AFRICA. Part four.

From my letter to Derek May 14th.

Oh my heavens, I think those might be the cutest kids I have ever seen.  In the younger class we taught today,  they yelled all of their answers so proudly and their teacher (most teachers are male here) was so good with them.  They had this super funny song and dance about where is your nose, where is your eyes, your hips, your bottom bottom bottom bottom.  The teacher’s up there shaking his stuff and the kids are doing it too.  Oh my, so funny

The older classes were fun, too.  I just love seeing how happy these children are and how excited they are to learn.  The highlight of the teaching is doing stop, drop, and roll because I get so dirty. When the kids do it they all just laugh so hard and it’s so great.

We drove back from the school and had a relaxing afternoon.  It rained, so those of us that are still really excited about rain (I think it was just Camille and me yesterday..) ran out and got all soaked.  It’s seriously the best thing ever.  I love being able to see the rain just come pouring in this jungle we live in.  We have a tin roof, too, so it’s just so loud. I love it.  Just so I could say I had done it, I had someone grab us shampoo and conditioner and we washed our hair out there. 

This morning we went to the Presby school to do the anemia clinic.  We had to do an information station where we make sure all is well with who they are, and their number to make it IRB  appropriate, a height/weight station, and a hemoglobin testing one.  I started at the hemoglobin and I was so proud of the kids.  They’re so tough!!  I love doing stuff like that with kids.  I love trying to help them be tough and I dunno, I just think shots and finger pricks are fun to do.  I promise I’m not morbid.  It just feels good when you do it right.  I think my favorite was a boy who got such a big grin on his face after and gave me a high five.  (By the way, we test 4-5 year olds.  So they were little.  So proud of them!!)  Tomorrow we go back and do the same thing.

That's where my letter writing ends.  But Africa is seriously the most amazing place.  The people are incredible.  The kids are ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.  And I think there's a lot we can learn from the way they live and from what a happy and friendly people they are. 

Zoe was awesome and made a summary video of the trip.  She's also the one who first came up with the Mothers Day video. She's the best.  Thanks Zoe :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK89E0VhNUo

AFRICA. Part three.

From my letter to Derek May 12th

5/12/14

We’ve started a list of “you know you’re in Ghana when.”  Maybe it won’t be as funny to you as it is to me, but I think they’re pretty great…

-Only half the road is paved.  (This makes it verrry bumpy.  We’re champs at bumpy roads now.)

-You fish laundry out of an electrically charged washing machine (So I’ve only tried using the washing machine once, but every time we try, it stops halfway through the cycle and dies.  So the water is electrically charged and literally shocks you.  So then you fish it out with a broom.)

-You feel like a celebrity all the time.  (The people and especially children get so excited to see us.  And it’s so fun to wave because they wave back so excitedly.)

-You sweat in your sleep but it’s not from menopause.  (Mmmmm.)

-You become a toileting connoisseur.  (We’re getting good.  Every time you don’t have to fill up the tank in order to flush it is a really good day)

- Suddenly it’s okay to only shower twice a week. 

- People propose faster than in Provo.  (I think we’ve all been asked by men to marry them.  So great.)

-You start bargaining for everything

-You clothes smell worse and come out dirtier after you wash them.  (We just can't figure out a way to get them to dry fast enough.)

-You can see clouds for miles.

-The jungle is your front and back yard.

-These things are plentiful:  goats, chickens, and children.

-There’s a goat in the front yard and nobody’s concerned.

-You see the most beautiful children in the world every day.

-You are identified more by your president than your country.

-You’re suddenly grateful for Utah drivers

-PB&J sandwiches haunt you in your sleep. 

-You can grocery shop from your car window/fast food takes on a whole new meaning

-There are religious reminders on every shop and vehicle. 

-Everything is carried on heads.

-Kids are better at soccer than you are.

-Children walk around carrying machetes and no one is concerned.

-You can fit five lanes of traffic on a two way road.

-The rooster wakes you up at 3am.

-Honks are friendly.

AFRICA. Part two.

From my letter to Derek May 6ish

Today was a wonderful day.  I was able to work in one of the outpost sites with a nurse named Mary who is stationed there.  In each remote town there’s about one nurse that goes door to door and takes care of the people.  It’s amazing—she knows all of the people and all of the women that just had babies, all those that are sick, all the girls menstruating.  It’s intense.

After the on-site work, we moved into the door-to-door work.  We followed the little road that runs through the jungle to different houses to check the women who just had babies and make sure everything was all good. .  The babies were so cute! 

From my letter May 11th

Mother’s Day is today!  It was a really good day.  Yesterday we started filming our little mother’s day video and oh, I love the video so much.  It captures so much of the joy we feel here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-N9mfh41FU

For Gaye and Karen we decided to each pick a bead for them at the bead market and turn it into a bracelet.  At first we were worried it would look terrible because none of us knew what each other would choose, but it looks pretty cute...in the home-made sort of way. :)

After the bead market we went to the nursing school and were paired with students there to go to some of their classes with them.  I got paired with a girl named Abigail and oh my heavens, I love her.  She was so cute…she like took me by the hand and led me to see her dorm room and all of her roommates introduced themselves.  They were all so excited to meet me and make me feel comfortable.  They kept making fun of me when I tried to say African words…it was so funny! 

At the end of class, they made us come up to the front of the room, determined to teach us how to dance.  Oh boy we were pretty terrible!! 

The next day we went on a hike to Boti falls.  That was another one of my very favorite things that we’ve done.  I loved it so much because it was the first thing that felt extremely familiar and comfortable to be hiking.  And oh my heavens it was so beautiful!  We hiked down into the jungle and went up the other side.  The first site there were these two waterfalls. 

In the middle of the hike were these really cool cave things. 

At the end of the hike was something called the umbrella rock.  It’s a rock held up by a big stack of little rocks and it’s so high up.  You climb up a ladder and stand on the top of the jungle!  So so so so so beautiful.  The ladder terrified me though.  I knew if I came up I’d have to go down.  Baah!

On Friday we taught at one of the elementary schools here.  OH my goodness, that was another one of my favorite things we’ve done here!  Baaahh!  So wonderful.  Camille and I taught about safe water drinking and fire safety, dental hygiene was talked about, hand hygiene, and nutrition.  It went so well!   I loved having the kids get up to practice rolling on the ground for stop drop and roll.  The kids sang the girl’s handwashing song for the rest of the day.  And they loved the dental hygiene puppets that sprayed water out of their mouths.  The kids were really smart too!  At the end of our first of three teaching sessions, we had extra time so I taught them heads up seven up and four corners.  Pretty good time.  The kids went crazy.  It was cool how I could already pick out the class leaders immediately.

Those children are beautiful and just LOVE you.  At the end one of them I had individually spoken to wouldn’t stop hugging me.  It's just such an amazing feeling.

They sang their school anthem to us so loudly and proudly and we sung our Lord I would follow Thee.  

We taught at an adult stake activity on Saturday.  Camille and I taught about menopause because a lot of people have a lot of questions and concerns for that.   Patience and Chanele taught about stress management, Mallory and Shydi taught about CPR, Ali and Zoe taught about wound care/first aid, Rachel and Emily taught about malaria. 

They had a ton of questions and really wanted to learn all of that stuff.  Which was really cool.  At the end we did hemoglobin checks, blood sugar checks, and blood pressure. 

After teaching, we got to do a canopy walk!!  We got to cross 7 bridges that were over the jungle trees.  So pretty!!  It was really high up so a couple times it was a little bit scary.  But it was beautiful!  And very fun.  

After the walk we hurried over to slave castle.  It was really sad (like...I cannot imagine how terrible that would have been.) but pretty cool to see at the same time.  One thing really interesting about the people here is they hold no resentment for slavery and what happened to their people, because it was just something of the time. 

AFRICA. Part one.

This year I had the most amazing opportunity:  I got to travel to Ghana for a month.  And it was incredible!!! The people, the scenery, the way of life so different from my own, it was amazing!

From my letter to Derek May 5th

The traffic on the streets is crazy.  It reminds me of what you said about New York driving how the rule is to do whatever you want except hit someone.  Because drivers will merge in and out, create new lanes, anything possible besides make an accident.  One of my favorite things to see as we drive are the sellers who walk between cars trying to get us to buy from them.  They walk with gigantic loads on their heads, sometimes carrying more in their hands.  They stare into the cars, holding up their sunglasses, fruits, water, candies, whatever they have to sell.  

One of my absolute favorite experiences has been at the fish market.  These were some of the happiest and friendliest people I have ever met.  Our cute little guide (whose name is literally “Nice-one”) made sure that we knew we could talk comfortably with all the people there.  When the children came running to us, we were to pick them up.  “Everybody here in Jamestown is family” he would tell us. 

And the children really did come running.  The cute little black children with big bellies and big eyes came as fast as they could, trying to vie for attention from us. (Being white people in Africa is the closest to celebrity-dom we’ll ever get.)   I picked one up and he just stared at me in wonder.  Other children pushed and shoved in order to be able to be in a picture in order to see what they look like.  These children are literally the most beautiful kids I’ve ever seen. 

The babies here are beautiful.  All of us are diagnosably baby-hungry.  They are to die for.

We’ve all had a painting class and they all turned out pretty well actually!   In proper Kaylie-fashion, mine’s probably the messiest, but I still love it so much. 

One night at our hostel we had a cooking lesson.  Oh, it smelled so heavenly as we put the smooshed tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc. all together in a pot for soup.  We all were amazed at how good food could smell. What’s more is, for this meal, we ate it WITH OUR HANDS!!!  A pretty fun cultural experience actually We took cooked yams in our hand and then scooped up the soup into it and into our mouth it went.  

[insert picture of us eating with hands.]

Our driver here is named Yaw.  (Pronounced like “ouch” with a y at the beginning and without the ch.)  Oh my heavens, he’s such a wonderful and good man to us.  We have so much fun with him.  Also, he has the cutest laugh. 

We were able to the temple!  Six of us did a session, six did baptisms.  The temple was absolutely beautiful.  

After our temple day we left the next morning for Abomusu.  It was about a 3 hour drive all squished in the car.  Not only was it fun but oh my goodness it was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever had in my entire life.  The sky was dark, deep blue.  And on both sides we had rolling hills of jungle trees and plants.  Think the trees in the Lion King.  It was just beautiful.

We drove and drove until we arrived in Abomosu.  It smells so clean, and it’s so beautiful everywhere I look.  There are still lots and lots of little places selling things so that’s fun.

It’s pretty funny.  A lot of the kids look soooo much younger than they are.  We’ll look at them and think they’re like five years old, but they’ll be nine or ten.  Some of them look six, but they’re like twelve.  But it goes both ways.  They think we look young.  Last night after playing a little bit of soccer with them (they’re so good!) I asked them how old they thought I was and their guesses were:  14, 9, 17, and 16.  So funny!

We went to church today.  Towards the end in the middle of the prayer, I opened my eyes to a little girl standing right in front of me.  “Will you please be my friend?” she whispered to me!  Awwwww!!!!  Okay so cute.  She took my notebook and started coloring and wrote her name which is Precious.  (precious, right? ;) )  For the rest of the church day and the baptisms that took place after church, we were besties. 

Klutzy Kaylie

Okay.  I don't know WHAT my issue is.  But lately, I've done some of the dumbest things.  Let me explain.

First of all, Derek and I were grocery shopping and I was in charge of getting the cilantro.  To save a few cents, I took apart one of the bunches, since we would probably use only a small piece of it.  So I put my few little stems into a bag and things were good.  Until we got to the check-out and I realized that cilantro was sold by the bunch, and the nice lady let me go back and get  a full one. Not a big deal, it was just embarrassing.

THEN, the next couple of days, I got up from the dinner table and walked passed the thermostat and hit it so hard it cut my arm!  I'm not gonna lie, it hurt SO bad.   Like, an impressive amount of pain for a stupid thermostat.

I think this was the next day once it had healed a little bit :)

THEN, we were grocery shopping again and were grabbing a gallon of milk.  I went to pick up the jug from Derek, but somehow it slipped from my hands and fell swiftly to the ground.  Milk.  Ex. Plos. Ion.  It was so embarrassing having to stand there and call out after workers to please help us.  You don't realize how much a gallon of milk is until it's spread flat along the ground.

It doesn't stop there!

I've been looking at care.com and sittercity for job opportunities here in Chicago.  (Not sure anyone would want to hire me to babysit with all this dropping stuff going around...)  But anyway.  This lady had posted about a sort of home health position and it looked like a great opportunity.  I emailed my interest, and got an email back asking for where I live, my email, etc.  So, because I don't know how to recognize a scam when I see one, I GIVE HER MY ADDRESS, EMAIL, PHONE.  Gratefully not anything else.

Thank heavens I didn't give anything else.

But anyway.  In the next few days I get this fancy fake check in the mail from my scammer who hoped I might cash it.  (Gratefully by then I had talked to my mom and Derek who recognized all the signs of a scam.)  But anyway.  Thank goodness I didn't sign onto anything.  Thank goodness I have a smart husband and mom.  Thank goodness I didn't fall into the trap.

[We've now turned this whole thing into a joke, and any time something bad happens, we blame it on Sharon H, the supposed lady who offered the position.  (We've looked and looked, and there's no such person--lady, or man.)
 "Derek, I feel really dizzy right now."  "It's probably Sharon waving your voodoo doll around."
 "Derek, do you still love me?"  "Yes, but there's someone who loves you more."  "Really?  Who?"  "She's standing right outside the door." ]

This is the closest rendition of his/her portrait we could find.

Finally*, on Friday I was hanging my laundry up and guess I watched falll?  From my 15th floor balcony rail onto the 11th floor balcony rail (it's seriously incredible that it didn't fall straight to the ground, but went back onto a balcony) was my BRIGHT PINK AND ORANGE SPORTS BRA!!!!  Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!  Not only is it my favorite one, but Ugggh, how awkward!! Like, just imagine...
 1) Living on the 11th floor and seeing it drop straight onto your balcony.  "Wow!  What's...that?"  2)  Coming home from work and seeing none other than an unknown bright pink sports bra dangled along your balcony rail.  3)  Me leaving a note "um, hi.  that's mine.  Call me and let's meet so I can get it?"

If you look really carefully you can see it.  

Well, I went down and knocked.  I figured that was the most grown-up option I had.

And?  No answer.  Awesome.

I tried again a couple times throughout the day.  Aaaand, no answer.

Anyway, that's where the story ends.  They probably just threw it away.

And that's the end of it!!   I promise I didn't have my cerebellum (balance and coordination area) removed from my brain, and this isn't a pregnancy announcement either...

I'm just totally in control of all aspects of life right now.



*besides the last story, the other ones all happened in a four-day time span.