I broke my wrist today, playing volleyball, which is really bad news in an operational environment. I have to wear a cast, which is going to be s-t-i-n-k-y in this 135 degree heat! I broke the styloid tip off my ulna of my dominant hand!!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Three weeks in Africa...and the French Beach
From my blog on July 30, 2009
Hope you guys are doing well. This week has definately been a challenging one for me and my emotional state...I was starting to get a little depressed and homesick BEFORE i found out about maw maw's passing. I have not slept much this week so excuse any misspellings. The night Dafne told me she passed away I was on call and was up all night with patients in the clinic...so I am pretty tired and recovering from that.
Yesterday I was able to visit the wildlife refuge in Djibouit, which was very therapeudic for me given the circumstances. We mainly went to pet the cheetahs, but we saw oryx, zebra, wild African asses (funny name, I know), lynx, a falcon, and cheetah. We were able to get in the 'pit' and pet the hyena (a very rare thing to do), and were able to give water and pet the cheetah. Normally, we can get in one of the enclosures with a cheetah named Tessi, but she is about to mate and they want to prevent her from interacting with humans...so maybe later I can get in and roll around with her a bit. Alawe, the male we petted, was very cute, but a little more fiesty than Tessi is apparently; he will nip at you a little bit, but their bite is more pressure than pain (like the poots) and they only draw blood if you jerk away from them. Of course, wild ones would and could rip you to shreds, so we are cautious, and behind a fence the entire time. I don't want to wind up on one of those 'When Animals Attack' shows on Fox next month. I will post pix as soon as I can...I put 3 on facebook last night.
Most of the animals were rescued from cruel environments; one of the cheetahs was chained up in a restaurant on a 4 foot leash (a cheetah!); now they have him in a huge enclosure with plenty of room to run around. I think there were about 10 or so cheetahs. The falcon was rescued from his owner too; the owner did not want him to fly, so instead of continually clipping his wings, he cut his entire left wing off..poor little baby :( People here can be very cruel to animals, like dogs and cats in the streets, so it is nice see a place like this here.
We also drove by the 'golf course'...I say that loosely because it is a big dirt field with a few trees and shrubs, a few flags, and some old painted bombshell casings to mark the 'greens'. Apparently they have a guy who follows you around with an astroturf mat for you hit off of. Maybe I should invite Tiger to come play here with me :) I never thought I would see a course in worse shape than the Blytheville municipal course, but here it is... Stilll, I think I may rent some beater clubs from the base and play it once, just to say I did, but I will wait until it is cooler, like December. It is hotter here this year than last year people tell me...yeah for us!
I wrote a ulogy for Maw Maw two nights ago. I am going to email it to Pam, so that someone...maybe you Melanie, can read it. It would be nice if you could also find a way to play just a few minutes of her talking on the video I made of Maw Maw and Paw Paw a few years ago...maybe the part about how they met and fell in love. I wanted to come and prepare a slide show of all of the photos of them together...so maybe Pam can help you put that together. You know there is one slide show I made of just here to music that is on that DVD...if you don't want to play a pic of them talking, you can put a Powerpoint to music and play it as part of the service. I really wish I could be there; I asked about taking emergency leave to come home. Technically a grandparent does not qualify, but I might could do it...but no one seems really motivated to advocate that process for me...but it is already Thursday, so even if I had approval right now I don't think I would make it in time. Dafne will not be able to come as she has a required dental conference in Minneapolis that is paid for...she might could get out of it, but she would be behind in school and I know that Maw Maw would want her to be there. On the flipside, the nursing and provider staff have all given me condolences and even gave me a very nice card. I was a very sweet thing to do. I think it has not hit me fully yet...and I have not had time to journal, or, watch that DVD movie I made with maw maw and paw paw...something i brought along to watch when she passed. I knew I would not see her again in this life when I left for Africa...nor Gambit, which were both very very sad farewells for me.
I am safe and doing ok so don't worry about me. I am praying for you guys every day, reading my Oswald Chambers every night, and reading the Bible daily...trying to read at least the entire Old Testament while I am here. I challenge you guys to do the same...kind of embarrassing to get to heaven and tell God that you never got around to reading his book.
Hope you guys are doing well. This week has definately been a challenging one for me and my emotional state...I was starting to get a little depressed and homesick BEFORE i found out about maw maw's passing. I have not slept much this week so excuse any misspellings. The night Dafne told me she passed away I was on call and was up all night with patients in the clinic...so I am pretty tired and recovering from that.
Yesterday I was able to visit the wildlife refuge in Djibouit, which was very therapeudic for me given the circumstances. We mainly went to pet the cheetahs, but we saw oryx, zebra, wild African asses (funny name, I know), lynx, a falcon, and cheetah. We were able to get in the 'pit' and pet the hyena (a very rare thing to do), and were able to give water and pet the cheetah. Normally, we can get in one of the enclosures with a cheetah named Tessi, but she is about to mate and they want to prevent her from interacting with humans...so maybe later I can get in and roll around with her a bit. Alawe, the male we petted, was very cute, but a little more fiesty than Tessi is apparently; he will nip at you a little bit, but their bite is more pressure than pain (like the poots) and they only draw blood if you jerk away from them. Of course, wild ones would and could rip you to shreds, so we are cautious, and behind a fence the entire time. I don't want to wind up on one of those 'When Animals Attack' shows on Fox next month. I will post pix as soon as I can...I put 3 on facebook last night.
Most of the animals were rescued from cruel environments; one of the cheetahs was chained up in a restaurant on a 4 foot leash (a cheetah!); now they have him in a huge enclosure with plenty of room to run around. I think there were about 10 or so cheetahs. The falcon was rescued from his owner too; the owner did not want him to fly, so instead of continually clipping his wings, he cut his entire left wing off..poor little baby :( People here can be very cruel to animals, like dogs and cats in the streets, so it is nice see a place like this here.
We also drove by the 'golf course'...I say that loosely because it is a big dirt field with a few trees and shrubs, a few flags, and some old painted bombshell casings to mark the 'greens'. Apparently they have a guy who follows you around with an astroturf mat for you hit off of. Maybe I should invite Tiger to come play here with me :) I never thought I would see a course in worse shape than the Blytheville municipal course, but here it is... Stilll, I think I may rent some beater clubs from the base and play it once, just to say I did, but I will wait until it is cooler, like December. It is hotter here this year than last year people tell me...yeah for us!
I wrote a ulogy for Maw Maw two nights ago. I am going to email it to Pam, so that someone...maybe you Melanie, can read it. It would be nice if you could also find a way to play just a few minutes of her talking on the video I made of Maw Maw and Paw Paw a few years ago...maybe the part about how they met and fell in love. I wanted to come and prepare a slide show of all of the photos of them together...so maybe Pam can help you put that together. You know there is one slide show I made of just here to music that is on that DVD...if you don't want to play a pic of them talking, you can put a Powerpoint to music and play it as part of the service. I really wish I could be there; I asked about taking emergency leave to come home. Technically a grandparent does not qualify, but I might could do it...but no one seems really motivated to advocate that process for me...but it is already Thursday, so even if I had approval right now I don't think I would make it in time. Dafne will not be able to come as she has a required dental conference in Minneapolis that is paid for...she might could get out of it, but she would be behind in school and I know that Maw Maw would want her to be there. On the flipside, the nursing and provider staff have all given me condolences and even gave me a very nice card. I was a very sweet thing to do. I think it has not hit me fully yet...and I have not had time to journal, or, watch that DVD movie I made with maw maw and paw paw...something i brought along to watch when she passed. I knew I would not see her again in this life when I left for Africa...nor Gambit, which were both very very sad farewells for me.
I am safe and doing ok so don't worry about me. I am praying for you guys every day, reading my Oswald Chambers every night, and reading the Bible daily...trying to read at least the entire Old Testament while I am here. I challenge you guys to do the same...kind of embarrassing to get to heaven and tell God that you never got around to reading his book.
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