A better home

Though I am still not feeling too good ( had diarrhoea for 3 days!), I decided to blog on something which really touched me from what I saw on TV:

1. The movie 'From Homeless to Harvard'

A touching movie on how a little girl struggled out of poverty and made it to Harvard University. She was hardly in school when she was young as her mum was down with AIDs and was often down with drugs and alcohol. Rather than her mum taking care of her, she was often seen taking care of her mum, including cleaning her up when she was really drunk. She hardly turned up for school due to her family condition but she amazed the teacher when she scored for her tests. At the end the social worker put her in a home. She was tortured there and finally she ran away after witnessing her a girl was burnt with acid that was poured into her shampoo when she was bathing. Her mother and sister took refuge in her grandfather's place. However, she refused to go there as she had always suspected that her grandfather had raped her mother when she was young. Her best friend had also suffered the same fate of being raped by her father and they decided to run away from home. Rather than resigning to fate like what her best friend did, she decided to enroll herself in a school. She worked hard and finally earned herself a scholarship to study in Harvard. I wonder how many of us can really brave such adversity and rise to success. It really takes a lot of courage and determination. No matter how bad or desperate the situation may look - there is always a way out - if you are determined enough.

2. Recycling elephant dungs.

I remembered I told my students that in India, cow dungs are mixed with water and the gas emitted is then channeled through a pipe to a stove and used for cooking. This would reduce the demand for fossil fuels or chopping down the trees for fuel wood. Now it seems that a man is actually making paper out of elephant dungs in Thailand. As elephant dungs contain a lot of fibre, he mixed it with water and then sieve out fibre which will be dried and made into papers! What a way to recycle stuff. Some of our students had also experimented with using hair to make paper and ink. I think it is really good that we are more concern about our envronment and make an effort to conserve our resources. We should blog to promote the importance of the 3Rs - reuse, recycle and reduce wastage. Our earth is our only home and it is our responsibility to make it a better place to live in.