Hi Everyone,
Here is another update for what's been going on:
Epilepsy Work
The past few weeks have been VERY busy and successful in regards to helping others with epilepsy. On August 23, I spoke on a radio show with two doctors and another man who has epilepsy. We talked about discrimination and our epilepsy support group we have created. Then on August 31, we had one of our monthly meetings with the theme of "Epilepsy and Psychiatry". It was actually really interesting and there were 18 people who came. There are more people each time, that's always a good sign.
Then the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to help teach classes at the Universidad Iberoamericana and give presentations regarding epilepsy. I even had the chance to present at another university to two classes. I was also able to speak with the director of a disabilities group who likes what I've been doing and is trying to help me network more contacts in order to hold more events and conferences, and give more presentations.
This week, on September 4th, I was given the opportunity to speak on Televisa Puebla, a television station here in Puebla. I spoke for about 5 minutes about our support group, my personal experience with epilepsy, and our next event. We then had the event yesterday, September 7th, and fortunately, it was a success! In fact, three people came who told me they had seen me on TV and felt encouraged and inspired. That was really nice to hear. One woman told me she has had epilepsy for over 25 years and has never felt comfortable telling other people about her medical condition. Now she wants to start helping give presentations and do what she can to inform others. I was really excited to hear that.
The TV show host told me she would love for me to come on the station again whenever we have another event. Plus she wants me to tutor her in English. I figured it's a good way to make more contacts. As my mom always says, "It's always good to keep networking."
I am really thankful for all of these opportunities and experiences. The other day, I met with a man whose 3 year old daughter has complex partial seizures every day, and he took me to a suburb of Puebla where we put up flyers regarding our support group. I think we will continue to inform and inspire people over time, "poco a poco" (little by little).
Life in Puebla
Since the school year has started, I have stopped traveling and am helping in 2 sociology classes at the Ibero. The professor allows me to help teach parts of the class and has told me he will have me help him grade homework. It's definitely a good learning experience, and is always a good way to meet more people. In fact, the reason I was able to speak on television is because I gave an epilepsy presentation in another class at the university and one of the students happened to be the TV show host. You never know who you're going to meet.
Today I had an interesting experience. I went to Cholula (a suburb) with my boyfriend Alex. There happened to be a carnival going on and it was so crowded that we could barely walk. Alex was in front of me as we were going past all of these tables, and then I realized my backpack felt a little lighter....someone had taken my iPhone. We began looking around and asked some people if they saw anyone take anything, and they told us that a girl had just run past us. We tried to find her but no luck. I was trying to stay calm and not worry about it, (but many of you know that I tend to stress out easily), so I got a little frustrated. Then 10 minutes later, a man came up to us and brought us the phone. What a nice person! That was very nice of him to do that! He said a 13 year old girl had taken it. The funny thing is that later on, I realized that my house key and student ID card were missing. I'm not really sure why she would have taken those, but oh well, it could have been so much worse.
We decided to leave Cholula and get out of the crowd, and instead, went downtown. I wanted to shop for gifts to bring people, so Alex showed me a whole new part of downtown that I had never seen before. It was great walking around there with him in all of the little shops.
Return to Portland
I am actually returning home to Portland in a couple of days, on September 11th. I am planning to stay until about the second or third week of October, and then return to Puebla for 6 months in order to continue to helping those with epilepsy and look for more opportunities. I am getting really excited to come home for a while and see everyone, but I am extremely thankful for everything that has happened for me here in Puebla, Mexico.
Thank you everyone for all of your support. That is the reason I have been able to do so much, because so many people believe in me. Thank you for that! I hope we can all see each other and talk soon. :-)
