BOHEMIAN adventures

Choose Joy - t-shirts to raise funds for adoption!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 14:47:00 +0000

I have not fallen off the planet, despite me seeming to have, given the serious lack of attention to my blog here! I want to start blogging again but then life gets so busy. So here I am! And I have a few announcements to make, but let me make them day by day...

First, the most wonderful news is that I have adopted a beautiful 11-year old Batwa girl who was a "double orphan" (both parents gone) from the village where I have worked in Southwest Uganda the past few years. She has lived with me for more than a year and we finalized the adoption in Uganda (but not yet in the US) in November last year. So blessed! However, to offset the costs of lawyer fees, visas, and an upcoming trip to America (her first of course), I'm raising funds. I have a T-shirt fundraiser that will run for just 13 more days.

Below are a few pics of the colors and styles available, and let me say, they are gorgeous!! My bio daughter Savannah designed the logo - she is so talented (she also had designed our RedemptionSongFoundation.org logo). I had the idea for the dandelion and using the Choose Joy saying which of course is part of my daughter's name - Joyce - plus a hat tip to Joy, a Batwa lady from my village who recently joined the angels in heaven.

Shipping is only $4.97 no matter HOW many you order! And these below are just SOME of the items. "Joyce Adoption Fundraiser" on Bonfire.com

Women's cut

Women's flowy tank

Women's flowy tank in Coral

Unisex V-neck in Espresso

Hoodie in green

Youth T

Women's cut in neon green

Youth T in purple

Many more -- please buy by March 8th!

https://www.bonfire.com/joyce-adoption-fundraising-with-t-s/

Help the Batwa Pygmies of SW Uganda - Go Fund Me

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 06:59:00 +0000

The Batwa forest pygmy tribe were evicted from their forest home so recently -- just in 1991 when Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks were established in SW Uganda, Africa. They were given no land or money in compensation and have struggled to thrive ever since. While many churches and charities have helped, they are facing an uphill battle to gain some dignity and a better way of life.

I visited the region in January 2014 as a journalist (wendeenicole.com) and was so moved by the poverty and their plight that I sold my house in the U.S., and moved to Uganda to start a nonprofit charity/ministry to help the Batwa help themselves (redemptionsongfoundation.org). The Kalehe Batwa were the "forgotten" village that no one felt could be helped. They drank too much, they said. They were lazy, they said. They won't work together, they said. They also face discrimination and abuse at the hands of locals, at times. The women are raped because some locals believe raping a Batwa (Mutwa) woman cures HIV (or backache). HIV rates here are higher than average, there is prostitution, single motherhood, child and spousal abuse, kids dropping from school by 1st or 3rd grade. We've begun to turn their world around in just 10 months and need your help to keep going.

I'm raising funds for the Dignity Project: getting the people of Kalehe (and after that, neighboring Batwa settlements) the basic necessities of life - food, clothing, healthcare, and the self-sustaining income-generating of basket weaving. When I arrived they were sleeping on dirt floors with rats running over them at night without mosquito nets and risk death from a preventable disease, malaria; eating from banana leaves because they have no dishes; drinking unboiled river water that contains feces and parasites; and kids were wearing their only t-shirt with no underwear or pants for months at a time. We've provided clothing, got them enrolled in health care programs (including HIV treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings), created an artisan co-op that sells their baskets in the U.S., and facilitated the community to build their own bedframes so they're off the dirt, and to build drying racks for their pots they cook in so they don't dry on the ground. We just spent our last funds on Lifewater drinking water kits so they have clean water, and on mattresses with waterproof pads and sheets for each family. We need more help to keep going.

Help me raise the money to buy more mattresses, sheets, dishes and utensils, washing basins, "jerry cans" to keep clean water in from our Lifewater kits, and other basic items. But more importantly, our work - which I believe is inspired by the calling of Jesus Christ on my life and to serve here - is truly helping the community help themselves. Despite the community's reputation (and continued problems), they have come together to do these development projects. To get mattresses, they all had to improve their homes with "mud" as well as help at least one other family. They all helped build a new home for a single mom with HIV. They built a bridge across the River Munyaga so the kids wouldn't risk drowning. And they have put themselves into certain healthcare programs, but our work is far from finished. Some women here struggle with escaping prostitution, excess drinking, spousal abuse, child abuse, and daily struggles of life caring for children when there's not enough food to go around. Just out of the forest 2 decades ago, they are only newly learning agriculture.

The Karehe Batwa have become my family. Let's improve lives and spread God's love.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me." -Matthew 25:35-36

Artisan Co-op photo album online!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 04:38:00 +0000

The Redemption Song Foundation started two artisan co-oops benefitting the impoverished communities surrounding Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. One co-op serves Karehe village, home to 11 families of Batwa or Twa "pygmies", an indigenous people who were evicted from their forest where they lived from time immemorial as hunter-gatherers when Bwindi Natl Park was established in 1991. Another includes non-Batwa women in Buhoma, Nkwenda and Rugando villages.

Post by Redemption Song Foundation.

Net proceeds from artisan sales are pooled & the basket weaving artisans decide how to spend it, with the caveat the money goes to better the community. In Karehe, we are discussing "kits" for each family that will have some basic supplies they cant afford, like basins for washing, new plates and cups and utensils, towels for drying off, or drilling a well or connecting the community's water supply closer so they don't have to get their water from a river that people urinate and defecate and wash in. The village decides! That is the core of the Redemption Song Foundation philosophy! In fact, from the first round of sales for Batwa, they decided to build a bridge across Munyaga river so they don't have to wade which is a serious danger for kids in the rainy season. Comment on the item you want to order, plus message me here your shipping address so I can estimate shipping (US addresses only, or Uganda addresses). If you cant comment, message me or email me at redemptionsongfoundation@gmail.com Even if you're not on Facebook this should be viewable, without the need to join FB!

Redemption Song Foundation hard at work!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 17:15:00 +0000

Selfie of myself and Moses, a Twa child, on the way to his first day at boarding school with his best friends!

I have been remiss about blogging but busy in Uganda getting the Redemption Song Foundation (RSF) off the ground. Things are going great, but there's only one of me, and so much to do! Please check out the RSF Facebook page, for ongoing photos and stories of our work on the ground, with the Batwa (Twa) "forest pygmy" population around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and other marginalized and impoverished communities. We are now officially approved as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so any donations are tax deductible. Join us in Giving Hope by Building Healthy Communities and Sustainable Ecosystems! We have a women's artisan co-op -- you can order products via commenting on the Facebook page and they'll be shipped to you after payment is received! Check below for all the people-clothing, hungry child-feeding, getting kids in school-doing, hope-giving, basket-weaving, income-generating, latrine-digging in preparation for house-building and classroom-building we are doing with the photos below (or on the Facebook page).

Mutwa (Mutwa is the singular of Batwa or Twa) child Beckham, who I adore! You will recognize him as the "face" of the Redemption Song Foundation on the website, and RSF Facebook page, and one of the 2 kids who really inspired my move to Uganda.

Beckham and his brother Shivan -- such cutie pies!
My latest two articles:

The WASH Approach: Fighting Waterborne Disease in Emergency Situations. To report this story, Wendee Nicole visited two refugee settlements in Northern Uganda, Arua District’s Rhino Camp and the settlements of Adjumani District. She celebrated Global Handwashing Day 2014 with dozens of young children at Rhino Camp. Environmental Health Perspectives Jan 2015 plus many of my images! PDF version here
Is the Human Cost of Saving Gorillas Too High? Forest dwellers known as Pygmies were evicted when their homes became national parks a generation ago. Now they're fighting back. My feature published at Take Part on Nov 25 2014 plus a photo gallery of my images: Up Close & Personal with Endangered Gorillas.

At the Redemption Song Foundation, I have been busy...
Giving boys and girls a safe and fun place to play (my yard!).

Building the 5th grade (primary 5) classroom at the Rugando Parents School, starting a "classroom sponsorship" program & giving hygiene packs for girls who menstruate so they don't drop out of school.

Giving kids' shoes for school, and...

clothing for boys and girls (dress here and many others donated by Made with Love).

Feeding hungry kids,

Including some who were left alone, who were way too young to be left alone...(and playing with my two sweet kitties, Amashemererwe and Rokundo)

Washing kids (with warm water!) or giving them a place to clean (in the shower here), if older.

And trimming toenails and fingernails to help prevent "jigger" infestations.

Starting a women's artisan coop which pays women directly a fair price

and raises additional money to be spent as the coop decides.

Getting kids in school, including these three wonderful Batwa ("pygmy") boys, who I am so proud of. They started Bishop's boarding school yesterday, and had dropped from school altogether before this.

Helping parents enroll their families in health insurance, and getting kids to the hospital for care, like sweet Beckham...

who has an unusually large belly, full of worms. And we had him treated for malnourishment a few months back. This is him on the way, they stopped to bathe in the river (I know, I know... old habits die slowly)

And facilitating the Batwa men and community to build a pit latrine,

and covering it so kids don't fall in,

So this young boy Moses (far left) and his mom don't have to live in a stick teepee, hopefully by the time the rainy season comes in March. Join us, we welcome donations and need volunteers who are good at ... updating websites, starting a Mail Chimp newsletter, running the RSF Twitter feed, doing accounting or just working with Excel spreadsheets with financial info, and much more!

Visiting Refugees from South Sudan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:19:00 +0000

Recently I visited two refugee settlements in Northern Uganda to report a story - Adjumani and Arua's Rhino Camp. This shot is from Adjumani's Ayilo settlement camp in North Uganda. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled from South Sudan -- the world's youngest nation (formed in July 2011) -- after violence erupted in Dec 2013 and early 2014. Around 60,000 live in the Adjumani settlement which is unlike a traditional refugee camp in that they live on land donated by nationals (Ugandans) and have land to grow crops and build temporary homes. All photos Copyright (c) 2014 Wendee Nicole

Young girls from the Ayilo settlement.

Big smile!

Love this shot of this young refugee boy.

I turned around as we were walking and a line of boys were following!

Boys will be boys!

Getting water from a tap stand. The yellow plastic jugs are called "jerry cans" and they are what everyone in Uganda uses to collect water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.

Me and some of the sweet refugee children at Adjumani.

A "tippy tap" is a contraption made for making it easier for people to wash their hands!

The Baratuku settlement camp is in a beautiful spot.

A colorful lizard on the rocks

The River Nile from Baratuku

This boy was perched on a boat on the River Nile, which we crossed by ferry going from Arua's Rhino Camp (pics below) to Adjumani.

After he jumped in!

The sunset was beautiful over the Nile.

When I arrived, the first place we visited was actually "Rhino Camp" near Arua. There are no rhinos anymore, they all went extinct! Here they were celebrating Global Handwashing Day at one of the "child friendly spaces" with songs, dance, and a march.

Girls performing a song about the importance of washing hands to change their lives for the better.

Kids checking out the posters.

Kids watching the performance.

Breastfeeding is encouraged in women for healthy children!

The boys seemed more "worldly" than the kids in my area of Uganda. They all made hand signs when I'd photograph them. I got them singing songs in their local language for me right away! It was fun. I got some cool videos.

More of the refugee kids making signs for the pictures.

This woman is so picturesque! She and the boys played drums. It was a really wonderful week, and Oxfam, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) & the Uganda Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) have done a lot for these refugees since the chaotic beginning early this year. It hasn't received a lot of media attention in the U.S. but it was a major humanitarian crisis, which still hasn't stemmed in South Sudan.

Rugando Parent's School - empower these girls!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:01:00 +0000

Three young girls attending Rugando Parents school in Uganda in primary level 3 sing a song they wrote themselves when I visited. Joan, the tallest is one of the brightest in her class, according to the Director David Matsiko. Her family cannot afford a uniform, which isn't required to attend, but the Redemption Song Foundation purchased her a uniform as a one-time gift to support her, because of the initiative she showed in singing the song for me, as an unexpected visitor.

Getting settled in Uganda...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 11:22:00 +0000

"Stubborn gladness doesn't come out of nowhere; you fight for it. You push back against despair. I look hard for miracle and beauty and joy every day.” - Liz Gilbert

Some updates from my life in Uganda so far... These are from emails I've sent to friends and family. To give some background in case you are new, I visited Uganda in Jan/Feb, and felt God calling me here to serve and love the people, I don't know completely why or how, but I know I felt His strong call, and so here I am. I raised 2 amazing young people, my Sam and Savannah, who are now in college, and am here starting a nonprofit, the Redemption Song Foundation (which is officially now registered as a 501(c)(3) [pending status] charitable organization - and all donations will be tax deductible!). I arrived in the country mid-Sep and stayed in Kampala/Entebbe a few days getting supplies, and then came to Buhoma Village, near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (home to half the world's remaining mountain gorillas!) where I've rented a house that will be my home and RSF office. My vet friend Ben came to help me get set up, and would work with us but is going to Israel for further studies very soon. But he's helping so much! David is another local friend who is helping. Please "like" our Redemption Song Foundation (RSF) page on Facebook or follow us on Twitter (we are slower to get the Tweets coming, but soon!) In fact, if anyone wants to volunteer and do some social media, accounting, legal work, t-shirt/graphic design, or anything else let me know!

Sep 24... I went running this morning - very different at elevation compared to at sea level!! My chest is still heaving, hours later I have a massive headache today too that wont go away.

The Redemption Song Foundation met with local leaders today at my house/RSF office and it was great to meet them! Work is proceeding on the hot water system despite the random stray goats in the house (!) and yard yesterday (only in Africa!) and them stepping on the concrete LOL.

The family living out back, I gave the kids each new t-shirts and brought the mom/dad hot tea, and then a bit later the dad went around and got the avocados from way up high in the avocado trees and I now have 10 gigantic avocados! :) They also clean up around the yard. I took some photos of them and me holding the baby/toddler girl today, and will send sometime. They are so sweet. The two boys have a weird fungus one all over his scalp and I am going to get them to the hospital so they can get care.

Ben leaves tomorrow and it will be so much harder just me and Charity, though it will be nice to be in my house and able to settle in and get some work done planning and getting my house settled. I ordered a large table & chars to be made, a desk and a countertop/pantry. I am getting the toilets fixed and the hot water and the leaking roof fixed. Within 3 days I should have hot water – God willing!! Pray for that LOL! I have it here at the monkey house I stay at but have to leave here Friday.

Sep 25… Today I went shopping in the local market :) It is about 10 stalls with lots of veggies. I learned how to ask "how much is it” but I already forgot – I think it is nazengahi? Something like that. I went a bit overboard and bought a bunch of Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, a cabbage, several tomatoes, 4 eggplant, lemons, a pineapple, a huge bunch of matoke (green non-sweet bananas that when cooked taste like potatoes - there are a lot of carbs in their diet!), and a Ginormous jackfruit (the size of a watermelon -- we ate half and I gave away a bunch and there¹s still a whole half left! They taste like Starbursts!).

Charity made lunch for me, David, and Ben today which was a cabbage dish with Irish potatoes (they call regular potatoes Irish potatoes) and it was really good; however, I discovered the "margarine" I thought I bought was actually lard. :/ Oops.

I bought some other random things today like paint for the shower/toilet rooms as they are kind of gross. The workers are still finishing up the plumbing work to get the hot water system working, and then we will add a big double sink as right now the only sink in the house is one small shallow porcelain one. We don't have any counter space at all in our makeshift kitchen so I had ordered something that will have counter space (wood) and pantry/storage space below. It isn't ready yet, as the same furniture maker is doing my desk which I thought more important because it will be where I lock up valuables like my camera and laptop. A different furniture maker is doing my 3 x 7 table and chairs.

Ben left this evening and is headed back to Kampala, though he may come back a few days before he heads off to Israel. He has been such a great help! If

David is also gone over the weekend so it will be just me and Charity for now and the family that lives out back. :) I give them food like boiled eggs and jackfruit and they help around with various things.

Sep 26… So my new android phone dropped (twice) and the screen cracked and so it is completely dead. I now have to use my old "dumb phone” for my Uganda #.

I am getting my bedroom set up as I like. Today, I got the 4 dining chairs I ordered, and I am spending way too much money but HOPEFULLY soon I can stop spending money on the house and start spending more on kids. Today I brought the mom and boy Posiano (living behind me) to the hospital because he has this terrible infected wound on his leg, and he had a fever and I worried it was becoming systemic but they cant give antibiotics without admitting him and it was after hours and he didnt have a fever despite his forehead feeling hot, so we will bring him and the other 2 in tomorrow (they all have worms and have a weird fungus infection on their skin). Actually Charity is going to bring them in and pay (my $) because I need to go to Kihihi with my hot water guy to get $ from the ATM!

Sep 27… Today was a stressful day. I had my first ride on a Ugandan "taxi" (more like a small mini-bus with several people) to go to Kihihi, the nearest town with an ATM (2 hours away) but it wasnt working... I am totally out of money and have nothing to pay everyone who I ordered stuff from with. I was with Charity (who helps me at my home) and James, who is doing my hot water system. No one seems to know when the next taxis come, or how to get from A to B. I wanted to go to the next town (Kanungu) to get money, but all these boda (motorcycle drivers) swarmed around me and it was very stressful. We missed the 2pm taxi back home though we met on the road at 145pm. James seems clueless how to get around even though he lives here... he doesn't speak as good of English as Charity does, but anyway the whole thing was a bit of a nightmare! We rented a private car for 100,000 shillings (about $40) to go to Kanungu only the 2 banks there only work for Uganda banks, and so we left home with just a couple of groceries and a toilet seat... And (TMI for the guys) having your period when there are only pit latrines with no toilet paper unless you ask 10 million people for TP is really not fun!! I guess today I have to be thankful for small things like safe travel, my new toilet seat, and Charity who is a total sweetheart and calls me “mum”.

The knob on my NEW propane stove broke (it broke earlier but we got it on, now it wont go on at all) so only 2 of 4 elements work (the black part of the element that was here the 1st day is missing since that day- where in the hell did it go??) And I cant get any cash, not even Western Union is working it sent from my bank, but I cant retrieve it on my mobile money account), and I am PMS and right now I am not happy!!

Sep 29… The family living out back has some health issues, so I paid for their care at the hospital (only 5000 shillings, a couple dollars) - for an infected foot, fungus on skin, worms. We’ve been feeding them extra food we cook and buy, and I’m trying to raise $ to put the younger son (Posiano) in school, its about 100,000 shillings including supplies (beans, pens, TP etc) which is about $40 US per term. If anyone wants to donate you can through the http://www.redemptionsongfoundation.org site, or send a check to mom/grandma: Redemption Song Foundation PO Box 876, Frisco TX 75034. The older boy, Justus, is so cute, he came and showed me his school book with his grades (some good, some medium LOL) and he only can attend because the mother works on the vegetable gardens for the school.

It rains every day but not all day. It can rain buckets, but then it stops. They’re putting a new tin roof sheet on now because there was a leak. Yesterday was a hard day emotionally as was the day before BUT I am putting things in perspective (thanks Tim! LOL) and learning patience (not my strong suit) and read some amazing words from my fave author Liz Gilbert… "Stubborn gladness doesn't come out of nowhere; you fight for it. You push back against despair. I look hard for miracle and beauty and joy every day.”

And even more so, David who is a friend of Bens (the vet helping me who is going to Israel soon) & has also been helping me get settled in, got a call this morn here at my house, and his 35-yr old brother in law had died after falling ill, leaving behind 4 kids and a wife. Very sad. Death is all too common here.

Oct 2... Yesterday, I went to the town of Kanungu on the back of David’s “boda” (motorcycle) which is 2.5 hours away (my butt was sore!) to try to retrieve the Western Union money I wired myself 3 days ago to my “mobile money” account (money that you can access through your cell phone almost anywhere – only the WU network on mobile money had been failing to work…). So we get there and they told me the system was down, and they were having trouble… are you kidding me? LOL. NOTHING WORKS IN AFRICA! So after some number of attempts he manages to get me my $200 US in shillings. Hooray for small miracles.

We then went to the town of Kihihi (which is actually closer to home) to open a bank account (their ATM was down Saturday for international withdrawals, and is still down and will be down until next week apparently). So I opened a local account in the hopes I can wire money there from my US bank account, only I left without an account number or any verification that I’d deposited anything… I insisted he give me this one piece of paper. I only put in 20,000 shillings which is like $8 so it’s not a big deal but I should be able to get money from all Uganda ATMs once I get money in there (mind you, Kihihi is the nearest ATM to Buhoma & is 1.5 hour by boda and 2.5 by bus…).

Driving on the boda with music in one ear (one open so I could hear!) was pretty cool, looking so closely at the African landscape that is so foreign and yet feels like home. All the children get so excited to see a mzungu (white person) and they all wave and say “Mzungu!” and laugh and smile when I wave back.

Before we went, I had gone to the Victory Primary School across the street to see about getting Posiano into a nursery class, but apparently theres only 1 mo left in the term before a 3-mo break (equivalent to our summer break) so they said it’s best to wait until next year. Im teaching him some English words like nose, ears, hello :) And tonight after I got back I was walking on the path to the back door (where I enter the house, usually) and I feel this little tug and it’s him – he adores me, it’s so cute. And then later I was inside and I heard dancing and drum beat (the mom Vastine tapping on a plastic “jerry can” - used for water) and went out and saw the 3 kids and Charity singing and dancing so I joined them and did some videos and I cant seem to upload them but will soon! It was super fun and they all giggle to see a mzungu dancing and carrying a bag of flour on her head (yesterday) etc :D I say to everyone I am a mukiga hahaha (mu is person, mukigas is a local, or bakiga is plural, like batwa is plural for mutwa the forest pygmies).

Some photos from recent days...all mixed up...

A baby pineapple in my front yard

The street running through Buhoma, where I now live

I have my very own "egg man" who delivers!

My home and office of the Redemption Song Foundation!

Miriam, Justus, and the legs of Posiano who had an infected foot.

Matoke (green bananas) and jackfruit (a massive yummy fruit!) Both grow in my yard.

We gave baby Miriam some millet porridge :)

My amazing front yard!

Posiano by the building he and his family live in on our property.

I rather like my frog laundry basket I bought in Kampala, you? :) This is my bedroom.

Elephants on the savanna in Queen Elizabeth National Park which we went through on the way here.

A big elephant in Queen Elizabeth! He was very close!

Ben holding baby Miriam! :)

Me holding baby Miriam with the family. These t-shirts were donated by a friend to bring to the kids here.

Moving selfie on a boda from yesterday!

Boda ride!

Sweet Posiano and I yesterday

Hawaii, Ecotopia, Mongabay, Africa!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 19:38:00 +0000

Hello pumpkins! Soon I will post more photos and update about my week in Hawaii, where I visited my long time friend Elissa (who is a pilot for Mokulele airlines!) and traveled around Oahu and the Big Island (loved Volcanoes National Park!). The house I've lived in for the past decade, where I've raised my sweet children, goes on the market in a couple of days, and when my son goes off to University of Texas this fall, I am moving also, to .... AFRICA!! I am excited and nervous and melancholic all swirled into a bundle. But for the past several weeks, I have been prepping my house, landscaping, painting, fixing stuff (with the help of a dear guy friend - thank God for him!) and now the time has come. Houses are selling like hotcakes here, and I hope and pray it sells quickly and for what I am asking, as some of that money will be used to fund the nonprofit I've founded with a friend from Africa!

Check out our new website, which I designed, for the Redemption Song Foundation, and please "like" us on Facebook too! Our vision is "empowering youth through education, poverty alleviation, spiritual development and song" and we are accepting donations via the link on our website (or by check, but you have to send to me for now... I'm in the process of registering the "dba" and the other info for us before I move). We are providing school fees and basic necessities like food, clothing and hygiene /medical care information. We have plans for other exciting projects, like income-generating activities for older youth. One of the problems in the area is that the most impoverished girls and women can't afford menstrual pads, and they use leaves, dirty rags, etc, and we want to provide pads to these to girls, and create an income stream to those working on the pad project, making them using a cool machine made by an Indian entrepreneur (profiled on the BBC and in the new documentary, Menstrual Man). They often drop out of school when they start their periods. Some organizations provide hygiene packs to girls, but not everywhere - there is a big need. We will be starting an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for this soon.

I have had two more feature articles come out under my Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative Grant! Check them out:

Tipping the scale: How a political economist could save the world’s forests

“[T]here’s a five-letter word I’d like to repeat and repeat and repeat: Trust.” Thus spoke Elinor Ostrom in her 2009 Stockholm lecture, when at age 77 she became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. She’d spent a lifetime traveling the world and observing everyday citizens cooperating against all odds. Ostrom frequently encountered groups of people managing commonly shared resources, creating systems based on trust, such as peasant farmers in Nepal cooperatively managing simple irrigation systems, and people working to solve human-wildlife conflict with forest elephants in Kenya. Such collective behavior flew in the face of the longstanding theory of the day, which said that people will selfishly take whatever they can, ultimately causing a “tragedy of the commons.”
Ecotopia emerging: Sustainable forests and healthy livelihoods go hand in hand

Callenbach's 1975 utopian novel Ecotopia became wildly popular among environmental-leaning folks, hippies, and progressive thinkers of the day. The rebels who founded Ecotopia believed human health and livelihoods can coexist with nature, and built their nation For a book that has fallen mostly off the radar, outside of a smattering of college classes and small-scale environmental movements, certain aspects of Ecotopian society fall remarkably in line with research by Economics Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom, and more recently the work of Arun Agrawal, a scholar who studied under Ostrom. Research - described in this piece - discusses how decentralization of conservation policies and intrinsic motivations to preserve the environment are found in time-tested research, as well as the almost prophetic writings of Callenbach some 40 years before.

A green sea turtle we saw while snorkeling in Paradise Cove on Oahu. Copyright (c) 2014 Elissa Zavora. Love this image!! So cool! It was an amazing experience to swim next to the turtle, and another one showed up too! More to come. Love to you all!

I interviewed Jane Goodall - a hero of mine!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 17:45:00 +0000

A young chimpanzee in the trees at the Budongo Forest in Uganda. Who is watching whom?

Articles under the Mongabay Prize for Environmental Reporting grant I received have started coming out! This is a 6-month grant to report on tropical forest conservation that allowed me to travel to Uganda to report on some initiatives and projects there. Several more articles will be coming out, but here's a start!

If you have been following any sort of wildlife or science news, you may have seen that the legendary Dr. Jane Goodall turned 80 on April 3rd. On the Sunday before her birthday, I interviewed her by phone for Animal Planet's 80 Years of Jane online content. She was in Montreal about to fly to California, and it was so neat to hear her voice over the phone lines. Although mountain gorillas and not chimpanzees are my favorite animal, in high school I watched many a Jane Goodall National Geographic documentary, as well, and read her book In the Shadow of Man. I have the coolest job!

Here's a link to my Dr Jane Goodall Q&A for Animal Planet! I also did this longer piece for Animal Planet: 10 Reasons Why Everyone Should Love Jane Goodall! (If you scroll to the bottom of the first page there, you can click "show all on one page" so you don't have to click through one by one.)

But my favorite articles so far is published on CBS Smart Planet: How Jane Goodall’s legacy is alleviating poverty. This is about the Sustainable Livelihoods Project that I visited near Hoima, Uganda. Not long after I arrived in Uganda, I drove from Kampala to Budongo Forest Reserve with Peter Apell of the Jane Goodall Institute-Uganda, and got all those great quotes on that trip - he is a great interview. I spent a couple of days tracking chimps and such at Budongo, and then drove to the project in the field with JGI's Tomas Acidri, and interviewed one of the community villagers, Joram Basiima, whose photo appears in the article. I was impressed with the project and their approach. More articles from Uganda, and from the Mongabay grant, will be coming soon! Stay tuned!

I've been productive!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 04:07:00 +0000

The Habinyanja family group of mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Park, Uganda. Notice the green lips! I guess mountain gorillas like their lipstick green. :) Photo Copyright (c) 2014 Wendee Nicole

Check out my first Mongabay blog post Reporter's Journal: The Forests of Uganda, posted today! I have pieces coming soon at Animal Planet Online, CBS Smartplanet.com, and Environmental Health Perspectives from my Uganda Adventures, but in the meantime several other articles on other topics have come out:

Pig Poop Power: Scaling up waste-to-energy technology could transform the hog farming industry. Discover Magazine, Mar 2014. (the full article will not be online until May).

BMW's Big Bet on Carbon Fiber. How carbon-fiber technology is transforming the auto industry, starting with the uber-cool BMW i-3! Solutions Journal (Rocky Mountain Institute). Spring 2014.

A Question for Women's Health. Chemicals in Feminine Hygiene Products and Personal Lubricants (may not be safe...). Environmental Health Perspectives. PDF version. Mar 2014.

African safari wildlife

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 09:28:00 +0000

Took a day in Queen Elizabeth National Park on the way back to Entebbe from Bwindi, and saw many of the typical African wildlife and wanted to post a few photos!

Postcards from Uganda

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 21:42:00 +0000

I've been in Uganda more than a week and just wanted to post some of my favorite photos. I will give more information about each later, but... chimpanzees, mountain gorillas, the incredible Batwa (forest pygmy) Experience, and the sad state of their children at their homes, now, 20 some years after being evicted from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Christmas all over again :)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 08:09:00 +0000

I love these two most precious humans!!! This is my new favorite picture of my kiddos. It is now my desktop on my laptop and tablet and phone! These photos are taken by and copyright by my daughter Savannah, check out her blog! As I'm leaving for Uganda shortly I don't have time for captions but… this was Christmas! It was great! Just a little too much pie :)

You can tell Skip is a real cat person :)

Oregon Thanksgiving memories

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 19:40:00 +0000

Right now I'm on the MIT campus in a 3-day Knight Science Journalism Energy & Climate Boot Camp I was accepted into. There have been some fascinating lectures, not to mention fascinating journalists doing cool work. I'm in the process of planning travel to Uganda, and hopefully to the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis in Indiana which Elinor Ostrom and her husband founded, both as part of the Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative which I am now working on.

But first, I wanted to share my photos from Thanksgiving at my dad's in Oregon. But before THAT, I have to share my latest articles!

Meeting the Needs of the People: Fish Consumption Rates in the Pacific Northwest. (or non-pdf version here. I'm proud of this piece, and it got a lot of positive attention.
Native Americans have lived amidst the Pacific Northwest’s pristine rivers and estuaries for millennia, relying on bountiful catches of local fish and shellfish for their sustenance. Because Pacific Northwest tribal populations typically consume much more fish and shellfish than other people in the region,1 they are exposed to higher levels of toxic chemicals that bioaccumulate in aquatic life—polychlorinated biphenyls, metals, dioxins, and dozens of other toxics found in factory effluent, urban wastewater, and runoff from agriculture and cities.2,3 As a result, they—along with other groups that eat a lot of fish—face higher risks of developing cancer and other diseases attributable to these chemicals.
PFOA and Cancer in a Highly Exposed Community: New Findings from the C8 Science Panel. PFOA is the stuff that lines Teflon pans, popcorn bags, and waterproof jackets. This is a news piece that followed another I did last year: Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension “Probably Linked” to PFOA Contamination
I have a cool piece on a sustainable hog farm in North Carolina coming out in Discover Magazine's Notes from Earth department in April

And in no particular order…here are some images from my dad's place and my trip to Oregon. I didn't take any at Thanksgiving dinner - I was so busy eating the yummy food!

Before I went to dad's cabin for Thanksgiving, I spent a few days with my 7th grade BFF Kelli in Portland, and we went to her mom's cabin in Welches, OR and her family's restaurant, Skyway Bar & Grill - yum! I hadn't seen her mom since 7th grade!!
Kelli and I. She thinks she looks like a vampire here - haha!
Kelli and I at Skyway Bar & Grill. Her cousin gave us these cool tshirts from there!

During the trip, I got together with my two nieces, Kira (who was driving down to see my brother - her dad - with my mom and stepdad), and Mehz and her fiancé Jordan. Mehz is my brother's oldest daughter who was adopted through an open adoption 24 years ago.

Kira and I. She's growing up so fast!
Mehz and her fiance Jordan.

The frame of my dad's cabin

This ferny paradise looks so primeval! This is just down the driveway, before turning onto the rock road my dad's cabin is off of.

This was the forest of my youth. This fuzzy tree is just down the road from my dad's property. Love these huge mossy trees. My brother and I used to think we were so strong by pushing over old/dead still-standing trees. :)

A view of the cabin from the side. The front part is a greenhouse with plants.

The woodbox for the wood stove.

Ferns in the forest on my walk.

A view of the garden with the cabin in the distance

Another shot of the garden

Dad and Bev love to garden and I got to enjoy its bounty, both at Thanksgiving and in the stuff I got to take home.

Mint, sage, and a pumpkin from the garden.
Bev gave me homemade, canned salsa - with all the ingredients direct from the garden! It was sooooo delish. And the raspberry jam - Oh.My.God!!! Heaven!! I need to go back when the razzleberries are berrying in summer.

A mossy tree - maybe a huckleberry? Or maple.

I got to stop by the elementary school I attended in 3rd and 4th grade, Highland Park. What a trip!

I peaked inside a bit and took a photo before school folk came and chased me off because school was in session. I remember that my classrooms were upstairs.
>
This is a view just outside the "mud room" and the main entrance.

A view right from the cabin of the sun through the trees.

When dad harvested some trees from this part of his property, he kept these three trees, which was where my brother and my tree house was located. They're bigger than they look in the picture.

Me, hugging a very large tree on my walk down the road.

Trees and sky...

Dad built what he and Bev affectionately call the "West Wing" about a decade ago. It wasn't there when I grew up. This is where I stay when I visit.

The road… I like to walk from the cabin a mile or so up the road to get some exercise.

This makes me sad… This was a tree stump on dad's property. In Oregon you have to replant when you log, but those trees are still very small and young. I somehow managed to not get any good pics of dad and Bev so I leave you with this awesome pic from their wedding rehearsal in 2009 - laughing as they often are!

A visit to our nation's capital city!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:40:00 +0000

So at the end of October, I took a trip to DC to visit my friend Joe. The first thing we did was go see animals at the zoo! There were like a dozen otters running back and forth in their territory and it was the coolest thing ever! It was my second visit to the National Zoo. The first one was after taking my daughter to DC with her school class in 2006 (I blogged here)! I'd taken a separate flight and had extra time so went there to explore. There's a pic of the giant panda on that blog post, but they weren't on display this trip.

Loved this wall of panda stuffies in the gift shop!!

The main reason for my trip waste attend the Center for American Progress' 10-year anniversary conference, which included keynotes by Al Gore and John Kerry. I sat in the back of the room & this is an iPhone pic, but it's something! Seriously, Al Gore was on fire! He gave a dynamite speech!!

I love this picture of Joe & I at the Spy Museum! The museum was really cool.

Joe in a Russian hat at the Spy Museum gift store. We both have Russian/Jewish ancestors!

My grandfather was a Russian Jew. Like the Russian hat?

Hahaha I LOVED MAD Magazine as a kid! This brought back memories.

We went for a walk to an awesome Korean restaurant Mandu for dinner with my friend Heidi and her guy Randy. This pic didn't turn out great but the sunset over the bridge was really nice. It was a lot of fun!

Mongabay Prize for Environmental Reporting!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 18:31:00 +0000

I'm thrilled to announce that I was awarded the first Mongabay Prize for Environmental Reporting! You can read the announcement here: Prize exploring the next big idea in rainforest conservation announced

The prize sought proposals to explore the question of "What's the next big idea in tropical biodiversity conservation?". After a two-month application window and a month of deliberations, this week an independent panel of journalists, conservation practitioners, and tropical forest specialists selected environmental journalist Wendee Nicole as the first recipient of the Mongabay Prize for Environmental Reporting.

Nicole's reporting will examine the wider topic of innovation in tropical biology conservation, with focus on polycentric governance in Uganda and Peru. Her work will center around the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Elinor Ostrom's theories of polycentric governance and decentralization: putting power in the hands of locals. Nicole will spend time in both countries, interviewing on-the-ground actors and looking at the struggle to combat poverty while preserving shared resources like forests and biodiversity. In the process, Nicole will produce a series of articles on what's working and what's not in the world of forest conservation.

The 6-month, $20,000 grant will allow me to travel to Uganda and Peru to report on projects that exemplify polycentric governance. Though that's a mouthful, it is a very important and exciting concept. Ever heard of the "tragedy of the commons" where people are thought to always act selfishly and therefore deplete a common patch of land, such as the classic example of livestock overgrazing? Ostrom reviewed myriad real-life scenarios as well as conducting her own behavioral research and found that sharing a commons does not always end a tragedy. Rather than taking power away from local people and putting it in the hands of a national government, she found that giving local people a say and allowing them to have an influence on rules related to managing a forest, grassland, a fishery, or public health will allow sustainable management of that common good. It's cool stuff, and as my last post on "Mini miracles in Chattanooga" mentioned, I felt like I knew a trip to Uganda to see mountain gorillas and report on the amazing work of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) was destined after I ran into Dr Gladys (CTPH founder) at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

Here's a link to my bio and project info on the Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative Fellows page. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I will be traveling to Uganda to be face to face with mountain gorillas within a few months!! I have been rereading George Schaller's Year of the Gorilla and need to get another copy of Dian Fossey's Gorillas in the Mist because mine is falling apart.

I just returned from a week in Oregon, and will post some photos from my trip soon. First I still have a post from a visit I made to DC in October. I'm getting behind on my blog!

Mini Miracles in Chattanooga, Tennessee

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 02:36:00 +0000

I got back from the Society of Environmental Journalists Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee a couple weeks ago and, as usual, had a fantabulous time. SEJ conferences are the absolute best writers' conferences in the world! They have the right mix of craft sessions and topical sessions, which I get a lot of great story ideas from. I love the Thursday Tours they have every year, where you go in the field along with a smaller group of SEJers, as well as biologists, business folk, politicians, or other people who tell us about whatever the tour topic is. I went on a "Biodiversity" Tour which involved snorkeling! We were supposed to go to one place in a National Forest but had to change it due to the federal government being shut down. Ahem. The conference seemed very small this year, probably because of the absence of federal government employees! That meant that several panel members for various sessions were missing in action, and it definitely affected the conference experience.

I called this post Mini Miracles because the most amazing thing happened! Well, a couple miracles - which will play themselves out in time - but the first one is so stupendous that my jaw still drops to the floor when I think of it. So the week of the conference, Monday and Tuesday respectively, I turned in my application for two grants -- the brand-new Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative (on the topic of tropical forest conservation) and the Alicia Patterson Fellowship. The focus of my grants was polycentric governance, a concept so revolutionary it won Elinor Ostrom the Nobel Prize in Economics. I won't get into the details here but to say, it essentially presents rules for how commonly shared resources -- forests, fisheries, air, water -- can be managed in a way to avoid the infamous "Tragedy of the Commons."

Ostrom turned the idea of the tragedy of the commons on its ear. So in my grant proposals, I chose several examples of polycentric governance in action, including the crown jewel of the application in my mind, which was this amazing project in Uganda called Conservation Through Public Health. Ugandan Vet Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka started this nonprofit to help improve the lives, health, and well-being of the people living immediately outside Bwindi Impenetrable Park, home to half the world's remaining mountain gorillas (and, my favorite animal!). The people living outside the park live in abject poverty, and because gorillas and people are so closely related they can and do pass diseases back and forth. Tourism to see gorillas in Uganda has picked up since the 1990s, meaning the gorillas are now more habituated to humans and they leave the park more than they used to because they don't see people as a threat. That has led to gorillas getting human diseases like scabies mites and tuberculosis, and gorillas are a critically endangered species. CTPH has helped empower the local people to take charge of their health, family planning, and well-being. That involves not just education but also teaching local individuals to become leaders in their own right, passing these messages of human health, family planning and about gorilla conservation and attitudes, to others especially people living in remote areas. CTPH also created a network whereby local healers report possible cases of tuberculosis and other diseases to health clinics for better monitoring of these health ailments. It's pretty cool stuff.

I first found out about CTPH through the Wilson Center, where Dr Kalema-Zikusoka had given a seminar (which I watched online), the week before the conference. I had emailed her and we exchanged a few brief emails about my project, but not too much since she was busy traveling. So like I said, Monday and Tuesday I submitted these grant apps on their deadlines. Wednesday I get up for my 530am flight to Chattanooga, I arrive at noonish, get a shuttle to the conference, and walk into the Population session halfway through the day - and who is there before me, across the room, but Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka!! I went over and introduced myself and she was so sweet and gave me a big hug. We were able to talk a bit more during the conference about what it's like to travel to Uganda, and the logistics, and my project ideas. I had no idea she would be there. What are the chances? It felt like a mini-miracle to me, and a blessing. I also spoke a bit with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ken Weiss, formerly of the LA Times, who has been to Uganda and reported on the work of CTPH. So keep your fingers crossed and pray for me that this works out and I get to go over there! I also submitted an app for funding through the Pulitzer Center. I am excited about reporting on these projects and hope I am able to get some sort of funding.

Ugandan Vet Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka from Conservation Through Public Health in Uganda & Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ken Weiss on a panel at the SEJ conference.

Thursday was the "Tour" day and as mentioned above, I went on the "Biodiversity" Tour which went to the beautiful Tellico River. Everyone got in hip waders to walk into the shallow, wide river to watch biologists catch some fish and amphibians while telling us about various conservation efforts in the area.

Me in hip waders -- because I like to go with the sexy wader look at conferences.

The biologists used electrofishing to stun the fish so they could show us journalists. This shows several spotfin chub, a federally threatened fish reintroduced into the Tellico River by Conservation Fisheries Inc (CFI).

A red-lined darter biologists caught by electrofishing in the Tellico River. The fish biodiversity is very high in the Appalachians.

Rock bass & other fish from the Tellico River.

A crawdad!

After we had lunch and the sun came out, it was time to get in the water and snorkel. This is myself and a new friend, Liz Kimbrough, who works for Mongabay.

The picture didn't capture this well because I actually didnt have my camera in the river, but at one point all the biologists in their wetsuits started walking across this part of the stream with sharpish rocks towards where one of the biologists have captured a young hellbender salamander, and someone called out that they all looked like zombies moving and THEY DID!! It was hilarious!!! Everyone was moving slowly and deliberately and with their arms sort of outstretched, and it was so funny.

Thursday night was the "schmooze & booze" otherwise known as the Hospitality Events! Various companies and nonprofits set up sections with hors doevres and drinks and information. That night, VW unveiled a new vehicle, too: the electric Volkswagen XL1 - pretty bad ass!

Two of my favorite SEJers, Dale Willman and Jim Motavalli.

On Friday night, the conference had their annual soiree at the Chattanooga Aquarium which was so nice! We had libations and food and people were milling around the entire place. In fact, the place was so spread out that it took 3 hours to get through the whole thing and I'm not sure I even saw everything. But around 10pm I met Joe Romm (blogger at Climate Progress). Me, Joe, and some other friends went to a bar next door, Blue Plate, and stayed til 2am!

Silly iPhone pic Joe took. It was a lot of fun. He's such a sweetheart!

Jeff Burnside and Heidi Ridgley, who hung out with us that night. Heidi is an editor at Defenders Magazine and is who I traveled to Costa Rica with earlier this year.

And then they grow up... & off to college

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 05:44:00 +0000

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." - JRR Tolkien, the Fellowship of the Ring

Babies grow up so darn fast. I put together these random silly photos when my girl went away to college and I was looking through all the photos from over the years, and these ones just made me smile. The ridiculous onesie pajama outfit I was wearing while pregnant in my apartment in Pasadena, and the way baby Savannah is smiling so sweetly at her mama and then sweet 5 or so year old Savannah in the car... boy those were wonderful (and sometimes tough) times but so beautiful! I cant believe my girl is all grown up.

This is Savannah's high school graduation card. She made it herself! She is standing in front of a building on the UT-Dallas campus called The Mermaid building (Engineering Research Lab). It is really cool looking! She is on a full-ride 4-year scholarship as a National Merit Scholar at UT-Dallas in neuroscience.

I stole this photo from Savi's Instagram because I thought it was so cool! She posted this the day before leaving for college - it is an awesome quote from the Fellowship of the Ring. "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Earlier this summer I took a trip to Dallas to visit my mom, and we stopped by UT-Dallas where Savannah is going. I had not been to the campus so it was cool to see it!

My mom and I on the UT-D campus with California poppies in the background (& one behind my ear...).

A cool design element outside the Student Center building. Underneath it is a huge fan that students can cool off under.

Back in Houston... The last night I saw Savannah before she went off to college, we went to The Cheesecake Factory in The Woodlands. It brought back some fun memories of going to the one in San Fran on top of this tall building with Paige and her family. Fun times!

Sam and Savi goofing around at dinner.

Sam and Savannah at the Cheesecake Factory. What a couple of gorgeous kids, if I don't say so myself! :) So proud of these two!

Savannah and I :)

So on Memorial day weekend I went to visit Savi at college after her first week there. I got to see her dorm room, meet one of her roommates, and hang out for the day. Yay! This is a collage on Savannah's dorm wall I thought was cool, especially the photos on the right wit the orange and yellow background. They were taken at the Houston Center for Photography that we visited last year, and I took the photo of Savi looking at her phone against the backdrop of the exhibit sign that says something about Teenagers and then "A Portrait of Identity and Expression" which is funny because of the pic of both her and Sam doing their teenage thing -- Sam hiding his face and Savi on the phone. She took the one of Sam and I took the one of her. I love that she put them together and framed them on her wall!

"Your mom" is a popular teenage expression, of course, and I love that she put this pic on her wall too! It was taken on our trip to California a couple years back and Sam drew Your Mom on the sand and she took this photo of Sam and I with the sand scribble. I'd never seen it before. I have some pics of Savi in her dorm room and with her roommate but I won't them for her privacy!

Savannah took this pic of me in the car on the way to the Dallas World Aquarium.

A pigmy marmoset at the Aquarium. I have to say, this is the best aquarium I have ever been to! They had so many animals and not just aquatic ones. I really enjoyed it, though it was crowded as all get out.

This is a kind of cool pic of a sawfish in one of those "tunnels" with sharks and other things.

Mom and I at the Aquarium in front of this cool Mayan (or something) backdrop.

After the day at the aquarium, we met up with my stepdad Skip at PF Chang's. This is mom and Skip - they arent smiling but they were having a good time!

Sam, Savannah and me poking my head into the picture!

The next day, I met up with my old friend from Texas A&M, Janie, who lived in the apartment building across the street from where I lived with Matt in College Station. We have been friends for a long time! I actually don't remember where we first met, but I do remember Matt & I gave her our hamster, Comfrey :) She came all the way from Ft. Worth to see me -- we met at the Mellow Mushroom pizza place (very good by the way, in fact probably the best pizza I have had in a decade!) and she told me that she's making a greater effort to see friends because - if I remember correctly -- a friend of hers from college passed away from cancer recently after she missed an opportunity to visit with her. It made her realize all the more that she wanted to stay in touch with friends from the past, because truly you never know when will be the last time you see them. She brought her adorable twin girls, who I'd never met before this trip!

summer love!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 04:33:00 +0000

The sunny blue summer sky ... shot while laying out in my backyard.
Copyright (c) 2013 Wendee Nicole

"Step out in faith despite vibrating from fear. Don't go to the grave with cool visions shriveling up and dying inside of you." - Hybels

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you may have seen most of these pictures but since I'm sure most people don't just sit around stalking me all day, I thought I'd share some photos from my summer of love... it has been a great summer so far! I am feeling so grateful in my heart for so many things, and even in the wake of one of the saddest losses and disappointments of my life, I have found a deep sense of peace and contentment (ok, I'll give some props to medication)... but seriously, I really have been so happy for the little things.

I'm hopeful and excited - and quite a bit scared at the same time (hence the Hybels quote) - about my future, but it's fun to study for the GRE and think and dream and plan, and the fact that moving out of Texas is a reality in the next year is exhilarating! I've waited far too long! It's funny because as it gets closer, and I'm doing small things to improve my house, I really am starting to appreciate my house so much. I have so much space here, and this lovely yard, and I've started to plant flowers in my front flower beds and a hibiscus in my back yard, and I love it! I am having so much fun with it. It's funny, my favorite DJ on the radio - Brant Hansen ("a nerd who loves God") on Air 1 (a national station - check it out!) talked about how if you look at every item in your life like it was the only remaining item after a shipwreck, how much wonder and excitement and appreciation we'd have over that one item... I started to look at some things in that way and it's really kind of cool. So I thought I'd share some photos, in batches. First up are the photos of the flowers I've planted in my yard. Some haven't fared so well but it's fun to try and experiment!

This was from the first batch of flowers I bought: purple coneflower (Echinacea) and Gaillardia. The Gaillardia have died... and the coneflower plants are doing well but they're not flowering anymore. But they're perennial so hopefully they'll root and do even better next spring and summer. I love them and they do really well in the Texas heat.

I love this pic! We've had quite a bit of rain, and a little mushroom fest grew up in the midst of my side flowerbed. The orange cosmos (my absolute favorite so far) are doing fabulous! The white flowers are cool - they only bloom until about mid-day.

This is Sam watering after we first planted the coneflowers and Gaillardia. We had to weed this whole bed out. I'm not a big fan of azaleas, but they've done great for many years so I kept them in the bed.

I am a big fan of the wildflower look and these Cosmos are great. They're annuals, but apparently seed easily so hopefully they'll come back next year. Or I'll just buy more!

I used to have a giant hibiscus in my backyard and it croaked after a hard freeze we had several yers back. I planted a new one, a small one, in the same spot and it's thriving! It has blooms all the time, and I love it!

One day it had three blooms. Lovely!

I bought this cute little Welcome sign too. Those yellow flowers there? They croaked.

This is a shot of the yellower flowers that croaked. Ha. I bought these ones ate Walmart - figures - and they were blooming like mad but quickly died. I thought they were Brown-eyed Susans but I think they were Zinnias because they didn't tolerate the heat and sun at all.

My latest batch of flowers from the local hardware store (their flowers are all locally grown and they've fared much better than the Walmart ones). I don't even know what these are... I should pay better attention! I also bought this super cute bird thingie on the right at 75% off! It was only like $13 (originally 50-something) and (see below) I hung it in my backyard.

Doesn't it look cool hanging on the corner of my house?! I want to put a plant in there.

This looks like a hibiscus but the flowers are way smaller (can't tell from this image) and they hang down so you really can't see the blooms the way you can a hibiscus blooms (this is some tricky photography). They're a type of mallow.

Ha! I am enjoying putting fresh flowers in my bathroom. Can you see me in the window taking the picture? And my "Bohemian" perfume?

Next up...
MY BIRTHDAY!

For brunch I went out with my kiddos to Cafe DuBois, a little French cafe. They made this cute dessert plate for me after our meal.

It is so nice to hang out with my daughter, even though she gets annoyed with my silliness sometimes! :) I told her, I have to be myself, and that self is silly! I have always been that way!

And then I had an awesome birthday party that evening! I didn't even get photos that night except this one of the cake Elise brought, and the one below of us playing poker later. We had a great time! And no time for pics! :)

I doubled my money playing Texas Hold Em! :) My friend Eileen was a beginner and she won the most!

My friend Linda made this gorgeous fused glass necklace for me and gave it to me for my birthday! I love it! I love my friends!

Next up...

A quick trip to AUSTIN!

I brought Sam and his best friend Zack to Austin to look at UT. We only stayed one night but we did a lot of stuff. The first day, we met up with my friend Deb and went to Zilker Park and swam in Barton Springs. It was cold! But once you're in, it's not bad at all, and feels great. I didn't get any photos of that though. But before I get to this photo of Congress Avenue above, we first went to dinner...

Deb and I at dinner (at Shady Grove restaurant), post-swim! She is the producer of the documentary How I Became an Elephant, filmed by my friend Tim Gorski who I met while trekking in Nepal.

Another shot of the Congress Avenue bridge with people lining it, waiting for... the bat emergence! I have written about this before in an article for Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine (Attack of the Killer Fungus), and my ex and I brought Sam here when he turned 5 but he didn't remember it. I was happy the bats were there and he got to see them! We had bets on what time, and I picked one minute before they actually emerged - holla!

And there they go!

The following morning, Sam, Zack and I went on a tour of the UT campus for prospective students. I had gone on one of those yearrrrrs ago when I was a senior in high school. I chose Texas A&M (Lord knows why! I'm so much more inclined to UT! but I woudn't have met my ex, and wouldn't have had my amazing babies! So there ya go. It all works out). Anyway Sam liked the campus.

I liked this Martin Luther King, Jr statue. After the tour, we grabbed lunch with my awesome Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine editor Louie and some others from the magazine at Kerbey Lane Cafe, which was great. Then we headed home.

And finally, lots of RANDOM GRATITUDE!

“Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” ― G.K. Chesterton

My awesome friend Elissa, who pilots small planes in Alaska, came to visit for a long weekend! We lived next door to one another when I was in 7th grade and living in Beaverton (a suburb of Portland), Oregon. And we've kept in touch since, and get along great! I stayed with her when she lived in Bozeman and I was working on that dratted book of mine (see the pics of us at Yellowstone and in Bozeman here). We went downtown, to Rice Village, and just poked around and ate and shopped. It was fun!!!We hung out in my backyard, talked and had a beer or two, and just caught up. She recently spent a year in the Mariana Islands and I really wanted to visit her but didn't get to, so it was great to catch up. And... I'm going to visit her in Juneau in September!

Most of the rest of these pics are in the somewhat random order that they got uploaded in... It sounds silly but I am so grateful for these earrings! I love them so much! I sort of borrowed them from my friend Paige when I visited her at Christmas (wow I just realized I didn't blog those fun pics! I came back from that trip and just emotionally crashed...). Anyway, she gave them to me because I liked them so much. And she'd bought them when we visited Fisherman's Wharf in San Fran a couple years before then so they have special significance to me!

The last 6 weeks or more have been consumed by studying for the GRE. I love this pic of Pippin on my kale chips and GRE book! Yea I know it sorta looks like something else but it's not!! I make kale chips all the time and love them!! And I love love love my kitty! She is the light of my life! (Along with my kids, but they don't really like to snuggle anymore, ha).

I am such a shrimp next to my son now! I am grateful for my son! He lives with me full time now, and that has been such a blessing. It was heartwrenching when my daughter went to live with her dad for her senior year, and having him around all the time has really brought a lot of joy. He's a great kid (even if he plays video games too much!) He got his first job this summer, and his driver's license (which doubled my insurance - gah).

I have to have some more gratuitous pictures of my kitty. She's my baby! She is so adorbs! And yes, I said adorbs.

She really loves to cuddle. Sometimes it makes it hard to work. Reminds me of the good ol' days when I had babies and toddlers wanting to snuggle! She has the longest arms and she likes to wrap them around me. It's so cute!

I am thankful for my neighborhood pool! I have only gone there a few times but I love the summer sun! It's not really green... that is just the Instagramification.

Another thing I am grateful for is popcorn and coffee. I think I pretty much live on these and kale chips.

I saw this in my GRE book and thought it was so funny because it's like a super-power! I have fractional powers - here's how to handle then - haha! OK, so I have a nerdy sense of humor...

My friend Stefanie and I hanging out in her backyard after we watched the Bachelorette finale! That was crazy! I can't believe that Reality Steve got it wrong, and she chose Chris and not Brooks. Wow that was a shocker. A good ending. She seems happy, and I'm happy for her. Yes, I do realize I watch a ridiculous reality TV show but... what can I say. It's my mental Cheetos...

Because my old table literally rotted from the rain, I got a new one this summer! Love it! See the tiny hibiscus in the background? It's small, but a force of awesome.

And, I went to the eye doctor recently and got new hipster glasses. :) I love them! I only got contacts for the first time in 2008, and so my glasses were from way back then so although they still work for me they are a bit outdated fashion-wise.

When Elissa came to visit, I went though some old pictures and albums and found this funny scrapbook thing that I would write in (my aunt Linda gave it to me) and I laughed SO HARD when I read this. I must have been like 14 years old when I wrote this -- though it's possible I filled that part in during high school) but it asks what advice you would give to your daughter about marriage, and I wrote, "Don't put up with any of his bullshit." Bwahaha!!!! Honestly I think I must have written that in high school because I don't think I cussed when I got this in middle school. But it still cracks me the heck up!

I found this way cool cicada shell in my backyard. Poor guy, he's just a shell of his former self. #nerdhumor

It has been a blessing to see my daughter almost every week this summer. She leaves for UT- Dallas for college NEXT WEEK!! She's majoring in neuroscience but may change to visual communications/social media or something. She started a new business, Bright Lights Designs - check it out on ETSY(where you can actually order) or Like the Bright Lights Design Facebook page! She is creating and selling photographic and artistic prints to raise money for orphans in China and to fund her own trip to China hopefully next summer!

I went to Dallas to visit my mom in July, and saved those pictures for a future post, because I'll be going up to Dallas again at the end of the month to see Savannah in her dorm, meet her roomies, and get HER tour of the campus so I'll post all those pics together. Plus I'll tell the story of the elephants, and my grandmother and Stanford and my path...

Savannah and I last week when we went shopping at the mall. I love this munchkin so much!!! She even let me take a pic with her smiling normally - that is amazing!

Last but not least, my favorite summer song!! Just say Jesus by 7eventh Time Down. It's really rockin' and kick butt!! I am soooo grateful for Air1, and the DJs that make me laugh and smile all day. Brant is so random and weird, so unlike any other DJ - it;'s totally fricking awesome. I recommend it! Especially if you are down or struggling for any reason. They are a huge blessing on the earth! (and you can listen online...)

Finca Rosa Blanca: a shade-grown, organic coffee farm & inn

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 19:16:00 +0000

A view of the central lodge building of Finca Rosa Blanca inn on a hill, set amidst the tropical forest. In this shot, clouds are coming in... a storm is brewing! It's absolutely gorgeous - both the setting and the buildings!!!! (Images Copyright (c) 2013 Wendee Nicole)

I'm finally getting the last photos from my trip to Costa Rica up on my blog. I can't believe it has been 4 months - wow! Where has the time gone? How is it August already? I have spent a month studying for the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) because I'm applying to a Ph.D. program at Stanford.

Although I am technically a Ph.D. candidate at Rice University, I took a leave of absence in 2005, while going through my divorce. I couldn't finish due to finances and just the stress of raising young kids and being in grad school as a single mom. For a long time, I actually didn't think I would ever go back to grad school but I started systematically researching the three options I had for after the kids are both off to college (which were: go to Africa for 6 months to a year, buy a cheap RV and pimp it out and drive around the US for a year figuring out where to live, or grad school) and came upon the EIPER program at Stanford and it just clicked. I sort of knew in my soul I was meant to be there. There is a story behind that too, which I'll tell soon, but I don't want to distract from the Costa Rica images!

At any rate, I took a practice GRE and did great in verbal but am still needing to get much faster at the math... you only have like 1.5 minutes average per question. I picked up the math itself pretty quickly (nothing like cramming 12 years of primary math ed into 1-2 months of review...) but just need to improve on the speed. I will probably take it at the end of the month. Anyway I have no idea if I will get into this program but I am really hoping and praying I do. It is perfect for me and my interests and what I want to do with the next phase of my life, which is returning to conservation work and combining that with poverty alleviation which I feel increasingly drawn to due to my faith. If you are so inclined, I would be grateful for your prayers for my GRE and grad school application! I also may apply to the law school there for a joint PhD/JD program... I am still debating on that one in my mind. I really want to, but it depends on how I do on the LSAT - ha!

A solar panel provides electricity to power the lodge. The sky was cloudy so the shot isn't great, but you can see a bit more of the main lodge architecture here. I absolutely love white stucco and this type of building and the decor inside. Finca Rosa Blanca is run by American expatriates Glenn and Teri Jampol, who are the nicest people! They both attended Berkeley so it was fun talking to them about that place, and the Bay Area. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (err, that would be my kitty Pippin attempting to communicate in human... she is apparently better at speaking than written English, apparently... hear her say "hello" here).

This is the foyer inside the main lodge (the white building in the images above). I absolutely adore the white stucco and the wood flooring. Everything is decorated in such a beautiful style. I love it! When myself, Elizabeth and Paula stayed here 2 years ago after the Planet, People, Peace Conference we arrived late so it was after dark and had to leave at 4am to catch a 6am flight so we never got to see it during daylight or tour the coffee plantation so I was excited to come back and see it in its full glory. CANAECO (the Ecotourism Bureau of Costa Rica, of which Glenn is President) just announced the 4th Planet People Peace ("P3") Conference to be held this fall. I hope I can make it! This year it will be held in San Jose, which I feel like I "know" now after the tour of the city Heidi and I had.

My room and Heidi's rooms were in a separate building behind the main lodge. These are the patios set amidst the gorgeous landscaping. The roof is made from plastic tiles made from recycled banana bags! Cool, huh!

My own personal patio! Wish I lived here....

This was inside MY ROOM! This whole thing was just my room - wow! To the left it went to the bathroom, with my bedroom to the far left (I didnt get a photo of it for some reason), and to the right is the breakfast nook. The middle door goes out to the patio.

A closer view of the breakfast nook.

A shot of the gorgeous pool. I have such a hilarious, fond memory of the last time I came here, with Elizabeth and Paula, and we arrived after dark and made our way to our rooms (which, that time, was in the main lodge, behind the pool) and we had to walk around it, and one of the two girls - I won't say who - was deathly afraid of toads, and there were like a hundred toads all around the pool at that time in the rain. At first we thought she was joking and just a bit leery but she was actually deathly afraid of them! It was cute. :)

Finca Rosa Blanca guide, Leo Vergnani (from Italy), took us on a tour of the lodge grounds and around the coffee plantation itself. Here he is sitting on the edge of a unique solar setup that heats water for the lodge.

This is Leo in the coffee plantation. He taught us SO much about how coffee is grown both here at Finca Rosa Blanca, and in different parts of the world, and later we went back and sampled it (pics to follow) with "cupping" - similar to wine tasting but with coffee. He was so funny with a hysterical dry wit that had Heidi and I cracking up. I took a few iPhone videos of him talking about coffee and hope to upload them here if I can figure out how. He has since moved to Belgium but his protege, Ulises Zúñiga, is now the coffee tour guide. This is an organic, shade-grown coffee product but it took a few years after the Jampols bought it to convert to organic because they have to make sure any chemical traces are gone from the soil.

They have banana (plantain) trees growing in the coffee plantation. Leo told us why but I can't remember!

Heidi and Leo on the trail up towards the main plantation.

Another view of the plantation during the tour.

This depulping machine is called a "chancador" in Spanish. It removes the pulp from the red coffee cherries after they're picked. It wasn't harvest season when we visited, so we didn't get to see it in action.

This chute takes the de-pulped cherries ("grano" in Spanish) to a fermentation tank where they spend 2 days covered in the sweet mucilage or "miel." [OK, yes sweet mucilage sounds gross, but hey, you know it's just coffee cherry pulp remaining after depulping, right?]. Then it goes to the drying racks...

The drying racks, sometimes called African beds. (I think that has to do with the kind of coffee that is grown around the world). Glenn told me that they experimented with not fermenting the depulped cherries and just drying immediately, and they had a great flavor so they're doing about 50% of their crop this year that way.

The green coffee beans... These are popular now for that "green coffee bean" extract that is getting a lot of attention!

And then we went back to the El Tigre Vestido restaurant at Finca Rosa Blanca (which, by the way, is amazing!!) to try out the different coffees with "cupping." We tried Finca Rosa Blanca's espresso roast and the regular roast, as well as a cheap coffee sold in the country. They normally don't "cup" the crap coffee but have it there only to smell the grounds initially but I wanted to taste test/compare it and it was so fascinating to do so! It tasted like motor oil and garbage (not even kidding) compared to the lovely chocolate, caramel and cherry notes of the FRB coffees.

Heidi and I laughed so hard doing this. You have to sip and then spit the coffee out, which is kind of gross and very funny! Especially with Leo and his cute/sexy accent. LOL.

I was laughing so hard!! I don't even remember what about but it was fun :)

And they sell bags of the coffee... I finally opened a bag I was saving!

And last but not least, two photos totally out of place but which I forgot to post with my Playa Grande/Tamarindo beach images! I love this shot... It is the beach of Tamarindo, outside of the Hotel Daria where we stayed one night before heading to Finca Rosa Blanca. It is also where I dropped my iPhone in the ocean... and miraculously saved it with rice!

Me, happy and content, at Hotel Las Tortugas Restaurant in the town of Playa Grande, where we ate before heading over to Tamarindo.

We're not broken, just bent

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 05:47:00 +0000

Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island, Australia
(c) Wendee Nicole 2008

I let you see the parts of me
That weren't all that pretty
And with every touch you fixed them
...
Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars
It's been written in the scars on our hearts
We're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
- Pink, Just Give Me a Reason

The 4th of July - Independence Day - used to be my favorite holiday. I've blogged before about this, but as a kid, I always spent summers with my dad, and on the 4th he'd usually go to a party in town where we'd watch fireworks on the Columbia river. When I was really little fireworks scared me, and I'd bury my head in his strong loving arms. But as I got older I loved the fireworks and the Oregon summer air and being together with my brother (who I didn't live with except in the summer) and my dad. It was like my family was together only during these summertimes. Now, holidays alone are hard for me. Yesterday was tough. Independence day just reminds me that I am "independent" ie single. Most of the time I am perfectly fine with that, and enjoy my solitude, and hanging with friends and doing my work, but on holidays when my close friends leave town to spend time with their families and I'm left alone it can be tough. And as I near the empty nest when both my kids will be gone from under my roof (only my son is there now), the prospect of facing life alone for the rest of my days can feel daunting. (It is also a factor in why I have decided to apply for grad school - I want to challenge myself and reinvent my career and do more for people who might be suffering or struggling in the world than I feel I can do through my writing alone).

At any rate, yesterday I felt really alone and reached out to someone who did not respond quite as I had hoped. At first the lack of response was ok for me, but it turned to a bit of a downer today when I got a more abrupt message. My heart felt saddened, and after a cry and a nice hot bath, I decided that this was a job for mama-love! I really have healed my relationship with my mom tremendously over the past year, mostly because I now have a teenager and it made me appreciate the hell I put my mom through and all the ways that I held a silly grudge over things she did her best on, and I truly forgave things from my childhood from my heart. I had meant to blog about this before, but didn't get to it... so here it is. And my mom isn't that old, but you just never know when a parent might go, and I absolutely would and will be heartbroken. Because of our healing, I feel a new closeness to my mom, and wish she was even closer so we could spend more time together.

So here I am, in Dallas visiting for a bit, and on the drive up this evening I felt that I needed to listen to the final CD of the audio-book of The Shack (an amazing book!) for the third time, and it was exactly what I needed to hear! This is a fictional story of a guy named Mackenzie (Mac) whose young daughter Missy is kidnapped and brutally murdered. He eventually goes to the "shack" where she was killed and there, ends up spending several days with three characters: Papa (God) who is a black woman, Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) represented as an ethereal sparkly Asian woman, and Jesus. At the end of the story, it turns out he was in a coma from a car accident, but the time spent with the trinity was genuine because he was able to locate Missy's body from what he had learned over the course of the days. Throughout the book, the time Mac spends with each of the characters is awesome and illuminating; Mac learns about faith and doubt, and how much God loves us as a beautiful chaotic mess. For example, they show Mac a messy flower garden to represent his heart and soul. One of my favorite lines is where Papa likes to say about everyone that comes up in conversation "I am especially fond of ____." Feeling loved by God is so hard sometimes, but as Beth Moore says, until we can feel deeply loved by God, we cant love God with our whole hearts and minds and soul and strength. It's a process of letting go and of asking to feel loved - hard because people often transpose God with our own fathers or caregivers or experiences in life.

There was a scene in that last part of the book I listened to where Papa brought Mac to the cave where the killer had put Missy's young body and, I blogged about a couple posts ago, I have personified love that never really had a full chance to grow as a baby in utero that died (I promise this isnt gruesome! But helpful and healing!); it has helped me process the loss. So during this scene Papa asks Mac to forgive the killer and Mac of course struggles with his anger and his feelings of desiring revenge and justice, and it was so poignant for me because when I am upset with people sometimes and especially when I feel a sense of injustice - I think this is fairly common - I want to let that person know how they made me feel, and in the process the words can hurt them. I learned through some counseling that is actually a form of "revenge" - who knew? Like, if they could just understand how much they hurt me, they would feel bad, understand, and make it better or fix it. In my experience it has never worked out that way. They feel bad, and then get upset themselves. Anyway, so of course a form of anger is a normal stage of grieving and mourning the loss of anything, and I had gone through that stage but in the past weeks had reached a more peaceful acceptance and had felt pretty good until this reaching out episode....

But hearing that dialogue between Papa and Mac, when he said out loud he forgave the killer - and that did not mean that it was OK what he did, or that he had to have a relationship with the person. But Papa (God) said that He loved the killer because he was His child. He didn't love what the killer had become, but He loved him "for the broken child twisted by his pain." If only we could see those who hurt us in small ways and big through these loving eyes of grace! If we could really live this out in life! How powerful that would be. Papa said there is power in speaking and declaring forgiveness out loud, and so I turned the CD off and spoke out loud that I forgave that person for the very few things I still felt any upset over, and then I realized what I mostly needed was to forgive myself and to truly accept God's forgiveness for my own mistakes in this, and so I spoke that - I said God I accept your forgiveness for... all these things. I cried, and it was so poignant and beautiful. And then I continued to listen to the end of the book, and just like Mac with his flood of joy upon forgiveness, I literally felt this warmth and this peacefulness come over me. I felt like I had such deep love for this person and there was no desire to control the outcome anymore, and just a deep feeling of extending God's grace to him, and to myself.

At the same time, God called to mind during that thought process that He had raised the dead to life for more than one person (Lazarus, for example) who had been in their grave for multiple days. I know that God can heal all things - it is His very nature-- Jehovah Rapha or God who heals. I know that when there are two people who live grace and love God, there is nothing that can keep God from performing His healing work between them because God is love, and God's whole story is about reconciliation. It has been true between my mom and I, and between my daughter and I, and I know that in time, it will also be true - in whatever capacity that God wants - between my friend and I. Until then I rest in my prayers and the love I hold in my heart.

On a final note - how amazing God is! - I had found that image at the top completely randomly by searching through my photos as I do and I picked that one because of the bent trees growing towards one another and that represented the lyrics in the Pink song I quote. I actually thought it was Lake Wabby, but when I googled it, it turns out that lake is actually LAKE MCKENZIE!! How freaking weird is that!!! I had forgotten there even WAS a Lake McKenzie... Twilight zone!! God is at work... Wishing grace and peace to all you pumpkins! Have a great weekend.

Sustainable farming in Costa Rica - bananas!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 02:41:00 +0000

“The most effective way of alleviating poverty is to give opportunities to kids who come from poor areas. Education is the greatest tool we have.” - José Zaglul, President of EARTH University

My latest article came out today! I researched this piece when I went to Costa Rica in April. The pub even used several of my images in the article (including the one above). The 2013 trip was actually my second time to EARTH University, and in fact the first time I went -- to report on the Planet, People, Peace conference on sustainable ecotourism - I was so impressed I decided I wanted to write an article about the university itself. And delving into the history and operations of the university during my article research I became that much more impressed with the place. They have an "upside down education" model that helps students who may not have had as much education as those from say the U.S., and they put them in the field right away, learning practical techniques. They give them money to run a business for 2 years, and then they have classwork. Nearly everyone has financial aid, and more than half get their full tuition paid for. Everyone I met was so passionate about their work there.

The article is....
Food from EARTH: Sustainable Farming in Action in Environmental Health Perspectives July issue.

Or, you can also view the PDF version here, which has a magazine-style layout, which I prefer!

Let me know what you think if you read it! I really enjoyed reporting this piece. Leave comments! Anonymously if you want :)

I just finished another piece on Costa Rica's efforts towards carbon-neutrality, and my next project is to study for the GRE for my grad school application. I'm seriously considering applying to a JD/PhD program at Stanford -- just because I don't want a life for the next 4 years!! Right?! You with me? Wish me luck...

Two songs from my heart

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:42:00 +0000

God's motive toward us—not only in every moment of our lives but also in death—is love. Love is His very nature, His character, His temperament, His reason for all action. It is out of His love that He creates us and plans our lives. It is by His love that He fulfills each person's purpose and reason for being.
- Zig Ziglar, Confessions of a Grieving Christian

These two songs reflect what is on my heart right now. The first one is an old song by Watermark, one of my all-time favorite bands (Christy Nockels, lead singer). This song, Glory Baby, I heard while running the other day and I almost buckled under the weight of it. I had to turn to a different song. But now I can listen, in the comfort of my home, and cry and let it out and say goodbye. My heart goes out to all of you who have lost babies and those who have lost love before it seemed time. It helps me to personify love as a baby, and to grieve and let go. Just like the lyrics in the song, I can see the baby being held in heaven, taken care of, loved, cherished, until perfection rights all things that should have been but weren't allowed to be on this earth. Goodbye love.

Glory baby you slipped away as fast as we could say baby…baby..
You were growing, what happened dear?
You disappeared on us baby…baby..
Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe until we’re home with you…
Until we’re home with you…

Miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there’s a
day when we will hold you
We will hold you
You’ll kiss our tears away
When we’re home to stay
Can’t wait for the day when we will see you
We will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘till mom and dad can hold you…
You’ll just have heaven before we do
You’ll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little babies, it’s hard to
understand it ‘cause we’re hurting
We are hurting
But there is healing
And we know we’re stronger people through the growing
And in knowing-
That all things work together for our good
And God works His purposes just like He said He would…
Just like He said He would…

BRIDGE:
I can’t imagine heaven’s lullabies
and what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing, heaven is your home
And it’s all you’ll ever know…all you’ll ever know…

This next song is recent. It took a while for it to grow on me, but now I absolutely adore it. I think it's actually my favorite song right now. My kids and I saw the artist, LeCrae, along with Jamie Grace at the KSBJ Booming by the Bay concert series in Kemah a couple years ago. I blogged about it! This song really makes me realize how much literally every single good thing in my life is of God and is a gift from God. It's so easy to succumb to this selfish notion that we "deserve" happiness, or love or this that and the other thing. We don't. I see God as, well, undefinable, but in part He is the good in the world. He IS love. He IS the hug from my sweet daughter when she hasn't wanted to hug me for a year. He IS the tastiness of delicious food. He is life itself. He is the smile from a stranger. He is the hope that I carry even when times got the darkest. And so all of these blessings, all of the friends that are here today, or have been in my life, were a gift from God. And yet some experiences and even perhaps some people were not gifts from God, per se, but maybe were tests or lessons. In the end, even those are good things if we can learn from them. As the lyrics go, "I know the Spirit's purging me of everything that's hurting me."

I had this insight into love on that same run, and that was that when you are loved by someone, it gives you hope and increases your faith. When you are not being truly loved, it tests and challenges your faith and even may cause a faith crisis in your life, a loss of hope, a loss of dreams. If there is a relationship that you are in that is leading you into a dark hole of despair, that is not the right place for you. Love makes you better. Love makes you have more hope. Love - the love that is from God - brings life because it IS life. But I'll be damned if knowing that when you're in the middle of it isn't the hardest thing ever. Because there's the emotion we call love that is really just, well, emotion. And then there is agape love - the act and behavior of giving selflessly and committing to someone else's good.

With every breath I take, with every heart beat,
Sunrise and the moon lights in the dark street.
Every glance, every dance, every note of a song.
It's all a gift undeserved that I shouldn't have known.

...

If Jesus wasn't executed there's no celebration.
So in times that are good, in times that are bad
For any times that I've had it all I will be glad.
And I will boast in the cross. I'll boast in my pains.

...

Patiently you turned my heart away from selfishness.
I volunteer for your sanctifying surgery.
I know the Spirit's purging me of everything that's hurting me.

I love me some elephant seals!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:25:00 +0000

Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) at the Piedras Blancas rookery in San Simeon, California.
Copyright (c) 2013 Wendee Nicole

I downloaded the images of the elephant seals I took at Piedras Blancas rookery last week and wanted to post them because they are just So Darn Cute! They are all or mostly subadults, I believe, but you could tell the males are just super cantankerous and like to get all up in eachother's grills. They must be instinctively fighting and standing up for their rights (to parrrrtttttyyy!! Just kidding - Beastie Boys took over for a few minutes), because when one would slither by - moving very much like an inchworm - another would challenge it. I could have watched them for hours. There was one fairly big guy in the water fighting with whoever would go out there, but most of the seals were on the beach just chillaxing. Once they would fight for a while, they would lie down like old friends. Funny dudes! These are just randomly placed on the blog, without captions. Enjoy! And if you really want to see them, Friends of the Elephant Seal has a live webcam!

Big Sur Coast, California

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:35:00 +0000

Dogpile!! Elephant seals at Piedra Blancas Elephant Seal rookery, CA.
Copyright (c) 2013 Wendee Nicole

Sunday we drove to Big Sur for a couple of days of camping. First, we went to Piedras Blancas to see the elephant seals! This is a rookery where they mate and give birth, and later return to molt, so you can see the seals almost year-round. This is the time of year when subadults and females return to molt. This shot looks amazingly similar to Sonoma Coast State Beach where I camped with Paige and all of our kids a couple years back!

There were only 1 or 2 big daddy-o's (maybe none?) but there were some cantankerous guys who would rear up at one another and get in eachother's faces. It was quite entertaining to watch. I suspect they were subadult males "practicing" their fighting.

A video of the elephant seals. They made the funniest noises! I don't think the video actually captured the sounds they make, though...

I have to say, I think the elephant seals were much cuter than I thought they would be! I have seen photos of them and always thought they were rather hideous, but had never seen elephant seals in the wild before. They have those big funky noses, but they are actually super cute! I had a permagrin and could have watched for hours.

When we first arrived, I looked over the cliff edge, and these ones were really close. This one in front was adorbs! Something about her just tickled me.

The seals were in various stages of molting. We stayed about an hour and watched. I could have stayed for hours!!

Wendee feels happy and peaceful by the sea!! (And, she likes to talk about herself in third person)

This is a shot of the ocean from a random roadside stop. It was really gorgeous and dramatic. The ocean was incredibly blue, also.

A shot of the cliffside from a roadside turnout. By the way, all these are iPhone photos... I have a ton more on my Canon camera that I haven't even downloaded, but I'll upload the best ones when I get a chance.

The view from the Nepenthe restaurant.

We ate dinner here, a restaurant overlooking the Big Sur cliffside and ocean. From their website: "In Greek, Nepenthe means "isle of no care," a place to find surcease from sorrow. So it continues to be for travelers today. A place to stop, to dream, to lift a cup to kindness."

Miranda and I at Nepenthe. I love this photo!

Bob and Miranda at Nepenthe.

I took this photo at Nepenthe of the ocean. There was a darker blue line on the horizon that made the sea look surreal. Then I instagrammed it, making it even more artsy!

We camped at the Riverside Big Sur campground (all the state parks around were already booked by the time we made our reservation). This is the cute little tent that I brought with me... it was a "Scout" tent and thought it "fits two" it actually was a bit too short for me - ha ha. But I managed.

We had a site right next to the Big Sur River. It was very peaceful to hear the gurgling sounds of the gentle creek as I fell asleep.

On Monday, all three of us went to look for condors where we thought they may be hanging out. We stopped at Pfeiffer Beach, which was gorgeous!

It was really cool watching the waves crashing through this giant rock just offshore... it's called Keyhole Rock.

This isn't a great photo - the sky was cloudy and foggy until about 3pm - but I thought these trees were very cool looking. This was on the short hike to Pfeiffer Beach.

Another view of Pfeiffer Beach

We took Bob back to the campground and Miranda and I explored a little. We went back to Nepenthe for a latte and soup, and then went to another park to hike. We took a 1-mile hike to the beach at Andrew Molera State Park, which took us through this beautiful California chaparral.

A creek we passed on the way to the beach. In fact, right at the beginning of the hike we had to take our shoes off and cross the freezing-cold Big Sur River!

The skies cleared right as we started hiking, so we were able to enjoy the ocean waves with a clear blue sky... I sat on a rock for a while and just listened to the sea.

Another shot of the ocean from Andrew Molera State Park

We got back to the campground around 5pm, and made our camp dinner and then... Smores! Because it wouldn't be camping without S'mores!

And a blazing campfire! Miranda and I stayed up talking about life long after dark.

Peace out! Headed back home... hasta luego!