9.28.2005

Odds and ends

I would like everyone to please take two minutes of their day, if they've got it, to read the NYTimes article on fistula in Africa. This is a really horrifying occurrence that we deal with a lot in Ethiopia as well. There are currently three hospitals in the country who routinely do fistula repair. Girls here are often married off as young as 11, although the new legal age of marriage is officially 18--older, I might add, than Massachusetts (14), Kentucky (14), and most of the States (16). They start bearing children as young as 13. I'm trying here to remember what my life was like when I was 13, and childbearing so completely does not enter the picture that I find it truly difficult to understand how girls of that age anywhere could be considered able mothers.

Also, I missed saying Happy Anniversary to my parents on September 16th, due to no internet, and would like to rectify that by providing this photo of the two of them in 1978, in Hong Kong for your viewing enjoyment (check out the turtleneck sweater my dad is sporting!):

posted by Margot @ 5:23 AM