Rains! Finally...

After 81 days without any precipitation, a dry stretch that ties for fourth place in Tucson's officially recorded history, the skies opened up about a week ago. And since then, it feels like we've been getting rain, and thunder, and lightning, almost every day since. On the fourth of July, for instance, the four of us were over at the Mennonite's house when the downpour began. Jen, Erin, and Kaitlyn ran out and danced in the rain (I'm sure they'll post some pictures soon). Later that evening, we went on their roof to watch the amazing sunset, the gorgeous storm as it receded over the Catalina mountains, and, eventually, fireworks.

Yesterday the rains were accompanied by strong winds. But Tucson didn't get an incredible dust storm like Phoenix did. Here's a video of that storm, also called a "habub."

The Phoenix airport closed for about an hour and cars stopped, but as far as I know it didn't cause any damage or injuries. Pretty amazing, though!



A counter-example

Though a large part of the reason why I'm doing JVC is because I want to make a better world, I admit I often wonder if that is possible. Sometimes it seems like our current way of living is so entrenched that it's permanent, unchangeable. This feels most hopeless to me when I realize that it's my own habits I need to change, yet I am resistant to doing so. Habits which make my life easier seem especially resistant to change. For example, being able to think of virtually any item as trash and throw it away without so much as seeing a landfill is a habit deeply established in my affluent, Western psyche. Changing habits such as these are hard, especially when I'm tired and doing dishes and considering how much easier it would be to trash this plastic bag instead of washing and reusing it. Another common example is the car. I know that cars produce harmful pollution, but that doesn't stop me from using one. It makes life easier.

However, counter-examples exist out there, examples of people and societies that somehow have overcome the "easy" excuse and are making real changes. One counter-example I came across last night in the New York Times. The headline pretty much explains it: "Across Europe, Irking Drivers Is Urban Policy." In the car-dominated United States, transportation policies that favor pedestrians, mass transit, or bicyclists at the expense of cars often feel symbolic more than substantial. Sure, you can paint the bike lane any color you want, but woe to anyone voting for a policy that would lengthen a driver's morning commute. In contrast, read what's happening in Zurich, taken from the article linked to above:

As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”

When I read this, I thought something like "What? How does he get away with that? Don't the car companies hunt him down, or sue the city, or corrupt him with bribes?" (I apologize to anyone who has worked for a car company, I'm sure you're not all bad.) Apparently, he - and Zurich - gets away with it.

Cars still feel like a Goliath in the U.S.'s economy, but suddenly riding my bike or taking the bus to work feels less like a sacrifice and more like a habit I'm willing to freely adopt.

It's hot here!

Saturday already, and another week that just flew by. Here are a few photos from the week.

Most recently, Erin's dad helped us set up a shade-cloth for our garden. Thanks, Bruce!

Earlier today I went on a bird-watching expedition with her dad, too. He picked out a spot he had heard about from the local Audubon society. So much water! I had no idea this existed in Tucson!

Earlier in the week it reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit on my bike ride home. Only a week or so until the summer monsoons!

Last weekend our house went wine-tasting in southern Arizona, along with the Mennonite volunteers and some JVs from Phoenix. It was so much fun! I had been wine-tasting before at nice supermarkets, but never at an actual vineyard. Amazing, too, that people can grow grapes out here.

And not to be overlooked, last weekend Jen made these yummy pretzels from scratch. Twice.

Gaaaaaahhhh

This is the thermostat in our house, and the big number is the actual temperature in our house. We called our landlord and apparently with all the smoke in the air from the fires in Arizona, the filters in our air conditioner need to be replaced more frequently. Oh well, now we know. Hopefully the problem will be fixed within a few more hours, but right now we're enjoying the cool air of Starbucks, once again.

Also, I made tea this morning, hot tea, which Erin pointed out doesn't make much sense given the circumstances. Old habits die hard, I guess.

US - Mexico food system skit

Almost every day I enjoy working at the Community Food Bank, but some days are particularly enjoyable. Yesterday was one of those. For our monthly "skill-share" meeting in my department, a few of my coworkers shared an activity they had developed which educates people on how the issues of food, job security, health, and immigration are all related. It is an activity that they intend to package so that different groups can use it as an educational tool. Simply put, I thought it was stellar, and would have loved to have done this activity in a college class.

The skit/activity reminded me somewhat of a murder mystery dinner, where every person has a role to play and certain guidelines to follow. For example, I was a small farmer in the US, (hence the hat) and I earned my income by picking up corn one kernel at a time and putting it in a cup. The man in blue next to me was a large farmer in the US, and you can't see it in the picture but he got to use heavy machinery: a spoon. After each monthly cycle (four minutes) was complete, I would sell what I had harvested to the person representing Cargill, a corn buyer, and I would receive a subsidy from the USDA. I also had to renew my contract with Monsanto for using their patented corn seeds. If I failed to renew this contract, the person playing Monsanto could sue me for using their patented seeds without authorization. Lastly, I then had to purchase food for myself from the store owner, who was selling processed foods for a considerably lower price than fresh foods. Then the next cycle would begin. Though the large farmer was doing all right for himself, pretty soon I wasn't earning enough to buy even the processed foods, so I took out a loan to buy some equipment: a fork. At the end of the entire exercise I was in a lot of debt and barely breaking even each round. I also received a note from my "doctor" who said I had developed heart disease, probably as a result of all the processed food I was eating.

So far, an interesting exercise, but it was even more complex than this. The people in the background of the picture were on the Mexican side, picking corn, selling it to a corn buyer who would make foods and sell them to store owners. The black partition with pictures on it represented the border. After a few cycles, both sides regrouped and our facilitators explained what happened in 1994: the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. This removed some of the government assistance Mexico was providing to its farmers, and lowered the barriers to trade between the two countries. Also, border security was strengthened (represented by pushing the black partitions closer together). As a result of NAFTA, the corn buyer on the US side started selling her corn to Mexico for incredibly cheap prices, so much so that the Mexican corn buyer stopped buying her country's own corn at all. This, understandably, was hard on the Mexican corn farmers, and a couple of them talked to the "guide" who promised to, for a price, transport them through the partitions (read: border) to find a job on the US side. So there you have it: food system, immigration, economics - all represented in an hour-long exercise.

Ok, so I just read through my above description and have to admit that it's a bit confusing, even to me. Systems, such as the one around corn, are so complex and have so many different players and variables that perhaps they're almost too confusing to convey through text. Not impossible, but difficult. That's why I thought this skit was so brilliant, because it allows someone (like me) to understand something very complex in a manner that's, well, fairly easy to understand.

I like my job :)

Mujadara

Perusing old photos in my camera again, I found this one. This is one of my favorite dishes we've made in our house this year. It is so simple (lentils, rice, onion) but so tasty. The flavor comes from caramelizing the onions until they're brown and sweet. Erin, Kaitlyn, and Jen first came across this dish cooking dinner at Borderlinks, an agency in Tucson that organizes delegations of folks who are interested in learning about border issues. Later we began using it for dinner at our house. I'm sure there are multiple recipes for it, but the one that we used is from Molly Wizenberg's food blog, Orangette. She calls it mujadara, and says it comes from the Middle East. Anyway, it's delicious.

BICAS

You can see some more pictures of my casa's trip to San Diego on Jen's and Kaitlyn's blog. My stock of trip photos, however, was pretty much exhausted from yesterday's post. Which is why I'm digging through my camera to come up with today's photo of the inside of BICAS, or the Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage, basically a bike shop co-op. Hands down, one of the coolest places in Tucson. (I'm not sure why saying "hands down" makes it more emphatic, but that's the effect I was going for, so there it is.) The staff here do not really do anything for you, they show you how to fix a flat, change a spoke, true a wheel. For example, they'll give instructions as you peel off the tire, inflate the tube underwater, and search for the puncture that gave you a flat. And it's cheaper, too - only $4 per hour, plus extra if you actually need a new part. BICAS definitely has an informal, garage-like feel to it, with some old tunes playing in the background and a dozen or so folks around the shop with bikes in various states of (dis)repair. Less than a mile from our house, it's a place I love to visit, and when I'm there I always wish I went more often. Also, it makes me never want to take my bike to a regular bike shop, where my bike disappears into some "back room" and comes out again, repaired. But I didn't get to see it! What happened back there?!