A nice morning

Hello everyone!

Visited Marda Loop after work yesterday. Finished Christmas shopping so all I have left is a few things I need to make. Bought a really nice set of bracelettes for myself. Was tired when I got home so I ended up playing hooky from Bethel. Wrapped presents.

Wrote Christmas letters to my sponsor children, Jeysel and Yahya. I sponsor them through World Vision. Jeysel (pronounced Hazel) is a 6 year old from Nicaragua. Yahya is 5 (he'll be 6 on Dec. 31) from Mauritania (it's a country in north-west Africa). I have also just sponsored a 9 year old girl from Africa but I haven't received her information yet. I know it seems impractical for me to do this when I'm on such a small budget. I find that although my pocket book can be rather slim at the end of the month but I also know I have so many things that these children don't. We take for granted that we have a home, food to eat, hospitals and schools. I like World Vision because they assist the entire community. For example wells are dug, agricultural training is given to adults, and schools and hospitals are built. It's like the proverb "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Give a man a fishing pole and he will eat for a lifetime." The training and business skills that are taught will help to develop the entire community and, after about ten years, World Vision's work is done and they will move to another community. I love getting letters from them and hearing about their countries. I translate my letters into Spanish or English but there are also translaters that work for World Vision. This also helps me remember my language lessons.

I have plasma donation tonight and choir practise afterwards. I would normally skip practise but I'm hoping to arrange a ride for Sunday. It's the Harvest Lunch and I'm bringing hamburger soup. It's rather akward to carry so hopefully someone can help me out. Donating plasma is easy. There are only a few clinics across Canada and my blood type makes me a universal donor. They draw out your whole blood, put it through a machine that separates the plasma from the rest of the blood and then the leftover blood is returned into your body. I like it better than whole blood donation because I get too tired from the lack of iron. After plasma, I'm not tired at all and you can technically donate every week. I try to donate every third week because only my left arm gives a good draw. My veins are rather small and it takes about two to three weeks for a good donation for me. The downside is having to constantly drink water on the day of donation and no chocolate!

Anyways, it's lunch and I'm getting hungry.