Look who dropped1 by to help me with lunch the other day...
Me: Could you pass me the spatula, buddy?
Frog: Anything for you.
1 I know I should have said "hopped" instead of "dropped", but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
It's a hard knock life...
My internet is being a bit slow at the moment, so these are not all the photos I wanted to post. I scalped these three pictures from Rick and Heather (a couple who work here with SAM, along with their adorable foster daughter, Tendai). I will try and get the rest of them up later, but for now...
My first weekend here all the staff went to the Indian Ocean (close to Inhambwe, if you are into maps) for a few days. The place we stayed at was right on the water and there was an awesome reef running parrallel to our beach. The weather was perfect. I love the ocean.
This picture is a little misleading. I wanted to go snorkling out on the reef but didn't have a life jacket. I am a pretty terrible swimmer to I took this board out and floated on it with my head submerged in the water.
Heather and I spent a lot of time frolicking around in the ocean and letting big waves smack into us. So fun. Seriously.
All that frolicking was pretty tiring, however, so every now and then we had to take breaks. You can't see it really in this shot, but the sun was just starting to go down and the light was beautiful on the water. Oh, it was so lovely at the beach!
My first weekend here all the staff went to the Indian Ocean (close to Inhambwe, if you are into maps) for a few days. The place we stayed at was right on the water and there was an awesome reef running parrallel to our beach. The weather was perfect. I love the ocean.
This picture is a little misleading. I wanted to go snorkling out on the reef but didn't have a life jacket. I am a pretty terrible swimmer to I took this board out and floated on it with my head submerged in the water. 
Heather and I spent a lot of time frolicking around in the ocean and letting big waves smack into us. So fun. Seriously.
All that frolicking was pretty tiring, however, so every now and then we had to take breaks. You can't see it really in this shot, but the sun was just starting to go down and the light was beautiful on the water. Oh, it was so lovely at the beach!Thursday, October 22, 2009
Recap
I bought my motorbike yesterday. It is purple and I call it The General. I spent a good portion of my day today riding around the farm, practicing switching gears. For my reward, I have a watch tan.
This morning I also went out on a home nursing visit to see an elderly woman who is part of the mission's orphan/widow program. She has been feeling not so hot, and has one nasty sounding lung. I also drove out to the mission's school to try and find a little boy who we hear has a serious abscess on his chin. No luck tracking him down, but his mom was around so we sent her home with some medication and careful instructions to bring her son to the health post next week.
So, my trip over. I will use photos to capture the magic:
Here I am, just arriving at the airport in Calgary, striking a pose for mom. You can tell if my mom is taking the picture because she always makes me place my feet just so. I'm so hopeful, so stress free...
Now, the suitcase on the bottom of my pile was being a tad problematic. When I weighed it the night before it was slightly overweight. When I tried to open it to remove some items, the zipper jammed. I decided to just pay the overweight fees because I wasn't sure what to cut. When I got to the airport I was informed that I was actually allowed to take THREE CHECKED ITEMS.
Three? Who has ever heard of that? So, weight was no longer the issue but I did need to wiggle some stuff out of the suitcase so that bag at least would be the right weight. The stuff I removed was going to go in a cute plaid plastic shopping bag-esque container the airline provided.
Here I am with my cousin Laura and the plaid bag. Although I can't actually open my suitcase to get anything out of it, we are optimistic that we will be able to drag enough stuff out of the bag using the little gap that is available before the zipper jam. Trying to claw my belongings out of the gap resulted in numerous scrapes, which resulted in drops of blood all over my stuff. What's a girl to do?
Who are the gentelmen behind us, you ask? Why, it's the entire team of Saskatchewan Roughriders. As Laura and I were madly trying to repack my stuff in the baggie, with fistfulls of underpants flying through the air in the middle of the chaos, these gentlemen quietly lined up behind me. So quietly that I didn't really notice their arrival until my baggie was packed and I became conscious of the fact that people had been watching my little episode. Ah well.
Okay, the rest of the trip, moving on.
This morning I also went out on a home nursing visit to see an elderly woman who is part of the mission's orphan/widow program. She has been feeling not so hot, and has one nasty sounding lung. I also drove out to the mission's school to try and find a little boy who we hear has a serious abscess on his chin. No luck tracking him down, but his mom was around so we sent her home with some medication and careful instructions to bring her son to the health post next week.
So, my trip over. I will use photos to capture the magic:
Here I am, just arriving at the airport in Calgary, striking a pose for mom. You can tell if my mom is taking the picture because she always makes me place my feet just so. I'm so hopeful, so stress free...
Now, the suitcase on the bottom of my pile was being a tad problematic. When I weighed it the night before it was slightly overweight. When I tried to open it to remove some items, the zipper jammed. I decided to just pay the overweight fees because I wasn't sure what to cut. When I got to the airport I was informed that I was actually allowed to take THREE CHECKED ITEMS.
Three? Who has ever heard of that? So, weight was no longer the issue but I did need to wiggle some stuff out of the suitcase so that bag at least would be the right weight. The stuff I removed was going to go in a cute plaid plastic shopping bag-esque container the airline provided.
Here I am with my cousin Laura and the plaid bag. Although I can't actually open my suitcase to get anything out of it, we are optimistic that we will be able to drag enough stuff out of the bag using the little gap that is available before the zipper jam. Trying to claw my belongings out of the gap resulted in numerous scrapes, which resulted in drops of blood all over my stuff. What's a girl to do?
So, a few minutes into our endeavours my suitcase had a change of heart and the zipper came completely undone, undone in the sense that I would never be able to close it again. The zipper, and the bag, were toast.
Noting my predicament, the airline guy gave me two giant see through plastic sacks to shovel all my stuff into. I liked to think of it as a glorified Ziplock. That's right, all my stuff in a giant baggie, all set to jet across several continents. I was rather nervous about my stuff actually arriving, but, it did!
Who are the gentelmen behind us, you ask? Why, it's the entire team of Saskatchewan Roughriders. As Laura and I were madly trying to repack my stuff in the baggie, with fistfulls of underpants flying through the air in the middle of the chaos, these gentlemen quietly lined up behind me. So quietly that I didn't really notice their arrival until my baggie was packed and I became conscious of the fact that people had been watching my little episode. Ah well.
Okay, the rest of the trip, moving on.
London: neutral, I slept practically the entire time.
Jo-berg: walked around a corner and stumbled upon a woman having a seizure. First Aid hadn't arrived so I went to help, and a few minutes later a doctor came along. Later, I took an airport survey and was given a free key chain. There is so connection between the seizure and the key chain, I'm just trying to wrap this up.
Beira, Mozambique: I handed in my passport to get my visa and was given back a passport which was 1) burgandy in color, and 2) had a picture of a man in it. The customs guy asked, "Is this yours?" Had I known more Portuguese I would have said, "Are you kidding?" I had to wait a while but I did get my nice, navy blue passport back.
So, there you have it.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Arrived...
Hello, friends.
Today is a good day. I am wearing my favorite blue butterfly earrings and my feet are dusty and red. Perfect.
I am waiting to go to down to the woodshop to pick up a plank for the..."shelving unit"... I am making in my tent. My tent is the cutest. You can check it out on MTV Cribs next week.
I want to tell you all about my trip over but I will save that for another time. It will be an epic tale. Ziplock bags, professional athletes, a mistaken identity oh, I could go on! And I will. Tonight? Tomorrow? Some time.
Enough to say that I am here and safe and sound and taking the occasional deep breath.
Today is a good day. I am wearing my favorite blue butterfly earrings and my feet are dusty and red. Perfect.
I am waiting to go to down to the woodshop to pick up a plank for the..."shelving unit"... I am making in my tent. My tent is the cutest. You can check it out on MTV Cribs next week.
I want to tell you all about my trip over but I will save that for another time. It will be an epic tale. Ziplock bags, professional athletes, a mistaken identity oh, I could go on! And I will. Tonight? Tomorrow? Some time.
Enough to say that I am here and safe and sound and taking the occasional deep breath.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Hope...
I leave for Mozambique tomorrow evening, so today has been full of last minute packing, shopping, general running about.
Today, as I sorted through stacks of this and that, I came across an article that I wrote for CIDA at the end of my internship in February. I remember exactly how I felt when I was writing it, and it is those same feelings that motivate me now.
"For five months, beginning in August of 2008, I worked in a water and sanitation project in rural western Uganda as part of a CIDA/Samaritan's Purse internship. One of the daily highlights was the natural beauty of the African bush. Everything looked like an illustration out of a Dr. Seuss book with the hills rolling crazily along, bursting with tress, shrubs and flowers of impossible variety. As we shuddered down rusty, rutted roads in our truck I would stare out the window, caught up in the stunning explosion of color.
In that marvelous medley of brilliance one tree stood out like a ghost, its sparse grey branches gnarled and bare. It looked completely lifeless, except for one thing. At the end of each deadened limb a vibrantly red flower bloomed--a burst of life against a backdrop of grey.
I was often reminded of an ancient proverb from the Bible, "Hope deferred, " it says, "makes the heart sick." Frustrated hope was all around me. Both personally and on a greater scale in the Ugandan people who hoped for almost everything: better health for their families, education for their children, peace in their homes, rain for their crops, food for their stomachs, and help from me which I often felt unable to give.
There were days when everything seemed to be painted in shades of grey. Our water program was truly making a difference, but it was easy to be overwhelmed by the many needs that were still unmet. In the midst of it all, however, I began to recognize splashes of the brightest, deepest, most perfect red. I loved those strange Ugandan trees because they made my heart ache with truth: hope always remains.
I heard hope in the trickling cadence of a filter that turned water from life threatening to life sustaining. I saw it when people living in absolute poverty coaxed beautiful flowers to grow around their simple mud and brick homes. I felt it in the generous hearts of my Ugandan community who found fulfillment and joy in relationships instead of possessions and who looked to the future with an expectation of good things to come.
I am leaving this internship with an overwhelming sense of optimism. We face massive and devastating problems as a global community, but I believe that we can work towards a better reality. There is enough good amongst us that we could make the world a better place if we earnestly chose to do so.
The rest of that ancient proverb declares that "a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." This experience has strengthened my vision to bring life into grey landscapes, watching hope bloom into reality, one brilliant red flower at a time."
Today, as I sorted through stacks of this and that, I came across an article that I wrote for CIDA at the end of my internship in February. I remember exactly how I felt when I was writing it, and it is those same feelings that motivate me now.
"For five months, beginning in August of 2008, I worked in a water and sanitation project in rural western Uganda as part of a CIDA/Samaritan's Purse internship. One of the daily highlights was the natural beauty of the African bush. Everything looked like an illustration out of a Dr. Seuss book with the hills rolling crazily along, bursting with tress, shrubs and flowers of impossible variety. As we shuddered down rusty, rutted roads in our truck I would stare out the window, caught up in the stunning explosion of color.
In that marvelous medley of brilliance one tree stood out like a ghost, its sparse grey branches gnarled and bare. It looked completely lifeless, except for one thing. At the end of each deadened limb a vibrantly red flower bloomed--a burst of life against a backdrop of grey.
I was often reminded of an ancient proverb from the Bible, "Hope deferred, " it says, "makes the heart sick." Frustrated hope was all around me. Both personally and on a greater scale in the Ugandan people who hoped for almost everything: better health for their families, education for their children, peace in their homes, rain for their crops, food for their stomachs, and help from me which I often felt unable to give.
There were days when everything seemed to be painted in shades of grey. Our water program was truly making a difference, but it was easy to be overwhelmed by the many needs that were still unmet. In the midst of it all, however, I began to recognize splashes of the brightest, deepest, most perfect red. I loved those strange Ugandan trees because they made my heart ache with truth: hope always remains.
I heard hope in the trickling cadence of a filter that turned water from life threatening to life sustaining. I saw it when people living in absolute poverty coaxed beautiful flowers to grow around their simple mud and brick homes. I felt it in the generous hearts of my Ugandan community who found fulfillment and joy in relationships instead of possessions and who looked to the future with an expectation of good things to come.
I am leaving this internship with an overwhelming sense of optimism. We face massive and devastating problems as a global community, but I believe that we can work towards a better reality. There is enough good amongst us that we could make the world a better place if we earnestly chose to do so.
The rest of that ancient proverb declares that "a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." This experience has strengthened my vision to bring life into grey landscapes, watching hope bloom into reality, one brilliant red flower at a time."
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