Thursday, January 21, 2010
When?
The day the earthquake hit Haiti, I was on a plane to Miami when it struck. Of course no planes were going into Haiti so I spent three days in Miami trying to figure out what to do. I apologize for those of you who were worried about me. I have heard that everyone in Passe Catabois is ok. I knew two families in Port Au Prince and they are all alright. Though they did lose their house. Right now I am trying to find a way to volunteer. I have registered with multiple relief groups and hope something will work out. I am heartbroken for Haiti! I dream about Haiti, and am so sad by this tragedy and hope I can go and help soon! I will keep you all posted!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
It has been way too long since my last blog! First of all I want to mention that 5 of the kids in the orphanage were in the top ten in their class which is awesome! Yeah to Emily for spending so much time preparing homework, and teaching the kids. I tried but my teaching skills are pretty much non-existent, I have a whole new respect for teachers!
Also, we had Thanksgiving which was awesome. We had four chickens, and I attempted to slaughter one myself. Unfortunately, I did not completely cut the head off; so there was a lot of blood and a minor freak out by me! We were able to teach the Kenyans and Germans about our holiday, and we all said what we were thankful for! It was really awesome!!
We went to Mt. Kilimanjaro, just to look at it. There was a lot of clouds, so we saw the top and bottom, but it was really gorgeous. We went camping again which was lots of fun!! And we also decided to look for lions on foot. One of my stupidest moments, about a half hour in I realized this was a really bad idea. That was also when we found out there three lions nearby, and we were with one man who had a knife. These are not good odds. And since I already risked my life on safari because of diarrhea I was not about to do it again for no good reason!!
Our second to last week we went to Uganda, which was beyond beautiful. It was a 14hour bus ride to get there, with two toilet stops, one of which was to go on the side of the bus in the road. Seeing as how I am white I already stand out, there is no way I am dropping my pants with an entire busful of people, fortunately I was not having diarrhea that day!!! We went on a chimp hike which was kinda scary because our guides had rifles, and told us it was in case the animals went crazy, and in the park we were in the animals were known to go crazy. I was like please define crazy, in my head I was thinking a chimp was going to come flying at my face. Fortunately, that did not happen. We also rafted the Nile which was class 5 rapids, the highest is class 6 and that is unraftable. So we were doing the craziest rapids there were. When I asked if anyone had died they said not today or yesterday. I basically was hyperventilating from the beginning. Of course our raft flipped on the two longest rapids. Honestly, I thought I was going to die, I was being tossed around like a rag doll underwater. If you want a similar experience, get in a huge washing machine for about 20seconds, come up for air and instead take in a big gulp of water and then get sucked back into the machine. Another shout out to my friend Mathiesen, who had never rafted and can't swim, and my friend Jakob who also had never rafted before. They both decided to start with the biggest rapids possible. I was living with crazies!!
Then it was time to go back and say goodbye to everyone! It was so sad to say goodbye to all the kids, and staff! Really, really sad! But then I decided not to leave, thanks to my purse/passport being stolen 5hrs before my flight. So I had an extended stay in Kenya. The embassy was very nice and helpful. I stayed an extra 5days, I was able to go back to the children's center and see everyone again. It was actually a fun/funny experience, who gets their passport stolen 5hrs before their flight? Um me!! But I was happy because it delayed my leaving Kenya, and I really enjoyed my time there!!!
Now I get ready to leave for Haiti next Tuesday. I am so excited to go with my good friend Ryna, supernurse. Unfortunately, Annemarie the MD is not there, so pray for us as we take on the Dr. role, and pray for AM too!!
Also, we had Thanksgiving which was awesome. We had four chickens, and I attempted to slaughter one myself. Unfortunately, I did not completely cut the head off; so there was a lot of blood and a minor freak out by me! We were able to teach the Kenyans and Germans about our holiday, and we all said what we were thankful for! It was really awesome!!
We went to Mt. Kilimanjaro, just to look at it. There was a lot of clouds, so we saw the top and bottom, but it was really gorgeous. We went camping again which was lots of fun!! And we also decided to look for lions on foot. One of my stupidest moments, about a half hour in I realized this was a really bad idea. That was also when we found out there three lions nearby, and we were with one man who had a knife. These are not good odds. And since I already risked my life on safari because of diarrhea I was not about to do it again for no good reason!!
Our second to last week we went to Uganda, which was beyond beautiful. It was a 14hour bus ride to get there, with two toilet stops, one of which was to go on the side of the bus in the road. Seeing as how I am white I already stand out, there is no way I am dropping my pants with an entire busful of people, fortunately I was not having diarrhea that day!!! We went on a chimp hike which was kinda scary because our guides had rifles, and told us it was in case the animals went crazy, and in the park we were in the animals were known to go crazy. I was like please define crazy, in my head I was thinking a chimp was going to come flying at my face. Fortunately, that did not happen. We also rafted the Nile which was class 5 rapids, the highest is class 6 and that is unraftable. So we were doing the craziest rapids there were. When I asked if anyone had died they said not today or yesterday. I basically was hyperventilating from the beginning. Of course our raft flipped on the two longest rapids. Honestly, I thought I was going to die, I was being tossed around like a rag doll underwater. If you want a similar experience, get in a huge washing machine for about 20seconds, come up for air and instead take in a big gulp of water and then get sucked back into the machine. Another shout out to my friend Mathiesen, who had never rafted and can't swim, and my friend Jakob who also had never rafted before. They both decided to start with the biggest rapids possible. I was living with crazies!!
Then it was time to go back and say goodbye to everyone! It was so sad to say goodbye to all the kids, and staff! Really, really sad! But then I decided not to leave, thanks to my purse/passport being stolen 5hrs before my flight. So I had an extended stay in Kenya. The embassy was very nice and helpful. I stayed an extra 5days, I was able to go back to the children's center and see everyone again. It was actually a fun/funny experience, who gets their passport stolen 5hrs before their flight? Um me!! But I was happy because it delayed my leaving Kenya, and I really enjoyed my time there!!!
Now I get ready to leave for Haiti next Tuesday. I am so excited to go with my good friend Ryna, supernurse. Unfortunately, Annemarie the MD is not there, so pray for us as we take on the Dr. role, and pray for AM too!!
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