I don't know if anyone out there is reading this blog anymore - if not, it's probably my fault for not updating it on a regular basis. However, my life is starting to get a little more interesting and so I thought that I would rekindle my blogging flame and give it a go again.
"Interesting" defined: I am now in my second semester at BYU as a grad student studying public health, and have been accepted for an 8 week internship with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland starting the end of April. I am also going to be spending some time back home in South Africa this summer working on my graduate project assessing a hygiene promotion intervention in the townships surrounding Cape Town. So... a lot of travelling and new experiences coming up which will hopefully make for some interesting posts. We (Traci and I) are going to try our best to make most of my travelling a family experience, so we'll see how that works out. Last, but definitely not least, by any means: Traci and I are expecting a little boy in March. We are so excited and can't wait to welcome him into our family. His introduction is definitely going to be a whirlwind, as (like I just mentioned) we are going to try make these summer travels a family affair.
So let me know if you're out there, occasionally reading my entries. I promise that they will start to become more regular and a little more interesting.
Till next time...

From the LDS Newsroom...

SALT LAKE CITY 14 November 2008 Five months ago, the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a letter to members of the Church in California, encouraging them to join the millions of other Californians from many religious denominations, ethnic groups and political persuasions in a broad coalition to defend marriage as it has been defined for millennia.
During the election campaign, both sides of the argument on Proposition 8 had ample opportunities to express their viewpoint. The result was conclusively in favor of traditional marriage. More than 40 states in the United States have now voted to protect traditional marriage, either directly or through their elected representatives.
Today the First Presidency issued this statement about the democratic process:
Since the people of California voted to reaffirm the sanctity of traditional marriage between a man and a woman on November 4, 2008, places of worship have been targeted by opponents of Proposition 8 with demonstrations and, in some cases, vandalism. People of faith have been intimidated for simply exercising their democratic rights. These are not actions that are worthy of the democratic ideals of our nation. The end of a free and fair election should not be the beginning of a hostile response in America.
The Church is keenly aware of the differences of opinion on this difficult and sensitive matter. The reasons for this principled stand in defense of marriage have already been articulated elsewhere. However, some of what we have seen since Californians voted to pass Proposition 8 has been deeply disappointing.
Attacks on churches and intimidation of people of faith have no place in civil discourse over controversial issues. People of faith have a democratic right to express their views in the public square without fear of reprisal. Efforts to force citizens out of public discussion should be deplored by people of goodwill everywhere.
We call upon those who have honest disagreements on this issue to urge restraint upon the extreme actions of a few that are further polarizing our communities and urge them to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other.

Yes on Prop 8

Check out my new "Yes on Prop 8" widget.

If passed, California's proposition 8 would change the California constitution, adding a new section stating "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The LDS church hosted a meeting this past Wednesday evening encouraging members to be active in promoting this proposition. Check out excerpts from this broadcast here.

Ridiculous!

What a state this beautiful country is in! Just read this:

Zimbabwe's official inflation rate has escalated to 2.2m%, driving the cost of a loaf of bread to about one-third of a teacher's monthly salary. But independent economists swiftly dismissed the government's figure, saying the true rate was several times higher and rising faster than ever.


You can read the rest of the articel by clicking on the text.

Violence in South Africa

Those of you who have heard anything about the current feeling towards foreigners in South Africa might find the following extract from an email (05/27/08) interesting. The email is written by a sister of one of my friends living in South Africa. There family is from Ghana:

“Hey, good hearing from you ! yes crazy times in SA! ….gratefully most of the violence has stopped. the government took forever to respond now they are trying to have peace talks with those who were committing the barbaric acts. so we will see what happens. its crazy rondebosch (Cape Town suburb) is so quiet cos most of the black kids at uct (University of Cape Town) are foreign students and you can spot a foreign black from miles away, so iv just been chilling at home since its study week. but things are better.but last friday was hectic cos the ppl were beating up the somali taxi drivers in clarermont (Cape Town suburb), and looting somali owned shops in milnerton (Cape Town suburb) and mowbray (Cape Town suburb)! so there was a heavy police presence in rondebosch were they evacuated most of the somali refugees to the rondebosch police station for safety as well as in random church halls in rondebosch. these days if you are not hearing police sirens its helicopters in the air! but asylum seekers and economic migrants have lost faith in SA, thousands of mozambicans were evacuated by their governments back home. so many consulates are organising safe passage back home for their nationals. but genuine refugees cant just get up and leave cos there is a possibility of them facing persecution upon returning to their countries of origin. and since SA granted them asylum, the SA government has undertaken an international obligation to protect these people. its disgusting how the government looked on as people were burnt to death, houses looted and torched, individuals butchered with pangas (machetes)!! we experienced a genocide on our doorstep! and the sad thing is it started in april but government said it wasnt xenophobic attacks just a criminal gang, only when all hell broke loose in alexander did the media air it….otherwise cape town is same old same oldbut south africa as a nation is ashamed of the atrocities they experienced first hand. pity those in power took a while before they felt shame and started speakiing out - but thats life!!”

With regards to the LDS Church and their actions, she said:

“from the sounds of things all the "refugees" from church were not affected by the violence, bishops whose members were in the hard hit areas, went into the informal settlements to find their members, and members of the wards housed them and i think they are still housing them. I guess thats the priesthood in action”

SFG

So, we’ve decided to start growing our own food… well… at least some of it anyway. Jim and Debi (Traci’s parents) started a garden at the bottom of their yard and have invited us to join them, as we currently don’t have much space available at our place. We have decided to use half the garden space for a gardening technique that perhaps some of you have heard of, or even tried yourself: it’s called “square-foot gardening”.

We just finished building the 4-foot squared, six-inch deep planting boxes that the technique calls for, and mixing the prescribed blend of compost and vermiculite, and are going to begin planting tomorrow. The guy that came up with this idea has apparently been successfully doing it for years in many parts of the world. He markets his method as “no work, organic gardening” and claims that it yields 100% of a harvest in 20% of the space. So far, the prep work has been relatively simple and rewarding; hopefully the planting, maintenance and harvest will leave us in a similar mood - I have a feeling it will.

Have any of you tried this gardening technique or any others that you found to be successful?

Zimbabwe

I don’t know how many of you have been following the current situation in Zimbabwe? But if you have, you might find the following interesting. It’s an excerpt from an email dated 04/20/08 sent to my parents by some good family friends still living in Zimbabwe, (my parents were born and raised in Zim and we still have friends and family living there).
It reads:

“Not a good day for me, we have not had water for 5 days – taking water from the swimming pool to wash ourselves filling the toilets and general cleaning, using the irrigation tank for drinking and cooking – whoever thought it would come to this – We are just fed up with making plans a b and c – the deep freeze looking rather bare too.”
“I am sitting at my machine with unwashed hair with news on, wondering if that Chinese ship will arrive with its deadly cargo.”
“Just to give you a small indication how quickly the prices change – one week ago I bought a cabbage it cost $45 million (Zim Dollars) the one I bought this week cost $66 million (Zim Dollars). One cabbage = US$1.00 does not sound much when you put into US. Every month we put our domestic’s wages up but it is never enough.”

Tony and Avril are part of some of the wealthier residents of Harare (Zimbabwean capital city), and if they are experiencing the above, I can just imagine what the rest of the population, particularly those in rural areas and informal settlements are going through just to get the basics.
My parents left Zimbabwe in 1981 shortly after the nation gained its independence and the current president of 28 years Robert Mugabe came into power. Subsequently they’ve witnessed from across the South African border the slow decline in the nation’s political leadership and the general lack of quality of the lives of it’s citizens. Now, since the country’s elections on 03/29/08 and the resulting situation, they do not hold out much hope for it’s future

My dad recently related to me in an email:

“… I really think that it is such a mess that even if Mugabe is out it will take decades to repair the damage. The western world is not really interested so will not do anything, and SADC (South African Development Community) is useless with Mbeke saying there is no crisis in Zim – the truth is that they are all a bunch of incompetents in politics for self gain and power. So I do not see any real hope for Zim in the future. I read a report in the Cape Times (local newspaper) yesterday of what they thought it would take to recover Zim and it just looks too much of a task for any new leader there, nor do they have the great amounts of money required to rebuild the economy.”

“This all sounds negative, but I just do not think that Zim (has) a positive future and all that I read in the news papers and the commentaries I hear seem to support my feelings.”

In another emailed to my parents dated 04/07/08, Avril said:

“We … are anything but settled. Since the elections I don’t know what to do with myself, I just can’t concentrate on anything every hour on the hour I watch Sky or BBC news for a glimmer of hope, I feel like a robot, one day elated the next day down in the dumps. We love this country and don’t want to live anywhere else, oh well only time will tell.”

Something my Dad mentioned in his email to me really got me thinking: “The western world is not really interested so will not do anything”. That might not be entirely true, but I think the statement has merit. I feel that if a similar situation had taken place in a region of the world were the West had more of a financial interest, the general Western population would know a great deal more about what was going on. It seems so sad to me that basic human rights are being taken away from people in parts of the world that most westerners (or the rest of the world for that matter) have never even heard of, and consequently have never heard of the struggles of it's peoples. Hence the purpose of this post: There are real people like you and me living in parts of the world right now who are enduring the outcomes of incompetent political leaders decisions, or do not have access to clean water, adequate shelter, basic health care, etc. In some instances, there is probably nothing that we personally can do about it except be aware and raise awareness. I have found that sometimes it’s a little unsettling to learn about the horrid situations that people find themselves in due to no fault of their own; but the thought that if I was in that situation I would at least want people to be aware of me, vastly out-weighs those anxieties. Even though most of us do not have personal ties to these areas of the world, I strongly feel that it would be a worthwhile effort to educate ourselves and our families of their plights.

With regards to the state of affairs in Zimbabwe and many other regions of the world, like Avril said, “only time will tell”. Until then, maybe all we can do is take the advice of my Mom:

“That beautiful country has touched our lives in many ways. Let’s unite our thoughts and prayers for the people there.”

Let me know what you think...

P.S. Today is World Malaria Day - check out the link on the top left hand side of this blog.