Go away cough! Come back voice!

Hello Everyone!

I am very lucky that I am writing my blog and not doing a voice post because my voice is completely gone! I have been battling a sickness all week and last night it got the best of me and my voice disappeared.

Last weekend on Sunday I went over to my friend Tabathas and we made bread and pasta! I had a lot of fun just hanging out and cooking. It ended up being about six of us just hanging out and cooking. I am now famous for my cheesy bread. :)

Monday I woke up and felt so sick I just couldn't go into work, I had a fever and slept for the majority of the day. When I wasn't sleeping I watched friday night lights and from prada to nada. I always love friday night lights even though I've seen it a million times before.

Tuesday I got up and made it to work even though I still felt sick. I am teaching my students this week how to search for something on google and then copy and paste it into a word document. I came up with a whole bunch of random questions to ask them like: "Why is the sky blue, what is a dictaor". They had to find answer that they could understand and then copy and paste them onto the word document. After a while they all got the hang of it and I really had nothing to do. They were entertained with the fact that there are actually other thinsg to do on the internet other than look on facebook. After they finished and had free time they realized they could google anything they wanted, well anything appropriate. Most of them ended up looking at pictures of shoes for their free time. None of them really try and look at anything inappropriate anymore because I warned them if they did they would be off the computer for the year. One kid didn't believe me and went and did what he wanted. He still hasn't been let back online unless for assignments and I think everyone else is scared! Ha good, They should be!

The rest of the week was mostly me going to work and then coming home to sleep, I always fought to have the energy to make it through the day but really all I needed was sleep sleep and more sleep. I was very thankful for Audrey who helped me out on my night to cook and went out to buy sandwhich stuff so I didn't have to cook.

At work yesterday we continued to have a crazy day as always on fridays. When I got there in the morning my boss sent me downstair to see the doctor quick because he needed me better by monday. I tried to say I was fine but ended up having to go down anyway. I knew that because I had been coughing I was going to have to go through a set of TB tests since I'm exposed to TB on a daily basis at the hospital. Luckily my chest x-ray came out clear and the doctor said I simply have a lower respitory infection and no TB. Yay! :)

Today I went and met one of my old students from last year and went for a walk with her. It is so great to see them and see how much they have grown. Many of them have different jobs and I am glad that they are moving forward. Its always comforting talking with someone you are so familiar with. They are always asking if the new students are giving me a hard time and treating me well. I kind of laugh to myself and think: "Ohhh you're so concerned now that its not you who's acting up" :)... Yet I still appreciate their kindness.

All week i've had some song lyrics running through my head which talk about lying to yourself. Now I've been thinking about writing about it in my blog and all of a sudden the lyrics slip out of my head. Sigh, typical Ashley. But the point of the song is someone who gets so caught up in lies that they end up lying to themselves just to make themselves feel better. I sometimes feel like in Mission working with people I have to see where I am lying to myself and where I need to be improving. In order to really help people I always have to be taking care and make sure I am improving myself. Isn't it interesting how there are so many things around us that can help remind us to become a better person.

Two different patients on friday really helped me to keep going at my work here. One was telling me about how the social workers here help him to keep moving on because we are the only ones who fully support him despite everything else. And then he started to say that it doesn't seem fake either and how we genuinely care. I stopped for a moment and thought to myself, well I do care, it doesn't matter to me if you are HIV+ or not, you're still a person, you still need love. The second individual was telling me how he was worried that someone was juding him, and then he goes: "But someone like you with a face like that couldn't judge me". It made me laugh a little bit but was also seriously encouraging. My work is not glamorous or easy but it needs to be done.

I haven't been up to the orphanage in the longest while because i've been so busy at the hospital and at school and I do miss those boys. I don't want to go up there while I am sick because even if one boy gets sick then all of them will get sick.

Anyway, Sorry this blog is lame this week but really nothing exciting has gone on in the life of Ashley - Pray that I get better soon! You have my prayers!

Love,

Ashley Ann