I have had quite the exciting, travel-filled, and busy month which I will regal you all with presently. However, I have been thinking for the past few months that I need to talk about the generosity of the culture here. It really is quite remarkable the extent to which this generosity is a part of the everyday life of the people.

I wanted to make sure that I knew a little bit more about the culture before I talked about it, because I wasn’t sure how different my experience as a foreigner would be from the average Egyptian. Although my experience is certainly different as a foreigner, I don’t think that this takes away from the culture as a whole.

In Cairo, and probably some of the more touristy places where they are used to foreigners it is common for people to try and take advantage of the foreigner. So for the first month this was mostly my experience in Egypt. I had to make sure I knew how much things should cost so that I wasn’t charged extra for being a foreigner. And there are some touristy places, like the pyramids, or the Egyptian Museum where foreigners actually have a separate entrance price than Egyptians. I understand that these places take up-keep and that foreigners in general have much more money that Egyptians, so I understand why they have this policy, but it still meant that I had to be aware.

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By John Ruskin

• It means the knowledge of Medea, and of Circe, and of Calypso, and of Helen, and of Rebekah, and of the Queen of Sheba.
• It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and balms, and spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in groves, and savory in meat.
• It means carefulness and inventiveness, watchfulness, willingness, and readiness of appliances.
• It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the science of modern chemistry, and French art and Arabian hospitality.
• It means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something nice to eat.

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Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy

by Hazel Henderson (Dec, 2006 Chelsea Green Publishing Company)

www.ethicalMarkets.com

I found this book to be a very comprehensive and interesting reading. The amount of information and the way it was all set out is very helpful. It includes websites where you can get more information if you want to delve deeper into a certain area. It is very positive and shows how much is going on around the world to create a better future for our children and grandchildren.

Food and Health

In 2006, for the first time in history US children are sicker than the generation before them. Obesity affects nearly one-fifth, triple the prevalence in 1980; autism has increased on thousandfold in a generation; asthma is up 75%; life-threatening food allergies increased nearly sixfold; and nutrient deficiencies not seen for decades are now prevalent again, according to a report by Judy Converse, MPH, RD, LD, a licensed dietitian specializing in medical nutritional therapies for children. She and other health professionals note that increasingly aggressive vaccination – children are advised to get fifty-four vaccine doses (most containing mercury) by age twelve – may be causing health problems (www.redflagsdaily.com). –p189

We are slowly remembering that our bodies, minds, attitudes, spiritual lives, social circumstances, and physical environments interact to keep us well, or make us sick. –p202

“The air we breathe on average in our homes is two to five times more polluted than the air outside of our homes, according to the EPA. We can look at a specific situation: when you are using a household cleaning product, and you can smell it. Normally what you smell, whether it’s a scent or a chemical odor, is what is called the VOC, a volatile organic compound. Those VOCs come out of cleaning products into our air. We know without a question that those VOCs are asthma triggers for children. They also cause allergies and various types of irritation to our lungs.” –Jeffrey Hollender (Seventh Generation Company) –p206

Seeds of Change is now owned by M&M Mars, Ben and Jerry’s is owned by Unilever, Boca Foods is owned by Altria, the tobacco firm, formerly known as Phillip Morris. Horizon Organics and Silk Soy Milk are owned by Dean Foods. –p182

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