happy birthday, waldie's world!

it all started a year ago today. wow, does time fly.

life plans, or something like that

i figured since i’ve been on this computer way too long trying (unsuccessfully) to get my printer to work, that i should at least maybe post a quick update.

it’s been a tough week in this reid household. but it looks like we’ve at least decided that we’re going to stay in columbia for the year. we’re going to start looking for apartments because we have to be out of ours by may 10th. chris will get a job and we’ll try out the 2 breadwinners thing for a little while as he looks at grad schools and such for fall 2007. oh, and we’re getting a dog. because i want one.

africa to columbia

i just spent my first afternoon with the somali mothers to whom i will be teaching english every wednesday until who knows when. it's a long story how i stumbled upon this opportunity. but let's just say they need help and i'm happy to provide it.... except, yikes! how does one go about teaching reading, writing and speaking of english to people who speak no english? i should mention for those who don't know it already, i don't speak mai mai (their language) either! so this will be quite an intersting process and i certainly will be learning just as much (if not more) from them as they will be learning from me.

i have a few (very few) thoughts on how i think i might approach this task. but i realize that my friends and family are all highly intelligent people with brilliant ideas and lots of unique experiences. i'd be open to any and all constructive suggestions anyone might have as to how i could help these women learn english. post any thoughts here. seriously, dudes. ideas. i need them.

friends are good distracters

i thought i'd follow up the previous sad post with a bit more upbeat post.



thanks, melissa, for visiting over the weekend, especially given that essentially you paid a lot of money to put up with 2 cranky and depressed friends.

this picture was taken at congaree national park, where we beat the rain and took a nice little hike on saturday. we also ate good food, played games with more friends and drove around charlotte.

updates

i know chris has emailed and/or called most of his close friends and, for the most part, the word is out. so i thought i'd just go ahead and put it out here as well to get the prayers going. chris's dad, david, had his regular two-month check-up on thursday and they found some not so good news. the nodes are larger and more numerous in his lungs and it has metastasized again to his liver. obviously this is bad news and, in fact, is worse "bad news" than we really thought we'd get. the good news is that (other than the cancer) david is in excellent health. tricia keeps him pumped up on vitamins, he's eating healthier, goes to work, and is continuing to live his life like normal. he's going to go on 2 more chemos (4 total i think) and will keep going every other week to get his treatments.

that's pretty much all the news we have at this point but we'll update more as we know more. thanks, all, for your continued support and prayers for david and the family.

my cousins rock

literally.



last night chris and i went out to augusta, georgia to soul bar to hear my counsin's band, a fir ju well play. as always, the show was excellent and i am always immensely impressed by their level of skill and talent.

an added bonus was seeing fellow atlanta-based performer anna kramer.


anna was also an excellent performer and i really enjoyed her music. a fir ju well played backup for a bunch of her tunes and was impressed (yet again) by their level of skill on someone else's music.

both bands will be touring up the east coast and then a fir ju well will head west. check out both of a fir ju well's websites for dates and locations.

we took a bunch of pictures. click here to see the set.

just in case you doubted us

you may remember our stories about our peace corps recruiter being kind of flaky and always just repeating the same story to us.

well, we just got another round of emails from her today. thought i'd share, you know, so you all would be as up to date as we are.


Original Message from recruiter:

>From: "Lorenzo, Bernadette"
>To: 'waldie', chris reid
>Subject: Peace Corps
>Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:22:33 -0500
>
>February 10, 2006
>
>Hi Waldie and Chris:
>
>I just wanted to let you know that I submitted your biodata to
Placement.
>I
>will let you know when I hear something. Thanks for your patience.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Bernadette Zayas Lorenzo


Chris's Response:

From: Christopher Reid
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 2:40 PM
To: Bernadette Lorenzo
Subject: RE: Peace Corps

Thanks so much. We look forward to seeing where the next steps take us.

Chris


Bernadette's Response to Chris's Response:

February 10, 2006

Hi Chris and Waldie:

Thanks for your patience. It is a longer and tougher process for
couples.

I'll let you know when I hear anything.

Thanks,

Bernadette
(404) 562-nnnn


...so, uh, there you go.

sean asked

"why does the organic milk i just bought have a "sell by" date of march
25th? if anything, i would have thought that things without weird
chemicals in them would have gone bad faster."

and i responded pretty much like: "i don't know. i've noticed that one too. i'll do a little digging to see what i can find."

so, sean and others, here's what i've found.

there's no straight answer, (when is there ever, right?) not even with organic (sigh). apparently, sean, we're not the only ones to notice this. when i googled "organic milk expiration date" a lot of good hits came up. there's all ends of the spectrum in this debate, ranging from these guys, who make some valid points but are a little too pro-business/conspiracy thinking for my palate, to this group of concerned parents, who explain that it's because organic milk is ultra-pasteurized (see the link to know more about what that means), which removes the microorganisms and spores that cause spoilage.

i just got up to see what brand of organic milk i bought this week (i vary depending on where i shop). i have organic valley, which is certainly one of the larger businesses selling organic foods. the expiration date is march 17th and it looks like the milk was shipped out of wisconsin, though i can't quite tell because it says on the box that it's processed and packaged at a plant stamped above but i think that info is in code.

this raises an important point, of which i am constantly amazed that i have to remind my nieve self--buyer beware (even with organic). even though you think you’re doing good by buying organic, sometimes you could still do better. i think the pro-business guys are right that you should really pay attention to where in the US your dairy products (and all products) are being shipped from because we all know that local is better in so many ways (and there’s no argument against that!).

so thanks, sean, for asking the question and forcing me to do some research. when i go to rosewood this weekend i’ll be sure to pick up all the milk boxes and take a closer look.

help save americorps nccc

most of you all know that in 2001 chris and i met while volunteering with americorps national civilian community corps. if you've ever spoken to either one of us about our year of service you'll know that it was one of the most rewarding, life-altering experiences we've ever had the prilige of having (an not just because we met each other;).

well, in an effort to cut down the federal budget, president bush is threatening to completely shut down the nccc program. it really doesn't look good, judging from the comments today by the chairman of the board and the ceo of the corporation for national service. they just basically said that they'd like enough money to shut down the programs properly.

in my opinion (and the opinion of countless others) that's just simply not good enough. please sign a petition to help save the nccc program. even better, send a personal letter to your senator or congress person.

here were my comments about why i think americorps nccc is worth saving:
AmeriCorps*NCCC is a program with a rich history steeped in dedicated, quality service toward the American public. Stemming from the Civilian Conservation Corps, which provided valuable jobs to needy & able Americans in the 30’s & 40’s as well as laying down the foundation for much of our nation’s valuable natural infrastructures, the NCCC has lived up to its legacy by providing a myriad of invaluable services to Americans in every corner of our country. NCCC members have provided services that range from disaster relief in 2001 to victims of the attacks on NY and DC and in 2005 to victims of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, to helping build houses for the needy, to assisting low-income children achieve greater academic success. I implore you to maintain the funding of AmeriCorps*NCCC and allow future generations to continue delivering this valuable service to our fellow countrymen in need.

strike one

sorry, folks, for being MIA lately. i've just been swamped both at home and at work and have either not had the time or the brain power to put anything down here. it's not really going to let up until next month, too! yikes!

but we did have a little bit of new news today. we heard from catholic relief services, our thus far #1 choice for international service. and it was el negativo. chris spoke with the guy, a very nice gentlemen. and i was afraid we failed our personality tests. but that's not true. they just couldn't find a place to put us, a couple. so alas, that one's down. but it's good to know and we'll move on to other options. can't say i'm not bummed but we knew this going in. it's hard to find slots for married couples in the smaller programs. so it just wasn't meant to be and we'll look into putting more effort into the other 4 programs we're applying for.

blasted technology

here's a little fact about me. in some cases i'm really particular about details and making everything "just right," i.e. stuff at work. then, in other cases i couldn't care less about perfection, i.e. stuff with technology.

you may have noticed i've added a few links to the right of my blog. but my blog does some funny thing (it may have bothered you in the past) where it likes to just randomly add extra lines with bullets wherever it likes (eventhough the code is the same on each line). it now seems to want to be really obnoxious (look to your right now). if it bothers you you can either A) tell me how to fix it or B) suck it up.

i really don't care that much about it so i'm opting to B) suck it up (at least for tonight).

the trio is complete

check out my sister here. i can't promise it'll be grammatically correct, but she's a hoot!

weekend on

i wouldn't necessarily say we had a whole weekend on. but saturday chris and i spent 12 hours and 9 hours respectively roofing a house. we were volunteering with homeworks, a non-profit organization that does repairs on homes (kind of like habitat). it's always fun to get back into the saddle again, as they say. unless you end up like this:





and this is just the sunburn. you can't imagine how our arms, legs, hands, toes, EVERYTHING feels today. ouch! but good work was done. we should do it more often (once we recuperate).

eye of the tiger plays here

this is a little belated.



but contrats to kaiser for being a bad-ass! here's a marathon runner if i've ever seen one! that's 26.2 miles of pure running, for those not in the know. all for a good cause.

way to go, dude!

trip to the country

chris's nutz,
originally uploaded by Waldie's World.

chris and i went to south georgia this weekend to visit my grandparents who spend their winters down there. my parents were also visiting, so it was a double bonus.

it was good to be out in the quiet of the country and hear nothing but birds chirping (and dogs barking). we picked pecans! now we just have to find a place to get the cracked (anyone in columbia know of a place??). and we picked fresh turnips. i cooked them tonight at home. delicious!

i can't repost it

so i just sat here for like an hour and drafted this long post about chris's drug-induced recovery from his colonoscopy and how upsetting it was to see my husband so vulnerable. but before i could actually publish the post netscape crashed and i lost the whole post. it was really emotional for me to write and i just can't write it again.

i'll just leave it at this: i love my husband. it was heartwrenching for me to see his mind so altered. the image will be permanently engraved in my mind. i hope that we never have to deal with that permanently. life is delicate.

mom and bo, one night only!

as chris referenced, he and i made the treck to good ol' "hot-lanta" in the cold season to visit the parents.



mom helps out some friends with their wholesale business once a year at the americasmart. this place was crazy! the picture, of course, doesn't do it justice. this was just one of the buildings and the floors just go up and up.



one highlight, among many, was visiting with our favorite band (and cousins) a-fir-ju-well, redubbed for the weekend el-fir-ju-well.

a small rant

chris and i were all jazzed up to go to the georgia aquarium this weekend in atlanta. that is, until we realized it would be close to 50 bucks for us both to get in! that's right. $23 per ticket! that's crazy. so, needless to say, we won't be seeing the whale shark this weekend, not because he's not worth it, but because we can't afford it. :(

Don't think I forgot

Happy Birthday, Chirper!

An Epiphany on the Epiphany

I have suddenly realized something. And it’s not so much that I just now suddenly realized it. Because, truly, it’s a thought I’ve had all along during this process, but the reality of what it means has come to light for me and Chris during the past few days and I feel it’s worthy of a mention.

Many years ago Chris and I decided that we were going to Africa to be missionaries. It was a decision that the two of us made with much deliberation and much discussion between he and I . During the process, we have never gone to our family and friends and asked their permission to do this. We have asked advice. We have asked for blessings. But, like people do in major life decisions (marriages, moves, pregnancies), we just made a choice and moved forward with our plans.

Today (or over the course of the past couple of days, actually) I think Chris and I really started to understand the sacrifice that our friends and family are going to be making when we finally do go abroad. As I said, Chris and I made this decision about our life, but in so many ways, we made a major decision on behalf of everyone who cares for us. Because while we are gone in Africa, we are not at home with them. I know this may not translate to the blogosphere so well. But what I mean is that our friends and family will miss out on having us as a major part of their lives for the 2 years that we’re gone. We will not be there for holidays, celebrations, funerals (God forbid), accomplishments, etc. It is not simply that WE will miss these occasions, but we will not be there for THEM during these times. And in most cases, (as much as it may baffle me:) they seem to want us there. I don’t mean to sound egotistical or anything here. Bear with me.

My sister went to Italy for a year in college. Even all these years later, I still remember the Christmas she was gone as one that just was not right. It was like a piece of me was gone because she was not there. I was so used to her being around on holidays that I did not realize how much of ME resides with HER and how much of that comes out when we are together.

THAT is the sacrifice that we are asking our families to make. And that, in many cases, is a huge sacrifice for them. A sacrifice that they had no say in.

Now, I must say for the record that ultimately I don’t think that we should have asked anyone’s permission. And I am not necessarily apologizing for the decision that we have made to be missionaries. I am not apologizing because in many ways I think that the feelings of loss that some might actually have a purpose.

For one, that sense of loss that will be felt by our family is a microcosm for the loss and pain that the people we’ll be helping feel every day of their lives. Certainly I don’t mean this in terms of family and friends, because I am sure that they will have that. I mean in terms of equality, justice, sanitary conditions, basic human needs. The people in the part of the world that we look to serve are missing a whole lot more than we can ever imagine and I think that it is important for people to think about loss on a global scale, as well as a personal scale.


A second way that I think the feelings of loss can serve a purpose is in that it shows how connected our world is. When we speak of our world in terms of its global scale, we often think in terms of technology or environment. But I like to think of it this way. As I mentioned previously, while we are gone small pieces of our loved ones will also be gone with us. But we will be bringing those pieces of our friends and family with us to Africa. That piece of you that may be missing on Christmas when I am not there…that piece will be with me when I am in Africa as I am telling my story to those I meet. So even though our friends and family may not physically be present with us while we are gone, you will be there. And you will contribute to our service in a very real way. And when we come home, we will be bringing pieces of Africa with us to share with you. We will be bringing the world closer together as we try to make this planet more livable. It is an amazing way that you all will be sharing in our service.

I know you all did not ask to share in our service. But you will. What greater sacrifice can there be than to give of one’s own? And, essentially, without a choice. I cannot think of any greater sacrifice. And so to our family and friends, I say thank you.