Hello all! We've made it to Kigali. We arrived last night on schedule and overall the trip went smoothly. We were fed 5 times during our 9 hour flight to Amsterdam and three times on our flight into Uganda. It appears we're off to a good start with the eating sleeping healthy person thing...There was brief moment in Uganda where we were missing our luggage and we thought we were going to miss our plane while trying to recover our bags. But... With lots of prayer and Naomi's assertiveness we ended up being expedited through customs and excorted to our connecting flight. Upon arrival to Kigali we were pleasantly surprized to find all of our bags accounted for.
Oh yeah, and we were also locked out of the car at the airport in Kigali but that turned out just fine too. We slept at the mission house here for a night and now we are about to hit the road for Kibogora.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I Don't Know, Ask Me Tomorrow
In exactly one week to the hour my plane will be taking off for Rwanda! Everyone keeps asking me if I'm getting excited or if I've started packing, or how I'm feeling about this whole thing. Lately I've had to answer that with "I don't know, ask me tomorrow."
Today I met with my committee chair and presented my lecture materials for review. I knew there had to be something I overlooked and indeed there was.... I used literally hundreds of copyrighted graphics. Yes, I cited them every time and even looked up the fair use laws but I neglected to think about the fact that we would never be able to print handouts! OUCH!!! I can always just print the outline as a handout but of course that is never the same.
I must say that I'm a little disappointed with myself and even more disappointed that now I've probably disappointed a whole bunch of other people.
I guess I just never really thought about that as the students here can actually log on to our lectures and print the slides themselves. They can't really do that in Rwanda; bummer of the year award!
Long story short, I'm feeling like my work isn't what it should be and wishing that it was so much better and knowing that it could be. At the end of our meeting I was told, "you should be very proud of your work." I guess we are always our own worst critic.
It's true that there are other people in world who are much more qualified to do this task, but it was given to me for some reason. All I can do is my best and trust God for the rest.
You ask me how I'm feeling about all of this? Well, today I'm a little bummed but I hope the answer will be different if you ask me tomorrow.
Today I met with my committee chair and presented my lecture materials for review. I knew there had to be something I overlooked and indeed there was.... I used literally hundreds of copyrighted graphics. Yes, I cited them every time and even looked up the fair use laws but I neglected to think about the fact that we would never be able to print handouts! OUCH!!! I can always just print the outline as a handout but of course that is never the same.
I must say that I'm a little disappointed with myself and even more disappointed that now I've probably disappointed a whole bunch of other people.
I guess I just never really thought about that as the students here can actually log on to our lectures and print the slides themselves. They can't really do that in Rwanda; bummer of the year award!
Long story short, I'm feeling like my work isn't what it should be and wishing that it was so much better and knowing that it could be. At the end of our meeting I was told, "you should be very proud of your work." I guess we are always our own worst critic.
It's true that there are other people in world who are much more qualified to do this task, but it was given to me for some reason. All I can do is my best and trust God for the rest.
You ask me how I'm feeling about all of this? Well, today I'm a little bummed but I hope the answer will be different if you ask me tomorrow.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Pressing On Towards Goals
Today I had the opportunity to participate in a walk to raise funds to fight MS. We couldn't have asked for better weather and it felt so great to be out in the sun and spending time with friends. The walk was only 5 miles and it was relatively easy but nonetheless it felt good to complete it. When we reached the end we had to all walk through a balloon arch as people clapped and cheered.
This whole experience got me thinking... Goals to strive towards and markers to reach are important things, they keep us focused and motivated to reach the end. I recently talked about goal setting and celebrating milestones with one of the new nurses I am mentoring. We each came up with some goals for ourselves and we update each other frequently when we take the bus to work together. My goal was to one day become an "eating, sleeping, healthy person." (She actually helped me choose that goal :)
It's been exciting to be able to finally make some progress! Though I suspect that this will be a lifelong journey,a milestone is in sight. I've been offered a 20 credit contract next year at Northwest University to teach a clinical group, manage the skills lab, and do a few specialty subject lectures. While this actually means a salary cut, this also means more time with students, more variety, more daylight exposure, and I can reduce my hours on the "red eye" shifts at the hospital. I am hoping the more normal schedule will allow me to spend more time with family and friends and not miss so many important days in the lives of the people I love.
"I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained this, or have already been made perfect. But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3: 10-13
This whole experience got me thinking... Goals to strive towards and markers to reach are important things, they keep us focused and motivated to reach the end. I recently talked about goal setting and celebrating milestones with one of the new nurses I am mentoring. We each came up with some goals for ourselves and we update each other frequently when we take the bus to work together. My goal was to one day become an "eating, sleeping, healthy person." (She actually helped me choose that goal :)
It's been exciting to be able to finally make some progress! Though I suspect that this will be a lifelong journey,a milestone is in sight. I've been offered a 20 credit contract next year at Northwest University to teach a clinical group, manage the skills lab, and do a few specialty subject lectures. While this actually means a salary cut, this also means more time with students, more variety, more daylight exposure, and I can reduce my hours on the "red eye" shifts at the hospital. I am hoping the more normal schedule will allow me to spend more time with family and friends and not miss so many important days in the lives of the people I love.
"I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained this, or have already been made perfect. But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3: 10-13
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
My Office Runneth Over (again)
I'm not exactly sure how this happened but today I found myself in the store room of a surgery clinic practically burried in donated medical supplies. It seems that the mother of a good friend of mine has been "chatting" with her coworkers at the surgery clinic. Before we knew it a nurse named "Mary" was directing me to drive my car down to the loading dock. We crammed it with as many boxes of gloves, IV needles, sutures, sterile drapes, and medical tape as we could. Mary kept asking me if I would take more! "There's still another warehouse," she says.
Being an ICU nurse and not a surgical nurse there were things in that warehouse that I can't even identify so I told her I would inventory the current load and then get back to her. It seems that I am once again sharing my office with a growing mountain of random medical supplies. Only this time I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to ship it. I guess this is God's way of telling me that I gotta stop dinkin' around get working on the further development of Shiloah Health Outreach.
Being an ICU nurse and not a surgical nurse there were things in that warehouse that I can't even identify so I told her I would inventory the current load and then get back to her. It seems that I am once again sharing my office with a growing mountain of random medical supplies. Only this time I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to ship it. I guess this is God's way of telling me that I gotta stop dinkin' around get working on the further development of Shiloah Health Outreach.
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