Zoe+Garber

Zoe's Page

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 * I am Zoe Renee Garber. I live on a 100 year old family farm north of Marshalltown, IA. I hope to always live in this part of Iowa because I love it! I have not been to many places yet in my life but I hope to now. Every year my family goes to northern Minnesota to Deer Lake, and that is the only other state I've been to- yet :)**

Reflection on South America
 * I have learned many things in the project that I did about South America. I have learned that the economic status of the people of South America varies greatly. Some of the people are very westernized and well off, and other people (mostly from rural areas) live in poverty. The literacy rates are lower in South America than in the United States, and maybe that contributes to the poverty. I have also learned that the growing of the drug coca is legal but restricted in most countries, because it is a native plant that has been used medicinally for many years, but now it can be sold to make cocaine. Each country is struggling to find the right and wrong answer as to wether they should allow it or not. The country I specifically studied, Bolivia, was the poorest of all.**


 * Reflection on the Middle East**
 * I have learned many things in the project that I did about the Middle East. I learned that although Islam is the primary religion, Christianity and Judaism also exist in this region. And Islam and Christianity have many similar features, one god, 10 commandments, book with the word of god. So I don't know why the two religions happen to be the two religions of people who are fighting each other. I have learned a lot about the culture and traditions of the Middle Eastern people, and although they are different from many wester cultures, they are not right or wrong. I have also learned about the things that may offend the Islamic people, which I will try to not do if I ever find myself with a group of them. If I really was presenting the keynote we did to soldiers, I hope that it would be satisfactory enough to keep them safe in real life.**


 * Reflection on Asia**
 * I have learned many things in the project I did on human rights violations in Asia. I have learned that many of the violations occur because of the communist government's control of everything. People don't know all about these major issues because the governments control the media, they control what their own people see and what the rest of the world sees. My project this time was about the Montegnard Christians in the Central Highland of Vietnam. The Vietnam government is persecuting them because "they are an extremist group that is a threat to Vietnam's security" but really they just think that Christianity is a "false and deprived religion." I am glad that our country is run by the people and we let everyone practice the religion that they choose. Hopefully no refugees will ever come out of the United States.**


 * Reflections on Africa**
 * I have learned many things in the project I did on Africa. I learned that the majority of the people are poor because the governments there keep a lot of the foreign aid that is sent to them. My group's project was to give Bio Sand Water Filters to five villages in Kenya. People in Kenya and all over Africa are dying from lack of clean water (they have to share dirty water holes with their livestock) while the rich have swimming pools. And I have learned that most of the foreign aid people send over there is just a band aid. We should be teaching them how to get their own money instead of just giving it to them so that they won't need our help forever. Africa has great promise as a continent, some of the countries (like South Africa) have already found their way but the rest of them just need new government.**