Ahum de Allah!! It rained tonight! Wow. Maybe rainy season has officially begun. I have been told much about the rainy season, but for some reason it has been late this year. That was the first real rain tonight, although it did not last very long. Let me tell you though, the smell of rain in the desert is probably one of the most beautiful scents I have ever smelled.
Well, I have been here awhile and feel like an expert and a newbie all at the same time. The national staff here really are just rockstars. I love THEIR excitement and how excited they are about learning. I feel like we are all learning from each other, and that is a beautiful thing.
We are working on a project doing hygiene promotion in schools. I am so freakin' excited about it! Hygiene Promotion really saves lives. Just from the little training I gave today- did you know that JUST by handwashing with soap- not counting other aspects of hygiene, that can decrease diarrhea morbidity in children under 5 by about 34%? some studies have up to 47%!!! Just by washing your hands! And respiratory diseases by up to 25%. I know it might seem far fetched to Westerners who grow up all our lives being told to wash our hands- (I think some of us do not even know why!) But imagine growing up in the desert or the bush, where you don't have access to soap and you are not told that your entire life. (Fun fact: if you don't have soap, you can use ash- learned that from my WASH guru, Bev Kauffeldt 3 years ago). So, yes. I'm quite excited about this project. In case you couldn't tell.
In other news. This is a really exciting week. Lots happening. If you don't watch the news, hopefully you can turn it on and see something about Sudan, because there's nothing much except for the small fact that the entire world as we know it is about to change. No, I'm actually not exaggerating. It's true. As of Saturday, 9 July, 2011. One country will become 2. South Sudan will separate and well, will become South Sudan. The more I think about it, the more I am still in awe that I can even be here at this time! I get to be in Sudan when 1 becomes 2. That doesn't exactly happen every day. All eyes are on July 9 as no one really knows what will happen. As Sudan has been through and even at this very moment continues to go through so much (if you have no idea about Sudan- please, just look it up somewhere- there's tons of information out there), no ones really knows. South Sudanese will become foreigners as they will have their own country, but what else will happen? Only time will tell. But in the meantime, I sit and think about the vast history and beauty that I am so blessed to see and be apart of right now. The faces and the stories I now know (true, some of them have been hard to digest). Names with stories change everything. I'm convinced of it. When you know someone's story, the story you see on TV, will never be the same.
Here's to the hope that no story will ever be the same,
Patty
"Here's to the hope that no story will ever be the same." BEST.
ReplyDeleteYou're changing stories even as you tell yours, Patty. I love it. I was listening to something on NPR the other day about the need for pregnancy care education in South Sudan, and I was just SO PROUD of my friend who was making a difference in that area of the world. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven": I believe that sentence is our job, and I believe you're more than doing your part.
V, I hope you know, since college, you have always sent encouragement in the wonderful ways you write. From troubled times in Oklahoma to Dallas to all over the world, my favourite? is that we're still friends. Definitely.
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