Monkey Brain Musings

 Hello, folks! I am starting this post early Friday morning. Considering the luck I have had this week with power and internet, who knows when it will finally arrive in your inbox! It's mind-boggling that we are already almost finished with the first week of training. Max and I are really enjoying this group, although except for a few exceptions, I have really enjoyed every group. They are eager, intelligent and very quick learners. We have also noticed that they are learning at a relatively equal rate, which makes the hands-on training a bit smoother.  On Monday, the first day of class, I arrived in the classroom very early to set up the projector. I had put everything together the night before, in a practice run, and worked out any kinks. But that was Sunday, and this was Monday. The projector was not connecting. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Allan, trying to sort the issue, and we gave up and decided to try a new HDMI cord. Since coming to Atiak in 2024, I have...

 Hello, from the Yala Yala birth center! I thought I would take advantage of the calm before the storm and send you a Proof of Life post. 😁 As hopeful as I was to catch up on sleep in Entebbe, and in spite of my travel exhaustion, I was unable to sleep Thursday night. My brain refused to believe I was not in the US, so I eventually gave up, organized my luggage and prepared for the road trip ahead. Frank and his brother, Andre arrived shortly after 6am, we loaded up the car and hit the road. I spent most of the trip catnapping in the back seat, while they drove like a bat out of hell. Needless to say, we made very good time! I realized that I had spent the last few years flying up north and had not driven since they closed the main road to fix the bridge over the Nile. The bridge repair is complete, it was nice to cross the river again and the baboons were out, monitoring the traffic.  We arrived at the birth center shortly after 1pm and everyone came down to my hut to welcom...

 Hello from Entebbe, Uganda! I arrived late last night and, whew! What an adventure. I flew from Seattle to London, around 8.5 hours, had a 6-hour layover, then another 9 hours to Nairobi. I landed at 6:30am (Wednesday), and because my flight to Entebbe was booked separately, I had to collect all of my luggage and go through passport control, explaining about my separate flight along the way. I was pulled into Customs, where they were planning on taxing me for my bags (even though they were donations), and I had to show them my papers and explain about my other flight. I had to take a Bolt (like Uber) to a different terminal, which was basically a slightly glorified Quonset hut, but I had to wait in the coffee shop outside until it was closer to my flight. After 5 hours of waiting, I went to check in for my 3:30pm flight with Safarilink and was told that it was cancelled and I should have gotten an email. I did not. I spent the next 1-2 hours simultaneously messaging with Rachel, w...

 Hello! My ride arrives in just a little over an hour, so I thought I would take a quick moment to give another round of thanks. 💗 I could not do any of this without the support of my friends, family, and followers. The luggage alone is $430 😳, so those of you kind enough to send financial support are greatly appreciated. And the yarn! Holy smokes, I have so much yarn now, that I cannot begin to bring it all on this trip, which means the next trip is covered (Thanks to my Whidbey knitters and Lee Ann). Brandy, from Quintessential Knits, rallied her friends and donated 3 humongous bags of yarn and an abundance of knitting supplies on top of all of the supplies sent by my friends. (Especially from my friend Liz, who sent me 40 needles because she was "sick of hearing me talk about it" 😂).  Along with the beautiful bags from my neighbor, my dear friend Aubrey sent me 2 additional boxes of bags she made for the knit-kits. I do feel like my friend Melissa needs a special mentio...