Sunshine and a Blue Sky

Hello!

Sometimes I forget that the vast majority of you are living in a place filled with snow and cold. My roommates and I have been talking about cool it has been lately with the rain and how we are dreading the day when the rain stops again. The nice thing about the rain here is that just because it is rainy doesn't mean that you won't see the sun and a blue sky on the same day! It is super sunny with a clear sky right now but I bet in just a few hours it will rain at least a little bit.

This past week was an interesting one. My schedule has changed around quite a bit. I am now working at the hospital on Monday and Wednesday and at Mercy Wings (the school) on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. This is because the teacher that I was filling in for is now back. I am the computer teacher on Tuesday and Thursday but will be teaching my girls from last term craft on Friday mornings. Teaching computers is a very difficult task because some of the students can barely read and that makes thing much more difficult than I imagined. I have been working with a few students on their double clicking skills. I find that I take so many things for granted. Many of my students question what the space bar is... or what it means to double click. Ahh - a reality check for myself.

Working at the hospital is either really slow and during this slow time I enter charts into the computer... or SUPER busy with 10 patients waiting for either counselling or HIV tests. I do a lot of HIV pre-tests. Asking people very personal questions and informing them of the reality of HIV.

Last weekend we brought our friend Anna up to the orphanage with us. It was really funny to see the boys at first be shy of the new person but by the time ten minutes had passed to see them all asking her a million questions and never leaving her side. I think my favorite part about going up to the orphanage is there is two little boys who whenever they see you their faces look like they are seeing Santa or something and run and jump into your arms. I laugh each time. Ah the beauty of small children.

I wanted to go and buy some new work shirts because mine are either too stretched out from the line... or stained from the dirty water. I never realized how much of an adventure this would be. I went back to a market place I had been a couple week prior and everyone of course remembered me. I told them that I wanted shirts but of course out of kind but firm suggestions I also had to try on multiple jeans and tops for going out. In the end I ended up walking away with one pair of jeans and no shirts. The women kept telling me that I was going to have to pay them for making me look so "sweet". They had the goal of making me dress like a Guyanese. In this way I ended up with my first pair of straight legged jeans. I don't think I would have ever wore them in the states... but that is all that people wear here. They have two advantages - 1. You don't get the bottom all dirty - and 2. The mosquitos can't get inside them! I know the Guyanese wear them for style rather than practicality... but I am always the practical one.

Anyway - I hope things are going well for you. Know that I am keeping you in my prayers and I ask for your prayers.

Love,

Ashley Ann

"Love and sacrifice are as intimately tied together as sun and light. One cannot love without suffering and suffer without loving." - St. Gianna