Our family adventure in Africa begins: December 19, 2008

January 5th, 2009

We flew from JFK to Dubai on Emirates Airlines, and here we are at the start of our journey.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any time to see anything in Dubai, other than a little of its sleek airport, before we continued on to Kenya.

When we arrived, we found Nairobi’s international ariport was also decorated for Christmas, although much less commercially than Dubai’s.

Near the tree, I noticed this box at the airport and wondered how much input it received:

After our long journey, when we stepped outside the airport, we found ourselves under beautiful blue African skies.

We headed for the Nairobi Serena Hotel (where we were told with pride that Oprah has stayed) for one night. The hotel’s lobby also had a Christmas tree, this one made out of gourds.  In the morning, we would be on our way to Kenya’s Northern Territories.

The next day, our adventure truly began when we arrived at Nairobi’s Wilson Domestic Airport to board a plane for the bush.  Below is the sign we encountered when we reached the airport’s security.  Items not allowed on the flight:  guns/riffles [sic], arrows, knives, clubs, and so on.

BACK HOME FROM OUR FAMILY ADVENTURE IN AFRICA …

January 4th, 2009

Here I am dancing with a Samburu woman in her village in Kenya.  I’ll blog more about the trip over the next few days …

Photo by Tyler Sipprelle

Celebrating the holidays on safari in Kenya and Tanzania!

December 17th, 2008

I will be in Kenya and Tanzania on safari over the holidays.  I hope to blog, if there’s Internet availability.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gestational Surrogacy and Alex Kucznski

December 12th, 2008

I read with interest the story of gestational surrogacy Her Body, My Baby by Alex Kuczynski in the Nov. 30 Sunday Magazine of The New York Times.

Two reasons I was intrigued:

  • I interviewed Kucynski by phone for a Manhattan Media story that I wrote in early 2007 (posted below). She had won an Our Town award for her witty contributions to the “The Critical Shopper” column in The New York Times.   Reading  Kucznski’s columns was great fun - some were so snarky they made me laugh aloud.
  • I want to write a story about a military wife who becomes a surrogate while her husband is deployed. I was in contact with a woman who planned to be a surrogate, but she became pregnant (by her husband) before he left for Afghanistan.

I’m still looking for a good source!

Kucznski has taken heat for her NYT story - many negative blog comments about it, especially the accompanying photographs, which Kuczynski is reported not to have liked.  In the photos, Kuczynski looks sleek, toned and wealthy.  Hillings, the surrogate mother, looks poor and ungainly, heavily burdened by the pregnancy.

The few of Hillings’s words and actions contained in the story reveal her to be exceptionally thoughtful about the strong emotions surrounding surrogacy.  In her application, she referred to herself as a “foster mother” of the baby until it was born.  Hillings gave Kuczynski a birthday present and brought a gift to the hospital for Kucznski at the time of the baby’s delivery.  Hillings comes off as very sensitive.

In contrast, Kuczynski searched literature for how to behave.  She seemed to struggle with the delicacy of the surrogacy relationship and unable to respond from the heart to Hillings.

In fact, Charles Hoyt, public editor for NYT, was forced to acknowledge last Sunday that the cumulative effect of the story and photos struck readers as elitist and that the story had not given sufficient space to Hillings’s feelings.

Our Town, Manhattan Media, 01/25/2007

Sharp Eye, Witty Pen: Alex Kucynski Mulls More Than Retail

Culture is the study of perfection, wrote the Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold.

Alex Kuczynski, author and New York Times columnist, writes about modern-day culture with wit, research, and self-revelation. Kuczynski seeks out the ultimate shopping experience in her Critical Shopper column and examines the quest for the ideal body in her recently published book, “Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession with Cosmetic Surgery.”

In her column, Kuczynski, 39, dissects shopping not only at expensive and upscale Barney’s, Henri Bendel, and the bygone B. Altman, but also at the more affordable Target, Loehmann’s and Century 21. She would like the rest of us to think about shopping more critically, too, but it’s hard to imagine doing so with her keen and barbed sense of humor.

Kuczynski liked Gap’s new stores — called Forth & Towne and targeted at women over age 35 — although she was also inspired to riff on getting old and ponder the definition of maturity.

She said she’s received the greatest reader response for her column, “Confidential to You: Your Bra Does Not Fit” that described her shopping trip to the Town Shop, an Upper West Side lingerie store. She liked the Town Shop, and many readers heeded her advice to head there for an expert fitting. “I even received a note from Sandra Day O’Connor,” Kuczynski said.

Kuczynski’s book, “Beauty Junkies” takes aim at the American obsession with body image and details her own cosmetic surgery experiences, which include Botox injections, collagen treatments, liposuction, eyelid surgery, and Restylane lip plumping. Although many reviews have focused on Kuczynski’s own cosmetic enhancements, she believes they mischaracterize her book. “Only 10 percent of my book is about me,” she said, “the other 90 percent is a sociocultural history of body modification.”

Writing a book was on Kuczynski’s list of things that terrified her to do (and therefore she must do, she said), although writing seems to be in her genes. Her father, the economist Pedro-Pablo Kuczynski is the former prime minister of Peru and has written several books on the economics of Latin America.

Kuczynski was born in Peru and lived there until her family moved to the United States when she was 10. Kuczynski’s mother, Jane Casey Hughes, was a reporter for the Voice of American in Washington, D.C.

A graduate of Barnard College, Kuczynski experimented with comedy improv when she was an undergraduate, sharpening the timing and sense of humor that she wields in her conversation and columns. After college, she worked in book publishing until she became a reporter, initially for “The New York Observer,” before moving to “The New York Times” 10 years ago. She has also written for magazines and National Public Radio. Kuczynski said that she will probably write another book in the future and has several ideas under consideration.

In the meantime, Kuczynski, who married the investor Charles Porter Stevenson, Jr., 57, in 2005, is trying to have a baby, writing her columns, studying Japanese and Russian, and learning to play the piano — while mulling over a possible future attempt to swim the English Channel.

My son Tyler Sipprelle is a published author!

December 5th, 2008

Last summer, my son Tyler, 21, traveled solo through Costa Rica reviewing restaurants, hostels and other tourist destinations for the fourth edition of Let’s Go Costa Rica on a Budget, now available.

Here’s what his editors wrote about him:

Tyler hit the streets of San Jose and soon discovered that Costa Rican cuisine, while tasty, was not his cup of tea.  Thus, he sought out all the Italian, Israeli ans sushi restaurants within a 20 mi. radius of his hostel, and hungry budget travelers will thank him for it.  Appetite sated, Tyler went through his route with a laid-back attitude and turned in insightful, interesting copy along the way.

Joseph Collorafi, NYC regional VA office

December 4th, 2008

I reviewed my blog stats this morning and noted many of my most recent hits relate to the Collorafi/VA posts.

If any vets want to contact me about their experiences with the NYC regional VA office, please do so through the blog comments or via e-mail: sms2131@columbia.edu

Under the Moon, Jupiter and Venus: December 1, 2008

December 2nd, 2008

Looking south from our house on December 1, 2008.

This alignment of the moon, Jupiter and Venus won’t happen again until 2052.

NYC office of the VA, continued

December 1st, 2008

Newsday is continuing to cover the story about the outrageous treatment of vets.  See today’s editorial:

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpvets015948127dec01,0,2483442.story

Sunrise in Florida on the day before Thanksgiving

November 26th, 2008

Today’s outrage: the NYC office of the Veterans Administration

November 24th, 2008

Almost exactly one year ago, I interviewed Joseph Collorafi, division chief of the New York regional office of the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs and former National Guard lieutenant colonel, as part of the background research for my master’s project:

Iraq Vets: still fighting, but now it’s with the Veterans Administration

http://www.susansipprelle.com/iraqvetsPH.htm

“Budgetary constraints affect resources,” Collorafi said.

He also spoke about the VA’s lack of sufficient manpower to service the newest generation of veterans:

“We should have planned better.  No one thought we’d be here [in Iraq and Afghanistan] four years plus.”

This week, Collorafi and five additional senior managers were removed from their positions at the New York regional office, which serves about 800,000 veterans.

They have been accused of shredding documents and changing the dates on veterans’ applications to make it appear that their claims were being processed more quickly.

The story was reported by Newsday:

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-liva22235939106nov23,0,5524668.story?track=rss

and the Albany Times Union:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=738821

This treatment of veterans and their claims is OUTRAGEOUS!

One of the veterans I profiled waited over six months for an answer on his PTSD disability claim application.  He had been diagnosed with and treated for PTSD by the VA.

His PTSD disability claim,  submitted to the New York regional office, was eventually denied.

How could it be denied when the VA itself was treating him for PTSD?  Makes one wonder what happened to his paperwork.

He has now filed an appeal, but the wait for appeals to be processed is even more lengthy than for original claims.