Sunday, July 20, 2008

deaths and birth


i've been devouring a most excellent book called "animal's people" by indra sinha. it is a fictional account of modern day survivors of the bhopal disaster from 1984. for those of you who are unfamiliar with this disaster, it occurred in central india, in the town of bhopal, where Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) had a pesticide manufacturing plant. The people of bhopal ironically were led to believe the factory made medicines. one night in 1984, the plant malfunctioned (rumor has it that a disgruntled employee possibly began the disaster) and poisonous gas filled the city of bhopal, killing 22,000 people in their sleep. the gas burned people's eyes, lungs, throats, skin. many people simply dropped dead immediately, while others suffered months & years of painful dying. the employees simply abandoned the plant, no clean up has ever been performed, and the chemicals to this day sit in piles in the decaying factory, filling the ground water with poison and maintaining generations of physical disorders and malformities for the people of bhopal. Dow Chemical AKA Union Carbide has avoided court for over 20 years and has not been required to pay for medical care or retribution in any way, except for a measly $500 for some of the survivors.


currently, there is a fast in Delhi to protest this, hopefully to call the indian gov't to action to hold accountable the executives of dow/union carbide. the people who are protesting walked on foot over 800 miles from Bhopal to Delhi for the protest. many people have been beaten and jailed during this time.

you can sign a petition and send a fax to the indian gov't here. it only takes a sec, and why not? you can also make a donation to the survivors here.

in lighter news, i finished my cufflinks for the cufflink show at Heidi Lowe Gallery in rehoboth beach, de. these are my lime candy cufflinks.last but not least, yesterday began the 1st day of my 13th week of pregnancy! the baby is due january 24th. so far all is going great, except i feel like crap most of the time. it is getting better, but not totally better just yet. jamie and i are excited for this next new part of our lives!

fermelenge, mera dosti!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

yes, it's been awhile

jamie has been after me to post a blog. i don't know what the problem is, but i have just not been in the mood! but, here goes!

we went to virginia beach to do a craft show a few weeks ago. in the past i have done well and even won awards at this show. this year, it was so miserable that i will not go back again. although it is a nice venue, the people ( as you can see below) are not my customers. this year i truly felt the judges were not qualified as well. i was shocked at some of the items they picked for the substantial cash awards. i am a craft fair craft snob, but i feel this would make me an excellent juror!


i have been making some new things that go with my stone jewelry. super fun! i chopped up a bunch of quartz crystal recently and made 3 brooches from them. i also am in a bracelet show in milwaukee at 3rd Ward Jewelry...here are some bracelets for that.



this is the bracelet i made to donate to Penland School of Craft's annual auction. hope it sells!



we went camping again last weekend and again it was great. nice to be able to get in the water from your campsite. we ran into our friend brenda while we weer boating out to the campsite. she was in her kayak! what a surprise! i had fun swimming over to her promontory and chatting with her. claire and julian came out as well, and it was fun to hang with them.

jamie has been playing his guitar and learning songs. he's doing great. he's out on the porch as we speak, singing his sweet heart out.

i thought i might start adding a new feature to the blog. an intermittent toilet discussion! so, here is my 1st one. this is a hybrid toilet from india. it was in my guesthouse in Bhuj. i say hybrid, because it is designed basically like a western toilet, but with no seat. however, it has the footrests like indian squatty toilets. is a person supposed to climb up on the toilet to stand on the foot rests? or does one sit on the footrests, western style? i hovered. furthermore, to flush this toilet, you filled the little cup with water from the spigot, and threw it down the toilet. this is the typical indian way to flush. i am not sure what the large bucket is for, i used it to wash my clothes. often it would be full of water, and you could just dip your smaller bucket into it for flushing/wiping. this was a nice bathroom; i especially liked the green color of the toilet.

well, that's it for today.
hope everyone is doing great!
fermelenge!