Many people liked the post I wrote about my training ground in Holeta. They even asked what happened afterwards. Well everything have written from November up until now has been exactly the “afterwards”.
Thanksgiving marked a week since my return to what I call my home state of Washington. I was an African who grew up in America and than visited her native land. Tongue tied?
As long as I can remember I was reminded that I was born small as in very light weight (or underweight). People didn’t think I would make it past my first birthday. Yes that was 30 odd years ago. When I was abroad I realized why this phrase was wandering aimlessly in my mind. Most young children have a short morality rate as a young infant. In a very poor country that is known for famine that fact is sadly a reality. People when they met me seemed shocked that the young baby they saw had not only turned into a woman yet she survived.
Now its been two days since I began this post. I thought about the title of Take Care of Yourself and decided that it actually sticks. My main thing I wanted to write about was how I have been learning to take care of myself. I traveled and learned how to help my mom as she learned to live in a new era of her life as a retired elementary school eduactor and counselor. It was a huge change for her after living in the States for over 30 years. Now she had to not just learn how to live with post polio sydrome but living in a country that didn’t have as much assitance for those living with disablities. In a way she became a pioneer in this area or cause.
One thing she wanted me to learn was how to take care of myself like most of my peers did. Living either by myself or with a roomate. Cooking meals and keeping house was another thing that I had a difficult time doing when I was married. So doing it on my own would have been a challenge.
At some point in the last year I made up my mind that had I was given the chance to truely start over I would make it a personal goal to do whatever it took to become a person who overcame these challenges and others.
So when people would ask me on the weekends or whenever I heard from my mom while I was here the last several months. I simply answered that I was learning living skills. I wanted to learn how to cook. I was determined to make meals that needed an oven or stove top. I wanted to refresh my basic skills of baking cookies. Especially when it had to do with the kind that didn’t mean put it on the baking and warm up. I meant mixing cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons. In my mind I thought if I was going to learn this… than I ought to do it the right or hard working way. Food that was good for me not just microwavable.
So these days I haven’t blogged much because I had started a job that takes a lot of my time and learning how to be a good worker. It was something most would say I was born to do. In the hospitality industry I am a front desk person who greets people and checks them into… a spa.
To be continued……
