COMMUNITY FOR LIFE

In this issue of Pacific Bridges, we are celebrating the PiA ‘Community For Life’-- the unique, lifechanging communities that PiAers become a part of, learn from, and contribute to on their PiA fellowships and for the rest of their lives, wherever they find themselves. To illustrate the power of the PiA community to transform, support, and inspire, we will be featuring reflections from two PiAers who have become an integral part of two very special communities. The first is from Mei Lum (Thailand ‘12, Beijing ‘13), who has recently taken over her family’s 126 year-old business in Chinatown and turned it into a community space, and the second is from Brittney Woodrum (Myanmar ‘16), who is our inaugural Fellow at the Dhamma Moli International Buddhist Education Center in Yangon. (photo: Mei Lum inside Wing on Wo & Co.)

“P Khem ja!,” I screamed. P Khem walked out of her front door with a huge smile on her face, “Sawasdee ka Mei!” It had been a year since I last saw P Khem. I gave her a huge hug, squeezing her tight to let her know how much I had missed her. P Khem offered me my favorite fruit. “I’m so happy to see you. I have many things to tell you,” she said. I peeled open the bag of rambutan, and then stayed up until 4 A.M. laughing and crying with P Khem as we updated each other on how our lives had taken unexpected turns since our last meeting in August 2015.

P Khem and I had developed a close relationship during my first year as a PiA teaching Fellow at Satree Phang-Nga School in 2012. She welcomed me into the Phang-Nga commutniy and taught me many lessons that I carried close to my heart as I embarked to my second post in Beijing at The JUMP! Foundation in 2013, to my short 3-month stint at The Laos Rugby Federation in 2015, and now back at home in New York as I begin a new journey with my family’s small Chinese porcelain business, Wing on Wo & Co.

Wing on Wo & Co. is the oldest shop in NYC’s Chinatown. It was founded in 1890 by my great-great-grandfather, Walter Eng. Originally established as a neighborhood general store, Wing on Wo (W.O.W) has transformed over the past century, expanding in 1925 to house a Chinese herbalist and a roasting pig pit, honing its product to porcelain ware in the 60s, and now at last growing into a socially minded business model with a community initiative at its forefront. The Chinatown community is at the heart of W.O.W’s new direction and initiative, a direction very much inspired and informed by my experiences working in different communities with PiA.

As I move through my daily life here at W.O.W, I find myself repeatedly reflecting on my year in Phang-Nga, and the ways in which I have been moved and inspired by P Khem’s deep commitment and infectious passion to galvanize the Satree Phang-Nga community to take ownership of their school and contribute to Phang-Nga’s future growth. I continually revisit and apply the action-planning tools and program management skills I developed during my years working with The JUMP! Foundation’s China team, and I often think back to the Lao Rugby Federation’s incredible youth-led model for their Pass It Back development project. I would have never imagined that this awareness of self and community that I cultivated first in Phang-Nga, that sleepy limestone cliff encircled town in Thailand, and then continued to build upon through my PiA experiences with JUMP! and the Lao Rugby Federation would eventually transform my experience of place in ways that would shape my sense of purpose.

FEATURE: COMMUNITY FOR LIFE

I left Asia last November with a heavy heart and plans to return to the States for a short period, but then return to Asia as quickly as possible with a stronger skillset to do more meaningful community development work. In the back of mind, though, I wondered how I could continue to work in communities abroad without ever having been active in my own community in New York City’s Chinatown. How could I to aid in another community’s development when I hadn’t even taken the time to truly immerse myself in and contribute to my own? It wasn’t until my family made the decision to sell Wing on Wo & Co. that I began to think about how the loss of years of community history and family legacy would impact not only my own family, but also the greater Chinatown community.

A serendipitous meeting with Diane Wong, a doctoral candidate writing her dissertation on the gentrification of Chinatowns in the U.S last December contributed greatly in shaping W.O.W’s community initiative, The W.O.W Project. After shadowing Diane’s interviews with community stakeholders over the course of three months, I began to process these community stories against the backdrop of the vanishing future of Wing on Wo & Co. Chinatown’s neighborhood and realized that the changes were central to everyone’s concerns. I started to think about how I could join in the resistance against the erasure of culture and history in a gentrifying Chinatown.

Diane and my desire to share the community’s voices and stories soon became the start of a larger vision. We organized The W.O.W Project’s first ever panel discussion this past May focused on the theme of the (re)generation of Chinatown, exploring the role of a new generation of Chinese American business owners running businesses – non-traditional to Chinatown – in a rapidly changing neighborhood. We have since put on a series of public programs – panel discussions, a design challenge, a short film screening, an artist residency – to engage youth, elders, business owners and residents in conversation and idea generation about Chinatown’s future.

In the 20s, mom and pop general stores in the neighborhood like Wing on Wo & Co. served as informal community gathering spaces. In its early years, Chinatown was reminiscent of a small village. These stores were a critical hub for mail and money-wiring services to and from China. They also served as a central place for people to come together, play mahjong and chat over plates of roast pork. Today, W.O.W is rooting itself in and building on its rich historical past for its future. The W.O.W Project is giving new meaning to the neighborhood shop and creating a platform for community members to celebrate the stories and voices of Chinatown locals while gaining an awareness of and engaging with the issues that come with our changing neighborhood.

I’ll never forget my final evening in Phang-Nga. P Khem took me on our favorite ride in town along the back road where we had a perfect view of the sun setting behind Elephant Mountain. P Khem turned to me as we both stared out at the orange, purple and blues in the sky and asked “So, how about your trip in Phang-Nga this time?” I shared with her that coming back to to visit made me realize how much my experience living and working in Phang-Nga had informed my engagement with my own Chinatown community. I re-integrated into my neighborhood just as I had integrated into life in Phang-Nga that year: with an open heart to listen, learn, and honor the culture and history of those that came before me. (To find out more about W.O.W or to get involved, stop by the store in Chinatown or visit wingonwoand.co/getinvolved.

Reflections from the Nunnery

By: Brittney

I’m obsessed with communities. We’ve all experienced that larger sense of purpose a community can give us. It feels like a place where we belong, or, simply put, home. I’ll go on and say it, the nunnery is an incredible community, but it reminds me a lot of a community we all know and love: camp.

No one really wants to go to camp, right? It’s that thing your parents force you to do to get you out of the house for the summer. It’s in the middle of the forest and you have no cell phone service. You cry every night for the first week. But as the days go by, things get better. You no longer have the distractions of home, so you find yourself investing more time in the people and activities around you.

By week three you are loving it. Everyone knows you and you feel like you are a part of something greater — but hold on. There’s only one week left. You panic because you don’t know how you will readjust to the real world. Alas, on move-out day, your parents come, you get in the car, and you leave. You cry every night for the first week. Eventually time comes and lulls the pain into a warm memory. But what you don’t realize is that you’ve just captured a glimpse of what it’s like to be truly invested in a community.

Alright, alright, alright — I know. I’m getting to it: the nunnery. So, how is the nunnery like camp? Well, first of all, it is very remote. There is little contact with the outside world, mainly by personal choice, and most of my updates rely heavily on word-of-mouth. Secondly, I get to participate in fun daily activities like gardening, crocheting, and learning Burmese. Furthermore, we have a very strict routine which we all abide by, and, at night, we all sleep together in the same room, bed-to-bed. But all these reasons are really superficial. The real reason that the nunnery is like camp is because it is a community that is completely reliant on the members within its walls. We all have a role to play, and in many ways, we depend on one an-other for our own survival.

Here at the nunnery, my days are routine, but not mundane. This is largely thanks to the nuns.They play many roles in my life — they are my students, my teachers, my friends, and most importantly, my sisters. Our days are devoted to work and class, but our evenings are symphonies of tear-streamed laughter as we sprawl out on the floor under a blanket with to escape the mosquitos. We read, we tell stories, and we dream. It’s incredible. We don’t even speak the same language, but I’ve learned that love knows no language. Their kindness is limitless, and they make me want to be better than my best self everyday. In the classroom, their successes become my successes, and I find that my heart is constantly overflowing with love as I invest more of myself than ever before.

As wonderful as the nunnery is, it also shares a larger similarity with camp. Buddhism talks a lot about suffering. Although I don’t subscribe to any particular dogma, I do love this one key item that the Buddha taught. He explained that we can never truly escape suffering. Even in our happiest moments, we still experience a certain sadness because we understand the impermanence of life. Even as I sit here in sheer contentment, I realize that things will not always be this way. Although it is sad, it is also sobering. It allows me to cherish the gift while I have it and further encourages me to not waste a moment. And that’s what I’m planning to do every day that I get to spend with this community.

In a time when the global community is bursting at the seams and people are at their flakiest, it is a breath of fresh air to take a step back from the rat race and invest everything I have into this one small community. I can’t remember a time when I felt more fulfilled with my life, and although I dread the day I board a plane home, I know these women and the lessons they have taught me will live on forever in my heart, and, unlike the fond memories of camp, no amount of time can ever dull them.

Keeping it in the PiA Family

Not Too Cool For School

Let the PiA takeover of Ann Arbor begin! Ali Raymond (Kazakhstan ’12) has started her MBA at the Ross School of Business. She also plans to pursue certificate for Central Asian studies as well and through that relationship will hope to find more undergrads interested in the “Stans”. Also new to “A2” are Jeremiah Firman (Thailand ’14), Mahalia Kahsay (Thailand ’14), and Katie Proudman (Thailand ’11) studying education, law, and social work, respectively.

Back in good ‘ol New Jersey, Peter Trinh (Singapore ’14) is learning to save lives at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Our very own Fiona Miller (Indonesia ’09) is pursuing her post-baccalaureate to prepare for medical school at Rutgers University. Fresh off the boat from a stint in Dushanbe, Alex Long (Kazakhstan ’09) will be keeping up his Tajik as part of a Master’s degree through the Near Eastern Studies department at Princeton University.

Patrick Douglass (China ’04) and Amy Gedal (China ’04) are excited to announce the arrival of their daughter Zoe Anice Douglass. She was born on September 21 at 12:08pm, weighs 8 lbs 3 oz, and is 20 inches tall. Zoe is a great sleeper, loves to stick out her tongue, and is already curious about the world. She sure sounds like a PiA fellow in the making!

Amy Lehr (Thailand ’00, Myanmar ‘02) married Damon Taaffe last October, but she thought it was better late than never to share the big news with the PiA community! She selected her husband after learning that his aunt has lived in Thailand since the 1960s, and has a coffee plantation near Chiang Mai. She acquired several Thai cousins in the deal, too. Vacation plans for life!

Ashley took a weekend trip to Princeton to say hello to one of her former co-Fellows, Neil Atkinson (Singapore ‘13). And of course, where else would they go for brunch but PJ’s Pancake House? See you again soon, Ashley!

Out of the West Coast, David Cogswell (Singapore ’10) Kasey Koopmans (Nepal ’11, Myanmar ’12), and Manav Khurana (China ’15) are working on their MBA degrees at Haas School of Business. They figured out that they had PiA in common long before the mothership got involved. Down in Palo Alto, Hannah D’Apice (Singapore ’14) is working on her M.Ed. at Stanford, specializing in international education policy analysis.

After a victory lap that consisted of circumnavigating the globe, Ashley Swan (Singapore ’13) has started dentistry school at the University of Pennsylvania. She is in good company with Camille Lin (Hong Kong ’15) who is pursuing a pre-health post-baccalaureate degree.

The New Haven PiA crowd continues to grow! New members include Claudia Sosa Lazo (Thailand ’12) at the Yale School of Management, Ellis Liang (Hong Kong ’15) at the Yale School of Law, and Sean Massa (Indonesia ’15) who is studying religion and ethics and already itching to get back to Southeast Asia next summer.

The PiA presence in Boston remains strong! After helping his home state “go global” at the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, Hunter Richard (China ’12) has returned to his alma matter to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. Also in Cambridge are PiAers Tommy Hill (Singapore ‘12) at the Harvard School of Design, Annie Phillps (China ’13) at the Harvard School of Education, Iris Zhou (Hong Kong ’13) at Harvard Law School, and Natalia Cote-Munoz (China ’14) at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Congrats, Amy and Damon! Can’t wait to see some sweet pictures from your next trip to the coffee plantation.

New to NYC, Vikram Paul (Kazakhstan ’14, Malaysia ’15) is pursuing a JD at Forham Law School. Up in Morningside Heights, Conor Leary (Cambodia ’14) is studying at the Columbia School of Business, Nicholas Pang (SOS ’13, China ’15) is pursuing his PhD in Sociology, Juliet Debutts is studying elementary education, and Ayanna Runcie (Cambodia ’15) is pursuing a dual degree in journalism and international studies. Over in Brooklyn, Alyssa Northrop (Thailand ’14) is working on her MFA in creative writing at Brooklyn College (which we hope means more of her beautiful poetry!).

Further north, Chelsea Gaviola (Vietnam ’14) has started medical school at Dartmouth University. We hope her memories of summer in Ho Chi Minh City will help her appreciate the long winter in Hanover!

On the Job in the US of A

Maryland native Greyson Mann (China ’14) has received a White House appointment to the U.S. Department of Education Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships where he is eager to have the opportunity promote interfaith dialogue on a global scale. There are also lots of new PiA faces in D.C., including Dave Faherty (Malaysia ’07), a staff attorney at the Board of Immigration Appeals, Betty Cox (SOS ’06, Vietnam ’09), a Program Officer for the Results for Development Institute, and Hailey Flynn (Vietnam ’12) who is working with a social service and advocacy organization called HIPS through the Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program (but not before she took a post-bar trip back to Vietnam!).

Ramie Jacobson (China ’13) has returned from two years in China and one year in Colombia to his hometown of Boston, where he is working for Harvard Master’s in Public Health program and heading up the new Boston Chapter of the PiA Alumni Network with Winnie Hien (Singapore ’12). Thanks for manning the PiA ship for us in Boston, Ramie and Winnie!

After finishing his degree at Wharton, Farook Ahmed (Korea ’04) has relocated to New York to work for Credit Suisse’s Global Industrials Group. Further uptown, Brittney Melloy (Indonesia ’13) is a now a Program Manager at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. She is excited for her new to position to bring her back to Indone- sia (and speaking Bahasa) frequently!

Out in the Rockies, Amy Kohout (Laos ’95) has a new appointment with the History Department of Colorado College, where she is teaching a class called “American Frontiers”. Sign us up!

Kassi Chappell (Japan ’12) is sticking around Northern California to teach at an elementary school in Sunnyvale. Kassi, it’s never too early to start planting the Asia bug…