jenns.world

Upon our arrival in Biswanathpur, Odisha India we were greeted by 5 beautiful Indian women. Two were dressed in jeans and a nice top and the other three in traditional Indian Sarees. They each took my right hand in theirs and with one light raise they “shook” my hand, bowed their head slightly and said “hello”. I was so exhausted from the long drive that I couldn’t wait to see the place I would be sleeping and crash. They were very welcoming and the outspoken one in jeans could speak fairly good english. They walked us up to towards the house and said “Welcome to our home.” Then pointed to the house and said “This is where you will be staying.” They slipped off their flip flops quickly and walked up the short steps to the interior of the home. I bent down to take off my hiking boots that I had been traveling the past 2 days in, but they all chimed in with “no no no mam”. So I walked up inside with my dirty stinky boots o...

Our journey to India took us from Seattle, WA USA through Dubai, UAE with a short layover to Hyderabad, India. Once landed in Hyderabad we grabbed our bags and managed to get through customs with our Visas. In order to get us to our final destination at Biswanathpur, Odisha we still had a short 1 hour flight to Vishakapatnam (or Visag as the locals call it) followed by a 5 hour drive into Biswanathpur. We were greeted by the Rural Life Development Society officials. Samuel brought us flowers and shook our hand, then led us to the vehicle they would be driving us to Biswanathpur in. As we walked through the sea of men waiting to help arrivals with cabs and other forms of transportation we found ourselves approaching a small white car that could seat two. Just behind the car was an ambulance. Yup, you read that right. We were to be transported from the airport to Biswanathpur in an old ambulance. Someone had donated an ambulance to RLDS. This was to be our transport for the long 5 hour j...

While in High school, growing up on the “Eastside” of Seattle Washington I would go out with my friends in the winter time and look up to see the constellation of Orion. Those three stars lined up just perfectly with the four points made from the stars Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph, and Rigel were nearly impossible to miss. I remember many dates parking by the water talking for hours and looking up to see him there. I would often use him as that awkward moment break by pointing and shouting “Look! Orion” It was the beginning of my senior year in High school when us seniors went on a trip on the Victoria Clipper to Victoria BC in Canada for one night. My friend Jennifer had found a couple of older men and wanted to go out with them leaving me alone in our hotel room. Later in the evening my Boyfriend Eric and I decided to take a walk outside. We walked down the street to the waterfront and talked. I remember looking up to see Orion there clear and bright shining down on us. That evening ...

We all have our  ups and downs in life. Some years are good, and some go pretty badly. Myself, I have been through a lot, though, I know that no matter what life throws at me, there is always someone going through a worse time than me. It has been exactly one year and a few months since I went through a job lay off, my Husband Divorcing me , my Father in-Law (someone I had grown to care for) passing away and not being able to see him as a result of the Divorce, my Daughter having to live with her Dad and not speaking to me, moving back to Seattle from San Francisco and losing more than half of my belongings to an incompetent moving company all in a matter of a few months. No matter what life throws at me I always seem to get through it. One of the adventures I had enjoyed while married was the opportunity to build a school in Nicaragua with my Husband several years ago, and with the divorce, I have been upset that I wouldn’t get a chance to keep doing good now that he and I were not ...

During the summer of 2014 I reconnected with a few friends I had known during my childhood, one of the most important reconnections was my friend Katherine. Katherine and I grew up together at our parent’s summer homes on Vashon Island, WA. My Grandmother had originally enjoyed her summers on the Island as a young girl, and my Grandfather had built her a larger home just across the little dirt road and closer to the water. Katherine’s family had bought the cabin two doors down from that home. When I was young, my Father had the opportunity to buy the home that was in-between Katherine’s home and my Grandmother, which made Katherine and I neighbors. I met Katherine when she was three years old. We spent the 80’s wandering the beach looking for Crustaceans and Eumetazoa, throwing rocks into the water for the dogs to try to find, fishing off the bulkhead, and trying to see who can keep the straightest face when bearing the 45° that is Puget Sound. Katherine and I had lost touch when her p...

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Vashon Youth and Family Services is a non-profit organization that has been providing human services to residents of Vashon Island in Washington for thirty-one years. Their mission is to help residents living on the island raise thriving, resilient children and youth by fostering a community of emotionally healthy, resourceful family and individuals. The non-profit offers a variety of social services for children and families that centers on the well-being of a family’s child. The organization was first developed as a one-room service center that provided limited counseling and job placement services for families. Today, Vashon Youth and Family Services is the primary social service agency on the island in Washington. Also, it is the only licensed mental agency on Vashon Island. The agency aims to help families with a specific set of services needed in order to thrive. It provides a multitude of prevention and intervention services. Many of the services include; school-based emoti...