The Inspiration

What kind of mind, after a long day’s work, needs to unwind late at night by processing one’s week in story form? My mind, that’s what kind. I’m not sure if it’s just the late night hour in general, the bedtime routine or what, but that’s often when I feel most inspired to sit down and write. I've found out though that midnight comes very quickly when you’re not watching.

So here are some photos and last night's midnight notes.

Our visitors and friends did some awesome work this week.

Barb and Mary pretty much finished painting the interior of our house with the base coats. It looks wonderful! They cooked up a storm too each evening, so we all ate like kings.

Ron, giving Gabriel (far right) a few extra tips on using the chain saw. Ron and Tom (center) worked on more of my kitchen cupboards which means that when we move into the house, I'll actually get to store stuff in cupboards instead of in boxes!

For pretty much this entire week, I’ve been pre-packing. A few years back I wrote about what I called the stages of departure, and I think of that now as I prepare for this trip. When you go on a trip, there is always much more to organize than just clothes in a suitcase (although that can be a bun fight on its own). This past week has been spent doing just that: pre-packing organization. I sorted through my medicine cupboard so it doesn’t look so much like Fibber McGee’s closet (my mom’s saying). I labeled the boxes so it’s easier to find the treatment boxes for general skin, tummy, breathing or infection troubles, and I pre-packed medication baggies for those on specific treatments.


Another important task was to organize the correspondence from students to sponsors.


 Getting these letters from the school kids is quite the process. First, you have to help the kids think of what to write. Like most kids, their minds go blank when you hand them a pen and paper and ask them to write their thoughts down. So they need help with a few ideas (mostly just to remember what they were thinking before they were handed the intimidating white paper). When the kids are done, they sign their names. Most of them have what I’ll call “alternate name spellings” though, so we have to make sure they’re using the name they’re registered under to avoid name-chaos. Once the writing and labeling is done, the letters are ready to be deciphered and translated into English. Phew, what a job! I love these letters though, each and every one. I love that these kids can now read and write, even if they struggle with the odd misspelling.

I’ve also been gearing up for the team of nursing students who will be here again for their practicum in June. I won’t be here to pull things together myself, so right now there’s lots of emailing, phoning, schedule jostling and event planning going on.

I’ve also been getting our socorristas to adopt a few new things into their routine while I’m gone to make sure things run a bit more smoothly. There are sick people who need to be seen and health classes that need to be taught. The guinea fowl project needs to be followed up on too. The last of the birds will be sent to their new homes as soon as the pens are ready.

So finally I'm in one of the later stages of packing because today, I’m actually packing my suitcase.

Dwight is still in pre-packing stage though—working on presentations, organizing finances and doing 101 other things he has to do to wrap things up. He may well be up until midnight too tonight, but I doubt it’ll be due to any inspiration to write :|

Next post will come from Brazil. I'll kiss the ground for all you homesick Brazilians/quasi-Brazilians (like myself)!

Gotta run. ttyl