Fall Semester

Welcome to A.S.A.P.'s blog! It is officially fall, and several things have been happening with the Miami Chapter. We have already selected our site for next summer...TANZANIA! In addition, new and old(er) members have come up with many great ideas for fundraising. Our annual dinner and debriefing will be on October 24 at 6:30 pm in the 1809 room. There is a suggested donation of $10 for the dinner, and the proceeds will go to the school in Tanzania.

Already we have gained the support of several departments on campus for the upcoming trip in the form of Independent Study opportunities (for Uni-credit) and donations to defray trip costs. We hope to be able to bring a group for 5-7 students to the Arusha region of Tanzania to teach English for a period of one month. This is a great way to expand ASAP's reach to students and schools abroad.

Hope to see you at a meeting soon!
5:45 18 Laws on Sundays

Check out our trip website!
asap.farmdevil.net
email: poffme@muohio.edu with any questions

This is Tanesha and I at La Yahoushua School, where ASAP donated many books and supplies. Here we are presenting the books to Theodora, the schoolmistress. She was amazing, even going to the bookstore with us to pick out what she thought would be best.



The children at the school danced for us, and there was much to celebrate!












Here is a classroom at the school...not too shabby!


















This student wrote and recited a poem for us called "My Book"

It was very moving and also quite hilarious. We encountered many of these mixed emotions on the trip. Do you laugh? Do you cry? Do you give up? Do you set new goals....(yes!)









This is Tanesha (Miami) and Kenneth (from NYU study abroad) at La Yahoushua having a great time watching the dancing, singing, and poetry.

Almost the end of the summer! Guess its time to put up some pictures from the trip to Ghana - which was amazing and I only wish everyone could have been there with Tanesha and I.



This picture is from Mole National Park...yes we were THAT close to the elephants.



Our guide had a gun, just in case the elephant charged, and i thought it would look like one of those ads against killing elephants for ivory if the gun was in front. It almost turned out as planned...



Green monkeys, babboons, pumba...all running amok





Chare village



Toys



more elephants!!! just to make things interesting



Gail with someone from Chare.



KIDS!



The head guy at Sunta Nunnta...wearing a smock that is very traditional garb for the North. This was an agricultural commune, which also had a pre-school that I completely fell in love with. It has alot of potential....






Thats all for now, more to come!

Ghana 2006

In four days, Tanesha White and Meredith Poff (thats me!) will be embarking on a journey around Ghana. We have about $1400 for curriculum based textbooks, and a few hundred pounds of supplies. For the first 2 weeks of the trip, we will travel with Professor Gail Dela Pianna all over the country, and then for about 4 days we will be located in Accra. The school that NYU study abroad in Ghana picked out for ASAP and for their own service project is called La Yahoushua Primary and Secondary school. They have a heavily underfunded Primary school, and about 500 students in total. This school will be the recipient of this year's collection of supplies and books, and during the 2 weeks of travel we will be able to assess the feasibility of doing future projects in other various parts of Ghana. Tanesha and I are thrilled to be representatives for ASAP, the US, and Miami U. - especially because Ghana is such an amazing country to visit.

During the course of the semester, we brought in a speaker (arnold zack), we showed a documentary (the peacekeepers), we secured a scholarship for 2 years, and worked with other various organizations to bring a more culturally diverse and aware atmosphere to Miami's campus (i hope).

As president, my goals for next semester include:

- focusing recruitment on people who have a passion for African affairs
- bringing in 2 Lost Boys of Sudan
- inspiring as many as possible with our trip debriefing and buffet
- contacting another University and perhaps starting an ASAP chapter there (OSU, UC, Dayton???)
- working more closely with the NYU chapter to share ideas and energy
- create a more concrete process of sending students to Africa, and perhaps try a new country if the contacts we have seem safe and reliable
- host a lecture at Hall Auditorium (Dan Mozena)
- smoothly transitioning an effective executive board who is committed and capable of steering the organization towards sustainable growth and keeps the spirit alive

I truly believe that these goals are attainable with the help of all of ASAP's members and supporters. If anyone has any feedback, let me know pleeeaaasseeeeee kthanx

So TJ doesnt forget again...

Here's us randomly being at the same place at the same time.

Hopefully I'll have many fun pictures from the ASAP meet and greet tonight!!