(no subject)

[blue_lotus13]

I've been doing a variety of rather interesting things, but strangely enough, I haven't really felt like writing about them.

I'm working on a new and rather large project, which has me so jazzed that I can barely think about it without getting excited. This project is one of the many reasons I'm not doing Nanowrimo. I'm still not ready to reveal it, but I had a meeting about it on Friday which was very beneficial. Coincidentally, I find that the novel inside my head is beginning to solve itself. Maybe someday I'll be able to write it.

I met up with a bunch of former CCA interns last Thursday. CCA stands for the Canadian Cooperative Association, and they are the organization I interned for in 2003. Our intern supervisor, John, arranged a dinner for a few of the former interns who are living in Vancouver. My roommate is a former intern, and we met several interns who had spent time in Ghana, and got to see our friend Mary, who was a co-intern with Kristi in the Philippines. I learned that the Mongolian project has been shut down due to governmental interference, and my former supervisor, Ingrid, is moving to Sri Lanka to help with a tsunami relief project. I feel somewhat sad about this but it is all part of international development work.

I also heard the craziest story about a woman who participated in the Woman mentorship program this year. I keep thinking about this story and it has made a strange impact on me. The womanès mentorship program is for women from developing countries, who participate in exchanges throughout Canada to work in credit unions so they can learn new skills. A woman from Uganda was a participant in the program. Before this particular woman left Uganda, she had been having a few problems with her vision, but it did not seem serious for her to stay at home, so she got on the plane for Canada. However, once she got to Canada, she went blind in one eye and then started losing vision in the other. Of course, CCA rushed her to the hospital and it was discovered that she had a brain tumour!! CCA has insurance to cover the surgery, and they refused to send her back to Uganda where she would not be able to receive proper medical attention. The surgery will be able to remove the tumour and she will be able to regain or save a lot of her vision. When she met with her surgeon, she refused to believe him when he told her that only 2% of patients die on the operating table, as anyone who had this surgery in Uganda would most likely die. She also told the CCA staff that upon hearing the news about the tumour, her first instinct was to return to Uganda and kill herself, because as a blind woman with a tumour would been a burden to her family and would not be able to take care of her children. This really struck me.

She is currently living in an apartment in the Ugandan high commission in Ottawa, will undergo her surgery, and will recover in Canada. CCA and her sponsoring credit union hope to fly one of her relatives out to be with her, as she is both rather lonely and scared.

I just keep on thinking about this story, about circumstances, chance and fate, how we should never take anything for granted, how important helping others is, and how I want what I choose to do to make a difference for someone else, even if it is a very small difference.

Comments

[pescana.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for sharing that! What a good story, and it is inspiring. I want to make a difference too, somehow.

Good luck with the secret project! I hope some day you can share with us what it is.

[monkeyhouse.livejournal.com]

WOW. that's a striking story. thank you for sharing that!

[mirabillia.livejournal.com]

that is so shocking! do you know what the woman's name was? i wonder if i ever met her in uganda...

i want to hear more about the intern dinner - i will call you.

xo e