Survival

These past two weeks were the busiest of the year, I think. Perhaps the busiest of all high school. I'm working on developing a hollow laugh to use when people tell me that the senior year is the best and easiest because you can just relax and do nothing. Actually, the temptation to relax is far greater but the work still needs to be done, so it's no easier at all. We are all trying not to be bitter about this.

Part of what made last week so very nearly deadly was a big AP biology project. We had to research a disease of our choice, write a short paper, and design a pamphlet about it. Excepting the late nights and trials with Microsoft Word and color printing, I think I enjoyed it. Unfortunately those things have a way of overshadowing everything else.

I chose to study malaria, the world's deadliest parasitic disease. It seems that among Americans there is a lot of ignorance or disinterest in this disease even though it has such an influence in so many countries. So I feel compelled to share some of the little I learned.

Most horrifying to me is the fact that malaria is curable and preventable and yet every day 3000 African children die from it. That's one child every thirty seconds. That's over one million people a year world wide. Unfortunately the nations most affected by malaria are too impoverished to afford resources for treatment and prevention. Endemic malaria is caused by poverty and contributes to poverty in a vicious, tragic cycle.

There are very important relief efforts administered through organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, among others. What interested me most is that there is a cheap, safe, effective resource to fight malaria that is not used by these foundations. It eradicated malaria in the United States decades ago. It has reduced malaria in South Africa by over eighty percent. It can save thousands of lives. It is DDT.

One method of fighting malaria is to spray the inside of houses with insecticides. Mosquitoes that land on the treated walls die. DDT can be used for this purpose without detrimental affects on the environment because such low quantities are needed. It is a third of the price of other insecticides and much more effective. But it isn't used. African nations are at the mercy of the American organizations who refuse to fund the use of DDT because they are worried about the reaction of the American public.

Perhaps I oversimplify the situation. (Read this article to learn more.) I know there are issues regarding mosquitoes developing resistance to DDT (but the same is true of any insecticide) and questions about the effect of DDT on the environment, etc. But the fact remains that DDT is an inexpensive, reliable resource against malaria and because it isn't being used (in most countries) thousands of people are dying every day.

That's sobering.

At Colleen's Request

Last Saturday my classmates and I provided the entertainment at the annual Faculty Appreciation Dinner. The theme was carnival and we all dressed, and acted, as clowns. It was rather fun letting loose all self-restraint. One of my teachers said she knew it was going to be a fun evening as soon as she entered the room because she almost got hit by a bean-bag. Some teachers we actually did manage to hit!

We entertained them with various antics and skits during the meal and then with carnival style games after. Each of us introduced a game in the peculiar manner of a teacher. They had to guess who was being imitated. We finished off the entertainment of the evening with a song called Take Me out of the Classroom. Ten of the twelve verses joke about some of the teachers, recalling their quirks and funny incidences. It was quite hilarious. They really love that kind of stuff.

The top picture is of my whole class and the patient mom who supervised us. The tall one is on stilts.

And this picture is of Christine, Susie, and me.

Beware the cruel ides of March

I really do like New Jersey's weather. I'm so grateful for the changing of the seasons, the variety. As each season develops I think, "Oh, wait, this is the one I love most!"

I love the brisk chill in the air in the autumn, the colorful trees, the crisp apples, the smell and sound of dead leaves under my feet. And then comes winter and the joy of fresh snow and the warmth of a fire, and family home at Christmastime. Spring just erupts with flowers, and singing birds, and that wonderful, wonderful smell of new growth and freshness. Summer means lush greenness all around, late sunsets and long lazy nights, fire-flies, and ice cream.

But March has been a cruel month.

Every year I am a bit surprised by how overjoyed I am at the first few warm days of spring. I am energized, invigorated, exultant - like Eliza Doolittle of My Fair Lady when she sings about being able to "spread her wings and do a thousand things she'd never done before". I feel very alive and very happy to be so.

Tuesday and Wednesday were some of the most gorgeous days of the year so far. I listened to Schumann's third symphony on the way home from church after piano lessons with the windows down enjoying the sunshine and the warm breeze. I was so excited to come home so I could walk the dog! That doesn't happen so often in the cold winter. Telly must have caught some of my enthusiasm because she was a fabulous walker. It was sheer bliss. I don't think there is much better than a long walk on a beautiful day with a handsome German Shepherd trotting obediently along at your side. Unless it's taking a break in the middle of a walk to sit with your loyal dog at your side and watch the world go by. Telly and I did both.

To make things even better daylight savings time has begun. I love the extra hour of daylight. It means more time to be outside with the dog on mild evenings, more families out on their front porches - the town starts to feel more like a neighborhood. (It also means I get that song from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood stuck in my head more often. I'm serious.)

And then came the cruel blow.

It was eighty degrees on Wednesday and on Friday it snows.

It isn't soft, nice snow either. It's noisy, sleety snow. The kind that pings when it hits your coat and stings when it hits your face.

And if I could complain just a little bit more, I didn't even get a proper snow day out of it. There was no school but that was planned earlier for faculty development day.

But, such is life. Behind the clouds is the sun still shining . . . Some days must be dark and dreary.

Reminiscences

Isn't it strange and wonderful how smells bring back memories?

On Monday afternoon I got a flat tire on my way home from school. I think it happened on the highway when I heard a bang, of sorts. It sounded like a book or something fell of the back seat, but I didn't think much of it since it didn't seem to affect the car. But several miles later, and only a couple blocks from home I started to hear the slapping, thumping sound and pulled into a parking lot. The tire was completely flat; it had a fairly massive tear in it. Somehow it had managed to hold together from 280 to Main Street. I'm very thankful for God's protection, knowing it could have been much worse.

So, getting back to smells, I had to drive my dad's volvo to school the next day. When I got into the car after school that afternoon and smelled the familiar smell of that volvo I immediately thought of spring of last year. It's a bit strange, the smell isn't linked to any particular memory, just those few months in general - warmer weather, piano lessons, tea, college mail. Little things. I remember I had just gotten my license and was embracing the joys of not always having to carpool home from school. And eagerly awaiting my return from school was Ivy, or in the later spring, the new Telly. This gives me an excuse to post some cute pictures.















Ivy is now living with David and Jodie, who sent me this picture. She loves them both and she loves the northwest too. Telly has grown considerably. If anything she is even cuter now than she was then. There have been some rough months but I really love that pup and enjoy spending time with her.

Telly's education

It surprises me that I haven't written about Telly at all yet. Puppyraising is certainly something that I have pored much time and energy into. It's strange to imagine saying goodbye to the people I've gotten to know through the Seeing Eye. And it's even stranger to imagine that I might never see them again, though I hope that isn't the case. It isn't really that I know them to any depth. Rarely when we see each other do we talk about much besides our puppies. But nevertheless there is a kind of bond formed. We share a similar experience. At the risk of being melodramatic, I can say that we've had the same hopes and fears, joys and disappointments, frustration and enjoyment. We share a passionate love of dogs and more importantly for the work of The Seeing Eye. And we all have really cute puppies. The adorable puppy in this picture is Telly, my sixth pup and first German Shepherd. She's eleven months old. I will probably have her until I go to college. If she isn't called back for training before then, my club leader will take her. Isn't she pretty?

Last Friday she came to school with me for the first time. All of my other puppies but the first were at school with me at one time or another. It's very good preparation for possible life as a guide dog. Being a guide isn't all about walking and leading. Lots of the time it's about being quietly obedient under a desk somewhere. It takes a lot of effort to teach puppies to be quietly obedient under a desk anywhere! No one said the job of a puppyraiser is easy.


I enjoyed having Telly at school with me, though I had forgotten how hard it was. There's the difficulty of walking down a crowded hallway, hanging onto the dog with the left hand and the pile of books with the right, trying to open the door, and hoping no kindergarteners are scared by a German Shepherd nearly as tall as they are. And then there are the harder things. I feel very acutely that my puppy's behavior reflects on me as her puppyraiser. (at least, I think it does.) The obvious result is that I can easily get overly concerned about how my puppy makes me look and what people think about me. Unfortunately some people think an eleven month puppy in a new place for the first time should act like a twelve year old dog at home. This is discouraging. Really Telly was quite good at school. She was especially well behaved in Great Books, Western Thought, and Music Appreciation. She was quite antsy in Calculus and Biology, but then so am I. I guess we have similar tastes.


Here's Telly posing after her first day of school. I think she looks quite somber and studious. Apparently she liked school because now she really wants to come with me every morning. So far she's been disappointed. Perhaps the week after next she'll come with me again. I think we'd both like that.

Clyde

Here he is! Isn't he a lovely car? Take a moment to observe the Seeing Eye decal on the back window. Beautiful.

It is a funny thing but I find now that I rather enjoy my 25 minute commute to school every day. It's a little oasis between the responsibilities at home and at school. Often I listen to the radio. I think I might be the only 18 year old whose car radio is programmed to NPR (AM and FM) and WQXR (the classical station of the New York Times). I heard a really interesting interview a couple days ago. . .