themartianchick

Happy Birthday, Collette! I hope you like cake!

I think the biggest thing that concerns me is that they keep saying how difficult it is to catch it....yet the doctor who treated the man on the airplane has it....how is it that medical people seem to be coming down with it if they're using the strict protocols to keep from getting it? If you're wearing those suits and still getting it?

Being forced to reuse gloves, etc... is driving the numbers up for medical personnel. When you add in the fact that they are also incredibly tired and overworked, it is easy for mistakes to be made. One example that was given on another forum as a good "skill" to have is the ability to remove a latex glove from our hand without coming into contact with the contaminated area. I should be pretty darn good at that with the types of chemicals that I have used on myself and my daughters over the years and I still manage to get a little hair dye or relaxer cream on my skin. Luckily for me, the stakes aren't as high as they are for the medical professionals fighting to save lives.

My friend also discussed how stressful all of this is for the people in her country. With the constant smell from handwashing in bleach water and the continuous spraying of walls and other surfaces with bleach, she said that she had a permanent headache and slight nausea that caused her to second-guess that she had the symptoms of Ebola.

I haven't been around to weigh in on this topic, but one of my Facebook friends is a former reporter for our local newspaper and I got to know her fairly well from some reporting that she did for our nonprofit agency. She is a Liberian native and comes from a family of reporters in Monrovia. Until just a few days ago, she was there as she now does some international work. Her posts highlight some of the issues that Liberia has and she still has lots of good contacts for information. I haven't had a chance to read through all of the posts here, but there are a few answers to questions that I did see as I scanned this topic.

Hygiene- Liberia is an incredibly poor country that has suffered through a couple of civil wars in recent years. Their largest hospital is named after John F. Kennedy and located in Monrovia, the capital city. By our standards, we would describe the hospital as being a large clinic, based upon the services that they provide. Standard hygiene measures like disposable gloves aren't as readily available as they are in the US. The staff is being forced to wash and reuse the gloves as they go about caring for patients. Modern hospitals has access to all manner of anti-bacterial solutions with long lists of chemical ingredients and even longer lists of the types of germs that they kill. In Liberian hospitals and homes, they are using bleach in a bucket of water to try to stem the onslaught of Ebola. The second line of defense is a solution of bleach and water that is sprayed on surfaces to kill any Ebola virus that might be present. Bleach can be effective against Ebola, but it is growing scarce in Liberia.

Education- Liberia is not only very poor, but many of the people are uneducated. As an example, there current president is the one who mandated that there be a public education given to every child. (She's only been in office for a few years.) Most people in the country do not have running water or electricity. It is difficult to get the word out to far-flung people when you have few resources due to poverty. Additionally, many languages and dialects are spoken.There are lots of rumors going around that the disease doesn't really exist or that it is a curse from a witch. The saddest rumor that I've read is that many people believe that a particular kola plant can cure Ebola. As a result, many people stay home when they get ill and are treated with herbal remedies. This, in turn, becomes a death sentence for the rest of the family. One woman posted a photo of an Ebola kit that she'd put together. It has a pictures on it to show people how to use the supplies that she provides. Even with donations from friends and family via her Facebook solicitations, she has only been able to build around 10 or 20 kits. It isn't that she's pocketing the cash, but that the supplies are hard to find in a country that is living in fear of Ebola.

Quarantine- The concept of a quarantine is not quite understood or enforced, especially in areas where there are many poor people. They have no choice but to go out every day to earn money to shop at the local marketplace. They don't have the ability to stock up on groceries and then hunker down for days, weeks or months. The marketplaces themselves may be teeming with all sorts of disease on a good day, simply because there are so many people in attendance. With the threat of Ebola, even the food being sold in the market or hunted in the jungle may be tainted, as Ebola can be harbored in other animals. During this crisis, people are being told not to eat bush meat, which means that they are forced to mingle with other people in the marketplace top get food.

Disposal of Dead- Those with medical training are being called upon to help to nurse the sick, while those without training are often enlisted to retrieve the dead and dispose of the bodies. There have been dead bodies lying on the sides of roads for days, without anyone coming to retrieve them. The bodies themselves are weapons of mass destruction when it comes to spreading the disease. The people who pick up bodies are often ill-equipped and later succumb to the disease. There have been reports that some of the dead were buried near a wetland and near a community well. The less educated populations are running scared and have even chased away some of the burial workers because they don't want the bodies interred in an area where no one has yet caught Ebola.

Medical Personnel are so scarce in Liberia that there is one doctor for every 40,000 people.

Thank you for the birthday wishes!

We took a trip up to Thousand Islands region of NY to celebrate my birthday. It was incredibly relaxing, despite the fact that we managed to cram a lot of activities into a 10 hour day. The weather was perfect and we took full advantage of it with bird-watching, swimming, visiting a butterfly conservatory and hiking.

I will be spending a little more time around here, as I have finished my summer classes and have about a month before the Fall semester begins. I'm doing a bit of educational re-tooling as we are preparing for hubby to retire at the beginning of next year. I miss spending time here with all of you and have been substituting Facebook for forums, simply because I have an app for that on my phone.

I knew I could smell a cake baking somewhere!

Wishing you a marvelous birthday!!

I am still able to get decent deals on chicken legs and thighs at Wegmans, but I go to a small local grocer to get chicken breasts. I don't know where they manage to find these chicken breasts, but they are huge. I like to cook one in the crockpot and then make soup with it. A pot of soup feeds us for a couple of days and is a great way to make meat stretch.

How sweet! I'd love to have a dog again. Give her a hug for me!

Hi, Annarchy!!!

Lunamother is one of my Facebook friends and one of my favorite folks to steal interesting posts from. She and her family are doing really well.Ward's health seems to have stabilized and they have been moving on and enjoying life. Lunamother has also written a few novels and her youngest son is growing up awfully fast!

I exercise to reduce stress. I also take time out to read , crochet and garden when the weather allows.

I'm using software to track our household expenses this year. In the past, I only used it for the business. I'm hoping that it will help to pinpoint areas where we are leaking money.

Hey!!! When are you and Lori coming back to play? You are missed here!

A dollar a box is about right for Rice-a-Roni. I don't buy it often, but that is the pricepoint that I will purchase it at. I think $1.39 is about the norm.

Lol! Isn't it amazing how that happens?

I hope you had a great day, Brenda!

Happy Anniversary! 30 years is quite a milestone!

It really is the little things... I just posted this article on my Facebook page:

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/ore-man-killed-wife-for-closing-ketchup-bottle-too-tightly

Whoo-hoo! Snowmom and Shadow have all the strobe lights on for the party! I hope that your birthday is magnificent, exciting and a whole lotta fun, too!

Our insurance premiums in NY seem to stay pretty steady. Historically, we don't get weather that is sever enough to cause a lot of claims. A few years ago, we had a lot of snow and my parents lost their big old barn due to the weight on the roof. The insurance adjuster told them that lots of people were having the same issue across the state. Downstate NY saw a lot of damage from Hurrican Sandy, so who knows? Our premiums could start going up if we continue to have odd weather.

Love that chicken and chick Cat! Lol!

I had my flock decimated a couple of years ago. I was devastated. City raccoons are the worst... They do things just for the fun of it because they don't have to focus on finding food. They are never really very hungry because there is always a trash can that they can dig in. Chicken killing is like a sport to them.

Yesssss!!!!!!

Thank you, Violet, for all you do here. On MrsS, we are better educated than most people and you certainly are part of the reason. Other veteran canners here too, have made sure that folks who live here....or stop in to visit us, are going to be safe.

 

Unfortunately, this sort of "PRETEND- canning" is why so many think it's altogether not safe. Some folks just realllllly need to back away from and buy theirs at the store.

 

 

MtRider

Exactly this!!! Echoing Mt. Rider in expressing my thanks for Violet and her wisdom.

I tend to buy smaller containers because there are likely to only be two of us consuming the products at any given time. If there is no power, I would find it difficult to use up a large can of anything without getting sick of it.

I need to make some jelly soon. I've been freezing raspberries during the past week. Well, only the ones that that I don't cram into my mouth!