January 2004 Archives
By Nicole Cashel
January 2004
When my mom first told me that she and my dad were wondering if I would like to go on the mission trip to Jamaica, I was very excited. Of course I would! My dad and I went together. I was familiar with Missionaries of the Poor for years prior to this trip through my grandfather and through Father Ho-Lung's various visits to Saint John Neumann with his singers, but I never really learned of the extent of their work until I started preparing to go. Experienced members warned of the sight, smell, sounds, and the level of poverty that I would see ' things I never have really been around before ' things that one really only sees in magazines like National Geographic - and they were right. I am completely disconnected from this kind of poverty living in the United States.
But being in Jamaica and helping those people was truly one of the best times I have ever had. I felt so peaceful there, away from the reality and privileges of living America.
There is a certain gratification one feels when he just speaks to these poor people long enough to make them smile. Granted, the first day working in the shelters was not easy. I was assigned to the babies - only, they were not really babies, they were 4-9 year old girls bed ridden with cerebral palsy and all kinds of other diseases, bone thin, hardly able to move. The brother in charge asked me to bathe them. I bathed two of the girls and I just couldn't tell, was I hurting them or moving them in ways that I shouldn't? Was I doing something wrong? The thoughts began to overwhelm me. Then I went over to Trishana, the blind and deaf girl of about 9 years old, and touched her but she quickly pushed my hand away. I just wasn't sure if I was even being effective with these girls for the first half hour I was there.
Today is the first day of classes at UGA for S04. I'm really pleased with my schedule. I got it worked out perfectly after trying for the past several days:
Marketing 4000 - Marketing Research and Business Decisions
Marketing 4100 - Consumer Org. and Buying Behavior
Marketing 4200 - Sales Strategy (First class in the sales sequence)
Real Estate 4000 - Real Estate
GEOLOGY 3350 - DINOSAURS BIG AND FAMOUS IN THE MESOZOIC
I got into the dinosaur class finally! Someone dropped it on OASIS (our registration software) so I signed up for it this morning. Pretty sweet.
I watched Transformers last night. I have not seen that show since I was 7. I can't believe I used to be interested in it - it is non-stop robotic fighting. The robots are kind of like aliens who live in outer-space and invade earth. The best part about it is that the robots have emotions! They laugh and get angry and they turn into motorvehicles. Can only hold your attention for oh-so-long, really.
I'm in the SLC right now, listening to the self-titled Blur record that Michelle gave me for Christmas. It's really good. Contains the classic songs Beetlebum, Song 2, and You're So Great, and others.
