Overdue Update

So its been a while. No good excuse, I just haven’t been feeling very reflective lately I guess. And so for both you and for future me who will want to remember this last part of my journey, here is a quick update.

We finished our third fundraising trip stronger than we expected. We still didn’t meet our goal but we didn’t come as short as I had been afraid of. Right now I am actually on my fourth (and hopefully LAST!) fundraising trip. At the moment there are three groups of three doing street and store fundraising on the East coast while Brian and I are in Sacramento, CA doing ‘site finding’. More on that another time.

Because Brian and I weren’t going fundraising in the traditional sense I also did A LOT less fundraising prep and let me tell you, I didn’t realize until then how stressed I had been in the last two months! We spent the time doing as much as we can to get ready for Namibia. We got all the paperwork together for our Namibian visas, complete with lung scans, which were a bit of an ordeal. I can now proudly say I am TB Free! I also did a good bit of shopping – although not exactly taking advantage of the fun clothes and shoe sales. Instead, this year I bought hiking sandals and water filtration systems – fun! There is a degree of guilt in racking up a large EMS bill on expensive ‘gadgets’ to make Brian and I more comfortable when there are millions of people living in Southern Africa on less than $2 a day. But then again, how can I do any good over there if I have worms growing in my feet? Haha not a sentence most people have the privilege of saying over their entire lifetime. As we start preparing for the trip the adventure is becoming more and more real!

In between the two fundraising trips we fit quite a lot in. Brian and I prepared and gave a one hour course on HIV/AIDS, Sexual Behaviour, and Harm Reduction Strategies (complete with female and male condom demonstration). It was so much fun, I love lesson planning and teaching. On the mountain we had our second Africa night which was a success and also some impromptu Korean spa treatments (I am still convinced they put pancake batter on our faces). Off the mountain, Brian and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary by spending the weekend in Brattleboro, VT, being very old and wise and grown up.

I have also started saying goodbye to people who I won’t see again before I leave. I hate saying goodbye and truth be told I really am very bad at it. But since I will be in Ireland for Christmas this year, the long line of goodbyes started this Thanksgiving at my Aunt Linda’s. It was a good holiday overall, except the fact that my sister was not able to make the holidays this year, so I actually won’t see her until I come back in 2011. At my Aunt Liz’s house this year, Thanksgiving was thrown out the window in favor of Chrisgiving, my new favorite holiday. Imagine the food of Thanksgiving and the presents of Christmas! Because we will all be away for Christmas this year we decided to celebrate both. The dining room was decorated with Thanksgiving decorations (complete with HANDMADE hand-turkey decorations – you kindergarten graduates know what I’m talking about) and the living room was decorated for Christmas! I think Brian, who was celebrating his first Thanksgiving ever, was a little confused, especially since instead of the traditional drunken high school reunion the night before Thanksgiving we spent it getting in touch with my Chinese roots, learning to make dong, rice wrapped in banana leaves, with my crazy Chinese grandmother!

Happy Chrisgiving season everyone!