Global Goals Spotlight #1: Gender Equality

Remember when I wrote about the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development?

Let's talk about those again.

Specifically, today I want to talk about #5: Gender Equality ("Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls"). Some people are tired of talking about gender equality because they think it's irrelevant. Outdated. Obsolete. I could expound at length about trafficking, sexual violence and rape, the gender wage gap, lack of access to healthcare, under-representation in political and leadership roles, illiteracy, lack of education for girls in impoverished countries, female genital mutilation, and reproductive rights -- but I won't. (For now.) Suffice it to say that I strongly believe the gender equality conversation is imperative.

The Global Goals website summarizes the ideas behind each Goal on their website; I highly encourage you to read the whole list of targets for achieving Goal #5 here.

I've been thinking a lot about this Goal lately, and spending some time reading about it and gathering resources. So now I want to share a few of those resources for education and action with you.

Recently, NPR has been doing a fantastic series of articles called #15Girls: Teens Taking Control and Changing Their Fate. I love this because it gets people engaged and thinking about the realities of life for teens (especially girls) around the world (especially those living in poverty).

A few highlights from the series:

• Read an article explaining the issue: Where the Girls Are (And Aren't).
• Find out how much you know about the world's girls in this quiz.
• Or just go for the full list of all the #15Girls stories.

About a month ago, my housemate Sarah told me about an app called Charity Miles. It's free, and when you walk, run, or bike somewhere, it tracks your distance and donates to a charity of your choice. It's not a lot, but it adds up; since I started using it, I've accumulated $10.12 from the walking and biking I'm already doing. As a very small way to remember to fight for the Global Goals, I've been splitting my donations between Girl Up (a UN organization designed to empower girls around the world, especially "girls living in places where it is hardest to be a girl") and Every Mother Counts (a maternal health organization that provides education, transportation, and supplies to women during pregnancy and childbirth). I know it's small, but it's something I can do with absolutely no extra effort other than the few seconds it takes to turn on Charity Miles.

Another incredible resource is Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn's book Half the Sky. I can't say enough about this book. It's as foundational as it is eye-opening, and as hopeful as it is realistic. Read it, read it, read it. But just in case you don't, I'll boil it down to this one phrase: Educating girls will change the world.

These are just a few ways to get involved in the movement to empower our sisters around the world. There are hundreds more that I haven't named, and I encourage you to find them and tell people about them.

I don't have all the answers, friends. But I'm asking you today to do one thing. Please just take one step to educate yourself, or change a habit, or give to a nonprofit, or open your eyes. It does make a difference. It really does.

Write your story

National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) starts on November 1. It's a 30-day challenge: Write a novel (50,000 words) during the month of November. Lots of published books have started out as NaNoWriMo novels (Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen; Cinder by Marissa Meyer), but the project's main goal is to get people to write for the sake of writing. For the sake of telling stories, no matter if they're ever read by another living soul or not.

Interestingly, Daniel and I are apparently switching identities for the preparation stage of this project. He, normally the procrastinator, has been developing his novel idea for months: piecing together the details of its futuristic setting, talking through complicated plot twists, and even spending a couple of days in the library researching various medieval societies. I, on the other hand, have no idea what's going to spill out of my brain next Sunday. I haven't even decided if I'm strictly writing a novel or if I'm going to do essays or maybe short stories instead. I plan on starting with a blank document and making words spill out until something interesting happens. (This is what I had to do for most of my assignments in the Creative Writing class I took at EMU, and it worked surprisingly well.)

I think I'm too much of a reader -- and literary critic -- for this type of project. I think the reason I've had trouble coming up with a story idea is because I want my story to be remarkable. Stories are one of my favorite things about life. I can't stand the thought of creating one that's dumb or boring or cliche. Somehow, I'll have to suspend all my standards for high-caliber writing and focus on quantity of words, not quality. I'm an editor by nature, so my instinct will be to edit as I go, but that's not the point of this endeavor.

I've been waffling on whether or not to go through with the project ever since Daniel announced his plan to participate, but last week, I officially decided to do it. After that I was vaguely worried about it (mostly about my uncharacteristic complete lack of planning ahead and preparing), and casting around for story ideas. Then I watched this awesome talk (from the first-ever NerdCon: Stories that took place earlier this month) by Sarah Mackey, director of Community Engagement at NaNoWriMo, and I got really excited.

She talks about why every single one of our stories matters, how writing a novel in a month can spur us on to other new and fabulous experiences, and the value of spontaneous creativity. (PLUS SHE QUOTES MALCOLM REYNOLDS so obviously she knows what she's talking about.)

I'm not prepared - but I'm ready. 

Anyone else gearing up for NaNoWriMo? :)

A week in photos

First, two favorite photos from last weekend's Relief Sale in Rocky Ford, CO. Among the many highlights of the weekend (pressing fresh apple cider, eating homemade pie, making new friends) was this: bicycle-churned ice cream!

We got to see the Albuquerque Service Adventure unit again for a short visit, which made the trip even more fun.

A mid-week hike in Garden of the Gods.

Walking downtown to an orchestra rehearsal Friday morning...

My neighborhood is beautiful.

It rained for three days this week, which led to a new and beautiful sight that we'll likely be seeing for the next six to eight months...snow-capped mountains.

Today we spent another quick hour at the Garden. The late afternoon fall sunshine was too good to miss.

It's a beautiful world out there, friends.

Neighborly wonderings

I went out into the alley behind our house today to get cardboard to shred for my compost pile. While I was out there I heard the voice of our neighbor who lives on the other side of the alley, talking to his cat and the squirrels like he always does. I mused about his oddness for a while. Then I realized I was elbow deep in my giant blue recycling bin, foraging for used cardboard.

Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't be quite so quick to pass judgment on other people's normalcy.

Maybe he sees something in the animals that I don't see. Or maybe he just gets along with animals better than with people. Can't blame anyone for that.

As I left the recycling bin, retreating inside our wooden fence to my little compost haven, I waved. He greeted me back merrily with a wave and a hello.

"That's the girl..." he said to his cat, the rest of the sentence too quiet for me to hear. I smiled to myself. I really want to know what he told the cat about me.

Maybe tomorrow I'll learn his name or something else about him. Or maybe we'll just share another wave and a smile. Either way, I'm happy.

Unit life: Endeavors to live simply

Before our term started as Service Adventure leaders, Daniel had an idea. He called it "Simplicity Challenges," envisioning a weekly exercise in which we as a household draw a slip of paper from a jar and receive instructions for a challenge for the week. He and I both believe in living simply: pursuing social justice, conserving resources, and modeling our own lives in a way that moves us toward a better, more sustainable, and more loving world.

So we brainstormed some challenges (mostly about resource use, but striving for a variety) and, when the time came, broached the idea with our participants. Some of them were a little hesitant at first, but they're a pretty happy, adaptable, willing-to-try-things sort of group, so they agreed.

We drew our first challenge during a house meeting several weeks ago, and we've been doing one every week since. We've had quite a few interesting experiences as a result -- here's a glimpse into that aspect of our lives together.

Week 1: Save water by limiting shower time. We had to decide some parameters for this one, and we came to the consensus that everyone was allotted 21 minutes of shower water for the week, to be used at any time. This works out to 3-minute-long daily showers. For people like me who don't shower every day anyway, this wasn't a huge stretch, but I still challenged myself to pare down my time and in the end I only used 16 minutes.

Week 2: Fast from a meal. This was probably my favorite challenge so far. I've done a lot of short-term fasting in the past (one year for Lent I fasted from lunch once a week, and I've done two or three 24-hour fasts) but I hadn't done one in a while. For some of the girls, though, this was their first experience with fasting. So this was a good opportunity to embrace our abstinence from a meal in favor of remembering those who lack adequate food, and reminding ourselves about the many things that sustain us other than food.

Week 3: Save your trash. We decided on a 4-day stint for this one, and we each carried a ziplock plastic bag around to collect all the trash we each produced. It was an interesting experiment, and it helped that we compost and recycle quite a bit, so as a household our trash output is fairly low. Still, the exercise provoked a few obvious attempts to avoid trash (like when someone left about eight Cheerios in the box rather than finishing them and having to save the bag). I was pretty happy that my quart-size bag wasn't stuffed by the end of the week, but obviously I can still do better next time.

Week 4: Save fuel by walking or biking instead of driving a vehicle. We talked for a while about how to do this one, since Franzi drives the van to work every day, our church is about 6 miles from our house (and I had agreed to play violin in church that week), and we had Friday night plans in a neighboring town about a 30 minute drive away. Eventually, we decided that we would attempt to walk or bike any trip that was within 1-2 miles. This was pretty easy for all of us, since that's sort of the default approach we each take anyway. Anna, Sarah, and Anali all bike about a mile and a half to work every day, and Daniel and I love to travel around town by bike whenever we're able. However, the challenge did result in one instance where the six of us walked somewhere we might have otherwise driven, so we'll call it a success.

Week 5 (the current week): Save electricity by turning off lights after 9 pm. Unlike some of the previous challenges, this one was met with enthusiasm right from the start. (I think it helps that our housemates usually go to bed around 9:30 on weeknights...) So at 9:00 every night, we're sporting headlamps, flashlights, cell phones, and candles. It's nice, in a way.

After we complete a challenge, we've been putting the slip of paper back in the jar, so repeats are inevitable. (And, if I remember right, we only have a total of about eight or nine different challenges in the jar.) If you have an idea for a future challenge we could incorporate, I'd love to hear it!

October happenings

I've been pretty discouraged lately about the state of the mainstream American food system. (More so than usual, I mean.) Maybe it's that the Colorado growing season is nearly over, so my easy access to local, organic food from PPUG is ending. Maybe it's that I read too many articles about pesticides, GMO labeling, resource use at factory farms, etc. (Most recently, this article about conventional fruits and vegetables has been on my mind.) But more likely, the largest reason for my discouragement is that we're a Service Adventure household living on a very limited food budget. Which we're very good at sticking to -- but that's because we're buying predominantly cheap, conventionally produced, often heavily processed food. And I'm not a big fan of saving money by slowly poisoning myself. At least I can dream about building a big garden in our backyard in the spring, but at the moment spring feels like a very long time from now.

This morning I needed a little extra happiness in my life, so I stopped by our neighborhood natural foods store and bought myself a few organic apples and my favorite kombucha. (With my own money, obviously, not the household funds.) And while I was there, I stopped by to talk to the lady sitting at the Bernie 2016 table outside the store. "Are you a Bernie supporter?" she asked. I nodded yes, a bit redundantly, I thought. I had just ridden my bicycle to a natural foods store -- of course I'm a Bernie supporter.

I finally got registered to vote in Colorado, something I've been meaning to do since we moved here in July. Some people are of the opinion that it's not worth it to vote in local, non-presidential elections. (Not to mention names, but one of them has lived with me for the past two years.) I heartily disagree, so I'm glad to be getting involved in the CO political scene.

In other news from this week....Daniel and I spent a day volunteering at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. They've been having problems with the spruce beetle, so our main task was to take down infested trees in the forest so they don't lose all the spruce trees.

It was a tough day -- chainsaws and killing trees aren't really my thing -- but I always love the chance to spend time at this beautiful camp. (Plus there were Scotcharoos for dessert at lunch, so everything was worth it.)

Probably my favorite part was chopping limbs off the trees that had already fallen - axes being the only part of this operation I was previously familiar with, due to my years as a camp counselor chopping firewood.

The fallen, stripped tree trunks were hauled off to a lumberyard.

Our church congregation blessed us with a food shower this week! This is a very, very, very small portion of what we've received so far, but it represents one of my favorite parts: the Equal Exchange tea.

We also had fun at a celebration of Beth-El's 59th birthday, put on by the church youth group.

Highly anticipated in the week to come: the Rocky Mountain MCC Relief Sale!

Balloons and new friends

We spent last weekend in the balloon capital of the world: Albuquerque, NM! Its annual balloon fiesta is the largest in the world, with hundreds of hot air balloons ascending together in a week-long series of events. Albuquerque is over five hours away, so we didn't get to stay long -- we arrived late Friday night and left on Sunday after lunch. 

Early Saturday morning, we woke up before dawn and inched through horrendous traffic to the park where the fiesta is held. (Next year, we'll definitely consider walking the couple of miles from the SA house to the park -- it took us almost an hour and a half to travel that distance by car.) Here we are just outside the park as the balloons were starting to fill the skies.

And later on, as more and more took flight.

Down on the field in the middle of the park, we had a great close-up view of the inflation & take-off process.

Besides the balloons, a major highlight of the trip was hanging out with the Albuquerque Service Adventure unit! Daniel and I knew the leaders from our orientation this summer, but the participants had never met before. They got along great, though.

Hanging out in the park, watching the balloons, exploring, drawing, and feasting on Sondra's homemade cinnamon rolls.

Later that day, we spent some time getting to know other parts of the Albuquerque area. We drove to an overlook called Sandia Crest. Albuquerque is similar in elevation and climate to Colorado Springs, and this overlook was situated at over 10,000 feet. 

Aspen trees are the closest thing we get to fall colors in our region of the mountainous west, and while they're nothing compared to the crimson-sunset-rainbow splendor of the east coast, the golden yellow leaves shimmering in the breeze are still worth appreciating. It's hard to tell from this picture, but you can see glimpses of a few on the left.

Then we spent a bit of time exploring downtown ABQ, enjoying its cute adobe buildings and vibrant colors.

So much fun to see our two groups becoming friends.

The unit house was cute too, and its neighborhood looked like the epitome of southwest desert life. All adobe houses of different-colored earth tones, with cacti and other desert plants decorating the arid landscape. I was glad to see that many of the families in this neighborhood didn't try to pretend that planting grass was worth it; instead, we saw lots of dirt and gravel yards, and even a few that were full of tall brown prairie grasses.

Another quirk of ABQ: Lots of people decorate their porches with bunches of dried chili peppers. I even saw chili pepper-patterned clothing on multiple occasions.

It was interesting to experience a small taste of life in Albuquerque, especially while thinking about the fact that Daniel and I deliberated for quite a while between the Springs and ABQ in choosing our location for our time with Service Adventure. Both are incredible cities with a lot to offer, and I still think we would have had a great time in Albuquerque. But I didn't feel any sense of regret or missed opportunity. Instead, somehow, I felt sure that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be. I can't imagine not being in love with the Rocky Mountains and Colorado life, or not knowing my four awesome housemates. 

It was good to be there, and it's good to be home.