New Blogger Beginning

Nearly three years have passed since my last posting (a shamefully long time ago). As changes to my blog reflect, I am no longer in Argentina. My new home is Port-au-Prince, Haiti where I work for CARE International as an advisor on education and gender. Music is still a huge part of my life with some changes. Jane Kellum & Don Casalaspro is now JKDC (the need to spell out both Kellum and Casalaspro on radio, television, and other mediums became quite tiring, tedious, and well confusing for all involved). This is a certifiably boring post, but it is my new blogger beginning....

SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEW MUSIC FROM "Living: Two Sides of Same Story Chapter One

Well, the calendar year is winding down, but we are now starting to move forward with our music. Please have a listen to three songs from our soon-to-be released album, "Living: Two Sides of the Same Story Chapter I". Look to left for our Music Player. Please leave us a little comment letting us know what you think on our website at www.janekellumandcasalaspro.com.


Enjoy and thanks!!!

Love...

Official Jane Kellum & Don Casalaspro Website!!!

Hi all...this will be a brief update. Andrés and I now have our official website for Jane Kellum & Don Casalaspro. Hope you like. Busssyyy...

www.janekellumandcasalaspro.com

Love to all!!!

Check out music from Jane Kellum & Don Casalaspro

Crazy life music, work, love in Buenos Aires

Hi all..well it's been a LOOONNNGGG time. Big surprise. I"ve been on a non-stop trip to music land in the last two months. Andrés and I embarked upon a album making journey that has almost come to an end. We are in the final stages of production. The album cover is printed and ready to be packaged, and Andrés is doing the final mixing and mastering of the album. We're taking INDIE music to whole new level!!!

Our album is on pre-sale right now for folks to buy before the official release date (TBA--most likely beginning of November 2010)! You can either email me directly at janekellummusic@gmail.com to pay with check or money order or go to our online store at MyFavoriteBand and pay with PayPal. www.myfavoriteband.com/janekellummusic.

Besides the music, I am finishing up a six-month intensive personal development experience which entailed a lot of "facing reality" about who I truly am. There were ups and downs along the way during this experience that I completed in a team of nine wonderful people. Accepting that I don't know what I don't know takes a lot of courage, and I'm still learning what that means.

Andrés and I are doing great and learning about love together each day...

On the work end, I've been working on a pro-bono basis as a Program Development consultant at La Casa del Encuentro (www.lacasadelencuentro.org), an organization that works to prevent and eliminate violence against women and children (gender-based violence) and especially the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. Currently, we are working on a proposal that will specifically target prevention of child trafficking for sexual exploitation in the northern region of the country. If all goes well, I should be dedicating myself fully to this project beginning next year.

I've got a cat now as well so I guess that means I am pretty settled here in Buenos Aires...something I never thought could happen. That's the beauty of life (and paradox)....we end up in places "unimaginable" if we let ourselves simply imagine...

Love to all....

Jane

Official Website: www.janekellumandcasalaspro.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/janekellummusic
Blogger: www.janekellumandcasalaspro.blogspot.com
Google Buzz: janekellummusic@gmail.com
Facebook: Jane Kellum & Don Casalaspro Fan Page
Twitter: janekcasalaspro

Workin' Life of Buenos Aires

It certainly has been a long time since I last wrote and LOTS has happened. Let's see...I made the decision to stay in Buenos Aires indefinitely because, well, love calls. Andrés and I are now happily moved into our new house with a huge balcony. We've got a cat and a stove now so I suppose you could say that I am sufficiently domestic for the time being. :-)

Andrés and I are busily working on the music. Our studio is each day closer to being ready to record its first album..yes...ours! Jane Kellum & Don Casalaspro's "Living" should be released by the end of the year. You can follow all of our musical on-goings:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/janekellummusic
Blogger: www.janekellumandcasalaspro.blogspot.com
Google Buzz: janekellummusic@gmail.com
Facebook: Jane Kellum & Don Casalaspro Fan Page
Twitter: janekcasalaspro

In my free time (ha ha), I have begun to work on a consultancy basis with an NGO called the Casa del Encuentro. It assists women in situations of violence and girls/women who have been trafficked into sex slavery. Besides case managing, I am working on writing a program development strategic plan and have two proposals in the works. It is very grassroots organization that does amazing work with these women/girls and their family and friends. This summer I"ll have another consultancy gig coordinating the Buenos Aires internship program for a small college in the U.S. My other work includes teaching language arts and social studies, math, science, and ESL to people of all ages ranging from 4th grade to adult. This piece-meal professional situation is both challenging and rewarding; while I spend sometimes up to four hours travelling in this huge city each day, I have the opportunity to understand better the life of professionals in Buenos Aires and the chance to be part of so many different projects.

I've started French once again in la Universidad de Buenos Aires and continue to practice yoga.

Uff...this is all keeps me busy just like I like it. :-)

I am still alive and about to finish my Rotary World Peace Fellowship

Unfortunately, I did not keep up with the blog as much as I wanted to during my time in Senegal. Thus, true to form, I am going to give a brief overview of the last, oh, two and half months.

After writing my last posting about inspiration, I continued to push forward with rallying support for the Maids Project with some positive results. In the end, a new organization, 10,000 Girls, has agreed to take on the project and implement it as a pilot project of the self-sustainable model that it uses in its major programs in Fatick and Kaolack, Senegal. Basically, the idea is, in addition to providing literacy, basic education, and reproductive health education, to offer vocational skills training and micro-enterprise opportunities to the girls and young women in such a way that they gain the knowledge and abilities needed to manage the project themselves and earn at least some of the funds necessary to keep in running. 10,000 Girls has already done this in Fatick and Kaolack and is internationally recognized for this approach which genuinely engages the beneficiaries as partners.

Having this organization on-board as the managing agency is important to our chances of winning a nearly $260,000 grant from the Human Network Senegal, a partnership program of the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JICA). I spent a solid week adapting the general project plan that I devised to meet the criteria of the JICA Request for Proposal. I think that the final product is solid and that we have an excellent shot at receiving the funds. We will know by mid-October.

Besides work I have done some travelling within Senegal and in Mali with a wonderful friend from Portland, Donna. The Senegal travels include my trip to St. Louis, the previous capital of Senegal, and the National Park Langue de Barbarie. I also visited the "Pink Lake", which gets its name from the color that it takes on when the sun hits it due to the high salt content. The local Senegalese extract the salt from its bottom for sale.

Mali was amazing and a true adventure. Think amazing people who sincerely wanted to help us out and share a little bit of their lives with us. Think travelling up the Niger River for three days on a cargo boat to Tomboutou (Timbuktu) and risking our lives to climb out the side of the boat and traverse the 1 inch ledge to the back of the boat every time we wanted to go to the bathroom. Think sleeping on grain sacks and eating a strange gruel with an unsure source of its rather unpleasant taste. Think delicious street beignets, lamb kabobs, fried plantains, pounded millet with sauce made from the Baobab tree…hmmm. Think trekking up and down through the escarpment now inhabited by the Dogon people and seeing some the most beautiful scenery: vast plains, waterfalls, fields of millet, brilliant red rock formations. Thinking riding a camel into the Sahara to watch the sunset in Timboutou. In short, it was an unforgettable trip. This is fortunate given my camera quit working after the second day. :-(

I now have only a few days left in Senegal as an official Rotary World Peace Fellow. Earlier today I submitted my final Rotary report, signaling an end to this particular stage in my life. Today I will say my farewells to my host family and tomorrow my friends at the beach are having a little good-bye get-together for me. Believe it or not some cooler weather and non-beach weekend activities are welcome at this point (yes…even the “beach professional”, as my dear friend Scott has coined me, needs a break from the sand and surf once in a while). ha ha

Thursday night I am off to Europe to travel around Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and I don’t know where else until November 5. Then in November I will return to Argentina for about a month before returning to Oregon for the holidays in December. After that, my plans are somewhat up in the air. Music pursuit is a possibility, but a job with a steady salary also is appealing (and well frankly really necessary…let me know if you hear of anything of interest particularly in Portland! ;-)

That’s all for now….

P.S. Pictures are from my trip to St. Louis, the National Park Langue de Barbarie, and the "Pink Lake" in Senegal

Inspiration

I have received many kinds and inspiring words in response to my last blog post. In addition, writing my last blog post helped me to reflect on what I could do to change my approach and attitude towards the situation as opposed to the situation itself. Since this change in attitude, some positive things have occurred:



**We may have secured space for the program.

**I made contact with a woman who made a documentary about the program. She then in turn put me in contact with an organization that may want to fund us.

**I have taken a different approach to my communication with my work partners. Building on the wise words of my friend, Mary C., in Argentina, I am approaching the communication in terms of building a relationship and not searching for "results".



Anyhow, maybe this makes sense...maybe this doesn't. However, I do feel inspired and ready to be part of this multifaceted process that is carrying me along in Senegal.

Senegal

The time simultaneosly passes slow and fast in Senegal (at least for me). That may seem like a contradiction; but, it is true. While I am surprised at how fast my first month is passing me, the pace of life is slower than say that of Buenos Aires. Here is a little bit about my experience thus far:

I live with a wonderful family, the Sambas, who have named me Astou Samba in an act of accepting me into their family. We are mostly women--9 of us to be exact--in the house with only Papan Issa among all this female energy. We share all of our meals together while sitting on their floor around a huge platter of food. The family speaks Wolof (one of the indigenous languages of Senegal) amongst themselves and patiently speak French with me. While my focus is on learning French, I am also picking up Wolof. The truth of the matter is that I am finding it difficult to learn either one of them as I spend the largest part of my day at work writing, reading, etc. in English. Thus, it takes my own personal effort to find those opportunities to speak in French.

By the way, for those of you who are not familiar with Senegal, it is a predominately Islamic country. There seems to be a lot going on culturally underneath the surface that will take time for me to decipher and understand.

Picture of our house

Now you may be asking what it is that I am doing during the day. The project on which I am working is the "Maids Project". The overall goal of the project is to support young women who have been forced to leave their villages because of economic reasons and go to Dakar to work as domestic servants. For a large part of these estimated 150,000 young women, they find themselves in slave-like conditions. The majority of these women have not received any formal education and thus, are illiterate. The components of the program (or ideally would be) French language acquisition, literacy, health education, leadership, and other skill acquisition (i.e. cooking, hair braiding, etc.). I say "or ideally would be" because I have arrived to the aftermath of more than a year of neglect of the program. I would be lying if I did not say that I was not disappointed in the lack of monitoring and continued support of this program. As it stands, it appears that the organization for which I am interning no longer wants to continue the program. I find myself in a difficult and frustrating situation because I was brought here specifically to work on a program that they described to me before arriving as enjoying the support of the organization. The reality is that I am not even able to secure space for the evening classes from the organization. I understand that in difficult times (i.e. the "economic crisis") that difficult decisions must be made. I suppose my frustration stems from the fact that it appears that someone started this project without a sustainability plan in place. Ah, yes, all of my misgivings about "development" coming flying back to me and scream to me to find another way to contribute to equity and freedom in the world. Donor whims and personal fulfillment endeavors...this is not development.

However, I am not one to give up, especially on a project that supports human rights. These young women are people--they are girls and women named Nai Faye and Astou and Dior--just like all of us have the right to freedom. Freedom to educate themselves. Freedom from violence. Freedom to make decisions for themselves about their lives. With that said, I am searching for another organization to take on the project as the lead agency in addition to funding sources. If anyone has suggestions for funding or any other ideas, I would love to hear them.

In other projects, the organization for which I am working also hosts a Living Routes undergraduate study abroad progam in Sustainable Development. I have the last couple of weeks collaborating with the professor to update the course content and required readings.

And, of course, there is the sea! I can't really complain when I can walk ten minutes from my house and be on a beautiful beach right here in Yoff. This weekend I took a short trip to the Ile de Madeleine, which is a protected nature reserve. It was so wonderful because it has a little cover with calm, crystal clear sea water where I am swam and swam for hours.

Until next time, I will continue to observe and learn.

A bien tot o (legge legge),

Astou Samba

Sweet Graduation

It's official! I have turned in my thesis and graduated.
Here are some pictures. I also wrote a song with Andrés called "Qué Pasaría?" (What would happen?) which we performed during the ceremony. It was a very intimate and special graduation.












Here I am turning my thesis in officially. I have included a picture of the bound version of my thesis.
Now I am off to Senegal on Monday...more to come soon.

UPDATE!!!!

Oops..I guess that time got away from. Here is an abbreviated version of the last, oh five months or so:

Shortly after writing my last entry on December 14, I headed off to Rio de Janeiro for my big Christmas and New Year’s Eve adventure with Kent (my dear friend of more than ten years) and his mother. It was a great time lounging around Rio and enjoy the good life.

The next after arriving home on January, another wonderful friend, April from Portland, came to visit me for two weeks. We trekked up to the Iguazú falls and then to the province of Corrientes for a little R & R for a couple of days before heading back to the craziness of the capital.

Some of you may be asking at this point, does she work? Yes, in fact, I work…quite a bit…I tell you. In fact, as if writing a thesis weren’t hard enough, I decided to completely change the topic after having worked on the original topic for nearly three months. I never have been one to take the easy road. So by mid-January I was in full swing of reworking my thesis. Having worked for several years in Portland, as many of you know, with youth from a variety of backgrounds, I decided to focus my studies on a researching how plural social networks are constructed and how they impact the lives of second generation youth (typically defined as children of immigrants born in the U.S. or who arrived before the age of five years old). From January 15-March 5, I madly reviewed literature on a variety of different takes on the topic. During the process, I made up my mind that my thesis would not be complete without field researcher so I wrote up a plan and received funding from Rotary to conduct interviews with second generation students, their parents, community leaders with the various immigrant communities in Portland, and other folks that work within these communities. I won’t go into the details of the paper because frankly it would likely take me all of this entry and more just to explain the two theories, segmented assimilation theory and the “field theory” by Pierre Bourdieu, that I am utilizing to conduct my analysis.

During this time of writing my literature review, I had another dear friend, Cristela, visit. This time I stayed at home in front my computer while she headed off to explore Uruguay. Below is a picture of an "asado" or BBQ that we had on my rooftop.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I got a boyfriend somewhere in all of this time. His name is Andrés and he is wonderful. :-) To celebrate my turning in my literature review, he and I took a few days to visit Uruguay (such a paradise). It was also a perfect way to celebrate my "30th" birthday!!!

By mid-March I was in Portland running around from sun up to sun down and more conducting interviews and attending events as part of my thesis research.

Since arriving back to Argentina in April, I have been busily analyzing the data and writing my thesis. Two chapters down….three more to go.

I also have recorded three songs that I have co-written with Andrés who happens to be an excellent musician and composer. We are putting together a CD. I’ll keep you posted.

And yes, it’s a little bit crazy, but I started a little entrepreneurial endeavor: selling my baked goods. It’s called Postres Juanita Mayo (Jane May’s Desserts). Ha ha

Only a little over a month is left before I turn in my thesis, graduate, and then head off to my next big adventure for my applied field experience: SENEGAL! I will be living in Yoff outside of Dakar, the capital city of Senegal while working on a non-formal education project that supports young adolescent women who work as maids. I’ll be living with a family and learning to speak French! After finishing my time in Senegal, Andrés will come to travel with my throughout N. Africa and a little bit of Europe.

I’ll be better about writing once I am in Senegal (I promise…well I’ll try anyhow!)

Busy..Busy..Busy..End of the Year

Life has been a whirlwind of activity since my last blog post. I finished my second quarter and am one class away from finishing the third. My thesis production is in full swing and will be my full-time activity during the summer break that will officially begin on December 20th. The following is a short description of my thesis:

My thesis seeks to question the claim proposed by key authors, such as Connie McNeely, in the field of education multilateralism that ideas and conceptions of education that are diffused by international organizations have a homogenizing effect on national education policies and practices by analyzing 1) to what point two overlapping ideas of education that are disseminated by the World Bank and UNESCO and not just one idea exist, 2) how these two overlapping ideas of education converge and diverge, and 3) how these two ideas of education manifest themselves in the education policy and practice in Argentina between 2001 and 2008.

I will be taking a constructivist theoretical approach (i.e. the approach that "ideas" matter in international relations and the behavior of States) to my thesis and will employ more constructivist investigative methods such as discourse analysis.

My time has been busy with various Rotary presentations about the World Action Week for the Global Campaign for Education in which I became involved last year. Unfortunately, my life has gotten a little too busy so I am not going to be participating as actively with the Campaign from here on out. However, I am staying in contact with the Campaign and continuing to link Rotary with the education rights efforts of the Campaign. The picture is of me at the Catedral del Sur Rotary Club in Buenos Aires. They meet in the famous Café Tortoni that was founded in 1858 and is where some of the most famous Argentina writers and artists would spend their time.

Apart from these endeavors, I have been doing a lot of yoga and trying to find time to sing. Oh...I have a job as well as a tutor/teacher for a 16 year old from Alabama who is here training to be a professional soccer player.

On December 21, I leave for Brazil for the holidays. I'll post pictures upon my return.

Yep...back to same old Jane...going crazy with all my activities.

We Get What We Need...

About three weeks ago, I had a short break from school so I decided it was time to get out of the city. I'd been feeling overwhelmed with the pace of Buenos Aires and, well, feeling lonely as well. Regardless, I thought that some time in the small town of Colón on the Rio Uruguay would do me some good. This trip was sort of a whim so I purchased my bus ticket the night before I left and didn't bother to make any hotel reservations...I thought to myself..."last resort...I'll just sleep along the river". ha ha.

The next morning I settled into my seat, already more relaxed just knowing that I was headed into the "interior" de Argentina. I took out my journal and wrote this to myself: "What I need is emotional homeopathy...treat lonliness with being alone". I convinced myself that that was what I needed.

Content with my myself for being so insightful (ha ha), I took out my thermos with hot water to have mate (kind of like tea, but drunk from a gourd with a metal straw and usually shared with others). There was a girl sitting next to me, Deborah, so I decided that it would be nice to offer her mate. She accepted and we started talking about the usual first time questions (Where are you from? What are you doing here? etc.). Deborah was also headed to Colón, not for vacation but to go back to school there after her vacation. She then asked me where I would be staying in Colón. I, of course, told her that I had no idea and she became very concerned, telling me that everything would be booked with it being winter break and all. I laughed and told her that I was going to camp along the river. She responed by saying, "oh no, you can stay with me and family." I didn't really take it seriously, but then 20 minutes later she says to me, "my brother said it would be okay if you stayed with us". Wow...she was serious...hmmm...I still wasn't convinced...I mean, after all, I need my "emotional homeopathy."

We arrived to Colón a few hours later. I accompanied Deborah to her house since she was going to take a taxi into town from the bus station. Of course, upon arriving, her sister-in-law, Gisela, invited me to drink mate with them. By 6 p.m. Gisela and Deborah told me to just to stay with them just like it were a hotel. I still wasn't convinced so I told them that I would go look for a hotel and would come back to get my things after I found one. I left and began to walk around town. As I made my way into the center, something said to me..."why are you going to refuse such generosity?" So I didn't even bother to look any further, I returned and ended up staying the entire four days with Gisela, Deborah, Sergio (Deborah's brother), and Orly (the dog).

There generosity was so, to say the least, amazing and touching. Deborah gave me her room and slept in Gisela and Sergio's room while Gisela and Sergio migrated to the kitchen and slept on a mattress there for four days. We ate together, had an "asado", drank mate, laughed, and had a wonderful time together. It was funny because I got exactly the opposite of what I convinced myself that I needed. In other words, I got to be with family, which is what I needed more than my stoic "emotional homeopathy". ha ha

I did have some important moments alone, though, as well. The first morning I woke up early to a day that was wonderfully sunny. I got up, put my bathing suit (hey...it didn't matter that were in the middle of winter...if it's sunny and there is a river...I am going to be in it. ha ha) and running clothes on and took off. I ran for about a half hour until I got out of town on the part of the river where the forest was left to its own devices. I came this amazing the little beach hidden away behind trees and bushes. I thought, yep, this is my spot. I rushed to take my clothes off and get in the water. I felt really alive (maybe the near freezing temperature of the water confirmed this. ha ha) swimming in the cold water with the sun blazing down on me making it bearable. :-) I ended up being gone for nearly three hours...lost in thought and prayer and meditation and just being there...

The other days I went to some nearby thermal baths and just sat by the river. The last night the family had a huge "asado" (kind of like a bbq) with every type of meat imaginable. The next morning they sent me off with good-bye gifts and hugs at the bus stations.

So, in the end, I got exactly what I needed, in spite of myself. And I think this beautiful family maybe got a little something of what they needed from me being in their home. We have to have faith that we do, indeed, get what is best for us in life if we keep our hearts (and minds..which gets in the way sometimes) open.

More info about Mate: http://www.noborders.net/mate/

CANVAS Training & PJSA Conference in PDX

Yes..it's official. I am coming home to Portland on September 8 and I can't wait to see everyone!!!!!!! Although I will be, of course, spending lots of quality time with my loved ones, I will also be participating in a two-day Centre for Applied Non-Violence Action and Strategies (CANVAS) training as part of the Peace and Justice Studies Association annual conference. Back in March, I applied for one of only 30 slots in this training, which has not been offered in North America previosly. The CANVAS approach was successfully applied in South Africa, Ukraine, and Serbia. You can learn more at http://www.canvasopedia.org/. It is an honor and an exciting opportunity to be able to participate in the training.

Can't wait to see you in September.

By the way, the picture is of statue with a beautiful sunset backdrop in the Centro Cultural de Recoleta. I went to a festival there the other day and took this picture. I thought that the posting was too dull without some sort of image. :-)

As for the master's program...

Well, I successfully finished my first term in the master's program. Although I have not received my final grades, I feel very good about the outcome. The new term has begun with four classes:

Public International Law
International Security
International Political Economy
Development Models and Processes in Latin America

I have a lighter load this semester, which is good because I hope to get a headstart on my thesis (To be determined shortly).

Not much more to report on this end...

Acting on and on...

Well...my acting career is slowing coming along. I finally got my official pictures taken that I will send to various agencies. Here are few. One of them is really funny b/c my friends that took the pictures insisted that I smoke a cigarette while wearing my black dress. Of course, I don't smoke (and have not taken up the habit...don't worry, mom), but I am an actriz after all. Anyhow, there is one particular photo of me in the background and the hands of one of my friends showing me how to hold the cigarette that is really great. Enjoy the pictures (my friend who is a professional photographer took nearly 300 photos! Don't worry you don't have to see them all ha ha). Also, you can go to http://www.freakmodels.com.ar/ (yes I know a little strange...I happened to know one of the agents personally so I though what the heck). Once you enter the website, click on Actores, Mujeres and then scroll to find my picture. Click on the picture to see my profile and other pictures. Who would have thought....wish me luck...

Singín for Rotary

A few weeks back I had the honor of singing along with my roommate Fernando, who also accompanied us on guitar, for the change of presidential authority for my host Rotary club (Rotary Club of Montserrat). It was particularly special because my Rotary counselor became president. Here are few pictures and a small clip of me singing my old stand by "Gracias a la Vida". If I didn't know if before, I know it now...I sing with my eyes closed almost all of the time. ha ha.

Gol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it finally happened...I went to my first professional soccer game in Argentina yesterday and it was awesome!!! I went to the Velez vs. Boca match at the Velez stadium. They tied 1-1. Boca is one of the two huge soccer clubs in Buenos Aires and is playing currently the Copa Libertadores, which is for all of Latin America. Velez, on the other hand, is a smaller non-profit professional club that does a lot of outreach to the community.That's my kind of team. ;-) Here are some photos of me on my way to becoming an official "hincha" (that's "fan" in Argentine speak) of Velez. Although...I don't think that I will be a true fan until I learn the chant that went something like...yes, yes...we have to beat those SOBs...hmmm...something to practice in between writing term papers... ha ha.

Gustavo, friend and fellow Velez Fan.

Dale dale Velez dale Velez dale...