AfricanKelli

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For all my whining about not being able to go to Africa this summer, a good karma boomerang came flying my way to deliver a ticket and itinerary for a seven-week, six-country, three-continent adventure. It is a long story, but let’s just say I am the incredibly fortunate beneficiary of a great act of kindness.

My summer of travel starts late-May in Nicaragua, where I’ll work on a water project for several weeks. Then I have a 12-hour stop back home to swap luggage and laundry and grab another set of plane tickets. I’ll be off to London, Johannesburg, Blantyre, possibly Harare and eventually Beira. (US-Nicaragua-US-UK-South Africa-Malawi-Zimbabwe-Mozambique-South Africa-UK-US.)

Yep, I’m shaking I am so happy with the news. That sweet friend of mine who is working in Zambia will be meeting me in Mozambique for the last week too. I’ve got lots of work to do in both Nicaragua and Mozambique, but there is a fair amount of vacation mixed in too. I’ll be staying at a tea plantation in Malawi and hopefully seeing Victoria Falls. I’ll be working at the orphanage, walking the villages in Beira, working with an epidemiologist on the effectiveness of our malaria net projects, trying not to lose my cool at the sight of the hospital decay, etc.

I’ll get to check in and spend a good chunk of time with my friends Ken and Debby, who live in Mozambique on a cattle ranch. I crave time with this pair and needless to say, they live where the streets have no name. They don’t have electricity and laugh at the attempts I’ve made to get them to set up an email account in the city. There is no mail service in Mozambique. If it is truly an emergency, Ken can climb a hill, stand on a water tower and lean a certain direction to get cell reception. Frankly, booking a flight is about the most efficient way of catching up with the pair.

Debby can drink almost anyone under the table and Ken’s stories have this crazy former South-African military tint that make you wonder how he’s survived this long. I will be a wild time. And I know I’m a bit nuts to be so thrilled at the thought of another summer spent on the road, but the alternative is commuting 50 miles a day in the Phoenix heat.

My love affair with Africa continues…
~K

p.s. I know these Portland flower photos have nothing to do with Africa, but you can only post the cliche “kelli and the African kid” photo so many times before you make yourself sick.

Tonight I added the Valley Interfaith Project rally at Pilgrim Rest Church in downtown Phoenix. Crammed in the pews with 1,000 other folk of all faiths, we listened as religious and political leaders addressed Arizona’s immigration policy. Mayor Gordon spoke to Sheriff Joe’s illegal behavior. Two community leaders gave a pretty funny presentation about Russell Pearce — awarded human rights enemy #1 in the state. (He wants to prevent citizenship for children born to parents who are not citizens. The dude needs a hug. And a girlfriend. He’s obviously pretty miserable.) We stood, cheered, prayed and rallied in unison: the faith community of Phoenix wants improved immigration policies and human rights for all.
It was by far the coolest community event I’ve ever attended. I can’t wait to become more involved with this group.
Even though my family has moved, Phoenix really is my hood. I talk about moving away, but I do love it here, as a member of this big, crazy stuccoed city (even if we have too many golf courses and shopping malls.)

~K

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

I wish for lots of opportunities to feed family and friends.

It is a bit of a selfish wish, I know, but I find such joy in cooking for others. I made this granola again as a “boy” gift for Christmas. This time around, I added lots of almonds, bran cereal, peanuts, honey, cardamom and vanilla protein powder. It smelled heavenly toasting away before I spooned it into more recycled containers. I delivered the last of these today. {It is a darn easy recipe that you can easily modify if you are looking for another gift or snack idea.}

On the same note, I am a volunteer for a local food bank organization. If you have the chance or the ability to give to your local food bank, they could really use your help. Food banks are currently experiencing unheard of shortages because of the subprime mess and waining economy. More people who used to be able to feed themselves and their children (and potentially their elderly parents) are now standing in food lines and going to the food banks for emergency rations. {The majority of people fed by food banks in the US? Children and the elderly. These aren’t people “milking” the system.} Food banks nationally are empty and in true need of help. Another thing — food banks can buy canned goods much, much cheaper than the average consumer can. Typically they can buy three times the amount of food a consumer can for the same amount — and they can use the cash to get the supplies they really need.

So, feeding those we love — including our neighbors — is exceptionally important to me this Christmas. Living simply, so others can simply live.

~K

Seems like the majority of us have issues with portion control and most don’t like to exercise. Thank you so much for your comments yesterday! I loved reading each perspective. It is comforting to know there are so many others who put a good bit of their daily thought into their well-being. It also sounds like we collectively need a huge dose of motivation and a giant kick in the ass.

I’ll certainly keep posting about Body for Life and my new little Everest. If anyone is interested in doing this together, Monday is my official day 1 of the 12 week cycle. I’ve already got a body-fat analysis appointment set at the gym. Oy vey. How’s that for a great Monday morning?

On to more positive health news — I ran across this in the NYT this morning (while sipping my protein shake):

“Sharp Drop in Deaths from Measles Reported”
Improved routine immunization programs and huge national drives to give children a second dose of the inexpensive measles vaccine have contributed to a stunning 91% reduction in measles mortality across Africa, with deaths plunging to 36,000 last year from 396,000 in 2000, the World Health Organization and UNICEF reported. Globally in that period, measles deaths fell 68% to 242,000.

Woo hoo! I’ll take positive global health news anyway I can take it. Now, the fact the callous editors of the NYT placed this little gem of a news brief across from a giant Harry Winston diamond add that read, “Who needs moderation?” is another story. Silver lining: hopefully the poor Africans who dug up that giant diamond got their measles vaccines and are alive and kicking today!

Cheers,
Kelli

I was reading my public health journal when I came across a poignant interview with Laurie Garrett — who recently won a Pulitzer for her book. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of her or of the book until I read this interview. I was refreshingly impressed by the what she had to say, including her answer to the interviewer’s question of “do you think global public health efforts are winning?”

[What a dumb question! 100 million people are expected to be infected with HIV by 2010. We are certainly not winning anything other than job security.]

Regardless, her thoughtful response:

“Winning, to my mind, has on obvious goal post — life expectancy. And by that measure, we have a paradox. Since 1948 when the World Health Organization was created, average life expectancy for the people of planet Earth has risen by 40 percent. This has overwhelmingly been due to a combination of public health infrastructural interventions and rising personal wealth and education.
But, if you break that 40% down, remember that is an average, something very disturbing pops up. The long-lived societies are getting more long-lived, while the short-lived societies are either failing to improve, or thanks to wars and HIV, are going backward. So, today the life expectancy gap is the widest in human history with a disparity of five full decades. What this means is that a very long-lived society like Japan now offers, as a matter of statistical probability, a child born in 2007 the probability of living long enough to know his/her great-grandchildren. In contrast, very short-lived societies like Sierra Leone, Nepal or Zimbabwe now offer that same child only a remote possibility to live long enough to see his/her children reach adulthood. That is a crime.
The ‘win’ as far as I am concerned, would be closing that gap.”

Bravo! This sums up exactly why I love working in international public health.

~K

A few more of my favorite photos:
{Tomorrow: In Stitches September and back to domestic/triathlon/book chatter.}

Has to be one of the cutest kids I’ve ever met. She was waiting for surgery at the Entre Rios hospital.

One of the happiest participants in our housing project; a resident of El Puente, Bolivia.

The two of us in her new kitchen. I am not a giant in the United States, but in Bolivia I have a feeling most people look at me like Godzilla just arrived. Yes, I am slouching.

A pretty moon, blue sky, happy llamas.

This photo was taken in Yunchara, Bolivia — at 13,000 feet. So high I had to stop to catch my breath after walking about 200 yards. Fruit and vegetables don’t grow here. The diet is entirely animal-based.

Our Bolivian partner told us that many indigenous people from Ururo and Potosi are gathered up and brought to the bigger cities to beg by “patrons.” Then they are taken home after a few months and they receive a percentage of what they’ve earned. It made my heart hurt for those I saw begging. Many women sit in the streets wearing traditional clothing and playing flutes with tiny, filthy children at their feet. You can tell this isn’t the way they want to earn a living, but circumstance has brought them to this street corner. I regularly gave food. (Take that patron!)

Candles at the Virgen de Chaguaya cathedral.

The biggest Jesus statue in the world — Jesus of the Concordia, Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Phew. Done traveling internationally for a while. Actually, I have to send my passport out tomorrow for additional pages. So, I’m stuck for at least 8 weeks.
~K

A few photos of the housing project we are beginning with the Guarani people of Bolivia. They are one more than 30 indigenous groups in this South American country. Their story is much like that of indigenous people internationally; they have been marginalized, forced to work in mines, had their children taken from them and ultimately placed on a reservation so they can preserve their way of life.

I’m not sure they remember their way of life. The folks I visited with are struggling to meet their basic needs, including housing, education and health care. We hope to help with the housing portion. These families will participate in our improved housing project, bringing safe homes to the remote community of Timboy, in the Department of Tarija.