Donation Total!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my Blog Action Day donation challenge post! Many of you had great ideas for little things to do to help those struggling to provide enough food for their families and to support organizations around the world. I encourage you to check out the comments.

And the grand total? Your comments here and at the EOR blog (thanks for the cross-post!) "earned" a $30 donation from me split between Ethiopian Orphan Relief and our local voucher program. And even better, my mom and my friend Jem have each pledged to match my gift, so this simple, small exercise is making three times the difference! Not bad for something I threw out there on a whim. Way to pay it forward, friends!

Follow-up: World Food Day and "Please" Campaign

To follow up on yesterday's post: today is World Food Day as recognized by UNICEF. You can find information about the day and current food security challenges on their website.

I would also like to highlight efforts by Compassion International to addresses the strain the global food crisis is putting on families and communities where they work around the world. Having had the opportunity to visit the child we sponsor in Ethiopia, I can assure you that their work impacts not only the sponsored child but their family and community as well and that every penny you give is accounted for and used as directed. So if child sponsorship is not for you, Compassion is still an organization you can trust if you want to make a donation to their Global Food Crisis Fund. You can learn more at the website for their new initiative called Please.

Just another idea for you. Meanwhile, leave your comment on my last post to increase my poverty-fighting donation by tomorrow night!

Blog Action Day: My Poverty Action Donation Challenge

Today is Blog Action Day, and the 2008 theme is poverty. You can read some of the thousands of participating posts on the Blog Action Day website.

As you've probably been noticing recently, global poverty is one of the issues that tugs at my heart, and I try to be an advocate for fighting poverty through the work of charities, through actions in my community, through organizations working around the world, through pushing our leaders to make and keep promises on these issues, and by blabbing to you all on a regular basis about how the dots connect in my life and our common life in this common world.

Why my harping? Because 26,000+ children die from poverty-related causes every single day, and many people don't give a shit. What's worse, to paraphrase the venerable Tony Campolo, some of you care more about the fact that I just said shit than about those 26,000 children.

I truly believe that looking out for those with less is the right thing for us all to do (see: Golden Rule, interconnected global economies and environment, etc.) and, more specifically for those of us who call ourselves Christians, caring for the poor is the best way we can reflect what Jesus was about, do what he told us to do, and really understand the heart of God. Why else those 2,000 verses about the poor, more than any other subject?

I don't believe there's any one right way to fight poverty, though. You may feel a desire to help in a different way than I do, and that's a good thing, because different actions help in different ways. Child sponsorship can't get a government to forgive another government's crushing debts, but political advocacy can't let a little girl know she matters enough that someone remembers her birthday. Some people and groups take care of wounds that are gushing right now, while others try to find the source and stop it. We need it all.

What can you give?
Advocacy.
Charity.
Even just a bit of empathy.

Here's what I will give back today:

For every comment on this post, I will donate $1 to Ethiopian Orphan Relief or our local SLR voucher program (donations split 50/50 -- and I suppose I must set some limit!). For every comment sharing what you are doing or will do to fight poverty, I will donate $2.

Will you write a letter to your sponsored child? Email your state representative? Take some extra food to the food bank? Repeat this same challenge on your own blog? Get involved in something, let me know, and watch my gift grow! Game ends Friday at midnight PST. The real challenge never ends.

Come back soon to read the story of my Ethiopian schoolgirl friend. She says so much more than I ever could.


Links for further inspiration:

"Being Poor" by John Scalzi
"Working Poor Problem Getting Worse" (MSNBC)
The Girl Effect (start with this sweet video)
"I Repent" (Holy Experience blog)
Blog Action Day 2008

Ask and Ye Shall at Least Get Your Question On Record

I was almost proud of our Congress over the last week. They were told they had an emergency and given a crappy bill, and for once they did their job, going to work turning it into a better bill as fast as possible. They worked together like serious grownups—well, then they didn't, but I think that was just a lame cover-up. (Hey, I did say almost proud.)

The more important lesson is that making our wishes known makes a difference. Citizens went ballistic over the original bailout bill, thinking it was rewarding the crooks, and the House killed it. Citizens went nuts again this week after the market tanked, saying they need to do something, and they are getting it done.

Shaping our democracy is about so much more than November of every four years. Call your representatives, write letters, tell them why something is important to you, and they are likely to listen, especially if enough people do it. Whether it's because you convince them on the merits or they just want to do what their constituents want almost doesn't matter. Just make them get it done. Give them the political will by proving that it's our will.

This is what the ONE Campaign is all about. This is what Bread for the World is all about. This is what groups from Save Darfur to the one saving your local school help us do.

We didn't get a question about global poverty, hunger, genocide in Darfur, human rights and/or religious persecution, or the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the first debate. I understand that because the format did not allow for many questions (only 8) and some of them were diverted to the economy. But the next debate is a town hall format with questions from the audience and submitted over the Internet. If enough people demand that these questions are asked, they will be. Later we must demand that the answers are followed through on.

What would you ask if you had just one question?

Save the Economy, Save the World?

"It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger."

—Bono, at the Clinton Global Initiative summit, 9/24/08

Another strange and scary week in the world. It's hard not to be at least a little nervous about our nation's finances and the value of our investments and homes. It's hard not to think that $700 billion is an INSANE amount of money.

But you know what? When something is important to you, you can always find the money.

It's interesting to observe what we choose to use our money (or our credit/debt, actually) for, especially when compared to what people think we are or say they would like us to use it for. If you ask Americans how much of the federal budget goes to foreign aid and development, most people think it is one of the largest spending areas. In reality, although the U.S. pledged in 1992 to give .7 percent of gross national income to development, in 2005 the actual amount was .16 percent. Those decimals are correct—less than one percent.

In 2000 the UN set out the Millennium Development Goals for reducing global extreme poverty by making achievable gains in education, clean water, child mortality, fighting disease, and health care for women and children in particular. The goals are specific, and more importantly, they are achievable. If the world's rich nations raised their development funding by just 1 percent, we could cut extreme poverty and hunger in half by 2015.

We haven't done it.

I went to a Bread for the World workshop on this about seven years ago, when 2015 seemed long off. Now we are halfway there and many of the gains that have been made are being erased by the global food crisis (sudden unavailability of and exponential rises in prices of staple foods) and other factors. Now with our economy requiring a massive infusion of (imaginary?) cash, what will happen to the will to invest beyond our borders?

I know the world is complicated. I know changing spending habits is hard (just ask my own checkbook). I know priorities can sound good in the abstract but get trampled by the tyranny of the urgent.

But I also know that millions of people are suffering, thousands are dying every single day, and we can do something about it—if we want to. Because when something is important to you, you can always find the money.

So in the midst of all the economic nervousness and financial pinching and political drama and excessive pondering thereof of which I am as guilty as anyone, I am trying to keep perspective. I am trying to remember that I am blessed to be able to send a small-to-me, huge-to-her birthday gift to a girl in Ethiopia, even if I feel like I should cling to every ten dollars I can. I am trying to remember that a few dollars more for junk foods I don't really need is nothing comparing to a doubling or tripling in price of the already meager staple foods some live on. Yes, it could still get really bad here. But we still have it really, really good.

And as America turns to the standard bearers of our major political parties for some confidence, some direction, some vision for the future of our country, I will be listening to what they say about our world and hoping for Just ONE Question on global poverty in our increasingly interconnected world. I hope they both say yes, we'll find the money, because that's important to us.

Although it's easy to forget, that's important to me.

Save the economy? Yes. Then, please, let's do what we can to save the world.

Work Hard, Play Hard

Crazy days. This week is looking to be divided into the categories work hard (last few days) and socialize hard (next few days). I finished a project, am starting a new one, and have another lined up for after that with possibly another to follow. I would say "The Universe" received all my positive vibes and sent me the work I so desire, except that—here's a Secret for ya—I think that's a bunch of baloney since people who talk this way can't seem to decide whether "The Universe" is a person, place, or thing.

The universe also failed to provide my true desire, which was for my daughter to go back to sleep after she woke up at 5:35 a.m.

Today is the first preseason game for the Lions. We plan to watch via a series of tubes (Internet) before moving on to the important task of going to friends' house for dinner and to steal play with their Wii.

The other day Aaron put Anna in her Detroit Lions pajamas that were way too big for last year. I came downstairs to say goodnight and she showed me all the lions, pointing and whispering Raaar. Raaar. Her lions always whisper. Insert your own Detroit Kittens meow joke here.

As for Brett Favre, I can't believe he's a Jet now. Even more sad is that now the NFL Network will stop playing that footage of him working out in Mississippi. Where it's hot. Very, very hot. And sweaty . . . and tan. . . . Sorry, you were saying? Oh, right. Jets. Whatever.

Tomorrow we are going up to Portland for an Ethiopian adoption shindig organized around the presence of the lovely Paige, Chou of Habesha Child, and others who are gathering to work on the foundation they started called Ethiopian Orphan Relief. We never make it up to these kinds of gatherings, so this will be our first time meeting some of my online friends (and people I just stalk, ha) from Portland as well as the esteemed visitors. But some of our kids go way back, of course, to their Toukoul orphanage days. Doesn't that just blow your mind?

Please do hop over to the Ethiopian Orphan Relief site and see what they're working on. The funds they raise will help the various organizations in Ethiopia that they have partnered with provide the kids they serve with the things they need and complete projects such as playgrounds and water filtration. I'm eager to hear about it firsthand. And that means you're going to keep hearing about it!

Saturday we are slated for dinner with friends in late celebration of my birthday. I guess if I can't have a Wii, I get to pick the place. (This is our running joke now: "Look at that yacht! You can get me one of those, but if I can't have that, I want a Wii.") Hmm . . . in lieu of Wii, Chinese food or seafood?

Cloth Diapers Part 1: Environmental Reasons We Use Cloth Diapers

Or, Saving the World, One Butt-Wipe at a Time

As I mentioned yesterday, we try to do our part for the earth. Or at least make some half-hearted gestures to relieve a little guilt. We recycle, we combine driving errands, we use those crazy corkscrew lightbulbs even where people can see them, we carry around our tap water in reusable bottles (which now, as it turns out, might also be trying to kill us. Oh well.). And most importantly (because above almost all I'm cheap), we try not to blow large chunks of our budget on things we intend to throw away. Especially if they're not even fun, like, say, paintballs or water balloons, but are simply small receptacles for small-human waste . . . aka diapers.

Well la de frickin' da, you're probably thinking. You can feel good about your earthiness; I'm going to feel good about not sticking my hand into a toilet to scrape poop off of rubber pants while bleeding profusely from twelve diaper pin punctures.

Trust me, I feel good about that too--no pins or dunking or ugly rubber pants here. If cloth diapering were too hard, we might have given up. Too nasty, and we never would have started. But those days are gone. Sure, it's a little more work, but only in the sense that there's a little more laundry. As a parent you're dealing with laundry and poop all the time anyway, though. You really build up an immunity to both quite quickly, don't you?

So first of all, cloth diapering is not that hard, and in another post I'll talk more about my diapers and my routine so you can see what I mean. And second of all, for the bit more work it is, I definitely feel it's worth it in terms of money savings and earth savings. I do feel great about using cloth!

To keep the lecture factor down here, let me hit you with some bullet points (source links at end of post):

• One child in disposables can add 6000 diapers to landfills. Diapers are the 3rd largest consumer item in landfills.
• Diapers in landfills can put groundwater sources at risk of contamination from chemicals and waste. It is technically illegal to throw human waste into the garbage, but do you know anyone who dumps poop out of disposables? Washing reusable diapers results in the waste being treated in a safe wastewater treatment facility, just like your waste is.
• How long does it take diapers to decompose? No one knows--no one's lived long enough! Probably 250–500 years. If the pilgrims had used disposables, you could go to Colonial Williamsburg and visit those diapers.
• The plastic in one disposable diaper uses 1 cup of crude oil. Approximately 7 billion gallons of oil each year are required to feed our disposable-diaper habit today, almost four times as much oil as is estimated to be in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• Washing diapers at home about every three days uses about the same amount of water as flushing a regular-flow toilet five times a day. It would be less with high-efficiency washing machines.
• Disposables are full of toxic chemicals. Ever get those weird gel beads left behind on your babe's sensitive areas? Yeah, that stuff was banned from tampons due to toxic shock syndrome.
  

The short answer to "why do you use cloth diapers?" is: for the same reasons we don't use paper plates and cups every day. We instinctively know that buying dishes once and washing them makes more sense than continually making and buying paper and plastic dishes. (And no one's even bothered--I hope!--inventing paper clothes, that idea's so silly.)

The other big reason is cost, and I'll go into that next time. But really, even if it weren't cheaper . . . maybe these environmental reasons would still be enough. It's like driving a hybrid: sure, it might take you a while (although less all the time!) to "pay for it" in gas savings, but that's not the only consideration; you're also using less fuel, putting a lot less emissions into the air, and supporting energy innovation along the way--you're paying it forward even before it pays you back. Maybe things shouldn't be all about me and my break-even point. Maybe some things we can save are worth more than pennies.

Just my $.02.


SOURCES:
The Real Diaper Association facts page.
A Tale of Two Diapers
The Joy of Cloth Diapers
Cloth vs. Disposables: To Cloth or Not to Cloth?
Diaper Information and Research
Health Concerns
Why Use Cloth Diapers?

And for a different angle on the diaper industry, here's an interesting look at how making disposable diapers smaller changed the industry: Smaller: The Disposable Diaper and the Meaning of Progress.

Going Granola

I have been meaning to post for some time on some of our "crunchier" habits--what better day to finally do so than Earth Day?

I am far from a raging environmentalist, but I like green things as much as anyone. I also kind of like living on this earth, raising a healthy kid, and knowing she can enjoy that healthy life on a beautiful and healthy planet (maybe even live on what's currently the coast without having to build an underwater city). Oh, and I like to save money. FunnyWriterMommy and I joke that our life mottos are: (1) Above all else, I'm lazy; and (2) Second only to lazy, I'm cheap.

So I don't think it's because we're those dirty West Coast hippies now that I have occasionally found myself placing organic vegetables into my reusable fabric grocery bag while babywearing my cloth-diaper-clad toddler. Sometimes it's to avoid filling the landfills with packaging I didn't even want in the first place. Sometimes it's to keep the budget alive--organic baby food is occasionally cheaper on sale than regular anyway. But mostly, I think, it's the mommy thing.

Something happens to us when kids come into our lives. We worry about things we never would have cared about before, like whether our plastic bottles and saran wrap are poisoning us and how to avoid food hormones so our daughters don't start puberty before they start kindergarten. We see parking lots where there used to be fields and wonder where will be left for her kids to play.

Actually the biggest thing bothering me about how we're treating the environment right now is plastic. Plastic, plastic, everywhere! Not just for things we need but for so many unnecessary things like excessive packaging that we immediately throw away and so many things we make or treat as disposable. Our consumption is so recklessly out of control. And do you know what most plastic is made from? Petroleum! You know, the non-renewable resource which also happens to be our main source of energy (and global conflict)? We are using finite, increasingly expensive resource to make things we will throw away, and then we use more petroleum to transport these things across the country and around the world so we can pay to own them for a short period of time before we transport them to a big pile in the ground or ocean where they can sit for thousands of years. Oh yeah, I'm sure that system will work indefinitely.

And so in a few small ways we try to reduce our use and maybe do something a little bit healthier for our girl in the process:

• home-mashed rather than pre-jarred baby foods--saves packaging, food transportation costs, and money on my grocery bill. It's easy enough and way cheaper for me to cook a whole bag of frozen green beans or a bunch of sweet potatoes, throw them in the blender, and pour it into ice cube trays. One cube equals 2 tablespoons; 6 mix-n-match cubes a day and she's had her veggie servings. I will say it's harder to achieve good results with meat. And no matter who makes it, there is just nothing appetizing about pureed meat!
• avoid, hand wash, and don't microwave plastics--probably the BPA in plastics thing will never be definitively proven dangerous, but in case those Canadians are proven right, we try to minimize the risk and extend the life of our plastics anyway. I did buy one stainless steel Thermos sippy cup, since my plastic ones were leaky anyway, and it's nice. If we were starting from scratch maybe I'd avoid the plastics, I don't know. (What say ye?)
• fabric grocery bags--I keep a few tote bags in the car to grab when I go in the store. No danger of the bottom busting out, and our local store has started giving $.05 off per reusable bag used.
• organic milk--Anna's whole milk is the only thing I make an effort to buy organic, simply because of all the hormones. This is what our doctor said she does for her kid about the same age.
  
• the biggie and best for us . . . CLOTH DIAPERS!--It was disposables giving us fits last week. I love love love using cloth diapers, and I could go on and on about why and how. And in a follow-up post, I will!

How about you? Do make an extra effort to do certain things for your kids' health or to reduce your environmental impact? Anything "crunchy" that works for you?

Meanwhile, in the Real World

I have already confessed my addiction to presidential politics, even the horserace aspects. But I might have to reject and denounce my media consumption after the embarrassing waste of two hours which was last night’s “debate” on ABC.

Almost one hour, HALF THE DEBATE, spent on political “gotcha” baloney before they bothered to ask a question about an actual issue affected by government. I expected some “small town bitterness” talk since that was the current discussion. But I did not expect to hear the words, after several other questions about him, “Do you think Rev. Wright loves America as much as you do?” Ah, the former volunteered-for-Vietnam Marine versus United States Senator patriotism-off . . . is there really any good answer here? Except perhaps “flag pins!” because I kid you not, that was also asked.

I half expected Who would win in a fight: Rev. Wright or a Bosnian sniper?

By the time they got to issues, my brain was too numbed to focus on them. Not much loss since the economy discussion centered largely on the capital gains tax—a burning issue affecting few blue-collar factory workers but 99.5 percent of debate moderators—and they also brought out such blasts from the past as gun control and affirmative action which don’t even register on the lists of issues Democratic voters are saying are important right now. Health care is high on that list but was not mentioned at all. Neither were the housing crisis, Afghanistan, education, torture, trade, or the environment. But we covered the flag pin issue!

Meanwhile, in the real world:

Truckers are beginning to protest the cost of diesel fuel, and they could halt the movement of 70 percent of the nation’s goods if they chose to.

Top Bush advisors personally authorized the use of specific interrogation techniques considered by many to be torture, including waterboarding.

Your government now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. This may include collecting and analyzing all electronic communications into and out of a city.

The cost of basic food items are soaring, bringing fear, riots, and hunger. World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.

But did you hear about those things on the news? Probably not much. There isn’t enough airtime left after making sure we all know the Barack Obama bowled a 37 and had the audacity to request orange juice in a diner.

No, I’m not bitter. Not bitter at all.

So, the questions of the day: How do we make sure we are getting a balanced diet of news and information about issues? Do you trust the “mainstream media” to keep you informed? If not, what are you favorite “alternative” sources of national, world, political, cultural, and other news?

Back to the lighter side: There is always The Colbert Report, which is broadcasting from Pennsylvania this week. Michelle Obama (with whom I am in love) appeared this week and Hillary Clinton is appearing tonight. Who will get the coveted Colbert Bump?

Adoption Taxes and (Re)Funding It Forward

Happy tax filing day! Yeah, I know, that made no sense. At least we have Dave Barry for comic relief.

I got our taxes taken care of a few weeks ago and we already have our refunds. The federal was big but not as big as I'd hoped. We were able to claim the adoption tax credit, but because (a) we don't make much and (b) what I make is subject to self-employment tax, we could only get a portion of it back this year. Self-employed adopters take note: See, when you work for a company, your employer puts in 6 percent and you put in 6 percent toward Social Security, etc. When you are self-employed you put in both parts, 12 percent, and that's not refundable, no matter what credits you have. You can't get back what you didn't put in--OR what you put in for self-employment. And that was more than I thought. Gotta get me some of them business deductions.

We can continue claiming the adoption tax credit over five years, but the really sucky part is that barring a change in circumstances (like winning the lotto or, uh, getting a real job), over five years we still won't get it all back. I hate this because it feels like leaving money on the table--money intended to help those who otherwise couldn't afford it be able to adopt. Like, you know, us. Meanwhile people who make a lot of money will get the full credit back and head off to Disney World. Okay, maybe they won't, and it's their prerogative to visit Mickey if they want to. I really shouldn't complain since we are getting money back plus, you know, getting to live here for almost nothing and all. It just seems like the spirit of the credit isn't working out in application for us. Others who seem to need it less will get more cash back than we will, continuing and exacerbating that they may have cash on hand to adopt again and I can't imagine at this moment how we'll ever pull it off.

I probably would care less about this if I didn't think I hear a giant sucking sound coming from the area of our home's equity. Or is it the gas tank?

I guess I'm grateful we're getting I think $1500 in "stimulus" money in May. Except that I think the whole thing is kind of stupid--that we're basically adding to the debt to do it; that my parents who make gobs more than us will get almost as much and buy nothing that they wouldn't have otherwise bought if they wanted it; that senior citizens who normally don't file taxes had to go through the rigmarole of filing basically a blank tax return; and especially that it cost the IRS $42 MILLION to send us letters letting us know they'd be sending us something else. They couldn't come up with some other way to spread that information? Media or something? I mean, they don't send letters when the terror alert level goes up to orange--oh wait, that's stupid too.

Of course the check will help a lot of families, including ours. I guess we'll see if/how it affects the economy at large. I can't find the blog I read that started me thinking about it, but a few organizations are putting out the challenge: what if everyone who can afford it decided to pay it forward to charities and nonprofits and others in need instead of buying something else we don't need? Can you imagine the difference it could make to a rural after-school literacy program, an urban church with a crumbling building, a meals on wheels program struggling with gas prices? Let's stimulate those good works!

Can you pass on 10, 20, 50, or 100 percent of this extra money? We honestly need to pay down debts with most of our check, but I pledge right now (because I am so totally awesome at making financial decisions without my husband. Yeah!) that we will tithe 10 percent of our stimulus check to something worthwhile. Who's willing to join in?

World AIDS Day 2007

December 1—World AIDS Day.

I have pontificated before on the staggering scope of the global AIDS pandemic. On the millions of orphans. On how the scandalously inexpensive drugs which prevent mother-child transmission or keep mothers, fathers, doctors, farmers alive are simply not available to the poorest victims.

World Vision reports that 30 percent of Americans say they know little or nothing at all about the AIDS issue.

What have you learned about HIV since last December 1?

Yet 74 percent believe they individually “should play my part, however small” to help those affected by AIDS, and 69 percent of the respondents indicated they would be willing to donate to help children impacted by AIDS.

What have you done to help?

It’s easy to say I should, we should, they should. Yet often it’s surprisingly almost as easy to learn something new, to get a different perspective, to write a letter, to sponsor a child, to offer a prayer. I don’t do everything I feel I “should” do either. But I’m determined to do something.

Here are some places we can start learning and doing:

My favorite: World Vision’s interactive AIDS quiz which everyone should take.

World Vision's Countdown to World AIDS Day site also has some great videos and ways to get involved including humanitarian assistance programs such as caregiver kits and a highly regarded child sponsorship program.

Here's an informative Transracial Adoption Blog post.

Join the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History. Sign their “On the Record” campaign to urge all presidential candidates to explain their plans to combat global issues including AIDS, malaria, education, and clean water.

Give a gift to help or sponsor an HIV-positive Ethiopian child through AHOPE for Children. Or even adopt one—more and more families are doing so!

Ethiopian Coffee Trademarks

The Christian Science Monitor had an article today about the trademarking of Ethiopian coffees. Ethiopia is "the birthplace of coffee" and we can vouch for the fact that they have some really good brews. They make it strong, almost like espresso, and put lots of sugar in it. Aaron kept trying to prove his manhood by taking it straight. They just thought he was crazy. The article's slideshow shows the traditional way of brewing coffee over coals, which we were treated to a couple times.

I bought coffee beans in Addis, including some from Harar, where Anna is from, which is considered some of the best coffee in the world. The beans I bought for about $6 a pound (is that right? 27 birr per 1/2 kilo, I think) would be sold in Starbucks for $20 a pound or more. Ah, the power of the dollar, but also the power of Starbucks to buy low and sell high. But Starbucks took a lot of flack for trying to block Ethiopia from trademarking its coffee "brands" from these certain regions, and the coffee growers won. Hopefully this will be good for the Ethiopian economy.

Anyone have a good source for reasonably priced fair trade Ethiopian coffee? I would like to get some from time to time, especially decaf if I can find it. I can't spend a lot, though, since we go through quite a bit. (Okay, is that an ironic statement considering my stated concern for how little the coffee farmers make? Yeah, hypocrisy. It's the American way.) Maybe we can drink less coffee if it's better coffee. But our Addis stash is nearly depleted!

More on coffee another day. I could use some now.

An Ethiopian Birthday

Today was Yezeshewai's birthday--the girl I sponsor through Compassion. We were honored to meet her when we traveled to Ethiopia in July.

Yezeshewai is eleven. She lives with her mother and two sisters in a town just outside Addis Ababa, in one room of a house that belongs to someone else with furniture which mostly belongs to someone else. Her mother makes injera for someone else to sell.

Through our sponsorship Yezeshewai's school fees are paid and uniform bought. She receives health checkups and information and visits from a social worker. She attends Sunday school at the church which sponsors the project. She participates in extracurricular programs--she likes soccer. Yezeshewai writes me letters thanking me for the clothes or shoes they were able to buy with our Christmas and birthday gifts and telling me about their weather and what she has been learning.

She wants to be a pilot. We told her she must fly to Oregon and visit us.

As we pulled into the grounds of the church which sponsors this Compassion project, I saw Yezeshewai's face dart back behind the door of the tiny project office building. She came out to meet us with a small bunch of yellow and orange roses and a shyly murmured greeting and a quick, wispy hug. In the office we were photographed; she wears the same shy smile as in the first sponsorship photo of her I received.

We heard about the project, saw the church, handed out Jolly Ranchers, and took group photos. Guess which one's the visitor? Yezi's neighbors declared, "He looks like Michael Jordan!"

We drove to Yezeshewai's house, her head on Aaron's shoulder as she sat on his lap, and met her queenly mother, her soft older sister, her firecracker younger sister, and some of the most sparkling neighbor girls on earth. We received Ethiopian hospitality with coffee and popcorn and smiles, and we were shown the framed photo of ourselves sitting in a place of honor. We made awkward translated conversation until too soon we had to go. Yezeshewai now clung to us as if to soak us up.

I wonder how is she is today, this eleventh birthday day of hers. Does she even realize it is her birthday? I have heard birthdays are not so important in Ethiopia as here, and certainly she has no PalmPilot reminder or circled wall calendar square to draw attention to it. Did her family gather together today for a special meal or moment of honor? Did her sister wear her fancy dress? Perhaps they saved some Tootsie Rolls. Perhaps they are looking at their family photo--their only one, the one I took--and saying, as I am, Happy birthday, Yezeshewai. God keep you safe and strong.

World AIDS Orphan Day

May 7 is World AIDS Orphan Day.

Please read my previous post from World AIDS Day. I really don't know what else to say, except that since I wrote that, at least 948,000 children have lost a parent from a one hundred percent preventable disease. And not only should this not be happening, it does not have to be happening--but we have to be the ones to stop it.

Will you do something this year? Will I?

A Prayer for Responsibility for Children

I do have many thoughts which I hope to blog soon. Until then, think on this--and pray.

A Prayer for Responsibility for Children

We pray for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbook,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes",
who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfulls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
who spend their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery stores and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed, and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at,
and whose smiles can make us cry.

We pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who haven't ever seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried,
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on
and for those who don't get a second chance.

For those we smother...and for those who will grab
the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

Ina J. Hughs, Children 1990 (Children's Defense Fund, 1990)

Tonight they're gonna Timkat like it's 1999.

We have been officially waiting for referral (to be matched with our child) for 4 weeks. Are we 1/5 of the way there? It has been a fast four weeks but I have still been pretty easily distracted by anything baby-related that crosses my path or jumps into my mind. And it's not because I'm not busy!


Today was the final day of the Timkat celebration in Ethiopia. Timkat is a bigger celebration there than Christmas. It is what we'd call Epiphany, though in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition it has a strong emphasis on the Ark of the Covenant, which is said to be preserved in Ethiopia, and on Jesus's baptism. Priests dressed in rich robes carrying fantastic umbrellas process with replicas of fragments of the Law called Tabots from churches to a pool or other body of water. The Tabots are blessed and the crowds are sprinkled with water or sometimes dive into the pool as they renew their religious commitments.

You can read about Ethiopian festivals including Timket here:
http://www.myethiopianame.bravehost.com/myethiopianholiday.html

View some beautiful pictures here--you have to see the umbrellas, I tell you!
http://www.peace-on-earth.org/Ethiopia/1st.pdf
(also interesting descriptions here) http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewheavens/
http://www.exodus2006.com/Axumpic2.htm



By the way, if you're wondering how the Twelfth Day of Christmas can be on January 19 (and not a partridge in sight), remember that Ethiopia uses a different calendar than the Western world. The Orthodox Christmas was January 7. They have 13 months--a tourism slogan is "13 Months of Sunshine"--and the year 1999 started on our September 11, 2006. That's right, you can still celebrate Timkat like it's 1999!

All of this for . . . ?

"By April 15, 2006, the U.S. government had spent, according to congressional appropriations, $275 billion on the war in Iraq. According to the National Priorities Project, worldwide AIDS programs could have been completely funded for twenty-seven years with that amount of funding."

—Melissa Fay Greene, There Is No Me Without You

The cost of war will soon be $358 billion, and all that I have rendered unto Caesar has failed to provide access to lifesaving health care for dying children nor any of the 358 billion other things I'd rather have purchased with that money.

I'm irritated today because the government and I are so much alike: having so much, spending so quickly, yet always seeming to need more. When will I learn? When will it end?

Can’t bear the news in the evening
We’re going to bed and we're going to war
All of this for
Anyone’s guess . . .
If we forget anything
Heaven forbid someone would remind us . . .

Over the Rhine, "Remind Us"

Don't Give Up Africa

People of the world . . . don't give up Africa.

Don't give up, Africa.

Merry Christmas, Ethiopia.