May 15, 2009.

Greetings to all!!!! I cannot believe it is May 15. I have been so busy with work and getting out and around. All has been going fine. I still marvel at how different everything is in the hospital world, in regards to my particular ward. We had a Band 5 nursing day yesterday, and I was able to learn more about the nursing band system. We were given many sheet handout that addresses how nurses progress up the layers of bands. I am going to take time to look at it and see if I can make sense out of it.
While my nursing experience is winding down, next week I am going to try to get into Gaza with my daughter, Madeline, and niece, Tara. My niece has just graduated from the Colorado University with a degree in linguistics. She speaks Arabic and is now Muslim. She has been communicating with a man in Gaza for 2 years, and is now ready to go meet him. It is not easy to get into Gaza, you have to apply for permission to enter, and it is my understanding that most people are denied. Therefore, we are signed up with two delegations for the attempt to enter, one a students' delegation, and the other, Codepink. It is my understanding that Codepink may have a better chance of getting in, as they are more recognized worldwide as a peace keeping activists group, formed by women. It is not totally clear to me exactly how this will unfold. I am hearing snippets about a tent at the border? not sure about that, hmm.....
Stay tuned.

Thank you to those who have been following, as I know I have have quite a dry spell. I will be honest, my experiences at the hospital have been hard to blog about. In the meanwhile, I have been communicating to my Portland coworkers via email, and that has been a more comfortable way to share my experiences. Basically, I have found that the differences between working in a London neurology hospital and a Portland, Oregon, hospital to be vastly different.

So my next adventure that my blog will be covering will be my trip to Gaza, or at least the attempt. My plan is to chronicle it well. Please stay tuned. Donna