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.

Day 34

Though I'm not craving food still (which totally wigs me out) and my stomach still isn't rumbling, today I felt I got tired more quickly and just a little bit less energy than before. All I had today was my morning cup of coffee and two iced teas (no ice, no sugar).

The puppeteers group I had hoped to interest in going to Sudan to provide some sense of hope and a few hours of humor and levity to a seemingly hopeless situation -- have not responded to my emails to them. I visited them in the neighboring town where they have their studio where their website said they were having a Work Day open to the community. I joined in with about eight others, putting on the final layers of papier mache on the masks they had designed. It was a very nice work environment and nice to meet the other people also volunteering. It seems from my conversations with the lead puppeteers that they are very reluctant to committing themselves to the idea of going to Sudan. They keep saying they have so many other projects to deal with first. Maybe it's as simple as that we need to get to know each other better. I'll do my best to keep the idea alive.

I was able to finish all the work I set out to do today -- which really amazes me. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Asheville, about 5 hrs away, to speak at a public forum about a pending bill restructuring cable TV ownership regulations. See how I've become politically liberated?!

He's getting away with murder - Days 29-33

It seemed it was time to notify a few local newspapers about my fasting. Not so I would be in the news, but so the subject of Darfur would be in the local news.

The article that ran was so full of errors it makes me want to run to the local journalism school and say take her diploma away! Five errors, not the least of which was saying thousands are starving, when there are millions. This is why I prefer to just avoid contacting our local media. But how else to get information to people in the community?

The President of Sudan has dug his heels in and continues to defy the international community by saying that he'll provide peacekeeping troops instead of the UN! How ludicrous. But he is getting away with murder. And no one seems able to stop him from decimating his own civilian population.

The doctor quoted in the article on me answered my email today saying I should go to the ER on my final day and ask for blood tests for electrolyte abnormalities. It was very good of him to reply. I will go there on July 5th. This advice provides me with guidance and a sense of security that specialists will be looking after me. He specifically advised I take a battery of blood tests to monitor potassium and phosphorus levels. (Sounds like a soil test in the garden! LOL!)

Days 26-28

I've allowed a few days to go by without posting to allow the events of the weekend settle in, get some perspective.

Sudan's president has been adamant about not wanting to allow UN peacekeepers to replace or add to the African Union force already in Darfur. His protest is buffered with comments claiming UN troops will 'colonialize' Sudan. I guess he figures most people will not know that there already are 10,000 UN troops deployed in Southern Sudan.(!)

I have just spent an hour (2 hrs?) surfing a food site for recipes. It's not so much that I'm hungry. I just miss being away from the kitchen. I will admit that this fast is beginning to gnaw at me.

God Makes His Presence Felt - Day 25

At some point last week it occurred to me what a treat it would be to be able to bring laughter to the camps.

Nice idea, but I'm not a comedian.

From the recesses of my memory came the image of a wonderful group of puppeteers in our area I had seen. They have been working as a group only in the last year or so I think and they are absolutely wonderful -- whimsical and profound at the same time. Why couldn't I arrange to have them tour the Darfurian camps! Sure, it would be a lot of hard work to fundraise, make arrangements and execute, but all of a sudden, that's what I really wanted to do. But I had forgotten the name of the group, had no idea how to find them, etc. That evening I was visiting our local food coop and on my way out I see a yellow flyer stuck to their window. Now, mind you, Weaver Street Market does not allow flyers to be posted on their window--they have a special other place to post things; and, besides, I seldom stop to read flyers. Something made me stop to read it and I froze in my tracks: the Paperhand puppeteers (oh, yes, that was the name!) would perform next day on the store's sprawling lawn. OK, this was a Wow! experience but I didn't want to get too hippy-trippy about it. I took it as a sign that I'm in synch with whatever I'm suppposed to be doing with this fast.

There's more . . .

So I'm at the lawn the next day waiting for the performance to start, I'm sitting on the grass in white pants and I spot a family a few blankets ahead who seem to have extra room on their blanket. So I cautiously approach the Mom and ask if I could possibly share a corner of their blanket. "Absolutely!" she wouldn't even let me finish my sentence. So the show starts and her young child is watching with her and we exchange ooh's and aah's at the amazing puppet creations. Then the father comes to join them too. When the show is over we continue chit-chatting and suddenly he notices my "Save Darfur" button and asks where I got it. I say at the rally in DC in April. He says, "I work there." So I'm puzzled, does he work for the rally, does he work for the organizers? or what? "No, he answers, I work in Darfur."

It should be noted that I did not faint. My jaw, however, needed coaxing to keep from dropping. This was beyond hippy-trippy far out . . . this was God showing me I am to pursue this effort. I don't know if you , the reader, are a believer, but this was truly God in our midst quietly affirming my mission. I have had some amazing encounters with "the other side" but this encounter tops them all. It is one I will cherish for a long, long time to come.

I am psyched. I am really psyched.

15 days to go.

Days 22 - 24

I lasted 5 days without water. By Friday night my brain was parched, my lips were stuck, and I was short tempered. That night I still hadn't heard back from this editor so I thought, "Well, I can't continue on this regime of no juice or water just to please one editor," and downed two glasses of water. A friend informed me the next day that a human cannot go more than 7 days without water, without severe consequences to the body. It's good to know what our limits are. I guess I had to find out the hard way.

I don't know what kind of water supplies are being made available to the refugees in Darfur. How can they fight off dysentery and malaria when they don't even get enough water!

Day 21

I went to my local newspaper office to tell them about my fast. The editor said it is not as compelling to talk about a 'partial' or 'limited' fast (ie, one where I've allowed myself a mini-portion of food once or twice), so I have upped the ante and for the rest of the 40 days this will be a total fast without even water.

I know I have made a major shift in my thinking from one of feeling unable or unworthy to be a participant in the political process, to one where I feel it is important that my elected officials know about this fast. Today I sent out personalized messages to my U.S. Representative and to my two U.S. Senators telling them about my fast. Asking them to continue to be proactive about Darfur, challenging them to be creative about what else they can do, and asking them what else I can do.

I have all their websites bookmarked and will continue to watch what they are doing in D.C. This is a big shift for me.

Day 20

Halfway point.

Somebody asked me today if I had spoken to Dick Gregory yet. I think I'll call him tomorrow. I remember him from my Ali days. I want to know how he's doing with his 40-day fast and if he's been able to focus his mind on the Darfur situation more -- if fasting has helped with that.