Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas!

A weekend with Engineers Without Borders

On November 20th I caught a train in the morning from London to Coventry. I met up with my friend Spela, who I met in Slovenia back in May 2008 and is now studying in Coventry. We had lunch and took a look around the Coventry Transport Museum before realising that I was nearly late for my afternoon train, and speedwalked back to the rail station. A few pics from the museum:








This is the hub of the front (large) wheel on an old penny-farthing bicycle. Just below the hub, that round thing is a kerosene lamp holder to see at night!




Luxury motorcycle:




In the Second World War, the Nazis destroyed almost all of Coventry from the air. The cathedral walls remained standing, but the roof and everything inside was completely destroyed:




After my short visit to Coventry I headed to Shrewsbury, near the border with Wales, for a 4 day post-cyclone reconstruction weekend with Engineers Without Borders. I didn't take many photos on the first night or the first day, which was spent indoors, but this one's neat. One of the participants can bend his fingers back to touch the back of his hand!




On Sunday the 22nd, we spent most of the day outside, building a shed that could withstand a category 4 storm. First, we had a quick chat about being careful with tools and stuff, which Louise and Sean must have forgotten pretty quickly:




There was lots of sawing and drilling and hammering.




Once we had built it, we tested it with a Newton meter (to measure how much force we were applying to the structure), and it flexed quite easily the first time, before we had added any diagonal braces. The second time, after adding support, it withstood a large amount of force:




However, even with all those people pulling, we couldn't pull hard enough to simulate the force of a category 4 wind. So we hooked the rope up to the back of Razi's car, with Muhammad in the middle holding the Newton meter to see what amount of force was being exerted.




For some reason, no one thought to double up the cheap synthetic rope (I have a good excuse: I was trying to take photos from a distance and didn't look at the ropes being tied), and eventually the rope broke and the Newton meter flew out of Muhammad's hands and back toward the shed, landing just short of the people weighing it down:




We spent the evening back inside, going over lots of different information on rebuilding homes after a natural disaster, which was very interesting.




On Monday morning, a few of us went for a short walk down to the flooded River Severn. On the way there, this sign was down on the ground:




The flooded river:




The weekend was really informative and as a bonus, the participants were really friendly and fun to hang out with. Here are a few of the many people shots I took on our construction day:












On Monday afternoon we got a ride to the rail station in Shrewsbury, but a few of us had an hour or so to waste so we took a walk around town. Kind of funny that the County Council offices are right beside Blower's Repository:




Shrewsbury is not a very well-known town, but it does have one claim to fame: Charles Darwin grew up in Shrewsbury. I found out a couple days later that November 24th (the day after I took this photo) was the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species," Darwin's famous book proposing the theory of evolution.




Looking up the main drag in Shrewsbury:




On the first train we caught, this ridiculous poster was near the doors. I have no idea how someone actually thinks this might possibly affect a young person's behaviour. It's hilarious! I doubt anyone consulted someone below the age of 50 in designing it...

Master's Thesis Defended

There hasn't been much to blog about while in London, other than catching up on old stuff from the summer so that I can remember it when I'm old, if I want to. However, in November I went back to Sweden one last time to defend my Master's thesis. Before we get to that, two photos from London: the first is the view from my office as the sun was setting one day in September; the second is one of many ladybugs that lived in the lampshade in my bedroom for several months and occasionally ventured out to visit me down below.






At the very end of October, with loads of help from my parents, I finally finished my Master's thesis. It had been over a year since I began, and I was VERY happy to have it done. I flew to Sweden on November 4th to defend it on the 6th. Flying from London to Sweden:




The train station beneath Arlanda Airport, to catch my train to Uppsala:




My thesis is the reason I spent so much time in Thailand last year, as I was (among other things) carrying out research among Karen refugees from Burma in the largest refugee camp in Thailand. While I was there, I met a photojournalist named Dave Tacon, who kindly agreed to let me use one of his photos of a KNLA soldier in Karen State for my thesis cover page. Check out his different photo albums and magazine covers at www.DaveTacon.com. This is what my thesis cover looks like:




If you want to know what it's about, the very short abstract explains my topic: Identity Formation and Armed Conflict: A Case Study of Young Karen Long-term Refugees in Mae La Refugee Camp.

After I successfully defended my thesis, which also involved meeting a bunch of this year's NOHA students, I was invited to a party they were holding, which was lots of fun (as all parties seem to be when I'm with humanitarian students / workers).




I reluctantly left picturesque and relaxed Uppsala on November 8th to return to busy and smelly London, and on my last walk along the River Fyris for what will likely be many years, grabbed one last photo of a familiar sight:




Though London's not my favourite city in the world, I'm still thoroughly enjoying my humanitarian logistics internship with Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International). Speaking of which, the next round of Merlin internships in programmes, logistics, donor partnerships, finance, and communications (12 internships in total) are now posted on their website, with an application deadline of January 5th. Check out http://merlin.org.uk/jobs/ if you're interested, and feel free to contact me if you've got any questions about it.

Mud vs Sheep vs Bike 2009

Last year, when I was an intern in Oxford with the Fritz Institute, I was invited by my boss, Fraser Stephens, to go on his annual mountainbiking trip: Mud v Sheep v Bike. This year, I got him to invite me again. He chose Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales for this year's trip, and it was amazing!

Leaving London Paddington train station to Wales on September 18th:




I got to Cardiff in the early afternoon and spent a few hours walking around and reading my book, then caught my bus from Cardiff up to Brecon. Fraser drove down to Brecon to pick me up, and after a nice evening chatting with him and some of his friends, I went to bed. In the morning, we all got our bikes ready to head out into the hills. I was very lucky that Fishy, one of Fraser's friends, brought an extra bike just in case. I had planned to use Fraser's rigid bike, but Fishy brought one with front suspension, which just happened to be the exact same one he lent me last year!




The first obstacle we encountered was bovine. Well, actually we were just waiting for the stragglers to catch up on the road leading to the trails, and this is where we chose to wait:




To get to the mountainbiking trails, we had to cycle for a while on the tow path alongside the canal near Tallybont. I'm decent at taking photos while cycling now...




...and working on improving my behind-the-back shots too:




Some nice views:






Me and my ride:











Mike took a tumble end-over-end coming down the steepest part of the trail - I'm very surprised he's the only one who did! It was really tough! Luckily his bike didn't land on him as it came down, which is a common way to get injured - it hopped right over him. But his glasses did cut his eyebrow:






Nurse Dawn had her first aid kit, including medical superglue (used in place of sutures to close wounds). I noticed one of the tires had partly come off the rim so Fraser deflated the tire, put it back in place, and re-inflated it:




A few minutes later we were at the pub for our midday lunch break. Outside the pub was a tiny pony:




Soonafter, we were back on the trails. We passed through the gap / over the saddle between Pen Y Fan (the highest point in South Wales) and Corn Du, and then it was back down, down, down.




It didn't take long before two bikes got flat tires at the same time on a section I chose to walk because it was quite tough.




One of the two flats was Dawn's bike, so Mike wasted no time in fixing it for her, which was a nice way to repay her earlier help with his eyebrow:




By the time we got back to Cantref Farm, where we were staying, my GPS unit showed the following figures for the day's trip. I took the photo because it was strange that all of them were multiples of 5:




This plaque is on the building, but it doesn't actually say why it's there. It just says when it was unveiled. It's basically a plaque that just describes itself, and says nothing about why it was put there (obviously it's somehow linked to the Foot and Mouth crisis, but what about it?)




That night we had a massive feast. Fraser made his traditional banoffee pie that he does every year:




Fraser's girlfriend Kate led the cooking effort, and it turned out very well - a bunch of super tasty Indian dishes.




The next day, September 20th, six of us went out for a second day of cycling. Although Fraser always says that the second day will be much easier than the first, I think most people have figured out that it's never really that easy, so they all stay back and relax. Paul, Kate, Fishy, Adam, Fraser, and I had a great time on our second day, so I'm glad I forced myself to go.






Adam and Paul on one of the easier sections of the day:







Fishy:







Cycling back along the canal to Cantref Farm:












On the ride back, we had ice cream, then relaxed at the farm for a little while before everyone took off for their respective homes. Adam kindly drove me to Newport, and I walked around town for a bit before catching my train back to London. Here's the only photo I took in Newport, near the train station:




All in all, it was a great weekend. The mountainbiking was tough but fun, Fraser's friends were very friendly and interesting, and somehow the weather was perfect too! Hopefully I somehow manage to attend a few more editions of Mud v Sheep v Bike in the future!