FINALLY!!!! An injera recipe that works!

I posted a few months ago that I had finally found an injera recipe that works. I wanted to take the time to do an official 'how to' of what Ive found to work the best. (Its my understanding that successful recipes can vary from one area to another, we are in Hawaii, and this is what works here ;-) The original recipe came from the website Ethiopianspices.com, and I modified it a little bit to make a smaller batch. I start out with: 1cup Teff, 1 cup Corn Meal, 9 Cups Self Rising Flour, 64 oz. water.

Combine all ingredients in container and stir...and stir...and stir!!

Some people use a blender to fully mix the injera batter, but Ive found a wire whisk works too, with lots of elbow grease!

Next you want to cover your injera batter, but not air tight. It needs to breath, so placing a towel over the top is great option. We have been using this recipe for a few months now, and I find letting the batter sit for one day is enough, you get good bubbles on the top and the injera is light and airy. However, it will not have a strong sourdough flavor after only one day. My family likes the flavor better if it sits for two days, though I feel it cooks a bit more flat after two days, but still produces a good product.

When I am ready to begin making my injera I whisk it again really well, while my skillet is warming up. I purchased this crepe maker off Amazon.com for about $35 and it works great! For me, I set the temp just below the 3. Here is the link to the skillet: HERE Once the batter is mixed and the skillet is hot, I use a large ladle and pour the batter on the center of the skillet. Quickly pick up the bottom sides and slightly tip the skillet in a circular motion to spread it out a bit, but Id suggest you do this quickly, the longer you spend doing this, the more bubbles you will loose. Also, be very careful, as the skillet is HOT!!! I have found that the injera cooks better if I do NOT cover it. This is how your injera will look as it is cooking.

When the injera is first taken off the skillet, the bottom will have a hard or crispy texture. I stack them up on top of each other to cool, and during this process, the bottom becomes nice and soft.

One batch this size makes about 20 injera. I store the cooled injera in plastic bags, rolled up.

If you need some recipe ideas for toppings, there are some great ones on Ethiopianspices.com Our favorites from there are the Doro Wat and Shiro! Enjoy!

Ethics and American Ethnocentrism in International Adoption

Below is a paper I just wrote for a Sociology class Im taking.

Ethics and American Ethnocentrism in International Adoption By Katie Bradshaw

1. Introduction to the Issue:

Adoption is a word with a singular meaning in the United States. Unfortunately, this particular definition does not translate to cultures in other nations, particularly developing countries. This miscommunication can have dire consequences. With America being the number one receiving country in International adoptions today, some questions beg to be asked. I plan to address these concerns and their connection to ethnocentrism in American culture. I will discuss what ethnocentrism is and how having an American ethnocentric mindset can lead to unthinkable crimes in cross border adoptions. Anytime we discuss something as imperative as adoption, we must also look closely and earnestly at the ethics involved.

2. Literature Review of the Issue:

According to A cross-cultural investigation into a reconceptualization of ethnocentrism, ethnocentrism is a major component of modern-day nationalism, and has been implicated in the development of prejudice (Brewer, 1999). Ethnocentrism has been operationalized as social distance (Thomas, 1975), the extent to which one’s own ethnic group is central in one’s life (Tzuriel & Klein, 1977), or preference for the ingroup over outgroups Crocker & Schwartz,1985; Grant, 1993). It has often been studied as the association of positive ingroup attitudes and negative outgroup attitudes (e.g., Adorno et al., 1950; Chang & Ritter, 1976). Others, such as Altemeyer (1998) and Beswick and Hills (1969), have measured it primarily as generalized outgroup negativity. (Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 39, 871–899 (2009).

In layman’s terms, ethnocentrism is when a culture believes their customs, values and beliefs are superior to those of other cultures who operate in ways different from them. A prime example of this would be the idea of child labor. In America, we take the topic of child labor very seriously and do not accept the notion of children working and being bread winners for their families. In some countries however, it is customary and necessary for a child to contribute to the family income in this way. It is easy then for Americans who have only experienced life in America to pass judgment on people who allow their children to work in sweat shops, while in reality; it is not relevant for us to judge another culture according to our norms. Perhaps Oxford English Dictionary says it best, defining Ethnocentrism as, ‘‘regarding one’s own race or ethnic group (or culture) as of supreme importance’’ (1989). Let’s take a look at how modern day International adoption began. According to Capsule History of International Adoption, (Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism), one century after Massachusetts’s innovation (of adoption), the West began exporting our adoption model internationally. According to John Seabrook’s article in The New Yorker, international adoption in the United States: grew out of orphan-rescue missions in the wake of military conflicts, beginning with the airlift of German and Japanese orphans at the end of the Second World War. Similar rescues followed the Korean War, in 1953, the Bay of Pigs debacle, in 1961, and the Vietnam War, in 1975. These “babylifts” were, in part, political, fueled by a new superpower’s desire both to demonstrate its good will to the rest of the world and to rescue children from Communism, but the press covered them uncritically, as humanitarian mercy missions. (2011).

It is easy for us, as Americans, to assume all cultures accept the term ‘adoption’ to carry the same meaning as we do, but this just isn’t true. In the article Does the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption Adequately Protect Orphaned and Vulnerable Children and Their Families, by Rotabi and Gibbons, cultural values may also include concepts of the family and adoption that can lead to misunderstandings of what intercountry adoption involves. Many non-industrialized societies have indigenous traditions of child-sharing or kinship raising that influence perceptions and interpretations of adoption. Those traditions may be inconsistent with the intercountry adoption practice of relinquishment as a permanent and irreversible separation. While the Western model sees adoption as substituting one set of parents for another, a non-Western model sees parenthood as additive. While the Western model privileges nuclear families with clear-cut boundaries, a non-Western model privileges extended families with permeable boundaries (Rotabi and Gibbons, 2011:113). It is easy to see how a combination of American ethnocentrism and very different expectations or understanding of adoption can quickly result in tragic and traumatic consequences.

3. Positive and Negative Opinions of the Issue:

The debate over whether the end justifies the means continues, and there seem to be very split views on this. Those who feel International adoption as it stands should continue see only the image of a lonely orphan languishing in a foreign orphanage with no one to love, and in their minds THEY can be the solution or savior to that one child. This is a mindset encouraged by adoption agencies. The adoption agencies bridge the gap between the third and first world nations. Not surprisingly, they are also the ones who stand to financially benefit from the adoptions taking place. In addition, all over the internet are websites and blogs urging people to “Save the Orphan”. A simple Google search will pull up an overwhelming number of links. They often accompany their pleas with scripture from the Bible. Churches across America hold an annual event called “Orphan Sunday,” where the parishioners are encouraged to do their part, and save an orphan. It is not unusual for churches to invite adoption agencies to come to these events and share the types of adoptions their agencies offer. In the article Does the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption Adequately Protect Orphaned and Vulnerable Children and Their Families, by Rotabi and Gibbons, the tension lies in how children might best be protected and provided with loving families, without risk of child theft and trafficking. As differences in opinions become quite heated (Yemm, 2010), the issue often becomes political. As McKinney (2007) points out, on one hand, [international adoption] makes loving families available to provide homes and care for the neediest of the world’s children. On the other hand, unregulated, international adoption can lead to the ‘commodification’ of children and abusive adoption practices brought about by market behavior. (p. 368) (107).

A perfect example of this is a recent article that came out wherein the Guatemalan government demanded the return of a child who was kidnapped for the purpose of International Adoption. The Mother of the kidnapped child states that she was opening the door to her home and when she turned around a stranger was getting in a car with her two year old daughter in his arms. Within a year, the child was adopted by a family in Missouri. Now a legal battle is being fought between the child’s biological mother who never agreed to have her child placed for adoption, and the American adoptive family, who were unaware that the child was kidnapped. Where ethnocentrism enters here is in the response of the adoptive parents and the US government. According to Guatemala: US refuses to return snatched girl, by Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, a public relations firm the adoptive family hired said last year that they "will continue to advocate for the safety and best interests of their legally adopted child." The fact that the family has not returned the child to her parents in Guatemala shows that this American family feels the best interest of this child is to remain in America, despite the fact that she was kidnapped, despite the fact that she is not, and never was an orphan.

An equally alarming phenomenon is the realization that many families, who have agreed to place their children for adoption, simply do not understand what they have agreed to. In the article Does the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption Adequately Protect Orphaned and Vulnerable Children and Their Families, by Rotabi and Gibbons, while discussing adoptions in India with biological parents it states, At the time of the adoption, they thought that their children would come back to them at age 18, with material wealth and a good education. The authors reported traditional practices of child sharing that were based on the idea that adoption creates links between families and children can return home to their original families. In addition, it is an insult in Marshallese culture to refuse to share something that has been requested by another person. Those beliefs may have influenced birth mothers’ willingness to relinquish (2011:113). In research on this topic, it is seen time and time again that first families (or biological families) in third world countries are being told that their child is going to America to get an education and at 18 the child will return to them. For a family living in extreme poverty, this sounds like an amazing opportunity, perhaps a prayer answered or a dream come true. While in reality, many adoptive families are not raising the adopted child with these intentions in mind. The adoptive family is raising the child to adapt to their new culture in America, possibly with no regards at all to their biological family. Perhaps due to feeling the child is now a member of their American family and no longer belongs to their biological family, or perhaps because little to no information about the child’s history is shared, as the agencies prefer to present the child as an orphan.

4. Conclusion and Your Opinion of the Issue:

Based on my research and experience with International Adoption, I’ve come to the conclusion that the system is too broken to successfully continue as it is currently set up. Best case scenario, adoptive parents would be willing to put all preconceived notions aside and truly educate themselves about the values, beliefs and customs of the country they desire to adopt from. In doing so, they would need to accept the adoption on the terms of the adoptee birth country’s understanding of adoption.

I will use my own International Adoption experience as an example. When we adopted, we saw the adoption only from an American Ethnocentric perspective. The children were presented to us as orphans, when in fact, they were not. We fully intended to love and parent these children as our own, and fully embrace them as members of our family. However, the culture they came from did not view adoption the same way, and as a result, this anticipated scenario was simply not possible. Had we been properly educated on the culture, value and beliefs regarding adoption in Ethiopia, our expectations would have looked very different. A more realistic and balanced expectation instead, would have been to fully love and accept the children as an extension of their own family, with the understanding that their father had sent them to America without the intention of severing any familial ties to them. But rather, the adoption from the family’s perspective was to be a temporary separation with the hopes of a western opportunity. Thus, the reality of their adoption was much less like the American view of adoption and more like a foreign exchange program.

The problem with being truly transparent, I believe, is few American families would be willing to accept adoption on these terms. Therefore, it is incumbent on adoption agencies to continue to lie and fabricate orphan stories to ensure their source of revenue, i.e. adoptions, thus cementing a guaranteed lose/lose situation for both the biological and adoptive families. It has been shocking to me in our experience, how many people have made the statement, “Well, the children will be better off in America.”. It is a very ethnocentric perspective to conclude that a child who has been deceived and torn from his/her home and family will be better off in America simply because we have more material belongings to offer them. I also feel it is not our right to determine where another person’s children will be better off. That is a decision that can only be properly made by a thoroughly and accurately informed parent. Those of us who have adopted cannot change the past. We can’t go back in time; we can’t undo what has already been done. What we can do is humble ourselves for the sake of our adopted children and educate ourselves on the understanding of adoption and culture in our children’s country of origin. We can support and encourage communication with our children’s first family. We can help them to bridge the gap in cultural understandings from the American culture to which they have grown accustomed; and to their country of birth, hopefully increasing the chances of restoring relationships that may have gaps in them.

5. Reference Section: Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 39, (2009). A cross-cultural investigation into a reconceptualization of ethnocentrism. European Journal of Social Psychology. 871–899. JEAN KELLER. (2010). Rethinking Ruddick and the Ethnocentrism Critique of Maternal Thinking. Hypatia vol. 25, no. 4 Karen Smith Rotabi and Judith L Gibbons. (2011). Does the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption Adequentely Protect Orphaned and Vulnerable Children and Their Families. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21:106-119. Romina Ruiz-Goiriena (2012). Guatemala: US refuses to return snatched girl. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120514/lt-guatemala-adoption/. Oxford English Dictionary. (1989). (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism (2011). Capsule History of International Adoption. http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/adoption/history.html

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MAUI OR BUST! (a few weeks late on this....)
I got invited to Maui recently to visit a friend on vacation, so who was I to refuse?!! Being just a short flight away, I booked the cheapest ticket available and patiently waited for my 36 hour vacation to begin! For some reason, I never checked what type of airplane Id be flying on, probably because I never do! To my surprise (that might be an understatement) I arrived to a very small terminal, which was separate from the main airport, and all I saw in the back was a tiny little 9 seater plane the size of a roller skate! I tried to play it cool, and calmly asked when our plane would arrive, at which point my fears were confirmed, that roller skate WAS the plane! I laughed, then laughed some more. Then looked at the luggage belt and saw a mounted pair of deer antlers laying on it, and got slightly concerned. I felt like I was on a really bad episode of “Wings”!


So after the check in guy, who reminded me of Crosby from Parenthood, checked me in I went to the small line that was also known as security. There, Waldo the security guard let the family in front of me go without screening any of their kids, but then took my toothpaste away! He said it was a liquid. It was a white paste. Whatever.
So, in Hawaii style, the pilot showed up 35 minutes late. But that wasn’t my biggest concern. I was more alarmed with the fact that he looked like a 17 year old Mormon missionary boy! After an internal battle over whether or not this trip was worth risking my life over, I followed him across the flight line to the plane with the other five concerned passengers.

To lighten the mood, I climbed aboard and announced "I call window seat!"

Once seated, we fastened our seatbelts that reminded me of seatbelts in dusty old vehicles where the shoulder strap was optional, we took off!

The plane hopped through the air and ultimately landed in Moloka’i. Yes, my 30 minute flight to Maui had a layover!

Landing in Moloka’I made me feel like missionaries on a trip to a remote land far far away. It was surreal! We waited inside of a small gate and sat on the only bench available to wait out our layover. But that was short lived, as the small bench doubled as baggage claim, so we soon lost our seating to some boxes being flown in!

Back in our roller skate airplane, we finished the flight to Maui and I was never so happy to be off a flight (minus the flight in Russia where half the seats were missing parts and it smelled like a gross Goodwill). Deb and Jeanne were waiting at the gate to greet me and were as surprised by what I flew in on as I was! We spent the evening catching up over some wonderful pizza!!!
The next day Deb treated me to an INCREDIBLE Whale Watch! It was just UNBELIEVEABLE! If you ever want to see whales, to go Maui!!!



After getting off our Whale Boat, we watched some fisherman wash down the fresh catch and slice it up. Still a bit airsick from the day before, and at the suggestion of another tourist, we didn’t sample it.


We had some lunch then roamed around Maui a bit and ate some Hawaii style shaved ice!


I was sad to leave, the trip was so short, but Im thankful for the opportunity to see faces from home and Maui at the same time!!
So, I thought Id seen it all on the flight to Maui, what could possibly surprise me on the way home?? We barely made the check in time, but the very mellow check in clerk looked at my computer printed email confirmation from buying the tickets (NOT an actual ticket) and said, “ok, go stand in a line over there.” He then loaded the plane, and he changed into a pilot uniform! Within the first 5 minutes of the flight I had come up with a list of things you don’t want to see your pilot doing! Here goes:
1. Wearing a class ring
2. Texting on take off
3. Two arm stretches with no hands on the wheel
4. Looking at a pilot manual!
All those things happened and more, but thankfully he didn’t start bragging about his extreme sporting adventures and complete fearlessness until after he landed the plane leaning way too far to the left!
Pics from the flight home:
Moloka'i




Oahu

Maree's spring pics!

A Time Such As This…
A few months before we left Virginia I was watching a late night program about woman’s prisons. In the program it showed a few Mother/Child visits, and for several reasons, it pulled at my emotions. The weeks following, I couldn’t shake it. I remember going on evening walks, still thinking about the program. One evening I prayed. I asked God to open the doors if He wanted me to be involved in a woman’s prison program of some kind when we moved to Hawaii. Then I thought perhaps the whole idea was really foolish, I mean, would HAWAII have prisons?!! At the time I imagined it likely didn’t. This led me to question why it was so heavy on my heart. Time passed and the thoughts of the program faded.
We church hoped in Hawaii for a while. Someone at Calvin's job kept mentioning a church right down the road, so we finally decided to go check it out. It seemed ‘ok’, the Pastor came across as a level headed genuine guy. So we kept going, and in Hawaii style, everyone was kind. Still, we found ourselves keeping an emotional wall up. You can only be burned by so many churches before you stop making yourself vulnerable!
A few months into a regular routine of attending the 9:30 service, they showed a video. The video featured a program called ‘Kids Day’, an event the church puts on several times a year at….. you guessed it, a woman prison! It is a day of games, laughter and love between the female inmates and their children. One thing I have learned from being an adoptive parent, is that NOTHING replaces a biological connection! And every effort should be made to keep parental relationships strong. Once upon a time, I may have ignorantly thought the children of prisoners would be better off adopted by a more stable family. Now as a Mother, I see the arrogance of those thoughts.
What I experienced today made me a better person! The selflessness of the volunteers, the exhaustive physically demanding assistance from the women who didn’t have children visiting, and the love and nurture I saw the mothers pour all over their babies! They weren’t criminals today, they weren’t low class citizens or junkies, they were mothers. Beautiful mothers with beautiful children, cherishing every precious moment together. I met some amazing people today, on both sides of the fence!
Time came to say goodbye and the air grew heavy. I found a post on the far end of the pavilion and hid behind it thinking about rabbits, about their hair, about their nails, about how a rabbit scratch itches. I thought about anything that wasn’t thinking about the women 100 feet behind me kissing their babies goodbye. My eyes watered as I clenched my teeth trying to hold back tears, but still a few fell. Then I thought about how unfair life is. I imagined that if any of these women had grown up in small town Iowa like I did with two wonderful parents and a great support network, they wouldn’t be telling their children goodbye. Perhaps then they’d be sitting next to me, fighting back tears and wrestling with guilt over the opportunities they had been awarded.
If I wasn’t so emotional, and if I didn’t cry so easily, and if I had more courage, perhaps I would have spoken to them then. Perhaps I would have said “Im so sorry. Im sorry for every form of abuse that happened to you as a child. Im sorry for everytime you werent kept safe. Im sorry for every person that has used you. Im sorry for every time you needed to hear you are loved and no one was there. Im sorry life wasn’t fair to you.”

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Ethan started Chemo again a few days ago. His Mother says that he is worried about loosing his hair again, and down right scared :-(
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