BBQs, Broken Hands, & Burritos | T-8 Weekly Update

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer in Maine (and I am sure many other states). For the long weekend we took to the woods for camping with Amanda, Josh, and Meg. We decided to stay close and went to a new campground in Turner called Martin Stream Campground. Arriving Friday night I could feel the stress leave my body as we pulled into our plot of land. Our tent cowered in size under the other tents as we squeezed our air mattress into it leaving only enough room for Ellie's bed, but of course it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, even the fact that we forgot to bring cooking tools and fashioned our own fork and spatula out of wood and tinfoil. I managed to start the fire all by myself one morning : ) We spent the weekend relaxing, drinking, kayaking, talking, and having a wonderful time. 

On Monday we joined the family at my Dad's house for a BBQ. It's these little things that I know we are going to miss when we are in Burma.

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Kim has been fighting a battle with eczema of the hands for over a decade now. Her hands flare up every couple months and when they do her palms become itchy, dry, peeling, and extreamly painful. On our way back into town on Monday we noticed that they were getting inflamed more than what normally happens during a break out. About a year ago she was hospitalized for a week from an infection that got into her hands and spread to her blood stream. With this in mind we decided it was best to head straight for the ER and it was a good thing we did. The doctor informed us that it was indeed infected and spreading up her arm again. They immediately put her on IV antibiotics and had her go back after 8 hours for another dose. She then spent Tuesday in a soft cast to help the inflammation go down. Although her hands are still broken out at this point, we are happy to report that there are no longer any signs of infection. Our hopes are that when we are in Burma she will be working with her hands less and will be able to give them time to rest and heal.

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Wednesday afternoon, while Kim was getting her next round of immunizations, I joined some of my fellow teachers at farewell dinner for a retiring co-worker. It was a lovely afternoon with great people and a fantastic view to boot.

For Date Night Thursday, we picked up burritos from Guthries and ate in : )

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Myanmar wise we have been scoring the internet for more information on traveling with our pets and finding the right itinerary to match. Hopefully we will have some progress on this next week because this is the last week of school for ISM and I'm sure people will be harder to get ahold of after they get out. 

I did get an email from the HR officer I have been communicating with at ISM about the military coop that has recently occurred in Thailand. It reassured me knowing they are aware and on top of things of this nature. Here is the email: