Why I Boycott Nestle

There are a number of companies my family actively boycott including Monsanto (the most evil company on the planet!!), Coca-Cola, Nike, MacDonalds and BP, but the one company that has really offended me especially since I became a mum, is Nestle.

Isn't it interesting that Nestle aggressively and unethically promotes infant formula for babies in third world countries as being "protective" and yet it continues to utilise child labour and slavery in the manufacturing of it's chocolate products?  It goes without saying that they do not care about protecting children at all!  

By the way, Nestle's latest strategy of telling mothers its infant formula "protects" babies from disease or malnutrition is a big fat lie.  Nestle knows that babies fed on formula are more likely to become sick than breastfed babies, and in poor settings they are more likely to die.  In fact, UNICEF and WHO have estimated that by improving breastfeeding practices and reducing the use of infant formula in the developing world, the lives of some 1.5 million innocent children could be saved every year!  1.5 million children!!!

Some other reasons to boycott Nestle:

• Nestle is not a fair trade company.  Less than 1% of its cocoa is certified fair trade.
• Nestle has not kept its 2001 promise to end child slavery in its cocoa supply chain.
• Nestle violates the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes more than any other company.
• Nestle is a HUGE user of palm oil and knowingly purchases its palm oil from companies that are destroying Indonesia's rainforests and peatlands and causing the critical endangerment of Sumatra Orangutans. 

Meanwhile, Ky continues to enjoy his breastmilk whenever he can get it (which is just about every time he notices me sitting down ...) and up until now we've thankfully never had to resort to formula for any reason.  Did you know the WHO encourages breastfeeding at least until the age of 2?  For all the benefits to both bub and mum, I think it's a shame that so many women wean their babies before this age.  I also think it's a shame that so many women in our society wean their babies because of pressure they feel from others.  Regardless of the stares or tsk tsks I might receive, I plan to continue breastfeeding until at least another 6 months.  

One Year Up!

This morning when I looked out the living room window of our fourth floor apartment, I felt so blessed to be living in this little village on the outskirts of Antalya - the most popular touristy city of the Turkish Mediterranean coast. The view is so lovely. Our complex is surrounded on all sides by fields of newly planted wheat and corn, young pomegranate trees, glasshouses overfilled with tomatoes and fragrant orange orchards. There are no other buildings within miles, there are no highways to be seen.  Magnificent snow-capped mountains provide the backdrop below a sky of bluest blue.  The only sounds are of birds singing, children playing, tractors plowing and the occasional farm dog barking.  It's very peaceful here. And we're so fortunate to be able to call this place home.

We've been living here for just over a year now and I can hardly believe how quickly the time has flown.  When we first arrived, Kaya was just a smiling little bundle entwined within his baby sling.  Every day I carried him for long walks along the winding tracks separating the farms. I would point out the wild mulberries, stop to show him turtles swimming in a waterhole, mimic the whistles of birds, and hold flowers close to his face so he could learn the lovely smells.

Now, one year later, Ky, now 15 months old, is taking me for walks around the place.  He's the one pointing to birds in the sky, showing me trails of caterpillars, bringing me handfuls of bright flowers, copying the sounds of barking dogs and tasting everything within reach. When did this switch in roles happen? I must have been looking the other way because I completely missed it!

The past year has been oh so busy with Ky's business of growing from a bubbly baby to a tenacious toddler. There hasn't been a dull moment and we only expect things to get more interesting, more exciting, and more  as Ky approaches his second birthday.

A blog about poo

Two days ago I was rinsing a smelly nappy and fantasizing about the day when Kaya would take himself to the toilet and I wouldn't have to deal with another nappy (until the next baby came along). I started wondering when the best time would be to start his toilet training. I'd already read a little bit about the "how to" but I wasn't so sure about the "when to". At 15 months of age, is now a good time to start? He's walking and very able to do a lot of things by himself. And the weather is warm enough now for him to be able to run around the place naked and not get a chilly bottom. I consulted some of my baby books and had a bit of a browse online. All sources agreed that it was important to wait until the child was "ready" before even thinking about starting training. What did "ready" mean? Well, it seems that the little one should be able to recognize the sensation of needing to go and be able to associate this sensation with the end-product left in his nappy. He should also feel some discomfort in being wet or "pooey" (we're not allowed to use words like dirty or smelly because apparently using words or expressions with negative connotations can cause your kid to not respond well to toilet training) and either try to remove the nappy himself, or communicate to his mummy that he's created another "masterpiece" so she'll remove his nappy for him.

"Bugger," I thought, Kaya either doesn't seem to realise or doesn't care when he's poo'ed or wee'ed in his nappy.  And I resigned myself to a few more months of hosing poo out of nappies....

But then yesterday, I noticed Kaya standing quietly in a corner and was just about to ask him if he'd done a poo, when he started pulling at his pants leg and saying over and over "ba-ba, ba-ba" (unfortunately ba-ba is Kaya's word for poo-poo.  Needless to say, Murat's not very impressed that Kaya chooses to use the same word for acknowledging both his poo and his father).

Yeah! So it seems Kaya's met all the criteria for being "ready" for toilet training. I just have to get my plan of action figured out and hopefully we'll have a toilet trained little man very soon. Wish me luck!

Five Finger Vibrams

"The human foot is a work of art and a masterpiece of engineering" - Leonardo da Vinci

For my husband's birthday last month, I ordered each of us a pair of Five Finger Vibrams.  Ha!  I can only wonder what kind of images are flowing through your mind after hearing of a product with a name like that!  They're becoming more and more popular these days and were even featured in a recent Sunday newspaper here in Turkey with a story about an American actor photographed wearing them.  But for those of you who haven't heard of them yet, they can most basically be described as gloves for your feet.

Wearing them is almost like wearing no shoes at all.  They fit so snuggly and have no padding.  The bottom of the shoes are tough enough to prevent cuts and scrapes from sharp stones but thin and pliable enough to allow you to really feel the earth beneath your feet.  This connection with the earth is very important to me.  Oh and they are so very comfortable!  Because they individually house each of my toes, my feet can work as they're meant to and playing outside becomes much easier.  I can walk, run, jump, climb and play without really feeling like I'm wearing shoes.  I can also wear them in the water.  I have a bit of a phobia about walking in water when I can't see the bottom.  Now I have my Vibrams I don't need to feel scared of standing on something yucky or bitey or ouchie.  They're fantastic.  Can you tell how excited I am?

I virtually grew up without shoes.  All five of my brothers and sisters and I spent our weekends and afternoons roaming around our farm and exploring the bush behind or property, barefoot.  We loved the liberating sensation of having naked feet.  I remember how lovely it felt to squelch in mud puddles and how agile we were climbing trees.  We were born without shoes and it felt more natural going barefoot than squeezing our wriggly toes into rigid and confining shoes.

Even now the first thing I do when I come home is to kick off my shoes.

Unfortunately it's not socially acceptable to go around barefoot.  If I walked into my local grocery store or restaurant without shoes I'd most likely be asked to leave.  As a foreigner living in a very foreign country, I have to be careful about what I wear to avoid being stared at or verbally abused.  So going without shoes in public (in fact, even in my own home I'm frowned upon for not wearing slippers) would ostracize me even moreso.  Now I can wear my Vibrams (and still get stared at), conform to the custom of wearing shoes, and still feel as though I'm barefoot.

What do you think of them?  Kinda funny looking, hey?  But man oh man, they're good fun!  I just love 'em!

Easter Fun

As someone who believes in God without religion, Easter has never been a spiritually important time for me. Instead, I prefer the pagan ritual of celebrating the Spring Equinox. Did you know, the word Easter is actually derived from the name of the Goddess Eostre who represented the renewal of life - sunrise, spring-time and fertility?

Spring has always been my favourite time of the year. To me Spring is happiness and new life, flowers and butterflies, warm weather and cool breezes, colour, fun, sunshine, dandelions, fluffy clouds, trickling streams, green grass and baby birds.

With a constant state of little boy wonderment toddling along by my side I felt inspired this year more than any other time to put a bit of effort into celebrating Easter.

First, a rabbit ... I saw a cute little sock rabbit on Elsie Marley's blog and thought it looked simple enough to make even with Kaya "helping" me. All I needed was one of Kaya's mismatched socks, some matching thread and some cotton (picked from the cotton field next door):

The cute bunny tail was the first step:

Next, I shaped the body and tied it off at the neck:

Stuffing the head was next:

Although the next step was just as easy as all the previous steps, it did take a bit of time.  First I cut the top of the sock right down the middle to the top of the bunny's head to make the two ears and then closed each ear with a some simple stitching:

And here's the completed bunny with another bunny friend:

How's that for a simple and very cute little Easter decoration?  Even better, each bunny meant one less mismatched sock lying around!

Since this craft was so easy and so much fun to do, I got into Martha Stewart mode and started searching the internet for something else to make. Eventually I decided to make some easter bread to take to Easter supper at Angeline and Wolf's place. The recipe from Simple Bites looked simple enough (for me, "simple" is a prerequisite for making every cooking decision) even though it was still bread.

My bread-making record is pretty dismal. My 1/2 dozen attempts over the past couple of months have all been less than .... bread-like .... and I'd told Murat a couple of days before I tried this recipe that if I wasn't able to deliver the goods on my seventh try then I'd buy a bread maker. I don't know what I do wrong. But the bread always ends up wet and doughy in the middle or it doesn't rise or it just tastes really bad! I've tried everything like pre-testing the yeast, kneading the dough for hours (not really that long), using different flours, trying different temperatures of water or milk and even meditating beforehand. Nothing has worked. Until now that is!

I followed this recipe almost exactly but ended up having to keep it in the oven MUCH longer than specified. Did I mention that my oven is a piece of crap? Oh and I did modify the ingredients very slightly. Instead of all-purpose white flour I used wholewheat flour. I also used raw goat milk from our local village pasture fed goats, fresh eggs from the free range chooks in the village, fresh yellow butter, and olive oil instead of vegetable oil for shining up the eggs. And if I'd had more time I would have made natural dyes for the eggs instead of the not-so-good-for-eating artificial food colouring that I did use (I just made sure no one ate the pieces of bread stained by the dye).

This is what the dough looked like after I'd kneaded it for ages:

And this is what it looked like after I'd lovingly plated it and gently placed it in the baking tin:

And this is what it looked like right before it was eaten - a little more black than golden but no one complained.

Although not exactly breakfast bread, it's bread none-the-less. And it rose perfectly! And it wasn't wet and doughy in the middle! And it tasted lovely! Perhaps the secret is in the added sugar. Or the eggs. Or maybe it's the plating of the dough. Who knows? But this recipe is definitely a keeper. I made it again last night with some mashed banana thrown in and half the giant loaf has been gobbled up already! Next time I'm going to try it without the sugar since sugar's not a favourite ingredient in this household. Wish me luck!