Daily Life

William, Memory, and Polina are all people who grew up in Malawi.  There are many successes and challenges to the way each of them spent their days.  One success for Memory and Polina is that they both go to school. William had to drop out of school which is a challenge for him.  This is important because William grew up without a proper  education.  Meanwhile, Memory and Polina have somewhere to go every day and can be educated.  Another challenge for William is that he had to do a lot of work in the field because he was one of the two males in the family.  Polina and Memory did not have to do this which is a success for them because they have a better chance at education because of this.

William also had successes.  One success for William is that he builds the windmill.  This is a success because he is able to give his family electricity.  Memory and Polina did not have electricity and missed out on things that William had like staying up to read or do homework without kerosene lamps.  William also has good friends like Gilbert and Geoffrey who help him with his windmill and buy him parts.  When you compare these successes and challenges it shows that William, Memory and Polina all grew up in Malawi but had very different everyday lives.  While William had to work for his family and couldn't go to school, he still was able to give them electricity, which Memory and Polina didn't have.  In conclusion, the three of them might have grown up in the same place, but they're everyday lives' successes and challenges decided they're different outcomes.

Akon - Oh Africa

Groundhog Day

Today, February second, is Groundhogs day.  This is a commonly celebrated day around the U.S. about if there will be six more weeks of winter or a sign that spring is coming.  This is based on the weather this day.  If it is cloudy with little or no sun than it's a sign of spring.  If there is lots of sun and the groundhog, "sees his shadow" then he gets scared and goes into his hole and there is six more weeks of winter.  On this particular Groundhogs day it was sunny and now there should be six more weeks of winter.  This tradition comes from similar beliefs based on the older Candlemas day, celebrated by the early Christians in Europe.  Old poems and songs about this holiday talk about the same weather pattern that day affecting the elongation of winter.

A Story

I have nothing to blog about so here's a story I'm coming up with as I go.  There once was a ogre named Jeffrey.  Jeffrey was a lonely ogre who went to ogre school with lots of other ogres and mythical creatures.  Jeffrey had no friends mostly because of his face.  His face was upside down and horrendously ugly.  His eyes were a mysterious black which struck fear into those around him.  He was nearly deaf and had bad sight but an amazing sense of smell.  One day he was walking about the hallways of his school to the bathroom to wash his shirt which one of the ogres had poured yougurt on.  He washed it off and when he got back to his classroom he saw that no one was there.  He was careful not to trip over anything as he searched the classroom.  When he got to the window he came across a faint smell like flowers and pizza.  He rushed out of the school, closed his eyes and followed the scent.  Crashing into several buildings he made his way to a wall he couldn't find his way around.  He opened his eyes and there stood a line of buses stretching as far as he could tell and each bus filled with pizza and ice cream.  When he ate the ice cream it repaired his sight and when he ate the pizza it repaired his hearing  Jeffrey was never sad again.

Apple

TOday in class we learned about the factory Foxconn in Shenzen, China, which is one of the largest producers of Apple products.  This factory in particular has a suprisingly high number of suicides, 17.  This is astonishing and many are shocked.  All of these deaths have been workers who jumped off the top of the building to their deaths so Foxconn's solution was to put nets on the sides of their building to catch falling workers.  Manyare angry about this but the company argues that their suicide rate is lower than the national average of China.  Many are also upset with Apple saying they know about the child labor and suicides that go on but do not care about them.  Apple says that they are taking the matter seriously and are attempting to limit the hours Foxconn can force onto their workers.