Coming Home to the Motherland

Singapore is so cool! I didn't really think that it would be, cause really I don't know tons about it. But it's this crazy urban city transplanted in the middle of a jungle. We did this awesome hike through the wilderness that's a national park in the middle of the city. Part of it is a suspension bridge that goes through the canopy of the trees and you can see the green lush trees stretch out forever on either side. Oh and there's monkeys - like big ones just hanging out on the bridge and some of them weren't that friendly, hah. It was hot and humid but I loved it all. I've decided I'm really good with just dealing with the heat and it honestly doesn't bother me. The city is wicked high end and the buildings are way cool and kind of remind me of Dubai a bit. There was way more I wanted to see and do and that just added to my sadness of having to come home.
I cannot even start to try and put into words how I feel about this project. I am so grateful and so incredibly blessed to be able to be a part of it. I don't think I can describe how it has changed me and how much I have gained. I feel almost selfish because I think I've gotten way more out than I feel like I've put in. I am so humbled. With the material things I have been blessed with especially. I've been humbled too as I've watched and been privaleged to be friends with and work with amazing people who have made me want to do and be better in so many different ways. I have loved serving the people. I can honestly say that I have loved everyone that I helped and worked with. I was just happy being able to give of my time and skills to be giving them the help and medical care they needed and wouldn't have been even close to without this project. I know that's because Heavenly Father let me see and gave to me some of the love He has for them and worked through me to make their individual life better. The other medical people I worked with are phenominal. They are my close and forever friends. I feel so blessed to have them in my life and to be able to learn so much from them.
I wish I could stay longer! It's weird to be home too. Everything I've done today seems so surreal and foggy to be back into real life. But at the same time, I'm excited to start again and to be better with the things I've learn and the ways I have grown. I love all of you who have written to me and supported me and sent me your love. You have no idea how much it's helped and I'm so happy to be home with you again!!

Love, Amy

i heart cambodia

Cambodia was an amazing experience just itself. The orphanage I helped at was called Happy House and the kids that live there really were just so so happy. I think that's something I love about kids is that lots of times they're oblivious to the not so great things around them and still play and have friends and are happy and going through life. That's one of the reasons I love pediatric nursing is cause even though they have sick days, they're still kids who are always trying to maximize their fun. I became specail friends with one little girl who I spent almost the whole afternoon with. I will now always love and I wish I could do more for her. It's especially hard when individual people become personal and 'real' to you. That you get to know them and what they're about and who they are. I knew I'd have to deal with that but it was harder than I thought. I had a wonderful time repainting there and the group did so much more for their house in the days after too.
We had some very interesting and rare medical cases too. If you wanna know more about that just ask.
Another exciting thing is that I got to go to Angkor Wat. Definitely didn't think I would get to do something so ridiculously fantabulous while I was there. Before I left I knew there would be a chance I wouldn't get any free time on land so that was above anything I'd hoped for. It took 10 hours to get there on a bus but definitely worth it. We got to see 3 separate ruins and they were basically incredible. I love the art and architecture and culture!!!! It blows me away what they could do with the materials and tools they were working with. Ridiculously intricate!
My team that I've been working with who are mostly Navy or Army personel and one Canadian Forces nurse(!). They're wonderful people and I love them all. We became even closer together in this part of the project and we just work so well together.
Cambodia is gorgeous!!! The landscape is lush and basically a jungle. I became friend with one of the helicopter pilots and we got to fly over Cambodia - holy smokes.
Beautiful country and even more beautiful people.

Cam to the Bodia

Yay we're here! It was a short sail over and I was kinda sad cause it's very peaceful when we're steaming. The view is wonderful from the deck and there's the cutest island just off our port side and I'll try and post a picture of it later. I get to go on a service project on shore tomorrow to help paint a school and I'm way excited to get on land and see what it's like. The people here are so friendly but they're all really short - bascially everyone is my size and my navy friends keep telling me I fit right in and maybe this is where I belong - hah. I can't believe I only have like 2 weeks left. Luckily every day is better than the one before.

Qui Nhon, Vietnam

I have had such an amazing time here! I can't believe we're leaving in a couple of days. I have grown to love the Vietnamese people so quickly. They are gracious, friendly, happy and loving kind of people that I want to be more like.

I work in an area call CASREC or casualty receiving. So we see all of the patients who come aboard first and assess them and get everything started for surgery or another service who's going to see them like audiology or something like that. The days are very busy but I like it that way. I have met so many people and it's crazy how quickly you can become friends and share something special together in such a small time. I have definitely loved them as I have just tried to make things work or find the right doctor for their baby. It's beautiful to be able to just serve them and not have any other motives in doing it.

I've been in the OR twice just observing. One of them was a cleft lip repair on a baby boy. The surgeon is from the Navy and asked to come on the project and he took as much care and detail with that little guy as he would have anyone else. Once it was finished to looked great and how huge of a blessing that will be for him and his family. The other favorite patient I had was a 6 year old boy who had burnt his hand and then it hadn't healed properly and 3 of his fingers had healed together and he couldn't fully stretch them out. So they separated them and skin grafted on the exposed sides. His hand looked amazing once it was finished. How blessed we all are to have people with those special gifts and talents to fix our bodies. They're going to have his hand in splints for the next couple months to stretch out those tendons and to make sure the skin graft heals properly.

I've also gotten to go to our off site clinics on the main land. They see from 600-800 people per day. They have physicians, pediatricians, optometry, pharmacy and dental. From those sites only some people are referred to the ship. But those clinics reach so many people and help them with smaller problems but make a huge difference. We are unbelievably blessed to live where we do. I am so humbled by the material things I enjoy and just how much more my comfortable my daily life is.

Vietnam is a cool country, especially cause I've never been to anywhere Asia before. On my day off I got to go to a Buddhist temple and to some ancient Hindu towers and to the market and the fruit market and ate local food. It was such a fun time! The temple was gorgeous and so intricate in the detail on every building. It's a really peaceful place because it's so quiet, even in such a loud city. It was especially great cause our friend Taylor speaks fluent Vietnamese from his mission so he could talk to everyone for us. I have fab pictures but the internet is way too slow so you guys will have to see them when I get home!

I only have just over 3 weeks left! So crazy but I'm excited to be back with all of you but I don't wanna leave at the same time.

Philippines

So we were headed into a huge storm on the way to Vietnam, so we're taking a detour through the Philippines! k and when I say through I mean that you can see the islands on either side of the ship! It's crazy amazing and the water here is a lighter blue and incredible calm- it just looks smooth like a calm lake would. We had an abandon ship drill this afternoon, which is my favorite too.

Last night we went and watched the sun set and the stars come out on the stern (back) of the ship. It was beautiful and we all just hung out and talked. Such a cool night. I'm trying to soak up the semi-relaxed days before it gets crazy on Sunday.

Love you guys and thanks for your comments and letting me know what's going on with you!!!

pictures

'Spanish Steps' into paradise

So I didn't tell you about the most breath taking place on this island. It's called Spanish Steps and it's on the Navy base. First you hike down a jungle cliff. The first half km is like straight down but there's ropes and ladders along the way. Totally something right up my alley - just the hike alone was great. Then you tromp through the jungle and try not to step on all the hermit crabs along the way. There's so many of them and they're purple, red and brown and big too! It's like being under a huge green umbrella as you go along the path. We saw a huge iguana/lizard thing that Georgia called a dinosaur. It's body was like the size of brando plus a tail. We only saw it for a few seconds before it got scared and took off into the trees. Once you break through the trees, you're on a coral rock beach at the edge of a coral reef inbetween two towering cliffs that are covered with bright bright green foliage. Between the cliffs are other smaller rock formations that are also cover with some kind of plants and then you get to swim all around them. There's so many fish!!! The best part were the bright blue star fish. I'm not talking about blue tinged - they're brilliant, bright blue. The water is ridiculously clear too. It's like looking into a fish tank, even without goggles on. Hopefully I can post pictures soon so you can kinda see what I'm talking about!

We just set sail again this morning from Guam so now it's back to just being surrounded by water. As we looked out we kinda agreed that it felt kinda comforting to be back and the water is super smooth this time, like I can't even tell that we're moving ahead.

Guam is Heaven on earth

I'm gonna try and give as many details in about what I've seen and done in the small amount of time I have on this speck of an island in the middle of the pacific ocean, it's a wonder mother ocean hasn't just swallowed it up by now. k so the beaches here have sand but not always the super soft kind and the ocean bottom isn't that friendly cause of the sharp jagged rocks and nasty mean coral but other than that it gets two thumbs up. Poor Georgia had never encountered coral before and got assaulted on her back. Not nice in salt water. The water is crystal clear and shimmers as the sun hits it. You can see little fishies and sea cucumbers- so many and crabs. Our friend Kent (he lives in Hawaii) says never trust a crab and it's true cause one chomped right onto my foot and it's still sore. Kent also has a waterproof digital camera so we've been having a blast with that. It's tricky for me to post pictures cause I don't have my laptop or a card reader and I didn't bring the software I need for my camera to use the cables. We're gonna visit our IT friends tomorrow and see if they can help me out with that.

The sunsets are unbelievable and would rival any national geographic.

We tried hiking to a place called Tarzan Falls - they turned out to be twice as far in but we made it to Tarzan pools which were still cool. The hike though was great! The trail head is a mall sign on the sign of the winding road. It looks like you're embarking on an Indiana Jones jeep trail into the depths of the jungle. The plants are a funny mix of coniferous and deciduous with a random palms trees all around. It's crazy to be walking and say hey look it's a mango tree. The dirt here is red so that's kinda cool too. The land is rolling hills and valleys just wrapped up in a blanket of green hues. The sun just loved us and it was like she wanted us to have the best day possible.

After that we drove down the coast of the island and outside the window we saw something amazing. It was a natural swimming hole of ocean salt water but calmer as it was enclosed with boulder rocks, kinda like a reef but very very deep. All around it on the land were permanent gazeebos and fire pits. The best part was the diving tower make of something concrete but who knows what I used to be before. Bit it's the most amazing recycled water park. To get up you first use te wooden palate ladder being held up against it with webbing and rope and then pull yourself to the top. As soon as we saw this local lparadise, we all yelled pull over and instantly started scrambling to get ready to be in the water ass soon as humanly possible. Right over those rocks you could play in the very powerful, crashing ocean waves, so basically best of both worlds.

Then we went and found a sandy beach to just hang out on, and again the best one was just on the side of the highway. We had goggles to watch all of the sea life and there was TONS! My favorite was this silver, pinky/purple fish about the side of a my hand stretched out big. He was just as intrigued and curious about me as I was him. He'd get like 7 inches away from me and then get scared and back away and then swim up closer and quickly retreat back or come up from under a rock to get a better look at me and hopefully maybe I wouldn't notice. I even went up for air about 4 times and every time I came back down he was just waiting there for me to come back and then would stare right back at me with those big, round fishy eyes. So crazy! I've never had an experience like that with a fish before!

I've gotta go - that was all of Saturday almost so I'll try and tell you all about Sunday cause it was spectacular and the members in Guam are so charitable.

GUAM

Land hoy! This morning we started to pull into Guam. Before breakfast we went out to the deck to watch the ship start to approach the land. It was beautiful to see the silhouette of the hills and mountains with the mist of the morning below them as the sun was rising over the pure blue water. It is more special for us because its a very unique experience to look out all around you for days and days and only see water, without any other ships. On the way down the stairs on the deck I slipped and scraped up my arm real bad, still took a bunch of pictures and then went and got patched up. I wailed my head on my locker door yesterday too, so these people have already been exposed to my accident prone-ness.
The other day we had the funnest afternoon. We had a 'Steel Beach Party' - so just like a beach party minus the sand. We had a bbq and rad water fight and the Navy band put on a concert. It was a blast! It really nice to be able to be out in the sun for a while. It's great to get to know people outside of a work setting too. All Navy people are extremely friendly and they love us as NGO's and that we've volunteered to come, so they try and help us as much as they can.
We're just trying to get organized and get all our supplies in so that we'll be ready for patients when they come.
Last night we worked in the Scullery - where you wash all the dishes. We did it as a nice favor to the people that work in there all three meals a day. It's wicked hot in there and you have to be fast on the assembly line. Pretty sure it's not so great after a while but we had a fabulous time. We worked with some of the Chiefs (higher officers) cause they were volunteering too and they're hilarious. It's funny how everything that's routine to them is like so novel and exciting for us.
I'm so so so so so excited for Guam! The beaches look incredible from pictures I've seen and we're hoping to do some snorkelling. Everyone says it's really good here cause there's not tons of tourists so lots of stuff have been preserved well. We wanna go on some kind of hike through the jungle so we'll see how that goes.
Love you guys lots!!

I'm not Lost!

Hello!!!

Everything is good and exciting. We’re trying to get everything ready for Vietnam and it’s hard cause the ship hasn’t been used since the Pacific Partnership in 2008. Every day is beautiful and gorgeous. The ocean sparkles a deep royal blue and has been so nice to us. The first day I was crazy dizzy but thankfully not nauteous and after that I’ve been totally a-ok. I started to go kinda bananas cause all we wear all day everyday is our LDS Charities shirts and khakis but I know that that’s something I need to work on to just comply and do what they ask cause it is definitely a small sacrifice to make to being here. It’s hard cause you’re not really your own boss since the church has asked us to always have a buddy and not go anywhere alone – pretty annoying but it’s so we’re safe and don’t get harassed. Sleeping in my triple bunk is fun and I sleep like the dead so that’s not a bother at all. I miss you guys and it’s hard cause I haven’t been able to hear from anyone at all! It’s still nice to see you everytime I open my lockers though.

I said y’all for the first time the other day and it scared me a little cause I’ve always made so much fun of missionaries who come home with a retarded American accent. Don’t worry, I’ve resolved to stay strong. I’ve made 2 good friends who I love being around- Georgia and Kayla. They’re awesome.

I also learned today that in Cambodia that I’ll be able to go in the helicopter. I think I’m not suppost to say that cause it’s in the future but I’m so excited I couldn’t hold it in.

So one of my favorite things at 0800 and 1600 (4pm) they announce, “sweeper, sweepers, man your brooms” and then the people in the area get their brooms and sweep and then mop. The announcement is hilarious and makes me laugh everytime and totally just makes me think of like the stereotype of sailors always scrubbing the deck.

We had an abandon ship drill the other day too where you put on ridiculous life jackets and go to your appropriate life boat – we just thought it was the greatest thing ever and turned it into a photo –op.

Today is actually Saturday cause we crossed the date line in the night and jumped over Friday. Kinda funny that an entire day just isn’t existing for us.

Yesterday I learned how to use a fire hose! Like a real one that firefighters use here. Basically everyday seems so novel and I love it. The gentle rocking back and forth is usually nice, except in our yoga class. It’s hard enough to balance let alone with the ground under you teetering back and forth. But at night when you’re in your rack (bunk) it’s nice to fall asleep to.

Miss everyone tons! Amy

oh and one more thing - so I didn't have time to find a coolio background so.. let's have a little competition to see who can find one that better than what I've got now, which shouldn't be too hard.

HELLO HAWAII! So I got here safe yesterday and I've decided that I love Hawaii so very much, and the ward we went to church was so friendly. Basically I've decided I wanna live in this beautiful place. The ship is MASSIVE. Sadly, I got a bottom bunk of the 3, but I'm starting to think that that might be an ok thing. All my crap fit into my lockers- also a good cause it's kinda tight. Yesterday I bought a snuggie cause I needed an extra blanket - Laur I forgot the sheep, so tragic. But blankets here are wicked expensive and the snuggie wasn't so I'm a new proud owner and I think it's gonna be rad. All of the Navy people are awesome and so friendly. This morning we went and hung out on the deck of the ship and just being in the sun was glorious. I'm so happy that I have this time just to serve and that I don't have to think about other stuff or be busy with things for me. Everything is so surreal still. We all keep having moment of like -is this actally happening, like are we really leaving?!? But I've made new friends with Georgia, Kayla and Lizzy and they're all so cute and great people that I love. Happy Mother's Day to you guys!

no sleep

So I worked my last night shift on Thursday, had a nap for about 3 hours on Friday morning. I went full speed ahead all day and now it's 1:35AM Saturday and I cannot fall asleep and I leave for the airport in like 2 hours! But holla Hawaii! I'm so excited to see the ship! We set sail on Monday morning. Goodbye Canada - I love you all!!!

ok setting it up!

So this is my first attempt at blogging and I used to be so so anti but, I can't see how it'll be so good for this trip and we can all stay in touch and you guys can know that I haven't contracted malaria and died or been kidnapped by the somalian pirates. Hopefully I can update it lots and put up pictures. I'm just not allowed to talk about anything in the future or our sailing plans. LOVE you all!