Delights

A friend of mine regulary catagorizes many of her experiences under "delight." The more I think about it, the more appropriate that it seems. Some things just can't be anything else. Today I was feeling a little overwhelmed by sheer amount of tasks in front of me. I finally decided to take a minute to remember some of lifes little delights.
Delight #1:
I LOVE wool. I recently discovered the wonder of working with wool. I love everything about it, even the way it felts. A few months ago a Russian friend of mine made a little trip to Moscow and brought me back the BEST WOOL EVER! It's made from camel, goat, and dog hair and it was spun totally raw. We called it the "Russian Barn Yarn" as it smelled like a barn yard. I smeared it with Orvus (basically horse soap available at feed stores) and soaked it water. It worked well, and you wouldn't believe how yucky the water looked afterward! The yarn smells much better now.

Delight #2:
Borscht: I recently learned the three c's of making Borscht: carbs (potatoes), cabbage, and color (beets and carrots). I love it when tasty food is also pretty!

Flying Dutch

I finally did it, I booked my flight to Rwanda! After compulsively searching bookingbuddy.com for weeks on end and missing out on a couple of good ticket prices I decided that it was time I actually took the plunge. So... I am now officially going to Rwanda! (My tickets are NOT refundable.)
I had a difficult time trying to find an itinerary that didn't have me waiting in random African airports by myself for 15 plus hours but I finally found one where the price wasn't as much as my house! I will be flying Royal Dutch Airlines to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam I will fly to Uganda to make the connection for the final leg to Rwanda. I only have 1 hour and 45 minutes to make the connection so I hope all my flights are on time! I haven't flown internationally by myself yet so I'm a little nervous about that. I just hope to be able to fly Dutch without the becoming the Flying Dutchman wandering randomly around the ports of the world never to return home!
I'm hoping that having tickets in hand will be just the "reality check" I need to make me get cookin' on the curriculathons!

Sew-athons

Well all, it's been quite a while since I was able to blog last. I've been so blasted busy working and going to class and writing my curriculum that I just haven't had time. You'll be happy to know however, that I did find an outlet for all this craziness. That's right folks, I went to a sew-athon!
Both my sisters are addicted to sewing and one used to be a professional seamstress. They apparently decided that I needed to sew too and so for Christmas and my birthday (which happen to be quite close to one another) my family pooled their funds to buy me a sewing machine.

Since the purchase of my lovely little Pfaff both of my sisters have been inviting me to sew with them regularly. You might be surprized at how relaxing and even addicting it really is. A couple of weeks ago the women folk of my family and a few of our friends gathered at my sisters house for a day of sewing. It's actually kind of inspiring to see what everyone else was working on. My mom finished her table runner, Lisa worked on a picture quilt, Becky was doing something too intricately elaborate for me to fathom, my friend Marina had her first taste of quilting, and I revised my proposal for the 119th time. Once I finally finished the proposal I joined the fun.
I had accidentally left my original project at home so I had to start to a new one. My mom had some rubber ducky print flannel and some yellow so I started a baby quilt for the special care nursery at the hospital in Rwanda.

Julie (my nurse friend in Rwanda) says that often times the swaddling that the mothers bring to wrap their babies in is filthy. Before she used to travel from church to church having "baby showers" to raise awareness of global marternal child health concerns and to receive donations of baby items for Kibogora hospital. She is now at Kibogora and probably won't be back in the states for the next several years. So... we've been having sewathons to keep her well supplied.

Living the Dream (Part 2)

After loading up all the supplies onto the container bound for Burundi I headed south to my sisters house. She was out of town and I was taking care of her dog and cat. She lives several miles south of where I live and fairly close to my mom. So... Sunday morning, as I expected, my mom called to ask if I would go with her to visit my grandpa.
We went to his retirement center and accompanied him to the small church service there. As I entered I was enthusiastically greeted by the pastor, his mother (who introduced herself as "Grandma Amy"), a woman named Betty in a wheelchair, and George (an 89 year-old saxophone player). As I was being introduced to Pastor Mak, he told me that their congregation has been praying for my "mini missions" for years. I was then invited to speak a little about the upcoming Rwanda trip and the formation of Shiloah Health Outreach. I must say I was touched by their acceptance, concern, and generousity.
After the service I was approached by Betty handed me rolled up bill. "It's not much but I want you to have this," she said. I felt a little ackward taking this womans money but I know it was important for her to give it. That bill is the very bill I used to open the bank account for Shiloah which we need in order to apply with the state to become a non profit. How amazing that God used a precious grandma in her wheelchair and a small congregation of faithful elders to tip off something so wonderful.

Living The Dream

At work we have this "thing" where somebody walks up to you and says "How's it going?" No matter what, the answer is always "Livin' the dream." The person who started that is long gone but the phrase is not.
Today in church I heard that phrase again, only this time it wasn't sarcastic. Hylan wasn't talking about the "American Dream," he was talking about living out the dreams that God gives us. (This was in the context of Sanctity of Human Life Week.) As I thought about it there in church it really put things into perspective. I'm trying to live THE dream!
It all started in September of 2005 during Hurricane Katrina. I had gone to Mississippi provide medical support in a special needs shelter. My mom, who works at World Vision, called me on my cell phone and asked me if I knew of any organizations that might take some medical supplies somebody wanted to donate. The long story short was that most organizations do not accept donations of medical supplies from private donors and only accept bulk. That just about killed me so I started accepting the supplies and using them in the learning lab at the nursing school.
It didn't take too long before I started drowning in supplies and I had to start looking for more homes for this stuff. In Feb. of 2007 I went as an instructor for 8 nursing students to work at a clinic in Mexico City. We took some of the supplies with us on that trip. As it turns out, those supplies turned out to be quite a blessing. However, in spite of what we brought our girls were still taught to wash gloves, sterilize needles for reuse, cut and fold cheese cloth to make gauze pads, etc... It was in Mexico City that I realized that this whole supply donation thing was a lot more important than I had first thought. (Refer to My Office Runneth Over a few entries back).
Since getting back from Mexico City I continued to receive calls from people wanting to donate supplies. It wasn't long until my office at the school was filled. This was becoming a much bigger project than I. In the back of my mind I knew it needed to become a real registered organization in order to continue its purpose but it wasn't until my dad said it in an email that I really started to pursue it.
Last week Shiloah Health Outreach with the help of Kare Kontainer, made it's first official shipment of supplies to two hospitals in Central Africa and began "living the dream."
To be continued...

Uber Tired

Well, it's 0700 and I'm almost done with my super long shift. Guess what, the charge nurse is looking for people to stay over for four hours. Don't worry, I'm not doing it. I'm just glad that I took the bus today.
You know, the "high" of finally going to bed after so many long days in a row is almost in itself worth all the extra work. My down comforter awaits...

Uber Overtime

Hello all, I have so many things I've been meaning to post but I've been so busy at work lately that I just haven't had the time. We've been running a really high patient census at the hospital lately with a really low census of nurses. You know what that means, uber overtime! Tonight is my second 16 1/2 hour shift in a row.
We are especially low on cardiac device nurses, of which I am one. In some ways it's nice to know that I am in such high demand, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Oh wait, that's delerium from sleep deprivation and low blood sugar.
At any rate, all the charge nurses know that I am saving up to buy a rediculously expensive plane ticket which means I'm being called for overtime constantly. So here I sit with my HeartMate II, ventilator, and V tach checking out ticket prices online. You should really try bookingbuddy.com if you haven't already. It lets you compare the best ticket prices from multiple websites. So far I've noticed that Cheapo is the "cheapoist." Ahhh, only six and half more hours to go! It will make going to bed this morning just that much nicer.