Day 40

Bringing this all to a close...

Today I was folding up plastic bags from the supermarket and before I put them in the recycle box I thought how very valuable one of these would be to a family in Darfur. Made mental note to collect if I ever do get to go to Sudan.

I ripped open the top of a box and before I threw it out I thought how valuable that piece of paperboard would be to a refugee trying to gather kindling for a small fire, and then I threw it out.

At Wal-Mart yesterday I eyed a pile of fire-starters and thought how great a gift that would be to a refugee family in Darfur and whether I should start collecting a bunch for Sudan, and if I could get them for less than $3 each, if I do get to go to Sudan with the puppet group.

Some very good news: the UN, which was about to run out of funding on Sept 30th for all of its ongoing humanitarian projects in Darfur (hard to believe but true) has just announced that funding will not be interrupted. That is very great news!!

Please visit un.org for more information on the UN's work in Sudan, or go directly to http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sudan.html. It is fascinating reading.

Also, let me repeat the two other websites I have been using the most throughout this fast for news and updates on Darfur. They are

savedarfur.org & genocideintervention.net

To write an email to the White House (and I hope you do): http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

To contact your elected officials in Congress (and I hope you do): http://www.house.gov/ & http://www.senate.gov/

Day 37

Only three more days to go! Whoa, I've really made it this far.

The other paper in town called for an interview yesterday. I met the reporter in town today. I'm hoping for the best, but because he's a summer intern I am anxious. The interview lasted three hours - he admits it's a complex story, so he knows he needs to be very careful about double-checking the facts. As I've stated before in this blog, reporters in this town seem to pull 'facts' from the air just to make the story read the way they want. I want to give each reporter at least a fair chance to get it right though. Maybe he'll get it right, who knows.

However I feel, it is important in the context of this fast to let people know about it, and newspapers are certainly a primary medium.

Day 36

Went through the day able to meet the needs of my work -- some of which was very stressful. All went fine.

I so miss eating cheese for some reason. Also, I long for sardines (!)

A friend is trying to hook me up with dietitians at the hospital so I can be under their care. Trouble is everyone is on 4th of July long weekend breaks or not taking new patients. One person is a specialist in anorexia and similar disorders. Hah! never thought I'd be considered a case for anorexia specialist! It's not funny, though, and the way I dislike the way ER's treat people, I'm not sure now whether I'm going to go into the ER when I'm done, or not.

I went to a potluck tonight and prepared swiss chard from the garden that was going uneaten and made some devilled eggs to surround the chard -- I did taste the eggs to check for seasoning. Then I checked it again ; ) Hey, who's keeping score here? Anybody doesn't like these small sidesteps in the fast can go on one themselves. The bbq chicken the host had prepared really looked awfully good, but I made do with some iced tea which they had kindly prepared.

The more I talk to people about Darfur, and my idea to take the puppeteers there to bring a smile to the camps, the more ideas people are giving me. Must start grant writing ASAP.

Day 35

I travelled all day and back to Asheville, NC with a van full of others to give my testimony of how proposed changes in FCC rules would impact my life. I managed to mention this fast and how my recent interaction with local media has been amazingly disappointing and how much worse it would be if the FCC allows for media grabs which would lead to even further homogenization of the news we get. I had a cup of coffee and one ice tea which I sipped on all day. I'm not hungry - the brain has simply switched appetite to the Off position. I was glad to notice that I was in a good humor and had energy for the whole ride back too.

I wonder what horrors occurred in Darfur today that I will never know about because a) it's too far away for papers to write about b) the media can't even get in to report properly even if they wanted to.

I wonder why the activists in the van with me didn't want to discuss the politics of Darfur. As my sister reminds me, it's out of their comfort zone. Well, this fast is out of my comfort zone. They could have at least acknowledged the issue by saying something before they all chowed down at dinner time. Later, I even found out one of them is a practicing Christian. You just don't know how people are going to act, but just take people as they are.