No Snow Here!!!

Ola Pedro,

I watched my all time favorite movie last night 27 dresses... hence the greeting! I hear some of you got snow recently... Don't worry - I'm in the 90 degree heat and LOVING it!

I feel like just yesterday I was blogging for last week. I sometimes feel like everything goes by so quickly I can't even keep track of things. It is now halfway through April which means in just a little more than a month my family is coming. I like having things to look forward to but it also makes time go by so fast! I can't believe they will be here so quickly!

Work this week was stressful as next week is the end of the term. At school I spent most of my time assessing the students on their progress throughout the year. Assessing them on this was one of the most rewarding things I have done so far. I could actually see progress on their computer skills. Its rewarding to know that the work I put in with them actually is having some fruits! One of the students who had no idea how to even turn on a computer showed me he could successfully use microsoft word and powerpoint.

Work at the hospital was busy but and stressful. There is a couple of young patients who are not doing so well in the hospital. It is always really difficult to see young children suffer from HIV. Its difficult to know that they are dying from HIV and at no fault of their own. (Not saying people who get HIV are at fault!) It takes a lot of energy to mentally understand any good that could come out of a situation like this.

My student who has been in the hospital is slowly making progress but is still in need of much medical attention. Right now she is still waiting on blood but there is a huge blood shortage right now. They don't know how soon she will be able to get the blood but I will let you know the progress.

This week more than once I have been "stuck between a rock and a hard place" with little idea of how to get myself out. Being in these situations always makes a person more angry and vulnerable to the world around them. This is definitely true of myself, when I am in a difficult situation it is really easy to get defensive and look towards others. I took a long time this week to examine the mistakes I had made to bring myself into the situations that I encountered. This is a very difficult thing to do because it can go one of two ways. The first was is that I would blame everything on the other person and say that I had no fault. (Pride) The second way is that I would blame everything on myself and feel bad and think "Woe is me". (Scrupulosity) Neither of these options lead to a very healthy outcome. I began the week thinking like the second one, in the middle of the week was thinking like the first one, and finally by the end of the week I started to realize that may I need to think a little more along the middle lines. I have made many mistakes since being here, and I have many more to make but everyone around me also makes mistakes.

This was all made really clear to me when I went to a church yesterday and saw one of my own students. He gave me a really big hug and told me he was very happy to see me. He is an aspiring pastor and as we got to talking he said to me: "Well on Sunday we ask for forgiveness because we are all sinners, no matter how much we try we all sin". Such a simple message but so easy to forget sometimes. We are all at fault and we all sin against one another. Why is it that we always want to see ourselves as so perfect when we are flawed. Yes we should strive for perfection, strive for holiness but until we realize within our minds we will fall we will be battling pride and scrupulosity within our minds.

I am so blessed and happy to have so many students and other individuals in my life who help to show me light every day.

Well I hope you have a really good week - "If you can't feed a hundred people... then just feed one..." Mother Teresa!

Love,

Ashley Ann