Settling in again

I just wanted to write a quick update for those who are checking this and wondering if I'd dropped off the earth...

I've started my new job at BC Children's Hospital. I'm hoping I'll get paid for it too. (long story). But the department seems great, everyone is friendly. Fortunately I can still do some global health - with the South African project i mentioned before. More on that later.

I've found a place to live, and, despite moments of real culture shock, I am thrilled to be here and I hope I can learn a lot, contribute, and find my niche in Vancouver. And hopefully won't have to move again for a long, long time.

The plan is to keep this going - more about South Africa, and the challenges of working there. And about other things I get interested in here.

Thanks for the ongoing interest!
Take care
Laura

Imagine if this happened in Canada...

Flooding: 1,5 million people have been left homeless / cropless / school-less. 250 reported dead (I would guess that's an underestimate). The loss of crops is setting the stage for wide scale famine over the next 8 months.

What, you didn't hear?
Its not making headlines in your city?

Flooding has severely affected people in many of the poorest countries on earth - Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, the Gambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan... all countries who can ill afford the damage.

In Burkina Faso, most villages are made from mud brick homes. The schools, the homes, sometimes even the clinics. Imagine what happens when a mud home is flooded.

Throughout the region, families barely scrape by - each wet season that things go well, they almost grow enough food for ever growing families. There are no savings, no grocery stores to buy more food, no social services to pitch in. Now, imagine what happens when the crops are gone. No harvest now, nothing to eat until the harvest next year... but these sorts of floods often set the stage for locust invasions, so maybe next year there won't be a harvest.

I know the flooding is going on because I look for it. If I was depending on CBC for my international news, today I would have read about the value of the loonie, 4 stories on the US - including a crucial story on OJ Simpson (why are we still hearing about this man?), climate change & its effects on North America including a tropical storm that isn't, several stories on the middle east & afghanistan.

And nothing about the entire continent of Africa.

Fortunately despite the rich-world apathy, several NGOs - World Emergency Relief, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services and others - are moving in, trying to do what they can within the challenges of the region.

Imagine the news coverage if this happened in Canada. Or the US. Something to think about.