Next week I'll take better pictures (A)

Today, 63 of my students completed their final exam, resulting in almost a perfect bell curve, and Jarod, after 4 months successfully roasted a delicious batch of coffee. Lucy learned to say her name as well as 4 more spanish phrases in the last week, and Jude reached a record of playing so hard that he needed 3 baths in one day – on that same day he also succeeded in instructing 6 different boys in picking a dozen cacao pods that weren't ready and getting himself a nice punishment for the generosity. We all ate fresh fried fish eggs, pounded coffee hulls off in an old tree stump. All of this excitement in spite of the fact that we have been told by the Doctor that our “lower GI tracks are surely riddled with worms that are sucking valuable nutrients, primarily those in the B12 family.”
It is really all very good news that we have these worms, because Jude was the only that actually had any GI symptoms – and they were only little red worms NOT the six foot blue worms we could have apparently been harboring. I had just been assuming I was exhausted for no good reason – which led to a lot of family tension. So now we know, we had parasites – we took a pill – and now they are gone – and our energy should be back to normal in a few days. I can hardly wait to see what kind of activity our family will be up to then.
We are in Ceiba this weekend for a birthday party for two of our favorite little missionary girls... and to use the internet to – sigh – by our plane tickets to the states. With Jason and Sarah gone and school out things should look a little different over the next few months. I hope to open the library a few more days a week – targeting specific age groups and interests. I should probably focus a bit of attention on my six dying gardens... but the depression is heavy and the hope one ripe tomato before we leave is dwindling – I am telling you The Garden of Eden was NOT a tropical jungle.
For next week I already have a date scheduled with one woman who is going to teach me how to make rice, because Jarod likes hers better than mine, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that I am sure it is because she uses an amount of animal fat that I could not, in good conscious, use in a month's worth of cooking. Wednesday, I am going to another woman's house to learn to roast coffee over an open fire (since the coffee roasting is woman's work here, I have to be Jarod's spy, I guess) and then my final exciting plan for next week is to assist a friend in finishing making her adobe house – which I think will amount to smearing mud on to dirt for hours on end. Skills, people – I am telling you I am going to have made skills. Mad rice, coffee and mud house making skills upon my return – how marketable is that?
But speaking of marketable – while I run around with a dozen dirty kids, a few women, doing nothing important but oh so exciting - Jarod keeps plugging away at the boring electronic end of things and tedious chocolate and coffee making. He completed a video for Give Hope 2 Kids that I think he is going to post on facebook (You should watch it), and that Jason and Sarah will be able to share with supporters in the States. He has the security system up and running – which should protect us from the hooligans I bring to hang around the house and library. And he may be headed in the right direction to help the cacao and coffee be marketable for more than 50 cents a pound. Last week Jude, 2 local boys and I drove around for five hours selling used shoes left by the summer groups out of the back of the truck. The highly profitable and slightly psychotic adventure resulted in $150 which I think we are going to put toward concrete, rock and labor to build more paths... because rainy season is coming. I am so glad I get to sell the shoes and my husband gets to build the paths.

Oh yeah, Jarod does get to do some fun stuff like go fishing by hand at night in class three rapids, and he has successfully converted his progeny into little cacao fiends.




THESE ARE OUR CHILDREN



And one final note. I haven't really mentioned the political situation on my blog because frankly it doesn't affect us at all, but then the other morning I woke up and thought, as usual, “I wonder how many presidents we have today, or where they are, or if anyone knows.” And then I thought later – “huh... I guess that is a strange thought I should have included on my blog.” Oh, and we did hear gun shots, screaming, and crazy driving the other night, and we had another day of canceled school last week – but that was only a result of the World Cup qualification.


Oh, and a more final note - we are thinking of entering a photo contest and need your input - please look at the photos Jarod put on facebook and Flickr. Here is one I took today and I am thinking of entering it as "Beauty and the Beast". What do you think?