fairly stable

We are now pretty well settled in the renovated house. We have a woman who comes twice a week and cleans, does John's laundry, and straightens up his area. He doesn't like it when she tries to organize his things but he doesn't get around to doing it himself. I tried to suggest that when he can't do things himself he needs to accept someone else doing it not exactly his way, but he doesn't buy that.

He will let her help him with some things like putting on his socks. I tried to push him that he needs to shower more than once a week but his answer was that putting on his socks was too difficult. Sigh.

Today he went out for a walk for the first time in months and called me to come get him because he had been too ambitious (he went nearly two miles). It would be good new if he would get back to exercising. He has a physical therapist he likes and now goes there twice a week. Maybe she has finally found the trick to get him to make the effort to exercise.

He did a driving evaluation with an occupational therapist at the rehab hospital and he passed. It worries me that he came home exhausted by the effort because he had to change his usual habits for the evaluation (for example staying under the speed limit). But so long as he has no hallucinations and does this three hour driving evaluation once a year I won't fight it. Despite how slow he has become his reaction time tested as good.

Technology in Haiti

I'm going to use this post to accumulate links relating to the role of technology in doing things differently in Haiti:

Twitter in Haiti (thehaitian) on NBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/35031832#35031832

Help Haiti Heal: Instructions for volunteers:
http://helphaitiheal.wordpress.com/find-hop/about/
home page: http://helphaitiheal.wordpress.com/

Haiti volunteer network: http://haitivolunteer.org/

Ushahandi:
http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/01/22/the-nuts-and-bolts-behind-4636-in-haiti/
volunteer: http://haiti.ushahidi.com/diaspora

article on the role of texting
http://ow.ly/ZSx3


Crisis Camp:
http://crisiscommons.org/node/39

a blog example of small scale aid:
http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/

problems with large-scale aid:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010//hallward240110.html

rebuilding differently (appropriate technology)
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/350-anderson.pdf
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/v-fullstory/story/1441239.html


appropriate architecture:
http://www.dwell.com/articles/an-architecture-prof-on-haiti.html

what's wrong with news coverage:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175194/

I'm supporting Partners in Health because people in my church had a role in the origins of the organization and because they are putting the Haitians in the lead as much as possible, not coming in as cowboys to tell them what to do. My church is supporting in particular the rebuilding of the dam and water project in Cange that was their first project in 1984. The water supply is needed to support the hospital and expected long-term refugees. http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=663543

Also make sure to sign the petition to drop Haiti's international debt: http://www.one.org/us/actnow/drophaitiandebt/

Mary Daly

I just learned that Mary Daly died ten days ago. It was reading her book Beyond God the Father that started me on the path to becoming a believer and a churchgoer. It was about 1976 and I was studying feminist analysis of science with Ruth Hubbard. I read Mary Daly because I thought Christianity was a similar kind of patriarchial system to science and so her analysis might be helpful in thinking about science. It was the first time I understood that the Christian church could be more than just a social institution. When I joined a church for the first time, about five years later, it was a Congregational Church, First Church Amherst, then pastored by Donna Schaper.

hoping for a better 2010

I haven't given up on blogging entirely, but the fall was overwhelming, with supervising home renovations, moving, moving my husband's 98 year old aunt first from an apartment into assisted living then into a nursing home, and my son flunking out of college.

We had a housewarming party Jan. 2 and I think we are finally pretty well settled. The house I would say is a success, though I haven't had much chance to enjoy it. Downsizing from about 4000 to about 3000 square feet was hard. A wonderful cousin I had hardly known before is helping us sell things we didn't want.

John's aunt is doing better now that she isn't trying to manage her own apartment.

Our son started Monday at Presbyterian College, much closer to home. He is optimistic that will work out better.

Am I really going to get to catch my breath?

When I don't have time to blog I have been posting on Twitter (set up to transfer to Facebook). You can find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pammack