Our Mon General Hospital And Women's Healthcare Experience

As our daughter Sylvia came into the world, Jamie and I had the distinct privilege of a weekend getaway at hotel Mon General. While we didn’t take advantage of all of the amenities offered to us during our stay, we were really impressed with the facilities as well as the staff—they were incredible.

For starters, the staff of Women’s Health Care of Morgantown were phenomenal. Midwives Rhonda Conley and Stephanie Lowe did an incredible job of caring for Jamie throughout her delivery, and Dr. Shane Prettyman gave prompt congratulations to Jamie and myself moments after her delivery. If you are going to have a child and you live in this area, I highly recommend the team at Women’s Healthcare of Morgantown. Not only were they great during the final stages of pregnancy at the hospital, but also, Rhonda, Brook Ann, Stephanie, and the entire team at WHC were encouraging and gave solid answers to all of our questions throughout Jamie’s pregnancy. Mon General has been very wise to contract with them for delivering babies too!

And then, what can I say about the nursing staff at Mon General! Jennifer Bender, our nurse on the day of Jamie’s labor, stayed an extra two hours plus at the end of her shift to see us through to the finish. She and the rest of her team offered solid counsel and helped Jamie really get started strong with breast feeding. Kiley Everson and Stephanie Smith offered wonderful care and guidance during the rest of our stay. As mentioned briefly in a previous post, Stephanie gave me a quick tutorial on diaper duty—if only she could see me now!

Other nurses came in to help us out as well, but I did not get all of the names. One nurse even coached us through all of the details around how to place Sylvia properly in the car seat, and showed us the special tool on the back of our car seat that is used for older vehicles That tool will come in handy when we are traveling to other locales and we can’t just “click in” our seat to a base.

The housekeeping and food service staff were also phenomenal. Each one of them was highly congratulatory of myself and Jamie, and we loved that they offered healthy choices on the menu. They even prepared a special meal for us to celebrate the arrival of our child. I had a steak and Jamie had chicken cordon bleu as the main course for our meal.

While we know that every day will be a learning experience with Sylvia, the entire team at Mon General and Women’s Health Care did their best to make sure we were as prepared as possible for the road ahead. We are grateful for their support and encouragement over the 42 weeks of jamie’s pregnancy and the two days of our stay at the hospital.

Review: Mountain Harvest Farm LLC (Community Supported Agriculture)

For the last three years, Jamie and I have been privileged to be able to be shareholders in a community supported agriculture (CSA) initiative with a couple of farmers who live near Morgantown. Their names are Mary and Chico and their CSA is called Mountain Harvest Farm, LLC.

I first discovered their CSA in winter 2013, when I saw a signup sheet posted in a local coffee shop, The Grind (which is a pretty fantastic place itself!). I sent an email to express interest to them and received a quick response, and began the process of investing in local agriculture.

Jamie and I have a small truck patch at the house, and we have been able to produce a decent amount of corn, beans, squash, and tomatoes from this little corner, but we had been reading and hearing a lot about community supported agriculture, and we regularly consider ways we can lower our footprint and invest in the local economy. Of course, we can always do better, but I think every one of us can benefit from taking even a small step. When we can, we strive to support local businesses, and buy food from local farmers markets. Investing in a CSA was yet another concrete step in the direction of investing locally. 

Mary and Chico, Mountain Harvest Farm's proprietors, have been renting and farming land just outside of Morgantown for a few years now. They offer their CSA members a weekly or biweekly share, and shareholders can choose between two convenient pickup locations. We chose the location across from Zen Clay Pottery Studio because it is in the middle of town and walkable from our house to pickup. The first week I went to pickup our share, I started chatting with Mary about what got her and Chico into this venture. She had been a Peace Corps worker in Honduras and that was where she had met her husband. 

Our conversation turned from local farming to international development, and she was a bit surprised at my knowledge of development. She asked what I did, and, thinking that I probably already knew just about everyone in Morgantown who knew about Nuru, I told her I worked for an international development organization. 

She asked, "Which one?" 

I responded, "Well, it's pretty new so you might not have heard of it but its called Nuru International." 

She looked at me with a grin and said, "I have a good friend who works for Nuru."

I was a bit shocked and asked "Who?" I thought I would have a really good handle on people in my part of the country who knew someone on staff. 

And then she told me that Matt Lineal, our Impact Programs Director (and previously Agriculture Strategic Advisor), had worked with her in the Peace Corps in Honduras. What a small world! And, it was the first time for me to have someone in Morgantown who knew about Nuru through a staff or board member who wasn't from West Virginia! When I told Matt about meeting Mary he was blown away by the connection, and excited that she and Chico had started the farm, and further, that Jamie and I were able to invest in this CSA with them. 

After that conversation and enjoying our first week of fresh produce from Mountain Harvest Farm, I was simply blown away by how much more our world is intimately connected than we realize. 

For the last three years--for 20 weeks a year, Jamie and I have made the short Wednesday evening walk to pick up our veggies, connect with Mary and Chico and their family, and get updates on how the weather is impacting how our crops are doing. They are wonderful people, and we are proud shareholders.

Recently, Jamie and I signed up for our fourth year as shareholders. And, if you are a Morgantown local, I wanted to encourage you to support these two West Virginia farmers by becoming shareholders too! You can sign up online by going to their website, and if you have more questions about their CSA shares you can ask them directly or just talk to Jamie or myself. You will love it!

Relfections On An Image Sent By Derek Roberts

So my buddy Derek sent me this photo on Wednesday August 5 with a note attached that said, "The Beginning." And it got me thinking, a lot, about the last seven years. Back in 2008, when the above photo was taken, Nuru International was an idea. My friends Jake Harriman, John Hancox, Andy Cogar, Trey Dunham, and I had been in conversations for about a year while Jake was at grad school at Stanford working on the concept of Nuru with about 30 of his classmates and a half dozen professors.

At the time of this photo we were in a coffee house in Morgantown West Virginia called so.zo, and we were meeting and dreaming about changing lives in a place called Kuria, Kenya. We had not placed our first team on the ground yet. And seven years later, thanks to the help of many of you who read this blog, more than 80,000 people in Kenya and Ethiopia have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty for good!

And as I write and reflect on that day seven years ago when Jake and I met with a passionate group of volunteers in Morgantown who helped us spread the word about this idea in its nascent state, I am filled with gratitude for the way this idea has spread and grown. It has grown because people like you have chosen to do something instead of choosing to do nothing. Either one is truly a choice. And because you chose to do something, thousands of our global neighbors are lifting themselves out of extreme poverty for good.

It's kind of wild to be reflecting on these last seven years, because as I write this, I'm sitting in the Pittsburgh airport en route to meet up with Jake and witness first hand just what has happened over the last seven years. I'll be in both Kenya and Ethiopia, and I'll have an opportunity to meet some of the brave Kenyan and Ethiopian men and women who are leading their communities out of extreme poverty together with Nuru. I'm excited and a bit emotional as I think about what the next few days may have in store.

My heart is overflowing with gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunity to serve. Gratitude for the transformation I've been able to be part of, together with you. Gratitude for an opportunity to reflect with Jake on the last seven years. And gratitude for an opportunity to continue to dream, together with you, about seeing the end of extreme poverty in our lifetime. At the same time, I feel a longing. I long to see more lives changed, I long for more of my friends to join in this fight, I long for more people in our world to have hope, choices, and opportunities. May we, as a global community, not rest until it is so.

Morning Mileage

As spring transitions to summer, our miles are steadily increasing. For the third year in a row, Jamie and I committed to running the Marine Corps Marathon for Nuru International. In 2013, I can remember making the decision to sign up, more because I believe in Nuru than because I wanted to run 26.2 miles, and then, once I signed up, I knew I had to get serious about training. I had not been exercising consistently (beyond walking Jamie to and from work), and I couldn't really remember the last time I had run. So I went out that same evening, and tried to run as far as I could, but very slowly. I think I ran about 5 miles at a 13.5 minute pace. My feet hurt, and I was utterly exhausted.

Steadily as the summer progressed, my body began to wake from its slumber, and by the day of the race, I felt ready to run 26.2 miles. What helped me get ready was having an amazing training partner. Jamie and I ran together. We trained together. We prepared together, and we ran 26.2 miles. We didn't set a world record, but we did enjoy every moment of encouraging each other on those days when one or the other of us didn't feel like running. AND, we enjoyed being able to celebrate with approximately 30,000 other people (and about 30 Nuru runners), the discipline and determination that led us to running a marathon.

There are a wide variety of activities we can fill our limited time with, and not all of them are good. For me and Jamie, the last three years of running have been a really good thing. We get quality time together, we can pray together for friends and family, and we both feel like we are becoming more healthy as a result of going after the goal of a marathon. Even on mornings where we had to get up before daylight to beat the heat, we found we had more energy and were able to enjoy the rest of the day more than anticipated after waking up at 430AM. Before 2013, I never had aspirations of running a marathon. I wasn't sure if I could be disciplined enough to do it. But I could. And likely, so could you.

You see that's the really crazy thing to me. For most people, what it comes down to is self-discipline. You must be willing and able to plan and take steps toward achieving the goal. Most people, even serious athletes, probably can't just run out the door and crank out 26.2 miles without getting hurt. As Jamie and I were running recently, we were talking about the fact that many of our friends probably consider us runners because, well, we run. But when I think about runners, I think about people like my sister and brother-in-law. I think they run six days a week--they enter races at least twice a month. Jamie and I focus on three days of running each week--just enough to be able to build up to run a marathon.

It takes discipline to get there, but there are little rewards along the way, especially if you can run with your spouse or a close friend. Aside from that reward, there's the reward of quiet and an opportunity to explore and appreciate the world around you in ways you might not if you were sitting in a car (or a house). I took the photo at the top of this blog while running on the rail trail in Morgantown West Virginia. There was nobody out there. We saw deer, rabbits, and chipmunks, and we were also able to listen to a variety of birds. We were between a major roadway and the river, and all we could see was the path ahead, and the beauty of creation. I don't mind seeing people along the way too, but there was something nice about being out early with Jamie, carrying a Camelbak filled with three liters of water, and seeing nothing but the trail extending beyond us.

May we take the time to wake up early and get out there and move. Our body, mind, and spirit will thank us for making the time.

Jay’s Daily Grind: Morgantown, WV

From time to time I like to write a review of a place where I’ve visited in my travels, enjoyed a good meal, or a cool experience. I recently realized that I don’t often write about some of my favorite local spots though. In some ways I just imagine that everybody already knows about these cool spots, but maybe I am wrong. Or I just think that I may never be able to share all of the great places I enjoy locally.

Either way, I want to tell you about a cool little coffee and sandwich shop in downtown Morgantown called Jay’s Daily Grind. They have a very simple website and they don’t have long hours. But, what they do have is some of the best coffee and espresso drinks I’ve had anywhere, an extremely dedicated and passionate staff, and a simple yet highly delicious menu.

I’ve personally made Jay’s part of my routine when I am looking for a location where I can write, think, talk, and engage in aspects of work that do not require me to be online. Jay’s shop doesn’t have wifi, and personally, I really like that aspect of the place. This little coffee shop has been present in Morgantown since the early 90s, and is definitely a local favorite.  Many university English professors choose to have conferences with students inside the shop, and it’s also a popular stopping point for a morning cup of coffee for workers who commute on foot to the university.

They specialize in the basics for folks on the go, and if you happen to purchase one of their delicious sandwiches to go, it comes in a brown paper bag (complete with chips and a pickle) and not some #2 plastic.

Beyond the quality of the food, the staff at Jay’s typically know their customers’ name by the second time they visit, and for their regulars, they know the beverage or food of choice as well.

Jay’s is a great place for food, coffee, and conversation, so if you are passing through Morgantown, or looking to try a new locale, check them out. They are just off campus downtown on Willey St. across from White Hall. And who knows, maybe I will see you there too!

Thrill The World Morgantown 2012

I first met Gemma in 2006 through my good friend who is now my wife, Jamie. Gemma is an incredible individual who lives her life with passion and reckless abandon. She is always 100% present when she engages in conversation with others, and she brings energy and her whole heart to whatever she does.

When she first arrived in Morgantown, she was working toward a degree in Exercise Physiology, and was setting fire to the WVU Student RecCenter through a new form of aerobic exercise called Zumba. Her energy was contagious, and she helped many others discover Zumba in the area as well as helping even more people awaken to a renewed desire for personal mental, physical, and emotional health.

Gemma has volunteered with various groups over the years, including taking a trip to Honduras with Habitat for Humanity, and last year, she combined a fun dance opportunity with an opportunity to help support WVU Children’s Hospital. This year she is adding Nuru International to the organizations being supported.  The event is called Thrill The World Morgantown, and it is part of the world’s largest simultaneous Michael Jackson’s Thriller Dance Flash-Mob. Last year the event happened in the WVU Mountainlair, and this year, the event is slated to take place October 27^th. In the same locale.

 

If you are looking for an opportunity to 1) Have Fun, 2) Learn the Thriller dance, 3) Make a difference in this world, then you need to go register for the event in Morgantown. There’s still plenty of time to learn the dance and get involved, but it is super-important to register in advance. People will get zombied up for the event, and in an effort to have adequate time to get make-up on, it’s important for Gemma and her crew to have a good idea of how many folks are participating.

Here’s hoping for a spook-tacular Thrill The World event in Morgantown! 

Morgantown West Virginia Is Expanding Its Recycling Program!

Late last week, I received a letter in the mail from Morgantown's City Office Manager, Terrence Moore, announcing some incredible news. Morgantown has launched a full scale curbside recycling program. This is outstanding news and a big leap forward for our community’s efforts to take better care of the planet.

Why am I so excited about this? For a long time, recycling has been something I have cared about (to varying degrees). When I was a kid, I used to walk along river banks and through neighborhoods to pick up aluminum cans. Part of this was good for the environment, and part of it was good for me to have some money for baseball cards and things like that. When I was a freshman at WVU, I worked hard to get a recycling program initiated in the residence halls. It had some fits and starts during my undergraduate era, but now, I’m excited to say that the university has an incredible focus on recycling and sustainability efforts.

Separately, in 2006, I found out my mom had breast cancer. She went to be with Jesus about a year later. Incidence of cancer has risen drastically over the last 20-30 years. My wife’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer last year while we were on our honeymoon. Three of my dad’s living siblings have had cancer. My sister has had cancer. I’m sure you can think of folks who are close to you as well. In my reading, one of the leading contributors to cancer is believed to be environmental issues. When I made that discovery, I began to look really closely at my own energy consumption habits as well as the amount of waste I was producing.

At the time I lived with roommates, and we had gatherings at our house on a regular basis. We produced a lot of materials that went in the garbage. We started recycling back then. It would take 2-3 weeks to fill our garbage can after we started recycling. It occurred to me as I made trips to the local recycling center that my roommates and I could reduce the speed at which landfills would fill by choosing to recycle. From everything I’ve read, it takes significantly energy to recycle some materials than it does to produce new materials. Some materials take a really long time to begin to break down, and those same materials can be recycled fairly easily.

Now, my wife and I continue to recycle. As a result, we fill an eight-gallon trash bag with non-recyclable material about one or two times per month.  Our recyclables require us to fill our car once per month to take it to the recycling center.

All that being said, the biggest reason I’m excited about this recycling program is that it appears to be really easy. During the week of December 10, 2012, residents will receive a 65 gallon recycling cart. Service will start the week of January 7, 2013.

The program will recycle just about everything. Aluminum cans, all colors and shapes of glass, corrugated cardboard, newsprint and inserts, steel cans, plastics #1-6, paperback books/phone books, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, office paper, pizza box lids, and even dry food and tissue boxes.

I’m excited for this incredible new development for the city of Morgantown, for the environment, and for future generations who will appreciate the efforts of our generation to wisely steward the resources which which we have been entrusted

Harvest Time At The Williams House

During our journey to Kuria, and in the weeks since that trip and our trip to Minnesota, Jamie and I have been in an ongoing harvest of our own in Morgantown. While our small strip of land does not allow us the opportunity to grow enough food to carry us through the next year, it has been an ongoing source of lessons taught for us and for some of our friends as well.

Since late July, we have been pulling yellow squash, acorn squash, and zucchini out of the garden at a rate that has kept us with plenty of food to eat and to share with others. Our small crop of corn has allowed us to share the bounty of our harvest with family and friends who do not have gardens of their own.  And while we were away some of our friends brought their children over to pick beans, corn, squash, and tomatoes.

What is really amazing about this bounty is that it came from a few seeds. We have been able to eat fresh tomatoes every day for nearly a month. We have been able to eat other vegetables for an even longer time. We have had friends and family visit and shared multiple meals with them. We have been able to take squash and zucchini as gifts when we visit friends. All of this has been the result of a few seeds planted.

Jesus of Nazareth once said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Jamie and I did not plant wheat. I honestly know very little about wheat. I never planted it, and to my knowledge, neither did many of my ancestors. I do know a thing or two about corn, beans, and squash though. And I know a little something about tomatoes too. I'm not a horticulturalist at all, but my experience is that an amazing miracle takes place when we plant seeds in the earth. They grow, and produce a harvest.

When Jesus spoke this truth about planting and harvesting, he was using it as a metaphor for people who are willing to lay down their own lives and their own self-interest in the interest of others. Laying down one's own interest seems about as unreasonable as burying a seed (which could be eaten) in the earth, and gaining a harvest as a result.

Around the United States, we are entering into a time of year that my Shawnee ancestors called the Harvest Moon. When it comes to growing food, there are ideal times for planting and harvesting, and one does not want to miss these times.

But, when it comes to laying down one's life in service to others, the more immediately we undertake this exercise, the better. As you go through your day today, perhaps you can begin to take a step toward planting seeds with your life, so that there may be much fruit harvested one day in the future from your gestures. You may never see the harvest that comes from your life, but who knows how many people will benefit from the choices you make each day to be continually planting.

WVU Human Performance Lab, Daniel Plan, and Bod Pod Part 2

So a couple weeks ago I made it back into the Human Performance Lab at West Virginia University where my fiancée Jamie works. She’s finishing up her Master’s in Exercise Physiology this May.

I went in for a second Bod Pod body fat analysis and was really encouraged by the results. After my one month membership at the Human Performance Lab (which is only $30—and well worth the rate!), I reported a decrease in weight of about seven pounds.  And I also lost about nine pounds of fat over the course of the month.

I actually gained two pounds of muscle mass over the course of the month of February.

My first analysis at the beginning of February, yielded these results. 

Percent Fat: 27.2%

Fat Weight: 52.4 lbs

Lean Weight: 140.1 lbs

Total: 192.4 lbs

And now, here are my new numbers

Percent Fat: 23.5%

Fat Weight: 43.6 lbs

Lean Weight: 141.1 lbs

Total: 185.6 lbs

Needless to say, I’m really impressed with my progress thus far. I’m still about 15 pounds from where I’d like to be, but the weather is starting to warm up, and that will make cardio a little more tantalizing.

It’s hard to believe I started at 211.4 pounds back in January. 

My secrets are really no secret. I stopped eating heavily processed food, and began eating more fresh whole foods and I've been working hard to implement ideas from The Daniel Plan.  I also started exercising regularly and getting a little more normal sleep pattern started. It’s amazing what a difference little changes like this can make. Looking to get more fit? Start exercising, stop eating heavily processed foods, and mind your portions.  That’s been my solution.

Kenyan Café

Over the last month, Jamie and I have been making a habit of eating about once per week at an incredible local restaurant in Morgantown. It’s called the Kenyan Café, and it is owned and operated by a Kenyan man named Denis Gekara who is a friend of Jamie’s from her days as a lifeguard in the WVU Student Recreation Center.

Actually, it’s a pretty interesting story. Denis came to WVU as a student, and when Jamie first met him, he had just lost his father and was dealing with losing a loved one and being very far from home. He was in the pool at the SRC trying to teach himself how to swim when Jamie befriended him and gave him some guidance to help him learn. She’s attempted to help me as well, but I have a long way to go. ☺

So Denis has opened a restaurant in Morgantown, WV and the food is mostly organic and absolutely delicious. If you ever have a desire to try authentic Kenyan food, you need to check this little restaurant out. It’s located in Chelsea Square near Mylan and Ruby Memorial Hospital. Interestingly enough, the Kenyan Café website was designed by a very talented graphic designer friend of mine named Kelly Barkhurst; check out her work when you get a chance.

The portions are incredibly generous, and the meals are cooked with great care. Jamie and I have a tradition of ordering a single portion of chicken stew with ugali, and splitting it. Ugali is a cooked coarse ground corn meal (kind of like a really thick corn meal mush), and it is a main staple food of Eastern and Southern Africa. Denis’ stew recipe is absolutely incredible, and you can taste an Indian (Hindustani) influence in the stew. This meal is absolutely perfect for the two of us. In addition to the meal, we also order two large Masala Chai and we sip them as we wait for our food to be prepared.

If you happen to find yourself in Morgantown, WV and you are looking for a healthy meal that will support a local business that’s a little different than the norm, then look no further. The pace of the space is unhurried and the restaurant is a great place to relax with friends, enjoy some great authentic Kenyan recipes as well as learn a little Kiswahili for those so inclined. Just don't go on Tuesdays because it is the one day during the week Denis closes his doors. In the meantime, check out his website and facebook fan page.

And, if you have already eaten there (or eat there in the near future), I’d love to hear your thoughts on the food and the space as well.

Morgantown Endodontics and My Root Canal

Sunday night I had some ice cream and fresh strawberries for dessert with some friends and it triggered some pretty intense pain for me. So much so, that I was calling everyone I knew to see what I could do to alleviate the pain. I had about an hour’s worth of excruciating pain which slowly began to subside after I took some Ibuprofen. I had an appointment scheduled for today at 8AM, but if there was any way to move my appointment forward, I wanted to do it.

I called the folks at Morgantown Endodontics Monday just as they were opening, and told them about my predicament. They were amazing! They worked me in for a root canal just a few hours later. They took before and after x-ray’s of my teeth, and so I asked Dr. McBride, my endodontist if I could those images emailed so I could share them on my blog. He had them emailed to me just a couple hours after our surgery was finished.

To me, the whole process was utterly amazing. Any time I mentioned to others that I had scheduled a root canal, they cringed and said good luck. I am thoroughly happy with my experience. Dr. McBride and his assistant explained every step of his work, and I made sure to ask plenty of questions before a rubber dam was placed around the tooth in question. I just wanted to understand the process thoroughly. Until my surgery, I really had no idea what a root canal was or what it’s effect would be.

Why did I need a root canal? Earlier this summer I had a tooth that got cracked while playing soccer with some friends. One day later, the broken piece of tooth came out of my mouth. When I went to a dentist, they were trying to salvage the tooth and clean it up before putting a filling in, but decay had gotten too close to the pulp. The preparation process had caused a bit of nerve trauma in the tooth, and had increased its sensitivity to hot and cold exponentially in the days that passed sense the dental work.

Above is a photo from before the surgery, and below is a photo from after. The really bright spot in the image is the temporary filling put in to my tooth. You can see two dark spots going down the center of my tooth. Those are the nerve fibers. They make our teeth sensitive to hot and cold, and when a tooth has decay near to the pulp, this nerve fiber becomes VERY sensitive to hot and cold, and is why we experience toothaches.

I imagine that in the past root canals were very painful. Essentially, the endodontist drills a hole through the tooth into the pulp and continues to clean out any nerve fibers that may be in the long thin canals that run down the middle of the roots of tooth. Before the advent of anesthetics, and without some of the amazing technologies available today, the drilling and cleaning process would probably generate a lot of heat and since the whole process deals with nerve endings, it was probably VERY painful. Even in my situation, one of the canals crossed through the jawbone, and so Dr. McBride needed to apply anesthetic directly through the pulp of the tooth. (I only felt a momentary pinch).

After he cleared the canals thoroughly, he inserted a biocompatible rubber filler to replace the nerve fibers. You can see in the second image that the canals of my tooth’s roots are filled as well as the pulp chamber. You will also notice a dark spot in the middle of the tooth. Dr. McBride explained that this was placed in the tooth under a temporary filling to mark that the work had been done so when I go visit the dentist in mid-October, they can see the work that has been done.

If you ever need a root canal, I highly recommend Dr. McBride and the staff at Morgantown Endodontics. They are thoughtful, professional, friendly and they keep you informed every step of the way.