Memphis

Yesterday I went to Siloam in the afternoon. It was a slow afternoon, so I spent the time filing patient forms.
Today, TJ and I drove to Memphis. She met with some fellow scientists she's collaborating with. They took us to lunch and then talked for a while. Then TJ and I drove around for a while. We drove past the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assasinated. It's been turned into a civil rights museum, but it had closed by the time we got there. So we went to the Peabody Hotel. They have ducks that live on the roof that ride the elevator down to the lobby twice a day. We had gone to see the ducks, but we missed them. So we had dessert at the restaurant indside. It was pretty fancy. The waiter put a napkin in my lap for me right before he brought out the food. They were super nice and super attentive. TJ and I shared a chocolate souffle and an apple briggette. They were delicious. Then we drove to Dyersburg which is about 2 hours north of Memphis. Tomorrow TJ has a workshop on alphabet therapy (which is a way to teach kids with Angelman's how to read). So the two of us will set up tomorrow morning.

Mañana

Fran got in last night. I made a pineapple upsidedown cake for dessert and it was very yummy. The twins had some for breakfast today. Anyway, Fran and I took TJ to work so that we would have a car. This afternoon we have to pick up Louie, TJ, and then a couple people from the airport.

I will go to Siloam tomorrow afternoon for my training and will start volunteering every Thursday afternoon.

Metamorphosis

Not too much been going on here. I haven't started at Siloam yet. I should hear from them tomorrow or Wednesday. Mostly I've been driving around Nashville (almost all of it lost) and helping TJ with Louie. A couple nights ago I went to a play with Lena. It was called Metamorphosis and it was the strangest play I have ever seen. It was about a guy who turns into a dung beetle. The acting was good, but the play was terrible. Last night everyone watched the Oscars which was kinda fun. Today I went to TJ's office and helped a lady down the hall make copies. She had 13 packets that she was going to hand out at some fair/conference type thing, so she needed 50 copies of each packet. And each of the packets were a different colour. But she had a student helper, so the two of us stood around in the copy room all day talking and (of course) copying.

Dinners

I haven't begun volunteering at Siloam yet, but I have been busy. Yesterday was mostly spent cleaning house to get ready for the dinner party. Dave is trying to recruit a surgeon, so we had a dinner for him (the recruit) and his wife. The man is from India, but grew up mostly in the states and his wife grew up in India. They met because they were in a traditional/classical Indian band. They have two little boys (7&4) who play violin and tennis respectively. They seem like really nice people and Dave is really hoping they'll come. So dinner was fun and interesting.

Today, I dropped TJ off at work so I could have the car. I spent some time wandering Nashville and poking my head into various shops. I came back for TJ in the afternoon and we picked Louie up from school. Then we met the twins at their school because their lacrosse team was having a dinner there. TJ left for another dinner with the recruit and a bunch of the Vanderbilt faculty and Louie, the twins and I came home.

Part Two

After a rather long intermission, I have decided what Act II of my year off will be. I am living with my cousins in Nashville TN and will be volunteering at a local clinic. I had the orientation for the clinic this morning. They showed us (myself and the other new volunteers) around. The building is very nice; it's open and has lovely murals on a lot of the walls and gorgeous art from all over. One of the really fascinating things about the clinic is how diverse it's clientele is. 79% of the patients are immigrants or refugees and come from more than 100 countries. They keep a map on the wall and put a pin in each country they have a patient from. It's an impressive number of little black pins covering the map. Anyway, back to the main track, after the tour we watched a short video telling the story of one of the patients to give us a better sense of how the clinic worked. We had morning prayer with the volunteers (they have a short prayer before each work shift) and then filled out applications. (I found it a little odd to have orientation before filling out an application, but that's because orientation is pretty general; once you know what you'll be doing, they have you shadow someone to get more specific training.)

After that (it was only a couple hours) Lena brought me home (since I have no car here) and we all had lunch. Then TJ, Louie and I ran some errands. One of them was to look for [drinking] glasses at an antique store. TJ found some she liked and I found a book. It's a book about Rudyard Kipling, it's 83 years old and it's a first edition. I got it for $14 even though the price written on the inside was $24. So that was cool. When we got back to the house, I started on dinner. I made Rueben sandwiches which turned out very well.

And that has pretty much been my day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last Day

I turned in my phone and keys. Then I filled out an evaluation that was really not directed towards me. It asked about my salary, overtime, benefits, work hours...all things that I didn't get. Leslie and I were cracking up the whole time. I had to write NA on half of it. It was quite amusing.

I went back to my trailer and finished Christmas cards and stuff for everyone, then packed the last of my things. My plane leaves tomorrow morning. So ends this adventure.

"The end is the beginning of all things,
Suppressed and hidden,
Awaiting to be released through the rhythm
Of pain and pleasure"

Pearlington

Leslie called this morning to say there was a change of plan. I was supposed to go to Luling today and John and Lisa were going to come help Mike and Henry with a house in Pearlington. But John and Lisa are both very sick today, so I stayed in Pearlington to help. Leslie said it was unlikely a lot would be accomplished in Luling today anyway, since it's supposed to rain a lot. So I went to a house with Mike and Henry. It's one of those stilt houses and we were reinforcing a couple of the joists. So we had to put a second 4 x 12 board in two spots where it was a little saggy (these went in horizontally on the underside of the floor). Then we had to put 4 x 4s (vertically) underneath the 4 x 12s to keep those from sagging too. And of course everything had to be nailed in. (Mum, you might want to skip this sentence) And since it was a stilt house all this was being done several feet off the ground, mostly on makeshift scaffolding. We got there about 9 and finished around 2. Then we went back to the village to scrounge up some lunch. Mike and Henry went to look at a client's house and I came to my trailer. I'm sort of considering a nap right now, but I'll probably just play cards.