How Christmas Unifies Us

As my favorite day for blog updates comes around (the blessed Thursday) I find myself celebrating one of the oldest, most renown and important holidays of the year with the greater part of humanity. It's an exciting time, and different types of festivities can be noted in every culture. For expats, Christmas is the most important holiday and a period where many of us take our home leave back to our home countries so we can be with family, friends and those who matter most to us.

I will offer one cross-cultural observation, did you ever stop and consider how many people on earth at this very moment are celebrating Christmas? It's one holiday which transcends continents and many cultures, an imported into some nations but then ingrained in their cultures. That in itself is remarkable. The Aussis may hit the beach, Americans pray for a "white Christmas" and the Germans set up their Christmas markets yet in the end we are all marking the same date, the day that Christ was born.

How you spend Christmas is no doubt slightly different then mine. But that's just part of the magic and significance, Christmas is for everyone. Even those who don't note is as a national holiday still in their own way mark the date because that's how ingrained it has become. Love it, enjoy it, and God bless us....everyone.

How to Finish an AA Online

I can finally say I've finished university. I have graduated, I can breath in a deep breath of air, enjoy the freedom, revel in the delight and joy of no responsibilities...or can I? Actually I'm only half done. I've finished my first two years of university with an AA degree, half way to a final four year degree. Nonetheless, it's a degree, it's a great place to be and by transferring in four classes and taking a summer semester, I completed two years in 18 months.

Having now finished the mountain of former problems blend into a mirage of memories including bad internet, bad math homework, a few locational moves, couple of tankers worth of coffee, and maybe even a few fits of rage at whatever thing was supposed to function but wasn't...I live overseas...remember? The mirage notwithstanding, I'm glad to finish and be on to new adventures. It's time to try something else.

I learned a few tricks for online success. 1) Drink coffee, lots of coffee because if you don't you'll be sorry. That's all I can say. 2) Work ahead, the internet often dies, the teachers are late responding to email the school site goes down so you've got to stay a few days ahead. 3) Play the "I live overseas card," okay...I used this trick with the profs when I truly did have an excuse and it worked well though playing the card normally meant there was a problem with resulted in more work for me so in the end it's a negative thing.

Sadly I didn't get to wear the funny graduation outfit. I'll have to wait another two years for that privilege. I'll have to work even longer, harder, endure strange food, more professors who take forever to grade homework and more poorly written papers by other students who constantly forget to justify their page margins. But now that's just a part of life.

How to Have a Happy Eid-al-Adha

Happy Eid-al-Adha! Eid is also spelled Idd as well and admittedly this post will arrive a day after the celebrations have drawn to a close. In the Muslim world, this is Christmas. It's three days long so people take the extra two days off and make it a great long holiday. The non-Muslim Pakistanis making up 3%-5% of the population-Christians, Hindus etc.-take their holiday at Christmas later in the month. December has mixed productivity.

Eid-al-Adha is a lunar based religious holiday commemorating Ibrahim's sacrifice of Ishmael to Allah. In Christendom we recognize this as Abraham's sacrifice of Issac stemming from a primary doctrinal different. The holiday also marks the end of the Hajj where any Muslim who possibly can goes to Mecca. In real life, Eid-al-Alha is giant three day long celebration involving, food, family, gifts, and more food. Each family must slaughter a goat and give a third to the poor and Tuesday there was the smell of butchery on the winds of Islamabad and we saw goats in all shapes and forms around the city. We thought about having our own version of Eid...Pizza Hut...but all the stores were closed...so we studied for finals. It's the last week of the fall semester and my American university didn't recogize Eid as a holiday (they didn't give me a Thanksgiving break either, I was ticked on both counts).

This was my first Eid and while I applaud tradition, it reminded why I'm deciding to turn vegetarian. Not that I disapprove of meat, I simply disliked seeing all the goat parts. Goats are cute.

How World AIDS Day Came to Be

In my world, in the world of overseas dwelling expats working in developing nations, World AIDS Day is significant. Weeks and months of planning go into 1 December in order to pull of a memorable and poignant day. With my dad working in relief and development, I've seen my share of World AIDS Days and been to quite a few events. It's almost a game; will this year's program be better then last years? Can this organization compare with the other? While growing up, sometimes I had fun at these events and enjoyed the numerous tasty finger sandwiches and samosas. Other times I've been bored unto tears and would sigh loudly in some dark corner while whinging about the lack of food. Thankfully, this year the program was fantastic and I was excited to attend and take part.

World AIDS Day came to be in 1988 with the help of Johnathan Mann and the World Health Organization. The UN later appointed 1 December as the international date and since then independent organizations have been set up for it's promotion. It serves as a type of Memorial Day or Veterans Day; we're aware of an issue but let's set aside a day to really do something about it. World AIDS Day started with a concentration on young people and children. Later it grew to accommodate everyone and typically has a "theme" set by UNAIDS months in advance. The 2005-2010 theme is "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise." World AIDS Day shouldn't simply be commemorated by NGOs, health officials and governments, it should cause everyone everywhere to stop and think. How does AIDS affects people? How is the problem continued? What's our response? What are possible solutions? Most importantly, how do we treat those with AIDS? It's our opportunity to express solidarity with those devoted to eradicating this pandemic, and show our support to the 33 million people currently suffering from the disease. It's a time to raise awareness about the issue with the informed and the uninformed.

Currently in Pakistan, over 74,000 people live with HIV/AIDS, .01% of the population. While certainly lower then many Africa nations which have up to 1/5 infection rate, it's not the percentages but the actual lives affected. Globally, few people are able to receive treatment and still millions more lack understanding regarding transmission. Despite all the work poured into stopping the disease and it's transmission, the problem continues and is here to stay.

Some say the AIDS pandemic won't peak until 2040. Other suggest 2020. Regardless, our children will never know a world without AIDS. Maybe one day I'll see Mao Zedong's photo in Tienanmen Square come tumbling down, but I'll never live in a world without AIDS. That's why we say stop AIDS. Keep the promise.