Poop is No Laughing Matter, Okay It Is

This UNICEF video uses humor to make the point that sanitation issues can be funny when kids talk about it but there are real human costs that aren't so funny. I thought I would share the first part of that post here and urge you to read it all on the Woodrow Wilson Center's New Security Beat. My primary point was the hidden cost of no or poor sanitation at schools: girls often drop out or stay home once they reach puberty. The school in Berga only goes to 4th grade. Part of expanding the school to serve kids up to 8th grade will be the necessity to upgrade its sanitation facilities as well.

I was actually responding to a post by the New York Times' Andy Revkin, the most important journalist with an environmental beat at a major newspaper in the United States (he might be the only one too!).

A recent post on Andy Revkin’s Dot Earth blog—entitled “Poop is Funny, But It’s Fatal”—highlights a UNICEF World Water Day video about the necessity of destigmatizing human waste. Bacterial infections caused by contact with human waste kill 1.5 million people every year—most of them children. The stakes are high. The film uses kids and humor—two good ingredients for education through entertainment—to explain the importance of sanitation. The film emphasizes that although we may not like talking about feces, urine, toilets, and the like, we need to because the fact that 2.6 billion of us lack adequate sanitation is a fundamental threat to human health, productivity, and dignity. It’s a short film—YouTube friendly—and these are complex links, but they are key to understanding the need to invest in available technologies. The UNICEF video rightly emphasizes the additional costs of lack of sanitation, noting that girls often won’t attend school if there isn’t adequate sanitation...

And Now 21!

When you weigh a lot, your weight can change quickly, at least by the standards of you folks occupying the skinnier world. So I am pleased to report that I have finally broken through the 20 pound threshold that has been so elusive.

Intense exercise is a wonderful thing and of course key to this whole endeavor. Yesterday was one of those days, pushing up the roundball in a basketball run that I joined in 1992. Organized at first as graduate students from the University of Maryland Government and Politics Department, it has been weekly for 16 years now. Only a few faces left from those days and we have moved inside to kinder wooden floors as we got older - gone are the days of mid-day sun outside on the asphalt.

But the upshot is a push and a magic 21 popping up on the scale this morning (after some subtraction of course). Facing happy hour with former students of mine tonight so it may be short-lived but the hope is we are off the plateau!

Note of explanation on the Duke University logo - as a alumnus, one thinks Duke when one talks basketball. Just the order of things.

Back to 19

That would be pounds lost, not years old. I am finally back to the lowest total pounds lost after having a highly caloric (Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale is actually outstanding) vacation and follow-up weekend in Ohio to celebrate my folks 45th wedding anniversary. One cake wasn't enough, a neighbor friend made a second. And despite BOTH cakes having typos (ironic given Mom's English teacher background), they were quite tasty. Perhaps a little too tasty. (I should hasten to add, it was the baker and the neighbor who had the spelling difficulty, not me mum.)

So I am back to 19. Need to make a push. Waiting for that push. I am sure it is coming. Any time now. Do hope it will come. Really need to make that big jump. Also really need to add a donate here page with a Paypal account so I can really start sending this thing out to folks. The new addition to the school in Berga is just not going to get built at this pace.

Conservation: It is about People Too

"Did you know that the National Audubon Society is for people as well as birds and wildlife? I didn't. Then one day last August I received an email about an Audubon-sponsored trip to Ethiopia." So starts a piece written by one of my compatriots on the Berga site visit last November.

Ruth Ann Wiesenthal-Gold, a volunteer with Audubon in Florida, captures the perspective of the conservationist coming to better understand Ethiopia's overlapping economic, environmental, social, and political challenges by seeing them first-hand. In her piece for Big Cat Rescue, she weaves in first person narrative with statistics about Ethiopia's challenging conditions, highlighting particularly the tough roles of women and girls. Ruth Ann has been a great supporter of my Losing Pounds for Berga effort, loyally reading this points and sending notes of encouragement. It is great she is sharing her insights from having visited the Berga Wetland site with other U.S.-based conservationists who as she says, need to come to understand as she did that people and their development conditions are a key part of their conservation organization's work.

Blueberry Pancakes and All That

So a camping vacation should be a diet-friendly endeavor, yes? Lots of hiking, simple cooking, and an early bedtime to avoid those late night snacks.

Such were my hopes for our family vacation where we had six straight nights in Acadia National Park on Maine's rugged coast. Cadillac Mountain on Mt. Desert Island provides beautiful vistas when there are no clouds. Clouds being the operative word and what comes with them, rain being the true key.

So I am determined to learn how much it rained while we were in Maine for by any measure short of South Asian monsoon totals, it was a LOT! While the kids being half Danish helped - you just suit'em up in rain clothes and send them outside - we still ended up eating out much more than planned. Don't get me wrong, being stuck with Bar Harbor's lobster heavy restaurant menu isn't exactly hardship duty, it doesn't necessarily facilitate weight loss.

And the blueberries. The ones that go in the pancakes. We made the pilgrimage to Jordan's in Bar Harbor, the best blueberry pancakes I've ever had (the batter is in 3 gallon plastic drums that the cook bear hugs). And if that wasn't enough, there were ample blueberries just down at the end of our campsite. So when the rain did clear and we cooked in camp, it was a short commute to drop in the small but sweet blue nuggets.

This side alley (or more precisely) side trail digression is all prelude to saying that I gained back 3 lbs over the two weeks we were in Maine and visiting friends in Fairfield and Newport. I've lost 1/2 a pound in the first day back but still some making up to do.