May 16

It’s is so nice to come back with everyone focused on their work! Kassa did a brilliant job of keeping everyone on task. The car is finished and I have no immediate need to go to government offices so I get to spend all of every day at the Trampled Rose. I’m working on all the things that seem fun to me. Financial procedure, employee manuals, getting estimates for work, nailing down policies, but most of all playing with the ladies.

I went on a benefit walk on Sunday and saw so many of my friends. I went with Kassa and Stephan and Cristina Gompertz. It was a several hour trip and the benefit was for a school for the deaf and handicapped. The school is beautiful. It began with an Israeli Ambassador who took his own life when he found out he had a terminal illness. His friends completed the process so it was very touching.

I’ve had a chance to meet with most of my friends and my house is again comfortable. I a missing having someone to help me in my house. I figured I do this at home I can do this here. On Thursday night I decided I was a little bored and I had almost no clean clothes so I decided to do my own laundry. I pulled out the wash basin and started heating water on one of my two burners. Yikes, the towels were heavy and the Clorox ate through my hands. The towels had spots where I hadn’t used my Mary Kay Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover:) It was WORK to get that stuff off. I promised the universe to be faithful from that point on. Then the electricity went off so I continued washing by candle light. Then the water shut off so I used the outside tank carrying the water by bucket. Finally, after five hours of work, I spilled the wash tub and flooded the bathroom so I spent the next hour mopping with a string mop. So… the moral of this story is that I will never complain about laundry in the USA again.

Tomorrow I am meeting with the local government office to see if we can work more closely with existing NGOs.

The good and bad news. We lost our teacher Alex to the cure for TB. He survived the TB but the medicine was too much for his liver. We have hired a sweet woman who has already been volunteering.

More good news…. to date your support has helped 463 women find hope and love.