12.2.09- Day 195

Despite my best attempts to take a picture at book club tonight, I totally forgot! We talked about the book, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Although the book is a little bit hard to get into, I found it interesting and engaging in many ways. Achebe writes about the culture and traditions of his Nigerian tribe and the changes that occur when missionaries and magistrates from England come to colonize their land. The insight into tribal customs and their purpose was so engaging. I also appreciate that no judgment is made by the author about when Ibo or English customs and actions are good or bad, he just describes individual's responses to the changes that take place in the village. While Okonkwo, the main character does not like the changes, his son, Nwoye, embraces the Christians and follows them. The book sparked an evening of conversation about western thinking, cultural sensitivity, how to provide aid, and personal struggles with how to best assist those of other cultures. Quote of the day: "I just want to take you home with me!" -- said by a kindergartner to me after our session was finished. Times like this make me in love with my profession. Later in the day there was a miscommunication between my boss and I and she went to the wrong school to observe me. It's times like that that I dislike working and being accountable to others and feeling incompetent. Didn't make it to the gym again today, but I did get to see my husband for a while before and after book club! (he was at youth group and working out while I was at book club) I also got to hang out with Sarah and catch up for a while before book club started.

Next month we are reading: The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall- it's suppose to be crazy and good and mind boggling all at the same time. I'll let you know how it is!

12.1.09- Day 194

Today is World AIDS day. In the midst of all the talk about AIDS, I spent part of my day with a child that is affected by a disease that is completely preventable now: polio.

I spent the morning at Children's Hospital trying to create continuity of care for this Somali child, born in Kenya, living in America. She contracted polio when she was one and has had left arm and leg weakness. This affects her life. It affects her value as a person in her culture. She is assisted with every task whether it is buckling her seat belt, putting on her shoes, or answering questions (she's in middle school). I believe it has also affected how she views herself. I want to be one of those people that can show her and her family that ability is what defines a person, not disability.

This disease used to be rampant and common throughout the world. My own grandfather-in-law had the disease. But... it is now gone! (mostly) I hope that even as the campaign to end AIDS plows forward, the fight to completely eradicate polio is fought until there are 0 world wide cases.

That's not to say I don't care about the AIDS pandemic. I definitely care about those affected by the disease. I hope the vaccinations that the researchers of the world are working on become more effective quickly. I hope that one day I am treating one of the last children that contracted AIDS. I hope that I can say that I don't really know how to treat patients with AIDS because it is so uncommon.

Today...

I loved being able to work with this family on getting them access to the proper healthcare.

I loved being the "glue" of continuity of care as the physician put it.

I loved taking the family back to their house and learning that mom could actually speak quite a bit of English, but was too scared during the appointment to try it out.

I loved that my job enabled me to do this.

I love the diversity of my area of Denver that brings people from all nationalities into the same neighborhoods.

Blog roll

My dear sister asked me if I would tell her how to get blogger to keep track of which of the blogs I follow have been recently updated. Here are the steps:

1) Go to dashboard
2) On the bottom half of the page there is a tab called "Blogs I Follow"
3) You have to follow all of the blogs you want updated (or you have to enter them all in by html address on the Blog List gadget)
4) You can either follow them publicly or blindly- it doesn't matter for the blog roll
5) Go to Layout
6) Click "Add a Gadget" on the right side
7) Find the gadget called "Blog List"
8) Title the blog list whatever you want and pick the items you want to display on the sidebar of your blog
9) Click Add to List, then click "Blogs I'm Following"
10) Enjoy instant updates of when new posts come up on your favorite blogs!

*I mainly did this because I was wasting time going to every blog site that I was interested in to see if they had reposted or not. Since most people don't post that often, this is a great way to keep current without draining time!

11.30.09- Day 193

So today at lunch, I decided to make myself a quesadilla. Good idea right? Not when your cheese is bad! The cheese was a little old, I have to admit. But, there was no mold! It did smell a little weird when I pulled it from the package. But, all cheese smells weird right? I knew something was wrong when it my quesadilla tasted bad, but I was in too much of a hurry so I just scarfed it down. Boy did I pay. Later that evening my stomach was killing me. I had Alan smell the cheese and he said it was definitely bad. A couple peptos and a movie later I was feeling a little bit better. Alan and I watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past last night after I got home from my lovely teacher induction class. Needless to say- just because it doesn't have mold does NOT mean it is still good to eat! Oh, PS- we joined 24 hour fitness today. I am officially accountable for using our money wisely, as well as keeping myself healthy. I plan to work out there about 3 days each week. If I'm not posting that I worked out (it's probably because I didn't) so scold me! I give you full scolding rights! I excited to have cardio equipment, strength training equipment, and classes of all kinds at my fingertips!

11.29.09- Day 192

We left KC this morning to head for Denver. After a relatively uneventful trip, a jack flew out of someone's pick up and I ran over it, dragging it under Matt/Jamie's car for several feet until I could pull over. It was kind of scary. As far as we know, everything is fine- thank goodness!

After listening to Christmas music on the way home, I decided that today would be a good day to put up decorations. Yay Christmas! Here are pics of us putting up the tree and then the living room with its final decorations.