AfricanKelli

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I don’t find being wasteful patriotic. So instead of burning this retired flag, I turned it into two tote bags for April birthday gifts. I think Betsy Ross would approve.

What in the world is public health? This says it better than I can!

A dozen of the things I’ll do today, thanks to public health advocacy, policy, marketing campaigns and oh, that expensive masters degree I’m still paying for:

1. Wear my seatbelt when I drive.
2. Wear sunscreen. Reapply when I go for a run or swim in the afternoon.
3. Eat five fruits and vegetables.
4. Drink healthy water from the tap.
5. Go meatless
6. Do my errands on foot.
7. Wash my hands after using the restroom. (This one didn’t take an MPH, just a mama. But imagine life pre-soap?)
8. Recycle my junk mail.
9. Get 30 minutes of exercise.
10. Wash my fruits and vegetables before I eat them.
11. Sew birthday gifts with recycled fabrics, reducing consumerism and ensuring my purchases are not supporting sweatshops.
12. Read my newspaper to keep up with what my Congresspeople are doing and aren’t doing to improve my community’s health. Pay attention.

Three cheers for the US Public Health Service and all the public health workers who’ve made such incredible advancements in our daily health behaviors!

~K

P.S. This is what I call unfortunate job security.

In continuation of this week’s theme, did you know that dirty water is one of the leading causes of death of children worldwide? If you’ve never looked at your faucet as a possession of luxury, let today be the day. The majority of people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water. In other words — if you took a shower this morning, drank water from the tap or watered your lawn, you are among the elite few who have clean, readily accessible water.

What can we do to make sure more folk have clean water?

Locally:
Arizona is predominantly desert. If it weren’t for Hayden’s canal system, SRP and the Hohokam Indians who once figured out how to reroute water toward Phoenix, our dusty city would still be tumbleweed. We are heavily dependent on water from afar. We should treat water in Phoenix as a precious commodity. A few simple ideas anyone can do regardless of their location:
1. Take quick showers. Minimize the amount of water you are wasting. Plus, if you’ve got houseplants or a garden you regularly water, consider sticking a bucket in the shower to gather what would otherwise be going down the drain.
2. Plant native species. If you live in Phoenix, consider swapping your water-chugging lawn for a natural beauty, like a saguaro.
3. Wash your car with a bucket, old school style. Don’t take your car through a water gobbling car wash. Just kidding. After several email from great readers, I find out this is the WRONG thing to do. Instead, I’m letting good old Indy go dirty. Car washes may do a better job of using less water than we can in our driveways.
4. Buy a great water bottle and use it. Refuse to buy bottled water. Bottled water sucks. The plastic we waste in bottled water is ridiculous and horrible for the earth. Reuse cups at your coffee shop and vow to never buy bottled water.

Nationally:
Support green legislation and activism. Get behind those in Congress who want to change how companies nationally use water and therefore how they are able to pollute our waterways.

Globally:
Give, even if it is a little bit, to global groups that are digging wells in the developing world and providing clean drinking water to those truly in need. I’ve been fortunate to help bring wells to rural villages in Central America and Africa. Thankfully, this not only improves the immediate health of the community members, but also the long-term health too. Suddenly those girls who were responsible for lugging the water too and from can enroll in school. By providing clean water, we can help plant the seeds of long-term change in the developing world.

In Cameroon, I got my water from a well. It took three days to do a load of laundry, by hand. I bathed rarely, standing in a bucket and pouring the cups over my head. I felt stupidly blessed when I returned home and took my first hot shower. The water poured over me and then I put on fresh, clean laundry that I hadn’t worked a bit to launder. I haven’t since taken water for granted. It is simple to me that we should be collectively working to provide clean drinking water to everyone in the world — not just the affluent. If solving the world’s woes is too daunting, do your part and make changes to conserve water in your own home.

~K

No secret I love a new Cooks Illustrated and having weekend time to cook up a storm for friends. This weekend: homemade hummus, buttermilk biscuits, chicken pot pie. Today, these food photos play well into my food and nutrition theme.

This week is national public health week in the United States; it is the perfect opportunity to discuss what we each can do to improve our community’s health. I studied public health because it in theory it provides a basic standard of health for everyone. It is a form of social justice. You should have clean drinking water, access to markets with healthy foods, a safe living environment, immunizations, access to health care, etc. We all should. We all can.

Chickpeas, spice, roasted garlic +

Today: Food
The US is a fat nation; ironically, the US is also a hungry nation. We have a growing issue of hunger that rarely gets any press because the much noisier issue of Type II diabetes and obesity gets the nutrition attention instead. Don’t get me wrong — both are serious concerns. What we don’t talk about is this: in the United States obese people (who are often dealing with Type II diabetes) are hungry because they are eating the cheap junk available to them. Obesity — only in America — is often a sign of poverty. In simple terms, the inexpensive foods are processed and high in calories. Fruit and veggies are expensive. Whole grains are more expensive than their cheap, sugary white counterparts. I lived on a food stamp diet for a week last year. My challenges of staying within a $19 budget for 21 meals is journaled here.
Check out what’s available at your local dollar store, or the ethnic grocery in the bad neighborhood in your community. Often the produce is pricey and bruised and the Cheetos flow like manna.
So, what can we do?

Tahini, lemon juice and olive oil =

Locally: Donate to your food bank. Sounds simple and easy, but it is a great way to get involved and play a part to the solution to ending hunger in your neighborhood. And don’t donate food. Give cash. Food banks can buy three times what the average consumer can through their networks. They need your money and your time. Arizonans, here is a great resource that could use your volunteer efforts.
Also, I try to keep a few $5 gift cards for local restaurants in my pocketbook. When I see someone homeless or otherwise obviously in need, there is nothing that lights up a face like the thought of a good meal. Community dinners seem to have a similar effect.

Roasted garlic hummus and spicy squash hummus. Healthy, inexpensive, easy to share with friends.

Nationally: Get involved with America’s Second Harvest. They are the national lobbying arm for the hungry in the US and they are doing some pretty darn amazing things. Also, vote. Know your representative’s issues on funding things like the farm bill — one of the most important pieces of legislation that influences every single American.

Chicken pot pie topped with buttermilk biscuits for a friend recovering from surgery. I used locally grown veggies and buttermilk from a local dairy.

Globally:
Eat locally and seasonally. One of the best ways to help the earth in regards to equitable distribution of food is to eat what is grown in your own backyard. Don’t eat strawberries/salmon/sashimi year-round without considering the carbon footprint of such nonsense. If Americans ate seasonally and locally, we’d revolutionize the amount of food available to folk internationally. It is a humanitarian and patriotic move and something I am working to achieve. It can often be difficult to find locally produced meat, for example. (And needless to say, no sushi in Phoenix is local. But this makes visiting Seattle that much more fun!) Thankfully, we are culturally moving toward providing greener options in food production and consumption. Phoenicians interested in becoming locavores, check this out!

These would be even better with a bit of Arizona acacia honey and a pat of butter from Dugan’s dairy.

~Kelli

My friends have started having wee-ones at a lapinian rate. Hip hop. In turn, I’m enjoying trying to keep up with the gifts and celebrations. Scratching my head last weekend and going through my stash of fabric, I realized I had four sweet Gocco squares Lynn sent me quite a while ago. I could certainly put these to use with a few onesies ($8, pack of five) and some embroidery thread. I went through my yarn basket and found one giant spool of kitchen cotton white and spent an additional $4 on two other skeins of Peaches and Cream. Washcloths and new onesies — both fairly easy to create and from my observations, both regularly needed.

Voila — one week later, a series of baby gifts that I dropped in the mail. Being a pseudo-auntie is such a delight. I love watching my friends with their children and seeing who we are becoming. One of my girlfriends somehow manages to balance a successful realty career and three small boys. And she doesn’t just muddle through. She loves it and to watch her with these kids — it is incredible. I ask her regularly after watching her praise/scold/teach one of boys, “How did you know how to do that?” And she just brushes it off and smiles, either too busy or too tired to explain. Amazing, this motherhood thing.

When I think of my dreams for the future, one is crystal clear: I know I’ll adopt a little girl from Africa. I can see myself in the orphanage. I’ve got a running list of names. I’ve been putting money away for years to prepare for the fees and flights and craziness of becoming an international adoptive parent. One day I’ll be making these onesies for my little girl. Just the thought gives me goosebumps.
There is something about having all these little ones in my life that makes me want to be better and make me more hopeful than ever.
~K

Looking for a great way to honor your mama/wife/girlfriend this Mother’s Day? Yep, it is right around the corner and this year you could give her a gift that makes her beam with pride. What a thoughtful child I’ve created! A custom-made apron is a super gift to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Does your mother love to cook? Perfect! And for those who look at kitchen-time as a chore, we all know that the easiest way to make a bummer job better is to look great doing it. Having a glass of wine nearby doesn’t hurt either.
Send me a digital photo, recipe, memory, color, Bible verse, poem or feeling you want included in your mother’s apron. In turn, I’ll create a unique, thoughtful gift that will be wrapped and ready to rock by May 10th. The cost is $50 including shipping. Email me if you are interested — international orders will be accepted for the next two weeks: africankelli at gmail dot com.

Honor thy mother — rock thy kitchen.
~Kelli

Which makes me happier:
A. Robert Mugabe, murderous dictactor of Zimbabwe, is on his way out after a record-breaking election? Or,
B. The fact I finally figured out the Anna Tunic?

From disaster — where this yoke is obviously sewn incorrectly…

to success!

Not really a tough call. It’s Mugabe in a round one KO. However, I am pretty happy to have this project conquered. {It’s a CAOK gift for Bekah, who I’m quite fond of. Thanks again to Stephanie for all of her help walking me through this pattern. Needless to say, I’ll be making several more of these this Spring.}
Now, back to that dictactor. Robert, call up your buddy Fidel. You two and ancient Mr. North Korea have a date with the Maker pretty soon and you boys better get your stories straight. As Ricky Ricardo would say, “You’ve got lots of ‘splainin’ to do!”

~K

More gratuitous shots of the tunic:

Or as they say in Spain, “Ganador, Ganador, Cena de Pollo.” Okay, they don’t say that in Spain, but it is what Ms. Melanie should be signing to herself today. The American mujer quien viva en la Espana rocked the March sew-along challenge. Love the toro fabric! Love the flowers. Love the spunk.

In all fairness, all the entries were really good. Selecting one isn’t easy. (When in doubt, go for the toro.) Ms. Melanie, look for a care package of domestic goodies headed your way soon. What to send a friend in Spain? Hmm…

Now Finny, what shall we sew next for this fabulous sewing adventure?

~K