{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday Ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

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My Hair.

I took my braids out almost two weeks ago and I miss them more then I thought I would. It's just hair! Fake hair at that. But they were so easy and so lovely. It didn't matter what I did to them because they always looked good - save for the time Erik told me I resembled John Travolta in Battlefield Earth.

I can honestly say that more hair came out than I expected. More of my own hair, that is. Everyone says that always happens, but I was expecting a lot of hair to come out. Some of my braids were made up of 99% synthetic hair and 1% real hair. And in those instances I lost 99% of the 1% I had to lose. Some braids were actually formed around 3 strands of hair!! I don't know how they did it, but I loved it!

Before

I took them out because a. I've started my practicum in the hospital and b. it looked like I had dandruff or something because my hair was falling out of my scalp, but the braids were holding it in place, and you know the little part that inserts into our head?? That looked like dandruff from afar - especially when there were hundreds of them.

After

It took me three days to take them all out and I worked pretty consistently on those days. Erik got his hands in there for me too. You can imagine how amazing it felt to finally run my hands through my hair again! My head feels so light and I feel bald... And my hair is flat again... and it gets greasy so fast! I guess I'll just have to go to Africa again.

Mole National Park

I don't know if I actually ever wrote about our trip to Mole National Park. One weekend in February, we decided to go on a safari because you need to go on a safari if you're in Africa. We were all eagerly anticipating seeing elephants as we climbed on the little trou trou we rented to make our way to Mole.

The road was bumpy and dusty so we needed to cover our noses and mouths... not that it helped much. We must have looked hilarious to all the Ghanaians we were waving at out the window. Strange Obruni's (white people).

Mole was beautiful! It was so nice to get out of the city too... and to have a weekend of nothing but sitting outside, eating, swimming and reading. It was a much needed get-away for us.

These cute little guys were all over the place! They were so playful with each other -- at least the little ones were. The mama's usually just tolerated their young'ns, but they would sometimes play and push the babe's around. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them... which is good because our actual safari was a little disappointing.

Our instructor had been telling us that every year they came they saw elephants within minutes of arriving. We thought it was a sure thing, but we were sorely mistaken. We ended up seeing wart hogs, kob (antelope type creatures), and some baboons far off in the distance. And that was all. No elephants. No animals really as the kobs were so far away we needed binoculars to see them... and there were only a couple of 'em.

It was lovely to walk anyway and to see the beautiful landscape. Africa is breath-taking. Learning about the trees and the animals that are usually present was very interesting. I can't remember most of it, but you can determine how far away from water you are based on the animals you encounter -- that's how hunters and travellers would find water sources... they would follow the animals. Kobs, for example, stay within 5 miles of water.

Mole also had some exquisite flowers. They were on bushes and I don't know what they are called, but one of you might. I especially loved the little pink one below. I saw it everywhere and it always made me smile.

And, of course, the African sky never ceased to amaze me.

So, instead of seeing animals, we really just went on a nice long walk in Africa. The trip was worth it though even if only to swim in the pool. It was the dirtiest pool I have ever seen, but it was still amazing. I don't know if I have ever enjoyed swimming more.

and exhale

I wrote the last exam of my undergrad today. Boy it felt good walking out of those gym doors. I feel as though I can finally exhale.

Only 14 shifts at the hospital and my CRNE stand between me and my career. Scary!

We're Moving (still renting and still kelowna)

We're moving!! To a teeny tiny itty bitty house just down the road. It's about 150 meters away from where we live now and it's a bit more expensive than what we are currently paying, but it's above ground! And it is self-contained! And it is above ground!

I'm a little bit nervous about the increase in rent, but it's the perfect location for us (we can both walk to work) and Erik really hates living in dingy basements. The house is about the size of our current basement suite, but the lay-out is much more conducive to having friends over. It has a little basement with tons of storage and a room that I can use for all my crafting and as a "guestroom" when family comes over. The upstairs is a kitchen and a living room that are the size of our current living room, but they are open to each other and the kitchen has windows!!!! It's going to be wonderful! It also has two tiny bedrooms and a mini yard, and we are so excited!!

our little house

Moving right after exams and during my practicum is probably not the best idea, but we had to take it. We hadn't even thought about moving until Sunday when friends of ours told us about the place. We checked the place out on Monday and then on Tuesday we called our landlords to make sure they were fine with it and they were. So we gave our notice and started the paperwork for our new lease and we are moving May 1.

Rains Down in Africa

I love thunderstorms. I love love love them!!! Especially when it is warm enough for you to play in them. In Africa it is always warm enough.

On our first real day in Enchi there was a huge rainstorm. We were walking around town when we saw some foreboding clouds rolling on in so we decided to turn around and head home. It was a good thing we did too because it started pouring!!! It was awesome! Each person we passed tried to convince us to come under their shelter, but we graciously declined. We must of looked nuts because we were giddy with delight over the rain. We were dancing and laughing.

The dirt roads soon turned into a muddy mess so we slipped our way down the hill on our way home.  I have never seen a rain storm like that... it was wild!!

The rain drops were enormous! And it was so wonderful to finally be cool-ish after four weeks of constant sweating. We laughed the whole way home!

We decided to go puddle jumping and we even managed to convince some kids to come along with us.  All the Ghanaians were huddled beneath their shelters laughing hysterically at us. We must have looked absolutely ridiculous to them, but the kids seemed to love it.

Rivers of orange/red ran through town. It was beautiful! Did I mention that it was warm and that we had so much fun??

We had our first day at the clinic the next day and everybody had heard about us puddle jumping with the kids even though no one had met us yet. News travels fast in a small town like Enchi... and we were the only four white people in town so it was pretty obvious it was us.

More of Africa will slowly come. Final school exam on Tuesday!! Then all I have is marking for the statistics course I'm a T.A. for and finishing off practicum. I'm so close!! Oh. And my Canadian RN Exam in June... but that isn't till June.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday Ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Wishing you a studious weekend (at least that's what I'm wishing myself)!

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My very last first day of free labour.

Tomorrow marks the first day of my last practicum as a nursing student. There are only 16 more shifts in which I can use the excuse that I am "just a student". After that I'm the real thing... granted I pass my CRNE in June.

I'm not going to lie, I am terrified. A little sick, even. This final practicum terrifies me, let alone being a bonafide RN. I best learn as much as I can. After all, this is it.

***

In other news, I handed in my last paper today and I have my last exam at UBC-O on Tuesday. I just started studying yesterday. Bad move. It encompasses all four years and I must admit that I am stressed out about it. Especially because I have a full set of shifts at the hospital to get through and not much time to study. I wish it was pass/fail. I could destroy my GPA in my last exam of the year.

I hope you're not squeamish...

I have decided to share my skin infection with all of you. Don't worry it's not contagious (woah, took me a minute to decide whether to use "it's not" or "it isn't" there). I am aware that many of you will find this disgusting as even the girls with me in Africa were grossed out, but I wanted to share it anyway because I think it is interesting. And I love strange stuff like this. 

Day 1

I came home from clinical in Enchi and asked Kelsey what was on my neck. It was a little bit itchy and a little bit painful. I thought it was scratched, but I couldn't see. K said it was red and there were some small white dots. I went to bed hoping it would just go away...

Day 2

 Well it didn't go away. It got worse. Day 2 brought more raised, white, painful, pustules. And it felt a little bit more raw. I tried not to worry about it, but i must admit I was the slightest bit concerned. After all, I was in Africa and you never really know what you're going to get.

Day 3

On day three it felt like a raw, painful, sunburnish, sore. I felt the urge to scratch, but scratching it was painful. Touching it was painful. I decided to go see the medical assistant (smartest man in the clinic). He looked at it and said it was an infection of some sort (thanks!) and gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal cream. Three times a day. The girls didn't like looking at my infection (let alone touching it) so I had to apply the cream myself. It's pretty difficult when you can't see what you're doing and you really don't want to miss anything.

Day 4

Raw and painful. It stung a lot actually. It felt soothing to have my "cool" hands on it. I wet my sweat rag and tied it around my neck for a while. I really wanted to pop those pustules this day, but I resisted the urge. Everybody knows it is better not to pop things. I wore my hair in a low bun because I was embarrassed of my gross neck.

Day 5

I think it may have started improving on day 5 (day three of my topical combo). It was no longer as painful and didn't appear to be getting worse anymore.

shoulder sore before it opened.

Oh! I haven't talked about this yet. I also had infection rearing it's ugly face on my shoulder and on a small spot on my back. The infection looked completely different at each of the three locations. My shoulder had what appeared to be an open sore (no pustules or raised bumps of any kind). And the spot on my back appeared to have deflated blisters. I thought this was strange, but the medical assistant didn't seem to be bothered.

Day 6

This picture looks disgusting because the cream was still partially on my neck... and in my hair. My infection appeared to have begun climbing up into my scalp. I pretty much washed my hair with the anti-everything cream and hoped it didn't all fall out. You can see that more pustule-y things have developed at the bottom of my neck. They ended up conglomerating into one large raised crusty bit.

Day 7

Got my hair braided today! And the poor ladies go to look at this. It's starting to look better though and it is now crusting over, big time!

Day 8

 And it began peeling off on day 8. Bye bye infection!!

Day 12

Day 12. Gone??? Lizard skin. My skin was dry and reptile-esque, but not flaky. It felt like it needed to peel, but it wouldn't.

Day 18

Definitely moving up into my hair. I forgot about it for a couple days and it got a little out of hand. I was so thankful for my braids because they allowed me to put my cream all throughout my scalp. Itchy, itchy, itchy! Not lice though (praise the Lord!). The thought did cross my mind. I remember praying that the infection didn't migrate to my face. Could you imagine??? Those ugly, painful, zitty, pustules all over my face??? No thanks.

Day 19

This is my hair with cream throughout it. You can see my skin finally did peel, but it left the same kind of leathery, reptile skin underneath. I hope it isn't a large ugly scar. My shoulder and the spot on my back look the same.

So now on day 30 something I still have leathery, reptile skin that makes it look like I have a huge scar across my neck and I sometimes think I feel infection bumps in my hair, but I am hoping it's just psychological. Praying my infection is gone for good and that I will soon turn back into a human.

Oh Mother

My mother called Erik on March 2 to wish him a happy birthday. 

She does this every year even though I gently remind her that his birthday is actually on April 2.

This should be easy to remember as it's the day before her anniversary. 

Every year she promises to change it in her calender. 

When I call my mom for her anniversary I tease her for missing Erik's birthday.

And every year she bashfully remembers that she forgot to change her calender.

I hope it never changes.

4 down, 149 to go

I have sadly started the process of unbraiding my hair. It is going to take forever so I am starting in the middle. That way I can put my hair up in a pony-tail and no one will know. I'd keep the braids forever if I could. I have loved having them! I love that they are dark. I love that they are thick. I love that they are so easy to take care of. And let's be honest, I kind of look bad ass.

4 down.

Only 149 to go.

back to being all about babies.

this picture of little miss from earlier this week reminded me of another time I had a little baby fall asleep by me. 

March 2011

only this time, unlike last time, my shawl is completed. it's eight months later. and it's a different baby. either way, both make me so happy.  

August 2010