I’m always amazed when a given date ends up being significant in my life for more than one reason. I know, statistically speaking, the older I get the greater the likelihood of this happening…but it’s still a beautiful thing. For instance, my sister had her first child on her birthday. My grandmother was born on the 4th of July and her husband (my grandfather) was born on St. Patrick’s Day. Perahps their being holiday babies had something to do with their courtship…I’ll never know.
My first apartment in Chicago was on West Farwell in Rogers Park. It was a brilliant, eclectic neighbourhood with an East Indian video store at the end of the block (yay Bollywood!), a wonderfully nosey Greek woman across the alleyway who used to feed me spanikopitas becasue she thought I looked hungry, and Ned, the super, a tall Croatian who was always up for a good conversation about basketball (this was the golden age of the Bulls and Michael Jordan, afterall). But by and large, the neighbourhood was Mexican-American. When I first moved there, I knew how to speak enough Spanish to get myself into some interesting situations…like the time my car battery died and I asked a neighbour to ‘jump me’ (he had a very big smile on his face over that one), or the first time I ordered at the mexican cafe down the street and wound up with an enormous burrito filled only with guacamole rather than a burrito with guacamole on the side. On Cinco de Mayo the streets came alive with dancing, singing, and cars driving by with large Mexican flags trailing behind. We feasted on food from push carts and listened to guitars and trumpets well into the night. ¡Viva México! ¡Viva Juárez! Viva el 5 de mayo!
May 5th is also the birthday of one of my first boyfriends. (how I remember this, I don’t know) He’s just one in a long line of geeks I have adored. (To all the geeks I’ve loved before…) I recently heard he’s gone on to even greater geekiness as the V.P. of I.T. at Jet Blue in New York. That’s what’ll happen when you start programming at the age of 12.
And that brings me to today, May 5, 2005. (ooooh, 5-5-05 nifty. numerologists must be dancing in the streets)
It’s International Midwives Day.
What wonderful beings they are, what struggles they’ve had, what stories they have to tell. It’s only fitting that the Premiere of Nova Scotia, Dr. John Hamm will stand in front of the legislature today and make this proclamation (for the first time).
“Whereas midwives have been providing care to birthing women in every corner
of the globe for at least a century;
whereas this is an opportunity to pay tribute to the dedicated and
compassionate work of midwives, as well as the many Nova Scotians who are
recipients of their care;
Be it resolved that I, John Hamm, Premier of NS, do hereby proclaim May 5,
2005, as International day of the midwive and acknowledge their role in
providing quality health care to Nova Scotians.”
Yay!
And, if you’re in Halifax tonight, please attend:
THE FINAL PUSH: MAKING MIDWIVES PART OF THE NOVA SCOTIA HEALTH SYSTEM
Thursday, May 5, 2005
7:00 – 9 p.m.
Dalhousie University Student Union Building Room 224
6136 University Avenue, Halifax, NS
Panelists include: Dr. Christine Saulnier, Senior Research Officer and
Coordinator, Midwifery and Women’s Reproductive Health, the Atlantic Centre
of Excellence for Women’s Health; Kerstin Martin, Vice-President of the
Canadian Association of Midwives (also employed by the Reproductive Care
Program of NS); Octavia James, Co-Chair of the Midwifery Coalition of Nova
Scotia (and a consumer of midwifery); and Bernice Martin, Policy Analyst,
Nova Scotia Department of Health.
