a lovely phone call

the sound of a loved one's voice... I think this is one of the greatest sounds in the world! Saturday morning my cell phone rang and when I answered it, I was greeted by the sound of a voice that I very much miss - RONEL!!

It was a wonderful call though too short for my liking! The connection wasn't the greatest but I got to talk to Ronel and that was what mattered! Though I will say that I think it made me miss him even more and made it much more of a reality. I did manage to not cry while on the phone with him.

I was a bit surprised at first but only because it was still early enough on a Saturday morning that I had just woken up about 45 mins earlier. I love technology!! It is a wonderful thing - that we can talk and have it cost only pennies per minute is wonderful! For me to call Haiti would cost probably around $4 a minute on my cell phone (if not more!!!) and because of satellite/internet phones Ronel can call me from Haiti for like $0.17 a minute!

Emailing has been a good connection for us but man, talking is even better!! Though I was a bit emotional on that first call to really talk about anything important but I am sure that will improve with time.

It did get me in gear though. I have photos that I am supposed to be sending to Haiti for Ronel and his parents and I just kept putting it off - well, after talking to him on Saturday it got me more in the mood to "pretty up" the photos and so I spent a good chunk of time yesterday "scrapping" some of the photos for Ronel and journalling on them and such. I hope they enjoy the albums.

keep in touch

back at it..

Well, I thought I would update everyone and let you know that I am slowly on the mend! I am feeling much better than I was on Monday and even was back at work yesterday! One parent did say that I sound like a muppet though! My voice still has not totally returned but it hurts less to talk now than it did Tuesday.

I even was back at Curves yesterday and though I did do much on the mats between my stations - I got my two circuits done and I felt great!

Be thankful that you get to read this and don't have to listen to my raspy muppet voice!

off to work now!

North American Germs

Well, once again I have been hit by a virus - the doctor tells me that it will take a while for my body to adjust to the germs here and until then I will probably be susceptible to much more. So I have been sick since late Friday night and was unable to work yesterday or today. I am doing about 5% better today - not as much pain in my bones & joints as there was yesterday and feeling less weak than I did yesterday.

Stacey & I have been consistent about going to Curves 3 times a week and yesterday was the first time we missed a day - we were both sick! I won't be able to go today either but hopefully tomorrow I will be better, back at work and able to go work out.

Please pray that this virus goes away as quickly as it came!

well, am going back to bed to rest up - this has used up all my energy!

exercise

I have gone and done it now! Yesterday Stacey & I signed up for Curves - a ladies' only workout place. It is a 30 minute circuit workout and you go a minimum of 3x a week. We have our first workout tomorrow night (with a trainer) and then we will be on our own. You just follow the curcuit so it should be fairly simple!

We did this together so that it will be harder for either of us to back out! I am excited - I was enjoying all the walking I was doing in Haiti but it is still too cold to do much walking here. I am constantly on the move at work but it isn't the same.

I wasn't overly happy with my measurements and such last night but can't wait to see improvements!

off I go to work!

my mom

Yeah,

Tonight, for the first time since Dec 9th, I get to see my mom!!! She left on holidays on the 15th of February and I was supposed to see her before she left but because of all the problems I had with getting out of Haiti I missed seeing her. I have been home 2 1/2 weeks and have yet to see or talk to my mom - I think that this is the longest I have not talked to her since my first year in Haiti. I am very excited to see her and I get to see my grandma too, but just for a little bit as she is staying at the airport before her flight back to Campbell River.

back into "life"

It is now very clear to me that I am home in BC to "stay" at least for a while - I started working on Monday! It was a wierd feeling - Made it much clearer that me being in BC is a long term thing at this point in time.

I started working at Hilltop Christian Childcare Center - this is where I worked before I went to Haiti and the whole job situation is a testament to God's amazing grace! The job basically fell into my lap and was an answer to prayer - both on my end and on the end of my employers. They had been looking for someone since the beginning of January and had not had a single reply to the ad they had placed in the paper even after almost 4 weeks of it running! I got an email from a friend who also is the director of the daycare mentioning what was happening in her life and how they were short staffed at the center. Well - I emailed her back saying that I had just made the decision to come home and would she be interested in having me back and she replied saying she would LOVE to have me come back to work! So, I started on Monday and I will be working with the KinderOnes (Kindergarten & Grade 1's) I have been enjoying myself this week though it has been interesting to relearn names and such as many of the kids are new and many things about the way they run the center has also changed.

I have found that I have been quite tired since starting work but I think it is just the fact that I am on the go for most of the day and I just have to adjust.

Will try to post more frequently!