Friday, April 1, 2011

Paper Cranes

Today is April Fools’ Day, but this is actually a serious blog post.

Every night before I go to sleep I pray for a bunch of my friends and family, nothing really in particular or formalized, more of a shout out I guess. One of those people is Uncle Carey. Though he isn’t biologically so, I say uncle because that's what we call everyone in Hawaii. I guess it's because of the pretty high odds we are actually related.

Anyway, he’s recovering from a lung transplant, which he underwent about year ago to treat the Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis that he’d been diagnosed with. He’s had a few complications with it over the past year because of his reduced immune system. He’s been sedated this week and we are all concerned.

His family thought a great way to express their love for him would be to fold 1,001 origami cranes. They’ve asked family and friends to send them in, so that he can see how much everyone cares about him and sort of help his recovery. The significance of 1,000 cranes originally comes from Sadako Sasaki, a young girl from Hiroshima, who suffered from radiation sickness as a result of the atomic bomb. She and her family folded the cranes to help her recovery. She died from the radiation, but the tradition stuck. The extra one is a Hawaiian Japanese twist on the tradition, because we figure we could use the extra luck.

One of the things I’m learning is that it’s in human nature to give and to help. We just don’t always let our guards down enough to ask for it from others, even when it’s needed. So I guess I’m asking you for some now. I know you’re busy, so no worries if you don’t have time, but if you do have the time to fold a paper crane, please mail it to his wife:

Liz Kunimoto
GOL Transplant House 2
724 Second St SW #140
Rochester, MN 55902.

Thanks,
Stephen

Thursday, March 31, 2011

My Flight in June

My brother Ryan gets married in June, and we are all very excited. The problem was that my SALT term ends in late July and it's kind of against SALT policy to permit international travel farther than to an adjacent country. I don't want to give Eva anymore headaches about this, but we managed to work it out with my MCC Country Rep that I could fly back for a week. As a team, MCC Moz voted on it, and since it's a special event I got to buy my tickets home!

I had my flights booked for a couple of months now, but they were rerouted yesterday to include a day layover in San Francisco! So, if you live on the peninsula and are free to hang out on June 22 (Wednesday), email me. I'm so pumped! I have no idea what I want to do. Usually, this would call for a bike ride through Paradise Loop or to Muir Woods, but I'm not sure about being sweaty on a plane to Munich. I am accepting suggestions.

Your brother,
Stephen

Monday, March 28, 2011

My Self Portrait


This is gonna be a busy week in the field. I took this picture outside the community of Salinhanga because there was a mud wall house and trace of a rainbow reflecting off my motorcycle helmet.

Your brother,
Stephen