Taking a break from posting on this blog for while. Will be posting at Big Durham Adventure for a while instead. See ya’ll over there!!
Hello from Kenya
Wow! I haven’t posted to this blog in over two months. I figure this is as good a time as any.
It’s 8:37 PM in my hotel room. I have packed my bags because I leave the hotel at 5:00 AM tomorrow for the airport. I’m flying next to Lagos, Nigeria on the 7:30 AM Kenya Airways flight. Then I have to be picked up by the FHI driver at the international airport in Lagos and driven to the domestic airport so I can fly to Abuja on Virgin Nigeria. I’ll spend a week in rural northern Nigeria.
So far I’ve done three countries in 14 days! Nigeria is the fourth and last. I’ll be well experienced now in all the issues and priorities in community-based access to injectable contraceptive programs after having worked with partners in all four countries.
How do I feel right now after 2 straight weeks of travel in Africa?
- Greasy and bloated from eating all the oily African food and drinking sugary African beverages.
- Homesick. Needs hugs from Clinton, hugs from the dogs, tons of spinach and my huge soft bed.
- Sort of strung out. Haven’t been able to exercise too much (which also contributes to #1, above) and have to take weird malaria prevention meds which cause nightmares, loss of spatial orientation, skin pigment problems, hairloss and amplification of (my already inherent) anxiety.
- Sort of overwhelmed. My brain is totally full of valuable information I’ve gathered from my work experiences. And yes, I have about 10 reports I have to write when I get back to debrief everyone. Can’t seem to catch up with my work enough to get those started yet…
Other than that, I feel great! And there’s just one more week to go.
Wish me luck tomorrow. If I’m able to Tweet/update my Facebook again after tonight, you’ll know I made it alive and (hopefully) unharmed to Abuja, which will be a HUGE accomplishment.
A whole life story, summed up in a paragraph.
Love Grandma’s obituary. She would too.
Barbara C. Driesbach, beloved wife, mother, and grandmother passed on
to the next stage of Being on May 6, 2009 in the presence of her husband
and in the excellent care of Marcus Daly Hospice in Hamilton. She was
born October 3, 1927 in Montague, MA. She and her future husband Paul
K. Driesbach met in the summer of 1946 at the American Youth Hostel, a
bicycling camp for inner-city kids where they both worked as
counselors. After that summer, they corresponded for 5 years, then
married February 3, 1951 in Ann Arbor, MI where Paul was completing a
Master’s degree in forestry. Armed with a position in the US Forest
Service and 1947 pick-up truck they headed west to start their life
together. Barbara loved the rugged, rural locations across the
northwest where she always made a comfortable home for her growing
family. The oldest child, Chris was born in Superior MT, followed by
Anne in Sandpoint, ID, David in Grand Forks, British Columbia, and
Mardee in Seward Territory of AK. Barbara brought literature and poetry into
the lives of her family including whimsical rhymes of Ogden Nash and
Emily Dickinson, elegant quotes from Shakespeare, and lyrical lines of
T.S. Eliot. After Paul retired from the Forest Service, they enjoyed
RV-ing to the pristine beaches of Baja California, collecting shells,
fishing, and beach-combing. Her last 23 years were spent in Corvallis
in the log cabin home she had always asked for, looking west across
horse pastures to the majestic Bitterroot Range. In addition to her
husband and children, she is survived by her brother Duncan of Orange
City, FL, and four grandchildren: Crystal (Clinton) of Durham, NC;
Chad (Cady) of Seattle, WA; Tianah of Valencia, CA; and Paulina of San
Jose, CA. There will be a private memorial service later in the year
when more of the family can be together.
Things I'm happy about right now
- 10% of US states have now legalized same-sex marriage
- I have only one meeting on the calendar at work today (miracle)
- I’m going to see Grease! tonight with a bunch of Durham ladies
- All the rain means I don’t have to water the plants outside (Thanks, Mother Nature)
In sad news, my dad’s mom died yesterday afternoon around 1:30 pm Montana time. Rest in peace, Grandma. I will miss you.
Hot Slice!
I built this site (http://www.hotslice.org/) with two other gals for our friend Catja because she really needs help. Donate and we’ll bake/deliver fresh bread to you!
If you believe in karma, this is your chance to give. We never know when the day will come that WE too will need the help of others.
Tickles my funny bone
These kinds of things still make me crack up big time:
Wow, I'm an instructor!
I was excited to find out today that my proposal to teach a six-week course at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) of Duke University has been accepted!
So, this fall 2009 I’ll be teaching a series of lessons about home organizing. The course is specially designed for folks age 55 and up and their unique needs. It is entitled:
Balanced home, balanced spirit
How small habits can lead to big change: a six-week course on organizing your home
Crystal's plumbing adventures
I recently tiled the master bathroom but had not yet reinstalled the toilet. So, yesterday Clinton and I bolted down an extender to raise the toilet flange from the floor so we could reinstall the toilet. Added in a new jumbo wax seal and bolted the toilet down.
Today while Clinton was at work, I added a new water supply connector, replaced the old toilet seat with a shiny new one, replaced the nasty plastic flusher handle with a fancy one in brushed nickel, and installed a new fill valve apparatus inside the tank. Turned the water supply back on, and presto! Toilet works like a charm, and now it looks really good too.
My last trick of the day was replacing both master bathroom sink faucets with sleek new modern faucets. Sweet.
Doing this work myself cost me a fraction of the $350 that Mr. Mean Plumber estimated yesterday. He also tried to tell me I needed a bunch of things that I did not end up needing at all!
Lessons learned:
- You may have to get an estimate from a plumber in order to inspire you to do the work yourself!
- If you do need an estimate, try to get a plumber who does FREE estimates. (This mean one charged me $45 just to come over and tell me what the job was going to cost.)
- WD-40, a hammer and a flathead screwdriver are what you need to unscrew a really stuck nut.
Good luck!
Ask a lawyer
I just read this announcement on the local MS Web site:
As a community service to all North Carolinians, NC lawyers are volunteering their time to answer legal questions for free on Friday, March 6th. The call is toll free.
Triangle: 800-424-9725
Eastern NC: 866-281-8314
Cool!
Update on Crystal
Happy birthday to Crystal’s Adventures, a blog which is now 5 years old!
I rarely post here anymore, so I think I’d better give an update about what’s going on with me.
Biggest happenings of late:
- Clinton and I had been considering the idea of selling our house and moving to another one (in Durham, don’t worry). However, we recently came to our senses and are putting this off for another year. (See my blog post from Feb. 2 about “Phenomenumity”.)
- Since October 2008, I’ve taken time to give Sparkleize my full time attention. Jump-starting my own professional organizing business has been an amazing opportunity and a dream come true. Huge thanks is due to my loving and totally supportive husband without whom this dream could never have been realized.
- Today I accepted a full-time position back at Family Health International (FHI) which I’ll start at the end of March. I’ll be working in FHI’s Applied Research Division on a program in Africa to increase community-based access to injectable contraceptives. Go women! Go family planning!
- Sparkleize, now fully charged up, will continue on as a part-time job on evenings and weekends.
- Our dog Eli has fully recovered from the priapism he sustained earlier this week. After icepacks, morphine, steroid injections, lots of lube and a $264.57 payment to the emergency vet, his long-term boner finally subsided around 1:00 AM on Wednesday.
- This coming Saturday evening, I will proudly watch Clinton perform experimental ukulele music at Café ERUUF, our hippie church‘s quarterly talent show.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
