Spring Break, Family Bloggers, Global Poverty

Blogging lightly, lately.

This is our daughters' Spring break and I have a surplus of vacation days. And my wife has recently returned to work - so a few extra days with Dad helps ease the transition for the three-and-a-half month old. She has concluded that, despite the fact that I don't possess a portable buffet, I ain't that bad after all.

The infant is currently sleeping, with her arms thrown up over her head in an "I am a champion" pose. For more blogging about the new youngster, the challenges of parenthood, and my wife's own unique take on the world, check out Pioneer Spirit and Maternal Anxiety. There's a couple of great pictures of the little nub, not to mention posts from my better half.

And while we are talking about family bloggers: My sister is working at an orphanage in Haiti, and has been blogging about it here. She conveys the experience with stories and striking photographs. Haiti is desperately poor - but the people, the traditions and the island itself seem almost unfathomably beautiful. I'm a very proud brother for the work she has been doing.

There's a lot talk about social justice and the resources that first worlders consume, and how unfair our economy or technology is towards others. Even if there is an element of truth in this strictly material conception of the world - the argument doesn't help the poor. What helps are localized solutions - a fence, a source of clean water, spot delivery power, a sewage system. One by one, in the poorest communities on Earth these need to be built.

It's real work, and it's never glamorous, and it's critical. Read Pwoje Espwa, Theo's Work and Inside the Frame. Here is one place where people are suffering, and others are working to relieve their most immediate concerns.