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.  

My dad rocks.

Happy Father's Day to all dads out there!

Mothers Day and Fathers Day posts are really hard to write.  There's just so, so SO much to write, and I never feel like I can stuff enough love in there for how much I feel.

But here's some things I want to write about my dad.

-He's an amazing marathon runner.  I can't keep count, but he's run over ten.
-He cries a lot and it's very cute.
-He works so hard.  He gets up in the wee hours of the morning (like...4am) to get going on things.  And yet he always has the energy to spend time with his kids whether it's four-square, helping us with math, or discussing life plans.
-He does so much service.  He's always helping clean someones yard, shovel snow, talk to someone who needs him. I love that example.
-I learn so much about our Heavenly Father from watching my dad.  About unconditional love, and about His role in our lives.  I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful father!!

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.

It's been a fun, busy first week in Chicago!  Derek works full time, but when he comes home it's time to play!  (It's so very different from us coming home from a long school day with hours of homework still ahead of us.  Summer is great for that.)

Here's some of the fun things we've done:

we ate deep dish pizza!  

happy pizza happy Derek.  This was literally the first thing we did after we pulled stuff out of the car.  Derek was so excited to try the pizza.  plus we were starving.

my favorite thing:  just across the street from us is a forest with so many trails!  so much fun.  We've gone for Sunday walks and the occasional run.

we discovered an ice cream place that sells the biggest Italian ice!!!  we shared and didn't even finish.  pretty cheap and pretty much delicious!!!  (also note how cute the pink looks next to Derek's shirt.)

the temple!! a needed change of pace from the rest of the city.  

we rode the train to the city!  Also, someday we're gonna hire a professional photographer to follow us around so we can have pictures together ;)

I love the rivers and lakes.   soooo pretty.  they're just the perfect color.

lots of really tall buildings, but every once in a while there's one that looks different and unique

we navigated our way through the city to navy pier.  lots of cool things to do and eat and smell.  plus really cool views of the city!

we splurged and rode the ferris wheel.  this is our artistic picture of us holding our tickets.  that's as good as our
artsy-ness gets, folks.

about half way up the ferris wheel be both realized we're a little bit afraid of heights. luckily we had a family from arkansas in there with us so we had to pretend to be cool.  Otherwise we woulda been like...

We made it off safely.  Here's a view of the city from navy pier

here's a view of Kaylie from navy pier

Derek and I made a deal.  We could go to a big soccer game for him if we could go to a musical for me.  We were lucky and we got to see Les Mis!!!  It was really well done and the voices were incredible!!  We could probably write a whole blog post just about the musical.  It's such a beautiful story of redemption and of how good a person can be.  Derek didn't cry that much ;)

We finished the week by visiting Kyra, Kevin, and Joseph at Warren Dunes National Park.  Oh my goodness, this little boy is so much fun.  He's so happy to play in the freezing cold water.  Out of all of us, he was the bravest.

Splashing in the water!  (Kyra's gonna blog about it all, so for more fun visit kevinkyramoon.blogspot.com)

If it seems like it's been a busy week, it's because it was a busy week. :) We're only here for a summer so we're trying to experience all we can.

Getting there

So guess what, we're in Chicago!!  Derek got an financial analyst internship with Honeywell so we drove out last weekend.  It's beautiful here and we have really enjoyed our time so far!

We wanted to take a couple pictures along the way of the journey, so here goes!!

did anybody else see this horrible movie?  well, it's pretty terrible.  but it's about "getting there" so that's pretty fitting.

this is us before we left.  someday our kids will be so excited to see this.  (...or not)

Maybe someday Derek can be part of a Mormon Message about driving across the country with all of his belongings and wife in a tiny vehicle. just like this one!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nczw6xHJ0I

while in Green River, Utah we ate in this lovely and deserted park.  also, the grocery store's bathroom is in a tricky place to find.  between that and the constipation Derek waited for me for about three hours.

I'm obsessed with I-70.  Just look at these mountains.

Right when Derek and I switched and it was my turn to drive, the road started getting really steep.  Like, steep enough that me pressing on the gas all the way couldn't get us in our little packed car past 40mph.  So over to the slow lane I went.   I  also went to a lower gear and still-- so slow!!!  Then it started to rain.  And I was very scared.   Then we switched back.  And made it happily.  Derek is a good driver :)

Intermission:  we got to stay at my mom's sister Becca's house!!  Very fun.  We played night games and watched the national spelling bee finalists go at it.  We also watched the diversity dwindle as all the white kids got out.

We made it to Kansas!!  After passing signs for Toto's Pizza and other Oz-related signs, it felt appropriate to turn switch from our little Harry Potter on CD over to Wicked. 

Yep.  We made it to Kansas. 

This was a fun field to drive by.  Look familiar?  Looks like your desktop.  

Cute, right?

More Kansas lovin.

Intermission:  We stayed at Grandma Rytting's.  Very fun!  Plus, I got some good video game practice in.  Mario Kart is tough, guys.  (but really.  I'm still about double the speed of the worst score)

Janae made us strawberry muffins to take in the morning.  But Spencer and I got a picture so it looks like we did it ;)  

We left Kansas early in the morning and got to see the sunrise!!!
I like to call this masterpiece "Sunrise over Dead Bugs on a Windshield"

Flies, mosquitoes, and gnats.  all gone.

and....WE MADE IT!!!!  here's the view outside our bedroom window.
...on the 15th floor.  I've only climbed those stairs once. 

P.S.  I know you're all wondering.  Derek didn't really wait three hours.

Updates

This semester is almost over!!  It's amazing how quickly winter semester goes.  It feels like I was just freaking out about whether or not I'd be able to survive clinicals in ICU and now it's over and I loved it!  Capstone is already next semester!!  Things are moving very, very quickly.

Also it smells really good outside with the grass and flowers coming out.  Not related, but also awesome.

Derek's been really impressive this semester (well, every semester he is) because he does about a bajillion times more activities than I do.  ...and he still gets A's! It's amazing.  Intramurals, on-campus internships, business school clubs, working...

This summer's going to be quite the adventure.  On the 27th of April (in TWO WEEKS!!!) I head out for my nursing trip to Ghana.  IN AFRICA.  It's going to be incredible and I am so excited to go see the country, meet the beautiful people, and teach and learn more about healthcare.  Today my group had our packing party where we each stuffed suitcases full-to-the-brim of newborn kits, gloves, about two thousand dental kits, glucose testing strips, textbooks, and a whole lot more of medical supplies.  It's getting so real!  Sidenote:  I don't know if anyone else is like this, but seeing medical supplies in bulk just gets me giddy.  (The same sort of feelings exist when I see crayola markers, paper, and scissors.  Just so many possibilities!)

Ghana friends! :)  

After Ghana, Derek has his internship with Honeywell and we get to go to Chicago!!!  We're so excited to drive out there together and have this crazy adventure together.  It's going to be so different than anything I've ever done.  (Especially now that I'm a big kid grown up.  Before when I've been in big cities like NYC or Boston, I've always had my parents taking care of me.)  Derek will be doing his internship but outside of that, we've got our list of places and people to see, pizzas to try, games to see-- it's gonna be a good time.

Beyond that, life is just good.  We're working hard in school trying to get everything finished up for finals, and trying to stay on top of the laundry :)  Best of all Derek keeps me laughing all day long.  Here's a sample of the fun I get to experience on a regular basis. . .

   

My Broken Cottage

Sometimes trials seem to go on forrreevver.  And you never really get the big picture "why" behind all of it.  But every once in a while, you catch a glimpse of what God has in store for you.

This week marks the end of a trial that has bothered me for a very long time.  But it ended.  And oh what a sweet realization it was when I realized I was free.  

As I pondered over it all, I couldn't help but think of this quote:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”  --CS Lewis

God is in charge and He knows what we need more clearly than we do.  It's definitely difficult to let an old cottage become broken and destroyed.  But as I look at my sweetheart Derek and the life we're enjoying together, this is turning out to be the beginnings of a beautiful palace. 

On another note, WE FINALLY GOT OUR WEDDING PICTURES!!!  And I love them so much.  That was the perfect day.