This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves; not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us. Hubert H. Humphrey
The Guardian Angel.
It was already dark when the turboprop plane of the United Express pressed its gears upon the airstrip of Richmond International Airport. Crystal had just dropped two Humphrey Fellows to their apartments at West Cary Street before hurriedly returning to the airport to pick up another fellow. This Fellow, Tin Moe Aung, was the last one of the group this year. She was a Myanmar physician flew from Tucson, Arizona. All Fellows, save Pedro–the psychologist from Rio de Janeiro, had their Pre-academic course somewhere else before flying to Richmond, the capital city of Virginia, which would become their home for the next eight months.
It was a long and weary day for Crystal who was addressed by Pan, the Fellow from Thailand, as the guardian angel. The lean African-American lady drove into the wide lane in front of the in-bound terminal to meet the woman from Myanmar, Moe. She drove Moe to Cary Place in the west end of the city which was the same place where she had just dropped two Humphrey Fellows one hour earlier. After leading Moe to her apartment and informing her of the next day’s schedule, she left Cary Place. It was mid-night when she headed home. The Humphrey Fellows were all on their warm beds, while Crystal was driving home. A long and weary day had ended, but there would be more long and weary days awaiting her.
The Little Shy Girl.
It was Saturday evening of the 13th day of August. The weather remained hot as if to remind that it was Summer. Alison, our Academic Coordinator, was busy preparing for the welcome reception, our honor, for a few hours when the evening set in. Most of the VCU faculty, including Bob Balster our Coordinator, who took a leave from the Humphrey Program this year, as a Jefferson Fellow with the U.S. Department of State and Larry, our kind Friendship Family Coordinator, had been awaiting the Humphrey fellows' arrival. It was Crystal who, again, went to pick up these Fellows from their apartments. Four of them resided in the apartments at Cary Place. Two resided at Grace Street, and another two at Three Chopt West. Crystal knew their residences well as she had spent the whole week picking up the fellows and taking them to the grocery and convenient stores.
It was not dark when Crystal parked the van in front of the house of the Breland's. Randy stood by the doorway. His hand reached out to greet all the Fellows. The warm house of the Breland’s fulfilled with salutation, introduction and conversation. Each one accosted the others and started chatting. After a while, Daron, Crystal’s husband, along with their children, Zoe and Asa, joined the party. Alison, though worn out, pleasantly exchanged a colloquy with the fellows and other guests. Suddenly, a little toddler bursted in with a high-pitched scream. She was Rosy, Alison’s daughter. The little girl was running around the house playing hide-and-seek with, Pan, her new friend when she came across her mother.
People chatted, exchanged their experiences and opinions. Daron played piano while Moe was singing along. They became familiar with each other. The party went on until 10:00 pm. Before repairing to their own residences, they bade the other goodbye. Some fellows approached Rosy to say goodbye. But the little girl was so shy. She kept resting her head on her father’s shoulder and gave no response.
New Home, Old Apartments.
Rogers was in his apartment for two weeks. The apartment was in good condition equipped with television and internet facilities. Everything looked anew. It was a small one-bed-room apartment but he thought it was, somehow, too big for him. It had a fine kitchen well provided with all kitchenware needed. And also, it had laundry appliances, one restroom and one bedroom. It was a good location, not far from the GRTC bus stop and Cabell Library where the VCU bus connector stop stood.
Unfortunately, the TV and internet facilities did not work when he first moved in. Perhaps, it was because the previous resident had subscribed to cable TV which expired before he moved in. So, Rogers was left in a mute and blind environment. He had to go to the Humphrey center’s office to Skype home every time he needed to.
He expected GEO to restore the facilities in no time, but at that time of year, the staff was too busy looking for residences for hundreds of new students who started to arrive at the same time as the Fall semester was about to start soon. He was frustrated but eventually, the GEO staff came to fix the facilities as soon as they were able.
Rogers, relieved from the mute and blind environment, could settle into his new home at Cary Place. Richmond would be his new home at least for the next eight months.
Credit Class, Audit Class.
At the beginning of the semester, all Humphrey Fellows were required to take at least one course in accordance to their specific interests. Most Fellows’ interests were substance abuse, so each of them chose a class relevant to substance abuse, for instance, epidemiology, drug addiction, etc. Moe decided to take a for-credit class as she planned to perhaps pursue her Masters degree in the future while the others took the course for audit.
But Pan was different. His interest was not directly about substance abuse but only as it related to the U.S. experiences in the establishment of E-government and E-organization pertaining to the Pharaceutical industry. Accordingly, he decided to take a class on Data Re-engineering which was facilitated by Dr. Peter H. Aiken of the School of Business at Snead Hall off the Monroe Park.
Alison had to contact Dr. Aiken several times to ensure that he would accept Pan in his class; not only because this class required a pre-requisite but also because Pan wanted to take the class for audit. Eventually, Pan was accepted on one condition; if the seat would be available after the all full time students had finished their registration. But that was not the end of the hurdle. In order to register Pan for the class, he needed permission from the office of the Dean to override the rule.
Alison had to make several contacts to the office of the Dean to settle the problem while Pan had to go back and forth to the registration office for three times. By the end of the week, everyone had their own class and they seemed to be happy with theirs. One month later, Moe started to think of redeeming her class from credit to audit!
Earthquake and Irene.
August 23, 2011 was almost the last day of the Humphrey Program orientation. It was a fine day. The sky was clear but the weather reflected the Summer heat. Everyone was in the office. Randy chaired the conference. Mary Loos, an assistant professor with IDAS, joined the meeting as co-director with Randy. It was her first year with the Humphrey program. Mary was also responsible for the collaboration between VCU Humphrey Program and Virginia State University (VSU) in compliance with the new requirement of IIE.
The meeting started as expected but a bit behind the schedule. Getting all of the Fellows together and on time might be the greatest success for the coordinators. After a while, everyone felt a quiver. It started from beneath their feet and then the building was shaking. The lamp hanging from the ceiling above their heads swung to and fro. Everybody jumped on their feet. They quickly moved out of the meeting room.
Pedro, the psychologist from Brazil, moved towards the office door. He determined to go by the book by leading everyone out of the building. Suddenly, he felt something at odd. Nobody followed him to the office door. Instead, all of them moved towards the window and kept discussing about the incidence before concluded that it was an earthquake, a huge magnitude one.
“We are supposed to get out of the building!” Pedro said with horror. He was shocked, not from earthquake, but from the manner in which his fellow colleagues and the coordinators responded to the earthquake. Something came into his mind. They did everything against the earthquake instruction. They stood by the window. They stayed in the building. At one point, he thought they all must be crazy. But that was not the only disaster they experienced that week. On the following day, there was a report warning that a Hurricane was coming to the east coast of the United States. It was named Irene. Irene was expected to visit Richmond at around 08:00 pm of Saturday.
On Friday evening, Crystal picked up the Fellows to visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, but the museum tour was cancelled in order to allow the staff to return home earlier. During the return trip, Pan started to sing the song “Good Night Irene” to enjoy himself. Irene came in accord with the appointment. 06:00 pm, rain, which had been showering for all day, began to pour heavier and heavier. 09:27 pm, all the street lamps on West Cary Street went off, except the electricity supply for the residences in the area. The thundering sound of storm seemed to be fading away. The sound of sirens could be heard at a distance from time to time; apart from that it was the sound of silence. Everything was fine at Cary Place. But in the vicinity outside the city, things were different.
VCU - VSU Collaboration.
On 16th day of September 2011, Tammie Smith reported on the Richmond Times Dispatch website that the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at Virginia Commonwealth University had established a new collaboration with Virginia State University in Ettrick in order to seek the further broadening of "international understanding and exchange about issues with global impact," and to emphasize “partnership with universities serving rural communities or large minority populations.” Smith quoted Zewelanji N. Serpell, an associate professor of psychology at Virginia State as saying that, in the collaboration, "Ph.D. students in the health psychology program at VSU will work one on one with the VCU fellows on health campaigns and other projects." And, the fellows would also "do guest lectures for classes and speak during a brown-bag lunch series in the spring," Smith continued in the report.
Sunset Winery, Harpers Ferry and National Museum of Air and Space at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
After the usual field trip on Friday September 23th, everyone returned to the office to change their cloths and preparing for a trip to Loudoun county. John Sedlins had prepared this trip especially for the VCU Humphrey Fellows. Crystal was the chauffeur as usual despite the fact that she was not fully recovered from laryngitis. Every time Crystal would cough during while driving, Pan would take the opportunity to tease that he would happily assume the driving on her behalf so that the Fellows could experience a Daytona race! He would end each offer with an evil laugh. They arrived at Sunset Winery at almost 05:00 pm. John guided the fellows around the winery house. They saw how wine was prepared and also tested their palate with the taste of wine.
The next day, John led them to the old town of Harpers Ferry. Harpers Ferry was not just a historical site. It was the place where the civil war was ignited. In 1859, John Brown killed 5 southerners and aroused the raid against slavery. Colonel Robert E. Lee was sent with a U.S. Marines troop to arrest John Brown. It would not be a surprise if Robert E. Lee would not accompany by John Wilkes Booth who was later the hit man who shot President Lincoln to death. John Brown was arrested. A few months later he was convicted to death sentence and hanged in December 1859. Before execution, John Brown wrote that “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.” Two years later, the civil war erupted in June 1861 as he predicted. A song was composed dedicating to the heroism of John Brown namely John Brown’s Body or John Brown’s Song which, during the civil war, became the military marching song. Nearby the engineering house known later as “John Brown’s Fort” where he and his men were trapped before being arrested, stood a stone inscribed a eulogy for the 5 victims of John Brown.
After the tour, Crystal dropped John at the hotel where he left his car and headed for the National Museum of Air and Space at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Pan was, thereupon, the walking GPS for Crystal. They arrived at the museum at around midday. The museum was a branch of the famous Smithsonian Institution. One among the spectacular flying machines was the aircraft that changed the face of warfare and the world politics once and for all. It was “Enola Gay.”
In August 6th of 1945, A Boeing B-29 Super fortress bombing aircraft, inscribed the name ‘Enola Gay,’ took off from a secret airfield in Pacific Ocean. It headed towards Japan on a secret operation. The clear and simple order was to “drop the bomb over a Japanese city,” but none of the crews knew the exact target. Four hours later, Colonel Paul Tibbets received another order. It named the target point, Hiroshima. At 8:15 am, the “Little Boy”, as the bomb was named, was dropped off the belly of Super fortress. 62 seconds later, Hiroshima was filled with light similar to the Magnesium light but so bright that no one on board the Super fortress had ever seen before. Suddenly, Hiroshima had turned to the city of death. 80,000 people evaporated along with the buildings. 15 seconds later, the crews of Enola Gay felt the aircraft quivering as if it was being shaken by a gigantic hand. Tibbets turned the bomber around for observation. Though, the crewmen expected a huge explosion, the sight stunned them into motionless. “Oh my God, what have we done?” That was probably the only words came into their mind. Today, Enola Gay stands still in the grand exhibition hall of the National Museum of Air and Space at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center as if to remind the audiences of the holocaust of Hiroshima.
Thus far the year has been filled with a lot of settling in and travel. We are looking forward to more and will keep you updated. Next blog to be updated in the next few weeks!
-- Pan Pramokchon (Thailand)
