January 31st, 2010 admin
Where did the month of January go? Is it fair to say, “One twelfth of 2010 is gone?” I started the year with the intent of sending as many queries for my hawk book to as many agents/publishers as I could. Having never done this before, I am surprised how much time it takes to research where to send my manuscript. Each agency has different submission guidelines and so careful study of their web sites is required. How did any of us do anything before the internet? Bottom line is: I have sent 16 queries out and tomorrow is Feb. 1. Tuesday I get to rehearse the whole story again at another elementary school in the neighborhood. They have asked for the slide show of the hawks for their Junior Master Garden Club group. Fun!
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January 22nd, 2010 admin
Dear Priscilla H,
Wednesday morning, a strong aftershock earthquake rocked Port-au-Prince, temporarily shutting down operations at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, as well as several other PIH sites outside the city. Since then additional smaller quakes continue to disrupt efforts on the ground.
Here’s a quick update on our work in Haiti despite these challenges.
PIH’s surgical teams continue to race against time to provide surgical care to earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince. Operating rooms at the central general hospital (HUEH) in Port-au-Prince are fully operational again after being temporarily evacuated on yesterday in response to the aftershock. PIH is still coordinating the relief efforts at HUEH and reports having 12 operating rooms opened 24 hours per day. Across the country, we have a total of 20 operating rooms up and running.
To date, PIH has sent 22 plane loads with 144 medical volunteers – orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgical nurses and other medical professionals – and several thousand pounds of medical supplies to support the more than 4,500 PIH health care providers already in Haiti.
Despite these accomplishments, our teams throughout the country continue to report a great need for additional medicines (antibiotics, anesthesia and narcotics), medical equipment (anesthesia machines and x-rays), medical supplies (IVs, tubing, irrigating saline), and water.
”There are very sick people and too little space and time,” reported PIH Women’s Health Coordinator Sarah Marsh from our hospital in St. Marc. She added that we will lose more patients to infection in the coming days if we don’t find additional medications, and explained that is only for lack of supplies – not patients – that the surgical team risks performing more operations. A volunteer orthopedist also working from St. Marc stressed that we will need full medical teams on site to manage dressings, skins grafts and other post operative care for another 6-8 weeks.
Our sites in the Central Plateau and the lower Artibonite are dealing with increasing numbers of patients and families seeking both medical treatment and refuge from devastated Port-au-Prince. Finding space and beds for post-operative care has become the next major challenge. In Cange, PIH’s 104-bed facility is overflowing: the church is serving as a triage center and the school as a recovery room. People are arriving in Cange at all hours of the day and night; many simply have nowhere to go.
“Our houses were crushed and our businesses destroyed. So we came to Cange,” said one man who arrived in a bus with 12 relatives, including his mother-in-law who was critically injured. In Belladaire, near the border with the Dominican Republic (DR), up to 1,000 people are camped out at PIH’s hospital in temporary shelter, searching for family members and medical treatment. We expect that people will continue to return to the countryside, having lost their family, livelihoods, and homes in the capital city, and meeting the needs of this displaced population will be a major task in PIH’s long-term rebuilding efforts.
Finally, recognizing that many of our own Haitian staff, who are working tirelessly to save the lives of others, have also lost their own families and friends, PIH is also developing a post-trauma mental health and social service program to serve both staff and patients.
The task ahead is a monumental one. And even as we heal wounds, mend broken bones, and provide basic necessities (food, water, shelter), its true magnitude grows before our eyes. But we know from 20-plus years of accompaniment the resiliency of the Haitian people. Through poverty, strife, hurricanes, disease and hunger, our Haitian friends and colleagues continue to amaze us. Their determination, spirit, and ability to overcome and survive is inspirational and humbling.
Partners In Health is determined to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to ensure that their struggle succeeds.
With your help, we know we will be able to do so.
Kenbe fem,
Ali Lutz
Haiti Program Coordinator
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January 6th, 2010 bnwilson6624
Day one we left Quito on our blue bus at 6:00 a.m.; fourteen birders, three guides, Paul, Steve and Juan plus our bus driver, Enrique. Soon the rush of Monday morning traffic thinned and we traveled the black top highway easily. Before long we left the highway to wind our way over the northwestern flank of the massive Pichincha Volcano to the Yanacoche Reserve.
First we traveled a cobblestone road, and then negotiated gravel switch backs to bring us to a parking spot complete with toilet facilities, picnic tables covered with a thatched roof and a spectacular view. Read the rest of this entry »
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December 4th, 2009 admin
After Christmas, I’ll post some stories about the birds in Ecuador. The most fascinating story is how four antpittas in the rain forest, very elusive birds – impossible to see, got their names. These birds are impossible to see most of the time. Come join me after Christmas.
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December 1st, 2009 admin
Four members of our family have just returned from a week in the Ecuador Andes.This giant antpitta was a major reason for going to Ecuador.
We met a conservation/reforestation project while there that is making a big difference. Saving the wildlife, birds and forest is their aim. Check it out. mindocloudforest.org.
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November 11th, 2009 admin
As the Festival of Faiths keynote speaker, Eboo Patel, author of Acts of Faith and founder of the Chicago-based national Interfaith Youth Core, spoke yesterday evening to a crowd of nearly 500 at Beth Shalom Synagogue. He called for a new generation of interfaith leadership. He outlined a time of choices in which we live. We can choose to live the reality of the pluralism in our communities…or we can choose the path of extremism. Patel described three things that interfaith leaders do: 1. Change the conversation…stand up against religious prejudice. 2 Launch projects…interfaith projects…raising the question: what does your faith’s theology inspire you to do? 3. Transform the environment…create a new ethos in which interfaith cooperation becomes the social norm. Patel urged us to build bridges instead of bigotry, barriers and bombs. It was an exciting and thought provoking evening for all.
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November 6th, 2009 admin
Heavens…it is November and I haven’t written on here since September. We had two book signings…my book: A Pioneer Love Story…in October. One was at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, TX. This was especially fun since my grandfather helped found the Museum in 1934. Also it is near the Palo Duro Canyon which is a wonderous bit of geography. If you haven’t explored it…I suggest you would love it.
The other book signing was in Arkansas City, KS…our hometown. Rod and I were both having high school reunions so it was a marvelous few days. The Ark City Arts Council is converting the Burford Theater (where we saw movies in high school) to an Art Center…and that is where we had the book signing.
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September 24th, 2009 admin
When we returned from NC and our two weeks of writing and watching waves there was a surprise waiting for me. The High Plains Public Radio Station in Garden City, KS wanted to buy fifty copies of A Pioneer Love Story. They offered it as one of their gifts for a certain amount (don’t know how much) donation to the station. I knew my cousin had given a copy of the book to the station in Amarillo, but hadn’t thought any more about it. There seem to be many people interested in true stories of pioneer days and the history of their land.
Last week another surprise. A member of a committee I’m on looked at me and exclaimed, “You’re an author, I don’t know any other authors. I have to buy your book.” We have two book signings scheduled in October…one in Canyon, TX at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum and one in Arkansas City, KS at the Burford Center for the Arts. I’ll report on those later.
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August 26th, 2009 admin
I think we all experience that with Ted Kennedy’s death we have passed from an era. It is hard to imagine this nation’s history without Kennedys at the forefront. I know the next generation is alive, well and active. That is different. The task now is to finish the work that Ted devoted his life to…and pass a respectable health bill…and name it the Edward Kennedy Health Bill.
It does seem strange to think of the hole that his passing is leaving in the Senate. Even though he has not been physically present for a time…he has been there in everyone’s imagination.
We move on to another era.
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August 24th, 2009 admin
After several days of watching…and photographing the crashing waves as from Hurricane Bill as it missed our east coast, Kaze and I settled back down to serious writing.
And then yesterday…another kind of wave crashed over us. The New York Times Sunday Magazine was so exciting that we went back to the grocery store and bought six more copies.
The whole magazine is based on a new book by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The magazine is about what women are facing worldwide…and what women are doing about that.
Kristoff and WuDunn start their article in the magazine with this statement: “The oppression of women worldwide is the human rights cause of our time. And their liberation could help solve many of the world’s problems, from poverty to child mortality to terriorism.”
It is an exciting publication…pointing us in the direction we
need to go.
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