January 31, 2008 • 10:52 pm 0
Today was my last day of work.
Tomorrow we finish packing and clean.
Saturday we finshing cleaning, load the car and trailer and drive to Palmerston North.
Monday I start life as a PhD candidate.
Strange. How did we get to February so quickly?
(I think I should resign my job and get a new haircut in the same week more often. I haven’t had so many nice things said to me for a long time.)
Next post… from Palmy?
January 26, 2008 • 11:54 pm 3
A couple of interesting things I found in my google reader today…
I think this ad from the Grey ad agency in Milan, Italy is supposed to highlight the need to think about global warming, but I think it can also be seen as a challenge to think about other global issues too.
Thinking more positively AVO Market is a new online collaborative work that “allows you to explore different types of markets from all over the world. I love it- the photos remind me of my travels. Whereever I go in the world, one of the first places I like to visit is the local markets. You get a glimpse of how people live, what they eat, wear and use in thier homes; how they relate and do business; and the art, music and local culture of a place. Suburban malls don’t even come close to that kind of experience!
H/T Treehugger- thanks!
Filed under: environment, travel , AVO, global warming, Grey, markets
January 24, 2008 • 11:40 pm 0
…and because I think this blog needs a little light and happiness. Here is my gorgeous girl jumping in puddles and chasing bubbles during Garden’s Magic at Wellington Botanic gardens.
Filed under: New Zealand, children, life , Botanic Gardens, Garden's Magic, Wellington
• 11:24 pm 0
The title of this post kind of says it all. After my deep introspection of my last post I am back to the more prosaic and mundane aspects of change.
I finally recieved confirmation of my provisional registration and enrolment in the PhD program today, the scholarship is sorted, as is accomodation and childcare for my daughter. All that remains is to finish one last week at work and to pack and move! It seems quite unreal that in just over a week I will actually be starting a PhD.
What is real is the work we need to do this week. Storage space is limited and the accomodation we are moving to is furnished so there is a lot of sorting to do before we pack- stuff to keep and take, stuff to keep but store in Wellington, stuff to give away and (a scary amount of) stuff to throw away. This task is complicated bythe fact that my darling husband has injured his knee and currently has very limited mobility (although keeping him sitting down for long enough to enable to knee to heal is proving a real challenge, especially with an active 2.5 yr old around!).
But we will get there. 3 working days, 5 packing days and 1 cleaning day to go!
January 21, 2008 • 11:12 pm 1
Over the past year or so I’ve been giving a lot of thought to who I am, and have been feeling somewhat lost because instead of becoming clearer, I seem to be loosing more and more of who I thought I was.
But I’ve just had a moment of revelation. The loss is part of the journey. I don’t know what will happen, or who I’ll become, but I’m becoming quite clear about what I am not.
I am not religious. This may suprise any readers who actually personally know me, but despite a very conservative religious upbringing and years of church and missions, I no longer feel “Christian”. I still sometimes go to church, but I longer feel I fit there. I’m not sure what my beliefs actually are, or whether they are even Christian, but I know they are not the conservative, evangelical Christianity I have spent most of my life following. Although it is a strange place to not know quite what I believe, it is enormously freeing. For the first time in my life I feel like I can explore the myriad of beliefs, philosphies and ideas that make up this world without guilt or preconcieved judgement and that is incredibly liberating.
I am not a mummy-type. I nearly wrote “I am not a Mummy” but that would be both emotionally and physically untrue. I am a Mummy and I love my daughter absolutely and completely. But I do not fit in the Mummy culture. I was a stay-at-home Mum for over a year and still only work part time. I firmly believe that parents are the best carers for under-3s, however I quickly got bored silly with coffee groups, play groups and the routine of being a stay-at-home Mum. I would drop eveything in a minute if my daughter needed me to be home but I am lucky that she gets good care from her father and grandmother and I am able to work and study. This makes me happier- and I’m think I am a better mother for it (although I have to confess some worry as she will need to go to daycare 3 days per week once we move).
I am not a nurse. Again, another stretching of the truth. I am a nurse, I just had my practising certificate renewed to prove it. What I mean here is that I am not particularly happy as a nurse in the conventional sense. While I really do care about my patients (and have had enough good feedback to presume I do a reasonably good job) it is increasingly difficult to motivate myself on clinic days, and I have found myself wishing patients would not show up for appointments. I naturally prefer to work with my head rather than my hands and accordingly have made a decision to change career tracks and persue an academic career in a different field. I want to help people and believe I can do it best using my natural skills and preferences. I think the world still needs thinkers!
So that is where I’m at. Less sure than I ever have been about who I am but knowing what I’m not. Perhaps my resolution for the year should be to make some progress on finding who I am. But it is a journey, it’s been an interesting one so far, and for once I think I will be content to just enjoy the ride- I’m very curious as to where it will take me.
Filed under: Thoughts, life, nursing, parenting, study , Christianity, religion
January 20, 2008 • 11:25 pm 3
I just ‘found’ this post in my drafts list and was struck again by the numbers. Although I’m sure the reason it hasn’t been posted is because I was going to add some thoughts based on my own experience as a mother, nurse and volunteer in the developing world- but I don’t think it really needs it. Just read and reflect on the implications for yourself (the italics are mine).
Every minute of every day, a woman still dies needlessly during pregnancy or childbirth, most in the developing world. Ten million women are still lost in every generation – our mothers and sisters, daughters and grandmothers, wives and partners, friends and neighbors. At the same time, 4 million newborn babies die every year, also from causes that are mainly preventable.
In this silent tragedy, huge disparities exist between rich and poor countries and between the rich and the poor in all countries. One in six Afghan women will die during pregnancy, compared to one in 2,500 in the United States and one in 29,800 in Sweden, according to 2000 figures from the World Health Organization – the greatest disparity in all the indicators WHO monitors.
Fully 42 percent of all pregnancies everywhere experience a complication during pregnancy and childbirth, and in 8 percent of all pregnancies, the complications are life-threatening. Survival rates depend upon the distance and time women must travel to get skilled medical care. Maternal mortality, defined as the death of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, has dire consequences for the woman’s family, community and country.
Original article by Joanne Omang
From The Global Health Council
Filed under: blogging, health, poverty, social justice , Afganistan, childbirth, Global Health Council, maternal mortality, pregnancy, WHO, women's rights
January 14, 2008 • 9:40 pm 0
“I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest and my trips to the poles. But there is no doubt that my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain.”I hope New Zealand, Nepal and the world do not forget “Sir Ed’s” words and remember him the way he wanted to be remembered, by continuing the work of the Himalayan Trust. “For me to kick the bucket and then to know that that work is being continued would be a tremendous satisfaction.”(TVNZ)
Filed under: New Zealand, Thoughts, news, social justice , Himalaya, Nepal, Sir Edmund Hillary
January 7, 2008 • 11:40 pm 1
I know the New Year is already a week old but I’ve been away on holiday and am just catching up with reality now. 2008 is here.
And I’m about to start a PhD.
I found it interesting to look back at the very first post on this blog (NewYears 2007) and my “non-resolutions”, and to see how far I have come. And I’ve come a lot further than I ever would have imagined. At the start of 2007 a PhD was really only a dream, something I might one day do. My aim for the year was simply to “make the most of all the professional development opportunities that I can, read more and perhaps try to write a couple more articles.” I did that, and also started making enquiries into the PhD process, which turned into longer discussions and then a research idea, which became a proposal and a scholarship. And here I am, somewhat bewildered, ready to start.
I’ve made mixed progress on the other non-resolutions. The PhD topic is Honduras-focused and will involve travel to Honduras, hopefully as soon as September this year and certainly for most of 2009. It might not quite be the way I thought we would do it, but it gets us there! As for my plan to “be more community minded and more ethically and environmentally conscious in the way I live”, well I try. Working in a non-profit organisation has certainly made me a lot more conscious of the community around me, but I still come home and hide a lot!
So what about 2008? I’ve not made any resolutions or non-resolutions this time. To be honest between being a mum, working and planning a PhD I haven’t had the time or head space to think about it. Any goals I have for them moment revolve around the PhD. I have set myself the somewhat ambitious task of getting through the first year’s work (full proposal and literature review) before September so that we can go to Honduras to do a Spanish school and attend a conference.
This means I will be working very hard for a while. But not at the expense of my family. I guess my real goal for the year is to get this PhD underway while continuing to be the best mum and wife I can be. Lets hope I can be at least as sucessful this year as I was in 2007- I can’t afford not to be.
Filed under: Thoughts, blogging, life, study , New Year, phd, resolutions
PhD candidate in Development Studies, currently doing fieldwork and experimenting with living in Honduras.
