Malnutrition in CAR

Please watch this video to understand how the nutrition garden program is helping to get at the structural causes of malnutrition in CAR. We are aiming to help increase variety in the diet.

Ultra-marathons equal ultra-blisters

I have a habit of setting goals. I am not alone in this although some of my goals may put me in a category unto myself. Before I reached the age of twenty-five I wanted to roast a turkey. I thought this would somehow prove my leap into adulthood and domesticity. I count the goal as having been achieved even though, technically, I roasted a chicken instead of a turkey. I figure one is just a smaller version of the other. The grand occasion was the celebration of Canadian Thanksgiving while living in Florida. There weren't a whole lot of Canadians to celebrate with so a chicken was all that was called for.

My other goals have included cooking a roast beef, walking a marathon and getting a tattoo, before turning thirty-five. You can laugh, it's okay. I have roasted the beef and now walked/ran a marathon. Now all that is left is that tattoo....

Yesterday Darren and I walked an ultra-marathon in eight hours and fifty-three minutes. We ran across the 42 km marathon mark in amazement that we could actually run, and then continued on to finish the 56 km course, running our way across the finish line (thank God it was a downhill). I am thankful that Darren decided to join me on this goal setting adventure as it would have been boring without him and it is always fun achieving goals with him. He has been my sous-chef for my domestic milestones and my athletics partner for the crazy "what was I thinking" adventures. While he may hold my hand during the tattoo event I dare say he won't be getting his own. Don't worry, the tattoo will not be the normal head-turning variety. You may not even notice it is there it will be so small. I have another couple of years before my personal deadline passes and I won't be upset if I decide against it in the end. I am a pain wimp after all and I may not be able to decide on the what, where and when. But it is fun to think about.

As for my other goals in life, finishing my Master's is certainly one of them and blog writing is difficult to fit into the schedule, unless of course you want to read my thesis, chapter by chapter....I didn't think so.

Falling on cows

I wrote this last week but didn't get a chance to post it:

It turns out that when most people fall they put their palms out flat as they try and break their fall. This usually results in a clean break across the wrist. If you are smart, you don't put your hands out at all, rather you aim to fall on to the side of your body not breaking anything. If you are my dad, you fall from a twelve foot ladder while picking apples, not by any fault of his own (except for the fact that he picking apples in a field on a ladder with cows). The cows, in their eagerness to have Dad's apples, knocked over his ladder which caused him to land on a cow, bounce to the ground, fracturing his wrist with the palm side up leading to surgery, pins and metal plates. My Dad doesn't do well with hospitals and doctors so he is likely harassing nurses while he overnights in the hospital. Fortunatley his wife is also a nurse so he has plenty of at-home care if she can chain him inside while there are more apples to pick, juice to be made and things to preserve. On the up side, Dad was quite talkative last night owing to the shock so we had a great conversation that he probably doesn't remember.

I had a close encounter with the four-wheeled kind on my way home from work yesterday. I was side swiped by a car doing a sleepy California stop at the intersection between the Galloping Goose trail and a busy downtown cross-street. The car had the stop sign and I had the right of way but he was too 'something' to see me. He was visibly shaken, pulled over to see if I was alright, which I was, and I was too sympathetic to his shakeness to tell him what I thought of his driving skills. I was just glad to be upright and owing to his shocked look I don't imagine he will make the same mistake while stopped at the Goose trail anytime soon.

So what can I say? Be careful picking apples around cows, don't challenge a car while on a bike as the cars usually win and keep your fork, there's pie for dessert.

Got hacked

I am sorry to say that my Google account was hacked into last night and a promotional-type spam sent to everyone on my address list. If you received a spamish message from my account I sincerely apologize. I have changed my password and hope that this solves the issue. Darren figures that the hacker used names from my blog that appear frequently and that this is how they got my password. So I have a different password, a really, really out of the normal secret one. So don't even try to guess it....

Human Security Gateway - Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Political and Profit Interests

Human Security Gateway - Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Political and Profit Interests

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Human Security Gateway - Contention on the Value of

Human Security Gateway - Contention on the Value of "Human Security"

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Joe

Just wanted to write and let you all know that after two attempts "Joe" did not pass his exam. He is depressed and anxious about what this means for his future. We realize that he likely did not pass, truly, as all other avenues for failure were dealt with. We are left wondering what do to help Joe. He can try again next summer and if he studies hard this year and acquires a tutor, he may succeed. But the reality is that the odds are against him. However, I have never paid much attention to the odds and in Joe's case a little encouragement may go a long way.

As for me, I appreciate my high school education more than ever before and even more so my chance to attend University. We in Canada, as in many other places, are spoiled by the educational opportunities afforded to us. I hope to never hear a complaint about education in Canada from my own lips given the challenges to simply complete primary school with the ability to read in places like CAR.