Life Lately

I know I haven't written in a while. We've been busy trying to get ready for the rest of our summer. We are trying to find someone to move into our current apartment, which is a long and uncomfortable process.  But I'm sure that it will all work out. Today is our six month anniversary.  We've been married for half a year! Crazy. It's been a fun six months though.
I've found a new cause. Well, I was already worked up about it quite a few months ago, but I am renewed in my wrath.  I'm talking about Female Genital Mutilation, or female circumcision.  I'm going to be doing more research on it, but here's what I know so far. Young girls, ranging in age from infancy to adolescence are subjected to female circumcision all over the world, even here in the United States.  Their genitals are cut, so that they feel no sexual pleasure, and therefore will not be promiscuous.  In some cultures, girls are not marriageable until they've been cut.  FGM can range in extremity from the removal of part of the clitoris to the removal of all external genitalia (and the labia being sewn shut, with a small hole left for urine and menstruation to pass through).  There are so many problems with this, starting with its implementation.  In some third world countries, they have nothing but sharpened stones or rusted razor blades to perform the circumcision with.  It's horrible.
Girls who survive the initial circumcision can contract venereal diseases such as HIV (from the rusty razor blades, etc.) or suffer infections and cysts.  They feel pain for the rest of their lives, and sex and pregnancy only cause more complications and pain.  If the physical pain isn't enough, those girls are traumatized well into adulthood.
Female Genital Mutilation is a crime.  Not many know about or acknowledge it, and it's a problem all over the world.  We need to spread awareness. While women in the United States are spending thousands of dollars on gold vibrators and "vajazzling," young girls and babies in Africa, Asia, and other areas of the world aren't even afforded the luxury of a healthy reproductive system.
There is a woman who is trying to combat FGM, but her fight is mainly restricted to Europe. Her name is Waris Dirie, and she is a Somalian woman who moved to the UK and became a supermodel.  She has written a book that became a movie, Desert Flower, and she's also started the Desert Flower Foundation in an effort to eradicate female circumcision.  I want to help her fight, but I don't know how....yet.
I want to start by keeping girls in America safe: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-05-21/health/america.female.genital.cutting_1_female-circumcision-cultural-beliefs-somali-immigrant?_s=PM:HEALTH.
Desert Flower Foundation: http://www.desertflowerfoundation.org/en/
I'm sorry for the graphic nature of tonight's blog post. I'm just grateful that I have a healthy and protected reproductive system, and I'm also grateful that I am educated about my own body (to some extent). I hope someday to help other girls have that basic right.