The story behind the fotos

Here is the text that goes with last week's mainly fotographic posting...

On Monday afternoon, Stuart dropped off Ranae and the children in a little pueblo named San Antonio de Oriente—a little town at the end of the road as it goes up the mountain to the north of us. There, they met with Hermana Tercero, who led them through the forest on a mountain hike (complete with sweeping views of the valley below, creeks with tadpoles, wildflowers, butterflies, and lots of evidence of the cows that wander the mountains, too). They arrived after about an hour at the house of the Terceros, where Ranae and Calla stayed for a couple hours before hiking back down the mountain to meet Stuart again. The older four children stayed the rest of Monday and Monday night with the Terceros, spent Tuesday, and then hiked back down on Tuesday afternoon to meet their parents. The following are the children’s accounts of their experiences at the Terceros’ rustic mountain farm.

Henry: When we first got there, we found out that they had two new dogs, one named Black and one named Princesa. They are very soft.
Monday night we went to bed after a good dinner and having Family Home Evening. At night when they turned out the light, it was pitch black. I put my hand In front of my face and I couldn’t see my hand or my palm or my fingers or anything. We woke up about 5:30 in the morning, and we opened our door and it was so light! The sunrise was beautiful. You could see the sun’s redness through the clouds, and the grass was so green and beautiful. We figured out that the Terceros had just woken up a few minutes before us and they were still in their pajamas. When we walked out our door, and went out to the front porch, and Princesa and Black came up to me and jumped on me. It was a such a great morning.

After we had breakfast (breakfast was a hot drink called oasmeal and cookies called rosquillas), we went outside and sat in the hammock. Hermano went down and started milking the cows. We got to go watch him milk. The milk came out in two streams and hit the bottom of the bucket. When he was done, he let me help him strain the milk; I got to hold the strainer. Jack and I had to go open the gate so the cows could come in. We were a little bit scared because there was a giant cow in front of us with horns, but everything was fine, and the cows came in.

After we let the cows in, we had to go cut wood for the fire to cook with. So we went down with Hermano and his horse to go get wood. Everyone rode on the horse. I rode on the horse for the longest turn down the mountain trail. When we got there, we found that someone had been stealing his wood, so we had to cut down a new tree, chop off its branches, and haul the wood up the mountain a little ways. Jack and cxI both got to cut the branches off the fallen tree with our machetes. Hermano put the wood on the horse. The horse probably had 100 pounds of wood on its back. Hermano told the horse to go. He said, “Vaya,” and the horse started walking away. It just walked through the forest along the trails up to the house. I had to open the gate for the horse. Hermano came up and straightened the load on the back of the horse. He left his machete and his jacket out in the field of cows, so after the horse was all taken in, he asked me to go back to get them. I went up through the big herd of cows for the machete and jacket.

We had to take the calves from their moms, and I had to hold the loco calf for a little bit.

When we went home, we had to herd the cows out of the field, and so we got sticks and rocks and yelled at the cows to move out of the field. I threw some rocks at the cows to get them moving because Hermano said I could.
Machetes, horses, cows, milk, and wood. . .It was a great day.
Aspen: They had two puppies, named Princesa and Black. Princesa is a girl and Black is a boy. Their mom is just a dog, and their dad was a pit bull and something else, so the babies are a cross of that. Princesa was my favorite, but I liked Black a lot, too.

When we went to go cut wood, Abe and I rode the horse, and so did Jack and Henry. The horse was brown,` and the tail and the mane were black. They had a white calf and a brown calf. The white calf was one month old and it was as tall as Abe. The brown calf was two months old and it was taller than Abe.
I woke up at like 3:00 in the morning because my sock fell off during the night. And when I woke up, the rooster was crowing really loud, so I woke up Jack and said, “Jack, we have to wake up!” and he said, “Who said so?” and the rooster crowed again, so I said, “There’s your alarm!”

The white calf was really jumpy and scared and the brown calf wasn’t. Jack was leading the brown calf, and one time Jack was holding the calf, and it got tangled with the white calf, and then the cow started to run away, and the rope gave Jack a rope burn. He stepped on the rope that he was leading the brown calf with, but it just slipped right under his shoe and the calf ran away. Everyone laughed, and then Hermano Tercero had to go get the brown calf again. And then we went back to the Terceros’.

For Family Home Evening, we said a prayer and then we sang a song and then we each read a scripture or two, and then we had cookies and then we brushed our teeth and got ready for bed and went to bed.

They had this broom kind of thing that, when it opened, it was a big huge fan like the ones they fanned the kings with in some ancient times.
THE END

It was super fun!!!!

Jack: On the way to the Terceros’ house, some parts of the path were really muddy, and since I had big rubber working boots on, I stomped around in all the mud a lot just because I could. We got there and we looked for some cows that had escaped, and we didn’t find them. Then finally Hermano Tercero found them. We tied the two calves up to a tree, so the next morning they could have milk, and the calves wouldn’t drink it all. We ate dinner, and it was really good. Aspen stole my plate, which had more food on it than hers, so I got stuck eating hers. Then she ate all the super yummy rice, and she left all the burnt beans for me. (The beans burned because Hermana Tercero was showing us what was on TV, which was only Christian shows and Spanish soap operas. And we didn’t want to watch it, but while we were doing that, the beans burned.) Abe started crying because he missed Mom and Dad. Hermano picked up Abe and put him on his shoulder and they listened to reggueton/Honduran pop music radio station. Abe eventually felt better. We had Family Home Evening, and then we ate cookies.

Then we went to bed, and at night, it’s never really completely dark in California, but where we were, it was absolutely pitch black, and I held my hand up in front of my face, and I couldn’t see it at all. With your eyes closed or open, it didn’t make a difference. It almost hurt your eyes it was so black. Then we got up and the sunrise was really beautiful. We got up about 5:00. We ate this stuff called oasmeal, which is like warm milk with cinnamon and sugar and a little bit of oats. We dipped these little thingies called rosquitas in it, which were like a flat donut. It was really yummy.

Then Hermano Tercero went and milked the cows, and then everyone was hungry, for Hermana made a snack of baleadas, which were really just like crepes with beans and crema (very runny sour cream) inside. Henry and I were the only ones that ate our baleadas.

Then we went and chopped lena (wood), and we rode on a horse. We brought home about 100 pounds of wood, which will last them about 20—22 days. We came back and ate lunch. It was spaghetti and rice and sardines. I didn’t eat my sardines. Then we went and got the calves. We came back and just kind of sat around, and then we went home, and I splashed around in the mud again.
I took a shower after I got home and I felt a lot better. I thought it was nice to be a campesino (a guy who lives in the campo—country) for the day, but I wouldn’t want to be one for my whole life. It is nice to live in a house with electricity and a toilet that flushes.

Calla: We goed at the Terceros’ house and we hold the puppies and we goed home and I want to go to the Terceros’ and they were home and we drinked juice at the Terceros’. We eat dinner. We ate osmil!

Abe: Okay. There were these little puppies that were called Black and Princesa and it was fun to pick them up and sometimes when I had Black, Aspen or Henry would come and try to take him from me. But I always did not let them take him from me. And then one time in the morning he went out to milk two cows, and the first cow that he milked, it made halfway up the bucket, and then on the other cow, he filled up the other half. I used their machete, and in all the kids’ room, when I put my hand in front of my face, I could not see it. It was really pure dark. Then in the morning, we played. On our walk, it took probably one hour and then we went back home. That’s all.

[“Abe, would you like to live like the Terceros all the time?”

“No. They don’t even have a normal toilet.”]

[Aspen: “Abe, it’s a normal toilet; it just doesn’t have water in it.”]

Ranae: The children came home happy and full of stories. They were content and kind, having spent good time with good people who took good care of them. I was thankful to see them again—grateful that our prayers were answered that no one would have any accidents with the machetes, axes, and cows. I delighted to hear them talk nonstop as we hiked through the forest back to our car. The details of their stay with the Terceros tumbled out in happy sentences as we skipped along the path, over brooks, around mud, up rocks, past magically blue morpho butterflies. Muchisimas gracias to the Terceros for giving our children a great experience!

Abe: We found a grasshopper that was 6 inches long! It had red wings on the inside and on the legs it had spines. We found it on the side of the pool [at our landlord’s house].