Overwhelmed on a Friday....how sad

Well now that the week is over, I feel more overwhelmed than I did on Monday.... Is there something wrong with this picture?
Last weekend, I volunteered for GR3 again and had a blast once again hanging out with the kids, the community, and the other volunteers. Our job was to screw on the toilet seats to the risers and then deliver the risers to the appropriate houses to complete the latrines. GR3 along with Habitat and another relief organization raised enough money to donate a bunch of latrines to this community. It was neat to see how excited people were to receive their riser and to complete the process of their latrine. Some of the people had some older latrines and they were really gross. Not gross just old and delapidated. They take care of them and follow instructions on how to take care of them, but they can only do so much with a hole in the ground filled with human waste if you know what I mean.
Gross subject, I move on. So that was Saturday and then Sunday I went to church of course and then on my way out of the service, Greta called asking me to come to the beach with them. Not a hard decision we did not have any major tests that next week, I was on my way home.
So Linda, Greta, and I layed out on the beach for a while, then went swimming. Then we had the great idea to build sandcastles in the sand. Well we ended up building animals in the sand. Linda sculpted a turtle and a startfish and I made a crab and a really ugly fish. This took us at least 45 minutes, but it was so fun just to relax!! We had a really good time!!
So Sunday, Greta's sister was flying into Grenada to stay for a couple days, so we went to the airport to pick her up and you will never guess who I ran into! Dr. Landis and Mr.Landis (professors from Texas A&M). It was crazy I only had like a second to talk with her but I told her I would find her. That next day (Monday) I saw Dr. Sis (the dean of the veterinary school) on campus and I practically tackled him trying to ask him about Dr. Landis and where she was and if I could meet up with her. So after class he invited me up to his office and gave me their schedule for the week. Apparantly she was invited by the St. Georges to come and take a look at the University so that she could become a a pre-vet advisor for St. George's Veterinary school. So Dr. Sis took me with him to the welcome dinner for the advisors that night and I ended up talking to Dr. Landis for about 2 hours. She had tons of questions and so did I about A&M and Grace and many other things. She is a really great professor and an even better person. She was very sympathetic about my whole situation with A&M and was very proud and grateful that St. George's was here for an option for me. Honestly, I am glad too. Eventhough I might feel really overwhelmed at this moment and like I do not know how I can possibly learn all this information in a week for midterms, I know that I am here for a greater reason. I have no idea what that reason is and I might never know, but He is right there experiencing it all with me and walking right beside me often times having to pick me up when I fell. His love keeps me going and keeps me waking up every morning.
Well I have a soccer date in a couple minutes, it is 5 o'clock on a Friday!!
Have a great weekend!!
Love and miss all of ya!!

people wading at Grande Anse beach at dusk 

Grande Anse at night 

Saturday, 3/12/05

Hola,
What a day!! It has flown by...I'll tell you what. This morning, Linda(one of my classmates) and volunteered for GR3 again. (Grendian relief fund). Again, the group travelled out to Dunbar and this time we delivered wooden toilet seats for the latrine and fastened them to the risers as they called them. This is how I would discribe...A latrine is like an outhouse, there is a hole dug and there is some specifics like 6 feet deep, certain width etc. and then on top of this hole they place a concrete slab with a rectangle hole in it. This is then placed on as much as poossible level ground. The riser is then placed over this concrete slab hole. The risers are concrete molds that someone made and last week they were delivered. So the people were excited today because we showed up with the tiolet seats and officially they could start using them. It was fun, we got to hang out with the kids again and did a lot of waiting and trying to figure out where we could deliver the new risers and toilet seats. I still had a good time, we left about 3:00 and Vip(another volunteer- 3rd term medical student) graciuosly gave us a ride home and then I was back on the bus to meet my group for dissection on our dog. We need to finish the forelimb and hindlimb muscles. We got fairly far tonight and so I feel better and less behind. Because we are supposed to start our dissection on the abdomen next week and we were no where near ready to do that.
Now I am in the medical histology lab, studying my histology slides. I feel pretty cool because the medical students do not have slide boxes and us vet students do, so I am looking at all these slides under the microscope that most have them have never even turned on. This is a definte plus having a smaller class.
I think I am going home in a little bit. Gotta catch the bus and then must do some Physiology before bed. Hopefully, my roomate will be up. She wants to go running with me tomorrow. I am excited that she is interested, she will not be able to go very long, but at least she wants to go. She needs some stress relief! Poor thing! She is doing good in school but she just failed a minor quiz on Friday and so she is scared. All she does is study though, so I am really glad that she is showing interest!!
Have a great night, by the way ...everyone I got a phone. Please feel free to call me whenever...just be aware that it is about 40 cents per minute for you to call me. The good thing is...it won't cost me anything. But it is expensive, so I really don't expect any calls from the US, but in case of emergency, like engagements,weddings, congratulations (like I got a job), those things would be great to hear. Enough of that... the number is 1-473-534-4828
Love you guys!!! and miss ya too!!

Thursday, the long haul is over for a while

It is the 10th and Physio tests are done with until midterms,yeah... i guess!
Again, I wish I had better news to share but all I can say is I passed. I made the exact same grade... I guess that I am going to have to deal with the fact that I might just be a C student. I really do not want fall into that.. so I am still going to try and do my very best. What else can I do?
So I plan on going to the grocery store and getting some food, taking it easy for an hour or so then coming back up to school and studying for my quiz tomorrow. It is never ending, I'll tell ya. However, it is an anatomy quiz and I don't mind studying for it at all!
I better run and catch the bus before it leaves me... because those crazy drivers will leave me!
Take care all hope you have a great Friday!!

Monday the 7th

Hi All!!
The last couple of days have been a whirlwind, in fact, today I thought it was Friday. Scary huh.
That is what happens when your life revloves around studying. I do faintly remember going to church yesterday so that must have been Sunday.

Actually, church was really good yesterday. Phil lead the service (he is my bible study leader) and did a great job on the topic of suffering.
There is one thing that he said that sticks out in my mind, it was this story that he told. I'll paraphase it for you, there was this little boy that really liked rabbits and he had always wanted one, but never had the money to get one. In the newspaper he saw this ad for Easter and it was a contest for kids to do this little easter egg hunt thing and the kid that found this special kind of easter egg would win a real live baby bunny. Well the little boy was so excited and he prayed to God asking Him for this bunny and saying how much he had always wanted one and how he would take really good care of it and everything. After the little boy got done praying he was intent on the fact that he was really going to find this special egg and win the bunny. So the contest came and the little boy was competing against a bunch of little kids and sure enough another kid found the special egg. The little boy was devestated and he asked God," why did I not win this rabbit, I asked you for it and I really wanted it." So the little boy walked home alone without the rabbit. On his way home, the little boy passed by the pet store and he noticed that the other boy that had found the special egg and won the rabbit was in the store redemming his prize. So as he walked by the little boy he overheard him say to the store manager, "my mother says that our apartment wont allow pets so I can't have the bunny." So the little boy jumped on this opportunity and asked if he could have the rabbit. The other boy willingly handed over the bunny and the little boy walked back with it under his coat thanking God the whole was home.
So the whole point of this story was to say that God listens to your prayers and eventhough he might not grant them in the timing that you would like or the way that you wanted it to happen, he listens and he does answer them. This story got me crying (surprized, I know!!! I am pathetic). But it really hit home for me.

This week is a duzey, test after test after test. I am so tired right now, but I have got to at least get through one chapter in Physio before the night is over.

Love you all and miss you all <---look at how I am writing ( I am hanging around to many Yankees) I mean "yall"

Heidi

Tuesday, March 1st

Wow!!! So it is March already!!
Hard to believe!!! I have almost been in school for a month! Tests are getting out of control. We have a test Wednesday, quiz Friday, test Monday, test Thursday, and then a quiz Friday. So the next couple of days are devoted to hard core studying. I just hope that all my hard work plays off in the long run!
The weather is wonderful but havent gotten to spend much time out in it because of studying and all. The other night I went for a run out onto this little jetty. It was amazine.... i was like out in the middle of the ocean. The little jetty is called quarentine point. It was beautiful. Wish I would have had a camera with me.
Well I better get going... gotta a long night ahead of me and I am battling food poisoning at the moment so I am not feeling very well. Take care eat some good food for me!!