The blog that was first sent as an email...

This is a copy-and-paste of an email that I sent out on Tuesday when the Blogger site wasn't working. Here's the re-cap!


Good afternoon, everyone! The blog site is down for the day so I've decided to send out an old fashioned email to y'all! I heard the Oilers lost the first game of the series a few nights ago but I hope they've been diong better since! Any updates?

Clinic this week has been slow! We've moved communities but that's not the cause of the problem. Lately, the catches down at the water have been huge so more community members are required to pull in the nets, scale the fish and send them to market than usual. So if everyone's working, no one's at clinic! I am happy that the community is doing well but hope to see them start to trickle back as the week goes on. With only a few weeks to go I'd like to see as many people as I can at clinic!

This weekend another batch of new volunteers are arriving. There are so many coming that Sarah and my's small itty bitty room will be invaded by one maybe even TWO more volunteers. Grudgingly, we will clean the room and make it "spick and span" for the newbs! Juuust kidding - we're all excited to have more people at the house so it's no big deal to do a bit of "spring cleaning."

In all my weeks of being here (and I say that as though I've been here forever! haha), I haven't experienced too much hassle or racism (except once), but this afternoon was a different story. I hopped on a trotro to come home and was met with a very rude and racist mate (the mate is the other person who works in the trotro who collects the money, opens the door and helps people in). To make a long and humiliating story short, I was BLATANTLY (and not jokingly) made fun of for a good 10-15 minutes and had some small items/pocket change stolen from me as I exited the tro-tro - all based entirely on the color of my skin. If any of you have experienced this, you will know how it feels as degredation is a universally understood feeling. It was an experience/feeling that made me realize just how lucky I am to be able to return to a country that fortunately, has very little blatant racism.

In happier news, Sarah and I have started to collect items for a small gift that we are giong to give the families next door. If I have not explained the situation next door, please let me do so for just a moment. There are 4 families living in a very small plot. They all cook, take care of kids and fish together. Unfortunately, however, making a decent profit off fishing requires owning the net/boat because the owner gets 2/3 of the fish at the end of the day and the helper gets 1/3 (split even further if there are two helpers). So as a result of not owning the net/boat, they receive very little money at the end of the day (about $0.80)... which causes a deficit in the basic necessities such as tooth brushes, soap, clothing, etc. Attending school is so far beyond their reach, as any pocket change would first be spent on those necessities. So to help the families save (indirectly) for school, Sarah and I are attempting to pick up some small basics at market - including toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, etc. Because none of the shops are labelled (other than with a religious title) it's taking a while to find all the items. Not to worry as we've still got a couple weeks left!

So there you have it - the update since last week. I hope all is going well at home and please cheer on the Oilers just an extra little bit for me!!! Take care!