a summer to love.

     may 5^th came and i was so thankful that the seemingly never-ending semester had, by the grace of God, come to a successful close. what better way to celebrate such happiness than cinco de mayo! although maybe the most challenging season of my life, the semester was also one of the best. I have learned and gained so much experience and I am so thankful to be in this nursing program. 

the next day i flew with my best pal (aka sister) claire to sanibel, florida where my parents and three youngest siblings are now residents. the sun and sand and salt air and bike rides and the pool and boat rides and the relaxing and having fun with my siblings has finally arrived.

     in just one week that went by way too quickly, i was back on a place to pennsylvania for the wedding of lauren, my close friend since childhood. my sister emily and her husband shami had already arrived from rwanda; I hadn’t seen them since their wedding 7 months prior. emily and i were the matron and maid of honor in lauren and josh’s wedding, and it was a beautiful and fun day.

     two days after the wedding, i flew with emily and shami and sister sarah and her husband dan to newport beach, california, to visit shami’s family, where his parents and brother and sister live. my brother jon lives about 5 hours north of newport beach, so he drove down to spend the week with us. although i wished that the rest of my siblings could have been there, we had such a fun time! we walked the beaches and watched the surfers and i daydreamed about the day when I would be a california resident and learn to surf. we ate the most amazing food (seriously), explored the shops at fashion island, took a duffy boat out in the harbor and saw wild seals and beautiful homes. and at night i fell asleep by the fire place outside under the stars and the olive tree. shami truly has a wonderful family who have not only taken emily in as family, but all of us! so far, i’d say my family is 3 for 3 in the in-law family department!

     when we returned fom cali to pennsylvania i went to bear creek with my friend from school, thanny, for a few days to hang out and see my cousins and also my family who had just arrived for the summer from sanibel. we had fun on the lake with the new paddle boards and awesome rope swing. may 2015 has been a month to love and remember forever. 

     that has brought me this week- welcome june! i went to central PA (danville) to visit my friend erica and her wonderful family (she and her husband have 4 precious kids). erica is a doctor at geisinger and is working with some people in guatemala to start a maternity clinic in the town of san juan. i am going for the month of june to work with a guatemalan midwife, lesbia (friend of erica's) and the mayor's office of san juan to begin the process of raising awareness and support in the surrounding communities for this new clinic. the closest hospital from san juan is about two hours away on terrible roads, and many times the town ambulances don't work or refuse to take patients if they don't deem it an "emergency." most families don't have the money to pay for transportation to and from the hospital, and in case of emergency it is far away. the local health centers have few recourses and usually have little or no medicine. 
     the plan for this clinic is to make it a casa materna, which are birthing centers that are staffed 24/7 for these mothers to come and give birth in a safe environment. we will have ambulances that can bring women from the surrounding areas to the casa at any time. curamericas-guatemala has a successfully functioning casa in northwest area of guatemala, and we hope to implement the same here. 
     using the care group model (created by world relief), the casas teach the people of the communities about health care and equip them to peer-educate so to create sustainable behavior changes in maternal healthcare and decrease the child mortality rate in these communities.

     i am very excited to be a part of this endeavor in its beginning stages as i look forward to all that i will learn about creating sustainable healthcare in communities with few resources. i look forward to updating my blog with progress notes from this month!