Water, Waste, and Poverty: QPSANZ seminar

The health of the land and water, and the woods which are the keepers of the water, are the only lasting basis for any civilization.
-Donald Wright

From the 24th to the 27th of April, about 25 Quakers gathered at the settlement in Wanganui for this year's QPSANZ seminar; titled "Water, Waste, and Poverty"
The problems we looked at, and related statistics were frequently overwhelming.
For example: 2.6 Billion people have no access to safe clean toilets. That's about 40% of global popluation!
In rural Africa: women spend an average of 26% of their time fetching water, carrying an average of 20kg.
Not everything we learned was so gloomy. In Bangladesh, there was an 11% increase in school attendance by girls following the Bangladesh School Sanitation Programme, where safe, hygenic toilets and drinking water were established in a number of schools.
There were also lectures and exercises related to global food production. These included: a dvd about the restoration of indigenous rice varieties and organic farming to Sri-Lanka, supported by the "Movement for the Protection of Indigenous Seeds" or MPIS and MONLAR; an exercise in groups where each of us took two items at random from a supermarket catalogue, and we discussed where the food item came from, and what it cost, not just monetarily but in terms of resources used in its creation; and a presentation by Rosemary Morrow on her activities using permaculture to restore livelihood to the marginalised.
Although sometimes learning about the problems of the world was overwhelming and made me wonder where one could start, I found that overall the seminar gave me confidence that even in my current position I can be of service to people who need it.

A purse

I just finished sewing this. It's part of a birthday present for a dear friend, to be bundled with a CD and a bottle of French wine.

This is only the second sewing project I've actually finished this year: I'm sure I'd finish more if I had a sewing machine!

I fell off my bike.

Hi everyone! I fell off my bike on my way to work this morning. Look what happened to my hand! Rest assured I have cleaned the wound since then. I think I'll put something on it for karate this evening.

In case you were wondering how exactly I came to fall off a bike: well I was riding down Old Porirua Road, going much too fast, and slammed on the brakes so I wouldn't have a head-on with a car. Perhaps I put a bit too much pressure on the front brake because I flew over the handlebars in a most undignified manner. I rode quite slowly the rest of the way down the hill.

YF Pix

Finally I get round to putting my photos from the latest YF camp on the internet.


This one wasn't actually taken at camp: it's Chris Hall at Hannah Newport's birthday party shortly before.

The wonderful scenery: taken during a brief pause in the pre-camp working bee. I will also be putting this one on panoramio.

Having a cup of tea after some hard work. Still not technically a camp photo


The first photo taken actually during the duration of camp. Thomas Owen on guitar.


Now accompanied by Felix.


Thomas, Mirjam, and Julian.


Chris and Thomas sawing a wattle tree during the mid-camp working bee. Ross checking it out.


Installing wool-bats in the ceiling.


Dinner time.


Jim and Rogan, both dressed very stylishly.


Florian, Zoe, and Sam practising sign language

I have a roomie?

This creature was in my room a short while ago! Thanks to a cd-spool with a lid he's now in the next neighbour's garden. I don't have a history of being afraid of spiders but last year I was bitten by one about this size and I found this one made me a bit nervous.