Mad World

Is Love Alive?

Grad School...

I haven't been doing much of anything but grad school work lately! Sorry for the lack of posting... I've been learning a lot though!

This is the opening slide of one of the many presentations I've been doing... eeeeh.

Mergan

I took this picture yesterday wile wandering with my very good friend, Megan Sullivan. She is rather excellent. Check out her blog, myopic musings.

waiting for the hint of a spark.

...the second hand unwinds.

You're gonna catch me...

Washington DC Farmers Market

Niki's Maternity

I want my money back...

when I was a child, everybody smiled...

In your house I long to be...

in fields where the yellow grass grows knee high

her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you...

This is probably one of the most popularly covered songs ever. I've heard so many different beautiful versions of this song. I figured I'd add mine into the mix!

Little Feet

Yesterday, I happened across these two sets of unique little feet! The first set belongs to a munchkin named Vincent, the second set belonged to a rather unfortunate seagull...

The only way to really know, is to really let it go.

This is a cover of Ingrid Michaelson's "Maybe"


Here is Ingrid's video. It's so beautiful!

leafy window

Some will win, some will lose...

Freedom's just another word...

Sarah's Uke

My apologies for the crazy amount of ukulele/music themed blog posts recently. I'm truly obsessed with all things uke!

*Picture by the fabulous William Ada <3

another cute, cheap thrill...

Be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade...

Control yourself, take only what you need from it.

Next, watch the video that inspired me to cover this song! It's SO epic!

Lastly, this is the official music video for the Kids by MGMT. It is really creepy and I actually feel SO bad for the poor little boy who is obviously REALLY scared, I would be too! Even though I feel bad, it's still such a good song/video!

Can't Help Falling in Love

Wimbley's Hedgehog Blog!

Ok! From here on out any hedgehog related news will be posted on Wimbley's Hedgehog Blog!

So if you're interested in Wimbley's activities you can look there! I'm trying to be more organized with all of my web interactions.

L.O.V.E.

Let Your Love Flow

Wimbley's First Video!

It seems as though my blog has taken a turn for the hedgehog!


I plan on getting back to some ukulele videos sometime soon! Or some more photography... or words of wisdom... or whatever else it is that you come here looking for!

Meet Wimbley!

This my darling little lad, Wimbley!!!



There will definitely be MANY pictures and videos of his adorable antics coming SOON!

More Ukulele Love!

"The Way I Am"


"Laughing With"

1234

I haven't posted a song in a while and I've been meaning to, so here it is!

I really love this song by Feist, it's SO joyous! My version isn't quite as uplifting as the original but I still love singing it!

Everybody, Everybody wants to love...

This is the video I made for the Ingrid Michaelson "Everybody Video Contest" I've never submitted anything to a contest before so it's kind of cool.



I'm hoping that a lot of people view and rate my video!
If you have a minute check it out!

A Great Opportunity to make a Difference!

The Touch a Life Foundation is in Ghana right now working on finishing the Village of Life school. They are attempting to furnish the school and homes and have a super easy donation method set up using Paypal. I just did it! I donated a desk and chair to the school! If a poor college student like me can do it, so can other people!

Check it out!

And if you're worried about donating don't be. You type in what you would like them to stencil on to the piece of furniture you donate then they send you a picture. You actually see what you've donated!! It is all really personal and a great way to make a difference to some wonderful kids!


Please take a minute and consider donating or at least take a minute to check out all of the cool stuff Touch a Life is doing!

As Long as You Love Me

I'm bringing Backstreet back... alright?

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

It is so nice when it is possible to be amazingly happy for another person. My friend Brittney Lee is living the dream out in California. She is an amazing artist, musician, and person. She and I went to RIT together and were in the same A Capella group, Encore. I follow Brittney's Blog and just got really emotional reading her post about how she has fulfilled her lifelong dream of working at Disney! Yeah, like THE DISNEY!

It's such an amazing story! It's wonderful to hear that it is possible to do something that you have always wanted to do! I've been so fortunate in my life to see this happen to two people I love, William's brother Phillip works for the WWE, and now Brittney works for Disney!

I've always been one to kind of float from interest to interest. I can't really say there is something I've been passionately working towards since childhood. I didn't even realize that I was going to be a teacher until April 5th 2007. (It's a long story but it really was one of those slap in the face kind of moments...) Other than that, I've always just jumped at opportunities when they have arisen and it has never led me astray.

Anyway. The point of this post was to talk about how amazing Brittney is, seriously check out her blog. She does wonderful and unbelievable things with drawing and paper cutting. Seriously it will blow your mind!

Check out her Etsy shop while you're at it! William often goes to the Etsy shops of my friends for gift-giving. So my desk is surrounded by handmade items from my friends! It's amazing.

I am truly blessed to have such fabulously talented friends!


Britsketch.blogspot.com

Fruit of the Uke!

Check out some of my Uke Tunes on my YouTube Channel!

Eight Days a Week

I love the Internet

Two great Village of Hope related things to check out:

Chelsea's blog is an awesome way to keep updated about what is going on at the VOH. Chelsea (aka Chester) is an amazing girl who is living in Ghana for a year. While I was there she was amazingly helpful. The other Geneseo girls and I would have been lost without her!

ALSO:



The Village of Hope now has a Facebook page. People are posting pictures and updates.

All of these web outlets are helping me feel more connected. No one ever has to be far away when you're in cyber-space!

My Heart Aches for Ghana!

It's hard to believe that it's been over 2 and a half months since I left the Village of Hope. I really miss the kids and think about them constantly.

I've been trying to remedy these feelings by writing and finding small things to send to Chelsea and the kids. I'm going to be sending out another package this week with some letters, stickers, books, and educational cds.

Everything helps a little but I still miss the kids so much!

Voki

Web Tools are so cool! I'm writing a paper about technology in the classroom and had to steal some ideas from Mrs. Dermady's Website. I saw the avatar that Mrs. Dermady made and couldn't resist making one myself!

Get a Voki now!

Us

Sorry I've posted so much Uke fun and so little photography lately. I have so many loves that I get overwhelmed with what to do next! Right now though, I'm really addicted to playing my brand new ukulele so I'll probably be uploading more videos soon!

Thanks for watching!

Paparazzi

This weekend William and I took a little trip to The House of Guitar and bought this fabulous new uke!

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

FMyLiterature... the BLOG!

I just launched the FMyLiterature blog! Very exciting! Please check it out and add some fml moments of characters from your favorite books!

Obruni!

Clothes Line

The Talent Show

A Night of Love Songs

Check out the Sarah and Dave Parker Facebook Page to find out about upcoming events!

Tonight You Belong to Me

Singing with my dad at Bistro 108...

Window to Kumasi

Teaching about Ghana!

Portfolio Cover

On a lighter note...I'm just putting the finishing touches on everything I need to print out for my student teaching portfolio. Then I decided to create what is most likely the greatest portfolio cover of all time!



Voila!

Compassion

I can't even begin to explain the impact that my experience at the Village of Hope has had on my life. I thought I knew what compassion was before I left, but it turns out that true compassion is more than donating money to a charity when it's convenient or giving clothes to the Salvation Army when you don't want them anymore. Compassion is something deeper, something more raw and real.

Learning some of the kids' stories by reading Jansten's Gift by Pam Cope, then meeting the kids in person was a surreal experience. They're like tragic young celebrities hidden in an orphanage in Gomoa-Fetteh. Their stories are like something from Brothers Grimm- sick, twisted, and unbelievable. Yet there the kids are- oar scars jaggedly cutting across smiling faces, reminding me that it was all real.

Everyday I spent time with kids like Famous, Sakura, and Gabrielle, who risked their 9-year-old lives to steal a boat and escape from their abusive master and win a chance at living a life that they could choose. When I was 9, I remember being terrified when I got lost in Wal-Mart. I'm 22 now and can't imagine having one-sixteenth of the courage that these kids have.

Someone once considered these kids their property. They had to deal with horrible physical, sexual, mental, and emotional abuses that would put any American into therapy for the rest of their days. Yet these kids are at the Village of Hope, doing chores, playing football, going to school, and writing letters filled with drawings and I love yous.
The fact that these kids can still trust, laugh, or love was bewildering to me at first, but I came to learn that faith in God and the hope of a better tomorrow is a key factor in resilience and forgiveness.

I didn't only learn about compassion from these kids, I also learned about faith, courage, and love. Really, it's not fair at all, because I feel like what I've learned from these kids and from my Ghanaian experience as a whole, was so much more than I was able to give back. After having spent just 50 days in Ghana, West Africa with the children in the Village of Hope, I feel like I have lived a lifetime's worth of love.

As the Beatles said, "living is easy with eyes closed". They're right, it is. It's easy to forget that there are real people and real families involved when you read a headline that says, "50,000 Dead in Haiti" it's easy to say, "oh that sucks" as you click on the next headline about death and destruction. I used to be like that, but today, reading the newsprint and seeing the images of the people in Haiti has brought me to tears of anguish. My heart feels like it's being ripped out as I see pictures of Haitian children's limp bodies being lifted from rubble. I immediately think about my Ghanaian students living in the same third world conditions and suffering like this.

Compassion isn't just feeling sorry about something. Compassion has a human face. For me now, it's the face of a child that didn't do anything to deserve having their life torn to shreds. My heart is broken for the world and the suffering that occurs everyday.

Through love, I can do my small part and try and educate future generations about what it means to be compassionate and what we can all do to bring justice to the people who need it most. The Village of Hope taught me that.

Ghanaian Boys and Girls

Fishing Boats

Mark

Look at this precious face! Look into Mark's beautiful eyes, then read this New York Times article about Mark's past. Mark used to be a SLAVE on Lake Volta. Someone considered Mark their property. I've met many kids with this same history yet I still can't begin to wrap my head around it. There are so many children that still need help, though fortunately for Mark and the others that were brought to the Village of Hope they were rescued by the Touch a Life Foundation.

I just watched this wonderful YouTube video with Pam Cope, author of the book Jansten's Gift and founder of Touch a Life, reading a letter she wrote to Mark. It's an incredible video that just skims the surface of an incredible story. I highly recommend reading Jansten's Gift to learn about what is going on and what can be done to help.

Also: Check out the Village of Hope website to learn more about the orphanage!

Ghana