Monday, May 14, 2007
Hello all.
Just finished what feels like the climax of my job here, though it really isn't. After months of observing the 'activities' of my center, doing twice a week trainings with the physiotherapy team, and sewing and sawing toys and adaptive equipment...the physiotherapy team has completed a week-long, back-to-back training for all of the social agents at work. It was exciting on all ends. All of the mwarimu (teachers/trainers) and umunushuri (students) were amazing, and I couldn't be more impressed and pleased by everybody's contributions. WOW (as my friend Pierre here is known to say : ) )
Now building up to my next 'big' project: meeting mom and dad in Tanzania for a safari!
Also, went to the paraolympics (standing and sitting volleyball) 2 weekends ago in a southern town, Butare, and have become a groupy of a few teams. Try to imagine (because I am rubbish at uploading my pictures) a coach with one arm guiding a team of men who scoot on the floor to spike the volleyball over a net (just about 2.5 ft off of the ground), almost none wearing their prosthetic legs, if they do have them. I told my friend Bernard (who plays in the standing Vball games only) that he is lucky because his prosthetic arm is really solid and strong and he can use it to get the ball over the net with more force. A blast to watch!
Just finished what feels like the climax of my job here, though it really isn't. After months of observing the 'activities' of my center, doing twice a week trainings with the physiotherapy team, and sewing and sawing toys and adaptive equipment...the physiotherapy team has completed a week-long, back-to-back training for all of the social agents at work. It was exciting on all ends. All of the mwarimu (teachers/trainers) and umunushuri (students) were amazing, and I couldn't be more impressed and pleased by everybody's contributions. WOW (as my friend Pierre here is known to say : ) )
Now building up to my next 'big' project: meeting mom and dad in Tanzania for a safari!
Also, went to the paraolympics (standing and sitting volleyball) 2 weekends ago in a southern town, Butare, and have become a groupy of a few teams. Try to imagine (because I am rubbish at uploading my pictures) a coach with one arm guiding a team of men who scoot on the floor to spike the volleyball over a net (just about 2.5 ft off of the ground), almost none wearing their prosthetic legs, if they do have them. I told my friend Bernard (who plays in the standing Vball games only) that he is lucky because his prosthetic arm is really solid and strong and he can use it to get the ball over the net with more force. A blast to watch!
# posted by Julie @ 2:33 AM 
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Hi Julie!
I loved your pictures, and the volleyball sounds really fun! Things are going ok here. We (Nathan, Simone and I) are all trying to get used to having 2 kids instead of 1, which actually seems like more than twice as much work, but is still really fun. The weather is finally getting nice enough that we can go outside for longer periods of time, which will be good...once I can get us on some sort of schedule (yesterday we were all in our pajamas until after noon). Have a great time on your safari, you are so lucky to be able to do that!
Love you!
Kassi
I loved your pictures, and the volleyball sounds really fun! Things are going ok here. We (Nathan, Simone and I) are all trying to get used to having 2 kids instead of 1, which actually seems like more than twice as much work, but is still really fun. The weather is finally getting nice enough that we can go outside for longer periods of time, which will be good...once I can get us on some sort of schedule (yesterday we were all in our pajamas until after noon). Have a great time on your safari, you are so lucky to be able to do that!
Love you!
Kassi
# posted by 
: 4:50 AM
: 4:50 AM
Juls,
I'd say I've missed your blog entries, but considering that I haven't commented since January (because I hadn't read them until today), that would be at least slightly hypocritical! And, it seems I have lots of company, given that the number of comments on your entries has been declining. (I do, however, really enjoy both the entries and the comments when I do get around to reading them.)
Anything new on DbDToys? We are so excited about Jess' success at Toy Fair. Please thank her for us for keeping us all up to date on how things are going. The pictures from Toy Fair were great. I love telling everyone how proud we are of both of you (even though we haven't even met Jess yet --- but are looking forward to doing so in late September) and how excited we are about your burgeoning success!
Well, today is T-5 (days!) until we leave for our trip. Our long conversation yesterday was quite helpful. I'm sure we'll have more questions this week, so you can expect to hear from us (by telephone) more than usual. I have so much to do before we go (Stuff for Grandpa as well as our normal stuff)that I can't imagine getting it all done. But Saturday will come, Monday will come, and we will SEE YOU! Yea!
I'm in the midst of putting together out "itinerary" to send to the fam; I'll send you an advanced copy so that you can check to be sure I got the Rwanda part right. I'm glad that we will have a cell phone in Tanzania. Even though we probably won't use it (nor, hopefully, will anyone at home need to), it just makes me more comfortable. Speaking of comfortable, no email from Simon this AM; I certainly hope we hear from him soon, although I'm getting OK with the "we'll deal with it when we have to" approach.
Did I tell you I even bought [my first ever] journal? Since I've been bugging you about writing things down, I hope that I am able to do so, as I'm sure we'll have so many unique (at least for us) and interesting experiences that I won't remember them all when we get home!
Dad moved all the pictures from the camera to the computer yesterday all by himself (well, I did have to show him how to plug the USB cable in, but hey ...). Last I heard on that subject, he was working on figuring out how to delete them from the camera. He got lots of batteries and two extra memory cards (1 GB each) for the camera. I think we'll have lots of "room" to take lots of pictures and we can't wait!
Talk to you soon.
Love,
Mom
P.S.
For Kassi --- if you think going from one to two is bad, try to imagine going from one to THREE!
I'd say I've missed your blog entries, but considering that I haven't commented since January (because I hadn't read them until today), that would be at least slightly hypocritical! And, it seems I have lots of company, given that the number of comments on your entries has been declining. (I do, however, really enjoy both the entries and the comments when I do get around to reading them.)
Anything new on DbDToys? We are so excited about Jess' success at Toy Fair. Please thank her for us for keeping us all up to date on how things are going. The pictures from Toy Fair were great. I love telling everyone how proud we are of both of you (even though we haven't even met Jess yet --- but are looking forward to doing so in late September) and how excited we are about your burgeoning success!
Well, today is T-5 (days!) until we leave for our trip. Our long conversation yesterday was quite helpful. I'm sure we'll have more questions this week, so you can expect to hear from us (by telephone) more than usual. I have so much to do before we go (Stuff for Grandpa as well as our normal stuff)that I can't imagine getting it all done. But Saturday will come, Monday will come, and we will SEE YOU! Yea!
I'm in the midst of putting together out "itinerary" to send to the fam; I'll send you an advanced copy so that you can check to be sure I got the Rwanda part right. I'm glad that we will have a cell phone in Tanzania. Even though we probably won't use it (nor, hopefully, will anyone at home need to), it just makes me more comfortable. Speaking of comfortable, no email from Simon this AM; I certainly hope we hear from him soon, although I'm getting OK with the "we'll deal with it when we have to" approach.
Did I tell you I even bought [my first ever] journal? Since I've been bugging you about writing things down, I hope that I am able to do so, as I'm sure we'll have so many unique (at least for us) and interesting experiences that I won't remember them all when we get home!
Dad moved all the pictures from the camera to the computer yesterday all by himself (well, I did have to show him how to plug the USB cable in, but hey ...). Last I heard on that subject, he was working on figuring out how to delete them from the camera. He got lots of batteries and two extra memory cards (1 GB each) for the camera. I think we'll have lots of "room" to take lots of pictures and we can't wait!
Talk to you soon.
Love,
Mom
P.S.
For Kassi --- if you think going from one to two is bad, try to imagine going from one to THREE!
# posted by : 5:29 AM
: 5:29 AM 
hi juls-
you are about to meet up with mom and dad in Arusha...i'm so jealous! what a terrific b-day present...we missed you here a lot these last few days...between our b-day and joe's graduation, lots of people were missing you :(
i can't wait to hear about the safari and ALL of mom and dad's trip. miss you tons.
love,
als
you are about to meet up with mom and dad in Arusha...i'm so jealous! what a terrific b-day present...we missed you here a lot these last few days...between our b-day and joe's graduation, lots of people were missing you :(
i can't wait to hear about the safari and ALL of mom and dad's trip. miss you tons.
love,
als
# posted by : 5:53 PM
: 5:53 PM
HI Jul,
Sheryl got an email from you parents, so they have arrived, and you must be with them now! I just got home from my 24hr trip to Cols for my mom's retirement party at CSG...it was real nice. Have the most amazing time with Hariette and Darryl (I'm so embarassed that I forget where all of the double letters go in your parent's names! hope I got it right!)
love yve
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Sheryl got an email from you parents, so they have arrived, and you must be with them now! I just got home from my 24hr trip to Cols for my mom's retirement party at CSG...it was real nice. Have the most amazing time with Hariette and Darryl (I'm so embarassed that I forget where all of the double letters go in your parent's names! hope I got it right!)
love yve
# posted by : 8:49 PM
: 8:49 PM << Home
