Kayz was here

Well, I decided it was about time I posted somethin' on here. A quick update....I'll try to keep it as condensed as possible. Since I graduated from high school, I attended Snow College and graduated with my Associates. Ran out of money, went back to UNLV, then used the last of my bonds I'd saved and went to Jerusalem in 2000. I visited Jordan, Egypt (only the Siani peninsula, we couldn't go to Cairo because they were burning American Flags), and obviously all over Israel. I lead teams to the nearby Palestinian hospital, was invited by several muslims to visit with their families and jumped all the way into their culture. After 5 weeks, though, we were in lock down because of all the fighting, always had to have our bags packed, had a charter plane arranged daily, and had the first presidency checking up on us each day. We went to Galilee for 17 days, begged President Faust to let us go to Egypt and climb mount Siani. We then had to flee in 3 groups in the middle of the night. We were the last group to go to the Jerusalem Center and left a month early (believe me, I could go on with stories, but I loved it). Then I finished at UNLV with my bachelor degree in Psychology. Came to Utah to work (did it a bit backwards--school in LV, work in Utah). I work with abused and neglected children in the Wasatch county (3 school districts)as a Case Manager/ Social Service Worker (teaching social skills, working with them educationally and lots o' fun things). In 2004 I went to the slums of Kenya and donated 140 pounds of medical and school supplies and built a school. Most had never seen a white person before, so we were quite the celebrities. For sure none had seen a white girl who could pick and mix cement with the boys. The local Kenyans stopped, watched and clapped---not really what I was going for, but the school was built and that's all that matters. I also hung out with the Massai tribe, did a safari, kissed a giraffe, helped 5 orphanages, worked on a secondary school, painted a home for severely abused or neglected children, chilled on the coast of Mombasa and saw poverty most people never witness.AMAZING! I'd highly recommend it.

Yep, think that's about it for me. Good times. My next goals are to help orphans in India and visit my second cousin (and other family) in Greece. It should be possible now that I'm taking the educational route and will have my summers open for humanitarian work. I'll let you know how that goes. =) Thanks everyone for writing. I love reading everything. I don't have any kids of my own, but the kids I work with sort of count---their parents don't want them and I have about 30 at a time, all of which I adore. They want to come home with me. I've also been called 'Mom' by several kids over the years of the learning center, residential treatment center and case management. That counts as sort of being a mom, right? =)

Hope to hear from you all later. I can't wait for our little reunion in December.
Cya lata,
Kali