Sunny's Choyce - Infinities Edge Global Trekking

  Newly Weds Give Hope & Health to Total Strangers Why helping across the globe DOES make a difference. By Sunyata Choyce     Every year my small NGO Project COLORS chooses a few families to assist when they are in desperate need of relief due to unpredictable circumstances. Meet Sulochana’s family in Betticaola, Sri Lanka.   The head of the house hold, Sulochana, has been slowly going blind and needed corrective surgery. Her teenage son was diagnosed with Leukemia and needed special care and transport to go Colombo once a month, over a 12 hour drive! Five other family members including an almost blind 90 year old grandmother live in a tin roof home made of mud and sticks over a floor of sand.   When I saw the grandmother, I was saddend at her state.   She was sitting in a dark room in the corner on loose old boards which were meant to be a bed.   She was shocked at first at my presence in her home, but soon gave me a bi...

As a child I loved to venture into my grandparents’ bewildering dark cellar. A cellar filled with an amazing hodgepodge of whosits and whatsits, this and that, thingamabobs and every semi-reusable, recyclable item imaginable.  (Something like this but crazier) I remember my grandmother Norma saying to me, "When me and Grandpop are gone, you guys will have to figure out what to do with it all." Little did she know that some of her collected treasures would bring great happiness to children all over the world.  You see my grandmother saved every button she ever had. EVERY….single….button! These buttons were passed down and around and somehow made a stop at each one of my international aid projects including a recent one in Sri Lanka. The girls I worked with at Herman's Girls Home enthusiastically created long strings of button necklaces from my grandmother’s buttons.  Part of my work in Sri Lanka was teaching the...

It all started with the tarantula .  Amber awoke her 1st night  at 2 am  to find this furry friend scaling the walls erratically .  After the sleepless night she told Sunny who causally said " oh yeah there's always something crazy in the rooms, I'm sure it's fine".  Sunny goes in with the broom and looks behind the picture Amber said it hid behind, low and behold it was a brown /red haired big ass scary tarantula. Sunny screams Amber screams and eventually after moving the beds chairs and screaming some more the hairy beast is set free far outside with the broom. Amber picks up her pillow and wham.... A patch of the hair from the spider embeds in her arm causing a painful and itchy reaction. Sunny pulls each if the micro fiberglass like hairs from Ambers arm with tweezers . The girls from the orphanage next door all come running to see what all the excitement is about.  Hopefully it was not a poisonous spider.... But some people said it was and to see the ...

Sun, Sea, Sky and Rubbish  (lots of rubbish)  in Sri Lanka. The other day  D elogina  a 10 year old  girl  f rom the children ’ s home   comes to my door.  She sits down in front of me and  points at her wounded foot .  I see a cut slash ed into the middle arch.  "Ouch ” I said. I went inside and pulled out one of the  many tr u sty Project COLORS 1 st  aid kits and dress her wound. I think back to South Africa and how  I’ve encountered this same scene countless  times  before.  Wherever  in the world I go, children se e m to have a 6 th  sense   to know  that I must be a walking pharmacy  , as they are always quick t o show me any cut, bruise, fungu s or lice they have.  Oddly enough ,  I generally have some quick fix solution at hand, not sure if that’s lucky for me or for them. I look at  Delogina’s  foot  again and say  “ How did this happen ”?...

So it's one of those rare days that I actually feel happy and for-filled even though I had a stressful week full of chaos , miscommunications,  trails and triumphs .  Yesterday I was paid the nicest compliment from a boy named Anu in my leadership class here in Sri Lanka.  I was teaching the concept of being proactive. I said who can give me an example of being "proactive". Anu raises his hand enthusiastically and says... "Sister Sunny (apparently thats me) , just now when you arrive at the boys home you saw the dogs eye was with injury & right away you look how to help make a plan and wash the dogs eye and put the cream." I was so impressed that Anu put both this life event and our workshop lesson together ! Way to go buddy:) At the end of the workshop I took the boys with me and taught them how to make the saline  solution to flush out the dogs eye and how to apply the antibiotic cream.  I said  "ok , now you all can be proactive too, this is your 1st...