Thankfulness

Jean Evelyn Robinson

1923-2011

I am thankful for my grandma Robinson. She lived a very full 88 years of life... she was adventurous, brave, independent, stubborn, mischievous-- full of beans really. I am thankful for this picture I have of her under a big beautiful Mango tree in Congo. That tree behind her speaks so clearly of her life. Faithful. Rooted. Strong.

I am thankful that this summer we spent a good week with her in Florida before hear health really started to decline. And I am thankful for this picture of her, of us. It captures something so very grandma, and is exactly how I will always remember her.

And I am ever so thankful that I was able to be with her as she bravely stepped from this life into the next... And I am thankful for this picture, of my hand in hers in those last hours. And of the steadiness I feel in that... my life which has, in part, grown out of hers. Her life and experiences sustaining, supporting, gently encouraging and challenging mine.

I love you, grandma. Thank you for a life well lived and a rich and beautiful heritage to live into.

for the love of matoke...

I spent a good bit of time traipsing through matoke plantations while we were on rural home stays in Kapchorwa a couple of weeks ago. I love these plants... their leaves, the lines, the colors, the sunlight glowing through them, the negative spaces they create... Love love love them! Just thought I'd share the love.

REVOLUTION!!

Ok, maybe not quite a revolution... but small revolutionary changes in my life...

As alluded to in a previous post... I am now the owner of a motorized vehicle! I don't know. I'm conflicted about it. But I'm also really loving it. What to do?? Try to be responsible and generous and thankful.

And the second most exciting and revolutionary thing EVER is my new screen door! Oh goodness, I love it. I really love having my door open, to maximize light and the airflow. Just feels better. But whenever my door is open (or was, pre- screen door revolution), countless flies would happily pop in for tea. (and mosquitos would take the open door as an open invitation to just move right in) The trouble with flies is they are none too bright, and once IN, they never manage to find their way back OUT... and oh, the maddening incessant buzz of flies popping at the screens in the windows trying to get out... And THEN, so I don't know about the life cycle of flies out in the real world... but by early evening all my unwanted guests would get sluggish, walking around on windowsills and table tops- nasty. And by 9 or 10, they'd all have keeled over. People (you know who you are) would comment on my vast collection of upside down flies. Which then my spider housemates would work on disposing of. Thanks spiders- turning my dead flies into little bundles of sucked dry flies scattered here and there. Ants always tried to help too... but it takes a while you know, to disassemble and haul off the goods. Nice. (One might question my cleaning skills) (No, no, I'm a great cleaner, I'm just not good at killing bugs) (and I can't clean incessantly!) But, my life with flies (and dried up fly bundles) is OVER! Thanks to this:

Oh, its a beautiful thing. Pretty revolutionary, actually. NO MORE FLIES! And the ants-- well, we've developed a fairly peaceable, symbiotic relationship... For now.

Tea, two digestive biscuits and a new day

a new semester...

The students have only been here four weeks, but it has been nonstop since they landed. Hard to believe its really only been a month. (Maybe I'm not as behind as I feel?) The non-stop is starting to let up a little bit. (LEETLE bit). At least enough for me to enjoy a saturday to myself and the chance to catch up on a few things.

Before the students arrived we had some fun staff retreat and work days gearing up for the new year.

Mark, Abby and Margaret at Kingfisher in Jinja-- on our staff retreat day.

Jordan, Philo, me and Vincent hiding in the background...
Staff working together on a project of circles... ahem, mandalas. LOVE it!
The beautiful completed project.... (now proudly displayed in my office)
Julie and Gwyn all matching matching in their pink and brown outside our office.
Our three fabulous interns Jordan, Jones and Julie in Rwanda. J to the power of 3!
Staff photo at the start of the 2011-2012 school year. Philo, Julie, Vincent, Jones, Mark, Jordan, Gwyn, Margaret and me.
I work with some pretty fantastic people, and for this I feel entirely thankful and grateful. Makes the go go going a lot more fun.

Hairy Lemon

My first weekend back, Todd and Betsy invited me to go to Hairy Lemon with them. (Thats right, I said HAIRY LEMON.) My friend Molly LOVES the place. I never made it there with her, sadly, but was excited to finally go. It is a sweet little getaway place just an hour and a half from here-- a beautiful little island in the Nile. You can camp or stay in their 'dorms' or 2-person or 4-person rooms. It has plenty of places to relax-- hammocks to read in, chairs and benches to sit in and read etc. And plenty of activities if you are game-- two slack lines, a volley ball court set up in-between a second island, beaches for wading/swimming, games, fishing poles, kayaks, tubes to float in... Accommodations are simple, but nice and meals were tasty- served in a fun open eating area. Affordable and CLOSE! All that makes a perfect 'Molly Getaway,' and one I'm sure I'll be getting back to with my new set of whee... WHAT?? Wait, what was that?? Um, ahem... yes... well, I aim to get back there... and it may just be easier than ever now... :) But THAT warrants a post all its own to tell...

Todd, Ellie and Betsy on the boat over:

Our cabin:
A lovely spot to be:
Ellie and Todd fishing:
The Nile Volley Ball court:
Beach area:
An absolutely lovely place to get away for a day or two.
Thanks Todd and Betsy for a fun weekend!!

my other summer (mis)adventure

I'm debating... is this post worthy material?? Perhaps not. May be a little gross. So viewers beware... BUT... I now consider it my duty to warn all you out there... SKIN CANCER IS REAL! And will sneak up on you unawares...

So, I decided to be a responsible adult this summer and do all my routine medical stuff-- you know, dentists, doctors, dermatologists etc. I generally avoid medical stuff like the plague and stay as far away from needles as I can get (blood-sucking needles). But every once in a while I think, actually I AM getting older, and I really ought to just make sure alls well. Right?

So being back in the US this summer, I went for an all over skin check. Never had one of those before. Things looked fine, except for a 'suspicious' mole on my back... which was sliced off for testing... And she found this birth bump thing on my ear and says 'well lets just take that off, you don't need it any more.' Ssssswipe! With a mean sharp razor and it was gone too. She tells me I'll get the labs back in a weeks or so. A week or so later I found out the mole was totally fine-- but the thing on my ear was skin cancer! Just basal cell carcinoma, but skin cancer nonetheless! Oh my. And that I needed to come back in and have the rest of it removed...

So I did... and long story short, ended up having to go to another doctor to have whats called Mohs surgery, got an extra 10 days in the US with my mom AND got to see Harry Potter 7.2! But the surgery-- no fun. The post op stuff- NO fun... A weird looking ear... well, I guess I'll live, but who wants that?

So... I'm telling you all now, go be responsible adults and get checked! And wear sun screen. And if you REALLY need convincing, here are some fun photos for you:

Me with my 'clam shell' pressure bandage after the surgery, in which they scooped a serious chunk out of the side of my head. Ear. Oh it was gross.

The stitches after the clam shell came off...They had to do some reconstructive stuff-- cut a triangle of skin out from below and pull it up to cove the gaping hole in the side of my head. The equivalent of a mini-face lift apparently.
All cleaned up...
Stiches out!
And two weeks post suture removal... looking pretty good hey?
But it still feels mighty weird. And I have to massage scar cream on it twice a day for a year... and wear lots of sunscreen and cover it up if I'm in the sun for a long time... and supposedly go back to the dermatologist every six months... thats not QUITE what I had in mind for the rest of my life... but better than cancer!

So... moral of the story? SUNSCREEN. And go get your skin checked... (and go watch HP7.2- its FANTASTIC!)

lovebirds

This july my family made the hard hard decision of moving my 94 almost 95 year old grandfather to a convalescent center for better care. He is still well generally (except for being almost 95), but needs more can than can be provided by family at home. The center-- while institutional for sure, is nice. It is only a 10 minute drive from home and the care provided is loving and kind. The head nurse on Grandpas floor is an Ethiopian fellow who made us all feel like we could take a deep sigh of relief despite the hardness of the decision to have grandpa there. It has a nice garden area outdoors, a sweet little aviary indoors, and the pond across the way has a family of 5 swans and 6 ducks... So there are interesting things to d0 when you go and visit. My uncle took this photo of a pair of lovebirds in the aviary on one visit.

And another pair in the garden... :) These ones have been together 65 years!

Uncle Johnny and Denise came to cheer grandma and grandpa on... along with my cousin Cheryl and her husband Dallas and their three boys Landon, Coby and Ty. We had some wild and fun evenings out back... It doesn't LOOK so wild, but it was a little wild... what with crazy sprinklers, 5 round shooter guns (just noise makers, not really shooters), and whoopee cushions that auntie annie bought the boys. What a fun aunt... :)
Oh, and a beautiful snap of my brilliant mother....
She and auntie Annie cooling down with icy mango mojito drinks on a toasty summer day.
My goodness, if I was COLD at the beginning of the summer... I was HOT at the end! Packing was a pleasure in the upstairs of a 100-year-old house in 100 degree heat and no AC.

Summer time part II

*This blog was composed a few days ago, and I am finally getting it all uploaded and ready to post-- tricky to do with the internet here in Uganda sometimes...*

So… you can run but you can’t hide apparently. Two full days of being awake all day, two full nights of sleep—aided perhaps, or ensured I should say, with the help of Tylenol pm. And NOW I find my self wide awake at 12:45? Shoot. Well… Its high time I caught up on some blog blog blogging anyhow. How did I let it go for so long? Especially with all that instantaneous high speed internet whizzing around back in the States?? I am in Uganda again… getting jet lag out of the way and ready for this new semester.

And though the summer was packed, it was full of goodness. Namely good good friends who made time in their busy schedules to spend some days with me.

After Florida I had some down time at home in Illinois before I set off on my easternly adventure, which started in Nashville… We had what can best be described as ‘work meetings,’ So I met up with Gwyn, Mark, Meg and other folks from other programs and the US office folk for four days. It was an interesting, informative and good fun time. It was especially nice to meet people from other programs and get a sense of the bigger picture. (All under the same umbrella organization we have four domestic programs and seven international programs.) We had some fun line dancing in downtown Nashville one fine evening… and listened to some great live music other evenings. The Contemporary Music Center (program in Nashville) put on quite a show!

From Nashville I touched down oh-so-(too)-briefly in Baltimore and saw my great, quirky friend Mary (maker of the infamous MaryMugs) before meeting up with Katie and heading out to her farm in the beautiful farmlands of eastern PA. Oh, it was great… to see her DOING what she has dreamed of doing these past years. Her own CSA farm with her sister Anna. Living in a dilapidated-but-charming old farm house with two quirky roommates, a dog named Fiddle and a new kitty named…. Well, we don’t know the name just yet. Perhaps Bow?

farm flowers.

We ate delicious home grown food… We weeded parsnips… we walked back in the orchards with our G&Ts, sat by peaceful isolated ponds… had many a good, long conversation... oh it was lovely.

I spent a needed and appreciated day in the hammock… A gloriously hot day, reading bits of an old Kingsolver novel… appreciating my ice water in a mason jar waiting for Rita, Juan and Lucia to show up.

So from six weeks to 15 months (did I get that right, Rita?) What a change! Here is this little live wire—this running, inquisitive, non-stop little person with a mind and a will of her own! Lucia. Oh, but we had a lovely time. More delicious homemade Katie pizza and cucumber salad… A delicious homemade sour cherry pie thanks to Katies sweet roommates, a bonfire, fun music and fireflies!

The following day a tour of the farm, some fun harvesting with Auntie Katie… a chilly lake to cool down in and fabulous picnic lunch. Katie does it right, that’s for sure!

From the magical farm lands of Pennsylvania, I headed back to G-burg with Rita, Juan and La Luce and a few more days of good soul connection. Good conversations and a fun outing to Fredericksburg.

I flew out of Reagan on a Tuesday evening and had the chance to spend a few hours with Beth and little Than. What a happy little guy… and how nice to see them in their bright, beautiful new place in DC!

Thats right folks, just call me Auntie Rachel! More babies this summer than I quite knew what to do with, but what fun.