Famous Person Sighting

Traffic was difficult getting Sophie the couple of miles to school for her lacrosse practice tonight.  After inching along for some time, we finally figured out what the hold up was - a famous person.  Nope, not Obama.  Not a celebrity being arrested for protesting.  It was.....Ronald McDonald.  Seriously.  Hanging out in front of the neighborhood post office, shaking hands and posing for photos.  Not exactly the person I would have bet we would sight stopping traffic in DC!

When I got home and showed Xavier the photo, his response was "That's scary.  Seriously.  Clowns are the scariest of all".  Guess Ronald doesn't hold the same allure for his generation as it did for mine - thankfully!

Home

I'm winding up a busy week after getting back from Seattle/Vashon.  Having just returned from one island, the kids and I spent Easter weekend on another island - Chincoteague Island, VA.  It's a short bike ride over a bridge to a National Wildlife Reserve, Assateague Island - with stunning, undisturbed beaches on the Atlantic.  I think we needed a bit of island life to help us reenter city life.

During the time on Vashon, I made the very difficult decision to give up my option to purchase the home we had been living in there.  Things got too complicated and too expensive.  However, it has made me - and the kids - really consider what "home" is.  We've traveled a lot and always considered Vashon home. But, owning a home on Vashon felt like a way to "guarantee" that it is home.  In our own ways, we each got to the realization that home is wherever we are and that Vashon is still our anchor and owning a home - or not - doesn't change that.  Somehow, working through that has made this week in DC feel more settled and more "ok" than it had before.  Right now, we're in DC and it's our home for now.  Vashon is where we will keep going back to and we'll make the most of the adventures we have when we travel the world!

Easter at Assateague Island - on the "other" coast

Rosie -making the most of being a DC Dog

Bike Racks, Sun Breaks and Grunge

Yes, it's a Seattle cliche.  I'm sitting in a Whole Foods on a Sunday morning drinking a cappuccino, strangely there is grunge on the overhead stereo (not sure which is worse on a Sunday morning - grunge or musak), we are experiencing one of the rare "sun breaks" lauded by the weather forecasters and bike rack-laden Subarus are passing by in large numbers.  No doubt I'm back in Seattle.

I've spent much of the past few days in Vashon Island (check out today's NY Times Travel Section on Vashon)  staying on a sailboat moored in the Burton Marina, just across the street from the now famous Burton Coffee stand.  It's been mostly pouring rain with no sense of where the sun might be, but the goslings and bald eagles make up for the weather.

Being back, I'm mostly struck by the slower pace, politeness, "colorful" characters and general sense of people being outside - no matter the weather.  As I sat in front of my daughter's former middle school while she was visiting last week, I realized that the kids were outside during lunch, few with coats and mostly running around totally ignoring the rain.  In DC, outside lunch is cancelled if there's even a hint of rain and Xavier isn't allowed outside - pretty much anytime it's under 70 degrees - without a coat.  In DC, even when it's been near 80 degrees, Xavier wears cords and a flannel shirt nearly every day.  Here, he went to his former school for the day in shorts and a t-shirt - all set to be outside in the rain!  Not sure what that's about.

I guess I'm classically caught in between 2 places.  There is much I am learning to like about DC and much I miss about Seattle & Vashon.  I don't quite feel "home" either place but am ok for the moment in observing how similar and different both places are and how each has elements which reflect the various parts of myself.

My Vashon "Home" for the week (notice the raindrops in the water - this was during a "light" rain).

Back Home

Other than being awake at 4 each morning and having some serious fatigue in the afternoons, I've adjusted better than expected to being home.  It is a blessing and a challenge to come home to 2 active kids and a demanding dog and coping with a body that can pull through when needed, but then collapses with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue after periods of intensity - like a trip half way across the world.

After a stunning over 80 degree day and full bloom of the cherry trees on Friday which made me so glad to be in DC right now (I'll check in again in July!), the rain and cold of the past day or so reminded me of Vashon.   Yesterday, I felt that old familiar coldness to the bone that only cool weather with rain can provide and somehow it felt like home.

Talking about the weather, paying bills, running errands, helping with homework, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, making the meals - it's all just life and some of the many details that make us human and not so unlike the families I visited in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Video

Photos from my trip.  Such beautiful people and places.  The photo with the elderly woman shroud in blue with beds on the floor is an urban slum birthing clinic.  The following photograph of the stool and various water vessels are the only "tools" she uses for assisting in births.  Most other photos are people we visited and photos I took of people taking photos of me.

http://youtu.be/XtVjJGOxkx8

Babies and Bathrooms

Today's site visit was definitely rural.  We were in the area of Sylhet and drove out to visit various women and health workers.  At one home, we had to park and walk into the village for about 5 minutes through winding paths lined with bamboo and foot bridges over the area's many, many pools of water.  In this area 2 Western women were a spectacle to say the least.  I took several pictures of people taking pictures of me and generally caused a stir wherever I went.  After we left one home, I told the driver I needed to use the restroom.  Although it is rural, a downside of being a westerner and a woman in a rural area is that it's impossible to just take a discreet pee on the side of the road.  After much discussion with our local guide, the driver pulled over to the side of the road, got out, went into a home and came back out, motioning for me to come inside.  I was led into a dark room and then shown a bathroom which was actually better than expected - cement floor and fairly new standing platform.  I was a bit horrified when I came out and asked our guide how the driver knew to stop there.  Apparently, he saw a house that looked like newer construction and figured they'd have a decent toilet.  He arranged with the family to let me use it and much to their surprise and mine, there I was, a random Westerner peeing in their bathroom!

After a very full morning of visiting moms and adorable babies, we flew back to Dhaka and were met by the onslaught of horns, gridlocked traffic and pollution.  I am exhausted in that "wow, what an amazing trip it's been" and "I can't believe this is my job" kind of way but am very ready to get on the plane at 3 tomorrow morning and start the long trek home, kiss my kids and my dog and go to sleep for days.......

Early Morning in Sylhet

I'm in Sylhet, an area in Northeastern Bangladesh, just near the India border.  As with every other morning on this trip, I am awake by 5am with a couple of hours to process my time here before I launch into another very intense day.  This time, I am staying in an "all-things-made-in-China" hotel with an arrow pointing to Mecca on the wall, hearing the first of the day's call to prayer and having a very distinct feeling that women don't stay here alone very often.  After a monsoon rain and small earthquake our first 24 hours in Dhaka, I am also very aware of the substandard nature of most of the buildings here.  

This was to be a "rural" site visit and I was expecting rural.  I somehow forgot the incredible concentration of people in this relatively small country.  Rural is not really so rural.  Sylhet is filled with all the paradoxes of the developing world - children picking through trash heaps to find a scrap of something that will either serve as food or a toy right next to high end shops selling jewelry and embroidered silk saris.  The traffic is beyond insane and it's clear there isn't a lot of fear of head-on collisions as cars go head to head with large trucks barreling down the road, swerving at the last second only to miss a rickshaw by mere centimeters.  I have stopped looking out the front window and instead engage in conversation with my colleagues in the back seat.

I am also struck by how similar the roadside stalls and general day to day life looks so much like africa.  Then, I realized it's because 90% of what's sold on the roadside is all the same cheap plastic and metal stuff manufactured in China and sold in every corner of the world.  Local products are edged out by these unattractive Chinese goods that never biodegrade and don't do much for local trade.  Also, the produce is nearly the same as in Ghana and cooking methods similar, but the cuisine is very different.  The difference is the local herbs and spices.

At the end of the day, after visiting women and babies in their homes, touring a health clinic and running into people who are one step above being slaves with bundles of tea on their heads going to get their day's harvest weighed at the factory, the thing that sticks with me most is - we are really all the same.  We have beautiful differences in our cultures, food, clothing and beliefs, but at the end of the day,  we want to be happy, healthy, respected and loved and we do everything we can to make sure that our children are better off than us...........  

Arriving in Bangladesh

By way of Beijing and Bangkok, I finally arrived in Dhaka, Bangladesh at 2am.  This is my first trip to Asia and my frame of reference is all the time I've spent in Africa.  Perhaps it was the hour, but my initial impression was that there was a decidedly different "vibe" than what I feel when I land most anywhere in Africa.  There is something alive and pulsating about Africa that I just didn't feel here.

I got out into Dhaka a little bit today and it is a large, dusty developing world city where horns are honking literally constantly.  A couple of colleagues and I went to buy clothing and gifts.  Fabric is a weak spot of mine and Bangladesh is the place to indulge!  I bought a couple of salwar kamiz - the 3 piece outfits women here wear.  They are comprised of a tunic, loose drawstring pants and a wrap.  Silks, cottons, batik, weave, embroidery - they have it all and it is beautiful!  On our way back to the hotel, we jumped in a tuk tuk, which is basically 3 wheels, a cage and a motor.  The cage served to allow air in to cool us off and keep street vendors out.  Our driver immediately turned around so we were driving the wrong way down a major road.  Within a couple of blocks, we finally made a turn and got going the correct way.  I rapidly figured out that the traffic hierarchy for who gets the right of way is:  big trucks then newer model cars then older cars then tuk tuks then rickshaws then people on foot.  Thankfully we weren't at the very bottom of the vehicle food chain and finally made it back safely.

Tomorrow is a day of meetings then a few days of site visits in an urban slum and a flight out to a rural area.  I'll no doubt have much more to share.  

Spirit of '76

It's 76 degrees today.  That's all I have to say :)

A Good DC Day

Saturday was the kind of day that exemplifies why we moved here - as opposed to Friday, which found me at the DMV for another 2 hours and after making no progress whatsoever, needing to leave to get work done and having to pay $14 for parking.

But, Saturday is the focus for this post.  In the morning, we woke up to sun, spring weather and trees blooming,  drove down the hill to Georgetown, pulled into a parking spot for the Embassy of Lichtenstein and dropped Sophie off at the uber-modern Swedish embassy complex right on the banks of the Potomac.  She was going to a United Nations Foundation event for one of their initiatives,  GirlUp www.girlup.org . GirlUp catalyzes adolescent girls from this country to learn about and support the hardest to reach adolescent girls globally.  She spent the day learning about the plight of millions of girls forced to marry in their early teens, girls who aren't allowed to go to school and many other important issues.  She came home ignited and full of ideas to help her school's chapter of GirlUp raise funds and awareness for the causes of her global peers.

While Sophie was off at the "House of Sweden", Xavier and I headed to Le Pain Quotidien - a favorite little French bakery/cafe that I first went to in London.  We could barely talk to each other beyond the sounds of pure delight as he sipped a belgian hot chocolate and I oogled my cappuccino with a generous heaping of hazelnut spread (organic version of Nutella - yum!).  We looked to the day ahead and decided we'd drive to Virginia and check out the 2nd half of the Smithsonian's air & space museum.  We'd already gone to the main museum on the mall in DC. Xavier has a report on Charles Lindbergh coming up,  so we headed to the huge hangar near Dulles airport where airplanes and space craft - from gliders with barely any structure to the Concorde to the space shuttle Endeavor - are on display close up.  I had my own personal guided tour - Xavier loves flight and has soaked up amazing details from reading and studying about it that he was able to point out planes, tell me where they were from and little tidbits about how they were used.  It was a lot of fun and a great way for him to gather more information for his report - Wikipedia pales in comparison!

We all returned home exhausted and grateful that we have so many resources right in our own backyard.  I'm headed off to Bangladesh this week for site visits of MAMA work.  I am very much looking forward to it and will no doubt have stories and photos to share!

 Le Pain Quotidien - chocolate bliss

Real astronaut suit from Endeavor 

Banned from the PetCo

Rosie, our humapup (she thinks she's a human), is.....neurotic.  She has issues.  But, we love her.  Amongst her issues is the fact that she has some strange spinal/nerve problem that can make her get very testy when her paws are touched and can make her go crazy when the vibration of the grooming shears is on her paws. City dogs tend to be more well groomed than Vashon dogs.  But, even by my island standards, she really needed to be groomed.  So, I drugged her up with pain pills and muscle relaxers and took her in to PetCo.  I told them about her condition and they just wanted confirmation of her rabies shot - smart move.

As I was browsing through the store not 5 minutes after I dropped her off, my name was called on the intercom and I was asked to come back to the grooming area.  I took a deep breath and cringed as I headed back.  The groomer - a dark skinned woman - was covered in white power from head to foot.  It was quite a sight!  She had used  the high powered dryer on Rosie and was blasted by a cloud of white dust.  My jaw dropped when she asked what the powder was.  She finally told me to close my jaw and answer her question.  I realized she probably thought my dog's kinky fur was the hiding spot for a significant amount of cocaine.  I recovered enough to finally tell her it must be the dust and carpet residue from our apartment.  The other employees thought it was all pretty funny and kept calling the groomer "Casper".  

About 4 hours later, the groomer called and asked me to pick up Rosie right away.  Apparently, she was freaking out.  They had to double muzzle her and she nearly broke a pair of grooming shears with her flipping around and trying to get away from the groomer.  When we picked her up, they had done the best they could, but she ended up looking like a bobble head dog with a fluffy face and fully shaved body.  I was fully expecting them to tell me she was banned and not to bother coming back.  Instead they said "next time you call for an appointment, just ask for Casper and we'll know who it is" - and no doubt be conveniently booked up for the foreseeable future!

A Wrong Turn

It was an eventful day yesterday.  While working out at the gym, Sophie seriously injured her ankle.  After several hours of ice and elevation, it was still very swollen, bruised and I thought perhaps fractured.  I decided to take her in for an x-ray.  I have way more experiences with hospitals than I'd like to admit, so I know it's important to find a good one.  I looked up a few and decided to take her to the National Children's Hospital.  As we approached, it was a beautiful building but the parking was confusing.  Little did I know that the area's trauma hospital was right next door.  I made a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong ER.  I decided to stay there, as Sophie couldn't walk very well and it was a trek back to the car and to the Children's Hospital next door and all we needed was a quick x-ray.  This launched quite a Saturday night adventure.  Upon request, I left Xavier at home, watching a movie, thinking I'd be back before it was over.  After nearly 2 hours and the only progress being that Sophie was sitting in a bed in the corridor of the ER, I was feeling nervous about Xavier being home.  So, I left Sophie and went home to get Xavier.  By the time I got back, there were police guarding the doors to the ER and I was not allowed into the area because of a "code".  As Xavier and I sat in the waiting room, with police guarding doors, someone being brought in with handcuffs, all I could imagine was that Sophie was sitting in the middle of the ER being traumatized.  We were finally allowed back, Sophie had her X-ray and while we waited for the results, the ER drama continued, with someone dying, police keeping a close eye on what was happening and family members coming in to view the deceased.  All we needed was an X-ray.  After 5 hours, we were sent home with crutches and strong ibuprofen and another adventure to add to our very long list of things the 3 of us have seen.

Next time, I will be sure to turn into the correct parking lot.

Off Leash

I've long believed that kids and dogs need to be "off leash"  as much as possible.  Xavier, in particular,  is part wild animal part boy and needs to be in nature and running free.  He's been feeling a bit cooped up in DC and was lamenting the noise and traffic yesterday.  I also noticed that Rosie was getting beyond her usual neurotic puppy self and also seemed to be needing some time outside that did not include sidewalks and leashes.

So, we headed to a fabulous park at Dumbarton Oaks where people ignore the leash laws and dogs run free.  This is Georgetown, so even the well-dressed children were getting a but dirty.  The moment I let Rosie off leash, she bolted in a frenetic run all over the immediate area.  Xavier took off after her and the two of them ran until they dropped, panting.  We trekked of the path through the woods and found our way down a steep ravine to the river where Rosie promptly jumped in, enjoyed the water and got wet and dirty, reminiscent of the days at the beach on Vashon.  By the time we were back to the car, we all had dirt on our clothes, fresh air in our lungs and a new outlook on life in the city.  We decided we have to do this every week, as we all need some time to be off the "leashes" of school, work and general "control" living in a city generally requires.  

Driving in DC and the DMV

I had been warned that driving in DC can be tough.  My preferred method of transportation is the metro, which I use most days to get to work.  But, since there is not a school bus service for the kids' schools, I have groceries to buy and because the metro doesn't go everywhere, I do need to drive more often than I'd like.  Realizing that my 30 day deadline to get a DC driver's license was nearly up and being told by many people to be sure to bring the right paperwork, I diligently looked up the requirements for a DC driver's license online.  I gathered all my papers and headed to the DC DMV certain that I was going to sail right through this little process.  After waiting in line for some time, the woman at the desk quickly examined my pile of papers and, with a smug look and quick flick of the wrist, handed them back to me, proclaiming I was missing a document.  I left, drove back home, got the other document, drove back to the DMV, re-parked and went in.  This time, I had the correct documents and was passed along to wait for the next station.  Once my number was called, I gave the woman my information.  She very slowly processed through my paperwork and declared that there was some error with my Washington State license and inquired as to whether I had paid all my fines in Washington.  I've had 1 ticket in 15 years, so I felt certain I was paid up.  After much more lamenting over this error on the computer, processing, waiting and being handed a license with my name spelled incorrectly, I finally had my new DC license -  with correct information - in hand.  With a feeling of satisfaction at completing that hurdle, my spirits were quickly dashed when I went out to find that I had inadvertently parked in a loading zone, had a $50 ticket and was minutes from being towed.  Perhaps that was the error with my license?

I drove away, fuming about all the confusing traffic signs, the gridlock caused by secret service and police vehicles everywhere, the high cost of parking for EVERYTHING and the insane round-abouts that have inner- and outer-circles and upwards of 10-12 streets forking off of them. Not to mention the 20+ traffic signals that dot the roundabouts at angles which leave me wondering who, exactly, they are supposed to be directing.  No, L'Enfant did not plan this city for cars.  In fact, I'm starting to believe he had a few bottles of wine before he put pen to paper to map it out.  I am pretty sure before we move back to Vashon, I'll have a good-sized stack of parking tickets and moving violations.  I yearn for diplomatic immunity. 

One Step at a Time.....

We're quickly heading into our first week without my mom here to help out.  I'm sure we'll do fine, but it's another step into our lives here.  I'm trying to tap into some of the spoils of city living - like Thai food delivery and primary care docs with weekend and evening hours - to make it all manageable.  Still, I do have my moments of overwhelm - like when I spent most of my day today shopping, cleaning and getting ready for the week and went to bake a little treat for ME - gluten free cookies -  only to find that Sophie had used the last of the butter baking regular cookies for her and Xavier. Thankfully, we live in the city, so I could send her out to walk the couple blocks to the corner store and get more butter.   Looks like we'll be ok after all......

Things I'm Getting Used To

Moving is always a big adjustment.  But, moving from a small, rural-ish island in the Puget Sound to Washington, DC is a really big adjustment.  Both places are quite unique and for very different reasons.  Here are the things that still catch me a bit off guard:

1) Sirens - lots of them, all the time
2) Taking 20 minutes to drive 3 miles
3) Spending more time driving in circles to find a place to park than actually getting to a destination
4) Walking through a metal detector at my kid's school
5) Showing my ID all the time
6) Having to constantly show proof of DC residency (apparently this gets faked a lot for purposes of parking passes and enrolling kids in schools)
7) Feeling lonely in the midst of so many people (work, kids and getting settled have trumped social outings)
8) Walking up and down 4 flights of stairs to do everything from taking the dog out to schlepping groceries
9) The incredible blend of cultures, world flags, languages, foods and history packed into this small District
10) Stores open all night
11)  Paying an enormous sum for a 2 bedroom apartment
12) Subway outages - everything from escalators to the trains themselves
13) Having to use my navigation system to get to and from just about everywhere
14) Trying to figure out how to navigate round-abouts that have inner and outer circles and at least 12 streets extending from them - even the nav system doesn't help here
15) Seeing the sun almost every day!

Urban Assault

Overall, I'm loving DC from being able to see the sun most days to reveling in free concerts at Kennedy Center and the National Cathedral to the beauty and history everywhere.  But, I think living on Vashon for most of the past nearly 8 years has made me move to a a slower beat.  I crave quiet, calm and nature.  The community where we live is as close to that as I think you can get and still be in the city.  I find that the morning routine of driving the less than 2 miles to Sophie's school, then the mile or so back towards home to Xavier's school and finally driving around in circles to find a place to park to take the subway and the reverse in the evenings (made more complicated by needing to find a place to park at each school in the evenings) leaves me feeling practically assaulted.  The defensive driving skills I learned in Ghana are coming in handy.  The sirens, lights and the fact that it feels like yelling is the major form of communication is dizzying for me.  I sometimes find myself paralyzed int he midst of it all.  By the time I get home in the evenings, I want to hide away in our quiet apartment and sit in silence.  Not something that happens very often with 2 kids and a hyper dog who all have so much to share about their days.  Today, Xavier, Rosie I walked in the woods near our house.  The area is a ravine with a creek running through it and I felt like I could breathe.  Xavier delighted in the mud, sticks and rocks and Rosie was in heaven being able to dip herself in the water.  I almost forgot I was in DC - until the police helicopter flew overhead!  We will all find our little pieces of the island quiet we love wherever we can!

The Person Behind the Dog

Another part of the DC culture that we're trying to get used to is the love of dogs.  While we absolutely love ours and come from Vashon, where dogs' rights are a point of intense community discourse, we also are used to humans interacting with each other as well as the dogs.  We've found that here, many in the community knew Rosie even before she arrived and enthusiastically greeted her on the street and in the dog park.  During most of these encounters, I'd watch as the person talked on and on about their dog, asked questions about Rosie and, as they were about to depart, I'd introduce myself.  The first time I did this the woman said "Oh, I'll remember the dog, you know how it is". Another woman spent some time telling me about her dogs and admiring Rosie, then launched into a long and very personal story.  At the end, I felt awkward that she had shared so much without even telling me her name, so I asked her name and gave her mine.  She seemed a bit taken aback, like it hadn't occurred to her to introduce herself.   Others haven't been quite so blunt, but it is clear that the people aren't so interested in knowing the person behind the dog, they just want to know the dog.  I have to wonder if this is some "safe"way to be out and about and have social interaction without having to actually put yourself out to another person.  I'm not sure, but I find it intriguing.  

Feeling Very "Secure"

DC is a beautiful city - gorgeous architecture, historic sites everywhere, the weather has been wonderful and it feels so much like an international city that the kids occasionally ask things like "do they use metric here?" because they forget they're still in the US!  One of the things we all noticed immediately and is slowly becoming a "normal" part of our lives is the high security everywhere.  We live literally across the street from where the Obama girls go to school and we are now used to seeing Secret Service at every corner in the mornings and afternoons and occasionally having to slow for motorcades dashing by.  Beyond that, both kids have security at their schools.  Xavier's school is monitored by a guard at the main door who diligently watches the perimeter on screens and dashed out to question me when I was taking pictures outside one day.  Meanwhile Sophie's school goes many steps further and has metal detectors at the doors, security guards in every classroom AND the bathrooms!  It's a really beautiful, well-run school but there are many kids from embassies and high net worth families that go there and all we can guess is that they are just really careful to ensure there aren't any incidents.  Sophie says it makes her feel really safe, so I guess that's good.  And, I'm getting used to showing my ID and having to have someone sign me in to any office building I enter.  I also take the subway to work and there are often police officers and K-9 units patrolling.  At a concert at Kennedy Center last night, officers with a K-9 unit swept through several times as just a matter of course.

So, we are feeling quite secure here and it's another element of life in DC that we're getting used to.  

Another Adventure

We are in DC and finally getting settled in.  We are here for a year or two, for my job as the Global Partnership Director of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action - MAMA www.mobilemamaalliance.org.  It's a partnership between USAID, Johnson & Johnson, the United Nations Foundation and the Mobile Health Alliance.  My office is in Dupont Circle at the UNF buildings.  The kids and I have a beautiful, light-filled apartment in McLean Gardens, a 23 acre community in Northwest DC, just blocks to the National Cathedral.  We have lots of open space, a dog park and community garden nearby and it feels like a nice mix of urban and a bit of nature.  We've just finished our first full week of work and school and so far, we are all adjusting pretty darn well.  Xavier and I arrived a week ahead of Sophie and Rosie, accompanied by my Mom, who is here helping out for a couple of weeks.  Xavier and I spent our days juggling incredible logistics to get thins in place - balancing rental cars, buying a new car, getting furniture delivered and shopping for everything from toilet paper to pans to bedding.  He was truly a trooper and we both found ourselves generally exhausted and speechless at night while we ate dinner and dropped into bed.  But, the basics were in place by the time "the girls" arrived a week later and the kids were able to start school last Monday while I started my regular in-the-office work days and Rosie started getting used to having scheduled dog walks by a dog walker.  My mom spent her days getting us organized at home and we now feel like we are fully launched into this particular adventure.