Presidential Commission on Youth and Intergenerational Patnerships

After an awesome lunch at McDonalds with Efren, I trekked back into DC. I had a meeting with a friend who works with Synergy Ministries to debrief on the time I spent with Himadri at CSS India. I was hoping to make my way down to the Lincoln Memorial before heading to the Global Youth Action Network fundraiser, but time was not working with me. I did make it to the Capitol, took some pics, and then headed to help set-up for the fundraiser event.

So I got connected to the Global Youth Action Network (www.youthlink.org) back when I was in college. The organization is HQ'ed in NYC, but I actually met the co-founders at an international education conference I attended in China the summer of my freshman year. Great organization. Anyhow, the co-founder Jonah drafted a Presidential Commission on Youth and Intergenerational Partnerships and submitted it to President Obama on January 8 of this year, and presented at tonight's fundraiser. I was helping out at the GYAN fundraiser tonight - it was great to see old friends and meet a bunch of new ones, young and old, all passionate about helping those around us in our communities and around the world. Here's a snippet of the proposed commission...

President Elect Obama,

In 1960, during his presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy asked Eleanor Roosevelt for her political support. She agreed, but not without his promise to create a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. The commission was created the next year and had an historic impact on the lives of women, nationally and globally.

In 2007, as you prepared for your own White House run, you asked young people for their political support. You got it, but in exchange for what? Many young people supported you because they believed in your message of hope and promise for social and political transformation.

I'm sure you will agree that when young people are empowered with new technology and a new political vision they can revolutionize politics. They did so in 2008 by helping you raise more money and mobilize more people than any campaign in history. We believe that young people, when given the opportunity, can improve the social fabric of this country and transform what it means to be a citizen of the United States and of the world.

We want to create the space for this opportunity and believe that bringing the agenda of youth to the world stage will make that possible...

go to www.pcoy.org to read more.

Then I jumped on the metro to head back to Efren's place and met some "friends" on the platform who insisted on me taking a picture of them. Friendly couple... the lady had a bit too much to drink. Anyways, after I upload the pics, I'll share that with you. Quite funny. Looking forward to the craziness in just a few hours... inauguration day.

Church and Inauguration Kick-Off Celebration

This morning I visited Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It's a town I'm somewhat familiar with because I have family in the area, but I never really explored the area much. So the head pastor at this church is Josh Harris, the author of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye", a familiar book in the Christian community - introduced in youth groups in our teenage years. Anyhow, it's a pretty big church... very friendly folks. The topic of abortion was discussed - I think there is a walk for life next week in DC - and a woman who works at a pregnancy clinic shared her experiences. As she shared, I could not help but think of baby Tabitha at Asha House, the precious little baby girl whose 18 year old mother met a local pastor just before she was about to abort her, and instead, had her baby and gave her to Asha House at birth.

I headed back to meet Efren and dragged him to another church where many of his friends go to. It was funny because I ran into some friends from Philly there - Eleanor and Eunice! So random... then, Efren and I headed down to the National Mall to catch some of the "We Are One" Inaugural Celebration concert at the Lincoln Memorial. We got past the Washington Monument but the crowds stopped us before we hit the reflecting pool area. They had big screen tv's and speakers everywhere so we could all watch. It was pretty cool... a very civilized crowd... a true family, not just of Americans but of people who came together to fellowship together and celebrate and enjoy a free concert. It was amazing to stand there among a crowd of millions, and yet during any speeches, it was oddly quiet... everyone respectfully listened, cheered when it was time to cheer, and sang when moments called for it. After the concert, even the mass exit to the street was an organized chaos... more on the organized side. Here are some pics from the afternoon.

Heading to DC for Inauguration!

This afternoon, I left for my drive down to Washington DC. I stopped in Baltimore to have a late lunch with Burton and Candice. So I'm sitting in this restaurant in Baltimore and there is this guy who looks like someone from work, but I quickly told myself that that would be ridiculous. Later as we were getting ready to leave, we make eye contact, and yes indeed, it is him. How random!

Hung out at Burton's place for a little bit, and then made my way down to Vince and Connie's place in Virginia. They made an amazing dinner, and it was so nice to catch up with them and some other college/post-college friends. Fun times... oh, and Blockus... fun game. Then I made my way into Maryland to my other cousin's pad. Looking forward to church in DC tomorrow and the inauguration kick-off concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

Miraculous Landing

What an amazing scene it was today on the Hudson. Thank God for the safe landing and that everyone got out safely. I was in NYC when 9/11 happened, and I can just imagine what people were thinking as this plane got lower and lower to ground.

I was sitting at my desk when I saw 2 of my colleagues approach the TV in our work "living room". ... a crazy scene to see folks standing on the wings in the middle of the water... I will pay more attention to the flight attendants and the safety procedures going forward.

Meet the Children at Asha House and Asha Mission

Wow - this was not an easy task, but I'm glad I did it. Not perfect but I don't think it's too bad for my first ever video production, or whatever you want to call it. So I put together a video I want to share with my colleagues at Lincoln. We had a team building event with my team before I left that focused on helping the 50 or so children and staff at 2 orphanages in Delhi, India that Jane and her team were affiliated and volunteered with. The video shows some photos of the event and introduces you to the lovely and extremely adorable children at the orphanages. As I finish organizing other photos and videos from the trip, I'll share them here!

Click on the link below - if it asks you for a password, it's "india". Yes, I know... very tricky.


SI&B Team Event - Asha Mission & Asha House from Tammy Wang on Vimeo.

Finally updated!

It has been awhile... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Coming home from India right before the holidays was great, but busy. I haven't had much time to organize and process the experience, but I THINK I'm finally up to date on my posts (I had typed several while I was away but didn't have a chance to post them up). Anyhow, I also added a few pictures and videos to older posts as well. Still working on the photos and other videos which I cannot wait to share! More to come later...

Oh, and yesterday Jane, Jenny, and I spent the afternoon at my office repacking the donated items that I could not carry with me to India and dropped them off at the fedex. Please pray that everything will get to the orphanage without a problem - we securely wrapped everything in lots of packing tape so it should get there in one piece, but getting through customs is a concern. THANKS!