THE Pendulum
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2008 | VOLUME 34, EDITION 9
www.elon.edu/pendulum
Bringing Awa Home
Elon natives fight to obtain visa for adopted daughter
Photo submitted by Lori and Michael Russet!
Awa and her mother, Lori, watch hippos swim in a lake three miles away from
their home in Togo. Though Lori and her husband Michael have officially
adopted Awa, they have not been able to bring her back to the United States
because she does not qualify for a visa.
Ashley Barnas
News Editor
They went to Elon Elementary School,
began dating during their senior year at
Western Alamance High School, stayed
together through college, got married, joined
the Peace Corps, traveled to West Africa
and adopted a child. But that’s where their
problem began.
After more than five months of not seeing
their daughter, Lori and Michael Russell are
struggling to obtain a visa to bring her home
to Durham. Not all overseas adoptions fall
under the same rules.
“She’s not an orphan — that’s the
problem,” Lori Russell said. “The United
States says that unless the child’s an orphan,
she cannot have a visa.”
In November 2007, the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services returned the
adoption application filed by the Russells
because of a missing translation of their
daughter Awa’s birth certificate. Caseworkers
included a letter stating that if the Russells
“insist on filing this petition, it will be
denied” because Awa has two living birth
parents.
“I can understand not separating children
from their parents, but in our case, it’s very
distressing,” Lori said.
For the Russells, there are only two
options. The first is also the worst, Lori said.
She would have to leave law school at
Duke and move back to Togo with Awa.
Michael would need to stay in North Carolina
at his job at Duke Global Health Institute to
support his family. In order for Awa to obtain
a visa, the Russells need to have had physical
custody for two years. While in Togo, Awa
lived with the Russells for one year.
The second option is humanitarian parole.
It is a “very discretionary visa that’s given in
situations where the parolee does not qualify
for any other visa,” Lori said.
“If they decide to give her a visa, we would
go back to Togo,” she said. “They're ready for
us [in Togo]. We would get on the next plane
out there.”
Awa currently lives in Togo with an
American friend of the Russells, making
it easy to call Awa a few times each week.
But their friend’s visa expires in April,
potentially leaving Awa without a caretaker.
Meeting Awa
On a Peace Corps mission to Togo in June
2005, the Russells had no idea that they
would do more than plant trees and help
develop small businesses. One month after
arriving in Mango, the “poorest, driest and
sparsest” city in Togo, they met Awa, then 5
years old.
“We bonded immediately,” Lori said.
Awa would hang out at their house nearly
every day, and they would make her boiled
eggs and peanut butter sandwiches.
“Everyone knew that Awa wasn’t being
taken care of,” she said. “Her father is 73 and
he’s been ill for a long time, and her mother
is over 40 years younger and not happy
about the marriage in the first place."
Awa’s mother would leave the house
at dawn and not return until after dusk,
the Russells said, leaving Awa to roam the
streets. Her family’s income is no more than
35 cents per day.
The Russells took immediate action. From
August 2005 to September 2006, they treated
See AWA I Page 2
Construction set to begin on meditation garden
Megan Lee
Reporter
Chris Wood strolled
through the curving paths
guided by purple painted
lines, in a room engulfed in
the whispering of meditation
music. Eleven tea candles
illuminated the outskirts of a
canvas covering two-thirds of
McKinnon Hall.
Wood, a sophomore music
ineater major, along with
several other students, faculty
members and staff, took 10
minutes out of his day to walk
the labyrinth that laid out for
inree days last week in the
loseley Center meeting room.
This was probably the last
iime students like Wood will
'nd themselves in pensive
poses at an indoor labyrinth in
McKinnon.
Almost every year, Elon’s
Truitt Center for
Religious
and Spiritual Life brings
“Walking the Labyrinth”
to campus for three days.
Guiding the event is Truitt
Center’s Program Assistant
Rene Summers and a couple of
student volunteers.
“Even though it has been
difficult to reserve this
location, it has benefited
so many students that we
continue to have it. Summers
said.
This spring will bring
an end to the difficulties of
reserving McKinnon Hall. With
all of the positive feedback
the center has received, Elon
is planning to construct
a meditation garden and
labyrinth on the north side
of Holt Chapel. The location
has been approved and will be
funded by the gifts in honor
of 1952 Elon alumna Helen
Jackson Lindsay.
Thomas Flood, Elon’s
superintendent of landscaping
and grounds, will build the
new addition to campus in an
organic design different from
the canvas in McKinnon. It
will consist of aggregate stone
in cement, and in the
center of the labyrinth will be
an Elon oak tree.
“The labyrinth represents
a journey that you travel, by
becoming reshaped by the
experience in the center arid
bringing it back to the world
you live in,” university Chaplin
Richard McBride said.
For the six years that this
event has been held, a rented
white canvas with rich purple
paint would expand across the
McKinnon Hall floor.
The pattern’s hand-
painted design resembles a
six-leaf clover within a gear
that has several teeth. Its
calming atmosphere was set
by dimmed lights and Asian-
influenced music played on a
loop.
“I liked the feeling after
sitting in the center and then ^
getting up after my reflection,”
Wood said. “I focused on
Christianity and getting closer
to God when I first started,
but then thought about a lot of
things once I sat down.
Placed in the center of the
clover-like destination were
three eggplant colored velvet
pillows, a box of facial tissues
and a basket of words to help
jumpstart visitors’ reflection
as they sat and contemplated.
This quiet stroll and
secluded area sends the
message to slow down and
take the time to think about
things.
This form of interfaith
exploration has received a
wide range of responses.
See GARDEN I Page 3
MEGAN LEE | Photographer
A group of students from a health and wellness class walk the labyrinth
in McKinnon Hall. The labyrinth is a spirital tool that many use to sym
bolize a personal or spiritual journey. Elon plans to construct a labyrinth
on the north side of Holt Chapel on south campus.