I'm a BIG fan of sharing...so pin away! :)

Friday, June 27, 2008

Bilateral Schizencephaly, one open lip & one closed, with partial agenesis of the corpus callosum


A mouthful, I know. But that's what's plaguing my new nephew Caleb right now, and I have had a lot of questions lately about what exactly it is and how it's going to affect him in the future. So I thought I'd put up the medical terminology and give you a few links to start out on, and if you still want to learn more you can google 'til your fingers drop like we all have been doing for the last week. :)







But you know what? Despite the grim picture painted by both these websites and the doctors, Caleb is doing a lot better than we expected already and he's got a lot of promise in him. So do not despair! There is hope. Where there is life, there is always hope.


But a few prayers never hurt anyone...



Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I want to live here!


http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/25/duibai.tower/index.html?iref=mpstoryview


So who wants to give me the millions of dollars I'll need for rent? :)

Hahaha...funny, coming from the girl with $12 to her name. ;)

Monday, June 23, 2008

72 hours, 5 hours of sleep, and totally worth it...

My little sister went into labor on Friday and had a baby late Saturday night (11:28). The baby boy is relatively healthy so far, although he is in NICU for some problems breathing (people gotta do that) and for weak reflexes...but he's getting stronger and I know it's thanks to a lot of prayers and faith from lots of family and friends. We may not get to keep this boy around for long, for an adoption is in consideration, so it's impossibly hard not to get too attached. But a new baby boy is always nothing short of a miracle.
No one should look this good in labor.

Mom's touch...
I think we hit a record of most non-related visitors during labor...

And here he is, a brand new baby boy!

A very nice nurse helped her out during the homerun stretch...

So very tired, after such a long and hard labor...but you did it!


Like I said, Paul, you're gonna have to wait a few more years!


Breathe! Relax! It's over! :)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Pupusas



In honor of the whole Latino culture thing, Paul is in charge of Ward Lunch this Sunday and he is teaching me how to make pupusas. Pupusas are a Salvadoran dish, kinda like a corn pancake stuffed with cheese, peppers, beans, or meat, and topped with tomato sauce and this stuff called curtido, which is a slightly fermented cabbage/onion/carrot mix with vinegar and spices. Sounds strange, but everyone on any website I've found for 'em says they are to die for. I'm excited to try 'em. So that's what I'm doing today as I wait to go volunteer again...shaping out the pupusas under Paul's tutorage. Yay for culture!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

No hablo espanol!!!


So, this week I began my volunteer work at Lafayette Adult Resource Academy, currently (and hopefully permanently) located in Washington Elementary School. I now tutor the beginning ESL class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I LOVED the training portion, which lasted two full mornings and in which I got a first-class tour of the place, stories from the director's life, and most importantly some practice in tutoring. Last night was my first full 3-hour class period, though, and I was pretty wiped out. Too many worksheets, my eyes felt heavy by the end of it all. We'll see, though--another volunteer there said that it's something new and different every week. And the teacher is a really nice, open lady. So I'm still excited. And there are always conversation labs I could volunteer in if I need to switch it up.

I should probably explain that my personal philosophy is that when in an ESL class, you don't have to know the native language of the students. They are there to hear, speak, read, write, and learn English. I'm not suggesting that we devalue or exclude their native language and culture--quite the opposite, in fact. But if they are there to learn English, the best way is by immersion, as with any foreign language. One of my personal pet peeves is when I tell someone that I'm interested in teaching ESL someday and they say, "Oh, you speak Spanish?" or "Oh, what language do you speak?" My answer to the latter is always an abrupt, "English!" The thing is, of course, Spanish is the second most used language in the United States, and around here is "the" language to speak. Looking back on things, it would've been the most useful language to study in high school, while Japanese would've been the most fun and personally rewarding. As it is, I studied French. (Et je l'ai appris bien, merci beaucoup!) Go figure. And then American Sign Language. But I digress...

I have a boyfriend who's fluent in the Spanish language thanks to a mission in Vancouver, but I don't speak a lick of it. I can read a fair amount because it's so similar to French in some ways, but to hear it I may as well be listening to Turkish. (Which, by the way, everyone in the evening class is from Mexico or Guatemala except one girl, from Turkey. The Asian group, sad day, meets in the morning classes...) So while I still maintain that if I were teaching the class I'd structure it so that English was the focus, I'm realizing that as a tutor I can't understand some of their questions and they can't understand some of my answers. Some students are right with the teacher as they all fill out those blasted worksheets, but others are lost and without a model to follow they don't know what to do. So I need to learn some Spanish. I don't care enough to study it fully--a decision I will probably someday regret--but I certainly do need to get some of the basics down.

Note: The reason I don't care enough about it is that there are several places in the country, Lafayette included, where Spanish is NOT the major minority language spoken. Polish, Dutch, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French, and several of the middle-eastern countries have their own well-established communities, and often in urban areas you'll have all of them mixed together in a single ESL class. Spanish will not help you then. I am going to Japan in two years to teach English in a middle school there for a year. Do you think that Spanish will matter there? Not really. My point is that there are other cultures out there that matter, too, and students from many places of the world, and so to be an effective ESL teacher you either have to know every major language in the world (but I'm no John Henry Jorgenson), or you have to know English and use it wisely. I'm stuck with the latter. The only reason I really care now is that Paul speaks it, and we want our children to speak it, so I'm going to have to learn it eventually, anyway...after I get some Japanese down, of course. :)

But for the purposes of this volunteer experience, here are the first ten Spanish phrases I will learn:

1. Me llamo Celeste. My name is Celeste.


2. No hablo espanol. I don't speak Spanish.


3. No entiendo. I don't understand.


4. Como te llamas? What is your name?


5. De donde eres? Where are you from?


6. Donde esta (el bano)? Where is (the bathroom)?


7. No me gusta. I don't like it.


8. Creo que si/no. I think so/I don't think so.


9. Que tengas suerte! Good luck!


10. Una lengua nunca es suficiente. One language is never enough.

Monday, June 9, 2008

What do you do when you have nothing else to do?

Here's our answer. We found this ridiculously huge plastic bag in Amanda's room and had a little fun with it last night...

Top 10 things to do with a bag this big:


(10) Start up our own Star Labs.

(9) A really big prop for ribbon-dancing gymnasts...



(8) An umbrella for escorting large crowds to their classes on campus.


(7) A wind tunnel, or some sort of haunted house tunnel, at least...




(6) A ridiculously large trash bag that would take us the entire summer to fill up...


(5) A cocoon, for all of us beautiful butterflies out there...


(4) A slip-'n'-slide.

(3) A giant baggie...but where's the fridge large enough to hold us? Ziploc, you're goin' DOWN!

(2) An elementary school P.E. parachute!

(1) A huge plastic teepee for pow-wows.



WHITES WILL VOTE FOR MCCAIN



(Disclaimer: This post is a satyrical response to news articles and stories I've seen entitled "Latinos will vote for Obama" and "What Will the Black Women of Lafayette Vote?" and "Why Didn't More Women Vote for Hillary?")





There's no doubt about it--with Hillary off the democratic ticket, women are now at a loss as to who will gain their vote. With no one sharing their double-X's, shouting "Solidarity, Sister!" and making women a target of shovenistic photos and comments across the country, thereby gaining the support of women who have faced similar bouts of discrimination in their personal lives, well, clearly they are incapable of now choosing a candidate based on merit and common interests and ideas about where they want to see this country go. (For but one example of this discrimination, scroll down to the photo at the end.) With men at the forefront of the election yet again, voters are hungry for a president that looks just like them. It looks like this presidential race of the 21st century will come down to just that--race.


And Whites will vote for McCain, with all other minorities voting for Obama.


Shout hoorays, ye minority women, for you no longer have to think about who you're going to support in the race. No more cameras will be pushed in your faces and asking you about your vote, because the question is no longer raised. It is obvious that while you may have been torn between Obama and Clinton in the beginning, for both reflect different aspects of your identity, your vote has now been all but decided for you.


Sing huzzahs, ye Latinos, for although your beloved Clinton is out of the race, heaven knows none of you could agree with McCain--I mean, c'mon, he's WHITE. Obviously he could never have your best interests at heart and you could never vote for anyone who hasn't walked a mile in your oppressed shoes.


Rejoice, ye Whites, for although by all projections of the government you will by the year 2050 be a minority in this country, perhaps your White Man will relieve you of the threat now, change the rush of the tide while he has a chance. No one has asked you yet who you are going to vote for in this historic election, because, frankly, no one cares. Everyone already knows--if you're not Black, why would you vote for Obama? And if you're not a woman, Hillary couldn't possibly be a serious thought in your mind. No one bothers to do studies about how you will vote, because you white men have been voting for hundreds of years and you've always voted for White men--why question the obvious?


No, the issues do not matter. The platforms of both parties are so similar in nearly every respect, with only a few key points that have sharpened into a heated debate (the results of which will influence the daily lives of millions of Americans--especially the too-often-neglected poor--and the relations we have with other nations in this global economy), and who needs to listen to all those words? Ideas? Please. Clearly, an educated votership is beyond any expectations for you. Don't worry about it, dear voter. Look in the mirror. Then pick the candidate with the same skin as you. We all know that's all you can see in this election, anyway, and all that we can talk about...you may as well be public about it.


Celeste Darland is a freelance writer and an avid Obama supporter, and the views and opinions of this article in no way reflect the views of Blogspot.com or any of its affiliates. No animals were harmed in the making of this article, except that I did eat meat for breakfast as I wrote this...sorry, Charissa.