I am Catherine's first intern, so a set of roles was not spelled out in black and white, but we're working together to trail-blaze for future interns and volunteers. I am really enjoying it in that regard, because I have more flexibility to lean into my personal skills and interests with what I'm doing.
Since we've returned, our main focus has been on the Boone event. On Monday, Cat and I met with Dan, Judah, and Erin, who are all part of the LIFTED team, to discuss more in-depth details of the night. We discussed the order of events, the different booths (we are inviting 3 other like-minded ministries/non-profits from the area to set up info booths), and all the logistics of the sound, lights, and set up. Catherine has been wonderful to ask my input on even the smallest of details!
Cat uses me as a kind of sounding board for her planning. Often times she will send me emails with lists, just to have someone look through them and offer support and suggestions. For this event in particular, I am in charge of a few things:
I am the PR person for LIFTED to the bands that will be performing at the event. I was able to invite a local Boone band by the name of ArtSociety. I think this is a good example of the Anthropological difference. I know that ArtSociety is well-liked in Boone, and the hearts of the individual members support LIFTED's cause. Because of this, I know that the band will pull out a crowd to our event that we may not have been able to reach ourselves, and that their performance will be heartfelt and supportive to the tone of the night. It's really cool to see practical uses for Anthropology in seemingly unrelated fields.Also, in this role, I have created performance contracts for the bands, and this was no easy feat! It was my first try at anything like this, so some research and writing went into it.
I am also responsible for creating our "cultural table." This table, a collaborative idea between Cat and myself, and I am so excited about it!!! This table will include information about the areas Remember Nhu have homes, particularly the homes/areas we visited on our trip. We will include photos, cultural statistics, information about the cultural influence on the issue of sex trafficking, and artifacts. I will be writing all of the texts, which will probably take the form of small info cards or brochures. I am particularly excited about showcasing the Hill Tribes of Thailand that we visited while we were there. There are 6 main hill tribes in northern Thailand, and members of these tribes are culturally not considered Thai. Historically, they are primarily from China. Visiting the Lahu tribe was such an exhilarating experience! They live in huts made entirely of bamboo, which are set up from the ground. We were invited into a few huts, and were even served hot green tea in one by an old Lahu man. We also got to see women weaving on traditional looms. Many of the adults teeth were stained a deep red-purple, apparently from sucking on beetle-something-or-another. Anyway, it was such a special experience which I have a lot more thoughts on, but I just wanted to touch briefly on it!
Obviously, this is SUCH a great example of the anthropological difference. I am definitely the rallying person for making the issue (which seems so far away and disconnected to people at the events) and making it connect in the context of our culture. We are all capable of doing the same things, because we're human, and this issue happens IN THE UNITED STATES!
Lots of planning and prepping this week!
