My Experience in Ghana

    I decided to take part in an exchange program in Ghana. The 30 of us participating in the program met up the first morning in Ghana to meet Fred, our guide in Ghana.

    We boarded the bus to Senase, a village of 3,000 in Northwest Ghana. Once we got to the village, we were greeted by the queen mother and the other elders. A young girl performed a dance for us with Ghanaian drums, and then the elders each thanked us for coming to the village and helping their children and their schools.

    After our meeting ended, we split up into three groups and went to different schools, spending most of the day handing out toothbrushes and school supplies, meeting with the children, and playing games with various classes. It was really interesting to see the schools and to see what all of the different classes were learning.

    We got back to our host's house that night literally seconds before the skies opened up over Senase, and since the power was out, Fred, Cari (my roommate) and I sat out under the roof listening to the pouring rain and talking about our lives. We were able to hear Fred's story, which was absolutely incredible. I can say it gave me a new sense of respect for the Ghanaian people, their unity in the face of tremendous hardship, and the immense amount of care and love they hold in their hearts, not only for their families but their entire community.

    The next day we performed our dance for one of the schools, to the delight (and laughter) of the children, queen mother, and principal. After that we were on the bus heading back.

    During the bus ride, new thoughts and questions filled my mind. Where is this fire Senase lit in my heart going to take me, and how can I feed it and build it into real change? How do I bring this back to my community, and then back home to my family and friends? These were only a few of the questions that I was struggling with and continue to struggle with, and I can't say I have found any answers yet. All I know is that Senase did light a fire within me, and I refuse to ever let it burn out.

    According to a team of researchers, an animal's ability to perceive(感知) time is linked to their pace of life.

    “Our results lend support to the importance of time perception in animals where the ability to perceive time in a very short time may be the difference between life and death for fast moving creatures.” commented lead author Kevin Healy from Trinity College Dublin.

    The study was done with a variety of animals using phenomenon based on the maximum speed of flashes of light an individual can see before the light source is seen as constant. Dogs, for example, have eyes with a refresh rate higher than humans.

    One example of this phenomenon at work, the authors say, is the housefly and its ability to avoid being hit. The research showed flies “observe motion in a shorter time than our own eyes can achieve,” which allows them to avoid being hit.

    Professor Graeme Ruxton of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who worked jointly on the research project, said in a statement, “Having eyes that send updates to the brain at much higher frequencies than our eyes do is of no Value if the brain cannot process that information equally quickly. Thus, this work highlights the impressive abilities of even the smallest animal brains. Flies might now be deep thinkers, but they can make good decisions very quickly.”

    In comparison, the tiger beetle (虎甲虫) runs faster than its eyes can keep up, basically becoming blind, which requires it to stop periodically to re-evaluate its prey's(猎物) position.

    Our results suggest that time perception offers an as yet unstudied dimension along which animals can specialize and there is considerable range to study this system in more detail.

    Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.

    In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a way to block out disease, as medical opinion had it that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let illnesses in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king of England in 1546. Thus it began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.

    Though the belief in the merit of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War Ⅱ. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea: clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?

    Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children of touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist(免疫学家), encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.

    Eudaimonia is an Ancient Greek word, particularly stressed by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, which deserves far more attention than it has because it corrects the shortfalls (缺失）in one of the most central, but troubling words in our modem language: happiness.

    When we nowadays try to clearly express the purpose of our lives, it is the word “happiness” that we commonly turn to. We tell ourselves and others that the most important principle for our jobs, our relationships and the conduct of our day-to-day lives is the pursuit of happiness. It sounds like an innocent enough idea, but too much reliance on the term means that we frequently unfairly tend to quit or, at least, heavily question a great many challenging but worthwhile situations. The Ancient Greeks did not believe that the purpose of life was to be happy; they proposed that it was to achieve Eudaimonia, a word which has been best translated as “fulfilment”.

    What distinguishes happiness from fulfilment is pain. It is very possible to be fulfilled and—at the same time—under pressure, suffering physically or mentally, overburdened and, quite frequently, in an irritable (易怒的）mood. This is a slight psychological difference that is hard for the word “happiness” to capture, for it's tricky to speak of being happy yet unhappy, or happy yet suffering. However, such a combination is readily accommodated within the respected and noble-sounding idea of Eudaimonia.

    The word encourages us to trust that many of life's most worthwhile projects will sometimes be in conflict with contentment, and yet will be worth pursuing. Properly exploring our professional talents, managing a household, keeping a relationship going, creating a new business venture or engaging in politics… none of these goals are likely to leave us cheerful and grinning on a daily basis. They will, in fact, involve us in all manner of challenges that will deeply exhaust and weaken us, provoke (激怒）and wound us. And yet we will perhaps, at the end of our lives, still feel that the tasks were worth undertaking. Through them, we'll have achieved something deeper and more interesting than happiness.

    With the word Eudaimonia in mind, we can stop imagining that we are aiming for a pain-free existence—and then blaming ourselves unfairly for being in a bad mood. We'll know that we are trying to do something far more important than smile all the time: we're striving to do justice to our full human potential.

    In my mind, there is a moving story about a skinny young boy who loved football with all his heart.

    Practice after practice, he eagerly gave everything he had. But being half the size of the other boys, he got absolutely nowhere. Despite his hard training at all the games, this hopeful athlete sat on the bench and hardly ever played.

    This teenager lived alone with his father, and the relationship between the two of them was very special. Even though the son was always on the bench, his father was always in the stands cheering. He never missed a game. This young man was still the smallest of the class when he entered high school. But his father continued to encourage him.

    The young man loved football and was determined to try his best at every practice, and perhaps he'd get to play when he became a senior. All through high school he never missed a practice nor a game but remained a benchwarmer. Besides, his faithful father was always in the stands, always with words of encouragement for him. When the young man went to college, he decided to try out for the football team as a "walk-on". Everyone firmly believed that he could never make the cut, but he did.

    The news that he had survived the cut thrilled him so much that he rushed to the nearest phone and called his father. His father shared his excitement and was sent season tickets for all the college games. This persistent young athlete never missed practice during his four years at college, but actually he never got the real chance to play in a game.

    It was at the end of his senior football season that the coach met him with a telegram. The young man read the telegram and he became totally silent. Swallowing hard, he mumbled to the coach, "My father died this morning. Is it all right if I miss practice today? "The coach put his arm gently around his should and said, "Take the rest of the week off, son. And don't even plan to come back to the game on Saturday."

    Saturday arrived, and the game was not going well. In the third quarter, when the team was ten points behind, a silent young man quietly slipped into the empty locker room and put on his football gear. As he ran onto the sidelines, the coach and his players were surprised to see their faithful teammate back so soon. "Coach, please let me play. I've just got to play today, "said the young man. The coach pretended not to hear him. There was no way he wanted his worst player in this close play-off game. But the young man insisted, and finally feeling sorry for the kid, the coach gave in. "All right," he said. "You can go in. ''Before long, the coach, the players and everyone in the stands could not believe their eyes. This little unknown, who had never played before, was doing everything right. The opposing team could not stop him. He ran, passed, blocked, and tackled like a star. His team began to succeed. The score was soon tied. In the closing seconds of the game, this kid got a pass and ran all the way for the winning touchdown.

    Finally, after the stands had emptied, the coach noticed that this young man was sitting quietly in the corner all alone. The coach came to him and said, "Kid, you were unbelievably fantastic! Tell me what got into you? How did you do it? "

    He looked at the coach, tears in his eyes, and said "Well, you knew my had died, but did you know that my dad was blind?" The young man swallowed hard and forced a smile, "Dad came to all my games, but today was the first time he could see me play, and I wanted to show him I could make it!"

Unbelievable Stories of Animals Acting Just Like Humans

    ◆Horses are picky eaters

    Horses have an even better sense of smell than humans do. When horses raise their noses and open their nostrils (鼻孔) , their nervous system allows them to sense smells we can't sense. This might explain why they refuse dirty water and carefully move around meadows, eating only the tastiest grasses, experts say.

    ◆Whale says thanks

    In 2011, a whale expert spotted a humpback whale trapped in a fishing net and spent an hour freeing it. Afterward, in an hour-long display of thanks, the whale swam near their boat and leaped into the air about 40 times.

    ◆Pandas like to be naughty

    Is there anything more lovely than a baby panda, except maybe a human baby? In fact, baby pandas sometimes behave like human babies. They sleep in the same positions and value their thumbs. Pandas are shy by nature for its shy behaviors such as covering its face with a paw of ducking its head when confronted by a stranger.

    ◆A cat honors its owner

    Paper towels, and a plastic cup are just a few of the gifts that Toldo, a devoted three-year-old gray-and-white cat, has placed on his former owner Iozzelli Renzo's grave every day since the man died in September 2011. Renzo adopted Toldo from a shelter when the cat was three months old, and the two formed an inseparable bond. After Renzo passed away, Toldo followed the coffin to the cemetery, and now "stands guard" at the grave for hours at a time.