Freshmen in Perkins may think they live far from campus. But they've got nothing on Winston Caldwell '09.5, who returned to Brown this semester after spending six months half a world away on an outreach trip in Indonesia.
The Westchester, N.Y., native journeyed to an impoverished resort town to build trash incinerators for the locals.
"I knew I was in a different world as soon as I got on my flight to Indonesia," Caldwell said, because his first-class ticket didn't include a toothbrush, an eye mask and lush socks so he could pad around the plane in style. "It was first-class, but their first-class is more like American business class," he said.
The real culture shock was waiting for Caldwell at his seaside destination town. The resort, popular with business vacationers from Japan, Europe and the United States, provides economic opportunities for the local population, but not without its share of problems, Caldwell said.
"Padma doesn't tell you this on Top Chef, but gourmet cooking produces a lot of waste," Caldwell explained. But Caldwell's outreach program saved the day for the locals with a little tin and a little fire. "We built trash incinerators so the waste issue could be burned into thin air."
To tackle the daunting challenge, Caldwell had help from other college students who generously put their own academics on hold to reach out across the globe. The group of 20 constructed the trash incinerators using discarded steel drums and the pressure-treated wood that was available.
"The incinerators were very basic, but with enough gasoline you can burn any kind of trash - those little plastic hotel soap bottles, styrofoam packaging, leftover prime rib," Caldwell said. "You produce it, we'll make it disappear."
Burning trash opened Caldwell's eyes to the plight of so many of his fellow human beings, he said.
"We take it for granted that Jo's has freshly mass-produced fish and chips every night. But I met people in Indonesia - humans - who were reduced to fishing for their own food. They didn't know any better," Caldwell said.
"It put everything in perspective when locals didn't even know what my iPhone was," he added.
Back at Brown, readjusting to civilization isn't so easy for Caldwell. "Watching HBO seems so, like, imperialist and classist when you think of all the suffering in the world," Caldwell said. "I'm totally more in tune with myself and my place in the world now. It truly was a transformational experience. I would recommend it to anyone who can afford the $20,000 non-refundable program fee."
