Babies, Mosquito Netting and Meeting the Maestro

So much blather about immigration. Here's what's going on on the ground. The Great Plotnik defies any of his wonderful readers to guess the ethnic components of these four beautiful children. Hint: The two in the middle are both named Hana. Extra Bonus: The beautiful child on the right is so gorgeous she makes ya wanta cuddle wuddle ooooopsy dooopsy (GPS 5000 Baby Talk Filter Engaged).



A long conversation with the Beeze on Sunday helped bridge the long distance. She's doing well, a little amazed, as are her parents, that she can be in her bed at 10PM behind mosquito netting in a house with no electricity in a village in East Africa, and talk on her cell phone to her Mom and Dad sitting in their kitchen in their house near the Pacific Ocean where it's noon.

She sounds great, though it's exhausting work slogging up and down 45-degree hillsides, covered in brush, to get to the sites the group is testing for environmental information. There is the usual amount of politics and some frayed nerves, the kinds of things that feel large when you're in the middle of them, but then fade into memory when you consider how amazing it is for people of so many different ages, experiences, colors, religions and backgrounds to get together at all, even for such a good reason. Plottie wishes he was there too, to help do something useful in the world.



Last night, Plot and Duck went to a screening of half a dozen Frontline World short documentaries, all of which have aired (or are about to) on KQED and nationally as well. The series is edited by the Plotniks' friend Steve Talbot, and is entitled 'Heroes from a Small Planet.'

Plot has seen several of these already, but last night all the principals involved were at the screening. Plot got to talk with Maestro Luis Szaran, the conductor of the Paraguay Symphony, who is featured in one of these segments, for work he has done setting up community orchestras in the most poverty-stricken slums and villages of his country. Most of his kids have never even seen an instrument before he gets hold of them -- they are even constructing violins out of garbage found in the huge dumps where so many live. What an inspiration.

Tonight (Tuesday) the last segment in the series is airing, in whichever city you are (OK, Joy, probably not in Johannesburg). You shouldn't miss the segment about training the rats. These rats...well, you won't believe me if I tell you what they are doing for the people of Mozambique. Watch the show. In S.P. it's at 9pm on KQED.