Nuru's NEW Website Launches Thursday

Hey all,
On Thursday Nuru launches their new website and Big Idea video. They would love for everyone to spread the word about it by telling, emailing, or calling your friends; putting the info out on your blog; and/or putting the info on your Facebook and/or Myspace about the site and video. Below is a basic text block that you can copy and paste onto your blog, email, etc.
I hope that you too will help the global community in the fight against world poverty. Thanks for your support!
-Megh


Friends-
Forgive the mass email, but I have something important to tell you.

TODAY IS THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW NURU WEBSITE!!!!

When you click on over you'll find a completely redesigned site, brand new pictures from Kenya (not more than 2 weeks old), in-depth information about how Nuru works, updates on our Kuria Pilot Project, and new ways to get involved in the fight against extreme poverty.

Also, on the homepage check out the video: The Big Idea. Today is its world premier, and it's starring some folks who are friends of yours.

Lastly, we're trying to make a big splash with our new site, so not only do we need you to check it out TODAY, but we need you to tell your friends and family to check it out too! So, here's what I ask:

1. Check out the new website yourself, watch the videos and view the images from our Kuria Project.
2. Email your friends a link to our new Homepage and encourage them to check out the site TODAY.
3. Include our site in your blogs, spread the word on your Facebook profile, and forward the Big Idea video on to your friends.

Now is also a great time to donate to Nuru. We too have been hit by the financial crisis, and our future work in Kuria, Kenya is in jeopardy without further funding.

Thank you for being a supporter of Nuru.

Now, on your marks, get ready, go on over to the new site by clicking here:

http://nuruinternational.org

Be hope, be light, be Nuru.

Wordle

My friend Erica at RVA posted this "word art" onto her blog using Wordle, a program that can take a bunch of words or your blog and turn it into "word art." My curiosity got the best of me. Click the link below to see what it did to my blog:

title="Wordle: Life"> src="http://wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/257747/Life"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

Red, Orange, Yellow: The Leaves and the Stock Market Are Falling

Okay, so I stole this title from my sister's Facebook photo album, but it was so clever that I had to steal it.

It's been almost a month since my last posting, so sorry for having to look at the same old pictures for so long, if you've been checking. Since the last post I ran a 5k race, the Baltimore Half-Marathon, Lydia got married, I found out more information on going to Kenya with Nuru, celebrated my Grammy's 85th birthday, hung out at the Rail Trail with my community Group and the homeless, and still keeping up with grad school.

JERRY DOVE 5K RACE
A few of my friends and I ran the 5k race together. It was at the FBI facility close to Morgantown. I went out for the fun of it and didn't really even try to race it competitively, however, I ended up winning third place in my age group! If I thought I'd win something, I might've tried harder to get first or second, but ah well, I took home the bronze unexpectedly and a couple bagels too. After the race, my co-worker, Emily, had made the best chocolate cake ever to sell at the cafe, which we also partook of. It was labeled "the September Birthdays" cake because 3 of us at work had September birthdays.

LYDIA'S WEDDING & VERN'S BIRTHDAY
The following weekend, I drove home for Lydia's wedding and my sister's birthday. It was great to see Lydia again-- we hadn't seen each other since May 22nd, the day we left Sudan for our respective countries (Lydia: Uganda, me: Kenya). She looks different all washed up in a dress, wearing make-up, her hair done-up, and not a glisten of sweat. Hopefully I looked the same, except minus the fancy hair or make-up, but I did lack a pit-stained Under Amour shirt and neon foam flip-flops, which was a change for her to see. Lydia looked great and it was a beautiful wedding. Her Dad did the charge to the bride and groom, which was cool to witness. Because both of them are big-time runners, everything to do with the message and the reception speeches had an analogy to running. At the reception, all those running legs took to the dance floor and we partied like it was 1999! ...or like from the years 1995-2006 because that was the mix of music, which was great because I actually knew it! By the end of the night, I felt like I'd had my workout for the day and then drove to Martinsburg, WV (about 3 hours from Delaware where the wedding took place) to stay at my friend Karen's place. The next morning I woke at 5 a.m. to drive another 3 hours to get to class on time. Rewind to Sunday, my sister and I celebrated our birthdays with the family tradition of a Baskin & Robins ice cream cake and pizza. Hurray to multiple birthday cakes throughout the month! So to clarify, I drove home Sunday morning, celebrated birthdays, and Monday was Lydia's wedding (yes Monday, she's a self-proclaimed stinge and Mondays are cheaper).






BALTIMORE HALF MARATHON
Last weekend (Oct 11th), Veronica (my sis) and I ran the Baltimore half-marathon that I've been training for since Sudan and Veronica has been training for along with all of her triathlons. The night before the race, Vern and I went to the expo to pick up our race packet and UNDER ARMOUR RACE SHIRTS!! These are possibly the best race shirts I've ever received. Usually, a long-sleeve shirt is something to covet, but a technical shirt is the sweetest deal ever. At the expo, there are lots of vendors with different types of running gear and apparel. Funny enough, I found a vendor at One More Mile, who sell shirts, hats, and stickers that state "In my dreams I am a Kenyan." How great is that?! So of course I bought a shirt and some stickers. Along with that, they had magnets and such that state "Running is cheaper than Therapy." and I got one of those too because of my major. The next day I donned my Kenya jersey and Rwanda biking hat (identity crisis? possible.). Veronica and I stayed together for the first mile and then I darted off because I had a desired goal. It was 80 degrees Fahrenheit which made for a hot race and a sweet tan. Along the course, here and there, I could hear a few laughs after one would notice the jersey + my middle of the pack pace. One girl towards the end yelled "Go Kenya!" which was awesome. 13.1 miles and several strange spectators in tiger costumes later (tigers dancing to "Eye of the Tiger") and I crossed the finish line @ 2hrs:10min. My sis was about 20 min or so behind me, which is rock star pace for her! I had wanted to finish in under 2 hrs, but the course was hilly and I had been training flat, and so I felt pretty good about the time. Now I'm wondering what's the next race I can run (preferably flat) to achieve my desired time. Next weekend Erica is running the Nairobi half, which is not flat AND at altitude... I'm definitely jealous and definitely would die if I tried right now. GOOD LUCK ERICA!!!

NURU
This past Tuesday I received an email from Jake, one of the founders of Nuru and the CEO, who let me know that he's looking to hire the Project Manager for Education for January. There are 2 other candidates for the job, AND because of the financial crisis of our country, if I am hired, I will have to raise my own support. This morning I had a Skype conversation with Jake to talk more about the position and to help him get an idea where I'm at with all of this and if I'm still down with the position. I definitely AM (not as happy about raising my own support, but I've done it before and the community responded). By THURSDAY @ 5pm EST, Jake said he'd make his decision. So, PLEASE PRAY for GOD's will to be done, whatever the outcome. If I am supposed to stay here to finish my degree, no problem, I've already signed up for classes and I'm praying to be okay with staying. If I get hired, I'm for sure excited to be going back to Kenya, although I'll miss my family and friends (including all my new friends), I know that they'll still be here when I get back in 6 months. The group that's in Kenya now are in an area called Kuria which is in Southwestern Kenyan, 1 km from Tanzania. They are learning Kiswahili down there because English isn't spoken as much as it is in Nairobi. So I'm totally stoked about learning Kiswahili before my future time in Nairobi, where it would be a more concentrated effort to learn the language. I'll update y'all on Thursday if you need to bust out your wallets-- haha just kidding, sorta. ;) In the meantime, and for the next 6 months, check out 2 of the current Nuru people's blogs on the links to the right: Jake, and also Janine, who's an awesome chica.

HOMELESS ON THE RAIL TRAIL
Some of my community group friends have been hanging out down on the Rail Trail by the Mon river with the homeless by sharing stories, sharing pizza, etc. Last weekend our group brought the clothes we had collected the day of the Commando Party with a Purpose. I was a bit late because I had been driving back from Baltimore, but it seemed like a hit. Today we met down there again to share some love, sandwiches, and pizza. I do love this crazy group of everyday RADICALS! A bunch of hippie Christians is what they are-- just kidding. ;p

Well, I hope you all are doing MARVELOUS. For those of you on the East Coast of the U.S., enjoy the beautiful Fall Leaves; and for those of you on the East Coast of Africa, enjoy the weather before the hot season comes!

Sarah Palin Rap on SNL

This was on Saturday Night Live last night. It was so freakin' funny I thought I'd share it with you in case you missed it!

Morgantown Birthday

Well another year has come and gone for me. I'm 27, in grad school, and one year ago I was living in a mud hut eating chocolate cake and chapatis with the Scotlands and my Sudanese host family, Agnes, Malish, Wanni, and baby Solomon. 26 was a good year and I can only hope that 27 will bring as much adventure and learning possibilities (being in grad school, you'd think at least I'd get the learning part in).

So last Wednesday on my bday, I had to go to class, of course, but 2 of my classmates made my afternoon class a little more exciting than I'd planned. My friend Maggie baked mini chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and my friend Joe biked in 2 2litre bottles of soda, a bag of ice, and some cups. When I walked into class, the cupcakes were sitting on the table in front of the desk in which I always sit. I walked passed them and thought "are those for me?" I didn't want to say anything just in case it was some strange coincidence. but then Maggie looks over, and with a huge smile on her face says "I baked those cupcakes for YOU!" I laughed and was super excited all at the same time-- I wasn't sure if I was even going to get a birthday cake this year...its hard moving around all the time because you're always changing friend networks. Not that I don't have any friends here, because obviously from the previous blogs, I have spectacular friends here, however, one never really know if anyone knows its your birthday/wants to do anything for it (thanks goodness for Facebook reminders)-- Then Joe came in with an overstuffed messenger bag and one-by-one emptied the soda bottles, bagged ice, and cups. I gave him serious props for biking all the way to class with all that stuff! Later, during our mid-class break, we partook of the birthday goodies. I've never had so much fun in a college class (ok, well the ropes course was pretty fun too). BUT don't be fooled, grad school is NO fun and games...its kicking this 27 year-old's rear in a big kinda way!

That evening, with my Sunday night community group, we held a joint birthday party with my friend Tara, who's a day older than me (that's Alexis Blidel's, from Gilmore Girl's, birthday, for those who are a fan) at Kassar's Mediterranean Restaurant. I had a lot of fun with my new group, plus Joe and his wife Ellen. I enjoyed some veggies Gyros and falafels with hummus, washed down with a cookie cake. Although it was a school night and everyone, including me, was busy with school and work, we were still able to have some quality birthday fun! Here are some pictures from the night:

Maybe if I wasn't going commando: another party with a purpose

I don't know how many of you have ever seen the Friends episode in which Joey and Chandler get into an arguement over clothing and then Joey walks onto the scene wearing all of Chandler's clothes at once; but that was the inspiration for our recent Party with a Purpose. On Sunday all of us who meet regularly on Sunday nights for a community group came wearing, or brought with, them all of the clothes they wanted to give away. The winner was the person who had the most articles of clothing on their body at one time. In 80 degree weather people were rolling into the Rickard's house wearing downe jackets and sweatshirts. For me, I changed into my give-away clothes once I got to the house, and then proceeded to die of heat stroke wearing about 3 sweatshirts! Crazy people such as Tara, who one first place, not only had on 5 times her body wieght's worth of clothes, but taped a toaster to herself as well. Kent, pictured below, is wearing about three hats, a downe parka, and some sweat shirts.
One-by-one we watched as each person pulled off an article of clothing until we got to the last layer (yes, we stopped at the last layer-- it wasn't that kind of party!). The funniest part was watching everyone go from being morbidly obese, to a regular size or even down right skinny. It was like watching a before and after infomercial of Weight Watchers clients. What was grossest, was everyone's bottom layer-- like I said, it was 80 degrees!
After everyone had their turn at the contest, the talli came in, Tara was first and Brittani in second (pictured below in her award of pink hat and pink tie). Then everyone changed into non-give-away clothes and we proceeded to sort through ALL of the clothes-- including the clothes that people brought but didn't wear. We gave away all the t-shirts to be brought to Uganda by a group that's leaving for there soon; all the business clothes and most of the girls' clothing will be going to Christian Help here in Morgantown, and all of the warm-weather clothing will be going to the homeless who live on the Rail Trail, also here in Morgantown.
I know I've said this in a previous entry, but I am so thankful to have this group of friends who takes their faith into action by serving the global community!!

We all need a little help from our friends

Last week Thursday, my Community Counseling class went out to the WVU ropes course just outside of Morgantown. For those of you who know the area, its near Cooper's Rock. Our prof, T.Anne, wanted to incorporate it into our studies as a way to get closer to one another, learn different forms of group counseling, personal growth, and of course, to have a lot of fun! The School counseling students were for sure jealous of our alternative classroom. But, shhh, we were instructed not to rub it in their faces. Here are some pictures from the morning's events:


Our group had to transport the "platonium" from one side of the course to the other, while staying off the ground. We couldn't touch the bucket, only the strings, and had to have 4 people holding it at a time.



Maggie being lowered onto the zip wire to attempt to shimmy across to the other side. Way to take it for the team!!



Adrian volunteered to sprint across the wire with his amazing lightning speed...he almost made it.

This is my lame attempt to jump over the hurdle. we could only go over it, not under it. It was one of those moments where I realized my dreams of being in the olympics are over.


When we got the the middle of the coarse, meeting up with the other half of our group, we passed off the platonium and they handed us "Bobby," our stretcher board victim whom we had to take back over to our side.




"We have to do what?" When we got our victim to "safety" we were told that Bobby needed to get across a steel wire, over to another platform in which the meds can reach him. Here, we cast lots to walk the plank.





reinforcements: the other half of our group got the platonium to safety and rejoined us on our side in order to find a solution to the crossing of the gap. As pictured above, my classmates are pretty creative...and brave!







After the course, we separated back into our small groups and discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly of the days' events. ...then we sang Kum Baya-- just kidding.