For the first time in my life I am unemployed. I have had times in the past when I was between jobs but this time it caught me off guard.
The gym I was coaching at sent me an email the other day saying that there is some new law being passed that made it impossible for the gym to continue renting the space they have been using.
Starting immediately classes would be canceled.
I had only 2 more weeks of classes before the gym closed for 2 summer months, but this caught me completely off guard. There goes AED 2,400 that I was counting on earning.
The most ironic part is that the morning before receiving this news I went out and bought a scooter that would speed up my commute only to find out that I cannot return the scooter because it was a sale item.
I updated my CV and will be applying for some new jobs. Hopefully the gym will open again in Sept. as was the original plan, but until then I really need to work.
OH GUESS WHAT!!!!
Today Andres and I celebrate 1 year as a couple.
Pretty cool!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
this reminds me of myspace days. hehe
Ecuador- The Hamburger stand down the road, the Empanada place by the church, The lady that sells Pasteles...pretty much anywhere is great.
The States- That is too hard. Applebees, IHOP, and Panera.
Drawing, painting, dancing, talking to myself, creating things.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
My final days in Ethiopia
3-22-2012
WE headed up to the DayCare bright and early this morning.
We wanted to be there to do a basic check on all the babies at bath time.
Baths did not happen this morning so we had to improvise.
A care giver would bring us a naked baby and we would weigh it, check for lice and scabies, and check for malnutrition by measuring upper arm circumference. We would then record it on a sheet that was to become a regular chart for the Day Care.
We would then send that baby back to its loving care giver and the next child would be sent out.
For the first group of babies I felt I was more in the way than anything else so I went downstairs and sign certificates.
The team had done some training with the caregivers at the DayCare and each member of the team was to sign completion certificates that we were to give these workers. I also took this time to go through my assessment forms and set aside those mothers that needed follow-up.
I was feeling a bit weak at this point so I went to sit near Nejat. Nejat was one of the little girls that went to the hospital the day before and even today she was not well.
I was sitting next to her just resting and keeping an eye on her when her mother arrived.
This mother came up to me, shook my hand and then proceeded to kiss my hand.
This absolutely broke my heart. Who am I that this woman should kiss my hand?
I feel like I should be hugging these mothers and kissing their hands. These women are 3x the woman that I am yet they kiss my hand.
I then left the mother with her child.
I then returned to the screenings going on upstairs.
I took over for Doug and absolutely loved every second of it.
All these cute chubby baby bellies.
It was too much cuteness!
I loved interacting with the babies this way. I love tickling them and trying to get them to smile.
We screened all 60 children pretty quickly.
The rest of the team then bought some of the jewelry and coffee that the mothers had made at the Day Care. I asked Christy if I could buy just the beads. She then led me to a back room and pulled out box after box after box of paper beads.
Caia, Micah and I spent a long time sorting through beads, hand selecting each one.
470 beads later I was done.
The team then helped bag coffee beans and sew them into sacks.
Some of the Day Care mothers roast coffee beans once a week there at the daycare. The beans are then sold, just like the paper beads, some embroidered book marks and baskets.
We sewed coffee bean sacks until lunch.
Any guess at what we had for lunch?
Something with lentils. haha
We were all pretty tired by the end of lunch.
We walked back to the Shannon's house and rested for hours.
After a snack of fruit we left to pick up Holly at the airport.When we arrives at the airport we were told that we had to wait outside. Fortunate for us, there was a sort of cafe there with outdoor seating. We sat and drank macchiatos and chatted as we waited for Holly.When Holly arrived she just sat down with us and told us about her trip.
When we got into the van to leave it decided not to start. All of us then got out and pushed the van until it started then we jumped in and went on our way.
We went to Woody and Shewaye's house. Jerry Shannon and Jen both knew this couple. They are vineyard pastors in Ethiopia. They invited us over for a visit and said they would do a coffee ceremony for us.
We snacked on homemade bread and popcorn as we shared stories and laughed about all the funny things that had happened over the last few weeks.
The coffee was then served. I was lucky. I sat next to Audra who is not a coffee drinker, but in the cultural context it is a bit rude to refuse coffee. Audra and I worked out a deal. She would eat my pop-corn and I would sneakily drink her cup of coffee after I finished mine.
Needless to say, I was really excited by the end of the ceremony having drank twice as much of the very stout coffee as everyone else.
By the time we left we were all pretty wonky.
We said our warm goodbyes to Shawaye. When I said goodbye to her and thanked her for her hospitality she invited me to come back because i live so close.
Once we arrived at the Shannon's house again we excitedly greeted Christy and started telling her all about our evening at the airport and the coffee ceremony.
Jen then walks out of the room and comes back a minute later with her arms full of plates and a huge smile on her face and announced that we should eat cake.
We all excitedly went upstairs to the dinning room and ate cake.
It was a really good day.
3-23-2012
I have a really bad habit of not journaling the last 2 or 3 days of a trip.
Ethiopia was no different. Please be patient with me as I try to remember the details of the last 2 days.
Our last full day in Ethiopia was good. The agenda for our last full day in Ethiopia was to
1) visit an orphanage (I will explain more in a moment).
2) Have a coffee ceremony with the Day Care staff.
3)Buy shoes that were made from recycled tires.
Audra had a friend in the States who had adopted a baby from Ethiopia a few months earlier.
While this woman was in Ethiopia taking all the steps needed to bring this baby home, she met a little boy about 10 years old and just fell in love with him.
Her and her husband wanted to adopt this boy also but did not complete all the papers in time.
They brought the baby back to the States but left the 10 year old boy with the promise that they would come back for him as soon as they possibly could and would then bring him to the States with them.
When this woman found out that Audra was going to Ethiopia she asked if Audra would be willing to visit the boy and take him some presents and cards from the family and just remind him that his new family loved him and couldn't wait to be with him again.
He were able to set up a time to go see the boy.
He was the sweetest boy, and super shy.
We brought him all of the gifts and showed him the cards and other messages that the family wanted him to have. We also made sure to take photos for the adopted parents in the States.
Holly, on the other hand, had a family member that was just cleared to adopt a child.
They found out the good news while we were there. They asked that Holly go and see the baby and hug it for them.
This visit was a bit harder to put together. The orphanage finally agreed to let her in but only she was allowed to see the child and she was not to take photos.
It meant so much to Holly and Holly's family members that she was able to go hug this baby.
The Shannon's took us to a shopping center to show us a store that they thought was so cool.
This store made shoes from recycles car tires.
You would not believe it. These shoes were so cool.
The team was very excited and bought quite a few pairs.
They then found out there was a sale, something like buy 5 get one free.
Audra and Jen were buying 5 between the two of them and asked me if I wanted the free pair.
They are so sweet. I picked out the brightest pair I could find. It is made of different shades of orange leather. They are really cool.
After this running around we went to the Day Care to say goodbye to children there and also have the coffee ceremony.
The way a coffee ceremony works is this.
A woman sits on a small stool and has a small sort of oven in which she has hot coals.
She uses these coals to roast the coffee beans right in front of you. Once she finishes the roasting she immediately takes the hot pan of beans and passes it in front of each guest so they can smell the coffee beans.
This always made me a bit nervous to have a woman with a hot pan full of hot coffee beans shake said pan over the top of me.
In a traditional ceremony she would then hand grind the beans with a mortar and pestal, but in both ceremonies they just used an electric grinder.
Everyone is then served delicious homemade bread and hand-fulls of popcorn to snack on.
They then begin to brew the coffee in a really cool pot.
Once the coffee is hot she pours it into the small coffee cups (maybe 3 ounces) and adds milk to some of them.
SHe then walks around with the tray and one by one allows each guest to choose their cup and add sugar if desired. If there are not enough cups for each guest then some of the guest wait for the already served guests to finish their coffee and return the cup to be reused (after a quick wash).
The woman leading the ceremony collects the cups once the coffee is drunk and then washes them quickly in a basin of water.
She then refills the cups and passes them out the same way.
Both ceremonies I went to consisted of each person being given 2 cups of coffee.
So in a scenario like our ceremony with the Day Care staff, this woman had to fill the cups 4 times in order to serve each person two cups.
During the ceremony people took turns addressing the entire group if they wanted. They just said thank yous and other sweet things to each other. We encouraged the staff, and they thanked us for coming. You know all those sweet things you do.
I was extra lucky. I once again sat next to Audra. I snuck her my popcorn and she in turn gave me her cup of coffee. 4 cups of coffee later I was so wonky. All I wanted to do was talk, and laugh and joke and play obnoxious games.
After dinner Jen we had some time of encouragement.
How do I explain this?
Lets see.
Sometimes when you are in the routine of something, or working on something, you see things in other people that is really good and they may not see it. The point of what we did was just to point out to one another the really great things we see in each other.We write these things down and give them to the person to keep. Sometimes you get back from these trips, or get caught up in your day to day and you start to forget and doubt so it is good to have something written down that reminds you of these good things about you.
SO, the team took turns encouraging the Shannon children. This really meant a lot to the children.
After the children went to bed we did this with each other. We sat in the living room and just took turns tell each other of the good things we had seen in each other the last few weeks and just in general. I am not sure how to explain this in any better way that will do it justice.
It was a really great time. Very building for each of us and a good way to end out a trip.
3-24-2012
The last day in Ethiopia was good.
We took some time to do some shopping, after stopping at Jerry Shannon's favorite coffee place for a quick macchiato.
We went to an area that had a number of stores lining the street.
The people working in these shops spoke English because it is where most of the tourist shop.
We spent a few hours exploring these shops.
Like any country, the shops all carry mostly the same things. It is all about finding the best prices and who you can barter with the most.
I went into this with specific things i was looking for and the knowledge that I had packed in a pack small enough to be a carry on.
I returned to the Shannon's house with a small stack of scarves, and 3 pairs of earrings.
I had just the right amount of space in my pack.
Everything fit nice and snug, of course I did leave most of my clothes there to be donated.
It was very emotional saying goodbye to the Shannon family that night.
We hugged and said farewells and were on our way.
I will be honest though, I was so excited to get home to my family and Andres.
The whole trip home was something else.
Getting through customs and security was ridiculous.
I will also spare you the ridiculous details of my cab ride home.
I will just say that the lady cab driver had lived in Dubai 15 years yet did not have even the slightest idea of where I lived. She had to ask for directions 3 times.
It was all worth it when I arrived home and Andres met me at the door.
It was so good to be home.
That is what Ethiopia looked like. Sorry for how long it took.
I will find a way to post more photos once blogger decides to let me.
WE headed up to the DayCare bright and early this morning.
We wanted to be there to do a basic check on all the babies at bath time.
Baths did not happen this morning so we had to improvise.
A care giver would bring us a naked baby and we would weigh it, check for lice and scabies, and check for malnutrition by measuring upper arm circumference. We would then record it on a sheet that was to become a regular chart for the Day Care.
We would then send that baby back to its loving care giver and the next child would be sent out.
For the first group of babies I felt I was more in the way than anything else so I went downstairs and sign certificates.
The team had done some training with the caregivers at the DayCare and each member of the team was to sign completion certificates that we were to give these workers. I also took this time to go through my assessment forms and set aside those mothers that needed follow-up.
I was feeling a bit weak at this point so I went to sit near Nejat. Nejat was one of the little girls that went to the hospital the day before and even today she was not well.
I was sitting next to her just resting and keeping an eye on her when her mother arrived.
This mother came up to me, shook my hand and then proceeded to kiss my hand.
This absolutely broke my heart. Who am I that this woman should kiss my hand?
I feel like I should be hugging these mothers and kissing their hands. These women are 3x the woman that I am yet they kiss my hand.
I then left the mother with her child.
I then returned to the screenings going on upstairs.
I took over for Doug and absolutely loved every second of it.
All these cute chubby baby bellies.
It was too much cuteness!
I loved interacting with the babies this way. I love tickling them and trying to get them to smile.
We screened all 60 children pretty quickly.
The rest of the team then bought some of the jewelry and coffee that the mothers had made at the Day Care. I asked Christy if I could buy just the beads. She then led me to a back room and pulled out box after box after box of paper beads.
Caia, Micah and I spent a long time sorting through beads, hand selecting each one.
470 beads later I was done.
The team then helped bag coffee beans and sew them into sacks.
Some of the Day Care mothers roast coffee beans once a week there at the daycare. The beans are then sold, just like the paper beads, some embroidered book marks and baskets.
We sewed coffee bean sacks until lunch.
Any guess at what we had for lunch?
Something with lentils. haha
We were all pretty tired by the end of lunch.
We walked back to the Shannon's house and rested for hours.
After a snack of fruit we left to pick up Holly at the airport.When we arrives at the airport we were told that we had to wait outside. Fortunate for us, there was a sort of cafe there with outdoor seating. We sat and drank macchiatos and chatted as we waited for Holly.When Holly arrived she just sat down with us and told us about her trip.
When we got into the van to leave it decided not to start. All of us then got out and pushed the van until it started then we jumped in and went on our way.
We went to Woody and Shewaye's house. Jerry Shannon and Jen both knew this couple. They are vineyard pastors in Ethiopia. They invited us over for a visit and said they would do a coffee ceremony for us.
We snacked on homemade bread and popcorn as we shared stories and laughed about all the funny things that had happened over the last few weeks.
The coffee was then served. I was lucky. I sat next to Audra who is not a coffee drinker, but in the cultural context it is a bit rude to refuse coffee. Audra and I worked out a deal. She would eat my pop-corn and I would sneakily drink her cup of coffee after I finished mine.
Needless to say, I was really excited by the end of the ceremony having drank twice as much of the very stout coffee as everyone else.
By the time we left we were all pretty wonky.
We said our warm goodbyes to Shawaye. When I said goodbye to her and thanked her for her hospitality she invited me to come back because i live so close.
Once we arrived at the Shannon's house again we excitedly greeted Christy and started telling her all about our evening at the airport and the coffee ceremony.
Jen then walks out of the room and comes back a minute later with her arms full of plates and a huge smile on her face and announced that we should eat cake.
We all excitedly went upstairs to the dinning room and ate cake.
It was a really good day.
3-23-2012
I have a really bad habit of not journaling the last 2 or 3 days of a trip.
Ethiopia was no different. Please be patient with me as I try to remember the details of the last 2 days.
Our last full day in Ethiopia was good. The agenda for our last full day in Ethiopia was to
1) visit an orphanage (I will explain more in a moment).
2) Have a coffee ceremony with the Day Care staff.
3)Buy shoes that were made from recycled tires.
Audra had a friend in the States who had adopted a baby from Ethiopia a few months earlier.
While this woman was in Ethiopia taking all the steps needed to bring this baby home, she met a little boy about 10 years old and just fell in love with him.
Her and her husband wanted to adopt this boy also but did not complete all the papers in time.
They brought the baby back to the States but left the 10 year old boy with the promise that they would come back for him as soon as they possibly could and would then bring him to the States with them.
When this woman found out that Audra was going to Ethiopia she asked if Audra would be willing to visit the boy and take him some presents and cards from the family and just remind him that his new family loved him and couldn't wait to be with him again.
He were able to set up a time to go see the boy.
He was the sweetest boy, and super shy.
We brought him all of the gifts and showed him the cards and other messages that the family wanted him to have. We also made sure to take photos for the adopted parents in the States.
Holly, on the other hand, had a family member that was just cleared to adopt a child.
They found out the good news while we were there. They asked that Holly go and see the baby and hug it for them.
This visit was a bit harder to put together. The orphanage finally agreed to let her in but only she was allowed to see the child and she was not to take photos.
It meant so much to Holly and Holly's family members that she was able to go hug this baby.
The Shannon's took us to a shopping center to show us a store that they thought was so cool.
This store made shoes from recycles car tires.
You would not believe it. These shoes were so cool.
The team was very excited and bought quite a few pairs.
They then found out there was a sale, something like buy 5 get one free.
Audra and Jen were buying 5 between the two of them and asked me if I wanted the free pair.
They are so sweet. I picked out the brightest pair I could find. It is made of different shades of orange leather. They are really cool.
After this running around we went to the Day Care to say goodbye to children there and also have the coffee ceremony.
The way a coffee ceremony works is this.
A woman sits on a small stool and has a small sort of oven in which she has hot coals.
She uses these coals to roast the coffee beans right in front of you. Once she finishes the roasting she immediately takes the hot pan of beans and passes it in front of each guest so they can smell the coffee beans.
This always made me a bit nervous to have a woman with a hot pan full of hot coffee beans shake said pan over the top of me.
In a traditional ceremony she would then hand grind the beans with a mortar and pestal, but in both ceremonies they just used an electric grinder.
Everyone is then served delicious homemade bread and hand-fulls of popcorn to snack on.
They then begin to brew the coffee in a really cool pot.
Once the coffee is hot she pours it into the small coffee cups (maybe 3 ounces) and adds milk to some of them.
SHe then walks around with the tray and one by one allows each guest to choose their cup and add sugar if desired. If there are not enough cups for each guest then some of the guest wait for the already served guests to finish their coffee and return the cup to be reused (after a quick wash).
The woman leading the ceremony collects the cups once the coffee is drunk and then washes them quickly in a basin of water.
She then refills the cups and passes them out the same way.
Both ceremonies I went to consisted of each person being given 2 cups of coffee.
So in a scenario like our ceremony with the Day Care staff, this woman had to fill the cups 4 times in order to serve each person two cups.
During the ceremony people took turns addressing the entire group if they wanted. They just said thank yous and other sweet things to each other. We encouraged the staff, and they thanked us for coming. You know all those sweet things you do.
I was extra lucky. I once again sat next to Audra. I snuck her my popcorn and she in turn gave me her cup of coffee. 4 cups of coffee later I was so wonky. All I wanted to do was talk, and laugh and joke and play obnoxious games.
After dinner Jen we had some time of encouragement.
How do I explain this?
Lets see.
Sometimes when you are in the routine of something, or working on something, you see things in other people that is really good and they may not see it. The point of what we did was just to point out to one another the really great things we see in each other.We write these things down and give them to the person to keep. Sometimes you get back from these trips, or get caught up in your day to day and you start to forget and doubt so it is good to have something written down that reminds you of these good things about you.
SO, the team took turns encouraging the Shannon children. This really meant a lot to the children.
After the children went to bed we did this with each other. We sat in the living room and just took turns tell each other of the good things we had seen in each other the last few weeks and just in general. I am not sure how to explain this in any better way that will do it justice.
It was a really great time. Very building for each of us and a good way to end out a trip.
3-24-2012
The last day in Ethiopia was good.
We took some time to do some shopping, after stopping at Jerry Shannon's favorite coffee place for a quick macchiato.
We went to an area that had a number of stores lining the street.
The people working in these shops spoke English because it is where most of the tourist shop.
We spent a few hours exploring these shops.
Like any country, the shops all carry mostly the same things. It is all about finding the best prices and who you can barter with the most.
I went into this with specific things i was looking for and the knowledge that I had packed in a pack small enough to be a carry on.
I returned to the Shannon's house with a small stack of scarves, and 3 pairs of earrings.
I had just the right amount of space in my pack.
Everything fit nice and snug, of course I did leave most of my clothes there to be donated.
It was very emotional saying goodbye to the Shannon family that night.
We hugged and said farewells and were on our way.
I will be honest though, I was so excited to get home to my family and Andres.
The whole trip home was something else.
Getting through customs and security was ridiculous.
I will also spare you the ridiculous details of my cab ride home.
I will just say that the lady cab driver had lived in Dubai 15 years yet did not have even the slightest idea of where I lived. She had to ask for directions 3 times.
It was all worth it when I arrived home and Andres met me at the door.
It was so good to be home.
That is what Ethiopia looked like. Sorry for how long it took.
I will find a way to post more photos once blogger decides to let me.
Friday, May 11, 2012
3-21-2012
I was feeling quite sick this morning.
I slept through breakfast and woke up when everyone except Audra was going to the Day Care.
AFter I got up and ready and ate breakfast, Audra and I walked up to the Day Care with the Shannon boys.
AS soon as we arrived Christy told us that the rest of the team had just left with Jerry.
Two of the children were terribly ill and had to be taken to the hospital.
One was severely dehydrated (2 second skin pinch.) and the other was unable to keep anything down.
We waited at the Day Care until Jerry came to pick us up a bit before 10.
We picked up Jen and Doug and drove to the Fistula hospital there in Addis.
In case you are wondering at fistulas here is a link to The Fistula Foundation site.
(warning; it is a bit intense.)
This documentary is about the hospital in addis that we went to.
It is worth a watch.
The tour took us all over the hospital grounds.
We saw recovery rooms, physical therapy rooms and everything else in between.
The ground were beautiful!
I love that they take these women that are dealing with such and emotionally and socially hard thing and give them a beautiful place to recover after.
I will be honest, I was fighting off an off and on fever during much of the tour which made it very hard to really pay attention.
The tour ended in a small gift shop where you could buy things made by the patients there.
There were hand made baskets, and paper bead necklaces, embroidered towels, knit scarves, small trinket boxes and more.
We all made sure to snatch up some goodies.
After the tour we went to lunch.
Jen (a nurse who is staying in Ethiopia for a while) and I shared a huge "fasting feast" (which means no meat) along with meat tibs.
It was so much food.
The two of us together ate maybe 70% of it.
We sat at the restaurant quite a while and just enjoyed ourselves before going to our 2nd hospital.
This hospital was more of a general hospital that also had special wards for TB, HIV and leprosy. We were invited to see the leprosy ward.
The men giving us the tour took us into the patients rooms and made sure we got up close and personal with the leprosy patients.
We made and effort to shake hands with as many of these people as possible.
We then told the tourguides that we felt very rude going into these rooms and want to respect their privacy more.
After walking us through rooms of patients with leprosy and telling us about how these patients had to have amputations they then walk up to a door and ask us to come in.
From our angle all we see in the room is a guy operating a power saw.
Finally someone was brave enough to peek in and found that a Dr. was just cutting off someones cast.
hahaha
They then showed us the PT rooms in the leprosy wards.
People who have finished their leprosy treatment go here to regain as much of their motor function as possible.
At the end of the tour we stumbled upon a Nurse who has been working in the leprosy field years and years.
He told us about working in rural villages before coming to the hospital. He also took us into a tukul where he teaches self care classes for lepers.
He was so excited about talking with us and sharing his knowledge.
He then introduced us to their lead dermatologist who is also one of the top leprosy Doctors in the world.
This Doctor was examining a patient that had some of the first signs of leprosy.
It was one of those experiences that not many medical people get, or really any people get.
By the time we got back to the house I was feeling so terrible that I just went to bed.
The rest of the group did a teaching to the moms and the day care.
It was also Christy's Birthday. We were so fortunate to be a part of the celebration. The boys had made cake that was divine.
The little Shannon, Hanna, was so excited about the cake that you would not believe it.
She was jumping up and down and dancing.
It was so cute!
Sadly I was feeling so badly that I only had a small piece of cake and ran to bed right after finishing.
Things I would tell my younger self
I turned 21 on Monday.
I keep asking myself "what do I miss about being a teen?".
Honestly my answer is NOTHING!
Nothing at all.
So to be cliche' just because I can (because lets be honest here, this is my blog) I wanted to write a list of things I would liked to have told my younger self.
Please do not be offended by what I type.
I like to be blunt with myself and if it comes off condescending it was not my intention.
1. Don't worry about all of those high school aged girls you know who are always having their phones blown up with text messages from different guys, those are not the guys worth having.
The guys worth having are definitely worth the wait.
2. If he seems to good to be true, he is.
I do not even know how to expound on this.
3. If a guy really liked you he would do something about it. (#1 thing teenage girls lie to themselves about.)
Any guy who really likes you will bend over backwards to keep you in his radar.
It is worth waiting for a guy who will do that.
He will text you first, and try to get to know you first.
If you are doing all of the initiating then he is obviously not that interested.
4.You cannot be friends with everyone, but learning how to get along with and love any kind of person is a very valuable gift.
I tried to be friends with everyone when I was younger.
I poured so much energy into trying to connect and be BFFs with every girl and most guys I came into contact with.
It was exhausting and sometimes emotionally painful, but learning how to treat any person with respect is so important.
5. Your body will eventually mature into something some what attractive.
I thought I would have the body of a 12 year old alien forever.
It may have taken 21 years but now it has happened and hopefully that means my body won't start giving into gravity until later in life.
One can hope.
6. Do not worry about if you are being a "poser".
If you really like something, like really like it, then wear it.
I was so worried for a very long time about wearing something and the people around me thinking I was trying to be something I am not.
I finally stopped kidding myself and decided that if I really like something I should wear it and as long as I feel good in it, then no one will question me.
6b. This also goes for being a "lifestyle poser".
If I like being and artist then I should proudly be an artist.
If I like playing mandolin, I should play the heck out of that mandolin,
DO not worry about fitting into a stereotype. It is better to be known as someone who is just themselves in every way.
7.Do not create levels of friendships.
The whole system of leveling friends in order of how good of a friend they are is terrible. This system leaves you making more time for some friends than others and missing out on so many great things.
Every friend brings something different to your life. A new dimension, a new outlook on life, and a new perspective.
trying to decide who is your best friend, and your 2nd best friend and so on is only a way to hurt people and deprive yourself of some beautiful things.
8. You will never regret those 2 hour coffee dates that turned into 6 hours.
Those conversations and moments are what makes life colorful. They will be some of your favorite memories.
9. Never take your parents for granted.
I feel like I did a pretty good job for the most part when it came to having relationships with my parents and respecting them. Now I am so grateful for all the times I made my Mom go on dates with me, and all the times she went along with things just because, and for all of the dollar burger nights my Dad and I made sure to attend and the countless hours I spent in the garage talking with him.
10.Always keep family first.
This means extended family too. These are the only people in your life that will love you no matter what and will bend over backwards for you in a time of need.
I cannot say enough good things about my extended family on both sides.
11. You should have made yourself take those language classes.
I should have done at least a semester of Spanish.
I know there are many more things, but I should stop here.
Once again photos will not load. Sorry.
(I don't really have photos from this day anyway.)
3-20-2012
Today we headed to the Day Care later than usual.
It was around 10 when we arrived.
Jen started off the day with a leprosy teaching for The Shannons and some of the staff at the day care.
Audra then taught about wound care and burns.
It is very interesting to see the way people in Ethiopia view leprosy.
You see lepers in Ethiopia often, yet people there really do not know much about it.
They believe that you can get it almost as easily as a cold and many of them believe that you cannot be fully treated for it.
It was a really good thing for these staff to really learn the truth about it.
We were then served lunch.
Rice with veggies and lentils.
After lunch I went back to the house and rested while the rest of the team went to check on their airline tickets.
Jen had received an email a few days before telling her that the team's first flight out of Ethiopia had been cancelled.
The team then had to find some free time and the airline office to clear things up.
They arrived at the office and the person they spoke to told them everything was still fine, and showed them their names on the flight list.
We screened Moms and siblings in the evening.
I worked with the same translator as before and once again had my own room.
I saw about 9 people in the 3 hours.
It can be so exhausting but I sure do love it!
The interesting thing about women in Ethiopia is how they age.
Ethiopian women look very very young into their 20s.
I would talk to Moms that looked to be 15 or 16 yet they said they were in the early 20s.
Then at about 25 or 26 it all catches up with them, all of the sudden they look 10-20 years older.
You talk to moms that you think are in their 30s or 40s yet they tell you they are 28.
I met one mom in particular this night how just melted my heart.
I looked at this young face and asked how old she was, the translator then told me that she was in her 30s.
I was so shocked!
I asked my translator to repeat her age to me.
I then told the women "really? 30?? YOU LOOK SO YOUNG!".
She laughed and then told me "you can't hide age.".
"Well, you are doing a really good job at hiding it.", was my response.
I loved the connecting I got to do with some of the people I met that night.
We laughed and joked and I liked seeing them get comfortable around me and really feel they could trust me.
I was so hungry and excited for dinner by the time we returned to the Shannon's home.
Then the night got even better. I got to take my first shower in days and with warm water even.
It's all about those little blessings.
I was undoubtedly so ready for bed.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
I am having problems adding photos today so this post will have no photos. I will try to add more later.
3-19-2012
Today was a very long day.
I woke up feeling groggy.WE went to the Day Care first thing and spent some time playing with the babies.
We then helped the Shannons screen two new children that were hoping to be added to the program.
This included getting basic information on the children like weight, arm circumference, age, and some family history.
We also did a basic check on one of these moms.
Christy and I went into a private room along with the nurse, Ruth.
I walked through a basic a basic health screening and everything was fine.
I then asked the mom a few separate times if there was anything else going on, or if she had any questions.
She kept telling me no until we were all about to walk out of the room.
She then lifted her skirt a bit and showed us a huge dog bite on her thigh.
We went and got Audra, our wound care specialist, right away to dress the wound.
We then ate a lunch that consisted of some combination of lentils and carrots.
(Never in my life have I eaten so many lentils and carrots in one week.)
We then headed back to rest a bit.
I was feeling so groggy that a nap was just what I needed.
After we rested a bit we headed back to the daycare to screen the Moms.
I had my own room along with the translator who was really great to work with.
I saw 6 or 7 moms.
I found out after that most of the rooms had moms that just wanted their vitals taken and had nothing much to address while I had almost all had a lot more going on.
There is something about being with the moms one-on-one that breaks my heart.
SO many of these women are thin and tired but are doing everything they can to take care of their children.
AFter a few hours Jen took over for me a bit and had me just take vitals.
It was such good timing because I was exhausted by this time.
We screened moms for twice as long as was planned and saw only half of the moms that were there.
Isn't this how it always works though?
I don't remember A time I was ever over seas and we planned to do something for two hours and actually finished in less than 4 hours.
I was very excited about dinner time and bedtime.
3-19-2012
Today was a very long day.
I woke up feeling groggy.WE went to the Day Care first thing and spent some time playing with the babies.
We then helped the Shannons screen two new children that were hoping to be added to the program.
This included getting basic information on the children like weight, arm circumference, age, and some family history.
We also did a basic check on one of these moms.
Christy and I went into a private room along with the nurse, Ruth.
I walked through a basic a basic health screening and everything was fine.
I then asked the mom a few separate times if there was anything else going on, or if she had any questions.
She kept telling me no until we were all about to walk out of the room.
She then lifted her skirt a bit and showed us a huge dog bite on her thigh.
We went and got Audra, our wound care specialist, right away to dress the wound.
We then ate a lunch that consisted of some combination of lentils and carrots.
(Never in my life have I eaten so many lentils and carrots in one week.)
We then headed back to rest a bit.
I was feeling so groggy that a nap was just what I needed.
After we rested a bit we headed back to the daycare to screen the Moms.
I had my own room along with the translator who was really great to work with.
I saw 6 or 7 moms.
I found out after that most of the rooms had moms that just wanted their vitals taken and had nothing much to address while I had almost all had a lot more going on.
There is something about being with the moms one-on-one that breaks my heart.
SO many of these women are thin and tired but are doing everything they can to take care of their children.
AFter a few hours Jen took over for me a bit and had me just take vitals.
It was such good timing because I was exhausted by this time.
We screened moms for twice as long as was planned and saw only half of the moms that were there.
Isn't this how it always works though?
I don't remember A time I was ever over seas and we planned to do something for two hours and actually finished in less than 4 hours.
I was very excited about dinner time and bedtime.
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