Tag Archives: Paul

January 8, 2014 · 4:01 pm

Getting Ready for Rwanda

Last week, my son Paul asked why I was looking so sad. I explained that I was reading a series of books about Rwanda, and in particular about the genocide of 1994. I will be traveling with the TechWomen (US State Department mentoring program) delegation to Rwanda next month and am learning about the history of that area of Africa.

As disturbing as my reading is, I know the importance of advance preparation when traveling. In 1979, after I graduated from U.C. Berkeley, I backpacked for six months through Europe, ending up with a long stay at the Kibbutz called Ashdot Ya’akov near the Sea of Galilee in Israel. After the Teheran hostage crisis developed in November 1979, I headed home, ending up in an almost-empty youth hostel one night on Mount Carmel. One of the other hostel guests was a young woman from Germany who had come to Israel for a vacation during her college break. At the time, German schools did not teach about the Holocaust. When I met her, this girl was deeply shocked after someone told her about the history of her homeland and the place she had come. She spent the night sobbing with grief, saying over and over “I did not know. I did not know.”

So far, I have read:

Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda book by Rosamond Halsey Carr (2000)
“The Country That Bans Plastic Bags” 2/13/2013 blog by Tom Carver
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (1999) book by Philip Gourevitch
Left to Tell: Discovering God Admist the Rwandan Holocaust book by Imaculee Ilibagiza (2007)
Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide book by Imaculee Ilibagiza (2008)
CIA “World Fact Book” Rwanda
The New Times – Rwanda’s First Daily http://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/ (newspaper)
“Healing Hearts Northwest – The Life and Times of our Kigali, Rwanda Medical Mission” – an interesting blog with a good reading list at the bottom

Of course, I am also working on all of the other preparations needed for a big trip, particularly since I will take a few days after the delegation period to trek with Ecotours to visit the mountain gorillas. I visited the PAMF Travel Medicine department and have new Yellow Fever, MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella), and Typhoid immunizations. I tried out my old hiking boots and got a flat (see photo below). So, I am now getting used to a new pair of Lowa – Renegade boots. Ged Caddick of Ecotours has warned us to expect mud, so I also bought new rain gear at REI. I have binoculars but I am still thinking how to pack without zip lock bags…

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Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, Rwanda, technical women, TechWomen, University of California

December 28, 2013 · 11:08 am

After Christmas

Only a few Christmas presents are left to be distributed. We sadly bid farewell to Jessica and Matthew, who have traveled back to their jobs. John and Paul and I are still happily investigating our own presents here at home. For me, this means watching the Joss Whedon’s “Much Ado About Nothing” and the four movie set of The Hollow Crown (Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, “Henry IV” i and ii, and “Henry V”). Yesterday, John posted his code and instructions on how to program a Christmas tree, on: http://www.spcoast.com/wiki/index.php/Christmas2013. Paul is enjoying post-final-exams, pre-quarter-start downtime. John and I went out on a movie date to see “Ender’s Game”, which was a good representation of that disturbing and superb book. It is pleasant to have some quiet days together.

Dickens Christmas Fair, 25th Birthday

Twelve of us gathered at the Dickens Christmas Fair at the San Francisco Cow Palace yesterday to celebrate the holiday with music, high tea, and shopping. John spent the day quietly at home, happily programming our Christmas tree lights with an Arduino.* After the fair, we met Jessica’s lifelong buddies (“The Uns”) in Mountain View to celebrate her 25th birthday.

* 12/27/2013: John posted how to program a Christmas tree on his website: http://www.spcoast.com/wiki/index.php/Christmas2013.

Caboose Clinic: The Adventures of WP668

I presented a “Caboose Clinic” to the Coast Division of the National Model Railroad Association on 8 December 2013 in San Leandro, California. The title of my talk was “The Adventures of WP668 1916-2013: Buying and Restoring a Western Pacific Caboose”. You can see additional information about the backyard caboose in which I have my office on WP668’s web page: http://wp668.org. About forty guys and one woman attended my clinic. I was glad that they asked so many questions and seemed to have a good time.

As always, my thanks and appreciation to all who have made WP668’s long adventures possible, especially:

My family (“the crew”): John Plocher, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Paul D. Goodman, Matthew Holmes, Eleanor Dickinson
Silicon Valley Lines Model Railroad Club and South Bay Historical Railroad Society members for ongoing support and crew backup
Railfans and photographers who have recorded WP668’s long travels, especially: Peter Arnold, E. Chambers, Danek Duvall, Sam Fineberg, Don Marenzi, Jacqueline Ramsayer, Ken Rattenne, John Ryczkowski, Jim Shackleton, Stephen Sloan, Dave Stanley, Vicki Thompson…
Don Marenzi who patiently searched his archives and located so many old WP668 photos for this presentation.

WP668 today:

WP668 in active service, 1971:
Used with permission of Don Marenzi

Thanksgiving in Southern CA

For the first time in 15 years, our John and I were guests for Thanksgiving. Usually, we host the annual feast at our house in San Jose but my brother Pete and his wife Julie volunteered. After work on Wednesday, Paul and John and I drove from the San Francisco Bay Area to La Crescenta in the mountains overlooking Los Angeles, arriving at about 1 am after 335 miles of heavy traffic. We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving Thursday with family, then John and Paul drove home yesterday. Paul has homework and John’s storage software project is in its final test phases, so they had to go back.

I am staying the weekend for more family visit time. Last night, we enjoyed a special tour of the excellent Huntington exhibit “Face to Face: Flanders, Florence, and Renaissance Painting” . The Co-Curator Catherine Hess gave us a tour of the project she worked for five years to create. She explained how the rich of early Renaissance Florence who wanted portraits and opulent religious images sought them from Flemish painters such as Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Hans Memling, who were developing a new naturalistic style of oil painting. Florentine painters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio (and his student Michelangelo) were inspired to develop the style even further. The small image “Christ Blessing” (dated 1481) by Hans Memling was for me the best of a remarkably-fine show: the direct gaze combined with left hand casually resting on the painting’s edge made the portrait seem alive.

Today, after my nephew Daniel cooked breakfast, I was a Soccer Aunt, driving my niece Lynda to the fifth game of her AYSO Turkey Tournament weekend. Tonight, Pete and Julie have a Charades game night planned. Busy weekend!

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Filed under Home & Family

Tagged as Eleanor, John, Paul, Pete, San Jose

November 21, 2013 · 6:30 pm

Paul Applying to San Jose State University

I am delighted to write that my son Paul is finishing up his last year at Foothill College and applying to transfer to San Jose State University (SJSU) in 2014. In addition to studying Studio Art, Paul is interested in becoming a credentialed art teacher for children with disabilities. Samples of his art are below – with more in his online portfolio: Paul’s Element.

Raising a kid with disabilities is a challenge and I am proud of Paul and of our whole family for his successful progress. Paul has been blessed with some remarkable and excellent teachers – to whom I am forever grateful:

Carol Zepecki, Linda Herreshoff and her remarkable and dedicated C-9 (Social Cognitive Class) team at Jordan Middle School
Justin Cronin and the patient support team at Palo Alto High School
The outstanding Foothill College professors and Disability Resource Center staff, especially: Andy Ruble (Ceramics), Joe Ragey (Painting), Simon Pennington (Art History), and Dr. Andrew Fraknoi (Astronomy)

Paul also had more than his share of poor teachers but we survived them. I only ask that they and…

…the teachers who did not want disabled kids like Paul in their class:
…the administrators who told us that Paul would be lucky to get to college:
…the head of school who kicked Paul out because his disabilities were bringing down her scores:
…the career counsellors who took Paul and the other disabled kids on a tour of the sewer plant:

Please consider this…

Jane Goodall went in the back door to become an ethologist. That’s something I’ve thought about a lot, because people with autism usually have to go in the back door. We have a lot of trouble following the normal paths. We don’t do very well in interviews, which are a big problem for us, and a lot of autistic people also have extremely “uneven” academic skills. An autistic person can test at the bottom of the IQ range on one subscale and at the very top on another. For example, I had great difficulty with algebra because there’s no way to visualize it. I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing if there weren’t any back doors.

– Dr. Temple Grandin, 2009
In 2010, Dr. Temple Grandin was listed in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the “Heroes” category.

Wish Paul luck in being accepted! We will hear back from SJSU by March 2014.

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Disabilities, Foothill College, Paul, San Jose, San Jose State University, teaching

October 31, 2013 · 1:01 pm

TechWomen’s Last Week in Silicon Valley

This is the last week for the 78 TechWomen mentees visiting the Silicon Valley from Africa and the Middle East. Next week, they move to Washington DC for meetings with the US State Department, the TechWomen program sponsors. Some of us 106 mentors will be going with them! Last weekend, Larissa, Imen, and I and our families rode the annual Ghost Train at the Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, CA. We also joined the TechWomen farewell potluck picnic at Huddart Park in Woodside. Imen joined our Shakespeare Reading Group, celebrating Halloween by reading Macbeth.

Today, Imen is giving her final technical presentation at Mozilla, the company which has generously hosted her this month. After our trip to the capitol, we will be sad to see Imen return home to Algeria.