some things are cheap: Yesterday I got a pedicure up the street for 150 francs (30 cents), and I can generally get a zem (moto-taxi) from downtown Cotonou to Calavi (ten miles) for 400 francs (80 cents). Other luxuries are comparatively more: a can of Coke (which costs more than a glass bottle because it includes the price of the can) is 350 francs (43 cents). And imported things are downright expensive: four Energizer batteries cost me 1700 francs ($4.25) and a big bolt of Lebanese fabric is (after haggling) 6,000 francs ($13). If you’re really going for cheap, there are three important rules: (a) avoid air-conditioning (and even stores with interiors) (b) avoid premarked prices (c) never appear in a hurry.

My nose is perpetually red, my feet are perpetually covered in mosquito bites, and when I wipe my face with a tissue, it is perpetually brown.

I’m an auditeur (student) in the Chaire UNESCO Des Droits de la Personne et de la Democratie (that is, a UNESCO-founded Department of Human Rights and Democracy) at the university in Abomey-Calavi, a suburb of Cotonou. The campus is enormous, with about 30,000 students. The vast majority — more than 99 percent — are West African. I’ve heard rumors that there are a few German girls. I am the only documented American. Much of the campus is beautiful, with dirt roads lined with big shady fern-leaved trees, underbrush and palms. Each department is tucked away in its own little section. Fortunately, my building is only ten minutes from the gates, which means I can get to school in less than twenty minutes if I walk or five if it’s blistering hot and I take a zem. At the entrance gates, you find an animated cluster of zemijans (zem drivers), a few vendors with oranges, pineapples and plastic bags of water, maybe a bookseller or two and occasionally a Jehovah’s Witness.

My schedule is very different from that of an American college student. We have classes for just three months, ostensibly from November 9 to February 19, with one course per week for six hours per day. In addition to the classroom time, which amounts to 350 hours (about a semester and a half, but in three months!), we prepare group papers and presentations that are incorporated into the curriculum; take an exam for each course in March; and are responsible for writing and defending a memoire (thesis) of 50 to 100 pages.

I started school Nov. 9. By “start,” I mean I showed up and most of my classmates showed up. Our professor did not. He came the next day. We have no class this whole week because our professor decided to go to Gabon for the week. Class was moved to February, but not before we sat for four hours in the classroom with nothing to do waiting for him on Monday. The administrators (who definitely have a “good guy, bad guy” routine going) made us stay because they were not sure if the professor was coming or not. We had nothing to do. Jean-Baptiste, my Chadian deskmate, and I drew maps of Africa and talked about George W. Bush.

Greetings are very important. When someone enters the library or the classroom, he or she shakes hands with every student already there. Everyone also brings handkerchiefs or tissues to wipe off the wooden seats and desks before they sit down because of the ubiquitous, permanent layer of dust. The classroom is heavily air-conditioned, and I have to carry a fleece through the 95-degree heat so that I won’t freeze during class.

We have each course for five or six hours per day with one 15-minute break, and this makes me antsy. Most of our notes from the first class (Research Methodology) were actually dictated — that is, word for word — which is good for my language skills but really boring as a pedagogical tool. Our first professor was very kind, very funny and a little pompous.

Most students are fastidious about clothing. It’s an interesting mixture of Western business (suits, pencil skirts) and more traditional African (kaftans, vivid prints) and in an American classroom it would look clashingly ostentatious (pink prom dress with shoulder wrap of autumn reds and oranges). I already got chastised (kindly) by another student for wearing flip flops. But when I’m in class, I tend to forget I’m the only American/Anglophone/white person on campus because students everywhere are just about the same. My class is composed of — besides me — two dozen Beninese, two or three Togolese, a Chadian, a Malian and a Nigerien (that is, a woman from Niger [Nigerienne], not Nigeria [Nigerianne]). We have one police commissioner and one nun. I would guess most people are between 25 and 35.

We’ve been assigned three group projects for three different courses already, and my subjects are: the tension between women’s rights and traditional community practices, preemptive war and international law, and the laws of physical integrity (that is, people can’t hit you) in Africa. The other courses we will have are: History of the State of Law, Sociology of Human Rights, Democratic Political Regimes, Philosophy of Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Public Law, Human Rights and Development, International Criminal Law, Democratic Transitions, Comparative Regional Systems for the Protection of Human Rights in Africa and Europe, and the State of Human Rights in Africa.