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Events & News Tuesday October 18, 2011: The First Annual Argyle Community Garden Fall Plant Sale & Bazaar was wonderful! It was a great chance to get some important information into people's hands. Folks had really great questions about things like Urban Agriculture (a big, important issue in this town lately) and were surprised to learn that as "green" as they might already be, there are still inexpensive, easy changes they can make to help our planet. I'm excited about the opportunities – to speak to a condo owners association and to a school group – that I discussed with people I met at the event and can't wait to make those things happen! My rates for speaking engagements are very reasonable, so use the "Contact Me" page to arrange a presentation for your organization. Also, it's not too late to register for the drawing for 1/2 off of a Green Home & Living Consultation. The consultation can be done long distance, so use the "Contact Me" page to send your name, phone number and email address by November 15 to be entered to win! Below is a recap of the ACG Fall Plant Sale & Bazaar by the organizer, Sandi Newman. Let me also add my own personal thanks to all of my friends who came out to support me and the Garden; to Sandi, of ACG (www.facebook.com/ArgyleCommunityGarden), for the opportunity and kind comments; to Carol Kartsonis, of Friends of NE Florida Community Gardens (www.neflcg.blogspot.com), for her kind comments; to Dana Edmonds, of Tutoring Club of Jacksonville (www.tutoringclub.com/jacksonvillefl), for her help and support; and, of course, to my better half for his excellent schlepping skills and patience. You all are the best! A bumper crop of thanks to our garden members
for a great Plant Sale & Garden Bazaar! Tuesday October 11, 2011: The start of the Florida growing season is here, and business is growing like crazy! I've added a new service called "Green Home and Living Consultation." Read all about it on my "Services" page. Basically, I coach people on living in a more environmentally friendly way, offer more extensive in-home "green audits" in order to give specific suggestions, and I speak and give presentations to groups on a wide range of environmental topics. This Saturday, October 15, I will be speaking from 12-3 p.m. at the First Annual Argyle Community Garden Fall Plant Sale & Bazaar. The event goes from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and all proceeds benefit the nonprofit community garden. There will be seeds and starts for sale, an old-fashioned rummage sale to dig into, all kinds of goodies and crafts to buy, and expert speakers on a wide range of topics related to gardening, organic gardening practices, green living (That's me!), and more. See the flyer below for all the details. Hope to see you there!
Wednesday September 29, 2010: From the end of August to the beginning of September, I had the opportunity to travel to Peru as an interpreter on a medical mission organized by the Sisters of Mercy. This annual pediatric mission serves two purposes: to help some very needy children and to provide field experience in tropical medicine to those residents, doctors and nurses from Johns Hopkins Hospital who choose to go. We had an afternoon and night in Lima, so we got to see a little bit of the colonial part of the city. The next morning, we took a flight to the small city of Piura and boarded a bus to the town of Chulucanas. We arrived that evening in front of a huge, gray metal door that swung open to reveal a dirt courtyard and a collection of buildings. Two of those buildings were dorms. Our group of doctors, residents and volunteers took over one of them, while the nuns went on to the house that the Sisters of Mercy in Chulucanas share. Our days began early. We walked the two or so miles that first morning to the community center where we took all of our meals and passed a school and a few places where some plastic chairs and tables were set up outside. There were a few pots over gas burners or even wood fires; people were eating, so that apparently qualifies these places as restaurants. Our meals were delicious and, except for breakfasts, all included rice. We were provided one beer each with dinners. I was told that I would come to appreciate this since it would probably be the only cold beverage I would have during my stay. Not being a beer fan, I dismissed the idea. I was wrong. After breakfast, we started unpacking the suitcases and boxes full of medicines and medical supplies that we had brought with us. I helped set up the little room that would serve as the pharmacy. There was a nice welcoming ceremony in one of the other buildings in the complex’s courtyard. Afterward, we had just a few minutes to straighten up before we began seeing patients. The majority of the children we saw at the center were from Chulucanas or its immediate environs. This was the first year that the mission was going to be able to offer surgeries. That meant that some of the kids we were seeing had been identified as surgery candidates the previous year and were there for their pre-op screening. There were also a lot of children who were well and were just there for a checkup. There were kids with fairly routine problems such as urinary tract infections and diarrhea. Then there were the kids who had serious problems, some of which either the mission's doctors couldn't fix or the parents would not be able to have fixed due to lack of funds or access. Sunday was a day off, as no patients would come that day, and we took a trip to the coast. Spring was just beginning in Peru so it was too cold to go swimming, but we took walks on the beach while we waited for our lunch to be prepared at a little beachside restaurant. I saw two enormous sea lions that had washed up on the beach, thousands of red crabs, and I think I even saw a shark in the waves. I did stick my feet in the water and it was quite cold, but probably would have been bearable with a wetsuit – minus the sharks, of course. Throughout the time the Mercy group was in Chulucanas, small groups of us made trips to three tiny, remote villages to see kids who couldn’t make it to Chulucanas. The distance to these villages wasn’t that far, but the lack of roads and the condition of the ones that exist means that travelers have to go way out of their way and go slowly to access them. One trip was only sixty miles, but it took three and a half hours to get there. I went on the second of the three trips to a village that is not on any map. This village is in the foothills of the Andes, so the last part of the trip was full of switchbacks and partial closures caused by the landslides from last year’s rains. The village proper was one street of concrete or mud brick buildings, a microscopic square formed partly by the small church and, at the end of the street, a three-room health clinic. We stayed in the house shared by the two nuns who live in the village. We unloaded our things and ate a quick lunch at three plastic tables in their front room. Then we walked down to the clinic, spent about a half hour setting up and started to see patients. The remoteness of the village, along with the fact that many people traveled quite a distance from the surrounding mountains to get there, meant that there was a lot more dialect spoken there than in Chulucanas. The lack of education and use of words particular to that region made interpreting quite a bit more challenging than in Chulucanas, which was challenging enough! I made it through that first day of clinic, but from about one in the morning I was in bad shape. I’ll skip the icky parts, but I spent the rest of the day in bed drinking a vile solution of oral rehydration salts. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t be at the clinic. The group finished seeing kids around 3:30, packed up, more or less carried me to the trucks, and we started the trip back to Chulucanas. I spent the next two torturous days in bed. On the last afternoon that I was going to be there, I was able to help out for about two hours. My sister-in-law (one of the Physician Assistants on the trip) and I took a flight that evening and got in early the next morning to Cusco. We dropped our bags at the hotel and sipped coca tea while waiting for the Ollantaytambo and Sacred Valley tour we’d booked to begin. Coca tea is supposed to help alleviate the symptoms of altitude sickness. If it helped at all, then I’m glad we didn’t try to do without it. The tour consisted of a stop at the Pisac market, lunch at a converted colonial hacienda in Urubamba, a visit to the Incan city of Ollantaytambo, and a demonstration of wool dying and spinning in Chinchero. The next morning, we took the train along the Urubamba River to Aguas Calientes. From there, we took a bus on some serious switchbacks up to Macchu Picchu. Our tour guide was excellent, and it was a great trip. We had a wonderful buffet lunch at the only restaurant up there and headed back to Aguas Calientes on the bus. We had some time, so we looked around the large market adjacent to the train station before boarding for the trip back to Cusco. The train trips were pretty luxe and included tons of leg room, meals and snacks, live onboard entertainment and stunning views. The crew was also pleasant, helpful and accommodating. On our final morning in Cusco, we created our own walking city tour by picking places we wanted to see out of a guide book. We didn’t have time to go in to any of the locations, but we saw a good number of the historically significant buildings and places. We were in the upscale Miraflores section of Lima by early afternoon and had lunch with part of the Chulucanas group at a beautiful restaurant built on a pier. That evening we met up with most of the rest of the group for the trip to the airport to catch our flights home. It was an incredible experience. The days were long; the work, demanding but indescribably rewarding. The nuns were wonderful and generous, and the doctors, nurses and other volunteers on the trip were so receptive that it was inspiring to watch all the learning and discovery, my own included, going on. That makes four continents for me. There's talk around here of trips to Australia and Africa, but how am I going to get myself to Antarctica?! Tuesday, August 17, 2010: The year is more than half over; time for an update! I continue to tutor (mostly study skills, reading skills and reading rate, and SAT prep). In the fall, I'll be doing Creative Writing and Spanish courses for homeschoolers. I'm currently working on a book review for a local author and a bunch of stuff for a local business owner (newsletters, company profile and other commercial types of writing). I got the cover story of the August edition of EU Jacksonville. The story was a how-to on dog ownership. It was a lot of fun to write and very interesting to research. I hope it's the first of many cover stories! Finally, I'll be leaving soon for Peru. I'll be interpreting on a medical mission to a little village there. Medicine plus Spanish - I can't wait! Tuesday, December 15, 2009:
The end of the year has been good (and busy!) for my editing business.
I've had some great clients. I'll be announcing their work when it's
published.
A poet for whom I wrote a review and a book jacket blurb has finally seen his poetry collection in print. When I Was a Kid by George Campbell would be really nice fireside reading this winter. It's on Amazon - check it out! In the Summer Reading edition of EU, I wrote about several local authors. One of the authors I profiled, Jane Wood, will be releasing her new book for elementary grade children (generally 2nd to fourth or fifth grade) Ghosts on the Coast: A Visit to Savannah and the Low Country on February 2nd. She has three other books too. Check that out, as well as all her news about signings and festivals, at www.janewoodbooks.com. Also, I'll be sending some poetry to a review in Virginia by the end of December. Wish me luck! Finally, I've been tutoring in Spanish Language, which is also going really well and will be keeping me super busy in January. I offer student and adult tutoring and classes for individuals or small to medium-sized groups. I do everything from conversational Spanish for professional settings to coaching for the AP Language exam! In addition to Spanish, English (language and literature) and ESL, I do organization and test-taking skills. I'll be updating my website soon with news, tips on publishing (by popular demand), and more. Bookmark me at www.annarabhan.com. Happy Holidays! Tuesday, August 11, 2009: I'm honored to have
been asked to speak at the August meeting of the http://jpl.coj.net/lib/branches/se.html Sunday, July 19, 2009: It was down to St.
Augustine to cover the RatDog/moe. show at the
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