It may not be Kwik Trip but....

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of NKHASO or Nkhata Bay AIDS Support Organization, Inc. In our two years, HIV/AIDS rates at the site have dropped to just seven percect, twenty-six percent below the national average and twenty-three percent lower than our first month of testing. Nearly 800 people were tested this quarter alone and nearly 2,200 people in the community were educated by the organization. Clean water has reached 30 homes in the past month and 6 latrines were built. There are now SEVEN Nkhata Bay AIDS Support Org. clinics in the area, six more than the original site. We've distributed 10,000 condoms in the past three months and over 3000+ informational handouts to locals.

However, despite this progress, there is still much to be done. WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please consider a donation to NKHASO, Inc. Anything you can contribute will help as our projected budget for the next three months is nearly 800 dollars...a small cost when you consider all the lives this will save.


Any donors please contact Bailey at bcurtis@wisc.edu


Here's some quick info to show our progress:

Nkhata Bay AIDS Support Organization, Inc.

Unofficially established Dec. 2006 in Malawi (33% positive)
Legally established in Feb. 2007 in Malawi
Legally established in July 2007 in Wisconsin



Biannual report summary for January-June 2007 (19% HIV positive) 14% < Ntl Av.

•131 clients by June, death rate lowered from 60% in January to 11.4% in June
Due to increase ARV medication distribution to HIV positive individuals
•Only 2% absconder rate by June 2007
•Area population of 35000, only 3321 tested from 2000 to June 2007
•30 people trained this term for Home Based Care (Care Givers PLWAS by National AIDS Commission)

Programs established this term:
Established Home Based Care Program (care/nutrition for those with AIDS)
Resource Center (library, handouts, etc)
School Travel for Youth Education


Quarterly Report Summary for Sept- Nov 2008 (7% positive) 26%< than ntl average•SIX Outreach clinics established in area, up six from original one clinic in Jan. 07
•739 clients tested, 47 positive down- 12% from June 2007
•Youth Advocacy- 8 in school programs, 6 out of school programs
•Condom Distribution – 10,000
•Home Based Care Program- 47 registers, 21 on ARVs, 10 supported with food
•Water Purifying Solution- 30 houses reached, 6 pit latrines constructed

Session offered:
HIV/AIDS-15 (603 attendance)
TB- 5 (310 attendance)
Malaria-9 (478 attendance)
Nutrition-12 (310 attendance)
Diarrhoea-8 (458 attendance)

Material distributed:
oHIV/AIDS- 1171 brochures
oMalaria- 964 brochures
oDiarrhea- 566 brochures.
oNutrition- 423 brochures
oTB- 291 brochures



Projected budget for next quarter-800$ or 94,500 Kwacha
Counselor Allowance- 54,000K
Transport- 3,200K
Rubbing alcohol- 4,500K
Condoms- 14,400K
Medical Personnel Allowance- 3,000K
Email and mail fees-6,000K
Contingency- 2,000K

If I write a blog on Kwik Trip, I know you'll all read it!

If you're reading this, you probably are related to me. If you're related to me, you probably think one of the greatest place created by God himself is the local Kwik Trip....am I right?!?!? I mean how else can you explain a place that sells sixty-four ounce sodas for $1.29 and three hot dogs for $1.19??? Got a K.T. card?? Well you just saved yourself up to 8 cents a gallon on your gas, thank you very much! I love it. And so do all Curtis'. So when I was driving back to Madison from Up North with my friend Clare last weekend, it should come as no surprise to you all that I made her stretch out her bladder from Wausau on down just so we could stop at the Kwik Trip in Stevens Point. You know the one, don't pretend you don't! So as I'm giving her my explaination of why this place is so great, I happen to mention how most of my family feels the same way. I mean, come on now, some of my fondest childhood memories involve my uncles and cousins taking me to get a 64 oz. slushie the size of my head and 3 hot dogs to top 'er off (maybe a Mr. D's on the side if there was time). Picture this now: Clare and I walk (some faster than others) into the K.T. and being a Curtis I get so excited I have to go to the bathroom. So when I came out of the bathroom at the Kwik Trip and saw Clare hamming it up with the guy next to her at the Cafe Karuba machine, it wasn't a shock to me that the guy she was chatting up was my uncle, TERRY CURTIS. I swear to you, my family is the only one who could bump into each other in the middle of the state at a Kwik Trip!


The family Reunion at the place that makes Wisconsin proud!



Home for Thanksgiving and obviously not growing.


It could be worse if I took a picture next to this giant...

World AIDS Day 2008

Hopefully you all have your red ribbons on today in celebration of loving life. Here are a few pictures from our World AIDS Day celebration two years ago in Malawi on Dec. 1st.

The update

Obviously my monthly updates would be WAY too long to write about so I'll do the picture update instead. Those are more fun anyways.


This past weekend, I went to Boston to celebrate my friend's birthday. Here we are at Fenway Park.


LOBTERFEST 2008 in Boston



We also went to the Celtics/Bucks game on Friday night and got to surprise the birthday boy with a surprise visit to the locker room to see Coach Rivers ( a family friend) who was SO incredible to the guys. They had a blast!


Madison went crazy when Obama won. I'm stealing this quote from my cousin Ann Marie who stole it from her adoption agency but I think it's very powerful:
"Rosa sat so Martin could walk,
Martin walked so Barack could run,
Barack ran so my children might fly."




I went with my roommate Sarita to visit my cousin Jenny and her husband Jeff and see UW play MSU in Michigan.

Madison

Living in a pretty liberal Capital city sure has its advantages. The other day, as I was walking home from class, I ran into a lady who I thought looked strikingly familiar. After returning home, I heard some comotion down my street. I walked down to what appeared to be a political rally and it all made sense: Michelle Obama was in town! The lady I had seen was Obama's wife, here in Madison to give a speech! I stayed the 20 minutes she spoke and thought how awesome it is to live right in the heart of things.

On a similar note, another interesting election event happened today in one my classes. Upon discussing race and culture in the classroom, my professor turned and responded to a statement I made about Obama asking me "Bailey, why do you perceive Barack Obama to be part black?" I think I responded "are you kidding me?" between my uncontrolable laughter at such a dumb question! I know the whole PC thing is kinda a big deal in the US, but come on...obviosuly the dude IS part black...duuuh!

The bday celebration went well, too. A few friends came into town and we had a blast on Saturday night since it was my roomie, Sarita's birthday too! My family came up on Sunday for the actual day and took me out to Perkins and Wal-Mart....nothing says "Happy Bday Back in the States" better than Chicken Fingers and rollback pricing :)


My roomie, Clare, making me her mom's famous dirt cake that Mrs. B makes me whenever I leave the states :)

The roomies on gameday...one is missing

That really is Michelle Obama but I only have a camera phone these days :(

Sarita and I goofing around as the birthday girls :)

Teaching

Wow- it's been a busy few weeks so I'll bring ya'll up to speed. Started my practicum teaching (second grade at Leopold Elementary), got two jobs, playing softball for UW club (already had one tourny at U of I this past weekend), and having friends come in for my b-day on Sunday! Things are going great, but my days are buuuusy! I'll fill you in on a couple cute stories from the week:

1. I started babysitting this week for a 4 year old girl on the north side of Madison. When I went over to meet her, I noticed their newly redone kitchen and told her "this is very nice!" She replied "Thanks but it's not finished yet. We still have to put in the damn kitchen fan." Her mom was mortified! I'm sure little Olivia had just heard so much about the "damn fan" she thought it was a brand name by this point.

2. The same day, Olivia noticed the bandaids on my leg. I explained that I played softball and had slid into home and scrapped my knee. Her mom mentioned how great it was that I played and said how the neighbor lady was the head coach at Madison East. Olivia chimmed right in saying "That's Lane's mom. Lane has two mommies!" Stereotype....enough said. haha

Classes

School started on Sept. 2nd and so far I am in love with it: I have one class a day and none on Friday.....so far. My student teaching begins Sept. 22nd and I'm already nervous. I'm at Leopold Elementary school and no offense but those little guys scare the h-e-double out of me. I gave a presentation to a second grade class in June about Africa and I was SO not ready for some of their questions (ex. "how big was the elephant?" "Really big!!!" "No, like 25 feet big or 28 feet big?") So, needless to say, doing this K-2 in Spanish is a little intense.

Good news is, I LOVE my one class a day. Ok, they are 3 hour night classes so after a day of teaching I'm sure my butt will be handed to me later in the year. But for now without teaching in the morning, I'm loving it. FINALLY, stuff that really matters for what I'm going to do! THANK GOD....I mean, how many nutritional science classes can one take before you just want to go up to the professor, show him your thunder thighs and scream "THIS ISN'T WORKING!"

The roomie situation is working out great. We're all enjoying the "easy" first couple of weeks by playing "airsoft gun war" in the house and using laser pointers to taunt the neighbor boys! Saturday, Sunday, and Monday football is a must and I'm loving my first fall in the USA since I was a teenager!

Can't wait for camping this week with the extended family, another great fall tradition I've missed for years (along with my b-day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving). Hope you're all doing well!

Here's a picture of my World Language Education Cohort (E):

Okaaaay.

So due to popular demand, the blog is back. However, I promise to try to keep this one fun and I won't be updating as often. A quick catch up: I had an awesome summer at camp, Up North, and in Canada. Now I'm back living in Madison one block west of the football stadium. My 4 roomies are 3 friends from high school and one random (but her boyfriend is the Badger's starting linebacker star so we let her sublet so he can help us move heavy things). I'll use today's entry to give you a little insight into my last adventure: a Canadian roadtrip with my cousin.

We started by hoping in the car and heading to Toronto without a place to stay or a plan. By the time we got to the border (after a day in Detroit and a stop at the Henry Ford Museum) we had it figured out....kind of. I had gotten ahold of my friends who I lived with in Africa and arranged for us to stay with them for 2 days in Toronto. Problem was, the border patrol didn't really like that idea. After an hour and a half of customs, questions, car searches, and immigration they finally agreed to let us go through. Turns out, a passport that is as stamped as mine sets off flags at borders...who'da thunk it? Toronto was amazing, as was our stop down to Niagara Falls, Detroit to have lunch with my cousins Jenny and Jeff, and dinner with my cousin Chad at Notre Dame. We sure got a lot in in only 3 days! Then Thursday was my first Packers game at Lambeau Field and Friday was move in to Madison. Needless to say, I'm a little tired and looking forward to a break...but that won't be happening with the Badger game tomorrow, parking cars on our front lawn, and a party here afterwards.

My house is what I like to call a "college house"...old. But I have a new hardwood floor and that makes me feel a little grown up. Not really, though. Student teaching starts Wednesday morning and time just seems to be flying by. That's the update for now....I'll write more when I've got something good to tell you all. Until then, if you're one of my aunts reading this to try to catch up on the gossip, just give me a call or shoot me an email and I'll give ya the scoop! haha

Here are some pictures from our road trip stops:

Niagara Falls, Canada

Sitting in the same seat as Rosa Parks at the Ford Museum

At Notre Dame with Chad

The Toronto Skyline

In Detroit with Jenny and Jeff

My new room!

The End

and here are some random pictures from the summer for ya!





I know that no one is checking this besides my wonderful Aunt Margie so this one is just for her:


THE END! (is that closure enough?)

Long day....

I've had a long day...flew home from Spain today so I'll make it short.



I had it planned for a few weeks to surprise my family. My amazing uncle Corky and awesome cousin Kailyn picked me up today from Chicago. I popped out of their car to surprise my mom and the twins in our driveway. Then, they treated me to my favorite restaurant in the whole world (literally) and then took me to surprise my dad at his office. Kailyn has some pictures so I'm sure I'll post it later. It was so nice to see my family...ALL of them and eat about 10,000 calories today :) I am super tired and am going to hit the hay. Hope to hear from you all soon now that the cat's out of the bag :) Thanks so much to Corky and Kailyn, too, for making it a wonderful surprise and for the great food!

The despedida.....

My Spanish friend, Santi, and my American friend, Julie.

I get sick of boring pictures!

Half Spanish Half American amigos at my house for my "despedida"

The group out at a club for my goodbye party

Since I am leaving in just a couple of weeks, my friends decided to throw me a goodbye party this weekend to celebrate my leaving Spain before final trips start for everybody. What was supposed to be a few friends going for dinner ended up being a huge bash...didn't know I had so many friends here! It was wonderful having all my Spanish AND America friends in one spot and obviously it was a bit bittersweet. I couldn't help but reflect on my year here when thinking of going home.....

It will be hard to say goodbye to some amazing people who I have met here. Lucky for me, some of the American friends I have made here are from UW so it will be WONDERFUL having them so close to home. If I had to sum up this year, I would call it "purposeful”. It wasn’t quite life changing like last year, but I learned a lot: about the country, the continent, the people, the city, the language, and myself. I have tried to be pretty neutral up to this point about Spain (on the blog anyways, a few of you know my TRUE feelings) but here it goes…. I suppose as I look back on it, I would give Spain a total thumbs up, Madrid a definite thumbs down. Now, those of you who know me know that I am usually a very positive person so I don’t say this lightly. The attitude of the city, NOT the country, is very….I would call it rude. Over time, I have found myself coming a little bitter towards the general attitude of the “madrilenos pijos” (posh Madrid-ians) who think that they are better than the rest of the world. A lack of customer service and general compassion for your fellow man is very obvious in the city. The hustle and bustle is not something I enjoy being trapped in everyday…..but now I know! I miss the smiles on the street corner from strangers, people giving up their seat to the elderly, the safety you feel in small town America (without gypsies!), and generally people in love with life, not themselves. At the same time, Madrid is the hub of the country; it has been easy to travel and welcome visitors, too so I am glad I was here and not elsewhere. I have learned so much and I am so glad to have realized that I am NOT a city girl! Therefore, because I have learned and grown so much, this year was a very POSITIVE year. Overall, I have had an amazing time here and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Ok. Well that’s enough of the sentimental junk, just wanted to give ya’ll my overall impressions. Now I better get some of these post-exam to-do things crossed off my list.





Si escuchas a la canción de abajo, cuidadosamente, vas a ver que hay un secreto escondido en las palabras….manana te lo dire, vale?

Exam Week

The girls at Maroon 5

With Taryn and MTV Day!


It's that time....exam week... so like any good college student I know everyone's current Facebook status and have been Skypeing all day :) Still can't tell you a darn about Spanish Literature but I still have 12 hours until my exam.

This week has been great. Friday was out goodbye dinner for all the people in my program. We had a blast and it was FREE so you can't beat that. It was a really fancy restaurant and they served us fresh paella with crab. Sounds good and fancy....when the actual dish came and there was a WHOLE crab on my plate, I freaked. Not because it still had the eyes, no, but because I realized I was super trashy and had NO idea even what part of a crab you eat (nevermind how to do it). If anyone asks, I am a vegetarian....at least that was the excuse Friday night.


Saturday, I went to the MTV Day-Madrid here and saw Maroon 5 along with some other Spanish bands. We ended up about 4th row and even got our own shout out since he could tell we were Americans!

With exams this week we have no class so I actually have off today, Memorial Day, but it should be filled with studying. Hard to believev come Thursday my Spanish schooling is over (gracias a Dios!). Hope you're all enjoying a cookout and great weather over the long weekend.

Cha-cha-changes....

all of us at dinner in Dublin

Talking with Gordon and his new son!

The gang in Africa

In Malawi :)

In Malawi :)

A pint with Megan in Guinness

All of us at dinner

Megan and Maeve

The boys and I

Megan, Ryan, and I in front of Andy and Maeve's house

This weekend sure put things in perspective a bit for me. It was our 2 year African Reunion....as many of our Malawi volunteer gang that could make the trip came to Dublin. Here's the breakdown:

Present in Dublin:
Maeve and Andy (married Irish couple who were on their honeymoon in Malawi)
Megan and her finace Ryan (engaged American-Irish couple. Megan was a volunteer.)
Me

Missing:
Maggie (Irish volunteer who I spent Christmas with in Belfast)
Gordon (my old roomie in Malawi: Scotish)
Chelsey (Canadian wonderfulness)
Mike (Canadian who just returned for the second time this month)

The trip started as I was shocked at the airport when Meave greeted me with a plump belly, filled with the new Gacquin twins due in August! Ryan and Megan flew in Friday morning and the three of us hit up the Guinness factory together. As we drank our pints in the skybar atop the factory, we talked about their honeymoon plans: a glorious return to Malawi! Can you imagine it?!? Obviously they are a perfect couple to both be up for honeymooning in Mwaya Beach :)

Saturday we spent at a piping (bag pipes) contest in the north for Ryan and Megan. Afterwards we came back to Andy and Maeve's Dublin home for a wonderful last night together: a Malawi slideshow. We took everyone's pictures, ours and those who were absent, and watched and laughed over pizza and Guinness. We even made a Skype conference call to our friend Gordon, my old roomie, who just had his first son. After Africa, he decided it was time to settle down, moved to New Zealand to be with the love of his life, and is now the proud pop of Jake! It was so strange to have all of us together but with so many changes.....babies, weddings, new countries, etc. My life sure seems boring compared to that(don't worry, Mom, I'll keep it like that for a while!). It was wonderful to see where our lives have taken us and where they continue to go. The great thing is that no matter where we go, we'll always carry little bits of each other with us as we go on our own ways.

Anyways, it just makes me thankful that all of our paths crossed at one time in our lives and that we still cherish the bond we formed together no matter where life takes us.

Portugal and Spanish Nights

Here are some more pictures from my Portugal trip and some random Madrid nights.

Tonight, Katie and Alex and I all went to a Karaoke Bar we found....it was run by an Asian couple and some of the songs were in Chinese. I also saw a woman with a sixth toe on top of her foot and it was sticking out of her flats. I would clasify tonight one of the most random in a long while.