This week has been so stressful as I have three midterms (one on Monday, then Tuesday and finally Thursday). I feel my procrastination tendencies getting stronger as these midterms get closer. I was recently reading a blog from Roxanne that stated, " There are just not enough hours in the day" and "sleep is a waste of life." I have truly been feeling the same way these past couple of weeks. When one stops to think about all the things you want to get done for the day, its hard finding the time to actually accomplish your tasks. But I guess I have a ways to go before I learn how to budget my time.
Last week in my international relations class we had a speaker from an aid project in Ghana, talk to us about the charitable work they were doing in that country. She spoke about the schools they were building, the people they met and the culture of the country. It was really interesting learning about how charities for (non-profit organizations) use their funds, donated from people, to do good in the world. She stated that an impressive 90% of the donations they receive go to help the people of Ghana. This is truly an accomplishment, as I have heard of organizations giving a measely 30% of their funds for charitable givings, while keeping the remainder for "administrative purposes." Suffice to say, there is still a lot of work that must be done to help those in Ghana, but I'm glad to see someone not only talking about the ideas but putting them into action. She is eventually going to write a book about her own experiences, and the great part about this is that she feels that she still has much work left to accomplish.
I'm a little bummed out that the Alternative Spring Break to go to Oakland for habitat for humanity is already taken up. I had completely forgotten about the volunteer opportunity to help those in need in California. Just thinking about my negligence is making me frustrated with myself so lets switch gears and turn to the latest movie I saw which was Hotel Rwanda.
It was a good movie in terms of portraying how the genocide happened and the factors influenced it. However, I do believe that it could have included more visual displays of the killings in order to sensitize the audience to the plight of the Tutsi's, such as in the case of the Jewish people in Schindler's List. The atrocities that they went through were just horrendous. I actually finished reading a book on the genocide, called "Left to Tell" written by Steve Irwin about the story of Imaculee IIibagiza who was one of two survivors from her family. It was a very heart wrenching book that I recommend to everyone.
Unfortunately, I must get back to studying for my International Relations midterm. I'll get back to you on how I did!
aminm11@u.washington.edu