my soundscape

Jason and Sarah have introduced us to many wonderful things, not the least of which are TED talks – (15 minute lectures over a myriad of topics that you can download in Ceiba and watch on your computer at your leisure.) They are entertaining enough for a Friday night of chocolate shelling and just thought provoking enough to keep our brains from rotting on half comprehended Spanish and village old wives tales.
One of last nights lectures was on “sound” and creating the perfect “soundscape” for your life. While Jarod was pleased to learn that a noisy environment is scientifically proven to decrease productivity by over 2/3 (thus giving him solid footing for demanding some peace and quite), I was amused by the extravagant idea of controlling 'your' life to such a minute detail. In stark contrast to the noisy week that Urraco has had, I have decided that only we isolationist individualist North American and Eurpeans would dream of such a “sound control” concept. The rest of the world just shakes their heads.
A Birthday party for a 3 year old and 1 year old started our week. Complete with an extravagant rainbow cake made in the complete dark due to a lightning storm and 6 adrenalin stoked kids it was completely noisy. You can't have quite with children.
A 2 hour drive home in the dark with sugar pumped children down a bumpy dirt road in a truck that could use better shocks. You can't control sound in transit.
48 hours of rain commenced the rainy season, with the metal roof continually pounding reassurance for 2 more months of mind numbing heavenly racket. There is no silence in tropical rain.
Monday night we had 8 kids over for pupusas and to celebrate the end of the school year with a little game of pictionary. The laughter of teenagers screaming in broken English is a sound like no other.


During the four hours of library time the children were remarkably respectful of the silence rule. But on Monday we introduced over 20 kids to puzzles and on Wednesday thy began with water colors. There were so many questions, so much excitement. Learning cannot be silent.
On Tuesday our neighbor Angela and her family needed help moving to Ceiba, then plans changed to Wednesday, and Margery had to take a test on Thursday so, “could she spend the night with us?” - and of course, “what time?” “ok, let's change plans again.” There is no peace when you really KNOW your neighbors.
On Wednesday, Pamela taught me how to make rice – even though she had broken an arm in a soccer game and her husband was laid up because of, well, a little too much to drink – as usual. And as we rinsed rice in her kitchen and the chickens cleaned up the fallen pieces I wondered at the thought of tomorrows soup, eating today's lunch. There is no silence in Honduran cooking – the chicken's talk to you and YES a whole ¼ Lb of butter sizzles in the skillet for every one pound of rice you cook.






On Thursday I went to help Tita put the finishing mud coat on her new house ( and see her new outhouse - dug for $10) but by the time I reached her house 3 people had informed me that Evangelista had died. The grandmother of Darwin, Allen, and Edwin who had been struggling with stomach cancer for some time, had finally, quietly, left our world. But even death is not silent in the aldea. More cars than usual came baring family from town and the cousins played up and down the streets. The room which held the coffin and body for 24 hours hummed through the night with prayers and condolences until 5 am when they drove to her resting place down in Toncontin.
Our house must be the quietest place around because Friday, weak with exhaustion from the vigil Allen slept on our couch. And we tried to be quite. But people are coming now to buy oranges and leches, to see if there are any shoes left, or work. And the men were on the hills chopping and singing, filling our open windows with the sounds of machete labor.
Yesterday, we walked through the town on our way to learn to roast coffee, picking up bits of news and watching friends noisily crack coconuts between rocks. Dona Wilma, chattered the whole 2 hours we roasted the coffee as her wooden rake brushed the beans over the hot metal. She told me about her 16 year old daughter who has down syndrome and her 33 year old son who is mentally ill. She told me about who her children are going to buy her a pila – but she really will miss washing clothes by the river. It is just so peaceful. Such a soundscape.
And as we walked home with the noisy children we picked up a long the way, the only thing that seemed out of place was a whir of Don Pedro's newly purchased weed whip.

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?

Thoughts I never thought I'd think. But I REALLY DO.

Thoughts I never thought I'd think. But I REALLY DO.

Grocery shopping is so extravagant.

How can I get a 1,000 extra calories into our diet today? Maybe I should fry something in animal fat.

Should I kill that 4 inch spider by my bed or is it really worth the mess tonight?

Is it rude not to eat the endangered species they cooked for dinner?

I am freezing! It has got to be like 75.

I think I'll sell shoes out of the back of my truck today.

I can't grow any food – maybe I'll just grow flowers... or at least these flowery weeds.

Now, is this one of those plants that I can just cut off and stick in the ground and it will take root?

Where is my machete? “Jude, have you been using my machete?”

Did they just tell me that the are ending school a month early and no one knows or cares why?

Oh, good – another dead mouse by the fridge!

Has Lucy had more sugar today or vegetables. Wait. Have we had any vegetables today?

Is it a problem that my two dogs are doing the 'real hokey-pokey' in the middle of our 40 kid hokey-pokey circle, or should I just keep singing?

We've only had refried beans 4 times this week. That is really what we should have for dinner.

OH! (upon seeing a student do her chores at home) So that is why that 3rd grader is so strong!

Why did that squirrel just jump on Lucy's face?

Did I just tell my student that I am really hot and tired today or that I want to make love to him? I think I should just stop talking.

Is this kid just showing my this 2 inch fish or is he asking me to fry it up for dinner?

Middle of the night, “What's that sound? Is it someone outside my window or is that rat in the pantry? I hope it is someone with a gun outside my window.”

Oh look – I have a storage shed and 100 books – maybe I should start a library in a language I don't speak... when I am already struggling to survive!

Who fed the monkey today? Does he eat watermelon?

I'd really like some chocolate. If I start right now, I can have some next Saturday. Or how about frozen yogurt. We get milk on Tuesday – so I could have that made by Thursday.

Will it be more distracting to try to get that cow to leave the classroom or should I try to shew him out?

I am pretty sure this kid hasn't eaten today. Should I still make him work for the food or will he pass out?

This delicious orange julius only cost 4 cents and about 1 hours worth of labor. Good thing our time isn't worth anything.

Does this woman really want to be my friend or is she just walking 2 miles to try to sell me $1.00 worth of tortillas.

What family activity can we do while it rains and is too loud to talk or hear ANYTHING?

If I ever build a house I am going to build it with a sink to hand wash clothes... it is just so handy – and it can double for a place to clean animal carcasses. But my kids CANNOT brush their teeth there.

Do these pants make me look thin or do I have worms?













-- Post From My iPod

Blessings (A)

The last two weeks have been amazing. After spending a nice weekend down in La Ceiba indulging on the internet, we returned to begin preparing for our final short term group and cleaning out a storage unit to transform it into a community library.

The work was hard. The hours long, and the last 20 minute scramble before the doors opened felt like something straight out of HGTV. The two hour grand opening fiesta felt like a miracle. Over half the village came – adults as well as children – and although they enjoyed the crafts, games and piñatas, they POURED over the books and continually asked for more stories. Twenty minutes after the fiesta was supposed to have ended the children's corner was still full and you could hear the low hum of children sounding out words. This was their first experience in a library – for many, it was their first taste of recreational education. I can not thank you all enough for your prayers and support. For those of you who gave us money for ministry before we left – know that you bought those book shelves. We know that this is just the beginning as we hold twice weekly story times, craft times, train librarians and more . But the Lord has blessed so far, and we know that it is in his hands. Please keep your eyes out for Spanish books – as you can see – there is plenty more space to fill!



The space AFTER a week of cleaning and sorting and BEFORE a week of AMAZING team work that transformed it to:




A place of joyful learning.



The group who made this happen (Minus my amazing husband who was the everything handyman for this project and the driving 'can do' force behind it. ½ because he wanted the community to have a library – and ½ because he wanted to move the community center out of our house!)



2 ½ hours in...



Vicki, Jude, Delmis, and Seyli enjoying the reading nook Vicki created. Jude stayed there for over an hour!



Standing room only at story time!


Along with participating in the library miracle – his last group built us a walking path and STEPS!! In four months we have gone from a trench to castle like luxury at our back door.


Building the path between the houses



Blowing bubbles on the 'stoop'.... the luxury of a stoop – where once stood mud!

This group was amazing and encouraging. The Lord's work here in hearts and lives is apparent. Our life here is beautiful and fulfilling. But the count down to the unknown begins... 10 weeks to uprooting once again.



P.S. Lucy is up to about 5 signs and a dozen words these days – including 'chicken'. She spends most of her time walking instead of crawling. Her fascination with shoes continues... and last night she threw mine in the toilet twice (It makes you really wish you had doors to close). Thankfully she picked up that bad habit after the team left with all of their shoes! Here she is in Pastor Paul's shoes... although she seemed to favor Vicki's bright pink Crocs.

Some more pics and Videos

Here is the new puppy Rocky. Jude and Lucy love him. We will feel better about him when he quits barking at our door in the middle of the night.


Jude is learning to swim. Here is a video from today in the pool... without waterwings.


Lucy blowing kisses to you all.

State of the unit

So, we sit in a posh seaside villa soaking in the internet through three computers and an I-pod (obviously we needed a break from the vogue 'ideal' no?). It's been over a month since I have had access to a reliable internet connection for an reasonable amount of time and it seems that this trend may continue. I hope to be calling several of you this weekend, so to eliminate any small talk on my end and get to the important stuff (like me hearing about your family) I'll just say - “read the blog.”
The family unit is well. I'd say an A.

Jarod
His homemade chocolate is becoming a community favorite – and a continual point of discussion among us all. He will be starting in soon on coffee roasting ideas, which should also be highly entertaining. He has been building stuff, fixing stuff, hauling stuff, planting stuff, and reminding me it is a good idea to sit down every once and awhile and enjoy the quite of our home. Reminding me to go for walks and take pictures... just because it is enjoyable. Because where we live is amazing. Besides finding great joy in the natural world around him and the many things to learn on a daily basis, he is building a few friendships and enjoying his Bible Study with our friend David. He is dreaming about 'what to do next' and tonight we learned he needs to look for a job based on a (ROWE – you can look it up). Or I guess maybe he wants to move to Wisconsin to make cheese – or Canada to tap maple trees – to Oregon to audit classes – or Kansas to fix wind generators... but only if he can ride his motorcycle. So yeah – he's the same. And here is his favorite mushroom shot - these come up over night and vanish by mid day. We are pretty sure it is poisonous.




Jude
We all agree he is doing well. Weird but well. He is a strange little guy with questions about, “why are family is white,” and repeating words like 'horchata' again and again – just for the fun of it. He still asks almost daily about when we will go back to Kansas or when he will see grandpa or play at Izaac's house, but even more frequently he asks when his friends are coming over or when we are going to the river to swim. He is learning to read and loves working on school with me and going to school to teach English. He is joy and he is trial – he is the reason that I have been spending my few free seconds reading a parenting book.



Lucy
She is walking on her own now, a bit. Talking on her own now, a bit – in both languages. She is dirty. She loves shoes and food. She has weak lungs and a bad attitude – and she is the town of Urraco's mascot. The children love her – the moms love her. We love her... but this parenting book is coming in really handy... and I am telling you that whoever she becomes... she was born that way.




I am continually amused at my daily miscommunications – with my bumpy road as teacher, neighbor and friend. I am enjoying myself deeply... frustrated often, missing the comfort of easy old friendships and learning lessons by the second. I am super pumped that by the next blog I may have put books into the hands of every child in our village and set up library story hours to flood their little brains with my horrible Spanish and the wonder of a little library!

Lest Thou Think Us Vogue

I sat today, giving myself a self-righteous pat on the back for knowing exactly which family each of the food items on my plate came from. What wonderful people we have become.

As our increasingly “Last Child in the Woods,” locavor, yogurt-making family moves out of the mainstream and into the 'vogue ideal' of 'sustainability – I thought this would be a good time to remind myself and let you all in on a few secrets.

We burn our garbage. ALL OF IT. Polluting the world, and specifically the air, right outside of our children's window, with toxic plastic fumes.
I sometimes considering 'going somewhere' just to have an excuse to get away from hand washing cloth diapers.
And yesterday, in a moment of weakness, at a hardware store while Jarod was making keys I spent over $15 on fertilizers and pest control for the garden. I am depressed and dejected at growing things in this climate and am tired of only being able to grow things that are “carne de perro.” I want spinach. After 200 mangos - I want a carrot. This 'local eating' – preindustrial lifestyle is hard.

So, there you have it – we are garbage burning, fertilizer using – cruddy gardeners, energy sucking polluters living on the edge of virgin rain forests, that will in all likely-hood be gone before my kids enter school. Because; here is the secret: The people cutting down the rain forests are not evil monsters who just don't care about humanity. They are people just like you and I. People trying to “make a buck,” “support a family,” or “get ahead.” The people who are still hunting and eating endangered species are my neighbors. And they are just hungry. The world is in the condition it is, because it is full of human beings, like you and like I who can not – no matter the effort put forth – no matter what the new great 'vogue' idea to help our children and save the world is – meet the ideal. The ideal of, “Loving God above all else and our neighbor as ourself.” We can only succeed in getting 'good enough' to become self-righteous in our effort and looking down upon others. We cannot save the world by just 'living simply' – by going back to some made up ideal lifestyle that never has exsited. And this is good news. It takes all the pressure off. Not the pressure to do good. But the pressure of perfection. Because the perfection has already come. The world's salvation is already guaranteed. We are then free to live in grace. Toward ourselves and others. Doing the best we can, motivated by love and gratitude.

We had the joy of being joined by a 'crazy canadian hippy volunteer' for a month this summer, who was continually striving to live with the least footprint upon this planet. She challenged us and laughed with us. She lived as consistently as she could, striving for perfection in herself but being ever gracious with failings and open to conversation. She was an inspiration, but mostly because she never looked to herself as the savior or as having arrived. So here is to you Bethany – may the fuel in your plane to arrive safely at home keep you humbled. :) And here is to you, our granola eating friends in Portland – may you continue to buy food at the local farmer's market – always knowing that it is an act of love – to a world beyond your repair – but never beyond His. Here is to you Olga who still grinds your home grown corn every morning, wash your laundry by hand every afternoon, walk the hill every evening for church, and puts your ever so pregnant body to bed every night. And, here is to me – and all the garbage I burn, until we all find a better way...

Don't look to men for help;
Their greatest leaders fail;
For every man must die.

His breathing stops, life ends,
And in a moment
all he planned for himself is ended.

But happy is the man
Who has the God of Jacob as His helper,
whose hope is in the Lord his God -
the God who made both earth
and heaven, the seas and everything in them.

He is the God who keeps every promise,
and gives justice
to the poor and oppressed,
and food to the hungry.

Psalm 146:3-7
Living Bible



We have green beans that grow this long and yummy... okra too, and cucumbers - at times. That giant thing behind him is a mazapan... a giant fruit you can fry like a potato. Actually - you'd be surprised what fruits you can fry in animal fat :)


Although I may be ready for a change in diet - Lucy will never tire of the mangos - and alas I will never tire of changing her lovely runny diapers. They work better than prunes.