bright eyes + blue eyes

An Excellent Product That Money Can Buy

Check out this bruiser of a water delivery truck.

It’s owned by a Benedictine mission in the district.  The mission supplies most of the fresh water for the area, though generally through pipelines.  However, if you so desire, you can pay the brothers to come and deliver water direct to your door.  Then this leaky beast pulls up, leaving a wet trail in its wake. 

If you’re German, and you see this truck, you’ll immediately double over with laughter, because the truck is emblazoned with this motto:

“Die Milch macht’s” was the German Dairy Council’s slogan from way back when.  I’d translate it “The milk can [get things done]”… sort of like an early fluid foreshadowing of Yes, we can!

For us, it’d be kind of like seeing a Milk – it does a body good! truck driving around in the year 2030 in a most unlikely locale.

Meanwhile, English-speakers will give a little chuckle/snort when they notice the marketing line for the bottled water they sell commercially: “Ndanda Springs: An Excellent Product That Money Can Buy.”

StoryCorps

It’s no surprise to find me talking about something I heard on the radio.  I pretty much love all things public radio.  Living outside of America has only encouraged my enthusiasm about NPR and American Public Media.  Listening to stories from an American perspective told by voices with American accents feels like a lifeline for me at times.

One series that I really like is StoryCorps.  The idea is that individuals go into professional recording booths and interview their family and/or friends.  The interviews have a uniquely authentic and tender tone.  I suppose that’s because they are being conducted by folks who know each other very well.  StoryCorps provides some guidance for structuring the interviews, and they have lists of questions that the interviewer can use to shape and focus the interview.  All of the recorded interviews are archived at the Library of Congress, and some are edited and aired on NPR. 

You should really listen to some StoryCorps stories sometime.  They’re short. Most podcast episodes are less than ten minutes, but they are such poignant, condensed excerpts from the average people’s lives.  The stories can be sweet, sad, funny, etc. – the whole range of the human experience. Probably a quarter of the interviews I’ve heard have brought tears to my eyes.

StoryCorps also has an interesting project called the Memory Loss Initiative, which aims to record stories of people who’s memories are fading due to Alzheimer’s or other problems. Scroll down on the Memory Loss Initiative page to hear some touching moments from Ken Morganstern’s interview with his daughters.

I’d love to do a StoryCorps interview one day. It will be such a tough decision to decide who to interview, though!

Restaurant Food in Rural Tanzania

This is typical of “restaurant” food in Mupudi. The food is usually fairly tasty and well-seasoned, but it’s not really much to write home about. (Except that’s what I am doing right now…)  It’s cheap, though. A plate like this costs $1 for a mound of rice, vegetable sauce, beans, greens, and a piece of chicken. 

The service and ambiance are quite variable. Restaurants outside of the big cities (Dar, Arusha, Stone Town, etc.) are almost always outdoors.  Sometimes you feel like you’re eating in the middle of a four square court.  Other times, you have a nice shady spot under a grass roof.  Sometimes you’ll wait two hours for your food, and they’ll bring rehydrated dried fish even though you ordered chicken.  Then another time, a friendly owner will bring you piping hot food within minutes of ordering.

All in all, eating out in rural Tanzania can range from fine to annoying to refreshingly pleasant.  It just depends.

Or, they say in Swahili: Inategemea - which to me is a word that just sounds right, like onomatopoeia for "it depends".

Hospital Tour

A few months ago we toured the district hospital in Masasi. As with the educational system, I don’t have many polished, processed observations about health care in Tanzania.  In general, I’d say that the situation is pretty sad and shocking compared to American and European medical care. As for commentary about the state of Tanzanian medicine or hope for the future, I don’t have much to say at this point.  I’ll let you know if my thoughts on the matter ever crystallize or if I find an inspiring analyst or visionary. 

In the meantime, I’ll show you what things are like in a local hospital in southern Tanzania. Basic medical care can be accessed at dispensaries and small clinics in Masasi and the surrounding villages.  Masasi is the locus of government-provided health services in the district.  So people come here if they need more specialized care, hospitalization, or surgery.  The hospital campus is made up of two dozen buildings connected by dogtrots.  The hospital grounds are kept clean, and a few flowers make for a “cheery” atmosphere.

There are separate general medicine wards for men and women, plus areas devoted to obstetrics, pediatrics, infectious diseases, tuberculosis, and dentistry. There are several weekly clinics, but I’m not sure exactly what their focus is.

This is the lab.

I must admit that the pediatric ward really gets to me.  The concept of Child Life Services is pretty far removed from this setting.

What words are there to say when you consider that is the diarrhea treatment equipment utilized to care for fragile little bodies?

There is a little cafeteria on site, but food is generally not provided to patients as part of the hospitalization cost.  So families bring meals to their hospitalized family members.

Ironic

Isn’t this tooo ironic? 

(I really wish I’d known how to use macro and/or manual focus when I took this picture.) 

In other ironic news: All of Masasi’s electricity dreams are coming true, and we’re hooked up to the power generated from offshore natural gas.  Since mid-March, we’ve had more or less constant power.  Since then, we’ve had only short little 30-minute cuts and one 24-hour-long unexplained outage.  Unfortunately, the long cut coincided with the Tanzanian Minister of Energy’s visit to Masasi.  The minister chartered a flight from Dar to Masasi just to witness firsthand the infrastructure developments underway down south. When he arrived, everything was dark, so to speak.  A few hours after his plane departed Masasi, power here was back up and running. 

Now that’s ironic. And yeah, I really do think.

book rex : the four seasons of brambly hedge

How is it possible that I made it into my 30s before discovering this fantastic children's book series? How?

Well, I don't know.

But now we've discovered it, and we've been enjoying every word and every picture.

Reading these books is the literary equivalent to snuggling up by the fire with a warm cup of hot cocoa.

So sweet and full of warmth!

The author and illustrator, Jill Barklem, wrote the first books in this series in 1980. They are stories about a little community of mice who live in the woods.

The illustrations are absolutely phenomenal. I particularly enjoy the cross-sections of the homes. (inside the trees where the mice live.)

 

This particular book is from our library. I believe it's out of print now. (booo.)

This book a collection of all four stories--one story each of the seasons. The book opens with spring. Here is an illustration of Lady Woodmouse waking up to a flood of warm sunshine, streaming in through her window.

(sidenote: In a few of these photographs, Pumpkin insisted upon pointing to her favorite part of the illustration. Fun for me to see what she admires most on each page.)

The flow of the plot in each of these stories is so darling. And then--on top of that--you can sit there with your little one and pore over each illustration, treasuring each little element on the page.

 

In The Summer Story, Poppy Eyebright and Dusty Dogwood prepare for their upcoming nuptials.

And then, at the end of that section, they get married whilst floating on a decorated raft on the creek.

"The raft floated gently past fields of buttercups and meadowsweet, and the voles tending the fires in the Pottery came out to wave as the wedding party drifted by."

Oh, be still my heart.

Is that not precious?

(sidenote: Ellie & H, this particular story made me think of another wedding party floating down the river on a boat! But alas, in this story there are no space blankets. Blog readers, that is another memorable story for another blog post someday.)

And here is one of my favorite illustrations from The Fall Story (below.)

This one features Primrose Woodmouse, who has joined two elderly harvest mice in their home for a cup of tea.

And lastly, in The Winter Story, there is a huge snowfall in Brambly Hedge.

Mrs. Eyebright, who is the eldest of the mice, remarks, "I haven't seen snow like this since I was young...."

All of the mice decide to "follow in the tradition of our forefathers" on an occasion such as this....

So, Mr. Apple annouces to the gathering of mice, "I declare that a Snow Ball will take place at dusk tonight in the Ice Hall."

Next, the mice get to work building the Ice Hall deep inside one of the snow drifts.

And you'll just have to check this book out from your library (or buy a used copy if you're lucky!) to be able to see how lovely the Snow Ball turned out to be.

"All of the dances were very fast and twirly, and were made even faster by the slippery ice floor."

* * * *

I would like to note that although you might think these type of stories will appeal more to girls (and that might be true to a point), I've noticed that when I read these stories to a mixed crowd, there seems to be an equal appreciation. In my humble opinion, a young boy needs a healthy dose of Little House, Beatrix Potter, and the like. (In addition to all of the typical "boy" stuff that he will experience as well. Insert Tim the Toolman grunt here.)

* * * *

As I was writing this post, I tried to think back....where did I first learn about these books? I know it was somewhere on the internet, and I know that it was sometime in the last 2 yrs.

Finally I remembered--I read about these books in this post: Book Review : Brambly Hedge.

This blog, Storyformed, is written by Sarah Clarkson. (You moms out there might have read one or more of Sarah's mother's books. Her mom is Sally Clarkson. Clay Clarkson is the dad. He's also a published author.)

I haven't visited Sarah's blog in a long time, but now that I'm reminded of it I'll be sure to head back over there for a visit.

* * * *

Also, here is the official Brambly Hedge site: The World of Brambly Hedge.

* * * *

A few more of my own posts which relate to books/reading can be found here:

{abbie : books}

{abbie : book rex}

quadrilla

Note:

This is an old post.

I wrote it Dec 08 and posted it on my old blog. Why am I re-posting? Well, I'll tell you why. The other day, as we were watching the This Too Shall Pass video, we were all delighted to see a Quadrilla block in the "machine." You have to watch closely--it's near the beginning of the video. 

We love Quadrilla so much--it was like seeing someone we knew in that video. 

It would be kinda like if some friends of ours went to the Superbowl. And then we were watching the Superbowl on TV at our house. {or at the Stewart & ML's house.} And as we're watching, the camera zooms into the crowd. And we see our friends!! There they are!

That's what it was like when we saw that Quadrilla piece.

So here's the old post......

* * * *

I'd love to recommend a specific toy which we absolutely love. It's very unique--and fun for all ages. (well, not little bitty ones...but everyone beyond that.) It was a "big" present from grandparents several years ago & it remains a favorite around here. (Thank you, Gingi & GPoppa.)

The toy is called Quadrilla. It's basically a wooden marble run. (It's so very well made, I might add. Sturdy. Will last and last.) The set comes with the coolest book of visual instructions on how to build various structures--the instructions work for even pre-readers. (Or you can design your own structure.) The name Quadrilla stands for "intelligent playing in wood." Each different color wooden block has a different function. Some let the marble drop straight down. Some send the marble to the left. Some blocks send it to the right. The child begins to learn all these little tricks and quirks. (and the brain wheels start spinning....architecture! engineering! physics!)

Also, you can buy add-on sets to make a bigger run.

Here are some basic designs. 

Here are some advanced designs.

If you want additional thoughts/opinions about Quadrilla, I noticed that there are a lot of reviews on Amazon.

 

madrid 2004

Ellie and Abbie in Madrid
Originally uploaded by abbiegrace

(this post is a test--it's my first time to try to upload a video from my flickr account....let's see if this works!)

Six years ago on this very date, Ellie and I were enjoying a lovely sister vacation together.

We were both living in Edinburgh at the time. My family lived there because Hunter was a student at the U of Edinburgh. I was a stay at home mommy plus a substitute teacher for primary schools in the city. I was 33 weeks pregnant. Superboy was 21 months old.

Ellie was a full time student, studying for her Masters in Social Policy. (Ellie, I'm not sure if that is the precise name of your degree program...but I think I'm close.) She lived right on the Royal Mile. Such a wonderful location.

Thanks to a gift from our thoughtful and sweet parents, we were able to take a short trip to Madrid to have one last hurrah together before we all parted ways. Ellie was about to move away from Edinburgh at the completion of her degree. And we were about to move several hours north, to the Highlands of Scotland.

While we were in Madrid, we toured the city, ate delicious food, took lots of pictures, talked for hours on end, dodged a potential pick pocket (thanks to Ellie's eagle eye), went to a flamenco dancing performance, and did a lot of reading.

We both brought a couple of different books. I remember there was one chick lit title that interested both of us--so we both read it on the same trip. Whenever I would stop reading for a bit, she would pick it up. Then when she was done, I would find my place again. (It was The Devil Wears Prada--a good fluffy read for a sister trip.)

Ellie, who is fluent in Spanish (and German...and Swahili...and English, of course), was our director of communications wherever we went. I was the sister who smiled and nodded and used hand gestures. She would order for me in the restaurants and everything. It was great.

In this video clip, (which is not the best quality--apologies--I hope it is at least view-able) Ellie is the videographer. She's using her digital camera, I am standing in front of the Palacio Real de Madrid. Ellie kept trying to teach me little Spanish phrases, but I was having a hard time with them. I kept unintentionally shifting into French (which is the only language besides English that I've ever studied.) I kept wanting to say "La vie est belle."

Ellie, I was looking through some old digital pics on a CD I burned a long time ago, and I stumbled upon this clip. Watching it makes me miss you lots! Hugs to you across the ocean.

and--Mom & Dad, thank you ever so much for this trip. Ellie & I will always remember it with such fondness!

La vida es bonita!
-abbie

disney : animal kingdom

Disney Trip, 2009:

Magic Kingdom pics yesterday.

Animal Kingdom pics today.

Animal Kingdom is composed of the following sections:

• Africa
• Asia
• Discovery Island
• DinoLand USA
• Camp Minnie-Mickey

I particularly loved Asia & Africa. I was really impressed by the "set design" (or whatever you would call it...the props?)

Before we went to Disneyworld, my mental image of their parks was that everything would be plastic, shiny, and smooth. That was definitely more the case at Magic Kingdom. However, at Animal Kingdom, particularly in the Asia & Africa sections, they "decorated" the place to look like those parts of the world. What fun!

Our favorite ride of all four parks was Expedition Everest. We all four absolutely loved it. There is one part of the roller coaster where you zoom up an incline--only to come to a screeching halt because the tracks have been ripped and twisted off. (By the Yeti, of course.) There is literally no more track to ride on. The riders all freeze in mid-air, wondering what in the world is going to happen next....and then suddenly you start dropping backwards, and then you go on to the next part of the roller coaster after that. Sooooo much fun. For our kids' ages (5 and 7), that pause-and-then-go-backwards action is the perfect level of thrill. (Actually, I think it would be too scary for many 5 year olds. But our 5 yr old is rather fearless when it comes to stuff like this.)

Don't you love Hunter's manly backpack? We had a navy blue one as well as that light blue floral one. Every once in a while he would notice that he had ended up carrying the floral one and he'd request a switch.

See all of those little cloth flags tied on ropes? It's like we were in Nepal.

 

Another thing we really enjoyed at Animal Kingdom was the Kilimanjaro Safari. We loved getting so close to all the animals.

I'd like to see a list of Animal Kingdom staff members. It must take so many people to keep this place running smoothly. (Taking care of animals, Taking care of plants {they had native plants of Africa and Asia everywhere...}, Keeping the place clean, Running the restaurants and cafes, Selling souvenirs to the guests at every opportunity, Security to keep everyone safe....! Lots of people involved.)

 

 

I wrote more about the Africa section of the park in this post: Africa in Orlando

Oh--one more thing to say about Animal Kingdom: In the Camp Minnie-Mickey section of the park, they have a theater for a show called "Festival of the Lion King." We had to choose between that show and the Nemo production ("Finding Nemo - The Musical"), because we didn't have time left in the day to do both. I ended up asking a Disney employee who was just as nice as he could be (surprise, surprise.) He told me that the MOST popular show is the Lion King show & that it's his personal favorite, even counting all the shows at the other parks.

Wow. We chose the Lion King show and loved it. There was a "dancing monkey" part of the show in which gymnasts dressed like monkeys did this entire dance number while bouncing around on trampolines. It was incredible.

One little family memory I'll always have was from the very end of the day. It was getting dark and we were some of the last people in the park. We were up at the northwestern corner of the park, making our way down the darkened (and almost completely empty) paths towards the exit. Hunter began to tease the kids about how the Yeti leaves Mount Everest at night time, roaming around the park looking for a snack. He would let out a growl every once in a while when they weren't looking...it turned into such a funny game and he ended up chasing them down the path, hollering something about "Yeti Spaghetti."....They are still talking about "that time when the Yeti almost got us."

* * * *

A few quick words about my Magic Kingdom post yesterday...

• Tomorrowland was our favorite section of Magic Kingdom. Loved it.
• Ellie, yes, Disney does have a new franchise princess. You've probably missed all of the hype. Her name is Tiana, and she is the star of the movie The Princess and the Frog. The story is set in New Orleans.
• Meeting the characters: I didn't expect this to be as much fun as it was. Buzz Lightyear, for example...he is a "non-verbal" character (i.e., his costume doesn't allow him to talk.) Yet, he had an entire "conversation" with Hunter about Hunter's beard. Buzz was pointing back and forth between his own soul patch swirl & Hunter's Grizzly Adams beard. Buzz kept making all sorts of hand motions to communicate. It was really cracking us all up. (Ellie, I think Superboy & Pumpkin are both pointing to the facial hair in the picture I posted yesterday.)
• Another character experience which was really fun was meeting Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. They were absolutely hilarious. Disney really does hire talented people for these positions. If I had to interact with people (while in a huge costume) & you took away my ability to talk, I would be a d-u-d. People would probably get in line to NOT have to get my autograph.
• Parades: The parades at Magic Kingdom were nothing short of amazing. The floats were enormous and the music was so snappy...the entire parade-watching adventure was extremely entertaining.

disney : magic kingdom