New Mailing Address

I finally figured out that I can receive mail here in my town, which is much better than traveling 2.5 hours to find that the one post office in the province is closed. On a weekday. For no good reason at all. This has actually happened to me twice. The mail truck comes to my town twice a week (we are moving up!), and while I’m told it might take a week longer for me to receive something, it is a lot more convenient for me.

My original mailstop in Loja will still work, that’s where I receive official PC mail. But I’m eager to see if I can get mail in my town, so if you want to send me a postcard, letter, or package, email me for the new address. Muito obrigada.

South America Roundup

While I am riveted by the US Presidential Election, I am still a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. Most recently, I’ve been giving a lot of nutrition charlas to groups ranging from 50 hospital personnel (including the director!) to a regional meeting of priests. I’ve also started a hands-on nutrition course with a mother’s club, giving them basic charlas and then making a healthy recipe together. This week, we made carrot cake, which is easy, nutritious (if you substitute plain yogurt for oil), and the moms loved it!

In Ecuador, it’s still rainy season, but it’s raining more like 12 hours out of every day instead of 16. I took advantage of the brief sunshine today to take some photos. The landscape is strikingly green after two solid months of rain. These little kids were hanging out in the street, and I thought they were cute.

A military and diplomatic crisis erupted over the weekend when the Colombian military killed a leader of Colombia’s rebel group FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) in northern Ecuador last Sunday, March 2nd. This led Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to expel the Colombian ambassador and to cut of diplomatic ties to Ecuador. Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez got in the mix as well, with Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe accusing him of giving las FARC $300 million; this prompted Chavez to also expel Colombia’s diplomatic personnel from Venezuela, and enabled him to engage in the international grandstanding that he loves. Today, Nicaragua’s President Ortega jumped into the fray as well, breaking ties with Colombia “in solidarity” with Ecuador. Lovely. The whole situation is very complicated and involves the US as well, because for years, Colombia has been the largest recipient of US foreign aid behind Israel and Egypt. Then Iraq and Afghanistan came along. Anyway, many of the leftist governments in South America view Colombia as a US proxy, given billions in US support for Plan Colombia and Uribe’s close ties to Bush. But I’m sure the situation will resolve itself shortly, at any rate, we haven’t felt any effects of the crisis down in my part of the country.

Food Poisoning

I woke up last night around 2:30am, feeling awful, sluggish yet at the same time wanting to puke. Being in the Peace Corps, you recognize the signs of food poisoning pretty quickly. Since I didn’t want to lie in my vomit, I dragged myself to the bathroom and got sick there. Really fun.

The reason I am telling this story is so that I can awkwardly segue into talking about health care. Here in Ecuador, I receive amazing, free health care courtesy of the United States Peace Corps. I get a complete medical and dental checkup once a year, I don’t pay for any medications, and if I ever get sick, I can call up my Peace Corps Medical Officer at any hour, and ask her what to do. Living in developing countries, we volunteers get all sorts of exotic ailments, and PC really takes care of us. In the US, however, I’m a public health grad student and I pay large premiums for pretty crappy health insurance.

I’ve read through both candidates policy positions on health care, and feel that Senator Obama’s is stronger. For example, he would establish a National Health Insurance Exchange that would function as a “watchdog” for private insurance companies, ensuring compliance with new standards (currently the private insurance market is virtually unregulated) and making sure that every American is eligible to purchase health care insurance, regardless of health status. A SEC for the insurance companies, if you will.

Clinton routinely, and falsely, claims that Obama’s plan would “leave out 15 million Americans.” This is based on biased estimates from her advisers, while her “mandate,” would force everyone in the country to buy health care insurance whether or not they could afford it. It would also fine those who could not afford to pay. Quick, let’s calculate how many millions of people her plan would leave out? Besides, this type of “universal” health care mandate has not worked out very well in Massachusetts, and what former Governor turned unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate does the Bay State have to thank for that? None other than Mitt Romney.

The Obama plan, on the other hand, would do a great deal to combat rising insurance costs by regulating private insurers; it makes coverage of children mandatory, and would create a new national health plan for all those who cannot currently afford insurance (i.e. small businesses, self-employed individuals, people with pre-existing conditions rejected by private insurers). The Senator’s plan is, of course, much more detailed and nuanced than I’ve outlined, and is available online at his website: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare

Now, this is the point where Clinton supporters cry out “Experience! Experience! Experience!” as if this mantra were Hillary’s ruby slippers that could magically transport her to the White House. Sure, she has experience trying to reform national health care. But the last time I checked, in oh, 1994, Hillary’s universal health care reform FAILED. Miserably. In part due to a Republican-controlled Congress, but also thanks to her own obstinacy and unwillingness to compromise on, well…everything. I think it’s time to try a plan like Senator Obama’s, a universal health care plan that is practical and realistic. Plus, with Obama as President, we might actually garner bi-partisan support and get this important legislation passed. Did I mention that Republicans hate Hillary and that her candidacy would probably serve as a rallying point for the currently fractured Republican party? Just checking. I don’t know about everyone else but I want to WIN in November and all of the national polls currently show Obama beating McCain by significantly more than Clinton.

“Hopemonger,” or, Why I Support Barack Obama

I had intended to avoid writing about this topic here, as it doesn’t pertain to my life in Peace Corps directly, but I’ve frankly become disgusted by the amount of negative press directed towards supporters of Barack Obama. I’ve heard/read the word “Obamaniacs” tossed around quite a bit, as well as “cult of personality.” Having attended two of the Senator’s rallies in Seattle, I think that there is a great deal to be said for being inspired by a political candidate. As shown in the string of 12 primary/caucus victories across the country, Obama has hit a chord among Americans who were waiting for someone who spoke about unity instead of divisiveness and who advocates for much-needed change in the United States.

To those who deride the Obama campaign, it’s not as if Senator Obama’s only strong point is that he is a charismatic speaker, he is clearly a brilliant man and if people bothered to read his policy statements, which are readily available on his website (http://www.barackobama.com/issues), they would discover that he has thoughtful, practical, well-articulated policy statements.

But for lazy journalists, of whom there are many, it is much easier just to make fun of Obama supporters and the “Change” mantra without more than superficially exploring the candidate or the substance of his positions.