HOME LEAVE

August 7, 2009
I am at home in America, and just got my GRE official score notice. I did rubbish on the writing section, so I will not even try to write a nice monthly report. I will use bullets as it appears my style of writing isn’t very good. Since July 3rd…Well, I have
Paul and I sat and visited with a man at some NGO (Grameen Shakthi??) for 1.5 hours, only to realize after we left that we were in the right building, floor and office, at the right time, but we met with the wrong person. We got great information, but the poor man we were scheduled to meet with was confused when Paul called to thank him for meeting with us and he was confused since we had never arrived.

• Left Bangladesh for 2 months of home leave. (I left on July 9th)
• Went to Sri Lanka
• Ate lunch packets and as much SL food as I could
• Made pol sambol
• Went to the beach and swam by a sea turtle!!
• Hung out with friends!!
• ULTIMATE FRISBEE!!!
• Visited my farmers!!! I love them!!!
• Visited my office. Presented a short powerpoint.
• Went around with the girl that is replacing me. She is great. A Buddhist convert getting her masters and a very determined girl willing to work for what YGro pays!!! I finally feel some closure about my leaving!!!
• Hung out with D&P and their 2 boys!
• Settlers with Shiloni and Dorothy
• Saw Achchi (grandma, in Sinhala), a.k.a. Shiloni’s grandma.
  

England

With Rachel and Nigel!!!!
Went on walks
Made funny desserts
Ate Christmas pudding
Went on picnics
Went to the Heckington Show (a village fair)
Ate Lincolonshire Red (a breed of beef cow) stakes and Lincolonshire sausages (a special type of sausage from Lincolonshire)
Had a BBQ
Went to Sherrwood Forest (you know, where Robin Hood hung out)
Went to a castle and a minster (small cathedral)
With Abigail
Went to park and chit chatted
Stella and bacon cheese curly fries!!

USA

• Came home!!! Met my friend Heidi, Mom, Dad, Jill, Chuck and Janae at airport. I hadn’t seen Heidi (a friend from school) in 3 years. I had never seen Janae!!!
• Went to the Ohio State Fair with Mom, Jana, Lane and Phoebe.
• Picked top cow at the Futurity- the rest were a bit off, but I got the top one. (It is a big fancy cow show where calves start to be registered at birth and show when they are 3 years.)
• Had a bonfire with friends and family. Saw my friend Amy who I hadn’t seen since high school.
• Went to eye doctor
• Babysat for my 3 month old niece Janae
• Went to Historic Sauder’s Village with Janelle and Chris
• Held and played with all new and old nieces and nephews.
• Hosted Jodi’s Show Cattle Bootcamp Training and Child Daycare Workshop.
• Smoked the tires on my brothers ’71 Chevel (he had the drag racing tires on so it really wasn’t that hard)

Well that is all for now. Will update more later.
Peace
Jodi