May 20, 2012
Aspen has been taking horseback riding lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays--$10/lesson or $70/month—one on one. It is pretty cool and she loves it. She was a little sore at the beginning, but that little young body is strong and she is not sore now! The boys also played a soccer game on Tuesday and won, finally, against a team that usually beats them.
Jack: On Friday a bird pooped on me. [surely it was a cool tropical bird with neat plumage!]
Ranae: We hung up mosquito nets around each of the children’s beds, as much for the plague of ants as for the mosquitoes. (The ants and termites are in their season of dispersal—winged members of their colonies are emerging and flying away to start new colonies. The colony of ants that lives in our living room wall has sent forth hundreds of winged ants into our home. The other afternoon the air outside was filled with thousands of termites.) This is a shot of the light during the onslaught of ants. The next day (this morning, the light fixture had a ring about 3" wide of dead winged ants.
The bad news is that on Wednesday, upon returning home with Stuart (after a morning of collecting data on his mahogany trees), we found a handful of strangers sitting around the outside of our gate. They were indeed simply sitting on the grass, a few on either side of the entrance to our yard and driveway. Driving up to them and between the two groups of them gave me a nervous feeling in my belly. Who were these men? Why were they hanging out around our house? We found the kitchen door closed (we always leave it open). Miriam met us at the door, likewise uneasy. She said the men had been there most of the morning. When she had asked them what they were doing, they would not give her any response. She had shut herself and Calla up in the house, hoping all was well.
Stuart went out to talk to them and then to our landlord’s son, Fernando, who lives next door. The men’s story unfolded, and that’s where the good news comes in.
The good news is that these men were from a little village down the highway called Maraita, and they were at our house for an exciting project. Their town has no electricity. The townspeople struck a deal with the energy company, that if the town would supply the labor to put up poles and string up the wires, the energy company would start service to their town. These men were trying to prepare the way for some of those electricity wires. They needed to trim some branches from the magnificent Guanacaste tree in our yard. They had machetes and a bottle of soda; they were waiting for someone who was going to bring a chain saw, and the soda helped the hours pass more enjoyably.
But then there is more bad news. The men stayed for much of the day, still waiting for a chain saw that never showed up. The next morning they returned, and the chain saw arrived. A young man (maybe 16 years old or so) climbed up in the tree, barefoot, and started hacking with the chain saw. He was not a skilled arborist. The glorious Guanacaste tree was badly injured. The young man cut each branch near its base, and the weight of the entire branch as it separated from the tree ripped off long jagged sections of wood. The branches dropped on the existing power and communication lines, dragging them to the ground. The branches dropped on the rock wall that surrounds our yard, bringing down a section of it. The slope outside our yard was full of Guanacaste branches. It was a mess. Fernando talked to the men and told them they needed to repair some of their cuts on the tree and clean up the branches. Though they did spend the afternoon hacking the branches into stackable pieces with their machetes, we are still waiting for them to come back to finish the job and repair their damage. I fear our landlord, who is traveling in South America, will not be happy to see the state of the yard and tree. Even the fact that the cuts were made for a good cause does not excuse the manner in which the job was done.
Which leads me to another thought: Living here gives us the opportunity to experience life in a more “wild west” or Montana sort of way. The structure of society is more primitive, with fewer laws than in the U.S. (particularly California) and less enforcement of the laws that do exist. There is less imposition of the needs of the society as a whole on the life of the individual. There is some greater freedom, in that we can make more of our own choices without government making them for us. But there is also some loss of freedom, in that the more primitive society offers fewer opportunities to choose from. Each person is left to act for himself and demonstrate what kind of person he is.
And we have met so many wonderful people, who are trying their best to do good and who live happily and simply and generously. (A plumeria blossom--it is about the size of those old Kennedy 50 cent pieces or an Eisenhower dollar coin).
The day of the Guanacaste slaughter was the day Miriam brought some leaves from her platano (banana) tree so we could make tamales. They were easy and delicious. When Abe came home from school that day, he started visiting with Jorge, the groundskeeper/maintenance man in our little compound. Abe did not want to leave Jorge and come in for lunch, so we invited Jorge to come join us for lunch, too. Jorge, Miriam, Stuart, Abe, Calla, and I had a pleasant lunch of fresh tamales and fresh mangoes from our tree. We enjoy these friends.
Abe: Mom says, “Abe what did you talk about in [your class ] at Church today?” Abe said, sort of indignantly and matter-of-factly, responded, “I don’t know. I didn’t understand anything. They were speaking Spanish the whole time!”
Stuart: This week I didn’t write down as much but there were a lot of neat things that happened, I just can’t remember them all. Jack and I have gone to Teguc twice this week. One time was Tuesday for the commemoration of the Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood by John the Baptist on May 15, 1829. We went to the site of the new Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple, which looks great, but you can see it is still clearly under construction. I wasn’t sure the neighborhood we’d be going through and being in, so I left my camera home. But if you images.google.com the Tegucigalpa Temple, you can see pictures of it. It is always a sight to see that lifts your spirits and great good will come to Honduras once the temple is here and the people begin to go there and become a temple-going people.
On the way back from the temple, along the highway from Teguc, we cross some pretty high elevation, just nearby the cloud forest. As such, it can get really foggy. Tuesday night, it was really foggy. Compounding the driving problem is lots of curves, no good white line on the right, and the tint on the window is VERY dark—making driving at night while looking through the tint impossible. So, I slowed down very slow and we followed a moto.
Like Ranae mentioned last week, the highway from Teguc to Zamorano has 3 major breaks in it where the road is dirt/bolders/gravel. These are areas where there have either been landslides (2) and the road hasn’t been repaired, or it is place with regular running water, so the asphalt disintegrates (1 place). Each section is about the same length—about 150’ or so. That night, practically in the center of one of them, a truck about the length of a mid-size U-haul truck was stranded. Its cargo space was made of slatted metal sheets, and it has an open top, though mostly covered by an olive-colored canvas tarp. It had broken down…literally. The cargo space, fully loaded with sandia (watermelon) somehow (the weight maybe?) had broken off of the truck chassis and was leaning precariously to the side, as if it were going to tip over. Think of a large, sandia-filled box, tipping off to the side. The clever drivers had shored-up the container with four large poles that were keeping the entire load from slipping off the truck chassis. The poles extended from the truck into the opposite lane essentially, making the area a single, narrow-lane passage. At night, in the fog, with the tint, I was a little nervous passing by the truck, as the single lane fell away about 40’ down and then a long steep slope going down a long way into the trees. Needless to say, we made it by the sandia truck and a few days later, when we passed by that spot again, there was no sign of it. The situation with the sandia truck did remind me of the sandia truck in Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go book—a sandia truck overturns on icy roads and the animal drivers are scurrying around to pick up the watermelons that are rolling down the road.
henry is ready for anything, even in bed!
We had another YM/YW activity at the Stake Center in Teguc on Saturday. It was for training for the youth to get them to do Family History work. One thing about these meetings here in the Stake, is we often have a visiting Seventy there. One way to think of a Seventy is a person who is asked to serve in the region as a liaison between the local folks and the Church HQ in Salt Lake City. In the US, it is rare that a Seventy attends these kinds of meetings and usually much of the work there between local folks and a Seventy is done via telephone, email or by letter. Here Seventies are present at a lot of the stake-level meetings we attend. I told Jack he has probably been to more meetings with General Authorities in the time we have been here than I have been in the last 10 years. That might be an exaggeration, but the general authorities and Area Presidency play a more visible role in the Church here than in the US.
One more note….mango season has arrived in the Yeguare Valley! Yeee Haw!! I am pretty happy about that. We began harvesting real, ripe, tasty mangos from our tree in the backyard this past week. They are coming on pretty fast, so we have to be diligent and eat them as they come in…what a shame. This year has been a down year for mangos here so there actually aren’t a lot of trees with mangos, which is the real travesty. Last year people were up to their ears in mangos. So maybe in a few years, mango season will be huge again—too bad it wasn’t this year!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Possum, Mother's Day, Gualaco, Pupusas
This week has been a good week full of interesting adventures! A few highlights include, swimming with the Mujeres Jovenes who came for swim lessons, chasing and catching fireflies at night, seeing amazing cloud-ground lightning very near the house, a possum, making crepes for Mother’s Day celebrations, Mother’s Day beginning on Friday at the school and ending Sunday, Stuart drove the 5 hours to Gualaco, Olancho and back, and rain nearly every day.
Stuart: The exciting thing for me was going to Olancho on Thursday and seeing many interesting things along the road going/coming. I kept my camera on my lap and took more than 500 pictures on the way back. I deleted many when I got home, too! I stayed Thursday night in a literal “flea bag” hotel that indeed had fleas and was pretty hot. It cost me $52 total for 8 gal of diesel ($4.30/gal) and a night at the hotel ($10). I will post many of them on a Flickr page so you can go there and see them. Follow the URL (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52577150@N07/7196494128/in/photostream/) and you can scroll through all of the pictures posted there. Or you can just see the Honduran pictures here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52577150@N07/sets/). I hope they will give you the flavor for the country even if some of the shots are little blurry.
Work progresses and I have been teaching 2 online classes from here. They are ending this week and I have to finish up grading and finalize the grades. I will be teaching one more in the Summer term which begins around the 2nd week of June until mid-July. On Wednesday night, the electricity went out (again!) and so the whole neighborhood was dark. Lightning was abundant across the valley.
The fireflies were so abundant and active, the whole yard was filled with little greenish-yellow lights.
I was asked to teach English to the third-year students. These are students that have passed the TOEFL and need help with conversation and refining their English to the level they really need to speak to people. I have never taught English so I have to come up with something for 1 hour/day for 3-days a week every even week from June to August. If you have any good ideas of cool English things to share with the students, let me know!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Aspen: On Thursday we heard a dog barking in the front yard. And it was shaking something around in its mouth. So we went to go see what it was and it was a possum mother and then the dog ran away. So we went outside and the mother possum was laying down and had big blood patches on her back and by its ear. By it we saw something moving around by it that looked like a snake. When we got closer, we saw it was a baby possum that had its eyes still shut. We picked up the baby possums with a palm leaf and put them with their mom. The mommy possum kind of stood up and pretended she was limping. Then she walked up to her hole in the rock wall. Then we got some old food scraps, because they eat whatever a pig eats. In the morning I went out to see if the food was still there. It was still there. That means that the possum wasn’t there, because if it were there, it would have eaten the food. I think the food is still out there right now.
Henry: On Wednesday night, our family went out in the yard, and the whole yard was sparkling with little lights; sparkling with fireflies. We went out and caught some fireflies.
On Thursday, we heard a dog barking in our front yard. When we went out to see what it was, the dog was gone. Once the dog left, we saw that it had been shaking a mom possum in its mouth. It has blood spots all over it. Since the dog was shaking it so much, the little babies got shaken out of its pouch. Some were so young, their eyes weren’t even open. We collected the babies and put them on the mom. The babies held on to the mom. She got up and limped off into the rock wall [that surrounds our house].
On Friday, we celebrated Mother’s day. Jack and I got up at 4:45 am to make breakfast for our mom. We made an omelet, crackers, Crystal Light® and star fruit (albaricoque). We took it to our mom at 5:25 because she usually wakes up at 5:30. For lunch at school, most of the moms came. We played Bingo with them and I won all the 3-6th graders, I won one of the rounds. I won a snickers candy bar.
On Saturday, we went to Teguc. When we came home the young women (YW) came over so we could teach them how to swim. But when they came, a storm was starting with lightning and so we taught them how to make crepes. Then when the storm stopped, we went swimming and taught them how to swim.
One time at the pool, my dad was throwing up Abe out of the water. All the YW were watching to see how high Abe would go, and when Abe came up out of the water, his swim trunks fell all the way down to his ankles.
On Sunday I made crepes before for breakfast. After Church, I made a triple batch of crepes with Jack and Dad. Crepes are very yummy [though it does depend on what the filling is]. Moist rodent.
Abe: I can’t remember anything. We had two parties this week. I got candy and soda. Seeing the possum was a little scary. One time it blinked its eyes and it did its teeth like this [it bared its teeth]. I am done.
Jack:,
Mother’s Day here is the same [date] as in the US. Me and Henry got up at 4:45am to make breakfast in bed for my mom. We made an omelet, crackers, Crystal Light® and star fruit. I shredded my fingernail in the cheese shredder.
There was a lightning storm and the power went out about 6 and came back on the next day about noon. That night we caught fireflies in the backyard.
Yesterday the mujeres Jovenes came over so we could teach them how to swim. We had about 10-15 minutes to play around at the end. Dad was throwing Abe up into the air and Abe’s swim trunks fell all the way off as he shot into the air from the water. I was just diving in when he did it and I came up out of the water and I was laughing so hard, I had to go over to side so I could breathe.
There are some kids in my class who went to Tegucigalpa Friday for some athletic thingy, and they won a lot [of events] and 4 qualified from my class. One from 5th grade and one from 4th grade. On June 3rd they are going to El Salvador for the Jr. Olympics for little guys.
We have been making crepes. We made a lot today. They are very yummy and some are purple (but we ate all of those). We are filling them with green pineapple sauce that looks like snot, kind of. But it tastes way better. We put in 1 drop of blue food coloring [into the pineapple puree].
We heard a dog barking and after dinner we went to see what was happening. We came out and looked and a dog was shaking something around. It was a possum and then after the dog left, we saw something that looked like a snake, but it was a baby possum. We scooped up a total of 4 babies and put them on their mom. Then their mom got up and walked away, even though she was totally hammered [by the dog shaking her]. There are a lot of termites flying around our house. Today during church I went home with my dad to make jugo de sandia (watermelon juice) for the mothers at church.
Mom: This week (in a role reversal) I showed Miriam how to make pupusas, based on my experience of watching them being made at the school’s carnival last week and at a street-side stand in Valle de Angeles. (Pupusas are like stuffed corn tortillas, filled with cheese or beans or meat mixes. They are a Central American food, especially typical in El Salvador. Nowadays, they are available for North American consumers at Costco!) (But authentic, freshly made pupusas are even better than the Costco type.) Our pupusas were delicious. We’ll have to try again to perfect them.
The main highway to Teguc has a few sections that have been badly damaged by landslides—more precisely, have been ripped off by landslides. Apparently the damage occurred years ago, but the sections have yet to be repaired. In some sections, the paved road gives way to dirt road for a few dozen meters. In one place, the pavement on the edge threatens to give way to the cliff below; if you drove too close to the edge (with no guard rails or good lighting) you would careen off into the abyss. Sometimes there are men who stand in the road, shoveling dirt into the holes to fill them in, signaling for drivers to pay them tips. This is one example of resourceful people trying to make work for themselves to earn a lempira or twenty.
As we drive, I like to look at the adobe houses, plastered white with brightly colored wooden doors and square windows cut into the walls without glass or screens. The red tile roofs and banana trees, the laundry on the line outside and a sampling of family members somewhere outside in the yard and maybe a horse or cow or donkey tied up outside—all these things are the typical things we see as we drive to Teguc.
The children were thoughtful and generous in their Mothers’ Day tributes. I love being their mother. I enjoyed very much the program at school on Friday—I got to go eat lunch or morning snack with each child and then play a few rounds of Bingo. We were serenaded by Mr. Carlos, the music teacher at the school, whose singing was highly acclaimed and did not disappoint. The teachers handed out cake and tres leches (a kind of pound cake with milk poured over and a caramel sauce on top). The time with the children this weekend has been sweet and happy and satisfying. They are fine people.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Stuart went to Florida this past week to work with some collaborators at the Disney Animal Kingdom.
The project is to see how to reduce the amount of iron intake in the diet of large mammals, like black rhinos. He got to see, up close, black rhinos, which are seriously endangered. They are so HUGE and have a prehensile upper lip. He couldn’t take any photos due to regulations about being in the non-public areas of the Disneyworld.
Needless to say, they are very impressive animals.
He also downloaded (from Amazon) some movies to freshen-up our current collection. I was surprised that I wasn’t as excited to be in the US as I thought I would. Maybe it was because I missed everyone here (in Honduras) and wanted to get back here to be “home” with everyone. I suppose, “home” is really where your family is, even if it is long-term temporary. For now, Honduras is our home and we love it and it is great to all be here, together. While driving to the airport the morning I returned, I heard a long article on the BBC about Honduras with the oft-quoted statistic that Honduras is the murder-capital of the world, 87/100000, which in comparison to Mexico (16/100k) which so many people think is so bad or the US, which many European countries regularly chastise for its high rate (4/100k). Despite hearing the article on the radio on my way to this “dangerous” country, I was not worried, nor afraid—it just felt good to be going home. We have been blessed with total peace and tranquility up to this point.
The children went to a Primary (children’s organization at Church) activity at Hermana Elsa’s house. We hiked up a steep rocky trail to the green house of Hna. Elsa. We were amazed by the view of all of the Yeguare Valley and Jicarito. From the hammock on her porch, Hna. Elsa can watch the sun rise in the morning, shine over the university, the watermelon farms, and the sugar cane fields, and set over Mount Uyuca in the afternoon. We ate spaghetti with lots of milky sauce (it might have had mayo in it!) and strips of ham in it. After playing a delightful round of Pato-Pato-Ganso (Duck-Duck-Goose), we managed the steep downhill hike back to our car, happy and full. And apparently our guts have adjusted to the new land; none of us had any digestive trouble after the dinner.
We knew we would find lots of soccer here, and we do. Along the highway, there are a few patches of flat dirt where children have constructed crude goals out of three branches. There are several cement soccer “canchas” as well, including some at the school.
The boys use our empty front room with its tile floor for an indoor cancha. Soccer matches occur nearly every day, if not several times a day in this room. We also play tag there among other things. We (Ranae and Stuart) think a room like that is a must wherever we move, eventually.
We found a huge toad at Aurelios (our dueño—landlord). It was bigger than Henry’s or Stuart’s hand—maybe the size of a 1kg yogurt container. It truly was the largest toad any of us had ever seen. It could have eaten kittens. It hopped around and Henry touched it…it was dry and Henry has no warts to speak of today.
Jack and Stuart went to a “Super Saturday” activity at the Uyuca Stake Center in Teguc Saturday. The “Stake” is a region of about 10-15 congregations. Youth 12-18 could attend. It was really fun, even though Jack didn’t understand everything. He ate marshmallows, and spicy salad (encurtido) that goes along with the tamales we had afterwards. They also had tamarindo juice to drink, but neither Jack nor Stuart ate any. Jack played the balloon relay—you carry a balloon between your legs for about 40’ and then put it into a bag. If you drop it, you have to go back and start again. He played that a lot. He also played a game where you have to put a shirt and pants on (girls had a skirt to put on) while keeping your balloon in the air. Mostly, the girls won this one, since it was nearly impossible for the boys to put on jeans over their clothes in the time it takes to keep a balloon in the air.
They also had a fruit eating contest…who could eat the most in 1 minute. Stuart was recruited, but he lost. But it must be noted that the fruit was fabulous! It was two 1/4s of mango, slice of watermelon (sandia), two rounds of pina (pineapple), 1 regular size slice of melon (cantaloupe), and 1 banana. Stuart’s strategy was really to make sure to eat the fruit he liked the most that was also the rarest—so he didn’t make it to the banana. He noted that while the fruit appeared clean and fresh (and tasty!!) the bowls where the fruit were placed had already been through about 10 rounds of eating contest. The juice in the bottom was surely contaminated…I can hardly write about this!
At the school on Friday, it was Family Fun day with lots of games (each grade k-6 had an activity) and there was lots of local food for sale. You had to purchase a chance at each game and also purchase the food. The money went to the school. We contributed our pile of money by eating lots of pupusas, tamales, empanadas of meat, soda, paletas, natural fruit juice (passionfruit, mulberry, nance, orange and one other juice) and of course, hot dogs, which is what all the children wanted! However, Jack ate a few pupusas, because he loves them. We budgeted our activities and food purchases, and stuck within that budget (This is here for the Jones family) and everyone had a great time. We even had a little money left over, so our budget worked nicely. We got to play with water balloons, teeny water guns, walk across a tight rope, and throw wet sponges at the teachers. We met another Fulbright guy who has been living about 1 km away at the house of a student in Jack’s class. He is a public health student from NYU.
Here we have been loaned a Diesel Toyota 4-runner. It is a great car and we are blessed to have it. The arrangements made to get it were extensive and much of the reason we have it is due to a good Dept. Chair who worked a lot for us. While Stuart was in Florida, Ranae had to fill it with fuel. In the US, the diesel pumps are usually green and the gas ones are usually yellow. Here it is the opposite—diesel yellow, gas green (Foreshadowing….). Ranae went to get fuel and put in 4 gallons of regular unleaded gas into the diesel Toyota. Thankfully, she called for help, and Reiniery came to the rescue, getting the car to the campus mechanic. The draining of the fuel will cost us $35 (surely the lowest mechanic bill we’ll ever have).
On Saturday, while watering a small section of the yard, Abe noticed that the water was warm. Since we had to take showers and it would be good to water the lawn, Stuart went in and got his swimsuit on and poured shampoo on his head. When he came out, Abe sprayed him down. Henry brought out some soap and he finished his shower. The rest of the children, including Calla, all got in “dressed” for their outdoor shower and Stuart hosed them all off and made sure they took a good shower. Not only did everyone get clean, but the grass was watered (and a fern!) and it was fun, fast and it saved all the effort of doing it inside in the shower. The only thing was, as we were finishing it slowly began to rain. It rained very hard off and on until about 3 am. So the grass got watered anyway, but we had a great time getting clean. Stuart is trying to figure out some way to discreetly do the same in the Turlock, during droughty times—keep clean and water the lawn/garden/fruit trees. I wonder what the neighbors would think if they knew we were hosing the children off in the backyard instead of putting them in the tub or shower?!
Two weeks ago, was the Honduran Constitutionally-declared Day of Español. As such, the students participated in various Spanish-language activities. They recited poems, played traditional songs and Jack was in a Honduran traditional dance. He was good and it was a pretty cool dance. Aspen recited a verse of a larger poem and Henry’s class sang a song. Abe didn’t get to participate in that. Maybe Pre-K is a little early for public discourses, since most of them can’t say their c’s or l’s or other letters. We especially loved the first graders reciting their Spanish tongue-twisters. Wow! ¡Que rapido!
For any of you who care about ward/branch dynamics here is a little taste of Latin branch work. We are in the Zamorano Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Or more accurately, the Rama Zamorano de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias. I am the first counselor in the Branch Presidency. This means that I counsel and help the President with whatever he needs/asks. I also have the assignment to work with the Youth. When we arrived, and for the first 3 months we were here, we met with about 60 people, on average. After April 1 or so, we have dropped to about 40 on average. We have about 6 regular Melchizedek Priesthood holders who attend and I have noticed that the congregation is mostly female. Though the female:male ratio is about equal if you count children. In short, we lack adult men—it is severe. About 4 young men attend regularly—the son of the President, Jack (my son) and the two sons of the second counselor, Reiniery, Jr, and Guillermo (or Joaquin—he goes by both). So our dilemma is to grow the Branch (converts) and retain those that are already here. Both of these are challenges and both feed into each other.
Other organizational issues that are different than in other congregations I have attended or worked with in the US, is that of trying to staff organizations. The lack of adult men means no (active) leaders for the young men and no one to replace me when I leave. No mission leader, though that responsibility falls to the 70+ year old Elder’s quorum president who lives a 2-hour walk from here or a 45-minute drive from here. The primary president has no counselors and no primary teachers to speak of. One woman works with the Young Women. In short, there is a LOT of work to do here. I don’t feel overwhelmed, however, the needs feedback onto each other. A lack of teachers results in little “nourishing by the good word of God” which means that the desire to attend by the students kind of wanes. In addition, the example the youth see isn’t that compelling, sometimes. While some of these problems occur in the US, just having some active people in the jobs would be a huge improvement. I am glad to be here working with the great folks here in the branch—totally faithful members who strive to live the gospel and do what is right all the time. They are great examples.
Calla is coming of age for pretending while we are living in a foreign country. As such, she pretends things that our other children never knew existed when they had two years. She pretends to make tortillas and fill them with beans. One day she declared, “I’m Miriam,” and then proceeded to speak a whole string of gibberish sprinkled with Spanish words—“ananana como asi encantanana si por que canana enino hola mi amor.” And my favorite was when she was using a rock to pound a dry leaf. What was she doing? Using her machete to crack open her tamarindo pod! She is also picking up Spanish words here and there. From Aspen’s horse riding lessons, she learned the words “arriba” and “abajo” (up and down). The other day, when I set her at the table in a chair lower than her normal tall chair, she asked, “Why am I abajo?” She is creating her own version of Spanglish.
We were so happy to have Stuart return from his trip to Florida. He brought back gifts for everyone, which truly built morale. He brought popcorn kernels for Ranae, socks for Jack, ink pens for Henry, flip flops for Aspen, new books for Abe and Calla, and sour patch kids for all. He also brought a new bottle of Crafter’s Pick The Ultimate glue (a very handy item), new markers, and the afore-mentioned new movies. We are stocked to make it through the next three months.
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