Thursday 14 June 2012

Practical Giving - Pay back time, my last days in Kenya

Practical Giving – Pay back time, my last days in Kenya
Practical giving takes on a whole new meaning in Kenya.  Sometimes on a bad day I want to put my fingers in my ears when someone tells me a really awful story so that I don’t hear the need; so I don’t have to worry about it and I don’t have to feel convicted. Does that make me a really bad person or just very honest!
 Other days I feel privileged to be in a position to make a difference. Where else can you help someone and in the process change their whole way of living. In the UK many of us give money to charity not really knowing where it will end up and have no warm fuzzy feeling about giving. Perhaps that again is the wrong attitude – shouldn’t we give without expecting anything back?
Well yes but it is still nice to know that you have had a positive effect. I certainly wouldn’t  get a warm fuzzy feeling throwing pens or sweets out the car window to children (not that I do that at all as I am so paranoid with encouraging dependency!) or signing a sponsorship form for a complete stranger (you often see people wondering around the streets in Nairobi with these forms asking for money for school fees).
I was privileged to give practically the other day. My house help told me about a girl in her church. As she started to talk about her, my usual initial reaction started to creep in my mind – “Oh no! Please don’t expect me to do anything!” But then as I heard more I felt so sad and so mad! How could she let this happen? 
The girl was an orphan and had gone to stay with her brother. The brother left her on her own in his house and basically had nothing to do with her. She got pregnant. She just had her baby in a local hospital and had no money for the hospital fees so the church congregation clubbed together to pay the 4,000ksh. Bear in mind that the people we are talking about live in a slum so also basically have nothing.
She is at home now with nothing. Her milk for some reason has not come in and she is feeding the baby porridge (AHHHH!!). She has no bottles so not sure how they did that? She has no nappies so she tore up pillow cases in strips to use. The baby has no clothes so is being wrapped in blankets.
Wow!!
In some ways she couldn’t have come to a better person – I have just had a baby, and am leaving the country. It reminded me that everything I had for my baby I was given – so I got to play ‘pay back ‘
I got a bag and filled it with cloth nappies (that I hadn’t actually used), feeding bottles (which I only used a few times), blankets, picture leaflets on breastfeeding and the icing on the cake....... 90mls of expressed breast milk.....wow horror of horrors it dawned on me -  I had become a wet nurse!!!

Thursday 7 June 2012

The Orange Boys: Nairobi 2012

This was something I felt I needed to write to perhaps to give a voice to the voiceless and to question myelf and my own motives!! Since writing this I managed to find some old children's clothes and with the help of my househelp and a few Matatu drivers give the bag to the Mother. Not sure if it really helped or it made the siutaiton worse - as I now see many more children on the side of the road!!!

The Little Orange Boys


I see them everyday sometimes with their mother sometimes playing nearby. It should be a happy scene but I dread the moment I approach them as I drive up the brow of the busy road to the junction. You could mistakenly think they are twins as they look very similar but if you look closely it’s because they are both Orange.  I love the red soil of Kenya it’s very distinct and makes me think of Africa but it will also now remind me of these little boys forced to play by the side of the road. They aren’t twins but they are always covered in the red dirt. Their clothes are identical, orange, their faces and hair are, orange – they are the little orange boys. Has anyone else noticed them? Or are we middle class so set on getting across the busy highway that we don’t see them?
The little orange boys play on.
Their mother sits on the edge of the road at the junction between the two busy roads. She doesn’t beg but is always talking. I saw her shout at the matatu drivers the other day but now realise she was talking to herself. People say she is mad. She used to have a baby with her which she would breastfeed or keep strapped to her back. I hadn’t noticed he was gone until someone told me he had died. The mother had kept him strapped to her back for 3 days until finally the police had to tie her down and take the baby away – she had told them it had died so what was the problem?
The little orange boys play on.
They play in the road, on the verge, in the mud and even on the central reservation. There is always a jam at the top of the road and the cars flow back down the hill. The big lorries take ages to climb it and churn out thick black smoke.
This is the little orange boy’s playground.
As I drive back from work I get a sickening feeling that I am approaching their spot. More recently I can feel my eyes welling up; I think a side effect of being a Mother. But what do I do? I strain to see if I can see them, I want to see what they are doing. I saw one of the little boys sitting down on the side of the road one morning while his mother walked off down the road he was crying he eyes out. All sorts of stories of what had happened came in my head and I felt terrible. They live just down the bottom of the hill. You can see where their ‘place’ is by the clothes that are hanging out on the bushes by the side of the road. They climb the hill in the morning, play at the top and walk down again at night. This is their lives. But what do I do?
The little orange boys play on.
I have been thinking about giving them some toys. But will the mother try and sell them? I thought about trying to give them some food – but would I be able to do that in time before I am hooted by the cars behind who are busy getting to work and want to cross the highway. I thought perhaps I can spend one day talking to them but would the mother shout at me? What would she think? What would all the matatu drivers think?  I have thought a lot......
And the little orange boys play on.



The final Pookie's Post June 2012

Here is my latest Pookie's Post:

The Final Pookie’s Post (for now!)                                                                                                                                      June 2012


After almost 14 years of being based overseas for me and two years for Andrew, we have decided after a lot of prayer that it’s time to move ‘back’ to the UK. Part of my current job is no longer possible to do with a baby as it means being deployed in emergency countries for long periods of time which although I like the idea of strapping Joshy on my back and heading off to a disaster -  it’s probably not the best idea! The rest of my job: advising on health and HIV in emergencies, can be done from anywhere as these days a lot of my support work is done via the internet.
Recently I have been assigned to assist World Vision in developing an implementation guide to help seven countries in Africa to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). It has nothing to do with emergencies but is something I can do that does not involve too much travel and is an urgent need. If mothers living with HIV take antiretrovirals are given support and advice for their delivery and ongoing infant feeding, they can reduce the risk of passing on HIV to their baby to less than 1%. Last month I facilitated a workshop for 30 people from 10 different countries. It was very successful and everyone went back to their programmes motivated to begin to implement the project. I am now busy getting the guide ready so they have a tool to help them in their mission!
I have been doing a lot of reflection and remembering over the last few weeks as we begin to plan to leave Africa. I began this letter a while ago before the long rains started which thankfully have been plentiful this year. This is what I wrote a few weeks ago:
Kenya 2012: ‘Colours are amazing in Africa – against blue skies the blossoms are so striking. As I sit in our study looking out of our window I can see reds, purples, greens and yellows. The grass is brown but it’s the end of the dry season and the long awaited rains are due next month. The nearest tree that I look out on is also the famous Acacia with its fan of leaves and thorns along its branches. I also enjoy watching the many birds visiting the garden that I look on to with very long tails, again very typical of Kenya. These are justsomeofthe images I will miss when we move back to the UK.
Anticipation is something that people understand over here especially when it comes to the seasons. If you think people talk about the weather a lot in UK, it’s nothing in comparison to here. In Africa the weather can mean life or death. As I sit looking out of my window it’s humid and hot - the typical feeling you get when you’re waiting for the rains to come. The dust blows about, the ground cracks, more animals appear in the town looking for any grass and we wait. Farmers wait to plant their crops, we wait for the power saving cuts that come because the reservoirs have dried up and we wonder whether there will be enough water or whether it will need to be tanked in. (This would be a luxury for most people – lack of water means longer to walk with heavy jerry cans and probably nasty tasting brown water!) The conversation around this time always turns to when, or these days if, the rains will come. We all long for the first ‘smell of the rains’ that you get at the beginning of the season. (It sounds weird but it’s something you can’t really describe to someone until you’ve experienced it for yourself!!). Lack of water can push prices up; not just of water but of food, fuel, electricity and transport as it has a knock-on effect.’
So for me,it’s a good reminder that my anticipation of going back to the UK is really nothing to worry about if I compare it to what people over here have to go through each year. Our worries of “will we fit in?”, “will we get jobs?”, “where will we live?”, “what does the future hold?” can all be put in prospective by the many blessings we have of being healthy, having food on the table and money to buy things with.
I hope you don’t mind but I wanted to summarise some of my memories from my 14 years living and working overseas. I actually thought it might be most helpful to write a sort of check list for future travellers.....

12 country wonders of the world

I have visited 57 countries in the world and I have worked and lived in 21. Here are a few I would say are worth a visit:
·         Afghanistan - beautiful mountainous scenery; proud, hospitable, loyal, usually well educated and often misunderstood people; yummy grapes (Kandahar), scary approach to airport, harsh seasons either very hot or very cold.
Afghanistan 2007: ‘I am sitting on the plane on my way back to Dubai. My head scarf is slowly falling off my head and occasionally I’ll put it back out of habit but somehow I realise it’s time to let it go. Looking out the window at the snow-capped mountains just peaking out of the cloud covering, I realise this might be my last trip out to Afghanistan. The sun is shining on the mountains and it’s an amazing sight. This is Afghanistan; this is the Afghanistan I want to remember.Beautiful, mystic and peaceful.’
·         DRCongo – Amazing lakes and mountains to explore, erupting volcanoes, fertile soil where anything can grow and a wealth of raw minerals so that anything could be made, sad ongoing conflicts, incredibly resilient tough women, very large beers in litre bottles with funny names such as “Turbo King”, lovely gorillas.
·         Kosovo – Gorgeous scenery with great skiing if they could just clear the mines, good-looking blokes, lovely hot summers, good taste in music, very hospitable people who are prepared to give up their houses for you to live in.
·         Northern Kenya – Lovely camels’ milk, amazing traditional cultures like the Rendille tribe, resilient people, remote nothingness, beautiful deserts with shades of browns and reds at sunset, yucky spiders.
·         Niger – Lovely Hausa language, hot hot summers, camel rides, Woodabe traditional beauty contest for men in Agadez, Fulani hairstyles, cool mud huts, yummy bean cakes, beautiful silver crosses.
·         Zimbabwe – well educated people, lovely waterfalls, parks and animals, good roads.
·         South Sudan – Cows for dowries, very tall Dinka tribe, mango season, oil, tribal conflicts, snakes, amazingscenery from very small planes, Kings and commanders with many wives.
Top Tips: Take wet wipes, toilet paper, torch, headscarf, ear plugs and yellow fever certificate with you at all times just in case.

Creepy crawlies

If you don’t like scary crawly things then travelling is probably not for you. Some things are amazing like Chameleons (although most Africans wouldn’t agree.) Others are harmless like lizards or geckos. Mosquitoes are infuriating but spiders and snakes are another thing altogether.
DRCongo 2009:‘We waited quite some time for our food but we had a lot of wild life to keep us amused including a snake – bright green and long but very skinny and a very small scorpion. The snake got killed and dumped into the river much to the dismay of the local cat who I think had its eye on it.
DRCongo 2009:‘I woke up this morning feeling something crawling down my leg. I didn’t think it was anything and maybe just my imagination as I was under a mosquito net. When I continued to feel it I carefully pinched whatever it was on to my PJs and then turned them inside out to reveal a very small spider. I squashed it and then flicked it on the floor. Gone are the days when I would jump up and down and run out the room!’
Top Tips: Check your shoes every morning for creepy crawlies before you put them on. Never dry your knickers on the grass as black fly can lay their eggs and the larvaesomehow bury themselves in you! The desert spider is afraid of the light and if you kill them – their mates come out to find them and take them away – the more you kill the more come out!!

Planes, trains and automobiles

The way people transport ‘stuff’ in some countries is always an amazing spectacle. It is incredible what you can fit on the back of a bike for instance. Of course there are the two or three people that can easily fit but in addition to that there are chickens, live goats, mattresses. I think the winner for that was 10 mattresses strapped to the back of a bike – not bad; and one of the best ones was in Kabul when I saw a man cyclingalongin the middle of rush hour with six boxes of food strapped to the bike on top of which were two trays of eggs!
The topic of the horrendous traffic in Nairobi is on everyone’s lips. There is an art to driving here. Ignore all traffic lights, signs and lane discipline. Do not let Matatus in (mini bus taxis), look out for bumps, pot holes, cows, camels (yes there is a camel that I often see in the middle of the city) cars driving on the wrong side of the road to get ahead of the queues and if it rains avoid driving all together.
Kabul Airport 2007:‘There is an x-ray machine for luggage but it doesn’t work, there is also a conveyor belt for the luggage but again that doesn’t work and we often end up walking on to the belt to collect our luggage when it gets stuck. Waiting in the lounge is interesting – hardly any chairs and there is always a scrum for the door when any flight is announced. Most of us never know which flight it is until we get to the door – however there are sweets available including packets of Bin Laden gobstoppers!!’ When the porter asked where we were going and we said Kandahar he repeated the name Kandahar a few times with a surprised expression on his face. That was a real boost and encouragement as we headed to the rather more volatile part of Afghanistan! We had a quick frisk by a woman with very long gloves on a bit like the Queen would wear and she was rather efficient - it actually felt like she was estimating what bra size I was! One lady ahead of me looked rather an odd shape as she tried to go through the x-ray – a very funny shaped bottom! The alarms went off and then she removed 3 bags from under her Bhurka!’
Top tip: If you get on the back of a motorbike taxi – do not squeeze your legs to hold on – I got a very bad burn from the exhaust pipe when I was in Uganda!

And when it’s time to sleep....

I have experienced many different types of accommodation in the past 20 years. From the basic camp bed outside with a mosquito net when on my truck travels across Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe to a luxury five star hotel in Dubai. In my travel days I was willing to put up with anything and being a keen young backpacker the more basic and horrendous it was the better the bragging stories in the evenings with fellow travellers! There was always the oneupmanship competition of who had spent the worst night. On one occasion in Thailand I stayed the night in a very dodgy unsafe place on the balcony of a hotel. I slept the night hugging my bumbag and rucksack only to find in the morning my walkman had been stolen- pretty impressive! In Hong Kong I remember being persuaded by a guesthouse owner who was very much in my face as soon as I got off the bus to go to his place which according to him was central and very comfortable! It was certainly central but was in one of the biggest block of flats I had ever seen. He took me up to almost the top floor with quite a few other potential guests in tow – I of course was imagining quite a big spacious apartment. How wrong could I be; there was one room packed to the rafters with triple bunk beds, plus beds on the floor. It was quite rat infested so it was nice to be on the top bunk!
South Sudan 2009:‘Sitting in a tent at midday in South Sudan is like turning up a sauna to full blast. It’s like a furnace. My bottled water is almost ready for a tea bag! The tent I am in is big enough to stand up in and has a proper bed so it’s quite comfy. However the only time you actually want to be in it is about 4 am in the morning when the breeze is glorious! I value this space even though the walls are made of canvas: you at least can shut yourself away for a while. However living in tents in closeproximity to your colleagues is a good discipline in tolerance and patience. Any kind of noise…yawning, burping, snoring, or farting can be heard loudly especially when in a rural area where there is no other city noise to blank it out!!’
Top Tip: Take a sheet sleeping bag with you – just in case the beds have bed bugs or horrible stains!!

Security – what’s that?

I have been fortunate that nothing much fazes me in terms of security. I actually found it quite amusing when I was evacuated from Oriny in South Sudan a few years back before the peace was signed. Rebels were closing in torching everything in their path. My colleague quite rightly had hernightyon as we all piled into the back of a car at 2.00am – no time to change – and we were all so squashed in the front that I was sitting on the gear stick. Someone kept knocking the driver’s arm so he hit the horn every few minutes which meant we were not that successful at making a quiet getaway!
I used to do all sorts of dodgy things when I went travelling in my teens; hitch-hiking, going with complete strangers on the back of their motorbikes and spending time with a family in Iran having been brought there crouching down in the back of their car. I look back now and think I would never do that now. Perhaps in a few years’ time I will look back at my time now working and living in various insecure countries and think how unsafe that was.....perhaps more so if Joshua ever wants to go travelling when he’s a teenager!! Things have become much worse than they used to be. Gone are the days when, as an aid worker we could go about our daily work safely trying to help ‘both sides’ - now we are often the target which makes it very difficult to get help to those who most need it.
Top Tips: Reverse park your car for a quick getaway, always have a tank full of petrol, know where your important documentation is, have a quick run bag with essentials at the ready, and never sleep in the nude!!

What to wear?

I have a number of sets of clothes in my wardrobe – one for Pakistan and Afghanistan (headscarves, long sleeves everything covered), one for the UK (trousers, winter woollies, raincoats) and one for Nairobi mostly shorts and t-shirts. The best thing about travelling is that anything goes – more often than not there are no mirrors so it doesn’t matter what you look like! One of the must haves in my wardrobe is a pair of flip flops – I live in them!
Top Tip: Hold your bhurka down at the front when walking so you can see the pavement – it’s very difficult to see out of the mesh that covers the front. Bhurka accidents are up there in the top ten!!

Say again...?

Andrew has really enjoyed learning Swahili and loves talking with our guards and Phanice our househelp. Joshy knows Swahili greetings and smiles holding out his hand when people say ”Jambo” or “Habari?”.
It’s also very helpful to learn the local lingo when it comes to bartering. When I could still speak Hausa, I went to Nigeria for a conference and found myself at a market. I heard people speaking Hausa and as soon as I greeted them there were lots of smiles and lower prices!
I am sure I have picked up a few Kenyan-English expressions while in Kenya like ‘Pick me’ instead of ‘pick me up’. I love the fact that if you trip up when walking along, any passer-by or complete stranger will say “sorry”.  Something I won’t miss is African timing: “now” means in the next hour or so, “now now” in the next 30 mins. “We are there” could mean anytime!
It’s important to understand the local traditions before you make a joke. When my Dad visited Niger one time, he was asked how many camels I was worth. He jokingly said about 10, at which the local Tuareg began to shake hands on the deal!
I have had some funny experiences recently when I have spent time with Phanice – trying to explain things like Salad Dressing, What is a crossword?, How are you able to do an interview on your computer (using Skype), how does a washing machine wash clothes as well as by hand.
Top tip: Ensure you pronounce everything properly when learning new languages – you never know what you might say. In Niger I yelled that my colleague called Moussa was underneath the bed in the hospital ward instead of saying there was a cat.

I’ve got the power.....

Power is something you take for granted in the UK. Generators are a must have over here or at least decent torches and plenty of candles and matches handy – particularly in toilets and bathrooms. Head torches are a great invention when it comes to cooking, however not so good for outdoor when there are lots of flying insects especially when you are trying to eat your food – one or two will get mixed in with what’s on your plate. Storing breast milk in the freezer is also tricky with frequent power cuts. But having a fridge can be a luxury. In northern Kenya we used to put water in plastics bottles, wrap wet toilet paper around them then hang them in the trees – amazingly the water was cool. There is nothing worse for quenching the thirst than drinking hot water!
Top tips: Ensure you find out where the generator is and sleep in the bedroom furthest away. Remember to switch off all the lights before you go to bed in a black out. Keep a firm grip on your torch when using a latrine.

The local delicacies...

Food and your bowels must be the two most common subjects of conversation amongst travellers who live overseas; food because there is often a discussion about where to find that ‘must-have’ item – usually chocolate; and bowels because what goes in must come out and it usually does with some gusto in a foreign land. Having a cast iron stomach from years of travelling has helped prevent this symptom!
We have been spoilt in Nairobi with access to almost all the basics and some lovely restaurants. But every now and then there is a sudden shortage and shelves can be empty of things like decent cheap cereals, butter and fresh milk (just before the rains last month as apparently, there was not enough grass for the cows to eat), edible cheese and sugar (we were limited to one bag per person!)
The good thing if you do get sick is you can diagnose yourself and then go and ask for pretty much any medication in the pharmacist.
DRCongo 2009:The boys ordered this horrendous-looking bright red fizzy drink and I stuck to the tonic water! The order of course was verbal and not so much what we wanted but rather what they had........A can of coke can cost the equivalent of two dollars (and it’s not even proper coke but something called King Cola!) and a fairly big fish can be as much as six or seven dollars which is outrageous compared to many other places in Africa. One lady pulled up in her canoe (we were at a restaurant on the edge of a river). She had three enormous fish, some Cassava leaves and a dead monkey!!! It looked to me like a chimpanzee. They had slit it open apparently to take out the inners to stop it going off. I am not sure that really helped as there was loads of flies around it and it stank. I couldn’t see its head which is a relief! Monkey is eaten quite a bit around here - probably more readily available than chickens which for some reason are few and far between.’
Top tips: In rural areas in many places in Africa you usually share the food together from one big bowl, so you can be picky about which bits you eat – avoid the big weird fatty looking meat if possible! But be prepared to eat anything you are offered out of respect.....  Vegetarians are a bit misunderstood!

Hygiene and squatting

In South Sudan, I actually appreciated the latrines. I found squatting over a hole is sometimes much more hygienic than trying to hover over a horrible dirty seat in a public toilet. The only problem is the insects - cockroaches, lizards, ants and crickets are often there flying or crawling in and out, so it’s always good to keep one eye on the hole – also essential for good aim – and the other eye on the door in case it blows open or anything crawls underneath. The idea of anything crawling up your bottom is always a horrible thought. Taking out things in your pockets is essential as it is a big no no to go fishing for anything that falls into the hole. A torch and a pair of sunglasses have been lost forever when I accidently dropped them down a long drop!
Showers in the evening are glorious in rural camps – the daytime sun heats the water and it makes for a great shower. In the Tearfund compounds that I have been to, there have been buckets and cups or a homemade contraption whereby a black jerry can is put on top of the shower area and a pipe and shower head direct the warm water in a proper shower – fantastic!
DRCongo 2009:‘I had a shower which apparently is water from the local Congo River. One of my team mates suggested I use Dettol in the water as it is not very clean. I couldn’t really be bothered as that would mean I would have to use a bucket and cup and I always hate doing that. I am staying in the team house with the other three permanent members of the programme who are all boys – two from Kenya and one from Burundi. Last night Michael enquired if anyone was making a milkshake, which I thought was quite an odd thing to say out here until I realised he was probably referring to my strawberry shower gel which I presume is quite a foreign smell to a house full of men!’
Top tips: When peeing in the bushes – look out for other poo, snakes, spiders or signs of mines – depending where you are!

Who are the poor?

Giving can be a complex process – complex because you feel you should give more or because you wonder if the people you are giving to are actually poor or because perhaps you are worried that the very act of giving can create dependency......and the list goes on! Poverty is something that I can easily write about, can define (less than a dollar a day), see often enough and feel I need to do something about. But I have never experienced it and that makes all the difference.
Often in my job I have almost played “God” in deciding who gets the aid and who doesn’t. In Kosovo I had to design and conduct a survey to decide who got a house and who didn’t. In Northern Kenya we weighed children and calculated if they were thin enough to get some food. In Haiti we got the camp committees to list the names of the IDPs (internally displaced people) and those who were on the list got given NFIs (non food items).In Afghanistan we built schools and encouraged girls to attend – but we couldn’t do it everywhere we worked and had to choose who we helped. Globalisation has accelerated development jumping over a few steps on the way so many people in Africa end up having a mobile phone before they have a toilet.
Living in Nairobi has opened my eyes to the have's and have not's. During my time here, the middle class has grown and everywhere you look there are new apartments, shopping malls and very posh cars. And yet the slums continue to expand and those who live there, if they are lucky, walk on mass to their places of work at 6.00am; to jobs in the shopping malls,  or in the new apartments perhaps  looking after children or they simply put up advertisements  on bill boards on the roadside for products that they know nothing about. I can sometimes drive to work and be blind to the poverty that’s around me – the other day I actually paid attention and was amazed at what I had got used to seeing and had taken for granted. I saw children begging whose shoes were two sizes too big for them, I saw a woman with a baby strapped to her back selling individual sweets from a bag in her hand, I saw a man selling just one mango and I saw young guy lying on the side of the road sleeping off the effects of too much illicit brew.
Having Phanice work for us has given a personal insight into the have's and have not's. We visited Phanice’s house – which is a tin shed smaller than our bathroom. There is no toilet – so everyone in her neighbourhood uses the one latrine that’s close by. There is no free-running water – so they have to pay five shillings for a 20 litre jerry can every day. She doesn’t have electricity so she charges her mobile phone in our flat. The other day we took her and her 11 year old son to a local hotel for a treat. Dillon spent the whole time in the pool even though he couldn’t swim and was shivering by the end – but he didn’t want to miss a minute of the experience. Phanice said one of the things he kept talking about was the size of the towels!!
We often presume being poor is about the lack of material things and money but I think it also has something to do with being loved, having secure lasting loving relationships and experiencing God’s love. So we don’t need to go half way around the world to find people in need!
DRCongo 2008:‘Today I feel blessed to be a woman born in the UK rather than out here struggling every day with the heat, the chores, probably an unfaithful husband and a small army of children. If I was a poet I think I would write something about opening your eyes to the world, breathe in what you see, touch, smell and compare it to what you have, what you are, what you have been given. Gone are the complaints, the wishes, the what 'if’s' because there can be no comparison – the grass suddenly becomes much greener where you are.’

Thank You

It is amazing to look back at my newsletters and to see what I was able to achieve and experience. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support over the years. I couldn’t have done it without you. I have of course been recently blessed with a wonderful husband and a gorgeous baby boy. I am truly thankful and look forward to what lies ahead for our future together as a family.