Misheru

Social scientists are really delving into the correlation between money, community, job satisfaction, and happiness. The New Economics Foundation even has a test, with recommendations at the end. You can try the survey here.

It probably won’t surprise anyone, but my happiness index was the same as a refugee in Burundi. Okay, just kidding about the refugee part. Apparently I am very dissatisfied with my community and personal relationships. I nearly keeled over from the shock of that. Here’s the irony: my results made me laugh, thereby increasing my happiness. My macabre sense of humor continues to rule…

How happy are you? And what are you doing that makes you happy?

Thanks to BostonGal for this wonderful article on solar cookers. Here in Arizona, we talk a lot about this kind of technology, since we have 330 days of sunshine per year, and I have seen similar projects in India and parts of Asia. What strikes me in this article is the link between cooking and gathering wood and rape. It’s one of those correlations that doesn’t stand out at first; I was originally interested in solar cookers because of the environmental impact and because of health concerns (many 3rd world countries use small kerosene lamps and stoves and people asphyxiate or develop permanent lung problems if the stoves aren’t properly ventilated.) But now it seems simple to link the fact that women would have to travel far to gather wood, and that they would sometimes be alone or in small groups and thus vulnerable to soldiers and their attacks.

I have to confess that I cried a little when I read the article; sometimes making the world better seems like such a difficult task. Seeing such a difference being made with pretty minor technology and a logical mind to solve problems…well, it’s so hopeful, it makes my chest hurt a little with the hopefulness. I’ve often been accused of being a pessimist, but I like to think of myself as a realist who always thinks that salvation is possible if we just acknowledge the facts and work toward a solution. And, occasionally, I am actually proven right…

…[this project] addresses the rape, mutilation, and murder of Darfuri women – now among at least 2 million Sudanese displaced by the conflict. The aim: Supply families with solar cookers and teach women in refugee camps new cooking skills so they don’t have to burn wood.

This reduces the need for women to hunt for firewood outside the camps, where the risk of attack and rape is greater.

A recent report by the humanitarian group Refugees International identified rape as a weapon of systematic ethnic cleansing being used by Sudanese government-backed janjaweed militiamen. “The raping of Darfuri women is not sporadic or random, but is inexorably linked to the systematic destruction of their communities,” the report says.

…

Two solar cookers can save a ton of wood per year, according to JWW. They free women from tending fires to do other tasks, and provide income for female refugees because the cookers are manufactured on-site. Envision foil-covered cardboard (about four feet by two feet) folded upward to direct sun’s rays on a black pot, placed in the center, and covered in a plastic bag. Millet, rice, eggs, and other ingredients are put in the pot, surrounded by the water-moistened plastic bag that provides softening condensation.

The solar cooker project is unique in the annals of global aid efforts, say international aid experts and individual fundraisers.

For one thing, the United States and humanitarian groups have declared the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan a genocide. More than 350,000 people have died. Second, the Sudanese government puts restrictions on humanitarian aid workers, making grass-roots groups and private donations, especially to those in refugee camps, more important.

“The Sudanese government is allowing the conditions in the camps to be one of their main mechanisms of genocide,” says Adam Sterling, executive director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force. “It is the type of grass-roots efforts like the solar cooker project supported by private donations that is sustaining [the refugees].”

My sister-in-law produces the most beautiful children…and congratulations to her for making a fifth. She will soon achieve world domination via reproduction (not to mention her fabulous cooking skills). Way to go Susie!

See what I’m saying? Hard to resist those eyes.

If I were to put a caption on this one, it would be something like, “Yeah, I pooped in the diaper. Now whaddya gonna do about it?”

In the next few weeks we are planning to move back into our house, although we will keep it on the market. Since we have been living in a rental (most thoughtfully provided by a relative), I have had a newfound appreciation for my own home. Not that there is anything wrong with the place we live, it is merely the little things I miss, like my dishwasher and air conditioner (I have neither here). We have made so many improvements to our house over the years I have gotten accustomed to things like a sizable shower, plants on automatic drip, my large gas stove, my fridge with water and ice in the door, my smoothly running washer and dryer…the list goes on. At the very top of the list is “1300 square feet, plus guesthouse.” We have tried to get rid of at least 50% of our possessions, and still we are crammed into the little rental like sardines. It is very difficult to go to a small house from a large house, and it is hard to go from being owners to renters. I knew how messy my kids were, but spaghetti on the walls of a rental is a whole new kind of stress.

We’ve fixed so many things on our house I feel like we’re going to a whole new place, one where everything works correctly, and this is practically the case. We have a few more things to do (I will post, again, before and after photos) but we have fixed plumbing, added a swamp cooler to the guesthouse, painted the kitchen cabinets, done some light remodeling on the layout of the house and on the hall bath. Add to this the painting, the new doors/window/siding on the guesthouse, the landscaping in the front and a heck of a lot of cleaning, and wow — our house is looking pretty sweet right now. It’s also extremely clean, which is something it hasn’t really been for, um, five years or so…

We will leave it on the market and keep our fingers crossed. It seems like the past few months have been full of changes for us, some good and some bad. I have “cleaned house” in a variety of ways, from talking freely about old hurts to letting go of a job I’ve clung to for three years. I’m sorry to say I’ve lost some friends in the process, but I’ve also gained new ones and a new perspective. I’ve learned some things about myself and that is never an easy process, but I hope that, in time, the boat that I have rocked so hard will slowly settle, and I can have a time of peace again.

P.S. I really took this photo. We passed by this little creek on a hike into Sabino Canyon before it was destroyed by floods last summer.