Hello family:
I am in Sierra Leone. Travel was looonggg but pretty uneventful. I did a training today of interviewers who will interview wheelchair recipients. We met at the rehabilitation center. It is fascinating the facilities in which people work and how they make do with the resources available to them. Tomorrow, I will be back at the rehab center and should have a chance to take some photos that I will then post.
Love all of you--and really miss Mom. Send your hugs and good thoughts her way.
Love,
Dad
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Rock Climbing in Yosemite
Day 1 warm up climb with Cathedral Peak (Yosemite), the big climb scheduled for day 2, in the background
Scott on top of the day one warm-up climb
View from the approach
Our destination. Still far away!
Getting closer
Scott at the first belay station reading the topo.
View of Budd lake from the second belay station.
Scott at the summit. 10,911 ft.
Rachel at the summit
View from the summit. If you look closely, you can see Half Dome looking very small in the distance
The summit (and Scott) as viewed from the descent
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I rocked someone's world today
The set up:
Lunch with the usual suspects: Alex, Sam, Rob, and Jeff (all guys)
Trying out a new restaurant. It is a small traditional Afghan restaurant.
I drive because I'm the only one with a vehicle that will fit 5 people (the rest brought bikes or have baby seats).
During lunch: We all heap a spicy sauce onto our plates. However, the owner/waiter is concerned about me (not about any of the guys). He offers to bring me yogurt to cool things off. When I refuse, he offers it to me for free because he wants me to enjoy my meal. I refuse again (nicely...I tell him I like spice) but he brings it out anyway.
The bill: I'm out of cash, so I take the cash from everyone else and pay with my card. The owner doesn't see the guys give me money, so he is visibly startled when the lone woman in the group pays for all of the men.
Driving back to work: He watches us leave the restaurant. I get a good chuckle as he observes 4 men pile into my car and watches me drive away.
Lunch with the usual suspects: Alex, Sam, Rob, and Jeff (all guys)
Trying out a new restaurant. It is a small traditional Afghan restaurant.
I drive because I'm the only one with a vehicle that will fit 5 people (the rest brought bikes or have baby seats).
During lunch: We all heap a spicy sauce onto our plates. However, the owner/waiter is concerned about me (not about any of the guys). He offers to bring me yogurt to cool things off. When I refuse, he offers it to me for free because he wants me to enjoy my meal. I refuse again (nicely...I tell him I like spice) but he brings it out anyway.
The bill: I'm out of cash, so I take the cash from everyone else and pay with my card. The owner doesn't see the guys give me money, so he is visibly startled when the lone woman in the group pays for all of the men.
Driving back to work: He watches us leave the restaurant. I get a good chuckle as he observes 4 men pile into my car and watches me drive away.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
kudos to Mom
Your Mom rocks--but you all knew that. While some may mistake her mild mannered nature as passive, they are wrong. So here is the story.
Mom gets an e-mail from the ward RS Pres. asking for 'sisters' to have service activity to make quiet bags for the Marshallese children in our ward. Of course, these would be the Caucasian sisters giving service. So, mom seeing the inherent racism (my words) writes back a nice e-mail very diplomatically pointing out the inherent racism in the request and offering an alternative in which women of all races can get together to make bags for families with children of all races. Might even help these women to make friendships (in spite of the language barriers).
The "service project" approach that is also the Colonialist approach often used in Africa--or the ableist approach non-disabled folks use who want to "serve" disabled folk.
Dad
Mom gets an e-mail from the ward RS Pres. asking for 'sisters' to have service activity to make quiet bags for the Marshallese children in our ward. Of course, these would be the Caucasian sisters giving service. So, mom seeing the inherent racism (my words) writes back a nice e-mail very diplomatically pointing out the inherent racism in the request and offering an alternative in which women of all races can get together to make bags for families with children of all races. Might even help these women to make friendships (in spite of the language barriers).
The "service project" approach that is also the Colonialist approach often used in Africa--or the ableist approach non-disabled folks use who want to "serve" disabled folk.
Dad
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Who knew a BYU student could be (intentionally) funny?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ArIj236UHs&feature=player_embedded
Mom and Becky, this post is especially for you--thank you for introducing me to the Old Spice commercials :)
Mom and Becky, this post is especially for you--thank you for introducing me to the Old Spice commercials :)
Monday, July 12, 2010
How does this pine tree look in my garden?
So, this pine tree in the southeast corner of the yard had long ago bifurcated, then one of those trunks bifurcated again, so we had 3 major trunks. One blew down in May. It landed standing up across the fence in the neighbors yard without hitting the fence or damaging anything. Amazing! Dad and I were still debating on whether to have the tree taken down or seeing if it could be salvaged. A gust of wind made that decision for us this morning. This time it was not without damage. Where is that lilac tree? Which of my plants has been squashed beyond repair? Can the fence be fixed or does it need to be replaced?
Sunday, June 6, 2010
blog
I'm going to try to keep a blog during my time in the gulf. Here's the link. I'm going to share this with work people, so if you comment, behave yourselves ;)
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