Change Haiti Can Believe In

Last night while Abby was in class expanding her knowledge of Public Health, I headed off to UMass to further my own Health and Human Rights Education. Abby and I have both finished reading Pathologies of Power by Dr. Paul Farmer. The book highlights how turning health care into a purchasable commodity has eliminated the chance that the poor will have access to the best care, simply because they cannot afford it. Dr. Farmer argues for a preferential option for the poor - giving them the best care available - and suggests health care should be considered a basic human right.

Last night Paul Farmer was speaking alongside another Boston native, Matt Damon, on Haiti. Paul Farmer's organization Partners in Health does much work there. US Policy towards Haiti over the last 200 years has been negligent and at times outright destructive. We hold separate policies for Haitians and Cubans seeking refuge in the US. Haitians are arrested and sent back, while Cubans are allowed assylum. US government has blocked loans to Haiti which would create structure in education, health care and eliminate poverty and even gone as far as removing Haiti's democratically elected leader.

Afterwards, people mobbed Matt Damon with pictures and posters. (I admit it, my copy of Good Will Hunting was in my backpack with a Sharpie.) After I determined "The Bourne Identity" might be unreachable, I headed over to Dr. Farmer and asked him to autograph our copy of his book. He shouted at Matt, excited to have a few fans looking for his signature as well. Matt Damon laughed loudly and returned to the frenzied teens.


I told Dr. Farmer about my wife's passion for health and he told me he'd be watching for her to change the world. He and I both will.


If you'd like to learn more about Partners in Health or Haiti check out www.pih.org. If you like good books you could read Mountains beyond Mountains by Pulizter Prize winning author Tracy Kidder or the same book we read - Pathologies of Power by Dr. Farmer himself.

icicle tricicle

I think the icicles around here are deathly - worse than "A Christmas Story." They could not only poke your eye out, but they could poke your head out! Here's a pic of what has been hanging outside one of our windows in recent storms. We're the bottom-most window.

They all reform and resize, and we were in our apartment the first time one fell from the apartment above us, it shook the whole place! Sadly the one that formed the past couple days, which was even BIGGER, fell onto our 'porch' while no one was home. Now there are just gigantic ice chunks filling the wire window sill outside our window. Watch out, Maria! The entrance to the laundrymat is directly below these suckers!

let it snow...

A happy treat this weekend was snow! on Saturday we went on a short snowshoe adventure in nearby hills south of Boston with Alexis and Nico. We summitted Negot (or something) peak at 387 feet (WHEW!) and were rewarded with a view of Boston,

and then at the end, a hidden playland!! It even had a zipline. Massachusetts trails are great.

you don't see this every day.

Then we joined their friends Elfa and Gunar from Iceland for a yummy roast dinner and great conversation.

The fun continued with about a foot of snow that fell on Sunday! It makes the city so quiet and beautiful. We took a quick walk when it was really coming down.

This is our square. It was just snowing a little bit:)

twinkies turn 23

Happy birthday to my twin sister "twinkies" as our mom would say! 23 is the GOLDEN year, did you know that? Well, at least if you were born on the 23rd of a month as I was. But just because it was a golden year for me doesn't mean it can't be golden for you. So, may you have a very golden year. Did I mention that I have the best sisters in the world? Someday we will be able to ALL hangout for more than a week, that's my wish. OK I'm not supposed to wish things on other people's birthdays, but I hope you get what you wish for, and walk in the light of life. You will. Love and miss my sistas!

the earth is a satellite of the moon

I finally finished Paul Farmer's Pathologies of Power after a long time of reading it in chunks (not because it isn't good, but because I read books this way). The afterword begins with this powerful poem:

Apollo 2 cost more than Apollo 1
Apollo 1 cost plenty.

Apollo 3 cost more than Apollo 2
Apollo 2 cost more than Apollo 1
Apollo 1 cost plenty.

Apollo 4 cost more than Apollo 3
Apollo 3 cost more than Apollo 2
Apollo 2 cost more than Apollo 1
Apollo 1 cost plenty.

Apollo 8 cost a fortune, but no one minded
because the astronauts were Protestant
they read the Bible from the moon
astounding and delighting every Christian
and on their return Pope Paul VI gave them his blessing.

Apollo 9 cost more than all these put together
including Apollo 1 which cost plenty.

The great-grandparents of the people of Acahaulinca were less
hungry than the grandparents.
The great-grandparents died of hunger.
The grandparents of the people of Acahaulinca were less
hungry than the parents.
The grandparents died of hunger.
The parents of the people of Acahaulinca were less
hungry than the children of the people there.
The parents died of hunger.
The people of Acahaulinca are less hungry than the children
of the people there.
The children of the people of Acahaulinca, because of hunger,
are not born
they hunger to be born, only to die of hunger.
Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the moon.

- Leonel Rugama, Sandanista, 1949-70

snow day!

The snow finally made it! We woke up to mix of a dusting and a storm. Maybe 5 inches? We had a snow day, meaning we went out and enjoyed it:) This view was from our window.
We went to church this morning and enjoyed winter scenes from the adjacent Boston Common
Then headed to the North End (Italian neighborhood) for panini lunch and a great cannoli (pastry)!

coordinated little girl and her little smiling snowmanride on, Revere!

One last stop at the downtown movie theatre for a cold winter matinee date and back home to our little square.

home! Ready for the next one:)

lots o' free time?

well, this year has started out differently than expected. So did last semester when we moved here. I think life is just unexpected! Instead of finding a full-time job at BU for this semester as we had hoped, I was going to settle for 2 part-time jobs at BU in hopes that one would lead into full-time by summer. I started one on Monday working on a cancer prevention grant for Native Americans in the Northeast, and it's going to be a great learning experience. After waiting to hear details about the second job, I learned on Friday that they don't really have funds at the moment to hire me (this happened my senior year at UPS too. Funny). So I now have another 20 hours of 'free' time on my hands.

The plan is to find another PT job, or perhaps to do my practicum, which is about a 15 hr/week semester commitment that has to be done in order to graduate. Since it will be really difficult to do when I do end up working FT, maybe this is the perfect time! I just need wisdom on where to look since I haven't done much preparation and the deadline is approaching in February. Prayers appreciated!

In the meantime, my last free weekend before classes start is being spent very lazily. Tim's been closing a lot, so I have afternoon/evening time free. I broke out my keyboard (fun!), have been reading, doing homework (already), baking bread and will try fat pretzels today, watching LOR since he watched all three over New Years, cleaning, and researching job options. I look forward to catching up with some friends here whenever everyone is back into their schedules and can find time. And I might actually get my winter storm taste tonight and tomorrow as snow (at least 6"?) is coming overnight! I know that sounds horrible to some of you West Coasters. I guess I'm dying to use my snowshoes, even if I have to take the subway to the end to find a place to go!

This morning we took a stroll through Beacon Hill (John Kerry's neighborhood) to explore and hangout before Tim went to work. I think there must be a Winter Door Wreath rule in Boston:

These are just some I liked. Every door has one. I wonder if it's weird for these people to have their front doors posted on some random person's blog or living room wall!
Lots of vines on buildings, and famous picturesque streets.

see you on the other side of our snow!

new year, new underwear

Two new updates about Maria. First, her name isn't Maria we found out. It's something like Zifaroula or something, Roula for short (she wanted to show me on her mail). I think someone just started calling her Maria one day and she keeps it. She also accepts Mama.

She must have loved our fudge, eggnog cookie and gingerbread Christmas gift, because the next day she pulled out a wrapped gift from behind the laundry counter. "Open!" Wow, underwear for me and Tim. Nylons (size D) for me and Large button-up boxers for Tim! "Greek!" Maria kept saying over and over. Indeed, all the labels were in Greek. I wonder if she shared her stash from the closet with us. That's pretty intimate.

I guess today and tomorrow are some sort of famous Greek holiday, and she explained it as people going underwater in the cold and coming up again, following the Cross or something, pulled up by the Godfather? But this year the Godfather is a woman. This was all I understood, and I'm tempted to look it up online to find out what she is really talking about. Big holiday, though.

As for our holidays, I wish they were still going on, even if it involved cold water. I'm back in an office after 11 months off - working on a cancer research grant for a Native American project in the NE. Hopefully I'll also be starting another PT job researching state drug and alcohol policies. Both are at BUSPH and I hope one of them leads into full-time to pay for my classes! I should know by Friday, so say a prayer! It is bitter sweet to be back to work - I'm thankful for a job that is interesting and practical. Classes start on Monday, and Tim's back making killer lattes of course.

Thanks to my family for such a great, relaxing break as short as it was, and to Tim's family for loving us from a distance even though we couldn't come home this Christmas! We look forward to seeing each of you again soon!

Holidays with the Eyes

Happy 2009 everyone! A new year and a new season we all begin, even though it's just another day. We hope to embrace it and its joys and challenges with open arms, and God's help!

We had a great non-lonely Christmas after all (although we dearly missed familiar friends and family) since I met a couple our age at the Christmas Eve service. They moved here the same time we did and invited us to join them and another couple for Christmas dinner the next day. Surprise! New friends for Christmas. We had a great time with them. Mitch is getting his doctorate in Public Health at Harvard and Rebecca is a social worker at one of the hospitals. Their friends hail from Christchurch, New Zealand and shared great stories about hosting YWAM kids and staff families at their home. Small world! Andy made a killer roasted pumpkin salad with goat cheese, yum!

We did get to enjoy our own Christmas dinner the next day. Too bad we had it all to ourselves!

Tim and I also saw the Boston Pops annual holiday extravaganza, thanks to Uncle Steve. We were surprised to be 'seated' on the orchestra floor at a table with a menu and waiter taking our order for raspberry marscapone aeoli and beer! We snacked while enjoying a very creative "Twelve Days of Christmas" classical rendition that got a standing ovation. Kept our holiday spirit alive!

Now we are enjoying parts of my family and the beach in Naples, Florida. We've already seen so many dolphins! Not as much jumping yet, but lots of fins. We miss you Kate and Jesse, and Paul and Jaya, it wasn't long enough. (Paul, we miss your hairy, shirt-protruding bare chest!)

gorgeous sunsets

dolphins!
This was taken right before I got pulled over by the boat police....for speeding on our rented jet ski in a no wake zone! Sorry! I only saw the dolphins, not the signs. oops. I was trying to make a dolphin playland behind us, when waves weren't allowed:) he let me off though. I obviously looked like I didn't know what I was doing and wasn't from here.

and family

aw, so cute

Happy New Year!

Have a Merry Electronic Christmas

Holed up in our apartment with just a few bills left in our wallets we had to make some tough decisions. In order to most effectively spread the cheer we decided to transport some joy through the fiberoptic spider web that connects all of our lives. On Christmas day our friends and families woke up, rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and peaked in their inbox to find three gifts. Yes, we had sent a brightly colored PDF file, a yuletide soundbite and a youtube video flashing on the giant Google tree.

The project might seem a little self indulgent, but being able to share a little of our lives here in Boston made us feel connected across the distance. Even though we sent the message out, it somehow brought all of you near. So our little hole of an apartment was crowded with the memory and thought of all of you. If in our Christmas fervor and email fever we left someone out, please let us know and we will be happy to drop a surprise in your inbox. Merry Christmas. Let your hearts be light.