UPDATE - May 9, 2008

The South African Librarian
A man goes into a library and asks for a book on suicide.
The librarian takes one look at him and says
"Voetsek, who's gonna bring it back?"

A Major Earthquake
A major earthquake, measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale hit Nigeria this morning. 350 000 Nigerians have died and over a million have been reported injured. The country is totally ruined and the government does not know where to start with providing help.
The rest of the world is in shock; Canada is sending troops to assist the country. Europe is sending food and money.
South Africa is sending 350 000 replacement Nigerians.

PEOPLE I HAVE SEEN

Amanda Edwards

Kristin Dukes

Mark Little

May 9, 2008

UPDATE

The biggest event going on in the world right now, in my opinion is the tragedy in Burma. So I wanted to include a link to give. It’s strange that in moments like these sometimes we (the world) can come together in ways that we cannot in “peace” or peaceful times. I don’t look forward to returning to the “clarity” that we as a world community have after we deal with the situation there. My hope is our clarity becomes more perspicacious so that our giving an aid is not only sporadic but intelligent and constant through calamity and constant in continual need. I’ve added a link below for you to give through one of my favourite organizations – World Vision who has been in the country working hard to provide relief.

http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=1712646&ppi=52780986&cmp=EMC-12371141&section=10025&xxwvCampaign=12371141&daniel_prod_ses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

Ok, that link is too big. How about this shorter one:

http://www.worldvision.org/news.nsf/news/myanmar-cyclone-20080505?open&lid=20225&lpos=fea_txt_MyanmarERDMVid_LearnMore

:D

Hi, how are you? I went to Grahamstown last weekend to visit Haley and attend Brenda’s birthday party. It was a nice affair where we dressed up and had name cards for our places. We even switched seats for each course to talk to a different person. It was very fancy and Eben (a friend of Rosa, Haley, and the host, Brenda) and I helped to cook between the salad and the main course. It was fancy and nice.

It seems like the Eastern Cape is MUCH colder than it is in CT. But this week the big switch started happening. Since it has gotten colder we will probably pass below the cold temperatures in Grahamstown and the Eastern Cape as we plunge to the usually coldest winter in the country. The strange thing as I look out each day this week at the dreary sky) people want to come here during our WINTER. June, July, August are bleak. We have many days in a row where it’s rainy. Tiri another postdoc who just got a lectureship in the maths department said that it rained two weeks straight when arrived two months ahead of me in July. So it’s nasty and it really occults the beauty of the city.

In other news (if you read from the story above), an e-diagnosis of hemorrhoids was correct. My doctor diagnosed me with a minor case of piles for which I’m currently taking medicine. We’ll see if it goes away in two weeks time. It should. . . .(gulp!).

My church offers an HIV/AIDS and crisis pregnancy course to train people to staff a future HIV/AIDS and crisis pregnancy counseling centre. There is a course that you must take before this. But because I would miss too much of it due to lectures, they did not allow me to take it. I was SO elated when they allowed me to take the second course without taking the first because of my knowledge of AIDS since I do AIDS research. Then I still had to get the second course approved because I would miss the first hour each week for the first 4 weeks (lectures end in a week and a half, now). They finally approved it (thanks to wonderful Rachel, the church nurse). But when the first day came (two Wednesdays ago), the 2^nd course I lecture was extended, so I had to give a lecture for that also on Wednesday from 1-3. This was problematic because I was supposed to do my 9-10 lecture and then be at church by 10:15. When the day came, I wasn’t prepared to lecture at 1-3. And I decided the students were my first priority. Well, I didn’t even work on the presentation until about 12 and it was the best one! A student sent an e-mail thanking me for switching (he asked me to change the style somewhat) and for teaching the material well. It was nice. BUT it meant that I missed almost the whole day. I decided to go anyway expecting them to kick me out. They let me in!!! I couldn’t believe it. SO it was nice. So I went in and caught the end of the day and got to hear one of the leaders of the course treat all of us counselors (we’re all counselors even if on an informal level in terms of informal experience among family and friends; we’re all people that others lean on) like patients or clients. And we had to do a lot of touchy-feely introspection and sharing in a circle of confidence and vulnerability. It’s strange a bit. It’s like being counseled to be a counselor. But they say you must know yourself in order to counsel.