Vietnam

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New house and jobs

hings are going well on this end. We are super busy (which always seems to be the story) but things are starting to settle down a little bit.

Tom is teaching 11th grade English at a school in DC. His school is located 2 blocks from the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. St. and Malcolm X Blvd. The school is 99.5% African American (the Hispanic student is graduating this year). His school is intense (metal dectors and all) but he loves it. He is having a tough year (he is still finishing is Master's fulltime) and does not have any free time. But, he is having fun with his students and appears to be as successful as a first year teacher can be. His school has an incredible marching band and Ellen Degeneres just gave his school some money and school supplies. Here is a link to a film about his school: http://www.balloumovie.com/       Tom is finishing his degree in May and is looking forward to teaching without having to take classes,

I am still working in a classroom with aggressive boys with Aspergers. I love it. We have new students this year and it is a challenge, but it is fun. I love being in this program. It is new so it is fun to watch it grow and have a tiny bit of input in the process as it does grow. I am so in love with this population that I have turned my career path in a slightly different direction. I have applied for PhD programs in Psych and hope to start a Behavior Analyst certification program after I finish my exams for my Master's degree in Public Policy (this Spring). I am also doing ABA therapy with a 6 year old Autistic boy twice a week and am enjoying that as well. He is non-verbal so it is quiet different that working with my kiddos. When I get my PhD I want to work in aggression reduction at some level (maybe in a school, private practice, or some other way).  I still want to do legislative advocacy but I think that I want to do clinical work for the majority of the time. My book has been for sale online and that has been fun. I am working on a story, currently, from the perspective of a 7 year old with Aspergers. I don't know if it will go anywhere, but I am having a ton of fun with it. I am always looking for constructive criticism so if you ever want to read any of it and let me know and I'll send you what i have so far. I'd welcome the input!

We bought a new house. It is very near the condo and we love it! We are renting out the condo and living in the house. Here are pictures of the townhouse:


http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561844912KSVkop?vhost=good-times&vhost=good-times

So, overall, things are great. We are tired and busy but next semester should be a lot easier. I'd love to hear what is happening over there!

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Newspaper article about Tom and I

Into Africa

Published: Sunday, September 25th, 2005

By TY PHILLIPSBEE STAFF WRITER

Africa. It had seemed like such a neat idea when Saundra Dobbs and Tom Bishop first tossed it around in the spring of 2004. They would travel to Ghana and spend six weeks volunteering on a building project while experiencing some beautifully rugged country.

But that's the thing about adventure: The true meaning of rugged living doesn't take shape until you're committed. And, bouncing toward a hospital on the back of an old flatbed chicken truck, her body roiling with malaria, Saundra certainly found herself committed.

The truck powered toward the nearest town at about 25 mph. The driver weaved wildly to avoid holes in the muddy roads as rain soaked the passengers — dozens of chickens crammed into small cages and people crammed into the spaces between chickens. For much of the ride, Saundra closed her eyes, pulled her knees up against her chest and gripped the wooden side rails, trying to avoid throwing up again. Or worse.

Each time the truck hit a hole, the passengers bounced a few feet into the air and landed hard on the metal bed, bruising butts and knees; people groaned as mud repeatedly splattered the passenger area. The ride lasted 45 minutes and, for Saundra, it felt like a lifetime. However, when the truck dropped them off in the middle of the nearest city with a hospital, their journey was not yet complete. So they hailed a beat-up taxi whose driver could have used some lessons from the erratic chicken-truck driver.

Some of the taxi's windows were broken, and a door had to be held closed by hand. Passing through a rural stretch en route to the hospital, the taxi approached a herd of sheep standing in the dirt roadway. The driver honked several times and slowed some, but Tom sensed the driver did not intend to stop. That was bad news for two sheep that failed to leave the road in time; the animals disappeared and became lodged in the undercarriage. The driver yelled a little, got out and yanked the sheep from beneath the car, then got back inside. Tom sat in the front seat, a bit speechless, looking out the window at the motionless animals as the taxi sped away. All the while, Saundra sat in the back, trying to keep all her fluids inside — and that's about as nicely as that can be put.

When the taxi finally arrived at the hospital, Saundra stepped out, walked to the admitting desk and promptly collapsed. She awoke a little later sitting in a wheelchair draped in spider webs. Her IV stand was a 2-by-4 with a bent nail for a hook. She had been given many shots; one of them mistakenly was administered into her arm rather than her rear, causing the arm to swell immensely.

'I freaked out when I saw it,' she said. 'I started sobbing because I thought I was dying. It was so horrible.'



Life's most colorful stories often aren't much fun while they're happening. But Saundra, who graduated from Modesto High School in 2001, made a nice recovery. She and Tom, who also caught malaria last year during the couple's first trip to Ghana, both helped construct a concrete building in a small village that is being used to further women's rights causes in Africa.

For those who fear younger generations are in dire need of people of accountability and compassion, I present to you the Bishops:

Last month, the couple returned from a second stint in Africa, where they helped teach classes in AIDS and malaria awareness. They also bought 150 mosquito nets and distributed them to villagers.

In Ghana, a friend led them to a small village whose people share the nearest water source — essentially a muddy pond — with cows and parasites. The Bishops have embarked on a mission to change that, and they hope to have three fresh water wells in the village by next summer.

The couple currently are enjoying a four-week honeymoon in Costa Rica. They are spending their first two weeks volunteering in an orphanage and staying with a Costa Rican family. They will spend the remaining two weeks exploring the country and celebrating their marriage.

'We would have felt bad if we went somewhere that was mostly poor and had a lavish vacation,' Saundra said. 'At this point in our lives, it's not something we would have been comfortable with.

'Honestly, I can't give you a reason why we have done some of the (volunteering). It's all just kind of happened. I know it makes us feel good when we do it. It's also a way to see the world and meet different people. It helps them, and helps us. We might not be able to do those things when we have careers and kids, so we want to do as much of it as we can now.'



The couple, both 22, met in August 2001, shortly after they moved to New York City to attend Hofstra University. They spent a lot of time together during those first weeks, setting the stage for the night Saundra called Tom into her room to have the obligatory I-can't-have-a-boyfriend-at-this-point-in-my-life talk. Tom, who grew up in Sunnyvale, wasn't all that interested in having a girlfriend, either, but his analytical mind led him to point out flaws in her logic. A long discussion ensued.

'Somehow, by the end of the conversation, we had agreed to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Neither of us could figure out how we got there. We were just kind of like, 'Oh, well then. OK. So that's that.''

Two days later, the Twin Towers fell. From the top floor of a campus library, the couple watched the black smoke rising, signaling a new era. Not knowing anyone else in the city, the two leaned on each other during those first surreal days after 9-11.

'It definitely brought us closer together,' she said. 'Sept. 11 kept me from wanting to go out and party. It made it easy to stay home and hang out together.'

It also fostered the desire to bring good deeds into a world that has no shortage of bad ones. She volunteered as a crisis counselor for a suicide hot line, and they both spent time working in a group home for developmentally disabled people.



In 2003, while sitting in their home tossing around ideas of how to spend the summer, one of them threw out the idea of volunteering in Africa. Saundra got onto the computer and found the Sungsim Women's Association, a group based in Larabanga, Ghana, that aims to provide African girls and women greater access to school and training programs to help raise the status of women in their society. The association also focuses on informing community members about the AIDS virus to help prevent its spread.

During their first African tour, Tom and Saundra worked on a community building for SWA as well as two guest rooms that can be rented to help fund the organization. Outside of the malaria experience and several lesser calamities, the Bishops had such a good experience that they returned last summer to help teach the classes in AIDS and malaria awareness.

It was during that visit that a woman named Nana, who heads a women's group, guided the Bishops to a small village untouched by tourism or Western culture. It is a place of circular mud huts, straw roofs and meager corn fields managed by peasants. There is no electricity and no running water.



The Bishops wound up in a small hut. They sat on crude benches fashioned from wood chunks and met with some of the tribe's 1,500 people. Using Nana as an interpreter, the Bishops asked if there was anything they could do that might be helpful to their group, perhaps some type of malaria or AIDS project. An unexpected answer came back: We just want clean water.

'Here we were offering to bring them things like mosquito nets, and they're asking for water,' Tom said. 'We were like, 'OK, we need to back up about 10 steps here.'

'It's three miles to their nearest pond. Cows drink from it and there are worms swimming around. They have been taught to strain the water through this fabric to get the big pieces like rocks, dirt, bugs and hair. They couldn't boil it because wood and coal are scarce and costly. If you stepped in this water, you'd get parasites that would blister your skin. It's awful, and this is their drinking water.'

The couple, working with West Africans they have befriended, began doing research and discovered that Ghana's government will pay 95 percent of the costs associated with digging bore-holes for drinking water. That left the Bishops to come up with the remaining 5 percent, or about $750.

Obviously, volunteering in Africa and Costa Rica doesn't bring in a lot of money, so the couple had to get creative. At their wedding on Sept.11 at The Palms Cafe in Modesto, the couple — scheduled to begin a 27-month assignment in the Peace Corps starting in November — gave guests bookmarks that explained the funds for traditional party favors had been diverted to help pay for three fresh water wells in a West African village.

'We won't be able to go back to Africa until after the Peace Corps, unless we're stationed somewhere fairly close,' Tom said. 'But we're hoping to have everything in place by the end of the year. Then the government will set a contract date and begin drilling. We're hoping they have fresh water there by next summer.'

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India

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Tanzania

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Ghana 2007

Hi all! We are in Tanzania now. We are staying in the capital, Dar Es
Salaam. We have a friend here, Billy, who we met in Rwanda last
summer. He hooked us up at an orphanage for the mornings and a school
for street children in the afternoons.

A quick recap on the Ghana trip. Overall it was great. Peter,
Catherine, and Stephen were super! No one was seriously sick or hurt
and everyone complained as little as possible when unexpected things
happened (like the toilet in larbanage recently vanishing . .. .
wow!).

The trip started off well with safe flights. We met Faisal at the
airport and went for a drink. It was so great to see him. We giggled
about past memories and he told us he had married a Canadian girl in
April! Apparently they lived together for a year and married right
before she left to go back to Canada. Currently he is waiting for the
visa paperwork to go through. We were so shocked! We had no idea. We
are so happy for him. There is no one else we would wish happiness for
more than Faisal. It will be great to have him on our side of the
world too! He has grown alot these past two years and was far more
worldly than the last timer we saw him. He was happier too. That made
me smile.

When Tom's parents arrived, Catherine's luggage was missing! We had to
keep moving so, unfortunately, we could not wait for it. As it turns
out, it never made it to Accra (even after they left for the US!)  I
loaned her some of my clothes and we were able to make do. She was a
good sport about it. When Stephen went to latin america with us, he
lost his luggage too! We must be bad luck.

We went straight to Tamale on a summer long bus ride and then to
Larabanga. It was interesting to be back there. Everyone was happy to
see us and it was great to see our old friends. We were surprised that
Zenabu had not grown much and the clothes we bought her were WAY too
big. But it was fun to see her and everyone else.

The next day we went to Mole National Park and did a walking safari.
We saw elephants, monkeys, and a bunch of different animals. It was
great! AT the end of the safari, Peter started acting strange and
walking unsteadily. We had no idea what was wrong. Eventually, we
arrived at a pool and he just jumped in with his socks on. After an
hour or so he seemed back to normal. In retrospect, I think he may
have suffered heat stroke! It was a good thing he jumped into that
pool!

When we returned to the village we greeted our friend, Afishata. He
giggle and told us she would see us in a hour. About an hour later I
left my room and walked over to her. She looked like she was ready to
cry. I asked what was wrong and she began to sob. He "senior father"
(her father's oldest brother) had just died. I walked with her as she
sobbed and realized he was also the head Iman in the village. We
entered a courtyard and there were hundreds of people sobbing. I began
to cry as well. After a few minutes I saw Afishata had many hands to
console her so I left because I did not want anyone to think I was
being a tourist to everyones grief. The village was in mourning the
rest of our stay.

Before leaving Larabanga, we got Zenabu's families' permission to
travel with her in Ghana. We also set up a new way for her to go to
school and get fed meat and veggies once a day. We hope that it will
work out. We took her all over Ghana and it was great! Catherine
bought her "The very hungry caterpillar" and Tom and I got her some
markers and she read and colored the whole time!

When we left Larabanga, we went to Tamale and volunteered a two
orphanages. The first orphanage was very nice. It had many staff and
only 11 children. There were clean clothes and a lot of food. Overall
it was a pleasant atmosphere. We fed and played with the babies there.

The other orphanage was more like the one in Rwanda, only poorer. The
staff was doing its best, but there were not enough supplies. Diapers
were only changed 3 times a day, so by noon the floor was covered in
urine and babies were soaking wet. The building was a dimly lit and
there were not nearly enough staff. The smell was so bad I had to
leave frequently because it made me light headed. But, the kids were
cute and Zenabu had fun playing with kids her own age.

In Tamale, we also traveled 3 hours to a waterfall. We were stopped by
police half way there and our taxi driver was forced to pay a very
large bribe! We were so angry! However, the waterfall experience was
so much fun that we quickly forgot our anger.

Zenabu had never really been out of her village before. Our hotel was
two stories tall and she was so frightened at first! When she saw the
waterfall she nearly cried. However, by the end, she was running and
swimming in the falls. The rest of the trip she was saw "Waterfall!"
and mime some of her water games.

We also went to see the house that Faisal was building in Tamale. It
is great! He has a little plot of land and is making a western style
home. The walls are nearly finished. Faisal is such a neat guy!

We also went to Shanga Village and found out what was happening there.
This was the village we bought the well for instead of buying party
favors for the wedding. The actual results were sketchy until this
trip. As it turned out, the government had tried to make wells.
However, the water was too deep underground and they could not access
it. As a result, the village had a meeting and decided they wanted
their current water source expanded and cleared. As it was, the water
was muddy and dried up. When it went dry they had to share the water
hole with the cows. What they did was remove all of the mud from the
center of their water hole so the water was cleaner and made the hole
bigger. As a result, they have water there all year round. They seemed
very happy to see us when we arrived.

After our time in Tamale, we went Kumasi and visited the town and a
very laid back art market. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. Then we
went to Cape Coast. At Cape Coast we took tom';s family on the tour of
the slave castle and Zenabu tried to poop in the middle of the walkway
(you can take the girl out of the village but never the vaillage out
of the girl haha). In Cape Coast, Zenabu saw the ocean for the first
time. We took her out to the water and she loved the waves. She would
scream "Ocean, COME!" when the waves moved away. It was so cute!!!

While in Cape Coast, Tom learned that he has been hired to teach high
school english at a high school in southeast DC. The school is 99.71
percent black! (there is one latino kid). He is nervous but also very
very very excited. Yay Tom!

We also visited the rainforest and everyone walked across the rope
bridges (even Zenabu). Everyone was super brave and it was very very
beautiful.

We ended the trip at the beach. We played a lot on the water with
Zenabu, walked around town, and generally relaxed. It was a really
pleasant time. We dealt with Zenabu's first tempoer tantrum but after about 30 minutes it ended and I did some positive practice of following directions witrh lots of praise and we did not have any more problems. She's so amazing!

We said goodbye to Zenabu in Accra on our last day. I sang her a song
and gave her lost of hugs. We told her she was wonderful and she
needed to go to school and we thought she was so smart. She walked
away, holding hands with Faisal, down the street to catch a taxi, and
never looked back. She is going to just fine.

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New Orleans

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