Hasta Luego!!

Today, we packed up all our stuff (all 2 bags worth), and are en route to Volcan where we will house sit for 2 moths. El Valle is amazing. Not because it is positioned in the crater of a volcano, or because no matter which direction you look you see a breath taking view, or because the weather is always between 65 and 75 with a great breeze. It is amazing because of the people. The church the meets in the building behind David and Lisa's house to be specific.

We enjoyed and learned so much in our short 2 months there. We are supposed to approach life with a childlike attitude...they do. We are supposed to live together in community and harmony...they do. We are supposed to make a joyful noise unto the Lord...they definitely do.

We became great friends with the teenagers. It's funny, there were people who we look up to because they are great parents (or expecting), family members, hard workers, friends, and yet 10 years younger than us! Juan Miguel and Saribeth with a toddler and infant...what a beautiful picture of commitment, trust, and faith. And not to mention the hikes and beach trips with so many of the teenagers- Ivan, Gilberto, Shaina, Jorge, Immanuel, Jackeline, Richard, Alieth, Antonio, Blas, y Joel. The picture is of our the last Bible class we taught last Sunday.

Some of the boys and Patrick played soccer in the back yard with Ivan and Antonio taking turns commentating. So funny!

El Valle in a nut shell...wonderful. We do not say Adios or Chau, we say Hasta Luego which means see you later. We will visit again in July.

For now we are headed (it's 10:42pm and our bus leaves at midnight) to Volcan. A 7 hour bus trip will take us to the home of Joy and Yari. Joy is an American missionary who needs to go back to the states for 2 months. Yari is her 18 year old, live-in, Panamanian, sort-of-adopted, daughter, who taught me (lynea) most of my Spanish, will be staying at the house while we house/animal/18 year old sit. The first two weeks of our adventure in Panama was spent with them so we are familiar with the town and are already great friends with Yari.

We are planning to spend much of our time in Volcan to studying and practicing Spanish. Yari knows just enough English for us all to speak "Spanglish" to each other. And, she is a wonderful teacher, correcting me in a gentle way, and reminding me of verb tenses and such. We will also be taking over Joy's responsibilities in 2 schools providing food and doing English lessons periodically.

Next week however, we will take a slight vacation and meet up in Costa Rica with Robert and Kathy (the family we stayed with in on the farm in Vermont last year). Before we take on full duty of house sitting, we will get to relax with old friends.

Sorry this was so much reading and not many pictures. Thanks for reading though. We love you all!!!

Cashews are Expensive...

Do you know why? Kyle does. In order to enjoy these sweet, smooth nuts, someone along the way was exposed to urushiol, a toxin skin irritant.

Here is a cashew tree. Beautiful huh?

Here is the marañón (or cashew apple) with the cashew growing from the bottom. The fruit is edible, although technically it is a fake fruit because the seed does not grow on the inside. It has a sweet, mouth drying flavor with soft outer skin.

In order to process the cashew, one must pick the nut from the fruit, put on long sleeves, long pants, a mask, and gloves. Although we didn't know about the protective wear. The shelled nuts must be heated (in our case roasted on the stove until they catch on fire) to break the outer shell off. Urushiol (the toxic skin irritant) lives inside the shell around the actual nut. Urushiol is the same chemical/oil that is found on poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, and in the skin of mangoes. Yes mangoes. Unfortunately for us, we did not know this nor did we know about the protective wear. We also did not know that once it is burned, the chemical goes airborne. We also did not know the oil does not completely go away once scorched meaning we should not peel open the cashews with our hands. But boy was it fun!! Eating raw cashews right out of the shell!!

To top it off, Kyle and our roommate Patrick are both extremely allergic to poison ivy which means they are also extremely allergic processing cashews. Immanuel got away with a few burns on his lip and cheek scabbing over by the next day. Luckily and apparently, I'm not allergic to urushiol, so I was able to play nurse all week.

The result: 5 miserable days, 2 days in the hospital, lots of hydrocortisone in iv bags, a few more injections, and lots of itching. Oh and Patrick passed out in the hospital on the way to the bathroom with no one around.

Urushiol is why cashews are more expensive than peanuts.

Grandes Pasos

We got to spend a night at a farm that is up over the ridge of the volcano that we live in. It was a long pick-up truck ride out there. It is an experimental self sustainable organic farm run by a 60 year old farmer and his son. They were very grateful for the help and we hope to go back for longer than just 2 days. This is a view looking down on the farm (the two huts in the middle) from the top of the ridge.

Panamanians use living posts as fences. This is genius. There are certain trees in which you can cut branches, replant them and they will continue to grow. Eventually you'll have a nice natural barrier of medium sized trees for your property line.

Siesta.

These farmers are very creative when making farming tools. Here is a sprinkler made from an upside down pop bottle with holes poked in it tied to a post.

Kyle and I were asked to paint some sort of sealer on the bottom of these posts that would support a new hut going up. We were given a milk jug cut open and a "paint brush" made from a plastic rice bag tied to a stick.

They wanted us to translate their sign to English. We did, and asked where we should right it. He explained he wanted a small sign made and proceeded to hand me a 1 inch thick 12in x 10in piece wood. I thought ok, I can carve it or paint it? Nope, he handed me a pencil. Luckily Kyle had some pens and this is what it turned out to be.

We only stayed one night because we slept in the loft of the hut. Fun right? Yes, but it was a hard wood floor. Needless to say there was not much sleeping going on. Just rolling around trying not to bruise any one spot too much. I've decided I can totally be homeless, I cannot be bedless. Grass or forest floor with lots of cushiony pine needles I can do, concrete and wood I cannot.

Sugar cane.

In the states when you want to plant something, you go to the store and buy a pack of seeds. Here, you see next years mustard green crop. These mustard green plants have bolted and gone to seed so that they can be collected and dried for next season. Kyle also found some bees pollinating...a very important part of the growing process.

Planting new mustard greens. He takes the seeds and chucks them into a 6' x 6' area, lets them all grow up, and then pulls the biggest ones to be planted here in the real bed. The ones left over will then continue to grow and can be replanted elsewhere. This is a great idea because every seed is not guaranteed to grow. This way you don't lose any crop.

Planting spring onions.

To our dads:

Clases de Englés

We are continuing to teach English to 3, 4, and 5 year olds at a school nearby. The first few classes were tough, but thanks to Heather, my mom, and Denton, they are getting better each time. Each day I feel more confident that I will be able to leave the teachers with some strategies and lessons that will be successful. I've been writing the lesson and Kyle has done the majority of the teaching. He is doing such a great job with these little ones. They respond so well to his requests to, "Mas alto!" (Louder). They are so cute saying it as loud as possible to please him. And the smiles on their faces when he high fives them is priceless. Here are some more pics and videos for you.

Kyle taught, "Head and shoulders knees and toes..." (only we did head, arms, legs and feet) and had them color a face with their, "Eyes and ears and mouth and nose."

The 3 year olds also learned the song only a little mumbled. Suddenly, the ring leader (the little boy on the left looking at the camera) decides he wants to lay on the floor and kick his feet. Within seconds, they are all on the floor kicking their feet. Kyle looks at me as if to say, "help". I shrug my shoulders and we both laugh.

Animales, Inglés, y Nuestro Jardin

Just a hilarious sight we see each night. Sid gets in Luna's box. Then Luna wiggles her way under Sid.

Last week we told you about a primary school we are teaching English at. It is still really hard, but we enjoy the challenge. The 3 year olds:

The 4 and 5 year olds.

The jardin (garden) is growing!!

Farmer Kyle is watering our 3 types of lettuce, dill, broccoli, beans, squash, onions, chives, peppers, arugula, tomatoes, swiss chard, and 2 other un-knowns.