First week

PA school makes my head hurt. Literally. I race home for lunch every day, starving for some brain food that I hope will eliminate the ache inside my noggin caused by excessive cramming. I'm happy to say that it actually helps, too. This salad worked a miracle to get me through the second half of Friday:

Later, after spending two hours in lab playing hide-and-seek with some very elusive veins, arteries and nerves, I was all too happy to go out for dinner and drinks with a few classmates. Marietta has the coolest little wine cellar where you can drink your fill of homemade wine and enjoy the musical talents of a live band. [Strangely enough, they also serve the most delicious popcorn with their wine. That was definitely a first....] It felt good to put aside the stress of memorizing every intricate detail about human anatomy to share a few laughs about our awkward experiences in health care. By the end of the night, I was a very happy camper, indeed.

But now Friday night is over and the plan for today is to study, study, study. I haven't even started but I'm already looking forward to the scheduled breaks to play Tarzan on the rope swing at 1:00 and ultimate frisbee at 7:00. Wish me luck!

Archer's Fork

Today was another great day in Marietta. Clay and I drove out to one of the national parks nearby to hike the 9.4 mile Archer's Fork Loop. It was seven hours of beautiful wilderness and good conversation. I will be amazed, however, if I escaped without poison ivy....but oh well! Ice cream is next on the agenda. Maybe it will help to ease the ache of my tired legs :)

lots of really cool rock formations to climb on

Clay is a pro tight-rope-walker so this fallen tree was no big deal

313 6th St.

I'm all settled into my new home in Marietta and I've met a few of the people in my program. It is so beautiful here! Historic homes, brick roads, pretty landscaping...I love it. And today was a blast! Clay, one of the guys in my program, found a rope swing going into the river while he was walking the other day. So three of us went out there and had some fun! The river was absolutely disgusting, but it was worth it....we'll definitely be doing that again.

Anyway, here's a few videos/pictures of my new place!

Belated events

Saying goodbye to my residents...

...was hard. Over the past year, my residents and their families have become an important part of my life. I knew I needed more than a quick goodbye as I walked out the door. So during my final week of work, I visited the homes of family members and spent nearly six hours saying goodbye to my residents at the home. For the first time, I was able to sit and talk with them without interruption. I also received a quick lesson on the steel guitar at Don's house (Don is the man who gave me my guitar). Let me tell you, those things are crazy! There are three pedals for your left foot, a volume pedal for your right foot, four different knee levers, plus picking and muting the strings! Holy cow, I now have a great appreciation for steel guitar players! Here's a short video of him playing the acoustic guitar he gave me:

Leaving Amy...

...was also hard. I'ts going to be an adjustment not living with her after these five years. But she, Alison and Janay made it a little easier by surprising me with a going-away party...on Amy's birthday nonetheless! We painted pottery (Alison is pretty amazing at this btw), went out for dinner and then had skype dates with Anna and Katie. I have the best friends ever!

Now I'm all moved in to my new home in Marietta! It will be weird living so far away from everyone, but I get the impression that I'm going to be too busy studying to worry about it too much, haha. Pictures and videos to come!

Acholi lullaby

I have been feeling very Acholi lately. I wore my custom African dress yesterday and today I figured out the chords to an Acholi lullaby. I don't know the exact translation, but it's about standing, walking, and dancing before Jesus on the day of judgement. This song was pretty much the only spoken language that Heidi and I could share with the children because they didn't understand an ounce of English. I'll always remember singing it with them over and over while we did art projects in the HEALS classroom. I miss them so much.

So here it is! Dress, beads and all (although the guitar is totally blocking the dress)!

An a bi cung, a bi cung inyim la ngol kop pa yesu

An a bi cung, pira kena

Pe tye ngatimo ma twero cung pira

An a bi cung pira kena

An a bi wot, a bi wot inyim la ngol kop pa yesu

An a bi wot, pira kena

Pe tye ngatimo ma twero wot pira

An a bi wot pira kena

An a bi myel, a bi myel inyim la ngol kpo pa yesu

An a bi myel, pira kena

Pe tye ngatimo ma twero myel pira

An a bi myel pira kena

*DISCLAIMER: The girl who wrote this out for me didn't appear very confident in her spelling....so if there's anyone out there who is fluent in Lwo, I could use some help.