2009!

Happy New Year!

I am doing the new year’s thing, taking a quiet few minutes to look back over my blog from the past year (sparse as it is), reflect on the year that was and think ahead to the year to come.  

From my 2008 New Year post:

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.

So how did 2008 measure up?  Well I certainly didn’t complete the full years work before September (that was overly ambitious!) but I have done a fair chunk of it and was able to get to the conference, do a couple of weeks of spanish classes and even start some early interviews and data collection.  The study is very much on track.

Although I don’t think I blogged about it I was quite worried going into 2008 about how my daughter would handle the changes- moving towns, Mummy doing full time study, starting childcare and travel.  But she was amazing.  We had a few hiccups settling her into childcare (“I want Mummy to stay with me…”) but she’s now going happily 3 days per week (4 days from next week…).  I do find I need to work on the balance and make sure we have plenty of Mummy time, or she gets very clingy, but overall we seem to have found a good balance.

I’m not sure if I have found much balance with my long-suffering husband, and feel like I failed him a little this year.  Once again health problems have limited his ability to complete his studies or find regular work.  He is a wonderful Dad and I honestly don’t know if I would have made much progress on the PhD if he hadn’t been available to pick up most of the childcare and home responsibilities but thinking about that too much only makes me feel more guilty. I really hope this year is the one in which he finally is able to make some progress on his own dreams.

So what are my goals for 2009?

Obviously I want to make significant progress on the PhD- complete the confirmation procedures in February which means finishing the proposal and literature reviews, and then get into the data collection.  This will require about 6 months in Honduras, as well as significant amounts of online research.  By the end of the year I’d like to have the data collection completed, analysis underway and be thinking about some serious writing.

This means another year of hard work and travel.  It also means another year of changes and instability for my daughter and makes things tricky for my husband.  While there is not much I can do about his health except hope and pray, I approach this year more cautiously as I am much more aware now of just how messed up things can get.  I really don’t have any answers and can only keep trying to support him in the best way I can. I suspect this year may become one of investigation and planning as we think about where we want to settle and what we want to do as a family long term.

2008 was also year of spiritual exploration and contemplation as I strayed far futher from the faith I grew up in than I would ever have expected.  I am long past searching for definative answers but will be continuing the journey in 2009.  While much of my life seems set to follow I predictable plan this year this is one area which remains quite blank. Which is very exciting and a bit scary.  

Finally, this post also marks the 2-year anniversary of this blog!  While I haven’t always posted regularly (being a Mum and a PhD student doesn’t leave much spare time for writing blog posts), I like having the outlet to share the things that are on my mind. So, if there are any readers left out there, thanks for reading.  I wish you all the best for the new year, and may this year be one where you too make progress towards reaching your own castles in the sky.

Filed under: Honduras, Thoughts, blogging, phd, study , 2009, New Year, phd

An unconventional movement

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I have a really good excuse….

www.hondurasresearch.net

This is my research website, which is evidence of the hard work I’ve been doing over the past few weeks getting ready for our trip to Honduras where I’ll be speaking at a conference, doing spanish study and starting fieldwork interviews for the research.  Only 12 days until we leave and my to-do list is enormous so I’d better get back to work now….

Filed under: Honduras, blogging, phd

The web is us

I came across this video today while doing some online searching (my PhD is internet- related so it was study…. really), by Michael Wesch, an anthropology professor. It is very interesting, very watchable and very thought-provoking.

Filed under: Thoughts, blogging, life, phd, video , internet, Web 2.0

Happy Monday

As I was getting ready to leave the house this morning I had a startling revelation.  It was Monday morning and I was happy.  I never recall in nursing actually looking forward to the work week and not being sad that the weekend/ days off were over.  I guess despite all the personal and family dramas, and general cynicism over the state of the world, I am in the right place and doing the right thing.  I am enjoying academia, getting my teeth into some really interesting reading and actually making concrete plans to get to Honduras later this year.

My advice to the world for today?  If it’s Monday morning and you are not looking forward to the week, perhaps it’s time to re-evaluate.  Don’t wait for the world to get better for you. If you would rather be doing something else, try and work out how you can make the change happen.  It’s so worth it.

But enough blogging, I really should really actually be doing those readings right now!

Filed under: Honduras, Thoughts, blogging, life, study

A few woes

I’m here.  Sitting at the university contemplating my first week as a PhD student.  Earlier in the week I started mentally composing a post about how happy I was and how great it was to actually be here.  But I’m not posting that today.  Be warned, this is going to be a grumpy post.

Of course, I am happy to be here, and I’m sure the current problems are temporary, but I’m finishing the week in a cloud of frustation.  Here’s my gripes…

We have been lucky to have been allocated a family flat 10 mins walk for campus.  It’s a nice enough place, a little like a motel unit but absolutely fine for what we need.  Exceptwe feel somewhat isolated-

• We are supposed to be able to access wireless internet but the signal seems to be pathetic and we have not yet been able to logon.
• We get exactly 2 television channels, poorly
• The phone line (which is toll barred) has abruptly been cut off for no discernable cause.

Luckily we have cellphones and reception for those is good!  However my list is not quite done yet.  There’s my university woes…

• I’ve been allocated an office- temporarily.  There are Masters students using the PhD room so I’m back in the Masters room.  Not that there’s much difference and I’m certainly not an academic snob, but I really don’t want the hassle of setting up and then being moved.
• I can’t seem to get my computer registered on the university network.  It wasn’t a problem 3 years ago but now it seems there is a couple of little problems including new staff who don’t know the procedures and a possibly new $120 charge that I might be made to pay.
• The USB drive a bought was faulty.  No problem to exchange than goodness.  But then I went and left it at home today.  Which wouldn’t be a problem except at the moment (for the above reasons) I am working between 3 different computers and the library.
• I can’t use my bibliographic software because it requires a download that I can’t download because I can’t access the internet from my computer and I can’t even download it from another computer onto the USB drive and then onto my computer for the above reasons…

I have some other woes to do with feeling a bit overwhelmed with the topic and wondering where to start- probably much more important in the long term, but internet and computer difficulties are making that process so much more difficult. 

On the bright side- I”M HERE!  I really needed to vent, and am feeling a bit better for doing so.  It is now nearly 6pm on Friday night, the library is about to close and I am going to go home and enjoy my weekend.  Hopefully I’ll come back refreshed and optomistic and once more excited about the fact that I am able to pursue a PhD.  After all, I really am one of the lucky ones, many many people in this world never get this sort of opportunity.

Filed under: Thoughts, blogging, life, phd, study , computer, internet

Moving on…

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?

Filed under: Thoughts, blogging, life, phd

Women Deliver

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.

 

Click here for more.

 

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

2008!

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

Medical Missions: Care and Controversy

I mentioned in my last post that I have another writing project, and I thought maybe I should share more about it as I am finding it a very interesting process. Last year I wrote an article for Just Change- a magazine put out by Dev Zone (Aotearoa New Zealand non-governmental resource centre on international development and global issues) “about, by, and for those who are concerned with sustainable development, social justice, and human rights”.

The theme of the issue was religion so I pulled some things related to religion from my Master’s research, which was about the role of Medical Missions in Honduras. The editors are now planning an issue on Volunteering and I offered a short article on medical volunteering (even though I have almost no time for writing!). However they already had someone covering that and asked for another on religion. I was a little hesitant about that at first, but warmed to the topic again, expanding on some ideas from the first article. The process has been quite therapeutic, allowing me to reflect on, and be honest with myself about my religious roots.

That article won’t be published until February, but in the meantime- here is the first one.

______________________________________________________________

Medical Missions: Care and Controversy
Just Change: Religion and Spirituality
July 2006, Page 27

Humanitarian service is a fundamental tenant of most major religions, and has a particularly important place in Christianity. Christian missionaries and religious organisations have long played a part in the provision of health care services to many isolated and impoverished regions and this tradition continues today. With the availability of cheap airfares and paid vacation time, voluntary health care is now increasingly provided in the form of Short Term Medical “Missions” (STMMs). These are teams of mainly expatriate health professionals who travel to developing nations for a few days or weeks to provide health care to the poor. While these STMMs are sometimes the only form of medical care to which impoverished communities have access, they are also the focus of much controversy and debate, criticised for their limitations in relation to language and culture, resources, personnel, knowledge and time. Religious missions face further criticism, particularly those that proselytise.

Although not all STMMs are religious, religious involvement and religious beliefs have been shown to be associated with a greater likelihood to volunteer.1 This was evident in my research on STMMs in Honduras, where I found that 50-70% of teams and volunteer were religiously motivated. However, the degree to which religion was a motivating factor – and the level to which it influenced the activities of the team – varied considerably. Some of these teams were strongly evangelical, others more subtle, offering service as an expression of their faith.

At one end of the STMM spectrum are teams that arrive in Honduras with a strong evangelical purpose. For these teams the medical work is secondary, and may take a back seat to religious activities such as prayer, church meetings and evangelism. These teams overtly proselytise, often using the medical work to draw people in to hear their message. This was evident in one team involved in my research; they defined their medical work as “bait”, and their main purpose of being in Honduras was to evangelise. This particular approach may arise from the premise that the first role of the church is evangelistic mission.2 Many evangelical Christians believe their primary task is to “bring the gospel to a dying world… (and) the command to evangelise is all that matters”.3

Not surprisingly, the above approach raises significant ethical questions. While most evangelical volunteers would argue that they provide medical care without expecting a religious response, the perception of the patients and community may well be otherwise. During my research, an NGO director who has worked for many years in Honduras state that evangelical STMMs “forced people to lie”, as people converted in order to receive medical treatment.

Not all religious missions are evangelical in nature. While for some, volunteering for a medical brigade may be an opportunity to pass on their beliefs, for others it is an opportunity simply to express Christian values;4 more about Christian responsibility than about evangelism. However, even non-evangelical teams are criticised on the basis that they provide assistance both without reference to the local culture and subject to their own biases. As Mburu5 notes, Christian agencies carry the legacy of their background and beliefs with them wherever they go, and these have an influence on where they go and what they do. This may lead to the provision of services that are inappropriate or even damaging to the community they are trying to help. This is particularly evident where teams are faced with sensitive issues such as sexuality and mental health. At best, religious teams may be ill equipped to respond to sexual, social or psychiatric problems.

Despite these issues, religious missions continue to provide medical care across Honduras, and questions regarding the appropriateness and ethics of religious missions are often overlooked. STMMs offer a free service to countries whose own health service is in disarray, and even critics are reluctant to risk losing access to that service.

While this article addresses STMMs in Honduras, Christian missions are present in almost all areas of the globe, and the issues raised here are pertinent worldwide. Religious organisations have a long and proud history. They provide valuable services to impoverished regions, but their contribution can be controversial and must be balanced against the needs of the community. It is important that Christians involved in providing medical care to developing countries assess their motivations and activities to provide the best and most appropriate care possible.
References:

1 Bussell, H. and D. Forbes (2002). “Understanding the volunteer market: The what, where, who and why of
volunteering.” International Journal of Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Marketing 7(3): 244-250.
2 Stewart, A. C. (1999). Medical Missions – is medical work useful in mission? Retrieved 16 May, 2005, from http://www.healthserve.org/pubs/a0113.htm
3 Reinhart Bonnke, quoted in Gifford, P. (2000). Christian Fundamentalism and Development. In S. Crobridge (Ed.), Development: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences (Vol. 5, pp 34-47). London: Routledge.
4. Russell, H. and D. Forbes (2002). “Understanding the volunteer market: The what, where, who and why of volunteering.” International Journal of Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Marketing 7(3): 244-250.
5 Mburu, F. M. (1989). “Non-government organizations in the health field: Collaboration, integration and contrasting aims in Africa.” Social Science & Medicine 29(5): 591-597.

Filed under: Central America, Honduras, New Zealand, Thoughts, blogging, study , dev zone, just change, medical missions, volunteer

Fresh Perspectives

Obviously I am not doing very well at posting on this blog at the moment-  with family, work, research proposals and another small writing project I have committed to, blogging has ended up way down the list of priorities.  However in order to keep some interest in this blog (both for me and for readers) I thought I would post a great link with some amazing photos.

Panos pictures is “a London-based independent photo agency representing photojournalists worldwide. Our photographers document issues and geographical areas which are under-reported, misrepresented or ignored. In a media climate dominated by celebrity and lifestyle Panos aims to provide fresh perspectives on the world.”

Here are a couple of photos from “Climate Wars”, a collection of photos from refugee camps in the Sudan.  A sad indictment on the state of our world- there are many heartbreaking pictures, yet here we still see joy in children’s faces.

Filed under: Africa, blogging, children, life, news, poverty, refugees, social justice , Panos photos, photojournalism, Sudan