Friday, July 13, 2012

Update

Hello everyone. I know it has been a long time since I last updated. That was due to several reasons: 1) I was feeling lots of anger (more on that later), 2) I was busy at work, 3) It was hot.

Ok, those might not seem like the best reasons to not update my blog, but I really did not think you all wanted to hear all the reasons I was angry or hear me complaining (yet again) how hot it is.

Now why was Emma angry, you might wonder. Well, a lot of my angry/general unhappiness there for a awhile was coming from Richard being gone. For those of you who do not know, Richard, my boyfriend, was deployed to Guinea-Bissau two months ago as part of a West African peacekeeping force after the coup at the end of April. Although we had a few weeks preparation, consisting of ups and downs, wondering if he was going or not, eventually he was deployed and it was much harder to deal with than I thought. I was used to him not being in Kaya, but it was quite difficult to get used to not talking to him every day and even going a week (or more) without hearing from him. Losing my biggest support network while in this country was not easy. However, it has gotten easier and we are figuring out this long distance relationship thing. We both knew that we would be doing long distance at some point, it just came way earlier than we both expected. We are just trying to make the most of it. J

Work is still going well. I am still working at two health clinics in Kaya as a child nutrition specialist with Save the Children. I am enjoying my work, but definitely getting ready to move onto the next thing (and find some co-workers not only motivated by money).

Camp G2LOW 2012 is just around the corner (two weeks) so the last minute preparations are taking up a lot of my free time. Thank you again to everyone who supported us through this process. Please join our Facebook page (Camp G2LOW Burkina Faso: http://www.facebook.com/groups/camp.g2low.burkina/) to see pictures and get updates from this year’s camps. 

Other than that, I cannot think of many updates in my life.  I currently have less than 3 months left in country. My mom is looking at tickets, but it looks like I will be landing in America September 27.  Annnddd coming home party is October 6th at my parents’ house in Huntsville, AL- mark your calendars!

Diana and I at her Close-of-Ceremony party

Richard and I, before he left

Myself and fellow third years

Lorena and I

Trent and I during our "Exploration of Kaya."  You can barely see Kaya off in the distance.