the crash and what followed

I crashed on my motorcycle at around 5 pm. Allan, Karley and I were riding on a trail that we've been trying to explore across from Princess Meadow. Just about a mile out on the dirt and I caught a corner a little wide and hit some small, freshly cut sapling stumps that were hidden in the soft turfy needles and cut bushes. My bike flipped up, I think that I had both wheels off the ground, barrel rolled over to my left, then crashed down, landing on my left shoulder, with the motorcycle still between my legs, slightly above me. I must have landed on one of the stumps, cause it cut my jean jacket open quite cleanly just over my shoulder blade.
I found myself out in the middle of the trail, with the handlebars bent and dirt in my mouth. I got up quickly and tried to lift my bike when I realized that something was quite wrong. My body was making strange bone on bone clicking noises and the bike was not lifting. I felt my collar and sure enough, the bone was broken and overlapping with itself.

Karley and Allan rode back to camp and brought Karley's car to take me back, and Allan rode my bent up bike home for me. I changed out of my riding gear, we found Joce, stopped by the infirmary, then Karley drove us an hour and a half down to Taco Bell for dinner then to St. Agnes Hospital's ER. We didn't get done there till 11:30pm, and with a stop at Walgreens for the prescription, didn't get back to Hume till 1:30am.

I'm back up at the cabin now. I do have a broken collar bone, a "gnarley fracture" according to the nurse. They sent me home with a shot of morphine in my butt and a prescription of Norco, hydrocodone. I'll have to see a specialist and possibly go into surgery to get plates and screws on Monday. Meanwhile, I'm trying to sleep, propped up on a pile of pillows in my bed so that I don't roll over onto my shoulder. When I got back up here, I found that Allan had made up my bed and gotten a fire started so the cabin was warm. I'm going to miss having such a great roommate!

Thanks for praying for me. Please continue to pray as I see more doctors and learn to live these next six to eight weeks without the use of half my upper body.
My job just became way more difficult... everything just became way more difficult. I typed this all with one hand. It's amazing how important of a role that little thin bone has for the functioning of the whole body! I'm glad that I have good friends and live in a community where we can be learning these lessons together.

My first one

I'm on the way to the ER with a broken collar bone. I guess I'll have
to wait till next spring to finish exploring that trail on my
motorcycle.

--
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail. -Emerson

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things
you didn't do than by the ones that you did. So throw off the
bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your
sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

--- Mark Twain

Adventures in Singapore

We split the team up into three different groups led by Rich, Allan, and me, then set off on the train into the city to find some dinner and adventure.


Ours was fairly unadventurous, with good Indian food on the Boat Quay, a walk along the river near The Fullerton Hotel in the Financial downtown (is there any other in Singapore?), and a quick visit to the Cultural Arts Center where a Ballet was under way. Then we left, Rachel, one of our team members behind in a bathroom and didn't realize it till we had made our way through a whole different mall and walked about a mile! We returned quickly and found her with a drink at a Chocolate Bar.

Changi Airport, Singapore

Yup, still the best airport in the world.

We're waiting at the gate for our flight to Los Angeles.
Yup, still the best girlfriend in the world.

Jr. High Camp

The students are out playing Au Fong right now! There's great weather... warm, not too humid. I can hear the frogs croaking all around me, the frogs, the crickets chirping, the occasional tuca lizard, the screams of the kids yelling MEDIC!!!, dodging swirling socks, and chears as they collect points for their team.

I've come down with a head cold, probably from the constant change of enviroment from the warm humid outdoors to the cold dry air con indoors.

We only have one more full day with these students. Pray that we make the most of every opportunity that we have!
Check humeinternational.org for pictures, videos from last week, and more.

to be more

We are just finishing with our first full day of camp. I'm lead counseling and running media stuff for Chapel. It's pouring rain right now, and it's warm, quite warm. The rooms have increadible air conditioners, which helps get rid of the sweaty humidity, but freezes me when I'm trying to sleep at night. I think my throat is getting a little bit sore.

Everything's going just fine here. The rooms are over crowded, but it works to have 320 students... I guess.

I wish I was a little more excited. I'm feeling a bit down and disconected.
I want to be more than just doing my job.

strange tasty tea

In Singapore

We just arrived in Singapore, at the Changi Airport. It's a huge, beautiful airport. Local time is 2:10 am on Wednesday the 14th. It's hot and humid outside. We wandered around for a while as a group, trying to figure out what gate and terminal our next flight will be leaving from. Now, we have six hours to kill.
I don't think we're going to leave the airport. We have a longer layover here at the end of the trip, so we'll head out into the city then.

We walked past a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Terminal 3. I think it was closed. Hopefully we can find an open one before we leave.

The flight was uneventful, the food was better than most of the food I've had in the last couple months.

Joce and I watched Ice Age 3, an episode of Top Gear, and The Proposal.
Kyle Kerchner is wearing a red white and blue headband and a brownish flannel shirt with the front pockets stuffed too full. Jocey likes her new backpack. Charles loves the free internet for his iPhone. Rich took Ambien and was knocked out for most both flights. I'm tired of carrying all the in-case-the-checked-video-equipement-doesn't-make-it-I-have-25-pounds-of-extra-equipement-to-make-it-through-the-week carry on back pack.

Till next time...