My Day with Loan

On Friday I got a facebook message from my friend, Loan., asking if I was free for coffee.  She and I met back in August through some friends in Hermosa Beach. The best part is she speaks good English.  She is a social worker here and I get to go with her off and on to make some visits to friends.  She took me to a cafe at a water park not far from our apt.  It had a nice cafe and a beautiful garden and best of all a menu in English.  Those are rare finds here outside of the tourist district.  This young gal is one of the busiest people I know.  She has several jobs besides being a social worker but from what she has told me the social worker job is the one that she loves the most and also causes her the most concern.  She mainly works with young children and young pregnant gals.  One of the stories she was telling me was about a gal that she met who was dying of Aids.  She was about Loan's age, 30 and was wanting to know why she got the disease and others like Loan did not.  It proved to be a great time of sharing about the choices we all face in life and how those choices effect us.  She died a month ago.  Loan knows she cannot save the world but that does not make her job any easier.  We talked about her job and the issues she encounters and where she needs to place all of those burdens.  She knows the one who carries her and that others are supporting her.  I am grateful to be able to come along side of her and help her in any way I can.  After our cafe break we headed to the food court in a nearby mall and had a great Thai meal, both of our favorites.  Then we headed to visit a gal that I had met back in Sept who now has a two month old baby.  She is one chunky healthy baby. I got my baby fix in for the month.  As I spend more time with Loan I am getting more of an insight into how things are handled here.  Mark will be sharing more stories in our newsletter.