Greetings and welcome to my blog! It is now 7:32 a.m. in Taipei, Taiwan and I am writing from a internet kiosk at the airport. There are 3 computers plus wireless service and it's all free!! We need these in the U.S. Funny thing is that it's all young Americans using this service -- internet junkies like me! :-)
Anyhow, what am I doing in Taipei? Well, for those of you who haven't heard yet, I'm on my way to Vientiane, Laos to visit my brother, Tim, and sister-in-law, Susan. While here though, I'm also hoping to start launch an educational enrichment program for children who have been injured by unexploded ordnances (or UXO's). You can read more about UXO's and their impact on Laos at these websites: http://www.uxolao.org/ and http://www.copelaos.org/. According to one estimate, one person/day becomes a UXO casualty and 50% of these are children (http://www.copelaos.org/).
As you can imagine, anyone who suffers such an accident experiences great distress both physically and emotionally. I hypothesize that an educational enrichment program will help these children overcome the horror of their accident and equip them to lead healthy, productive lives. I am inspired by the work of a UC-Berkeley neuroscientist, Professor Marian Diamond. You may read about Professor Diamond's work at this website: http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/diamond_cambodia.htm. I will also write more about her and the neuroscience research on enriched environments which provides the foundation for this project.
For now though, I'm off to another layover in Bangkok, Thailand...
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