It’s Autumn Time it’s Autumn Time the Leaves are Falling Down.

I love the fall!! I think it maybe since I lived in constant summer for the past 2 years i forgot just how beautiful fall can be even if it is a little colder well maybe a lot colder than i would prefer. Its fun to see the trees and orchards all change color, to smell the grapes and apples, and to watch all the millions of crazy little birds fly all over the place on our field. Its great!  (View from the porch swing at my house. )

This past month flew by like crazy! After being depressed for not being able to go and see a really good friend get married or go to my Indonesia trip reunion, I found a cheep flight and decided to go visit my beloved past home of mesa. It was really fun being back and kinda weird going to my old house and not living there. It almost felt like I never left. That weekend was Halloween so after visiting with my way cool friends and eating at one of my very favorite places Paradise cafe I we all decorated and got ready for a party at my old house. Its funny how you would think after doing it one year you would learn from your mistakes, well lets just say making food and such was just a tight down to the last wire of being on time as it was last year. But hey I guess thats what makes life exciting right?  I was a mouse (ya i know lame but it was the only thing decent i could find in a hurry), Kristalyn threw together this really cute gypsy costume (of course, she always manages to find something and look cute), Logan found this awesome bee costume at DI in Connecticut (I should make a trip there for my costume next year, man!) and Katherine well lets just say that she looked really scary, ha. It was fun and a great party! That weekend I also got to go see my old office which was fun and got my hair cut!  It was a great trip!!

Living at home as actually been pretty good. Its been fun spending time with my sibilings. I said goodbye to mark a couple of weeks ago as he left on his mission to go to Spain. He is going to be an awesome missionary. I have also had fun watching my sisters soccer games, seeing Jon’s choir concerns and watching random movies such as Hocus Pocus with them. My next new adventure is buying a house so stay tuned for that excitement. Until next time!

Longest month of my life!

Well all my blog supporting friends I suppose it is now time to add another blog to the adventures in the life of Michelle. Unfortunately things has not be as exciting as traveling to foreign countries and living on a big ship in the middle of the sea, but life has been adventuresome non the less. I am officially moved back home and after being in shock for the first couple of weeks I think I have finally settled in and am staring to enjoy my life on our happy little farm. Thinking back on where I was at this time last month its  hard to  believe I that I had just gotten home from my trip because it feels like it was an eternity ago. Since that time I have packed up, moved home, went to Deer lake with the family, found Crawford St, went to institute and got yet another confirmation that I am OLD, started a new job, went to the fair, heard the funniest chicken in the world cock-a-doodle-doo, joined a new ward, said good bye to our lovely cow shortcake (yes it was that time of the year…just my luck…sad day), visited Mt Rainier and Ohanapecosh and ate ding dongs, and saw my picture I pop up in all sorts of random places. So ya its been a busy month!

Dear lake was fun. We stayed at my uncles cabin on the lake and spent most of the time chillin, boating, and riding on the happy paddle boat. I tried kyacking as well but man those things are soo scary you feel like your always going to fall over. It was a fun week though and it was nice to have my whole family together.

When we got back to Deer lake a few days later me and my little brother Jonny and sister jenny and went to the fair and that was great! Our favorite barn was the rabbit, guinea pig, and chicken barn. My sister loved the guinea pigs and I figured while I was there I might as well see the chickens and yes I was very entertained to say the least. After being disappointed that the Arizona fair last year replaced the chickens for pigeons I was happy to hear the clucking and see the happiness of them all. There was one chicken that cracked me up sooooo much, he  was  hilarious to look at but then he crowed and it sounded just like one of those  classic “strong” roosters and it was sooo funny! ( I guess you had to be there). We also went to the rodeo which was fun even though we sat too far away to see the oh so sexie cowboys. It was nice to get back to my country roots, ha. 

That next week I started work and that has been good. My office is soo nice and the Dr and NP are really good to work with which is nice. The only awkward thing is that I find my picture everywhere! Its all over my office, in random papers and magazines. I guess the clinic is trying to advertise new hours and I get to be the advertisement for it, I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing but I’m glad its at least a decent picture, ha.  Its also been nice to be able to speak in English to most all my families and I couldn’t believe it the first time a mom offered to buy a mediation over the counter. But I will admit I do miss my cute little Hispanic families. We’ll see how I feel come winter time…

Over Labor day I also had a chance to go with the family and some friends up to the infamous Ohanabakosh to  hike to silver falls and go see Mt. Rainer. After going all over the world and seeing all different cool places I forgot how beautiful Mt. Rainer and those areas are. Its amazing how sometimes some of the most beautiful things you have are often in your own back yard!

 

 

Anyways life is good and I am grateful that things ended up working out as well as it did. Life is defiantly not as hoppin as Arizona was and I miss it a lot, but I am happy here. It has been fun having my whole family here for a little while before my brother leaves on his mission. It is once again another confirmation that god is in charged and if you follow his will, then it will all work out :).

Pictures

Here are some links to my pictures:

Life on the USNS Mercy ship: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2355795&id=17816795&l=a4a8362e87

Medical Clinics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2355806&id=17816795&l=0f3f1d21f3

Exploring Indonesia: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2355809&id=17816795&l=5e9566d17a

Singapore and Australia:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2355816&id=17816795&l=d0c19fa9af

A moment of reflection

Over this past week I have been with my family at a cabin on a lake and have had the opportunity to reflect on what I have learned from experience on the Mercy.  First of all I’ve learned that I can sleep in small spaces amongst tons of girls, I LOVE mangos as long as they are not from the US, I know Spanish a ton more than I realized (after trying to understand Indonesian I was actually happy to hear Spanish again, who would have thought?), I do not get sea sick (yay), I can take 90 second showers and wash my hair (barely), I hate humidity and I think I set a personal record on how many days I have sweat strait, I finally found a place where I climbed more stairs a day since living south of campus at BYU, karaoke is so much cooler in foreign countries, I can see patients if necessary at a rapid speed, eels can be friendly (well at least to most people), camel is not my favorite type of meat, vitamins can treat just about anything, and yes I am still afraid of spiders.

On a more deeper note there are a few thing I have gained that have had a little more of an impact on my life. Here are my top three:

1. Patience. From the moment I got on the ship I felt like it was ready set wait. We waited for instructions, we gather or “musters” at a certain time and then waited for an hour to actually leave. Also being on the ship there was a lot of down time. Down time when in transit and down time when I wasn’t working in the medcaps. I felt like I spent most of my time waiting for the next meal or even days for something to happen. In addition, we had to live by a new set of rules, follow instructions from all sorts of different people and in a since live in a way that was entirely different than I was use to. Not that it was completely bad, it was just different. This taught me patience in a new way. It taught me to laugh at the silly completely annoying things I couldn’t control and to just relax and take things as they came both good and bad. It helped me learn to appreciate and hold onto the joys and excitements that happened along the way and how to endure through the frustrating sad parts of the journey. Although I feel it takes a life time and more to completely understand and gain patience, I am grateful for the level of it I learned during this adventure. 

2. Do the best you can and leave the rest to the lord. During the project as you know I did the majority of my service in medical clinics. There I saw a large number of patience. Many were pretty healthy but some had major medical problems. Unfortunately, due to the limited medication options and the inability to do surgery because of the locations I was at, there was little I could do for some. There was one day that I came back form a clinic so extremely discourage because I was unable to help a number of patients who had severe medical problems that some would probably die from, and I wondered if it was even worth it? Was it even worth giving these people hope by coming and not being able to do anything? Then as I was waiting on the pier for the boat back to the ship, I saw a large boat full of patients from ship and come onto the dock. All who just had life changing surgeries from hernia and cleft palate repairs to horrible fracture repairs. As I watched them it made me realize that although we cannot help everyone, we are doing our best and are changing the lives of some and that is what makes the difference. I then was able to focus on the patients I was able to help, the moms excited to get vitamins for their kids; the 14 year old girl who hugged me and was excited that she was able to see an American doctor; my translator who brought me his mother, cousins, and neighbor to see; the mom who was overjoyed that her baby was normal and growing healthy after having lost one not so long ago; and the list goes one and on. I know that I wasn’t able to help everyone but I know that I did my best to be an instrument in the lord’s hands and that’s the best I can do. I think that’s the best we all can do and then we have to leave the rest to the lord. Even though so many people were not helped I am grateful for the reassuring knowledge and peace that the lords loves all his children and I know that through some other means he will take care of them.

3. Gratitude. I think the most important thing I learned on this trip is gratitude. For those of you who have spent time in third world countries I think you would understand that those people’s lives are necessarily the most easiest and that they live in very humble circumstances. One place I went the families were so poor it was hard to recommend anything to them because they couldn’t afford it. Many of the children had insect bites all over their legs but when you told their mother that they needed a new bed, insect spray, or new shoes she gave you that look like “I know I just can’t afford it“.  Most all the people were very skinny, never had medical care, and their teeth were not so ideal. As I was listening to my Ipod one night a Disney song came on and it made me almost cry because I knew these children had never seen Disney movies, play with barbies or cars, will ever go theme parks, or have anything like our children. Then I realized that although these people had absolutely nothing the were happy. The children happily played, the people laughed and were soo generous. Seeing all this really humbled me, and made me realize that I do not appreciate what I do have enough. I think sometimes we go through life complaining about the things or opportunities that we don’t have instead of focusing on what we do have and being grateful for it. I wonder if we did we‘d be  happier. How lucky we are to live where we live and have what we have! I am soo grateful for that and feel so blessed. I am grateful for the amazing people I met on this ship and for the Navy and those men and women who were willing to dedicate their lives to serving our country.

What an experience it was and I am grateful for what I have learned and that I was able to share a little bit of it with you all :)

Here are some statistics of the Indonesia portion of Pacific Partnership 2010

Total patients seen ashore (including med/dental/opth): 33,158

Total surgeries: 214

Total dental procedures: 190

Vet care: 1034 animals treated

Education projects:
Medical 4260.5: hours, Vet: 383 hours, 392 HN, preventative med:  4836 hours

Engineering projects:  Inpatient Ward at Daruba Hospital renovated, Negiri 1 and 2 schools refurbishe, Puskesmas Kalumang Clinic renovated, Puskesmas Sulamadaha Clinic renovated, Puskesmas Tulehu Clinic renovated

see http://pacificpartnership.wordpress.com/

Goodbye Arizona I will miss you!

So you think when you get home from a crazy adventure, life would go back to its normal boring bla de bla. Unfortunately thing for me have been anything but bla. I got home on Tuesday; went to lunch with my wonderful old office and attempted to catch up with friends on Wednesday; packed and packed, got my beloved moving van, picked up my mom, packed some more and said sad good byes to friends on Thursday; and then hopped in my giant moving mobile and left on Friday. Not to mention my sad attempt to get some kind of sleep between things to catch up from jet lag…ha.

Packing everything up was good. However, loading my car up onto a dolly was about one of the scariest things ever! Luckily a friendly man (or should I say the neighbor I never met until today) was driving by and helped us out. Driving through phoenix was pretty good until we headed out onto the fun roads to go to Vegas, and if you have driven them before you’d know what I mean. Other than crazy people trying to pass me, everything was just dandy until we started going up hills. That’s when I found out my big tough moving truck was completely gutless. The first hill was fine and maybe the second but then we went up a big hill and as we were putting up it all of a sudden my temperature gage went crazy and something started to smell. So I stopped and smoked started coming out of the top of hood so we did what all women do we just about had a heart attack and called my dad. After some chatting we opened the hood and found that the radiator overflow lid had popped off and it had absolutely no fluid in it so it had over heated. Fortunately for us we had my trusty food storage water in the truck so we loaded it in and it cooled it down. Thank goodness! It then started ok and off we went. The only unfortunate thing was that in order to not over heat again we had to turn off the air conditioner which usually is not a big deal unless your driving from phoenix to Vegas... Luckily that day it was a little cooler maybe like 100-105 instead of 110-120 so I felt blessed. After that ordeal my dad promptly reminded us that my car attached could be used as an escape vehicle so I figured it would probably be better if it was not on empty and filled it with gas. The rest of the way to Vegas was not too bad and even though I about hyperventilated as we were nearing the Hoover dam because I had to drive over it. But it was dark when we got there and luckily I can’t see to well in the dark so I wasn’t quite sure when I drove across it thank goodness, I think?.

We stayed in Vegas that nigh at my Uncle Ben’s house. After we had recovered from the heat, we spent the rest of the night visiting and seeing their new house and 3 kids. The next morning we drove on to Utah. Fortunately the truck had cooled down well so we were able to use the air conditioning as long as it wasn’t going up a hill so the traveling was much more enjoyable. That night we stayed at my cousin Kiera’s house. It was fun to see her and her 2 cute kids and new house. We then woke up bright and early the next morning and drove all the rest of the way home. Gratefully it was pretty uneventful.

It was kinda weird being one of the slow trucks on the road. I held up all sorts of traffic, got passed by the slower semis, competed with those “slow stupid RVs” on the road, and even got flipped off once, it was great! I suppose now I will have a little more sympathy for the “slow” drivers on the road. I was just glad I made it home in one piece. The only bad thing was that I didn’t read all the instruction when loading my car and I pulled it all the way home with the parking break on (yes I know sooo smart..). So when I started it and drove it, it didn’t smell so good. But I am happy to report that I took it into the mechanic today and miraculously no damage was done so thank goodness!! I think the lord was looking out for us and I feel very blessed that everything ended out so good. So now I say goodbye to Arizona and hello to the new adventure of Washingtion. Wish me luck!

The blue mountains and the beautiful city of Sydney

Going back to visit the blue mountains and Sydney was awesome. 1st because I LOVE those places and second because we had the most amazing weather. I think that was one of heavenly fathers little tender mercies, and I was grateful :). At first when we got to Sydney I think were we had a little bit of weather shock because it was winter there and we had been use to humidity, humidity, humidity, hot weather, and more humidity so to be cold was something we hadn’t felt for ages and something I didn’t think I would ever feel again. Luckily as I said it was sunny and not too bad, so we survived and my lips didn’t even turn purple!

The first thing we did in the blue mountains was go down a mine shaft in the steepest train the world. We then went on some hikes and rode 2 different over hanging rails back up the mountain and across the mountains. It was a pretty dang high but it was beautiful and luckily I wasn’t even too scared :). In addition we also revisited some old waterfalls I had seen and such so that made me happy and brought back some joyful memories.

 

 

Sydney was a beautiful as ever! We got to go on the bridge and some of my crazy or maybe I should say more adventurous friends actually climbed to the top of it! We also rode a ferry to Manly and went to the biotical gardens. It was a great day!

 

Then that night I actually got to go to an Opera in the Sydney Opera house! It was amazing and really cool. I had never been to an opera before so it was interesting to see it. It was funny because the plot was very simplistic and kind of a silly but then they sang and sang and sang about the same like 3 things over and over again. It made me laugh and it was just fun to experience the whole ambiance of opera house. We then caught the train and after getting off and being lost in a creepy neighborhood for a while we finally made it back to the hotel. It was a fun night.

 

The next day we hoped on a plane and made the lovely journey back home. I am now sitting on my couch and cannot believe its finally over!  I know a lot of you guys wanna see my pictures so I am eventually gonna fix my bog, attempt to post some thought provoking conclusions, add more pictures, and once they are some what organized post some pictures on facebook as well so stay in tune! I haven’t seen ya, hopefully Ill see ya soon :)

Darwin

Going back to Australia was awesome! Its funny how I never thought in a million years I would be going back there, yet there I was, crazy! The first place we went to was Darwin which was where the ship docked. It was a small but neat town. I think the thing that blew my mind the most was how different the weather was. Indonesia was a very tropical and a green green place, while Darwin was actually pretty dry and was some what of a desert. Apparently they have 2 seasons. The wet season where everything floods like crazy and the dry where everything drys out soo bad it burns. Kinda bizarre but i guess it has something to do with the outback being soo close, i suppose.  Anyways the first day we were there we went to some cool museums and then walked along this cool beach to get to a huge market that they have every Thursday and Sunday nights.

The beach was awesome and had all these interesting rocks on it. 

The market was actually kind of expensive but they had all sorts of neat things to look at and good crazy foods. While I was there I tried Kangaroo, Emu, camel (nasty nasty nasty), and crocodile which was fun.

I also got to appreciate yet another amazing sunset. We laugh because I think all of us in the group have about a million sunset pictures. But how can you not take pictures of them.

The next day we rented a car and went up to a place called Litchfield park. There, they had tons of beautiful waterfalls. They also had some swimming holes but unfortunately we only got to swim in one because the other one was closed because they found crocodiles in it (go figure). 

We also got to see tons of huge termite mounds and some cool mounds that were made by what they called magnetic termites that looked like huge tomb stones.

 

After Litchfield park we went to a place called berry springs. This place we cool because it was pretty warm and had all sorts of swimming areas in it. In some parts it kinda reminded me of the small river the boys walk through on Swiss Family Robinson (you know the one where they get caught by the snake) so it was kinda creepy but there were little kids swimming in it so I figured I’d be ok and couldn’t be a wimp until it started getting dark and strange bugs started flying around….then i was out of there!

We then showered at a random place (ask me about it if you wanna know the details…) and caught our flight at 1:45 am, it was joyous.

Saying goodbye to Indonesia

So today is the last day on the ship. We arrive in Darwin, Australia today at 10 am and I get to say goodbye to the beloved Indonesia. Reflecting back on the past month it has been an amazing experience! Maybe a little different than I would have expected but very good. Working with the Navy has been quite unique and although they were a lovely group of people I am greatful to go back to normal civilian life and am greatful I have now completely cleared any tiny desire I may have had in the deep back part of my mind to even join the navy, no offence to them of course :).

Yesterday was a good day and although I am still in morning for turing the old age of 27 I had fun. I got to serve food in the kitchen, see a beautiful sunset, look at the stars from the tower on the ship deck finally (it has been too cloudy most days), got lots of candy and an eye lens, and most importantly got 2 bells which made me very happy because I couldn't find one in indonesia. One of which was made out of a cereal bowel which if you know me was a double or maybe a triple bonus!

The next couple of days should be good and I will try to post something if I can. Since some of my friends decited stay in Sydney for a few days, they talked me into it as well. I figured it would be nice of me to stick around to show them some things there, purly as a service opportunity of course. Plus I alwyas seem to give into peer pressure ;). Well I think thats about it, talk to many of you soon!

More Ambon pictures

The navy band. Yes it does look like they are in their pjs or maybe just like big pillsburry dough boys. It was kinda funny though and I know they thought they were cool.

One of the sites where people are waiting to be seen a little different than sofifi ay?

One of our medical teams. The ladies in white shirts helped us, they were nurses and midwifes. They were soo nice and sweet. At this site it was cool because we had Indonesian Drs and Singapore Drs working with us so it was fun. Its cool how they all camee together to work or the cause. 

Me seeing a cute kiddo.

Cute pts and their parents waiting in line.

One of the foreign pharmacies working with us.

Ambon

Hello my blogging following folk! Sorry I have been slacking off a little bit on my bloggingness but between the not so good internet, being pretty busy, and the lack of motivation to write anything I’ve gotten a little bit behind I suppose so ill just sum past week or so in a nut shell. We have spent the last week or so in the city of Ambon or island or what ever it is. There I did some exciting thing. I got to pet some sacred eels and climbed up a mountain to see the sacred jar or some called it the devils urn  (we couldn’t quite figure which it was, hopefully it wasn't evil….).  We also went to a restaurant called the pandorama that had an awesome view of the city and had cool fish(for the most part) and good food.  I drank a fruit drink made out or something that sounded like Gonorrhea fruit that was surprisingly really good, I know your jealous, ha.  (I think it was actually some kind of mango fruit, hopefully…). I also got to go see some hot springs and attempted to do a little bit of shopping. However, at that point we did not have a translator and man you’d think Indonesians would be good bargainers but they weren't, so sadly it was kind of a loss cause. In addition, one night I went to the navy band concert. They were actually pretty good and they played all sorts of stuff from Michael Jackson to black eyed peas. It kinda reminded me of something you’d see at lagoon or Disneyland though so it made me kind of laugh.

Besides the playing part yes I did work (I know you were all wondering that I am sure). I worked at 2 different medcap sights while I was there. One was in a new hospital that was actually pretty nice and the other was at a sports park. It was kind crazy because it was a larger city and in both places there were TONS of people there so it was a lot different than the smaller sights i had been to. In fact the day before I went to the sports park the crowd got out of control and was doing crazy things so they had to stop the clinical site early. Luckily when I got there  it was a lot more peaceful (or at least peacefuller than they were the day before). It was fun though and I got to see lot of children and interesting things. The people seemed a lot more healthier and a little less poor so that was good.  

Here are some pictures:

 

ooo sacred eels, they were very friendly I thought. But one of my friends went there the next day and got bit, so maybe they just liked me…..

mmmm WAY yummy fish!!                         um lets just say not so yummy fish…      Yes gonorrhea juice!!

 

 

 

Me at the sacred? jar.                             View from the top of the mountain with the jar, it was amazing!