D.C. Diary

Turducken & Tofurkey

Today is Thanksgiving. I'd never really understood why the Americans bothered with Thanksgiving before - it sort of seemed like a dress rehearsal for Christmas. But now I appreciate that it's a celebration about eating, drinking and spending time with friends, I think it is a fantastic idea and I'm a big fan.

Thanksgiving ceremonies have taken place in the US since settlers arrived in the 1600s - and were initially used on a rather ad hoc basis to give thanks for the safe arrival, a victory celebration or a bountiful harvest. George Washington declared the first national Thanksgiving holiday in the US in 1789, and it has been feted as an annual holiday since Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving in the middle of the American Civil War, in 1863, giving thanks for 'blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies' despite the conflict raging all around. Thanksgiving was then held annually in the US on the final Thursday in November, until 1939 when FDR declared, at rather short notice, that it should be held on the fourth rather than the final Thursday - his reasoning being that it would give the depressed merchants longer to benefit from festive shoppers (the Christmas shopping period begins on the day after Thanksgiving). However, this all turned out to be a bit of a mess as 22 states obeyed him, 23 states celebrated it on the final Thursday of November as they had always done, and Colorado, Mississippi and Texas couldn't make up their minds and so declared two holidays that year.

The traditional Thanksgiving dinner is pretty much like a Christmas meal, consisting of turkey, vegetables, stuffing, cranberry sauce (pints of it lovingly homemade, rather than a teaspoonful from a little jar bought hastily in Sainsbury's), with interesting American additions such as sweet potatoes and corn bake. And pumpkin pie, which actually tastes much nicer than I'd anticipated, is the traditional dessert.

However, in recent years, there has been an attempt to accommodate vegetarians and vegans into the feasting rituals - hence the appearance of Tofurkey - which sounds hideous and I'm sure has done more to convert vegans to meat-eaters than any other method. At the other end of the scale, for those carnivores who can't decide which carne to feast on, we have the Turducken - a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. If you want to know how to make one, watch this (but, beware, this video includes sawing, squashing and stitching and is definitely not for the faint-hearted).

There is another sinister side to this annual celebration: every year, between 15 and 20 houses are burned to the ground as a result of accidents when cooking the Thanksgiving meal. Apparently, it is the worst day in the United States for domestic cooking fires - more than 1,400 fires took place on Thanksgiving in 2007, which is three times greater than the daily nationwide average. And the main culprit: the deep-fried turkey (which is probably as dangerous to consume as to cook, given the level of cholesterol involved here).

This brilliant video, which looks like a spoof but is actually a public safety informercial from the Underwriters Laboratories (the safety certification people that provide the American equivalent of the British Kite Mark), demonstrates why:

I particularly love the hard hat that the chap is wearing to do the commentary. You just can't be too careful when making public safety videos.

We spent this evening with our neighbours Meena and Liaquat, and their family and friends. It was great fun - there were 16 of us in total, tons of food and lots of alcohol and good cheer. The highlight of the evening was the after-dinner game of charades - although this being D.C., my randomly selected title was 'The General Theory of Employment', which was significantly more difficult than the 'Dirty Dancing' or 'Jungle Book' Ievel of challenge that I was expecting. Still, I guess it could have been worse - I could have been asked to act out 'Turducken' or 'Tofurkey'.

Big Bike Ride - the gory details

At last - some details of the ride. Huge apologies for taking so long to post these photos, but it's taken us ages to fabricate the evidence to make it look like we actually did it. Many, many thanks again to everyone that sponsored us. We have now raised over $5,500 towards our total of $7500, which is absolutely fantastic - I'm now hoping to make up the difference by writing to a few charities. And if you would like to make a donation, you can still do so at: http://www.firstgiving.com/emmashercliff.

As planned, the ride took us three days - and we were on the go for between 7 and 8 hours a day. Had I not taken so many photos, we probably could have made it in 6, but the route was absolutely stunning and I wanted to soak it all up as we went along. It was pretty hard going in parts, but the whole adventure was made significantly easier by the fact that I had my personal sports nutrition expert at my side. I'd never really appreciated what Simon meant by 'eating the right stuff' on his adventure races, and had always been slightly snooty about the crates of Gatorade in our basement. But thanks to Si's insistence that we stopped every hour to eat some trail mix and a powerbar, I didn't feel too physically tired at any point - except for the last afternoon. Even then, it was really just my knees that hurt. And my wonderful, gel saddle came into its own - combined with my new padded cycling shorts, I was a lot better off than Simon on his pointed mountain bike seat.

We began the ride in Cumberland. We were actually quite fortunate to have begun it at all as we  discovered a week before the ride that we couldn't take bikes on the train to Cumberland, which had been our original plan. We eventually managed to hitch a ride to our starting point with some folks from the Embassy who were heading up that way for the weekend, which was a real stroke of luck.  We were also wonderfully fortunate with the weather as although it was cold, it didn't rain at all during the trip, despite the forecast downpour. Much of the canal path was pretty leafy underfoot, and would have been a whole lot harder in several soggy inches of rain.

One of the things that surprised me the most about the towpath route was how different the landscape was almost from mile to mile. We passed through mountain meadows, enclosed forests, grassy locks, shadowy creeks, gravel river paths, tenebrous tunnels and aqueducts. The colours also changed significantly as we descended south - most of the trees at the beginning of the trail had already shed their coverings, whereas the towpath from Harpers Ferry onwards was much leafier and autumnal in colour.The Potomac River was to our right for almost the entire journey, and the vestiges of the old C&O canal on our left. At some points, the canal disappeared almost completely and it was hard to imagine it ever having been there, so dense was the growth and so mature the trees. We passed 75 locks in total, many of them distinguished by deserted Lock Keepers' Cottages, which made one realise the manpower it must have taken to maintain the canal. The Canal formally ceased operations in 1924 and some of the forlorn little houses look like they haven't been entered since.

Halfway through the first day, we passed through the Paw Paw tunnel, which is located about 30 miles from Cumberland. This impressive structure took fourteen years to build - significantly longer than the two years that the original contract had stipulated was necessary to dig the 3,118 foot brick-lined tunnel through the mountain. It was designed so that the canal could bypass a six mile stretch of twists and turns in the river known as the Paw Paw Bends, but by the time this feat of engineering was completed in 1850, at a cost of over $600,000 (the original estimate had been $33,500), the railroad had already taken hold as a far more cost-effective form of transport. The tunnel is still is good condition today, although it is completely dark inside and was impossible (for me anyway) to ride along without falling in the water - I opted for a dark, dripping 20 minute walk along the tunnel instead. Today the tunnel remains a reminder of the fact that other forms of transport were to eclipse the canal, which was part of the reason that the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal never made it past Cumberland. By the time the C&O Canal reached Cumberland in 1850, it was almost obsolete - the B&O Railroad having reached the town eight years previously - and plans to build the remaining 180 miles of canal to Ohio were dropped. 

To be honest, the biggest irritant on the first day was not my cycling shorts, but the huge number of midges that hit us in the face. We both resorted to donning our sunglasses just before dusk to avoid the flies in the eyes. We spent the first night in a B&B set up for cyclists in Hancock, and I actually felt pretty ok on that first evening, and in much better shape than I'd been anticipating. In fact, I was so amazed to find that I could cycle 65 miles and still walk that I felt like a bit of a bike pro, although abruptly shook myself out of it when I caught myself reading an article in a mountain biking magazine entitled 'Death of the Front Derailleur?'

The second day was tough - the track was quite squelchy in parts and there was one part of the route (Big Slackwater) where the towpath had collapsed altogether, prompting a 5 mile detour on the tarmac road. Refreshing as it was to have some smooth tarmac under the tyres, the chosen diversion was rather more hilly than I would have liked and  even the discovery of a massive pumpkin field didn't make me feel much better.

We spent the second night in Harpers Ferry, in a great little B&B called Laurel Lodge with wonderful views of the surrounding hills. Unfortunately we arrived in the dark, too late to see any of this, and I almost collapsed upon discovering that we had very cleverly booked a hotel right on the top of the cliffs, which necessitated a 30 minute cycle uphill from the town itself.

My knees were pretty bad on the last day, but the little wooden markers every mile were a great psychological boost, and made the countdown to Washington much easier. There are a large number of bridges and aqueducts along the canal route (someone has even had the patience to document them here), the largest and most spectacular of which is the Monocacy Aqueduct, about 40 miles from DC. Apparently this is one of the finest examples of an aqueduct anywhere in the US and ranks as an 'icon of American Civil Engineering', although to be honest by the time I crossed it I was just concentrating on not wobbling too wildly, so am in no position to comment on the 6 piers, 2 abutments and 7 arches, let alone the parapet walls which were apparently fashioned from large granite stone blocks quarried at the base of nearby Sugarloaf Mountain.

The last 20 miles coming into DC was absolutely spectacular and I definitely got a second wind, despite my knackered knees. The bright reds, gold and oranges of the foliage on this part of the towpath was stunning, particularly the stretch between Swains Ferry and Great Falls. The sun was shining as we arrived into Georgetown and we sailed along the familiar last five miles until we reached Mile Zero. There was a slight moment of deflation when reached our goal, stopped pedalling and then couldn't find anyone to take our photo for about five minutes - thank goodness for the young Dutch film student that eventually passed our way.

So there we have it - 185 miles and still alive. The good news is that my knees have recovered and Simon has stopped walking like a cowboy. And I have finally uploaded all the photos from the ride here: C&O Canal bike ride.

And just for the record,  I should note that we didn't see any badgers or foxes, but did discover what a muskrat was (I nearly ran one over). And Douglass was right about the 'strange islands and promontories' - it's a beautiful ride, and comes highly recommended.

 

Behind every successful woman...

My favourite story from this weekend's press, as reported on the BBC website:

On November 14, 2008, Dunwoody became the first woman in U.S. military history to achieve the rank of four-star General.

"There is no-one more surprised than I, except of course, my husband," she told an auditorium packed with the military's top brass.

"And you know what they say, behind every successful woman there's an astonished man."

We made it!

Just a quick posting to note that we are still alive, and to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who sponsored us. We have raised over $4500 so far, and the money is still coming in. We made it back to Washington by about 5pm last night, and here is the photo to prove it. My knees are a bit knackered and Simon's derriere is a bit delicate (his mountain bike saddle didn't have quite the high comfort levels of my wonderful gel seat) but I'm just so chuffed to have made it that I feel pretty ok today. I'll post some details of the journey in the next days or so, along with a few photos from the ride. And it's not too late to donate a few pennies if you haven't got round to it yet: www.firstgiving.com/emmashercliff

Fired Up & Ready to Go #2

We're off tonight on our Big Bike Ride. I am feeling slightly apprehensive about the whole escapade, but I did do a couple of good training rides this week, including one in the belting rain which I survived intact, so it might be ok. It's amazing how getting dressed up in all the kit, including my snazzy new padded cycling shorts and gloves, makes one FEEL like a professional cyclist, which does lots for one's confidence, especially when one is as unfamiliar with a bicycle as I am. And, after years of berating Simon for trailing mud all over the car and house, I've discovered it is actually quite exhilarating to get a bit mucky and soaking wet on a bike. Although I'm not sure how amusing I will find all that after 184.5 miles. At the very least, the scenery will be spectacular - I took this photo on the towpath yesterday. And the slower I go, the more I can appreciate it..

We're starting out tomorrow morning from Cumberland, and plan to stay in Hancock on the first night and Harpers Ferry on the second night - you can see the map of the route here. I was planning to post a little entry today about the C&O Canal, but then remembered that I wrote one already, back in February, when I first arrived in DC. So, in true Blue Peter style, here's one I prepared earlier. I'm certainly looking forward to getting to know 'muskrats, badgers, and foxes' and must remember to keep an eye out for the 'strange islands and promontories through the fantasy of fog'...

A huge thank you to everyone who has donated already - I have raised over $2500 towards my target of $7500 so far. And if you haven't sponsored me already, then now's your chance: www.firstgiving.com/emmashercliff.

Back on Monday, inshallah...

Change has come to America

President Obama. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I still can't quite believe he did it. We had a very late, but very fun, election night - starting at the BBC studios, where we'd been invited to have a glass of wine and a peek at proceedings (SO tempting to try to wave at David Dimbleby et al during the live broadcast), then on to spend the evening with various friends. The slight damp squib was the Republican party we thought we should show our faces at - we turned up at 10.45pm just as everybody else was leaving, which was a stark reminder that not everyone in the US is quite as euphoric about an Obama victory as most of the rest of the world. We watched Obama's speech at the house of the same friends with whom we had seen the V-P debate (and to whom we remain eternally grateful for introducing us to Palin Bingo). It really was incredibly emotional to see the tears streaming down faces in the crowd in Chicago, and the wonderful moment when the Bidens and the Obamas stood on the stage together, all four of them with their arms aloft. Clearly, it's all downhill from now, but it was a magical, optimistic, energising moment whilst it lasted.

It has only been over the last few months since I've lived here that I've even begun to comprehend how deeply the legacy of slavery still permeates US society today. In particular, visiting the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis really brought home to me how recent this 'history' is - it was only in 1965 that the Voting Rights Act was passed. Nevertheless, what has surprised me the most about the media coverage here over the last 24 hours has been the huge amount of space - print, online and broadcast - dedicated to the outpouring of emotion in response to Obama's election as the first black US President. Obviously this is only right -  it is an incredibly important moment in US and world history, and should be celebrated and recorded as such, but it is in such direct contrast to the campaign itself. Apart from Obama's masterly race speech in Philadelphia, and a flutter of excitement after Obama's nomination, there was really very little mention in the mainstream media of the fact that he was black - deliberately so, as no-one wanted to be accused of playing the 'race card'. And yet now he is elected, it does indeed feel that change has come to America, and it is incredible to witness. One of the statements that moved me the most today was that of Condi Rice, saying how she was especially proud, as an African American, that Obama had been elected. And there was a very powerful set of interviews on the radio this evening, with black voters talking about what it meant to them to be able to vote for a black president for the first time. One woman was in tears as she said: "I took my baby son with me into the booth, and I took his hand in my hand, and we pressed the button together".

On a more prosaic note, I spent much of today trying to get hold of a newspaper. There was a huge run on print newspapers across the country and there was not a single issue to be found anywhere in D.C. after about 10am, prompting huge queues around the Washington Post offices. I remain empty-handed, but this evening, Simon and I went down to the Newseum, where the front pages of papers from every state in the US, and from countries worldwide, are displayed every day. Scanning the front covers from today's issues, one can't help but feel that one is taking part in history - or at least witnessing it first-hand.

Now I just need to work out how to get tickets for Inauguration Day - current asking price is from $550 a head for a standing place on the Mall...

Fired up & Ready to go

  I went last night to Obama's final campaign rally, in Manassas, Virginia. Along with 85,000 other people who had had the same idea - all of us wanting to be part of history. I was struck by the number of young children in the crowd, who had been brought along by their parents 'just so they could say that they were there'. It seems that children are politically aware at a very early age here: When one of the friends who came with me told her four year old daughter she was going to an election rally, she was asked 'Is it for Mr. Pajama or the other one?'

Well, Mr. Pajama was on fine form when he eventually came on stage, long after 10pm. Although we could barely see him, and there had been a lot of waiting around (an hour at the rally venue, on top of the 4 hours we had already spent in the the traffic), just hearing Obama speak in person was captivating. He told a story about a little woman from South Carolina who inspired him, who demonstrated that one person could make a difference, and who roused her team with cries of 'Fired up!' and 'Ready to Go'! - chants that he now used himself to motivate the crowd.

It was powerful stuff:

"One voice can change a room. And if it can change a room then it can change a city. And if can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state, it can change a nation. And if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world. Virginia, your votes can change the world!"

And as the crowd poured out into the dark night, grooving to 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered', and truly excited about casting their votes tomorrow, it did feel like a historic moment. And I felt very privileged to be watching it unfold.

Big Bike Ride

  About a month ago, I bought a bike - the first one I have owned since I was at university over ten years ago. This time next week, Simon and I will be cycling 185 miles to raise funds for World Computer Exchange, a charity I have been involved with for the past 18 months. I'm really quite apprehensive about the whole thing, as we're going to be cycling 60 miles a day and the furthest I've ever biked before is the 9 miles from Metfield to Bungay. We'll be cycling along the C&O canal towpath, from Cumberland in Maryland to Georgetown in Washington, DC. Ambitious, I know, but it's all in a very good cause.

One of the big issues facing countries such as Tanzania today is how to overcome the 'digital divide' that exists between developed and developing nations. In the West, we often take for granted the access we have to constantly updated information, educational resources, communication tools, online newspapers, radio and TV broadcasts - all of it available via the Internet. World Computer Exchange aims not simply to provide access to technology, but also to ensure that young people have equality of access to knowledge, the relevant ICT skills to allow them to analyse information and a familiarity with the digital world that will ultimately allow them to participate in the global economy.

World Computer Exchange provides donated computers to organisations throughout the developing world, with the dual aim of connecting young people to the Internet and keeping working computers out of landfills. I am WCE's Program Officer for Tanzania, which means I am responsible for providing support to WCE Partners in Tanzania, helping to organise computer shipments, visiting projects in-country and fundraising. The WCE Partners are local organisations, such as youth groups, schools, orphanages, and one of the most rewarding things about being involved with WCE has been getting to know the Partners in Tanzania. Our most recent meeting in Dar es Salaam in October  was attended by representatives from 15 different organisations who had received computers in the past or who were seeking to become involved with WCE. These meetings are really inspirational, as the Partners share their experiences, talk about how the computers they have received are being used and discuss ideas for fundraising. They are an amazing group of very committed, dedicated individuals - attendees over the last couple of years have included school teachers, clergy, youth group leaders, an MP, a university librarian, teacher trainers, VSO volunteers and staff from Tanzanian non-governmental organisations.

Simon and I visited a number of WCE projects in Tanzania on our recent trip. One of the most fascinating was a secondary school in Iringa, which has been working with a WCE Partner called Global Outreach. Students at the school hold weekly web seminars with pupils at a school in Florida. Topics for discussion over the past few months have included the US elections, the world energy crisis, specific books that the students have read in advance of the meetings (by both Tanzanian and American authors) and - my favourite - table manners! It was obvious from the enthusiasm with which the Tanzanian students told us about the project that this is a fantastic learning experience for both sets of students, which has served to broaden the horizons of all involved in the virtual meetings.

We also visited a secondary school in Morogoro which has received computers from WCE in the past. The school was a fantastic example of how, with a little creativity, staff can help to connect youth to the wider world despite very limited resources. Like many schools in rural Tanzania, this seminary school is not connected to the internet because the connection and ISDN fees are still prohibitively expensive (about $400 a month). However, a volunteer at the school had developed a piece of software which allowed students to download emails onto a USB stick, which was then taken to the local town by one of the teachers, and the messages sent via an internet connection at the local internet cafe. A few days later, the process was reversed, emails were collected and uploaded to the school server, thus allowing the students to receive their replies. A very slow method of communicating by Western standards, but when Father Sheejan, a pastor who represents the school, shared this story at the WCE Partner meeting in Dar last year, everyone else broke into spontaneous applause and asked how they could replicate this in their own schools.

The sponsored bike ride is specifically aimed at raising money for a shipment of 200 computers, which we are hoping to send to Tanzania in January 2009. The shipment will help connect 5000 young people in 14 schools, orphanages and youth centres throughout the country. I am aiming to raise $7500 towards the sourcing and shipping costs for the computers, which will significantly reduce the amount of money that the Tanzanian Partners need to contribute towards the shipment.

You can support me by making a donation here: http://www.firstgiving.com/emmashercliff. Any contribution, however small, would be hugely appreciated.

I'll write more about plans for the bike ride itself in due course, but am off now to go and buy some padded cycling shorts...