The PSHF’s main goal is to provide loans to poor families in the Philippines. The typical loan beneficiary would have an income of only 100 pesos per day and would be struggling hard to meet daily expenses from this. The PSHF’s intention is to encourage self-help, so the loans are used as capital for small businesses and repaid from profits.

One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to Plantation Village in Waipahu where my family and I got a tour of what it was like to live and work in the sugar plantations. I came away with the thought of all the young men who came and became only numbers in the payroll sheets. Many of them remained single and worked all their lives as sacadas.

On another note:  let us pray for the people of Haiti.

I received this notice for some job openings:

Seeking Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Speech Language Pathologist in El Centro

My client, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility in El Centro, has full-time openings for a Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and Speech Language Pathologist. The facility is in the process of converting to a sub-acute facility and is seeking to fill these positions as soon as possible. The position is day shift (8 hours) Monday through Friday. Competitive pay depending on experience. For more information, please contact Todd Horinouchi at 949-544-1303. Send resumes or inquiries to recruiter@toddhorinouchi.com.

Season’s Greetings!!!  Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon

One of the simplest and most economical way is on youtube.  Search for How to Make a Parol by kdantonio. All you need are five sheets of construction paper, scotch tape and scissors.  You can make several and decorate your house for a festive atmosphere this Christmas.

I started out with www.microplace.com and that is a truly good outfit as well.

Our guide was quite accommodating and he is able to get folks around Luzon up north to the Ilocos region and even as far south to Bicol.

He shared what it was like to make a living in the Philippines and also his hopes to keep Tagaytay beautiful .

As a tourist destination it shares the same problems as other beautiful places (overdevelopment and environmental degradation). I hope we can put in our energies to keep these places beautiful by supporting smart growth policies and ecotourism.

Please support this study if you qualify. We have posted this announcement as a public service.

eMAPA is a NIH/NINR funded study (1R01NR010568-01) entitled “Ethnic Specific Midlife Women’s Attitudes Toward Physical Activity”.

The changing racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. will require health professionals to practice with cultural competence in areas such as promotion of physical activity, where cultural beliefs may mediate health promotion behaviors. Although the benefits of physical activity are now widely accepted, midlife women, especially ethnic minority women, have low participation rates in physical activity, and prevalence rates of cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, and all-cause mortality among ethnic minority women (that can be effectively reduced by increasing physical activity) have been reported to be much higher than those of White midlife women. A plausible reason for the low participation rate is that the women’s ethnic-specific attitudes toward physical activity have rarely been incorporated into relevant interventions.

The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes of midlife women from four ethnic groups [Hispanic, Non-Hispanic (N-H) White, N-H African Americans, and N-H Asians] toward physical activity while considering the relationships between their attitudes and their actual participation in physical activity within the ethnic-specific contexts of their daily lives. Data will be gathered via Internet survey and ethnic- specific online forums to allow for a national sample.

Study announcement
Eun-Ok Im, PhD, MPH, RN, CNS, FAAN, School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin and her colleagues are conducting a study to explore ethnic differences in midlife women’s attitudes toward physical activity.

You are eligible to participate in this study if you are a midlife woman aged 40 to 60 years old who does not have any mobility problems; who can read and write English; who is online; and whose self-reported ethnic identity is Hispanic, non-Hispanic (N-H) White, N-H African American, or N-H Asian.

Data will be collected through an Internet survey among 500 midlife women in the U.S. starting Feb. 1, 2008 and ending May 21, 2011.

Your involvement will consist of about 30 minutes to complete the Internet survey questionnaire. You will be reimbursed with a 10 dollar gift certificate for filling out the Internet survey.

For more information and to begin the survey, please visit our project website (http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/) and/or contact us.

Contact Information:
Wa Cheng Chan,
Research Assistant,
School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin
1700 Red River, Austin, TX 78701

E-mail: wacheng.chan@yahoo.com
Eun-Ok Im, PhD, MPH, RN, CNS, FAAN, Professor
School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin
1700 Red River, Austin, TX, 78701
Phone: (512) 475-6352
website: http://buda.nur.utexas.edu/EOIM/
E-mail: eim@mail.utexas.edu
Project Website: http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/

This summer I was able to try and use the Los Angeles Metro system. I hopped on the train to LA from Solana Beach near where I live, then took the Metro to Western-Wilshire and then the 720 bus towards La Brea to the museums. I met my seven-year old grandson there with his other grandma. Then I took him to Disney using public transit. Yes!!! even in Anaheim, by using the Anaheim Resort Transit (ART) from the train station to our motel.  ART takes you door-to-door to Disney from your hotel. So SOCAL can be car-free!!!