Slumber Party in Kenya!

I just bought 4 tickets to Rwanda! Unfortunately we have an 11 hour layover in Kenya but I anticipate that we will all be so tired that at that point we'll be at the "everything is funny" stage. Looks like we'll be having a slumber party in Kenya!
So it appears that I will be returning to Kibogora,Rwanda with a wonderful team of health care professionals. The team consists of a family medicine doctor, a fellow nursing professor and a nutritionist. I will be delivering the completed trauma curriculum. My friend Lisa (the doctor) and I will be developing some teaching materials on basic cardiology for the hospital staff as they just recently got their first EKG machine.
Melba,the other nursing professor, will be working with the nurse managers on quality improvement strategies and Dorothy (the nutritionist) will be working with the child survival program. I also plan to do a little networking and note taking for possible future work on my dissertation. Stay tuned for another round of "Muzungu Moments."

They Should Put a Warning Label on These Things

I think there should be a warning label on graduate education, esp. doctoral education. I've heard that doctoral education is less about learning certain things and more about becoming a certain kind of person. It's true... Doctoral education is an experience that will change the way you see the world, think about the world and communicate with the world forever. I can't say that's a bad thing but it's not an entirely good thing either. There is danger of becoming indecisive; instead of becoming more concrete, many things become more ambigous. The people who make up degree programs and decide prerequisits, objectives and requirements; the people who accredit these same programs are people no different than you and me. This a scarey thought in my mind. Embarking on this process also has potential to affect the way you are able to relate (or perhaps more likely, not relate) to others. How do you make your new paradigm compatible with function in the world you live in? It would be interesting to do a study on students persuing a PhD to examine the life changes they experience during and immediately after PhD journey. Did they experience any major changes in their relationships with family, friends and collegues? Did they change jobs? What would they put warning labels on?
I asked one student what she would put a warning label on and we ended up having a really interesting conversation. What life experiences would you put a warning label on and why?

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

The other day a student came to my office with questions about clinical paperwork. Somehow the conversation went from paperwork to prayer and ended up lasting and hour and a half. We talked about the things we were learning about prayer and the things we didn't understand about it. We talked about how prayer "changes things" but more importantly how prayer changes us.
At the end of our conversation, I mentioned how I felt God was calling us as a campus community to prayer. She said that she had been thinking similar things. Long story short, for post clinical conference we ended up back at the school at 10pm doing a prayer walk through the building. When we made it to the offices, each student stood outside a faculty members office and prayed. Turns out that God had been stirring each one of their hearts to the same thing. I'm excited to see what God is doing.

Friends and Fortune Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I was eating Chinese food with my sister. Of course there were fortune cookies involved. Truth be told, I actually think fortune cookies taste pretty awful, kind of like those waffle cones that fancy ice cream is served in. I can't waste food, so I ate it anyway. The "fortune" inside said, "You will be visited by a dear friend from afar." Conveniently, it just so happened to be the Christmas season. The chances of friends visiting "from afar" had just increased exponentially.
As I reflect on my last several weeks, I am blessed to have such wonderful friends from both near and far.

Carlos and Carrie, friends and missionaries from Mexico City, came to visit us in Seattle for two weeks in December. We had a great time full of exploring the Pacific Northwest, fellowship and of course food. We were able to have a reunion of previous "Mexico Goers" which proved to be a wonderful time. It was pretty amazing to see how our work with Carlos and Carrie in Mexico City has grown and how it has positively impacted so many people. Yay for "sappy teacher moments!"

Olie's Graduation

I've been feeling a little guilty because I haven't posted anything for a while. I had a mental list of blog worthy topics but for some reason, they escape me at the moment. I took a look at my phone and caught a glimpse of Olie's graduation photo. I haven't written about that yet.
Olie and I signed up for an 8 week session of puppy classes. Most of the time he went wild and barked a lot, but did manage to learn a few things. He sits, lays down, shakes, comes and occasionally walks on leash without pulling. Go Olie!

Olie's First Christmas

This year was Olie's first Christmas. He ended up being the life of the party more than once and his gift count was right up there with my mom's! Among his mountain of gifts was a "chuck-it mini," a dog sausage treat, a squeaky toy, a stuffed gafelte fish that when squeezed says "Oy Vey" (a Hanukkah gift), and a hand made doggie quilt to match the one his mommy got.
Christmas evening, my mom, my sister, and I took Olie and went to visit Grandpa at his retirement center. Mom had brought him a home cooked Christmas dinner which he wanted to take to the dining area. Animals aren't allowed in the dining area so I stayed with Olie in grandpa's room. He was a little squirmy so I closed the door and put him on the floor to let him roam about a little. A few minutes later my sister came to the room and opened the door. Of course Olie ran out and headed straight for the dining room. He's a fast little wiener! As we chased him around the tables and into the activity room and down the halls all of the other residents where smiling and laughing. I'm glad we could provide them with some amusement... I finally caught him by diving and tackling him across a hallway.
I'm seriously considering entering him in the wiener dog races at Northwest Wienerfest this year! The winning wieners get to race for Seahawks half time show to raise money for animal rescue.

Gong...

I was in my car the other day lamenting over some difficult interpersonal communication issues I've been having with a certain individual. I'll leave most of the details out except to say that the situation has caused a near constant undercurrent of tension. Of course I thought I was the one in the right...
I was beginning to feel that the situation was hopeless when for some reason it finally dawned on me to pray about it. As I drove across the lake I admitted to God that I was clueless on this one and needed Him to give me the answer. You know what He said; love, the answer to everything is love.
Of course I couldn't just accept that at face value, I had to test the hypothesis to see if it was really true. A retrospective study design would be sufficient... So I thought of a situation and then the answer. Yep, it was love... I tried it again a few more times and each time came up with the same answer, it's true!!! (1 John 4:8 says "God is love.")
The next scripture that popped into my head was 1 Corinthians 13, aka the "love chapter."

Love is patient: Oops, missed that one...
Love is kind: Oh man...
It does not envy: hmm...
It does not boast,it is not pround,it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth; it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I was 0 for 15, God help me!

I Corinthians 13:1 says, "If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

This song by JJ Heller says it all!

Lord, keep me from being a gong!