TURNING 40 and other stories of a cool cat!
Ok so I need a bit of work on the title of my post. So what have I been up to? Well quite a bit actually. I flew to Nepal on the 7th March and got back on the 19th. Before I left, I had to do a big report for the District Secretary and that was fun…..not! But she liked it and that was good. Then I got a break in Nepal. Tony (my brother…long story if you haven’t heard it) Kirupa and Shiloni took Rachel and Nigel and I to the airport. There were a lot of mishaps at the beginning; I forgot to get a passport photo for the Nepal Visa…Nigel forgot to put shoes on and then on the way to the airport we had a passport check- Rachel asked if we all had our passports, we all did when we got to the airport and the van drove away….I looked for my passport and money…it was not there…Rachel had to call shiloni and the van had to come back. I was so embarrassed. When I got my passport purse out for the passport check, I just set it in my lap. When I got up it fell onto the floor. I was so embarrassed. I took my passport from Shiloni and never looked at anyone in the van because I knew they would laugh…I laughed. Anyway Nepal was great and I had a lot of fun. I went PARAGLIDING IN THE HIMALAYAS!!!! How flipping cool is that. Oh yes…paragliding was a bit out of my budget (but about 1/3 of the price of doing it in the US and 1000x better view) so Nigel was making it his 40th birthday present so I too decided to celebrate my 40th in style. YEA!!! I celebrated my 40th birthday in Nepal. It was a great time in Nepal, even if Team Sri Lanka did find it quite cold.
I am so so so itchy!!!!!! I want to itch off my whole body. So I have this really bad itchy rash all over. I went to the dermatologist on Monday (March 26th) and am now on pills and creams and soaps. It is working, but slowly. My face is now cleared up though which is nice. On the Monday I went to the Dr. the inner corner of my eye and eyelid and bridge of nose were all swollen (lots of little bumpies) and itchy and all over my face was bumps…I know it may be a bit vain but I found the look of my face as bad or worse than the itch. It doesn’t help that March and April are the hottest days of the year so it’s been around 40 C and 93% humidity. Anyway, thank you to all that support MCC b/c you not only help with the projects but you also help send service workers like me to the doctor. Yeah for People that help me not itch.
So next week is Sinhala/Tamil New Year. The whole week is pretty much a non-work week. Villages have all these parties and games and sweets. I think I may go up to Madampe and visit some of my villages. Also YFC-English Ministry has a youth camp at the camp ground where I live so I might do some things with that as well. If all other plans fail, I can go to Kandy for a Tamil Methodist camp. (This is a really funny concept since I only know how to say older and younger brother, what, running, you’re crazy, and go away in Tamil. But it was nice of my friend to invite me anyway.)
For those of you that haven’t heard I did get my next 6 month visa extension. Yea!!! God provides!!!! Oh speaking of… All my new farmers now have cows!!!!! I am so excited. They are really working hard. One person thought the progress was too slow and that further new farmers wouldn’t be successful. There are some times I shut my mouth due to cultural taboos about the roll of women. This was not one of them. He is now knows that just because results are slow doesn’t mean the project has failed, also next time he will talk to the new farmers and see that they have much more dignity and self-respect and this sentence is a run-on. Oh and speaking about keeping my mouth shut around male chauvinist boars. On Friday the 23rd we met with a donor to try and get more money. After all was done and we were having a nice lunch (if you want to hear a less than funny story ask me about the lunch and Tony’s experience with turkey pie) and talking about ourselves, it came out that the donor had very controversial views on women’s rolls and divorce. Not wanting to start a big debate I kept my mouth shut. Priya however opened the door. Thus his overly conservative views were shared. I mostly politely nodded while twisting my napkin in my hand and trying not to grimace. I did however ask one question and that was what he thought of my roll since I am put in charge of teaching men. He didn’t like it which I knew he would say, but then came the statement that, “[my] term would be more productive if I were married.” The reason being something about security. I slipped a little and let out a bit of my inner-conflict in a short mangled laugh. Then I very begrudgingly told him, “he was entitled to his opinion.” Thinking to myself, “even if it is wrong!” Just a side note…he was doing God’s work and collecting money for projects all over the world. However he was staying at a 5 star hotel and taking us out for Rs 1500/per person meals…hmmm.
Anyway, things with me are good. Things in the country however are not. Please keep Sri Lanka in your prayers. An air force base- the one right next to the only international airport was bombed the other day. It was bombed by planes, an obvious indicator that the LTTE now has planes… There is a feeling of detachment and hopelessness among people. Please pray for the country, its leaders, and people.
Well, I have to go now.
Peace
jodi
I am so so so itchy!!!!!! I want to itch off my whole body. So I have this really bad itchy rash all over. I went to the dermatologist on Monday (March 26th) and am now on pills and creams and soaps. It is working, but slowly. My face is now cleared up though which is nice. On the Monday I went to the Dr. the inner corner of my eye and eyelid and bridge of nose were all swollen (lots of little bumpies) and itchy and all over my face was bumps…I know it may be a bit vain but I found the look of my face as bad or worse than the itch. It doesn’t help that March and April are the hottest days of the year so it’s been around 40 C and 93% humidity. Anyway, thank you to all that support MCC b/c you not only help with the projects but you also help send service workers like me to the doctor. Yeah for People that help me not itch.
So next week is Sinhala/Tamil New Year. The whole week is pretty much a non-work week. Villages have all these parties and games and sweets. I think I may go up to Madampe and visit some of my villages. Also YFC-English Ministry has a youth camp at the camp ground where I live so I might do some things with that as well. If all other plans fail, I can go to Kandy for a Tamil Methodist camp. (This is a really funny concept since I only know how to say older and younger brother, what, running, you’re crazy, and go away in Tamil. But it was nice of my friend to invite me anyway.)
For those of you that haven’t heard I did get my next 6 month visa extension. Yea!!! God provides!!!! Oh speaking of… All my new farmers now have cows!!!!! I am so excited. They are really working hard. One person thought the progress was too slow and that further new farmers wouldn’t be successful. There are some times I shut my mouth due to cultural taboos about the roll of women. This was not one of them. He is now knows that just because results are slow doesn’t mean the project has failed, also next time he will talk to the new farmers and see that they have much more dignity and self-respect and this sentence is a run-on. Oh and speaking about keeping my mouth shut around male chauvinist boars. On Friday the 23rd we met with a donor to try and get more money. After all was done and we were having a nice lunch (if you want to hear a less than funny story ask me about the lunch and Tony’s experience with turkey pie) and talking about ourselves, it came out that the donor had very controversial views on women’s rolls and divorce. Not wanting to start a big debate I kept my mouth shut. Priya however opened the door. Thus his overly conservative views were shared. I mostly politely nodded while twisting my napkin in my hand and trying not to grimace. I did however ask one question and that was what he thought of my roll since I am put in charge of teaching men. He didn’t like it which I knew he would say, but then came the statement that, “[my] term would be more productive if I were married.” The reason being something about security. I slipped a little and let out a bit of my inner-conflict in a short mangled laugh. Then I very begrudgingly told him, “he was entitled to his opinion.” Thinking to myself, “even if it is wrong!” Just a side note…he was doing God’s work and collecting money for projects all over the world. However he was staying at a 5 star hotel and taking us out for Rs 1500/per person meals…hmmm.
Anyway, things with me are good. Things in the country however are not. Please keep Sri Lanka in your prayers. An air force base- the one right next to the only international airport was bombed the other day. It was bombed by planes, an obvious indicator that the LTTE now has planes… There is a feeling of detachment and hopelessness among people. Please pray for the country, its leaders, and people.
Well, I have to go now.
Peace
jodi
posted by Jodi Crossgrove at
1:11 AM
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