10/10/10 - Joseph's 25th birthday

The day Joseph was born was much like today. A beautiful fall day, blue sky, cool. He was born by c-section around 1 pm - some things a mother will never forget. The birth of a child is a memory that stays with you always.

Today, "Aunt" Sally and I ran (actually slow jogged), the Bronx River Parkway in the 1/2 marathon. We did it in less than three hours. Joseph would have laughed at us, but in his own way been very proud of us. It was difficult, but a good thing to do on this most difficult of days.

Westchester 1/2 Marathon - 10/10/10

Joseph was not considered athletic when he was young, he was too afraid of crowds to really get into the fray, and he was too small to control things physically. But in 8th grade he ran track and field and had some success at EHS, and even briefly held a school record in some running event. In 9th grade he played JV tennis for Fordham Prep and at one of the matches a coach came up to me and told me what a natural athlete he was!

Joseph was asked to be the fitness coach at the school in Ndanda. He would take his students (sometimes over a 100 of them we've heard) on 10 to 20 km runs. Last summer we sent basketballs to him, and he started a regular basketball game. He even ran the Kilimanjaro Marathon! He talked about doing triathlons when he came home. In September 2010 Kyle, Ray, Daniel and I did the Nations Triathlon in Washington DC.

In Joe's memory I will be running (very slowly) the Westchester 1/2 marathon on the day of what would have been his 25th birthday. One of my oldest friends, Sarah Coble, will also run it with me. We are doing it to remember Joseph on what would have been a very special day, and to raise money for the scholarship fund. If you would like to support us in our endeavors, please send donations to:

Joseph Lawrence Chow Scholarship Fund
c/0 The Generoso Pope Foundation
1 Depot Square
Tuckahoe, NY 10707

Thanks for your support!

September 22, 2010

Today marks the one year anniversary of the tragic death of Peace Corps Tanzania Volunteer Joseph Chow. Joe died in a rock climbint accident near the village of Mbuji, in the Mbinga District of the Ruvuma rEgion on September 22nd, 2009.
Joe was a graduate of Amherst College in 2007, and was first invited to serve in Peace Corps/Kenya as a math and science teacher. He was sworn in as a volunteer in November and placed in the village of Ndalat to teach chemistry and physics at St. Clement Secondary School. Following the suspension of the Peace Corps/Kenya Program in early 2008, Joseph volunteered to transfer, along with four others, to Tanzania to continue his service as an education volunteer. In February 2008, he ban teaching chemistry at Ndanda Secondary School in Mtwara Region.
Along with teaching chemistry, Joe Chow also chose to teach advanced physics and math. He was active in his community raising HIV/AIDS awareness with an after-school health club for his students, HIV testing and counseling, and a community theatre program. Joe loved atletics - especially swimming, travleing to visit other PCVs, and cooking for himself and friends.
In his 2007 Peace Corps aspiration statement, Joseph wrote that one of the reasons he decided to serve with Peace Corps was because he had never spent a long period of time in a different culture. He hoped to meet the challenge of teaching in a classroom in Africa and understood that the work he faced would be much more difficult than any work he had previously accomplished. Joseph not only adapted to his new surroundings, he flourished. Please join us all at Peace Corps Tanzania in remembering the very rich life and service of Joe Chow and in carrying on his legacy.

trip to see where Joseph died

Tonight I asked our travel agent, who helped us plan the trip to Tanzania in June of 20o9, to help plan a trip to the hill where Joseph died. I feel that I have to go see the place where he fell, maybe it will help me understand how this disaster could have happened. Ray has been pretty adamant that he is not interested in the details. After a year of sleepless nights, I feel that I have to go.

Shakesperae had an amazing understanding of human emotions

CARDINAL PANDULPH
Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow.

CONSTANCE
Thou art not holy to belie me so; I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine;My name is Constance; I was Geffrey's wife;

Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost:I am not mad: I would to heaven I were!For then, 'tis like I should forget myself: O, if I could, what grief should I forget! Preach some philosophy to make me mad, And thou shalt be canonized, cardinal; For being not mad but sensible of grief, My reasonable part produces reason How I may be deliver'd of these woes, And teaches me to kill or hang myself: If I were mad, I should forget my son, Or madly think a babe of clouts were he: I am not mad; too well, too well I feelThe different plague of each calamity.

KING PHILIP
Bind up those tresses. O, what love I note In the fair multitude of those her hairs! Where but by chance a silver drop hath fallen, Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends Do glue themselves in sociable grief, Like true, inseparable, faithful loves, Sticking together in calamity.

CONSTANCE
To England, if you will.

KING PHILIP
Bind up your hairs.

CONSTANCE
Yes, that I will; and wherefore will I do it?I tore them from their bonds and cried aloud' O that these hands could so redeem my son, As they have given these hairs their liberty!' But now I envy at their liberty, And will again commit them to their bonds, Because my poor child is a prisoner. And, father cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know our friends in heaven: If that be true, I shall see my boy again;
For since the birth of Cain, the first male child,To him that did but yesterday suspire, There was not such a gracious creature born. But now will canker-sorrow eat my bud And chase the native beauty from his cheek And he will look as hollow as a ghost, As dim and meagre as an ague's fit, And so he'll die; and, rising so again, When I shall meet him in the court of heavenI shall not know him: therefore never, neverMust I behold my pretty Arthur more.

CARDINAL PANDULPH
You hold too heinous a respect of grief.

CONSTANCE
He talks to me that never had a son.

KING PHILIP
You are as fond of grief as of your child.

CONSTANCE
Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,Remembers me of all his gracious parts,Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;Then, have I reason to be fond of grief? Fare you well: had you such a loss as I, I could give better comfort than you do. I will not keep this form upon my head, When there is such disorder in my wit. O Lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son! My life, my joy, my food, my all the world! My widow-comfort, and my sorrows' cure

One of my friends, Dr. Frank Castellano sent me this poem by Englishman W.H. Auden

To James:

Stop all the clocks; cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone.
Silence the pianos and with a muffled drum,
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle, moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message:
He is dead
Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves
Let the traffic policeman wear black cotten gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song:
I thought that love would last forever:
I was wrong.

And I still love you

A year ago tonight I was getting ready to go to San Diego for a business trip. Around 3 am we were woken up by a phone call from Joseph (it was about 11 am at Joe's time). Ray was in a panic when he heard Joe's voice, and then he said "Do you know what time it is here", and then Ray said "no, no now that you have woken us what's the problem"?

Joe was worried about unauthorized use of his bank account (which never happened) - the stupid little details we worry about as mere mortals.

I have woken up to the following James Taylor song the last few mornings - and I still love him:
***************************************************************************


Well the sun is surely sinking down, but the moon is slowly rising.
So this old world must still be spinning round and I still love you.

So close your eyes, you can close your eyes, it's all right.
I don't know no love songs and I can't sing the blues anymore.
But I can sing this song and you can sing this song when youre gone.

It won't be long before another day, we gonna have a good time.
And no one's gonna take that time away. You can stay as long as you like.

So close your eyes, you can close your eyes, it's all right.
I don't know no love songs and I can't sing the blues anymore.
But I can sing this song and you can sing this song when I'm gone