Happy Holidays!!!

Jesus.  Light of the World.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Blessings to you and yours.
Love, Amy

Countin’ Down.

Four days until Christmas!

That’s all.

The end.

The latest

I keep thinking it hasn’t been too long since I’ve posted and then I look back at the date of my last post and realize…holy cow.  it’s been a while.

I’ve got lots of ‘things’ going on in my head but for one reason or another I’ve lost the urge to write about them.  I keep thinking of things to post and well, frankly I just don’t get around to it.  I asked for blog ideas and ironically enough the three ideas I got were things I unfortunately don’t really know enough to write about them.  So, if you submitted ideas, I greatly appreciate them and think they were great ideas.  I’ll just have to learn more about them (some of which will just take a while to get enough experience and understanding to write anything interesting)…but keep the ideas coming. I  love ideas!

On a less interesting note (although I’ve been told by a friend who is a former nurse that she likes the medical posts!) here is where my eye is at.  And my diabetes.

My vision has improved to 20/50 as of last Tuesday. The eye continues to bleed just a little so the Doctor is still watching for that to clear up.  I am still refraining from bending to the point where my head is below my heart and I am still sleeping on lots of pillows to keep my head elevated at night.  My next appointment is January 4 and at that point I should find out what the future is like as far as timing to get back to Haiti.  But still, only time will tell.

My diabetes is doing great.  The Doctor ordered lots of tests on me.  Including vitamin deficiencies and thyroid.  I am now on thyroid medication (he said mine was extremely low), Vitamin B and Vitamin D; everyday.  My A1C has continued to improve and at the appointment last week it was down to 7.2.  I am on a new insulin program and it should make my diabetes completely manageable once back in Haiti.

If you’ve read this far down into this post, thanks for sticking with it.  I hope to have some posts which have more mass appeal (I use that phrase with a grain of salt, as they say.) in the near future.

8 days til Christmas!

How We Roll

Just looking through some of my pictures from Haiti and came across a couple that are kind of fun.  The quality isn’t superb but they tell a great story. 

Need to move a table? 

 

Just strap it on the back of a motorcycle or two.

I Wanna Know What You Wanna Know.

I'd love some ideas.

Its much easier to keep my blog interesting when I am in Haiti and things are going on, but sitting at the house waiting for my eye to heal doesn't make for stimulating content. 

So, would you give me some ideas? 

Are there things that you'd like to know about life in Haiti, about post earthquake Haiti, personal complexities of living in a foreign country?

I love to write, but sometimes just need a little idea stimulation.  Can ya help? 

Pics from the Road

Here a few pics from the last couple months. The first two came from Leogane.  I was there in July with a Homes for Haiti team.  David Uttley (UH MAY ZING photographer) and I walked around the area of Leogane, ate kènèps with some of the kids, stopped and talked with some of the residents in the area, and snapped a few photos.

     

These last two came from Grand Goave,where we also had a Homes for Haiti team putting up a house.  I tried walking around the area on my own but got frustrated with the number of times I was stopped and asked why I/we couldn’t build them (them being whoever it was I was talking to) a house. So I just stuck around the yard, talked to the family and neighbors, and snapped a few photos. 

 

Missing Persons Report for Amy Long: She’s Been Found.

Like so many of my recent posts, I’m once again apologizing for my absence.  I just spent a month in the states and while, yes, I had to time to reflect and blog, to be honest, I was on vacation, and really, I just didn’t feel like it.  Its my prerogative, or so they tell me. 

I’m home now.   I arrived in Haiti on Wednesday.  I was in Port au Prince by 11am and at my house just after 4:30pm.  I was greeted by what my neighbor referred to as a very lonely dog.  The dog’s been staying at the house, being cared for by neighbors, friends, and staff.  But apparently he was lonely.   I can imagine. Simply being fed is different than being loved.  I can’t really say that I LOVE the dog and couldn’t imagine my life if something happened to him.  He’s not really my dog.  He actually belongs to Susanne, one of my roommates, who has been in Germany since May (she’ll return in January) on furlough.  Beth, my other roommate, and I decided that we’d care for him while she was gone rather than try and find a new home for him, or last resort, put him to sleep.  While I’m not a dog ‘lover’, Bubba’s a good dog and its nice to have the idea of some kind of protection while I’m here alone (Beth’s still in the states until Thursday).  I will admit though, that Bubba’s looking a little rough.  I was going to try and give him a bath before i left on July 30 and I just didn’t have time.  I imagine that one of my weekend activities will be washing the dog.  I’ve never actually bathed a dog before, so that should be interesting. 

Life’s going to be very busy over the next three months.  The way the schedule looks now, we’ve got three teams every month until December.  I was supposed to be out with the team who arrived yesterday.  But late Wednesday night I was overwhelmed with the fact that it was just too complicated for me to go.  The week night person we had taking care of Bubba told me Thursday that she wouldn’t be around next week so she wouldn’t be able to feed and care for Bubba.  Since I was leaving early Friday morning, I really didn’t have time to make all kind of arrangements for the dog.  And I couldn’t leave him here alone.  Perhaps it sounds trite, and normally wouldn’t even be an issue because Beth and/or Susanne would be here, but just so happened this week, I’m solo.  Being here will actually give me a chance to get caught up some photo editing and posting that is back logged, due the flurry of activity this past summer.  I’ll also be able to start getting my head around some new things I’m going to be working on.   So, while I’m not with the team, this coming week will still most certainly be busy.

I am taking a motorcycle taxi to town with Becky in the morning- just for some girl time, ie": shopping!  Even if we don’t buy anything, there’s an abundance of things to browse.  I suppose after I come home, I may be washing the dog.

Anyone heard if it’s supposed to rain?  I wonder if I could just put some soap on him and leave him outside…?

Tiburon July 2010