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Published: November 5th 2009
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Hello everyone! I hope you all had a happy Halloween I am enjoying seeing the photos. Things have been good here lately, calm and relaxing which is a wonderful change! My proposal has been approved by the second set of reviewers and is almost ready to go to the final board next week. I am still working on a possible change of location of my research but otherwise things are going well. My advisor just asked if I would like to go to a party she is having for organizations that received a grant from the Gates Foundation. Now if only Bill Gates himself would show up! I am have a full weekend coming up which I am looking forward to. I have a Rotary meeting Friday with the district governor and I am hoping we will talk about possible funding for the next district conference. There may be some money for a few of us scholars to go and while Rotary conventions are fun I probably wouldn’t be pulling so hard for this if the convention weren’t going to be held on a boat that will be cruising through some islands off the coast of Mozambique! Now that is
what I call a wonderful Rotary conference! That will be happen next February in the height of summer. I also just got accepted to participate in a 2 week statistics class at the University of Cape Town in January. I will learn to use a statistical program that is used mostly in the US and should become more common in Africa in the next year or so. I love economics and statistics and this will help me get a job next year!
Back to this weekend, I am helping to throw a Christmas party for the children in a local government hospital on Saturday. I helped prepare presents last night and tomorrow I will bake some cupcakes. I am also going to this hospital tonight to just hang out with the kids. This is the second time I have gone with a couple from our church who has been working with the kids there every week for the past 15 years. I am going to start volunteering there 3 days a month. I had so much fun dancing and singing with them in isiZulu last week but it was hard to take it all in. This is a government
hospital so it is mostly for people who do not have insurance. The first thing I noticed before I even got in the building is that I would need to start breathing through my mouth, the stench of urine and feces was overwhelming. While the nurses in the children’s ward were friendly, the ward was dirty and was using very old technology. Most children in there are from townships and their parents are unable to be there with them. Mom and dad have to take care of the other kids and keep trying to earn a living. I kept thinking about when I had to check into a private hospital a couple months ago. I was at the nicest private hospital in the city and I even though I saw some sketchy practices there. I would have turned and walked out if I went to the government hospital for help. I also kept thinking about how upset I was when I was in the hospital even for the day. I was on my own and it was my first time checking into a hospital, but now I see these children who are so young, on their own and most likely
also experiencing a hospital for the first time and it just is another reminder to how blessed I am. Sometimes it is easy for me to get stressed, I am on a limited income and I am not sure when I will get a job, I get scared my research will take too long, or I will not be able to find a part time job to make funds last here. It amazes me that I still feel these things while I live in such an impoverished area. Going to the hospital is a great wake up call for me to step back and take a better look at my life. I am considered very upper class here, I have an apt, a car and I am favored for jobs due to being a native English speaker. Most of all I have a family back home that supports me as well as the family of Rotary which has helped me numerous times over here. I guess this fits in with thanksgiving coming up, but I think sometimes it is good for us to just step back and count our blessings because even though times do get tough, we still have
so much to be thankful for!
On a lighter note, I am also going to a church year end social this Saturday night. We are having a dance and dinner and everyone is looking forward to getting dressed up. The theme is Hollywood meets Bollywood (Indian Hollywood). I have this beautiful emerald green dress which I am going to snaz up with some gold jewelry. Then somehow on Sunday morning I am going to get up early to do Sunday School! I think Sunday afternoon I may just sleep!
I am feeling much better lately, I have sorted out most of my stomach problems and I have acquired a new passion for running. On Tuesday I just found a new route that has slightly less hills which means more running. The rd runs along a beautiful cemetery and my landlords told me that if I continue down the rd I will come to nice stream with a dam on it. The other day I decided to run both the flat route and my old hilly route which sounded like a good idea at first but it was hot and I forgot my water so by the end of the
hills I felt like a lost soul wandering through the desert! I also finished my website on gluten, well I published it, but I am still adding to it. You can find it at www.glutenandme.webs.com
I hope everyone is doing well. I am listening to a Seattle based radio station right now on my computer and I hear that it is going to be a rainy day for you guys back home! I think I am going to go change into shorts for my evening at the hospital
Take care!
Kayse
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