Getting my visa

Getting my 6-month multi entry visa was an interesting experience. Being in a new country, even if it is pretty modern and not really understanding how the process worked and having to do it alone just wasn't something I was excited to do. I knew I could do it, I just didn't want to do it alone. But as it turned out, I didn't have to. While staying at the guest house, I met another guy (Brian) who needed to get one as well. There were several other people in the guest house who had gotten their visa's the day before, so they explained how it worked.

We had to bring a map with us because the majority of taxi drivers aren't familiar with where the embassy is. We needed a second map for on the way home so we could tell the taxi driver how to get to the guest house.

When you walk in the gate, the first building you enter looks like a shed. Inside you pay a small fee so the man behind the counter can organize your paper work and staple a passport size photo in the proper spot. Then he gives you a number and sends you back out the way you came to another room. This room has a bunch of chairs and to the left of the entrance is the processing center. The processing center is behind a sliding glass window, it looks a lot like a drive-up bank teller.

Here the man behind the counter tried to talk me into getting a 3-month visa instead of a 6-month visa. I guess everything is negotiable? After several times of telling him "no, I need a 6-month visa," he finally relented. I paid my money and then he explained there was an additional small fee for paying in US currency. I didn't have the correct change and so he "waived" it. I'm not really convinced this fee was required but either way I was thankful he waived it. After he took all my paper work, he told be to come back at 1pm. It was 9:45am. Since they are celebrating Ramadan, the office was closing at 2pm.

We had been advised not to leave incase the office decided to close earlier. My flight left the next day and I didn't want to mess up my first assignment. Without my visa I would not be allowed to enter the country. A lot of people were waiting, there had to be about 50 people in the waiting room. At 12:30p we noticed other people who had paid before us had gone up to the window, got their passport back and their visa. They never called names or anything, people just went back up to the window. In hind sight, we probably could have gone up earlier but .

The oddest part was what people did while they waited. I brought a book, which prior to this I thought was pretty much what people did. Well, some people brought their nail clippers and clipped their toes. I can honestly say I never thought to give myself a pedicure while waiting for something.

Keep Smiling!!

Last Week Home

This time next week, I will be on my way. I am scheduled to arrive Sept 2 and as of today that is still the plan. The circumstances are fluid so I am preparing that my actual arrival might be delayed. More then likely I will still leave on the 30th but may be stuck overseas at a hotel for a few days before I can complete the last leg of the trip.

It is so good to be home. The training was well worth it. I feel much better equipped and prepared for things. I know it won't be an easy or a short transition but I think/hope knowing that helps. They say the average length of time it takes to adjust to a transition like this is 18 months. I find that amusing since my contract is for 24 months.

We spent a lot of time learning about transitioning and all the different aspects of our lives that are in transition. One of biggest challenges will be feeling like you don't fit in anywhere, specifically not feeling at home in the new culture but not really fitting in your old culture either. I think I feel aspects of that already, especially when I talk about the training. The people and the topics we studied really had an impact. Have you ever tried to tell someone a story and they understand what you said but they don't get the impact? I think a lot of the next two years will be like that for me. Some people will understand the impact and I'll need to be patient with those that don't.

Saying good-bye was another topic in the training. I didn't realize how much I struggle with saying good-bye until this experience. Saying good-bye is hard when you have loved well and been loved well. Which I have. The idea is to think of goodbyes as a celebration of that love. You need to say goodbye and allow yourself to grieve and mourn the loss/change in the relationship. Focus on enjoying each day and celebrating the time you had together. This week, the plan is to do a lot of that with my family.

My sister from CA arrives Thursday morning. My brother took this weekend off from work. I am looking forward to spending some quality time with the family. The plans are to get pedicures (not my bro), eat a ton of sushi and all my favorites and spend as much time outdoors as possible. Maybe do some more kayaking? Oh and I'll have to finish packing.....where is that packing easy button?
Keep Smiling!

MacGyver Training; the simulation

In case any of you will be taking this training I cannot go into much detail about the simulation we experienced yesterday. Essentially experienced a scenario that unfortunately is a possibility in the country I am going to. The group was divided in half, married couples were separated and 21 of us were herded together (Bill C. was unavailable). I think the whole ordeal lasted an hour maybe an hour and a half, but it was extremely intense. I cannot begin to describe who real it felt. It put all the emergency preparedness drills I've been involved with to shame.

We knew we were going to experience a simulation and that it was going to test how we responded to stress. It is such a relief to know that I remained calm, was alert and able to process information and make decisions quickly. Not everyone in the group responded that way, some people really shut down. I found myself making a mental check list to make sure everything was getting addressed. Things I thought about were; was someone checking in on the others, who was our leader, did we have any supplies, what information did we know, how many people were outside, etc. During this whole time I never once thought about my family. I know that sounds horrible but I couldn't go there, it would have made the situation worse.

One leader never surfaced and in hind sight, that might have hurt us. I did ask who was the leader, but didn't push it. Maybe I should have? There were about 2-3 men at different points who took the lead and made decisions. I felt like they listened to my input and I wasn't offended by their desire to protect the women. I wonder if we could have done things differently, what would have happened if we did this or that. The purpose wasn't to show us what the right outcome was but to evaluate our response. A few key take home points; we made decisions based on the information we had available to us at the time and maybe in scenarios like this, there is no right decision. The purpose was look at how we responded to stress and work on those skills, not the decisions we made. And most importantly, this wasn't real. After our debriefing yesterday we had the rest of the day off.

Our evening was much more relaxing. We did a little shopping, watched a chick flick, ate snacks and laughed. It was the perfect ending to a very stressful day.

MacGyver Training; one week down two to go

This training/orientation has been intense. We are in class from 8:45am to about 4pm and all this self reflection is mentally and emotionally exhausting. Thankfully the facilitators are fantastic and this is by far the best training I have ever attended.

The first week we talked about building community, value awareness, cultural differences and conflict management. We ended the week discussing how our conflict management style varies with stress. The facilitator kept saying that if you aren't willing to grow in how you manage conflict then you shouldn't be doing a job like this. I can see why, it's so important to understand how to manage conflict and how your style changes with stress. Especially when in 3 weeks my whole life will be a state of change (stress) and it's going to take a long time to adapt.

This week we are talking about adversity, stress and managing stress. They had us use the Holmes and Rahe Stress scale. The results are based on the number of times in the past 12 months you have experienced these 43 life events. The events include a wide array of items ranging from death of a family member to school starting/ending. Needless to say the majority of the group, myself included scored above a 300. This equals a life crisis stage of severe and indicates that the probability of us experiencing a deterioration in our health is 79%. The type of deterioration in health depends on how well we manage stress. Lets hope that I fall into the 21% that won't experience a health deterioration.

After the first week, I was so thankful that our weekend was free. On Saturday, I went with a couple and their 3 boys to Pike's Peak. It was amazing!! We drove, we didn't hike up to an elevation of 14,110 feet. The temperature on the top was 48 degrees, at the bottom it was 84 degrees that day. There was still small patches of snow and we had a small now ball fight. I can say with a high level of confidence that I have never had a snow ball fight in August before. I attached a photo of the view from the top but it hardly demonstrates how beautiful it is.

As informative as this training is, I'm reaching my limit of self evaluation. I apologize to those of you I have called. Please forgive me for encouraging you to reflect and evaluate what's important in your life. The end of this week the topics get "lighter" and we should be able to chat about such exciting things as how the Yankee's swept the Red Sox =)

Keep Smiling,

Jen

Arrived at Training

Just a quick note to say that I arrived at my training. This place is beautiful; the mountains are spectacular and the view is breathtaking. As part of our orientation this evening they did a section on preventing the spread of germs since we are all living in such close quarters and that pleased my heart. We were cautioned that black bears have been spotted in the area but no rattle snakes.

We are in a conference center at the base of the mountains. Every thing we need is located here, including a work out room. There are mountain trails for hiking, biking and running just out the back door. There are about 42 people here plus 14 children and we are going to 19 different countries. I am so excited, I met 2 other girls who are going to the same city I will be in. One is a nurse (Ashley) and the other is community developer (Jody). Jody is traveling the same time I will be. I am staying an extra day at the B&B so we won't actually arrive in country together. This has been so awesome and I haven't even been here a full day. The training will be intense, the days look long but I think it will be fantastic. It's times like this that confirm I made the right decision. I'll have to remember these memories to carry me through when things get tough.

Support Letter

Why Afghanistan?

As I debated my decision to spend two years in Afghanistan, these statistics pulled on the strings of my heart. Afghanistan is the least developed country in the world. 70% of the population lives in extreme poverty. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the probability of dying between birth and 1 year’s old in Afghanistan is 165 per 1,000 births. While in the United States its 6 per 1,000. In Afghanistan 1 out of 5 women die from pregnancy related complications. Things shouldn’t be like that.

I want to help and feel called to go. I have traveled with Cure before and what I find appealing about this organization is that Cure International transforms the lives of children and their families through medical and spiritual healing. I believe they work at treating the whole person, not just the physical ailments. They have established specialty teaching hospitals in ten different countries. With ten hospitals, why did I choose this one? This hospital is unique because the emphasis is on treating both the women and children of Afghanistan.

Cure Afghanistan is a 100-bed teaching hospital, which includes a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and a bustling Family Health Center. Cure has worked hard to establish a General Practice Residency Program, an OB/GYN Fellowship training program and OB/GYN training for nurses and midwives. Cure Kabul has treated more than 120,000 patients since opening in early 2005.

What will I be doing at the hospital?

During my two-year stay in Kabul, I am going to be the Director of Nursing at the hospital. I will be responsible for planning, directing and evaluating the activities for the nursing and midwifery departments. There are currently over 90 employees in these two departments. I will be one of many new leaders starting this summer.

I would be grateful if you keep me in your thoughts as I prepare to go and while I am in Afghanistan. As this new team of leaders arrives at the hospital I'm asking that we will encourage and build up one another. May our ministry to the staff and our patients be meaningful and have transformative results.

Another way you can help is to make a financial contribution. I have a fundraising goal to raise $24,000. All donations are tax deductible. Any gift amount would be greatly appreciated.

Donation Instructions;

Visit www.helpcurenow.org

1. Get involved

2. Give

3. Support Cure Staff – scroll down to my name and picture

4. Select “give now” or “give monthly”

5. Under “donor designations” please select my name.

Thank You!!

Homeless, well sort of.

It's official, I sold my house!! The closing was today, although I signed the papers last night because I didn't want to be at the closing. Now it's off to Banana Republic to spend the money. LOL, just kidding. I'm now living back at home with my parents. It's only for two weeks and it will be nice to spend time with the family before I leave for Colorado Springs on Aug 3.

I have been blessed with a great family and amazing friends. A huge "Thank you" to all who have helped me pack up and move!! I am learning this whole process is more emotional then I expected. I have so appreciated all the words of encouragement from so many of my friends. I am feeling a little needy right now and having you all to listen, encourage and/or distract me has been wonderful.

I'm not having second thoughts but this is hard. I'm so caught up in the details, I have forgotten how excited I was about this opportunity. There is still a lot to do in the next 2 weeks and little by little it will get done. The first thing I need to finish is my presentation for the fund raising event. If you are interested in supporting me, please see the post titled "support letter" it also explains a little more about why I decided to do this.

I went for a run today and despite the humidity it felt awesome. Its been a few days (well 4), since I've been able to run. Between the move and thunderstorms getting outside has been tough. I typically run with headphones and will listen to an array of music. My music taste is a little schizophrenic but today this song took my mind off of the run. It's from the musical "Rent" and it asks "how do you measure a year". I couldn't help but wonder next year, when I'm back for a visit; how will I measure a year? How different will I be, how much will have changed here and a little less philosophical will I still be running?

I was told to bring modest work out clothes, which I thought shorts and t-shirts. Thankfully I asked and was told capri work-out pants are better. I can only wear shorts if no Afghan men are present. And no I won't be running through the streets any more. The apartment I'll be in has some exercise equipment and there are always the stairs. I'm sure I'll find more spots once I'm there.
Keep Smiling,
Jen