Gifted Gorgeousness in May

Well Hello.

"Gifted Gorgeousness" is a link-up that Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching runs, for people to share the beautiful gifts they have been creating during the month. And for once, I'm posting on the actual day we're supposed to!

Unfortunately I can't share very much of what I've been making over the last couple of months as it's for an online swap. You can have a couple of peeks...

... but that's it. I have to say I am enjoying making this soo much! I've tried out lots of new skills and made something that I love, but I definitely wouldn't want to own. That's the joy of a swap or gift; it caters to someone else's tastes so you get to stretch just a bit further.

Have a look over here to see more gifted gorgeousness this month!



I've also been thinking about my efforts for "take a talent" and Nepal over the past couple of weeks. Here is my collection of creative Nepal memorabilia:

There are some beautiful cushion covers, a plain blue sari with bangles, a hand-made card and a calendar I had printed after I got back, with pictures I had taken.

As I was photographing these I was thinking about how little I had taken away from the country because the real gifts were the people, and the friends I made. I went there to work not play, and souvenirs seemed gimmicky in the light of that.

I've also been torn between making something pretty that people will buy 'just because'- or sticking with my initial intentions to make something along the lines of my work, that people would buy in spite of the charity aspect rather than because of it.

And (just 10 minutes ago) it came to me- if people are the treasure that I've taken with me from Nepal, people is what I could make! I'd like to make a variation on paper dolls, maybe with different sets of clothes from different cultures, and I'm not sure whether they'd be made from laminated card or cloth. I know I'd find that useful, even in the setting I'm in now.

I'm still open to ideas or offers of support (my illustration skills leave plenty to be desired) but feel much better now I've got the beginnings of an idea :-)

One lovely blog award

I promised it last week so here we are: I very gratefully accept my "Lovely Blog Award" from Rosey at ishkabibble!

The purpose of this award is for bloggers to nominate fellow, mostly newer, bloggers that they wish to recognize. The goal is to bring attention to blogs that we think are "lovely" and enjoy reading. We hope others will enjoy reading these blogs also.

In order to accept the award, the nominated blogger must follow these rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you & link back to them in your post
• Share seven facts about yourself
• Nominate 10 other bloggers for the award

Seven facts about myself, hmm...

1. I was born and brought up in Liverpool, but when I tell people they always look very surprised, and some even accuse me of lying! I've got a fairly generic northern accent, definitely not scouse.
2. I like to try ALL THE THINGS. Crafts, sports, study topics, I'm rubbish at specialising. The reason I became a speech and language therapist was because I couldn't decide what subject to take at Uni, and the SLT course offered a whole range: psychology, linguistics, biology, the lot. 
3. It may not have been a great reason to choose the course, but I love my job. I can't explain why without sounding twee but to be able to support people who have never had a voice to communicate their opinions (even just to tell me to 'go away'!) is such a privilege, wow.
4. I love the Indian/Nepali culture and go back there at every opportunity. Part of me would like to travel to all the places (see point 2) but part of me has found such a beautiful second home for my heart that I don't know if it's worth wasting those long-haul trips going somewhere else. 
5. Last time I did one of these fact lists I was still at uni, and one of my facts was 'I have never broken a bone in my body'. The following week I slipped on some ice and fractured my wrist! Since then I've also been knocked off my bike and broken my elbow. So there will be no 'I have never...' facts on this list!
6. Speaking of which: I have a crazy high pain threshold. When I broke my elbow I only agreed to go to A&E because it was closer to my home, and when they x-rayed me they couldn't believe I wasn't writhing in pain. I'd only had an ibuprofen! That;s an extreme example but I do generally need a significant injury to feel pain.
7. I run a youth group called 'Space' for high school students on an inner-city estate. I love that too and am torn between wanting to do more of it and moving forward in my job (see points 2 and 3!). It's dead scary to be responsible, and to be final resting place for the buck, but when I see the impact on the young people's lives, it's worth every minute.

Phew, that was surprisingly hard! Now I have a confession: I don't know that I could really name 10 blogs that I follow regularly! At least not ones that are new or would notice I was following them. So I'm going to name 5, I hope that's okay. To make up for it I'll give you a brief reason why you should check each one of them out.

1. Kathi's little corner: Kathi has been blogging for a long time but has recently changed sites so you might need to check back in a little while! But she writes really lovely reflections and is worth a read (her old blog is here in the meantime)
2. Kate at Beak up Crafts:  A beautiful blog about all kinds of crafts and soon, her growing family! 
3. Noni at Fireflies & Cats in the Garden: We've only recently discovered each other but Noni seems to be a really fun character and I'm looking forward to reading more!
4. Jo at Serendipitous Stitching: Jo has introduced me to all kinds of other blogs, and been so supportive of my ideas. She's got a real gift of bringing people together and does a few 'blog hops' on special occasions through the year which are great fun!
5. Rosey at Ishkabibble: I'm probably not supposed to link back but Rosey is so friendly, and I love to read the stories behind all the stitching which make it more personal (and also pleased I'm not the only one trying things out for the first time!)

Enjoy clicking around! I had a couple of other things to share but this seems like a long enough post already, so maybe you'll be lucky enough for a second one this weekend.

A new month, a new cause

Well, April was busy wasn't it?! I would be lying if I said I wasn't pleased it's over. But it is. We live in a new house, we are free from the flu, and regular weekend activities have resumed. Yesterday I spent a good while reading back through lots of other blogs, and found that I had been nominated by the very lovely Rosey of ishkabibble for the 'lovely blog award'!

I will respond in all the proper ways and make some forwards nominations next week, but today there is something much more important to introduce you to.

I have an instagram account which I mainly use to share my crafty exploits. Its title is @take.a.talent . That in itself is not more important than connecting with other wonderful people around the world, but bear with me...

"Take a Talent" was the name of a blog I set up a little while ago when I was challenged to take a small investment of money and grow it for charity, in this case the newly established Global Family Network. It was a church-based request and lots of people spent their money on ingredients for cakes which they then sold on a Sunday morning, but I wanted to extend the reach of our fundraising efforts so I combined one person's talent: cash with my talents: creating and Speech Therapy. I made these visual countdown cards and a £30 profit for the charity, but then got busy getting married so ran out of steam.

Here's the thing: the idea is so much bigger than one payout to one charity. What if we extended the idea, so that other charities put in something that they do well, and we used it to grow their funds?

It's important right now, this week, before any blog awards, because of these people:

And these people:

And my friend's band: 

And, in fact, all of these people too: 

I've been to Nepal twice, once for 3 months and once for 2 weeks, both to volunteer as a Speech and Language Therapist with a charity there. I've made some real friends, and met hundreds of people who were kind, and welcoming, and real. Strangers looked after me when I got on the wrong bus. I learned (a little) of the language and made friends with people who knew less English than I knew Nepali!

Last week a huge earthquake killed thousands of people in Kathmandu and all across the country. Everybody that I am still in contact with is alive and safe, but many are not and every single life has been changed. There's very little I can do right now but pray, and contribute to the funds that will transport food, aid and those people who can help, to the places they are most needed.

The need will not pass next week or next month, maybe even next year. Could this be the push I needed to start 'taking a talent' to make money for those who need it again?

At the moment, I have no ideas. I have some fabric and clothes that I bought in Nepal, and a few other souvenirs as a starting point. I don't know whether to keep with the SLT theme or branch out, or what crafts to use. But today I needed to start by sharing my intentions, and opening an invitation for anyone else to join me. I will accept help in any form! Ideas, advice, resources, time, the lot.

Who's in?

Today I went on an eye-opening home visit. I'm not quite sure what to do with the experience so I think it needs to go here. I read a thought-provoking post the other day (:P) about what the purpose of a blog is, and how the purposes often merge into each other, and here is one such occasion. This is for my own therapy as much as to inform anyone else.

Kelly and Lucy, the physios that are volunteering at SGCP from Leeds Met, asked me to go and visit a child that they were very concerned about. They hadn't seen him in 6 weeks because the mother kept saying that he was too sick, and when they called to find out more they learned that he wasn't eating and the mother was having a lot of difficulty feeding him. As a newly-qualified SLT in England I'm not qualified to offer feeding and swallowing advice, but in a country where there are 5 qualified SLTs nationally I become more knowledgable than most other people around.

So off I went, armed with some very complicated Nepali phrases that I'd anticipated needing, a banana, some curd and a drink with a straw. I didn't really know what to expect but I could give it my best shot and at least offer some advice on positioning to the mum if all else failed.
We arrived at the house, and climbed three flights of stairs until we reached a corridor where the family lived in the first room on the left. Space is a luxury in Nepal. We were greeted with a strong smell of urine as we entered the room, and Nadesh (name changed... confidentiality!) crying on the bed. His mother had been trying to feed him but she stopped when we arrived. She looked exhausted but happy to see us.

I didn't know where to start. Lucy went straight into action trying to soothe him, and then the mother came and took him out while we spoke to the sister in very basic English. She must have been about 11 and didn't really understand most of what we said I don't think. The assesment began with a small piece of soggy banana which just sat on Nadesh's tongue as he opened his mouth and began to cry again. Kelly just got it out before it slipped straight back and choked him. His mother soothed him again and this time we asked her to feed him curd, which we were told he liked to eat already. Again he just cried and the food didn't go anywhere. He was clearly struggling to breathe and wasn't going to swallow anything we gave him, and I didn't want to risk it with anything else. The girls took over and did some physio stuff, and when he was calm again we tried him with tiny drops of mango juice from the straw. One drop took 5 swallows, an almost certain indication that it was spilling right down into his lungs.

What do you do? In England that child wouldn't be given another thing to eat by mouth, but here there are no IV fluids, no nasogastric tubes or PEGs to be inserted. I couldn't bring myself to feed him but we can't let him starve. The girls had also assessed his breathing and it was so irregular, he wouldn't breathe in for 5-6 seconds and then he would, but not breathe out, andso on. He had several collapsed ribs and his rib cage came all the way down to his abdomen, stoppinghis lungs from expanding properly and no doubt being part of the reason behind his vomiting everything he managed to swallow.

This child's story has a better ending than many- tomorrow he will be admitted to a general hospital and as soon as possible he will go to a nutritional hospital where he will recieve a short-term NG tube which will hopefully build his strength back up so he can begin to eat again. But the story isn't over- there are still so many risks involved and the family is so poor they will only ever recieve the most basic care.

I don't know how the girls do this every day. The children I visit are very well managed and reasonably healthy, regardless of their economic status or severity of CP. But here I just felt so useless- I could have endangered that child with my assessment and even when I knew it wasn't safe for him to eat, I was powerless to help the situation. The mother was wonderful, her positioning and feeding technique were flawless but that didn't help. There's no specialist to refer onto, no second opinion, just the hope that he will have caring and competent doctors and nurses at the hospital and that he won't get any infections.

It's a whole other world. Thank God that you're not trapped in it.

I am having an awesome time and learning lots- I have a handwritten post that I will find time to type up on here sometime soon, and an epic update post in my head for the nepal blog, but this just had to be expressed :)

Transition

Yesterday I moved out of Leeds. It was a sad day, but at the same time it didn't feel particularly real, just like I was going away for the week. It's odd to think that when I come back, things will have changed so much- Leeds as I knew it is gone. It's exciting though as well, knowing that there is so much ahead and that I have good friends that will last a lifetime, whether we live in the same house or on opposite continents.

I decided on Sunday night that I was going to look forward to Nepal after all. I had been dreading it just a little bit- the prospect of living, working, eating, breathing with the same few people that I didn't really know frankly terrified me. But on Sunday night as I was sat with Sarah and Scot and we were talking about our expectations for various trips (Scot's off to Mozambique and Sarah's back to South Africa on Friday) I realised that this is a great opportunity to grow- I might make some more lifetime friends and in the meantime I will learn to become more and more dependant on God's love. I also realised what an amazing group of people I have here- the India crew (including Andy who was at work) will be all over the world but we still have a friendship and a Spirit that unites us.

And partly- why expect the worst when you can expect the best? It's never going to be what I expect anyway, but there is absolutely no point at all in worrying about something that might never happen! Smiles all round :)

Here is a prayer I wrote while I was trying to work out God's love for me. I've linked it because it doesn't really need shouting from the rooftops, but if it can help just one person, just a little bit, then I'm willing to be transparent in my own struggles. I'm so glad that God's love is so strong and his grace is so vast that there is nothing that can separate us from Him any more.

Tired

I'm feeling so tired and overwhelmed I just need to tell someone. But everyone here is very busy and excited about the wedding tomorrow. My housemate's getting married, and I'm being a bridesmaid :). It is exciting, but I just don't have the energy! Mum and Dad are coming to pick up a load of stuff because I'm moving out on Monday, so i was supposed to be packing, but I can't face that either.

8 days til I go to Nepal. Terrifying. There's a blog at slt-nepal.blogspot.com that'll be used to keep people updated about what we're doing while we're there, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this one for the more personal stuff too. Today as I was packing my stuff up, I couldn't help but wish a little bit that I was staying in the country and applying for a general Band 5 job like everyone else, inside the NHS where I knew what I was doing and where I was coming from. But God's plans are higher than mine and I'm sure this is part of them, I've never taken the 'normal' route so why start now?

God's good. I'm tired. Bedtime :)

ABC, easy as ...

I've also been *attempting* to learn the Nepali alphabet of the past few weeks- a good friend of mine advised that the script is the most important thing because often signs will have English words written in Nepali script. It's the same script that is used for Hindi, so my handy translator can show you what I have learned thus far:

अ a आ aa
क k ख kh
ग g घ gh
ट t(retroflex) ठ th (retroflex)

It's a bit difficult because they have more different sounds in their alphabet than we do in ours, and my phonetics slt training is proving very helpful to me to understand how I'm supposed to say things, but I've still not quite mastered actually making the sounds yet! But show me some Hindi/Nepali with any of the above characters and I'm there :)