post mid-term election:

oh i am a happy camper today. bush, cheney, rumsfeld et al ; got a trouncing! hooray! hooray! the wicked witch is dead! i honestly had given up hope that the dark days of the bush administration would ever end. lame lame duck . it will be interesting to watch your demise.
i only wish bush will be tried for "crimes against humanity".
it has been a disheartening time in the world . so many innocent deaths, such untold suffering. for what? for democracy? for security? anyone who thinks, can see that bush talks out of both sides of his mouth. watching him at the white house press conference was painful. the man is such a liar. and the worse kind , he actually believes his lies.
a new day is coming i hope , when the cloud of fear and insecurity instilled more by this administration than by al quida, will abate and that rationality well prevail.
everyday i say the prayer of st francis " lord make me an istrument of thy peace........." i ask for guidance to contribute to peace in the world in what ever way possible.


i love reading blogs. there are such wonderful ones on the internet. one that i follow is "coastal time". it's a young woman ,who until recently lived on the coast of oregon. she recently move to hawaii. i get lots of interesting links from her blog. one that i found today was on an organization called "KIVA" which helps entrepreneurs form developing countries obtain loans to start a small business. something like the noble peace prize winner for this year has done . i forget his name i believe he is from turkey. what a wonderful idea. you can lend someone in uganda $25 to start a little shop, others will also contribute to the full amount. perhaps $500. once the business is established the borrower will repay the lenders. you get updated on their progress. once the money is repaid, you can lend it to someone else or get your money back.
i am going to do it. i think it's a wonderful way to help.something like the organizations like Heifer international or Vision canada, where you can actually buy someone in a poor country a cow or a goat or chickens etc. it can be a christmas gift in aloved one's name. i wonder how my grandchildren would feel if for christmas they gave a turkey or a pig to someone in africa. i bet they'd be thrilled. of course they would still want nanny to send them something else , but maybe not as expensive as usual............ it's a thought.
i know of a family who gave up giving each other gifts for christmas. instead they sent money to the charity of their choice. they would spend christmas at their cottage and have a lovely quiet time . like an old fashioned christmas, before commerce hijacked christmas .
i've always wanted to spend christmas at a cottage in the woods. no gifts, just some good food, wine,music and merriment. when my kids were small i wasn't really brave enough to do it. now i need to be near my grandchildren, because it is true ,christmas is for children (even the forgotten one in us).
one of the best christmases we had was one we spent in tobago. my husband was on sabbatical and was writing a play. we were living in a tiny one room apartment near the beach in the town of plymouth. it was our first winter without snow. i was a bit worried as we didn't have a lot of money. when i went in to the nearest big town, scarborough,to shop for gifts, i was surprised at how little there was to choose from . we each got one gift which cost $5.00 tt.my eldest daughter , who was 10 at the time got a labratory kit. it included test tubes and a microscope. she loved it and would take samples of water from the canal (open sewer)that ran behind the house and was so delighted to find pin worms and other nasty looking creatures.
my youngest daughter was given a small blue piano. she played that little piano constantly. like schroder of "charley brown" fame . she would diligently practice everyday. now when her two year old daughter comes for a visit, she runs for the blue piano and pounds out a tune.it's a little off key ,but she doesn't know that. she looks just like her mother playing the little blue piano.
our christmas tree was the branch of a tree we found on the beach. it had no leaves. we decorated it with tin foil from my husband's cigarette packs and other homemade decorations. later we were told that the bush was poisonous.
we had a wonderful christmas. we met a german family on the beach that morning and brought them home for breakfast. mr dumas (our landlord's caretaker) and his son superville arrived with curried goat meat.it was my introduction to goat meat and it was delicious.later that day we went visiting and were treated to a local dish call pastal. it was a kind of corn pasty wrapped in a banana leaf. everywhere we went we had to eat and drink. after the first few visits i could hardly walk , i was so stuffed. i went home with the children and my husband continued to celebrate. like newfoundland, in tobago christmas was 12 days long. during that time you were expected to pay a visit to everyone you knew. at each home you would be treated like royalty. the best food , liquor , which funnily enough was not rum as you might expect,but single malt scotch.
we felt right at home. that is how christmas is traditionally celebrated in newfoundland. in days gone by household would have unexpected visitors called "the mummers" . these were neighbours and friends who would be dressed up in men's old clothes and have their faces covered with panty hose or bits of sheer curtains. they walked in uninvited and spoke by sucking in their breath and saying loudly "any mummers 'loud in here ?" they would have a fiddle accordian and, or, guitar, and spoons. they would play jigs and reels, sing and dance. it was all very rowdy. the host was supposed to try to guess the identity of each of " the mummers". and supply them with drinks of homemade wine and homebrew. the mummers would go from house to house the whole 12 days of christmas. it was very merry.........