The Bag Lady Poem

I am the bag lady in every city, I have a spot on every street
-This first line gave me the idea that this lady may be a homeless woman who is constantly moving from one area to another living in every street basically

My sacks are full of holiness, So I have come to peddle, to touch your feet
-Her bags are full of sacred things and since peddle means going from place to place selling items, I assume that she walks around the cities begging, trying to sell the things that are in her bags to people

I give Myself,To Myself on rare occasions because I am so very shy
-Desperate for money, she probably sold herself to men to have sex just to suvive in the streets

Hafiz, the monarchs of this world, Are but slaves to thee, Since the Beloved took His seat, In your eye.
-I have no idea what this may mean???

I am the bag lady in every city. I am playing divine music in every world.
-She is known to be that "poor lady" roaming around the cities leaving traces of herself with people knowing who she is

My sacks are full of holiness. I am asking, May I please bow to you.
-She's pleading and begging for a person to buy her belongings that are filled with holiness inside her sack in return for money for herself.

May I please bow to you
-Living the streets alone, praying to God for what she is and how she lives.

Human Rights: Trafficking of Women & Children & Forced Labor

Before we had even discussed about the issue on Human trafficking in class, I knew very little about it. I hadn't really took the time to think about it and it surprises me that it is still going around. It was interesting to have learned some new things regarding the issue. The stories I heard during the class discussion was unbelievable and I wondered how can anybody be so cruel to treat any human like that. Human Trafficking is in other words, modern day slavery involving victims who are forced or tricked into labor or sexual exploitation and the main targets are woman and children. Human trafficking takes away the human rights and freedoms of these victims and also plays an impact on the global health issues. The reason for that is because the victims are likely to be beaten and raped causing them to suffer physical and emotional abuse and may even be the cause of death. According to a presentation and video at Chalon about Human trafficking, I learned that there is a bigger number of slavery occuring today compared to history and all this time I thought slavery was done. These vulnerable victims are anxious to move out of their hard working country and almost always believe anything anyone says just to arrive in America. They see in T.V how American live and dream to live the so called "American life" with money, cars, nice clothes, better food but in actuality they have no idea they're putting they're lives at stake. When they think of moving to America, they think its more opportunities for a better life. Some children don't even have a choice because they're sold by their own parents to pay off their family debts. It's sad how anyone could even have the heart to do this. But when I really think about it, it shows how desperate people are that they are willing to do anything to pay off their debts or live a better life in America.

What do you know about the Spread of Disease in the Global Community?

I know there is a spread of diseases in the Global Community because it has been occuring for many years now and as the years go by, they seem to get only worse. One of the deadly diseases that is going around many regions of the world is HIV/AIDS and There are other diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and tuberculosis that still to continue to kill millions of people in the developing countries. While HIV/AIDS continue to be incurable, the other disesease like malria, fever, and tuberculosis have solutions that are available. There are bed nets to stop malaria mosquitoes from biting people and even vaccines to prevent or cure diseases like measles. These solutions exist, but the real problem is that many people are unable to obtain them because either they don't have it in their country/area or they are too poor to even pay for it so they're left with nothing but to wait and die. It's sad because my question is that here in the rich countries, we have so many medical treatments available for anybody in the world, but no ones really helping the people who can't get a reach of these vaccines and medications that they need. Everyday there is someone always dying due to unreachable treatment to help with there disease. Not only that, but there are new diseases being found that continue to attack people all over the world and they travel fast. The pandemic of HIV/AIDS continues to spread and while its an incurable disease, many people are taking their lives for granted and are not taking necessary prevention strategies to maintain a healthy sexual lifestyle. Others have no choice because they are raped. According to an article by the Pearson Foundation, last year there was about 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS and 2 million have died from it. The governments in the world should be the ones working at their hardest trying to work and teach the preventions and treatments for these deadly diseases, but the help given to them is so limited and certain rules are set that it makes it almost impossible to even provide help to the developing countries who need it the most.

How is the Semester Going so Far?

This semester is finally coming to an end and it's been stressful one so far. This whole year has been a lot harder than last year and it's because of my Anatomy classes but I'm hanging in there. This year has been hard, but yet fun, and it's exactly what I expected. I heard from last year students who were also nursing majors that my second year would be nothing compared to my first year and that it was going to be difficult. They had also said that managing my time and studying would be the two most important things I would have to focus on and they were definetely right. My anatomy classes are very challenging because it's a whole lot of memorization of information in such a short period of time. It's really a big change because I usually know what information I need to study for prior to an exam or test, but for anatomy, basically I have to study everything from the begining of the year for every exam because they include a little bit of everything from the start. There is no such thing as cramming anymore even though I shouldn't be doing that to begin with. Now, I have to start studying for my exams at least 2 weeks in advance because its a big load of information to get down to. On top of that, the most challenging part is sometimes when I finally get my quiz or exam, many things I focus studying on end up not being on the exam so I'm pretty much screwed. I never thought nursing would be this challenging, and not only that, but they always tell me as that it only gets harder and I can't imagine it any harder than it already is. I'm just really glad that this semester is almost over. Theres about one and a half more weeks of school left and as much as I'm excited to go back home to Hawaii, I'm trying to keep calm and focus on studying and getting over with FINALS first before even getting excited. I'm not so worried about my other general ed. classes because I'm pretty sure I'm doing good in all of them. It's my Anatamoy lecture class and lab that I'm most worried about and I'm just praying I pass with a C or even better!

What to expect at the Alexandria House

I haven't gone to Alexandria House yet and to be hoenst, I really don't know what to expect. All I know about the place was that it was a non profit transitional residence home for women and children in the process of moving from emergency shelter to permanent housing. They provide educational and opportunities to the residents who live there such as Women's Support Group, Teen Educational Programs, Child Care, ESL classes, and Networking with other community based groups. Prior to going Alexandria House, I had never ever done any community services or volunteer work of any kind similiar to this so I had no idea what to expect. All I could do is read about them from the forms and pamphlets they handed out to us so thats pretty much all I know about them. To be honest , I was a little afraid of what to expect. I'm afraid that they may not be friendly with me because I would be a new face walking around the residential home. Because I'm a very shy person at first and it takes a while for me to open up and be myself to anyone, I was scared that they might be more outspoken than me. The reason I haven't gone yet is because I'm waiting on my ride(Michelle) to tell me when she's available to go. As of right now, her classes conflict with the times available for me to go to Alexandria House so we're trying to figure out our time schedule so that we could both go together. She is my only way of transportation that I know of so I'm just really waiting on her. But we're planning on going real soon, I hope. Other than that, I heard that there will be Child Care available from 5pm-7pm and I'm excited for that. The reason is because I already work at the Child Development Center here at Mount Saint Mary's and I already have a jist of how it is to work and be around toddlers and children. I enjoy working at the C.D.C so I'm sure I'll have as much of a good time working and playing with the children at the Alexandria House. I'm excited to meet new kids other than the ones I already work with at school and I can't wait to go.