Unusual Morning

This was a reflection on an unusual morning of lassoing a three-legged sheep and dragging to a truck, loading a goat on the truck as well, and also catching a turkey. I had a beautiful 30 minute drive to deliver the animals to a friend that bought them. Wanted to share the moment with others. Lots of people would have laughed if they would have seen me doing this alone.

ATTENTION!!!!!

ATTENTION ATTENTION

all Starbucks drinkers, smokers, chocoholics, waitresses, hair stylists, and anyone else that has a hobby/addiction/or tips.....

I have a challenge for you....how much money do you spend at starbucks in one week? How much money do you spend on cigarettes in one week? How much money do you spend on chocolate bars at the check out counter in one week? How much money do you make in tips in one day?

Take that money or even half of it, and give it to a kid in Cleveland to attend a summer camp. Every little bit helps a kids get there and gives them more hope of a better life than they see all around them with the abandoned buildings.

I know I've posted about Doc's camp already, but this is such a HUGE opportunity for you to give to the community and change a child's life!!! Check out this article to be inspired. 

If you have a roof over your head and have food in your house, you can afford to give up just one weeks worth of starbucks, or half of your tip money for a day. Click here to change a kids life in Cleveland!!!

http://freshwatercleveland.com/features/deejaydoc061412.aspx

Growth

If you remember, Kyle and I stayed 2 weeks at Joy's house (the house we are sitting for now) when we first came to Panama in January. Thought I'd show you some of the growth that has taken place here over the last 5 months.

Los Puercos were small, pink and cute.

Now, they kind of just make me gag.

Jesse was still pregnant with Jimmy when we first met her. When she was ready, Kyle drove her down to the hospital and brought this little bundle of joy back 2 days later. 

Now he is a smiling, wide-eyed, heathy 4 month old.

Penny was a skinny, hyper, puppy that ate my facial soap in January. (Penny is the one in the front)

Now her belly is growing daily due with puppies on the 27th. I keep telling her she is only allowed to have 5. She eats everything and anything in sight. What a little fatty! I think she's at the equivalent of the human "waddle" because she kind of has to roll funny to stand up from any position. And I swear her ribs are getting broader and her belly is getting lower every day! AND she has teats!!! She did not have those before! 

This doesn't show any growth, but it is pretty amazing...I promise we didn't do any color touching on the computer. That's really how it looks from our backyard.

R.I.P.

Rest in Peace Chipotle Chili Pepper. You were so good to me bringing just the right amount of spice into my life. You were always there for me. *sniff* You would call to me when I was making salsa or guacamole or spaghetti. Or even when I was making the lentil cabbage soup tonight, you called my name and were finished. You poured your last powder to make my taste buds happy. For this I will forever be thankful. Goodbye for now. It is not a final goodbye...for I know we will meet again on the other side.

...the other side of the US border that is. Until then, my food will not be the same. 

El Grupo

A group of 6 adults from Riverside Church of Christ (Holly, Brenda, Dede and her husband Gary, Jay, and Richard) and 2 translators from David (Urian and Marta) came to stay with us last week. So we had 10 people staying in the house. That means lots of cooking! Here’s what the week looked like:

Monday through Wednesday, the team did a Bible class in the morning at a nearby school called El Valle.  They did dramas teaching the stories of Jonah and the whale, the Good Samaritan, and Esther with super fun activities to go along. Monday we started out with 11 kids and quickly grew to 62 on Wednesday. They kids obviously loved it because they brought siblings and friends each new day.

Our afternoons were busy sanding and varnishing about 60 chairs and desks (the kind that are connected). Our arms were sore! The desks started off with tons of white out and permanent marker graffiti. In the end, they looked as good as new! 

(see the white out on the desks above and the ones below?)

This is after the sanding but before the varnish.

Thursday found us crammed into Fred driving 45 minutes to the little Indian school in Caña Blanca (the same one Kyle and I teach English at once a week). Again, we started out with no kids at 9:00. 3 kids by 9:30. And 18 in the end. They loved it!! Each kid walked away with a drawstring backpack with full of goodies and 3 crafts. 

The building behind the kids and I is used as the kitchen/storage. 

We also repainted the inside of this one room school. The team was great!!! They Painted half the room in about an hour! Kyle and I went back today to find that the teacher and students LOVE it. I may even paint the alphabet and numbers next week for them. 

This is a before picture. 

The green and blue are the final colors. 

Friday was their exploring day and explore they did!!! We took the team to Cerro Punta for a rainforest hike and knick knack shopping. The hike was unanimously beautiful and hard. Without naming names, some of got dirty from falls and spills. They had a blast though!! A hard hike can only be followed with fresas con crema (strawberries with crème on top) which of course they all loved. We finished the week off with a delicious dinner at Kid’s World (similar to Applebee’s but with pool tables and arcade games).  

All in all, it was a great week! Thanks for coming down Riverside!!! 

Constructing Eco Stoves

We have made friends with a few Peace Corps volunteers (Annie, Dee, Madye, and Matheo) who live near us. Dee and Annie are in the middle of making eco stoves for their communities and needed help. Panamanian women often have respiratory infections and disease from inhaling the smoke from their "stoves" which consists traditionally of 3 rocks placed close enough together to hold a pot with space underneath for wood. However, these stoves are always semi-indoors resulting in poor ventilation. It is also rainy season for 9 months here leaving the wood always slightly wet which makes more smoke when cooking. Dee and Annie found a clay source and the production begins. 

To start, we drive 1 hour to a farm that has a good source of clay. We have to dig under the top layer to find the clay. I always thought red dirt was clay...wrong. Here, we are looking for the silvery clumps which naturally stick together like play dough. We fill the equivalent of 40 - 5 gallon buckets and load them into the back of Fred (Joy's truck we get to drive). 

The next day, back at Dee's house, we mix clay with sand and add some cement on top for good luck. Then comes the water and hay. Mixing the water in is just like mixing cement or pasta dough. You make a volcano of the dry ingredients (a mound with a hole), pour the water in the hole and slowly mix the dry ingredients in little by little until the consistency is right. 

Then when it resembles muck, it's ready to be pushed into the molds. 

Here are two examples of finished products. Dee's host mom made soup for lunch on one of the eco stoves that she's had for a few weeks. She loves it! No respiratory problems for her! 

A BIG thanks  to Dee and Annie for inviting us to come and help. It was a great learning experience. Next on our want-to-build-eco-thing production list - an eco oven (aka earth oven or those really cool out door bread ovens)!! I don't know when we'll get to do that, but we really would love to try some day. I'm pretty sure we can talk my dad into letting us make one in his back yard. What do you say dad? I know you want an earthen bread oven!!! Maybe next year we'll be able to show pictures of an oven we built. 

Oh, and I had to show these...Kyle LOVES berry picking! We make wonderful smoothies every day with these puppies from our back yard. 

Our bananas are ripening

The FRESH Camp with DJ Doc

My brother has finally reached his dream of being able to do a hip hop summer camp in his inner city neighborhood in Cleveland, but the kids need help! Below are his words explaining the camp. Click here to view all the info and to help a kid get to the camp. Any donation ($10-$1000) would help!!! If you can't give, help by spreading the word! Send the link to all your friends or post it on facebook or your blog. There's only 10 days left to help these kids get to camp! 

What is The FRESH Camp?

It's a two week hip-hop recording camp for students ages 9-16 who live in the Glenville/University Circle neighborhood.

We uncover FRESH and put it to song. By exploring urban farms and other vibrant places in our transitional neighborhood students critically think about what makes us unique as individuals and as a community. For this year's food focus Chef Brian Doyle will give a cooking lesson on fun ways to bring food from the garden to the table.

We promote FRESH by crafting our message into song and finishing a professionally recorded, self-made CD. While having fun with a music style they enjoy, students learn turntablism, beat making, lyric writing, crowd rocking and entrepreneurship from professional hip-hop artists, motivators, and mentors.

My brother has finally reached his dream of being able to do a hip hop summer camp in his inner city neighborhood in Cleveland, but the kids need help! Below are his words explaining the camp. Click here to view all the info and to help a kid get to the camp. Any donation ($10-$1000) would help!!! If you can't give, help by spreading the word! Send the link to all your friends or post it on facebook or your blog. There's only 10 days left to help these kids get to camp!