Enough to Keep the Lamps Burning

Hanukkah starts this year on Thanksgiving* eve.  All that most of us know about Hanukkah is that it is a Jewish holiday where gifts are given for eight days, there is a top thing and Jews light candles.
 
Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication.  It is a remembrance of the revolt of the Maccabean Jews, the reclaiming of the Temple in Jerusalem, and its dedication.
 
The Greek Empire under Antiochus IV conquered and ruled the Jewish people from 175 to 164 BC.  He massacre thousands of Jews, defamed the Temple, made it a place to worship Zeus and tried to eliminate the faith.
 
According to Jewish tradition, the Temple needed purified olive oil to keep the lights constantly burning, but they only had enough for one single day.  The oil miraculously burned for 8 days, the time needed to press and purify more oil.  In other words, it lasted just long enough.
 
Becca wrote a blog about how at this time of year our funds are low.  We start not fixing things; we cut down on non-essential medications, etc.  We start worrying about how we are going to pay our bills.  But like the Maccabean Jews, donations come in to cover just the right amount.
 
It is amazing, really, how the work seems to keep going.  We will get funds to hire someone needed for a year and then fret how we will get the rest of the funds for the next year.  We write grants, we send our requests…and nothing comes, we get turned down.  But somehow we keep paying the bills…never a gusher of oil, but just the right amount to keep the lamps burning.
 
So we celebrate Hanukkah as the Jubilee House Community.  We light candles on our Menorah, sing Light One Candle by Peter Yarrow, and eat dessert every night for eight days.  When we have a Jewish volunteer or family here, they say the prayers in Hebrew.
 
For us, the fact that Hanukkah comes on the eve of Thanksgiving is important, because the funds to carry on do not come out of thin air…they come from you and many people like you who care about others and who care about this work.  We are thankful to you and for you. 
Happy Hanukkah and Happy Thanksgiving
 
-Kathleen
 *Thanksgiving for US citizens

Throwing in Our Lot With You

Today we told Rogelio not to buy doorknobs to replace the broken ones on exam room doors at the clinic, just put hooks and eyes on so that no one can open the door while the doctor is taking a pap smear. 

Yesterday we asked Neville to only take $4 cash to put enough gas in the car to run his errand, we’d fill it up later when we could pay with a credit card.

Tuesday we decided to fix the faucets on only the two most important sinks at the clinic, the other broken faucets will have to wait.

Tomorrow we’ll buy a new fuse to fix broken windshield wipers on the ambulance, but will wait to take it to an electrician to see why fuses keep burning out.

As you can see, we are in a bit of a fix.

Like most non-profits, the majority of our donations come in December, many of them just before the New Year, which makes the holidays a happy time, but… 

…unfortunately, most of our expenses don’t come in January, they all seem to come right now.  In addition to the usual (electricity bill, phone, insurance, internet, gas, paper for the photocopier, etc) we’ve got two big expenses:

 

• farmer co-ops are harvesting sesame, peanuts, cotton and coffee.  They need to pay farmhands & COPROEXNIC needs to pay the farmers for the crops…hundreds of thousands of dollars.

• Nicaragua has exceptionally good labor laws including a 13^th month to be paid to all employees on 30 November.  While this is awesome for workers all over the country, it is a lot of cash out the door at once for small  organizations like ours – we have 25 employees and we pay them all as well as we can…so an extra month for everyone at once is expensive!  Above all else, we make *sure* we have money set aside to pay our staff…but that means things get tight in other areas.

In short, we don’t sleep well in October and November. 

We’ll be honest with you: right now we need help to make it to the end of the year.

  

And friends, we’ve learned that you have to have money to know people with money…so we’re not holding out for any sugar daddy in a shiny suit.  We’re throwing in our lot with you. 

Please…

If you haven’t yet signed up to donate $10 a month, please do so now.

If you haven’t yet made a donation this year, please do so now.

If you have already made a donation, but can spare an extra $20 (or $200, or $2,000!) please send it now.

Please re-post this on Facebook, on Twitter, email to your friends, because we need their help too.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. – Becca & Kathleen

Gestational Diabetes - Who's Screening?

 Last week I wrote about the rise in type 2 diabetes here in Nicaragua.  While I was researching for the blog I read about gestational diabetes and thought, “Oh dear!  We do not screen for that!”
 
And this is how a great deal of our health work expands…we start to deal with one aspect and then we are presented with a whole range of levels of health care that we are not doing and neither is anyone else in our area.
 
For example: gestational diabetes should be tested in a pregnant mother at 26 to 28 weeks.  The Ministry of Health does this testing, but not a full screening. The danger of gestational diabetes is twofold: 1) overly large babies and 2) babies have an increased chance of going into a hypoglycemic coma in their first hours or days of life.
 
Gestational diabetes has to be controlled by diet, which is difficult when the women are poor and carbohydrates, sugar and fruit are the cheapest foods.  

To test, we would need a quiet space that women can lie down for up to 4 hours if needed.  We would need to provide the drink for the testing and protein for when the test is over.   We would need to help the ones that have gestational diabetes stay on their diets.
 
The reality with health care in a poor country is that the need is so great and the layers upon layers needed to address the problems are overwhelming.  We know that we can do only so much but it seems that we could address this need too or so we think…or so we hope.  We will keep you posted.       -Kathleen

Type 2 Diabetes & why Nicaraguans don't eat better

Type 2 Diabetes is a growing concern for the poor in Nicaragua: it is now the fourth leading cause of death of Nicaraguan women…mainly because of lack of medical attention.  It either goes undiagnosed, or women do not have access to needed medications.  

One in ten adults has type 2 diabetes in Nicaragua.   

Within ten years, it is estimated that 4 out of 10 adults will have type 2 diabetes…40% of the adult population.  

Why?

40% of Nicaraguan children are malnourished

There are multiple causes.  The first cause is that poverty leads to malnourishment as children.* When children do not get enough calories or the proper nutrition, then their bodies develop in such a way to horde what nutrition they do get.  When they become adults their bodies are still hording…which makes fat.  Most of the fat settles around their torsos because Nicaraguans use their legs to walk everywhere, they use their arms for washing clothes, chopping wood, carrying heavy loads, etc.  The fat settles in the worst place: around the middle, which increases the chances of type 2 diabetes.  


Secondly Nicaraguans put on weight because of what they eat.
 

Plantains...all cooked with oil and salt

What do they eat?  Rice, lots of rice.  Corn tortillas, lots of tortillas.  Some beans.  Plantains.  Little chicken.  Some eggs and farmer’s cheese…all cooked with oil and salt.  Sometimes soup with little meat but lots of yucca or potatoes.  Maybe cabbage and tomato salad.  They drink coffee with sugar, sodas, and refresco (watered down fruit pulp and juice with lots of sugar)  Notice anything?  Oil and carbohydrates and sugars.
 
Why don’t they eat better?  Well let’s compare prices: 

• A pound of rice costs $0.48 while a pound of chicken costs $1.36 
• A pound of beans cost $0.52 to a pound of fish $0.70 (this is cheap fish with the head and all) 
• 4 plantains cost $0.96 to 4 small heads of broccoli $4.00   
• 12 tortillas cost $0.96 to 12 eggs $1.92 
• 1 liter of regular oil is $1.40 while olive oil is $9.35

This is what they eat…what they drink is loaded with sugar.
 

Sugar is a cheap source of calories

Soda is $0.32 (diet soda is $1.00/can) and bottled clean water is at least $0.80…Coke is literally cheaper than water.  In the rural areas many grow enough coffee for themselves and in cities instant coffee is cheap, always drunk with lots of sugar...and most importantly sugar is only $0.36 a pound.  36.  Cents.  A.  Pound. Sugar is a cheap source of calories to keep going with all the hard labor.
 

And when your life is spent in a one room house with a dirt floor, 2 light bulbs, maybe a radio or TV, and life is one struggle after another, then adding some sweetness…or a lot of sweetness because sugar is so very cheap…well it makes life a little more tolerable.
 
In other words…why is type 2 diabetes growing so rapidly in Nicaragua?
 
Poverty.
 
*World Vision says 40% of Nicaraguan children are malnourished.     
                                                       -Kathleen

Anatomy of a Speaking Tour

They say it takes a village to raise a child…well, it certainly takes one to get ready for a speaking tour!  

Becca is getting ready to go on a three week speaking tour in Washington State and Oregon.  She leaves Thursday the 19th of September.  About two weeks later Pat and Kathy leave on their two month speaking tour in southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.  
 

They are adapting the slide script that Sarah, Becca, and I put together for Sarah’s spring tour.  They are taking brochures that the three of us put together at the start of each year.  They are taking Nicaraguan crafts and art from artists that Sarah has cultivated.  For each trip Sarah buys and packs all of the items and delegations lovingly haul trunks back to the States and store them until we come pick them up.
 
While they are gone speaking, the people behind in Nicaragua receive documents called “so and so’s brain” in order that the work does not falter.

The ones doing the speaking have spent months setting up speaking events poring over our database and maps, writing emails and letters, and figuring out how to make the most of the trip. 
 
Many of you play an important role in this.  You host events, open your homes for our folks to sleep, feed them, help them when problems arise, and take care of them.  All of the work of folks here and up there means that last year we raised close to $55,000!  We're hoping that with all your help, this year we may be able to even top that!  Thank you!      -Kathleen