Tuesday, Caregiver School

Tuesday I went to the caregiver school. We teach caregivers at orphanages basic skills to help them care for the children as best that they can. It's usually a two day school and at the end they get certificates and prizes and such and it makes them feel good about themselves and accomplished and it's great seeing them have self-confidence like that. But on to a more selfish note. I hate teaching. This is actually my least favorite part of the whole trip. I know that sounds terrible and selfish and everything of the sort but I really don't like it much. I don't like being in the spotlight, I don't like being the teacher and for whatever reason I feel very ill-qualified. Needless to say it causes me much anxiety. But I can say I enjoy the looks on their faces as they're learning. I taught with Jordan and Katie told us after that we made a fantastic teaching team. See Jordan is a bit wild and crazy. He's always moving, dancing and is just plain nuts sometimes. I'm very quiet and reserved. So Jordan would get them all riled up and moving and then I'd let them sit and relax and just listen! We balance each other out well. Regardless of the fact that it's not my favorite, I'm glad that I do it, I'm glad Katie makes me hahaha!

Lastly a fun little story. So I'm sitting at the table at this orphanage. I've got a headache and I'm achy. Just feeling blah. Jordan is up teaching. I turn to Katie and and ask her if she has any ibuprofen with her, I didn't bring mine. She unfortunately does not. No worries, I'll make it. So when Jordan is done I get up to teach a section of the curriculum. When I'm done Katie motions me over, and is chuckling, "Look at this," she says. In one of the bags with our toys and teaching materials are 3 lonely, loose ibuprofen. They had fallen in this bag when we were making individual packages from large bottles. Nice huh?! Someone's looking out for me :D

Clinic Day One

Monday we were off and running, ready to dig in and start working :D I went to the clinic in Calebasse. First day of clinic always has a few growing pains, trying to figure out how things flow best, where everyone fits best, and occasionally (usually) a little bit of mass hysteria. I'm pretty sure that's why they send me on the first day, I'm a fairly mellow person, easy going, and tend to be able to calm and reassure people. It's nice to be needed! But once we've got a rhythm things just roll on. As expected we saw a variety of pain complaints, generally lower back pain and joint pain, stemming from the hard labor they perform. Also lots and lots of hypertension. 200's/100's. For my medical friends, yup very high! And they walk around like that all of the time. It was a great day to start off the week though!

Working Hard

Don't tell Paul I said this but he did awesome. Seemed very comfortable and dived right in.

This being my third year I think I finally felt comfortable in my role. One thing I still have difficulty with is a somewhat feeling of inadequacy and helplessness. Yes, yes, I go Haiti to "help" and believe me, I do feel that I help. It's an overwhelmingly great feeling of accomplishment. The feeling of helplessness and inadequacy comes from the area of "follow-up." Not a very well known concept in third world countries. We do what we can, we give these people a month's worth of treatment; whether it be antibiotics, antihypertensives, analgesics, and the like. And then you pray that the medication works and that maybe, just maybe they'll be able to find some sort of follow-up or continuation of care. I've said this before but it feels as if you're putting a bandaid on a gaping chest wound, like a drop of water in a pool. But I've also been told that if you help keep someone out of pain or from having a stroke for a month then it was worth it. Regardless, I think that is a the part of this I will never get used to, and I suppose that's a good thing.

Better Late Than Never

I've been home from Haiti for about 9 days and I'm just getting around to blogging about it. My apologies to the 2 people who actually read this blog. I'll be better. Two reasons I didn't blog while in Haiti; 1. The internet is not very reliable and especially slow when 15 people are on it and 2. I don't have the patience to play battle with this incredibly slow and unreliable internet. So without further ado....HAITI 2012 (pictures to follow as I don't have them at present time.)

The first two days in Haiti serve several purposes: Preparation, Relaxation, and Assimilation. We spend two days preparing for the coming week by making assignments to the various location we will be visiting. We prepare and organize the various supplies so graciously donated by people for our trip.

We relax a bit, because in the coming week there might not be much of that. We lay by and play in the pool. Yes, a pool in Haiti! The Healing Hands for Haiti compound has a pool and it definitely is an amenity. The first year I went to Haiti was after the earthquake and the pool was still under construction. I can't believe what I was missing that year!

Sunday night we went to the Montana, a hotel that overlooks Port-Au-Prince. We got there in time to see the lovely sunset and have dinner. It's nice to sit down and begin to get to know the other members of the team and catch up with others you've know before.

Assimilation takes a little more than 2 days for many things I realize, but two days is what you have until you must submerse yourself in Haiti. Those of us who have been there before try to re-aquaint ourselves with the blazing heat and humidity, the mosquitos, and the local cuisine while those who have never been before try to get used to and make sense of everything going on around them and everything they are seeing, much to their dismay by the end of the trip they still will not be able to makes sense of many of it.

Sunday night we crawl into bed under out mosquito nets getting ready for the week to come! More to come :D

The Great Civilization.....The Greeks!

I'm Greek, well more accurately my grandmother is Greek. And if you know anything about the Greeks know this, they love to eat and if you're not cooking for 14 then what's the point? Therefore my grandma is a sensational cook. The first question commonly out of her mouth upon your visiting is "Are you hungry? Can I make you something?" Love her to pieces! She makes this bread called "Monkey Bread" which is essentially just rolls stacked upon each other and it makes it so that you can just pull the bread apart. But if ever I was in love with something in the form of carbs, I love this bread. And what do you suppose I received for Christmas? A Kitchen Aid mixer (not the one pictured here, this is my grandmother's 40-year-old kitchen aid which was her mother's)! Perfect for making bread and all sorts of marvelous things. Therefore I figured it was about time to learn to make this marvelous bread. So while I was home my sister and cousins and I made an appointment for cooking camp and the soaking of knowledge began. It was an all day process culminating in two loaves of monkey bread, one for Carlee and I and one for Kelsey and Lindsay and my favorite chocolate bundt cake (since I'd just had a birthday) and many Veda-isms that shall live on. A fabulously productive day I'd say.

A little bit more knowledge from the kitchen of Veda....

• You don't need to cover your bread as it is rising, doesn't make a bit of difference
• "We'll give it a try and if it works out we'll say great and if it doesn't we'll say 'Well damn that was stupid'"
• Three things that must be replaced immediately if they ever go out.....the mixer, the TV, and the garage door opener.

Kelsey and Lindsay rolling out their dough, mine is in the oven and smelling absolutely fantastic by now.

Veda and her now bread-baking granddaughters!

Carlee and I rolling out our dough while grandma advises as to the proper technique.

The finished product!

I'm told I'm a lot like my grandmother which suits me just fine. She's a little bit stubborn, a little crazy, and a little obsessive about her hair. She yells at the TV when she's watching sports, especially her favorite team, she keeps an immaculate kitchen while she cooks/bakes, and she may just swear a bit too much. These are things I'm quite certain I inherited from her and I couldn't be happier.

Watch out Picaboo

I've taken to trying new things, to be more specific, new things that scare me! Today was another day for firsts. Today was my first day of skiing. I grew up in Wyoming, very close to Utah, and have never been skiing before, no really, never been skiing! Many other winter sports have I taken part in, but never skiing. So here I am, ready to hit the slopes! I let my friend Jessica and her husband talk me into buying a season pass to Sundance resort and I rented equipment for the season, so there's no turning back now, I'm locked in! Today was great. It wasn't too cold, clear blue skies, and a great teacher!

I started out terrified, of everything, and I mean everything! From the big heavy boots to the 5-year-olds whipping past me. I'm scared of heights, therefore I hate the lift. It's not so much the height part as the falling to my death part that gets me. Riding the lift was probably my least favorite part. After the lift ride it only got worse, I fell getting off the lift, they had to stop it and the lift operator had to come help get me up. Yup, klutz that I am I couldn't even get off the lift without making a nice big fool of myself! At that point I'm embarrassed and now afraid of falling! But I definitely got over that! After multiple falls and a sore behind I became a bit more comfortable and was able to stay on my feet for longer periods of time. The faster I started going, the more frightened I became and down I went! Despite all the falls, embarrassment and bruises, and the realization that I'll never be an olympic skier I had a fantastic time and am looking forward to my next skiing adventure!

First big wipeout!

I was only going like 2 mph

By the end of the day I was spent!

So here's the count for the day....

• 2 skis
• 2 poles
• 1 lift ride
• 1 run; 3 hours!
• 26 falls
• 4 ibuprofen
• 4 Tylenol
• 1 big smile

Bamboo Birthday

I hate my birthday. No disrespect to my mother because I think she feels badly when I say this, but I do. And at almost 28 years old I have failed to become more mature about it, stemming from, I believe, a deep seeded need that was unfulfilled during my childhood. My birthday is the 26th of December, yes the very day after Christmas. Do not misunderstand me, I love Christmas time, very much indeed but with this love comes also a deep disappointment with the day after, consequently the day of my birth. From when I was very young I never understood why I could not have parties on my birthday like all of the other kids. Why couldn't my friends come over and why couldn't we have a pool party? As I became older this was replaced by a deep frustration with the "Oh Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday" gift. I get you two separate gifts, I deserve that as well! I feel more as an after-thought to most, "Oh yeah it was your birthday like a week ago right? Happy Birthday." So when someone makes a valiant effort to remember my birthday it makes me very happy indeed. My friend Jessica did just that last night. She put together a little party in my honor. Nothing big or extravagant but nice and simple which suits me just fine. She took the time to remember and that is fantastic. Not only did she make the effort to learn that I dislike cake but LOVE cheesecake and so had one of those for dessert but she also got me a gift. :D She got me some bamboo!

I have been wanting some bamboo. Strange I know, but I have. I like all things Asian very much! So Jessica went to the Asian store (that is actually what it is called) and got me some bamboo! I'm very excited about this. Let's just hope that I am able to keep it alive! I've never been very good at keeping things alive, well other than people I suppose, I mean I am a nurse after all. So here's to a great 28th and hopefully by the 29th some flourishing bamboo.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special." -Jimmy Valvano "Don't give up....Don't ever give up." This speech was given by Jimmy Valvano at the 1993 ESPY awards shorty before his death after a battle with cancer. These words have been on my mind a great deal lately. Things are about to change a bit for me, and it's no secret I'm very bad at change. I'm scared and fearful of the unknown. But for once in my life I am not over-thinking things. I'm following my heart without thinking about what comes next or what I may be leaving behind or what chances I am taking. And I must say, so far I feel pretty good. I have taken a new job. Currently I work on the Medical/Oncology unit at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. I have been there for five years. It has been my home for five years. I have formed lasting friendships and have learned a great deal. At times I have loved it, at times I have been brought to tears, both from happiness and from overwhelming frustration, and at times I have felt nothing at all. I have now taken a position at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City on their immunocomprimised unit. I cannot begin to describe what it is I feel right now. I'm anxiously excited for this new change. I'm overwhelmingly terrified by this change. I am shaking with fear but calm at the same time. I'm a mass of contradiction. Regardless of all of these feelings I know that it is right. I know it's the right thing for me right now, whatever this may bring and whatever this may lead to it is the right direction. I have always subscribed to my own form of belief in "destiny." I feel that things happen for a reason. We go through life making choices and decisions and people and opportunities enter our lives when and where they should. This is how I feel right now. It was difficult getting to this point, and I'm sure it will not be easy from here on out, but it feels good and I'm excited for this new opportunity.