if its in my neighborhood

its for sale.

I went through the hood last evening and took some pictures of just a few of the houses available for sale or rent in my neighborhood. We had pretty severe flooding in Febuary 09 and as the rainy season ended houses started undergoing construction. Many of them are being lifted. Many were already on the market and the realization has set in that they won't sell if they aren't lifted. That leaves some homeowners in a really hard spot. Can't afford to raise and it won't sell. Some of the houses are real success stories. Owner has taken the plunge and raised crumbling house 3ft above the road. Now they have a really nice, should be safe from flooding house.

Take for instance the 2 above. They'd sat empty for over a year. Sometimes extended family would come and stay in them for a day or two but they were only used as extra sleeping space for a few nights. Then one day bamboo goes up in front of the house on the corner- this one we suspect is being lifted 6 feet off street level. The one just inside from the corner, sheet metal goes up and they are making better time than the neighbor next to them. But what could they do- both of their neighbors would be higher than them, sure thing the flood water would be well inside their house.

Now look at some of the guys who have lifted. The above house looks like a palace. Their house still isn't selling. Everyone in the city knows what happens to the neighborhood. Even if you house were the ark and would float, no one wants to or can drive to the house. Meaning that until the water goes down in the street you can't leave your house- unless you want to walk through waste water.

suffering the effects

You can call it global warming. You can call it climate change. I don't really care what you call but don't tell me it isn't happening.

We live on an island about a mile from the sea. Our rainy season is supposed to be tapering off. In fact it had for about 2 weeks. Then she came back. Last evening we had another 2 feet of water in our street. See the problem is the rains came during high tide. And apparently the geologic survey would tell you we are in a season of cyclical high tide, when the tide (because of some lunar pattern) comes in higher than normal. But the problem that scientist agree on is that the ocean level is rising. With the increasing in the ocean level, scientists agree that regardless of a cyclical season of high tide, coastal cities are going to face increasing flooding problems. So what we should do is make sure we have a cleared canal system. Problem here is most definitely man made. Our canal are FULL of trash. FULL! Water doesn't actually flow through the canal because it has become so polluted.

I spent the night at a friend's house. She had 3 inches of water in her house from the rains. Her husband was out of town so I kept her company while waiting for the water to recede so we could start squeeging. Its too discouraging to face on your own. There aren't a lot of solutions to the problem of house flooding in our neighborhood. The neighborhood was built on reclaimed land and by everyone's agreement is way too low (we suspect we are technically below sea level after the years of settling). The picture above is the canal 3 blocks from our house. The good news for me is that 1) my house has been raised and 2) if I don't like the problem I can afford to move. And this is where the arguement switches from "Liberal Mother Earth Loving" to think of humanity. I can afford to move but I'm in the minority. There are 4 million people in my city and I'm guessing 2 million would find my house to be a good choice. But if they take my house, they'll be exposed to disease and chronic illness from polluted water and mosquitos, things I can afford to remedy by buying drinking water and screening my house.

Where the light poles are, that was open sea a year ago. Our city is STILL trying to reclaim land.

This is our compost pile. Its where all of the food scraps, yard waste and anything organic goes. Presently its full of banana tree. But under that you'll find what is becoming a good rich black dirt with all the goodness from coffee grounds, potato peels and egg shells. Later on in a few weeks we'll give a flip/ stir. And, maybe, if we're lucky, we'll find a free will plant. The boys rescued a pepper plant the other day that came from the scraps of a bell pepper. All cardboard, cans, and plastic bags get recycled which helps to provide a little extra income to the collector. We're trying to reduce what goes to "the dump", which we've come to learn is really the canal.

So I don't have a great solution to the problems I'm talking about. I don't know that there is one. But I can do my little compost pile to create good dirt that grows things. I take a second and break down and separate my recycleables. My guess is you can too.

more with rice & water

Tonight as I was cleaning up the kitchen and @ was waiting on Jonathan for his bath, @ was using the dipper to pour water on the floor. We keep a bucket of water in our bathroom with a dipper for flushing and handwashing. I asked him to stop pouring water on the floor explaining to him that "we love God so we don't waste water". Which jonathan took note of as being a pretty postmodern thing to say. I have no idea what postmodernism is but wasting water and loving God has something to do with it.

Along the same line the other day I was making rice and I let @ feel the rice. We buy rice 5 kgs at a time so the rice bucket feels pretty good to run your fingers through. I let him look at the rice with me and check for rocks, then help me pour water into it. Then while he was running his fingers through it he said "Mommy, this rice. This is AMAZING!" Don't know what made him say that, I've never said it. I wrote that story into my More with Less cookbook under the rice instructions. There's a really nice story about the importance of rice in so many societies, how valuable it is and how far it can go in feeding the hungry.

I take rice and water very seriously anymore. Milk too. When people come to the door for food I always give them a bit of rice, an egg and some fruit. If they are women or have children, they get a bag of powdered milk. The poor and the hungry can live off a dipper of water and a bit of rice. I've been trying to teach that to @ so that he doesn't have to learn later. So we talk about rice and water being "Amazing" at our house.