So much to be thankful for

Dirty Dash

Such a fun race!  I highly recommend it!

Chau

See you later New York.  I LOVED my trip!

Brooklyn

Tim and I walked the Brooklyn Bridge and went to Grimaldi's pizza.  It really was worth the wait.  So delicious!

On the way back over the bridge, I ran into a good friend I hadn't seen in a couple years.  He was 20 minutes from a surprise proposal to his girlfriend.  What are the odds I'd run into him in New York, on the Brooklyn Bridge, about to get engaged?!

Central Park

Saturday morning we took the little girls to the Central Park Zoo.  It was so fun to watch the girls run from exhibit to exhibit.  Liv thought Sadie was so cool, and Anna was a sweet little doll.

The walruses were so funny.  The big one sounded like he was burping at the little one. 

In the afternoon we went with Kristi-Lynn and Brett to their ward picnic in the park.  Turns out half of their ward went to my high school.  It was fun to see old friends.

Girls Weekend

Part of the reason I went to New York was to spend time with 2 of my old roommates.  Kristi-Lynn lives in Manhattan with her husband and darling little Sadie, and Sarah lives in Baltimore with her husband and two sweet little girls Liv and Anna.  Sarah came up for the weekend and we decided to do a girls night out on Friday without the kiddos.  We met up in Times Square, bought tickets to Mama Mia, then headed to Shake Shack for more burgers, fries, and shakes.  So delicious!

Love these girls!!!

Feliz Cumple to Me

New York style birthdays are the way to go!  I started out my day here:

Then did a little bit of shopping.  My brother Tim and I met up and had my new favorite hamburger here:

I've been craving them ever since.

Then, thanks to my wonderful parents, I got to enjoy this:

Dipity-do and Wicked Too

I got to meet up with Mars and her adorable little Eli today.  We started at Dylan's Candy Bar (in honor of our candy runs back in junior high). Ralph Lauren's daughter Dylan started this amazing 3 story candy store.

Then it was off to Serendipity for lunch and famous frozen hot chocolate.  Holy cow, those are AMAZING! Worth every penny!

After our goodbyes I went to see this for the first time.  So magical!!!! I loved every minute of it!

Harry Potter Can Sing.........and Dance........

Who knew?  From the halls of Hogwarts to the Broadway stage, Harry did a pretty good job.

China Town, Little Italy, Central Park, and the Whole World

I met up with my friend Nick today.  We shopped in China Town, ate lunch in Little Italy, then walked through Central Park looking for street performers.  We didn't find any.  A man asked if I wanted to take a bike tour through the park claiming "The best price in the whole world!" I called him out on the statement. He laughed.  I laughed.  He said he meant the whole world inside the park.  I love New York!

9/11

When I planned my trip to New York, I didn't realize I would be there over the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  Due to heightened security, we weren't able to go to ground zero that day, but it was still a neat experience to be in the city.  We watched some of the ceremony on TV before we went to church and at church were able to hear about some of the experiences of those who were living in the city 10 years ago.  No one will ever forget where they were when they first heard about the twin towers.  It's amazing to think about where we have come as a nation since that day.  I'm proud to be an American.

I'm a Mormon

It's easy to spot Mormons.  Especially when it's a group of young single adults having a barbecue at Morningside Park in Harlam.

It's also easy to spot them wearing the BYU and Utah garb to cheer on their respective teams.

Fun first Saturday in New York.

Contagious

Probably not the best movie to see the first night in a crowded, dirty city.  Actually, probably just not the best movie to see period.

Nueva Nueva

I'm not sure why I always think that taking the red eye is a good idea.  But at least it got me to New York.

You Are Loved

Some photos from my trips to Haiti

Crazyness?

Xavier had organized a clinic today at the orphanage for the kids from the village. A few of them showed up yesterday and we had to turn them away. We were worried that it was going to be a mad house and that adults would be upset that we wouldn't treat them, but it really wasn't too bad.

Xavier did a great job of setting up the benches better to create a barrier and had communicated well that we would only see the first 100 kids. Once we got our system going, things ran pretty smoothly and we were able to see all the kids that came. Hatian babies are BEAUTIFUL! We saw 3 or 4 babies that were just a couple months old. It was a little bit overcast for part of today so it wasn't nearly as hot as yesterday. We passed out toothbrushes and toothpaste to everyone that came through today because the institute had donated so many. We also bought a lot of the paintings that Xavier, Maxon, Silvestre, and the kids had done. Xavier is really doing a great thing there. He teaches kids how to to the traditional Carribean art in a small school in his home. After the earthquake there were 20 or so kids that showed up without anywhere to go. So he and his wife took them in and started Poor Children's Orphanage. They keep it going through the proceeds from the artwork and donations from people. Xavier makes sure that all the kids go to school as well. He is a good man.

Poor Children's Orphanage

We headed up to Mont Rouis today to do a clinic with Poor Children's Orphanage (we're helping them pick a better name) and deliver all the supplies we had collected for them. We saw a lot of kids and staff, probably around 40. It was pretty chaotic, but we got the job done.

The children there are beautiful! After a successful clinic we headed to Club Indigo for the afternoon and to spend the night. Back in the 70s it was a Club Med and it was a beautiful and relaxing break.

We brought our 4 interpreters (Big Mac, Lesly, Matt, and Stevenson) with us and it was so fun to watch them. They had never done anything like that before and had never gone swimming. We tried to teach them to swim. It was pretty entertaining. I met a famous Hatian poet at dinner and his wife (who is from Argentina). Super nice couple.

Farmacia

We did one last outreach clinic up in the mountains today. I triaged for a little bit (in Haiti I'm apparently qualified to be a nurse) and then spent the rest of the time in the "pharmacy" (small room in the school we were set up in with a table full of drugs we had brought). I'm getting pretty good at reading doctor's handwriting and writing "1 fua pa dua" one pill a day. I also got to actually be a nutritionist (finally using my degree) and give counceling to one lady with diabetes and a lot of high blood pressure patients. It's hard to councel on what to eat because, like the woman with diabetes said, they don't get to choose what they eat, they just eat whatever is available. It's heartbreaking really.

Also, some of the teachers were asking if we could somehow help them with a school food program. They said so many of the kids come to school but can't learn because they are just too hungry to pay attention. Hopefully we can get them in contact with a "food for the poor" type program. We were up in the mountains and the ride up was really beautiful. Because of the deforrestation, there is a lot of errossion, but someone has come in a taught the people terracing. It's amazing to look across to the other side of the mountain and see crops moving up the mountain on terraces. There were also a lot of vegetable gardens and cows. It's good to see that they are able to produce food in large quantities.

Bath Time

Today Emily, Jordan, Miriam, and I went out the warehouse at Medishare hospital to help organize. I can't remember the last time I've been as dirty as I was today. There were about 15 Hatians working so we all teamed up and moved dirty boxes all over. There was rat poop everywhere and cockroaches. My hands and arms were black by the end of the day. We had a lot of fun though. A few of the workers spoke some English so that was fun to be able to talk to them. We took a break for a minute and a few of them danced for us. Madness (yes, that is his actual name) did quite the booty dance. He also has a brother named Fitness. I don't think they know what their names mean in English. The power has been out at the guest house for most of the afternoon. We also ran out of water to our bathroom on the 3rd floor last night and this morning, but it really wasn't that important that we were clean before going to the warehouse. Luckily the tank got refilled so we could shower when we got home. Tomorrow I'll be going out to another outreach clinic. They were going to announce the election results tomorrow night but it's been postponed until Monday. Something about false ballots I think. It's probably better though for us because from what our interpreters have told us, most of the people want the pop star guy to win, so if the former first lady wins they will all think that a scandal happened and there will be rioting.

New Life Children's Home

Bekah and I went to New Life Children's Home to do a caregiver's school to some of the workers there. We taught nutrition, dehydration, the Heimlich maneuver, positioning and stimulation, etc. New Life has about 100 kids and it is a beautiful orphanage.About 20 of the kids have disabilities. It's really a great place. It's a large compound with beautifully painted buildings, all the kids have beds, they are raising chickens, fish, and rabbits to eat, they have a vegetable garden, and a water purifying system.There is a nice kitchen and guesthouse and all the buildings have tile floors and electricity. You can tell that everyone there is there for the right reason and there is no shadyness going on with funding or supplies. It's really a peaceful place. If anyone ever wants to volunteer in Haiti, you should look into going there. It's $35 dollars a day to stay there and that includes breakfast and dinner. Anyway, we met a girl named Sarah there who is doing a lot of the administrative things right now. She is great. She was living in Florida and lost her job teaching school, so she decided to come to Haiti and work with disable kids for her church. She told us about and tent city they went to visit and had found out there was and orphanage in the tent city.There are 24 kids and one lady on some property with a little bit of barbed wire around it.Half the kids didn't have pants on and the orphanage is just one bigger tent with lots of little tents around it for the kids. When they showed up with food, none of the kids had eaten all day, and apparently they ate the leftover chicken soup for dinner the next day. Those kids wouldn't have eaten for 3 days had they not brought food. They are trying to convince this lady to move to some property they have closer to the town next to their church where they could have access to water and they could get them food. But for whatever reason lady doesn't want to leave her property at the tent city. So sad. I had never even considered that there would be tent orphanages. But with all of the people displaced, it makes sense.

On a happier note, Big Mac went to the embassy this morning to try for his 3rd time to get a student visa. He got it!!!! We are all so happy for him. He will be staying with Sandy and her family and go to Salt Lake Community to study physical therapy. On our way home from the orphanage today we drove through City Soleil. Up to a couple years ago no one ever went through there because of the danger. Apparently all of the head gangsters that used to live there are either in jail now or have died. I guess things in Haiti are actually improving. They will be announcing the election results on Thursday night. The two candadits are a Haitian pop star and a former first lady whose husband didn't help the country much when he was in office. This should be interesting.

Outreach Clinic

We woke up again at 3:55 to our wonderful friend Rooster. At 6:30 we were off to a clinic up in the mountains. A paster that Kathleen knows put together a make-shift clinic so that the people up there could be seen. Before the earthquake there was a clinic that serviced 50,000 people. But it was destroyed so all the people in the community now have to walk 12 miles if they need to be seen. We saw 100 people today and gave them the medications we had. Mostly head aches and stomach aches, rashes and fungus, and lack of nutrients. I wish I could speak Creole. Becca was doing some counseling with some of the workers at the school. One of them said, "Our government doesn't support us the way yours does. What can we do to sustain ourselves withour our government?" With as much as we complain about our government, at least we don't feel that way. Tomorrow I'm going to an orphanage with 100 kids to do a caregiver's school to the employees.

Rousier

I'm not sure what time I woke up this morning. The sun wasn't up yet but the roosters sure were as well as all the other birds and dogs. I think it may have been around 4:30. I'll try to get the sounds on my camera. We went to church at the building at Petion Ville like we always do. There are 3 wards that meet there and they are full! There was barely enough room in all the meetings and classes. I love seeing so many faithful saints. I can't understand anything they are saying but you can definitely feel their love. Rousier is a new member of 3 months and he is amazing. He speaks English pretty well. He said when he was younger he got lost from his parents (I'm not sure if that means he actually was lost or if he was abandoned) and some US military found him and took him to the base. So he was raised around a lot of English speakers. He's 26 now and he said he had been praying for a while to find a church. One afternoon he woke up from a nap and felt like God was telling him to go outside. So he did and there were 2 missionaries. He was baptized 3 weeks later.