Today, Saturday 28 March, at 8:30pm (your time) is Earth Hour. Please join me by turning off your non-essential lights for one hour, beginning at 8:30pm. This is an international event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness of climate change. With the participation of nearly 4,000 cities around the world, Earth Hour 2009 will be a “day-long energy-saving marathon stretching through 88 countries and 24 time zones.”

Participating cities include: Beijing, Boston, Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, Nashville, New York, Oslo, Rome, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto and Warsaw. See photos from Earth Hour all around the world on Flickr.

Yes, there will be significant energy savings when landmarks around the world go dark. But in and of itself, Earth Hour it is not meant to “save the planet.” Rather, it is an opportunity to send a message to our political leaders that we, the global citizenry, are concerned about human-induced climate change. The WWF has set a goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. I hope you’ll join us in solidarity by turning off your lights for one hour tonight.

A good list of climate change resources from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Great NPR story about nature photographer James Balog’s “Extreme Ice Survey” project, a photographic record of the tangible effects of global warming on Arctic glaciers

RealClimate blog: Climate science from climate scientists

Environmental news and commentary, Grist.org

One of my favorite books about human-induced climate change is Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert. Succinct, well-researched, and utterly chilling.

I’ve gotten this query from more than a few people, so the short answer is, I broke my camera. In January. For those counting, yes, that was camera number 3. I’ve been borrowing my sitemate’s when I can, but this is rather inconvenient. Since I’ll be traveling in April, I am hoping to remedy this camera problem within the week. Stay tuned.

It is the end of an era. The better of Seattle’s two daily newspapers publishes its last print edition as of today, March 17, 2009. Hearst put the P-I up for sale back in January and said they’d go web-only if they didn’t find a buyer within sixty days. Somehow that didn’t quite seem real. Newspapers, especially my hometown newspaper, don’t go under just like that. Do they?

Thanks to shrinking ad revenue from advertising (hello Craigslist) and drops in print circulation largely due to free content on the Internet, print journalism finds itself in dire straits these days. And while part of me knows that these trends have been building for years, I feel as if it is only in the past few years that the demise of the American newspaper has accelerated. The Christian Science Monitor going web-only in 2008. The financial future of the L.A. Times and the Chicago Tribune in jeopardy thanks to Sam Zell. The sale of the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch. The Rocky Mountain News closed in February this year, leaving Denver another one-newspaper town. The venerable New York Times having to mortgage their building to stay afloat. What kind of world is this? And how did it all happen so quickly?

I admit that I love being able to access news online from anywhere in the world. So, I’ve contributed to the demise of the print newspaper as well. There’s also the issue of blogs. Yes, the “blogosphere” has changed the way we read news, but very rarely do bloggers actually go out and do the legwork required to break a story. Blogs generally process (or regurgitate, depending on your point of view) news that comes from media outlets that pay trained journalists to find the breaking stories. I realize this is somewhat laughable for me to write on my blog, but then again, I’m not in the news reporting business.

What about investigative reporting? Who is going to break news headlines around the world when papers can no longer afford bureaus in the Middle East or Latin America or Southeast Asia? On the local level, who is going to do the kind of in-depth local reporting on, say, the Hanford Cleanup or elder abuse in WA state nursing homes? Who is going to hold local politicians accountable when there are no local editorial boards or political cartoonists left? The wire services serve an important function, but who better to write about the important issues affecting your town than people who actually live there?

I remember touring the facility where they printed the P-I when I was in elementary school. I thought it was so cool. The end of the P-I really bums me out, and not just because I’ll miss seeing that awesome P-I globe when I’m heading down Western Avenue. I think American cities need good local newspapers. If not in print form, they need to figure out how to better monetize their online content or move to the non-profit model. If the former, I know I’d pay for it.

Best wishes to all of the hardworking reporters, editors, camera people, printers, and staffers at the Seattle P-I, especially to my friend and reporter Tom Paulson. Cheers to 146 years of a job well done!

The new era begins here.

The Beatles were right, “Life goes on.” And it often does so contrary to our wishes, dragging us kicking and screaming along its path.

Even before I arrived in Peace Corps, friends who were ex-PCVs regaled me with tales of all the crazy stuff that would happen in the course of two years abroad. I nodded at their stories, but didn’t believe any of these things would actually happen to me or people I knew. Now that I am in the last stretch of my Peace Corps service I can say, that indeed, everything that they said would happen, happened, and more.

For example, that cute little microbe above is a stuffed toy representation of the parasitic disease Giardia lamblia, which I have personally contracted three times. It is disturbingly common among PCVs and is too awful for me to describe, so if you want to know more about it, click here. Speaking of diseases, I have had two friends sent to be treated in Panama after contracting Leish Maniasis, a flesh-eating parasitic disease. I’ve known male volunteers who lost 30 pounds since their arrival in-country and many more females who have put on the dreaded Peace Corps weight. One PCV couple got divorced, a handful of other PCVs have married Ecuadorians, and I’ll be attending another PCV-Ecuadorian wedding in June. Some volunteers in my Omnibus who came in not speaking a lick of Spanish are now fluent. Some of the people I thought in training would make the most motivated volunteers left after a few months in-site. Peace Corps was evacuated from Bolivia and eleven Bolivian volunteers transferred here.

I have camped in an indigenous village in the middle of nowhere, endured 14-hour bus rides, and thrown up out of numerous bus windows. I have spent Halloween in the jungle and New Year’s on the Pacific Ocean. I’ve started some projects that have been successful and some that went nowhere. I’ve spent a lot of time in some incredibly poor villages with some of the most generous people I’ve ever met. I have given more nutrition and hygiene charlas than you can shake a stick at. I’ve spent more time alone than I probably ever will for the rest of my life. The emotional ups and downs have been unbelievable. I think I’ve learned a great deal about myself and the things that are important to me (i.e. not material things).

I have met so many amazing, pilas people with whom, years down the road, I will still be friends because they will be able to understand the experiences that no one else will. PC isn’t perfect – there are cliques here just like anywhere else in the real world – but there is still a bond among many of us that could only have been forged under these particular circumstances. This weekend, we had a despedida (goodbye party) for the Omnibus 97 kids in our cluster, and I realized that the end for my Omnibus is not so far behind. I’ve still got a lot of work (and travel) planned for the next few months, but if I stop and think about it, my time here is winding down. It’s been quite a ride.

Caro lettore, I recently discovered how easy and fun it is to make your own peanut butter! Peanuts are a major cash crop around these parts, so maní (peanuts) is plentiful and cheap. By contrast, almonds are imported from Chile and hard to find except in the bigger cities. Half a pound of ground maní is $.75 at the town market, where the woman pours fresh, unroasted peanuts into a molido (grinder) and out comes fresh-ground peanut paste.

I find this paste great for cooking in Thai dishes but too thick to use as conventional peanut butter.

So, I decided to experiment by making my own peanut butter. I bought half a pound of maní at the market and put it in the blender with a teaspoon of vegetable oil (I actually sauteed some green onions and used that oil), 1/2 teaspon of salt, and 1 tbsp honey. Peanut paste is quite thick, so it was difficult for my poor little blender to process it. However, I helped it along by stirring manually and it turned out to be delicious, with a slightly crunchy consistency. If you want a creamier consistency, just keep on blending.

Some recipes that I’ve read call for adding a powdered milk, but I like the simplicity of my recipe. To finish it off, I spooned the mixture into an empty glass PB jar that I had washed and saved. We don’t have glass or plastic recycling here, and it kills me to put glass bottles in the trash can, so I wash and reuse mine.

With Earth Day coming up in less than two months and excitement about having an eco-friendly President in office, I’m thinking a great deal about my own impact on the environment. Of the Three R’s, Recycling gets the most hype, but Reducing and Reusing are just as important. And in these tough economic times, Reducing and Reusing is as practical as it is eco-friendly.

Buying Ecuadorian-made peanut butter at the big supermarket in Loja (2.5 hours away) is expensive on a Peace Corps budget, but a friend of mine insists on buying American brands such as Jif or Peter Pan which irritates me to no end. First of all, there is an insane amount of chemicals in commercial peanut butter. Extra Crunchy JIF contains partially and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, that is, trans fats. Trans fats are terrible for your health and have been banned in cities such as New York – yet we serve this to our children? Also, American peanut butter is flown to Ecuador from places such as Orville, OH, which makes it awful for the environment in terms of carbon expended.

Now, I realize that it’s simply not feasible for everyone in the States to get fresh-ground peanut paste, but you can always buy a bag of roasted peanuts from the store and grind them up yourself in a food processor. Then, add some oil, salt, and honey (optional) and you’ve made your own healthy PB, filled with good fats and proteins and none of the preservatives.

Finally, I can relax because Carnaval is over. Carnaval officially took place in Ecuador on February 23-24th. This holiday in Ecuador is nothing at all like the world-famous, boisterous, samba-tastic, musical joyousness that takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Ecuadorian Carnaval is, in my opinion, an ATROCIOUS holiday. All variations on Carnival (Carnaval in Latin America, Carnevale in Italy, Mardi Gras in New Orleans) have their origins in the Roman Catholic tradition of intense partying and engaging in all sorts of “sinful” acts before Ash Wednesday, which kicks off the period of Lent leading up to Easter.

Officially, the two days of Carnaval always occur at the end of February. This is fine if you are in Rio, where it is sunny and warm in February. In the Andes, February is smack in the middle of rainy season. Now, rainy season this year has not been so bad since I have seen the sun a few times since January. However, it is still cold, wet, and foggy most of the time. Hardly a time where you want to be soaking wet from having water balloons thrown at you while you are simply walking to the market.

Carnaval in Ecuador (and from what I’ve heard, in Peru and Bolivia as well) consists of throwing water balloons (bombas) at people, pouring buckets of water upon unsuspecting passerby, shooting squirt guns at cars with open windows, and getting people dirty with flour, mud, and/or canned foam. Although it is mainly children throwing balloons at one another, adults are often willing accomplices. For example, the parent who drove around a carload of kids that executed a “drive-by” Super-Soaker shooting of me last weekend. You can imagine that I was furious.

The bigger cities seem to be worse than small towns such as mine, because there are taller buildings and relative anonymity, so kids can dump buckets of water on strangers and fear no consequences. Even worse, kids begin the water balloon-throwing in late January, which has been the cause of many a friend to fear venturing out into the streets for a good three weeks.

A friend of mine shared a recent exchange she had with an Ecuadorian co-worker about Carnaval. Bonito in Spanish means “pretty” or “nice.”

Ecuadorian: Do you have Carnaval in the United States?
K: No…I’ve never experienced anything like this.
Ecuadorian: Well, don’t you think it’s such a bonito holiday!
K: forces a smile [thinks to self: Sure, if you consider getting soaking wet in the middle of the day while it is pouring outside "bonito." Other wise it sucks royally.]

I find this attitude mind-boggling; most Ecuadorian adults seem to find Carnaval an absolutely enchanting holiday, probably because they themselves engaged in throwing water/foam/dirt at unsuspecting gringos when they were children. For me, this is one occasion where I have no problem being the uptight gringa – I hate Carnaval in Ecuador.

A little belated, but the 101st Omnibus in Peace Corps Ecuador arrived on Wednesday, February 25th. Best of luck to the new group of Natural Resources/Sustainable Agriculture Volunteers! You guys have some awesome trainers – now you just have to make it through training…buena suerte!

Why is Chinese New Year my favorite holiday?

a) It is dedicated to eating a lot of good food with your family and/or friends

b) Children and unmarried people receive money from relatives in little red envelopes (hong bao)

c) Lion dancing

d) No religious affiliation

This is the first year in many that I won’t be home to celebrate CNY with my family, which is sad. But in preparation for CNY, I did clean my house and made some steamed vegetarian dumplings yesterday. I’m going to invite some friends over for dinner tonight.

Hooray for the Year of the Ox and gong xi fa chai (congratulations and good fortune)!

So, it’s rainy season again. I won’t lie, it’s pretty miserable. I have friends who are volunteers in other parts of the country say to me, “But you’re from Seattle. You must be used to rain?”

Actually, NO, the rain here is not at all like rain in Seattle. My hometown gets a bad rap for raining all the time. This reputation is not quite deserved, but Seattleites don’t always refute it – it helps to weed out all the Californians who have moved to Seattle and can’t stand the rain. Kidding (sort of)! Anyway, I admit that in the winter, Seattle can be pretty gray and drizzly. And occasionally, it will pour for an hour or two.

But drizzle is nothing compared to the torrential downpour that is rainy season in the tropics (or whatever southern Ecuador is considered). I’m talking about it pouring every single day, days on end, for months. Rain leaks through the roof. Clothes don’t dry on the line. An hour or two after lunch, the fog starts settling in. By late afternoon, my town is so enshrouded in fog that you can’t see from one end of the central plaza to the other. Then the rain begins. We’re talking about massive quantities of rain. At times when it rains it sounds as if someone opened up a hatch in the sky and let the rain pour. It sounds like the universe is taking a shower, for hours at a time. Last year, rainy season lasted until the end of May. Feo is right.

Admittedly, I do enjoy lying in bed listening to the sound of rain outside. But that only lasts so long. Rainy season washes out the roads and makes it near impossible to get to the communities where we work. Rainy season means I can only go running if I’m lucky enough to catch a few dry hours. Rainy season means I sleep in long johns and have to mop up water outside my apartment every single day. Rainy season makes me wish I could hibernate like a polar bear.

Rainy season also means that I’ve gotten pretty creative in the kitchen. I recently decided to try my hand at making apple pie from scratch. Not that I had any other choice, it’s not as if they sell pre-made pie crusts or anything in my town. A confession: I’ve never been a huge fan of apple pie (shhhh…I know how un-American that sounds) but over the holidays I became a convert. Delicious!  What took me so long?